July's Program: Sugar Cube Munch
Another simple program. Like many that I wrote for the ZX81, Sugar Cube Munch was small with a singular purpose. In this case, the goal is to eat all the cubes of sugar as quickly as possible. Once all the sugar is eaten, the game is over and the number of turns is revealed…
Posted Jul 03, 2011
2 min read
June's Program: Beo One
I was searching through my stack of programs and decided to choose a short and sweet program for June. Beo One is definitively short, clocking at just 33 lines of code. Well 35 if you include the two new save and run lines I added…
Posted Jun 06, 2011
2 min read
May's Program: BOLT
Can you believe it! First day of the month and I have a program uploaded! Okay, so it is another graphic one and isn't very exciting, or long. But hey, you can't blame me for not trying!
May's program is BOLT from 1984. It creates a lightning bolt with a circle and embossed BOLT logo. Cool huh…
Posted May 01, 2011
2 min read
April's Program: Sphere
I've been a bit busy this month so I choose a relatively short program in order to not miss my self imposed deadline. To that end, I present to you April's belated graphic program: Sphere. This program will easily run on a 2K ZX81…
Posted Apr 26, 2011
2 min read
March's Program: Lock & Fire
March's program is Lock & Fire. I wrote this graphic game in 1985, although I have to admit I don't remember it much. It is a bit hard to play as the keys aren't very sensitive and the aliens jump around as you try to "lock" onto them…
Posted Mar 26, 2011
2 min read
Digging for Old Books
For some time now I've listed the ZX81 books I own on my original ZX81 web site, but I hadn't put much effort in searching the web for them. Mainly this was because I already own them, but mostly because it never occurred to me to do so…
Posted Mar 05, 2011
2 min read
February's Program: Golf
This month's program is a simple game of Golf. Although not overly exciting, it does show off a few ZX81 BASIC features. One oddity of the ZX81 is that π (pi) is built in, something I haven't seen in other languages. In this case, it is used to calculate the direction of the golf ball…
Posted Feb 19, 2011
2 min read
New ZX81 Programs Section
I've added a new Programs section that lists all of my ZX81 programs available so far. The list includes the name, a brief synopsis, and options to list or run the program as available. I still need to add a more complete description option…
Posted Jan 23, 2011
1 min read
January's Program: Water Bug II
I did it! After a lot of recording, cleaning, and tweaking I was finally able to get Water Bug II loaded! Hit the link, wait for it to load, then hit enter to give it a whirl. Then use the 5, 6, 7, and 8 keys to move (left, down, up, right) just as they are on the ZX81 keyboard.
Water Bug II was a…
Posted Jan 22, 2011
2 min read
Slow Going
I really meant to have a number of my programs converted this month. I found a tape player and have been trying to load my ZX81 programs off the original tapes; however, I keep running into a problems. I'm not sure if it is my microphone, the recording software, or my emulator…
Posted Jan 21, 2011
1 min read
Celebrating Thirty Years of ZX81
This year will mark the 30th anniversary of the ZX81's debut. Hard to believe this little wonder is turning thirty and how much the world has changed. My goal is to celebrate the occasion by continuing to update the site with new content. I'd like to do a monthly showcase of programs as well…
Posted Jan 01, 2011
1 min read
A Little Change of Color
I finally got around to updating the image and colors for my ZX81 site. I'm using a more muted pallet originated from the pages of the book in the logo. I've decided to keep the same basic layout of the parent site…
Posted Dec 29, 2010
1 min read
Pardon the Dust and Debris
I'm in the process of updating the old flat design of this site into a more dynamic one. The original site was designed in the nineties for use on GeoCities and its various requirements and stipulations…
Posted Nov 21, 2010
1 min read