Microhobby Cassette #1 (march 1985)

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Hyperinto



This is a weird maze game. It's an improved version of 'El Laberinto' ('The Labyrinth') published before in the paper magazine as a BASIC list.

You must first select 1 (info) or 2 (play). Then, the difficulty level:

1 - Beginner
2 - Amateur
3 - Professional
4 - Expert

Any other key to practice

You're in the engine room of a huge spaceship, 18 rooms of a tangled mess of pipes. Each room contains 8 tunnels (the round spaces) and you must find the exit that is next to the tunnel at the mid left of the starting room (see the pic above). You start at the right side, again as you can see in the pic above. You move with O,P,Q,A being U go back and T move forward. Personally I can't understand the proper meaning of go back/move forward here.

You press T and go to another screen with another 8 tunnels and so on. Move forward, go back to another screen, ... till you reach the exit. you have a limited amount of time to reach your objetive, depending of the level you chose.

As I said before it's a weird maze, difficult to orient oneself and without understanding the concept of moving backwards/forward. (Maybe the problem is on me, not in the game!)

I think the map is a true challenge to [mention]pavero[/mention] !

Please, I encourage you to play and tell your views... and explain me what in the hell is that maze about!

[Morkin]

Sounds like quite a cool concept.

[Kweepa]

Presumably each screen is a slice in 3d space, with the 8 tunnels running perpendicular to the slice (into and out of the screen).
Also presumably, you can't always go forward (into the screen) or backward (out of the screen), because given the amount of connections on the first screen as a reference, it would be too easy.

[Morkin]

I was going to try it, but it didn't get Juan's walrus of approval.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Thanks, [mention]Kweepa[/mention] , I almost understand the concept.

It seems it was designed by a theorist physicist!

I was going to try it, but it didn't get Juan's walrus of approval.

You're a sort of BASIC gourmet!

[Juan F. Ramirez]

I played it again and it's very easy to disorientate.

This game is getting on my nerves!

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Rótulos (Signs)



This is a graphics utility to create signs on the screen. The program first asks you for instructions. Then, you must input some parameters: height, wide, thickness of the character, number of line to start, number of column to start and finally input the text itself. Both height and wide refers to characters units (8x8) and the thickness follow the next proportion:

0=1 pixel thickness, 1=2 pixels, 2=4 pixels, 3=6 pixels, etc

The sign above was used with the parameters 2,4,2,1,1,"ZX Spectrum". Cute, isn't it?

Then, the program asks you for another text. If you press 'N' then it asks you for printing it.

There's another example, using a *cough* *cough* superb game you all know very well...

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Casafantasmas (Ghostbusters)



At last a good conversion of the great Ghostbusters film for the Spectrum! (did I told you that I don't like the Activision game?).

Well, firstly, I must say that when I was preparing this post, I read in the SC entry that in the list of games in MH Cassette #1 there's 'Haunted House' instead of 'Cazafantasmas'. Reading the comments entry of the game I found: 'plagiarised from Andrew Murgatroyd's program in C&VG (Aug.83)'. Doing a deeper investigation I read this game was published in Sinclair User issue #24 (march '84). But two moths later, in the 'letters' section, the magazine published a note about this after a reader's discovery. It seemed the game was initially published in Computer and Video Games magazine, issue aug '83 by another person. The SU program is identical, except for some missing lines of the C+VG program.


The original british game

So this MH program... is a plagiarised (in spanish) version of the SU game, in turn, a plagiarised version of the C +VG game? It was published with a permission? A permision of SU? or a permission of C +VG? I don't know. I was just going to post another MH game and I came across with this! Please, If anyone wants more about this story, please tell!

I thought it was interesting to tell you this before reviewing this game. Because is a cool game. Not enough to get the Seal of Approval, but enjoyable. You must enter a house to get the jars above and take them to the lorry (this time you don't have to enter the mansion with the lorry! )

But you must face a terrible ghost that follows you and you can avoid it in the best 'Panic' style. If you know the great classic arcade game you know what I mean. O,P,Q,A are the keys. Make a hole (letter M) and the ghost falls in it. The way the ghost follows you is not random, it depends of how you're moving so you must follow an strategy to avoid it. The hummer kills the skeleton located in the upper floor. All in a limited time.

Nice game to play.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

EDIT: The correct name in spanish is Cazafantasmas, not Casafantasmas (in spanish sounds crappy!)

[Morkin]

"TIME" instead of "CRONO".

I was about to say "Heh - saved a whole byte there..!"...

...But then I checked the type in listing and realised they'd put a SPACE after PRINTing "TIME", so no bytes were saved after all...

...And then I realised that I'd wasted 5 minutes of my life checking all that and making this post...

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Duplex



This is a puzzle game for two players only. In a 5x4 grid, you must choose a pair of squares that must contain the same object (everyone has its own value). If you guess, you get the money.

I'm sure you've played the board game, but I don't know what's its name, even in spanish ('memo' maybe?).

Boring game.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Gráficos de Barras (Bars Chart)



The last program of this thread is a simple utility to display a bar chart.

First, you're asked for the number of dates of a magnitude. Then, max and min values. After that, you'll input every value (numeric value -axis Y- & name -axis X). A table will be displayed to confirm it and then the proper chart. Pressing a key goes back to the table and you'll be offered some options:

g - display again
r - new chart
c - modifiy data
p - printer


And with this program this thread ends.

Coming soon, more action with new MH threads!

[Juan F. Ramirez]

EDIT:

First, you're asked for the number of data (columns) of a magnitude.