Real Miner

By Arda

Genre: Ore-full Maze

It gives me great pleasure to announce that Arda, host of the 2012 CSSCGC and author of Drawlander, has been biding his time and entered a sizzling little maze game.

Done completely in BASIC, it brings to mind the joys of ScrapYard Scrapes, and I’m pleased to say I’ve enjoyed Real Miner just as much.  The aim of the game is to get to the green exit and get as much ore as you can en route.  You can move through bright red material and, Charles Atlas style, push the rocks that are larger than you.  To move through diamond and rubble you must use your pick axe, which appears to be made from substandard material as each one is capable of doing only one hit!  Mercifully, like any real mine it is scattered with equally unserviceable pickaxes in sealed pockets throughout.

Real Miner offers a nod to some modern gaming styles with its ‘Career Mode’, in which you play a preset game and follow a real life emulation of what it’s like to be a miner (and what an uncanny representation it is!).  Alongside this, more fun can be had with the random game and coded game, the screens in real miner are generated cleverly using procedural generation.

What’s crap about it?  For some the UDGs, it returns to BASIC for the random and coded game (see HACKSACK), the career mode may be impossible (though I’m not sure – more play needed) and random generation of impossible screens.  I love it to bits though, and it would sit nicely on the Cassette 50.

You might be wondering why it’s called real miner.  Well during play you may be sent into a mine with no pickaxes or in impossible traps and it becomes clear just how hazardous the life of a miner can be.  Arda’s game is clearly a call to arms for better working conditions in the mining industry.

Thankyou Arda!

Download here.

HACK SACK:

Download bugfixed versionhere.
 More pickaxes: Line 3000, LET pf=X, where ‘X’ is number of pickaxes.

The Half Ashes

By Steve McCrea

Genre: Sport: fine legs and silly sods.

Oh wow, I’m so pleased my excessive bleating about there being too many football games has paid off – this year’s CGC finally has a cricket game.  It’s an especially well timed one too, because at the time of writing England are about to launch the most heroic sporting comeback resulting in them winning the 2013/14 ashes 3-2.  The Half Ashes is here to help us celebrate this historic victory to come.

Programmed in C, and like so many of Steve’s other CGC games, this has so much to it.  Going by most people’s standards T.H.A. is a crap game, mainly as the graphics are simple but I would say the spectrum’s palette was heaven sent for a cricket game.

You take control of the fielding side, and unsurprisingly have to bowl out 10 batsmen within 30 (rather unorthodox) overs.  At first glance the keys appear a little unwieldy but bearing in mind you need to control 11 men they are actually excellent once you get to grips with them.  Once you have set (your ideally unorthodox) field you get to the task of bowling, the speed and aim of the ball can be regulated by bowler position and the rate you toggle keys ‘C’ and ‘M’.  It is possible to get a batsman out in the usual ways, run outs being most common, then being bowled, followed by catching least.

Cricket is not everyone’s cup of tea, so for those people The Half Ashes will be just as tedious as the long Wednesday afternoons spent standing around playing pocket billiards on the boundary during P.E.  But for people who enjoy such a profound game as cricket it’s a real treat.  As said, there is so much to it – setting fields, getting the ball right, stopping the ball hitting the boundary.  Absolutely fascinating, and I will keep returning to this game.

At least I would, if it was a bit more stable.  I managed to make it return to BASIC (Out of Memory Error) and crash over about 1 hours play.  So Steve has just about saved face with these rather irritating flaws.  But if he sorts the bugs and gives it a bit more polish (starting with a nice wicket clattering noise), this would probably be the best cricket game for the Spectrum ever!

Thank you Steve, and as Geoffrey Boycott so often says:

“My Grandmother coulda programmed that wi' a stick o' Rhubarb.”

Download TAP here.
Download support files(remote link)
Download my RZX playing it,until the unfortunate ending.

Gareth Hood

By Steve McCrea

Genre: Arrow Hell

You are Gareth Hood, crack shot and scourge of the Guards of John.

By altering position, power and angle you must hit the guard.  This is an amazing use of BASIC, the way the arrow flies through the air, and even reappears after a realistic interval after going off the top of the screen, is a thing of beauty.

I sat down to have a quick test of this and found myself playing it for much longer than intended.  It’s quite hard (I think) to get a direct hit.

Verdict: well programmed, well designed, extremely fun and addictive.  This is an absolute treat.  NOT CARP AT ALL!

Just play it.  Now!

Tipshack: Don’t ask me, I’m bloody hopeless at this game!

HACKPACK: Success every time: at the start of line 150 add GOTO 210.

Download here.

Scrap Yard Scrapes

By Steve McCrea

Genre: Scrapyard: maze

Rule #1 of how to write a crap game,  states that only good games have the word ‘crap’ in the title, and seeing how Scrap Yard Scrapes manages to secrete said word in there twice then it must be especially good.  Well yes actually, it is.

The aim of the game is to get from the left to the right hand side of the screen, you have a limited number of bombs to plant (get clear!) which blast your way through the blocks and scrap, and you can use your plough to shift the cyan scrap.  There is a time limit, after which the scrap yard dog (apologies to the author for thinking this UDG was a pig in a previous review!) chases after you, and finds you with a remarkable reliability.  The algorithm it follows is clearly very advanced.  As you progress the game gets harder as you get less bombs.  It is best around level 3 & 4 where you really have to employ strategy to get through.

 

There’s always a fly in the ointment of course, and SYS is no exception.  The game setup including ‘Loading…’ and screen generation takes a full 41 seconds, and also there is a bug in the code where you lose a bomb if you try and plant it in a block (or was it intentional?).  Also the game becomes impossible around level 5 as you only get 1 bomb, but the screen generated usually needs more than this.

There’s so many good points about this game, I mean, Steve has even included a feature that clears space around the player at the game start, to avoid being blocked in. 

Summary: lovely UDGs, great idea, great gameplay, a simply brilliant BASIC game.   

For shame Steve, for shame!

Tipshack: get to the middle of the screen and wait for the dog to start chasing you, makes for a more exciting game.

HACK PACK: non – finite bombs:  insert LET nb=7 at the start of line 200.

Download here.  DO IT!!!!!!

Desert Island Risks

By Steve McCrea

Genre: Drop 'n' Splot

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have more Cassette50 material!  It’s playable, is not intentionally crap and sports some lovely udgs.

We find ourselves in a helicopter in a circular holding pattern around a cartoon desert island, this desert island is occupied by obstacles – namely pigs (I think), scorpions, trees and cacti.  The aim of the game is to land your men safely on the island, which is not as easy as it sounds.  After parachuting the key you need to press to open your shoot appears at the top left (I didn’t know this at first, and thought you had to guess the key each time!  So my early tries were full of lots of keyboard mashing and failure), and it has to be timed well enough to avoid the obstacles, including your own landed men.  The island becomes more crowded as you progress but you do get a few bombs to clear the ground before you start jumping.

It hits on a soft spot for me too: UDGs.  Get a load of these!

 

7 is a pig isn't it?  No hold on...a dog.  Nope - I'll go with pig.

There’s not much to dislike here, but it does belong in the competition as it’s char based and BEEPY.  Just think of it as one of the best entries on the Cassette50.

Tipshack: Once you know the parachute key leave it quite late to open your chute, it’s easier to pick your landing spot.  Just don’t leave it too late.

HACK PACK: no hacks!  This game is fun without - get playing lad!
EDIT: c/o Rebelstar Temporal Power up: 150 LET ti=150

Download here!