The Bateria 128K

Your Sinclair

Overall 40%

Jon Pillar 40%

PUBLIC HOUSE After a break last month to make room for the Soundtracker instructions, Public House returns with a vengeance. And a couple of demos. But no Brit special. Hee hee hee! Look, it's not my fault. Okay, a couple of Brit PD libraries have sent in lists of programs, but to date only one has actually sent a sample tape. Tsk. Erm... so I guess I'll have to dive back to my pile of PD from across the waters. (Sounds of someone diving back into his pile of PD from across the waters.) A-ha! A couple of demos from The Mad Guys and Pentagram, plus a new group called SSC. They'll do nicely. By the way, you'll notice I'm now giving demos a certificate rating as well as a score. If the demo contains bad language or objectionable sentiments. I'll give it a 'Naughty' rating. Better safe than sorry, eh? The Bateria 128K By SSC Rather Naughty Reviewer: Jon Pillar It's enough to make you seethe with jealousy. About three-quarters of the way through the mindbogglingly long scrolly that features in this demo, the author casually admits it's his first all machine-code program. Talented swine. (Ahem.) Bateria (good name, eh? is it some highly obscure foreign word? Did they mean to write Bacteria? Hours of fun!) is a three-part demo, the first part of which is a tidy intro, and the last part of which is a load of programming credits. The interesting bit is Part Two - a large sine-wave scrolly wibbling above a graphic of a stereo tape deck. But this tape deck is more than just a pretty picture. (Dramatic, eh?) By using a couple of control keys you can fast-forward and rewind through the various music tracks available. Ha ha! (Please yourselves.) The songs are all a bit poor. Except for one very near the end of the tape - but that's been ripped from a game, so we'll gloss over it. (Hem hem.) All in all, a very competent piece of coding, but a rather boring demo.

Nonono, that won't do at all. 'Close your eyes and prepare to have a quiet sit-down with a good book and perhaps a nice squashy cream bun.' That's much better.

Read it at Your Sinclair Rock'n'Roll Years