Rewriting the 1978 text-only Super Star Trek game

During the last two weeks, I spent all my free time working hard on one of the most ridiculous achievements of my life: dissecting, understanding, and rewriting the old 1978 Super StarTrek videogame.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s an old text-only game, a sort of early example of turn-based space strategy sim, written in BASIC. In this game, you are the captain of the starship Enterprise, and your mission is to scout the federation space and eliminate all the invading Klingon ships. You will have to manage the ship energy carefully, use phasers and torpedoes to destroy the Klingons, and find starbases to repair damages and replenish your energy. All of this, rendered with a few characters on screen and a lot of imagination.

You control the Enterprise entering commands at the prompt: _NAV _to move the ship, _PHA _to fire with the phasers, _LRS _to scan the quadrants with your long-range sensors, and so on. Despite its simplicity, it’s a great example of programming and game design.

If you are curious about this game’s story, how it looks, or how to play it, I wrote another article about Super Star Trek here. Otherwise, know that it was created in 1974 and became hugely popular when it was published, in an improved version written by Bob Leedom, in the 1978 book BASIC COMPUTER GAMES.

I’m not talking about a game that was distributed on a disk. The book contained the code, and people had to type it on their computers. Since BASIC was a universal language at the time, the game code could work on many different machines.

What does this have to do with me?

In 1983, I bought the Italian edition of a book called Zap! Pow! Boom! : Arcade Games for the VIC-20 by Mark Ramshaw. It contained 30 games for the VIC-20, written in BASIC. The 8th game was called Star Trek. I copied it all on my VIC-20 as soon as I arrived home and started to play it. It was simple, but I immediately fell in love with it. It was maybe the best game I have ever played on that computer.

It took me 37 years to realize that this program was actually an adaptation of Leedom’s Super Star Trek. I discovered a few months ago when I bought a copy of David Ahl’s BASIC COMPUTER GAMES on eBay — yes, a book that was released in 1978… better late than never!

Of course, I immediately decided to try the original Super Star Trek. Thank god, this time, I didn’t have to type all the code. I just went to the Vintage Basic website, I downloaded the BASIC interpreter, the source code of the game, and I ran it.

#programming #coding #retro-gaming #game-development #text-only-games #retro-computing #gaming #hackernoon-top-story

What is GEEK

Buddha Community

Rewriting the 1978 text-only Super Star Trek game

During the last two weeks, I spent all my free time working hard on one of the most ridiculous achievements of my life: dissecting, understanding, and rewriting the old 1978 Super StarTrek videogame.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s an old text-only game, a sort of early example of turn-based space strategy sim, written in BASIC. In this game, you are the captain of the starship Enterprise, and your mission is to scout the federation space and eliminate all the invading Klingon ships. You will have to manage the ship energy carefully, use phasers and torpedoes to destroy the Klingons, and find starbases to repair damages and replenish your energy. All of this, rendered with a few characters on screen and a lot of imagination.

You control the Enterprise entering commands at the prompt: _NAV _to move the ship, _PHA _to fire with the phasers, _LRS _to scan the quadrants with your long-range sensors, and so on. Despite its simplicity, it’s a great example of programming and game design.

If you are curious about this game’s story, how it looks, or how to play it, I wrote another article about Super Star Trek here. Otherwise, know that it was created in 1974 and became hugely popular when it was published, in an improved version written by Bob Leedom, in the 1978 book BASIC COMPUTER GAMES.

I’m not talking about a game that was distributed on a disk. The book contained the code, and people had to type it on their computers. Since BASIC was a universal language at the time, the game code could work on many different machines.

What does this have to do with me?

In 1983, I bought the Italian edition of a book called Zap! Pow! Boom! : Arcade Games for the VIC-20 by Mark Ramshaw. It contained 30 games for the VIC-20, written in BASIC. The 8th game was called Star Trek. I copied it all on my VIC-20 as soon as I arrived home and started to play it. It was simple, but I immediately fell in love with it. It was maybe the best game I have ever played on that computer.

It took me 37 years to realize that this program was actually an adaptation of Leedom’s Super Star Trek. I discovered a few months ago when I bought a copy of David Ahl’s BASIC COMPUTER GAMES on eBay — yes, a book that was released in 1978… better late than never!

Of course, I immediately decided to try the original Super Star Trek. Thank god, this time, I didn’t have to type all the code. I just went to the Vintage Basic website, I downloaded the BASIC interpreter, the source code of the game, and I ran it.

#programming #coding #retro-gaming #game-development #text-only-games #retro-computing #gaming #hackernoon-top-story

How to Create A Text-based Adventure Game in Python?

Hello, there fellow learner! Today we are going to make a fun text-based adventure game from scratch. First, let’s understand what a text-based game and then we will implement the same in the python programming language.

Table of Contents

What is a text-based game?

A text-based game is a completely text-based input-output simple game. In such type of game, users have options to handle various situations as they arrive with choices taken by the user in the form of inputs.

The storyline for our game

The figure below displays the small story we will be building in python in this tutorial. You can expand or change the story according to your own preferences.

Text Based Story Game

#python programming #python programming examples #game #a text-based adventure game #text based adventure #how to create a text-based adventure game in python?

Game Development with .NET

We’ve launched a new Game Development with .NET section on our site. It’s designed for current .NET developers to explore all the choices available to them when developing games. It’s also designed for new developers trying to learn how to use .NET by making games. We’ve also launched a new game development Learn portal for .NET filled with tutorials, videos, and documentation provided by Microsoft and others in the .NET game development community. Finally, we launched a step-by-step Unity get-started tutorial that will get you started with Unity and writing C## scripts for it in no time. We are excited to show you what .NET has to offer to you when making games. .NET is also part of Microsoft Game Stack, a comprehensive suite of tools and services just for game development.

.NET for game developers

.NET is cross-platform. With .NET you can target over 25+ different platforms with a single code base. You can make games for, but not limited to, Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, and mixed reality devices.

C## is the most popular programming language in game development. The wider .NET community is also big. There is no lack of expertise and support you can find from individuals and user groups, locally or online.

.NET does not just cover building your game. You can also use it to build your game’s website with ASP.NET, your mobile app using Xamarin, and even do remote rendering with Microsoft Azure. Your skills will transfer across the entire game development pipeline.

Available game engines

The first step to developing games in .NET is to choose a game engine. You can think of engines as the frameworks and tools you use for developing your game. There are many game engines that use .NET and they differ widely. Some of the engines are commercial and some are completely royalty free and open source. I am excited to see some of them planning to adopt .NET 5 soon. Just choose the engine that better works for you and your game. Would you like to read a blog post to help you learn about .NET game engines, and which one would be best for you?

#.net #.net core #azure #c# #game development #azure #cryengine #game developers #game development #game development with .net #game engines #games #monogame #playfab #stride #unity #visual studio #waveengine

Mobile Game Development Company India, Game Developers in India

IndianAppDevelopers is a top-notch mobile game development company that has the ability to transform the unique requirements of clients into a flawless mobile game app. Choose us as your mobile game development partner on a fixed cost, dedicated or hourly basis at 40% less cost.

Our dedicated team of 20+ game developers has served 50+ mobile game development projects with a ratio of 100% satisfaction using the latest technologies and tools like Unity, Unreal, COCOS 2d js. Phaser etc.

Are you planning to outsource mobile game development services? Or would you like to hire a dedicated team of game developers? Then, contact us for a free quote.

#mobile game development company #game development company #hire game developers #game app developers #mobile game developers india #hire game app developers

Antier is the strong pillar of NFT for gaming industry

Through Antier Solutions you can create your own marketplace and engage millions of users to invest in collectibles, art pieces, and all types of virtual properties with our outstanding NFT gaming development services.

Email Us: info@antiersolutions.com
Contact Us: +91 98783 62625 (India) , +1 (315) 825 4466 (US)
3111 East Tahquitz Canyon Way, Suite 140, Palm Springs, CA 92262

#nft game development #nft game development company #nft game development services #nft gaming development #nft gaming platform development #nft gaming solutions