• Commodore Free, Issue 52 - Part Six

    From Stephen Walsh@39:901/280 to All on Mon Aug 22 15:04:44 2011
    CREDITS

    Code: Iceout of Avatar
    Music: Fredrik of Avatar
    Graphics: Flower of Avatar, Raiders of the Lost Empire

    DOWNLOAD

    http://noname.c64.org/csdb/getinternalfile.php/97530/coins_ata.d64

    REVIEW

    The idea of the game is to match 4 coins into a square you do this by rotating sections of the screen. I have been playing this game for some time, and although it does depend on luck as the starting positions all seems to be random, but then of course you need player skill to turn luck or lack of it into results.

    What the heck am I talking about, well my lack of skill really at playing the game, Coins is a game where the player must match up 4 "coins" of the same colour and then move your square cursor over them, this gains points and adds time to the timer and removes the coins from the playing field.

    You need a joystick plugged in port 2 and rotate coins by pressing the fire button and moving the joystick left or right or up and down.

    So starting up the game then.

    We are given a short intro and after a short crunch we have the title screen.

    Graphically this game isn't going to excite many players and the title screen is functional rather than creating a full on WOW style feeling, But remember their is more to a game than fancy graphics. Hopefully this game will prove that theory so keep reading. We then have the main game screen where we can select the instructions or start the game .

    Instructions

    So to play anything we need an idea of what to do and the instructions
    although brief do provide that. Showing a pictorial as well as text
    description of the game. The idea of the game is to get 4 "coins" of the same colour in a group or square then move your square cursor over them and they will disappear add points.

    Frustratingly the playfield is to large and the graphic coins are to small, it would have been better to have an option of easy / medium / hard to give the player something to work up to, but when the game starts it's a daunting task looking at such a large area and small graphics you get the feeling its impossible to complete.

    Sonically the tile screen music is great, in game sounds are a little disappointing amounting just con clicks

    Graphics: 4/10
    Sounds: 6/10 Great music on title screen
    Game Play: 4/10
    Longevity: 4/10

    OVERALL: 4/10

    The coins are to small and the play area to large but a nice variation
    on an idea.


    *************************************
    COMMODORE PROGRAMMING
    Charts
    By John Fielden
    *************************************

    Where would we be without charts?

    Many say 'life is impossible without them' and certainly they advance civilisation. From maps to Spreadsheets and beyond! So here we dedicate this months c16/+4 feature to DRAWing them.

    READY.

    # (don't type in brackets: see photo)

    # if the colour prints too dark, try adding to line 20

    :COLOR1,2,5

    that should give a nice grey colour and be lighter to print.

    # REMs will help you navigate which line draws -err, which line.

    # All commands, statements etc. have been used in the pages before, and are quite self explanatory. Any Questions - Ask.

    10 REM *EXERCISES*
    20 COLOR0,2:COLOR4,2
    30 SCNCLR
    40 GRAPHIC1,1 (switch to mode1 and clear screen)
    50 CHAR1,0,0,"EXERCISES:__________
    MON. DATE: ________" (on emu; found in combi. after 0-zero)
    60 CHAR1,0,2,"TYPE:"
    70 CHAR1,0,4,"MON :" :
    CHAR1,0,6,"TUES:"
    80 CHAR1,0,8,"WED :" :
    CHAR1,0,10,"THUR:"
    90 CHAR1,0,12,"FRI :" :
    CHAR1,0,14,"SAT :"
    100 CHAR1,0,16,"SUN :"
    110 CHAR1,0,18,"TOTL:" :
    CHAR1,0,20,"PROG:"
    120 DRAW 1,40,10 TO 310,10
    130 DRAW 1,40,10 TO 40,180
    140 DRAW 1,310,10 TO 310,180
    150 DRAW 1,40,27 TO 310,27
    160 DRAW 1,40,43 TO 310,43 :REM
    170 DRAW 1,40,60 TO 310,60
    180 DRAW 1,40,75 TO 310,75
    190 DRAW 1,40,90 TO 310,90
    200 DRAW 1,40,106 TO 310,106
    210 DRAW 1,40,122 TO 310,122
    220 DRAW 1,40,138 TO 310,138
    230 DRAW 1,40,155 TO 310,155
    240 DRAW 1,40,180 TO 310,180 :REM
    250 REM *LINES DOWN*
    260 DRAW 1,70,10 TO 70,180
    270 DRAW 1,100,10 TO 100,180
    280 DRAW 1,130,10 TO 130,180
    290 DRAW 1,160,10 TO 160,180
    300 DRAW 1,190,10 TO 190,180
    310 DRAW 1,220,10 TO 220,180
    320 DRAW 1,250,10 TO 250,180
    330 DRAW 1,280,10 TO 280,180
    340 CHAR1,0,24,"NAME: __________________"
    (explore for the right key ctrl!)
    350 GETKEYA$
    360 GRAPHICCLR

    Finally, this program will help gauge where the lines go. And display how you don't have to rewrite the graphic page every time you want it.

    # Try a grid with diagonal lines making the squares. Just for fun!

    # If the colour is too light look at line 15. color1,... is the pen colour.
    Try variations.

    5 REM *GRID*
    10 SCNCLR
    15 COLOR1,2,5 :COLOR0,2:COLOR4,2,6
    20 GRAPHIC1,1
    30 FORJ=0TO300 STEP2
    40 DRAW1,0,J TO 350,J
    50 NEXT J
    100 FORJ=0 TO 350 STEP2 :REM
    110 DRAW1,J,0 TO J,300
    120 NEXT J
    900 GETKEYA$
    910 GRAPHIC0,0 (Will switch to type screen, and leave graphic page as is)
    920 PRINT"*ANOTHER KEY PRESS*!"
    930 GETKEYA$
    940 GRAPHIC1,0
    1000 GETKEYA$
    1010 GRAPHICCLR

    READY.

    Rumour has it that even politicians know how to use charts! -Which is "proved" in the voting system!!

    Happy Prog'ing

    John Fielden


    *************************************
    COMMODORE PROGRAMMING
    Vote
    By John Fielden
    *************************************

    First of all.

    The views and opinions addressed in the "Happy Programming" / "Happy Prog'ing" pages are by John Fielden and not necessarily shared by Commodore free magazine, its editor or any of the staff, workers, volunteers or readers.

    ...Having said all that, probably somewhere near, well ahead of their time and probably not available anywhere else! -I think.

    On page 20 of "Prof. Andrew Colin' An Introduction to BASIC part 1,
    c16/plus/4" there is something similar to the Voter program/s. The first, "Vote" is a crude representation of what could happen with the first past the post system. Crude both programming wise and because there is no real/known scale to the bar chart.

    In the scenario, either Labour or Conservatory could form a coalition with any other party to get past the point where they have enough seats to form a majority government. On top of that, the minor parties, being Liberal Democrats, Green and 'Others'; could all get together themselves to form a government. Only Labour and Tory could then get together in order to block
    this (in theory) from becoming the majority and therefore the most likely to form government.

    As it happens I'm all against forcing people to vote as it is not democratic!


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