Intelligentleman Posted February 10, 2021 Share Posted February 10, 2021 Could someone be so kind as to point me in the direction of a list of BASIC commands for the ECS. I haven't done any BASIC programming since 1997 in high school, and I know the ECS BASIC commands are a little different. I tried googling and surprisingly did not find anything resembling a simple list of commands. I also looked through the sticky resource thread at the top of this board, and wasn't able to find a list of commands there either. Thank you in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted February 10, 2021 Share Posted February 10, 2021 Here's the owner's manual for the ECS: https://archive.org/details/Intellivision_Computer_Module_Owners_Guide_1983_Mattel_US Just curious ... any reason why you want to program in ECS BASIC instead of trying your hand at IntyBASIC? -dZ. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intelligentleman Posted February 10, 2021 Author Share Posted February 10, 2021 17 minutes ago, DZ-Jay said: Here's the owner's manual for the ECS: https://archive.org/details/Intellivision_Computer_Module_Owners_Guide_1983_Mattel_US Just curious ... any reason why you want to program in ECS BASIC instead of trying your hand at IntyBASIC? -dZ. Thank you. Didn't realize the commands were in there! I want to try it just like someone would have back in the day. Plus, it sounds like there's a setup factor with Inty Basic. Is it essentially a better version of ECS BASIC? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted February 10, 2021 Share Posted February 10, 2021 12 minutes ago, Intelligentleman said: Thank you. Didn't realize the commands were in there! I want to try it just like someone would have back in the day. Plus, it sounds like there's a setup factor with Inty Basic. Well, if you use the SDK, it will install itself for you. 12 minutes ago, Intelligentleman said: Is it essentially a better version of ECS BASIC? Not quite. It's a full blown programming language for Intellivision game development. I would compare it more to the C=64 BASIC or DOS' QBASIC, except that it compiles into assembly code. You make your program in your PC, test it in an emulator, and then can run it on the console using a flash cart. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted February 10, 2021 Share Posted February 10, 2021 ECS BASIC and IntyBASIC are two completely different animals. The first is a slow, very limited interpreted BASIC that runs natively on the Intellivision with ECS. You might be able to make some very simple programs using it, and IIRC it will borrow graphic symbols from whichever other game cartridge you have inserted. IntyBASIC is a modern, cross-compiling language that uses the general BASIC syntax. It generates very advanced programs, to the point that they hold commercial qualities. There may be a little bit of setup to install the compiler, possibly the SDK, a text editor of your choice and ideally the jzintv emulator but once you've done it, the sky's the limit. Simply put there is no point even comparing the two packages with eachother. But yes, if you want to play like it is 1982, ECS BASIC is your choice even if your creations will be highly limited. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intelligentleman Posted February 10, 2021 Author Share Posted February 10, 2021 6 minutes ago, carlsson said: ECS BASIC and IntyBASIC are two completely different animals. The first is a slow, very limited interpreted BASIC that runs natively on the Intellivision with ECS. You might be able to make some very simple programs using it, and IIRC it will borrow graphic symbols from whichever other game cartridge you have inserted. IntyBASIC is a modern, cross-compiling language that uses the general BASIC syntax. It generates very advanced programs, to the point that they hold commercial qualities. There may be a little bit of setup to install the compiler, possibly the SDK, a text editor of your choice and ideally the jzintv emulator but once you've done it, the sky's the limit. Simply put there is no point even comparing the two packages with eachother. But yes, if you want to play like it is 1982, ECS BASIC is your choice even if your creations will be highly limited. Thanks for that context. At this point, I don't have any ambitions to build anything that would be of interest to anyone other than myself. ECS BASIC will give me plenty to play with. Something else I'm interested in doing is composing music using ECS BASIC and then manipulating it - somehow - with the ECS. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted February 10, 2021 Share Posted February 10, 2021 You might be interested in this thread by Sean39: https://atariage.com/forums/topic/250487-need-help-with-my-computer/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zendocon Posted February 10, 2021 Share Posted February 10, 2021 33 minutes ago, Intelligentleman said: Thanks for that context. At this point, I don't have any ambitions to build anything that would be of interest to anyone other than myself. ECS BASIC will give me plenty to play with. Something else I'm interested in doing is composing music using ECS BASIC and then manipulating it - somehow - with the ECS. I played a lot with ECS back in the 80s-90s. I have four of my best programs posted in another thread. Now that jzIntv supports virtual ECS tapes, it's relatively easy to launch them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intelligentleman Posted February 10, 2021 Author Share Posted February 10, 2021 (edited) One more question... I noticed last night while I was messing around with the ECS, that the system stopped taking anymore inputs from my keyboard. Is that because I used up all the memory? I wasn't even doing anything... It was something like: 10 INPU "What is your name"; NAM$ 20 IF NAM$ = Intelligentleman THEN PRIN "Nice to meet you, Intelligentleman." ELSE PRIN "Stranger Danger!" Edited February 10, 2021 by Intelligentleman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intelligentleman Posted February 10, 2021 Author Share Posted February 10, 2021 2 minutes ago, Zendocon said: I played a lot with ECS back in the 80s-90s. I have four of my best programs posted in another thread. Now that jzIntv supports virtual ECS tapes, it's relatively easy to launch them. Are these straight-up ECS programs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zendocon Posted February 10, 2021 Share Posted February 10, 2021 8 minutes ago, Intelligentleman said: Are these straight-up ECS programs? Yes. Check this post out: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intelligentleman Posted February 11, 2021 Author Share Posted February 11, 2021 Does IF/THEN/ELSE work in ECS BASIC? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted February 11, 2021 Share Posted February 11, 2021 6 minutes ago, Intelligentleman said: Does IF/THEN/ELSE work in ECS BASIC? I believe you only have "IF ... <STATEMENT>". The closest you get to multiple branches is "IF ... GOTO". -dZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intelligentleman Posted February 11, 2021 Author Share Posted February 11, 2021 12 minutes ago, DZ-Jay said: I believe you only have "IF ... <STATEMENT>". The closest you get to multiple branches is "IF ... GOTO". -dZ. Thanks. That's what I'm seeing too. Is there a mathematical notation for "does not equal?" I don't see it on the ECS keyboard, but wondering if there's another way to express it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted February 11, 2021 Share Posted February 11, 2021 (edited) 4 minutes ago, Intelligentleman said: Thanks. That's what I'm seeing too. Is there a mathematical notation for "does not equal?" I don't see it on the ECS keyboard, but wondering if there's another way to express it. IF A <> B ... Edited February 11, 2021 by DZ-Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intelligentleman Posted February 11, 2021 Author Share Posted February 11, 2021 1 minute ago, DZ-Jay said: <> ahh, there it is. i thought i typed that in once time, but maybe i typo'd it. easy to do on this keyboard! thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted February 11, 2021 Share Posted February 11, 2021 3 minutes ago, Intelligentleman said: ahh, there it is. i thought i typed that in once time, but maybe i typo'd it. easy to do on this keyboard! thank you. Hmmm ... now that I review the manual, it doesn't seem to mention it. It could be that you have to do two IFs ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intelligentleman Posted February 11, 2021 Author Share Posted February 11, 2021 Just now, DZ-Jay said: Hmmm ... now that I review the manual, it doesn't seem to mention it. It could be that you have to do two IFs ... Can you explain that? I don't see it in the manual either, and I thought maybe it was an "advanced" command reserved for the home computing guide book. lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted February 11, 2021 Share Posted February 11, 2021 3 minutes ago, Intelligentleman said: Can you explain that? I don't see it in the manual either, and I thought maybe it was an "advanced" command reserved for the home computing guide book. lol. I don't have an ECS at hand to test, but I suppose you compare to equal, and branch over of so. Like this: 10 IF (A=0) GOTO 30 20 REM Not equal here ... 30 REM Continue here. As long as you are playing with the ECS, here are some sample games made in the past by others: http://spatula-city.org/~intvlib/inty/ecsbasic.html Enjoy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intelligentleman Posted February 11, 2021 Author Share Posted February 11, 2021 10 minutes ago, DZ-Jay said: I don't have an ECS at hand to test, but I suppose you compare to equal, and branch over of so. Like this: 10 IF (A=0) GOTO 30 20 REM Not equal here ... 30 REM Continue here. As long as you are playing with the ECS, here are some sample games made in the past by others: http://spatula-city.org/~intvlib/inty/ecsbasic.html Enjoy! Thanks friend. That's a little beyond my understanding, but just knowing there's a workaround is exciting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intelligentleman Posted February 11, 2021 Author Share Posted February 11, 2021 I would like to have some way of telling the computer to do something else if the input does not equal BRITT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted February 11, 2021 Share Posted February 11, 2021 18 minutes ago, Intelligentleman said: I would like to have some way of telling the computer to do something else if the input does not equal BRITT That's what I tried to describe earlier: You put a GOTO on equals, like you have it, and put what you want it to do in between the IF and the line where the GOTO goes. However, it doesn't seem to be possible to input a string with INPU. You need GET for that. Then, I do not know if you can compare strings with IF, only numeric values. If so, you will have to compare each character individually, which makes it cumbersome. Perhaps someone with more familiarity with ECS BASIC can chime in. Unfortunately, it's been several years since I last tried, and I recall being frustrated at the very contrived limitations. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zendocon Posted February 11, 2021 Share Posted February 11, 2021 I'm pretty sure you can't do string comparisons. You can have three string variables: A$, B$, and C$, if I recall. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intelligentleman Posted February 11, 2021 Author Share Posted February 11, 2021 9 minutes ago, Zendocon said: I'm pretty sure you can't do string comparisons. You can have three string variables: A$, B$, and C$, if I recall. Could there be a way to say: if input equals some weird combination of chars that couldn't possibly have been entered by a human... GOTO (line)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intelligentleman Posted February 11, 2021 Author Share Posted February 11, 2021 Shouldn't every alpha-based input have an equivalent numeric value? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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