Articles by Steven


Steven has written 519 articles, Page 6.

Check out This Awesome Remake of Pole Dodge

Tower Dodge by Jim Gerrie, 2014

Jim notified me earlier this month that I’d missed one of his remakes of my ZX81 programs when I blogged about them earlier. Tower Dodge for the MC-10 is Jim’s version of my updated Pole Dodge 2. Not sure how I missed it as he rewrote it back in 2014. Of course, I can’t believe I wrote mine back in 2012! Time sure flies—get the pun? Anyway, let’s dive in and see what’s new.


Quick, Stop the Bomber before It Destroys You

Quick, Stop the Bomber before It Destroys You

Wait what? Another month? Another game? You betcha! April is upon us, and pretty much over. So, to pass the time I introduce Blaster, a shooter with a twist. Use Z to move left, . to move right, and M to fire. Not the most exciting game ever, but you’ll find it hard enough to spend a few minutes with it.



How to Make Digital Rain on Your ZX81

How to Make Digital Rain on Your ZX81

I’ve been wanting to create my own version of digital rain for some time. The effect is well known from the Matrix movies, which used florescent green characters. Inspired by that version, I decided to go retro and generate a black and white stream of characters using the ZX81. Let the geekiness begin.



Having a Little Photography Fun with This Year's Challenge

Slaying the Beast by Steven Reid

Since the start of the year, I’ve been participating in a weekly photography challenge in an attempt to improve my photography. Although I shared them on Flickr, I wasn’t blogging about them. Perhaps it was because of a lack of confidence of their quality, not liking their originality, or just fear of ridicule. Overcoming all that, I’d like to share last week’s photo. It’s all about fun!




Watch This Great Remake of Flywheel on the TRS-80

Fly Wheel by Jim Gerrie

While digging around my site’s SEO this morning, I ran across these great videos from Jim Gierrie. Both depict his remake of Flywheel on a a TRS-80 MC-10. He had shared in a comment on my site, but I’d missed it given how busy last year had been. I love that Jim took the concept and made it his own, exactly the purpose of this site.





2017 Was A Fantastic Year For Renders

2017 A Year of LEGO Renders by Steven Reid

Last year is over, but it was one of my more prolific years for LEGO renders. I ended up sharing 67 renders on Flickr, plus a few other renders I did only for Mecabricks. I even have a few test images squirreled away I won’t be sharing. As we close out 2017, here are the last of the images from December.


What Can You Do with a Simple ZX81 Animation?

What Can You Do with a Simple ZX81 Animation?

Although may of my early programs were games, I spent a fair amount of time experimenting. December’s program, Slow Down, is one of my animation experiments. It is a straight forward sprite animation, with a twist. I used the ZX81 against itself to slow it down. If you’re ready, let’s dig deeper.



Time to Catch up on My Lego Renders

4637 Safari Building Set by Steven Reid

Although I haven’t posted many picture lately, I haven’t been idle. Old, new, large, and small, I’ve been trying out a few different things over last two months. Of course, this was between working, running, and other projects. So, time to catch up! Here are five images to round our your day.



Windmill Is a Quick and Dirty ZX81 Animation

Windmill Is a Quick and Dirty ZX81 Animation

There are a ton of windmills in Idaho. Mostly big ones for power, but you see a few smaller ones used for irrigation and wells. But, when I wrote this month’s program, I couldn’t remember any being around where I lived in Indiana. No matter. I still wrote a simple windmill animation, and today is the day to share it.




A Quick Blender Render of a Colorful and Happy Dinosaur

40247 Dinosaur by Steven Reid

With the recent release of Blender 2.79, which officially supports filmic color and denoising filter. Keeping current, Mecabricks released the latest advanced blender add-in that supports it. Besides the above changes, it supports the Principled shader also introduced in 2.79. Adding all that up, it was time to do a little testing.


Tabular Is My Simple and Easy ZX81 Word Processor

Tabular Is My Simple and Easy ZX81 Word Processor

To date, most of my programs have been games and animations. It may come as a surprise that I also wrote a word processing program. Using a custom printer command, I designed a font that would allow you to use lowercase letters. Let’s explore September’s program of the month to see how that worked.


Overcome Your Attachment to the Weighted Companion Cube

Nooooo! Not again! by Steven Reid

Portal was one of those games that game out of no where. Released as an add-on to the Orange Box, the Half-Life 2 box edition for consoles, the puzzler shined. Combining wry humor with entertaining game play, Portal gained a place in pop culture. In one of the more memorable levels, you are given a weighted companion cube. This heart embossed cube replaces the more generic ones used in early, and later, levels. Given a game filled with loneliness, the companion cube helps fill that void. Portal does such a good job of hamming it up, that it comes as a surprise when you must dispose of the cube to continue on. It’s heartbreaking, even if the cube is an inanimate object. As an iconic part of the game, I was excited to replicate it in LEGO bricks.


Quickly Avoid the Spiders in the ZX81 Game Tarantula

Quickly Avoid the Spiders in the ZX81 Game Tarantula

Tarantula, August’s program of the month, was part of a pair of games that made me think I was a game developer. At the age of fourteen, I didn’t let problems like the lack of a distribution channel tarnish my dreams. Although I didn’t make it into gaming, it’s still fun to look back on what could have been.