CP/M/CPM_CDROM.iso/simtel/cpmug/cpmug003.ark/VOLUME3A.DOC

Text File | 1984-04-29 | 7.8 KB | 163 lines

ZOSO'S SOFTWARE REVIEW

FORMAT.BAS
THIS IS A CLEVER LITTLE PROGRAM FOR TEXT JUSTIFICATION. IT IS SLOW AND MOST
UNFORTUNATELY IT DOES NOT SAVE JUSTIFIED COPY ON DISK. THIS PREVENTS IT FROM
BEING USEFUL FOR PRODUCING MULTIPLE COPIES OF A SINGLE LETTER. IF SOMEONE
WERE TO ADD FILE CREATION TO THIS PROGRAM IT WOULD SURELY EARN ZOSO'S 'CUM-
LAUDE' AWARD. STILL IT IS NICE FOR ONE OR TWO COPIES OF THE SAME THING. WHEN
YOU RUN THIS PROGRAM DO NOT ASSUME THAT YOUR DOS HAS DIED; AS MENTIONED
ABOVE, IT IS QUITE SLOW. ITS SPEED IS INVERSELY PROPORTIONAL TO THE LENGTH
OF THE FILE IT IS FORMATTING.

STRIKE9.BAS
BASED ON THE ERSTWHILE TV GAME SHOW, 'HIGH-ROLLERS', THIS REPRESENTS ITSELF
AS A 'GAME YOU CAN'T WIN'. THIS IS TRUE, SINCE LOGICAL TRAVESTIES IN THE
PROGRAM INVALIDATE YOUR WINNING MOVES. A TYPICAL END-GAME POSITION MIGHT BE:
'YOUR ROLL: 4 5 [TOTAL 9], ONLY THE '9' REMAINS; WHAT NUMBER TO REMOVE ?...
IF YOU FEEL THAT YOUR ROLL OF 4 & 5 TOTALS 9, BE ALERTED TO A VERY 'C'RUDE
AWAKENING. THIS GAME REQUIRES INTEGER ADDITION OF THE SUM OF TWO DICE -
IT WILL CERTAINLY REJECT AN HONEST WINNING MOVE... SMALL WONDER THAT IT IS
AN 'UN-WINNABLE' GAME. IF YOU FEEL LIKE A DOWNTRODDEN SOT, PERHAPS THIS GAME
WILL FUEL YOUR EGO PERFECTLY.


LANES.BAS
WHY WOULD SOMEONE WRITE A CLEVER GAME LIKE THIS AND IGNORE INSTRUCTIONS ?
WHEN THIS GAME SIGNS ON IT ASKS IF ANY OF THE PLAYERS WANT RULES, IT THEN
PRINTS "SORRY, NO INSTRUCTIONS AVAILABLE NOW" ON THE CONSOLE. DESPITE THIS
QUITE A FEW PEOPLE HAVE PLAYED AND ENJOYED THIS GAME, WITH NO ONE HAVING
THE SLIGHTEST IDEA WHAT THE OBJECTIVE WAS OR HOW TO STRATEGICALLY PURSUE
SAID OBJECTIVE. DESPITE THE FACT THAT I LIKE THIS GAME, I FEEL THAT IT IS
AN EXECRABLE PRACTICE TO SUBMIT UNDOCUMENTED SOFTWARE. NOBODY LIKES TO TYPE,
BUT NOT EVERYONE HAS A COMPLETE LIBRARY OF ALL THE MAGAZINES IN WHICH GAMES
LIKE THIS WERE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED.
P.S. THE RULES FOR THIS CAN BE FOUND IN JUNE '77 INTERFACE AGE.

COMBINE.BAS
PLOT2.BAS
FIT.BAS
EUCLID.BAS
FIB.BAS
I CANNOT GET PLOT2 TO RUN - SO WHAT. FIT IS A CURVE FITTING PROGRAM. FIB IS
A FIBONACCI NUMBER GENERATOR FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO NEED ONE. EUCLID DOES JUST
WHAT YOU THINK. ALL THINGS ARE SUBJECTIVE, BUT THIS REVIEWER ABHORS THE SORT
OF PROGRAM THAT IS MORE SUITED TO THE POCKET CALCULATOR. THESE FOUR MOST
CERTAINLY QUALIFY. << LATE FLASH >> COMBINE.BAS: THIS IS THAT EVERYDAY UTILITY
WHICH TELLS THE USER HOW MANY COMBINATIONS EXIST OF [N] NUMBERS TAKEN [R]
AT A TIME. WERE IT NOT FOR THE PROBLEM OF 8 BIT OVERFLOW, ONE COULD DE-
TERMINE JUST HOW MANY WAYS THEIR GRADUATING CLASS OF 300 COULD HAVE LINED
UP FOR THEIR GRADUATION PORTRAIT. THE MIND BOGGLES.

BIOPRINT.BAS
WHEN FIRST I SAW THIS PROGRAM, IT PRINTED UGLY CURVES, IT WAS RIDDLED WITH
GROSS LOGIC FLAWS, AND IT WAS SLOW. I TOOK IT UPON MYSELF TO RESCUE IT. IF
THE ORIGINAL PROGRAM WAS STARTED ON CERTAIN DAYS, IT WOULD SKIP THE FIRST
SATURDAY IT ENCOUNTERED; IF STARTED ON CERTAIN OTHER DAYS IT WOULD SKIP
ALL SATURDAYS !! ALL OF THIS HAS NOW BEEN CORRECTED, AND IT NOW PRINTS PAGI-
NATED BIORHYTHMS WHICH ARE FAIRLY ATTRACTIVE, AND BY PLOTTING EVERY 24 HRS.
INSTEAD OF EVERY 12 HRS., THE THROUGHPUT OF THIS HAS BEEN DOUBLED. SINCE
I'M RATHER FOND OF THE WHOLESALE IMPROVEMENTS IN THIS PROGRAM, I'LL GIVE
IT AN 'A-'.

STARTREK.BAS
DESPITE SEVERAL QUIRKS WHICH ARE NOT DOCUMENTED, THIS IS ONE OF THE VERY
BEST STARTREKS THAT THIS REVIEWER HAS EVER SEEN. LOOK THROUGH THE CODE,
YOU WILL FIND CERTAIN ELEMENTS WHICH WERE WRITTEN INTO THE SOURCE, BUT
WHICH DO NOT OCCUR IN ACTUAL PLAY. WE LEAVE IT TO YOU TO EXPERIMENT. I
SUGGEST REMOVING THE PROMPT/INPUT RELATING TO INSTRUCTIONS NEAR BEGINNING
OF PROGRAM. THE INSTRS. ARE TOO LONG TO MEMORIZE, AND ONCE THE GAME HAS
BEGUN, THEY CANNOT BE REVIEWED. THE FILE 'TREKINST' SHOULD BE EDITED TO
REMOVE ALL THE QUOTE MARKS, AND PRINTED AS HARD COPY FOR REVIEW DURING
THE GAME. OTHERWISE, A WINNER !!!

HELLO.BAS
ANIMAL.BAS
STORY.BAS
THESE ARE PSEUDO-INTERACTIVE GAMES IN WHICH ONE 'CONVERSES' WITH THE COM-
PUTER BY ANSWERING THE SAME QUESTIONS WITH DIFFERENT ANSWERS AND THEREBY
GETTING A 'NEW' OUTPUT FROM THE PROGRAM. IF YOUR KIDS ARE OLD ENOUGH TO READ,
RUN ONE OF THESE AND ENJOY 30 MINUTES PEACE.

S/TREK.BAS
AS THE FILENAME IMPLIES, THIS IS AN ABBREVIATED VERSION OF STARTREK. SOFTWARE
JUNKIES, YOU'VE GOT A COLLECTOR'S ITEM HERE. IGNORE THE FULL-BLOWN STARTREK
ON THIS DISK! IT (STARTREK) CREATES GRAPHIC REPRESENTATIONS OF SPACE COMBAT,
AND IT IS SO HARD TO LEARN THAT YOU WOULD BE FAR BETTER OFF WITH THIS EASY-
TO-LEARN SUBSET (S/TREK.BAS). BEFORE YOU HAVE ENTERED YOUR 20TH CARRIAGE-
RETURN, THE GREAT INTRA-GALACTIC CONFLICT WILL HAVE BEEN DECIDED. THE KIDS
ARE WELCOME FOR THIS ONE, AND SO IS THAT SENILE OLD AUNT THAT YOU CAN'T
QUITE DECIDE WHAT TO DO WITH.

STARS.BAS
FIRST PUBLISHED AS 'SHOOTING STARS', A COMPACT, FUN GAME; WELL-DOCUMENTED,
WORKS WELL. IT WILL NOT BE YOUR LIFE'S AMBITION TO LEARN HOW TO MASTER THIS,
BUT IT IS A SMALL 'PYRAMID' CONSTRUCTED BY HONEST CRAFTSMEN. I MEAN THIS AS
A COMPLIMENT.

CORE.BAS
CORETEST.BAS
THE SOURCE CODES OF THESE IMPLY THAT ONE CAN DETERMINE VALUABLE INSIGHTS
INTO THE QUALITY OF SOMEBODIES' RAM BOARDS. MIND YOU, THESE ARE WRITTEN
IN BASIC-E. A HARDWARE TEST IN BASIC-E COULD, IN FACT, BE A PRECURSOR OF
PORN-FLICKS IN ML-80... GRUNT, WHEEZE.....

LEM.BAS
LANDER.BAS
YOUR SPACE CAPSULE IS IN A GRAVITY-FIELD, AND YOUR FUEL IS FINITE; MAKE A
SMOOTH LANDING - DON'T BET ON IT - THESE ARE AMONGST THE MOST WIDELY CIRCULATED
GAMES WHICH EXIST. BOTH ARE GOOD, DAMNED GOOD IN FACT, COMPARED TO ALMOST
ANY OTHER IMPLEMENTATION OF EITHER OF THESE WHICH HAVE BEEN PREVIOUSLY
SUBMITTED. ONCE AGAIN, GOOD PROGRAMMING MAKES THE DIFFERENCE.

KENO.BAS
TO FIND OUT JUST HOW OVERWHELMING THE ODDS AGAINST WINNING THIS GAME REALLY
ARE, A SABBATICAL TO NEVADA IS RECOMMENDED. UNLESS YOU ARE DRIVEN BY FORCES
THAT YOU CAN'T EXPLAIN, YOU WILL PROBABLY GIVE UP BEFORE YOU HAVE EVER WON
EVEN TEN DOLLARS. IT SURE COULD USE A TRIO AND SOME SHOWGIRLS TO LIVEN
THINGS UP A BIT.

POET.BAS
THIS IS A (SHORT) POEM GENERATOR. GET HIGH, RUN IT SEVERAL TIMES, THEN MOVE
ON TO THE NEXT ONE.

HANG.BAS
TTT.BAS
UNDOUBTABLY, WHEN YOU GOT YOUR BASIC-E DISKETTES, THESE WERE AMONGST THE
'FREEBIES' THAT WERE INCLUDED. HANG.BAS NOW WORKS. THE WORD YOU MUST GUESS
WILL BE TRULY RANDOM; BUT, BE HONEST, HAVEN'T YOU ALMOST MEMORIZED ALL
THE WORDS IN THE DATA TABLE.... NO CHALLENGE (ANYMORE). TTT.BAS - TO PARA-
PHRASE CHURCHILL, "NEVER HAS SO MUCH CODE GIVEN SO LITTLE TO A 3 BY 3
MATRIX GAME". IT MAY SEEM CLEVER THAT 'TTT' SEEMS SO CYBERNETIC, BUT IN
IMMINENT RELEASES, YOU MAY WELL SEE AN EXCELLENT 'OTHELLO' (NO, NOT THAT
SHORT VERSION THAT WAS RECENTLY PUBLISHED) OR PERHAPS A POKER GAME THAT
PLAYS WELL TO START, AND IMPROVES ITS LOGIC CONTINUOUSLY DURING PLAY. THESE
ARE MENTIONED BECAUSE EACH OCCUPIES THE (APPROXIMATE) SAME AMOUNT OF SOURCE
AS DOES 'TTT.BAS'.

CRAPS.BAS
A NICE RENDITION OF THIS GAME. LIKE KENO IT STILL NEEDS A BEVY OF BUXOM
SHOWGIRLS TO PUT IT OVER THE TOP.

BAGELS.BAS
MY REVIEW OF THE SOFTWARE ON ANOTHER DISK INDICATED MY FONDNESS FOR THAT
VERSION OF THIS GAME. THE SAME APPLIES HERE. YOU'VE SEEN IT ONE HUNDRED
TIMES, BUT THIS IS PROBABLY BETTER THAN WHAT YOU'VE SEEN BEFORE.

CANNONS.BAS
AIM YOUR ARTILLERY AT A STATIONARY ENEMY. SOUNDS LIKE A TURKEY-SHOOT,
DOESN'T IT? THE PERSISTANCE TO MASTER THIS GAME PERHAPS REPRESENTS
THE MAJOR DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ENJOYING A THANKSGIVING FEAST OR BEING THE
MAIN COURSE AT SAME. SHELLS AWAY.....

FINALLY WHEN IT COMES TO THE PROBLEMS OF SOFTWARE EXCHANGE I AM REMINDED
OF THIS: "THE DOER AND THE THINKER, NO ALLOWANCE FOR THE OTHER....." - YOU
DOERS ARE DOCUMENTING YOUR PROGRAMS, AND YOU THINKERS ARE MAKING ME CON-
TEMPLATE THE PURCHASE OF A MUCH LARGER TRASH RECEPTACLE.

                    HAPPY TRAILS...

                        ZOSO