Your Computer Magazine type-ins not in the archve

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Neil Parsons
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Your Computer Magazine type-ins not in the archve

Post by Neil Parsons »

Hi again. How are you people?

I'm actually checking the state of every type-in published inside all Your Computer magazine issues and I noticed that just a few of them aren't still available at SC archive, but published at Jim Grimwood's The Type Fantastic (i.e. Graphics Generator program - available at TTFn in TAP form)

On the other side, so many programs that don't appear to be available at Jim's page are here, and I'm actually collecting them for a personal compilation concerning Your Computer magazine (with almost all issues in PDF actually preserved -from archive.org and other sites- and their ZX Spectrum listings). Accordingly, I'm trying to be in touch with Jim and tell him what I've found.

I'll be watching rest of TTFn' Your Computer list during these hot summer days and in this thread I'll try to update next any further information about another programs not available here that were uploaded at Jim's.

Cheers x
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Re: Your Computer Magazine type-ins not in the archve

Post by R-Tape »

Neil Parsons wrote: Sun Jul 26, 2020 11:42 am Hi again. How are you people?
Hi Neil. Okay this end. These may be strange times, but at least I have a higher score than Peter in the Bombjack HiScore challenge*.

We don't have a specific person working purely on type-ins, but there are a lot more coming in. I know [mention]PeterJ[/mention] has already had some correspondence regarding Jim's stuff, and others for the type fantastic. Might be worth you two having a chat to avoid duplication of effort.

*Sorry Peter, I'll stop :mrgreen:
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Re: Your Computer Magazine type-ins not in the archve

Post by PeterJ »

Hi [mention]Neil Parsons[/mention],

Your Computer was my favourite magazine growing up! Others have mainly been working on SInclair User, ZX Computing and Sinclair Programs so please feel free to provide more type-ins. That would be great. It would be useful with each type-in if you could include the issue number and page.

Jim has been unwell of late, so you you may struggle to get hold of him. He does post on WoS occasionally though.

Thanks

Peter

[mention]R-Tape[/mention] - I'm still trying to improve that dismal score!
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Re: Your Computer Magazine type-ins not in the archve

Post by cmal »

Your Computer was also my favorite, especially when it comes to type-ins. I spent many hours back in the day typing out those lengthy machine code listings. It always felt so rewarding running the game after a day of solid typing.
One game I never could play is Snakes Alive. I typed it out and it seemed to have a bug in it that caused it to crash almost immediately after starting. After almost a full weekend of typing :(
The version on SC doesn't crash but I can't even do anything in the game before losing a life. Is this a bug or am I just doing something wrong?

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.php
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Re: Your Computer Magazine type-ins not in the archve

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Re: Your Computer Magazine type-ins not in the archve

Post by Neil Parsons »

I've typed Shade Copy program from YC Dec. 84 issue (page 192) - here at YC archive was uploaded a different version (in German) as a .Z80 file -.

Some other programs from this magazine were also patiently typed by myself and saved as TAP files... if I can remember which ones! :oops: :lol:

Ah, yes: :mrgreen:

"Colour Change" (YC Jan. 84 - p. 196) - Utility: Visual/Screen
"Goblet" (YC Dec. 83 - p. 205) - Utility: Draw
"Byte Transfer" (YC Nov. 83 - p. 231) - Utility: Programming
and "Maze" (YC Nov. 83 - p. 208) - Arcade Game: maze

These can be downloaded from here.
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Re: Your Computer Magazine type-ins not in the archve

Post by Neil Parsons »

Another type-in copied from YC magazine:

Compactor
(YC Apr 85 - p. 107) - Utility: Memory (not MIA anymore)

Updated file at Dropbox in my previous post.
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Re: Your Computer Magazine type-ins not in the archve

Post by Neil Parsons »

This game from YC magazine has been succesfully saved to TAP, from this Z80 source, as I could enter BASIC mode and save every block (BASIC and CM listings) in one TAP file:

Battleground (YC Sept 85 - p. 95) - Arcade Game: Shoot'em-up (type of Space Invaders game)

Dropbox file updated.
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Re: Your Computer Magazine type-ins not in the archve

Post by Neil Parsons »

Another listing from Your Computer magazine, previously MIA:

Ultralist (YC Dec. 1985, page 117) - Already digitised into TAP format. Utility: Printers

Dropbox file updated.
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Re: Your Computer Magazine type-ins not in the archve

Post by Neil Parsons »

Whenever somebody wants, all these recovered type-ins may be added to Spectrum Computing archive.
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Re: Your Computer Magazine type-ins not in the archve

Post by R-Tape »

Neil Parsons wrote: Wed Sep 23, 2020 9:43 pm Whenever somebody wants, all these recovered type-ins may be added to Spectrum Computing archive.
Thanks Neil.

[mention]PeterJ[/mention] are these the ones you're working on, or should I do them?
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Re: Your Computer Magazine type-ins not in the archve

Post by PeterJ »

I will PM you [mention]R-Tape[/mention].
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Re: Your Computer Magazine type-ins not in the archve

Post by Neil Parsons »

I had found a missing YC magazine (well, it wasn't ever preserved as JPEG or PDF files until now) in eBay, Vol. 3, Nº 7 - July 1983 issue to be precise, that I finally decided to buy it. Received today after several days, I'm going to scan it first for Internet Archive database. After this, I'll try to copy/digitise every ZX Spectrum program published in this issue, except those just available since a long time ago.

"3D Graphics" (pages 80-82)
"Star Wars - Battle on Hoth" (pages 106-107) (Available here)
"Omega Invaders" (p. 153-154)
"Defining characters (Graphics Generator)" (p. 162) (Available at Jim Grimwood's site. Still MIA at YC archive)
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Re: Your Computer Magazine type-ins not in the archve

Post by Neil Parsons »

I could get a TAP image of this graphic tool (until now only existing as Z80 snapshot image), published as type-in at Your Computer magazine (issue June'84) and it works, after testing it.

Entry for "Draw": https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/8 ... ctrum/Draw

Download: DROPBOX
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Re: Your Computer Magazine type-ins not in the archve

Post by R-Tape »

Neil Parsons wrote: Wed Jan 06, 2021 7:54 pm I could get a TAP image of this graphic tool (until now only existing as Z80 snapshot image), published as type-in at Your Computer magazine (issue June'84) and it works, after testing it.

Entry for "Draw": https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/8 ... ctrum/Draw

Download: DROPBOX
Thanks Neil, got it. This one will be added in the next update, and this thread will be up to date.
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Re: Your Computer Magazine type-ins not in the archve

Post by Sparky »

Sorry in advance for the stupid question, but where is this archive located at?
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Re: Your Computer Magazine type-ins not in the archve

Post by R-Tape »

Sparky wrote: Wed Jan 06, 2021 9:29 pm Sorry in advance for the stupid question, but where is this archive located at?
The Spectrum Computing archive is best accessed from our homepage: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/

From there you can use the quick search at the top right, or the advanced search further down the page.

The archive is driven by the database ZXDB. Not every entry has a downloadable file (some don't have permission yet, some are missing in action), but for every game/software you can usually find something to play under 'main file downloads'.

For example the game of the moment, and possibly the best game ever made, is Mousetrap. From that game's entry in the archive, if you scroll down to 'main file downloads' and click a tape image, you can download the emulator file, or if you click QAOP you can play online, or if you check out the rest of the page there is info about authors, links, and addition stuff like source code.

There are still plenty of gaps in the archive that we're working on (type-ins being one of them). We just need more spare time and energy to do it faster!

We're a lot more than just a forum! :D
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Re: Your Computer Magazine type-ins not in the archve

Post by Sparky »

Thanks for the explanation. I did not know about this!
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Re: Your Computer Magazine type-ins not in the archve

Post by nw24576 »

cmal wrote: Mon Jul 27, 2020 5:28 am Your Computer was also my favorite, especially when it comes to type-ins. I spent many hours back in the day typing out those lengthy machine code listings. It always felt so rewarding running the game after a day of solid typing.
One game I never could play is Snakes Alive. I typed it out and it seemed to have a bug in it that caused it to crash almost immediately after starting. After almost a full weekend of typing :(
The version on SC doesn't crash but I can't even do anything in the game before losing a life. Is this a bug or am I just doing something wrong?

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.php
Sorry for the very late reply, but I was about to start a new topic on this :-)

I remember enjoying those Your Computer type ins, even though it usually involved spending the best part of a day typing in hex codes ;-) I thought many of the games were commercial-quality, or at least commercial-quality for early/mid 1983, before such pivotal software as Manic Miner, Atic Atac and JSW came along.

I remember enjoying Aliquid Simplex from the same author, a vaguely Pacman-like game in which you had to run round a maze collecting bits of your robot and avoiding the mutant Bunsen burners, test-tubes and the like.

Snakes Alive I was particularly intrigued by as it seemed to be kind of Snake-meets-JSW: a Snake game played over many named screens, and the screenshots were interesting. I remember spending much of the 1985 May Day bank holiday typing it in and then being disappointed that it was just _way too hard to play_ - your snake seemed to sprint around and could not be controlled in time even with fast reactions.

At the time I put it down to a typo in the code (all those hex codes, yes there were checksums but that doesn't help if you put two bytes in the wrong order) but recently I've found the available version here (in Spanish) seems to be equally too-fast-to-play.

Did anyone ever get this working at a reasonable speed?
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Re: Your Computer Magazine type-ins not in the archve

Post by Neil Parsons »

Already uploaded for free download "Assembler/Editor" type-in from YC 1983 November issue (p. 159 - 167) > See Spectrum Computing entry

I haven't checked this program completely, but I suppose works fine. Tell me about every system error prompted and I'll try to fix every one of them as well as I can.

DROPBOX
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Re: Your Computer Magazine type-ins not in the archve

Post by Neil Parsons »

New type-in already transfered as a TAP file:

"CHORDATA" (Your Computer, August 1985 - Page 68)

Download it: DROPBOX
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Re: Your Computer Magazine type-ins not in the archve

Post by Neil Parsons »

Another MIA type-in from Your Computer magazine already available:

SCREEN DUMP (Your Computer, August 1985)

Download > Dropbox
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Re: Your Computer Magazine type-ins not in the archve

Post by Neil Parsons »

Already finished to copy another MIA listing from Your Computer magazine: ;)

CONTMUSIC (Your Computer, August 1986 - page 80)

Download > Dropbox (inside TAP file there are two versions of this tool, each one to be used with Microdrive cartridges or tape)

I enclose inside ZIP archive the TAP file and a scan of BASIC listing.

Only three type-ins are next for preservation: 3D Graphics (YC July 1983), Spectrum Crossword (YC Nov. 1986) and Text Pattern (YC Feb. 1987)
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