[{"TitleName":"Genie","Publisher":"Romantic Robot UK Ltd","Author":"Chris Lewis, D. Gorski","YearOfRelease":"1987","ZxDbId":"0008208","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 36, Jan 1987","Price":"£1.95","ReleaseDate":"1986-12-10","Editor":"Graeme Kidd","TotalPages":196,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Publishers: Roger Kean, Oliver Frey, Franco Frey\r\nPublishing Executive/Editor: Graeme Kidd\r\nAssistant Editor: Lee Paddon\r\nSub Editor: Ciaran Brennan\r\nStaff Writers: Lloyd Mangram, Hannah Smith\r\nAdventure Editor: Derek Brewster\r\nTech Tipster: Simon Goodwin\r\nContributing Writers: Jon Bates, Brendon Kavanagh, John Minson\r\nProduction Controller: David Western\r\nArt Director: Dick Shiner\r\nAssistant Art Director: Gordon Druce\r\nIllustrators: Ian Craig, Oliver Frey\r\nProduction: Seb Clare, Tim Croton, Mark Kendrick, Tony Lorton, Nick Orchard, Michael Parkinson, Cameron Pound, Jonathan Rignall, Matthew Uffindell\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Roger Bennett\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Nick Wild\r\nSubscriptions: Denise Roberts\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\n\r\nEditorial and Production: [redacted]\r\n\r\nMail Order and Subscriptions: [redacted]\r\n\r\nADVERTISING\r\nBookings [redacted]\r\n\r\nPrinted in England by Carlisle Web Offset, [redacted] - member of the BPCC Group.\r\n\r\nDistributed by COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced whole or in part without written consent of the copyright holders. We cannot undertake to return any written material sent to CRASH Magazine unless accompanied by a suitably stamped addressed envelope. Unsolicited written or photo material which may be used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates.\r\n\r\n©1986 Newsfield Limited\r\n\r\nCover by Oliver Frey\r\n\r\nCRASH ABC FIGURE:\r\n101,843 Total\r\n97,992 UK and EIRE"},"MainText":"Plug-in devices to save and alter programs are all the rage. Simon Goodwin presses the button on DATEL's Snapshot 2 and checks out the Genie package for ROMANTIC ROBOT's Multiface 1.\r\n\r\nROMANTIC ROBOT have been selling a Snapshot-type device for a while now. Their Multiface 1 is something of a Rolls Royce compared with the Snapshot 2, and has a price tag to match - five pence short of forty quid. The Multiface consists of an 8K ROM and 8K of RAM, providing the instant SAVE facility for most disk and tape systems, plus options to examine and POKE memory. It can also call any address or print out the screen display. Besides the magic button you get a through port for other peripherals, a Kempston joystick socket and a switch to make the interface undetectable to the computer.\r\n\r\nOne very nice feature of this system is the way that you can load your own applications into the 8K RAM, independently of the standard 48K, and call them up at will while a program is loaded. ROMANTIC ROBOT give full instructions to help you do this, although the facility is only available to machine-code programmers.\r\n\r\nROM-ROB have just launched a package that uses this feature; as such it is worthless unless you've got Multiface 1, but I have found it so useful over the last few weeks that I think it might even justify the purchase of a Multiface to some people, especially keen hackers.\r\n\r\nThe package is called Genie. It lets you stop and start any program at any point, and examine its operation in great detail. In effect, it is a small but well-designed machine-code monitor that is compatible with absolutely everything. Genie costs £*.** and consists of a cassette, containing about 5K of code, and six neatly-printed, well written A4 pages of documentation.\r\n\r\nGenie loads into the RAM on the interface - the instructions tell you how to copy it to Microdrive or disk and configure it for different printers; Genie will print via any device connected to the Spectrum's channel 3, including the ZX printer, the Spectrum 128 serial port, and most plug-in interfaces. You must tell the program whether or not your printer expects 'line- feed' characters at the end of each line.\r\n\r\nOnce Genie is installed you can call it up by pressing the red button. Instead of the usual Multiface menu, an eight-line window appears at the top of the screen. You can call up the normal Multiface menu by typing BREAK as you press the red button, but you MUST reload Genie before you press the button again.\r\n\r\nEverything Genie does appears in the eight-line window. The colour-scheme is bright but readable unless your telly is playing up - characters are white on red or black on yellow. The top part of the window lists keys that work in most modes, while a two line menu bar carries the main options, rather cryptically listed as 'DIS', 'TEXT', 'NUM, 'Z80', 'FIND' and 'RET'.\r\n\r\nZ80 shows you the values of all the Z80 registers, including the program counter. You can alter any value, and turn interrupts on or off, but you can't display or change the interrupt mode. So what, I hear you say!\r\n\r\nFIND will search the whole 48K RAM for a sequence of up to 24 bytes. Searching is very quick, and you can step from one match to the next by pressing a key. This is great for looking for specific instructions but not so hot for messages, because the values to be found must be entered as numbers - not text.\r\n\r\nDIS is a full Z80 disassembler- a routine which converts stored numbers into machine-code mnemonics, whether or not they are really part of a program. You can start and stop disassembly at any address.\r\n\r\nDIS has several nice features - it sifts out the 'error code' bytes which follow RST 8 instructions, and decodes the undocumented Z80 instructions, like SLL C and SUB A,IXH, which confuse lesser disassemblers. The display can be made to scroll continuously or print a new line when you press ENTER. At top speed, or if you hold the key down, the information rolls by very fast indeed.\r\n\r\nThe TEXT option is similar but interprets memory as characters. Unprintable codes appear as full stops. TEXT is very useful if you feel like changing a few messages in your favourite for least favourite) program. NUM prints the numeric values in memory.\r\n\r\nAll of the Genie options let you switch from decimal to hex input and output at any time: this is achieved by pressing the H key. The border colour changes from blue to cyan to signal which number base is currently selected. Addresses actually change their form on the screen when you press H!\r\n\r\nIt takes a while to get used to the way Genie accepts numbers - you don't have to press ENTER if you type the maximum number of characters (five for a decimal address or three for a byte value.) I found it a little irritating that leading zeroes are always printed.\r\n\r\nYou can print the contents of the window at any time by typing C for Copy, and relay all output to the printer between presses of P. The G option lets you go backwards through the memory; it takes DIS a few bytes to work out what has happened thereafter, but most disassemblers have this quirk.\r\n\r\nYou can change any data in registers or memory by pressing A for Alter, as corresponding values are displayed. You're asked for an address, but ENTER gives the last one examined. You have to type new values as single-byte numbers.\r\n\r\nFinally, the 'RET' option returns you to the program that was interrupted, restoring the old display on the top 8 lines of the screen. If have altered the value of the register, the program re-starts at the address you set. The instructions illustrate how you can return directly to ZX BASIC.\r\n\r\nThere are a few missing features that I would have liked, such as conditional search and replace and some facility to enter text directly into the machine, rather than as numbers. However, Genie has to fit into the Spectrum's memory map with the Muitiface ROM and 48K of program to be examined, and the limited space has been well used.\r\n\r\nReal hackers will love Genie, but it's pretty meaningless unless you understand machine-code. It will not necessarily be useful for debugging your own code, unless your programs are so large that there's no spare RAM for a conventional monitor. However, it is absolutely wonderful for getting inside someone else's code. If that's what you enjoy, you'll find Genie a very professional tool - simple, effective and unique.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"141,142","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Simon N Goodwin","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 14, Feb 1987","Price":"£1","ReleaseDate":"1987-01-08","Editor":"Teresa Maughan","TotalPages":106,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Teresa Maughan\r\nArt Editor: Caroline Clayton\r\nProduction Editor: Sara Biggs\r\nAssistant Editor: Phil South\r\nStaff Writer: Markus Berkmann\r\nDesigner: Darrell King\r\nContributors: Steve Adams, Luke C, Mike Gerrard, Ian Hoare, Gwyn Hughes, ZZKJ, Tommy Nash, Max Phillips, Rick Robson, Rachael Smith\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Mark Salmon\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Julian Harriott\r\nProduction Manager: Sonia Hunt\r\nManaging Editor: Kevin Cox\r\nPublisher: Roger Munford\r\nPublishing Director: Stephen England\r\n\r\nPublished by Sportscene Specialist Press Ltd, [redacted] Company registered in England.\r\nTypesetters: Carlinpoint [redacted]\r\nReproduction: Graphic Ideas, London\r\nPrinters: Chase Web Offset [redacted]\r\nDistribution: Seymour Press [redacted]\r\n\r\nAll material in Your Sinclair ©1987 Felden Productions, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written consent of the publishers. Your Sinclair is a monthly publication."},"MainText":"GENIE DISASSEMBLER\nRomantic Robot\n£9.95\nReviewer: Steve Adams\n\nWhen is a bit of hardware not a bit of hardware? When it's a bit of software, silly! The Genie Disassembler is a natty bit of software that downloads into your Multiface One, turning it into an entirely new piece of equipment. Now it's a fast and independent disassembler which you can switch in at any point in a program. Press the red button (no, not that one, Mr President!) and instead of the chintzy SAVE/LOAD menu, you get a whole new menu devoted to many and varied program dissection routines, such as Opcode/text search, Front Panel, View memory (ASCII or numbers) or Hex/Dec conversion. A fine piece of equipment, and excellent value if you're already a Multiface fan. A comparable dedicated unit could come to twice the price!","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"40,41","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Steve Adams","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]