I had intended to bring you a version of that classic game BREAKOUT with this EUG but the computer didn't like the way I write BASIC, so I have had to leave it for another time. I'll use machine code when I do get back to it, and see if my Elk will obey me when I use that...
However I have managed to write two other games for this third Game Show article. The first has been transported here from the very early Eighties. It's a version of the ZX81 era game, ZOMBIES. Though I have left it in black and white, I have fiddled around with some of it. I decided that since other variations of the game have allowed our Captain to teleport, I would go one stage further - he can still teleport, but so can the zombies! This, I think, makes it more challenging than most other versions, which can get rather repetitive. The second is another classic Eighties game, MASTERMIND. It is not the TV-quiz game, but rather an intriguing mind puzzle, which has been written on virtually every computer I've seen (even the Archimedes clones), although I could not find a version for the Electron. So I wrote one.
The last thing I have to present is the update to EUG #19's ALPHABET CHASER. It was suggested to me by Gus and I think it's an excellent idea, but more about that later.
ZOMBIES
In this game you play the part of Captain Xiran, a human who has been sent to a humanly populated planet to destroy the hideous zombie horde. Unfortunately for the Captain, the zombies are incredibly strong ('one zombie hug and you're zombie lunch'). They are, however, also incredibly short sighted, and this is your only lifeline.
The playing field is littered with holes and, if you can manage to lure them into the holes, they will be destroyed. But watch out: you will also die if you fall down one. As I've said, both you and the zombies, in this version, have got teleport abilities. You can activate yours by pressing (RETURN) when you're on the field. The zombies have only got the ability to teleport if they were 'born' that way, and the percentage of zombies with this ability goes up as the game goes on.
A zombie can 'choose' to teleport if he is more than ten characters away from the Captain, and if a 75% chance for a teleport comes out as positive. When either you or a zombie teleport, a noise is made, and the screen flickers a few times. The length of time during which the screen flickers (and nothing else happens!) depends on whether it's a zombie or the Captain who teleports. It lasts twice as long if it's the Captain.
You must get through nine levels, or fields (as I've called them), of this mayhem before you have completed your mission. Captain Xiran is then free to return home.
MASTERMIND
This is a logical number guessing game, which you have quite probably seen before. The aim is to guess the number which the computer has chosen from the clues it gives to the number you guess. It tells you for each digit of the number, in order, whether that digit was in the number in that position, or in another position. The in-game instructions explain it more fully.
ALPHABET CHASER UPDATE
This update was suggested by Gus a short while ago. The new game makes a change to the gameplay itself, in that there are now two more options at the start of the game, allowing the player to now 'chase' the alphabet backwards, eg. starting with Z and working back to A instead of the other way round. The difference between options 3 and 4 are the speeds, which are equivalent to the original speeds 1 and 2 respectively.
FUN WITH A TYPEWRITER
Totally coming off the subject of games, I wonder whether anyone experimented with the TYPING utility in EUG #19. This was a program I produced whilst experimenting with vectors in preparation for last issues' SAFE utility. Its sole purpose in life is to make as near to a typewriter sound as is possible with an Elk whenever a key is pressed, or a character is printed out. It also has the side effect of dramatically reducing the speed of the computer. To see it in operation, just type:
>*TYPING
and then *CATalogue a disk or something. Quite a nice effect, I think.
Ross Little, EUG #20