My friend made a "documentary" on my 8-bit programming obsessions....

[elviticus]

Hi all!  I have been an Atari nut since the early 80s.  When I eventually got an Atari 800 (after a couple years with my beloved VCS) I spent a lot of time programming games, mostly in BASIC.  After I "re-collected" all my old games and computers in the late 90s/early 00s, I decided to try again, this time dabbling with machine language so I could make them more "arcade like."  I asked my friend (a film maker) to shoot some video so I could show other friends my creations, and he decided to make a mini documentary about it.  Disclaimer: I am not a great programmer, nor was I ever, but I do have a passion for this stuff, and I thought some of you might like to see it.  Enjoy!

 

[rra]

I watched the video and ot reminded me so much of my brother and friend's interest in returning to assembly language programming 40 years after writing BASIC games.  It gets in your blood, I guess, and never goes away.  Great video and I'm glad you got to scratch the itch of your inner games programmer!

[vitoco]

Nice video... very well done!

 

I also returned to game programming for the A8 about 30 years later. My 80's games suck, but it was fun to program them in BASIC, sometimes using USR assembly routines. I liked then to play them with friends. I have rewritten some of them in TurboBasic XL or FastBasic, improving the playing experience, but as my 30+ games released during the last 7 years are tenliners, I can only say that I've done them just for fun... I just like to program these minigames rather than to play them and the classic ones.

 

[elviticus]

14 hours ago, rra said:

I watched the video and ot reminded me so much of my brother and friend's interest in returning to assembly language programming 40 years after writing BASIC games.  It gets in your blood, I guess, and never goes away.  Great video and I'm glad you got to scratch the itch of your inner games programmer!

Thanks!  Yeah, I figured there must be others out there that felt the same...  At the time, I really only had a couple books on programming, and assembly seemed completely out of reach.  This last time (though I used the same computer, disk drive, etc.) I was able to find books and information thanks to the internet.  Plus, I was more patient!

[elviticus]

13 hours ago, vitoco said:

Nice video... very well done!

 

I also returned to game programming for the A8 about 30 years later. My 80's games suck, but it was fun to program them in BASIC, sometimes using USR assembly routines. I liked then to play them with friends. I have rewritten some of them in TurboBasic XL or FastBasic, improving the playing experience, but as my 30+ games released during the last 7 years are tenliners, I can only say that I've done them just for fun... I just like to program these minigames rather than to play them and the classic ones.

 

Thank you!  Yeah, my 80s games were much worse, and also overly ambitious for what I could pull off with Basic.  Like you, when I got into programming, I pretty much quit playing games... preferring to tinker with what I was writing.  When you say "30+ games released during the last 7 years are tenliners", do you mean games you wrote in 10 lines of code??

[_The Doctor__]

https://www.vitoco.cl/atari/10liner/index.html

awesome games in ten BASIC lines of code...

 

http://blog.workshop88.com/2021/03/21/an-interactive-mandelbrot-set-explorer-in-10-lines-of-atari-basic/

 

https://gkanold.server.deerpower.de/

pick year and drop down for list and results under the that tab

Edited February 4, 2022 by _The Doctor__

[elviticus]

Very cool- thanks The Doctor!  How are those games possible in ten lines??  I have a lot to learn.  ?

Edited February 4, 2022 by elviticus

[Thelen]

Cool video! Nice that you still have your old Basic programs! When I was a kid I made a lot of things, but didn't preserve them ?

 

 

[www.atarimania.com]

It would be great if you could share what you programmed, we'd love to have your games archived on our site.

[Mr SQL]

Very cool! I like the asteroids game with the blue starfield.

[+Cafeman]

Nice!        Years ago I disposed of my Atari Basic games and programs on disk, with no lost love for them.    But at times I wish I still had them to show others or just to laugh at.   

[elviticus]

On 2/6/2022 at 1:41 PM, Thelen said:

Cool video! Nice that you still have your old Basic programs! When I was a kid I made a lot of things, but didn't preserve them ?

 

 

Actually, these are ones from my second round of programming... around 2005.  My 80s ones disappeared long ago, like yours!  

[elviticus]

On 2/6/2022 at 2:58 PM, Cafeman said:

Nice!        Years ago I disposed of my Atari Basic games and programs on disk, with no lost love for them.    But at times I wish I still had them to show others or just to laugh at.   

Yeah, I lost track of the ones I made as a kid too... wish I still had em just for posterity.  These ones I made as an adult (around 2005, in my thirties).  I am glad my friend made this so I can show people, and laugh at them myself for years to come!!

[elviticus]

On 2/6/2022 at 2:10 PM, www.atarimania.com said:

It would be great if you could share what you programmed, we'd love to have your games archived on our site.

Wow- I would love that, and would be very honored!  Only problem is, I don't really know how to share them... I made them on my old 800, and they are saved to floppy disk.  I am embarrassed to say that I don't know how to make them "sharable" on a modern computer, and I am not very good at using mine.  Is there an easy way I can share them?  I'll send you a floppy disk copy, if you like.  

[+JAC!]

Great video! I see really many things you can really be proud of. The space rescue is especially nice for me, with the different screens using different graphics and skills. And for those games where you think speed is the issue, you could run them though a BASIC compilers to get decent results without changing anything/much.

[mickster]

On 2/3/2022 at 3:47 PM, elviticus said:

Hi all!  I have been an Atari nut since the early 80s.  When I eventually got an Atari 800 (after a couple years with my beloved VCS) I spent a lot of time programming games, mostly in BASIC.  After I "re-collected" all my old games and computers in the late 90s/early 00s, I decided to try again, this time dabbling with machine language so I could make them more "arcade like."  I asked my friend (a film maker) to shoot some video so I could show other friends my creations, and he decided to make a mini documentary about it.  Disclaimer: I am not a great programmer, nor was I ever, but I do have a passion for this stuff, and I thought some of you might like to see it.  Enjoy!

 

very cool video. I had fun watching

[elviticus]

OK, just wanted to give a quick update.  First of all, special thanks to @_The Doctor__ for helping me get these games off my floppy disks and into a more modern format!  I am attaching the files here, in case anyone wants to try the games shown in the video.  Also, thanks so much to @www.atarimania.com who is putting my games on his awesome site.  I am truly honored to have my games on there!!     

Finally, to any who do try these games, I'd love to hear your feedback: good, bad, or ugly.  When I was doing these in 2005, I was just having fun, and seeing if I could get better at my teenage hobby.  I never dreamed anybody else (outside of friends or family) would be able to play them.

MDGAMES1.ATR MDGAMES1.LOG MDGAMES2.ATR MDGAMES2.LOG

[TheSPY]

great video, just getting back into 8 bit basic again myself... not sure how many times this is.. I never seam to be able to finish any games, even back in the day. I used to do a lot of the type in from magazines games, and then modify them to make them different. really wish I had kept my old code, be great to see what I did back then.  like you said it a bug, and I just go back and have another play.