DragonUser18_Oct84.pdf

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The independent Dragon magazine

7 5 p U $ 3 . 2 5 O c t o b e r 1984

Function keys

to unlock

your Dragon

Touchmaster

the inside

- story

Pilot your helicopter gunship in a true

3-dimensional-like playﬁeld.

Climb, dive and strafe enemy installations

to score points and extra fuel.

This superb game features 100% machine

code with fully animated, high-res sprite

graphics.

A great ﬁrst! and only

(Disc version E9.95)

OUAZIMODO

We int roduc e ClUA ZI MO DO

the hunc hbac k , in his ef f ort s

to rescue the dams el f ro m her

fortress pris on.

You w i l l need t o lump t he

parapets, cross the moats ,

escape t he ﬁ re balls and t he

guards t o succeed in this task.

10 screens and 4 d if ﬁ c u lt y

levels will present a great

challenge.

A joy s tic k is required.

L 6 • 9 5

THE F I

FOR THE DRAGON 32

RST

" Z

A C TU A L

A X

X O

N "

1, Un d e r attac k f

m enemy

ﬁghters_

A 1

2. Mis s ile attack o n f uel

V 3

Ins tallations .

3. L o w lev el attack on

village.

•

4. V e t anot her wave

•

enemy ﬁ ghters !

SUPERBOWL

S CRE E N P HO TO G RA P HS

A 2

v 4

This b rillia n t and Original

s imulat ion of Americ an Pro-

Foot ball starts wit h t he k ic k -

of f and t he ball hanging in t he

air as Flo y d , the star running

back o f the Dallas Cowboy s

jumps t o catch it_

Will big matc h nerves cause h im

to f umble or will his catch be a

clean one? I f he catches it , h o w

far can he run before the might y

men of Was hington t hump h im

to t he ground?

A unique mac hine code game,

for whic h a joy s tic k is required.

AT OUR

NEW LOW PRICE

OF ONLY

E6.95 each

(CASSETTE)

E9.95 each

(DISC)

CABLE SOFTWARE IS NOW1 YEAR OLD AND TO SHOW OUR APPRECIATION TO DRAGON OWNERS

FOR THEIR SUPPORT IN OUR FIRST YEAR, WE HAVE REDUCED THE COST OF ALL DRAGON SOFTWARE

LIVING STONE

The ﬁ rs t v ers ion of

this c omplex s trategic

game av ailable on

any home mic ro.

Was E8.75

NOW O N L Y

tags sok,

PRO-FILE

Data Filin g and

lAetrieval System.

WAS E15.95

NOW O NL Y

PROIILE

/ I IIs

E14.95

E6.95

TROJAN

LIGHT PEN

GEOGRAPHY

Learning is f un w i

Cable.

Still the best value

Light Pen on t he

mark et,

NOW ONLY

ONLY

E6.95

E11.50

OUR SPECIAL OFFER ON THESE SIX GAMES

Order 1 Title for £5 - Any 2 Titles for £0 - Any 3 Titles for El 2 (Prices include P & P and V AT)

Please s upply me wit h. -

ZA K ' S SON O U A Z I M O D O S U P E R BOWL

E6.95 each (Cassette) o r E9.95 each (Dis c )

L I V I N G S TO NE G E O G R A P H Y

@ E6.95 each (Cassette only )

DRO NE D R A G S U N N E R T R A C E RA CE

CA V E FI G HTE R B A C C A R A T

DRA G O N RA CE R/ W A S P I NV A S I O N

Na me

PHONE I N Y O UR ACCESS O RDE RS TO

Send c heque wit h order t o

0582 5 9 1 4 9 3 (98.m. — 6p•m.)

SEE US AT THE 6809 SHOW

CABLE SOFTWARE

P.S.L. MARKE TING, FREEPOST,

LUTON, BEDS. LU3 2BR

(No s tamp required)

SEE SPECIAL PRICES ABOVE

P RO -FI LE @ 0 4 . 9 5 each (Cassette)

TRO J A N L I G H T PEN ga E ll. . 5 0 each

A L L PRICES I NCLUDE P & P A N D V A T

The refereitee ro -

Z A X X O N

( m e w l

EN rE AP AIS ( S

Address

IN C .)

is as no war intertded to ;s we e t lA r connocivon berween Cable S oftware Loaded and &Nu EorefoPted

SUNSHINE 1

Letters

Telephone number

(All departments)

01-437 4343

Editor

BRENDON GORE

Assistant Editor

GORDON ROSS

Software Editor

GRAHAM TAYLOR

Editorial Secretary

GERALDINE SMYTH

Advertisement Manager

DAVID LAKE

Advertisement Executive

SIMON LANGSTON

Administration

THERESA LACY

Managing Editor

DUNCAN SCOT

Publishing Director

JENNY IRELAND

Subscriptions

UK E10 for 12 issues

Overseas (surface) El 6 for 12 issues

Sounding off

Including this month information on free

enrolment t o the Cuthbert Club r un by

Microdeal and bad news for readers want-

ing to make music by linking their Dragons

to a synthesizer

An extract from Keith and Steven Brain's

Advanced Sound and Graphics for the

Dragon 3 2 helps y o u t o program i n

machine code

News

Conﬁrmation of Dragon Data's fate brings

the news that Eurohard is to continue with

the manufacture of the 32, 64. Dragon

Professional and an MSX machine

Space shot

Michael Turner uses the Dream Editor'

Assembler to convert h is Ba sic program

listing into machine code

Functional features 2 9

Peter Whittaker's collection of utility prog-

rams enables the creation of special func-

Touchmaster proﬁle 1 0

Gordon Ross travelled to Port Talbot to

meet ex-Dragon Data managing director

Brian Moore, now looking after the in-

terests of new ﬁrm, Touchmaster

tions by us e of the Dragon s RTS sub-

routines called whenever a ROM routine is

used (Cover photo by Grahame Tucker)

Incentive offer

Open ﬁle

Run with ROM

John Scriven reviews Bug Zapper from

Windrush Microsystems — an aid to in-

stant program running

Save C1.50 on Incentive's latest game tor

the Dragon and enter the win-a-disk-drive

competition

A keybeep routine, a wriggling snake and a

three-dimensional rotator are amongst this

month's selection of readers' programs

An educated review 1 5

Mike Harrison tak es a look a t what's

available in educational software for the

Dragon

Adventure Trail

ISSN 0 2 6 5

Dragon User, 1 2 13 Little Newport Street,

London

WC2 R 3L0.

0177

l e x

T e

address: c o Business Press

International, 205 East 42nd St. New York

NY 100017.

2 9 6

Published by Sunshine Books, Sc ot Press

2 7

Suns hine Books 1984.

Ltd. ©

Typesetting by Ches ham Press. Ches ham,

Bucks. Print ed by Eden Fis her (Sout hend)

Ltd, Southend-on-Sea, Essex.

Distributed b y S. M. Dis t ribut ion, L o n d o n

SW9 01-274 8611, Telex: 261843

Registered at t he Pos t Ofﬁ ce as a news -

paper.

Dragon a n d it s l o g o a r e t rademark s 0

Dragon Data Ltd.

Cave bird

Steve Gathercote s program of the month

will set your wings ﬂapping

Help is at hand for adventurers stuck in

sticky situations. Mik e Gerrard reviews

The Incredible Hulk and the ﬁrst of the

Channel 8 Mysterious Adventure series,

The Golden Baton

Dragon Answers

4 7

Machine code special 2 3

A special machine code pullout section

begins wit h a sh o rt introduction t o t h e

Skidding around the page Brian Cadge

brakes to a halt with a dream answer

Competition Corner S O

£200 of Salamander Software is the prize

to Gordon Lees grid puzzler

terminology and a review of two machine

code aids by Keith and Steven Brain

How to submit articles

The quality of the material we can publish in

Dragon User each month will, to a very great

extend, depend on t he quality of t he dis -

coveries that y ou can mak e with y our Dra-

gon. The Dragon 32 computer was launched

on t o the mark et with a powerful version of

Basic, but with very poor documentation.

Every one of us who uses a Dragon will be

able to discover new tricks and quirks almost

every day. To help other Dragon users keep

up with the s peed of the dev elopment each

of u s mus t as s ume t hat w e ma d e t h e

discovery ﬁrst — that means writing it down

and passing it on to others.

Articles whic h are s ubmit t ed t o Dragon

User for publication should not be more than

3000 words long. All submissions should be

typed. Pleas e leav e wide margins a n d a

double space between each line, Programs

should, whenev er pos s ible, b e c omput er

printed on plain white paper and be accom-

panied by a tape of the program.

We c annot guarant ee t o ret urn ev ery

submitted article or program, so please keep

a copy. I f you want t o have y our program

returned y o u mu s t inc lude a s t amped.

addressed envelope.

SOFTWARE IS THE key to success for any home micro, The nature, quality, price and

availability of software is crucial to prospective purchasers, as companies such as

Camputers, Jupiter Cantab, Texas Instruments and Mattel have found to their cost.

Dragon's recent problems stem, at least in part, from a failure to attract the sort of

software written for the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair Spectrum. Dragon's software

was certa inly available in quantity, b u t th e re we re f e w g a me s wh ich captured th e

imagination in quite the same way as Manic Miner did for the Spectrum.

To b e fair , s ome companies whic h specialised i n Dragon software, notably

Salamander and Wintersoft produced some excellent programs. But, they did it with little

help from Dragon Data, and they did not produce any blockbusters. Nobody would buy a

Dragon simply in order to play a particular game, as some people might be tempted to

purchase a Spectrum or Commodore 64.

Sinclair, while it has a rather ambivalent attitude towards third party software houses,

ensured the production of high quality programs through its links with Psion, Melbourne

House and others. Similarly, Commodore has brought Out a vast range of interesting and

innovative software, though it remains a hardware driven company.

However, with Eurohard moving Dragon's manufacturing base to Spain, it looks as

though the supply of Dragon software is starting to dry up. Companies which specialise

in Dragon software a re fast converting their games to run on other machines. Wh ile

some n e w g a me s ma y a p p e a r o ve r th e n e xt couple o f months, th e outlook a fte r

Christmas is distinctly bleak.

If Eurohard. Touchmaster or GEC want Dragon to maintain its share of the UK market,

they will have to start producing some software soon. More importantly, they will have to

convince the software houses that it is still worth their while developing new programs.

As yet, they have not attempted to do so.

October 1984 Dragon User 3

RETU

At last the saga

continues —

The Guardian of Shedir

Is defeated, the Hell

spawned hordes of the Evil

Sage lie at bay. Now

Mngbearer, wielder of the

Four Bright Rings, must

face the greatest

challenge: to return the

Ring Of Darkness to its

creators on the hidden

planet Ringworld

And somewhere at the

ends of time the forces of

evil are preparing their

revenge.

After one year of

development, Wintersoft

are proud to present the

most sophisticated game

ever created for the

Dragon 32. Wrftten 100% in

machine code, RETURN OF

THE RING is an astounding

multi program blend of

superb high resolution

colour graphics and

advanced routines that

allow you to communicate

with your computer in

complete sentences. You

will face challenge and

excitement as you and

your Ringworid

companions travel a

mysterious planet and

brave the dangers of an

amazing three-

dimensional forest moon.

An epic adventure

unrivalled for its wealth of

detail and diversity.

May luck travel your

path.

Please note: RETURN OF

M E RING is a complete

adventure. You need not

buy THE RING OF

DARKNESS to play it.

DEALERS PHONE

01-367 5720

ALSO AVAILABLE--

DRAGON 32

Return of the Ring

The Ring of Darkness

Dragon Trek

SPECTRUM 411K

The Ring of Darkness

ORIC-1 ASK

The Ring of Darkness

Operation Gnirrnlin

THE RING

DARKNESS

PART II

W RIERSOFT

PRICES INCLUDE PAP, VAT, AND OUR LIFETIME

GUARANTEE-

SELECTED TITLES AVAILABLE FROM

LARGER BRANCHES OF

tkO

otl

1 1

L e t t e r s

T h i s is the h a g e , Dragon User. 12-13 Little Newport Street, London WC2R 31_13.

way around this, but there are in

types, f or example

The Cuthbert Club, Microdeal, 41

(using X saves a shift). In the

fact two fairly simple methods.

Truro Road, St. Austell, Cornwall

listing. S d- lla.r .0

PL25 5JE.

As Pam mentioned, there is no

2 E 3 X o6

John Symes problem if single quotes are used.

1000 SUBROUTINE, INPUT

Mwrodeal

WITH 'X OPTION

but if double quotes are needed

COULD you tell me if there are

1010 INPUT "(CAN USE 'X')";

then the ﬁle should be read using

any ﬁrms selling an A t o

LINE INPUT# - 1, instead of the

converter for the Dragon 32 as I

more normal INPUT# -1, just as

1020 Z=INSTR (1, ES, "X")

am interested in adding a musical

you would when reading such text

1030 IFZrO THEN R=VAL (ES):

keyboard to my computer?

RETURN

from the keyboard. All the same

M Webb

rules apply for LINE INPUT# -1

1040 ZL=VAL (LEFTS (ES,

With regard to the review of Tim

Hastings

Z - 1))

as they do for LINE INPUT being

Love's Cricket in the August edi-

East Sussex

used as in normal.

1050 ZR=VAL (RIGHTS(ES, LEN

tion of Dragon User, I'd like to

Matthew Helliwell

( ES)

point out that John Scnven is

1060 R =ZL*ZR

Stoke-on-Trent

incorrect in stating that the player

1070 RETURN

Staffordshire

Z))

is restricted to playing matches

I HAVE a small synthesizer that

Example of use:

between England and a World XI.

can be controlled by an external

10 PRINT

"ENTER COST":

As the several thousand Dra-

control voltage.

20 GOSUB 1000

gon owners who have already

Is it possible to connect this

30 SUM = SUM + R

taken the opportunity to wreak

with the Dragon 32 so that the

40 PRINT

—

R,SUM

revenge on the West Indies will

computer will play the synthesiz-

50 GOTO 10

know, games can be held be-

er? If so, how would I go about

I LIKE many other Dragon own-

One word of warning: if VAL

tween c lubs o f t h e player's

connecting the two together, and

ers no doubt. waited eagerly for

ﬁnds a non-numeric character, it

choice. In fact, one of the very

would I have to write software

returns the value so

the transmission of Dragon soft-

gives up and

attractive points of the game is

specially for this purpose?

ware on the ITV computer pro-

far without an error message.

that the save facility can be used

J A Gill

gramme, Database. Unfortunate-

R Letheren

to build a library of teams which

Brentwood

Bath

ly, I failed to record the pro-

can be matched against each

Essex

gramme and therefore missed the

other.

transmission.

W DON'T know of any suitable

I think John may have been

If anybody d id record the

interfaces which would produce

confused by the fact that if the

transmission, I'd be grateful it

the 1 volt per octave signal

player does not wish to take the

they contacted m e a t 0752

required to control most synth-

time t o name the teams and

29788.

esizers. Even if you could lind

players, and give them batting

Colin Towns

oneyou would have to write your

and bowling skill points, the Dra-

own software.

Plymouth

gon can be instructed to pick

TW of the main Dragon User

Unfortunately, t h e Dragon

England and World Xls.

Groups, Games and Computers

seems to have been passed over

Harry Whitehouse

of Wareham (who seem to have

in the ﬁeld ol synthesizer control

Peaksoft

disappeared) a n d D r a g o n

in favour of bigger-selling Amer-

Dungeon (who are n o longer

ican computers (no names men-

trading) are now unable to pro-

tioned) which now have several

vide the service previously avail-

SOME months ago I purchased an

interfaces available using the

able.

ITT Colour TV/monitor (model

new MIDI music control pro-

In the past many people have

RL2310/M) which is an extremely

tocols, o r digital to analogue

sent cash to user groups only to

systems.

ﬁne unit, giving an excellent pic-

get little or nothing in return. We

INTHE July issue of Dragon User,

ture. I could, o f course, have

are prepared to offer A FREE OF

Pam D'Arcy wrote in complaining

purchased a unit without the

CHARGE enrolment to The Cuth-

that s he had used CHRS(34)

monitor facility at quite a saving

bert Club,

which is Microdeats

(double quotes) in a text ﬁle, but

in price, but I opted for the

was unable to reload the ﬁle as

own us er

group. t o anyone

monitor for the better resolution

wishing to

. . a l l they need

join

the quotes were interpreted at the

that it undoubtedly gives.

do is write to us for their free

start of a data ﬁeld, rather than as

I have tried in vain since the

I THINK the following six-line

characters i n the ﬁ eld. Brian

badge, quarterly magazine, hint

purchase to obtain the necessary

subroutine may be of interest to

sheets and

on. Our address is:

Cadge said that there is no simple

connector to give me sound and

Dragon Users, since it allows you

vision from the computer. I can

to INPUT a simple expression.

get the latter, but no sound.

not just numbers.

Consequently I have been forced

Take the case where you are

to use the TV channel, but whilst

inputting a list of numbers (prices

it is still a good picture I am not

for instance) and you come to: 17

1 ( - ) Pedro

Jolly

getting the best use from my

nurgles a t 0 7 . 9 6 each. You

2 ( - ) Hunchback

additional outlay.

either have to get your calculator

3 (5) Hungry Horace M e l b o u r n e House

I have telephoned both Dragon

out, or use INPUT N.V which

4 (1) Buzzard Bait

M i c r o d e a l

Data, who referred me to the

means typing in endless -

5 (2) Cuthbert in Space

M i c r o d e a l

monitor manufacturer, and ITT

comma this" and "one comma

one

6 (4) Dungeon Raid

M i c r o d e a l

who referred me to the computer

that" for all the single items.

7 (3 ) M r Dig

manufacturer!

This subroutine inputs either a

8 ( - ) Up Periscope

Can you, or any fellow-reader,

single value or two values with a

9 ( - ) Ring of Darkness

W i n t e r s o f t

help me in my plight?

multiplier. The multiplier can be

10 ( - ) Cuthbert in the Jungle M i c r o d e a l

Gerald Woodward

* o r X as you like, and the

Chart compiled by Websters Software

Inkberrow

numbers can be any valid Basic

Worcester

October 1984 Dragon User 5

Music,

give me . .

Not

cricket

. . music

On the

box

Cuthbert

club

String

data

ITT

connector

Routine

expression

Software Top 10

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