Your Spectrum
Issue 8, October 1984 - Hacking Away & Rumbles
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HACKING AWAY
 
Welcome to our regular column for hacker's hints and tips. Poke some fun into your programs and write to Andrew Pennell, Hacking Away, Your Spectrum, 14 Rathbone Place, London W1P 1DE.
First up this month is one from Denmark, (YS certainly seems to get around!) so thanks to Soren Eilers for his mods on Oceans' Eskimo Eddie. He says he got bored having to do all the intermediary levels of the game, so he's given us a couple of POKEs which let you just get on with the interesting screens. Having listed the header, add POKE 24686,24: POKE 24687,76 before the RANDOMIZE USR statement in line 30 and Bob's your uncle/ auntie!

ESKIMO EDDIE screen 		Staying with Ocean games, we've a couple of hackers who've become mighty interested in Hunchback. Fiddling with the header as usual, Brian Warner recommends POKE 26888,0 to give you infinite lives (removing the DEC (HL) as always) and POKE 26903,x: POKE 24760,x to set the number of lives, where 'x' has a maximum value of 19.
Alan Brown also described the 'infinite lives' POKE, and asked if anyone out there had corrected the bug that prevents you from getting a bonus if you manage to rescue Esmerelda for a second time (I can't even rescue her the first time! Ed.). He also says that he's got loads of POKEs to disable the nasties - but that it's too easy to play the game without them ... so tough!
One thing Alan was wondering about was how to hack into A&F's Chuckie Egg - a tricky one this, mainly because you can't MERGE it and it's headerless to boot. Well, I hacked into it a while ago to make it work with my joystick and it's not too hard. The trick is to LOAD the Basic from machine code, then instead of doing a RET, force an error using RST 8. That should be enough for you to be getting on with for now.
To finish up, let's take a look at the one that started it all off - Manic Miner. Although it's getting on a bit now, 		there's still a few people out there who don't know the 'easy' way of moving about the rooms. On the original Bug-Byte version, you have to type in the sequence of numbers '6031769' (reputed to be Matthew Smith's old phone number) and, while holding down the '6' key press combinations of keys '1' to '5' to move around. When Matthew moved to Software Projects, however, he changed the code to 'TYPEWRITER' - hence the code word for JSW. Again, once you've typed the code in, you hold down the '6' key and press combinations of keys '1' to '6'. All this comes from A Wiseman, along with the original 'infinite lives' POKE (for the Bug-Byte version only) - namely, POKE 35136,0.
Finally, a blatant demand for information from all of you out there. Please send us anything that looks interesting; from helpful hints to POKEs. Just assemble your disassemblers and get hacking.

POKEING PROCEDURES
Don't panic if all we've given you are the POKEs for a certain game - here's what you have to do to use the little blighters.
First, load the game using the instruction MERGE "", press Enter and start the tape - just as you would when loading normally. When you get the 'OK' message on screen, stop the tape. Now type LIST and make the necessary alterations as instructed. Once done, type RUN, press Enter and start the tape again from where it left off. That's all there is to it!

RUMBLES

 
 
Clive cartoon
Ever since the days when Tom Brown got roasted at Rugby and Billy Bunter exhausted Greyfriars' tuck shop of its supply of cream buns, the subject of school life and the goings-on behind closed gates have continued to give many an overgrown schoolboy plenty of pleasure. And it's this fascination which has led Channel 8 Software to come up with its latest idea - to turn the activities of one local state secondary school into the storyline for a new computer game. 		Called Quest for Knowledge, the program features caricatures of all the school's teachers, and a mischievous pupil known as Brainy Brian who proves a magnet for their unwelcome attention. The game begins with a number of empty brains, and the idea is to move around the school, collecting books and tokens in order to accumulate knowledge; thus, the brains are gradually filled. Once a certain level has been achieved, the brain in question will then be ready to gain the relevant 'O' level. Brian, on the other hand, seems content simply to cause the teachers and his fellow pupils the maximum aggravation.
Spokesman John Williams, "Quest is based on an actual school - in fact, it's probably got the most active computer department of all the schools in the north of England," which is presumably how C8 came to hear about it. John continues, "We approached them, and were very pleased to be offered the full co- operation of the staff. That was especially good, considering that anyone who attends, or knows the teachers personally, will be able to recognise them immediately."
Unfortunately, John wouldn't be drawn into disclosing the exact identity of the school. Anyone who thinks they can identify it will have to wait until the launch (which will be within the next two to three months) to be sure. The program will be 		priced at £6.95.
Similar in theme to Treasure Island, Mikro-Gen's latest project will take the player off to a sun-kissed desert island in search of buried treasure. Exactly what's buried, Mikro-Gen's Paul Denial isn't saying, and neither will he let on what hazards are hidden there for the unwary. Nevertheless, it all sounds as though it could be something rather special, particularly as the player will only be seeing a sixty-fourth of the island at any one time - as your character moves, so the picture scrolls. Hmm... shades of Ant Attack perhaps? Whatever the answer, it won't be known until the game is finally launched some time in early October, at a cost of either £5.95 or £6.95.
Conversion seems to be the name of the game for software houses trying desperately to come up with the new and interesting. For example, Software Projects - the Jet Set Willy outfit - is currently planning to convert some of Sierra On-Line's programs for the Spectrum. Sierra, by the way, is better known for its elaborate packaging, which often includes all manner of extras along with the program itself.
Another company on the conversion bandwagon is Bubble Bus. It's about to transfer its popular pool program, Hustler, from the Commodore 64 to the Spectrum. This is scheduled for release some time in September, for £6.99.
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