Amstrad Action TYPE-IN PROJECT

[dthrone]

I'm sure they printed Bomber from the back of the CPC manual as a type-in one issue then issued some sort of warning/apology the next issue?  Can't remember the issue numbers but it would be mid-late era.  Now that was definitely copyright infringement 

[AMSDOS]

I'm sure they printed Bomber from the back of the CPC manual as a type-in one issue then issued some sort of warning/apology the next issue?  Can't remember the issue numbers but it would be mid-late era.  Now that was definitely copyright infringement 

There were lots of naughty type-ins around 1991, which began with the Bomber program in AA70, Thro' the Wall in AA71 was a Breakout game lifted from the Manual (which was out of an Early ACU), a similar program also appeared in a later AA Type-ins as well, and in the following AA72 Picstore appeared which was also out of an ACU. Prior to '91, I can only recall a Space Hockey game being published in AA65. The funny thing about that was AA originally published it in AA42. I don't think it happened any earlier than that.

[AMSDOS]

While I've been playing around with the AA57 Type-ins, I found an unusual use for the Bigprint Routine. It's possible when using the command to have the Transparent Mode on, so redefining and multicoloured characters can be used, my example is using a 8x4 redefined graphic, though had it been 8x8, the Bigprint routine could add additional colours to the graphic, allowing the use of contrasting colours - from Yellow to Dark Yellow or the Greens or Blues.


My little example is just an example of a 2 Colour Space Ship stuck in the Middle of the Screen with Left/Right Cursor Keys to move it, because of the size of the ship (being 16x8), moving it across the screen is very quick. 

Code: [Select]


100 SYMBOL 255,8,20,34,65,0,0,0,0:SYMBOL 254,0,8,28,62,0,0,0,0:MODE 0:INK 0,11:INK 1,26:INK 2,9:BORDER 0:ton$=CHR$(22)+CHR$(1):toff$=CHR$(22)+CHR$(0):a$=CHR$(255):b$=CHR$(254):c$=CHR$(32):x=10:y=10:PRINT ton$;
110 GOSUB 190
120 WHILE INKEY(18)<>0
130   IF INKEY(8)=0 THEN IF x>1 THEN GOSUB 180:|BIGPRINT,x,y,@c$,1,1:x=x-1:GOSUB 170:GOSUB 190
140   IF INKEY(1)=0 THEN IF x<19 THEN GOSUB 180:|BIGPRINT,x,y,@c$,1,1:x=x+1:GOSUB 170:GOSUB 190
150 WEND
160 MODE 2:END
170 PRINT ton$;:RETURN
180 PRINT toff$;:RETURN
190 |BIGPRINT,x,y,@a$,1,1:|BIGPRINT,x,y@b$,2,2:RETURN


[scruss]

There were lots of “lifts” between magazines, sometimes direct, sometimes with variations. Amstrad Action July 1992 has a very close variant (adds a high score table) of Star Dodger, written for ACU September 1988. Star Dodger is itself a clone of Asterisk Tracker, a BBC BASIC one-liner published in BEEBUG magazine in December 1984.
Type-ins and articles for ACU were published on an "all rights" basis: you transferred all rights (except for moral right, which includes the right to be recognized as the author) internationally forever in exchange for payment. I'm pretty sure that Future Publishing had the same terms, though I have more memories of sending the rights slips back to Adlington every month so I could get paid.

[AMSDOS]

There were lots of “lifts” between magazines, sometimes direct, sometimes with variations. Amstrad Action July 1992 has a very close variant (adds a high score table) of Star Dodger, written for ACU September 1988. Star Dodger is itself a clone of Asterisk Tracker, a BBC BASIC one-liner published in BEEBUG magazine in December 1984.

I remember typing in that Star Dodger from AA back in the day and having a lot of fun with it, without really knowing about the original game from ACU, though I always wondered why it had v2. Apart from the Hi-score Table which is a nice addition to the game, I think the only other difference is the Asterisks are now Green.


I'd like to try that BBC BASIC one-liner though, just to see how it goes with BBC BASIC for the CPC.

Type-ins and articles for ACU were published on an "all rights" basis: you transferred all rights (except for moral right, which includes the right to be recognized as the author) internationally forever in exchange for payment. I'm pretty sure that Future Publishing had the same terms, though I have more memories of sending the rights slips back to Adlington every month so I could get paid.

The Star Dodger game created a situation where coders were adapting other peoples programmes, I'm unsure if anyone pulled up on that programme either, though it pretty much created a series of circumstances where people modify existing programmes and sent them to AA. Another controversial game being Parrot from AA102 Type-ins which came out of an early book (Sensational Games for the Amstrad CPC464), however the game AA published, had been modified to run in MODE 1, which on inspection with the original game took quite a bit of modifying in the code. I guess if the author had changed the Graphics to something else and retitled the game, it may had never of been suspected of being lifted. 

[scruss]

The Star Dodger game created a situation where coders were adapting other peoples programmes, I'm unsure if anyone pulled up on that programme either …

AA published an "Oops" the next issue after some people (but not me, who wrote the thing) complained.

I'd like to try that BBC BASIC one-liner though, just to see how it goes with BBC BASIC for the CPC.

It sort of works, but the colour detection doesn't work as expected so the game doesn't offer any useful interaction. If you want to try it, it's easiest to dump the source one-liner to a text file (don't forget the ^Z EOF marker), transfer it to a DSK image then *EXEC the text file from BBC BASIC. That gets the very long line in with no buffer overflow problems.

[AMSDOS]

AA published an "Oops" the next issue after some people (but not me, who wrote the thing) complained.

Yeah, seemed to be more about the error AA made in republishing the same Type-ins twice. 

It sort of works, but the colour detection doesn't work as expected so the game doesn't offer any useful interaction. If you want to try it, it's easiest to dump the source one-liner to a text file (don't forget the ^Z EOF marker), transfer it to a DSK image then *EXEC the text file from BBC BASIC. That gets the very long line in with no buffer overflow problems.

Was just about to post another program in the BBC BASIC thread which falls along the same lines. 

[Zoe Robinson]

Damn, I always liked Star Dodger. It was the best of the lot in that "Christmas Crackers" type-in booklet AA put on the cover one Christmas. I never realised back then that it was nicked.

[scruss]

There's another "Star Dodger" - unrelated - that AA published shortly before my Star Dodger appeared in ACU.
Mine was originally called 2D Star Dodge (after 3D Star Strike) but for $reasons->{'unknown'} Simon and Jeff didn't like the name and asked if I could change it to Star Dodger. I thought that 2D Star Dodge was lost forever, but I was amazed to find it on a French cracking group site. I must've shared it with penpal in Le Havre (we exchanged a tape roughly twice a year: man, there were some weird CPC stuff coming out of France back then) and he must've passed it on to someone who kept it.

[AMSDOS]

There's another "Star Dodger" - unrelated - that AA published shortly before my Star Dodger appeared in ACU.

The funniest thing about that one, is a very similar One Liner was published in the May 1986 issue of ACU. I found the one in AA21 (June '87), though as ACU had another similar programme with those short programmes, it seems likely people would come up with similar solutions for those short programs. 

[ComSoft6128]

Convergent evolution in the programming world

[zeropolis79]

I seem to recall seeing AA and ACU print readers amendments to type-in programs (like a Printer option for a database and keyboard controls for SMART 2 (even though that was a covertape))

[AMSDOS]

I seem to recall seeing AA and ACU print readers amendments to type-in programs (like a Printer option for a database and keyboard controls for SMART 2 (even though that was a covertape))

The Accounts program from AA56 Type-ins was like this and a reader amended the program to include a Print Option, which got published in the AA58 Forum.
I checked to see which version was included on the Wiki and discovered the program is BASIC 1.1 only too, with the program making use of DERR, which is a BASIC 1.1 Function for returning Disk Errors. However, the program which is on  the Wiki doesn't include the additional Print Option.


I'm so glad AA didn't include a copy of SMART 2 on every Covertape, as I recall the original program (Smart) was originally published in Type-ins before I started collecting AA, every so often some amendments/alterations were made to the program, though it was when it was making a return to the Covertape, my Newsagent failed to stock that issue, as if some mysterious force is prohibiting me from using that program? 

[AMSDOS]

AA17 Type-ins page has been updated on the Wiki after I noticed a Typo I made in the Landscape Graphic which didn't update the INKs, which resulted in some patterns using alternating colours. 

[Fessor]

Have you tried this? It installs the commands of Basic 1.1 on the 464.
http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=4403

[AMSDOS]

Have you tried this? It installs the commands of Basic 1.1 on the 464.
http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=4403

That's quite an impressive one, though it's always going to be tough reproducing DERR, it doesn't seem to be part of the package.

[AMSDOS]

I made an update on the AA51 Type-ins file after noticing a DATA error typo in the EVAL routine. A corrected programme was available on CPC-Power and have used that to update the DSK file here. I've also included some additional instructions on the page to show how what the Command does. To be honest though, it's more of a curio that only works on 464, I don't think 664/6128 users at the time weren't missing much.

[AMSDOS]

I've updated the DSK from AA58 Type-Ins after noticing an alternative version of Bounce (compatible on 464) was being used, instead of the BASIC 1.1 version which was published in the Magazine.
There was a letter published in AA60 Forum (attached below), which nearly has the whole game covered except for Line 630 which has 2 GRAPHICS PEN commands and Line 830 has a CLEAR INPUT in it. The only trouble is PEN only changes the Text Cursor PEN (not GRAPHICS) and yes I wondered if it were possible to use PEN in Text Mode, switch to Graphical Mode with TAG and PRINT the character with that PEN colour, the answer is No.  
I don't know if it would be worthwhile playing around with this game (coding wise), one of the annoying things about this game is it's set difficulty. The Author claims to have achieved a Hi-score of 31 and in the Game itself a Number of "Red Mines" is set as a Variable in Line 410 (nd) which has been set to 10 on line 135 and it doesn't change, so it might have been a better game if that value slowly increased with each screen.