{"id":15037,"date":"2018-07-05T19:52:56","date_gmt":"2018-07-05T23:52:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/?p=15037"},"modified":"2024-04-05T15:08:34","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T19:08:34","slug":"space-acid-poisoning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/2018\/07\/05\/space-acid-poisoning\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cspace acid poisoning \u2026\u201d\u009d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thanks to users sbadger and lurkio on the stardot forum, I’ve been reunited the original BBC BASIC one-liner that begat 2d Star Dodge\/Stardodger<\/a>: Asterisk Tracker<\/strong>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"game<\/a>
Asterisk Tracker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was published in the December 1984 edition of BEEBUG Magazine (vol. 3, issue 7; page 9) and is credited to N. Silver<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s impossibly<\/span> short:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n1L=0:REP.L=L+3:MO.4:DR.1279,0:DR.1279,452:MOVE1279,572:DR.1279,1023:DR.0,1023:F.I=1TOL:V.31,RND(32)+5,RND(31),42,30:N.:P.(L-3)\/3:X=0:Y=512:REP.PL.69,X,Y:X=X+4:Y=Y-(INKEY-74+.5)*8:U.PO.X,Y)=1ORX=1280:U.X&lt;1280:V.7:REP.U.INKEY-99:RUN\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
It makes extensive use of BBC BASIC’s abbreviations, and the writeup even warns<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\u2026 Here the programs are extensively abbreviated so that the line will fit into Basic’s keyboard buffer. Because of this, you cannot edit a LISTed version, and so, to allow for errors, it is best to spool out a copy of the text to tape\/disc initially. This can be achieved as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
*SPOOL PROGRAM
type in program
*SPOOL<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The program unwinds to something much more understandable:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
   10 L=0
   20 REPEAT
   30   L=L+3
   40   MODE 4
   50   DRAW 1279,0
   60   DRAW 1279,452
   70   MOVE 1279,572
   80   DRAW 1279,1023
   90   DRAW 0,1023
  100   FOR I=1 TO L
  110     VDU 31,RND(32)+5,RND(31),42,30
  120   NEXT
  130   PRINT (L-3)\/3
  140   X=0
  150   Y=512
  160   REPEAT
  170     PLOT 69,X,Y
  180     X=X+4
  190     Y=Y-(INKEY(-74)+.5)*8
  200   UNTIL POINT(X,Y)=1 OR X=1280
  210 UNTIL X<1280
  220 VDU 7
  230 REPEAT UNTIL INKEY(-99)
  240 RUN
<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
The instructions are typical of the day:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
The first game (called \u201cAsterisk Tracker\u201d) is a very simple game in which you have to guide a \u201csnake\u201d across the screen, whilst avoiding the stars. As the game progresses, more and more stars will be displayed, and the ease of the game rapidly disappears. The Return key guides the \u201csnake\u201d upwards, but it moves down if Return is not pressed. Aim your \u201csnake\u201d for the gap in the wall, and don’t touch any objects as this causes instant death from space acid poisoning!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Um, yeah, N. Silver, whatevs \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s pretty amazing that three type-ins could fit on a page: especially when you consider that the BEEBUG magazine was A5!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"page<\/a>
beebug vol 3 issue 7 page 9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
If you want to play it (and who wouldn’t? We wasted days on this game) you can either run this Asterisk Tracker alone in the browser: Asterisk Tracker<\/a>, or lurkio has combined them into one, and put them here: Beebug One-Line Games (Asterisk Tracker, a Truffle Hunt clone, and a treasure hunt)<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I just wish Graeme Smith were still with us to play this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thanks to users sbadger and lurkio on the stardot forum, I’ve been reunited the original BBC BASIC one-liner that begat 2d Star Dodge\/Stardodger: Asterisk Tracker! It was published in the December 1984 edition of BEEBUG Magazine (vol. 3, issue 7; page 9) and is credited to N. Silver. It’s impossibly short: It makes extensive use […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[3142,2062,857,3141,2556,1424],"class_list":["post-15037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computers-suck","tag-2dstardodge","tag-basic","tag-bbc","tag-originstory","tag-retrocomputing","tag-stars"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQNZZ-3Ux","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15037"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17546,"href":"https:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15037\/revisions\/17546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}