Search found 697 matches

by Alastair
Thu Jan 29, 2015 11:54 pm
Forum: Off-topic
Topic: Best beginner's game in English for non-native speakers
Replies: 14
Views: 68208

Re: Best beginner's game in English for non-native speakers

Might you, Sire, recommend any games that would suit my request? Beeb or otherwise?
Cordially yours,
Lord Gunness If thou art a Lord and thou addresseth me as Sire, what doest that make me?

(Returning to the 21st Century.) I wish I could answer your question, but my school never used computers in ...
by Alastair
Wed Jan 28, 2015 11:34 pm
Forum: Off-topic
Topic: Best beginner's game in English for non-native speakers
Replies: 14
Views: 68208

Re: Best beginner's game in English for non-native speakers

If you're thinking about US vs British English, then no.
If it's a more challenging dialect, then... perhaps. What did you have in mind? Proper English versus that Webster abomination :lol:

One thing I will add is that the BBC was the most popular micro in British schools, so there is a lot of ...
by Alastair
Wed Jan 28, 2015 10:56 pm
Forum: Off-topic
Topic: Best beginner's game in English for non-native speakers
Replies: 14
Views: 68208

Re: Best beginner's game in English for non-native speakers

Jacob, does it matter which dialect of English you wish to teach your daughter?
by Alastair
Wed Nov 26, 2014 12:48 am
Forum: Classics
Topic: Sadim Castle by MP software for the Beeb
Replies: 5
Views: 2618

Re: Sadim Castle by MP software for the Beeb

Hello, and welcome to the forum.

Jacob is the man to ask, though I see from the main site that he will first have to refresh his memory.
by Alastair
Thu Nov 20, 2014 11:09 pm
Forum: Site feedback & announcements
Topic: Pirate by Chalksoft
Replies: 2
Views: 3626

Pirate by Chalksoft

In the synopsis for Pirate it mentions 'using the red function keys to enter your instructions.' I can see how you can do this on a BBC but how do you do it on a Spectrum?
by Alastair
Wed Oct 29, 2014 12:02 am
Forum: Site feedback & announcements
Topic: Phipps/Toms system
Replies: 15
Views: 9872

Re: Phipps/Toms system

Gunness wrote:He has another one here: http://yeandle.webs.com/advent
though it's not very detailed.
'Tis a pity that the link to the 'Interview with Jacob Gunness' produces a '404' :)
by Alastair
Tue Oct 28, 2014 12:08 am
Forum: Site feedback & announcements
Topic: Phipps/Toms system
Replies: 15
Views: 9872

Re: Phipps/Toms system

I don't think this system directly inspired the Quill; AFAICT it and the Quill got their inspiration from the same article by Ken Reed in Practical Computing, August 1980. They are, therefore, brothers or cousins rather than parent and child. Mind you, I've never seen that article. (There's a link ...
by Alastair
Sun Oct 26, 2014 9:29 pm
Forum: Site feedback & announcements
Topic: Phipps/Toms system
Replies: 15
Views: 9872

Re: Phipps/Toms system

Richard, I reckon that anything that inspired The Quill is worthy of consideration. Do you know the name of the book?
by Alastair
Mon Oct 20, 2014 10:47 pm
Forum: Off-topic
Topic: You are the hero - Fighting Fantasy gamebooks
Replies: 31
Views: 90466

Re: You are the hero - Fighting Fantasy gamebooks

My copy of House of Hell contains that illustration, so I guess that it was removed in later editions. I can't say that I remember being perturbed by the picture, it didn't even lodge in my memory, but the atmosphere created by the story certainly was disturbing.
by Alastair
Fri Oct 17, 2014 10:59 pm
Forum: Site feedback & announcements
Topic: Genre Suggestions
Replies: 48
Views: 26316

Re: Genre Suggestions

Gunness wrote:Looking back at those pyramids once more.... would "archaeology" be a good compromise? I could live with it :)
I suppose "Tomb Raider" is out of the question?
by Alastair
Wed Oct 15, 2014 11:56 pm
Forum: Site feedback & announcements
Topic: Genre Suggestions
Replies: 48
Views: 26316

Re: Genre Suggestions

Here's another vote for a (lost game) genre.

Also, we have Medieval and Prehistoric genres, shouldn't there be one in between?
by Alastair
Tue Oct 14, 2014 11:35 pm
Forum: Site feedback & announcements
Topic: Genre Suggestions
Replies: 48
Views: 26316

Re: Genre Suggestions

I've just noticed that there is a Pyramids genre. Why this specific term rather than Egyptian, Archaeology (even if it is more akin to Indiana Jones than reality), etcetera?
by Alastair
Fri Oct 10, 2014 11:43 pm
Forum: Off-topic
Topic: You are the hero - Fighting Fantasy gamebooks
Replies: 31
Views: 90466

Re: You are the hero - Fighting Fantasy gamebooks

Actually, Warlock of Firetop Mountain was a pretty limp first entry in the series I don't know about that, it was a pretty good introduction to the system and although not as tough as later books do you really want the first book to be as tough as, for example, House of Hell (a book I most ...
by Alastair
Wed Oct 08, 2014 10:50 pm
Forum: Off-topic
Topic: You are the hero - Fighting Fantasy gamebooks
Replies: 31
Views: 90466

Re: You are the hero - Fighting Fantasy gamebooks

The first one I played was The Warlock of Firetop Mountain , and I played it correctly, from the initial die rolls all the way to the end. At the end the book says that you should have collected several numbered keys and to open the chest you must select three of those keys, add up the numbers and ...
by Alastair
Sat Aug 30, 2014 12:14 am
Forum: Classics
Topic: Looking for Basic Source Code (any)
Replies: 4
Views: 1984

Re: Looking for Basic Source Code (any)

Right, I think I understand better now!

World of Spectrum , see links below, contains PDFs and page scans of many publications, some of which contain type-in adventures (and not necessarily for the Spectrum). The difficulty lies both in finding those listings and then sorting out those that fulfil ...