[Coco] Back to BASIC

Sun Apr 9 21:28:22 EDT 2017

That’s great Steve,

I watched up to 13 yesterday so you have a few minutes before needing to make the next one :)

JK, Thanks for all you do!

Anxious to get to Assembly! 

> On Apr 9, 2017, at 12:14 PM, Steve Strowbridge <ogsteviestrow at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I have just added two more chapters in the BASIC programming series..
> 
> Chapter 14, plotting pixels with the PSET command
> Chapter 15, creating lines, boxes, and filled boxes with the LINE command.
> 
> My head is about to explode so will take a break before moving on :)
> 
> 
> Steve Strowbridge, aka
> The Original Gamer Stevie Strow
> http://ogsteviestrow.com
> ogsteviestrow at gmail.com
> 
> 
> On Thu, Apr 6, 2017 at 7:37 PM, John Lochey via Coco <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> Yeah emulation has changed everything!
>> Now I can "own" them all, so to speak!
>> But right now I'm really enjoying the CoCo2 and the MC10 that I have.
>> So I'm happy to play with those.  Definitely assembly is in the future for
>> me, and is quite exciting!
>> I have a CoCo with the SDC unit, but still find emulation awfully handy as
>> I go back and forth between home computers and work computers.
>> 
>> Really appreciate this community too, can't possibly say that ENOUGH!
>> 
>> Johnny
>> 
>> 
>>      From: Steve Strowbridge <ogsteviestrow at gmail.com>
>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>> Sent: Thursday, April 6, 2017 5:25 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Coco] Back to BASIC
>> 
>> Hey John, nice to hear from other people who look in on Tandy as drool
>> worthy, not quite sure I heard it put that way before.
>> 
>> I always loved my Coco, and was proud of it, but I did drool over some of
>> the games that were available on the C-64, Atari 800, etc., as those
>> machines had much better color, sound, graphics, etc (compared to a CoCo
>> 1/2 at least).
>> 
>> Now, I can at least afford some of the computers I never could have back
>> then, so I hope to eventually get my hands on a lot of them and dig in and
>> try and create a little.  For the foreseeable near future, though, that
>> exploration will remain focused on the CoCo.
>> 
>> I want to learn Assembly in general, create a CoCo 1/2 project or two, then
>> work at some CoCo 3 stuff taking advantage of higher resolutions and color,
>> hardware scrolling, etc.
>> 
>> But, if the time permits, and the passion is strong enough, may branch out
>> and try and do the same thing on other platforms, but the Coco is always
>> top priority.
>> 
>> 
>> Steve Strowbridge, aka
>> The Original Gamer Stevie Strow
>> http://ogsteviestrow.com
>> ogsteviestrow at gmail.com
>> 
>> 
>> On Thu, Apr 6, 2017 at 3:22 PM, John Lochey via Coco <coco at maltedmedia.com
>>> 
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi all,
>>> My BASICS came on the VIC-20.
>>> I badly wanted a Commodore 64 or a Color Computer, but for my Commodore
>>> friends and I, the Tandy machines were "the other guys".
>>> But RS's were everywhere in the Midwest, so the Tandy's were always very
>>> "drool worthy".
>>> My friend and I did some type-ins and some small games and life moved on.
>>> Now, I just want to get back to ALL that stuff that I wanted to learn
>> then
>>> and never did.  Assembly Language still seems super cool to me, but
>>> definitely filled with "smoke and mirrors and magic" at the moment!
>>> Funny, I work by day managing a US IT Datacenter for a large chemical
>>> corporation, but the only computers I like to play with at home are
>> retro!
>>> :)
>>> For the the Retro-World is still wide open!  Lots to learn, lots to do.
>>> Heck, I'd just like to know as much as some of you have already
>> forgotten!
>>> ;)
>>> Thanks,
>>> 
>>> Johnny
>>> 
>>> 
>>>     From: Steve Strowbridge <ogsteviestrow at gmail.com>
>>> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>>> Sent: Thursday, April 6, 2017 9:24 AM
>>> Subject: Re: [Coco] Back to BASIC
>>> 
>>> Thank you Alexander for the kind words!
>>> 
>>> Seven Chapters!! Wow!! I hope you didn't get bored to sleep and end up
>>> injuring yourself in the work shop :)
>>> 
>>> BASIC on the CoCo was my entry into computer programming, like most kids
>> of
>>> the day, I'm sure, I followed the very user friendly book, actually
>>> "learned" the language and was able to apply it and create original
>>> programs, I rarely "typed in" any programs, I enjoyed the process of
>> coming
>>> up with the ideas, then working out the logistics of making everything
>>> work.
>>> 
>>> I started on a 16K Standard BASIC, and cut my teeth on that for a year or
>>> two, my 2nd CoCo was the 64K white CoCo 1 with Extended Color BASIC and I
>>> went to town with that, loved doing high res games with PMODE 3 and 4,
>>> using PCOPY and GET/PUT to create sprites, move objects without erasing
>> the
>>> background, experiment with screen scrolling, etc.
>>> 
>>> All the things I saw the pros do in assembly, I tried to mimic in ECB,
>> and
>>> other than the vast difference in speed, I was able to recreate most of
>> the
>>> tricks.  For whatever reason, it never occurred to me that I could also
>>> attempt to learn assembly myself, I was a kid, and I thought that was
>> what
>>> grown ups did.  I went to college for computer programming, and thought
>> it
>>> would be taught to me there, I was disappointed that it wasn't, they were
>>> covering DBase, Fortran, Cobol, and BASIC, and BASIC I already knew, and
>>> those others, I had no interest in, so I didn't say in college for
>>> programming.
>>> 
>>> I transitioned from CoCo to the Tandy 1000 in 1986, I got ahold of MS
>>> QBasic sometime after that, and enjoyed many years through up to the late
>>> 90's programming in Quick BASIC on MS-DOS based systems.
>>> 
>>> Anything I ever made was always a game, I had no interest in anything
>>> "serious".
>>> 
>>> My biggest claim to fame, with my own software was a game I made, which
>>> actually started as an "I told you so" in College, where I told the guy
>>> sitting next to me "I can make a space invaders game", and he said "no
>> you
>>> can't" and before the class was over, I already had the skeleton of the
>>> game up and running in QBASIC.
>>> 
>>> That became a game called "Cosmic Aliens", it was DOS Text based, the
>>> smiley faces characters were the aliens, they dropped bombs, there was a
>>> text character that looked like a bomb, and your ship was two characters
>>> together that looked like a line graphic space ship, you shot arrows up
>> in
>>> the air like Galaga.
>>> 
>>> That game grew over time, was circulated through BBS systems, I put the
>>> usual shareware messages on there, like "if you'd like to support this
>>> game, mail a check to..." and at one point and time, the "mail to"
>> address
>>> what the retail store I worked at in Fort Lauderdale called the Byte
>> Shop.
>>> 
>>> Turns out, the game was a favorite of a person in the military, and he
>> said
>>> he and his buddies like the game, I found this out, because he came to
>>> visit me at the Byte Shop to tell me that.  I was blown away by that.  I
>>> grabbed the source code and modified it, and created a custom version for
>>> him, and gave him the updated EXE file, he was happy about that.  I
>> think I
>>> also got a random product review of that game somebody mailed me, and
>> even
>>> an offer to buy it by a company in Canada called Ninga software or
>>> something like that.  My 15 minutes of game fame were under a very small
>>> spotlight, but it was very rewarding to know somebody in the military was
>>> able to entertain themselves while at a base with my game.
>>> 
>>> Another game I made for DOS, which never got circulated was called
>> "Garden
>>> Worm" and it was a spin on Centipede, where you were the Centipede, so
>> kind
>>> of a hack clone of the various Snake type games, there was food to eat to
>>> get larger, there were prizes for points, and there were special items
>> that
>>> would either make you bigger, smaller, faster, or slower, and there was
>> an
>>> enemy centipede "worm" you had to avoid.
>>> 
>>> I wrote a ton of games on the CoCo, my most interesting was a Donkey Kong
>>> clone based on the rivets level where you jumped over rivets to clear the
>>> board, to make this game, I created a level editor, and then it became
>> sort
>>> of game engine oriented where basically you could create any level with
>> any
>>> arrangement and number of rivets, and as long as you could get to them
>> all,
>>> and pop them all, you could clear the level.  You would have to specify
>>> where you wanted the animated donkey kong to stand, and how many fire
>> balls
>>> you wanted and their starting position.  Other than that, the game ran
>> with
>>> whatever design you could throw at it.  This was all done in the low res
>>> 64*32*9 color mode, but was quite playable.
>>> 
>>> My biggest regret is not having any of my original floppies, I had them
>> all
>>> until the early 90's even, let somebody borrow my CoCo and my floppy
>> case,
>>> they ended up getting evicted from their apartment, and they were never
>>> seen again.
>>> 
>>> Long answer, to your post, I'm sure, but... What I wanted to do with this
>>> series, was to re-learn the language, perhaps get some new people
>>> interested in simple programming concepts, and at the end of the book,
>>> start working on a new, original CoCo game project in BASIC, maybe even a
>>> few games.
>>> 
>>> That's still the plan, and I also plan on learning assembly, which I
>> might
>>> as well also turn into a series, and then come up with a game at the end
>> of
>>> that, which, hopefully, I'll be able to debut at next year's CoCoFEST!
>>> 
>>> -End of Line
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Steve Strowbridge, aka
>>> The Original Gamer Stevie Strow
>>> http://ogsteviestrow.com
>>> ogsteviestrow at gmail.com
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Thu, Apr 6, 2017 at 8:51 AM, Alexander Wallace <
>>> alexander.o.wallace at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> I’ve worked as a software developer, mostly client/server and web apps
>>>> since 1997, but my memory of CoCo’s Basic and other of it’s languages
>> has
>>>> pretty much disappeared as I’ve recently found out :)
>>>> 
>>>> Your videos are a great companion tome while doing something else in
>> the
>>>> evenings, (metal or wood working or what not), I watched 7 yesterday,
>> and
>>>> really enjoyed it!
>>>> 
>>>> I truly appreciate what you’re doing there and look forward to seeing
>> all
>>>> the videos for all the chapters, some for CoCo3 too and assembly :)
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks a lot!
>>>> 
>>>>> On Apr 5, 2017, at 3:30 PM, Steve Strowbridge <
>> ogsteviestrow at gmail.com
>>>> 
>>>> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> It's been a long time coming, but I got around to going through and
>>>>> recording two new chapters in my programming in BASIC video series,
>> so
>>>>> chapters 10 and 11 are now available for your viewing discomfort.
>>>>> 
>>>>> The play list to the entire series is:
>>>>> https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDfh7JjQaSYA1fP5KwRiOwefFIIF1
>>> Alid
>>>>> 
>>>>> I started this series aimed at a non-technical, non-coco owner, so
>> it's
>>>>> based on using VCC as the emulator, and using the PDF of the CoCo 2
>>>>> Extended color BASIC manual from the Color Computer Archive.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I had planned last year to finish the book, make a simple game in
>> BASIC
>>>> as
>>>>> a project putting all the pieces together, and then move on to
>>> assembly,
>>>>> and try and learn that.
>>>>> 
>>>>> That didn't exactly happen, so going to try and make that happen this
>>>> year,
>>>>> and have this series done, and some type of assembly project to show
>>> off
>>>> at
>>>>> CoCoFEST 27.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Thanks to all who have encouraged me to continue to do these, it's
>> can
>>> be
>>>>> quite brutal for me at times :)
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> Steve Strowbridge, aka
>>>>> The Original Gamer Stevie Strow
>>>>> http://ogsteviestrow.com
>>>>> ogsteviestrow at gmail.com
>>>>> 
>>>>> --
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>>>>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
>>>>> https://pairlist5.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>>>> 
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