               AMSTRAD COMPUTER 1992 USER LISTINGS AND 10-LINERS
                         Compiled by Nicholas Campbell
               -------------------------------------------------

This instruction file is broken down into monthly sections. All of the programs
can be found on the file ACU1992.DSK. The file name for each program is written
in square brackets, and you can run each program by typing RUN"filename" at the
Ready prompt. A list of all the files on a .DSK file can be shown by typing CAT
at the Ready prompt. My own rating out of 5 for each program is shown in stars.
There are also brief comments on how to use each program if it is not already
explained in the program itself, and any major changes from the original
listing (e.g. bug fixes, error checking, compatibility with BASIC 1.0) are also
mentioned. I have also made changes to the presentation of several listings by
adding PAPER and PEN commands where necessary, as well as the use of CALL &BC02
to reset the colours, but such alterations are not mentioned.

                                     * * *

                                  January 1992

AULD LANG SYNE by Paul Fairman [AULDLANG]                                    **
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To get yourself ready for New Year's Eve, here's a rendition of the festive
tune.

The original listing only worked on BASIC 1.1, but I have altered it so that it
works on BASIC 1.0 as well.

KEYBOARD CHORDS TUTOR by Sean McManus [CHORDS] - BASIC 1.1 only            ****
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A tutor for people who are learning to play the piano, or just want to test
their knowledge of piano chords. On the screen, you will see a set of piano
keys, and a chord (e.g. G, C Minor, Ab Minor Seventh) and its shorthand symbol
are displayed above it. The corresponding keys you have to press to obtain this
chord will then flash. You can't actually interact with the program - you can
only guess, wait, and then see if you were right or not - but the presentation
of the program is really good. There are five skill levels; 1 is the hardest, 5
is the easiest.

NUMBER BASE CHANGER by Peter Wilkins [BASECHAN]                              **
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Convert numbers between binary, decimal and hexadecimal bases. Enter a number
in one base and see the equivalent number in another base.

The original listing only worked on BASIC 1.1, but I have altered it so that it
works on BASIC 1.0 as well.

24 HOUR CLOCK by Peter Wilkins [24HCLOCK]                                     *
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A very simple program which displays the hours, minutes, and seconds on the
screen, and nothing else.

INVASION by Big Loz [INVASION]                                                *
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Probably the worst game ever," claims the author. At least he has an honest
opinion of his own efforts! Shoot all ten fat gits as they fly, one at a time,
across the screen. If you manage to shoot all ten, you'll win the game. Why is
this probably the worst game ever? There is almost nothing on the screen, you
can't move your gun, and it takes a long time for the bullet to reach its
target.

The original listing only worked on BASIC 1.1, but I have altered it so that it
works on BASIC 1.0 as well. It also wasn't actually a 10-liner, but it has been
altered to fit into ten lines.

TWO-VALUE SIMULTANEOUS LINEAR EQUATIONS by Damon Schultz [SIMEQUAT]         ***
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A useful utility for solving equations of the form ax+by=c. If you have two
equations of this form, and know the values of a, b and c for each one, you can
calculate the values of x and y easily with this program.

There were some errors in the original listing, but I have fixed all of them.
It also lacked some error-checking routines, but I have added some.

SNOW SIMULATOR [SNOWSIM]                                                    ***
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A graphic demo to get you in the mood for Christmas. It draws some snow
falling on to the snow-covered ground and then animates it. Wait 1 minute and
21 seconds for the snow to be drawn.

JUGGLER by Sean McManus [JUGGLER]                                          ****
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The first of two colour cycling demonstrations from Sean, as part of his
special feature on animation in this issue of ACU. Five jugglers are drawn on
the screen - one large one and four smaller ones. Press any key and the
jugglers will start animating. In fact, the 'animation' is performed by clever
use of flashing inks; the only work that the program is doing is scrolling the
message at the bottom.

JACK IN THE BOX by Sean McManus [JACKBOX]                                   ***
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The second of Sean's colour cycling graphic demos uses the technique to animate
a jack in the box. While the metronome ticks, the program is drawing each of
the four frames, which takes 28 seconds. A box is then drawn on the screen.
Press any key to make the clown jump out of the box, and press any key again to
put it back in the box.

PACLONE by Sean McManus [PACLONE]                                         *****
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Guess what this game is about? It's a Pacman clone with some nice graphics and
cool music on the title screen. Instead of eating pills, Pacman has to eat all
the chicken nuggets in the maze, and the power pills are replaced by
hamburgers, French fries and fizzy drinks; there are no chances to eat the four
Tummybugs who are out to get Pacman. There are some minor faults with the
gameplay; in particular, the controls can be over-responsive. However, it's
still fun to play. If you have a speech synthesiser, you'll even hear Pacman
say "Yum, yum, in my tum!"

Keys: A - up, Z - down, N - left, M - right.

                                     * * *

                                 February 1992

DREAM WARRIOR by David Hall [DREAMWAR]                                     ****
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An excellent Breakout clone written in machine code, with good graphics, large
blocks and random wall patterns. It's also fairly tough; bricks can only be
destroyed if the ball hits the bottom of the brick, and the ball moves in
unpredictable ways. Despite this, it has that 'one more go' factor. Wait 7
seconds for the program to set up.

Keys: Joystick, P - pause, C - resume.

TEXT CENTRE ROUTINE by Peter Wilkins [TEXTCENT]                              **
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A short routine which centres text. Enter the y-coordinate and the text you
want to print, and the program prints it on the screen in the correct position.
It only works in MODE 2, though.

There was an error in the original listing, but I have fixed it.

MEMORY DISPLAY by Peter Wilkins [MEMDISP]                                     *
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enter a start and end address and view the contents of the CPC's memory.
There's nothing else you can do with the program, though, and far better memory
display programs are available.

BASIC EXTRA by David Hall [BASICEXT]                                          *
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two useless RSXs, |BEEP and |INVERSE. |BEEP makes the computer beep, and
|INVERSE swaps the current pen and paper colours - both of which you can easily
do from BASIC by typing PRINT CHR$(7) and PRINT CHR$(24).

URGE by Dougal Kennedy [URGE]                                              ****
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An arcade game with lots of bonuses and power-ups to collect. Move the blue
cross around the screen, collect as many coins as you can, and return to the
object in the centre of the screen to go to the next level. Don't move over the
mines or you'll lose one of your three lives. Each level also contains a blue
crystal which you can collect to gain extra time, which you'll need in later
levels. If you're lucky, you might be able to collect a mystery object which
gives you a 10000 point bonus; you'll know it's there because the border
flashes red and and orange. A high score is also kept, and there is also a nice
screen scrolling effect when you complete a level. And all of this fits into
ten lines of BASIC - great stuff.

Keys: Joystick.

The original listing only worked on BASIC 1.1, but I have altered it so that it
works on BASIC 1.0 as well.

ALPHA SCROLL by David Hall [ALPHASCR]                                      ****
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After "Omega Scroll" in the April 1991 issue of ACU, here's a similar program
allowing you to create a scrolling message of up to 20000 characters in length
and save it. Unfortunately, you can't edit it later on. The presentation of
this program is better than in "Omega Scroll"; the scrolling message is
accompanied by a scrolling background and looks better as a result, but it
doesn't scroll as fast. Wait 7 seconds for the program to set up.

                                     * * *

                                   March 1992

QUODITS by B. Fretwell [QUODITS]                                           ****
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The aliens have landed. Can you defeat them all before they take over the
Earth? This is a nice and simple shoot-'em-up. Move your spacecraft up and down
and shoot all the aliens before your time runs out. Subsequent levels feature
more aliens, and you can choose to start on any level between 1 and 5. The

Keys: Q - up, A - down, RETURN - fire, or joystick.

RESET by Russell Whitwell [RESET]                                           ***
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fool your friends with this program. When you run it, it displays the CPC's
startup message so that it looks like the computer has been reset. Type in a
command such as CAT or RUN"filename", though, and a "Gotcha!" message appears.
You may wish to change the startup message in line 10 if your computer isn't a
6128, and the "Gotcha!" message in line 70 can also be changed.

CHARACTER SET DESIGNER by Robin Gilbert [CHARDES]                            **
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A character editing program which allows you to change the CPC's default font
and design your own. The complete character set is shown at the top of the
screen, and a list of keys is at the bottom. It's well presented but has
numerous flaws. You can't go straight to a particular character and have to
scroll through all the characters in between, which is extremely cumbersome;
the method of editing a character is crazy, and the cursor is difficult to see.
Character sets are saved with the .SET extension.

Keys: Selection: cursor keys - select character, A - alter character, C - clear
character, S - save character set, L - load character set; Editing: Cursor
keys - move cursor, SPACE - toggle ink setting, E - finish editing.

There were some errors in the original listing, but I have fixed all of them.

WATERWAY by B. Fretwell [WATERWAY]                                        *****
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A nice graphics demo which draws a scenic picture - a grassy riverbank with two
hills and a bridge on the horizon - and animates a helicopter landing on a
ship, and a water-skier. Very pretty and worth seeing.

METROPOLIS by David Hall [METROPOL]                                        ****
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another graphic demo which draws an isometric view of a city full of
skyscrapers. It takes around two minutes to draw each one, but it looks pretty
good. When it's finished drawing, press any key to draw another one.

CHEAT FINDER by Stephen Matthews [CHEATFIN]                                  **
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A program which looks for three common methods of decreasing a player's lives -
DEC A:LD A,(&xxxx), DEC (HL), and SUB 1. It's written in BASIC and is very
slow, and you'll have trouble finding a suitable game to try it on, since most
of them are protected and also occupy the area of memory used by BASIC and this
program. Use another program instead.

THE ELECTION GAME by Duncan Evans [ELECTION]                              *****
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A board game for up to three players. Take part in a 10, 15 or 20-day election
campaign as the three main political parties - the Conservatives, Labour, and
the Liberal Democrats - battle to win seats in the House of Commons. On each
turn, you move around the board and make choices which will affect your
popularity and cost money. There are the usual campaign strategies such as
press conferences, TV appearances, leaflet campaigns and newspaper adverts,
and funnier ones such as starting dirty tricks campaigns, planting drugs on
opposition MPs, and having a front bench MP arrested! There are status bars at
the bottom of the screen which show each party's current popularity. The real
excitement starts when the campaign is over, polling day arrives, and the votes
are counted. The game plays a bit slowly, but it's colourful, and it's a real
laugh when you're playing with someone else.

                                     * * *

                                   April 1992

TRAIN by Mark Farrow [TRAIN]                                                  *
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Displays a train on the screen using the CPC's character set, and makes a few
chugging noises. It looks totally ugly.

3D MAPPER by Sean McManus [3DMAPPER]                                       ****
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Create a 2D design from a 20x20 grid and convert it into an isometric,
pseudo-3D design. It's a shame you can't save and load your designs, and the
method of plotting and unplotting blocks on the grid is a little awkward, but
the result looks good and it's fun to play with for a while.

Keys: f8 - up, f2 - down, f4 - left, f6 - right, f5 - plot/unplot, X - convert
design to 3D.

SCNSV AND SCNLD RSXS by Sean McManus [SCNSV] - 464 only                     ***
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two RSXs, |SCNSV and |SCNLD, which save and load the screen to cassette as a
headerless file, and also save the screen mode, inks, windows - you name it.

The original listing didn't work at all, but I obtained this working version
from another source.

TORT by Sean McManus [TORT]                                                 ***
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two RSXs to slow BASIC down considerably - useful if you want to cheat in games
written in BASIC. |TORT slows BASIC down, and |HARE resets BASIC back to
normal. A word of warning; sometimes the computer freezes when the screen
scrolls when using the LIST command.

The original listing only worked on BASIC 1.1, but I have altered it so that it
works on BASIC 1.0 as well. There was also an error in the original listing,
but I have fixed it.

TRAIN JUMPIN' by B. Fretwell [TRAINJUM]                                     ***
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You're on top of a moving train and have to run in the opposite direction,
jumping over train carriages. The train starts off slowly, but the game becomes
harder as it gains speed. You lose a life and 20 points if you fall into the
gaps between the carriages, and if you lose five lives or have no points left,
the game ends. You also lose points if you stay in the air for too long. The
graphics aren't bad, but it's a bit too easy, and the train must be extremely
long!

Keys: SPACE - jump.

RASTERBLASTER by Chris Wootton [RASTER]                                     ***
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All 27 of the CPC's colours on the screen at once. Run it and see for yourself
- nice.

ACU DEMO by ChaRleyTroniC [ACUDEMO]                                       *****
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As part of ACU's demo column (which was later incorporated into CPC Attack!),
this is a machine code demo which demonstrates a few of the techniques found in
demos; a scrolling message with greetings to various people (and an anti-
greeting), a multi-coloured logo with moving rasters, and CRTC manipulation to
move the logo. OK, it's not the best demo you'll ever see, but in comparison
with some of the graphic demos that appear in the 10-liners section of ACU,
this is brilliant. This program may not work properly on some emulators.

ACU PROOFREADER by Aimo Niemi [PROOF]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ACU's program to check that you've typed in listings from ACU correctly. Type
in your listing, and after typing each line and pressing RETURN, a proofcode
appears in brackets. If it doesn't match the proofcode printed in the magazine,
you've typed that line wrongly.

EASYDRAW 2 by Glynne Davies [EASYDRA2]                                      ***
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This art package was developed, piece by piece, in ACU, until it became a
full-blown utility. It's designed more for technical drawing, since you can
only draw in MODE 2. The program is always in a particular mode which is shown
at the top right of the screen; when you start the program, you will be in move
mode. Other modes include beam mode for freehand drawing, elastic mode for
continuous line drawing, text mode for writing text, and rubber mode for
erasing your mistakes, but there are several more modes. There are a few errors
which haven't been removed, and it's not easy to use, but it's best to try it
out for yourself and experiment with it, as there's too much to cover here.

Keys: General: Cursor keys - move cursor, CONTROL+F - change foreground colour,
CONTROL+B - change background colour, CONTROL+D - toggle display of
coordinates, CONTROL+R - move cursor to centre of screen, J - change jump size
of cursor, CONTROL+SHIFT+W - clear screen, CONTROL+C - catalogue disc,
CONTROL+S - save screen, CONTROL+L - load screen, CONTROL+P - print screen,
CONTROL+K - save shapes, CONTROL+A - load shapes, A - select arc mode, B -
select beam mode, C - select circle mode, E - select elastic mode, M - select
move mode, P - select paint mode, R - select rubber mode, S - select shape
mode, T - select text mode, Z - draw shape; Arc mode: S - select start
position, F - select finish position, < - decrease angle, > - increase angle,
+ - increase radius, - - decrease radius, K - enter radius; Circle mode: + -
increase radius, - - decrease radius, K - enter radius, F - fix radius; Elastic
mode: F - fix line; Paint mode: S - stop painting; Rubber mode: cursor keys:
Change width and height of area to erase, F - erase area; Shape mode: E - draw
line, F - fix line, M - move cursor, J - change jump size of cursor, RETURN -
finish; Text mode: T - change text size, F - write text.

                                     * * *

                                    May 1992

464 SCREEN DIVIDER by Chris Hine [DIVIDER]                                   **
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A very weird demo which displays lots of boxes and stripes in a haphazard
fashion, as though the computer is in the process of a spectacular crash. Hold
down SPACE and you'll see a rather nice border effect; hold down DEL to get out
of this part. It's all very strange indeed, but it crashes on 664s. This
program may not work properly on some emulators.

KNIGHTMOVES by Ernest Thompson [KNIGHT]                                     ***
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A short program which demonstrates how a knight can move on all 64 squares of a
chess board without landing on any square more than once. A random square is
chosen, and you can see how the knight moves around the board.

METEOR SHOWER by Robin Gilbert [METEOR]                                     ***
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your spaceship is drifting in space with low fuel and a broken engine which
means you can only thrust in one direction, and you're heading towards a meteor
belt. Avoid the meteors and try to collect fuel. A high score is also kept.
It's not a bad game, although the sound effects are irritating.

Keys: SPACE - move spaceship right.

The original listing only worked on BASIC 1.1, but I have altered it so that it
works on BASIC 1.0 as well. There was also an error in the original listing,
but I have fixed it.

CHARACTER DESIGNER by Ernest Derry [DESIGNER]                               ***
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Design a character and the corresponding SYMBOL command is revealed so that you
can define the character from BASIC.

Keys: Cursor keys - move cursor, COPY - plot/unplot, E - quit.

3" DISC INLAY PRINTER by Neil Barratt [DISCINLA]                            ***
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Print six disc inlays at a time, with details of up to nine programs on each
side of the disc. You'll be asked for a disc number for each disc (this is for
your own reference) and the names of each of the programs. This should make
locating your files a bit easier.

SKULL by Robin Gilbert [SKULL]                                              ***
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You're trapped in a room with some skulls who are slowly moving in your
direction. Your only way of killing them is to make them crash into a wall.
Contact with any of the skulls kills you instantly. There are ten difficulty
levels, but the game is much too easy; even level 0 (the most difficult) isn't
much of a challenge.

The original listing only worked on BASIC 1.1, but I have altered it so that it
works on BASIC 1.0 as well.

STRETCHER by Robin Gilbert [STRETCH]                                      *****
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Guide Mr. Line around the screen and eat all the flashing pink and red dots
while avoiding crashing into the walls. You have three lives and a high score
is also kept. Wait 13 seconds for the program to set up.

Keys: Cursor keys, ESC - quit.

40 MULTI-COLOURED CHARACTERS ACROSS THE SCREEN IN MODE 0 by Robin Gilbert  ****
[40CHARS] - BASIC 1.1 only
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A machine code routine to display text in MODE 0 using 40 columns rather than
the normal 20. To use it, type CALL 40000,x,y,@a$, where x and y are the
coordinates to display the text (note that the routine uses 0 to 19 and 0 to 24
for the x- and y-coordinates respectively), and a$ is the text you wish to
display. A demonstration is included, and more information can also be found in
the REMs within the listing.

TRAVEL-CALC by Geoff Short [TRAVCALC] - BASIC 1.1 only                     ****
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A useful program which calculates your fuel consumption and average speed for
a journey, given other pieces of information. It can work with both imperial
and metric units as well. The presentation is quite striking; the numbers are
displayed like those on a calculator.

DISC MEMO by Geoff Short [DISCMEMO]                                         ***
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keep track of all the files on your discs with this utility. Insert a disc,
press ENTER, wait for a few seconds, and enter some information about each
file. When you've gone through all the files, the information is saved to disc
with the filename DISCMEMO.DAT. You can also insert a disc and load this file
to recall the information you previously entered for that disc. You can only
enter a maximum of 24 characters for each file; any more than this and all
sorts of problems occur when the information is listed. It would be much better
if you could enter more than this.

Keys: Cursor keys - select file, N - enter new note, Q - quit, R - run file.

The original listing only worked on BASIC 1.1, but I have altered it so that it
works on BASIC 1.0 as well.

ROCKET [ROCKET]                                                               *
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A boring shoot-'em-up between two players; the author is anonymous. Each player
controls a rocket and must shoot the other player. The only controls are to
rotate the rocket anticlockwise, and to fire bullets.

Keys: Player 1 (green): X - rotate, S - fire; player 2 (blue): M - rotate, K -
fire.

NOUGHTS AND CROSSES [NOU&CROS]                                              ***
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another game by an anonymous author. It's noughts and crosses against the
computer. The computer is X and you are O. Enter the column and row number,
separated by a comma, to place an O. It's good fun, but the game soon runs out
of memory and quits to BASIC, which is annoying.
