February's Program: Time
For February, I give you Time, a simple landing game with a twist. Using the “Z” and “.” keys, you maneuver your craft to each successive landing pad. If you miss the landing, keep trying but be careful. Run out of time and it’s game over! How high of a score can you amass…
Posted Feb 16, 2014 by Steven
4 min read
January's Program: Fireball
January’s program of the month, Fireball, marks a first for me. Although I’ve used a few different methods to type in my programs, I’ve always gone back to a Windows so I could use EightyOne to generate the program files and images…
Posted Jan 05, 2014 by Steven
5 min read
December's Program: Dollar Sign
Winter has set in and it is time to close out the year with a simple game. Dollar Sign, December’s program of the month, is that game. All you need to do is move your character, which surprisingly looks like a dollar sign, into the inverse, dare I say it, dollar sign…
Posted Dec 30, 2013 by Steven
3 min read
November's Program: SNUNCH ML
For November, I’m looking both forwards and backwards. Although I wrote SNUNCH in 1983, I added a corrected version to my first ZX81 web page in the ‘90s. SNUNCH was my early attempt at writing a PAC-MAN like game. Note that I said like, not clone. My goal was to be inspired, not to copy…
Posted Nov 30, 2013 by Steven
7 min read
October's Program: Space Dock
Since it's been a few months since I've presented an animation program, I hereby offer October's program of the month Space Dock. Written when the space shuttle program was in full swing, Space Dock depicts a shuttle launch for its scheduled docking to repair a satellite…
Posted Oct 19, 2013 by Steven
4 min read
September's Program: S.M.P.
October’s program of the month is S.M.P. or Sinclair Memo Pad. A simple scrolling editor that allows you to take a couple of quick notes that last as long they are on-screen. Since the space key also acts as a break, which will stop the program, S.M.P. uses the newline key instead…
Posted Sep 21, 2013 by Steven
3 min read
August's Program: Parachute
Whoa, it’s August already? Time for another program of the month. Coming your way is Parachute, a deceptively simple reflex game that uses recognizable graphics to give you an enjoyable causal gaming diversion…
Posted Aug 08, 2013 by Steven
2 min read
July's Program: Spiders & Flies
July is almost half over, but we still have time for our program of the month: Spiders & Flies. You play a growing Venus flytrap that is searching for flies and special bugs. Use the ZX81 arrow keys to move around: 5, 6, 7, and 8. But be careful…
Posted Jul 21, 2013 by Steven
3 min read
April's Program: Star Dodge
Late and last-minute, I present April’s program of the month Star Dodge. A decidedly simple game that requires you to dodge stars randomly placed on the screen. Can you get your Tie Fighter shaped ship, an inverse H, past the increasingly more dense stars? Give it a try to see.
Star Dodge doesn’t r…
Posted Apr 30, 2013 by Steven
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 by Steven
3 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 by Steven
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 by Steven
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 by Steven
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 by Steven
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 by Steven
3 min read