REVIEW

AT 11,8; "THE DISPLAY FILE OF SISYPHUS"

Reviewer: Rocka
Developer: R Tape
Genre: Greek Tragedy
Platform: Spectrum 48K
Language: Machine Code

This second machine code entry was handwritten in assembler, converted to bytes, scanned and presented to me as a collection of .tif files*.

R Tape has certainly earned his CSSCGC2014 Sadistic B*stard award, as promised, but I can't help admiring the effort that went into this process.

* I've clumsily converted these to .jpg files for no apparent reason.

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It took a surprisingly short amount of time to enter the 186 byte values as DATA statements in BASin but, when the game first loaded, I wasn't convinced I'd got it right as the screen began filling with random-looking pixels.

I've double-checked each byte though and, allowing for the possibility of a misreading due to Dr. R Tape's handwriting, I reckon this is about right!

"You are Sisyphus" says the author, "tasked with keeping the Spectrum's display file clean of the accumulating noise..."

Using QAOP you need to move your, um, rapidly cycling ASCII characters (!) to clear out all the other random pixels on-screen.

Like Inside the Box before it, the raw speed of machine code means that everything moves almost too fast to remain controllable, however, persevere and it's entirely possible to blank out the whole screen.

Unfortunately, even if you are successful, there's no "Congratulations" or "Game Over" to be seen here and - eventually - the screen will refill with noise thus cleverly recreating this Greek Myth (described on Wikipedia as "an eternity of useless efforts and unending frustration") in a contemporary setting. (Give or take 30 years - Ed.)

Cracking crud that's bordering on arty and educational? Yowsers!

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