SINCLAIR USER, October 1984
===========================


BEACON ADVENTURE
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BEACON ADVENTURE for the 48K Spectrum is a text adventure by Owen Lloyd of
Birmingham. In it you have to find and light a beacon. On the way you will
encounter a number of hazards and problems to be solved in the traditional
adventure fashion by entering the appropriate two-word commands.


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CHARACTER ENLARGER (aka. Big Print)
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WRITING DISPLAY lettering on the screen can be a tedious task. Big Print by
Steven Spendley of Strood, Kent, allows you to enter a word or phrase and
specify how large you wish it to be printed. You can alter the proportions of
letters and also print to any part of the screen. The program was written for
the 16K Spectrum. When you have typed in the listing enter GOTO 9000 and the
program will SAVE and VERIFY itself.


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COMPUTAFILE - Nicholas Lloyd (Sinclair User-October 84)


Nicholas Lloyd of Pembroke, Dyfed wrote Computafile for the 16K Spectrum
to enable him to keep track of program listings in magazines, so that he
does not have to leaf through piles to find his favourites.
There are load and save options, searching, listing the files, creating
a new file and correcting a file. Each file can be cross-referenced in
six fields.
If you have a 48K Spectrum you can have more files than the 15 allowed
for the 16K machine. To do that, change the number 15 to the number of
files you want, up to about 40, in lines 19, 700, 2520, 3220.

[As with many other programs of this ilk, it incorrectly uses the]
[term "file" when it means "record". There were also a couple of ]
[places (lines 625 & 2510) where "page" had been used instead of ]
["file", so I changed them.                                      ]
[It only supports up to about 40 records anyway, so it's not much]
[use for anything.                                               ]
[NOTE:                                                           ]
[The data is saved by saving the whole program:                  ]
[ 448 SAVE "FILES" LINE 3200                                     ]
[so the code after the LOAD at line 280 is never executed, as the]
[program jumps to line 3200 (enter a new 'file'; ie. record).    ]
[This has to be done because the programmer hasn't included any  ]
[code after the LOAD to work out how many records have been      ]
[loaded into the array A$(), so relies on the settings from the  ]
[previous run.                                              JimG ]

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TYPE: Utility

COMMENT:


This info file was typed by Jim Grimwood

Downloaded from:
Desert Island Disks -- http://www.image.dk/~frankie/
Maintained by:
Michael Bruhn -- frankie@image.dk


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ESCAPE FROM COSMITRON (16K ZX-81)
by John Hobden
from Sinclair User 31 (October 1984), page 81

The Martian emperor Zong has thrown you into prison. Martian prisons make
South American jails look like five- star hotels, so you had better escape.
You must dodge or jump over the guards to collect four pieces of the teleport
key while making your way to freedom.

Escape from Cosmitron was written by John Hobden of Redhill, Surrey and runs
on the 16K ZX-81.

[The games suffers from a number of bugs. The checks to prevent jumping off  ]
[the sides of the screen are wrong (GOTO destination in line 146, and edge   ]
[condition checks in 600 and 612). It is possible to jump on an enemy without]
[being captured (line 680 - should check for collision after jumping). So I  ]
[have created an alternate bug-fixed version of the game that addresses these]
[issues. But this introduced a new issue where the player and the enemy are  ]
[not displayed while the jump key was left held down when the player couldn't]
[jump further because they would go off the screen. This was resolved by     ]
[adjusting the GOTO destinations in lines 600 and 612.                       ]

[The bug-fixes made are:                                                     ]
[146 IF INKEY$="9" THEN GOTO 615 changed to IF INKEY$="9" THEN GOTO 612      ]
[600 IF Y>28 THEN GOTO 120 changed to IF Y>=28 THEN GOTO 190                 ]
[612 IF Y<3 THEN GOTO 120 changed to IF Y<=3 THEN GOTO 190                   ]
[680 GOTO 120 changed to GOTO 165                                       PaulF]


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MATHS REVISION (16K ZX-81)
by A Ward
from Sinclair User 31 (October 1984), pages 79-80

If you cringe under the withering sarcasm of maths masters when faced with
the mysteries of factors and multiples, try Maths Revision by A Ward of Sale
in Cheshire. The program tests a variety of topics, including tables, long
division and multiplication, Highest Common Factor and Lowest Common Multiple
problems, and square roots. It also provides examples and explanations of the
more complicated calculations. Best of all, you do not get black marks for
wrong answers... The program runs on the 16K ZX-81.

[I have created a modified version that corrects a minor formatting issue]
[with the menu (for item 7).                                        PaulF]


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THE RIGHT STUFF
---------------
THE ALIENS are back in force; the safety of democracy as we know it is in
your hands. You must shoot down the alien ships, then board the mothership
and break a code. If you win through to the end you will get a shot at
destroying the alien home planet.
The Right Stuff was written for the 48K Spectrum and uses special graphics
characters. Please read the instructions at the beginning of Program Printout
before entering these.
We would be grateful if the author of The Right Stuff would contact us as
soon as possible.


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SAVE IT
-------
WHEN YOU see your electricity bill, have you ever wondered what appliances
caused it to be so large? Save It by Dirk Gray from London allows you to
calculate the cost of running any appliance for a given length of time. You
are required to INPUT the time used, the wattage of the appliance, and the
cost of electricity per unit. If you do not know the wattage then you can
INPUT the voltage of the appliance and the current in amps printed on the
fuse. The program runs on the 16K Spectrum.


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SNAKE
-----
FRESH FRUIT and plenty of it  just the thing for a hungry snake. Guide the
serpent around the screen eating the fruit but avoiding the snake poison. As
you gobble your dinner, you will grow in size; avoid mistaking your tail for
a strawberry or you will die. Snake was written by Philip Cole from
Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire and runs on the 16K Spectrum.


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