May's Program: Jet Flyer
Jet Flyer is May's Program of the Month. Although a bit late, I believe it is a bit better than last month's and worth a quick try. The goal is to keep your jet on course by using the “Z” and “.” keys to bank right or left. It isn’t an overly hard game…
Posted May 20, 2012
2 min read
April's Program: Pole Dodge
Pole Dodge is April’s Program of the Month and it is an odd one. Partially odd because I typed it in back in February, and partly because the program just doesn't play well. I know that doesn't lend well for one to give it a try, but try it you should. Why? Because the premise isn't bad…
Posted Apr 01, 2012
3 min read
March's Program: T.W.M.
T.W.M. is March's program of the month. It is a simple animation that tries to mimic a computer's destruction of its defined target. February was actually pretty prolific for me as I transcribed this and another program, as well as updated a number of older programs using MCODER…
Posted Mar 05, 2012
2 min read
E.T. Redux
E.T. may not have been my best game ever, but it was an interesting exercise in 1985. Loosely, and I really mean loosely, based on the Atari 2600 game, E.T. follows the exploits of the title character as he tries to find his way home. Originally written in ZX81 BASIC, I revisited E.T…
Posted Feb 20, 2012
5 min read
Playing Around
It isn't all programming around here! Some days it is fun to just play around. I was adding an image to my other site which led to me reviewing some of my old Flickr images. In turn, I ran across my Wordle of Reid's for Fun image (article here)…
Posted Feb 16, 2012
1 min read
Road Hog Improved
What's this, another version of Road Hog? Yep. This is January's Program converted to machine code using MCoder II. I was surprised how easy it was. Although MCoder is an integer compiler and limits some BASIC commands, I only needed to change a few lines to get Road Hog to run…
Posted Feb 14, 2012
1 min read
February's Program: Light Walls
February is upon us and that means another program of the month. This month it is another one from 1983: Light Walls. In case you hadn't guessed, it has its roots in Tron. The game requires you to steer right (".") or left ("z") to avoid hitting the light walls…
Posted Feb 09, 2012
2 min read
ZX81 Emulator on Android
As more and more people turn to mobile and tablet devices for their entertainment and consumption needs, it is becoming harder to share my ZX81 preservation project. I remember how excited I was when I found a Java based emulator that would run my ZX81 programs on the web…
Posted Feb 05, 2012
2 min read
January's Program: Road Hog
Welcome to the new year! Starting off the second season of monthly programs is January's program Road Hog. Road Hog is a driving game similar to my later Flywheel game. I hesitate to call it a racing game as there is no acceleration. You just move the car left or right using the "z" or "." keys…
Posted Jan 14, 2012
3 min read
A New Year of ZX81 Programs
Well, the celebration of thirty years since the introduction of the ZX81 is now over. For the last year I've been bringing you an original ZX81 program each month as a tribute to my first computer…
Posted Jan 10, 2012
2 min read
December's Program: Creature
I can't believe December is here and the year is almost over. To celebrate the last program of the month, I present Creature, an animation program. Unlike many of the smaller programs submitted throughout the year, this one is the largest weighing in at 14KB…
Posted Dec 03, 2011
3 min read
New RSS Feed
As of today, you can use RSS to subscribe for your monthly dose of ZX81 goodness. I originally hadn't planned to offer an RSS feed for my ZX81 site. The original goal was to cross-post articles to my main site and rely on its feed for subscribers. Sadly I tend to forget to cross-post…
Posted Nov 20, 2011
1 min read
November's Program: Lander 2
November is here and the year is flying by. This month's program Lander 2 is an earlier one from 1983. Oddly, the game displays Space Lander. Not very original as I've used that name before. I'm using the name I noted in my listing.
Although it has graphical elements, it is really just a counting g…
Posted Nov 03, 2011
2 min read
October's Program: 1985
October's program is one of my later games from 1985 which is aptly named 1985. It has decidedly simple game mechanics. It is an alternative reality 1985 where the Earth is gone. Humans are colonizing Earth II, but you need to clear the mountains for agriculture needs…
Posted Oct 03, 2011
2 min read
September's Program: Odyssey
This month I present another simple game, Odyssey. It doesn't include instructions, so here is a quick synopsis. An evil computer has trapped you in a space ship. To escape, you have to remove the memory boards in order to shut down the computer. Sounds familiar…
Posted Sep 03, 2011
3 min read
Space Lander 2011
I couldn't leave well enough alone. All that analyzing and nitpicking of the original Space Lander made me wonder what it might be like if I had rewritten it. Almost 28 years later, here is the reborn version of Space Lander 2011.
I tried to stay true to the original, keeping most of the key graph…
Posted Aug 21, 2011
4 min read
August's Program: Space Lander
Okay, this may not be the large program I promised, but I choose Space Lander for a different reason: it's horrible! Okay, maybe it isn't that bad, but it definitely wasn't one of better programs. This was from 1983, clearly one of my earlier attempts…
Posted Aug 17, 2011
3 min read