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BASIC Star Trek - Feasibilty? — Parallax Forums

BASIC Star Trek - Feasibilty?

RenegadetkRenegadetk Posts: 4
edited 2007-12-20 00:11 in Propeller 1
Hello all,

I've been looking at the Hydra for quite some time, toying with the idea of getting one. I haven't programed much of anything in a long, long time (Basic on the Atari 800XL) but think that given time I could figure out the Hydra (well...maybe).

My question is this: How feasible does it seem to port one of the old-school BASIC star trek games to the Hydra? With my limited understanding of the capabilities I think it could handle this graphically. I'm wondering if the Prop could handle the arrays needed to store galaxy data and the like providing it was just a 2-D grid. I did a forum search for Star Trek and didn't come up with anything so forgive me if this has been covered before.

Has anyone thought about this before? I seems like it would be a fun project and would be willing to purchase a Hydra based on the strengths of suggestions here.

Thoughts/Ideas? Anything appreciated.

Many thanks

Comments

  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2007-12-14 17:28
    One of the first projects I started on the Propeller was a port of the old BASIC startrek game.
    I have a 1/3 of it done, but it has been shelfed until I get a little more up to speed in the spin language.

    My original idea was to do the conversion from it's original BASIC to FemtoBASIC, but due to some
    features currently lacking in FemtoBASIC (namely string support) I've decided it will be better
    written in Spin. I have little doubt that Spin will be more that able to handle this game.

    A few simple tweaks like adding a couple well-placed red & yellow LED's would be cool for alert status.

    ---
    Background: FemtoBASIC is a tiny basic written in Spin that supports many common BASIC commands
    and has the ability to read/write files to/from SD media.


    OBC

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  • Mike GreenMike Green Posts: 23,101
    edited 2007-12-14 18:35
    The arrays used for the galaxy data (and lots of other stuff) don't change very much and would fit very nicely into the extra 32K EEPROM pages on the Hydra. They're very easy to access and are pretty fast to read. Writing takes some time because of the way EEPROMs work. There are routines in the Propeller Object Exchange that make it easy.
  • RenegadetkRenegadetk Posts: 4
    edited 2007-12-14 18:39
    That's pretty cool. I knew that I couldn't possibly the only one who thought of it. My (pipe) dream is to make a full on control console much like a flight sim or the Mech simulator for the Xbox.

    Perhaps someday.

    Thanks for the reply, I look forward to any other input anyone would have.
  • mparkmpark Posts: 1,305
    edited 2007-12-15 04:37
    Please go for it. I would love to see something like this.

    If you're really ambitious, try a real-time version like TREK80 for the old Sol.


    For the uninitiated, a little history: www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/startrek/
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2007-12-15 18:55
    My current version of FemtoCOLOR would *almost* run this version of Startrek. I'm tempted to see if I can come up with a way to make Femto handle variables. [noparse]:)[/noparse]

    OBC

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    New to the Propeller?

    Getting started with the Protoboard? - Propeller Cookbook
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  • JT CookJT Cook Posts: 487
    edited 2007-12-15 22:23
    Kind of off topic, do you have a link for your version of color basic, I want to take a look at it.
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2007-12-16 04:24
    Don't have the location of the thread, just went through a hard drive crash and am rebuilding...

    Here's a link to it on my server

    OBC

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    New to the Propeller?

    Getting started with the Protoboard? - Propeller Cookbook
    Got an SD card? - PropDOS
    A Living Propeller FAQ - The Propeller Wiki
    (Got the Knowledge? Got a Moment? Add something today!)
  • VIRANDVIRAND Posts: 656
    edited 2007-12-19 23:55
    That reminds me. Maybe slightly off topic but maybe not...
    On the hydra CD in the Sources folder there is an apparently incomplete
    (and cute) fake TRS-80 Color Basic called fb.spin.
    Is it ONLY a joke, or a buggy hack of tiny basic? It doesn't respond to the keyboard.
    Perhaps it can't legally work because it says Microsoft.
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2007-12-20 00:11
    Actually, IIUC, that is the first version of FemtoBASIC. It was originally released as a joke.
    (Since then taken a little more serious by several other forum members... [noparse]:)[/noparse]

    OBC

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    New to the Propeller?

    Getting started with the Protoboard? - Propeller Cookbook
    Got an SD card? - PropDOS
    A Living Propeller FAQ - The Propeller Wiki
    (Got the Knowledge? Got a Moment? Add something today!)
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