Martin Ward - Games Developer
Martin Ward - Games Developer
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    • About
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Megamind

HighLo


Publisher : Megadodo Software
Platform : ZX Spectrum
Format : Cassette
Language : ZX BASIC
Resolution : 256 x 192
Year : 1982
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HighLo is a playing-card gambling simulation game. HighLo was the first game to be published under Martin's Megadodo Software label.
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The player is given an initial virtual credit of £1, and stakes 10p of this for every game played. The player is dealt 5 cards face down.
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The first card is then turned over and the player has to guess whether the next card is higher or lower.

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If the player is correct, the process is repeated for the next card. If the player makes a wrong guess, the game ends.

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If the player guesses correctly for every card, a virtual cash prize is awarded and added to the player's credit.

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The value of the cash prize is decided by the values of the 5 winning cards, in the style of a poker hand:
  • 4-of-a-kind  £1.40
  • Full House   £1.00
  • 3-of-a-kind  £0.60
  • 2 pairs        £0.60
  • 1 pair         £0.40
  • Win            £0.20

Development

In July 1982, Martin was one of the first to receive a pre-ordered Sinclair 16k ZX Spectrum. At that time, low stake-and-prizes video card games were popular in the seaside amusement arcades. Martin saw the potential of the ZX Spectrum to be able to reproduce this style of game on a home computer, and as an interesting project to teach himself to program the ZX Spectrum, set about writing HighLo.

ZXBASIC was straight forward to program, and the user defined graphics and colours that the machine had available made it ideal for the task.

Martin completed HighLo, a 10p-a-go, 'Play Your Cards Right', higher-or-lower gambling style game, in July 1982.
Copyright © Martin W Ward 2015 - 2025