Your Spectrum
Issue 11, February 1985 - Hacking Away & QL Affairs
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HACKING
Hacker cartoon
AWAY

All the POKEs and more! Send your hacking hints to Andrew Pennell, Hacking Away, Your Spectrum, 14 Rathbone Place, London W1P 1DE.

First up, thanks for all your letters - keep sending them in!
Where better to start this month's column than with a couple of Ultimate programs. Someone who lives in Rotherham (but forgot to sign their letter) sent in POKE 25373,255 for Jet Pac, which will give near infinite lives. David Hasler provided POKE 26075,0 - which allows the rocket to take off, but you only need one fuel pod instead of the usual six. Nice one, David! Alternatively, try J Huffer's POKE 25020,0 to give you true endless lives. He also
supplied POKE 24984,0 for endless lives on Pssst (and also POKE 24743,0 for Zzoom).
Next, Larry Penrice sent in POKE 26197,0 for Cookie, which stops the bin monster from throwing its rubbish out of the bins. I like this sort of modification in a game - it alters the tactics you use for play, without making it too easy. Andrew Dawson wrote in with POKE 36519,0 for endless lives for Atic Atac, and notes that when you use it the tombstones are reluctant to appear after the first few deaths. He also submitted POKE 36965,0 for a similar effect on Lunar Jetman, though he says it's not much help to him anyway!

ON THE OCEAN WAVE

On the international front, I received a letter from Le Page Said, Brussles containing piles of infinite lives POKEs. And here they are: Silversoft's Freez Bees - POKE 34610,0; Automata's Pi-Balled - POKE 44416,x, where 'x' is any number of lives; and Ocean's Moon Alert- POKE 39754 for endless lives, POKE 42404,x for 'x' lives (up to 14 only) and POKE 42654,195 for immortality!
The letter also admitted that the task of putting Halls of the Things on to Microdrive had
proved too difficult. Well, Crystal's loader is certainly a tricky beast, but I'm sure one of our readers has cracked it!
Getting back to Ocean's Moon Alert, Nicholas Smith sent in POKE 42249,24 to stop the time going down, and POKEs 42585,2 and 52596,2 to keep it scrolling fast in all parts of the screen. He's also included POKEs for Psytron - what you have to do is load the game (except the last part), type BORDER 7, and 'POKE 28625,0: POKE 28626,0' for endless fuel, 'POKE 41098,17: POKE 41099,32: POKE 41100,1: POKE 41101,0' for endless men, and 'POKE 26142,62: POKE 26143,255: POKE 26144,0' for endless oxygen. Nicholas points out that none of his mods work on the final level due to some nifty integrity-checking by the program itself - shame!
Euan Hastings supplied POKE 28277, (for 'x' lives) in PSS's Frank N Stein. He also asks for infinite lives for Monty Mole, as he can only get to the 22nd screen! Well, I know for a fact that Dave Nicholls has cracked this one open, so I'll try and prise the secret out of him in time to report back next issue. OK?
It you've got any POKEs or tips on programs, or need an unusual feature added to a game, drop a line to Andrew Pennell, Hacking Away, Your Spectrum, 14 Rathbone Place, London W1P 1DE. C'mon, don't be shy!
POKEing PARLEZ
OK, now you've got the POKEs, what do you do with them? First, load the game using MERGE "" (unless you're told otherwise), press Enter and start the tape - just as you would do for a normal LOAD "". When the 'OK' message pops up on- screen, stop the tape. Now type LIST and make the suggested changes as detailed in the article. Once done, press RUN and Enter, and start the game again. That's all there is to it!

CONCURRENT
 
QL AFFAIRS
 
All the latest news and views of things QL, courtesy of John Torofex and Tim Hartnell.


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SINCLAIR FREEBIES!
Just recently, I've been hearing all sorts of rumours of users who've returned their QLs to be 'de-donglised', without enclosing the dongle itself. Sinclair Research don't seem to notice and lucky users receive an updated machine and get to keep the dongle. Anyone out there got any useful applications for a slightly used dongle ... answers on a postcard, etc. (And keep them clean. Ed.)
Sinclair Research also seems to be sending some users free Microdrive cartridges! The mysterious jiffy bags appear quite of the blue with a complimentary slip and no explanation. It could be that Sinclair Research has chosen this method of compensating users for various hassles they have to put up with while their machines were being repaired. Of course, it could just be on a random basis ... in which case, why haven't I had one yet?
Staying with Sinclair Research for a couple more column inches, I'd just like to say one more thing about the late arrival of issue two of QLUB News. I know of at least one QLUB member who's now
received three copies of the first issue. What worries me most is that if you re-read the initial QLUB application form, it merely states that members will receive six newsletters a year ... not that each newsletter has to be different. Worrying stuff ...
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NOT QL BASIC
Bristol software house, Metacomco, is about to release a BCPL Compiler for the QL. And what, I hear you ask, is BCPL. Well, it stands for Basic Combined Programming Language, and it's intended for systems programming - writing operating systems, editors, compilers and the like. In spite of its name, BCPL has nothing at all to do with Basic, and all Metacomco software for the QL (including LISP, Editor/Assembler and the BCPL Compiler itself) is written in the new language. So confident is Sinclair Research of this new language developed for its baby business machine that it's commissioned Metacomco to develop a Pascal Compiler using BCPL.
Still on languages, in YS issue 9 I stated incorrectly that Computer One's Editor/ Assembler package was written partly in SuperBasic. I'm told it's written in assembly language - sorry about that, Computer One.
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ONE LANGUAGE OR TWO?
QL-FORTH is a compiled language, running very quickly (typically, ten times faster than SuperBasic), and is ideal for exploiting the full power of the QL. It's a complete
implementation of FORTH in the latest 1983 FIG standard, and comes with a full-screen editor; the Microdrive cartridge is crammed with all sorts of goodies, such as example games and utilities.
However, the language implementation is not restricted to just the FIG standard, as it takes advantage of the QL's sound and graphics. Computer One's FORTH provides three channels called: 'input', from which all input is taken; 'output', to which all is output (including the ubiquitous 'OK' that appears tirelessly in FORTH); and 'work', to which all the graphics and windowing words apply.
The documentation explains that the language implementation is not intended to teach FORTH, but only to show how it runs. The booklet accompanying Computer One's QL-Pascal makes the same disclaimer about not being intended to teach Pascal. But working through the clearly-outlined example programs will certainly introduce you to many aspects of the language and its operational demands.
QL-Pascal is menu-driven and there's a 'help' window to prompt you whenever data input is required. The compiler produces compact intermediate code which is interpreted when the program is run. Complete with a full- screen editor, it's a fairly comprehensive version of the language plus various QL- specific extensions.
QL-FORTH is £29.95 and QL-PASCAL is £39.95. Computer One is at Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge CB4 4BH.
Tim Hartnell
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