¢ o=o=o=o=o=¢¢ ATOMIT REVISITED¢¢ I inadvertantly opened a can of worms¢ last issue by including the game,¢ "Atomit" on the newsletter disk.¢ This is one of the most fascinating,¢ yet one of the most frustrating games¢ written for the Atari 8-bit (see¢ Editor's Notes of the July/August¢ issue if you haven't played the game¢ yet, and then play it!) The time¢ limit for each screen is the major¢ cause of the frustration that most¢ players feel.¢¢ JOSEPH E. HICSWA, OHAUG member and¢ President of the JACG, sent me a¢ letter and a disk. He used the¢ CHIPMUNK (Microdaft) copy program to¢ make a copy of the game and¢ simultaneously free up the unused¢ sectors on the disk so that he could¢ include a copy of his letter and some¢ files that he created that would help¢ anyone master the game. In short, he¢ developed a "cheat" for the game.¢ But he couldn't do that unless he¢ could find a way to defeat the timer.¢ Joe discovered that the key¢ combination <CTRL-1> pauses (and¢ unpauses) the game. Armed with that¢ fact, Joe designed a grid that could¢ be printed out from any word-¢ processor. Joe included a file that¢ is properly set up for XLENT¢ (ATOMGRID.XLT) and a generic "ASCII"¢ file (ATOMGRID.ASC), and I've put the¢ two of them on this disk. If you use¢ a word-processor other than XLENT,¢ Joe states that you must set your¢ left margin at zero, your right¢ margin at 79, and use a page length¢ of 61 lines.¢¢ Joe uses his grid to diagram the game¢ screen at each level, showing the¢ barriers, outlines of the playfield,¢ and the pre-play locations of the¢ cursor and the atoms. He sent me a¢ copy of his "cheat" for the first¢ screen, complete with the directions¢ of all moves. Although I can't¢ include that diagram here, I can tell¢ you that Joe was able to do the first¢ screen in twenty-seven moves.¢¢ Joe suggested that the OHAUG run a¢ contest to see who can solve the game¢ in the least number of moves at each¢ level. But, then, we should have¢ many winners if our members use Joe's¢ grid techinique, shouldn't we?¢¢ Whether we run such a contest or not,¢ and whether you use Joe's grid or¢ just try slugging out the game on¢ your own, I think we should thank Joe¢ for the work he put into this¢ project.¢¢ o=o=o=o=o=¢¢¢
