Micro Adventure – Space Attack (online emulator)

Summary

This is not a drill. This is for real. Stand by for urgent communication from ACT Central. Drop whatever you’re doing and go immediately to your computer terminal. The urgent message on your micro snaps you to attention! By the time you get there, the printer has already spewed out an eight-line message. GPS!BDU!FZFT!POMZ TFDSFUTQBDF!TUBUJPO! JO!EFFQ!USPVCMF BDU!UFBN!SFQRSU!UP! DBQF!DBOBWFSBM!1911 HPPE!MVDL!PSJPO PO!UIJT!NJTTJPO ZPV(SF!HPJOH!UP!OFFE!JU It looks like gibberish. But you know better. Unlocking the desk drawer, you bring out ACT’s latest code book - the most recent issue of X-Men Comics. To the untrained eye it looks quite ordinary. But once the special transparency has been slipped over the next to the last page, the lines of a BASIC program leap into view. Type the program below into the emulator on the right. This will let you decode ACT's message. To run the program, type RUN. PROGRAM 1 10 INPUT "TYPE IN MESSAGE";M$ 20 L=LEN(M$) 30 FOR N=1 TO L 40 A=ASC(MID$(M$,N,1))-1 50 PRINT CHR$(A); 60 NEXT N 70 PRINT 80 PRINT "IS THERE ANOTHER MESSAGE TO DECODE?" 90 INPUT "ANSWER YES OR NO";B$ 100 IF B$="YES" THEN GOTO 10 110 END "Holy space shot!" you gasp. "In less than 12 hours I’ll be on my way to a secret U.S. space station orbiting the earth. The installation is in deep trouble, and only ACT has a chance to save it." As always, you’ll be the team’s computer expert. But who else will be along on the mission? And will you be in time? You power down your home terminal and switch on the special portable unit that ACT has provided for field assignments. It’s state-of-the­ art hardware packed into a machine the size of a pocket radio. If you know ACT, and you definitely do, a chauffeured vehicle - anything from a Maserati to a milk truck - will be arriving at once. As you step outside, a newspaper delivery van pulls up to your door. The driver’s massive shoulders are hunched over the wheel, and he’s wearing a cap with a visor pulled down over his eyes. "Code na...