n the Joystick; so I followed this
problem up with Charles. Charles Comments Charles informed me he had had problems with some of the cartridges in that the joysticks wouldn't move left, the fix however is to have the joystick removed then load the game and then plug in the joystick, so it must be some sort of reset issue with the joystick.

PERFORMANCE

Using the device is simple you use the keys F1 and F3 to move forward and back between the games (the name of the game and its number appear on the screen) pressing f7 runs the game. Once you have finished playing with the game you have to reset your machine.

Now I haven't play tested every single item on the device, and only used a
Bare Commodore for testing, as I didn't have the time to do every combination of setup for the review, I have run many of the games, and so spent hours playing with the device; and apart from the joystick problem that is
resolvable (ensure its unplugged before you start a game) haven't had any further issues. The device has also been used on Commodore 128 machines and indeed Charles demos the device using a Commodore 128.

The device will live or die with the quality of the titles, as some are quite old, it could be hard to justify the expense, however if these are games you enjoy playing then think of all the time you save by having them instantly available at the touch of a power button, You could also buy the socketed version and burn your own ROMS.

You could question the copyright of the device, but I suspect most companies wouldn't have issues, If however this was a Jeff minter all in one device with every game on a single device I would be "telling" you to buy it and Jeff also says "there are no legal hassles" when you download any of his older games, as it is I would ask you to research the programs the device has installed and
see if you feel you "have to have it"

YouTube video of the device at work

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd5KZte2p_Q

Another question has to be asked; how will this cartridge fair up with the
easy flash cartridge that can be purchased from here

store.go4retro.com/easyflash-3/

EasyFlash 3 offers a number of features:

* 8 8kB slots for alternative KERNAL ROM images,

* 7 EasyFlash I cartridge image slots.

* Support for the following cartridge formats
* Normal 8k
* Normal 16k
* Ultimax
* Ocean Type 1
* EasyFlash
* EasyFlash xbank

* Compatibility with Action Replay, Retro Replay, Nordic Power, and Super
Snapshot 5 images.

* Field upgradeable firmware and hardware configuration

* Ability to replace/add/remove images from the C64


*************************************
COMMODORE FREE ONE LINERS COMPETITION
VIC Results
*************************************

Commodore Free Comment Sadly Shaun posted these on the web before I had chance to announce them in the magazine, I know many of you were, let's say curious about what happened to the competition and I would like to apologise for the incredibly long delay, that looks bad on Commodore Free. Anyway if you haven't seen the emails Shaun posted on most forums before I printed the write up here is the information and the text about the entries.

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From: Shaun Bebbington
To: Commodore Free
Sent: Saturday, 3 August 2013, 13:45
Subject: VIC-20 results (Commodore
FREE one liners).

Hi all,

Firstly, my apologies to all who have been waiting these results. The draft results are in - I say drafts as there might be some typos in the text. But
the results will not change.

All of the VIC-20 specific entries are here:

www.dropbox.com/s/g2cuutxwhpspfmw/CF-VIC-20-Entries.zip

and the draft results are here:

www.dropbox.com/s/shzgh9ez9bi4a3q/VIC-20-Entries.pdf

You may share these links with your VIC-20 friends if you wish. The full article (with overall winners etc...) will be featured in Commodore FREE soon.

Well done to Steve McRea for an excellent entry.

By the way: the delay in these results must not reflect badly on Nigel or Commodore Free. It is entirely my fault.

Enjoy, Shuan.

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Commodore VIC-20-Specific Entries

Below are all of the results for all of the Commodore VIC-20 entries into the Commodore FREE One Liners competition 2013. There are other entries that will, by design or accident, work with the VIC; these are listed in the 'All format' entries. Please accept my apologies for the extreme lateness of these results. This must not reflect badly on Nigel Parker or Commodore FREE as the fault is entirely at my door. All ratings out of five (minimum one star).

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BIRD.PRG (MUSICAL BIRD)

Author: Michael Kircher

Notes: Inspired by a classic animation included in the VIC-20 User Guide.

A nice program that has a Bird flying diagonally down the screen whilst
playing a short tune.

Type: One-liner

Originality: *

Although this was obviously taken from the user guide, the tune is a nice addition.

Technical: **

Uses a data block for the music, plenty of FOR/NEXT loops, all in one line. Nice use of the colon to add in delays to the routine.

Documentation: *

The documentation included is the listing in text format. Nothing else is included.

Fun rating: **

Quite a nice piece of nostalgia

Overall: **

This entry improves on an example from the user guide whilst playing a short tune. A pretty good effort for one line of BASIC 2. This is the overall runner-up for the VIC-20.

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MINISCROLL

Author: Witzo

Notes: Scrolly text simulator. Scrolling in one line, manipulating the screen size to one row. This is a little buggy due to some slightly skewed logic, but a reasonable attempt at implementing a scrolly text.

Type: Two-liner

Originality: *

Scrolly texts are fun, and plenty of examples were given originally. Nice use of the VIC chip to manipulate the size of the screen.

Documentation: *

A read me note is included on the disk image. Not much information is given.

Technical: **

Could have been done better with a some more understanding of the host
hardware and BASIC 2, although there is obviously some preliminary knowledge
of how the host video chip works.

Fun rating: *

Scrolly texts something that many programmers learn to do early on when learning 8-bit machine. This one is just a bit buggy.

Overall: *

A good first attempt by a fairly novice programmer. It's good to see the earlier (3 lines) code to see how it evolved. Listing (note: A$ string
variable is padded with four spaces to begin with):

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DIVER VIC

Author: Jeffrey Daniels

Notes: A vertically scrolling game.

Type: Two-liner

Manoeuvre the craft through left and right to avoid the obstacles in its'
path. You need Jedi skills sometimes to react quickly enough. Nice and fast implementation, but not greatly playable.

Originality: *

Good use of programming, but hardly original.

Documentation: *

No instructions really, just a brief explanation of the game.

Technical: **

A nice way to read the user's keyboard interactions.

Fun rating: *

Perhaps a little too quick to be playable.

Overall: *

A nice quick game, though lacking some originality. Here is the listing (note: REVS ON < sign in the listing is CRTL+7 as I could not find a windows font
that displays this character):

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VIC MAZE

Author: Steve McCrea

Notes: A maze game.

Each level will randomly generate a static screen maze in which you must guide a man (represented by the Commodore PI sign) from the left of the screen to
the right. Once you reach the right, it will generate another maze. The keys are ZX for left and right, OK for up and down and P to obliterate the wall in front of you (if the maze is impossible to complete, starting off with zero bombs with one added for each new level, as the more levels you play, the more likely an impossible maze is generated.

Type: Two-liner

Originality: ***

Quite an original use of BASIC to make a playable mini-game.

Documentation: ***

Good documentation includ

--- MBSE BBS v1.0.01 (GNU/Linux-i386)
* Origin: Dragon's Lair (39:901/280)