October’s Program: 1985
October’s program is one of my later games from 1985 which is aptly named 1985. It has decidedly simple game mechanics. Set in an alternative reality, the Earth is gone in this version of 1985. Humans are colonizing Earth II, but you need to clear the mountains for agriculture needs…
Posted Oct 03, 2011 by Steven
2 min read
September’s Program: Odyssey
This month I present another simple game, Odyssey. It doesn't include instructions, so here is a quick synopsis. An evil computer has trapped you in a space ship. To escape, you have to remove the memory boards in order to shut down the computer. Sounds familiar…
Posted Sep 03, 2011 by Steven
3 min read
Space Lander 2011
I couldn’t leave well enough alone. All that analyzing and nitpicking of the original Space Lander made me wonder what it might be like if I had rewritten it. Almost 28 years later, here is the reborn version of Space Lander 2011.
I tried to stay true to the original, keeping most of the key gra…
Posted Aug 21, 2011 by Steven
4 min read
August’s Program: Space Lander
Okay, this may not be the large program I promised, but I choose Space Lander for a different reason: it's horrible! Okay, maybe it isn’t that bad, but it definitely wasn’t one of better programs. This was from 1983, clearly one of my earlier attempts…
Posted Aug 17, 2011 by Steven
3 min read
July’s Program: Sugar Cube Munch
Another simple program. Like many that I wrote for the ZX81, Sugar Cube Munch was small with a singular purpose. In this case, the goal is to eat all the cubes of sugar as quickly as possible. Once all the sugar is eaten, the game is over and the number of turns is revealed…
Posted Jul 03, 2011 by Steven
2 min read
June’s Program: Beo One
I was searching through my stack of programs and decided to choose a short and sweet program for June. Beo One is definitely short, clocking at just 33 lines of code. Well 35 if you include the two new save and run lines I added…
Posted Jun 06, 2011 by Steven
2 min read
May’s Program: BOLT
Can you believe it! First day of the month and I have a program uploaded! Okay, so it is another graphic one and isn't very exciting, or long. But hey, you can't blame me for not trying!
May’s program is BOLT from 1984. It creates a lightning bolt with a circle and embossed BOLT logo. Cool huh…
Posted May 01, 2011 by Steven
2 min read
April’s Program: Sphere
I’ve been a bit busy this month so I choose a relatively short program in order to not miss my self imposed deadline. To that end, I present to you April’s belated graphic program: Sphere. This program will easily run on a 2K ZX81…
Posted Apr 26, 2011 by Steven
2 min read
March’s Program: Lock £ Fire
March’s program is Lock £ Fire. I wrote this graphic game in 1985, although I have to admit I don't remember it much. It is a bit hard to play as the keys aren’t very sensitive and the aliens jump around as you try to “lock” onto them…
Posted Mar 26, 2011 by Steven
2 min read
Digging for Old Books
For some time now I’ve listed the ZX81 books I own on my original ZX81 web site, but I hadn’t put much effort in searching the web for them. Mainly this was because I already own them, but mostly because it never occurred to me to do so…
Posted Mar 05, 2011 by Steven
2 min read
February’s Program: Golf
This month’s program is a simple game of Golf. Although not overly exciting, it does show off a few ZX81 BASIC features.
One oddity of the ZX81 is that π (pi) is built in, something I haven’t seen in other languages. In this case, it is used to calculate the direction of the golf ball…
Posted Feb 19, 2011 by Steven
2 min read
Major ZX81 Updates
A few things have changed over the list eight years. As I wind down the use of my ZX81 site, incorporating it my main one, much of below is invalid. That doesn’t mean that changes weren’t important at the time. Ideas come and go, and it is good to remember where we came from…
Posted Jan 26, 2011 by Steven
1 min read
New ZX81 Programs Section
I’ve added a new ZX81 Programs section that lists all of my ZX81 programs available so far. The list includes the name, a brief synopsis, and options to list or run the program as available. I still need to add a more complete description option…
Posted Jan 23, 2011 by Steven
1 min read
January’s Program: Water Bug II
I did it! After a lot of recording, cleaning, and tweaking I was finally able to get Water Bug II loaded! Hit the link, wait for it to load, then hit enter to give it a whirl. Then use the 5, 6, 7, and 8 keys to move (left, down, up, right) just as they are on the ZX81 keyboard.
Water Bug II was a…
Posted Jan 22, 2011 by Steven
2 min read
Slow Going
I really meant to have a number of my programs converted this month. I found a tape player and have been trying to load my ZX81 programs off the original tapes; however, I keep running into a problems.
I’m not sure if it is my microphone, the recording software, or my emulator…
Posted Jan 21, 2011 by Steven
1 min read
Celebrating Thirty Years of ZX81
This year will mark the 30th anniversary of the ZX81's debut. Hard to believe this little wonder is turning thirty and how much the world has changed. My goal is to celebrate the occasion by continuing to update the site with new content. I’d like to do a monthly showcase of programs as well…
Posted Jan 01, 2011 by Steven
1 min read
Pardon the Dust and Debris
I’m in the process of updating the old flat design of this site into a more dynamic one. The original site was designed in the nineties for use on GeoCities and its various requirements and stipulations…
Posted Nov 21, 2010 by Steven
1 min read
Fun with Z-Code (aka Inform)
Okay, I’ve been a fan of adventure games, and specifically Infocom games, for most of my life. I have fond memories of playing great games such as “Planet Fall” and “Zork” when I was in high school on my C64…
Posted Jun 23, 2010 by Steven
2 min read
LEGO and ZX81 Geocities Content Moved
Yahoo! will be shutting down Geocities tomorrow, 10/26/09, which means an end to my old LEGO and ZX81 website. Although I hadn’t updated those sites much since Yahoo! turned off ftp access, Geocities had remained my presence on the web for almost 12 years. Sad to say, it will be sad to see it go
…
Posted Oct 25, 2009 by Steven
1 min read
ZX81 Emulation and PHOTON98
A few years back, I started to convert some of my old ZX81 programs so they could be use in various ZX81 emulators. That project was mostly my way of trying to preserve some printouts from my now faded programs. I was curious if I there was a way to emulate those programs in a web site…
Posted Nov 20, 2008 by Steven
2 min read