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David Ahl's Basic Computer Games Ported to C

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Re: David Ahl's Basic Computer Games Ported to C

#21

Post by leoc »

dlenski wrote: post #15
sbuttgereit wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Ahl's book was first released in 1973... about 10 years before GW-BASIC.

My copy is at my parents’ house so I can't check the exact date now, but it's from the mid-to-late '80s and targets 8-bit home computer BASIC (e.g. Commodore 64) and IBM/Microsoft BASIC. So I presume there were several revisions or additions.

Yes. As mentioned in https://github.com/maurymarkowitz/101-BASIC-Computer-Games the first, 1973 version targeting various minicomputer or large-system BASICs was entitled 101 BASIC Computer Games. The 1978 edition https://archive.org/details/basic-computer-games-microcomput... , claiming compatibility with "Microsoft BASIC Version 3.0 or higher" and having various other chainges, is named BASIC Computer Games Microcomputer Edition. (One difference is that the game names in the old 1973 version all obey the classic six-letters-at-most, all-caps filename convention familiar from (non-BASIC) titles like EMACS, SHRDLU, ADVENT, and SCHEME.)

Re: David Ahl's Basic Computer Games Ported to C

#22

Post by PaulHoule »

leoc wrote: post #21
dlenski wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My copy is at my parents’ house so I can't check the exact date now, but it's from the mid-to-late '80s and targets 8-bit home computer BASIC (e.g. Commodore 64) and IBM/Microsoft BASIC. So I presume there were several revisions or additions.

Yes. As mentioned in https://github.com/maurymarkowitz/101-BASIC-Computer-Games the first, 1973 version targeting various minicomputer or large-system BASICs was entitled 101 BASIC Computer Games . The 1978 edition https://archive.org/details/basic-computer-games-microcomput... , claiming compatibility with "Microsoft BASIC Version 3.0 or higher" and having various other chainges, is named BASIC Computer Games Microc…

The PDP-11 under RSTS/E gave users a 64kb address space for code and another for data. Systems like the TRS-80 and the Apple ][ gave a "learn to code" experience that was similar and certainly inspired by the minicomputer experience: you didn't get as much RAM and some of the fancy features but you could so some graphics even if you had to PEEK and POKE.

Very early microcomputer BASICs would fit in machines with 4k of RAM but as RAM became affordable almost all the machines evolved so you could fill out the whole address space. The IBM PC had a way user applications could address more than 64k that was half-baked because you were still stuck with 16 bit pointers, but practically I thought it was was really fun to write assembly programs that used the segments.

I was thinking the other day how DEC's VAX died because the addressing modes (especially indirection) couldn't be implemented in a modern high-performance CPU and how the 64-bit Alpha came too late to stop VAX customers from leaving but way too early to attract general interest because hardly anyone could afford to fill out a 32-bit address space. Like Windows 95, NT and Linux were competing in 1995 and 32MB of RAM seemed like a lot then, it wasn't until the early 2000's that you could really afford more than 4GB...

Re: David Ahl's Basic Computer Games Ported to C

#23

Post by nosioptar »

CrociDB wrote: post #11

> "These haven't been tested, validated, debugged, or verified!" I really don't understand what the point of it is, then. It's not anymore "I put a lot of effort into something because I have the knowledge, experience and time to do so, hope you enjoy", it's like "I paid AI tokens to to that. Everyone could've done, but I paid with my own pocket. And it's untested.". That's it? > "Yes, I used Google Anti-Gravity to c…

People who want to show off their mindless slop ought to be shamed for wasting other peoples' time.

I was really hoping to see something interesting as I learned to code from a similar book of basic games.

Re: David Ahl's Basic Computer Games Ported to C

#24

Post by beej71 »

I've done a bit of porting BASIC code to other languages. My first step is to reverse engineer it to a spec, then I write a new version from that.

I know some people start with a straight port with goto and everything, then try to fix the structure later.

That always sounded harder to me.

Re: David Ahl's Basic Computer Games Ported to C

#25

Post by ThrowawayR2 »

nosioptar wrote: post #23
CrociDB wrote: post #11

> "These haven't been tested, validated, debugged, or verified!" I really don't understand what the point of it is, then. It's not anymore "I put a lot of effort into something because I have the knowledge, experience and time to do so, hope you enjoy", it's like "I paid AI tokens to to that. Everyone could've done, but I paid with my own pocket. And it's untested.". That's it? > "Yes, I used Google Anti-Gravity to c…

People who want to show off their mindless slop ought to be shamed for wasting other peoples' time. I was really hoping to see something interesting as I learned to code from a similar book of basic games.

Well, let's be careful about that. The owner of the repository probably didn't ask for it to be submitted to HN and probably wasn't looking for public attention; perhaps they were merely playing around. The onus is strictly on the submitter here.

Re: David Ahl's Basic Computer Games Ported to C

#26

Post by sbuttgereit »

dlenski wrote: post #15
sbuttgereit wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Ahl's book was first released in 1973... about 10 years before GW-BASIC.

My copy is at my parents’ house so I can't check the exact date now, but it's from the mid-to-late '80s and targets 8-bit home computer BASIC (e.g. Commodore 64) and IBM/Microsoft BASIC. So I presume there were several revisions or additions.

There were several editions. My copy (sitting on my bookshelf as I speak) was the '73 edition (though I think a later printing), but they did revise it including releasing it for the then prevalent home microcomputers.

I first learned programming converting these things to run on my VIC-20 (and later C64). That earliest effort was prior to those later editions... and I'm kinda glad... I had to learn what different things actually meant and judge what was important and not.

Re: David Ahl's Basic Computer Games Ported to C

#27

Post by nosioptar »

ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #25
nosioptar wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who want to show off their mindless slop ought to be shamed for wasting other peoples' time. I was really hoping to see something interesting as I learned to code from a similar book of basic games.

Well, let's be careful about that. The owner of the repository probably didn't ask for it to be submitted to HN and probably wasn't looking for public attention; perhaps they were merely playing around. The onus is strictly on the submitter here.

Good point.

The OP should definitely be subject to some kind of punishment. Maybe force them to listen to Ace of Base's second album on repeat a few times?

Re: David Ahl's Basic Computer Games Ported to C

#28

Post by dlenski »

leoc wrote: post #21
dlenski wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My copy is at my parents’ house so I can't check the exact date now, but it's from the mid-to-late '80s and targets 8-bit home computer BASIC (e.g. Commodore 64) and IBM/Microsoft BASIC. So I presume there were several revisions or additions.

Yes. As mentioned in https://github.com/maurymarkowitz/101-BASIC-Computer-Games the first, 1973 version targeting various minicomputer or large-system BASICs was entitled 101 BASIC Computer Games . The 1978 edition https://archive.org/details/basic-computer-games-microcomput... , claiming compatibility with "Microsoft BASIC Version 3.0 or higher" and having various other chainges, is named BASIC Computer Games Microc…

Got it, thanks. I believe that the version I have might be a later printing of the 1978 version, but actually the book I'm remembering most clearly was a later 1986 book by Ahl with a similar title of "Basic Computer Adventures" which has 10 longer adventure games… including an early version of Oregon trail.

https://archive.org/details/basic_computer_adventures

Re: David Ahl's Basic Computer Games Ported to C

#30

Post by PaulHoule »

dlenski wrote: post #28
leoc wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. As mentioned in https://github.com/maurymarkowitz/101-BASIC-Computer-Games the first, 1973 version targeting various minicomputer or large-system BASICs was entitled 101 BASIC Computer Games . The 1978 edition https://archive.org/details/basic-computer-games-microcomput... , claiming compatibility with "Microsoft BASIC Version 3.0 or higher" and having various other chainges, is named BASIC Computer Games Microc…

Got it, thanks. I believe that the version I have might be a later printing of the 1978 version, but actually the book I'm remembering most clearly was a later 1986 book by Ahl with a similar title of "Basic Computer Adventures" which has 10 longer adventure games… including an early version of Oregon trail. https://archive.org/details/basic_computer_adventures

There was this sequel too

https://archive.org/details/More_BASIC_Computer_Games

I don't think I ever saw source code for Oregon Trail As for text adventures those require fairly exotic programming techniques to pull off. Infocom had the Z machine interpreter written in assembly for many machines but Scott Adams made an interpreter which could be implemented in either BASIC or assembly.

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