| books |
John Gilbert reviews the latest books including the first for the Spectrum
THE MASS of ZX-81 books is still increasing. The author of the moment still seems to be Tim Hartnell. His new book for the ZX-81 is Making The Most of Your ZX-81. It will help beginners and contains many programs which can be typed-in immediately.
While the book is good for the complete beginner who has just read the manual, it is not recommended to anyone wanting to learn more about the capabilities of the ZX-81. The text just enlarges on the basic manual and the programs are mostly 1K long.
The book is humorous in places, either deliberately or unintentionally. For instance, one of the first programs is a simple game of Russian Roulette. The screen display is so simple but very amusing.
Making The Most of Your ZX-81, is available from Computer Publications and costs £6.95.Another new book for the ZX-81 but with a slightly different format is The ZX-81 Add-on Book, by Martin Wren Hilton. It is remarkable for two reasons. First, it is one of the few books written about the hardware side of the ZX-81 market. It describes how extra memory can be added to the ZX-81, taking the Sinclair 16K RAM pack and the Audio Computers 32K RAM as examples.
Backing storage devices are also surveyed, including cassette tape decks and disc drives. Information about optical bar codes and modems is also included. The book explains the operation of the dK'tronics Graphic ROM and the Quicksilva Character Board. It also has a section about the future and the Sinclair miniature television.
The second remarkable thing is that the book is written by a 16-year-old. He has his own computer and writes for an American bi-monthly magazine. The ZX-81 Add-on Book is published by Shiva and costs £5.50.
Shiva has also published a book by Ian Stewart and Robin Jones, Computer Puzzles - For Spectrum and ZX-81.
The authors pose a series of problems, some old, some new, for which they have written programs to demonstrate the problems and to enable the user to try solutions quickly. The programs are interesting but when you solve one of them you have the same feeling you have when you have beaten someone in a game.
Also included is a Spectrum section for those lucky enough to have the machine. The price of the book is £2.50.
The quality of the books being written has improved with the advent of the Spectrum. For instance, Programming your ZX Spectrum is invaluable for people who could not find what they needed to know in the user manuals.
The book expands what is written in the manual and goes further by describing some of the things which have been omitted. It deals with coding of programs and also shows some of the techniques of structuring Basic programs.
The choice of programs has obviously been well thought out and they certainly show the capabilities of the machine.
One criticism is that it explains Basic statements like GO SUB and GO TO in too much detail. Other than that, it is a good book which is recommended for beginners. It is available from Interface and costs £6.95.
| 'It is one of the few books written about the hardware side' |
Over The Rainbow is a collection of programs in a softback which shows the potential uses of the Spectrum. Programs include games, utility routines and business programs. Some colour insets indicate some of the programs running. The book is from Melbourne House but seems overpriced at £6.95. That is not a criticism levelled only at Melbourne but at the whole computer publishing industry, which seem to trade on the belief that people will buy knowledge at any price.