As Richard Dimond's excellent Beleagured Castle Patience game (EUG #17) got a mention in the February issue, may I offer the following comments.
After a few deals, I have solved this many times and on several occasions completed consecutive deals. I find that rather than trying to build the suits up equally, it's better to try to empty a stack. When a second or third stack is cleared, the cards can then be moved around at will.
With reference to the comments Richard made on his improvements to the program, I find that the sound effects are unnecessary, so those who have just the basic Electron can increase its speed a bit by deleting the SOUND statement in line 330.
As the game may involve several redeals in order to get a playable hand and as you have to think several moves ahead, a welcome improvement (if anyone could come up with it!) would be an "undo" facility of the last half dozen moves or so.
As EUG #17 published a curious Mode 1 screen of Servalan from Blakes 7, I have combined it with a utility I discovered on an old disk. What it does is improve the definition of a Mode 0 screen.
I think the destructive dot on the EUG #18 opener justifies the publishing of different title screens. It provides contributors with their chance to display their creations, perhaps inspiring others.
John McHugh
Thanks for the improvement to the Servalan Picture - it really is good. However, rather than republishing it again (and despite my admiration for the character) I have furnished your utility with a different screen from Simon Pilley's collection, this time of Kylie Minogue.
Incidentally, there were comments that the destructive dot routine included huge explosive noises when it was run on BBCs. After some searching, I discovered it came from one of the 1984 Beebug mags.
1st April 1995