My Dad ran the first computer lab at Division Avenue High School in Levittown, NY. The lab held a bank of Apple II computers. He bought an Apple II for our house and then showed us how run games and program basic.
This year I cleaned out ancient drawers from my childhood bedroom and found a floppy disk from 1986.
I had my friend at work, Mike Shields, execute some disk recovery wizardry. He sent me the files in text.
Today I will revisit my old code. Keep in mind, a fourth grader wrote these programs back in 1986. I have not run them in nearly forty years.
Car Trip
The first program uses a numeric variable to calculate car trip distance.
90 HOME
100 PRINT "MILES"
110 INPUT M
120 PRINT "SPEED"
130 INPUT S
140 LET T = M / S
150 PRINT "HOURS: ";T
I assume that I found this program in a basic programming book.
DDDFG
The next program, which I named DDDFG spits gibberish out on an eye-searing turquoise screen.
10 HOME
20 INVERSE
25 SPEED= 1
30 PRINT "----------------------------"
40 PRINT "8TJGFJFYYMFJKJJJJJG8UJUJJJJJ"
50 PRINT "$%$%%%%%&&&&%%%%'''''''''''''"
60 PRINT "'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''"
70 PRINT "000000000JOHN WAS HERE0000000"
75 SPEED= 234
80 GOTO 30
I loved to write John was here in Sharpie on my desks at school. This program captures my nine-year-old personality, so we can assume that I did not copy it from a book.
Blue Lion
I tried my hand at Low Res graphics. I drew a lion with plot instructions.
5 GR
10 COLOR= 2
15 VLIN 7,12 AT 8
20 HLIN 7,8 AT 8
25 HLIN 6,8 AT 9
30 HLIN 12,6 AT 3
35 HLIN 6,10 AT 4
40 HLIN 12,16 AT 4
45 HLIN 6,16 AT 5
50 HLIN 6,7 AT 6
55 HLIN 9,12 AT 6
60 HLIN 14,16 AT 6
65 HLIN 6,16 AT 7
70 HLIN 6,7 AT 8
75 HLIN 15,16 AT 8
80 HLIN 6,16 AT 9
85 HLIN 6,22 AT 10
90 HLIN 22,26 AT 9
95 HLIN 6,22 AT 11
100 HLIN 6,22 AT 12
105 HLIN 6,22 AT 13
110 VLIN 14,19 AT 7
115 VLIN 14,19 AT 8
120 VLIN 14,19 AT 11
125 VLIN 14,19 AT 12
130 VLIN 14,19 AT 15
135 VLIN 14,19 AT 16
140 VLIN 14,19 AT 19
145 VLIN 14,19 AT 20
150 COLOR= 15
155 HLIN 1,5 AT 5
160 HLIN 1,5 AT 7
165 HLIN 17,21 AT 5
170 HLIN 17,21 AT 7
Do you think my art looks like a lion, or something else?
I have several versions of this program, which change lines 10 and 150 to paint the lion different colors.
Hi
This program prints a cheerful, low-res bear on the screen.
10 GR
15 COLOR= 15
20 HLIN 9,14 AT 7
30 VLIN 7,15 AT 8
40 HLIN 11,12 AT 8
50 VLIN 7,15 AT 15
60 HLIN 9,14 AT 9
70 HLIN 9,10 AT 10
80 HLIN 13,14 AT 10
90 HLIN 9,10 AT 11
100 HLIN 13,14 AT 11
110 HLIN 9,14 AT 12
120 HLIN 10,13 AT 13
130 PLOT 14,14
140 PLOT 9,14
150 HLIN 9,14 AT 15
160 COLOR= 8
170 HLIN 9,14 AT 4
180 HLIN 7,16 AT 5
190 HLIN 7,16 AT 6
200 VLIN 4,15 AT 16
210 VLIN 4,15 AT 7
220 HLIN 7,16 AT 16
230 HLIN 7,16 AT 17
240 VLIN 4,5 AT 17
250 VLIN 4,5 AT 6
260 COLOR= 3
270 VLIN 3,6 AT 1
280 VLIN 3,6 AT 3
290 PLOT 2,5
300 HLIN 1,3 AT 8
310 VLIN 9,11 AT 2
320 HLIN 1,3 AT 12
330 HLIN 20,22 AT 3
340 HLIN 20,22 AT 7
350 VLIN 4,7 AT 20
360 PLOT 21,5
370 VLIN 9,10 AT 20
380 VLIN 9,10 AT 22
390 PLOT 21,11
400 PLOT 20,13
410 PLOT 22,13
420 VLIN 14,16 AT 21
The bear likes to quote the Fonz, he shouts Eyy!.
JFS
This program captures my humor. I just insult the player.
10 PRINT "UGLY GAME!"
20 PRINT "YOU UGLY?"
22 INPUT A$
30 IF A$ = "YES" GOTO 70
40 IF A$ = "NO" GOTO 60
50 PRINT "PLEASE ANSWER YES OR NO"
52 GOTO 20
60 PRINT "BULLS**T"
62 PRINT "DON'T TELL ME I SEE YOU"
63 GOTO 90
70 PRINT "PLEASE PROVE IT THANK YOU"
75 GOTO 90
90 END
This program demonstrates the use of input strings.
One Eyed Multi Lion
This program prints a putative lion.
5 GR
10 COLOR= 1
15 HLIN 6,8 AT 4
20 HLIN 5,9 AT 5
25 COLOR= 2
30 HLIN 12,14 AT 4
35 HLIN 11,15 AT 5
40 COLOR= 3
45 HLIN 5,15 AT 6
50 VLIN 7,9 AT 5
55 VLIN 7,9 AT 6
60 VLIN 7,9 AT 7
65 COLOR= 4
70 PLOT 7,8
75 PLOT 7,11
80 COLOR= 5
85 HLIN 5,15 AT 6
90 COLOR= 6
95 VLIN 6,9 AT 13
100 VLIN 6,9 AT 14
105 VLIN 6,9 AT 15
110 HLIN 8,15 AT 9
115 COLOR= 7
120 HLIN 1,4 AT 7
125 COLOR= 15
130 HLIN 1,41 AT 10
It looks more like an acid trip.
Password
This program also uses input strings and string concatenation.
1 HOME
5 SPEED= 90
10 PRINT "THE PASS WORD IS FWABB !"
20 PRINT "WHAT IS YOUR NAME"
30 INPUT A$
40 PRINT "GOOD ";A$;" THE PASS WORD IS FWABB!"
50 PRINT "WHAT DO YOU WANT YOUR PASSWORD TO BE "
60 INPUT F$
70 PRINT "OK ";A$;" MY PASSWORD IS FWABB AND YOURS IS ";F$
80 PRINT "NOW THAT YOU KNOW MINE AND I KNOW YOURS WHAT IS YOUR FRIEND'S NAME"
90 INPUT H$
100 PRINT "OK ";A$;"'S FRIEND ";H$" WHAT IS YOUR PASSWORD"
110 INPUT S$
120 PRINT "NOW TO GET THIS RIGHT MY WORD IS FWABB ";A$;"'S IS ";F$;" AND ";H$;"'S IS ";S$
I must have learned these techniques in a book, and put my spin on it.
Rating Game
This game matches the user with a date. At the end, it prints stars that equal the user's rating. This might show the first time in my life I used an iterative loop in one of my programs.
10 REM FOR/NEXT
20 HOME
30 PRINT "THIS IS THE RATING GAME"
32 PRINT "I AM YOUR HOST JACK SAYPAT"
35 PRINT "YOU WILL MEET THE CONTESTANTS, HEAR WHAT THEY HAVE TO SAY , AND THEN RATE THEM"
38 PRINT "WHAT IS YOUR NAME?"
40 INPUT A$
50 PRINT "OKAY ";A$;" HERE WE GO..."
51 PRINT "READY?"
52 INPUT B$
53 HOME
54 PRINT " "
55 PRINT " "
56 PRINT " "
57 PRINT " "
60 PRINT "XXXXXXX0XXXXXXX"
62 PRINT "XXXXXX0X0XXXXXX"
64 PRINT "XXXX0XXXXX0XXXX"
66 PRINT "XXX0XXIXXIXX0XX"
68 PRINT "XXXX0XXXXXX0XXX"
70 PRINT "XXXXXX0XXX0XXXX"
72 PRINT "XXXXXXX0X0XXXXX"
74 PRINT "XXXXXXXX0XXXXXX"
75 PRINT " "
76 PRINT " "
77 PRINT " "
78 PRINT " "
79 PRINT " "
80 PRINT "HELLO MY NAME IS HERMAN SHERMAN DERMAN WORMEN TERMAN.I LIKE BARRY MANILOW MUSIC, MY FAVORITE SHOW IS THE LOVE BOAT, AND I LOVE SKIPPING."
81 PRINT " "
82 PRINT " "
83 PRINT " "
85 PRINT "YOUR RATE (1-10) ="
87 INPUT A
97 HOME
100 PRINT "HI YO.MY NAME IS DELTA VELTA.I AM A COAL DIGGER,AND A GOLD SEARCHER.I HAVE BEEN SEEN WITH BART CONNER"
105 PRINT "YOUR RATE ="
110 INPUT B
111 HOME
115 PRINT "ER MY NAME IS JOE, OOPS I MEAN MARY MOOSE. I WORK AT A GLASS FACTORY SWEEPING CEILINGS."
120 INPUT C
125 HOME
130 PRINT "UM,I AM MARTY STINK. I AM A PRINCIPLE OF A COMPUTER SCHOOL. I SHAVE MY HEAD.I HAVE A PET CANARY NAMED BUCTRICK."
135 PRINT "YOUR RATE="
138 INPUT D
140 HOME
145 PRINT "HERE ARE THE RESULTS..."
146 HOME
147 PRINT "HERMAN "
150 FOR X = 1 TO A
153 PRINT "*";
155 NEXT X
156 PRINT " "
160 PRINT "DELTA "
162 FOR Y = 1 TO B
163 PRINT "*";
165 NEXT Y
166 PRINT " "
167 PRINT "MARY "
169 FOR Z = 1 TO C
170 PRINT "*";
172 NEXT Z
173 PRINT " "
174 PRINT "MARTY "
176 FOR W = 1 TO D
178 PRINT "*";
180 NEXT W
182 PRINT " "
185 PRINT "JACK SAYPAT HERE. SURPRISE,SURPRISE. THE PERSON WITH THE MOST POINTS IS MOVING IN WITH YOU FOR A MONTH. CONGRATULATIONS TO BOTH OF YOU. "
186 PRINT "BYE!!"
190 END
I believe I stole the joke Jack Saypat from Cracked Magazine. If you grew up in the 80's, you might see the play on words. Think of the name of the man who hosted the most popular 80's game show.
AI Dog (Low Res)
I had a dozen or so other programs, which include repeats with minor color changes.
For example, a version of the lion that the Apple colors at random.
I then had a thought. Can one of the modern LLMs draw a Low Res dog in the style of my fourth-grade lion?
I asked Grok and the LLM produced the following code:
1 HOME
5 GR
10 COLOR=13
15 HLIN 6,14 AT 10
20 HLIN 6,14 AT 11
25 HLIN 6,14 AT 12
30 VLIN 13,15 AT 6
35 VLIN 13,15 AT 9
40 VLIN 13,15 AT 11
45 VLIN 13,15 AT 14
50 HLIN 15,18 AT 9
55 HLIN 15,18 AT 10
60 HLIN 15,18 AT 11
65 VLIN 7,8 AT 16
70 VLIN 7,8 AT 17
75 COLOR=15
80 PLOT 17,11
85 HLIN 12,13 AT 14
I find it interesting that Grok understands how to manipulate Apple II basic graphics. Its code paints a decent picture.
I asked it to write code to draw a lion. It produced the following:
AI Lion (High Res)
Apple II also provides a High Res graphic mode. Grok produced the following code for a High Res lion.
5 HGR
10 HCOLOR=0
15 HPLOT 0,0 TO 279,0 TO 279,191 TO 0,191 TO 0,0
20 HCOLOR=3
25 HPLOT 100,50 TO 180,50 TO 200,70 TO 220,100 TO 200,130 TO 180,150 TO 100,150 TO 80,130 TO 60,100 TO 80,70 TO 100,50
30 HPLOT 90,40 TO 110,30 TO 130,25 TO 150,30 TO 170,40 TO 190,50
35 HPLOT 80,50 TO 60,40 TO 40,50 TO 50,60 TO 70,70
40 HPLOT 200,50 TO 220,40 TO 240,50 TO 230,60 TO 210,70
45 HPLOT 70,80 TO 50,70 TO 30,80 TO 40,90 TO 60,100
50 HPLOT 210,80 TO 230,70 TO 250,80 TO 240,90 TO 220,100
55 HCOLOR=1
60 HPLOT 120,80 TO 140,80 TO 140,100 TO 120,100 TO 120,80
65 HPLOT 160,80 TO 180,80 TO 180,100 TO 160,100 TO 160,80
70 HCOLOR=2
75 HPLOT 140,110 TO 160,110 TO 150,130 TO 140,110
80 HPLOT 130,140 TO 170,140
85 HPLOT 140,150 TO 160,150
Behold the masterpiece:
Conclusion
Today's exercise provided me with novelty and nostalgia. I had brief, subtle recollections of nearly forty-year-old memories. I got to see my first attempt at iterative loops, computer graphics, user input, and string concatenation. I also got a peek into my weird, slightly obnoxious nine-year-old sense of humor.