"Sleigh bells ring, are you listening? In the lane snow is glistening, a beautiful sight, we're happy tonight, walking in EUG wonderland..." (For the penultimate time...)
Contents/News
What's hot and what's not in the BBC/Electron emulation world plus this page and the latest developments from Sprow.
Articles
The regular dose of Brainteasers plus the start of two brand new columns by Christopher Dewhurst explaining how to make best use of that ENVELOPE command and his Automaton utility (in the "U" directory).
Demos
CHAOS (All series)
A simple yet fascinating pattern generator using the "Barry Martin" formula. Watch the strange structures - like magnified cross-sections of plant stems, organic tissue or snowflakes - swell. ESCAPE starts generating a new pattern. a, b and c (Line 70) are chosen at random!
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MUSICAL SNOWMEN (BBC B, B+, Master only. Not Electron)
Melwyn Wright, the man behind the TIPPERARY demo, equips a chorus of snowmen with bells, sends them into swirling Mode 2 snow and strikes up the band. A seasonal all-time favourite words simply cannot do justice!
MUSIC MACHINE (BBC B, B+, Master only. Not Electron)
Whilst we're celerating the above awesome four channel renditions, here is another fantastic demo supposedly written by my old schoolfriend, John Benson. Frankly though, we have our suspicions this too comes from Melvyn Wright, especially as (a) the machine of the title is poached from a BBC Firebird game and (b) when we asked John how he programmed it, he was to say the least vague. Confirmation, anyone?
PARALLAX STARS (All series)
Remember those cool descending stars in the EUG #55 demo? Well, Chris Dewhurst has improved upon the formula which creates them to give the impression of perspective...
YOSSA (All series)
The only outstanding "MRM/Sicksoft" demo finally makes it to EUG HQ. Not playable like Nutter and not as inspiring as either Bones demo but worth a look at anyway. Anyone actually remember "Boys From The Blackstuff"?
Games
FATHER CHRISTMAS'S CRACKERS (All series. Requires PAGE at &E00)
Who's crackers? Father Christmas?! Oh, crackers that belong to Father Christmas, I see. Frantic arcade action in a clone of Danger UXB from Chris Dewhurst.
Moonbase Beta (BBC B, B+ and Master only. Not Electron)
A cool coup for EUG, this Spycat-style graphic adventure pits you on Phillip Hatton's alien base among some of the most vicious aliens to grace your screen. Professional 100% machine code action for the Beeb following the review in EUG #60.
Smarty Berty (BBC B and Electron)
Another Q*Bert clone, this one originally from the pages of C&VG. A tribute to presentation over performance, this is easy and addictive - until you discover a rather fantastic excess of bugs, that is.
Tapeworm (All series)
Graham Laundon's improved "Light Bikes" PD title features re-definable keys, scrolling messages, parameters and a permanent high score table.
Utilities
Clock (BBC Model B Only)
This utility, its origin unknown, is supplied with a request for help from Kevin Etheridge. As a self-confessed Frak addict, he appeals for anyone to amalgamate Clock's code with that of Frak, so that a real time clock can be displayed across the top of the screen during gameplay. Impossible? Anyone up to the challenge? (NB. Note the 'jump' bug which occurs if BREAK is pressed!)
COUNTER (All series)
A simple utility which will count the words in a piece of text. Try typing V.+CONTS at the prompt to count the number of words here!
Reviews
Exile and A&B Computing 3.01 comes to disk plus a look at the PC conversion of Jet Set Willy and the Oric fanzine Rhetoric.
Sundries
The mammoth contents of this issue have called for a little inventive work with the menu system. You'll find the solution to Adventure No. 12: Golden Voyage, a letter from John Crane and the Classified Ads lumped together under this heading!
Plus!
This issue's opener is, not surprisingly, a Jigsaw image. We all know how to use these by now, don't we?
You can e-mail the editor of EUG at dave_a_e AT hotmail.com