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- ABSTRACTS of CP/M USERS GROUP VOLUME 54
-
- This volume contains programs intended to be used with TDL-XITAN DISK BASIC.
- Many of these programs are modified versions of public domain programs which
- have been distributed by DECUS, the DIGITAL EQUIPMENT COMPUTER USERS SOCIETY.
- DECUS requires programs submitted to it for distribution be in the public
- domain. Many of these programs were originally written by high school
- students and other individuals who wrote them and submitted them to a users
- group so that they could be shared with others. Back in 1971, a gentleman who
- worked for DIGITAL, helped in a project to collect donated programs, and
- publish them in a book called 101 BASIC COMPUTER GAMES. His name is David H.
- Ahl. Mr. Ahl left DEC in 1974, and asked for the rights to print the book
- independently. They agreed as long as the name was changed. He revised many
- of the programs, added some, removed some, and published a book he called
- BASIC COMPUTER GAMES, MICROCOMPUTER EDITION. He copyrighted the book.
- Meanwhile, DEC gave the original programs to DECUS, who distributed them on
- DECtape and Magtape to the computer community, essentially putting them in the
- public domain. It is this group of programs, (and NOT the revisions
- copyrighted by Creative Computing) that have been translated into TDL-XITAN
- BASIC and submitted to the CP/M user's group for this set of disks. Many of
- these programs were received by the CP/M users group in XITAN internal code.
- They have been translated back into ASCII for distribution, so it is possible
- that some of them will work on other BASICS, such as Microsoft BASIC. However,
- they have been checked out only with TDL-XITAN Disk BASIC for these abstracts.
- Some of these programs do have bugs, some of which are noted in these
- abstracts. The bugged programs are included so that some CP/M users who like
- challenges will have the opportunity to try their skills on finding and
- correcting these bugs.
-
- Jim Kennedy
-
- 1CHECK.BAS
- Solitaire checker puzzle by David Ahl. (written while he
- worked for DEC.) P. 163-164 of 101 BASIC Computer Games
- (published by Digital Equipment Corporation). Works
- fine, but it would be nice if the number grid were
- repeated at each move (for beginners who have not
- memorized position numbers).
-
- ALFABETI.BAS
- Author unknown. A nice little interactive
- alphabetizing program, which works OK on the
- first run, but then hangs up with
- a Re-Dimensioned array @ line 70 error
- when you try to enter a second list of items.
- SEE ALFABET2.BAS.
-
- ALFABET2.BAS
- This is the ALFABETI.BAS program revised by
- Jim Kennedy, to correct problems in the original,
- and give the user more detailed instructions.
- The program interactively accepts a list of
- words, names, etc., and prints an alphabetized
- list. Note: use all caps or all small
- letters in your items. Otherwise, items
- in caps will be listed before lower-case
- items in the alphabetized list. This program
- could be modified to accept input from a file,
- rather than from the keyboard, but as it is,
- it serves as a good quick demonstration of
- a use of a computer.
-
- ARITH.BAS
- Presents simple addition problems. You give
- the answer, it tells you if you are right or
- wrong. If wrong, you get to try a second time.
- If still wrong, you are given the answer
- and then given a new problem. Good for
- elementary students for drill and practice in
- addition, and for more advanced students as
- an illustration of some CAI programming techniques.
-
- BIOCAL.BAS
- Biorhythmic calendar. Will NOT run on my
- XITAN BASIC. % after numbers is OK on some
- Microsoft and Digital BASICs, but not
- on XITAN. Also, I think there should be
- more code after line 1430. Perhaps someone can
- find the source of this program and fix it up.
-
- BLKJAC.BAS
- P. 39-41 of 101 BASIC Computer Games.
- This version of Blackjack is the one written
- and modified by DIGITAL personnel, originally
- for RSTS-11. It runs well on XITAN DISK BASIC.
- It is very comprehensive and fun to play. (It
- takes a long time to load as an ASCII file.)
-
- BOMBER.BAS
- P. 45-46 in 101 BASIC Computer Games.
- Originally written by David Sherman of
- Curtis Junior High School, Sudbury, MA., and
- later modified by DIGITAL personnel. It has
- been since additionally modified to run on
- XITAN BASIC. In this program, you fly a
- world war II bomber for one of the
- countries involved in the war. You can
- make some decisions, but your fate is
- largely up to the random number generator.
- It runs well, and was exciting for the
- children in the family for the first
- few times they ran it (until they ran
- out of options).
-
- BOUNCE.BAS
- This program plots a bouncing ball. Written by
- Val Skalabrin, and found on P. 47 of 101 BASIC
- Computer Games. The program takes a long time to
- print out if you choose figures requiring a tall
- plot. Try .1 sec, 25 FPS velocity and a coeficient
- of .9 to start. These figures will keep the plot
- on a 25 line TDL-VDB screen.
-
- BUG.BAS
- P. 52-54 of 101 BASIC Computer Games. The object
- of this game is to finish your drawing of a bug
- before the computer finishes its drawing. Written
- in the early 70s by a 7th grade student, Brian
- Leibowitz. The computer rolls the dice each turn
- and the operator needs only to type yes (or return)
- or no to the question concerning the bug pictures.
-
- BULCOW.BAS
- P. 55-56 of 101 BASIC Computer Games.
- This program does NOT work properly in
- XITAN BASIC. Running a TRACE on its
- execution shows it to get stuck in a
- loop between lines 210 and 220, possibly
- due to the FORI=0TOP-1, with the value
- of P starting at 0, with no STEP-1
- to tell it to count down. I'll leave
- this fix up to someone else and press
- on with trying the other programs in
- this group.
-
- BUNNY.BAS
- By Goodyear Atomic Co., Piketon, Ohio.
- Submitted to DECUS 30 July 1973.
- This program sends a picture of
- a bunny head to the printer. It
- has obviously been re-written for
- XITAN DISK BASIC, and it works
- well.
-
- BUZZWD.BAS
- P. 63-64 of 101 BASIC Computer Games.
- Written by Tom Kloos of the Oregon
- Museum of Science and Industry. It
- prepares sets of "buzzwords" by selecting
- words from 3 lists and putting them
- together. Runs OK.
-
- CHASE.BAS
- "You are within the walls of a high
- voltage maze---your only chance for
- survival is to manuver each intercepter
- into a high voltage area." Eric, my
- 9 year old game program tester, never
- seems to tire of this one.
-
- CHASE2.BAS
- This is a chase program written by
- Michael P. Ruf on 12/16/78. It asks
- the player for the width, the length,
- and the density of a maze. It then tries
- to construct a maze (which comes out
- on my screen as a column of symbols),
- and then asks for players' moves---
- to be entered as numbers. Try this
- program on your system...it may work
- with your terminal configuration.
-
- CHOMP.BAS
- P. 78-79 of 101 BASIC Computer Games. Submitted
- to DIGITAL by Peter Sessions of Peoples Computer
- Company, based on the game of CHOMP (Scientific
- American, Jan. 1973). Players take turns
- chomping pieces from a 9X9 grid (the cookie).
- The player who has to take the last bite
- loses the game. Runs fine.
-
- CRAPS.BAS
- P. 83-84 of 101 BASIC Computer Games. Modified
- to work on XITAN BASIC. Original author
- unknown. This version is based on the standard
- Nevada craps table rules. Fun to play.
-
- CUBE.BAS
- P. 85-86 of 101 BASIC Computer Games.
- Written by Jerimac Ratliff of Ft. Worth,
- Texas, and converted to RSTS/E by
- David Ahl. You progress along a cube
- from coordinate 1,1,1 to 3,3,3.
- You may be zapped by a land mine along
- the way, but if you make it you win
- a wager you made when you started and are
- richer. You have a chance of quitting
- and keeping your winnings, or wagering
- all or part of your money on your next
- trip. This game is good for teaching
- the meaning of a 3 dimension coordinate
- system to youngsters.
-
- DRAW.BAS
- I CAN'T LOAD THIS ONE WITH XITAN
- BASIC. I GET A "MISSING STATEMENT
- NUMBER ERROR.
-
- DEFUSE.BAS
- Written by Tom Karzes, Curtis Jr. High
- School, Sudbury MA. and modified
- by Dave Ahl, DIGITAL. (NOT in 101
- BASIC Computer Games). You are in a
- large building, 100 rooms long, 100 rooms
- wide, and 100 rooms high and are looking
- for a bomb. You have a bomb strength
- meter to guide you to the bomb before
- it goes off. Everytime I played the game
- I got blown up.
-
- DIAMOND.BAS
- P. 87-88 of 101 BASIC Computer Games. Fills
- the screen (or an 8 1/2 X ll piece of paper if
- you change some print statements to PRINT#2,)
- with diamond shapes each containing the letters
- DEC!!! You can control the size of the diamond
- shapes. This sort of program could easily be
- modified to produce other patterns.
-
- DRINKS.BAS
- "This program prepares drink recipies
- guaranteed to make your next party a 'smashing'
- success." The program runs as is, and would be fun
- to show off at a party---but don't let anybody
- take it seriously. Some coding mistakes seem
- to have been made which do not prevent the
- running of the program. The coding on lines
- 430 to 530 does not seem to even be used, and
- the SLEEP on line 430 would cause an error in
- XITAN BASIC if it were ever reached.
-
- FISHING.BAS
- You are at a dock at the north west corner of
- a square 8X8 unit lake. You are to move your
- boat through the lake and return to the dock
- with your catch by responding to the move question
- with a compass direction - N,S,E,W, or F for
- staying in a Fixed position. If you type B,
- the game will begin again. You must return to
- the dock within 6 (computer) hours or half your
- catch will spoil. If you hit the shore of the
- lake, you will be grounded and sunk. There
- are other hazzards to make the game exciting.
- (I corrected the copy received by the users
- group so that it would run on my system. I
- also added detailed instructions.) J.K.
-
- FOOTBL.BAS
- P. 101-103 in 101 BASIC Computer Games.
- This simulation of the game of football
- uses standard professional rules except
- that there are no penalties. This game
- is fun to play once you have memorized
- the numbers representing the different
- plays. I suggest you ask for instructions
- the 1st time you play and copy them on a
- piece of paper so you can refer to them
- during the game.
-
- FRACT.BAS
- Author: Michael Ruf
- Written August 29, 1979
- This seems to be a well written program
- dealing with fraction math. However,
- it uses a WAIT statement that causes my
- system to hang up. It may
- work with a serial terminal accessing
- the correct port(s), or perhaps
- someone familiar with the WAIT command
- could modify it for his system.
-
- GRAFIT.BAS
- It runs, but I don't know its use---
- Any ideas?
-
- GUNNER.BAS
- Written by Tom Kloss of the Oregon
- Museum of Science and Industry, and
- modified by David Ahl, DIGITAL. "This
- computer demonstration simulates the
- results of firing a field artillery
- weapon." You give the degrees of
- elevation for each of 5 shots and are
- told how far you overshot or undershot
- the target. The game works as a game,
- but the formula must be wrong for
- computing the trajectory, because some
- results are not realistic. Also, one
- time I was told the max range of the
- gun was 46500 yards and the distance
- to the target was 12178745 yards.
-
- HOCKEY.BAS
- P. 130-132 in 101 BASIC Computer Games.
- Written by Charles Buttrey of Eaglebrook
- School, Deerfield, MA. and submitted to
- DIGITAL by Mrs. Kingsley Norris.
- Converted from Brand X to DIGITAL RSTS/E
- by David Ahl. Instructions are easier
- than those of the football game, but the
- play does not seem as interesting---
- unless you are a real hockey fan---
-
- HORSES.BAS
- P. 133-134 of 101 BASIC Computer Games.
- Author unknown - From DIGITAL. You
- are given the odds for each horse and
- you place your bets for win, place
- or show. After the race had been
- run, you are told your winnings (or losses)
- and invited to press your luck further.
-
- INTEREST.BAS
- A simple program to calculate simple
- and compound interest over a 10 year
- period. Works fine. Author unknown.
-
- KING.BAS
- P. 138-140 of 101 BASIC Computer Games.
- Author: James A. Storer, Lexington High School,
- modified by Dave Ahl, DEC. Available from
- DECUS, where it is called "Polution Game".
- One of the more comprehensive, difficult
- and interesting land and resource management
- games. It runs fine on XITAN BASIC and
- is a lot of fun to play. This copy often
- terminates play after 1 year, but that is
- probably because I am not a very good
- King. (Or the program could have a small bug).
-
- LITQZ.BAS
- P. 150 in 101 BASIC Computer Games.
- A simple CAI type program which presents four
- multiple choice questions from children's
- literature ---illustrates simple
- CAI techniques in BASIC. Questions could be changed
- and program expanded for other instructional
- objectives.
-
- MATH.BAS
- Author not known. Program won't run on my XITAN
- system with its TDL VDB board. The WAIT at line 504
- hangs it up. Perhaps the program would work
- with a system having a serial terminal using
- ports 72 and 73.
-
- MUGWMP.BAS
- P. 156-157 in 101 BASIC Computer Games.
- Originally written by the students of
- Bud Valente of Project SOLO at the
- University of Pittsburg, this program was
- slightly modified by Bob Albrecht of People's
- Computer Company and converted to DEC's RSTS/E
- by David Ahl when he worked for Digital. The
- object of the game is to locate four
- mugwmps hiding on various squares of a
- 10 x 10 grid. Good practice in triangulation
- techniques.
-
- PICTUR.BAS
- Not in 101 BASIC Computer Games, but I
- have seen it in the DECUS library.
- It asks for your name and where you want
- your picture. You can have it displayed
- on the terminal by typing KB: or on the
- printer by typing LP: The program shows
- a technique for switching output from the
- video screen to the printer without having
- to re-write or edit your print statements.
-
- POET.BAS
- P. 171 of 101 BASIC Computer Games.
- Original author unknown. Modified and
- reworked by Jim Bailey, Peggy Ewing, and
- Dave Ahl of DIGITAL. This program
- produces random verse made of phrases
- suggestive of Edgar Allen Poe. It keeps
- going until you hit control E (control C
- on some BASICS).
-
- POKER.BAS
- P. 172-174 in 101 BASIC Computer Games.
- Written by A. Christopher Hall,
- submitted to DECUS by A. E. Sapega.
- You play draw poker with the computer as
- your opponent. This game is a lot of fun
- to play, and if you lose, the computer
- forgets your debts when you say BYE.
-
- PRIME.BAS
- "This program prints the prime
- numbers from 1 to 10,000" (if
- you can wait that long). Runs
- well, but takes a long time to
- compute each line of output.
-
- QUBIC.BAS
- P. 175-177
- Original author unknown...Was on a GE
- timesharing system in 1968.
- Now in DECUS library. Qubic is the game
- of tic-tac-toe in a 4X4X4 cube. Considerably
- more difficult than standard two dimensional
- tic-tac-toe.. This version has been improved
- over the one in 101 BASIC Computer Games by
- the addition of a provision to display the
- board on command. Be patient--the computer
- sometimes takes many seconds to determine
- its move. The program does have a bug.
- I received a NEXT WITHOUT FOR @ LINE 206
- error several times after more than a dozen
- moves. Ill leave the de-bugging to one of
- you users out there. If you find the
- bug, submit a corrected program and the
- users group will thank you.
-
- REVRSE.BAS
- P. 180-181 in 101 BASIC Computer Games.
- Written by Bob Albrecht, People's Computer Co.
- The game requires you to arrange a list of
- numbers in numerical order from left to
- right by reversing numbers.
-
- ROCKET.BAS
- P. 184 of 101 BASIC Computer Games.
- Written by Jim Storer, Lexington H.S.
- Converted from Focal to EDUSYSTEM 30
- BASIC by David Ahl, DIGITAL. This version
- has been considerably further modified to
- work with XITAN BASIC. Fun to play, but
- the lb. fuel remaining indicator seems
- to be set too high, causing you
- to run out of fuel and crash when you
- think you have enough fuel to make it.
-
- ROCKT1.BAS
- P. 185 in 101 BASIC Computer Games.
- Written by Eric Peters of DIGITAL.
- One of many variations of the lunar lander idea.
- This one plots a graph of your descent.
-
- SNOOPY.BAS
- This "SNOOPY" allows you to enter your
- name, and determine if you want the
- output on the line printer or the video
- display. It then prints the Snoopy and
- puts your name under it. If done on the
- screen, it finishes the picture and then
- blanks out the screen and returns the
- curser to home (if you are using the
- TDL VDB).
-
- SPORTS.BAS
- Simple CAI program to give you multiple
- choice questions on sports. If you
- guess the right answer, you are congratulated.
- If you guess wrong, you are given the
- right answer. At the end of the quiz
- you are told how many you had right
- and wrong.
-
- STARS.BAS
- By Bob Albrecht of Peoples Computer Co.
- A number guessing game in which the
- number of asterisks printed shows
- how close you are to the number.
-
- STOCK.BAS
- P. 209-211 in 101 BASIC Computer Games.
- A stock market simulation game revised 8/18/70
- by D. Pessel, L. Braun, and C. Losik, Huntington
- Computer Project, SUNY. Lets you lose money on
- the stock market without having to pay out any
- money--- other than the small fortune you spend
- in upgrading and maintaining your micro.
-
- TAKEAWAY.BAS
- By Michael Ruf and Rick Mack.
- The game seems to be well written,
- but some of the coding, probably
- intended to do something with
- an intelligent terminal, gives
- confusing output on my TDL-VDB.
- The game has several players
- alternately taking away asterisks
- from an asterisk collection...
- something like the game of CHOMP.
-
- TDRILL.BAS
- Author: Jim Kennedy, CACHE
- Date written: July 14, 1981
- This is a simple typing drill
- program designed to give a
- beginning typist extra drill
- and practice. Rather than
- generate the letters and words
- with a random letter generator,
- as is done in some other
- typing drill programs, this
- one uses data lists to
- supply the letter groups.
- This gives more control over
- which letters are used in
- the early lessons when only
- a few keys have been introduced.
- The student may correct a mistake
- by backspacing if it is noticed
- before the CR has been hit, and
- the mistake is not noted. However,
- if a line is not perfect when the
- CR is hit, the student will be
- told so, and will be asked to
- try again. At the end of each
- 12 line drill (6 lines X 2), the
- student will be told how
- many lines were typed to get
- the dozen correct. Another drill
- can then be picked, or the student
- can terminate the program, and
- receive a count of the number
- of lines right and the total
- number typed. This program
- will be used in the future with
- a different data list to continue
- this lesson series, starting
- with lesson 13.
-
- TENNIS.BAS
- A Mult. choice quiz on tennis, with a
- question technique similar to SPORTS.BAS
-
- TEXT.BAS
- An introductory information program about
- some of these (and other) programs.
- It is obvious that most of the programs
- on this disk set came from a PDP-ll computer
- in a school. Many of these programs are
- from DECUS (Digital Equipment
- Computer Users Society), a group didicated
- to the distribution of public-domain
- programs---similar to the CP/M Users Group.
-
- TICTAC.BAS
- This is an expanded tic tac toe game played
- on a 9 X 9 grid. You enter your moves
- as grid coordinates and the computer (often
- "thinking" for over a minute) prints the
- position of your move and its move. You have
- to get 5 across, down, or diagonal to win.
- For those with the patience to wait between
- moves, this game could be an enjoyable challenge.
- It is also good for grid coordinate practice.
-
- TRAP.BAS
- P. 224-225 in 101 BASIC Computer Games.
- Written by Steve Ullman, and modified by
- Bob Albrecht of People's Computer Company.
- Another "guess the mystery number" game.
-
- TTTOE.BAS
- Tic Tac Toe game. Usually plays well, but
- periodically gives error message: Subscript
- out of range on line 84, usually when no one
- is going to win. This one too, may benefit
- from some user de-bugging and feedback.
-
- TVPLOT.BAS
- Originally written in FOCAL by Mary Cole
- and converted to BASIC-PLUS by Dave Ahl.
- This program produces various funny TV plots.
- Good for a laugh or two.
-
- TYPING.BAS
- Author not mentioned, but
- it could have been written
- by Michael Ruf. It uses the
- WAIT on line 80 that hangs up
- my system. It may work with
- a serial terminal that uses
- ports 72(status) and 73.
- It is intended as a typing
- drill program, with the
- character strings generated
- by a random generator.
- Rather than correct this
- program, I wrote my own typing
- drill program. (see TDRILL.BAS).
-
- WEKDAY.BAS
- P. 234-235 in 101 BASIC Computer Games.
- Adapted from a GE timesharing program by
- Tom Kloos of the Oregon Museum of Science and
- Industry and further modified for XITAN Disk
- Basic.
-
- WISHES.BAS
- A silly wish poem writing program. It is
- in a nice conversational tone for primary
- school children. It could do more with the
- input it gets, but the author probably felt
- the intended audience wouldn't notice. This
- program has good possibilities for expansion
- into something interesting for slightly
- older children.
-
-