Reversi

ZX Computing

Nick Pearce

SINCLAIR SOFTWARE FOR YOUR '81 Our intrepid reviewer, Nick Pearce, inspects the new range of software from the Sinclair stable. REVERSI - MINE OF INFORMATION Reversi is a late nineteenth century board game. Mine of information's computer version also goes under the name 'Othello' (as readers of the letter pages of this magazine will no doubt recall). It is a game of skill between two players using a draught board. Counters, black on one side and white on the other, are used. A move is made by placing a counter on a vacant square next to an opponent's counter, and each move must result in the 'capture' of an opponent's piece - a capture is made by trapping a counter showing the opponent's colour (or a line of such counters) between the new counter and one showing your own colour already on the board. The game ends when neither player can make a capture. The winner is the player with the largest number of counters showing their colour. Now to MOI's game. After LO ADing the cassette, a menu is displayed and you can choose to play a game against an opponent, a game against the computer, a 'sample' game, or to change the start position. Using this latter facility you can select for yourself a few advantageous positions the corners, for example - to give yourself a chance against the computer! For the novice, the sample game is very useful for gaining familiarity with the rules and learning something of the strategy behind the game. You can go forwards and backwards through the sample game so that the effect of each move can be clearly seen. The board is displayed on the screen with the square coordinates (A to H on the horizontal axis, 1 to 8 on the vertical scale), displayed along the board edges. White and black pieces are denoted by 'O' and 'inverse O' respectively. The display includes the current score and the co-ordinates of the last move. After each move, the computer 'flashes' the pieces captured for a few seconds - a nice touch. NO CHEATING! The computer checks that the chosen moves are valid. Each time it is your turn to move, you can call up various game options - change level of play, replay last move, change sides, pass, or return to BASIC. There are nine levels of play, the response at levels 1 and 2 is practically instantaneous; levels 4, 5 and 6 take about three, 10 and 4 0 seconds respectively, up to level 9 which takes a very long time indeed. Harder levels of play take longer as the computer looks further ahead and so has more possibilities to evaluate. I was somewhat disconcerted when I first tried level 9, the screen goes blank and after waiting for a while nothing happened and I thought the program had crashed. It would be nice if the board w a s displayed, perhaps with some reassuring message such as 'wait please, I am thinking', whilst the computer evaluates its next move. At least you can then ponder your following move. The hardest levels really take far too long between moves for a sensible game to be played. In any case, levels 1, 2 and 3 are hard enough for even a good player. If you can beat it at level 4 you must have played this game before, to beat it at level 5 you must be very good indeed! The cassette is recorded on both sides, and the game takes about three minutes to load. It is written almost entirely in machine code. Well-written instructions, complete with some hints on tactics and strategy, are included in the package. Reversi is a very sophisticated program, easy to use and enjoyable to play. It is probably the best 'Othello' program for the ZX81 on the market, and will certainly improve the play of both beginners and more experienced players alike.

The board and score table of the game, Reversi.

Sinclair User

John Gilbert 8/10

SINCLAIR ACTS TO IMPROVE THE STANDARD OF ITS NAMED SOFTWARE John Gilbert looks at the latest group of cassettes issued by Sinclair and finds that it is now setting the standards. A new batch of Sinclair Research software for the ZX-81 and Spectrum shows a marked improvement in the quality of programs and a continuation of fine artwork on the cassette inserts. The reason is that the company is selling programs from other independent companies, such as Melbourne House and Artic, instead of continuing to rely on Psion, Mikro-Gen and ICL. The Hobbit which takes first place in the new releases for quality and value for money. This adventure game, which the makers claim uses artificial intelligence, is discussed in Mind Games on page 93. VU-3D, for the 48K Spectrum, is another good offering from Psion. It allows the user to create a three-dimensional representation of an object on the television screen. The object can then be rotated and viewed from any angle. The objects can be displayed as wirework figures or can be shaded. They can also be magnified and reduced. It is possible to store the figure on tape in a data file and re-load it to view again. The program costs £9.95 but even though it has some good features it still seems over-priced. Games feature strongly in the new tapes. Sinclair is selling the Artic range of adventures, A, C and D. Adventure A works on the 16K or 48K Spectrum and 16K ZX-81 and is called Planet of Death. You are stranded on a planet and must return to your spaceship. There is no guide to the keywords but with a little thought you can discover the help command. At times the suggestions can be very unhelpful and it is a good idea to construct a map, as some of the help suggestions may make you retrace your footsteps. The next adventure so far released is C, called Ship of Doom. It can be run on the 48K Spectrum and 16K ZX-81. Your ship is captured by aliens who are searching for humanoids to replace their brains with microchips. The object of the game is to escape from the alien craft by breaking the gravitational field. To do so you must find the control room of the alien ship. The help command is a little more useful in this game and it is easier to get further when playing the game. Adventure D, called Espionage island, can be used on the 48K Spectrum or 16K ZX-81. You must escape from an aircraft which is about to crash into the Atlantic. You must the reach the island safely, avoid capture, and try to discover the secret of the island. The game is more difficult than the others and many people have not managed to get out of the aircraft, even though there is a parachute. All the adventures cost £6.95. Leaving adventure games, Reversi, or Othello as it is sometimes called, can be played on the 16K Spectrum or 16K ZX-81. The game has nine levels, from novice to expert, and the computer is difficult to beat. The makers claim that Reversi reflects the strict contemporary morality of Victorian society but we believe that it can traced to Arabic origins. Reversi costs £7.95. An interesting addition to the range of software is the Artic 1K Chess. It takes some technical wizardry to squeeze this kind of game into the unexpanded ZX-81. The game can be played using one of two opening moves. Because of the lack of memory, castling, pawn promotion and capturing en passant are not allowed. The game loads in approximately 40 seconds and that is ideal for someone who wants a quick game of chess without having to load from a tape which takes several minutes. The computer also makes its moves very fast for the amount of memory available to it. 1K Chess costs £4.95. Super Glooper is an amusing game of Pac-man on the 16K ZX-81. Glooper must paint the maze before the aliens kill him. Unfortunately it is difficult to evade those aliens using the standard ZX-81 keyboard but it is not impossible. Glooper can also pick up one of the shields at the corners of the maze to protect himself and chase the aliens. On the other side of the tape is Frogs, a game of Frogger. You must get the frogs over the river via the moving boats to the jetties on the other bank. If froggie falls into the river, it drowns. You score points for each frog you get across the river and you can have eight frogs to send to their deaths. Super Glooper and Frogs cost £4.95. Another game with a familiar-sounding theme is Through the Wall. It is based on Breakout and is available for the 16K ZX-81. On the other side of the cassette is Scramble, also a familiar theme. Both games on one cassette represent good value at £4.95. A package for the 1K ZX-81, called 1K Games, has also been released. The games include Jackpot, in which you must try to win the 25 pence jackpot from a one-armed bandit; Etch and Sketch, where you can draw pictures on the screen; and Maze Game, where you must find your way out of the conventional maze. The release of this cassette, costing £4.95, is a good idea at a time when so many people are buying ZX-81s. A basic Toolkit is available for the 16K ZX-81. It provides a series of machine code routines to make the job of programming easier. It includes a re-number routine, a search and replace routine, a merge routine to put together two separate Basic programs, and a routine to put a Basic program above RAMTOP and out of the way of the NEW command. The Toolkit costs £5.95. Two database programs are available in the range for the 48K Spectrum. They are called Collector's Pack and Club Record Controller. Collector's Pack can be used to store information about coins, stamps or even records. The Club Record Controller will store information about people such as addresses and telephone numbers. It would be useful to schools or even someone who runs a private club. Both packages are easy to use and cost £9.95. Adventure B, Inca Curse, for the 48K Spectrum is an upgrade of an adventure which Artic wrote for the 16K ZX-81. The adventurer is exploring in the jungle when he finds an Incan Temple. The aim is to go in and drag out all the treasure, or as much a you can carry. It all seems so easy until you enter the game and step into the temple. The authors have managed to cram a good deal into this adventure and the Artic top score of 3,200 points will take some beating. We must admit that it is not one of the adventures in which we have made much progress. Adventure B costs £6.95. The latest release of tapes is certainly better than the previous one. The games, utility, and business areas have been covered well but there is still a lack of good educational software. The only tapes available tend to be multi-choice and question-and-answer sessions. The Psion tapes seem to be the best for quality at the moment and the ones with the most interesting concepts. None of the cassettes reviewed was bad but The Hobbit, Vu-3D, 1K Chess, and Super Glooper seem best.