Woot 2019 Tape Magazine

[Ralf]

Thanks a lot for the mag!

I really like a sense of humour and believe me, I'm from a different country, speak another language, and yet find it all very funny.
It's neither too geeky and nerdy nor not geeky enough, it's just right.

I'll be trying the games now and I yet didn't check all the games from the Russian compo. It'll be busy Xmas with a strong Spectrum flavour

[Juan F. Ramirez]

The quiz is hard but very funny... I'm a plank!



I still haven't played all the games but they're a true Xmas gift. Congrats to all the people to code them!

And thanks for the mag and all the stuff. I'm really enjoying it.

[Joefish]

Thanks for this. I was terrible at the quiz and even got my own question wrong! (The one about Drut).
Sprouty is brilliant. And that mini JSW is already driving me nuts.
A few things crashed on loading though on +2 emulation. Are they 48K?

[uglifruit]

(the great) Sprouty and JSW mini... omg, where have my platformer skills gone?! The 15 year old me would be ashamed of my performance today!

Great work R-Tape. A really entertaining package. Thank you.

[Turrican]

Great work!
I had a lot of fun with the magazine.
Thank you.

[R-Tape]

Cheers fellas. It's interesting to see the quiz scores. I asked 1024MAK for some absolutely crippler hardware questions, so that in addition to general knowledge of old and a bit of new software, I can't see anyone getting 100% (well maybe Ast, but I still wouldn't bet on it).

I wondered where the challenge was in Chrismagic dot, until things speeded up somewhere around level 8-10...

A few things crashed on loading though on +2 emulation. Are they 48K?

Eek, which ones? The only one I noticed was Ivan's Papa Noel. It's a weird snapshot that I could only get to load in Spectaculator.

[R-Tape]

Reviews are ready

By the way "Jeremy ZXMan" is a (very clever) pun on "Jeremy Paxman". He's famous in the UK as a journalist, well-known now as the presenter of the quiz 'University Challenge'. His trademark is the raised eyebrow and acidic comments.

[Ast A. Moore]

I asked 1024MAK for some absolutely crippler hardware questions, so that in addition to general knowledge of old and a bit of new software, I can't see anyone getting 100% (well maybe Ast, but I still wouldn't bet on it).

Ah-ha-ha! The hardware questions were the only ones I got right. Well, and the Zythum one (by Mirrorsoft), obviously. (Maybe a couple of Joffa-related ones, too.)

[stupidget]

Fantastic work Mr Tapeworm..!

I saw this announcement but had to rush out to do my Xmas shopping earlier (I know fellas, I'm a day early) so I got a move on, hurried home and loaded it up.

Have so far gone through the magazine, the desert island section and the quiz. Particularly enjoyed the 'text adventure simulator' (WTF is an Engadine..??). Will be a bit busy the next few days but will eventually get through the games.

Did pretty crappily on the quiz:

I got 28% which apparently makes me a village idiot

[R-Tape]

(WTF is an Engadine..??)

It's a delicious nutty cakey pie.

I'm from a different country, speak another language, and yet find it all very funny. It's neither too geeky and nerdy nor not geeky enough, it's just right.

Good to hear. I used a lot of slang and was concerned I alienated non-native speakers.

[Ralf]

I tried the test and with 28% I'm a village idiot

But I don't feel offended. The questions were interesting and I many cases I had a feeling that I just had it on the tip of my tongue.
Parser was also not very generous, For example it didn't accept "David Thorpe" as the name of the man.

If it was A) B) C) D) kind of test then probably all of us would score higher.

Thanks for the test, Now I'll wait a few weeks and try it again

[DouglasReynholm]

Parser was also not very generous, For example it didn't accept "David Thorpe" as the name of the man.

If it was A) B) C) D) kind of test then probably all of us would score higher.

2% better than I Ralf!

True about the parser, I lost out on FD Thorpe too, though I knew the answer, and putting spaces between words, even though correct got me wrong. Multiple choice next year please, I hate feeling like a loser!

Also, as a Brit in his mid 40's (the local target demographic I suspect), I have never, ever heard of Engadine before - sounds French?. That adventure spoof summed up 8 bit adventures to me, I got far better at adventures in the point and click era. /blasphemy

The rest of it? Woot was a hoot! Thank you R-Tape.

[Ast A. Moore]

Woot was a hoot!

By my estimate, it was a hoot and a half.

[llewelyn]

That was brilliant, by far the best yet. whoever came up with that irritating desert island text entry game was a genius! It brought back so many frustrating memories....thanks everyone, splendid effort.

[R-Tape]

Dammit! I thought I covered that question, it has 9 possible answers:

db 'F. DAVID THORPE',255,'F DAVID THORPE',255,'F.D. THORPE',255,'F. THORPE',255,'F THORPE',255,'FD THORPE',255
db 'FREDERICK DAVID THORPE',255,'FRED THORPE',255,'FREDERICK THROPE',255

There are others I expected to cause problems, and some I think I was too generous with, e.g. Sabre Wulf allows these:

db 'SABREWULF',255,'SABRE WULF',255,'SABREWOLF',255,'SABERWULF',255,'SABER WOLF',255

Also, as a Brit in his mid 40's (the local target demographic I suspect), I have never, ever heard of Engadine before - sounds French?. That adventure spoof summed up 8 bit adventures to me, I got far better at adventures in the point and click era. /blasphemy

Sometimes one gets lost in a creative haze; I have no idea how engadine popped into my head. I had it in a café once and it was dead nice.

[Alessandro]

I cannot read the magazine now as I am on holiday abroad these days, but from what I can see another great issue has been put together Congratulations to everyone involved, with a special thank you to Dave for starting it all, and let's celebrate the establishment of a Spectral tradition in the 21st century

[djnzx48]

Just checked it out and it looks like another great collection. As well as the mag itself, so far I've enjoyed the creepypasta-esque '5 rings' and Papa Noel. I was particularly impressed by Ralf's New Year picture.

[R-Tape]

I was particularly impressed by Ralf's New Year picture.

Me too. Great piece of art, and a terrifying snapshot of a typical British town centre on a Saturday night! Though to be fair New Year's Eve is especially... ebullient.



Perhaps one of the more challenging SCREEN$ for compression too. ZX7 came in at 6206 bytes, and ZX7 + RCS 5563 (though in this case I didn't compress, for paging related reasons).

[DouglasReynholm]

I was particularly impressed by Ralf's New Year picture.

Me too. Great piece of art, and a terrifying snapshot of a typical British town centre on a Saturday night! Though to be fair New Year's Eve is especially... ebullient.



Perhaps one of the more challenging SCREEN$ for compression too. ZX7 came in at 6206 bytes, and ZX7 + RCS 5563 (though in this case I didn't compress, for paging related reasons).

Okay, raise your hand if you are a fan of https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK ..? I just came from there to here and that's one of their theme pictures (the original camera shot, not this brilliant rendition). I realise it's available from other sources, but a good time to ask!

[R-Tape]

Okay, raise your hand if you are a fan of https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK ..? I just came from there to here and that's one of their theme pictures (the original camera shot, not this brilliant rendition). I realise it's available from other sources, but a good time to ask!

It's new to me. Probably won't make it my homepage! Seems to be bite-sized chunks of wibble about anything from sprouty farts to ornithology.

Actually, that's Woot 2020 sorted then.

[Ralf]

I was particularly impressed by Ralf's New Year picture.

Thanks!

And if somebody doesn't know what it's all about here's the original


I'm definitely more into making games than drawing pictures but when I saw it I immediately had a feeling I'd like to recreate it on Spectrum. Just neeeded a few years to complete the job

And this picture became so famous and viral that it even appeared in Polish internet. I don't remember exactly when I saw it first time but it must have been some Polish news website.

[DouglasReynholm]

Actually, that's Woot 2020 sorted then.

A lot of us looking forward to it already!

What happened to the Viz-like 'top tips' section?

[DouglasReynholm]

I was particularly impressed by Ralf's New Year picture.

Thanks!

And if somebody doesn't know what it's all about here's the original


I'm definitely more into making games than drawing pictures but when I saw it I immediately had a feeling I'd like to recreate it on Spectrum. Just neeeded a few years to complete the job

And this picture became so famous and viral that it even appeared in Polish internet. I don't remember exactly when I saw it first time but it must have been some Polish news website.

Thanks Ralf. So proud!

[R-Tape]

A lot of us looking forward to it already!

What happened to the Viz-like 'top tips' section?

I don't understand - it was on the Tape Magazine itself: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=35139, you press "T" to scroll through the tips.

I've got a horrible feeling that a lot of people have not actually seen the magazine, and thought the 'Stonehenge scroller' was the end (when it's just the intro). I failed to mention on the tape that you need to press O+P to scroll through the magazine. Could people spread the word that you should press "P" during the Stonehenge scroller to page forward.

Is that what's happened?

[DouglasReynholm]

A lot of us looking forward to it already!

What happened to the Viz-like 'top tips' section?

I failed to mention on the tape that you need to press O+P to scroll through the magazine. Could people spread the word that you should press "P" during the Stonehenge scroller to page forward.

Is that what's happened?

Yep, looks like it, will check again over weekend if no-one else gets there first. I can't quite put my exact finger on why I thought there might be more than I could get to, but I did.