computer science

The Tail of Beta Lyrae

The Tail of Beta Lyrae is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Tail of Beta Lyrae rather than just read about it. In short: The Tail of Beta Lyrae is a horizontally scrolling shooter written by Philip Price for Atari 8-bit computers and published in 1983 by Datamost. The music is by Gary Gilbertson.

Key takeaways

The Tail of Beta Lyrae belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Tail of Beta Lyrae to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Tail of Beta Lyrae from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Tail of Beta Lyrae is a horizontally scrolling shooter written by Philip Price for Atari 8-bit computers and published in 1983 by Datamost. The music is by Gary Gilbertson. Price and Gilbertson later collaborated on the Alternate Reality games.

Plot

The Tail of Beta Lyrae puts the player in the role of "a wing commander assigned to the Beta Quadrant." Alien forces have occupied the mining colonies in the asteroid fields of the Beta Lyrae binary star system. The player pilots a fighter through the fields, destroying the alien invaders and their installations.

Gameplay As the landscape scrolls past, the player uses a joystick to move the ship around the screen, avoiding attacks from laser and missile emplacements and destroying buildings, power generators, vessels and alien miners. The landscape and configuration of objects is generated pseudo-randomly. Objects within the levels may change after the user has owned the game for a certain amount of time.

Development Philip Price stated that the "tail" in the game's name "came from a play on telling a tale and the setting of a binary star system which only had fragments of rock orbiting it because of the tidal forces brought on by the two suns; these fragments are the tail of the system's creation."

Audio

The Tail of Beta Lyrae's soundtrack was composed by Gary Gilbertson using Philip Price's Advanced Music Processor. Gilbertson considered the computer games to be an audio/visual experience, and even though he only had four square wave voices to work with, he was determined to make the sound as memorable as possible.

Reception The Tail of Beta Lyrae was met with a very positive reception. The Addison-Wesley Book of Atari Software 1984 gave the game a very good rating (B+) and concluded: "The music deserves an award for originality, and the game equals the best of the scrolling shoot-'em-up games on the market. It has great depth, is extremely playable, and offers a challenge even on the easiest level. " Electronic Games reviewer found the game is "distinguished by extensive animation, a charming musical score and sophisticated programming". Mark Stinson in a 1994 retro review for Page 6 concluded: "In the Tail of Beta Lyrae you get excellent gameplay, superb graphics, fast action, and good sound effects and music. Add to this the incredibly low price and it's a sure fire winner. Buy it now."

See also Airstrike Caverns of Mars Star Blazer

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Tail of Beta Lyrae

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Tail of Beta Lyrae claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Tail of Beta Lyrae before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Tail of Beta Lyrae ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Tail of Beta Lyrae

In research: The Tail of Beta Lyrae appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Tail of Beta Lyrae in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Tail of Beta Lyrae is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1983 video games, Atari 8-bit computer-only games, Atari 8-bit computer games, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Tail of Beta Lyrae outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Tail of Beta Lyrae in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Tail of Beta Lyrae means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Tail of Beta Lyrae out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Tail of Beta Lyrae in simple terms?

The Tail of Beta Lyrae is a horizontally scrolling shooter written by Philip Price for Atari 8-bit computers and published in 1983 by Datamost. The music is by Gary Gilbertson.

Why does The Tail of Beta Lyrae matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Tail of Beta Lyrae?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Tail of Beta Lyrae.