View 1983 Tag


Have some fun! Explore the 9 articles tagged with 1983.

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.





Bringing an Old ZX81 Sketch to Life with BASIC Is Absolutely Crazy

Bringing an Old ZX81 Sketch to Life with BASIC Is Absolutely Crazy

Foreign to many developers today, I have a notepad and binder full of ideas from my ZX81 days. The notepad contains early program snippets. In contrast, I have sketches and designs crammed into a binder. Flipping through it, I landed on a Star Wars sketch that became the basis for this month’s program.


Electon is August’s ZX81 Program

Electon is August’s ZX81 Program

I painted more borders on the ZX81 than just about any other shape. An easy way to confine movement, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Electon starts by building a box. And before you ask, this month’s ZX81 program isn’t another version of snake. Instead, you use the Z, X, N, and M keys to move in an attempt to capture the Electon. Sounds easy? Better give it a try and see.


November’s Program: SNUNCH ML

November’s Program: SNUNCH ML

For November, I’m looking both forwards and backwards. Although I wrote SNUNCH in 1983, I added a corrected version to my first ZX81 web page in the ’90s. SNUNCH was my early attempt at writing a PAC-MAN like game. Note that I said like, not clone. My goal was to be inspired, not to copy. Sadly, it isn’t very good, even after I fixed some of its logic flaws. Despite its flaws, I still believed it had potential and I set about updating it using MCODER II. It is this improved SNUNCH ML version that I offer as November’s program of the month.