Atarimania Forum

I have been having fun/mania typing in type-ins from the lesser-known UK Computer & Video Games magazine. I have gotten through issues #1-33 and have fixed some bugs when programmers POKEd what that they thought were static memory positions. A zip file for #1-21 has been ftp'ed to your 8bit directory named "CVG games to AtariMania.zip". Included is a "00CVG BASIC 1-22.txt" tab-delimited file that can be pasted into a spreadsheet to help organize your integration. Some files I downloaded, but many I typed and tried to debug. The ones on your most wanted list include:

Computer & Video Games
CVG#9 Casino Royale (weird blackjack rules)
CVG#10 Martian Explorer (lunar lander type game)
CVG#11 Bomber (BOMBER.BAS holds to the listing but is buggy; BOMBER2.BAS is modded to use addressed screen memory)
CVG#12 Wild Strawberries (STRAWBRY.BAS holds to the listing but is buggy; STRABRY2 modded to poke custom font into RAMTOP; difficult Space Panic, monsters need to be handicapped by lowering escape probability on line 750)
CVG#13 Uranium Core (URANIUM.BAS holds to the listing but is buggy; URANIUM2 modded to poke custom font into RAMTOP)
CVG#14 Airlock (annoying timed maze with unfair doors)
CVG#15 Submarine Hunter (simple Sea Wolf imitator from above)
CVG#16 Over the Orchard Wall (simple catch game)
CVG#17 Dr. Who (DRWHO.BAS holds to the listing but is buggy; DRWHO2.BAS modded to poke custom font into RAMTOP; a nice winnable 2-D Adventure)
CVG#18 Dragon Run (simple pixel chase with tree barriers)
CVG#19 Grow Worm (Slither)
CVG#20 Ten Commandments (Oregon Trail like game; need miraculous luck or hack all the RND statements)
CVG#21 Draughts (weak AI, clunky text interface)
CVG#21 Squonk (maze shooting duel)
CVG#21 Nivek's Invaders (surpisingly fun Space Invaders)
CVG#21 Zig Zag (simple worm with randomly appearing barriers)

Good luck have fun,
Livorno

Here's another installment of type-ins from Computer & Video Games magazine. I have uploaded another zip file to the ftp/8bit directory named "CVG Games 24-34.zip".

Logjam from CVG#24 is a basic catching game.
Space Hog from CVG#24 is also a catching game with a pseudo 3-d aspect.
Missile Attack from CVG#25 is Missile Command without machine language.
Lunar Rescue from CVG#26 is similar to Frogger dodging traffic.
Crash Landing from CVG#27 is a bombing game that seems monotonous and unfair.
Briky from CVG#28 is yet another Slither/Worm game.
Wall Defence from CVG#29 is essentially an upside down shoot 'em up.
En Avant from CVG#33 is a strategic battle simulation.
Super Solitaire from CVG#34 is the peg solitaire game.

Wow, you've done a pretty hard work there! Many thanks

I finally figured how to do attachments (duh). Here are my submissions to fill MIAs from Computer & Video Games:

TITLE AUTHOR CVG SERIAL PAGES FILENAME
Casino Royale Nigel Hughes #9 46-51 ROYALE.BAS Bomber John Brierley #11 50-51 BOMBER2.BAS Airlock Stephen Linger #14 56-59 AIRLOCK.BAS

TITLE AUTHOR CVG SERIAL PAGES FILENAME
Submarine Hunter Hugh Denholm #15 32-37 SUBHUNT.BAS Over the Orchard Wall Peter and Mark Wright #16 56-59 ORCHARD.BAS Dr. Who Adventure Jeremy Guggenheim #17 48-53 DRWHO2.BAS

Computer & Video Game issue #42 contained a text adventure by Paul Coppins. It was hard to read the magazine printout to tell the difference between digits 3, 5, 6, 8, and 9. But through extensive playtesting, I got all the puzzles to work and reach 100% victory. I hacked the game save to use filename H:DUN.DAT instead of the original C: in lines 2445 and 2480; you can hack them to D: or C: whatever you prefer. I found it best to work in Turbo Basic XL because of both memory and speed. In the attached zipfile are the standard Atari Basic DUNGEON.BAS file, an importable .TXT source (ENTER "H6:DUNGEON.TXT), an ATASCII PDF printout (the only special character is the clear-screen), and an efficient walkthrough for the adventure.

TITLE_____________AUTHOR_________________CVG SERIAL__PAGES__FILENAME
Dragon Run________Peter and Mark Wright__#18_________44-45__DRAGNRUN.BAS Grow Worm_________Paul Margrave__________#19_________64-65__GROWWORM.BAS Ten Commandments__Mark Bell______________#20_________54-56__CMDMENTS.BAS

TITLE,,,,,AUTHOR,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,CVG,SERIAL,,PAGES,,FILENAME
Squonk,,,,Graeme,Hutchinson,,,,,,#21,,,,,,,,,48-49,,SQUONK.BAS Zig,Zag,,,David,Johnson,,,,,,,,,,#21,,,,,,,,,89,,,,,ZIGZAG.BAS Draughts,,Paresh,Solanki,,,,,,,,,#21,,,,,,,,,90-91,,DRAUGHTS.BAS

TITLE,,,,,,,,,,,,,AUTHOR,,,,,,,,,,CVG#,,PAGES,,,,FILENAME
Nivek's,Invaders,,Kevin,Goulding,,#21,,,92-94,,,,NIVEKS.BAS Logjam,,,,,,,,,,,,Stephen,Linger,,#24,,,108-121,,LOGJAM.BAS Space,Hog,,,,,,,,,Mike,Singleton,,#24,,,86-87,,,,SPACEHOG.BAS

TITLE,,,,,,,,,,,AUTHOR,,,,,,,,,,CVG#,,PAGES,,,,FILENAME
Missile Attack,,David Rawlings,,#25,,,108-111,,MISLATAK.BAS Lunar Rescue,,,,David Haybarth,,#26,,,136-139,,LUNRESCU.BAS Crash Landing,,,David Taylor,,,,#27,,,68-71,,,,CRSHLAND.BAS

TITLE,,,,,,,,,,,AUTHOR,,,,,,,,,,,CVG#,,PAGES,,,,,,,FILENAME
Briky,,,,,,,,,,,Graham Ward,,,,,,#28,,,136-,,,,,,,,BRIKY.BAS Psycho Circuit,,Simon Carlson,,,,#28,,,215/BOG,43,,SYKOCIRC.BAS Wall Defence,,,,Stephen Sargent,,#29,,,104-,,,,,,,,WALDEFNC.BAS EDIT: I forgot to mention that Psycho Circuit, which is a basic driving/dodging game where obstacles keep showing up in the road, requires that the emulation be in Atari 400/800. I could not find an easy hack to make it compatible with XL/XE. It uses POKE 87,0 which I believe fools BASIC into treating Graphics 1 like a Graphics 0 screen complete with scrolling text. This scrolling trick is implemented on a 400/800 simply by printing the SHIFT+INSERT character at the top of the screen. As soon as text scrolls in Graphics 1 on an XL emulation, the display goes haywire and starts displaying who knows what memory location.

TITLE,,,,,AUTHOR,,,,,,,,CVG#,,PAGES,,,,,,,,,,,,FILENAME
En Avant,,Dave Lloyd,,,,#33,,,112-,,,,,,,,,,,,,ENAVANT.BAS Bug Out,,,Brian Hills,,,#33,,,170-2/BOG,6-8,,,,BUGOUT.BAS Outlaw,,,,Shaun Elwell,,#33,,,176-8/BOG,12-14,,OUTLAW.BAS

TITLE,,,,,,,,,,,,AUTHOR,,,,,,,,CVG#,,PAGES,,FILENAME
Rising Damp,,,,,,Andrew Smith ,#31,,,79-,,,,RISEDAMP.BAS Super Solitaire,,Mark Joules,,,#34,,,90-,,,,PEGSOLIT.BAS Star Warrior,,,,,D. Papworth,,,#35,,,102-,,,STWARIOR.BAS

TITLE,,,,,,,,,AUTHOR,,,,,,,,,,,,CVG#,,PAGES,,,,,,,,,,,FILENAME
Yahtzee,,,,,,,David Baines,,,,,,#40,,,48-,,,,,,,,,,,,,YAHTZEE.BAS Super Clown ,,Michael Kempster,,#41,,,34-,,,,,,,,,,,,,SUPCLOWN.BAS Powerboat ,,,,S.A. Smith,,,,,,,,#45,,,135-6/BOG,18-9,,PWRBOAT2.BAS

Limited playtesting on Stones of Wrath and Annapurna. Playing these two games will likely require reading instructions in their respective magazine issues. Stones of Wrath is a complicated spell-casting strategy game. Two players set spells in motion on their turns and take steps to dodge opponent's spells. Annapurna manages resources in a day-to-day journey to reach the top of a stormy Everest-like mountain.

TITLE,,,,,,,,,,,,,AUTHOR,,,,,,,,,,,,CVG#,,PAGES,,FILENAME
Stones of Wrath,,,Simon Goodwin,,,,,#23,,,40-44,,STWRATH2.BAS Oggs Eggs,,,,,,,,,Andrew Blake,,,,,,#44,,,56-,,,,OGGSEGGS.BAS Annapurna,,,,,,,,,Scott Smith,,,,,,,#46,,,90-97,,ANAPURNA.BAS