16/48 Tape Magazine 02 - Dec 1983/Jan 1984

Y'know, other stuff, Sinclair related.
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Morkin
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16/48 Tape Magazine 02 - Dec 1983/Jan 1984

Post by Morkin »

Thought I'd join in with Juan for a double cassette mag whammy..!

Here we go then... 16/48 Tape 02 time!

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The familiar description of each program scrolls by (twice) before we continue to the first program on the tape...

...Which turns out to be...

...an advert..?! Wha..??

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..And people complain about mid-video ads on YouTube...

I'm guessing at this point that the author(s) of the magazine have amassed a small collection of goodies from advertisers - will be interesting to see whether they receive, ahem, glowing reviews or not.

Right then, that's enough of that. On to Vampire...

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Heheh....

So this is sort of an 80s survival horror game. It's written largely in BASIC but with a few short machine code routines, though just for sound effects I think. This is another trademark Barry C Thorne game, who's featured quite a bit on the tapes so far.

After memorising the slightly crazy keys, on to the game. Action is slow, but IN commands are used rather than INKEY$, meaning that you can move diagonally.

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You play a John Travolta lookalike vampire hunter. You have a limited amount of time to find the tools (hammer and stake specifically) needed to destroy Dracula in his coffin. There's a danger of releasing two ghosts when looking through the boxes for the items.

If you do find hammer and stake and get to the coffin before night falls, next time round the difficulty level increases - the tools only flash briefly at the start of the level, so you need to memorize their locations.

At some point darkness will descend, the vamp is released and you're told to "be very careful". I found that the best bet at this point was to stay in the central area running round in a (diamond-shaped) circle, Scooby Doo style, to avoid the vampire, until it gets light again. Unfortunately the ghosts reappear at daybreak (usually right next to you). You can survive a hit from the vampire if you're carrying a cross.

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After a number of attempts, I managed to destroy the vampire twice; the game doesn't seem to have any further levels of difficulty after this, so I treated this as a victory for Travolta-The-Vampire-Slayer and stopped playing.

Summary - for a (largely) BASIC game, it's pretty good. Actually a decent difficulty level and I genuinely felt a bit tense the first time the little UDG vampire appeared. There's a reasonable amount of simple strategizing... Head straight for the coffin if you get hammer and stake, or search for the cross? Good fun for a short while I suppose.

Next on the tape we have a Review.

This month 16/48 have been given an Interface 1 and Interface 2 to review, which are apparently "both remarkable devices". The high price of ROMs is questioned. I suppose it would be unfair to criticize the reviewer for not predicting the emergence of eBay 35 years later.

There's some delight at the potential of Microdrives, though I can't say I've ever harboured particularly strong negative feelings towards my tape player:

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Next - we have our first letter..! From Michael Silve from London, N16

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After a juddery beepy rendition of Cliff Richard's "Congratulations", the writer reveals that they'd found the large print routine hidden in the 16/48 programs (to be revealed later). Also there's a request for a spiral CLS routine and a tempter for a 30 bar graph utility.

..So swiftly on to:

Amplifier

OK, I admit, I don't know anything about this sort of thing so it was fairly meaningless to me. It lets you enter various circuit parameters (current, resistors, transistor gain and voltage) and produces an input current and output voltage.

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I can't remember doing this in GCSE Physics and it's not really my thing, but I'm sure it's very meaningful for some of you. For me it had a whiff of "skippable program on Horizons cassette" to it.

Next there's a competition.

...to produce a new screen to be used in a future 16/48 issue

1st prize - an Interface 2, a cartridge and TWO joysticks!
2nd price - ditto without the joysticks

A slightly clunky but functional editor lets you specify INK, PAPER, FLASH and BRIGHT.

I'm sure the more artistically-minded people could do something with these features. Here's my best (as in only) attempt:

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Reviews

First up, Zzoom.

A short review of the game over a screenshot still. The reviewer identifies the difficulty in keeping the refugees in becoming casualties, thus describing it as "an excellent piece of programming - only the ethics are questionable".

Ant Attack is described as probably "the first non sexist all action computer game". The reviewer was clearly (and quite rightly IMO) impressed. "Don't play it just before bed (Cert P.G.)!"

Next we have Of Dungeons and Green Men (yay..!)

This month we have Smugglers Cove (Quicksilva)

Review - "a well planned adventure with a nice sense of humour"

Some help is also available - but not easily:

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Fortunately, James didn't reckon on scans being available 35 years later, so I was able to zoom in on the inlay scan. 1753 I believe. ;)

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I haven't played this game so I didn't look at the hints. Who knows - I might try to give it a go before the next issue....

Next, there's the almost obligatory Hobbit hints. This month's hints cover how to "handle your escape from the Gobblins' (sic) dungeon".

And finally, another plea for content, at £5 a go. And ODaGM will continue to try to "save you from death, destruction and an over heated Spectrum".


Next game - Ballista.

Another half-decent Barry Thorne BASIC game, for two players. Unfortunately I was forced into playing with myself (fnar).

Keys are a bit awkward again, you can PRINT them (though I didn't have my ZX Printer attached).. :?

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A bit like Worms, a landscape is randomly generated. You then take it in turns lobbing stuff at the other ballista.

After someone manages three hits, the next landscape is generated. Because the program keeps your current settings, once you've got one hit your opponent is obliged to move their ballista slightly, otherwise they're guaranteed to be hit on the next two goes (unless you give your mate a dead arm and muck about with his settings). Unfortunately you can't move it very far.

This was actually a pretty good game. It's a shame it didn't have a computer opponent; I'm sure the AI wouldn't need to be that complicated, though perhaps there were memory limitations as it's a 16k BASIC game.

3D Graphics (by Emsoft)

I first thought this was going to be a program, until I discovered it was just a review section.

Anyway, the program lets you enter your vertices and construct shapes which can be moved around in 3D. Store up to 15 versions and display them in quick succession, so that your 3D shapes are flying around the screen.

You can also use the DK'Tronics light pen or the RD Digital Tracer (remember those?)

Next review is VU3D (Psion)

I never tried VU3D back in the day - I'm not sure this review would have made me rush out to buy/copy it either. I'm guessing it was more available than 3D Graphics. Did anyone else do much with it?

Gah, this isn't the most exciting... Let's move on...

Tables

Everyone, together...! Aaaand a one, aaaand a two, aaaaand a 1, 2, 3, 4! "...We bought it to help with your homework..." :D

Test your maths & your multiplication times tables (lets out a small sigh).

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Anyway I went for the 'choose a number' because up to 12 is easy peasy, obv. :) It won't let you go further than 15 for some reason so I thought I'd give that a go.

You probably only have a few seconds before you start losing points, and keyboard input is a bit clunky, which was a bit frustrating as I mistyped a couple of times (honest, guv).

Finally we have the preview of next month's games. I think issue 3 was the first issue I got as the titles look familiar. There's also a final note saying how you can save the 16/48 character set for your own use.

Anyway, apart from being slightly disappointed with having to wait another issue before The Long Way Home makes an appearance, and finishing on an educational program, the two arcade games were quite good fun in this issue.

Next issue available: 12th Jan 84 from W.H. Smith, John Menzies and other leading newsagents...
My Speccy site: thirdharmoniser.com
malczx
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Re: 16/48 Tape Magazine 02 - Dec 1983/Jan 1984

Post by malczx »

Thanks, such great memories. Issue 02 was the first one I bought, I used to bring the Spectrum down to the living room on the big television to play these games with the family. Back in those days it felt genuinely scary when that vampire was chasing you.

My first post here, I must say that this is a really good site!
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Morkin
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Re: 16/48 Tape Magazine 02 - Dec 1983/Jan 1984

Post by Morkin »

Heheh, so it wasn't just me getting a bit tense when the vampire was wandering around..!

These tapes do have nostalgia value, especially as I revisit the disappointment of having a utility, editorial or educational title when I just wanted to play a game.. :lol:
My Speccy site: thirdharmoniser.com
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Juan F. Ramirez
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Re: 16/48 Tape Magazine 02 - Dec 1983/Jan 1984

Post by Juan F. Ramirez »

Remember it was bought to help you in your homework...
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