Road Racer - Danny Sheehan (Your Spectrum-No.2-Page 88)





Careering along in first place in a 600 mile road race, your white 'turbo'

car hits disaster and a call into the pits is demanded. Starting off again,

you find yourself in tenth position with everything to go for.

On-screen, you will see the road stretching out in front of you, plus a

dashboard which provides you with all the necessary information you'll need

to catch the cars in front. The dash' gives you your current speed (0-99 mph);

your position in the race; the speed of the approaching car; and the number

of miles the leader has to finish the race - so you'll know exactly what kinda'

trouble you're in.

The secret of success is to be aware at all times of the speed of the

approaching cars - and also, how to handle the cars behind you that want to

overtake (sorry, no oil slicks in this program!). As you get nearer the

leader take special care, as the cars will make hazardous manoeuvres to stop

you overtaking - you have been warned!

There are two levels of skill, and it might be an idea if you choose the easy

option until you've got the hang of the controls. Obviously, the game ends

when the 'Miles' indicator reaches zero and someone has won the race. Of

course, it could end a lot quicker (know what I mean?).

If you find it a little daunting to begin with, try altering the value of M

in line 400 to 300 for an easy life ...





Lines 9-80 Print instructions and obtain skill level.



Lines 99-310 Print the game display, assign the variables, draw a large

square around the screen and a smaller one around the 'dashboard'. The BEEPs

simulate the engine noise. The 'k' characters in line 200 are, in fact, user-

defined graphics characters. (UDGs are obtained by pressing CapsShift/9, and

then pressing the character you want - in this case, the K key.)



Lines 399-680 Main program loop. The FOR/NEXT loop 'm' controls how long

the race will continue (here it is set to 300, and reduced by one every time

the loop goes round). Lines 600-630 check to see if the car has crashed.



Lines 999-1090 Evaluate your position at the end of the game, print the

grid and, if requested, re-start the game. Again, user-defined graphics are

employed in line 1060.



Lines 1099-1140 Print the tree character on the side of the road, and move

it according to the speed of your car.



Lines 1999-2130 Update the variables of the other cars in the race.



Lines 2999-3200 Print the computer's car according to the relation between

its speed and the speed of your car. The position of your car is also

calculated.



Lines 3999-4010 Print crashed car and re-start the game. UDGs are used in

line 4000.



Lines 6999-7080 Define the UDGs. The characters (such as "a", "b", etc) in

the DATA statements can be either normal characters or UDGs.



Lines 7099-7180 Draw the program's title using the block graphics available

on the Spectrum keyboard.



Lines 7189-7190 Save program (cassette).



Lines 9997-9999 Save program (Microdrive). Do not type in these lines unless

you have a Microdrive.





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TYPE: Arcade



COMMENT:





This info file was typed by Jim Grimwood



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