Compute!'s first book of Atari games

244 Pages·1983·60.086 MB·English

by  Compute! Publications, Inc

COMPUTErs FIRST BOOK OF
ATARI
G A ES
ATARI is a registered trademark of Atari, Inc
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3 8445 0001 9886 4
The following articles were originally published in COMPUTE' magazine, copyright
1981, Small System Services, Inc.:
"Blockade" (August)
"Shoot" (September)
The following articles were originally published in COMPUTE! magazine, copyright
1982, Small System Services, Inc.:
"Word Hunt" (March)
"Programming Your First Game" (October)
"Tag" (October)
"MathMan" (October)
"Hidden Maze" (December)
The following articles were originally published in COMPUTE' magazine, copyright
1983, Small System Services, Inc.:
"Thunderbird" (January)
"Mastermaze" (February)
"Ski'" (February)
"Closeout" (March)
Copyright 1983, COMPUTE! Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction or translation of any part of this work beyond that permitted by Sections
107 and 108 of the United States Copyright Act without the permission of the copyright
owner is unlawful.
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN 0-942386-14-0
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
COMPUTE! Publications, Inc. Post Office Box 5406, Greensboro, NC 27403, (919)
275-9809, is one of the ABC publishing companies, and is not associated with any
manufacturer of personal computers. Atari is a trademark of Atari, Inc.
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Contents
fureword ............................................
v
Part 1: The Atari as a Game Machine. . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Why the Atari Is a Great Game Machine
Orson Scott Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Writing Your First Game
Richard Mansfield. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 13
Part 2: Maze Games. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 19
Mastermaze
Kenneth S. Szajda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 21
Tag
Ed Davis
(Translated for the Atari btJ Charles Brannon) . . . . . . . . . . . .. 33
I
Hidden Maze
Gary Boden
(Translated for the Atari by Charles Brannon) . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 41
Part 3: Two-Player Games ......... ........ ...... . 45
Blockade
Douglas Pinho . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 47
Tank Duel
Tom R. Halfhill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 51
Pick-up Sticks
Jason Lex Thomas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 78
Poker Solitaire
Allen R. Breon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 84
Part 4: Brain Testers .. ... ...... ............ ........ 103
MathMan
Andy Hayes
(Translated for the Atari by Charles Brannon) ...... ........ 105
Word Hunt
Robert W Baker
(Translated for the Atari by Charles Brannon) ......... .. ... 109
Total Recall
Tina Halcomb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
254151 iii
Part 5: Fast Action ... .. ......... ... .. .. .... ........ 127
Chiseler
John Scarborough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Closeout
L. L. Beh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Ski!
Charles Brannon and E.H. Foerster ... .... ... ..... .. .... 179
Thunderbird
Dave Sanders
(Translated for the Atari by Charles Brannon) ... ..... ... ... 191
Shoot
John H. Palevich ...... ..... .... ........ ... ..... ..... 200
Appendix A: Writing Your Own Games
Tom R. Halfhill .... ... .. .. .. ....... ... .... .... ....... . 207
Appendix B: Beginner's Guide to
Typing in Programs ................ 213
Appendix C: Using the Machine Language
Editor: MLX
Charles Brannon .... ... ..... .. .. ..... .... ... ........ .. 219
Listing Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Index ... .. ...... ... ...... ... .. ... .. ........ .. ... ..... 232
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Foreword
When the first huge computers were built, games were not what
the owners had in mind. Millions of dollars were invested in
every machine. Computer time was valuable, and not to be
wasted.
As computers shrank in size and increased in power, how
ever, it was inevitable that weary programmers would begin ex
ploring and programming, devising the forerunners of Pac-Man
and Donkey Kong. Today, a vast number of the world's computers
are built for one purpose only - to play games with whoever puts
in a quarter.
Your Atari is not a dedicated game machine - it is much more
versatile than that. But the Atari's designers knew that one of the
most common uses of the machine would be play. Like the arcade
machines, the Atari can give you experiences and entertainment
that you could never find anywhere except in the worlds the com
puter can create.
This book serves a double purpose. First, it provides you with
a variety of games which you merely type into the computer, save
on tape or diskette, and then play again and again, as often as you
like. Second, because the program is printed you can see exactly
how the game's creator brought off the effects you like. It will be
fairly easy for you to learn techniques that you can use in your
own programs.
In fact, to make this book as useful as possible, many of the
games are accompanied by explanations of how the program
works. Chapters at the beginning and end of the book will also
help you learn how to write your own games.
Much of the value of this book comes from its variety:
Besides being fun, MathMan and Word Hunt, for instance,
are educational; Ski! can improve eye-hand coordination.
There are games that are simple and slow enough for small
children. There are also games as fast and challenging as any
thing in the arcades.
No matter what level of programming skill you have reached,
there will be programs for which you can learn techniques, rang-
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ing from fairly simple BASIC games to sophisticated all-machine
language games like Shoot and Chiseler.
Even if you are a subscriber to COMPUTE! Magazine,
there are things here you haven't seen before. One-third of
the games in this book have never been published before and
some of the others have been since refined and improved.
Some of the games here were originally programmed on
other computers, and were "translated" for the Atari. Computer
translation often requires as much creativity as the original pro
gram, since the requirements and features of computers can be
very different.
Some games require more than simple translation: they re
quire new coding in order to take advantage of the capabilities of
the Atari. This is the case with three games in this book. Charles
Brannon, of our editorial staff, has rewritten Tag, Ski! and Thun
derbird for the Atari. In addition, E.H. Foerster has made impor
tant improvements to Brannon's version of Ski!.
Since the first printing of this book, Atari has introduced
a new line of computers called the XL series. They've become
very popular. We've ensured that all the games, save one, will
run on any of the XL machines. That game, Ski, would have
to be almost completely rewritten to run on an XL model com
puter. You can, however, play Ski on your 600 XL or 800 XL if
you have the Atari BASIC cartridge. Simply plug it into the
cartridge slot, type the program in, and play. Since the car
tridge disables the built-in BASIC of the XL model computers,
Ski will work.
All the rest of the games in this book can be typed in
and played as is on an Atari XL computer.
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