This section is somewhat similar to the SPECTROFON's "FROM THE WORLD TO A BIT" (you can't escape fate, somewhere you have to publish readers' letters) and tells about everything in the SPECTRUM world.
As a "teaser," we present to your attention the fruits of the "hacker's brainstorming" on some games. Unfortunately, alongside the tricks of working with the program, we can't help but touch on some interesting moments of the programs that, in our opinion, will bring a new color to communication with your favorite program. In short, some small (and not only small) tricks of the programs. By the way, all these programs can be purchased in the "ZX-Club" stores.
SEA ACTION.
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Have you all seen "SPECTROFON" No 16? Well, this program is in its "Appendix" and is briefly described in the magazine itself. May I ask, have you launched this game? And did it work for you? Wonderful, it didn't work for us. And do you know why? The program requires that the "CAPS LOCK" mode is turned on!!! We won't touch on why the author didn't create normal controls (two commands at the start of the program, and CAPS is on: or one command when polling the keyboard, and CAPS is generally "out of the question"). But why "SPECTROFON" not only didn't fix this (oh, sorry, "copyright," the author is always right), but even didn't hint at such a "glitch." And now you have two options:
- enter TR-DOS (bypassing "SPECTROFON"), turn on CAPS, type RUN "SEA":
- violate the "sacred" copyright and add the line "POKE 23658,8" anywhere in the Basic loader.
Otherwise, it's quite a good implementation of the tabletop game Sea Battle. Although we suspect that the program sometimes cheats - it conducts fire too methodically, and suspiciously close to our (your) ships.
UFO. ENEMY HEU3BECTEH.
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A pretty excellent game. However, it has one "bug." The formation of the current game situation occurs due to pseudo-random numbers. But that's not the problem; the problem is that these numbers are not saved to disk. As a result, if, for example, your base was attacked and you flew there, finding a crowd of "SLIP-SLIPS," then after saving the game and loading it again, you'll find the already annoying "SECTOIDS."
The problem of capturing UFOs for research is solved even more "glitchily." To do this, you need to shoot down the ship with slanted corners ("SCOUT") three times in a row (!) for research on "SMALL" ships. And if you decided: "it's time to study the UFO," then before "taking down" the next ship, save (to memory). If you don't need that ship, then recall (from memory) - the ship will be different (sometimes the same, that's just how the number generator works), continue this way until you meet the type of UFO you need.
Now about saving the state to any disk. The state is saved in the form of six sectors, starting from the 10th sector of the 0th track (track). Therefore, it is not worth doing "MAGIC" actions on the disk with the saved state. Loading the state from such a disk is a pleasure. When you see the phrase "insert the disk and press ENTER," you insert the disk with the state, press "ENTER." When you hear the characteristic repeating sound of zhik-zhik (not to be confused with "not reading" - that's zhik-zhik), which means that the state has been read and the computer is trying to find and load the overlay module, you quickly remove the disk with the state and quickly insert the disk with the game. Then... enjoy the continuation of the previously interrupted game.
For the owners of two (or more) disk drives. Gentlemen, don't be deluded and don't look down on your single-drive counterparts. Even if "UFO" loads from disk "B" (or "C," or "D"), it will read the state and overlays all from the same "A."
However, this remark is only valid for the version "by Mortal Kombat Group." The version "by Stars of Keladab" (ours) is free of these shortcomings - it works with the current disk drive and also ensures stable operation with Soviet disk drives.
STAR LEGACY-1. BLACK COBRA.
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I'll immediately reassure the readers: if you purchased this game in the "ZX-Club" store and it features a fight on the splash screen, flashing the inscription "DIPROTECT BY 'STARS OF KELADAN'," then everything is fine. You can forget everything that was said in "SPECTROFON" and "ZX-Review" about unlicensed versions; this doesn't concern you. Your version has undergone thorough testing and is FULLY FUNCTIONAL. We vouch for it (of course, if the sellers didn't "mess up" - if the game loaded and worked for you, there will be no "surprises," we guarantee). And if this reassures you, we played precisely on "our" version (and reached the victorious end, where we were advised to urgently buy the second part of the game "STAR LEGACY-2. ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE UNIVERSE").
Now to what we wanted to discuss. At the end of January 1996, we sent a letter to the "STEP" group, fully dedicated to analyzing their game and how we passed it. At the end of February, we received the 16th issue of "SPECTROFON" (the issue was released at the end of December 1995), which contained an entire article about this game. In the article, the authors (the "STEP" group) were puzzled about why no one could complete the game. Their thought was this: "For some reason, no one can figure out our puzzles. Come on, guys? It's so simple! Look." They then provide the thought process (yours, rather, they think your thoughts should be like this) when solving the next puzzle. We won't retell what they said (you can read it yourself, the original is always well-readable), better to provide an excerpt from our letter. If you want to complete the game independently, it's better not to read the second part of the excerpt (where we present our thought process in solving these same puzzles), although I bet, sooner or later, you will have to peek there or into the 16th issue of "SPECTROFON." As for the first part of the letter, since we have a section "ABOUT EVERYTHING," we believe that you will find it interesting to read this (we share our thoughts with you and hope for reciprocity). In general, the game is very good, and we played it with delight and eagerly await the next part.
EXCERPT FROM THE LETTER TO THE "STEP" GROUP.
As in any program tested by its authors, and seemingly examined from top to bottom, small (and not so small) inaccuracies are discovered that the authors do not notice (we admit, this is also the case with us), however, a fresh perspective always finds something "wrong." And we encountered the following inaccuracies:
1. In the location "Automatic Checkpoint" from the side of the city of Taran, in the accompanying text of the first description, there is a spelling mistake: the word "video camera" is written as "vidEocamera," but that's not terrible.
2. During an unsuccessful shuttle flight in "Ark" (it gets shot down by fighters), the E-NAVIGATOR remains buried under the debris, even if it was previously taken out and brought along before takeoff (after setting the flight target).
3. Graviton, what is that? From handheld weapons, you can shoot blobs of matter, energy, plasma, but how to shoot blobs of gravity? A blob of gravity (is such a thing even possible? (a gravitational field, just like a magnetic one, cannot exist without a source)) should act with equal force on both the target and the shooter, destroying both. Or are all shooters from the graviton kamikazes? Why not shoot from the good old blasters or firearms (remember one of the contraband items in "ELITE")?
4. Timer. This may, of course, be our petty nitpicking, for which we apologize in advance. But still. Why does the sun on the timer move from west to east? Is this somehow related to the direction of the clock's hands? If so, wouldn't it have been simpler to draw a dial and hands (or just the hour hand)? And if not, your hopes that on Raxle the sun moves from west to east due to reverse rotation are rather naive. Even at the dawn of exploring other planets using AMC (automatic interplanetary stations), our earthly scientists faced the problem of determining directions on other planets. There were several solutions, but conservatism won: ON ANY PLANET, east is where the sun rises on that planet, regardless of the direction in which the planet itself rotates. So even on Venus (which rotates on its axis in the opposite direction compared to Earth), the sun rises in the east (if you can see it through the clouds). You can read about this in any astronomy textbook. And what happens in "Legacy" can be described by a humorous poem by A. S. Pushkin:
"The rosy king of nature rises from the west.
And the amazed peoples do not know what awaits them:
To lie down to sleep or to get up."
As we progressed through the game, we were puzzled by some game situations determined by the game's script (but not its implementation). We hope that you, as authors, will be interested in our opinion on them:
1. All cultured people, when they meet an unfamiliar person, first try to talk to them. However, upon seeing a completely unfamiliar old woman, you immediately have to "shove" a bracelet to her, and only then will the old woman deign to give the key item (a pass for the glider).
2. Neither in the introductory novella (aside from the words "I've been flying since childhood") nor in the game itself is there any hint of the main character's childhood and, most importantly, of his father's past. So how can one know that merchant Jameson knew the father of the "Fearless" and recognizes their family crest on the medallion? We figured this out using the "most scientific" method - the method of poking around; in a well-thought-out game, there is simply no place for it.
3. Chlorides... Yes... You have a rich imagination!!! Not only do you need to visit the bar area (the Pulsar megapolis) for the third time just to SEE them, but to safely seize their money, you must appear near the bar for the fourth time. And also sleep a couple of hours next to the corpses near the crowded bar!! Let's say we stumbled upon this "glitch" completely by accident, losing hope in the slums of Pulsar...
4. Safe!!! A bit of statistics:
- number of combinations of the Code: 30 cubed, totaling 27,000:
- number of combinations of holograms on the Clock: 12:
- the third factor - Door. Two states. Total: 648,000 combinations.
Considering the observant and logical thinking of the player in the Pulsar airport (2nd Info zone, messages about the "pass-through" and "our clocks can do everything"), the number of combinations is reduced to 324,000. Let's assume, ideally, the player interprets the phrase "When We Are Alone..." as the code "KON." Gentlemen, what then is the image of the Bee on the clock for? Maybe because there are DECORATIVE bushes in front of the villa? And if there were a pond, then what about the Snake (it swims, while the bee lands on bushes)? Don't you think that a Mushroom would have been a better key to the safe, as it is the only representative of the plant world in the list of holograms? And to find it, associative thinking would need to be applied, not the same old "poking around." Additionally, it is necessary to know that there are exactly 3 factors influencing the opening of the safe. Not 2, not 1, not 10, but exactly three. And where can this be known?
We think "non-hackers" won't open the safe anytime soon, not before the summer... of 1999...
We should add that we only learned about the hologram and the code by analyzing the verification algorithm and simply "hacking" the game, and we do not consider this against the rules. If you don't think so, then calculate for yourself the number of combinations and the time spent solving it next to the computer.
5. Tempora Raxles. The fact that everything in the Picture "Gates of Tempora" points to the number "PI," we figured out immediately (the symbol "P," the position of the clock hands - three and fourteen). We even understood the interpretation of the symbols in the lower corners: the left one - "noon (morning)" or to go out in the morning, or to be at the place at noon, or all vice versa: the right one - "look," most likely through binoculars. But who could have guessed that the number "PI" is a sequence of directions from the landing place in the Temporal Zone to the Blob, plus five (!) steps?
Not bad!!! A wonderful puzzle, don't think this is irony. But the number "PI," as far as we know, is equal to 3.141592 up to the sixth digit after the decimal point. And your fundamental constant equals 3.1412!!!! Excuses that there are no fifth and ninth directions of movement are not accepted; in this case, the number of steps should logically be reduced to four, or even better to three (in everyday understanding, "PI" is simply equal to 3.14, and again the hands point to this)... In this regard, the complete passage of the game "honestly" is postponed to... the year 2467 (when the Tempora Raxles will be opened by John Mack's group without our participation)... And how we "figured out" that there should be a fourth digit (the fifth step), and that it equals 2 (to the east), guess for yourself.
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Well then, that's enough for the first time. We remind you that the main correspondents of this section will be you and your letters. And we will publish them and sometimes express our thoughts to you (when they come to us). Write to us at the addresses (of course in Samara):
- 443010 ul. Krasnoarmeyskaya d. 23 kv. 68
Evgeny,
- 443079 pr. G. Mitireva d. 14 kv. 2
Alexander.
This method of communication is somewhat "expensive," so there is another: you leave your letters, notes, wishes in the department of the "Kolos" store, located at the intersection of Chernorechenskaya and Klinicheskaya streets, near the "Michurinsky" supermarket. Which department - you'll see, it's hard to make a mistake here.
If you want us to respond to your letter personally (not just on the pages of "OBERON"), you must meet two conditions:
1. The letter must make sense.
2. The letter must include a prepaid envelope with your return address.
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Contents of the publication: Oberon #01
- Introduction
Introduction to the first issue of Oberon, a Samara electronic magazine by the STARS OF KELADAN group, intended as an alternative to SPECTROFON, focusing on programming professionalism.
- Scroll
Analysis of software issues in ZX Spectrum games featured in 'SPECTROFON', specifically 'SPACE CRUSADE' and 'REBEL STAR'. Discussion on the programs' faults, hacking attempts, and lack of testing. Critique of 'SPECTROFON' magazine's handling of software quality.
- Scroll
Description of the ZX/IBM Editor v1.0 with detailed analysis of its features, such as menu navigation, file operations, and text compression. Discusses compatibility with multiple disk drives and adaptation for 128K machines. Provides insights into limitations and updates made in version 1.5D.
- Review
The article discusses software available at ZX-Club, including detailed reviews of Animation 2.0, a package for creating simple commercials, and the game 'Country of Myths', a Dungeons & Dragons genre game. 'Insult Megademo' by Code Busters is highlighted for its music and video effects, with warnings about compatibility issues for certain computers. The piece stresses the importance of purchasing only properly tested software to avoid problems.
- Review
Analysis of software distributed by 'INFORCOM' highlights issues in programs like STS, TASM128, and VIRUS, criticizing their technical flaws and marketing claims. The article questions the quality and legality of these programs while offering alternative solutions. It reflects on the challenges in software development and distribution for ZX Spectrum.
- About Everything
Discussion of ZX Spectrum programs' tricks and bugs, mentioning user experiences and feedback, with special focus on games and technical challenges.
- Educational Program - Paul Atrides
Discussion on programming etiquette and the need for comprehensive knowledge beyond coding skills, with historical insights into computing.
- Hardware - Александр Королёв
The article discusses the attribute port #FF on Russian ZX Spectrum clones, its quirks, and potential issues with using Gromov's schematic. The author provides a revised version of the schematic, offering improvements for better compatibility. This technical note is aimed at enthusiasts who want to enhance their systems.
