Games Computing Magazine

[wesmond]

Hi,

Here are the Atari listings from the "Games Computing" magazine. There is no checksum on these, and printing wasn't always easy; I've tried to keep things as authentic as possible (including many typos in the listings!) - but in a few places where a quick bit of code was necessary to make the game playable, I've noted where I've done it.

The original listings I found at http://flaxcottage.com/GamesComputing/default.asp
All the front covers are also here: http://www.videogamemags.com/magazines/ ... covers.htm

Jan 1984: LASER PRACTICE (LASER.BAS) by E. H. Beresford, p60-61 - Kind of, race the dot to your opponent and shoot them.

Feb 1984: SIMON SAYS (SIMONSY.BAS) by S. M. HILLEN, p26-29 - including an animation of a urinating dog.

Mar 1984: Nothing for Atari.

Apr 1984: Nothing for Atari

May 1984: COLLISION COURSE (COLLISON.BAS - as it's often mis-spelt that way in the text...) p76-77 by E. H. Beresford - quite a fun multi-screen sort of "avoid the things coming to get you"

Jun 1984: THE ARG WARS (ARGSWARS.BAS) - p38-40 - author not given. It's a full strategy wargame in BASIC, quite slow - and afraid I don't have enough patience to run it in much detail.

Also Jun 1984: FROG PRINCE (FROGPR.BAS) - p42-44 - S. M. HILLEN - you sort of trace the shape of a key, and it draws a picture of a frog. I have changed line 6330 from GOTO 95, to GOTO 6330 - seeing as the previous line says, "press system reset" - and otherwise you don't get to see the picture of the frog...

ALSO Jun 1984! It's either called "ON THE PISTE", or in the code "SKI-RUN" - by Paul Wagstaff. p78-81. I've called it "THEPISTE.BAS" - a downhill ski-ing game.

Jul 1984 - the issue is missing from flaxcottage.com - but the front cover on videomags doesn't mention anything Atari.

Aug 1984 - "HUNTER KILLER" - (or in the code it is just called "SUB HUNT" - I called it SUBHUNT.BAS) - by David Moore p54-57 - drop bombs on moving subs...

Sept 1984 - "HOT PURSUIT" by N. Pearce, p39-40. (HOTPUR.BAS) - race to the flashing square, as the screen fills up with squares. 2-player only, and actually quite fun

Oct 1984 - "THE RUINS" - or perhaps just "RUIN" by Michael Kempster (RUINS.BAS), p34-36 single screen maze game with variations - collect the stuff and don't get caught.

Also Oct 1984 - "HELICOPTER PILOT" - p45-48, by Andrew Shaw - sort of like Moonlander in a helicopter with wind. (HELI.BAS)

Nov 1984 - Nothing for Atari.

Dec 1984 - CITY DESTROYER, by M. Osborne, p65-68. Hmm. This is a BLITZ-like game - and the text talks about two listings, but only one was printed. Since we have POKE 756,144 on lines 6 and 4001, but no redefining of a charset, I guess that's what listing 1 would have done. SO. I've improvised CITYDST1.BAS and chosen some sensible characters, and then CITYDEST.BAS is the original listing, to be run afterwards. ALSO, I have added HIT=0 on line 1020, otherwise your bombs misbehave if the previous one hit the ground, which is really annoying. And lastly, I added POKE 1616,0 on line 25000 to reset the DLI counter, otherwise you might get green sky and blue ground on your second game.

Jan 1985 - BOOT ERROR, by Andrew Shaw, designed by Kenneth Shaw (BOOTERRO.BAS) p64-67. Sort of reactions/trace the line kind of game.

Feb 1985 - missing from flaxcottage - no evidence of Atari on the front cover.

Mar 1985 - Blackjack (BLACKJAK.BAS) - by S. Boxley - p46-51. On line 1120, I've changed V=14 to V=11 - otherwise your ACEs never work.

And that's the lot.
Hope that helps,
Wes