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│ ───── FROM THE WORLD FOR A BIT ───── │
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Last month we received a record number of letters in the entire history of our magazine. Thank you very much to everyone who wrote.
- ABOUT GAMES -
KOTIN MAXIM (St. Petersburg):
...I want to tell you about my little discoveries in the game "ROBIN OF SHERWOOD". So, if you curate on the vertical where Leaford Grange is located, you can meet a tax collector. By searching his cart, you can find bags of grain, and in them, 200 gold coins... To the west, at the village, you can find Touchstone on the sacred tree.
If you take a bow and arrows in the cave and head to the camp, a messenger will appear there to inform you that a tournament has opened in Nottingham. Heading south, you enter the city and, shooting an arrow, you take the grand prize - a silver arrow and quickly run away from there, just like the first time.
Next, you go to Belem Castle to the east and using the silver arrow, you kill her and rescue Lady Marion. By searching the body of the killed witch, you can find the second Touchstone.
"S": Here you need to search the dead body again and pull the arrow out of it.
KOTIN MAXIM: Besides all this, you can befriend Little John if you defeat him in a staff fight. Also, in the southwestern part, a peasant drives a cart. If you stop him, he will run away. You can climb into the cart. Then the horse bolts and takes you to Nottingham. Waiting for darkness, you can get out.
Well, that's all. It's unclear how to open the chest and get into Leaford Grange, as well as where to find the sacred cross.
But I hope someone will be more fortunate and clever than I...
"S": Thank you, Maxim, for the interesting exploration.
ZABELYAN DAVID (Tuapse):
Hello, dear editorial team of the magazine "Spectrofon". I have wanted to write to you for a long time, but somehow it never worked out. Now the opportunity has arisen. Here is your task for the game "THE SENTINEL". The game is simply excellent. After all, FIREBIRD itself wrote it. At first, it was difficult, but "he who seeks will always find." There are many subtleties and unclear aspects in the game, but we somehow cope with it.
I report the passwords for some levels:
8-46986565 63-68703477
9-26945744 72-09857276
20-87457664 80-51458381
22-88670629 101-63949077
25-82879455 102-95845433
31-92456959 122-42213878
36-99954277 136-21943987
42-00544319 166-16100221
51-71973967 - - - - -
KUTENKOV VASILY (Arkhangelsk region):... I bought eight issues of your electronic magazine. In the first issue, I really liked the adventure "Kayleth", but I encountered two problems. I solved the first one with some difficulty. It was that this game was not fully adapted for disk.
It turned out to be quite difficult to diskify it, as the program occupies all the RAM, but by using direct access to the ROM TR-DOS v5.3, I still managed to do it. So, all the work on adaptation is behind, and I sat down to play the game. I started the game with the debut scenario published in your magazine. In addition, I managed to find a number of items: circuit fuse, micro canister, strip of tape, pair of gloves. And here I encountered the second problem: after thoroughly exploring all eight discovered locations, I got stuck. I know about the existence of the teleporter and how to activate it, but that doesn’t make it any easier.
In despair, I decided to write to you in hopes that you would give me some hint. I will stop here. Thank you in advance. Good luck in your hard but necessary work!
P.S. A hint is preferably given in 1-2 moves, or, even better, in the form of a clue, so that I do not lose interest in the game...
"S": Well, let's try to help. If you carefully examine the micro canister, you can understand that it contains some necessary items for later. But how to open it? Here you will need a cassette with acid. If you open it and place it on the micro canister, the acid will dissolve the canister's shell, and three new items will appear before your eyes...
We believe you will figure out how to use them.
BONDARETS DMITRY (Talnah-2):... In the fifth issue of the magazine "SPECTROFON", you published the full disk version of the program "GAC". With its help, I immediately started writing my own game. But when trying to load the saved state from the disk, the game seems to start over. This is a big minus of the "GAC" program. I have the impression that something went wrong during the adaptation of the "GAC" program to the disk drive. I ask you: since you decided to do a GOOD thing, please finish it and correct your mistake. I advise you to include the corrected version of the game in the next issue of the magazine. I myself translated "GAC" into Russian.
"S": Thank you, Dmitry, for your letter. Indeed, a regrettable error crept into the "GAC" program presented in the fifth issue. Unfortunately, we did not notice it right away. However, upon checking the reader's claims, we found and immediately fixed it. We fulfill Dmitry's request and include the corrected version of the "GAC" program in this issue.
Dmitry's letter prompted us to the following reflections: it is strange that the error in "GAC" was discovered only now, at the end of the year. Hence the gloomy thoughts: perhaps this program did not interest users? Perhaps it is not very necessary for them? After all, if someone had at least a little figured it out, they would have definitely discovered this flaw in the program.
But the fact remains - the error report came six months after the release of the issue with this program. Of course, we understand that we need to take into account the speed of mail and many other factors, but it is still a bit sad. And to the author of the letter, we suggest sending us their Russian version. If the work is done at the appropriate level - we will definitely publish "Russian GAC" in our magazine.
BLAGOVIDOV V.V (Ufa): I want to return to the pressing issue of POKES. I will be honest, I do not share the unconditional viewpoint of the magazine "SPECTROFON" on this matter.
Certainly, recently proliferated "crackers" insert "infinites" wherever they can (almost into ..., I apologize), and in most cases only spoil the game. I completely agree with this and condemn these poor programmers. But! In some games, POKES are absolutely necessary. These games can be divided into several groups.
The first is the largest. These are games like COMMANDO, I BALL 2, R-TYPE, etc.
They apply the principle: die - start the current level from the beginning. And these levels are quite difficult, and even extra "lives" do not help. So, a POKE like infinite lives would not hurt here, but rather would add a new shine to the game.
I am not sure that with this POKE you can immediately complete any of the above games to the end.
The second type of POKES is those that slightly ease the game: a couple of extra seconds, shots, lives... In general, the main thing is to know the measure. Even these POKES should be applied wisely.
And in games like MYTH, LAST NINJA 2, ENIGMA FORCE, DRILLER, CASTLE MASTER, etc., applying POKES of any kind is the height of mockery, as the authors have created moderately difficult games that can be completed without "infinites".
The third, and smallest, group is the so-called specialized POKES. They can serve various purposes. In particular, those that are usually used in complex logical games for the temporary removal of very annoying arcade elements. For example, I got extremely tired of constantly running into treacherous vardems and warriors in the game MARSPORT.
And I dug up a couple of POKES that block these characters (in general, these POKES do not seem to affect the course of the game). Here they are:
34032,24:34378,24:43333,201.
I will also say that I am using the tape version of MARSPORT with CODE block 24100,41436 and a starting address of 26980.
I almost forgot. I have complaints: ASM 1.12 does not want to work with the disk drive, and VENDETTA resets when trying to load the last, fourth, pair of blocks.
"S": We have already written about "ASM" that the conflict of this program with the magazine's shell leads to various negative phenomena. For this program to work properly, it must be recorded at the beginning of the disk.
As for VENDETTA, it works fine on our machines. We completed the game again and found no failures. Perhaps someone among the readers would like to share their thoughts on this issue?
BLAGOVIDOV V.V: I also want to ask a couple of questions about the game SHADOWFIRE: how to kill General Zoff? Upon entering the room with Kraxis and Zoff, the latter bolts after a while! Neither can you catch up, nor can you attack him properly. Even teleporting him to the ship does not help - in all cases, after a while, a message appears that Zoff has escaped.
And what is that card with the skull for?
"S": Well, the card is probably clear. It is a key to activate the self-destruct system of Zoff's fortress station. In one of the many sectors of the station, you can find the control panel for this system. You can also use the card there.
As for capturing Zoff, it can indeed be done with the teleporter. And only that way. By the way, note that the number of captured enemies increases by one unit. This means you did everything correctly. Zoff is in captivity. We have not encountered the message you mentioned. Perhaps you still did not capture Zoff?
You can easily check this by the number of captured enemies. And one more small hint: near the captain's cabin, you can find a time-slowing device. Try to figure out where and how to use it yourself...
BLAGOVIDOV V.V.: A question about the program "DRILLER". I have already set up 16 drills, but I cannot find the last, 18th sector. And I do not know where to place the drill in the NICOLITE sector. What are the two switches for in the OCHRE and GRAPHITE sectors? Where does the arrow point in the BASALT sector? What does the number 17 mean in the OBSIDIAN sector?...
"S": We are currently preparing an article about the mysteries of the "DRILLER" program. We hope it will be published in the upcoming issues. There will be answers to many questions.
ANANYEV VLADIMIR (Tolyatti): This is not the first time I have to change the text of my message due to your ability to flexibly respond to the wishes of readers: just as I was about to suggest making the possibility of printing "Spectrofon", I receive such an opportunity in the "fresh" issue; or send a line - an angry message that it is inconvenient to have protected versions of "toys", and please - copy as much as you like.
I am especially pleased with the practically complete absence of typos (and even my favorite "ZX-REVUE" has them). It is nice to read interesting and well-written text.
But this is a "lyrical digression". Now to the main thing. I would really like to receive the next issues of "Spectrofon" as quickly as possible (I currently have only five issues, three more are on the way, but I am still lagging behind by at least three months: after all, while you receive the price list, while you send the money, while the parcel arrives, weeks turn into months). In this regard, the question: is it possible to have an annual (or semi-annual) subscription to your magazine? This would be convenient for both you and us - the readers...
"S": In fact, it is not that simple. A subscription is convenient for us only when the funds received from it can be effectively used for some other projects.
Otherwise, inflation quickly eats up "dead" capital, and we are left with nothing. In one of the previous issues, we wrote that by the end of the year we would return to the subscription issue. So, we have prepared a new project - a printed version of the annual collection of the magazine "SPECTROFON", which will include all game descriptions from the sections "EXPERTISE", "DEBUT", "FANTASY", "ARCHIVE". But the whole thing hinges on printing. At the moment, it has become so expensive that this project has become quite dubious for us.
So, for now, there is no clear and unambiguous answer to the question of whether the book "SPECTROFON: GAME DESCRIPTIONS" will be published. And thus, the feasibility of a subscription to our magazine also remains in question. Nevertheless, we are not closing this topic and will definitely inform all readers of our final decision in subsequent issues of the magazine.
DISCUSSION
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"S": In the letters that have come to us recently, a discussion has unfolded regarding the future fate of the "ZX-SPECTRUM" computer in our country. But first, the floor is given to the readers. Opening it is a namesake of the editor-in-chief of the magazine "SPECTROFON":
MATVEEV Y.A. (Nizhny Tagil):
I am writing to you for the first time. I really like your magazine, I subscribed to all issues (up to N8) through "INFORKOM" and read them with pleasure. The design is excellent! The topics are good. But there is a small but...
Allow me to share some thoughts with you as a friend. The content of the first issues was very good for those who love ONLY games and for those who try to create something for the computer themselves. However, judging by the recent issues, I think that you risk losing half of your readers soon, as interest in the magazine is gradually fading. I judge this by the mood among my acquaintances and beyond.
The thing is, the "SYSTEM" section has completely disappeared from the last issues, and the themes of these issues are entirely dedicated to games. This leaves a slight disappointment.
Is there really nothing to publish in this section? Or, even worse, have you decided to "bury" this section? If so, I think that soon you will have to "bury" the magazine itself.
When buying the magazine (not everyone subscribes like I do, blindly), many ask: "What's new there?", meaning not so much "toys", but "systems", and upon hearing: "Nothing!", they leave disappointed.
I think you have chosen a not entirely correct tactic, waiting for the authors of good programs to approach you with their proposals. It seems to me that it would be easier for you in Moscow to contact the authors of interesting developments and negotiate the publication of programs and descriptions.
"S": This is not always the case. In fact, there are not many professional system programmers for "ZX-SPECTRUM" left in Moscow. Pay attention to the "inforkom" author's programs - most of these programs were written far from Moscow. And as for contacting the authors - judge for yourself, if they lived in Moscow...
Moreover, sometimes it happens that when we reach out to program authors, they ask for such sums as if we all live in America and receive the average salary of an average American (about 25,000 dollars a year)...
MATVEEV Y.A.: Information for thought and action can be taken at least from the demonstration screensavers for games. There are sometimes many interesting messages.
For example: RST7 writes, or may have already written, TASM 3.0. This is a turbo assembler for 128K. Judging by TASM 128 v2.0, it is a powerful and convenient assembler.
Or STALKER wrote the STS 128 program. This is a full-screen window monitor + debugger...
"S": As far as we know, TASM 3.0 has not been written yet, and the STS 128 program has been transferred by the author for distribution to the company "INFORKOM". So expect new disks through the "Author's Program" project. By the way, we recently contacted STALKER and agreed to include the new, third version of STS 128 in our magazine. So this program will likely be published in upcoming issues....
MATVEEV Y.A.: I have the programs LASER GENIUS Z80 ASM v1.4 and LASER GENIUS Z80 v1.5. These assemblers and monitors seem to be very powerful and good. But there are no descriptions, and I cannot find them anywhere. And judging by the authors: Oasis Software 1986, MOA 1992 - these programs were adapted for the disk drive by MOA. And you could surely contact him, and perhaps he has descriptions of these programs and can pass them to you for publication. Without descriptions, these programs are worthless.
"S": According to our information, MOA does not have a description for LASER GENIUS Z80. And it seems, sadly, that no one has it. Unless some lone wolf managed to figure out this program.
MATVEEV Y.A.: And how many good programs are waiting for their users. I mean the "Author's Program" section in "ZX-REVUE". I do not understand the policy of "INFORKOM".
Applications are published, but programs, with rare exceptions, are not distributed. Contact the authors of these programs, and they will surely give you the green light for publication. Otherwise, I think they would not be making applications.
"S": In fact, the situation here is as follows: among the announced author's programs, indeed, not all of them are included in the collections, but the issue is not in the policy but in the authors themselves.
Some are not good with the Russian language, some sent "raw" developments, some asked too much, etc. Therefore, the firm refuses some programs despite the previously published application. This was the case, for example, with DIZZY NEW.
MATVEEV Y.A.: From my side, I want to offer you an adapter I developed for the "mouse", which serves to connect the "mouse" manipulator instead of the Kempston joystick.
It allows you to control the program with the mouse without any additional drivers. The adapter is built on four ordinary K555 series microchips. It allows you to connect almost any opto-mechanical "mouse". "Mice" EC 1841, MMП 9B ("POISK"), OLIVETTI (P8I-5A) connect without problems. You can also connect "broken" mice, as long as the optocouplers are intact (though with minor modifications).
"S": Thank you, send it over. We will publish it if possible.
The author of the next letter continues the theme of our discussion.
KOChetov OLEG (Balašikha): It is no secret that today "Spectrum" is going through tough times.
It needs fresh ideas, and I have no doubt that in Russia it will not be allowed to die in its "prime". Modern "Spectrums" are not just toys; they are serious machines that can be successfully used both at work and at home.
Your magazine is the first harbinger of a large-scale assault by the minds of our country on the "spectrum" market. Frankly speaking, when I bought the first issue of "Spectrofon", I could not shake the thought that I was taking a "cat in a bag". But, upon returning home and launching the diskette, I realized: this is not a cat, but a real tiger! I am now a fervent admirer of your publication.
"S": Regarding the "first harbinger" - thank you, of course, but we do not think so ourselves. Take, for example, the operating system "is-DOS". No matter what is written and said about it, this system is the second wind for the Russian "Spectrum". And it needs to be developed and improved as actively as possible. As for the "large-scale" assault of minds... The author of the previous letter would hardly agree with that.
Indeed, today there is a certain "hunger" for new software products, and in our opinion, the issue is not only and not so much in competition from IBM or AMIGA, as many believe.
Would everyone be discussing the "death" of "ZX-SPECTRUM" if the flow of new games and systems for this machine had been maintained at the level of 1989-1992? Hardly. But despite this, isn't it true that now on the "Spectrum" you can draw, write music, print texts, digitize video images, use modems, printers, mice, light pens, light guns, and more? And all this is possible easily and without the particular problems of configuring the computer, which is inherent to IBM.
Yes, of course, the standard 128 machine has a bit too little memory, but take "Profi 512+" or even a megabyte machine of this brand. For some production needs of a small enterprise, this machine, along with a set of application programs for "is-DOS" like "accounting", "finance", etc., will be quite suitable.
So what is the matter? And it is difficult to find a definite answer to this question. The simplest thing would be to blame the programmers for laziness, for a certain mentality, when they only manage to create "cool" demos with scrolling text at angles from 0 to 360 degrees. And it seems they are not capable of more. Although intricate effects in the same "demo" prove the opposite: we have many talented programmers.
But our SYSTEM does not allow them to grow into professionals capable of creating more serious and necessary software products for users. So the issue is not laziness, but the system? How to get out of this situation? Yes, undoubtedly, the "author's program" project needs to be developed. But let's be frank - the sums that software distributors (the same "INFORKOM", for example) can currently pay are unlikely to become a serious incentive for lone authors. In short, the situation arises where programmers lack incentives, and distributors lack funds. The only visible way out of this situation is to shift part of the costs onto the end user. That is, to raise prices for software products.
Is this feasible? Is it possible to sell a diskette with a dozen "toys" or system programs for ten thousand rubles or more? We have serious doubts about this. After all, immediately there will be "crackers" who will start selling the same programs around the corner at quite acceptable prices and without any protection. Improve protection? But as they say: there is no remedy against a crowbar... And besides, as the level of protection increases, so does the percentage of programs that do not run on various modifications of computers. Example: The "Kladovskaya ELITE-3", which has one of the best protections today. And as a result, 75 out of 100 "Speccy" cannot run this game. So that’s not a solution either?
In such a situation, the distributor is unlikely to recoup their costs, and after failing, they will give up on this dead-end business and dissolve in the oceans of the "blue giant" IBM.
Someone may say that another path is visible here: to distribute diskettes without protection, at ordinary market prices, and to receive additional funds through advertising. It is implied that advertisers will flood in and cover all expenses and even bring profit. Our experience shows that this path does not promise much benefit either.
As you know, in our magazine, advertising is published for free.
When we released the first issues, we wrote that free advertising is a temporary phenomenon, implying that we would soon start charging for it. But here’s what we encountered: in reality, there are very few people willing to pay for their advertisement. Every second letter with the text of the advertisement bears the signature "...if it's free, please publish the following...". That is, it is clear that if it’s for money - then do not print. And we would not want to "squeeze" the lively communication of our readers... Thus, there are doubts about the effectiveness of this method as well.
So what should we do, you ask. Following the logic, we need to somehow limit the activities of "crackers". Of course, we can appeal to their conscience, but that is at least funny. Another way is to fully utilize the "Law on Copyright Protection". In the current conditions, this is no less funny. Although the situation is gradually changing. But problems still remain. And for now, apart from raising prices to the maximum possible level and simultaneously reaching as many consumers as possible, nothing better can be thought of.
Of course, there is still one way - state support. Ideally: the state allocates certain funds for the development of software and information support, but... Who would give money to the state itself?
And for now, apart from bans and bureaucratic red tape from the state, you will not get anything. Apparently, the resolution of this issue is postponed indefinitely...
And what is your opinion, gentlemen?
AUTHORS!
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From this issue, we are opening a new section "AUTHORS!" in the "FROM THE WORLD FOR A BIT" section. This decision is related to the growing flow of proposals from programmers of their own programs. Since it is beyond our capabilities to correspond with each of the authors, we will, as far as possible, respond to them in this section. Well, as for how to start acting, we wrote in the ninth issue of the magazine. Today we have three letters with specific proposals.
SIM Software ltd (Murmansk): We are writing to you regarding "LASER BASIC v2.5". We struggled with this thing for a whole week, trying to improve the shell and supplement the system with new programs. And we succeeded! The program can serve two roles: for those who love the good old BASIC and for those who want to write beautiful things in assembler. For the former, it's a real find, and for the latter, it won't hurt either (of course, for beginners). A detailed description is almost finished, not counting the built-in instructions about SPTGEN and SPRITER.
"S": Send it in, we'll test it, and if everything is done properly, we'll publish it. Please send the program along with accompanying documentation, and on a separate sheet, write the text according to the example given in issue nine of the magazine.
SHESTAKOV A. (Saratov): I want to offer you my own (from start to finish) development: "Zonder Commander 2.0". This program is a shell for working with files. It has a user-friendly interface (cursor control and right Sinclair joystick in all menus) and a relatively small size (although, of course, it is far from RC RST7). "Zonder Commander 2.0" works on any Spectrum-compatible machines with at least 128K of memory, up to 1M. The TR-DOS version is not lower than 5.03.
The user screen in "ZC 2.0" is a window with 3 columns of 16 files each. At the bottom of the screen, information about the current state of the disk is displayed: how many files, free sectors, etc. Navigation through the files is done using the cursor keys and the Sinclair joystick, with files marked by the spacebar. There is a quick change option for the type of files displayed: executable BASIC files and all others. It's also possible to show or hide deleted files. In the first case, when renaming a deleted file, it will be restored in the directory.
It is also possible to choose the length of the marked file: from the directory (in this case, the length is taken without any tricks from the file data) or calculated as the difference between the start of the current file and the next one. This feature of the program allows bypassing some trivial types of protections (for example, zeroing file lengths). There are other possibilities as well.
If you are interested in my "ZC 2.0", I could add some additional functions (for example, a disk monitor, possibly even with a disassembler).
"S": If you add these additional features, we will definitely be interested. So, as soon as you have everything ready - proceed according to the established order.
LEVENKOV VYACHESLAV (Tomsk): I read that in your magazine, one can publish a game. I recently wrote my own game "GO KNIGHT". It is written entirely in machine codes. The music was taken from elsewhere, as I am not a musician. The only drawback of the game is the black-and-white display mode. Unfortunately, I have a black-and-white monitor and cannot work clearly with colors. But, it is quite possible that by the time you read this letter, the game will be in color.
The game belongs to the genre of logic games. After launching and selecting controls, a maze of size 20x20 squares is drawn. In the upper right corner, a move table appears, indicating with arrows where you can move. Your knight moves like a chess knight. The goal is to reach the upper left corner. You start from the lower left corner. Thus, you need to pass through 15 levels. The design of the game is excellent...
"S": Well, now authors have started to approach us with games. And this is pleasing. Vyacheslav, send your game to our address and we hope it will be published. Don’t forget to fulfill all our conditions ("S"N9).
WE AWAIT YOUR LETTERS AND PROPOSALS!
Contents of the publication: Spectrofon #10
- Экспертиза - Matthias
Analysis of the game 'HIJACK' for ZX Spectrum, detailing strategies, tactics, and interactions with characters to achieve success. Discusses the management of resources and communication within the game. Provides insights and tips for playing effectively.
- Дебют - Владислав Благовидов
Discussion of the game's mechanics and progression in 'MARSPORT'. Exploration of game strategies and item usage. Insights into game puzzles and unsolved mysteries.
- Презентация
A dramatic space battle leaves a pilot stranded on an unfamiliar planet. Explosions and maneuvers highlight the intense confrontation. The pilot contemplates a new, mundane life on a distant world.
- Обзор
The article discusses the correspondence from Velichutin N.V. about the "ANIMATION" software package for ZX Spectrum and various educational programs for children. It highlights the potential of "ANIMATION" in multimedia and educational contexts. Critiques and responses to readers' queries on various topics are included.
- С миру по биту
Discussion of software development for ZX Spectrum, focusing on Zonder Commander 2.0 file manager and GO KNIGHT logic game. Features and improvements for both programs are detailed. Authors are invited to submit works for publication.
- Система
Discussion of hardware improvements for the ZX Spectrum, focusing on optimizing the BETA DISK interface using specific chips. The article provides detailed instructions and theoretical explanations. User testimonials confirm the success of these modifications.
- Реклама
Advertisement for the SPECTROFON magazine, collaboration offers, and distributor information.
