Articles by Steven

Blast from the past. This set is one of mine from 1980. I believe one of the last I received while still in Norway. This was rendered with POV-Ray 3.7R6.

September’s program, Runner, is nostalgic for me. When I wrote this program I had moved on to my C64. My ZX81 was starting to gather dust as I was busy learning the ins and outs of my new computer. For some reason, something tugged at me to fix my ZX81 keyboard and get it running again. After transplanting the ZX81 brains into a TS1000 case, it surprisingly powered on. I wrote Runner as a test that still worked. It did. That was the last time I was able to use the computer that had been my pride and joy for the previous three years.

Wow, August flew by way faster than I expected! Here we are at the end and I finally got around to uploading the monthly program. This month’s program, PAC-MAN Video, is a bit different. Although I call it a game, it doesn’t really play like one. It is totally random with a slight nod to you. Skill isn't required, just give it a try.

Goofing around again with some simple LEGO fireworks. Still waiting on the larger render to finish. Fireworks was the LEGO Club Monthly Mini Model Build for November 2009. Flame part courtesy of LDRAW and LeoCAD. A simple, yet effective model. Rendered with POV-Ray 3.7RC6. MMMB016 Fireworks by Safe

I’m back to the basics for July’s program. Can Punch is a simply graphic game that will probably infuriate you more than entertain. Don’t believe me? Go try it and decide for yourself. The goal is punch the can thrown at you. Use Z to raise your fist high and . to lower it. A deceptively simple game mechanic that I dare you to master. I double dog dare you!

Yes, I know I’m late. June is almost over and I’m sure my adoring fan is up in arms. I do have one fan, right? In any case, I’m breaking tradition for June’s Program of the Month and posting a more modern program. Pole Dodge 2 is my revamped version of April’s program. Before I dig into the details, go play it. It’s real easy, just use the “Z” and “.” to bank left or right. No really, go play it. I think you’ll find it much more enjoyable this go round.

Jet Flyer is May's Program of the Month. Although a bit late, I believe it is a bit better than last month's and worth a quick try. The goal is to keep your jet on course by using the “Z” and “.” keys to bank right or left. It isn’t an overly hard game. You just need to keep the course indicator close to zero. I won’t say how close to avoid spoiling the fun.

Pole Dodge is April’s Program of the Month and it is an odd one. Partially odd because I typed it in back in February, and partly because the program just doesn’t play well. I know that doesn’t lend well for one to give it a try, but try it you should. Why? Because the premise isn’t bad. It is the execution that leaves a bit to be desired. Of course, I blame the slow hardware.

Happy Easter! This is a great little set. The ducks are well designed and I love the little ugly duckling. I wonder if he'll become a swan? This is rendered with POV-Ray 3.7RC5.

T.W.M. is March’s program of the month. It is a simple animation that tries to mimic a computer’s destruction of its defined target. February was actually pretty prolific for me as I transcribed this and another program, as well as updated a number of older programs using MCODER. Fortunately, that means I have a few more programs available than I normally do. Of course, one is more than I normally have ready so I’m not sure that means much. Anyway, go give it a try and enjoy the animation in all its simplicity.

E.T. may not have been my best game ever, but it was an interesting exercise in 1985. Loosely, and I really mean loosely, based on the Atari 2600 game, E.T. follows the exploits of the title character as he tries to find his way home. Originally written in ZX81 BASIC, I revisited E.T. to better understand how to use MCODER II. I was ultimately successful in compiling it and getting it to run. If you are adventurous, you can compare it to original version, bugs and all. Instructions for E.T. are available off my old ZX81 website.

It isn’t all programming around here! Some days it is fun to just play around. I was adding an image to my other site which led to me reviewing some of my old Flickr images. This got me playing around with Wordle again to see what Tag Clouds I could build form the ZX81 articles.

I posted this a couple of days back on Flickr, but hadn’t made it around to posting here. Happy belated Valentine’s day to all!

What's this, another version of Road Hog? Yep. This is January’s Program converted to machine code using MCoder II. I was surprised how easy it was.

February is upon us and that means another program of the month. This month it is another one from 1983: Light Walls. In case you hadn’t guessed, it has its roots in Tron. The game requires you to steer right (“.”) or left (“z”) to avoid hitting the light walls. I wrote this program while a friend was over and we took turns trying beat others high scores. Who says you need color and 3D graphics to have a good time! Not convinced. Give it a try yourself and see how good your reactions are.

It is a strange time for me. For years, I have run my web site locally as a way to test out new designs and programs. I have used that site as the home for my catalog of LEGO parts and colors. Unfortunately, the computer that housed that catalog failed and I still haven’t gone through the trouble of reinstalling Apache. While working on a recent project, that decision is becoming a problem. Today I decided to do something to correct that. I uploaded my L-Bricks catalog to my hosted web site. Now I can find the names I need to put parts and colors into my POV-Ray renderings.

As more and more people turn to mobile and tablet devices for their entertainment and consumption needs, it is becoming harder to share my ZX81 preservation project. I remember how excited I was when I found a Java based emulator that would run my ZX81 programs on the web. Although Java and I haven’t always gotten along, I was happy to be able to show off my programs on the go with nothing more than a browser available. To my surprise, however, Java isn’t even part of the conversation when talking about those on-the-go OS’s like iOS and Android. All that effort isn’t of much use when a large portion of your audience can’t enjoy it. Fortunately, and much to my surprise, I ran across Zed Ex (Beta) in the Android Market. You can also find it on AppBrain.com.

Short and sweet. Monthly mini-build for Jan 2012 rendered with POV-ray. Interesting that these in-store promotions are now numbered. 40036 Cobra by SafePit, on Flickr

Welcome to the new year! Starting off the second season of monthly programs is January's program Road Hog. Road Hog is a driving game similar to my later Flywheel game. I hesitate to call it a racing game as there is no acceleration. You just move the car left or right using the Z or . keys. The game is pretty easy due to the slow speed of the animation. Go give it a spin.

Well, the celebration of thirty years since the introduction of the ZX81 is now over. For the last year I've been bringing you an original ZX81 program each month as a tribute to my first computer. It was a lot of fun typing in those old programs or fixing tape recordings I made back in the eighties. I even rewrote one which brought me back to those old programming days. For those that found your way here, I hope you enjoyed my ramblings about the programs. Perhaps you've learned something or I just invoked a kinship from a fellow programmer.

I can’t believe December is here and the year is almost over. To celebrate the last program of the month, I present Creature, an animation program. Unlike many of the smaller programs submitted throughout the year, this one is the largest weighing in at 14KB. Although Creature isn’t as exciting next to more modern computer animations, I still find it interesting to see what could be done with this little machine 26 years ago. Give it a watch, enjoy the nostalgia, and try not to laugh too much.

Although I like my existing weather userbar, I really wanted an easier city search. I decided to stick with NOAA and the NWS for now and ran across a nice all in one weather page with an XML link. The XML requires latitude and longitude meaning I need to find a way to find your city from a search string. Here is where the mash-up comes in. After a quick search, I found the Google Geocoding API. It accepts just about any search string and returns the closest match with the coordinates I need. The result isn't much different, but the location is easier to read.

You know you've been spending too much time playing HALO when Microsoft names you a VIP. Interestingly, they offered me a badge to prove it.

As of today, you can use RSS to subscribe for your monthly dose of ZX81 goodness. I originally hadn’t planned to offer an RSS feed for my ZX81 site. The original goal was to cross-post articles to my main site and rely on its feed for subscribers. Sadly I tend to forget to cross-post.

When I first created my re-visioned ZX81 site, my goal was to integrate it as a sub-site of my existing one. However, the CMS I use doesn’t lend itself to easily do that. Technically, that wasn’t a show stopper in and of itself.