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April 1988

The independent Dragon magazine

Contents

Letters

Circuits on screen

1 2

Editorial

GLANCING at last month's editorial,

A report from the real world n e w s l e t t e r

D A Craig presents a CAD program for elec-

I observe nostalgically t ha t t he

woe p ro g ra mme r needed by small trader tronics designers.

spaghetti overdose is now several

bug splatted d o the Americans look at

weeks behind me. I am otherwise

life differently? P l u s t h e Cro sswo rd 3

well, thank you. If you were wonder-

Write:ADVENTURE 1 9

solution.

ing where a ll the snow was this

Pete Gerrard goes in search of a good story.

Dragonsoft

winter, it's presently lying ten foot

Formula On e fro m P a mmco mms, a n d a

deep on the southern alps, but is ex-

Adventure 'Dail 2 0

preview o f Sp y versus S p y f ro m P u lse r

pected here shortly, I understand.

Software

Pete Gerrard tackles Trekboer, visits Vortex

Back to reality. I hope you all have

Factor, touches on Tan glewood and then

your Marches. Sorry we're late. The

News

goes off and gives some more advice about

issue was actually ready a bare six

New games fro m Dragonﬁre Services

publishing.

days later than usual, but too late for

Thirteenth Task offer continues G e r m a n

the printers to alter their schedules

computer meeting D i s k b a s e and Destiny

Competition

from Pulser.

for us yet again, It arrives as I write

Gordon Lee is bagging his packs and going

this. Bob Harris would like you to

Pamcodes

for a good deal.

know that the KLIK utility costs only

Pam D'Arcy continues with the ﬁfth part of

E14.95, and not E14.14.95 as stated,

The Answer

her introduction to machine code.

and I will adjure you again not to

Gordon Lee's own solution to the January

Winners and losers 9

forget the Ossett Show on April 30th

competition.

(enquiries to John and Helen Penn

Gordon Lee discusses the possible solu-

tions to November's brain-teaser.

•

on 04203 5970), the classic of the

Dragon Answers 2 4

year to many Dragoners.

Expert's Arcade Arena 10

Build your own disc drive., build your own

Dragonmonth we have a long CAD

This

Module Man, map and method, and some RAM ca rd l o w res screens in OS-9

what is DLOAD? „, where is the extra 32K?

program for engineering hobbyists

more hints.

in reply to the constant moan that

CAD programs usually cost a for-

STOP PRESS: O S - 9 U s e r G r n u p o r g a n i s e r M a r t yn V e r n o n b d

tune and need an Apple Mac, and

s u d d e n ly c e a s e d c o n t a c t . T h e y a r e n a t u r a l l y w o r r i e d . A n y

I n f o r m a t i o n , p l e a s e s e n d a u S A E t a G o r d o n T w i s t , 8 8 S t o n e

reviews of two new games which

have caused a fair bit of excitement

b r id g ,

Telephone numbei M a

D r

(All departments)

e ,

Editor

434

HELEN ARMSTRONG

Production Editor

•

DRAGON EDITORIAL

Administration

CAROL FRITH

Advertisement Manager

DRAGON EDITORIAL

Marketing Manager

HELEN PERRY

already.

How to s ubmit articles

The quality of t he material we c an publis h in

Dragon User each month will, to a very great ex-

tent depend on the quality of the discoveries that

you c an mak e wit h your Dragon_ The Dragon

computer was launched on to the market with a

powerful version of Basic, but wit h very poor

documentation.

Articles whic h are submitted to Dragon User

for publication s hould not be more than 3000

words long. All submissions should be typed

Please leave wide margins and a double space

between each line. Programs should, whenever

possible, b e c omput er printed on plain whit e

paper and be ac c ompanied by a tape of the

program.

We cannot guarantee to return every submit-

n a

g i n g

KANE

Edito1111.11.

JENNY IRELAND

Subs c ript ions

UK i14 for 12 issues

Overseas (surface) £20 for 12 issues

ISSN 0265-177 Telex: 296275

Dragon User, 12/13 Little Newport Street,

London WC2H 7PP

US address: do Business Press International,

205 East 42nd St. New York, NY 10017

Published by Sunshine Publications 1988

Sunshine Publications 1988

Typesetting and Production by Artset Limited,

London NW1.

Printed by Headley Brothers Ltd. Ashford, Kent

Registered at the Post Ofﬁce as a newspaper.

Dragon and its logo are trademarks of

Eurohard Ltd.

ted article or program, so please keep a copy. If

you wantto haveyour program returnedyou must

include a stamped addressed envelope.

Letters

Bad news

letter

PLEASE co u ld yo u h e lp me

over a problem I a m having

sorting Out. A while ago I read a

newsletter wh ich w a s g ive n

away a t t h e O sse t t S h o w,

where I went to a Dragon show

with the club I am in.

While lo o kin g ro u n d t h e

show, I stopped at a stall giving

away newsletters called News

from the Dragon, edited by A.

Read and others.

After re a d in g t h e m a g I

wanted t o re a d mo re o f th e

mags like this, so I did as re-

quested and sent stamps off to

the value o f th e postage fo r

each mag I wanted. I sent off

money for about four mags but

I only received one other mag ,

which to me is a pity because it

had helpful hints on programs

and games.

I have sent off a couple of let-

ters but have had no reply. Can

any readers help me over this?

Dennis Gates

194 Bek Road

Newton Hall Estate

Durham DH1 5LH

HOME-produced magazines

come and go at a rate which

makes even trade computer

magazines l o o k s ta ble . I f

anyone connected with the

This is your chance to air your views— send your tips, compliments and complaints to Letters

Page, Dragon User, 12-13 Little Newport Street, London WC2H 7PP.

not proﬁcient enough to write

my own programs.

Do you know of anyone who

could possibly write a program

for m e (f o r a ﬁnancial co n -

sideration, of course)?

Mark Matthews

14 Grantley Close

Ashford, Kent TN23 lUE

Every month we will be shelling out a game or two,

courtesy of our supplies, to the reade

who send the most interesting or

entertaining letters. So send

us your hints and your opinions,

send us your hi-scores and

suggestions. Send us your

best Dragon stories. What

d'you think we are,

mind readers?!

Some of the DU readers are

very good programmers and

I hope s ome one w ho feels

able to write (or sell you) a

watertight costing program

for the '32 will ge t in touch.

Have a word with Bob Harris

and one or two other Dragon

suppliers as well.

it. G a m e s s uc h a s P a pe r

The answer to the

question of life

I HAVE owned a Dragon 32 for

ﬁve years. I also have a Dragon

32 with 64K memory (loaned to

me b y a friend who seems to

have about ﬁve). There seems

to be a lot of controversy about

several su b je cts a n d , a s a

Dragon enthusiast with a wide

knowledge o f t h in g s c o m -

puterish. I will try to clarify the

problems.

The complaints seem to be

mostly about 1) power supplies

2) so ftwa re su p p o rt 3 ) 6 4 K

games 4) imports.

One at a time, then.

Power supplies: In all the 5

years of Dragon ownership my

machine h a s NE V E R g o n e

down. T h e p o w e r s u p p ly ,

on/off swit ch , e t c . a l l wo rk

perfectly. A p p a re n t ly m a n y

transformers do break down,

and the replacements are not

cheap. However, if like me you

own a Dra g o n 3 2 wit h 6 4 K

memory, the power supply is

inadequate. This leads to the

voltage regulators overheat-

ing. This leads to the adjacent

video monitor getting warm.

This gives unwanted loss of

colour and even picture (many

people complain of no colour).

IN N

Also, thiscreatesaloudhum on

the audio circuits which is very

annoying when using music.

(Anyone encountering th e se

problems should phone Harry

Whitehouse on 0636 705230,

since h e is the p o we r supply

guru t h e s e d a y s. H e m a y

recommend that you buy one of

his PSUs, b u t he wo n 't if he

thinks it wo n 't do the fob. —

Editor)

Round, Sailor, Brewmaster,

Gantelet, Zaxxon, Pooyan , etc.

etc. which are freely available

in A me ric a a r e n o t f re e ly

available h e r e . M i c r o d e a l

don't imp o rt t h e m b e ca u se

they run mainly on Dragon 64s.

The problem is not conversion

(most games ru n perfectly o r

with sma ll alterations) but im-

port tax, licensing etc. On ly a

large company can afford a ll

this. Broomsoft would, but we

need funds. There is some ex-

cellent so ftwa re in A me rica ,

but it would cost a bomb to sell

it. E ve n i f we imp o rte d a n d

licensed it, we would have to

sell a t a b o u t E l 0 a sh o t t o

recover o u r losses. I ' m su re

many o wn e rs will writ e a n d

say, "Won't mind paying E10”,

but we'd need advance orders

and consumers might be dis-

appointed.

Best wishes for the Dragon. I

will b e h a p p y t o a n swe r in -

dividual re a d e rs' q u e rie s On

the above subjects.

Michael Edwards

30 Broomhills

Welwyn Garden City

Herts AL71RF

Software support: R I P

Microdeal. Quickbeam will go

under i f th e y c ontinue t o

charge h ig h p rice s. Pre sto n

software w i l l (h o p e fu lly) d o

well. In short, software will be

written b y sma ll co mp a n ie s

who are mostly exclusive tothe

Dragon.

erstwhile New s f ro m t h e

Dragon i s r e a d i n g t h i s ,

please get in touch with Mr.

Gates.

Small magazines usually

fold due to exhaustion, pov-

erty a nd over-optimism o n

the pa rt of the proprietors,

rather tha n any plot to de -

prive people of their money

and stamps. I would advise

readers never to send away

for more than one magazine

at a time, and not to take out

subscriptions until you know

the ma ga zine ha s a tra c k

record. T h e o n l y s u b s

The 6 4 K factor i s sad.

Microdeal re f u s e d t o f u n d

Usurper o f Rome after it be-

came too long fora Dragon 32.

According to them, there is lit-

tle enough of a Dragon market

without halving it. But this at-

titude is taken by all the major

software houses.

Imp o rts: We all read about

the E ll° p e r g a me shocker.

Microdeal imp o rt e d S h o c k -

trooper, converted it and sold

Dragon User recommends

are Dragon Update, 68 Micro-

cosm a nd th e O S -9 Us e rs

Group; a n d I pe rs ona l l y

never advise anyone to ex-

pect miracles.

Programmer

wanted

I A M a co mp a ra tive ly n e w

Dragon user. I a m hoping to

use my Dragon 32 to assist me

in my pricings at work, but l am

2 Dragon User April 1988

THE truth is that people who

run substantial so f t w are

houses a re entrepreneurs

who are trying to make a liv-

ing, even if they started for

love. Every time they put ad-

ministrative ef f ort in t o a

shrinking market rather than

an expanding one, they are

effctively subsidising it out

of their own pockets. For this

reason, m an y companies

pull out o f small markets

while the market is still show-

ing signs of health.

I don't think it ' s fair t o

single o u t Quickbeam, a s

people sometimes do, when

many original games were

selling f or more than half

theirpricesatatimewhenthe

market w a s m u c h bigge r.

Pam D 'A r c y 's r e c e nt e x -

perience has also been that

developing games to a com-

mercially competitive stan-

dard Is lus t not cost-effec-

tive. Put it another way: the

cheap origina l ga m e s oft-

ware now available is being

subsidised by the a uthor's

free time, full time tob and/or

family. Utilities are a slightly

different kettle o f ﬁsh, b u t

the s a m e underlying pr i n-

ciples apply.

As you point out, most of

Microdeal's games were con-

versions from other sources,

so tha t de v e lopme nt costs

had already been subsidised

before the game ever hit the

Dragon m a r k e t . Y o u r

estimate of the approximate

selling cost of a licensed con-

version in the Dragon market

Is some indication o f how

much money is involved.

The same

old bug

I enjoy reading every Dragon

User f ro m beginning t o e n d

and a lwa ys ﬁ n d so me th in g

interesting. My Dragon 64 with

two disc drives (and Superdos)

has b e e n h a rn e s s e d t o

breathe some ﬁre into my daily

activities su ch a s writin g le t-

ters. invoices, accounts, doing

mathematics, a bit of CAD, etc.,

most o f wh ich a re m y o wn

programs.

There is one bug, however,

which DU has in common with

pretty well all other electronics

and c o mp u t e r ma g a zin e s,

which is that a published pro-

gram v e ry ra re ly wo rks ﬁ rst

time. The reason is usually a

small innocuous e rro r some-

where along the line.

An excellent example of this

has cre p t in to t h e Fe b ru a ry

issue o n p a g e 26, t h e lo n g

multiplication. Line 130 should

read: 1 3 0 Y$=.-STRS(2):Y$•—

MIDS(YS,2). Only then the pro-

gram works, And I mu st con-

fess, it took me several even-

ings until 31st Jan, when I had a

sudden ﬂash o f inspiration. I

think th e reason was that on

running the incorrect program

halted with LS error in 140, not

130. It just shows that even a

short program is not as easy as

all that to understand fully.

J. Segenschmid

Hill Cottage

Ro me r Hill

High Wycombe

Bucks HP13 5NB

American

toloes

I might be able to shed light on

a couple of problems. Firstly.

Peter Wh ita ke r's w o rd p ro -

cessor was designed to run on

DragonDOS. It will not save on

CumanaDOS. I once wrote to

Peter on this subject and what

follows is his advice:

Use the tape version of the

program. To save, ﬁ rst exit to

Basic, then save the whole pro-

gram t o d i s c u s in g S A V E

"ﬁlename",3072,PEEK(4116)*

256+ PEEK(4117),4151. T h i s

saves the whole program com-

plete w i t h t e xt . Wh e n y o u

reload th e program, and EX-

EC(4151) it, the text will load

with it . Pe te r's address wa s

then 73 Norwich Street, Cam-

Crossword

The ﬁfth Dragon Crossword raises its dinky head

with co n u n d ru ms (n o t f o r d u md u ms) f ro m t h e

glorious history of Dragon games. And we have the

results from crossword three: the fortunate few, pick-

ed up off the mat, were Paul Priestland of Lechlade,

who sent us a shopping list a mile long, and Richard

Moss o f Blackpool, wh o doesn't want a platform

game.

There will b e a couple o f free tapes f ro m th e

Editor's Magic Bottomless Box for the ﬁrst correct

entries to reach us each month. You can even try tell-

ing us which tapes you'd like in an ideal world. It all

depends on what we can ﬁnd.

And you don't have to cut u p your Dragon User.

either e n t r i e s can be written out on a photostat or

a plain piece of paper, as long as we can read them.

1. Steal a chopper from unusual North coast patch

(5.6)

2. The fellow with the money? (7)

3. Gripes like anything about German wa r game

(10)

4. Scribbling insect, or a V1 ﬂyer (6,3)

5. Ba rry rubs gem around to get silly junk food! (5,7)

6. A mere bird to steer a missile by? (4,5)

7. Waifs grown up to make battles ﬂy away! (5,2,3)

8, Sounds lik e a wa lkin g d e fe ct f ro m a n cie n t

Greece (7)

9. 9. No hoper with twisted mop t h e cow jumped

over it! (4,6)

10_ A doom quiz about a famous campanologist (9)

11. Handle rock, to shut once will let you in on it (10)

12. Fearless Ru ssia n wh o re a d s h o t ro d bibles!

(5,3,4)

13. Sorcerers in conﬂict? (6,3)

bridge. (It appears that Peter

has ﬁ n a lly moved away fro m

that area, a n d our attempts to

ﬁnd him have proved futile.)

The second point relates to

monitors. I have acquired a b/w

monitor with p o o r deﬁnition.

When using the text screen or

Hi-res green screen I am better

off with a TV. However, when

you u se the b la ck and wh ite

display (as with Basic 42 and

available on EDIT+) deﬁnition

is pencil sharp and sh imme r

free. It is possible that the VDG

(being made for the American

market) puts Out a red/yellow/

blue signal as opposed to the

red/green/blue signal that we

use. Th is would a lso explain

the la ck o f a n RG B output.

There wa s a company called

Rapidvac in Hull who advertis-

ed that they would send details

on how to convert your display

to b la ck a n d wh it e f o r o n e

pound. All they did for me was

convert my pound into pints,

and I heard no more.

I hope this helps. No w all I

need is a poke to make Elec-

tronic Author ru n o n a b la ck

and white display.

Ken G. Smith

33 Glack Road

Deal, Kent C7

14 9 N D

MY unofﬁcial technical de -

partment says that, while it is

theoretically p o s s i b l e t o

create full colour additively

from ma ge nta /c y a n/y e llow

light sources (these are the

secondary c o l o u r s u s e d

subtractively i n ful l c olour

printing), i n pra c ti s e t h e

primary a ddi ti v e c ol our s ,

red, green and blue, are used

universally in television, and

are not affected by the dif-

ferent c ol our transmission

standards used in different

countries. (British PAL is in

fact an upgrade on American

NTSC). P ut a nothe r way, i f

the VDG has a separated out-

put available, i t will be a n

RGB output.

Unless, o f c ours e , t h e

whole system works like the

tourist Twoﬂower's camera

in Terry Pratchett's The Col-

our of Magic.

In all probability the Dra-

gon i s s upply ing t h e b / w

monitor with an unbalanced

colour output. The colours

have to be fed In In different

proportions t o g i v e a

uniformly bright display i n

black and white, otherwise,

the deﬁnition will be fuzzy.

However, I shall ha v e to

leave it to somebody else to

reveal the solution.

by Terry and Derek Probyn

All this month's

answers are names of

Dragon software.

When the crossword is

complete, the column

marked with an arrow

will spell out a phrase.

EMEHMEMEMIE

MEMEMIERIBEIE

1•111111111111•1111•111•111

IIIMEIMIEMEME

1111111MOMMINIE

M E N E M

1111111111MEMEMEI

E1111111111111111EM

MEME11111111111111111

111111111 111

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.1 1 1

April 1988 Dragon User 3

Dragonsoft

Two is

company

Program: Spy Against Spy

Supplier: Pulser

Price: £5.45 (disc)

SHORTLY before Christmas I

was in t h e u su a l t u rmo il o f

working o u t wh a t e xtra little

presents to buy my eldest son

aged fourteen wh e n I heard

whispers about a completely

different t yp e o f g a me t h a t

could be played between two

players. I did not even know the

name of the game but was told

that Pulser Software were sell-

ing i t s o I contacted B ria n

O'Connor. H e is used to me

approaching him at the North-

ern Dragon S h o ws tryin g t o

scrounge software for reviews

in Update b u t soon b e ca me

more affable when he realised

that I was ringing up as a pay-

ing customer. At ﬁrst he said

that they had n o new games

software but then said that it

must have been 'Spy Against

Spy' that I had heard about.

When I explained that it was to

be a present he agreed to let

me b u y a c o p y a s i t w a s

playable although n o t q u it e

ready fo r marketing. He also

promised m e a co mp le te d

version.

It arrived and having booted

the disk I was greeted with the

usual h ig h standard o f Ca rt-

wright mu s ic a l a cco mp a n i-

ment and pressed the left ﬁre

button t o a cce ss t h e o n e -

player option, playing against

the computer. I will ﬁrst explain

the general idea of the game

but listen very carefully as I will

say this only once. You take the

part o f a s p y searching f o r

various items hidden through-

out avery large building. At ﬁrst

you do not realise quite h o w

many rooms there are but soon

you realise that the television

set is in a different part of this

room or that the window is on

the opposite side of the picture

in that room. In fact there are

100 ro o ms altogether, c o m-

plete wit h cupboards, lit t e r-

baskets(?), a n d c h e s t s o f

drawers as.

Mapping out is very difﬁcult

for this game as you have to

move fa irly q u ickly and a lso

keep an eye on what your op-

ponent is doing. Some doors

can only be passed through it

4 Dragon User April 1988

New software for review should be sent to Dragon User.

12-13 Little Newport Street, London WC2H 7PP.

when moving forward or back-

wards through ro o ms a s it is

easy to move too far and miss a

room.

At times I found it difﬁcult to

pick u p t h e h id d e n o b je cts

even though I know where they

are. I will give the author the

beneﬁt of the doubt that this is

to simulate searching through

drawers. On e touch I did ap-

preciate was that if you found

the key and entered one of the

locked d o o rs y o u we re n o t

prevented from retracing your

footsteps if the other player got

the key off you.

This shows the thought that

has gone into the game as it

would have been completely

ruined if one player had been

trapped behind locked doors.

To summarise, th is is a good

two-player game, wh ich i s a

rarity i n it se lf , b u t p la yin g

against the computer is not as

realistic unless foreign sp ie s

are b e in g recruited because

they a re n o t ve ry intelligent.

Worth i t though f o r th e two -

player version and nice to be

able to practise by oneself.

The g a me i s i n ma ch in e

code a n d s o i s lo a d e d b y

Cloadm. After loading, you can

transfer to De lla Do s d isc (in-

structions on how to do so are

given in the manual), o r type

EXEC to start the game.

First o f a ll, t h e co mp u te r

asks yo u t o enter p la ye r I s

name, a n d t h e n p la ye r 2 ' s

name. I f nothing is typed in

and E NT E R i s p re sse d f o r

player 2's name, then the word

Micro appears i n p la ye r 2 's

box, and player 1 will play the

computer.

Using t h e rig h t joystick, a

little a rro w i s mo v e d t o a

selection o f b o xe s ma rk e d

YES and NO, to select various

options.

The ﬁrst option is to select a

track already included in the

game. Se le ctin g Y e s sh o ws

you t h e 1 7 d iffe re n t t ra c k s

available t o c h o o s e f r o m .

Selecting the icon YES takes

you t o a q u e stio n ma rk e d

'LAPS ?', where you type in the

number o f la p s yo u wa n t to

make around the circu it from

1-99. If the option to play the

computer was chosen, then a

message o f wh ic h d ifﬁ cu lty

level t h e mic ro should h a ve

appears. Th e se a re 1 E a s y

(easy to lose), 2 me d iu m (a

fair ch a n ce ), a n d 3 d ifﬁ cu lt

(very easy for you to lose). After

your choice, you go onto the

game.

Selecting NO from the 'Use

a computertrack' option, takes

you o n t o t h e t o a d a t ra ck

option', where you can load a

track which you have designed

using the track designer pro-

gram. Selecting YES loads the

track, and selecting NO takes

you b a ck to the 'Use a co m-

puter track' option.

The s c re e n d isp la y. t h e

screen i s sp lit in to 3 thirds_

Player 1 in the top third, player

2 in the middle third, and the

players ma p s (to sh o w were

they are on the track), and the

you have found th e key. Th e

key and the other items cannot

be seen b u t are obtained b y

moving t o th e pieces o f fu r-

niture e t c a n d p u sh in g t h e

Joystick forward, the item be-

ing ta ke n i f it i s there, Th e

screen is split into two with the

computer or the second player

using thetop half of the screen.

At ﬁrst some rooms appear to

have no exit until you notice a

slight tinge in the middle of the

bottom portion of your part of

the screen and you realise you

can come back out of the room.

The ﬁrst player to ﬁnd all the

items, then escapes by going

out through a certain door to be

whisked a w a y sa f e ly i n a

helicopter_ Ho we ve r yo u a re

allowed a limite d n u mb e r o f

bombs a n d wa te r tra p s with

which you can take the items

off your opponent.

To s e t t h e se b o mb s a n d

traps you must either push the

joystick forward or pull it back

depending on which type you

wish to use and then press ﬁre

but care must be taken with the

positioning of the joystick while

doing it as you cannot do this if

it is not positioned precisely.

Also i f t h e se co n d p la y e r

discovers a n it e m t h a t t h e

other has already found then

he takes it and the ﬁrst player

loses it. The ﬁrst verion that I

played w i t h h a d u n limit e d

bombs and soon ended up in a

mass b o mb in g session wit h

nobody getting anywhere but

now one has to plan where to

plant a bomb especially as on-

lyone will explode if you should

inadvertently place more than

one in the same room at once.

Scoring i s b a s e d o n

discovering the items ﬁrst and

also bombing your adversary.

Points are awarded to the ﬁrst

person to ﬁnd each article and

you also get points every time

you bomb your opponent. The

time limit for your mission is ap-

proximately n in e a n d a h a lf

minutes which may sound a lot

but believe me it is not as I have

only been able tocomplete it by

setting it to a two player game

and then just use the one (hav-

ing ma p p e d i t b y p la yin g i t

many times in the same mode.)

The graphics are not brilliant

but this is more than made up

for b y t h e o rig in a lity o f t h e

game as I know of nothing even

remotely similar for the Dragon

although I wo n d e r wh e t h e r

spies re a lly have su ch la rg e

noses, Ca re h a s to be taken

Mike Stott

q t u rif t ) g f t q t )

A real

racer

Program: Formula One (Tape

or Drag DOS disc)

Price: E.8.95

Supplier: P a mco mms, Jo h n

Penn

HOT on the trails of the old and

brill Speed Racer, comes For-

mula On e b y o u r dear Pam.

Many of you out there will have

bought Speed Racer from the

late Microdeal, and will have

thought that the super smooth

graphics a n d scro llin g t ra ck

were superb. but let me tell you

mileometers i n t h e bottom

that Formula One is even bet-

ter. This review is for the tape

version. but I think that the disc

is identical.

The g a me i s id e n tica l t o

Scaletrix for the (dare I say it)

Spectrum. It is a split level race

the other on the bottom. You

can either play against a friend

or the computer. There is also a

Track De sig n e r o n s i d e B ,

which is also in Scaletrix.

third. The background for the

track (the buildings and moun-

tains etc) remain the same for

each track, and they turn in the

opposite direction to which the

car is turning, to make the feel-

ing o f movement. To give the

feeling o f travelling forward,

various objects come towards

you at the speed of the car. The

objects a re Co n e s. B a rre ls,

and Sign posts.

continued on next page

News desk

DISKBASE f o r Dra g o n DO S

(the disc version of Magbase,

£2.99 all inclusive) and John-

athan Cartwright's adventure

trio Starship Destiny, Dungeon

Destiny and Wild West Destiny

are available in tape and disc

If you have any new products for the Dragon — software or hardware —

ring the News Desk on 01-437 4343

Discs of Destiny Ta p e z - v o u s

versions from Pulser Software

for £3.99 e a c h o r E8.99 to -

gether. Look out for reviews of

the trio in due course.

Pulser Software, 36 Foxhill,

High Crompton, Shaw, Oldham

0 L 2 7 N0 Tel, 0706 849189.

Dragon Taped ComputenNare

tells u s that is has n o w pub-

lished its French Collection (I)

including a vocabulary test, a

verb t e s t , a n d a F r e n c h

dictionary. Th e wo rd s fo r the

vocabulary test and dictionary

are programmed in by the user

with an extensive and easy to

use d a t a cre a tio n p ro g ra m

which is also on the tape, The

programs and ﬁles can easily

be ch a n g e d f o r E n g lish —

Spanish o r a n y n u mb e r o f

other useful language c om-

binations.

from previous page

You u s e t h e jo ysticks t o

control the cars, and the way

you u se the joysticks is: For-

ward/accelerate, b a ck/b ra ke ,

left a n d right/turn. I t i s a d -

visable to u se potentiometer

joysticks where ever possible.

Player one is situated at the

top h a lf of th e screen, wh ile

player t wo is situated a t th e

bottom half. After a couple of

seconds, the lights at the right

hand sid e o f e a ch h a lf tu rn

to st rip e s, a n d w h e n t h e

joystick/joysticks (De p e n d in g

on wether one or two players)

are pulled back, the lights go

white a n d a wa y you ca n go.

Your top speed is 240mph. The

screen scrolls beautifully, and

after every lap your time for that

lap is shown. Trying t o take

over yo u r opposition's ca r is

very difﬁcult, a nd i f the two

cards co llid e th e n i t is co n -

sidered that the person behind

is the looser. Pressing BREAK

during t h e g a me re se ts t h e

program to the very beginning,

and pressing CLE AR takes

you back to the U s e a co m-

puter tra ck' option. Afte r the

desired n u mb e r o f laps o r a

crash, t h e n t h e victo ry a n d

looser scre e n i s displayed.

This sh o ws both t h e win n e r

and the loser at the same time

and the cars are at the same

places, one at the top and the

other at the bottom. The victor

is shown standing beside h is

car jumping up and down with

a v ic t o ry me s s a g e u n d e r-

neath, and the loser is shown

next to h is ca r stamping h is

right fo o t u p a n d d o wn a n d

shouting an exclamation mark

to his left.

After t h e v i c t o r y / l o s e r

screen, t h e o p t io n ' S a m e

again' appears, Selecting YES

will take you back to the start

line w i t h t h e s a m e o p t in s

selected l i k e n o . la p s, a n d

Selecting NO, wipes out your

loaded i n t ra ck i f any, a n d

takes you back to the 'Use a

computer track option'.

The track designer program

is on side B of the cassette, and

is loaded with CLOADM EXEC.

Upon ru n n in g t h e prog. t h e

option ' De sig n a circu it ' i s

displayed. S e l e c t i n g Y E S

takes you to the designer, while

NO takes you to 'Use a com-

puter track' option. Selecting

YES l e ts y o u a d d furthe r

pieces to the 17 built in tracks,

while se le ctin g N O le ts yo u

load in a track to ﬁnish it off or to

check that a track loads alright.

The designer has 15 pieces

of tra ck to choose f ro m and

four other options. These op-

tions a re SAVE — sa ve th e

track to tape, CLOSE c l o s e

links the start and end pieces of

track together if possible. LIFT

removes t h e l a s t p ie c e o f

track, a n d ABORT takes you

to t h e sta rt o f t h e d e sig n e r

program. T h e 1 5 p ie ce s o f

track are Straight A, Straight B,

Straight C, Straight D, Sta n-

dard curve, Standard curve A,

Outer curve, Ou te r cu rve A ,

Double Inner curve, Banked

curve, Skid Chicane, Chicane

Out. Straight chicane. Curved

chicane, and Chicane IN. If you

pick a curve, then an option to

make i t g o anticlockwise o r

clockwise is given, OOPS, I

almost forgot to te ll you that

you that there's a n option to

make you travel north, south,

east or west.

Overall, it is a beautiful piece

of programming, and it is way

better than the three year old

Speed Racer. I would urge peo-

ple to b u y the game and not

pirate it, even at the price o f

£8.95, because if not enough

people buy the game then Pam

might have to quit producing

software a nd w e don't want

that, do we.

David Linsley

The vocabulary te s t w a s

included in the ﬁrst issue of

Dragon Taped and the diction-

ary in the second issue. Both

issues a re s t ill a va ila b le a t

£1.50. I s s u e t w o in c lu d e s

English wo rd games, adven-

ture and arcade columns on

tape.

People who already have the

other two ite ms can b u y the

verb test for Cl. The combined

test/dictionary tape costs £3.

All o rd e rs a n d e n q u irie s t o

A R Hopkins, Common Farm,

Shitnal, Shropshire TFII 9HN.

Siegfried returns

THE S i e gfr i e d Co m p u te r -

Gruppe o f G e r m a n y a n -

nounces a meeting for Dragon

enthusiasts to take p la ce o n

Sunday 2 6 t h J u n e 1 9 8 8 i n

Jugendzentrum Kratsstation,

Honsberger Strasse 2, D-5630

Remscheid, Federal Republic

of Germany. Admission 2 DM.

The Gruppe will be demon-

strating MIDI, a mouse, sound

sampling, a scanner, ram- and

eprom-discs, all on the Dragon.

For more information, contact

the S i e g fr i e d C o m p u t e r -

Gruppe, Dina -Erns tbe rge r-

Strasse 23, D-8524 Neunkir-

chem am Brand 1, FRG.

Fire and games

Dragonﬁre Services have ad-

ded to their list of titles Decath-

lon (E3.00), Dragon Music (two

tapes o f Bach, o n e o f Scott

Joplin, £3.00 each), th e te xt

adventure Un d e rb e in g s o f

Croth (E4.00) and the spelling/

maths tutor programs Ma ze -

race and Spellbase (E5.00 the

pair).

Maze race a n d S p e l l b o x

were developed b y teachers

from two primary schools and

have had many hours testing in

the classroom. Mazerace is for

the 6-11 age group and teaches

spelling with large colour pic-

tures, a nd practices addition

and subtraction in the maths

section. Spoilbox is for the 7.12

age group and teaches spell-

ing f r o m a vo ca b u la ry o f

around 600 words, while prac-

ticing a d d itio n , su b tra ctio n ,

multiplication and division in

the maths section. Both have

automatic level selection, in -

creasing or decreasing the dif-

ﬁculty according to the child's

ability_

Both p ro g ra ms u s e h ig h

resolution c o l o u r t e x t a n d

graphics. Previously available

from the authors, this package

was favourably reviewed b y

Dragon User in 1987.

Decathlon fe a tu r e s t e n

games for 1 to 5 players. in-

cluding Anagrams, Hangman

and Shootout. Ideal for parties

and idling a w a y w e t a fte r-

noons, this package originally

had a four-dragon review from

DU.

Underbeing o f Cro th i s a

rescue adventure taking place

in the slimy caves of Croth. The

program unde rs ta nds d u a l

commands such as 'pick fruit

then e a t it', a n d h a s a save-

game feature.

The Dra g o n Mu s i c p a ck-

ages each have three, four part

harmony t ra n scrip t io n s o f

music from two popular com-

posers, accurately transcribed

from the originals. DM I and li

are b y B a c h , a n d D M

features Scott Joplin_ Please

specify t h e num be r w h e n

ordering.

Dragonﬁre Se rv ic e s , 1 3

Parry J one s Close, Blaine,

qt)iitAtit

Gwent NP3 3N H.

April 1988 Dragon User 5

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