Wild Life



Tony Roberts,

Liverpool.



One of the greatest problems I have with my Spectrum is not

mentioned in any of the manuals: the insistence of my four-

year old daughter that she should be the one to press the

keys. Most of the games I have are simply beyond here and,

as yet, there is no software produced specifically for the

pre-school child.

  This program has several advantages over a bought pro-

gram, in any case. It is entirely modular, and plays as

many games as you wish in a random sequence; each indivi-

dual game is a short, simple affair, and it is easy to

write your own to fit in with your child's wishes or with

what he/she is doing in nursery. The four games in this

version are just counting games - in one, 1 to 12 variously

coloured butterflies flit around aboce a field of grass,

in another worms of extraordinary length crawl out of the

grass, the third has flowers of various sizes, and the last

apples in a tree.

  In each case, the child has to count the butterflies/

worms/flowers/apples and press the appropriate number on

the keyboard. As I wanted to use numbers up to 12, I re-

defined the zero key as number 12, the ENTER as 11, and

space as 12 - and stuck labels marked 10, 11, 12 on to the

keys. Various other exciting things happen like a tune -

out of the Spectrum manual - when the answer is right, a

big cross or tick on the screen as appropriate, and other

odd noises at various times.

  As usual, the program's organised "back-to-front" in

order to speed response times. Each batch of lines 1100-

1199, 1200-1299 through to 8800-8899, 8900-8999 is intended

to contain a game. Here are the main variables:

Variable  Purpose

o         Set to the number of games to be randomly

          accessed

m (=1)    Set from the keyboard - silences most of the

          noisy routines

n         Random number between 1 and 12

n$        String form of n

g         Line number of start of animation routine for

          each game - this is GO SUBbed between each scan

          of INKEY$, so keep it short

x,y       Screen co-ordinates

  Each routine is accessed 1 to n times to set up your

graphics, then g is accessed once between each scan of the

keyboard. Pressing m mutes the program, and n will make it

noisy again.