Since my Raspberry Pi arrived a few weeks ago, I’ve been tinkering with it rather a lot. For example, I’m currently on my 3rd operating system build. I’ve already been through the Debian squeeze and wheezy beta, and last night I started using a version of the Raspbian port (derived from Debian, but complied to take advantage of the floating point processor on the Pi, meaning better performance for most things).
All this tinkering means that I haven’t got as far as I hoped with my attempt to learn a little more Python by creating a port of a Star Trek Tiny BASIC game, originally published by Computing Today (CT) in October 1979. Its been slow going – and not only because I’m busy with other things!
My first problem was trying to understand how the original software worked. It’s not easy – and an extract of the original listing from the magazine illustrates why.
The limitations of the Tiny BASIC language combined with the limited memory capacity of home computers in 1979 (8 kilobytes would have been a luxury for most people) mean that it’s a rather difficult program to decipher, even with the two pages of description CT published in addition to the listing.
In some ways I’d have been better off redesigning the game from scratch. However, I’m trying to aim for as an authentic reconstruction as I can manage, but one that is better structured and in Python. My quest for authenticity applies even down to using the same data structures for the galaxy and the 64 sectors it was divided into in the original game, making sure that I’m using the same encoding for stars, starbases and Klingons. The porting task would have been far simpler if I’d decided to abandon the original data structures and used something far more powerful in their place, but that would have felt like cheating.
Even so, I think I’m around halfway there. Here’s a screenshot of the Enterprise -O- moving through Klingon >!< infested space to prove it …
… and a small snippet of Python to show how a sector of the galaxy is decoded. (Hint – the value in the galaxy array for sector 17 shown above is 305).
You might also like:
July 22, 2012 -- Raspberry Pi, Python, Star Trek and Morecambe & Wise- June 22, 2012 -- Raspberry Pi + Python = an automated coin flipper
- March 3, 2012 -- The launch of the Raspberry Pi – haven’t we been here before?
- March 21, 2012 -- Raspberry Pi – we *have* been here before!
You could also sudo apt-get install bwbasic and save yourself the translation
Ah, but that would be no fun at all !!! I’m tempted though …
I think as long as it resembles the main frame teletype input/output format you’ll be keeping to the original
I programmed a version in BBC Basic when I was little but to my great regret, I didn’t have the foresight to archive a copy off
One day, I hope I’ll meet someone who did save it (it was quite popular at the time!) and we will be re-united
Look forward to seeing yours in action !
Simon
Hi Simon,
I think the first time I played this game (or something like it) was sometime in 1981 on a Lear Siegler ADM 3A If I remember correctly, it was attached to a DEC VAX 11/750 running BSD Unix, rather than VMS!
Tim.
I played a version of this game in jr. high on a TRS-80 – so cool to see it again.
The print out looks very much like a Sinclair ZX81 one. You can tell by the narrow, aluminum coated paper.
Mitch
Hi Mitch,
The listing pre-dates the ZX81 by 2-3 years! It’s from a scan I made of the original magazine at the time I wrote the post, so the silvery effect is one of age plus my decision to scan it in as a greyscale image rather than black and white.
Tim.