ftp.barnyard.co.uk/2015.02.ftp.barnyard.co.uk.tar/ftp.barnyard.co.uk/cpm/walnut-creek-CDROM/SIMTEL/CPMUG/CPMUG054.ARK/ABSTRACT.054

Text File | 1984-04-29 | 21KB | 616 lines

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.