SINCLAIR PROGRAMS, September/October 1982
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Spectrum


CLEARANCE
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IN CLEARANCE, the ecosphere fights back. In the game for the Spectrum, you
are a mad axeman steering yourself round a forest with the usual cursor keys
and increasing your score by destroying the arboreal paradise  one point for
every tree felled.
As you cut, you are enraging the giant squirrel whose habitat you are
destroying and simultaneously penning it in a smaller and smaller space. The
wrathful rodent appears at unpredictable points within the dells and if its
position is the same as yours, either in terms of row or column number, the
game ends.
An entertaining program making use of the colour, sound and user-definable
graphics of the Spectrum, and submitted by David Bryant of Crowborough,
Sussex.


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EARTH DEFENCE
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EARTH DEFENCE is an excellent arcade-quality game for the 16K Spectrum.
Adrian Tucker of Fareham, Hampshire, says he designed it to be equally
comfortable for both left- and right-handed operators. He has done so by
using the multi-key INKEY$ via the IN command in lines 110 and 160. The
effect is that your spacecraft can be manoeuvred left with any of the keys
from 1 to 5, right with anything from 6 to 0, and all the bottom row keys
will operate your laser.
A series of alien missiles moves up the screen towards Earth. You are
stationed in orbit to destroy the attackers. Each time you fire your laser
points are reduced by one; if you hit a missile, you have time to recharge
and you laser points are therefore incremented by one. You receive 100 points
for each missile destroyed but lose 50 if one passes you. In the bottom left
of the screen is displayed the number of alien projectiles yet to hit the
earth before the limit of five is reached and the game ends.
The capital letters A, B and C in inverted commas are user-defined graphics.
Adrian recommends blue for line 95, yellow for 115, cyan for 125, green for
140, flashing cyan in 145, red then cyan in 320 and green in 505.


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HURKLE
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THERE WAS a good response to our request for Spectrum programs. Hurkle is a
hunt-the-monster game on fairly traditional lines and will provide a relaxing
introduction to the mysteries of sound and colour.
The display presents you with a 10 x 10 grid, within whose nexus lurks the
eponymous monster. You are required to enter your guess for the monsters
co-ordinates with "y-axis ENTER x-axis ENTER". The computer will then tell
you in which direction to head to close the range on the elusive creative.
Submitted by Max Renby of Croydon.


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PAINTPAD
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THE AUTHOR of Paintpad was prompted to compose it when he noticed that the
Spectrum had no PAINT or FILL command. The user can draw the outline of a
shape and then cause that outline to be filled-in. As it stands, the program
can handle a shape with up to 99 vertices but that limit can be changed by
altering the number 99 in lines 20, 30 and 170.
The cursor can be moved in any of eight directions; its position is recorded
on-screen and fixed with P. A line is then drawn to the last P. When the
shape is complete it is filled with H.
If CLS in line 190 and PAUSE 0 in line 230 are omitted a cumulative shape can
be built-up in successive runs, as it re-sets itself at the end of each run.
With the two commands in, the instructions at the top of the screen will be
removed before the shape is filled. That is convenient if the filled shape is
to be stored as a SCREEN$.
Submitted by John McKeown of Upminster, Essex.


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ROCKET ATTACK
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ROCKET ATTACK is yet another spin-off from the Sinclair Programs R&D
industry. J Sells of Enfield has updated a program printed originally in our
May-June issue. He has Spectrumised D.E.Healeys Rocket Attack games,
composed originally for the ZX-81.
The game involves a squadron of 20 planes heading towards your missile
station. Pressing P will fire the missile. To destroy the planes you can
either hit them directly or leave the missile in their path. Your hawkeyed
reviewer only managed 12 out of 20.
Graphics notes:
160  Three graphics 8s, twenty-nine graphic 3s.
170  Graphic 6.
185  "ab" as in graphic mode.
440  inverse video "Game Over".


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