Commodore Free 19/Commodore_Free_Issue_19_2008_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64/t.b guide 4.1

Text File | 2023-02-26 | 11KB | 373 lines

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In the Beginning
By Lord Ronin from Q-Link

Chapter 4, Section 1

 Had some fun with the keys, and
played some with the colours. A good
part of that is from the manual. Just
presented a bit differently <weirdly>
than the manual. Most BASIC books that
I have seen do about the same income
form. Now lets go into some of the
features from the manual.

 This first stuff is going to sound &
seem lame. At least to today's readers.
Remember the time that this was written
& for the people at that time. We are
going to start with one of the most
commonly used terms in BASIC, PRINT.
Correct that is the term and for this
moment in time. Consider that is
exactly what it does. As I understand
it is a bit of a hang over from the
early days of BASIC back in the 60s.
Where when you said PRINT. That is what
happened. The stuff printed on paper.

May sound weird to you. But there
wasn't really anything that looked like
a monitor in those days. Well what we
today would consider a monitor. My
class in the computer language FORTRAN
in 1974ce, in college. Well it was done
on punch cards that was fed into some
monster of a hopper. Big reels of
magnetic tape spun & a gigantic printer
would print out the result on fan fold
paper. Oh yeah and the room that all
of this was in, well it was as sterile
clean as possible. Being a slob, it
really irked me to be in that room.
Funny thing is that there is more power
in the 64 than in that machine & the 64
is faster. OK it is one hell of a lot
friendlier & fun to use.

 What I want you to do now is do a
little screen typing in the start of
programming. Don't freak out. I'm
telling you in advance that this is a
sort of programming. Book doesn't do
that, it sneaks it upon you. Oh right
I forgot to say earlier. Why yes, you
can programme, code, or just plain
write your own programmes for whatever
you want on the C=64. Books and
magazines that came out where full of
these, and it is how many people
learned to programme. Who today are in
computer fields on other platforms.
Good news for you is that I am not at
that or even near any aspect of that
level of programming. I am just a user
and lamer programmer.

 OK here is what to do. Type on the
screen as follows.

PRINT"SMEG HEAD" Well you can type
anything you want. Just make sure you
have the word PRINT and what you want
in the quotations. Now press RETURN.
Using my example you should see on the
screen.

PRINT"SMEG HEAD"SMEG HEAD

READY<cursor sitting here>


If you see the scary words of ?SYNTAX
ERROR. Check to see if you have the
quotes correctly. Also see if there is
anything else on that line. Like other
text or graphics.

 Computers deal with math. At least we
don't have to worry about that mess of
binary and other forms of math. But
now you get to turn the C=into a big
calculator. I'll tell out his point,
that I had a LED digital watch that
did most of the same math functions.
But this point will show you the math
part that you can use, straight or in
programming. Type the following.

PRINT 15+15 <press return>

 You should see a 30 right under the
PR in the word print. At this point
you can try more numbers. Big ones,
little one and several of them at
once, rather than just two. Just press
return at the end of the list of
numbers. As you can guess by now you
can also do subtraction. Same as above
but with the - symbol. Yeah you can do
multiplication. This uses the *
symbol. Division uses the/ symbol.
Examples follow <G>

PRINT 15+15+35+16.89+.11

PRINT 300-150

PRINT 25*4

PRINT 10/5

 Basic 4 parts of math. But the
crippled handed old man is also lazy.
Meaning that typing PRINT each time is
a bore. Good news, there is a short
cut. Just type ?.

?15+15

is the same as

PRINT15+15

 Now a word on what you have seen.
Most programmers do it the way that I
have placed above. Book shows it as
follows PRINT 15 + 15. Each of those
spaces do take up memory space in the
computer. You can type about 80
characters in a programme line. No
spaces keep it so you can have more
characters in the programming line.
This will make more sense later on.

 A thing that you may not ever need in
your entire use with the C=, comes
next. EXPONENTIATION, this is the
ability to raise a number by a power.
Ok more simply stated, you can square
or cube a number. Try this one...
?22 <two to the second power or two
squared> Press return. Now go ahead
and try other number like ?2734. OK
that is a bit of fun, and I have not
ever really needed it in my work. But
it is a feature of the C=64.

 However the next part I have used a
lot. Since I have that useless degree
in electronics. This is Scientific
Notation. On the C= it is read this
way, 1.76E+9. Basically this means
that there is a total of 9 places to
the right of the decimal point. A way
of writing very large numbers in a
small space. 1.76E-9 would be, right
negative numbers. You may or may not
need this for your work. All the math
operations will work with this form.

 Manual does go into the idea of
precedence. Or the order in which math
functions? are done in formulas. I?ll
take it that you read this sort of
stuff before, or can access it in some
way. So we can bypass it for now.Here
is something from the book that is
interesting. Combining some of the
things that we have covered. Type in

?"5+5 = ";5+5press return and you
should see...

 5+5 = 10

 And now lets stop for a bit. Take a
look at where we are now at in the
C=64. Because at this point we are at
the divergence.

 Fancy words to mean that we are going
to move in more than one direction in
this series. Because the book goes one
way and you may not want to go that
way. To make myself clearer, the book
goes into the rank beginnings of
programming. Great for those of you
that want to learn some level of Basic
v2 programming. However, not everyone
is interested in learning to
programme. Some people like a little
understanding of programming.

Perhaps to appreciate the work done to
create the programme. Others, sure
want to learn everything about
programming and start right off. But
there is a large group even today that
just want to play with the C=64. Using
"canned? programmes for their
interests. For those readers, I am
stopping the bookwork and going into a
bit of drivel about the C=64
programmes. Then I shall return to the
manual little programming items.

 What do you want from the C=64? By
that I mean what you are going to do
with it? Oh, balance the cheque book,
keep a journal of important things,
print out a calendar, learn algebra,
teach the little ones shapes and
colours and, well that goes on and on.
Naturally you want to play some sort
of game as well. Funny I have met only
few people that admit they have a
computer to use for different things,
including game play.

 Games are one of the most numerous
programmes for the C=64. Factory ,type
in, homebrew and the like. These range
from simple little guess the number
game <we will do that one from the
manual> into 15+ disk side adventures,
with graphics and sound. Now I am not
going to say what are the best games.
My opinion is mine and will most
likely not reflect our interests
exactly. I like Role Playing Games.
Semi-enjoy strategy games, get bored
with card games, and loath text
adventures. Yet I know people that
have the reverse feelings.

 What I intend to present here is some
comments about the games for the C=64.
Because from my experience over the
years, people have wrong ideas about
the C=64 games. So lets jump in and
get to it.

 Most of the classifications of games
that you enjoy on consoles and
computers. well they were devised,
developed and labelled on the
C=64.Many of them were also ported
over to other platforms. Examples
would be Pool of Radiance and
Wasteland. The latter was made for the
IBM system and is on a CD of games for
it today. There is a yahoo group list
for it that deals with the different
platforms for that game. On the 64 it
is just one double sided disk of play.
Don't think that you will finish it in
a day. Try weeks of playtime. There is
just so much to tryout in that game.
Pool, was ported to the Amiga PC
platform. Heard of but not seen copies
for the IBM system. That is the game
that took me three weeks of 6 hours a
day, 6 days a week to complete.

 Sid Meir's Pirates, also just called
Pirates, is another one that comes to
mind. Commodore to a game console to
as I understand not only an newer game
console but a non C= computer
platform. Or at least that is the
impression I gained from a friends
computer game magazine.

 Japanese game of Go is out there for
the C=. As are several types of chess
games. One of those even allows for
different boards <I like the 3D
one>and set up placement. Not a big
Chess player, OK, a lamer level chess
player. I think that the part about
setting pieces is like for those chess
books, and moves that are in the
newspapers of my youth.

 Card games explode with the C=64.One
of the first things I did from a type
in book was a simple card game. No
graphic, only text. A 21,blackjack
game. All the way into specific
graphics created images on the face
cards. In between are the simple ones
just using the C= graphics off of the
keyboard for the cards. Can't tell you
the games. There are so many, I mean a
couple people used to make a few card
games each month for the disk magazine
loadstar <back issues are available
from loadstar>and this was done for
several years. Besides I am a dum ork
and don't know that many card games by
name and or rules.

 Board games, besides the above chess
and go are out there, or even in your
collection. Monopoly, official Parker
Brothers one, and those that are not
exactly official. I like the one that
is London and the money is in BritCit
pounds. Clue is another game. Have to
admit that the game, on the disk, and
I mean the official game. Well it is a
bit different than the board game I
played in the 60s. More rooms and
characters as I remember. Of course
there is an almost infinite list of
these games. Some that are computer
board games. I didn't know they where
board games when I first found them.

 Sort of board but not exactly are a
set of the War games. Hard to explain
these to the non player and newbie C=
user. Many are simulations from
Victory and or Avalon hill. Nothing
fancy in the graphics. Mostly a grid
looking thing and you command the
forces. Gotta tell you that I
personally have problems with this
style. When you don't have the dox, or
instruction. A problem that I have on
most of the copies I have found.
Anyway should say that there are
online preservation sites of the
manuals and dox for many of the
C=programmes. Themes for this are just
about any major battle of campaign in
history.

 But there is another style of this
war game theme. Perhaps not as
historically accurate. For my tastes
,a bit more fun. Not to say that they
are any easier. This style may have a
proper name, but I never learned it,
so they are sort of action simulations
for a lack of the proper word. In this
type you are a more integrated part of
the war game. Dam Busters is a great
one for this. Doing an actual WW II
mission from the British. You are
flying a special Bomber. dodging enemy
& yeah there are also different views
that you can select. Right it is all in
graphics. some sound effects as well.
And no it isn't easy. I've never
finished it, well if it was the German
side I won. <BG>

         CONTINUED IN SECTION 2