I came across something really interesting today. I found screen captures from a game that I wrote in 1984 for the Tandy Color Computer.

Decathlon Screen Captures

Please be kind. In those days we really didn't have a lot of "resources" available to us. For example there was no Internet available to me. I basically had to reinvent sprites since the coco had no facility for it and there was no way to look up that sort of information. It also had no music making facilities. All you could do is flip bits on the sound "output". So in order to make the "music" I had to figure out what frequences produces what notes etc.

I was however very lucky to find "freeze frames" of athletes in action so the animation didn't look half bad. Or so I thought when I wrote it.

I thought it was pretty cool to see something I wrote in 1984 again! I never thought I would.

Richard

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Amabilis Support,

Great stuff Richard.

I remember doing this sort of thing on an Amiga around the same time...maybe a bit later.
Taught myself machine code for the Amiga...great fun.

The thing about writing games then was you had to have some good gameplay or else the game didn't last long...none of the super graphics and special effects we have now.

Bazza

My first computing mention was in a ZX81 magazine from 1982, when I was 18 - 23 years ago now!!!!

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jg27paw4/spot-on/zxtypein.txt

No pics, but the game was called Zap

Great stuff guys... didnt know we had so many pro's amongst us!!But its good to know....

I still have my orinal Tandy COCO. I still have 4 of them. to be exact.

Wonderful system.

I started with a Spectrum. The keys were made from a rubber material that wore away with constant use.
About a year ago I managed to pick a second hand one as new, still boxed with loads of games. Atic Attack and Splat...anybody remember those.... brilliant

Bazza

I still play a few of those speccy games with the spectrum emulator on my 1Ghz PC

25 years ago I couldn't afford a CoCo .. so I built one! I bought the CoCo service manual from Radio Shack for 20$ which contained PCB layout diagrams and schematics. I etched the board, bought the parts and soldered it all together. Back then home made computers were more common - you could buy PCB's for Apple's and later for IBM PC"s and assemble them yourself. I went on to write a number of programs - none achieved any fame - although my 'Dupatape' program was pretty widely used in my community.

Good memories!

Wayne

I really like this thread. I suppose I shouldn't say that since I started it, but it really is "Good Memories!".

Like Paul, my first computer was a Sinclair. Though, my model was the original ZX80. It had 1k of RAM! I ordered it from a computer magazine (byte?) for $300. My dad lent me the money to buy it (which was pretty nice of him since $300 was a lot of money then). When it arrived it was in this tiny little box and it was impossible to believe there was a computer in there. I knew it was small, but I didn't expect it to be that small. My dad thought I got took, but it actually was pretty good.

Of course, the first thing I wrote was a game. It was a computer version of "Towers of Hammurabi". At least I think that was what it was called.

The funny thing about the Sinclair was that as you used more memory the area displayed on the screen got smaller and smaller because the video memory and program memory were shared. It was funny when you got a really big program in and there would only be a few lines displayed on the screen. It sure taught you how to program efficiently, though I have forgotten all of that now of course.

As for "build your own", I really wanted to do that and in the 70's even bought a book on how to do it. I never did do it though. I however did wire wrap 8k of expansion memory for my Colour Computer, and an EPROM programmer.

One of the neat things about the Color Computer is that you could "overclock" it. If I recall correctly it was .9 MHz and you could overclock it to 1.8 MHz via a dip switch.

Yes, good memories!

Richard

I remember getting my first computer a ZX81 way back in 1981. Many happy hours were spent trying to get simple games to work.

When Sinclair brought out the 16k RAM pack we thought noone would ever need more memory!

After the ZX81 I had loads of other machines - Spectrum, QL (also Sinclair), Acorn Atom, Amstrad CPC 464, Dragon 32, Amiga etc.

When we moved house last year I had to face reality and admit we had no room for my collection of old computers and magazines so they all went to the local tip, what a crime!

Not that I have any business even posting on this thread, but... I like this thread too...gives some insight into another side of you guys, the pros, who help so much with us beginners.

We had a ZX80 back in the beginning (worth a fortune now I should think)

Small programs were usually helped by assembler code... I remember working out the Z80 assembler codes, typing the actual character codes into the first REM line, then using the POKE command to change the ones I couldn't directly type in.

How did it ever work?

My brother had a manual for the Z80 that he lent me. I peeked and poked a little bit myself.

I probably would still have my ZX80 but I lent it to my brother and he cut the keyboard off and added a "real" one. :-|

Richard

I remember the very early ads for the ZX80. In the magazines with the sunday papers 'Uncle' Clive Sinclair implied you could run a nuclear power station with one!

Ok guys...it's nostalga time..get the hankies out.
I had a quick rumage on my bookshelf..look what I found...First up two Machine code books for the Speccy.
Is there such a thing as Easy Machine code.
Did anyone else have these or similar?

Books1.jpg (64 Kb, 40 downloads)

Next a page from The Beginners book.
You new guys don't know how lucky you are, but I wouldn't have missed this for the world.

BeginnersPage.jpg (66 Kb, 47 downloads)

And one from the Machine code made easy book
How did I ever understand this stuff.

MCodePage.jpg (67 Kb, 42 downloads)

This a Rom Disassembly book used for what Paul described earlier.

Books2.jpg (59 Kb, 34 downloads)

And a page from the above....
THATS ALL FOLKS!!!!

RomPage3.jpg (77 Kb, 38 downloads)

Sorry about the quality of some of the Jpegs...I viewed them in my web browser first and they where readable. How come when they are viewed from the forums they're almost illedgable.