Pirates & Polyps from Computer & Videogames Magazine, 1984 Yearbook

[NuY]

I've embarked on a mass typing mission again, trying to get all the games published for Atari in CVG. Done pretty well so far, have filled up one 360kb disc. But I've hit a snag with the latest one.

 

Pirates & Polyps in the CVG 1984 Yearbook is riddled with missing lines, bits of missing lines, to the point where I can't get it to work. I've banged in about one third of it up to now, but there is an MC routine called that is making the system crash. Below is the link to the scans of this edition, the program starts on page 58.

 

ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclair/magazines/C+VG/YearBook1984/Pages/

 

In a later issue of the mag, they make mention of the printing errors, and ask you to write in to the office for an updated listing. Corrections were not printed in the magazine itself, that I can find. What I'm hoping is that if the version published isn't easily fixable, someone may have sent off for the updated listing and may still have it lurking around...

 

If anyone is interested in seeing what's been typed in up to now, just ask and I'll upload the BAS file.

[NuY]

Bump before it disappears under a sea of arguments...

 

Anyone help with this?

[Fuji-Man]

I've never heard of CVG, will take a look at it, and if time permits (and my eyes don't bug out), may start from the end and work my way backwards.

 

It looks like the page curls at binding (thus missing a column or two) might make this rather difficult.

 

Fuji-Man

 

 

I've embarked on a mass typing mission again, trying to get all the games published for Atari in CVG. Done pretty well so far, have filled up one 360kb disc. But I've hit a snag with the latest one.

 

Pirates & Polyps in the CVG 1984 Yearbook is riddled with missing lines, bits of missing lines, to the point where I can't get it to work. I've banged in about one third of it up to now, but there is an MC routine called that is making the system crash. Below is the link to the scans of this edition, the program starts on page 58.

 

ftp://ftp.worldofspe...Book1984/Pages/

 

In a later issue of the mag, they make mention of the printing errors, and ask you to write in to the office for an updated listing. Corrections were not printed in the magazine itself, that I can find. What I'm hoping is that if the version published isn't easily fixable, someone may have sent off for the updated listing and may still have it lurking around...

 

If anyone is interested in seeing what's been typed in up to now, just ask and I'll upload the BAS file.

Edited February 23, 2010 by Fuji-Man

[NuY]

I've embarked on a mass typing mission again, trying to get all the games published for Atari in CVG. Done pretty well so far, have filled up one 360kb disc. But I've hit a snag with the latest one.

 

Pirates & Polyps in the CVG 1984 Yearbook is riddled with missing lines, bits of missing lines, to the point where I can't get it to work. I've banged in about one third of it up to now, but there is an MC routine called that is making the system crash. Below is the link to the scans of this edition, the program starts on page 58.

 

ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclair/magazines/C+VG/YearBook1984/Pages/

 

In a later issue of the mag, they make mention of the printing errors, and ask you to write in to the office for an updated listing. Corrections were not printed in the magazine itself, that I can find. What I'm hoping is that if the version published isn't easily fixable, someone may have sent off for the updated listing and may still have it lurking around...

 

If anyone is interested in seeing what's been typed in up to now, just ask and I'll upload the BAS file.

Okay, so as promised, attached is the disk image with the whole program entered as described in the magazine. Filename on the disk is POLYPS.BAS.

 

The magazine describes the following lines as being in the listing for various control symbols, but the lines are completely missing:

 

LINE 1000 - (CONTROL I)
LINE 1000 - (CONTROL A B C)
LINE 1000 - (CONTROL D E F)
LINE 1010 - (CONTROL G)
LINE 1010 - (CONTROL G)
LINE 1010 - (CONTROL H)
LINE 1010 - (CONTROL H)
LINE 1050 - 4 * (CONTROL COMMA)
LINE 3050 - (CONTROL M)
LINE 5060 - 6 * (CONTROL COMMA)

There are also other lines clearly missing, as the screen isn't cleared after the instructions, strings are undimensioned, and part of the instructions are missing. Hope someone can assist...

 

test.atr

[livorno]

Hello NuY,

I know that this thread is now 9 years old, but I currently am under my own C&VG manic quest to collect 'em all. At this point, I think I have all type-ins except for the 4 in the 2 yearbooks. I have posted zip files of my .BAS type-ins to AtariMania under a fairly current thread in their 8-bit section. Did you ever archive your C&VG type-ins?

I have not made much progress on Pirates & Polyps except that I think I have finished the instructions complete with control characters. That same issue of C&VG#29 Bug Hunter which said there were misprints also gave a few lines to add for instructions. Unfortunately, there are still major DIM statements and string initialization lines missing.

PIRATES.BAS

I got Interstellar Intrigue to a working state except one machine language routine near the display list (lines 800-952) don't seem to do much.

[+Allan]

 

Hello NuY,

I know that this thread is now 9 years old, but I currently am under my own C&VG manic quest to collect 'em all. At this point, I think I have all type-ins except for the 4 in the 2 yearbooks. I have posted zip files of my .BAS type-ins to AtariMania under a fairly current thread in their 8-bit section. Did you ever archive your C&VG type-ins?

I have not made much progress on Pirates & Polyps except that I think I have finished the instructions complete with control characters. That same issue of C&VG#29 Bug Hunter which said there were misprints also gave a few lines to add for instructions. Unfortunately, there are still major DIM statements and string initialization lines missing.

PIRATES.BAS

I got Interstellar Intrigue to a working state except one machine language routine near the display list (lines 800-952) don't seem to do much.

 

Can you put them all in one folder and post them here? It will make it a little easier for me to add them to the Atarimania database. I will try to start adding them to the database this weekend.

 

Thanks,

Allan

[NuY]

16MB Spartados (bootable) ATR with everything I typed in from CVG, along with the introductory text from the mag about each game.

 

From the contents it looks like I got sidetracked partway through typing one of them in. Theres some ~800kb of fiels on the disk so it should be almost all of the games from CVG.

CVG.zip

[+Allan]

16MB Spartados (bootable) ATR with everything I typed in from CVG, along with the introductory text from the mag about each game.

 

From the contents it looks like I got sidetracked partway through typing one of them in. Theres some ~800kb of fiels on the disk so it should be almost all of the games from CVG.

Thank you for doing all that. I will try to add them soon.

 

Allan

[livorno]

Unfortunately, there's some duplication now, but here is my contribution of type-ins. I excluded the games I found on AtariMania. I included a CSV file that lists authors, type of game, issue, pages, status within AtariMania, etc. Some games I hacked into a version 2 when they seemed to be misbehaving (POKEing under assumed memory allocations).

 

CVG Type-Ins missing from AtariMania.zip

 

 

[livorno]

Without knowing the official corrections, I decided to do some extrapolating. My basis was mostly the additional lines of code in C&VG issue #29, page 141. CTRL -I, A-B-C, and D-E-F are have been customized into a satellite dish. Extrapolated Line 1000 prints a Scanner/Projector(satellite dish) near the bottom of the screen. Likewise, extrapolated line 1010 places 2 Laser Bases near the bottom. Undimensioned and undefined strings included M1$, M2$, M3$, and S$. Line 550 defines A$ as a 1024-byte string that seemed to contain player missile graphics data. Looking at line 1250, S$ seemed to be the eraser string and M1$ seemed to be a 4-byte moving object which acted like a pirate. So in line 1050, I dimensioned S$(4) and defined it as a string of four hearts. In line 1005, I dimensioned the M1-3$ to match the customized CTRL J-K-L in the corrected instructions. The game screen almost looks fathomable. The pirate player missile animates upward and downward with some side-to-side jiggle, but the boundary condition at the bottom of the screen has not been coded and the game eventually ends ERROR 141. Firing with space bar and trigger make noise, but no bullets or consequences to the pirates are evident. Sometimes pirates crash into something near the bottom of the screen - likely a clue as to the actual placement of the laser bases and projector/collector. Still missing are the interactions between pirates, polyps, and the player-controlled bases.

 

PIRATES2.zip

 

 

[livorno]

Here's the next iteration of guesswork. Most of the change is in line 3000. Appended at the end of the line is :IF G>19 THEN S=0:GOTO 1100

 

This prevents the wandering pirate from going below the screen out of bounds. With the increased game time, I found that holding the space bar down occasionally activates a tractor beam against a polyp, so I repositioned the scanner/projector in line 1000 to position 19,19. Still pirates seem to kidnap polyps without actually running into them and occasionally they crash into a misplaced object.

 

PIRATES3.zip

 

 

[livorno]

I think I guessed enough code to make it work. The additions do not quite match up with all the expected lines that have control characters and I modified some lines that were printed in the original magazine code, but the game now works in a way that seems logical and actually fun. This time the .zip contains the .BAS file, the ENTERable via H6:.TXT file, the readable .PDF file complete with ATASCII control characters, and a .PNG screenshot. Unless I get the mania to seamlessly merge my guessed code with the verbatim listing, I think this likely concludes my hacking on Pirates and Polyps.

 

PIRATES.zip