Hell's Halls: The Type-In Edition - An Eight Page Magazine Spread

[pixelpedant]

When I released Hell's Halls, I was looking to give a bit more attention to a format that doesn't get a lot of love these days.  Namely, cassette software, and TI BASIC cassette software specifically, of course.  

 

But early on in development, I'd called it a cassette/type-in program (since the parameters for developing for either one are largely the same).  And so now, I'm giving the nod to the other of those two possibilities, with a Hell's Halls Type-In Edition.  Because in the present day, if there's one format less practical and less used than cassette, it's a magazine type-in.  

 

In any case, I invite you to check out the eight-page type-in edition of Hell's Halls.  I've done my best to make it appealing to look at, because god knows, I doubt anyone will ever actually type it in.  But even so, I'm just happy to give the TI BASIC Type-In some more modern attention, long after its heyday.  And if some loony does decide to type it in some day, more power to them:

 

https://pixelpedant.com/hh/hh-typein.pdf

 

 

[Duewester]

Just when I thought life couldn't be better... This completes my day trip to 1983 with a Compute Magazine propped up whilst I type in the code.

 

[mdilling]

This is absolutely great!! You made my day.

[+FarmerPotato]

This is beautiful. I should see how far my kids can get trying to  type this in. Maybe I’ll give them a 99er for a warmup! 
 

Yours is better illustrated!

 

[pixelpedant]

As nicely decorated as this one might be, I dare say a program from 99er would be an easier starting point with which to learn the ropes.  So much of this one is obscure values in DATA statements.

 

Not as obscure as it could have been though, if I'd really not cared if it was readable. 

 

Since I didn't 

1) Use any of the following always-tempting one-character variable names: [ ] \ @ _
2) In DATA strings, use the characters in the range (176-198) which may be *typed* in TI BASIC but have no *graphical representation*.

 

 

[+acadiel]

Just a suggestion, for the spaces, can you do a character like a character like a [ on its side?  It's hard to tell on printouts the number of spaces. 

 

 

Thanks!

 

[+OLD CS1]

1 hour ago, acadiel said:

Just a suggestion, for the spaces, can you do a character like a character like a [ on its side?  It's hard to tell on printouts the number of spaces. 

 

 

Thanks!

 

Picked up from my dad, when hand-writing spaces in listings I use a small upper-case delta Δ.  Some magazine listings would use things like {3 SPACES} or inverted text with special commands, like HOME.  I cannot recall which, but I remember one magazine used vertical stripes in program listings.

 

When I did my magazine mock-up, I also had a massive fight with the word-wrap -- and lost.  I searched for over a day, and there seems to be no way in Microsoft Word or Publisher, or OpenOffice Writer, to turn off the word-break.  Even turning off hyphenation did not prevent long lines from being dropped to the next line.

[pixelpedant]

 

26 minutes ago, acadiel said:

Just a suggestion, for the spaces, can you do a character like a character like a [ on its side?  It's hard to tell on printouts the number of spaces. 

 

That's an interesting idea.  Yeah, it had occurred to me that keeping track of spaces was an issue.  Then I decided not to worry about it too much, given the chance anyone would type in the whole thing struck me as negligible

 

But the response to it (especially on Twitter) was so positive that I think I will actually explore type-in programs again at some point, maybe with more commentary and explanation.  And if I do, I'll want to take a harder look at type-in program typography and (modern) best practices.  Especially for any program which can actually on a more practical basis be typed in than this one (which due to its dependence on a huge collection of rather opaque DATA statements, is almost impossible to just pick up and read).

[ti99iuc]

2 hours ago, pixelpedant said:

[...]But the response to it (especially on Twitter) was so positive that I think I will actually explore type-in programs again at some point, maybe with more commentary and explanation.  [...]

I can see a BASIC game programming book on the horizon!  😛 

[pixelpedant]

32 minutes ago, ti99iuc said:

I can see a BASIC game programming book on the horizon!  😛 

I will admit to having pondered on that possibility (as a long term one, obviously). 

 

While there are lots of TI BASIC books out there already, most target a pretty different audience than exists today for this stuff.  So I think there's room for a modern perspective on it. 

[ti99iuc]

@pixelpedant Exactly what I had in mind, and I think you may have the right numbers to be able to do that....

Edited August 29, 2022 by ti99iuc

[+retroclouds]

17 hours ago, pixelpedant said:

I will admit to having pondered on that possibility (as a long term one, obviously). 

 

While there are lots of TI BASIC books out there already, most target a pretty different audience than exists today for this stuff.  So I think there's room for a modern perspective on it. 

I would buy it! 😀

[InfiniteTape]

On 8/30/2022 at 7:12 AM, retroclouds said:

I would buy it! 😀

So would I. I did wonder if, in the spirit of the code article, whether the design techniques could be described in a format like 99er columns. Then we could have a "best of" collection at the end.

[+DuaneAL]

Me too!

[+Vorticon]

I am going to have my local print shop print this in full color on glossy high quality paper and make it into a booklet. The perfect companion for the cassette version 🙂

[masseo1]

Im glad you are giving the nod to the classic type-in games.

 

I actually am another person who would type it in. Honestly, I would not be where I am today, if it were not for the type-in programs of yesteryear.

Its not so much fun typing in something like that; its actually kind of torturous. It does make me feel good knowing that all of the hard work, sometimes pays off.

I like going back to older basic programs. I actually understand, at this point, what they were doing. The simple techniques from back in the day, mirror many things I do today. 

 

Count me in for 1 book, if you ever want to write one.

I actually have been contemplating writing a book on BASIC, as I miss those old books and the fun they brought me. 

 

 

[pixelpedant]

Well with so much interest, I'll almost certainly do, at some point. 

 

It would be an interesting and different sort of coding challenge, coming up with the sort of programs (and perhaps even more so, small, useful subprograms) that work well in this sort of context.  Which genuinely do something interesting and useful, but in a fairly clear and comprehensible and readily explained way, so that they can stimulate useful discussion and reading. 

 

 

[Duewester]

I'd buy one too. 

I'd like a book along the lines of "I wish I knew then what I know now". My 28 year old self would have liked a plain English primer on what was beyond BASIC and Extended BASIC. I was always so "What's the latest?" that my short attention span dropped the TI-99/4a for a MSDOS based XT like a hot potato.

It seems like almost overnight I went from using ferite cores to make memory and writing in machine code to letting someone else do the hard work, I'll just learn to use the hardware.

Programming languages developed so fast and changed so quickly that I just gave up trying to keep up. Now, I'm trying to see what I missed.

Anyway, @pixelpedant, you do a great job at helping me and I look forward to WHATEVER you decide to do.

[unhuman]

This is glorious.  Just like how it used to be in magazines, but no blurry / mushy / impossible to figure out 1's vs I's and 0's vs O's etc...  So much of what I typed in wound up needing some serious fixing because of that...  So - amazingly frustrating memories relived!

[+OLD CS1]

25 minutes ago, unhuman said:

This is glorious.  Just like how it used to be in magazines, but no blurry / mushy / impossible to figure out 1's vs I's and 0's vs O's etc...  So much of what I typed in wound up needing some serious fixing because of that...  So - amazingly frustrating memories relived!

My mom was a cross-stitcher, and she gave me one of these with a magnetic backing board for my magazine type-ins.  Wish I had never lost them.

 

 

https://www.stitchery.com/itemdy00.aspx?T1=T53243X

 

[InfiniteTape]

I had something that looked like this. Pretty sure it was Radio Shack brand.

[TheDevil'sCompass]

I think this is absolutely awesome, @pixelpedant! I always loved typing in these programs from books and magazines. It's something I really miss nowadays. Recently I've been working on a project to type in every program from every issue of Computist (an Apple magazine). I'm 6 issues away from completion. I'll be picking up a TI very soon (possibly next weekend). So, I will be typing in your game.

[pixelpedant]

3 hours ago, TheDevil'sCompass said:

I think this is absolutely awesome, @pixelpedant! I always loved typing in these programs from books and magazines. It's something I really miss nowadays. Recently I've been working on a project to type in every program from every issue of Computist (an Apple magazine). I'm 6 issues away from completion. I'll be picking up a TI very soon (possibly next weekend). So, I will be typing in your game.

You may be mad for attempting it, but I respect that!

 

And you shan't regret picking up a TI-99.

 

[TheDevil'sCompass]

4 hours ago, pixelpedant said:

You may be mad for attempting it, but I respect that!

 

And you shan't regret picking up a TI-99.

 

Couldn't wait, so I typed it in to Classic99. I found that lines 9145, 9150, 9155, 9160 are duplicated in the listing. I've also got an error that I haven't been able to find that's causing a "BAD SUBSCRIPT" in line 3340. It happened when I tried to move down in a room and off the screen. Will keep looking for the bug. Only had one typo in the DATA statements but found a few others in the rest of the listing. Also wanted to ask, are there no lines in the 200 range? Listing jumps from line 125 to 305.

[pixelpedant]

Thanks for catching those lines being duplicated in the listing!  I didn't catch that, naturally, as entering the same line twice has no detrimental effect. 

 

And yes, that's correct, there are no lines in the 200s.  The sequence of lines jumps around rather weirdly, since, with GOTOs and GOSUBs handling all control flow, major changes to line numbers would have presented major challenges during development (by frustrating my ability to recognise subprograms by line number).  So mostly, beginning line numbers for any given section of the program or subprogram reflect those of an earlier and drastically different stage of development. 

 

A BAD SUBSCRIPT at line 3340 might indicate a problem with this line:

 

3320 IF (D(2)=W)+(RY=4) THEN 3400

 

Or otherwise, if a door existed at the bottom row of the screen (which it should not), this line:

 

3300 IF RY=4 THEN 3310