STARCAR
from Home Computing Weekly, 15th November 1983

Find the key to the highway

There's a rough ride ahead of you when you set off to find the hidden code
word. Foster Richardson briefs you on the details of this unusual game for
any Spectrum.


The object of this text-only game is to drive your Starcar along galactic
highways, travelling from service area to service area in order to collect
clue letters. The letters make up an anagram of a code word chosen at random
from a list in the program. To win, you have to solve the anagram.

Along your way, you are likely to meet many hazards - meteor storms, black
holes, magnetic disturbances, even pirates! You'll have to take evasive
action as instructed on screen. Time warps are likely to dump you either
backwards or forwards a few stages.

Your car breaks down a lot, but luckily you can join the RAC or AA. If the
going gets too tough, you can always pull off at a junction.

At the service areas, you can refuel with either hi-octane or lo-octane
(beware!) fuel. There is also a bonus box, which might contain extra crew,
cash, fuel and so on.

This is not an easy game to win, and there are many ways to lose. All the
instructions are contained in the game, and while travelling you can press
'S' for a status report or 'G' to guess the code word.

Starcar uses a lot of memory, so before loading, it's best to clear out UDGs
and the like by entering:
	CLEAR PEEK 23732+256*PEEK 23733


How it works
   1-2     instructions, set variables
   3-10    selects codeword
  20-48    checks route for service areas
  49-105   reads route, gives warning of hazards, contains treasure
           chest, pirates and space flu routines
 200-210   turning left
 250-260   turning right
 300-320   time warp routine
 400-550   route compiler
1050-1060  magnetic storm routine
1152-1160  gamma radiation routine
1200-1220  breakdown routine
1500-1600  meteor storm routine
1700-1760  black hole routine
1800-1860  interchange routine
3000-3070  makes anagram of code word, gives one letter at a time
4000-4990  services and bonus routines
5000-5040  status report
6000-6040  status checker
6900-7010  guess the code word routine


Variables
fuel, crew  self explanatory
fit         % strength of Starcar
rac,aa      indicate membership of motoring organisations
w$          code word
a$          stores route
cas         number of casualties in space flu routine
jum         stages jumped in time warp
i           intensity of meteor storm
di          distance from black hole
la          lane number
p$          letters of code word anagram
pr          price of fuel crystals


Hints on conversion
The program should adapt quite easily to other computers.
A few points to note:
POKE 23692,255 this makes the screen scroll on and off without stopping
with "Scroll?".
STR$ changes a number into a string.
CHR$ is applied to a number, and gives the single character string whose code
is that number. If your computer doesn't use the ASCII codes you will have to
amend lines 1530 and 1720.
