Your Spectrum 11 - Underwurlde

Your Spectrum
Issue 11, February 1985 - Underwurlde

THE ULTIMATE ADVENTURE U N D E R W U R L D E Sabre Man's back ... and this time he's hell-bent on involving himself in all kinds of unholy goings-on. Ross Holman enters the demonic universe of Underwurlde to find out whether playing games of this nature is good for the soul!
Sabre Man is turning out to be Ultimate's answer to Indiana Jones - and in much the same way as his movie counterpart, Sabre Man looks set to be a standard character in many an Ultimate graphic adventure to come. In Underwurlde, the sequel to Sabre Wulf, Sabre Man's in all sorts of untold danger in a labyrinth of rooms, caves and passageways. And if you're worrying that Underwurlde's going to be a rip-off of Atic Atac, don't - Ultimate's latest offering is totally different and totally compulsive. WHERE'S THE SABRE? Once the game's started, you see the familiar, if somewhat diminished, figure of Sabre Man ... but set in very unfamiliar surroundings. The cassette sleeve reveals that Sabre Man begins his adventures in a palace called Underwurlde, and his mission is to escape alive! Sounds pretty simple ... The action takes up most of the screen, except for the top two lines that are used to show the score, the number of lives left, your 'gem power', the number of weapons collected, and how deep into Underwurlde you've penetrated. Perhaps the most notable omission in Underwurlde is Sabre Man's trusty sword. In fact, our hero starts off without a weapon to his name ... but there just happens to be a catapult lying on the floor of the first room and with it, an infinite number of stones. The other three weapons, a bow, a firebrand and a knife, lie further afield, but you can hold all four at once. After Sabre Man's stood around for a while admiring the graphics, the 'nasties' will have come out of the woodwork to annoy him. Note that the larger sprites don't actually kill your character - they just annoy you to the point that you make some silly mistake. Of course, on the other hand, Sabre Man can be made to kill a few of the 'nasties' - a course of action I can thoroughly recommend. GIVE 'IM ENOUGH ROPE ... After a while, I was wondering if Sabre Man could possibly die; in most Ultimate adventures I don't usually have time to think about this particular problem! Movement of your character left and right is possible - but since his jungle escapades, Sabre Man has acquired some gymnastic skills and he's now capable of jumping across vertical shafts. Ultimate has also programmed Sabre Man with a	useful sense of self-preservation; every time he comes across a huge drop, he'll automatically jump rather than fall. Getting back to dying ... my first experience came when I tried to jump Sabre Man on to a nearby ledge. Of course, I misjudged it, and dropped through to the room below and ended up, legs in the air, stone-cold dead. And what do you know - everything looks different; underneath the castle, the caves are rock-strewn and you'll come across a number of bubbling craters. Having decided to jump across one of the craters, Sabre Man was found to float on the bubbles and head off to the room above. It seems a successful method of getting to the top of the maze, but most of my attempts were thwarted by a squid-like creature that seemed not to be sympathetic to the fact that I was pretty inexperienced at using the volcanic elevators. Discovering the ropes was also more of an accident than a planned operation. Approaching the edge of a precipice, I allowed Sabre Man to throw himself into the inky blackness and, to my surprise and Sabre Man's relief, the cave ceiling seemed to hold the graphic figure there as if it was smeared with superglue! Closer inspection revealed Sabre Man clinging to a rope, which could be extended by pulling back on the joystick until ... yes, you've guessed it, he gets nabbed by another of those tentacled terrors. By this time, you're feeling quite relieved that you're given six lives to complete the adventure! Once you get the hang of the ropes, they're simplicity itself. As you've gathered from my first experience of using the ropes, though, that's not the problem - it's what you do once you're on the rope. It's essential to move downwards as swiftly as possible and keep firing; be prepared at any time to slow down or pause movement on the ropes, just in case of collisions. You also have to keep one eye out for stalactites - these can fall (at random, as far as I could see) when Sabre Man jumps for the rope. Needless to say, stalactites are not the most user-friendly objects in Underwurlde. Once you've lowered the rope to a level that you can jump off to the ground, you can always use it to climb up - you just have to remember where you left it. Of course, jumping off the rope once Sabre Man's reached the top is not the easiest of tasks but practise makes perfect. After a few games I found that I could manoeuvre Sabre Man onto the bubbles in the rock pools, and this really was a	much better technique for moving up to higher levels. In fact, I found it quite easy to jump from bubble to bubble to avoid the 'nasties', but I wouldn't advocate that technique until you've got a few hours of Underwurlde under your belt. The only other thing about negotiating shafts that's probably worth knowing is that if you jump Sabre Man on to a gem, he'll build up the amount of energy that's indicated in the top left of the status panel. This figure is a measure of the time Sabre Man can spend falling without dying. So, collect those ... it's worth it in the long run! WHAT THE DEVIL? Underwurlde is split into three regions and each is watched over by a guardian. These comprise of large purple graphics sitting under ominous stalactites. And you should by now have guessed the connection between the fact that you've to find three weapons (after the catapult) and three guardians to kill; each guardian requires a specific weapon to be fired at it before it'll cash in its chips. Once you've managed to kill a guardian, though, you'll be allowed through to the next section. Trouble is, you've also unleashed the eagles; these winged graphics will swoop down and carry Sabre Man off in their claws - sometimes they take you somewhere useful, but more often than not they don't. If an eagle does scoop you up and start flying off, you do have the ability to struggle which, even if it doesn't lead to you being dropped quickly, will certainly impede the eagle's flight. Last, but certainly not least, you'll come across the third guardian which just happens to resemble the devil on the front of the cassette box. When I first came across this evil little graphic, I found I couldn't get past him at all - everything I fired at him was useless. Luckily, hairy hacker Dave Nicholls came to my rescue with the tip that the guardians could be jumped past. The trick is to get as close as you can to the guardian and wait ... eventually, a 'nasty' will come up behind you and knock you past the guardian. Not only does this mean you don't have to spend hours searching for weapons, but if you don't kill the guardian, the eagles don't appear - which certainly makes the game that much quicker! JUMPING AHEAD Once you've got the hang of manoeuvering Sable Man through some of the trickiest situations in Underwurlde, you're

THE ULTIMATE ADVENTURE
U N D E R W U R L D E

Sabre Man's back ... and this time he's hell-bent on involving himself in all kinds of unholy goings-on. Ross Holman enters the demonic universe of Underwurlde to find out whether playing games of this nature is good for the soul!

Sabre Man is turning out to be Ultimate's answer to Indiana Jones - and in much the same way as his movie counterpart, Sabre Man looks set to be a standard character in many an Ultimate graphic adventure to come.
In Underwurlde, the sequel to Sabre Wulf, Sabre Man's in all sorts of untold danger in a labyrinth of rooms, caves and passageways. And if you're worrying that Underwurlde's going to be a rip-off of Atic Atac, don't - Ultimate's latest offering is totally different and totally compulsive.

WHERE'S THE SABRE?

Once the game's started, you see the familiar, if somewhat diminished, figure of Sabre Man ... but set in very unfamiliar surroundings. The cassette sleeve reveals that Sabre Man begins his adventures in a palace called Underwurlde, and his mission is to escape alive! Sounds pretty simple ... The action takes up most of the screen, except for the top two lines that are used to show the score, the number of lives left, your 'gem power', the number of weapons collected, and how deep into Underwurlde you've penetrated.
Perhaps the most notable omission in Underwurlde is Sabre Man's trusty sword. In fact, our hero starts off without a weapon to his name ... but there just happens to be a catapult lying on the floor of the first room and with it, an infinite number of stones. The other three weapons, a bow, a firebrand and a knife, lie further afield, but you can hold all four at once.
After Sabre Man's stood around for a while admiring the graphics, the 'nasties' will have come out of the woodwork to annoy him. Note that the larger sprites don't actually kill your character - they just annoy you to the point that you make some silly mistake. Of course, on the other hand, Sabre Man can be made to kill a few of the 'nasties' - a course of action I can thoroughly recommend.

GIVE 'IM ENOUGH ROPE ...

After a while, I was wondering if Sabre Man could possibly die; in most Ultimate adventures I don't usually have time to think about this particular problem! Movement of your character left and right is possible - but since his jungle escapades, Sabre Man has acquired some gymnastic skills and he's now capable of jumping across vertical shafts. Ultimate has also programmed Sabre Man with a

useful sense of self-preservation; every time he comes across a huge drop, he'll automatically jump rather than fall.
Getting back to dying ... my first experience came when I tried to jump Sabre Man on to a nearby ledge. Of course, I misjudged it, and dropped through to the room below and ended up, legs in the air, stone-cold dead. And what do you know - everything looks different; underneath the castle, the caves are rock-strewn and you'll come across a number of bubbling craters. Having decided to jump across one of the craters, Sabre Man was found to float on the bubbles and head off to the room above. It seems a successful method of getting to the top of the maze, but most of my attempts were thwarted by a squid-like creature that seemed not to be sympathetic to the fact that I was pretty inexperienced at using the volcanic elevators.
Discovering the ropes was also more of an accident than a planned operation. Approaching the edge of a precipice, I allowed Sabre Man to throw himself into the inky blackness and, to my surprise and Sabre Man's relief, the cave ceiling seemed to hold the graphic figure there as if it was smeared with superglue! Closer inspection revealed Sabre Man clinging to a rope, which could be extended by pulling back on the joystick until ... yes, you've guessed it, he gets nabbed by another of those tentacled terrors. By this time, you're feeling quite relieved that you're given six lives to complete the adventure!
Once you get the hang of the ropes, they're simplicity itself. As you've gathered from my first experience of using the ropes, though, that's not the problem - it's what you do once you're on the rope. It's essential to move downwards as swiftly as possible and keep firing; be prepared at any time to slow down or pause movement on the ropes, just in case of collisions. You also have to keep one eye out for stalactites - these can fall (at random, as far as I could see) when Sabre Man jumps for the rope. Needless to say, stalactites are not the most user-friendly objects in Underwurlde.
Once you've lowered the rope to a level that you can jump off to the ground, you can always use it to climb up - you just have to remember where you left it. Of course, jumping off the rope once Sabre Man's reached the top is not the easiest of tasks but practise makes perfect.
After a few games I found that I could manoeuvre Sabre Man onto the bubbles in the rock pools, and this really was a

much better technique for moving up to higher levels. In fact, I found it quite easy to jump from bubble to bubble to avoid the 'nasties', but I wouldn't advocate that technique until you've got a few hours of Underwurlde under your belt.
The only other thing about negotiating shafts that's probably worth knowing is that if you jump Sabre Man on to a gem, he'll build up the amount of energy that's indicated in the top left of the status panel. This figure is a measure of the time Sabre Man can spend falling without dying. So, collect those ... it's worth it in the long run!

WHAT THE DEVIL?

Underwurlde is split into three regions and each is watched over by a guardian. These comprise of large purple graphics sitting under ominous stalactites. And you should by now have guessed the connection between the fact that you've to find three weapons (after the catapult) and three guardians to kill; each guardian requires a specific weapon to be fired at it before it'll cash in its chips.
Once you've managed to kill a guardian, though, you'll be allowed through to the next section. Trouble is, you've also unleashed the eagles; these winged graphics will swoop down and carry Sabre Man off in their claws - sometimes they take you somewhere useful, but more often than not they don't. If an eagle does scoop you up and start flying off, you do have the ability to struggle which, even if it doesn't lead to you being dropped quickly, will certainly impede the eagle's flight.
Last, but certainly not least, you'll come across the third guardian which just happens to resemble the devil on the front of the cassette box. When I first came across this evil little graphic, I found I couldn't get past him at all - everything I fired at him was useless. Luckily, hairy hacker Dave Nicholls came to my rescue with the tip that the guardians could be jumped past. The trick is to get as close as you can to the guardian and wait ... eventually, a 'nasty' will come up behind you and knock you past the guardian. Not only does this mean you don't have to spend hours searching for weapons, but if you don't kill the guardian, the eagles don't appear - which certainly makes the game that much quicker!

JUMPING AHEAD

Once you've got the hang of manoeuvering Sable Man through some of the trickiest situations in Underwurlde, you're

ROOM FOR MANOEUVRES		Once you've collected a weapon, it's indicated here; in this case, the sword and the catapult have been found. Unfortunately, although Sabre Man can carry up to four weapons, he can only fire one at a time!
These winged terrors are an example of the kind of 'nasty' that infests Underwurlde. They won't actually kill you - they'll just get in your way and bounce you all over the shop until you make a fatal mistake.			The Underwurlde palace is tastefully decorated with 17th Century furniture - but it's not just there to make the room look pretty! Sabre Man's going to be clambering all over the plants and paintings before this game's through ...
When you press the 'Fire' key, a stream of weapons seems to career all over the screen. Here we see Sabre Man firing off a salvo of swords at the attacking birds of prey. Rotten shot, isn't he ...
	Ultimate has made an attempt at 3D perspective in the upper rooms, but not bothered at all in the lower levels. Perhaps all its room designers were too busy putting together Knight Lore.	Here's our hero Sabre Man - fresh from his adventures in Sabre Wulf. He seems to have lost a bit of weight though ... perhaps he needs a byte or two to eat!

LOOKING FOR TROUBLE?

Here we go ... another adventure! I reckon the best bet is to go and grab that catapult, especially as I've heard it comes with an infinite number of rocks! I don't think much of the furniture in here - It's not half as colourful as Sabre Wulf! And I'm itching to know why Ultimate has programmed me to jump like the flea in Quicksilva's Bugaboo ...

A BIRD'S EYE VIEW ...

Uumm, what do I do now? Stuck on this dodgy-looking picture frame, it's only a matter of time before those pesky birds come looking for me. I've got the option of going up in the world - which'll take some fairly precise jumping around on the picture frames - or I could fall to a lower level. I know which is easier ...

FOR MY NEXT ROPE TRICK!

Just how do I manage to get in situations like this? I can either swing myself to the left to grab that gem or extend the rope downwards until I can jump safely to the ground. Of course, in the interests of computer science, I could always hang around and see which 'nasty' is going to knock me for six ...

UNDER ATTACK ...

Great! My first chance to kill a guardian and my catapult won't work. Hmm, I remember seeing a sword somewhere ... perhaps if I go and get that I'll be able to make some headway. Of course, I could always get real close to the goat, and hope that one of the 'nasties' will bounce me through. Well, it worked for Dave Nicholls ...

UP, UP AND AWAY!

Now, I'm on the 23rd level - and there's nowhere to go but up! Luckily, there's two volcanic elevators and, as long as the 'nasties' stay away long enough, there's a chance this bubble could get me out of here. I can move about on the bubble, but If I get too near to the edge for some inexplicable reason I get the urge to jump off ...

WHERE EAGLES DARE

Having killed my first guardian, all I get for a reward is a flock of eagles on my tail. At least this variety of 'nasty' doesn't bounce you around the screen like a ping-pong ball - they just try and grab you! This one picked me up ages ago and I think it's going to drop me in its nest ... or not! Aaarghh!!

THE ULTIMATE ADVENTURE UNDERWURLDE

ready to start mapping out the rooms. This isn't that difficult as the screens are paged rather than scrolled. However, there are 605 rooms ... so the task is just a little daunting!
Perhaps the first and most important thing to master is control of Sabre Man. You'll have to be able to judge distances down to the last pixel if you're going to survive through to the end. Also, in a similar way to other Ultimate games, there's a slight delay between your entry

to a room and the 'nasties' appearing - so, if you can move swiftly from screen to screen you can avoid many pointless confrontations. You also have to be careful not to rush blindly into one room from another - if you don't know the terrain that well, you'd be well advised to check out the next room carefully ... just in case there's a huge drop as soon as you enter, so you can take the appropriate jumping action.

THE RETURN OF THE SEQUEL

Part of the appeal of Underwurlde must be the way the 'nasties' buffet you around from room to room like on a pinball machine ... without actually killing you. Although there are only three different breeds of 'nasty', all behave in a completely different way. On the whole, I'd advise you to eradicate them as soon as they appear - but then I walked around

the whole game with my programmable joystick set to fire continuously.
Those who managed to defeat Sabre Wulf, this next bit's going to give you a feeling of déjà vu. Once you've battled your way through all three sections and manoeuvered our hero past the devil, all that's left to explore is a totally unexciting area that leads up to ground level and your final escape. And then you get the message of congratulations and news of the next adventures. Watch this space in a few months' time and maybe you'll be hearing all about Pentagram and Mire-Mare ... who knows!
Personally, I think Underwurlde's a wonderful game combining luck and skill with a very frustrating backdrop of humour and, of course, Ultimate's usual high standard of graphics. I for one can't wait for Pentagram ... or Mire-Mare ... or whatever it's going to be called!

HACKER'S G U I D E
.
.
After a routine check through Underwurlde's code, hacker Dave Nicholls finds that it's not only the lead character you've seen before ...

Those of you who, like me, have been playing around with micros for longer than you care to remember, will recall fondly the days when software protection meant breaking the little tab at the back of the cassette. Nowadays, of course, things are rather different ... although, strangely, Ultimate's games usually incorporate only the most rudimentary protection; in fact, its protection methods caused more trouble for the hacker than the pirate!
With the release of Underwurlde, this situation has changed - it's protected by an anti-MERGE device, a fast loading system and various other little tricks just to make life awkward. But the word 'impossible' never quite made it into the Hacker's Dictionary, and I soon found myself peering around inside Underwurlde's code to see if there was anything interesting. Ultimate has never really encouraged innovative coding - its programmers have simply gone to the trouble of learning exactly what a Z80 is capable of and then written games using features that many other programmers miss.
Taking Underwurlde as a classic example of good programming, there are one or two techniques well worth adapting for use in your own programs.

COPY CATS!

To kick off, the code in Underwurlde is very well structured. The central loop of most Ultimate games consists of a series of calls to subroutines which is only exited at the end of the game; this means that each routine can be tested on its own. Of course, once you've written a good subroutine, there's no reason why it should be used just the once; scanning through Underwurlde's routines, I noticed code from Sabre Wulf and others!
Secondly, Ultimate's programmers make great use of the 'JP (HL)' instruction;

this is the machine code equivalent of the computed GO TO. To see the advantage of this, you have to realise that in most games there are many tasks the computer has to carry out, such as reading the keyboard and moving the sprites. But there are also a number of 'specialised' routines (to handle the obstacles in each room for example) that you can access via the indirect jump instruction. As each room type requires different corrections, there'll be a separate routine for each room type called by an indirect jump; this means that time won't be wasted 'looking' for objects that aren't there. Basic programmers may recognise this technique when constructing menu selections - instead of having a key pressed and a lot of IF ... GO TO statements, you could use an array of line numbers accessed by a simple 'GO TO line number'.
Finally, for the statisticians out there, the percentage scores are calculated from a maximum of 576 rooms, although I've been reliably informed there are 605 rooms altogether. The weapons can appear in any of four different combinations of rooms - so, once you've found one, if you know the trick, you know where the others are. Underwurlde's code and data take up about 34K, with a further 3-4K being used as temporary storage when the game is running.

THIS IS YOUR LIFE

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for ... the POKEs. Well, grab yourself a blank tape and your original copy of Underwurlde and get ready. First off, type in the special header given, RUN it and SAVE it to the blank tape (following the instructions provided on- screen). Once done, re-wind the tape and clear your Spectrum using the command 'RANDOMISE USR 0'. Now type 'CLEAR 25000', press Enter, type 'LOAD ""' and start up your tape. When the header's loaded, take out

your tape and replace it with the Underwurlde master. Remove the lead from your cassette machine and listen to the tape, pausing it just after the program header (this is the short section that's heard first on the tape). Now reconnect the lead and start the tape up again. When the 'OK' message appears, pause the tape again and type in the following commands:

POKE 24791,251: POKE 24792,207: RANDOMISE USR 24740

You should now get a garbage message on-screen - ignore it! Type 'NEW', press Enter and type in the following listing:

100 READ N
110 FOR X=62421 TO 62420+N
120 READ Y: POKE X,Y
130 NEXT X
140 RANDOMISE USR 62374

The final stage is to select one of the following data lines and add it to the above program. Each line does something different, but only one can be used at a time! For infinite lives:

150 DATA 11, 62, 0, 50, 240, 231, 50, 244, 231, 195, 242, 103

To stay immortal after finding a gem:

150 DATA 11, 62, 0, 50, 153, 148, 50, 154, 148, 195, 242, 103

To make the weapons appear in the same places each game:

150 DATA 8, 62, 0, 50, 199, 232, 195, 242, 103

All you have to do now is type 'RUN', press Enter and re-start the tape. Good luck, and thanks to Chris Wood without whose inspiration you would have been typing in about 500 bytes of machine code instead.


100 CLEAR 32000

110 FOR X=32768 TO 32796

120 READ A: POKE X,A

130 NEXT X

140 PRINT "START TAPE AND PRESS A KEY"

150 IF INKEY$="" THEN GO TO 150

160 RANDOMIZE USE 32768

170 DATA 221, 33, 12, 128, 17, 17, 0, 175, 205, 194

180 DATA 4, 201, 0, 175, 66, 85, 83, 84, 69, 82, 83, 32

190 DATA 32, 13, 4, 0, 128, 217, 3

The special loader you'll need to use if you stand any chance of extending your time in Underwurlde.

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