EUG has hit the big seven zero. OMG, it's practically an OAP. That must be why it's losing track of time, eh? Yes, despite Dave E's best efforts, we don't need reminding that EUG #70 is four months late. Blame a heavy workload, blame the priority of the scanning projects, blame our sense of perfectionism... but let us still savour that the Acorn Electron, now some twenty-eight years old, still has support! And never more so than last year - when it became the subject of an entire film (Micro Men).

In this seventieth issue, we've affectionately put together a magazine that combines all the best elements of the old and new. And, to misquote Bruce Forsyth, this issue's so much better than last year. For where else is providing an 8-bit fix anywhere near comparable? Where else can you find six new games and a good hour's worth of new reading matter, all completely BBC and Electron-based? Where else can you be whisked back to your computing youth of 1984, in 2010? Ah, where indeed other than here, through EUG #70...?

Articles

We take a look over developments in the Acorn world over the past few months, look back on 2009, and continue our Games Page with a write-up of the Scott Adams adventures.

Demos

Hands up, those of you who thought that Acornsoft's Creative Graphics was as good as it graphically gets?! No siree, PD World is heaving with the recursive talents of Dutch authors such as Jan Vibes, and this EUG presents one of his recursive masterpieces, the Headache Demo. Incidentally, if you're impressed, DEMOS #5 features a whole mini-archive of mini-masterpieces of this type.

We've also got another showcase piece, this one a BBC Master 128 music and scrolly message demo from The Organ Grinder's Monkey simply called The Moscow Demo. Altogether now, "Moscow, Moscow, join us for a Cossack show, we'll go dancing round the clock, hahahaha - hey!"

Oh, and speaking of music demos, there's a little machine code musical number called ROCK IT! hiding on the disc - this was the original background music put together by Paul Lear for Rock Pile. Unfortunately, the game became so sophisticated that he had to cut it out.

Games

So many home-coded masterpieces out there that were never given a professional release... We start this issue with Cliffhanger, a machine-code platform game originally published in 23 separate parts in Marshall-Cavendish's Input magazine. Dave E has written a whole article about bringing this one home so you can decide if it was worth the effort!

Equally, get ready for Paul Lear's Rock Pile fruit machine simulator. Spin the reels, light up the rocks and perfect the whole gamble/collect strike to gamble your way to a gazillion quid. It might not be as polished as Livewire's FRUIT CATCHER but it's a pretty close second.

Simon is Steven Flintham's upmarket 'Simon' simulator, head and shoulers above the competition (Don't remind us of the version in Granada's 40 Educational Games For The Electron as the memory is still painful!). We've managed to remember nine linear combinations and believe that that is above average. But can you do better?

We've also got a real treat this issue - a game for the Electron from none other than PD God Lars Osterballe! Supreme is a clone of the enduring space-battle game Elite; it just comes with one page of instructions instead of four hundred!

Finally this issue, we present Trainiac, one of the brightest and zippiest BASIC games ever produced, which has you furiously navigating bridge pieces to fill the gaps in a bombed railway line. Oh, and for a challenge try playing without placing bridge pieces - but by using your cursor to 'carry' the train over the gaps instead. Tricky, but it can be done.

Oh, and did we mention that there are some brand new levels for Chuckie Egg, created with the Organ Grinder's Monkey Chuckie Egg 2009 tool?

Reviews

Dave E casts his weary [What? - Ed] eye over a broad selection of games and demos. He's happy enough with hack-and-slash map game Barbarian 2, Lars Osterballe's Pantheon and new compilation disc The C&VG Collection. He's positively ectastic over TV drama Micro Men and the Yorkshire Boys' BBC megademo Retribution X. On the other hand, Castle Assault, Das Schloss, Hell Hole, Loony Loco, Virgin's Games For Your Acorn Electron and Granada's Take Off With The Electron aren't getting away without a Simon Cowell-style pasting.

Solutions

We present a fully illustrated solution to Robico classic The Hunt: Search For Shauna. What? Many of you may never have played this game before? Did you enjoy Twin Kingdom Valley? Well, this is better!

Utilities

Jeff Aughton presents a short utility to move a section of memory around without corrupting overlapping locations.

Plus!

Our lovely Jurassic Park style loading pic this issue isn't the only example of 8-bit artwork we've got for you. Check out our lovely Leanne pic! We put this on as a Graphics Bonus, rather like the Acorn User discs of old! You know, we find this portrait bewitching...!

You can post feedback on EUG and any other aspects of the Acorn Electron World website to dave_a_e AT hotmail.com.