Sharp PC-1211/TRS-80 PC-1 Software

[pyedog]

It is interesting to look at that code as an example of a commercial program from 1980 ...

It can be run as a "normal" program, but they used the "SHIFT" label functionality to allow you to skip sections rather than prompting the user if they wanted instructions, to restart, etc. I guess this method would allow you to stop the game and resume later as long as you didn't modify any of the variables in the meantime.

Saying "B" TO RUN seems a bit harsh as it skips the statistics so you wouldn't know what your initial velocity or height would be when they ask you how much fuel. For that matter they never tell you how much fuel you have remaining ... you have to have been keeping track yourself. Maybe they thought memory was part of the game? It seems like

Code:

120 "C" PRINT "VEL=";V;" HT=";H: PRINT "REMAINING FUEL=";F

would be more user friendly.

Likewise, when it asks you for the fuel to use it seems like it would be good to provide a way to remind you of your current stats, something like

Code:

140 "B" INPUT "FUEL TO USE(0-75) ";P:GOTO 143
141 GOTO 120

would allow you to just press enter to see your stats again.

When you win (survive) it tells you how long it took you to land, while if you lose (crash) it just says "GOODBYE" ... I would have thought they would tell you that you failed, crashed, died, cost NASA a lot of money, etc.

I t almost looks like it was a port of a program from an even more primitive system that was adapted to the PC-1 BASIC. These days even simple apps have a huge overhead of effort put into the user interface and user interactions ... those were simpler times.

Would it be possible to get a list of the programs on the Games cassette and any interesting titles from the Engineering Math packages? I couldn't find a list of what programs were available on Google.

Thanks!