2 Warps to Neptune

7 Responses to “<em>Write Your Own Fantasy Games for Your Microcomputer</em> (Usborne, 1984)”

1. 1 narvo February 9, 2016 at 9:51 pm

   WOW! That’s so cool that they’ve provided the old ’80s coding books for FREE! Not only that, they actually provide explanations for each line or arrays of code. That was something the old Compute! mags never did, which was a nightmare for noob BASIC dabblers like myself, when it came to debugging and hacking.

   Now to hop on to my trusty TRS-80 emulator and relive those golden days of handcoding programs…

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   • 2 narvo February 9, 2016 at 10:00 pm

     lol, on the Island of Secrets game, as it’s more complex, they even recommend the coding to be a 2-man operation. “See if you can persuade someone to read the listing out to you.” Hahahahah good luck!

     “As soon as you begin to feel irritable or panicky, STOP. You can always save what you have done and continue later.”

     That’s one thing I totally remember about coding in those old games from COMPUTE! …my eyes would be totally burning from reading and typing in all those lines of code. But I wanted to play the game so bad, I would hold out until my eyes were on fire. Geez..

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   • 3 2W2N February 9, 2016 at 10:27 pm

     These are way cooler than the programming books made in the U.S.

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     • 4 narvo February 10, 2016 at 6:33 pm

       Totally. Not only do they explain the code, they also encourage you to tweak the game by changing values in certain lines. It’s way more encouraging and fun that way. Why weren’t the U.S. programming books as immersive and kid-friendly as these??

       I remember going to my local library from 1983-85 (jr. high) and looking through so many different programming and DIY computer game books, and none of them ever had any real in-depth explanation as to what the code was accomplishing. Even if they did, it was super dry.

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2. 5 Sevenwinds February 10, 2016 at 1:25 am

   This is so so cool. Wish someone would do this for today and make it a kickstarter or something. I’d throw my money at it. I never knew of these books as a kid, 41 now.

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   • 6 2W2N February 10, 2016 at 1:26 am

     It’s so cool that Usborne made them available. I hope they do the same thing with some of the other stuff from the era.

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3. 7 Richard McKenna February 10, 2016 at 2:55 pm

   Pretty sure that Usborne were some kind of alien initiative to increase human intelligence or prepare us for the arrival of the galactic masters or something, presumably in a mothership that looked like one of those cool Usborne hot air balloons.

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