QStar

QStar is a new animated graphical logic puzzle game for QL systems, by Andrei Tenu, who is well known on the QL scene for software such as the PI Cole adventure and QLCommander file handler. QStar is available to download free of charge from my website and from the ‘Software And Programming’ threads on QL Forum.

Using the cursor arrow keys (or a QL joystick plugged into the CTL1 socket to emulate cursor keys), you guide your Hero to collect all the diamonds in the least possible moves. The games has 25 levels and runs in mode 8. QPC2 users can run it in high colour/high resolution modes by issuing a QPC_QLSCREMU 8 command in BASIC before running the program to allow mode 8 programs to run in 8-bit or 16-bit colour modes. It does this by setting up a pseudo QL screen in memory and copying the graphics to the high colour modes in the top left of a high colour screen mode on QPC2. The game won’t run properly in 256 colour or 16-bit colour modes on QPC2 unless you do this.

Your Hero runs around in straight lines until he encounters a wall or obstacle. Your job is to tell him which way to walk to find the diamonds. He may be helped or hindered by a Blocker. The yellow Blocker can be moved to provide an object to block movement and help Hero find his way, but Blocker can’t collect diamonds. Like Hero, the Blocker will keep moving until it hits a wall or obstacle. You press the SPACE key (or joystick button) to toggle between the two and an icon on the screen shows which of the two is active at the time.

When I first went to play it I thought “Hah, this’ll be a piece of cake!”. Except there was more to it than I thought – because Hero and Blocker keep moving until they encounter a wall or object, you have to plan carefully which way to move them so that Hero can move to the right point to change direction to go for a diamond. The first levels are easy enough and you quickly learn to develop a strategy to get to the diamonds. There are 25 levels in total, enough to keep you interested for some time. You can switch levels by pressing S and using the cursor arrow keys to change the current level number. You can also restart the current level by pressing R if you want to restart the level if you get stuck and want to try a different strategy. Sound can be toggled off or on with the F2 key.

The games is written in QL BASIC and compiled with Turbo, needing nothing more than Toolkit 2. It should run on a 128K RAM QL, and has Spanish or English language options.

The game has a nice, colourful graphical layout making excellent use of mode 8 colours and stippled colours, and the Hero character animates nicely once you set the correct speed for your system. In my case, speed 0 was too fast for my QPC2 system, though 1 or 2 both gave acceptable results for smooth animation and game play.

This game is a QL port of an older game called DStar, written by HpDuss for the HP-48 calculator in 1995. It’s also been ported to various other systems over the years, for retro systems as well as Apple and Android systems.

I’ve never been much of a computer game player (I think the term is “absolutely hopeless”), but I must admit I am enjoying this game. Simple enough for me to master, but challenging in terms of finding the best strategy with which to play the game.

Download the game from the Games page on my website https://dilwyn.qlforum.co.uk/games/index.html