Woot 2019 Tape Magazine

[Lee Bee]

Just wanted to show my appreciation for Sprouty! Fantastic game, and djnzx48's music is so amazing! Absolutely love it! Well done chaps!

[Ersh]

Woot! Great stuff!

The ZXDB may want to mention that Sploids is inspired by Quartet/Assembloids. Had a quick go and found out that you can be dealt impossible parts, for an example, an upper-right part when all upper-right corners are already filled. Can't remember the original doing that (albeit I haven't played it in ages).

[R-Tape]

Hell's bells—Joe Blob has proper oldschool levels of cruelty. Time limits and a 'higher/lower' guess the letter between each level. Isn't it impossible to work it out every time with just 4 guesses?

[R-Tape]

Had a quick go and found out that you can be dealt impossible parts, for an example, an upper-right part when all upper-right corners are already filled. Can't remember the original doing that (albeit I haven't played it in ages).

I hadn't played the original, but just checked youtube and it looks like you're right.

[Spud]

Woot! Great stuff!

The ZXDB may want to mention that Sploids is inspired by Quartet/Assembloids. Had a quick go and found out that you can be dealt impossible parts, for an example, an upper-right part when all upper-right corners are already filled. Can't remember the original doing that (albeit I haven't played it in ages).

Trying to make it different. If the difference makes it significantly less fun to play I can change it. Having not played it for a long time and now looking at it with fresh eyes, it is probably too harsh.

[Morkin]

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:

[Spud]

I got 14% - cretin

Great quiz!

[Ersh]

Trying to make it different. If the difference makes it significantly less fun to play I can change it. Having not played it for a long time and now looking at it with fresh eyes, it is probably too harsh.

It's just kind of unfair as you can't avoid it. I think one of the reasons the original game was so addictive was; even when it became hectic, when you lost it was your own fault. It was fair and gave you the incentive to have at it again and so on.

It looks bloody marvellous though!

[hikoki]

Thanks. Sprouty is the CHOTY. Chrismagic Dot is satisfying to play. The mag left me as I was to die tomorrow. I say farewell to you just in case

[Ivanzx]

Thanks for the effort and time put to do the Woot, Dave and all

Probably it is not properly recognized, but this takes a lot of time and energy , plus it creates a special Xmas spirit that brings us back to the 80s

A lot of funny scenes, memes and humour, a handful of new games, what a great way to end the year

[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.