Recall

Recall is a flashy new 8-bit Atari BASIC version of the classic televison game, Concentration. (An ST Concentration game appeared in last month's Antic.) This fast, smooth BASIC program runs on Atari 8-bit computers with minimum 48K memory, disk or cassette.

"How has your memory been lately?"

"Ah. . .ah. . . l forget.''

"You might try playing Recall on your 8-bit Atari ..."

Pit your memory against a human or computer opponent with Recall, a colorful new 8-bit BASIC adaptation of TV's classic Concentration game. The Recall game board consists of 30 numbered positions with an object hidden behind each one. A player chooses two numbers, exposing both object icons. If there is a matching pair, two characters of a hidden message replace the objects. You have earned a point and can take another turn. If you fail to make a match, it's your opponent's turn.

As Antic explained in last month's GFA BASIC Concentration for ST computers, the game is won when the complete message is guessed correctly, or fully displayed after the final successful pairing. You make a guess at the beginning of a turn by pressing [CONTROL] [G] and if you're right, you get all the remaining points.

USING THE PROGRAM
To get started, type in Listing 1, RECALL.BAS, check it with TYPO II and SAVE a copy before you RUN it. If you have trouble typing in the special characters in lines 1650, 1680, 1720 and 1760, don't type them. Instead, type in Listing 2, check it with TYPO II and SAVE a copy. When you RUN Listing 2, it creates these hard-to-type lines and stores them in a file called LINES.LST.

To merge the two programs, disk users LOAD "D:RECALL.BAS" and then ENTER "D:LINES.LST". Cassette users: CLOAD Listing 1, then insert the separate cassette used for Listing 2 and ENTER "C:". Remember to SAVE the completed program before you RUN it.

Plug a joystick into port 1. In a two-player game, plug another one into port 2. When the game starts, press [SELECT] to choose between a one-player or two-player game. Press [START] to begin playing. In a one-player game, your computer opponent has an infallible memory, so watch out. But just to even the odds a little, your Atari makes the first move.

Recall comes with 10 messages starting at line 1900. These are randomly selected by the computer. You can change these or add to the list. Just make sure that the line numbers start at 1900 and are 10 apart. Also, change the variable I in line 1850 to reflect the number of statements you have. All messages must have fewer than 31 letters and you should avoid punctuation marks.

Now let's see. Was the boat under number 12, or was it 17? Or was the ring under 17 and the boat under 27?

Barry Kolbe is a high school math teacher in Madison, Wisconsin and enjoys solving all kinds of puzzles. He co-wrote Antic Spelling Checker, the October 1987 Super Disk Bonus.

Listing 1  RECALL.BAS Download