Computer Battlegames

Computer Battlegames is a book containing the following type-in games:

• Robot Missile: the player has to guess in four tries a letter to disarm a robot missile;
• The Vital Message: the player has to remember a message shown for a brief period of time to prevent a robot attack;
• Cowboy Shootout: the computer counts 10 paces and prints "he draws". The player has to press any key before the computer shoots;
• Desert Tank Battle: the player has to enter a direction angle (from -90º to +90º) and an elevation angle (from 0º to 90º) to fire a missile and try to destroy the robot stronghold;
• Battle at Traitor's Castle: as a bowman, the player has to press the key (1 to 9) corresponding to the position of one of the Baron's men as he lifts his head over the battlements;
• Robot Invaders: represented by letters that flash in the screen, the robots must be destroyed by pressing the key corresponding to their letters;
• Secret Weapon: the player enters X and Y coordinates to fire the secret weapon against the Robot Spare Part Store, hidden somewhere underground;
• Escape!: the player has to enter the correct frequency on his sonar wristwatch to resonate the robot guards frequency and make them fall apart. Frequencies too low will make the prison collapse over the player's head and frequencies too high will give the player a terrible headache;
• Pirate Dogfight: the player has to align his plane with the Sky Pirate and shoot. The computer tells where the Sky Pirate is in relation to the player's plane;
• Supersonic Bomber: the computer shows graphs of populations of robots in different targets. The player has to press the key corresponding to the most populated target as fast as possible;
• Iceberg: the player has to lure the enemy into hitting an iceberg. The player can only move North, South, East or West, while the enemy follows the player through the most direct route (diagonally even);
• The Wizard's Wall: the player has to shoot his catapult against the Wizard's Wall, made out of people petrified by the evil Wizard's stare. If the player manages to break a whole through it, the Wizard's magic power will be broken and the stones will turn back into people again;
• Missile!: the only game in this collection to use proper graphics. Missiles must be shot against enemy planes passing over three launch bases. The first time any key is pressed the left base shoots, the second time fires the middle base and the third fires the right one.

The book has educational value as it explains how the game program works, shows ways of modifying the code and proposes problems to be solved in each game, such as altering the game's difficulty.