Timothy Green from Trowbridge in Wiltshire has sent us the sequel to his program Cupid's Arrow published in issue 13 of PCN. Cupid Bounces Back, for the Oric 1, is written entirely in machine code and at the fastest speed you certainly need all your wits about you.
You are Cupid and out of the kindness of your heart you have taken on the task of helping some lovesick Romeos across a garden and over two garden walls to where their sweethearts patiently wait. As they enter the back garden, an alarm is triggered and deadly arrows start to emerge from the ground and then sink down again, making the traversal very tricky. Luckily these ardent Romeos are equipped with Pogo sticks, and by timing their jumps very carefully, they can jump over the arrows and arrive safely at the garden wall.
The multi-coloured ground determines how high the Romeos are able to jump, but if you are unlucky you might hit a hole in the ground, and that means curtains for Romeo. As Cupid you are allocated a certain amount of freeze power, which you can use to freeze Romeo in the air while the arrows sink into the ground - at which point he can leap forward.
There are nine levels of difficulty, and the hardest is practically impossible. All you can do is take a flying leap and hope for the best, which isn't often very productive. Each Romeo has three lives, though you might like to try poking $1294 with a value greater than three as it holds the number of lives. Be careful when poking with a number much greater than three, as the graves will overwrite the display. Location $1389 corresponds to how many arrows have to be jumped over and if you wish to change this (originally set at four) you must poke this location with an even number greater than zero, or the Oric may crash.
Instructions on typing and saving the program are as follows. First type in listing 1 exactly as shown (All £ signs should be # signs) - don't run the program or your Oric will crash. Save the program and then type in listing 2. When you have finished typing in listing 2, run it and correct any mistakes (Checksums are included!), then save it.
After running listing 2, type the following as direct commands:
FOR A=0 TO 450:B=PEEK(28784+A):POKE4207+A,B:NEXT A
FOR A=0 TO 1800:B=PEEK(29265)+A:POKE4689+A,B:NEXT A
Now type:
CSAVE "Program name", A4207,E6500
to save the machine code on to tape. Then type NEW (don't turn the Oric off before doing so!) and load in listing 1. Type:
25th August 1984