David's Computer Blog

This type of retro-computing is going pretty far back in time. Back to 1983, in fact. The game " Werewolves and Wanderer " is based upon a game of the same title as written by Tim Hartnell. It is from his book, " Creating Adventure Games on Your Computer ," written in 1983. The text adventure game was originally programmed in BASIC, and the book is available online at atariarchives.org/adventure . I discovered this book in the library at my Junior High School during the mid to late 80s. I read through the book and eventually created the game in C64 BASIC. That creation, unfortunately, is long gone now. But this book helped fuel my desire to create casual computer games ever since. Bringing the game into the modern era was a fun project using BlitzMax. Although this game is based upon Tim Hartnell's book, alterations to the game, including a new Graphic User Interface, have been made along with some minor alterations . I originally used BlitzMax on Microsoft Wind...

Reviving the Classics: An Introduction to Commodore OS Vision 2 and the C64x I have already written a few articles about Commodore OS Vision v2, but thought I'd give it a more formal introduction here. In the ever-evolving world of technology, few names evoke as much nostalgia and admiration as Commodore. The iconic Commodore 64, with its distinctive design and groundbreaking capabilities, holds a special place in the hearts of many who experienced the dawn of personal computing. Today, the legacy of Commodore is being revived with the introduction of  Commodore OS Vision 2  and the  C64x , a modern homage to the classic C64. A Journey Through Time The original Commodore 64, launched in 1982, revolutionized the home computer market. It offered an affordable yet powerful computing experience, making it accessible to a wide audience. With its robust hardware, versatile software library, and vibrant community, the C64 became a cultural phenomenon, selling millions of units ...

So back in 2014 I started coding in BlitzResearch's Monkey-X programming language. It was, to me, the next iteration of BlitzMax that allowed more web development and commands into the Blitzbasic programming language. Monkey-X did not have the GUI elements that BlitzMax had, but it did have more web-friendly commands.  Around 2014 I ported an older version of my game " Astrocrunch " from AmigaOS into the Monkey-X language. Technically it was more than a mere port and more of a complete rewrite as Monkey-X was Object Oriented while Blitzbasic on AmigaOS was Procedural. It took me a few months to get it working, but in time, the game, renamed to " GermBlaster, " was completed. Monkey-X allowed for a game to be published as a Windows Desktop app or as an HTML5 web-app that could be run on a website. You can still play the older version (1.0) of GermBlaster online here .  GermBlaster is a casual game and not meant or designed to be anything spectacular.  You can dow...