USER RESPONSE / ACCOUNTS
This article contains a combination of various people's responses to issue
20 in the first half, and the 8-Bit Software "Accounts" in the second.
If it seems surprising that there are relatively few comments, this is
because there is little point featuring comments which simply say a piece
of software was good. If anyone who submitted anything to issue 20 is just
after praise, you can be sure that every program included got at least one
person writing in and saying that they liked it.
COMMENTS ON POWER RAIDER
709 : Power raider was hard. The fire key was very unresponsive, I kept
crashing into things because I couldn't get a shot off in time [???].
Apart from that I enjoyed it. I still didn't get to the end of the first
level, or even as far as the extra firepower [????].
C83 : Pretty good attempt although the levels seem to be the same. Amazing
parallax scrolling. A few more baddies and different levels and this game
would be amazing!
-- After these comments, and the appearance of Power Raider in the Micro
User subscription disk, M.T.F. has said he is "very tempted" to write
Power Raider Deluxe, which will be a proper version (Power Raider as we
know it is more of a playable demo of the Sprite Handler). If not, I might
put on some of the different versions of Power Raider - there was one
where a system of three lives replaced the red shield, and another where
the sound effects were replaced with continuous interrupt-driven music
while you played.
COMMENTS ON LOOPY LOOP
[I was going to omit this first comment, or at least tone it down a
little, but Sattar Shakoor says that he loves criticism, so I have
included it unedited].
709 : Loopy Loop was a nice version on an old theme, but the second game I
played crashed when I got to level 50, also on some levels you died before
you got a chance to do anything because you started right next to a
hazard. I didn't like the way that it loaded up the music between games,
then loaded the game back in. How much memory do you need for a game this
simple?
7GE also mentioned the problem with starting right next to an obstacle
(there must be a way round this, Sattar?), and also asked if the game
could be made any faster. Well, apart from the built-in speedup facility
(press S), it was nearly twice as fast on my co-processor, but other than
that I don't know.
On the subject of loading music in and out, I don't think Sattar wrote the
music anyway, but I know what you mean - having lots of little files that
load round in circles tends to fill up DFS catalogues very quickly!
COMMENT ON ECG SIM 3
C83 : This is good and could be better if it would actually take YOUR
heart rate and draw it up on the screen. Maybe Mr Richardson or somebody
could give it a go?
-- Perhaps this is a lot more difficult than it sounds, but the BBC is
well-equipped to do it with its analogue input port and ADC converter. Any
suggestions?
8-BIT SOFTWARE ACCOUNTS
IN
#
16 x Issue 21 charges 8.00
2 x Issue 22 charges 1.00
17 x TBI charges 1.70
Postage and packing xtra 2.00
======
TOTAL #12.70
OUT
#
10 x Padded envelopes 2.80
17 x 2nd Class stamps 3.06
13 x pre-issue 20 letters 2.60
60 x Issue 20 disk labels 0.30
200 x "if undelivered" stickers 1.00
4 x Free publicity issues (20) 2.00
Phone calls (about, but probably more than) 4.50
Overseas postage 2.17
Miscellaneous postage & packing 0.74
======
TOTAL #19.17
TOTAL CURRENT LOSS #6.47
Well, if you think that is a small loss, there are other costs to be met
soon that I haven't mentioned, like a 100-capacity disk box to replace my
broken 50-capacity one that now has 65 disks in it (about #10.00), a new
printer ribbon (about #5.00), some disks to keep submissions on (21 for
#6.30 from Welsh Boys' PD) plus the fact that my disk drive is starting to
sound decidedly shaky, and of course all the printer paper I've been
using, and electricity, and...
Many thanks to Duncan Webster, Chris Richardson and Stephen Mumford for
helping to keep costs low.