{"id":7853,"date":"2012-09-08T10:26:34","date_gmt":"2012-09-08T14:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/?p=7853"},"modified":"2018-07-05T19:55:05","modified_gmt":"2018-07-05T23:55:05","slug":"2d-star-dodge-flies-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scruss.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/08\/2d-star-dodge-flies-again\/","title":{"rendered":"2D Star Dodge flies again!"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s rather more nostalgia in this post than I’d want to deal with. If you want to just play the game, go here<\/a> here<\/a><\/del> and skip this blurb.<\/p>\n

Update<\/strong>: the Java emulator doesn’t work in the browser any more, so here’s Arnold playing the BASIC version: http:\/\/scruss.com\/cpc\/6128s.html?stardoj.dsk\/run%22stardoj2<\/a><\/p>\n

About 25 years ago, I was a smallish computer nerd obsessed with programming his Amstrad CPC464<\/a>. I had got a BCPL<\/a> rom-based compiler for cheap and was looking for things to do with it. “Why not write a game?” I asked myself.<\/p>\n

There were two minor hurdles. I had no imagination, and I certainly wasn’t focused enough to write anything big. Fortunately, it was still the 80s, so we knew how to rip stuff off without being called out for it. I merrily copied a game my friend Alan Cook had written for the Dragon 32<\/a>, and called it 2D Star Dodge<\/em>.<\/p>\n

2D Star Dodge was the perfect rip off. Not merely had I ripped off the idea from Alan, but he had ripped off the idea in turn from a BBC Basic<\/a> one-liner game called (as verified by Graeme Smith<\/a>) “One Line”<\/del> Asterisk Tracker<\/a>. The name 2D Star Dodge<\/em> was an, um, homage<\/em> to Realtime Games’ 3D Starstrike<\/a>, which itself was “strongly influenced” by the Star Wars arcade game. Originality? Pfft.<\/p>\n

So I wrote the game. Well, okay, I wrote a mockup in Locomotive BASIC<\/a>, which ran a bit slowly, but gave me something to work from. Here it is, if you want to play it in you (Java-enabled) browser: 2D Star Dodge – BASIC<\/a>. I then meticulously translated it into BCPL, and ended up with something that looked liked this:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>(if you click on that image, you can play the BCPL version in your browser.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"this<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The gameplay \u00e2\u20ac\u201d press a key to go up, stop pressing a key to go down \u00e2\u20ac\u201d is a bit like SFCave<\/a> (obligatory Java version: Lab6 SFCave<\/a>) or even my current favourite Tiny Wings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Once I’d finished the BCPL version, I had bought the MAXAM<\/a> assembler ROM, and got learning the Z80 opcodes. Soon, a third port was complete, now needing hardcoded delays to be playable as it would kill you off in about one screen refresh without them.<\/p>\n

So, now I had three versions of the same game. There was only a limited number of local folks I could give it to, so I decided to send all three versions to Amstrad Computer User magazine to print as a type-in. Thankfully, it arrived on the desk of the freshly minted (yet still beardy) assistant editor Jeff Walker, who had founded the jam econo<\/em> CPC magazine\/club WACCI<\/a>. Jeff had the idea for me to turn the simple game into a comparison of programming in three languages.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the CPCWiki forum<\/a>, you can now read the articles I wrote in Amstrad Computer User in 1988 that went with the code. Writing style best described as “typing”:<\/p>\n