Electron Forever Magazine - Issue 1

Issue 1

The FREE retro gaming e-zine for Electron fans

electron forever

Retro Hardware

Mega Games

We take a look at the brand new games cartridge for your Plus 1, over 100 games on a super fast cart!

Featured

Reviewed

The Last Ninja

Stock Car

We find out what its like to be an ass-kicking ninja for the day.

Arcadians

Interview: Aidy from The British IBM Emulation links and Acorn Resources www.electronforever.co.uk

The British IBM in...

an Adventure game by Stuart Johns

Zombies Ate Our Roadies An awesome new adventure... free download or cassette ÂŁ1.99+P&P Featuring some nice puzzles and quirky locations, this little text adventure is offered as freeware on DFS (or ADFS, upon request) 3.5" floppy disc. As it is written on an Acorn Electron using the Quill, it should work fine on other compatible computers such as the Beeb and the Master too.

For download, more information, and purchasing:

www.acornelectrontoday.com

Contents

It's the launch issue!

Welcome to this It's issue 1 and we'd like to welcome everyone zine!

Maga ver Fore ron first issue of Elect

News in What's going on? Is the Acorn Electron still alive 2017! Find out what's new, and where to start.

Reviews Time to take a nostalgic trip back thro ugh a few of the Electron games of old, and perh aps take a peak at something new Page 7 - Stockcar Page 8 - Arcadians

Interview

Feature Game

Stuart Johns interviews singer/song writer & retro enthusiast Aidy, from the Cambrid ge-based trio The British IBM

We take a look at The Last Ninja, a game we played very briefly and to not much avail back in the day, how does it hold up, and are we actually any good at it now?!?

Retro Hardw

are

Even today th Electron an ere is new hardware for the Aco d we take a rn look at Dav games cart e Hitchen's ridge for th e Plus 1! n load your g The ideal w ew ames.... ay to the Mega G

ames Cart

ridge!

This fanzine is brought to you by Electron Forever

www.electronforever.co.uk

electron forever

NEWS

Electron Use

r Returns?

Almost - you are reading Electron Fo Electron Use rever, a hom r, aiming to age to br in g yo u news from internet relatin across the g to our favo urite machine know what . Please let you think us by giving us mailbag@elec an email at tronforever.co. uk, or messa facebook at: ges on us http://www.fa via cebook.com/e lectronforever /

#retrogaming 101

Emulation?

For those who need to know where to start, take a look at

When it comes to the current Acorn

these websites first!

Electron scene, you can choose real hardware, in which case you should

Acorn Electron World A massive resource for Acorn Electron fans, magazine scans, games, books, you name it, it is here! http://www.acornelectron.co.uk/ Every Game Going A huge collection of Acorn software and resources are here for use with emulators is housed here. http://www.everygamegoing.com

check out E-Bay for starters, however you don't need real hardware. The following emulators will help you run a virtual Electron on your PC! Elkulator Windows/Linux based emulator http://elkulator.acornelectron.co.uk/ Electrem

Stardot A must visit place for Acorn enthusiast, houses the definitive forums resource, sign up required. http://www.stardot.org.uk/

Windows/Linux based emaultor http://electrem.emuunlim.com/ ElkJS Run an Acorn Electron in your web

Acorn Electron Today Stuart John's Acorn Electron website, and home to brand new game "Zombies Ate Our Roadies"

browser but not as accurate/fast. http://elkjs.azurewebsites.net/

http://www.acornelectrontoday.com/

This free* fanzine is brought to you by Electron Forever

www.electronforever.co.uk * Our PDF download is free, future print editions will be available for a small price

electron WELCOME forever Hello World & Welcome to Issue 1!

Welcome! Thinking back now - how many years have passed since the last issue of Electron User fell through your letter box? Or was picked up eagerly at your local newsagent? Do you remember how great that was?

Retrogamers, programmers and

due soon though".

productivity gurus alike, if you are

Electron User will evoke similar

anything like me (and if you're not,

So, on those days where the answer

you probably wouldn't be here),

was "Yes"... joyous moments, truly

then

excellent times!

you

probably

miss

your

I do hope that this homage to

memories for you...

We're looking for contributions, whether that be code listings,

regular Electron User read. Fond memories are evoked when I think

On those days I think I'd probably

letters,

back

young

zoomed round the streets at twice

comments, and this is for all of us!

paperboy, working at the local

the normal speed, racing home to

newsagent and trekking out in a

have a scan through the magazine

Yes, that means BBC users too,

morning to do my round, always

before I had school, and checking

without our big brother, our little

eager to see if my latest copy had

out the awesome games that were

Electron wouldn't be here at all.

arrived...

inside to start typing out when I got

to

myself

as

a

back!

Many a morning started off with "Has my Electron User arrived

That is why I have decided to create

yet?", and invariably the answer

this trial issue of Electron Forever, to

from my "paper round boss" would

brush up my knowledge on the

often be "Not yet lad, should be

Electron and to share the memories.

memories,

or

Enjoy the rest of this issue!

Anthony (Ed)

This free fanzine is brought to you by Electron Forever

www.electronforever.co.uk

just

Featured Game

The Last Ninja Superior Acornsoft It was rare for a popular mainstream title from other

There be dragons...

systems to make it over to the Acorn Electron, we all remember the system as having its own versions of games, such as Killer Gorilla instead of Donkey Kong, so it was a celebration when one of the popular titles made it.

One such title was The Last Ninja, originally by System 3 and ported to the Acorn Electron thanks to licencing

by Superior/Acornsoft and the skill of Peter Scott in getting it to run on our beloved system.

The back story to the game is that the evil Shogun hatched a plot to destroy the brotherhood of Ninjas as they made their yearly travel to worship at the shrine of the White Ninja, and he was successful in destroying all but one - Armakuni,the Last Ninja!

Playing as Armakuni, you must travel through Fen Island to track down the evil Shogun in a bid for

Along the pathways you will meet many enemies, some armed and some not, and you can collect various weapons including a Sword, Nunchucks, Shuriken and more. Objects are also scattered around the landscape for you to find and use, such as an Apple in the first level, don't miss this as it gives you an extra life!

You must guide Armakuni across multiple levels consisting of a maze of pathways and obstacles to overcome. An isometric 3D style is adopted for the game which really gives an element of depth and makes a real change from simple

revenge.

overhead or side on views used in most games.

Tricky situations...

Controls are intuitive once you get used to them and as well as the usual up/down, left/right, you also have three keys used to jump various distances. Attacks have various options to perform with different kicks and punches available and various swipes of your weapons when you are armed.

Shuriken and Smoke Bombs can also be thrown.

When

holding the Sword or Nunchucks I have found that holding

...do NOT miss those stones!

down the fire button and hitting left and right works best for me.

Featured Game

Watch out for those stepping stones that have to

Sound:

be jumped across, these can sometimes be tricky

Running along produces a sound as your Ninja

and you need ot make sure you are stood in the

navigates the mazes and is used to good effect as you

correct position and using the correct jump length

hit your enemies, we all know the Electron is not best

in order to get across or otherwise sink to your

known for its great sound with the single channel sound

peril in the swamp.

and noise, but it works well for the game.

Graphics:

Playability:

This game is really colourful and the use of

Controls work well and this can't be faulted really, the

stipling is used to great effect, animation is good

only minor irritation is the difficulty in navigatiing the

and this really is up there with the best.

swamps as getting the right location on the rocks and length of jump correct is tricky, although this is learned

Due to memory constraints with the machine

with time and only a problem whilst you figure it out.

there is only around half the screen used as this game needed to squeeze memory out of the

Overall:

Electron, and use part of the machine's screen

The Last Ninja is a superb game and one you must own

memory to hold the game - a technique used by

for your Acorn Electron, the box art is brilliant and the

many a game in the later years.

game itself is fun to play even for me, as I usually can't even make it past the first level! it, time to take a look.

If you haven't played

Advertisement

RH - Retro Hardware

Mega Games Cartridge The MGC is a Plug and Play Programmable Games Cartridge for the Acorn Electron

- Supplied in a Customised 3D printed case.

- Holds up to 254* Games that are chosen by you from an ever growing list, currently over 260.

- New Games, Applications and Utilities are being added as they are converted.

- Delivered with all your chosen Games loaded ready for playing.

- Also supports some Electron Utilities and Applications.

E.g. View, Viewsheet, Starmon, ADT, ABE etc.

- Simple to operate.

Plug the MGC into either Cartridge Slot and turn-on (with the shift key depressed).

Select your Game from the Menu.

- Ultra Fast loading of the Menu and Games.

- On-board software allows the user to select the required Game from a fully featured Menu.

- The Menu allows searching by: First letter of a Game, First letter of a Publishers name or by Genre.

- Programmable.

The cartridge comes with a set of Utilities (on-board) that will allow full or partial reprogramming of the MGC. - Supplied with a detailed User Guide.

- Full one year, return to base, warranty.

Only ÂŁ35!

For full details, search stardot.org.uk or E-Bay for "Mega Games Cart"

Interview

The British IBM

by Stuart Johns Acorn Electron Today catches up with Aidy from the British IBM Stuart: Aidy, thank you so much for agreeing to do this interview for the Acorn Electron Today site. Regular visitors to the site will know that I'm a big fan of the band and have an

"Offering a nimble mesh of indie rock and vintage computing" -- The British IBM

Electronified fan-page; hope that doesn't scare you off!

Stuart: That music video was my path into becoming a big fan of your music; I stumbled across your first

Aidy: No, it's all good and the Electronified fan-

album online and fell hook line and sinker for the title

art on the page looks awesome.

track, even before I really knew anything else about the band, simply because of the vintage computing

Stuart: I wanted travel back in time a little bit,

feel of the video for the song 'the British IBM'!

back to when the band first began as we know it now. Naturally, I'm a big fan of all things

Retro and vintage is obviously a big passion for you

Acorn, am I right in saying that the film Micro

too; do you find the stuff you do at the Centre for

Men had a big influence on you back then?

Computing History in Cambridge overlaps a lot with

Could you perhaps share a little bit about your

your music?

feelings on the film and the inspirations you drew from it? Did you have a favourite yourself in the Sinclair vs. Acorn battle?

Aidy: There is some cross-over between the two, the BBC Micro in the main music video borrowed from the museum. Also the museum's Jason Fitzpatrick

Aidy: That movie was a massive influence on

had a cameo in Micro Men as he provided a lot of the

myself and the creation of the band. I loved it

props for the film along with some technical

and that one scene in particular where Clive

supervision.

Sinclair and Chris Curry get thrown out of the Barron of Beef in Cambridge is where the name of the band and the song came from.

"We could have been the British IBM" is possibly my all time favorite line of dialog. It's moving scene that gets you thinking along a whole line of what-ifs.

Stuart: As you can imagine, I've always had a big Acorn obsession, focused really on the humble Electron, and it often frustrates me that these Acorn machines are largely left out of the mainstream 'retrogaming' scene today. Yet, to Acorn nuts, their nostalgia is as strong as it is for folks that owned the Speccy or C64 back in the day. Are there any vintage or retro computers or consoles that you feel the same way about - other scene-underdogs maybe?

Interview

Aidy: I had quite a few machines growing up and have owned both the BBC Micro and the Acorn Electron. The first machine I ever used though was a bit of an underdog and you rarely hear much about it these days. That was the Mattel Aquarius. When I was about 3 or 4 years old I loved playing a game called Local Bomber on it. I actually went to the effort of re-making it with a friend recently and putting it out on iOS and Android. Our version's called Gimpy Bomber.

Stuart: I recently bought your new album, 'Psychopaths Dream in Black and White' and was struck by the darker feel to the lyrics; it's

An image converted with Image2BBC for mode 0.

Aidy: For the new album I had a concept and a story in mind when I started writing it. It's kind of American Psycho meets Fight Club. It tells the

like you're inviting the listener to go on a

story

of

a

Psychopath

with

a

multiple

journey with you through each song.. as

personalities who's psychopathic traits such as

much like reading a good novel as listening

his lack of empathy lead him to be extremely

to an album.

successful in the business world. I had a pretty vivid idea of what was going on as the story

A journey in a similar way that the first album

progressed and wanted to try and reflect that with

took us back to the '80s and '90s with some

a more cinematic sound.

of the songs and their associated videos; 'the British IBM' spoke of early 80s Sinclair/Acorn

Stuart: The new album has also brought a new

and then the video for 'Animal' had a SNES-

wave of gigs, do you find a fair proportion of your

era feel...

fans are drawn in from the vintage computer scene?

Do you start out with a concept or story in mind, or do the songs naturally follow a

Aidy: Yeah that's definitely an area in which most

theme?

of the fans have come from and we've been plugged in that scene a fair bit. My favorite podcast

Retrogaming

Roundup

have

been

awesome and played tracks and helped plug both albums. Another big boost was when our music got used in From Bedrooms to Billions.

... Continued over page...

Interview Stuart: I think the retrogaming scene is here to stay, how

Aidy: I have a “tweaked” BBC Micro with an SD card in it.

do you see that scene changing as time goes on and do

My top five games on that would be the ones I played the

you think the British IBM will stay entwined within it?

most growing up: 1. Stryker’s Run, 2. Chuckie Egg, 3.

Dare Devil Dennis, 4. Castle Quest & 5. Frak!

Aidy: It'll always be there in some capacity and we'll always be there somewhere in the background playing

Stuart: So, the Acorn Electron..... do you think you'd ever

songs about Clive Sinclair and Chris Curry. I actually

be up for sneaking an Elk into any future songs or

wanted to do an album called "Where is Matthew Smith?"

videos? This little beige beauty needs all the back up it

so maybe that'll happen at some point, I had a few songs

can get in the cut and thrust of the retro scene ;-)

demo'd for it.With regards to the changing of the scene, I do sometimes wonder about the future.

Aidy: You never know!

There used to be about one retro gaming expo a year in

Stuart: Well, thank you so much once again for taking

the UK and now there’s loads of them but it’s still a fairly

the time to indulge Acorn Electron Today with these few

niche thing and I don’t think the number’s are there to

questions; please can I wish you and the band all

support them all but I hope I’m wrong as I love attending

success with the future! You've got a real gift and long

them and go to pretty much all of them. The other thing

may you continue to share that with us!

that’s going to change with time is what people consider retro as new consoles begin to age.

Aidy: Thank you, I appreciate the kind words. Keep it retro!

Stuart: We touched earlier on the BBC Micro and Electron, do you have a top five list of favourite games

Folks can find out more about the band on their website:

from those machines? In fact, do you have these

http:/www.thebritishibm.com/

machines in your collection?

Stuart's website can also be found at: http://www.acornelectrontoday.com/

10 LINERS From the heart...

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Let's Code!

One great way to learn basic programming in the 80's was to follow the small snippets of code in the magazines.

Here we present a 10 line program to type in and run on your Electron (or an emulator of your choice, we suggest Elkulator).

Try not to cheat, type in this program exactly as above and see what it does, lines begin with a number, where the line wraps above, keep to one line until you reach the end of the wrapped line!

Typing a program in will give you a greater chance of learning.

If you don't have a real Electron to type into, here are some links to some resources that will allow you to program BBC Basic on your PC: Elkulator - Acorn Electron Emulator Probably the most up to date of the emulators for your PC http://elkulator.acornelectron.co.uk/ Electrem - Acorn Electron Emulator Another emulator for Windows and Linux http://electrem.emuunlim.com/ ElkJs - An online emulator Not quite as accurate, but an extremely clever web browser based emulator: http://elkjs.azurewebsites.net/

We want your code, email: submissions@electronforever.co.uk

JUST FOR FUN Publisher Search

Micropower Firebird

n find the Acorn

Just for fun, see if you ca

shers company Electron software publi ch below, there's names in the wordsear it will give you a no prizes but hopefully g them all. bit of satisfaction findin

ic

Mastertron Bugbyte Audiogenic Acornsoft Alligata Imagine

W J D Y A N O Q E G Z J Z X L H U C D R M Z A K I B M L J S Y C G T E R L P W J A I F R I P F P U P I K N V J Q A N S R B J S D Q G B W B D M W T A E B M E C U T O E L Z T F A C N Z E D L P B E M I N G O V G L H Y I M E G T I I E D M O A G O I D P G R D I N D U R U A U V K W E O A N S M Z R V N V P T W T U T J F C Z W M C X A B A S G Y Y N Y I R L B S Y G L P R I A V L S Z T A I O B P T O O O O G J U H V C X B O G K O A W F E B W D B G N B B W C G R K I V O F C Z S T Q A E L G D I J D O U M O R H Y M M I U Z W O L Z P O K C H S N H I P V D X P Q R Z S R W B A O V L Z M N D O I E M M X P F P W R E G U E T W K N M Y B Z R I K G U E M B Y C U B S R D Y T

This free fanzine is brought to you by Electron Forever

www.electronforever.co.uk

Hardware Review

Mega Ga mes Car tridge available

from Retr

o Hardwa

re

Genre's also have a letter next to them, press the letter and see all the titles in that genre - I did pick up on the rather humorously named menu entry "P Think back to the 1980s and the medium we used for our games, the good old cassette tape, but kinda slow!? I can remember getting Countdown To Doom on a ROM cartridge when I bought my Plus 1 add-on (Who bought your Plus 1? Your parents? *cough* Ed) and ROMs had one huge advantage over those tapes... SPEED!

- Shooter", although I have learned this was accidental, it did make me chuckle for a moment, can we pretend this was an in-joke? (So easily amused! - Ed). Now, you may be thinking, "that's all good - but what games do you get?"

Here's the

great part about it ... you can choose your own custom list!

On purchasing a cartridge from Dave

via E-Bay, I was switfly sent a full list of titles to Plug in a ROM of Snapper, Countdown to Doom and

choose from.

they were loaded in no time, but there weren't that many games released on ROM, that is... until now!

Returning the list with our choices, the cartridge arrived a few days later and was immediately ready

Enter Retro Hardware's Mega Games Cartridge, put

to go. Build wise it's excellent! 3D printed cartridge,

together by hardware wizard David Hitchins who used

full (and in-depth) manual, and a lovely glossy

to work at PRES back in the day, and now we are

printed label on the cartridge - there's really been

talking! All of your favourite games can be crammed

some thought put into this. In summary, if you want

into this one cartridge and loaded at light speed, up to

to play Chuckie Egg, Galaforce, Repton, all your

254 games, dependant on individual game sizes as

favourite titles on your real Elk with Plus 1 - now you

some may take up multiple memory blocks. Games

can, quickly, and wait no more for those tape loads!

on the cartridge can be accessed through a simple to

I think you can tell, this is a highly recommended

use menu system written by Dave himself, and this

add-on. This is an excellent product, really well

really is easy to use. Titles can be listed by publisher,

executed, and all credit to Dave for continuing to

alphabetically or by genre.

produce top notch products for Acorn machines.

Rating: 10/10

Review

Gold Award

Arcadians Head on back through time to the 80's arcades and I bet

Arcadians was one of the earliest Electron games to be

you can still remember the distinctive sound of Galaxian

released and clearly Acornsoft must have made this to

resonating through the room.

show off the Electron's capabilities in re-creating a home experience of the arcades. This is so well

Galaxian had that pulsating background sound that got

polished in fact that it included the same kind of attract

faster as you shot down and reduced the headcount of

screen as the arcade.

the formation of aliens above you, the swooping sound as they cut off from the pack and would swing their

Leave the machine sat idle for a while and you will be

way down the screen towards you,

shown the instructions, hi-

and

swoosh

score table and a run down

sound of your laser firing at them in

of the points system and a

a desparate bid to stay alive.

self-playing

the

unmistakable

For

demo

of

the

me, Galaxian remains to me one

game

of the best 80's arcade games

system

ever

Phoenix,

taking risk as you can blindly

which I always headed to first in

shoot the aliens in formation

the arcde).

or you can wait for them to

produced

(and

itself.

The

rewards

scoring you

for

swoop and earn more points Step up Acornsoft's Arcadians! As

for taking them out mid-flight.

expected, the Electron's humble

Add on the bonus that there

sound capabilities can't reproduce those exact

is Plus One joystick support built in, and the option to

sounds, but that little game start tune always sticks in my

play in-turn with a 2nd player, and it all adds up to an

mind, and what it did do was match the gameplay and the

incredibly good showcase of the Electron, especially as

graphics incredibly well.

it was such an early release, later games were obviously able to push the Elk much further as

Instantly recognisable as a clone of the arcade game, the

developers learned neat tricks to squeeze even more

graphics are a great representation of the original game,

out of it.

although the main ship sprite is quite big it has to be said, meaning you have to be pretty good at dodging the

Arcadians is, for me, a stand out title in the Electron's

oncoming bullets and marauding aliens as they fly

library of games and if by some strange mishap of

towards you and I'd always felt it could probably be half

justice it's a title you have never played or own, then it's

the height and still look the part.

a must have addition to your collection..

Memories to share? Join us at http://www.facebook.com/electronforever/

Review

Stock Car An overhead car racing game: Stock Car (not Stock Car Racer as I frequently mistakenly call it, thinking of the Amiga game) is unmistakably similar to the arcade game "Sprint".

I would highly recommend only having a smaller amount of "skid" if you wish to, you can have from 0 99% and I found even 50% made the car terribly awkward to control around a corner, most often ending up in the grass and at a

The game involves racing around a

stand still.

single screen track as fast as you can whilst trying to keep from running into

Ready at the start

the walls or computer controlled cars.

grid you are greeted

This is a 1 or 2 player game and as

with a small musical

with many of these games, it becomes

interlude

much more fun if you do manage to

game beings, control

have a friend available to play against.

is done through the

and

the

use of the keys Q, A, Z, X for Gear Up, Gear Down, Upon starting the game you are

Left and Right.

Move up a gear and the speed will

presented with an options screen on

slowly increase up to the gears maximum, at which

which you can choose: The number of

point you should move up to the next gear.

players (1 or 2), the Number of Laps, the amount of skid that is applied when you

Track 3 was found to be the most difficult as it had the

turn, whether to have oil slicks on the track,

thinner track and tighter corners to manouver around

and which track you would like to play out of the 6

and was hard to get around at a fast pace.

on offer.

Computer controlled intelligence is quite good on most tracks although I did find on track 6 that two of the three computer controlled cars got stuck right on the first corner and I managed to get three quarters of the way round before they managed to figure their way out.

Hitting an oil slick will send you car off in at an angle, so you need to be careful to adjust as you ride over one, or once again you can find yourself embedded in the grass verge.

Stock Car by Micro Power

I used to play this game for hours when I was younger, the cover art does a good job of potraying the action and I think this drew me in, overall the game is fairly average looking back at it now but still managed to hold my attention for a good 20-30 minutes of play whilst re-reviewing it.

Whilst you can "race" the computer cars, the actual aim of the game is to get around the track as fast as you can and your position isn't really counted, expect in your own mind of course, where the satisfaction of beating them is extremely gratifying.

And if you

have a 2 player game of course you can gloat at your friend when you cross the finish line before them.

Sound is used to good effect, mostly consisting of screetching noises for the cars going around corners and a couple of nice little tunes played at the start and end of races. I found Stock Car to be a simple game, but very enjoyable none the less and if you can convince someone else to play along, all the better.

Special thanks to Steve Green of Definite Design, for supplying us with an authentic Micro Power logo for this article!

Your 8-bit history

S R E D A E R S E V I L

Your #retrogaming story goes here Something to share? Please email us, submissions@electronforever.co.uk