| mind games |
Quentin Heath explores the new possibilities offered by the Microdrive and Interface One
INTRODUCTION of the Microdrive and Interface One has produced an interesting problem for all software houses. What can be done with this new peripheral?
There are few people yet with Microdrives but the problem will increase as sales of the device produce more users. There are several applications in the mind games field, some of which I want to discuss this month.
The adventure game market can benefit from the Microdrive. Games will become more complex as some of the restrictions of the 48K and 16K memory are nullified. It will be possible to create a graphics adventure which will make The Hobbit seem crude. Every location in a game could be depicted with screen strings and they could be stored in a central database on which the main program could draw.
Using the screen string, SCREEN$, option the memory storing the main program would not be affected and little memory would be needed to store pictures. At present, storage space for pictures is one of the main problems in graphics adventures such as The Hobbit or Valhalla.
The other aspect of adventure programs which makes the Microdrive an ideal device is the response and interpretation databases which permit user and computer to communicate with each other in the language of the adventure. The limited memory capacity available means that few responses to situations can be enclosed. As a result players often will spend some time looking for the appropriate word or phrase.
There will be no excuse with the Microdrive. It should be possible to store a symbol or phrase table inside the computer and load different sets of phrases from Microdrive into the same space. The benefit of a bigger response database in the program, paged-in when needed, will outweigh the increase in time it takes to obtain an answer from the program.
Unfortunately one of the areas in which the Microdrive will not be able to help is with graphics adventures which use little text and rely on the user moving round a map which has been put on to the screen. It would be possible to extend the number of locations in such an adventure by switching-in new data for every new location or switching parts of program in and out of memory using the Microdrive. The problem is that graphics adventures do not rely on data tables as much as the text adventures. Most parts of the program relate to other parts and cannot be split into blocks to be switched-in from Microdrive.
The Microdrive will also be of use to programmers who want to produce games such as chess, Othello or even Noughts and Crosses. All those games use data structures which are called tables. Those structures are built during a game and, depending on the level of play the computer is using, the trees will be long or short.Usually the size of the database of the weightings of moves will indicate, to some extent, how good the computer is at playing the game. It will use that structure to see what potential moves it has and to point out possible win situations. That is true of most so-called artificially-intelligent games.
As with all the other items discussed, the size of the database is restricted by memory availability. For that reason corners are cut and new algorithms - methods of solving a problem - have been created. Now tree structures could be made longer and switched in and out of memory when they are needed for reference. That means the computer has more chance of becoming artificially intelligent and beating anything you want to pit against it. It will have all yours and its old games to rely on.
One fly in the ointment is that Microdrive cartridges are in short supply. That should not prove to be a difficulty as the programs do not need to he sold on Microdrive cartridge. The program and its data can be sold on cassette, which can then be put on to a user's Microdrive cartridge. Security of the tape files may be endangered to some extent but there would be the same risk with anything sent out on cassette.
Interface One, the device which attaches the Microdrive to the computer, is possibly more exciting than the Microdrive in its possibilities for adventure writers and players. Using the network you will be able to hook one Spectrum to another and send information between them. That means you could play multi-player adventure games or chess using two or more Spectrums.
With adventure games you could have several players moving round different locations while the computer moves its characters and makes them live. That would be like a super version of The Hobbit. The main difficulty is trying to give the impression that moves can be made by different players at the same time.
Obviously, because of the speed of the network, there will be a delay before inputs can be interpreted and responses from the computer sent out; if we break down each action and share the total time available with the number of players on-line, it should be possible to have a system working.
For instance, the program could accept a command from one user, decode a command from a second user and send a message to a third user in one set cycle. It could then process the first, send the second and decode a command sent by the third. That would happen all the time and is called time-sharing. It is a job which only bigger micros and mainframe computers have done until now. The Spectrum can do it, but slowly.
The Microdrive and Interface One are likely to be important in the development of the mind games market. If you have any other ideas on the subject I would like to hear from you.
Next month I will be delving into the depths of Valhalla, which looks like being another Hobbit.