Your Spectrum 17 - Hack-Free Zone

Your Spectrum
Issue 17, August 1985 - Hack-Free Zone

HACK-FREE Z O N E
You know what they say. Those who can, play. Those who can't, hack. Welcome to the page for all of us who can!

So, what have all you gamesplayers been up to since last month - other than poking fun at all the hackers? Well, a lot of you have been finishing games without resorting to cheating. Stefan Johnson from Gravesend tells us that he's completed Cavelon. It's a bit of a fossil but in case there's

anyone who hasn't yet cracked it he offers the following tip for reaching level five - take at least four or five crosses and maximum lives or you won't stand a chance.
Colin Read from St. Helens has finished Pyjamarama and offers the following clue for his fellow Wally-followers - crash helmets are very tough for library books and if you get through all the levels in the games room then you'll get an extra life. Mmm, s'pose it must mean something to someone.
And now coming bang up to date, Paul Allen from Hull has finished last month's megagame, Shadowfire. Considering the trouble that YS arcade aces, Ross Holman and Steve Malone had lasting for more than four minutes without an almighty barney on tactics, that's no mean achievement. Perhaps they can learn something from Paul's very clever suggestion that instead of shifting all the Enigma team around the ship, you should just use Manto equipped with the transporter.

That way, when he finds Zoff, he can just drop the transporter, beam himself back to the ship and beam the fighting crew, fit and fully armed, straight into the thick of the battle. Now why didn't we think of that?
More of you have finished Knight Lore than we'd ever have thought possible - and still the hints'n'tips are coming in. David Bass from Bridgwater, for example, suggests that you never go near the wizard when you're a werewolf. He's also worked out that the bouncing balls aim straight for the wolf but avoid Sabreman, so it's best to lay low when you've turned into a wolf. Sound advice that - if only Troubleshootin' Pete would take it!
It certainly seems that Dragontorc is an easier game to beat than its predecessor, Avalon - or that's the impression we've got from your letters. Martin Edwards of Staines has these words of wisdom for troubled torcers. First off, follow the poem closely. In the last sanctuary there's a scroll that tells you where to look for the crowns.

But has any of you finished Avalon?
Finally, from across the Channel, David Osrin of Strasbourg has sent in a grande liste of all the games he has finished. Can't tell what possessed him to include Jet Set Willy in his rundown, though. Perhaps word hasn't reached foreign parts yet! Still, David's come up with some good advice for martial arts addicts of Bruce Lee - if you keep on kicking the fat guy, he'll eventually die. And on the last screen - the one with the wizard - ignore him and take the lantern. Hope that throws some light on the subject.
That's it for another month, but if any of you have finished a game that you think is pretty impossible let us know. And remember to include all your hints'n'tips so that others can learn from your example - it's the only way to keep them from the hands of the hackers! Now send off to Nothing's Impossible, Your Spectrum, 14 Rathbone Place, London W1P 1DE. C'mon and play the game.


THE WITCHING HOUR ... Double, double toil and trouble: Fire, burn; and, cauldron, bubble. Take a dash of a Defender style shoot'em up, add a splash of an arcade adventure, throw in a handful of platform screens and top up with some magic graphics. Stir vigorously and you've got a rich brew from Palace Software called Cauldron that aims to have you bewitched, bothered and bewildered.		A word of warning - on this level your up/down controls are disabled. Left and right stay the same but the fire button now lets you jump.	Collect the object in the underground screens, then make a clean sweep on your broomstick straight back to your hut. Then, brew it up with the rest of the dodgy doin's. Once all six are in the pot, get to the pumpkin hall and go for the giant pumpkin.
		Take extra care when jumping onto these platforms. They're not safe! If you go too close to the edge you're liable to get vertigo and go tumbling down.
Here's your witch's den where you're mixing up a rather unusual cocktail in your cauldron. Trouble is six ingredients don't really make everyone's idea of a thirst-quenchin', lip-smackin' drink - d'you fancy imbibing toad, newt, bat, hemlock root, bone and lava from the Smoking Island? (Mmmm, make mine a double! Ed).	Tomorrow is the big day of the year for witches - it's Hallowe'en and you've got a lot to do if you're to be chosen as the Witch Queen.	All aboard your broomstick and take to the skies. From up above you have to search out and collect the colour- coded keys that'll let you enter the corresponding doorways.
		Even though the graphics are excellent, the animation isn't exactly flicker-free and as for the scrolling - ugh! You have to wait for the screen to scroll onto the next one before your witch can enter it.	There are moving platforms in most of the underground levels. Judge your jump very carefully and if you don't go in the same direction you'll be tossed away.	Don't tread on the bottom of any of the underground screens - you may never walk again. All your movements must be from platform to platform, so judge your jumps with care.
		You're only allowed to land on the grated areas at the bottom. If you miss them the old hag does a mid- air spin and loses another life.
DEAD GOOD And now for a surprise bonus. On the reverse side of the Cauldron tape, appears the Spectrum version of The Evil Dead. It wasn't meant to be there but somehow the gremlins must've crept in at the duplicators. So, dare you risk the evil curse and play the game? Well, you could do worse than give it a go. But the real problem is that there aren't any instructions. A bit of a dead loss, you could say, but panic not, 'cos here at YS we've sussed the plot of this computer nasty. You play the part of Ashly, shacked up on holiday with a group of friends deep in the Tennessee Woodlands. Cheryl, Linda, Scott and Shelly are clean cut all-American kids who just happen to change into ghastly green mutants when they over-indulge with the spirit - Evil spirit, of course. Your aim at the beginning is to keep the evil one out of the shack by rushing round closing all the windows. When that fails as it		inevitably does - well, you can't keep a good ghost down - you'll have to try and kill 'em with the weapons scattered round the shack. These will give you differing amounts of energy which you'll lose when you attack an enemy but your points will increase. Only when you've enough points will the Book of the Evil Dead ('a jolly good read' Daily Mirror.
				'Dead boring' Your Spectrum) appears - throw it straight on the fire in the main room and you'll have defeated the curse forever. Dead easy, really. The Evil Dead - a touch of corn with a jolly green giant!

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