JJ52's Cassette 50

 While I have been writing reviews for other entries I have gotten behind on the entries of jj52. There have been so many of these that he is well on the way to creating his own cassette 50. However, buyers of the collection are unlikely to receive a Timex digital calculator watch. To catch up this post will review all the missing entries so far.

Music Match - 16K Spectrum

This arrived as a TAP file of 123 KB which was quite exciting. Loading it caused me to scratch my head.


Opening the TAP file revealed 34 entries with Music Match buried at 28-29. 


Extracting this produced a working program. There are four levels of play when the computer makes a beep of different durations and pitch. After which you need to input a response. There appears to be no link to the response and the beep.

1. Nothing
2. 9,3
3. 7,2
4. 1,3

If you are wrong which you will be you will be told "incorrect","incorekt","What are you? 12?", Some1 neds to go back to msc cls ASAP"



At the end you will always score 8. Unless you are reviewing the game you won't play more than once. Even that is too much.

Score


KFC Simulator - 16K Spectrum

Next up KFC Simulator. Sadly the INPUTs were broken on this one because I quite liked the ideas behind it.

3

Since the inputs don't really work, the end result is more or less this


Unfortunately I suspect the average person is going to input the number of the option, not guess whether a number or the full text is required.


Reading through the code, the basic idea is a bit of fun and takes the idea of running KFC in a direction I would never have imagined. 

I wonder if any sort of testing is carried out before sending. 


D-Day 1944 - 16K Spectrum

At this point I have to say the titles of the games that arrive from jj52 are generally excellent, they are pitched at the right level to inspire hope that there will be a game worth playing. Most of them could grace a really decent game. Maybe this one will be the one.

After being stuck in a ever ending loop of this


I thought Groundhog Day had come early.

After peeking at the code I realised that jj52 had taken onboard my comments about autorunning programs, but had misunderstood the steps I had provided.


After deleting lines 3 and 4, it was possible to escape the loop and start playing.


This has promise nice chunky graphics. Pressing anykey there is a swift flicker of something then a CLS which takes us here.


So far I'm assuming landing craft and now the beaches of D-Day. It is shaping up to be a replay of Saving Private Ryan.

After a series of input commands which do nothing more than pause the progress you get to here.


Again something flashes on screen and instantly clears. We are left with this.


In my imagination it is a tank. 


Maybe not.


Not sure where the next input has taken us.


The next series of steps take us here.


Notwithstanding the use of magenta the whole experience is dark. It is like the intro to Saving Private Ryan if they had never got past the first 5 minutes. 

Like the last effort there is something in here that I sort of appreciate, bonus points are awarded for attempting to autorun. Ultimately it is probably closer to interactive fiction than a game. If interactive involves pressing enter only.

Super Godzilla

Like I said before the titles are promising. So is the accompanying email.

"All ready to run, no need to type anything. This is an exact copy of the 2014 film with you as the civilian trying to escape. Satisfaction guaranteed"

Could it really be the holy grail of jj52 games? An autorunner and a promise of satisfaction at the end of it?


I've been here before.

After deleting line 5


I have no idea what I'm looking at.


Ah! Wait a minute, the red squares in green brackets are eyes, the M's and W's are teeth. Seemingly I'm in trouble.


Somehow I'm a winner. Looking at the code makes more sense than the end result.


It seems the only option is to win. A complete reversal to the D-Day entry.

Colossal Cave 128K

It autoruns!!!!

Despite saying 128K it runs on a 16K Speccy, apart from line 200.

DMV

DMV autoruns but appears to be broken, I'm not sure if line 12 should end INPUT I not INPUT n as the game crashes on line 14 with an unknown variable.

Color Test

Color Test is a Colo(u)r Blindness test. It autoruns and appears to mostly work. I'm going to have to argue that the first colo(u)r shown is Magenta not purple :) 



Tetris Hell

Written for the ZX81 and runs in EightyOne. It simulates the experience of a person trapped at the bottom of a Tetris game with pieces raining down. Any input is allowed.


Another great idea would love to see a graphical version of this with an actual player to move.

Madness Part 2

Doesn't autorun. Appears to be a simulation of watching paint dry, as dull as it sounds.

Present

Doesn't autorun. Appears to work fully. Any entry is allowed while waiting for input. To say any more would give the ending away.

DMV 2K

Written for the ZX81 and runs in EightyOne. It seems to be an accurate simulation of waiting for your number to be called.

Moon

Like many of these entries the game waits for you to input something before leading you by the hand to your unavoidable demise.

War of the Worlds

Despite not auto-running, the game starts off pretty promisingly


You actually get a YES/NO option pretty soon after this which works!

Spider Smasher

Very similar to the games so far.

Escape Jason Voorhees



It appears there is no escaping Jason Voorhees.

Lunar Lander


Not a lot to do in this game but see if you land safely or not. The choice of Game 1 or 2 does actually give a different outcome.

420

Not really sure what is going on here, except it involves a door.

Dracula

By this stage, I'm feeling like I don't really have any control over my destiny.



Obey

I confess this one made me laugh.

Sketch 16K

This entry was a shocker, a mostly functioning Etch A Sketch program. Keys are Q,A,O,P and work. The accompanying email promised the ability to save your masterpiece, but I'm pretty sure it isn't possible to execute that area of code.



Death Star

After the last program, I was expecting a little more action.

Elevator

Once again I seem to have lost control of my destiny. Despite saying No to entering the elevator I'm thrust on board. It appears to be the world's slowest elevator until it all goes wrong.

Crapman

Another one for the ZX81, not entirely sure what is going on. It is possible to move using 5,6,7,8 and I keep being told I win which is all very good for the ego.

r

Knockout Tyson

Another title I would have loved to have seen made into a proper game. This one again 

Fish

This doesn't seem to function as expected.

Jackpot 1K

Another for the ZX81.

Hop

Another for the ZX81. Something happens before I'm asked to play again, but dashed if I know what.

Coffee Drinker V2

Another for the ZX81. Appears to be a promotional feature on the dangers of coffee addition.

Field of Death

Exactly as it says on the tin. 

Communisim 16K

A multiple choice game which appears to be for the ZX81 despite the title. Appears not to run correctly.

Whos on first

A very long running joke.

Birthday

Not a gift you would want to receive on your birthday.

Great Purge

Another of the life is out of control ones with a very depressing end.

Color Dance

The email says the keys are 5,6,7,8 it doesn't explain how to play. Pretty sure I haven't worked it out either.

Spectrivia 48K

These are not the droids (game) you are looking for.

Haunted

Input and Prompt appear to be in the wrong order.

DLC

One for the ZX81. Commentary on in App payments.

Big Red Button

See Spectrivia 448K

Dragon

Found Gold, but could not find Variable.



Crapplevania

Quite possibly the worst way to die.

Real Life

Maybe I was wrong about Crapplevania, maybe there are worse ways to die.

At the end of this, I feel TT has created a category all of his own. As such his entries deserve to be judged against themselves as a benchmark. To that end, I think Sketch is a clear winner for mostly doing what it should. The loser perhaps is Dragon.

These games will be available as one mega cassette 50 download from here.


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