May’s Program: WIZERDRY
Okay, you may be wondering why there is a picture of an Apple II on a ZX81 site? I’ll start by saying that it’s been a pretty busy May with lots of travel for both business and vacation. The picture is from the Smithsonian and it actually does relate to May’s program of the month, Wizerdry…
Posted May 31, 2015 by Steven
2 min read
April’s Program: RMS
Are there any D&D folks in the audience? Come on, you know who you are. Past or present doesn’t matter, just if you know what I’m talking about. Why, you ask? Because RMS, April’s program of the month, will use your ZX81 to build monsters…
Posted Apr 29, 2015 by Steven
4 min read
March’s Program: Input One
Input One, March’s program of the month, is a great example of the kind of simple and brute force programming of the 1980s. This was a time when computers had little memory and their users had to use simple BASIC programming to get things done…
Posted Mar 29, 2015 by Steven
3 min read
February’s Program: Math Bash
At the one level, you can sum up most programs into three big groups: business, gaming, or educational. Most of my programs fit into one of these base categories. The standouts are generally the animation or demo programs that really have no distinct genre…
Posted Feb 22, 2015 by Steven
5 min read
January’s Program: Comp. Talk
Mixing things up a bit, I thought I’d start off the new year without a game program. Instead, January’s program is Computer Talk, or Comp. Talk for short. Comp. Talk is one of several educational programs I wrote for reasons I’m not entirely sure of…
Posted Jan 24, 2015 by Steven
2 min read
December’s Program: V Water Battle
As 2014 comes to a close, I wanted to end the year with an original program of the month. For December, that program is V Water Battle, an action game from 1984. For some reason, the title screen I created said designed instead of wrote but I did both. I was an odd duck in 1984…
Posted Dec 29, 2014 by Steven
3 min read
November’s Program: Maze Craze
Hope everyone in the US had a great Turkey Day (Thanksgiving) and are now enjoying the last weekend of November. I’m busy with NaNoWriMo, and a bit behind. So I give you another program from my original ZX81 site, but not yet featured here. November’s program is the month is Maze Craze…
Posted Nov 29, 2014 by Steven
2 min read
October’s Program: NA
Whoa, there are still almost two weeks left in the month and I have October’s program done and waiting for you. Yep, you heard right. This month is a short one called NA. The program is an action game that requires you to use “N” and “A” to try to stop a runner…
Posted Oct 21, 2014 by Steven
2 min read
September’s Programs: Photon ’85 and ’98
Well, the month is over and life has taken over and delayed my program of the month. For the tail end of September, I offer two programs: Photon and Photon 98. Wait, what? Yep, you heard right. I’m offering two programs this month. Sort of. Actually they are very similar…
Posted Sep 30, 2014 by Steven
2 min read
August’s Program: Cave War
August’s program is Cave War, a later program from 1985. It starts out similar to Hit Man, basically a scrolling dodge the wall game. But there is more to it than that. Once you get to the end of the tunnel, you find yourself in a cave and need to blast away at a wall to continue on…
Posted Aug 24, 2014 by Steven
4 min read
July’s Program: Block £ Spear
Sorry, still no Joust. It’s not where I want it and I’ve spent July working on my novel instead. That isn't to say that I’m going to leave July without a program of the month. Instead I’ve pulled from my original site to bring you one of my favorite programs, Block £ Spear…
Posted Jul 23, 2014 by Steven
3 min read
June’s Program: Monster Maker
Okay I haven’t finished my remake of Joust yet, nor did I want to wait until the last week of the month to get an article out. Instead, I offer you Monster Maker as June’s monthly program. It’s pretty straight forward and anti-climatic against the power of today’s programs…
Posted Jun 08, 2014 by Steven
3 min read
May’s Program: Joust
I actually started working on May’s program of the month, Joust, about three weeks ago. My goal was to update the program to a faster and more fluid MCODER version. Sadly, things haven’t gone so well…
Posted May 28, 2014 by Steven
5 min read
April’s Program: Flywheel
April has been a crazy month. I decided to try something new, pushed along by an unexpected event. I’m writing a book. I joined NaNoWriMo just after last November's event so I didn't expect to do anything until later this year. The surprise was their CampNaNoWriMo event in April…
Posted Apr 27, 2014 by Steven
3 min read
March’s Program: The Ball Redux
For March's program of the month, I drew inspiration from one of my older demo’s, The Ball. Like many young kids from the early eighties using BASIC, I took a stab at animating a bouncing ball. It is a a relatively easy program to write depending on how complex you want to make the math…
Posted Mar 29, 2014 by Steven
4 min read
February’s Program: Time
For February, I give you Time, a simple landing game with a twist. Using the “Z” and “.” keys, you maneuver your craft to each successive landing pad. If you miss the landing, keep trying but be careful. Run out of time and it’s game over! How high of a score can you amass…
Posted Feb 16, 2014 by Steven
4 min read
January’s Program: Fireball
January’s program of the month, Fireball, marks a first for me. Although I’ve used a few different methods to type in my programs, I’ve always gone back to a Windows so I could use EightyOne to generate the program files and images…
Posted Jan 05, 2014 by Steven
5 min read
December’s Program: Dollar Sign
Winter has set in and it is time to close out the year with a simple game. Dollar Sign, December’s program of the month, is that game.
All you need to do is move your character, which surprisingly looks like a dollar sign, into the inverse, dare I say it, dollar sign…
Posted Dec 30, 2013 by Steven
4 min read
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…
Posted Nov 30, 2013 by Steven
7 min read
October’s Program: Space Dock
Since it’s been a few months since I’ve presented an animation program, I hereby offer October’s program of the month Space Dock. Written when the space shuttle program was in full swing, Space Dock depicts a shuttle launch for its scheduled docking to repair a satellite.
Though time has purged my …
Posted Oct 19, 2013 by Steven
4 min read
September’s Program: S.M.P.
October’s program of the month is S.M.P. or Sinclair Memo Pad. A simple scrolling editor that allows you to take a couple of quick notes that last as long they are on-screen.
Since the space key also acts as a break, which will stop the program, S.M.P. uses the newline key instead…
Posted Sep 21, 2013 by Steven
3 min read
August’s Program: Parachute
Whoa, it’s August already? Time for another program of the month. Coming your way is Parachute, a deceptively simple reflex game that uses recognizable graphics to give you an enjoyable causal gaming diversion…
Posted Aug 08, 2013 by Steven
3 min read
July’s Program: Spiders & Flies
July is almost half over, but we still have time for our program of the month: Spiders & Flies. You play a growing Venus flytrap that is searching for flies and special bugs. Use the ZX81 arrow keys to move around: 5, 6, 7, and 8. But be careful…
Posted Jul 21, 2013 by Steven
4 min read
June’s Program: Blast Off
Blast Off, June’s program of the month, is a simple game that tests your typing skills. You may find it a bit easier to play on an emulator than on a real ZX81. Fortunately, you can try now! It isn’t a very hard game if you are decent typist…
Posted Jun 18, 2013 by Steven
2 min read
May’s Program: Up-Cake
Well it is getting late in the month and I didn’t want to pull another last-minute update. To make things a bit interesting, I used Zed Ex on my Android tablet to enter in this month’s entry. More on that in a bit. Let me first introduce our deliciously short entry for May: Up-Cake…
Posted May 19, 2013 by Steven
4 min read