it is 2025 and i am manually typing a 446-line basic game from a book
the software i'm using by the way is PC-BASIC which i found out about yesterday
it's a modern recreation of GW-BASIC, BASICA et al, simulating many video modes including Hercules and even Tandy 3-channel sound
https://robhagemans.github.io/pcbasic/
the book targets C64, TRS-80, Spectrum and Apple, so we'll find out what bugs arise and need to be fixed only once i'm done typing and try to run it
i think it's mostly working... but i think something on the parser is still wrong
on top of some typos i made, i've had to make quite a few modifications as the book doesn't recognize IBM/GW-BASIC as one of the languages the game is ported to
fwiw the parser on this is equal parts extremely clever and extremely jank - only the first 3 letters of a command are parsed
yes part of the typos keeping it from working were here 😅
oh nevermind!
went to check on a dumped BBC copy of the game (it has a fancy title screen, perhaps usborne published it as a disk at some point, or a superfan made a very fancy version?) and the behaviour i thought was a parser bug is there just as on my conversion
well, time to test play it through then :)
after fixing a couple more typos, it seems the game is playable
but i'm rubbish at it 😅
i'll take a break for today, i've taken down notes on what i found interesting about this experience to write a blog post on later
@mavica_again Typing in type-ins is among the best things to be doing in 2025, honestly.
@mavica_again
Sounds like a fantastic use of your time tbh ;)
@82mhz this is my version of touching grass
@mavica_again
I like it :)
@mavica_again And of course, that means the beginning of the most frustrating^W rewarding phase of type-in software copying: Finding out if why it won't run is due to transcription errors or a printing error.
@arielmt because the book doesn't consider IBM PC/GW-BASIC one of the variants the game has been ported to :)
@mavica_again More type-in books needed encouragement and perseverance illustrations.
@mavica_again i love this so much. what book is it?
@beka_valentine Island of Secrets, published by Usborne in 1984, released for free on their website: https://usborne.com/gb/books/computer-and-coding-books
@mavica_again ahhh thats so rad :)
i've written long threads about how this kind of approach to games and programs is a lost art that unintentionally promoted an extreme agency in the computer user
@beka_valentine i decided to transcribe this on a whim because i've been thinking about BASIC a lot recently (i blame my restlessness waiting for my PicoCalc to ship) and absolutely this is giving me a lot of thoughts i want to put into a blog post
@mavica_again i hope to read it some day :)
the book tells you when to take a break from typing. it's cute