Promotion - Another shattered dream or a description of the "500 games" - where truth and falsehood.

<b>Promotion</b> - Another shattered dream or a description of the

     (C) Chasm


        Another shattered dream

                   or

    "500 games" - where truth and falsehood


     Long ago, in those days,
when going to the Spectrum on the table radio, and the first 
cooperatives tolkotolko planned to establish their serial 
issue, the first time I saw this little miracle - Sinclair ZX 
Spectrum. This was 1989, I remember: I go to I

friend, and I see a little shawl, lying on a stool, with lots 
of hanging in different directions postings that she

connected to a TV, keyboard,
power supply, tape deck, and strange
also homemade device made
of the PCB with prisobachennoy him ergonomic grip on the bike 
such as "Kama" or "Stork". 

     - What is it? - I was genuinely surprised.

     - Computer, brother collected - followed by a concise 
answer, followed by sudden jerks in the hand of unknown device.


     - What are you doing?

     - Do not you see - the game.

     Sitting on the edge of the sofa, I began to observe the 
process of "strumming". After another "din Overy, I timidly 
asked for play itself. Names geymy already faded from my 
memory, priponyu only that This game is about the astronaut, 
running under presses (maybe BOR-FIES). Since I first plunged 
into the magical world of Spectrum games. 

     At that time in our city was not
Network game distribution, descriptions of them,
iron (eg, joysticks), and all
had to get to friends or make themselves. Until now, I will not 
forget these monsters on tekstolitnye mikrikah - joysticks, 
which we ourselves produced by because of their frequent 
breakdowns, many times otkserennye pile of sheets A4'go format 
with lengthy (and therefore compels particularly work hard for 
their brain study), descriptions of games and tapes, a lot of 
tapes on which were written GAMES ...


     Usually, these descriptions have been studied
during the long download games, very often
by the message "Tape loading
error ", therefore, time for reflection
words, set out by the author of the text was
abound. I remember sitting there, flipping
These soiled pages, reading the description of
has not yet appeared in your games, and imagination paints 
colorful pictures of immersion in a magical world ... 

     Then, two years later, we have accumulated a lot of games 
(at the time 1000 programs seemed to be a huge number) and we 
decided to sell them at local flea market known as "flea" (to

time there were about amateur radio
and sold to different hardware). We were
first to market software in our city. I
I remember how to write the first gaming magazine on one tape 
=: [] Record one cassette C-60 took about 2.5 hours (per hour - 
to download an hour - to unload, Half an hour on various 
hemorrhagic). We wrote them on the tape we buy from us 
nemeryanom number of magazines "horizon", but instead

log in plastic wrap inserted
A4'go sheet format with a list of programs and
brief descriptions, which I printed out at the Institute (1991, 
study in the first course, were good times) ...


     Soon formed our trade team - "Infosoft", we had drives, 
the Pentagon and copier "P-copier". Volume of production and 
sales rapidly grew. It was then that we were once a month

visitor to Moscow or St. Petersburg, in order to complete your 
collection novem. It is in 92'm was in my hands and hit the 
first number book "500 games", they were then released two 
publishing houses - "Solon" and "VA PRINT". What To my surprise 
when I realized that it consists of precisely those 
descriptions, which are lying at my home in the printouts. 
Remembering that I was playing with a description of simpler, I 
suggested to buy a few copies per sample for sale. Naturally, 
the game, accompanied by descriptions, began to disperse better 
and we started to import a variety of literature on the subject 
of Spectrum in Rybinsk in large numbers, the good, we learned 
that the "VA PRINT" working people of our city and we were able 
to purchase any number of descriptions (in sense of how much 
you need and no more) at wholesale prices. 

     My function in our team was
as follows: we bought cassettes and novem
I was one subject collections,
all games are tested by me on the gameplay, sometimes packing 
and obessmerchivalis. Later, when Moscow and St. Petersburg 
began to appear exclusively nove on the disks, I was 
raskurochivaniem boot disk and transfer games

again on the tape ;-) as "Leningrad"
in our city was much more
than the "Pentagon" and other models with a disk interface. Was 
a good time - I received normal grandmother, for that was 
played in geymy and engaged in elementary burglary ...


     In general, I understand, at the
time (and still might), I was
the biggest expert on spekovskim Games
in our city, so all questions on the
loading and the passage of toys, asked by our customers, had to 
answer it to me. Sometimes it zaparivalo and I was trying to 
foist bothersome pioneer description. Some of this helps, and 
some have additional questions, type "But I read a very 
interesting game," X ", and you have no chance it?" or "But in 
500 games written that game "Y" is a continuation of when you're

will sell? "Usually these questions, I answered unequivocally:" 
We do not live in England - to us they just did not happen. 
Maybe in the near future, though, and appears. "I sincerely 
believed in what I I say, and that all we'll ever see

These delightful toys on the screens
your TV / monitor.

     Epiphany came much later.
It is now absolutely ordinary gamer on a drum of some "Lotus 
Turbo Esprit Challenge 3 "by Gremlin GFX for

Spectrum - they have long been on the PS2 which runs robust 
design "Grand Tourismo 3" but we - the true fans of his beloved 
Speccy - were able to find Internet is what dreams 8-10 years 
ago. That is the history of the search I conducted you, the 
reader, generously umaschivaya all the way These nostalgic snot.


     It all began with the fact that we did not
igruhi was cool that you can
pass, and its description inserted in the magazine.
Visiting once the site World of Spectrum, Elf long steamed 
himself, trying to find that a gridiron for the "promotion". 
The whole trouble is the search engine of this great resource 
reduces to the fact that there can not ask a search by genre 
game. Time is running out, and we had to produce this number, 
because at first we planned to bring it to TSTS01. Broken off 
themselves and broken society. Having made the decision 
especially not to steam, we decided to go the other proposed by 
me by. Mindful of the old dreams zaimet his collection

all the interesting igruhi, which was
written in the 1.7 releases of "500 games", I decided shoveled 
all 3500 descriptions, catching games with unfamiliar names, 
mainly focusing on the genres of RPG and Quest. Also I do not 
leave unattended beautiful description of the Action and to 
continue well-known hits.


     My case study went on for quite a long time, resulting in 
my hands was a list of about 130 titles and games are very bad 
feeling in my soul. The fact that the the height of past years 
;-) I could tell about what descriptions of games were written 
by the compilers of collections, which were unashamedly blows 
from different spekovskih publications (descriptions and 
reviews of the ZX-Review, Your Sinclair, Crash, etc.) and which 
were transferred from the ear to the tapes (So-called 
background or ties, followed by a description of the control 
buttons and joysticks). But this is not the bad. As it turned 
out, the drafters was not a lot of material that is especially

was felt at 5-7 collections, but the money
earn very much wanted, since that
whatever you say, but at the time collections "500
games "were bestsellers. Therefore, to
finish kolichestovo descriptions to the cherished
numbers 500, the compilers resorted to the following 
unflattering chips: 

1) use the descriptions of games for other
platforms (Atari, Amstrad, Amiga, PC). Explicit example - 
"Perestroika", described in the fifth book, was written only for

HRC and Speke never realized was not
(At least in 1993). Boleemenee compilers luck with those games,
which have been ported to different machines, since they 
usually differed only in the government and the appearance ie 
graphics. 

2) deliberately misinterpret the name game
moreover, under the names printed razymi
the same description. For example "Gyron" and
"Giron" from the first edition.

3) games invented, ie, written description to non-existent 
games. For example The following description was given in

seventh edition:


     "'CKINDOS' In this game, not only
cool name, it is also impossible
play. Supposedly 25 century. You need to free the princess 
Donsafii. It goes without saying that it is deadly

beautiful, and if you release it, then it
your hand and you embarking on a dangerous journey across the 
planet Kindos. Release princess locked in the planet can only be

having passed on long corridors, dodging and killing enemies in
on your way. Opponents - soldiers with swords, rats, snakes and 
other vermin. Great part of it wrong to kill, but you can

to dodge or jump over. Once
you lose three fights, the game ends. Graphics is not bad. 
Management: standard set.



     Well, what can say about this? First, completely ignorant
Name (in terms of English grammar), and secondly, the phrase 
"Management: standard set, too, speaks for itself, and thirdly, 
as I noted in my case study, the story about the evil magician 
/ alien / totalitarian government, etc. The maid / princess / 
bride and the like, which is held in a dark castle / military 
base / on the other Planet in another dimension, etc., and that 
you need, naturally, with the help of bow / knife / spell type 
faerbol/blastera/BFG2000 etc. release - used in a vast number 
of descriptions, moreover, described the genre of games, 
usually action, less quest.


4) And finally, the apotheosis of all I think
Next absolutely pathological case: when coming up sounding names
authors' description of "just been in Zapara,
As the names of games they used
names of the songs of their favorite bands. Personally
I noticed "Construction time again",
"Black celebration" by Depeche Mode; "Hunting high and low" by 
A-HA from the sixth issuance and "Balls to the wall" by AC / DC 
from Seventh, though the names do not chastenko

consistent with the story "described" games.


     So when I gave the list to
the names of the selected game Elf'u, the big illusions, I did 
not build. And indeed, of the 130 games of prescription me, 
found approximately 30 pieces. Began to look at - this shit!

Of course, among other things, we found
good igruhi "PSI-5 SPACE TRADING" and
"The RATS", but since the first was poluubitaya (or arrears of 
the authors), and the second is painfully of Moldova, and 
written mainly on BASIC, we took

solution is a little pronostalgirovat and
to annex 128 kb home version of the already-promoted in our 
magazine game "Starglider 2. So I said goodbye to

Another dream of his youth ... The longer I live, the more 
convinced that the shit in my life too much ... Want to get 
drunk hallucinogens ... Shit ...