WOOT 2020 is out. Happy ZXMAS.

[R-Tape]

WOOT is here!

DOWNLOAD THE ZIPPED BUNDLE HERE

The magazine part:
*WOOT! Tape Magazine issue #4 - ZXMAS 2020 Edition. Game reviews, general zx wibble.
*WOOT! The COVID Chronicle. A ZX perspective on a rather unusual year.
*WOOT! ZXMas 2020 Slideshow. Daft screens and cool music. nuff said.
*Desert Island Tapes. 8 specchums are being cast away on a desert island forever - they are allowed only 8 games. Which ones would you take?

Games/Demos/Utility:
*Roger the Pangolin in 2020 Knurled Tour. Fast, furious and bloody colourful rally game from Joefish.
*Mousetrap An incredibly addictive game from cmal, recovered from years ago. [mention]cmal[/mention] - can you give us a bit of the backstory?
*XMAS-oid. One level. Against the clock. Damned hard. Expect an expanded version in 2021.
*Love Tokens.BASIC keyword poem from uglifruit. 48 and 128, but the AY is great.
*Let It Three Letter Abbreviations In 6-8 time. Beautiful BEEP and graphics demo. I love this new style of demo - who needs happy hardcore and a bouncing scroller?!
*Dr Jim's Grand Gargoyle's Quest Jukebox. The music of the GameBOY game Gargoyle's Quest. @TMD giving his musical ear and the PLAY command a good seeing to. 128K only. You have to perservere with the key press if you want to exit a track - it gets you out soone or later.
*Corona-Chan's Existential Christmas Crisis. Jim promised a bleak and depressing demo - and he delivered. Raise a glass with Jim on xmas day.
*Flash Dance. A utility for merging two PAPER screens as two animated images into one FLASH screen.

Enjoy!

[Andre Leao]

Wonderful, like always!

Congrats people, you have done a magnific job... Bravo!

Shared!

https://planetasinclair.blogspot.com/20 ... -saiu.html

[R-Tape]

Wonderful, like always!

Congrats people, you have done a magnific job... Bravo!

Shared!

https://planetasinclair.blogspot.com/20 ... -saiu.html

Bloody hell you work fast!

[TMD2003]

Can I just say... "WOOT!" in response to this. I've actually had something published that isn't a Crap Game!

[DouglasReynholm]

Thoroughly enjoyed that thank you!

The Spectrum beeper surprised me as the optimum way to recreate the bleak vibes of Joy Division's 'Isolation'..

[R-Tape]

Can I just say... "WOOT!" in response to this. I've actually had something published that isn't a Crap Game!

Even your crap games aren't crap Jim! I have to thank you, as way back maybe in September, I nearly didn't bother. Then you asked about submitting and got my arse into gear.

The Spectrum beeper surprised me as the optimum way to recreate the bleak vibes of Joy Division's 'Isolation'..

That's [mention]TMD2003[/mention]'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!

[Juan F. Ramirez]

[RWAC]

I've only read the Covid Chronicle so far and it really made me laugh. Great work! Particularly loved the bit with Chris Whitty.

[R-Tape]

I've only read the Covid Chronicle so far and it really made me laugh. Great work! Particularly loved the bit with Chris Whitty.

Come to think of it, much of the vaccine bit at the end is yours!

(this will be better acknowledged in the next update)

[TMD2003]

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?

The Spectrum beeper surprised me as the optimum way to recreate the bleak vibes of Joy Division's 'Isolation'..

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:

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.

[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?