JRC Software has come up with a good idea. Take 17 of your programs and put them all on one tape, and sell your tape to the public. They offer two program tapes in this format, one for the TS 1000/ZX81 called the “Supertape”, which contains 42 seperate programs! (I will review the “Supertape” in the March/April issue of T.D.M.) And then there is the “Great Games and Graphics Show“, with the 17 programs for the TS 2068. An advantage to using the TS 2068 with a software package like this one, is that all of the programs can be loaded in at one time, and then called up by the main menu. All of the games and graphic-type things are on side one of the tape, and on the other side is an unusual text editor/word processor called the “EASY EDITOR”. Here is a brief description/review of each one of the short programs on side one of the “Great Games and Graphics Show”:
- 1. Oscilloscope: Very neat! Like a laser light show, with rotating graphics.
- 2. Stary Sound: Planetarium style stars display, with good sound effect.
- 3. 3-D City: Good 3-D graphics of tower-like buildings. See the example provided.
- 4. Snowflakes: Interesting patterns.
- 5. Flashing Display: O.K., the flashing characters gave me a headache though.
- 6. Polygons: Back to the title screen. Where are the polygons?
- 7. Touch Type: I like this one, for people like me who are basic “hunt and peckers”. This is one of the better typing/learning games I’ve seen. Has different levels.
- 8. Trash Pack (Animation Demo): Simulated Pacman characters without the Pacman game.
- 9. Lunar Lander Game: Slightly better than standard game, as far as graphics. Crash report flashes too fast.
- 10. Etchsketch Pad: The old standard for kids. Good use of colors, and has some added features like- saving to tape, inverse, ect.
- 11. Dodge-em Game: Genuine fun game! Would have been nice to have a running score, but does keep track of score at the end, with previous high scores. Simple… uses only one key, but challenging.
- 12. 3-D Graph: Three graph planes stacked. Fast and simple.
- 13. 128 Line Graphics: Also fast, and slightly interesting.
- 14. Big Star: The old “Spiral-Graph” type graphics.
- 15. Sine Wave Curves: 3 Sine waves, each with a shadow wave, plus a C major Chord for music at the end.
- 16. Color Mode 2: Weird, colorful pattern. Interesting.
The Easy Editor on side two is written entirely in BASIC. Text is entered in line numbers and REM statements (usually one statement for each paragraph). The editing of text is done by using the cursor arrows and DELETE. You can also have “formated” text. Text files can either be printed or saved in D$. The feature I like the best, is the choice of bold printing. It looks great! While Easy Editor is simple, it is not the definition of a fantastic text editor. You might call it the “poor mans word processor”.
I liked the “Great Games and Graphics” package, and it is a real bargain for $24.95. There could have been some better documentation and packaging, but these are just minor complaints. Highly recommended.
JRC Software
P.O. Box 448
Scottsburg, IN
47170