Miscellaneous Programs

Date: 198x
Type: Cassette
Platform(s): TS 2068

A 27-program tape of uncategorized TS 2068 software spanning games, holiday cards, creative tools, and simulations.

The note in the download says the programs were found on an unlabeled cassette, so the tape has no publisher or date. Side A has 15 programs and side B has 12. There are astronomy programs (Skyplot and the constellation quiz), card games (bridge, poker, pontoon, Concentration), two text adventures, strategy and trading simulations, typing and drawing tools, two renumber utilities, and three Christmas programs, two of them by Pat Spera. Credits on the individual pages follow the programs’ REM lines where they have any.

Side A

  • 1. st1: Skyplot, which plots the Sun, Moon and planets on a sky chart for a given date, time and place (also #64736 Skyplot)
  • 2. star quiz: draws 28 constellations with UDG stars and asks for each one’s name and brightest star (also #64734 Constellations)
  • 3. GIBBERISH: titled “Word Images” on screen, a random sentence generator built from word-category templates (also #64660 Word Images)
  • 4. M*5: a planet trivia game; right answers slow the starship M*5 enough to dock at Moon Base 2 (also #64737 M*5)
  • 5. SLOT: a fruit machine with holds, jokers, a gamble and a double-up bonus (also #64738 Slot)
  • 6. IT: I.T. (The Intraterrestrial), a text adventure in a 36-room cave that ends with defusing a bomb (also #64739 I.T. (The Intraterrestrial))
  • 7. ST/EX: Stock Exchange, trading five stocks week by week from a $10,000 start (also #64741 Stock Exchange)
  • 8. MC-RENUM: a 30-byte machine code renumber routine hidden in line 0 (also #64743 MC Renumber)
  • 9. BASRENUM: a BASIC renumber utility that lists the lines and reports which GO TO and GO SUB targets need changing (also #64744 Basic Renumber)
  • 10. TUTOR: a typing tutor with a UDG keyboard on screen and an accuracy score (also #64745 Keyboard Tutor)
  • 11. PATTERNS: draw a 16×16 pattern, then rotate it and move it around the screen as UDGs (also #64746 Patterns)
  • 12. golf: Fun Golf, a nine- or 18-hole golf game for one or two players on randomly drawn holes (also #51722 Fun Golf)
  • 13. jingle: Jingle Bells with a BEEP melody over AY chip chords; the REM reads “Spera (P.M.) style!” (also #64748 Jingle Bells)
  • 14. boggle: Boggle for two players in English, German or Spanish, with a timer (also #64749 Boggle)
  • 15. bridge: deals four bridge hands with UDG suit symbols and lets you bid a contract and play the 13 tricks (also #64750 Bridge)

Side B

  • 1. KINGDOM: a kingdom management game for one to four players, dealing with floods, famine and thieves (also #64771 Kingdom)
  • 2. QUEST: a text adventure, searching 42 locations of a cave for a pirate’s treasure while the pirate roams (also #64772 Quest)
  • 3. aid: an ELIZA-style conversation with “Dr. T. S. Comp.” (also #64773 Aid)
  • 4. DESIGNER: a line drawing program that stores the lines in a string and can scale and rotate the drawing (also #64774 Designer)
  • 5. GEM PAT: random rings of diamond and square shapes drawn in OVER 1, each picture wiped away before a busier one (also #64775 Gem Pattern)
  • 6. dec25: an animated Christmas card with music (also #64776 December 25)
  • 7. knight: Knight Fight, a jousting game in which you buy armour and lances before each charge; it opens with “From ZX COMPUTING” (also #64778 Knight Fight)
  • 8. Hells: Hell’s Angels, a shoot-the-aliens game with waves of angels and demons (also #51943 Hell’s Angels)
  • 9. TREE: a Christmas card with a decorated UDG tree, Jingle Bells and a scrolling greeting; the REM reads “1985 Pat Spera” (also #64779 Tree)
  • 10. CONC: Concentration for one player with all 52 cards (also #64780 Concentration)
  • 11. poker: five-card draw poker against the computer, with drawn cards and betting (also #64781 Poker)
  • 12. PONTOON: pontoon (vingt-et-un) with drawn cards and a cash balance (also #64782 Pontoon)

About the Files

Each program is in the download as a TAP, a TZX, a WAV recording and a Z80 snapshot, in folders for side A and side B. Two of the TAP files are damaged: SIDE B/3_aid.tap is empty (0 bytes), and SIDE A/12_GOLF.tap holds the header and the program as one block, so it will not load as a normal tape. Use the TZX, WAV or Z80 copies of those two.

Content

Aid

Program

A full ELIZA-style therapy chatbot that matches keywords, swaps pronouns, and personalises every response with your name across a 20-exchange session.

Basic Renumber

Program

A two-part BASIC renumbering tool that walks raw program memory, patches line-number headers with POKE, and reports every GO TO and GO SUB target that needs updating.

Boggle

Program

A three-language Boggle clone that generates random letter dice, times two players simultaneously, and scores words by length—with full Spanish and German character support via custom UDGs.

Bridge

Program

A fully playable bridge hand trainer that deals, displays with suit symbols, and tracks all 13 tricks — complete with contract entry and audio feedback at key trick counts.

Concentration

Program

A one-player Concentration card game with all 52 cards laid out in a numbered grid, UDG suit symbols in red and black, and a turn counter tracking efficiency to the final pair.

Constellations

Program

A randomised astronomy quiz draws 28 constellations using custom UDG star glyphs, then challenges you to name each one and its brightest star.

December 25

Program

A self-contained animated Christmas card that combines UDG graphics, scrolling banners, AY chip music, and three-voice melody encoding into a single looping BASIC program.

Designer

Program

A viewport-clipped vector drawing tool that stores line segments as packed binary strings and supports real-time scale and rotation transformations from a menu-driven interface.

Fun Golf

Program

A procedurally generated golf game for one or two players uses trigonometry, attribute-based terrain detection, and five custom graphics to simulate a full 9- or 18-hole course.

Gem Pattern

Program

Generates progressively more complex rings of randomized diamond and square shapes in XOR draw mode, erasing each image with a four-directional animated wipe before restarting with added complexity.

Hell's Angels

Program

Your unenviable task to once again defend the Earth from the alien hordes - this time in the shape of angels from Hell and then by a number of demons.

I.T. (The Intraterrestrial)

Program

Navigate a 36-room cave, battle monsters with a state-machine AI, and defuse a bomb whose solution hides in a single ASCII arithmetic check.

Jingle Bells

Program

A BASIC rendition of "Jingle Bells" that layers AY chip chords beneath a BEEP melody using computed GO SUB dispatch and clever data encoding tricks.

Keyboard Tutor

Program

A typing tutor that draws a UDG keyboard on screen, scores your keystrokes in real time, and reports accuracy as a percentage.

Kingdom

Program

A five-year kingdom management game where players juggle floods, famine, and thieves — with animated raiders and a market economy — to become the wealthiest ruler.

Knight Fight

Program

Two knights charge across the screen in this equipment-buying jousting game, where armour, lance weight, and RND combine to decide who takes the hit.

M*5

Program

Guide the starship M*5 safely to Moon Base 2 by answering 36 planet-trivia questions before your calculated speed hits zero and you crash.

MC Renumber

Program

Machine code routine to renumber programs. Uses lines 0 and 9999.

Patterns

Program

Draw a 16×16 pixel pattern, watch it spin through four rotations encoded as UDGs, then scroll it freely around the screen.

Poker

Program

A fully featured draw poker game with custom card graphics, a computerised opponent that reasons about its hand, and a complete betting system — all in BASIC.

Pontoon

Program

Pontoon game with UDG-drawn playing cards — rounded box-frame cards displaying suit symbols and face values — and a running cash balance against a randomly resolved dealer hand.

Quest

Program

A full 42-location pirate treasure hunt where the map is encoded in a compact DATA table and a roaming antagonist can snatch your hard-won loot.

Skyplot

Program

Plots the Sun, Moon and planets on a sky chart for any date, time and location, or finds a chosen planet among the zodiac constellations.

Slot

Program

A full-featured one-armed bandit with animated reels, jokers, holds, a gamble round, and a double-up bonus — all driven by computed GO TO dispatch.

Stock Exchange

Program

Start with $10,000 and trade five stocks over weekly rounds, watching for dividends and splits in this BASIC market simulation.

Tree

Program

A Christmas card program with a UDG-built decorated tree, Jingle Bells melody with three-voice AY chord accompaniment, and a scrolling seasonal greeting.

Word Images

Program

This random sentence generator lets you define custom word-order templates or choose from seven presets, then displays the results in a striking vertical typographic layout.

Image Gallery

Note: Type-in program listings on this website use ZMAKEBAS notation for graphics characters.

Tags

Downloadable TS 2068 Collection