┌──────────────────────────────┐
│ ───── FROM THE WORLD A BIT ───── │
└──────────────────────────────┘
So, what do our readers write to us?
SIM OLEG (Volgograd): I received the new issues of your magazine recently and I hasten to share my thoughts before they scatter.
Your instructions on writing "MEGADEMO" really made me laugh. Not just a hit, but a bullseye! I want to add something from myself. Many "adaptors" of game programs turn our monitors into a battlefield, where greetings are sent to everyone, insults are thrown, and the author is advertised, i.e., for each game, we are offered a mini-demo.
If I'm not mistaken, this race was started by Anton Vasilyev from St. Petersburg...
"S": We believe this started even earlier - in Poland.
SIM OLEG: This movement is spreading, growing, and is already taking on a catastrophic character. The informativeness of the scrollings hovers around zero and is only understandable to the friends of the writer. The bet is made on the fact that the user, who can shamelessly "kill" a pathetic demo, may pity the game and for years witness the titanic labor of some SOFT. Among others, certain contenders for "champions" of the genre stand out. The first is LPV, an unrivaled master of squandering our disk space. Games rid of his loaders with full-screen initials "lose sectors" significantly. I also want to mention Eldar Agaev and especially "BUMPY NEW". WHY should I, an ordinary user, look at a painfully familiar scroller pulled from a game and read a long list of Eldar's personal attachments and dislikes, and I can't even interrupt this nonsense, as the computer only responds to Reset.
I also hope that after reworking DIZZY 6.5, Eldar finally learned how to write the name of our favorite computer (see the title screen of DIZZY 6.5). One can list endlessly, for their name is legion. Gone are the days when a hacker's work was reported by a modest inscription "CRACKED BY Bill Gilbert" or "DISKED BY ANDY CHERNIKOV 92". One cannot help but mention the texts. Humor is humor, but there must be a limit to everything. Look at the "intro" of the new Voronezh programmers (games Tainum+; Chiron+; Express+). The text is at the level of a lagging elementary school student for the mentally challenged, descending to street swearing, and the number of spelling errors is twice as many as in the text you provided in the "instructions". In short, something needs to be done about this. WE DO NOT NEED SUCH "SERVICE"! It seems to me that it's time to call hackers to order and start a "clean games" campaign. If someone likes to kill time on "demos", let them do so; we will buy and watch. As for whether to keep it or not - that's our business. Meanwhile, freeing games from these "trinkets" takes up a lot of my time. By the way, your magazine mainly publishes "clean" programs, for which we thank you separately.
"S": Some have a different opinion on this matter. In short, it sounds like this: "We get the games ourselves, pay intermediaries for them, restore them, adapt them for TR-DOS, and therefore have every right to write in loaders whatever we deem necessary." Logical, isn't it? But if we think this way, then all the others (programmers, users, and hackers) also get the games themselves - buy them at markets, in stores, copy from friends, etc. And they have every moral right (if we follow the logic of our opponents) to treat these games as their own property: rework them, readapt them, erase old loaders, write their own, etc. Do you feel how quickly we reach absurdity?
And where does this logic ultimately lead? Dozens of versions of the same games with hundreds of scrolling lines begin to circulate across the country, in which serious passions boil and whole rallies rage. "This is my scrolling!" - one screams, running from one edge of the screen to the other. "You, little bastard, want to claim the glory for releasing something new!?" - a thin voice comes from another program. "To hell with you all!" - shouts someone completely unknown but planning to loudly announce themselves with yet another demonstration. And here begins total chaos...
A whole generation of hackers has already grown up, raised on these infamous scrolling lines.
They hardly understand Russian anymore and write only in English. And their English is not impressive. When their vocabulary of English swear words runs out, these so-called hackers switch to broken Russian. They should pity the users. But no! Our magazine's editorial office is literally inundated with letters asking to tell about the three pillars of mega-demo creation: how to insert music, how to write a scrolling line, and how to combine this nonsense with some program, preferably in one basic file. These readers also want to participate in the universal mess.
MAYBE WE SHOULD STOP?
SIM OLEG: A few weeks ago, one of my acquaintances was strolling through the Mitinsky radio market, loaded with a list of programs, mainly applications, and had a brief conversation with Mr. SHISOFT, who kindly informed him that practically everything is, of course, available, but not for sale. It's an amazing situation when the Russian hinterland is suffocating from a lack of new products - they exist in the center, but it's as if they don't. In my opinion, this is an incorrect policy. One could argue that programs from the "INFORCOM" list are best acquired from them, but after receiving their price list and looking at the prices, it is reasonable to assume that all these programs can be found in Mitino at least 50% cheaper. Programs related to protection stand apart. They are needed by everyone urgently. Especially those who, like you, do something themselves. And those who spend all their time and all their spare money maintaining the "Speccy," traveling far and wide for novelties and rushing back, where they are already awaited by free copiers who ruin the work of the last enthusiasts - the "merchants." The situation here is almost comical: a thief steals a club from another thief. Problems with the civilized distribution of programs for the "Spectrum" will never be resolved, for no matter how you turn it, the "Spectrum" is a computer for poor people, and we shouldn't forget about that. Want an example? Here it is. Of all the variety of IS-DOS disks, I OFFICIALLY acquired only one "Basic Set" in a nice package and that's it.
Everything else was purchased for a third of IskraSoft's price for the sake of savings. Just like that, simple and banal. Wouldn't it be better to adhere to the economic policy of Sir Clive Sinclair (as his example happens to be)? The income to the manufacturer should come not from a cosmic price that narrows the circle of users, but from the volume of sales (at a price accessible to everyone(!)). By the way, prices at the Volgograd market are lower than in Moscow, although a couple of years ago they exceeded them threefold. And this is simply explained: many of our users have long been scratching their heads about where to sell a 210 Mb drive and buy another one for 400 Mb.
Those who cannot afford this cannot afford to buy TASM 3.0 or Fast Block Packer for 1/6 the price of an AT 286 motherboard either. Sad? Of course, but to delay extinction, one needs to be more flexible. Otherwise, one will have to start trading linoleum and carpet coverings, and many "Spectrum" enthusiasts will remain in complete isolation and will likely die out as a class, just like the enthusiasts of "PK-86," "Agat," etc.
"S": Well, we started with good health and ended with a requiem. Dear Sim Oleg, do you not feel a contradiction in your reasoning?
The fact that the trading point of the creative group "STEP" at the radio market in Mitino does not distribute author programs going through "Inforcom" channels (except for their own and, until recently, foreign ones) should be clear. We still try to help domestic authors with our policy. You, criticizing the Volgograd pirates, come to Moscow not to the official distributors of domestic software (INFORCOM), but go to the market in search of pirate versions from Moscow hackers. And now you yourself become for us the same free copier as the Volgograd hackers are for you. So who should we blame now?
We once wrote that yes, with foreign games, nothing can be done - the whole country plays pirate copies and there can be no talk of any copyrights here. No Sherlock Holmes will find the ends here. And many authors of imported programs may have already completely forgotten their works on Speccy. The thing is that most Western programs for the Spectrum platform came in those distant times when copyright was not even mentioned in our country. And thanks to the admirers of Sir Clive Sinclair's invention, they are still preserved on almost 1/6 of the land of our planet. But now, at last, they are starting to write something worthy here - and the pirates are already reaching out to these new developments. When it seems that the times have changed and the Law on Copyright Protection has been written. One can still understand the ordinary user who buys a program from a pirate for the sake of saving money. He buys it for himself and does not intend to engage in copying and selling. But when a "merchant-enthusiast" rushes to Moscow for new "free" programs and then writes a letter with critical remarks about their absence, and even tries to base this on the philosophy of "poor people" - then excuse me.
And about prices... It is clear here - Moscow is one of the most expensive cities in Russia. And new programs are mainly concentrated here.
It is clear that if prices in Moscow were at the level of Volgograd's - hardly anyone would be engaged in "Spectrum" here. Since for many of those who are currently involved, it is their main source of income. And income, as you understand, should provide some, at least minimal standard of living (certainly not the one established by our dear government). Therefore, prices in Moscow for programs are three times higher than Volgograd's not because in Volgograd they don't know where to sell "a 210 Mb drive" (in Moscow, they don't know where to sell an AT 386 with a 400 Mb drive), but because life is like that. And, by the way, prices for programs in Mitino are practically no different from "Inforcom's."
Thus, any novelty for Speccy in Mitino costs no less than, as you write, "1/6 of an AT286 motherboard"...
And regarding the principles of Sir Clive Sinclair, they have long been applied in our country to any software. Be it Spectrum or IBM. It's enough to compare prices for branded versions in England and the USA with our pirate ones in Russia. Where else is it cheaper? How long can we write, gentlemen, that until we learn to appreciate the work of software authors - nothing good will ever come of us. One can give an example with our "STAR HERITAGE". The price from official distributors in Moscow (INFORCOM, STEP) is fifteen thousand rubles.
Is that a lot or a little? Maybe for Volgograd it's a lot, but for Moscow - it's the usual price for a new program. But now letters are coming to the editorial office: "We can't wait for the full version of the game to come to us in N-city. Of course, we could order it from "INFORCOM," but it will be cheaper for us..." Well, it will be cheaper, but the authors will lose all desire to engage in creating games on the Speccy platform, spat upon by hackers, at the behest of the users themselves. We are discussing absolutely banal things now. The only thing we want to say, dear gentlemen, is that in caring for how to prolong the life of Speccy, we must first care about the authors, about those who write new programs.
For any computer without a program is just a piece of metal, but any piece of metal with a program is a computer. Don't forget that...
Perhaps for someone our opinion may seem controversial, well, we are ready to continue this conversation in the next issues of the magazine.
BUSYGIN A., LITVINOV A. (Perm): About the computer "PROFI". This is mainly information for thought for the "KONDOR" company, which developed and produces them. It seems to us that the company made a not entirely correct decision by orienting itself towards the CP/M system. This system is no longer used by anyone, and the "ROBOTRON" computers on which it was installed have long given way to "IBM".
It would be much better and more profitable to write programs that would utilize the resources of "PROFI" (memory and screen) from the SINCLAIR mode. After all, you can even enable the "profi" screen from Basic. For example, the St. Petersburg developers who created "SCORPION" are surely already writing programs for it, which in turn raises interest in the machine.
As for "PROFI," so far, apart from the "WRITE 3" editor and the ADJ player, there is nothing good for it (and for ADJ, you need to install COVOX), and the machine has been around for a long time.
To view PCX images, you can use "IBM PRINT SCREEN" for Speccy (it may not be exactly called that), the dictionary for is-DOS is made much better than the "English-Russian dictionary" for "PROFI," except that the mode for translating text files is missing, and "GRAND GROIX" only works on color machines and leaves much to be desired.
This way, we can completely lose this good computer, because the few games written for it look no worse on Speccy.
We would advise the "KONDOR" company to work not in CP/M, but in SINCLAIR, for with such memory capacity, very good programs can be made, and if the screen is also connected... (though calculating addresses in it is a below-average pleasure).
Now about is-DOS. Why the hell does it only work with 48 Kb of memory? It always "crawls to disk" and is eager to write something there! Of course, we know that there is a virtual memory mode on IBM, but the access speeds to the hard drive and the floppy disk vary a bit - don't they?
It gets to the point that to shift an image in "PICASSO" by a couple of characters, you have to wait 30-40 seconds! We would rather draw in ART STUDIO! Developers of is-DOS! Work under the 128 machines, or even better under "PROFI" memory.
"S": It would be interesting to hear the opinions of the developers of is-DOS, the ISKRASOFT company, as well as the developers of "PROFI," the "KONDOR" company. If they, of course, read "SPECTROFON."
BUSYGIN A., LITVINOV A.: Now about your magazine. We are satisfied with everything in it, except for one thing: it takes too long to wait a whole month for the next issue to arrive. We suggest you make its frequency at least twice a month. And how to achieve this, you might ask, if we are not even managing now? Very simply, we would reply, if we ask for help from all Sinclair enthusiasts in the country. Let them make their versions of the magazine, i.e., all sections (except "FROM THE WORLD A BIT," of course), let them create beautiful designs and send them to you. Then you review the submitted materials, select the blocks and sections that do not fall short of what you have made, compile them onto one diskette, assign a magazine number, and after the release, pay the authors a reward. We think that there will be people in our country willing to participate in our common cause. Conduct an experiment and address such a proposal in the pages of the magazine. Let's see what happens.
"S": We will add a few words from ourselves. The form of work proposed by our correspondents brings us closer to creating a kind of correspondence club of ZX-SPECTRUM computer enthusiasts, and we are ready to take on the implementation of this and many other ideas that every Sinclair enthusiast has in abundance. First of all, for the proposed scheme to work, we need to determine the format for authors to present their ready materials. The following order would suit us.
If an author writes any article, it is desirable to do so in the is-DOS editor. For us, this is the most optimal option. Furthermore, all images that will accompany the text should be recorded on the same diskette in a separate directory. Musical compositions should be sent in a format convenient for us, so that we can easily and without special problems attach music from any address. Also, if you send us a game description, it is advisable to include the game with the letter. This is in case we do not have it in our collection.
Secondly: payment. As of today, the following rates have been accepted in the magazine's editorial office:
One kilobyte of text describing a game or system program: 2500 rubles.
Color full-screen picture: 10000 rubles.
Black and white picture: 3500 rubles.
Musical composition: 7000 rubles.
Let’s pause on the issue of payment for AUTHOR programs. Here we have the following approach. If you decide that your program is for "free distribution" or shareware - mark this separately.
In case your program is published in our magazine - we will provide your address in the "ADVERTISEMENT" section for voluntary payments from grateful users, who may encourage you to new feats. By the way, you can print your address for such payments in the game. If your game is COMMERCIAL and you want to receive a fee from us for it - write: payment after publication at your discretion. In this case, if the game is included in the next issue, we will pay you the fee by postal transfer in your name. The amount of the fee depends on the quality of the program, its size, etc. As of today, our ceiling is around one hundred and fifty thousand rubles. If you are not satisfied with the amount of payment, we recommend offering your program to the "INFORCOM" company. In this case, your program will go on sale within the framework of the "AUTHOR PROGRAM" project.
Disk versions of foreign games and Russianized foreign games interest us the least. Only new products may be exceptions.
There is also another form of payment for your works. The magazine's editorial office can offer you licensed copies (without protection, with the right to distribute) of fresh issues of our magazine and other developments. If you find this form acceptable - specify this in your cover letter.
Thirdly: Each work should be accompanied by a brief comment and information about the author - return address, phone number. Fourthly: Diskettes should preferably be sent to our editorial address by letters. Experience shows that parcels and packages (despite their reliability in terms of diskette protection) take longer, and it's not very convenient for us to receive them - we have to fill out too many different papers. It will be simpler for both you and us if you send the diskette by letter in an envelope. For better protection of the diskette, insert cardboard into the envelope.
That's about all we wanted to say before starting our experiment. If this proposal does not find support - we will look for other options. We also have other ideas on this matter. For now, we will wait for your responses.
TIMOTHY (St. Petersburg): First of all, I want to say a huge thank you for "SPECTROFON". The magazine is beyond praise! Now about "STAR HERITAGE": the game is undoubtedly wonderful; it delights with an interesting plot without any spells and other magical nonsense, but I didn't quite like the mix of adventure with D&D and RPG, with the addition of health, strength, and other parameters. In my opinion, all this is unnecessary! Everything else is wonderful.
A bit about Is-Dos. The operating system is worth it, a bunch of drivers, utilities, IskraSOFT'ers are slowly starting to illuminate it from the inside, not only the nonsense SKLAD, FINANCES, and others appeared, but also ASSEMBLER, DATALOG, PICASSO! And still, people howl like wolves: it's too little, you see... What do you want, people??? After all, the assembler is there, even if there's a brief description of system functions (see, for example, "Programming in the Is-Dos Environment" IskraSoft 1994 or the same HELP in the basic version), and most importantly - there is a brain! They have spawned a whole bunch of MINERs and COLOR LINES, and now, as you gentlemen predicted, they intend to create a huge number of adventures (at least in St. Petersburg, there are plenty of such programmers). Plus, we need to take into account that IskraSoft alone cannot promote everything, no matter how much they might want to, and it seems they don't particularly want to.
No, of course, it's much more pleasant to chew on the same ideas and spawn MEGADEMO, the only thing that can be cooler than them is eggs, and even then not always!
ABOUT GAMES
────────
MOROZ YURIY (Timashovsk): I really liked the game "SPACE CRUSADE," but my 128 version doesn't work, and I have to play the 48 version, giving up all the delights of 128 Kb. I want to share my discoveries:
1. The dreadnought has six protective capsules.
2. The explosion strength does not decrease on adjacent cells. I built cyborgs and shot at them with a rocket launcher - they all perished.
3. The most interesting thing is that the "RE-FIRE" number is not random - it is the residual shooting strength, i.e., if you shot at an ork with strength three, which can be killed with two, then you are told: "1 RE-FIRE" and you can still kill a gremlin. However, if you shot with strength three at a killer, which can be killed with strength 4, you will not kill him, but will receive the message "3 RE-FIRE" and you can kill an ork and a gremlin or three gremlins, shooting at each in turn. Now it is clear why it is more advisable to aim at the plasma instead of the gamma generator?
Now about "STAR HERITAGE." The demo version should be short and small, but what you wrote is called a game. So don't try to create a hit of the century and release the full version as soon as possible - everyone is eagerly waiting for it.
"S": It has already been released - see the "REVIEW" section.
MOROZ YURIY: If it is better than what you call a DEMO - it will already be a thing, maybe even cooler than "ELITE". Everything in the game is thought out to the smallest detail: I was especially delighted when I killed the old lady and, seizing the key to the house, entered it and burned the house down with myself inside. Such little things are very important. It was no less interesting to try to take a painting from Jameson's shop or burn it with my blaster...
"S": Since we are once again talking about "STAR HERITAGE," we want to warn you: pirate copies of the game may work incorrectly; please do not make claims about this. We will only say one thing - it is impossible to complete the pirate version. Be careful - versions 1.4 and 1.5 are pirate ones, and we do not recommend buying them.
And also pay attention - sometimes an old demo version that has already been published in the "SPECTROFON" magazine is sold under the guise of the FULL version.
If you have not yet purchased the official copy of the game, we recommend contacting the "INFORCOM" company or coming to the radio market in Mitino, place A-37.
As of today, you can only purchase a correctly working version at the addresses specified in the "ADVERTISEMENT" section. We have received several letters with questions about our second development - the strategic game "SPECIAL FORCES" (see "S" N13). We will say right away - the release of this game is planned no earlier than October 1995. So be patient. In general, much will depend on how successful (and profitable) our first project - "STAR HERITAGE-1: Black Cobra" turns out to be. If the result is positive, we will definitely continue to release original games. And then our other two projects will await their release: "STAR HERITAGE-2: Beyond the Universe," and an original sci-fi game "VIRTUAL SYNDROME." But these are just plans for now. We repeat once again that the release of new games depends on how profitable "STAR HERITAGE" will be.
BUSYGIN ANDREY (Perm): About the game by V. Mednonogov "UFO - Enemy Unknown." It is made very well; we have already completed it. I would just like to focus on what did not satisfy us. In the original, the battle is organized in the style of "LASER SQUAD." In the Spectrum version of UFO - in battle mode, we see a purely arcade shooter. And with only one life, one shot from a paralizer, and overly overheating weapons. In this regard, I have a question for you: has the promised editor for "LASER SQUAD" appeared in Moscow, with the help of which someone from the hackers could significantly bring "UFO" closer to the original?
"S": We have two editors for the "LASER SQUAD" program, but before connecting a bulldog with a rhino, let's think. First of all, in our opinion, only V. Mednonogov can change anything in his game. And that is his right. Secondly, it seems to us that it would be very difficult to connect two completely different programs. And what does the author himself think about this - let's ask him.
PAPUSHIN SERGEY (Yaroslavl): I want to share my discoveries in games. First of all, "KAYLETH":
1. Cartridges are inserted with the command "INSERT," and removed with "REMOVE."
2. AZAP CHAMBER is a teleporter. To teleport, enter AZAP CODE and three letters of the code.
3. You need to talk to Yagmok with an empty slot.
4. Yagmok's message can be deciphered by replacing all letters with those preceding them in the alphabet.
5. If you ask Yagmok about the key, he will give you an item that will allow you to enter his house.
6. To remove the door on the beach, you need to become a destroyer robot and shoot the door with plasma.
7. Behind the door is a room with many useful items.
8. The suit will protect you from the acid in the sea.
9. The mutant DRIBBLE is very hungry; try feeding him some local food.
10. A bright flash of light will help you escape from the trap.
11. To return from Yagmok's house, you need to do something with the ring using a phrase from his message.
12. You can descend into the mine by becoming a supervisor and wearing a COAT.
13. The mined ore should be placed in the CHUTE PRIOR and the start button pressed.
14. The two-headed MOKKI RAY really dislikes blocks, especially if they are rotated (ROTATE).
15. If you use the code found in Yagmok's house, you end up in a new area of the game, but a treacherous tree blocks the way, which quickly deals with the main character.
Behind the MOKKY-RAY, there is a tree with a door cut into it. Something needs to be done here, but what is unclear. The unused items are: tube, steel ball, composb, lenses, silver cube, piramida.
Secondly, recommendations for fans of the game "ROBIN OF SHERWOOD". If you have rescued Lady Marion from Sir Simon, boldly go search the woods around the Leeford farm. You will discover a cave running under the farm. In this cave hides the thief Sivard, who is very scared and does not want to follow you when commanded SAY FOLLOW. Then you brazenly grab him GET and drag him along.
Later, you take a cart of hay and sleep in it. Then you climb out of it at night in Nottingham. Quickly go to the sheriff's bedroom and release Sivard there. He approaches the treasure chest and calmly opens it. Now I advise you to kill Sivard, as he, being a true thief, steals all the money from the chest.
So, you examine the chest and... I think you will figure it out from there.
Only one stone remains to be found, and most likely it is located on the Leeford farm. This farm belongs to Marion's father. She needs to find a way to sneak onto it. But how to do that?
"S": We believe that readers will help you complete these wonderful games.
PAPUSHIN SERGEY: A question about the game "DIZZY Y": I am stuck in the second part of this game, in the location "Fire Hall". A big bonfire is blocking my way. There is an empty bucket nearby, and a spring is splashing above.
It seems simple: fill the bucket with water from the spring and douse the flames. But the trouble is, to get to the spring with the bucket, you need to climb onto a ledge in the wall, and Dizzy refuses to jump onto it under any circumstances. Is this a programming error, or is there some special item needed here? Help me figure out this problem!
"S": You need a boulder that lies in the cave inhabited by a certain draconid. The boulder is in the very corner of the cave, next to a magical cross. But you won't be able to take it just like that. You will have to show some acrobatics.
BURNAEV KONSTANTIN (Belgorod): I want to say a few words about "Tau Ceti":
1. Duriium crystals are easy to recognize. They can be obtained in those libraries where there is no warehouse. You can also extract crystals from a stash under inventory number IN211.
2. The onboard journal is good to use in the library: look at the city map and note where everything is. Usually, the location of the reactor, libraries, and supply centers (relative to the city center) are recorded.
3. Libraries always contain city plans, information about suburbs - outposts and neighboring cities.
4. In the city, there is always ONE reactor, ONE library, and ONE base (support center). At the outpost - only the reactor.
In "WORM IN PARADISE", to get home, you need to find the Transport System and say "home" (say: "home"). Then you will be taken to your apartment. By the way, you can take a shower there. You need to enter the room with nozzle1 and... remove tradclads, say nozzle... Question: what for? And who needs Dagget? And where to register for a job? Where to buy a ticket?
"S": We will search for answers to these questions together...
And in conclusion of today's conversation, we publish a letter from our reader in Ufa, who touches on a very interesting topic in our opinion.
SHAYAKHMETOV B.R. (Ufa): If each of us looks back at the overgrown thorny paths of time, the sum of which is that path through the computer worlds; then looking closely at the ground from which weeds sprout, with surprise, and even horror, one will discover a crust of blood on the unyielding loam, and under the black stones, the charred bones of those whom we have been exterminating with such methodical persistence for many years.
I am not talking about the thousands of different "shooters", but I am talking about those "wonderful" programs with which we live and will live. About those things that we love. A person sitting behind a game has become a true killer, but not the kind usually portrayed as a killer, but a more monstrous one: total death is guaranteed and inevitable, not only planets (!) are subject to destruction, but entire civilizations as well. About eighty percent of games are somehow related to war. Even the harmless "Dizzy" can transform into a killer.
What is this? Preparation for World War III or straight to the battle of Armageddon? But whose side?
"S": There is much to ponder here. Let's discuss this topic in one of the upcoming issues.
UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN!
Contents of the publication: Spectrofon #14
- Expertise - Алексей Литвинов, Андрей Бусыгин
Analysis and Russian adaptation of the game 'Academy' by CRL Group, highlighting significant program modifications and the addition of a new game ending.
- Archive - Андрей Школьников
Analysis of the game Archon, its appeal, mechanics, and strategic elements. Detailed exploration of its characters and their battle properties. Overview of magical spells and game tactics.
- Debut - Андрей Школьников
Analysis of the game 'Emerald Isle' by Level 9, contrasting linear and global adventures. Describes gameplay, puzzles, and strategy for success. Concludes with tips for navigating challenges.
- Overview
Overview of new games on Moscow's radio market, including 'Star Legacy' with its full release, 'UFO: Enemy Unknown' conversion, and others.
- From World to Bit
This article provides guidance for several ZX Spectrum games, including tips for overcoming challenges and critiques on the influence of games on players.
- Championship - Matthias
The article covers the Open Virus Championship, detailing the selection cycle, changes in rules, and highlights of the matches. Participants from different cities and countries competed with their virus programs. Key winners have been determined for the Final League.
- System - Chung Software
Analysis of compatibility issues in ZX Spectrum models like ATM Turbo and others, detailing solutions for port #FF and INT signal. Emphasis on practical adjustments for various models, ensuring optimal compatibility with original ZX Spectrum 48k. Critical examination of DIY computer upgrades and potential issues with software compatibility.
- Premiere
Review of two software tools: Pro Sound Maker, a music editor by Denis Dratov, featuring solutions to technical challenges, and Visual Decompressor v1.2 by Timothy, offering visual effects during decompression.
- Advertisement
Advertisement of Spectrofon magazine, offering licenses and calls for collaboration. Contact details for buying games and software. Studio Logros promotes Russian programmers.
