A Worked Example of a Video Game

Abstract

In this chapter we examine the use of both BASIC and Assembler programming for animated video games. In general games are expensive, and the players’ interest can be short-lived. If players can achieve a reasonable result themselves then most would prefer to write their own simple video games, and spend their money only on good-quality sophisticated games. Tape cassette 2 contains an extensive example of the sort of game that most competent programmers can reasonably expect to write, without going to the extreme of putting the whole game into machine code. The game itself, RON the ROBOT in the WASTE of TYME, is a typical ‘shoot-em up’ game; however the techniques we discuss here could just as easily be applied to ‘bat and ball’ (such as TENNIS) or ‘tactical’ games (such as PAC-MAN). For you to make the most of the explanations in this chapter we advise you to get the companion cassette tapes, and LOAD and RUN these program listings.