ALPHANUMERICS (16K ZX-81)
by Darren-John Norbury
from ZX Computing (February/March 1986), pages 116-117

Darren-John Norbury of Andover sent us this 1 or 2 player game to make you
think!

Alphanumerics is based upon the television quiz game 'Countdown'. It is
designed to test the player's (or players') quick-thinking and agility with
letters and numbers.

The game is divided into eight rounds, six of which are letters games,
making the rest numbers games. In the letters games the computer will pick
nine letters totally at random (following the 'verb or consonant' prompt
which is the only say that the player has in this choice of letters) and
display them. The idea then, is to make as long a word as possible inside
the allocated thirty seconds (very rough timing) from the displayed letters.
A scoring prompt occurs at the end of each game. The letters games are games
1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7.

Games 4 and 8, therefore, are the numbers games. In this case the computer
performs the choosing process itself and comes up with a display of 6
randomly picked numbers, five of which have come from the range 1 to 10 and
the sixth of which will be either 25, 50, 75 or 100. Following this a target
figure will be displayed. The idea of the game is, using the four
mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and
division), to manipulate the top numbers to arrive at the target figure
(using each of the top numbers only once, if at all). Once again, a scoring
prompt appears at the end of the game.

Alphanumerics can be played by either 1 or 2 people. If you're playing alone
then simply enter your score at the end of each round as prompted. Where two
people play, however, the scoring is slightly different. In the letters game
each of the players compare their respective score. If there is a difference
in scores then the higher scorer claims the points (the points being equal
to the number of letters in the player's word) and the lower scorer receives
zero. If the number of letters each has achieved is equal then both players
get the points according to the value of the words made. In the numbers
game each person always scores according to instruction laid down by the
computer, regardless of who is nearer (unless, of course, they are more than
15 adrift).

The maximum points available in this game are 80; my personal best is 46, on
the one player option. Good luck!

[A bug exists in the program when configured for only one player - line 2018
attempts to print the score for player 2 yet the variable H$ (which holds
the name of player 2) does not exist in a single player configuration]