Psion Backgammon

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Getting Started 8/10

Value 8/10

Playability 8/10

Terry Pratt

Backgammon is a three-thousand year-old game of chance and skill for two people. This Psion/Sinclair version for the 16K ZX81, is most impressive. The cassette is well packaged, with the insert containing five pages of information including the history, rules and all other aspects of the game of backgammon which are relevant to beginners and experts alike. The program loaded without much difficulty. There are four skill levels and the game can run in fast or slow mode. This simply means that if the computer is taking it's turn and it is in fast mode, the screen goes blank and it makes up its mind four times faster. The 81 plays an adequate game at level 1, and plays extremely well at level 4. The graphics are adequate, with normal and inverse 'O's representing the two players' pieces. Entry of moves is very simple, as is accepting or rejecting the doubling cube - which the computer controls very well. You only have to press one key, and the ZX81 always asks you to confirm your entries. Backgammon costs £5.95 from Sinclair Research. There is a Dice program on side B of the cassette.

GAMES GLOSSARY If you can tell a Pacman from a Defender and a Galaxian from a Space Invader you probably know your way around computer games. But if some of the game terms we have used in this supplement, or in the issue itself, are new to you, then this page should supply the answers. In it we take some of the best known types of computer game and describe how they are played and what features these games normally incorporate. So, if we claim that Penetrator is a "Scramble-type game" and that leaves you just as much in the dark about what to expect, then below there is a full description of Scramble to put you in the picture. ASTEROIDS The Asteroids came into the arcades courtesy of Atari. It features a small dart-shaped craft controlled by the player which can rotate left or right and thrust or fire in the direction it is facing. There is one further control, the panic button (hyperspace) which lets you travel to another part of the screen chosen by the computer. The enemy is mainly made up of large asteroids which sweep across the screen in large deadly groups of rock. When blown up these break into smaller fragments worth extra points. There is extra danger supplied by two UFOs. The first larger creature you'll meet fairly early on. It tends to spray shots in all directions and often crashes into an asteroid. The smaller variety is far more deadly in its own shooting and also more difficult to hit. Each cleared screen means you start again with extra asteroids. DEFENDER You can't expect to keep a finger on every control button in Defender or you'd end up in knots. The action, which takes place above an alien landscape, involves some seven control buttons and takes patience to gain proper mastery of your lone craft. That patience can be rewarded though, as Defender is challenging from the word "Go". The Defender craft can go: up, down, thrust forward, reverse direction, fire, smart bomb and hyperspace. Ten humanoids wander on the landscape and these may fall prey to raiding alien creatures known as Landers. Landers pick up the humanoids and take them to the top of the screen. If they succeed in getting there the Landers turn into fearsome mutants hellbent on your destruction. In all there are six alien opponents. On top of Landers and Mutants, these are: Pods are quite harmless but contain the small and persistent Swarmers; Bombers seed space with white bombs and Baiters only appear if you take too long clearing a screen of the rest of the aliens. If all 10 humanoids are captured, the planet explodes and all remaining alien life attacks your craft at once. Defender games usually feature a small radar screen which shows what is going on at all parts of the planet surface. FROGGER Frogger has spawned a whole host of computer games with a similar theme. This game features a frog hero who must jump across a road and make his way across a river torrent to five frog-holes in the bank. The busy road usually features live streams of traffic travelling in both directions at varying speeds, between which the player must hop his frog without wrapping it around any fenders. Once across the road, the river can be crossed by leaping onto floating logs and onto the back of swimming turtles, until our frog can enter a vacant spot in the far bank. Turtles have a habit of diving though so don't let a frog dally too long on one. Being carried off the edge of the screen (by log or turtle) also results in a note in the funeral column of Amphibians' Weekly. When all five frog-holes have been filled, the game becomes more difficult with extra traffic being added to the road, snakes traversing the bank between road and river and alligators appearing instead of logs in the river. A timer running down on each frog also adds to the difficulties. The arcade original also featured a small lady frog who could be "picked up" on the logs and offered a lift home for a bonus. Other bonuses can be scored by entering a frog-hole in which a tasty fly meal has come to rest. DONKEY KONG Donkey Kong is the strange name for a climbing and jumping game which features a starlet-grabbing monster gorilla. Often referred to as Crazy Kong or Crazy Climber in the computer circles, it has only just found its way onto the home screen. The game features a gorilla holding a girl captive at the top of the screen and an intrepid hero (Mario the carpenter), who starts at the bottom of the screen. Between the two is a connecting network of platforms and ladders up which Mario must run to achieve his rescue. Kong hurls barrels down the screen and Mario makes use of his "jump" button to leap over them. He can also grab a hammer and smash the barrels as they approach him. Once at the top of the screen a new complex is built with Mario, again starting from the bottom with a view to rescue. This time the screen features a series of conveyor belts and deadly fires which travel around on the ladders and belts. GALAXIANS The Galaxians were the sons of Space Invaders. Instead of proceeding down the screen at a leisurely pace, they wavered at the top of the screen before swooping down in batches of two or three (or more often on a solo mission) firing bombs. The player has the usual left, right and fire controls on his laser base and must take care not to get trapped in a corner. He scores double points for a galaxian hit in mid-swoop and there are bonus points for taking out the red fleet commanders, who usually descend flanked by their generals, dispersing bombs at such a rate that the first instinct is to flee for cover. That is the essence of Galaxians but with each destroyed platoon, new waves appear at screen top and their attacks become more frequent, more accurate and, all too often, more deadly! PACMAN The ghostly world of Pacman is made up of a dot-filled maze, a hungry dot-eater and four pursuing spectres. Pacman variations can be found under a whole range of titles from Vic-men to Gobbleman, Snapper to Super Glooper and many others. Most dot-eating games are related to it. The main character is the dot-eater, which travels around the maze, eating every dot he touches. His objective is to clear the screen of dots. He is hampered in this by the four chasing ghosts whose touch is lethal. The Pacman's main defence against the ghosts, who usually number four, are energiser dots. These pulse in the four corners of the maze and, upon being eaten, reverse the roles for a short while. This means that Pacman can turn the tables on the ghosts and eat them for bonus points. He is allowed only a few seconds of dominance before the usual hunter and hunted rules come back into operation. It is also usual for fruits to appear on the screen occasionally and these too can be consumed by Pacman for bonus points. When Pacman has cleared the screen, it refills with dots and the game restarts except that this time the ghosts are a little livelier and a new fruit, worth extra points, appears at this level. SCRAMBLE Scramble should have a big one-way sign on its cabinet. The screen rolls from right to left, taking the player's craft along it into ever-increasing danger. Scramble variations often contain the word "Mission" or "Attack" but there are some weird and wonderful titles about. The player controls a craft heading right across the screen over hilly terrain His craft can never turn around and opt out of its mission but he does have some control over his destiny. His controls are up and down, fast and slow and he can both bomb and fire at his enemies. The Scrambler is not usually equipped with enough fuel to complete his task, but it is normal to obtain more fuel by bombing fuel tanks on the ground and so (mysteriously) replenish his own stocks. The enemies come in all shapes and sizes. Most common are missiles which fire up from the ground as your craft passes overhead and alien invader creatures which frequently inhabit caves and fly at the player's craft. The original Scramble game sent the player through a series of different terrains with new challenges in each section. And most computer Scrambles attempt to duplicate this with a number of different stages. Scramble requires a cool head which can find the right control in a crisis, but it makes an ideal computer game as success naturally leads to new and more difficult stages. INVADERS Space Invaders started the whole computer game craze back in 1977 and most gamers know the format backwards. Still, just a brief resume... The invaders come in waves above the ground and move in rows across the screen one step at a time, firing missiles earthwards. When one row of the aliens reach an edge of the screen, the whole platoon jump down a line and return back the way they came. When they achieve their slow progression to the bottom of the screen, the game ends. The player controls a laser base which moves left to right and fires directly up from its position. His aim is to blow up the entire fleet before it reaches the bottom of the screen. Flying saucers move across the top of the screen in both directions and can be hit for a mystery bonus score. In the arcade original, top saucer scores of 300 were achieved by firing 22 shots before shooting at the first saucer, then firing 14 shots in between each subsequent saucer. Some computer versions have copied this technique.

TIME AND MOTION The classic board games transfer well to computers who make better than average opponents on all the games dealt with here. But there is more to choosing a chess, backgammon, draughts or reversi program, than picking one which will beat you every time. Most important in these programs are a display that is clear and easy on the eye, coupled with pieces which can be easily recognised. Programs which use disturbing colour clashes or badly shaped pieces will hardly help a player trying to give caretul study to a critical position. The program should also draw a player's attention to its move. Both an audio and visual signal should be included to let the player know it's moving and which place it is changing. A good response time is crucial. If left to its own devices for long enough most computers can come up with a good move. But long study should be the human player's prerogative - computers are used for their speed. Finally an easy-to-understand, and implement, move input system will ensure that the program does not start gathering dust after the first few tries. In chess it is difficult to come up with anything better than E2-E4 but this can easily lead to a mistake which is still a valid move and completely ruin a player's chances. Few programs allow the player to take a move back, try and find one that does. Other key things to question with regard to chess: does the program always respond to P-Q4 openings the same way? If so you're in for a dull opening repertoire. Does it play forced moves quickly? Does it keep its head when things go wrong? Some programs just give up on bad positions. Terry Pratt

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

FROM THE COCKPIT Bank, dive and climb as the Earth travels past beneath your feet - or actually it's on your TV screen which has been transformed into a cockpit window. Flight Simulation is the name of the game which is one of a series of five being produced for Sinclair b y software house, Psion. The simulation places you in a cockpit of an aircraft. The sky and the ground move through this window, and although it hardly bears comparison with the multi-million pound flight simulators which real pilots train on, it does offer some of the excitement and a very real challenge. The tapes are marketed under the Sinclair label and will be available from the company or your local W. H. Smith for ZX81s with a 16K Rampack. Flight Simulation costs £5.95 and the other programs are: Fantasy Games which retails at £4.35 and offers two adventures in a Perilous Swamp and on the Sorceror's Island. Chess costs £6.95 and has six levels of play with a chess clock on which to time yourself. Backgammon, the gamblers' favourite dice game has a graphics board, rolling dice, and doubling dice for £5.95. The Space Invaders look-alike, Space Raiders shares a cassette with the familiar City Bomb type game, Bomber and retails at £3.95.