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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Restoring a old Microbee game
When I first got my Microbee computer back in 1982 it came with a demo tape, and one of the games was called FOURROW.BAS, a connect 4 like game. I spend hours playing this game. It was a good opponent, and had a few amusing features, like "What do I do now" when it gets stuck. Years later I did port the game to Quick Basic, and a ASCII version for a BBS, and later to the early Maximites. Along the way, the game lost some of its tact, it didnt play as well, I had broken the game engine. Recently I went looking for the original code. Thanks to the Microbee archives, I found the WAV file of the original cassette tape. I still have my Microbee, but wanted to get the code without using the Bee. I discussed the problem with ChatGPT, and uploaded the original WAV file. It took ChatGTP a few minutes, it analyzed the audio, worked out the encoding and speed, then created the original program listing, mostly. The Microbee used tokens for keywords, and the GPT didnt know what these were, but still gave me a listing that was close. Eventually I would have worked out what each token was. 140 {8C} T(11),S(44),N(7) 150 {8D} 170 160 {8A} I=1 {99} 1000:{8B} I 170 M1$="HIT ANY KEY TO CONTINUE" 1090 180 {84} {DE}="" {89} 180 Fortunately, at the same time, someone on the Microbee forum shared the original listing with me. Here is it. 00010 REM ***FOUR*** a program by Bruce Pratt April 1982 00020 CLS: PRINT 00030 GOSUB 1160 00040 PRINT "THE OBJECT OF THE GAME IS TO GET " 00050 PRINT "FOUR IN A LINE" 00060 PRINT "THE FOUR SYMBOLS MAY BE" 00070 PRINT "HORIZONTAL,VERTICAL OR DIAGONAL." 00080 PRINT "COLUMNS ARE FILLED FROM THE BASE UPWARD." 00090 PRINT "IN PLAY, ONLY THREE KEYS ARE USED" 00100 PRINT " > MOVES THE POINTER RIGHT" 00110 PRINT " < MOVES THE POINTER LEFT" 00120 PRINT " SPACE BAR DROPS A MARKER TO" 00130 PRINT " THE BASE OF THE SELECTED COLUMN" 00140 DIM T(11),S(44),N(7) 00150 GOTO 170 00160 FOR I=1 TO 1000: NEXT I 00170 M1$="HIT ANY KEY TO CONTINUE": GOSUB 1090 00180 IF KEY ="" THEN 180 00190 E=0:F=0:G=0: FOR A=1 TO 44:S(A)=0: NEXT A 00200 CLS: PRINT: PRINT TAB (12);"FOUR IN A ROW": PRINT: PRINT 00210 PRINT TAB (7);"SCORES": PRINT 00220 PRINT "YOU"; TAB (9);S1 00230 PRINT "ME"; TAB (9);S2 00240 PRINT "DRAWN"; TAB (9);S3: PRINT: PRINT 00250 RESTORE 00260 CURS 0,16 00270 L=-4006 00280 DATA 134,133,132,131 00290 FOR T1=1 TO 13: IF T1/2= FLT ( INT (T1/2)) THEN RESTORE 00300 READ A,B: FOR C=1 TO 28 STEP 4 00310 IF T1=1 THEN 340 00320 POKE L,133: POKE L+29,134 00330 POKE L+C,A: POKE L+C+3,B 00340 NEXT C:L=L+64: NEXT T1 00350 W=36: FOR C=1 TO 7:N(C)=W:W=W+1: NEXT C 00360 R=-4008:C=4 00370 S4=S1+S2+S3: IF S4/2 <> FLT ( INT (S4/2)) THEN 660 00380 M1$="MY MOVE": GOSUB 1070 00390 IF G<>0 THEN LET G=0: GOTO 160 00400 V=0:X=0:Y=0:Z=0 00410 FOR J=1 TO 7:C=C+1: IF C>7 THEN LET C=1 00420 P=R+C*4: IF N(C)>0 THEN GOSUB 820 00430 IF F<>0 THEN NEXT *J 620 00440 NEXT J 00450 IF X<>0 THEN LET C=X: GOTO 620 00460 IF Y<>0 THEN LET C=Y: GOTO 500 00470 IF Z<>0 THEN LET C=Z: GOTO 500 00480 C= INT ( RND *7+1): IF N(C)<1 THEN 480 00490 V=V+1: IF C<>4 AND V<5 THEN 480 00500 IF N(C)<8 THEN LET F=0: GOTO 620 00510 IF V< 10 THEN 580 00520 IF FLT (V)/3= FLT ( INT ( FLT (V)/3)) THEN LET M=1 00530 M1$="NOW WHAT DO I DO": GOSUB 1090 00540 IF V<21 THEN 580 00550 FOR A=1 TO 500:Q= INT ( RND *940-4084) 00560 J= INT ( RND *222+33): POKE Q,J 00570 NEXT A:E=1: GOTO 800 00580 N(C)=N(C)-7:Z=0: GOSUB 820:N(C)=N(C)+7 00590 IF F<>0 THEN LET F=0: IF V<9 THEN 480 00600 IF Z<>0 THEN LET Z=0: IF V<6 THEN 480 00610 IF X<>0 THEN LET X=0: GOTO 480 00620 X=R+63+C * 4 + 128 * INT (( FLT (N(C)-C))/7) 00630 FOR B=1 TO 2: POKE X+B,137: POKE X+B+64,136: NEXT B 00640 S(N(C))=5:N(C)=N(C)-7 00650 IF F<>0 THEN LET M1$="I WIN": GOSUB 1090: PLAY 8;5;3;8:S2=S2+1: GOTO 160 00660 M1$="YOUR MOVE": GOSUB 1070 00670 IF G<>0 THEN LET G=0: GOTO 160 00680 P=R+C*4: POKE P,135: POKE P+1,138 00690 K1$= KEY:K= ASC (K1$): IF K=44 OR K=46 THEN 720 00700 IF K=32 THEN 760 00710 GOTO 690 00720 IF K=46 AND C<7 THEN LET C=C+1 00730 IF K=44 AND C>1 THEN LET C=C-1 00740 POKE P,32: POKE P+1,32 00750 GOTO 680 00760 L1=( FLT (N(C)-C))/7: IF L1<0 THEN 680 00770 X=P+63+ INT (L1)*128 00780 FOR A=1 TO 2: POKE X+A,129: POKE X+A+64,130: NEXT A 00790 S(N(C))=1:E=0: GOSUB 820 00800 IF E<>0 THEN LET M1$="YOU WIN": GOSUB 1070: PLAY 1,6:S1=S1+1: GOTO 160 00810 N(C)=N(C)-7: GOTO 380 00820 P=R+C*4: POKE P,135: POKE P+1,138 00830 FOR A=0 TO 11:T(A)=0: NEXT A 00840 I=0:O=N(C) 00850 FOR U=O TO O+21 STEP 7: IF U>42 THEN 870 00860 T(I)=T(I)+S(U) 00870 NEXT U:I=I+1 00880 K=C-3: IF K<1 THEN LET K=1 00890 FOR A=K TO C+3 00900 IF A>4 OR A>C THEN 940 00910 FOR B=A TO A+3:T(I)=T(I)+S(O-C+B): NEXT B:I=I+1 00920 W=O-(C-A)*8: IF W<1 OR W>18 THEN 940 00930 FOR D=0 TO 3:T(I)=T(I)+S(W):W=W+8: NEXT D:I=I+1 00940 IF A>7 THEN 980 00950 IF A<4 OR A<C THEN 980 00960 W=O+(C-A)*6: IF W<4 OR W>21 THEN 980 00970 FOR D=0 TO 3:T(I)=T(I)+S(W):W=W+6: NEXT D:I=I+1 00980 NEXT A 00990 FOR H=0 TO I:D=T(H): IF D=4 THEN LET E=1 01000 IF D=15 THEN LET F=C 01010 IF D=10 THEN LET Z=C 01020 IF D=3 THEN LET X=C 01030 IF H<>0 AND D=2 THEN LET Y=C 01040 NEXT H 01050 POKE P,32: POKE P+1,32 01060 RETURN 01070 FOR A=1 TO 7: IF S(A)=0 THEN NEXT *A 1090 01080 NEXT A:M1$="ITS A DRAW":G=1 01090 CURS 0,16: PRINT [A50 32]; 01100 PRINT [A20 8];M1$; CHR (13); 01110 IF M=0 THEN 1130 01120 FOR D=1 TO 300: NEXT D:M=0:M1$="": GOTO 1090 01130 POKE -3124,32 01140 IF G<>0 THEN LET S3=S3+1 01150 RETURN 01160 POKE -2032,0 01170 READ (1230)B 01180 FOR A=-2031 TO (-2032+159) 01190 READ B 01200 POKE A,B 01210 NEXT A 01220 RETURN 01230 DATA 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,24,24,36,36,66,66,129,129 01240 DATA 129,129,66,66,36,36,24,24,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0 01250 DATA 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,255 01260 DATA 128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128,255 01270 DATA 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 01280 DATA 128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128 01290 DATA 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,17,25,13,7,3,1 01300 DATA 255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0 01310 DATA 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255 01320 DATA 128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128,136,152,176,224,192,128 The bottom DATA statements are for creating the PCG characters ( graphics ) I fed this back into the AI and it gave a good explanation of the ( very clever ) game engine. Next, I wanted to play, so asked Chat GPT to create a javascript browser based edition. The rules were it must use the same game engine as the original code. Get that working, then add some delays to simulate the 2MHz Z80 of the Bee, and some animation to dropping the marker. The results can be found on this Link Feel free to play and copy the page. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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Glenn, That's really nice; I like how it makes “thinking” visible. Matthias |
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