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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Source Code Archive for CMM2?
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| Jamesk Newbie  Joined: 04/08/2020 Location: United StatesPosts: 3 |
I really appreciate all the work everyone has done to create resources and collections of code examples. It has been very helpful for this beginner as I dip my toe back into a world I haven't done much with for 35-40 years. Would anyone have any objection if I started a CMM2/MMBasic Awesome List on GitHub? I wouldn't store anyone's code within the repository. It would simply be a list of links to code examples, git repositories, and archives. It will draw on resources like The Back Shed and Fruit of the Shed but it will also credit and highlight those pages as primary sources for information. I have never curated an Awesome List but I am a big fan of them. And, I feel it might provide another entry point for people like me who could be interested in such a device and this community but might not know it exists. I literally stumbled on The Back Shed community a few weeks ago. It might begin to reflect my own interests unless other GitHub users start contributing to it. But, I want to ask permission because at the start it will likely look very much like the resources already available -- just in a different location. I don't want to take anything away or splinter the resources but simply reflect the work that so many others have done. |
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thwill Guru  Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 3841 |
Hi James, before you start anything I just want to make you aware that "Capsikin" initiated something similar on "Fruit of the Shed" last week: http://fruitoftheshed.com/Colour%20MaxiMite%202%20(CMM2).Example-games-and-other-programs.ashx and since I found out I've been lending a hand. The wiki software is a bit creaky and outdated but it's just about adequate to the task and avoids a "fracturing" of the information. I'm sure I speak for both of us in saying we'd greatly welcome all contributions, either directly or as comments in this thread. Best wishes, Tom Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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RetroJoe Senior Member  Joined: 06/08/2020 Location: CanadaPosts: 290 |
Hi, folks - newbie here. I got my CMM2s a few weeks ago (both a pre-built board and a bare PCB for "later") from Circuit Gizmos, and having lots of fun with this awesome 1980s time machine. Congrats to Geoff and Peter for their marvelous vision and work, and I am in awe of this vibrant community! I hope to make my own contributions in the fullness of time. The only "fly in the ointment" is that the vast majority of Maximite Basic stuff I am able to find will not run as-is my CMM2. In the ancient days of firmware in ROM, the variability between different models of Apple IIs, Commodore 64s, Atari 400/800, etc was minimal, so BASIC code you found in magazines or on BBSs was more-or-less guaranteed to run on your machine, provided you had enough RAM and typed the code in correctly, and that your modem software didn't mangle a few bits :) Given the enthusiasm and buzz around the CMM2, I would argue that it has the potential to be a "mass market" version of the Maximite platform, and that a ready-to-run library of CMM2-compatible sample code (cursorily tested against the latest firmware release) would round out the generally excellent CMM2 hardware, firmware and documentation. I suppose you could argue that porting and testing code on your own machine is part of the hacker fun, but that presupposes everyone is able to get over the "bootstrapping" problem. In any case, like Ringo in The Beatles, I'm just happy to be here, and to have discovered the coolest thing on the retro computing scene in a long time! Maximite Forever! Enjoy Every Sandwich / Joe P. |
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| thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 3841 |
Hi Joe, welcome aboard. Are you are talking about the equivalent of a "Horizon Tape" or "Welcome Tape" for the CMM2 which would be available for download and for inclusion by the hardware vendors should they wish ? Or something else ? In the (spectrum-tinted) past these would have been developed in parallel with the hardware whereas understandably (if unfortunately) for the CMM2 it looks like all that were produced by the "team" were some graphics demos (developed by Peter?) whilst Mauro pushed the bounds of what would be possible with his Gauntlet port. That sort of leaves it up to the early-adopters to self-organise and produce the introductory "tape" themselves and that would be a "big ask" when this is just a hobby even for the "team" and to some extent vendors. I suspect that even if something suitable emerged it would be after the "buzz" had passed ... I am more gloomy about the possibility of "mass market" and fear that the idea has more to do with the nostalgia of the 40+ somethings (like myself) than with the reality of the modern world and education system  Best wishes, Tom Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 3841 |
Further to the above, I've just been having a look and subject to consultation with the authors perhaps a "tape" could be created consisting of the following (mostly) existing material: - a launcher program "Welcome" - Gomoku - puzzle game - Lunar Lander - Eliza - Peter's graphics demos (rotating shapes, etc.) - the recent turtle demos - something based on Mauro's PSG Demo - a text adventure - we'd have to find one as I'd be reluctant to include Z-MIM because the interpreter itself is not code that a beginner can understand and the adventures/stories are binary blobs - a speech example What do people think? Tom Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| Atomizer_Zero Senior Member Joined: 04/07/2020 Location: United KingdomPosts: 134 |
The more material, guides, explanations, examples, ect. there are, the greater the adoption of the platform there will be. A lot of people were awed by the videos posted by the8BitGuy and DebugLive (myself included!) and brought in a lot of attention. So to have lots of material for new users to use is always going to beneficial. |
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| thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 3841 |
OK, I'm not talking about any "new" content here with the possible exception of a text adventure game written in BASIC. The fundamentals of my proposal is the creation of an archive "welcome.zip" which a newbie could extract onto their SD to create an "A:/welcome" folder. They then execute: RUN "welcome/welcome.bas" This would jump to an introduction animation / splash-screen and then show a menu of the programs listed previously that could be run. Each included program would be modified so that when it ended gracefully (i.e. not Ctrl-C) it would return to the menu program. Regards, Tom Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| RetroJoe Senior Member Joined: 06/08/2020 Location: CanadaPosts: 290 |
Tom, thanks, and yes, this is exactly what I was envisioning. My Apple IIe came with a disk called “Apple Presents...” which had some great demo apps and games (including Breakout, which legend has it was Woz’s “design intent” for the Apple II and Integer BASIC), and my Sinclair ZX-81 came with a similar “Welcome Tape”. In addition to your list, a tutorial template or framework for a rudimentary shooter game, and maybe a side-scroller game, would be awesome. I believe these are the two retro arcade game genres that the CMM2 market would likely be most interested in, and would want to have a go at developing. Dave Murray aka The 8-Bit Guy touches on this in his CMM2 video i.e. the possibility of coding a playable arcade game entirely in BASIC is remarkable and has literally never existed before (and, won’t even on Murray’s “dream machine” X16 project, that is essentially a modernized C64). I might be “projecting” on that last bit, as my personal CMM2 development goal is a clone of Sega Carnival (the one with the annoying carnival BGM and the quacking ducks - possibly Mauro’s sound generator will play a role here). I am not ashamed to admit that Carnival has the most “plays” on my MAME emulator, but Space Invaders is a close second :) Edited 2020-08-06 23:47 by jpusztai Enjoy Every Sandwich / Joe P. |
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| capsikin Guru Joined: 30/06/2020 Location: AustraliaPosts: 341 |
Sounds good. A single download including all of that would be very convenient, and seems like a good way to get started with some programs. I remembered Conway's Game of Life on the ZX Spectrum welcome tape, and found a "life2" port by TassyJim which I've linked on the wiki page. Partly for this reason I'd suggest releasing a version early even if you haven't got all the desired programs in, then a new version a little later when you do. So make sure it has a version number. If the adventure game needs writing it may not be ready for the first release, for example. |
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| thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 3841 |
I've spun off a new thread about the "Welcome Tape" idea so this one can return to its original purpose of discussing an online repository of example source code: https://www.thebackshed.com/forum/ViewTopic.php?PID=151908 Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| capsikin Guru Joined: 30/06/2020 Location: AustraliaPosts: 341 |
Yes, contributors welcome. Initially I just put things in without categorising much, at the moment the games and some "Other Amusements" are separated from the others but all in the same wiki page. I want it to be easy to add more links, but also find some larger / more impressive examples among the 10-50 line code examples (though if we get too many large examples, I also want smaller easy-to-understand examples to be easy to find - again, having separate headings will help). Edited 2020-08-07 11:07 by capsikin |
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