January’s Program: Star Probe
Wow, 2016 and I'm still digging programs out of my stack of print outs. Kicking off the new year, I'm grabbing a story based program. I wrote Star Probe, our program of the month, in the style of a Chose Your Own Adventure book—and yes, I actually owned most of them…
Posted Jan 26, 2016 by Steven
5 min read
December’s Program: Monkey Maze
Time to close out the year with another classic remaking. Back in 1983, I decided to try my hand at recreating Nintendo’s fan favorite: Donkey Kong. My version, cryptically called Monkey Maze, is December’s Program of the Month…
Posted Dec 29, 2015 by Steven
3 min read
November’s Program: Dragon’s Lair
One of my favorite video games as a kid was a rather unlikely one. It wasn’t the coolest graphics or excellent control. It was about story and animation. It was, of course, Dragon’s Lair. The odd laser disc game by famed animator Don Bluth…
Posted Nov 29, 2015 by Steven
2 min read
October’s Program: The Haunting
It is Halloween and October’s Program of the Month is right on time. When I pulled the listing for The Haunting from my stack I knew it would be perfect. Although short, I knew I’d be challenged as this program of the month requires something I hadn’t needed before. That something was sound.
Fortun…
Posted Oct 31, 2015 by Steven
4 min read
September’s Program: Input Two
To my surprise, I was thumbing through my old printouts and discover that I actually wrote an Input Two program. I covered Input One as March’s Program of the Month. For September, however, it is Input Two’s opportunity to shine.
Input Two is a very different program though…
Posted Sep 20, 2015 by Steven
2 min read
August’s Program: Canyon Raider
While reading through my old programming notebook last month, I wondered about using them on my website. From my earliest programming days, the notebook has a number of programs that never made it to my stack of printouts. Canyon Raider, August’s program of the month, is one of those programs.
A si…
Posted Aug 22, 2015 by Steven
3 min read
July’s Program: A Story
July’s program is indicative of the BASIC programs you’d find in early programming manuals. Most books start out with pretty basic commands such as PRINT and INPUT. A Story mimics these early programs in a creative way…
Posted Jul 23, 2015 by Steven
2 min read
June’s Program: Fly
Fly is a simple program that, in the end, is both baffling and intriguing. Looking at first like a simple shooter, it acts very differently then one and, if you don’t know the rules, will make you crazy. Once you do know how to play, though, Fly becomes simple and repetitive…
Posted Jun 28, 2015 by Steven
5 min read
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