ZX Breakout

ZX Computing

Nick Pearce

SOFT OPTIONS FOR YOUR ZX81 Puzzled by Dr. Nowotnik, after a glass of wine Nick Pearce settles down to checking out some of the software commercially available for your ZX81. SPACE INVADERS, SCRAMBLE AND BREAKOUT - MICROGEN Space Invaders is Microgen's version of the arcade type game of the same name in which you defend the Earth from successive armies of invaders. On LOADing the program, you are presented with a choice of three speeds (normal, fast and superfast). The invaders are displayed at the start of the game and there is a short pause before the action starts to allow you to prepare yourself. You have three lives (bases), and lose one each time a bomb from the invader fleet lands on you, or if you allow any invader ship to get down to the level of your shields. The technique is to knock out the lower ships first with your laser beam. Ten points are awarded for each invader ship hit, and if you clear the first wave, another will take its place, and another... Each time this occurs the game speed is increased slightly. The game performed well and I found it enjoyable without being positively addictive. However, I thought the action was somewhat jerky, particularly at the slowest speed. I was told by an experienced player who had a go that it bears the most similarity to the arcade game when it is played in the superfast mode - too fast for me! The program includes the option to use Microgen's joysticks, which I think would make a significant improvement over the use of the touch sensitive keyboard for interactive games of this sort. A nice finishing touch is the display at the end of each game giving the score for that game j and the highest score so far, thus enabling competitions to I be played. This game is also marketed by Sinclair under the Psion label with Bomber, also by Microgen, on the reverse side. Scramble is another fast interactive arcade type game. In this one, you are flying low over mountainous enemy terrain, the object being to keep your ship in the air for as long as possible. At the same time, you have to shoot down as many of the alien attackers as you can. and there are air-to-air and ground based missiles to contend with as well. Points are awarded for each alien and air-to-air or ground missile you hit. Your fleet is small - three ships - and only one is in the air at a time, although you can get a bonus ship if your score reaches five thousand points. Fortunately, you carry an unlimited supply of ammunition plus one 'smart' bomb in each ship which will destroy everything in sight. The nearer you get to the enemy base, the more frenetic become the alien attacks on your ship. Again, joysticks can be used and would be a definite advantage with this game. It is particularly difficult with the touch sensitive keyboard of the ZX81 to both maintain and achieve forward and up and down movement as well as battling with the aliens. As with Space Invaders, the most recent game score and 'highest so far' score are displayed to facilitate competitions. ANOTHER BRICK... Finally, from Microgen, Breakout is the traditional 'ping pong' video game. Again you have a choice of three speeds (normal, fast and superfast) and three lives per game. You score ten points for each brick removed from the wall, and after each hit, the speed of the ball increases slightly. There are seven angles of rebound off the bat, and one life is lost each time the ball misses the bat. You win one thousand points for completely clearing the wall (not much chance of that with yours truly at the controls, but with practice and at the slowest speed, who knows...), and a record of the highest score is kept. A well-written and enjoyable version on this not terribly inspiring theme. All these three Microgen games require more than 1K and are written in machine code. They are 'locked', ie the programs cannot be LISTed and, for example, modified by the user. They perform well, are enjoyable, and are idiot and crash proof. However, with only one game on each cassette, they are in my opinion rather overpriced. There is only one recording on each cassette, although the review copies all LOADed first time. 'Space Invaders', 'Scramble' and 'Breakout' cost £3.95 each and are available from Microgen, [redacted].