WOOT 2020 is out. Happy ZXMAS.

[Alessandro]

Just finished perusing it. Great stuff, as usual, with the Covid chronicle being particularly hilarious, although the most UK-related references were obscure to me. At least Mr Withit's class keeps all the video cams turned on, which is something I rarely experienced The U.A.S.H. party was also one of the bits I enjoyed the most, there was a hint of Monty Python-ess in it that I really liked.

Thank you so much for the mentions of Funky Fungus Reloaded and Ad Lunam/Ad Lunam Plus True that in the era of instant gratification and of your-average-50-or-so-years-old-retro-fan-with-just-half-an-hour-to-play-between-work-and-family, games that require perseverance, planning and decision making won't be given justice by many. But I hope that those who do will find something to get hooked to

[R-Tape]

Cheers Ale! I do want to get Yuri Gagarin on the Moon in 2021, but whether I get around to it...

although the most UK-related references were obscure to me.

Yes I was worried about that. Some zx-countries have had very different experiences. I hope that in general, the spirit was common: loads of us were stuck at home, were mildly scared of going out to buy broccoli and clapped on a Thursday.

At least Mr Withit's class keeps all the video cams turned on, which is something I rarely experienced

Teaching in normal times sounds like a proper nightmare to me! You should come to the SC xmas zoom and share your experience!

[Andre Leao]

Even your crap games aren't crap Jim!

You didn't play DNA Dilemma, did you? Or Super Mario Fruit Machine, or Noughts and Crosses, or Advanced Horseshoe Magnet Simulator, or Complex Maths... WITH DRAGONS!, or +D Blue Peter, or the FOUR CRAP GAMES FROM THIS YEAR THAT ARE STILL YET TO BE REVEALED, though that last point isn't anything you or anyone else who isn't a blue face on a cyan body could have done anything about. But if you want to know what's still to be revealed, you know where to look... right?

That's @TMD2003's stock-in-trade. I asked if 3 tracks could be done in BEEP, and they were done sharpish, plus an adamski track that I didn't find a place for!

The best thing about doing the BEEPs is that I've forced myself to write a crude sequencer that'll do the job in machine code, automatically working out the HL and DE values for each note. But if the Adamski track isn't in there (as I suspected it might not be), that makes me a saaaaaaaaaad panda. I'll have to find something to do with it. And I should probably put the sequencer on the BASIC Dumping Ground.

"Solitary brother, is there still a part of you that wants to live?"

It's a question that one member of a family of three in rural Essex probably doesn't need reminding about.


ALSØ:

Here you have:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3yar3imyw0d9i ... o.tap?dl=1

Does anyone have a copy of the demo version of Pietro Bros. from the 2016 edition of WOOT!, seeing as I missed it at the time and it's the only title that's otherwise unavailable? Only the full version is available, but I'd be interested to see the demo.

[TMD2003]

Right, I see where one of my contributions lurks, and why it was required. Don't any of you skip over the Alliterative Spectrum Heroes section, or I will eat the last remaining tape of The Great Giana Sisters before it gets preserved.

Also, "anyone that claims to have ever used the ABS command is a liar":
- ABS isn't a command, it's a function.
- One of my Crap Games uses it, and you can break into the listing and find the evidence for yourself. That is, when @PROSM gets round to reviewing it, and it's the last one in the queue!

Also also, cheers Andre! I'll grab it immediately.

PART TWO WHILE I'M HERE:

LOAD "2021"

Program: "Dr Jim actually has something to live for this year, and you all probably know what it is, but otherwise, more of the same."

LOAD "2022"

Program: "Still more of the same. Dr Jim no longer has what 2021 was all about, because 2021 is all over. That might be a problem."

LOAD "2023"

R Tape loading error, 0:1

[RWAC]

Just had a message from R-Tape's boss:

If he's quite finished mucking about with that silly spectrum can be please do some work this month!

Seriously, how have you not been sacked? I huge amount of work has gone into this.

[TMD2003]

Props on the slideshow as well. "In 2022 the Spectrum turns 40, get your thinking caps on..."

I already have, though what I can do with my half-baked idea will probably end up dumped in the CSSCGC. I've already designed the loading screen for it, and I'm dead chuffed with the trickery I've used to make it work. (You'll all load it in flash-load mode and it'll go missing, just like all the Easter eggs I put in loading screens these days like the esteemed author of WOOT! does.)

But wait! In 2021, the ZX81 turns 40, so why not do something for that as well? Eh? So it might not have colour or sound or graphics to shout about, but give the Spectrum's immediate predecessor some attention for next year, don't just leave it to Sinclair ZX World! If there's anyone out there with the kind of phenomenal coding talent that's prepared to do it, make 2021 a year to remember for the black door wedge.

[R-Tape]

Just had a message from R-Tape's boss:

If he's quite finished mucking about with that silly spectrum can be please do some work this month!

Seriously, how have you not been sacked? I huge amount of work has gone into this.

In academia, you are blessed and cursed with very flexible hours

[Manu128k]

I'm sure that making WOOT is a lot of work, but it is also a tremendous show of creativity. It made me laugh several times

Thanks Dave and the others for this great gift. I hope you all have a nice end of year.

[zxfan]

[mention]R-Tape[/mention] what is WOOT

[ffa]

Registered just to state this was amusing and interesting, one of the best Speccy moments of the year!

[cmal]

Just a few pages through the magazine and getting quite a laugh out of it. Excellent writing skills and good humor! Thanks all for providing this to the community.

Here's the Mousetrap backstory: The game was written in 2002. I dared myself to start and end the game development in just one weekend. Therefore the game couldn't be too ambitious but still had to be playable. I completed it, except for the sound effects.

Somehow I lost track of the game and then 18 years later here's R-Tape looking for WOOT material. So two weeks ago I spent the good part of a Saturday going through old hard drives and CD ROMS of backups until I eventually found it. The .asm file was still called Prog1.asm so it made the search somewhat more difficult.

I was so relieved when I found the file. If it wasn't for [mention]R-Tape[/mention], that game would have been lost and forgotten.
After adding some sound, QAOP keys, fixing a bug, then drawing a loading screen it was ready to go.

[hikoki]

Exelent! Exiting! The tir da grog gag left me groggy!

[TMD2003]

I'm getting into the Games and Demos section now, and Flash Dance is intriguing. While [mention]R-Tape[/mention] might be a high-level machine code wizard, I'm still stuck at level 3 or so. But something tells me I might be able to write a routine that does the same as this... from scratch, seeing as all that needs to be done is attribute manupulation and Dave's done it in 150 bytes.

I will give it a go myself, then disassemble those 150 bytes and compare the two. I expect to be promoted to level 4 if it works!

Also, if anyone is unfamiliar with the music of Gargoyle's Quest and wants to make a comparison with the original, here's a complete playthrough with no commentary over the top of it. It's from 2012, so the video quality's not super-ultra-HD, but on a Game Boy game with a screen smaller than a Spectrum, does that matter?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3oWNm563H4

[uglifruit]

This is great, and hats off to [mention]R-Tape[/mention] for his efforts in assembling this again this year.
His overview of the year is interesting, and the jokes are funny. A genuine delight of a 'magazine' to read through.

I also really enjoyed [mention]cmal[/mention]'s Mousetrap (It's reminiscent of Pete Cooke's Brainstorm). Thanks for supplying the .asm too, that'll be interesting to pick apart.

The Xmas-oid one-screen game is utterly brill too. A lovely tribute to Eugene's Lair, and the movement is so interesting; bouncing off walls changing your direction vector and being affected by gravity only when not 'thrusting'. It makes for very having to be very careful. The 'one screen'-ness of this is a bit mis-leadng as each corner of the screen offers its own challenge. That reminded me of Xbox Indie title "Platformance" in that it's technically one level - but it's not, is it? (Xmas-oid has got great music by Beyker).

[mention]Joefish[/mention]'s multicoloured scrolling pathway marvel is ... well ... marvellous! Perhaps bit too quick and hard for my aging brain/fingers, but honestly its amazing. I certainly look forward to the 'finished' version of this with a more gradual increase in difficulty across the levels. ("Main Road" by Karlos is utterly BRUTAL! He must be a cruel cruel man.)

[mention]TMD2003[/mention]'s Corono Chan demos is fun too. In an utterly depressing way. And Jim's Gargoyle's Quest jukebox is a great set of tunes - and also highlights there's loads of other great music out there (on other platforms) that I won't be able to spot in a 'Name That Tune' quiz!

I enjoyed reading people's picks for desert islands, too. Much like [mention]jdanddiet[/mention]'s top 100, I find people's personal selections, and their justifications fascinating. (And not wanting to diminish the quality of the Woot magazine release in anyway, but my Desert Island Disk choices has a little mistake. My first pick is titled 'Rogue' but should read 'The Sentinel'. - I've never even played Rogue - perhaps I should!).

Anyway, cheers again for this. It's a lovely early Xmas Present. And long may it continue as a tradition!

[Joefish]

Some mistake? Can someone try my game on a 128 and a +2A, I thought it was working?

[llewelyn]

Thanks a million chaps, what a wonderful, funny, creative piece of work. Well worth spending my time on again and again. The desert island tapes was a great idea and provides an insight into the tastes of people whose posts I always look out for, the lockdown report was bloody funny as was the Xmas party gag. Really an excellent gift from you to us and thanks again.

[R-Tape]

My first pick is titled 'Rogue' but should read 'The Sentinel'. - I've never even played Rogue - perhaps I should!).

Sorry about that. I'll get that sorted later.

I loved your ending comment about Combat School, and getting told off for swearing at the computer.

Some mistake? Can someone try my game on a 128 and a +2A, I thought it was working?

My mistake! I forgot you updated it. It works great in SPIN in 48 and 128. I've edited the first post.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Just finished watching the tap files and playing the games. Really great. The year of Covid has provided it many hilarious plots.

Woot has become another Xmas and end-of-year tradition, very creative and with a lot of fun. Excellent work!

[moroz1999]

Thanks to everybody involved with this gem! A lot of laughter.

[XTM]

For a moment I was expecting Rick Dangerous would change his first name to Richard ...

Also, if Covid Masters is gobbled up by EA, will it infect them and bring them down from the inside?

[Joefish]

'Dick Dangerous', surely?

[R-Tape]

I'm trying to ace each level of Roger the Pangolin one by one. I finally managed 'Crevasses' in 26secs, but can't reliably repeat it. The 4th and 5th jumps are hard to time. When you're through that bit, I love the 'herrrreeee we go runaway feeling!

[mention]Joefish[/mention] do you know your PBs for each level? I suppose that, as long as one doesn't fall off, it's hard to make many marginal gains?

[TMD2003]

Best of luck. I can't finish one of my own levels...

...though in my defence they had to be sent untested, as I couldn't get the PASMO .BAT file to work - it never made a new tape image with my level in it, it was always the default test level. I did what I thought might work, and if it didn't... oh well. I thought I was being REALLY EVIL with the end of "Waves", but now it appears I am merely a small-time crime lord next to Karlos The Jackal and Einar The Implaer.

"Crevasses" is supposed to make you think "aha, I chose the correct path... ...OH SMEG!"

[hikoki]

I want to like Pangolin. Please tell me how to avoid falling

[R-Tape]

I want to like Pangolin. Please tell me how to avoid falling

There are no secrets I'm afraid. I'd just keep doing the trial run until you can ace it, then move through the rest.