Treasure trail -------------- A party game with a difference from Clyde Bish of Exeter. This program was written as a real-time adventure for my son's birthday and may be of interest to any readers who have the unenviable task of organising party entertainment for a room full of eight year olds who find 'Pass the parcel' and 'Musical bumps' rather tame. The game has been written to accomodate five pairs, each having six locations to investigate but, of course, this could be extended to cover more locations and participants given the extra memory available. As it stands the program just fills the 16K ZX Spectrum. Double trouble The program has been written in two parts. The first section produces data files for answer words and clues without the need for carefully compiled and spaced data statements. This method of programming also has the advantage that a number of different data files could be produced to run on the main program. Looking first at the data file program, this has been called Traildata. Type in and RUN [or load] the program, Traildata. The input prompt will ask first for the answer word (four letters only accepted), then clue A (the loca- tion) followed by clue B (where to look) for each of the six locations to be found by the five teams of players. Examples of the clues could be: Locations - Part of the home but not in the house (garage). Water in high places (bathroom). The tiniest snores can be heard here (nursery). Where to look - Don't throw this clue away (paper bin). A tooth fairy might look here (under a pillow). Getting wetter as it dries (towel). These are only examples of the kind of clue you could use, but they could, of course, be adapted to suit the players involved in the game - you don't want to make it too easy do you? After all the information required is entered and pro- cessed (see later on in the explanation text), it should be SAVEd on tape and VERIFYed, ready to be LOADed into the main program: Trailgame. Playing the game Before the guests to the party arrive, you should make anagrams of the answer words, write them on pieces of card and stick them to the object that the specific loca- tion clue indicates. For example, if the answer word was 'mole' and the location is specified as the hoover in the hallway, then you should stick a piece of card with the word 'loem' onto the side of the hoover. To play the game, a member of the team presses their team's colour code number (use the keys required to get that specific colour), and the program GO SUBs to that team's subroutine and displays the first pair of clues on the screen and direct to the printer. Once the team have searched in the correct location, found the card and solved the anagram, they should press their colour code number again. As the answer flag is set, the program will wait for the answer to be input. If the answer proves correct, the team are congratulated and given their next pair of clues. If the wrong word is entered, the computer suggests that the team provide another answer - this also means that if the right word is mis-spelt when first typed in the team will not be punished too harshly for a mistake. When a team have solved all six clues, the program heads for line 7000, and congratulations are forthcoming to the winning team. If the program is stopped for any reason, the game can be re-started with the existing variables intact using GO TO 100. One other point to note is that the teams should not, in their enthusiasm, remove the cards from the loca- tions you have so carefully hidden them in as they may turn out to be the wrong clues - encourage the teams to solve the clues at the hiding places. In my experience of the game, it has managed to keep guests happy for at least 45 minutes - which is a long time at an eight yeat old'd birthday party!