Updating old BASIC games

[johnblood]

So, I was looking through Lobste.rs, and I came across something interesting. Jeff Atwood, creator of StackExchange and Discourse, created a repo (https://github.com/coding-horror/basic-computer-games) with almost 100 BASIC games that he wants to convert to other popular languages (including Java, Python, Ruby, Perl, Pascal, C# and JavaScript). Before I came up with my current project, I was planning to learn BASIC by converting old BASIC games to QB64. Unfortunately, I could not find clear pictures. This repo has all the games nicely typed out. Something else to play with. I hope someone else enjoys/finds this useful.

[bplus]

oh yeah, typed up for copy/paste, is nice.

First one I checked:

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. 10 PRINT TAB(26);"ACEY DUCEY CARD GAME"
2. 20 PRINT TAB(15);"CREATIVE COMPUTING  MORRISTOWN, NEW JERSEY"
3. 21 PRINT
4. 22 PRINT
5. 30 PRINT"ACEY-DUCEY IS PLAYED IN THE FOLLOWING MANNER "
6. 40 PRINT"THE DEALER (COMPUTER) DEALS TWO CARDS FACE UP"
7. 50 PRINT"YOU HAVE AN OPTION TO BET OR NOT BET DEPENDING"
8. 60 PRINT"ON WHETHER OR NOT YOU FEEL THE CARD WILL HAVE"
9. 70 PRINT"A VALUE BETWEEN THE FIRST TWO."
10. 80 PRINT"IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BET, INPUT A 0"
11. 100 N=100
12. 110 Q=100
13. 120 PRINT "YOU NOW HAVE";Q;"DOLLARS."
14. 130 PRINT
15. 140 GOTO 260
16. 210 Q=Q+M
17. 220 GOTO 120
18. 240 Q=Q-M
19. 250 GOTO 120
20. 260 PRINT"HERE ARE YOUR NEXT TWO CARDS: "
21. 270 A=INT(14*RND(1))+2
22. 280 IF A<2 THEN 270
23. 290 IF A>14 THEN 270
24. 300 B=INT(14*RND(1))+2
25. 310 IF B<2 THEN 300
26. 320 IF B>14 THEN 300
27. 330 IF A>=B THEN 270
28. 350 IF A<11 THEN 400
29. 360 IF A=11 THEN 420
30. 370 IF A=12 THEN 440
31. 380 IF A=13 THEN 460
32. 390 IF A=14 THEN 480
33. 400 PRINT A
34. 410 GOTO 500
35. 420 PRINT"JACK"
36. 430 GOTO 500
37. 440 PRINT"QUEEN"
38. 450 GOTO 500
39. 460 PRINT"KING"
40. 470 GOTO 500
41. 480 PRINT"ACE"
42. 500 IF B<11 THEN 550
43. 510 IF B=11 THEN 570
44. 520 IF B=12 THEN 590
45. 530 IF B=13 THEN 610
46. 540 IF B=14 THEN 630
47. 550 PRINT B
48. 560 GOTO 650
49. 570 PRINT"JACK"
50. 580 GOTO 650
51. 590 PRINT"QUEEN"
52. 600 GOTO 650
53. 610 PRINT"KING"
54. 620 GOTO 650
55. 630 PRINT"ACE"
56. 640 PRINT
57. 650 PRINT
58. 660 INPUT"WHAT IS YOUR BET";M
59. 670 IF M<>0 THEN 680
60. 675 PRINT"CHICKEN!!"
61. 676 PRINT
62. 677 GOTO 260
63. 680 IF M<=Q THEN 730
64. 690 PRINT"SORRY, MY FRIEND, BUT YOU BET TOO MUCH."
65. 700 PRINT"YOU HAVE ONLY ";Q;" DOLLARS TO BET."
66. 710 GOTO 650
67. 730 C=INT(14*RND(1))+2
68. 740 IF C<2 THEN 730
69. 750 IF C>14 THEN 730
70. 760 IF C<11 THEN 810
71. 770 IF C=11 THEN 830
72. 780 IF C=12 THEN 850
73. 790 IF C=13 THEN 870
74. 800 IF C=14 THEN 890
75. 810 PRINT C
76. 820 GOTO 910
77. 830 PRINT"JACK"
78. 840 GOTO 910
79. 850 PRINT"QUEEN"
80. 860 GOTO 910
81. 870 PRINT"KING"
82. 880 GOTO 910
83. 890 PRINT "ACE"
84. 900 PRINT
85. 910 IF C>A THEN 930
86. 920 GOTO 970
87. 930 IF C>=B THEN 970
88. 950 PRINT"YOU WIN!!!"
89. 960 GOTO 210
90. 970 PRINT"SORRY, YOU LOSE"
91. 980 IF M<Q THEN 240
92. 990 PRINT
93. 1000 PRINT
94. 1010 PRINT"SORRY, FRIEND, BUT YOU BLEW YOUR WAD."
95. 1015 PRINT:PRINT
96. 1020 INPUT"TRY AGAIN (YES OR NO)";A$
97. 1025 PRINT:PRINT
98. 1030 IF A$="YES" THEN 110
99. 1040 PRINT"O.K., HOPE YOU HAD FUN!"
100. 1050 END
101.  

And it works and I get a good laugh on 2nd hand! (see attached)

@johnblood

I did this with Eliza and Tiny Basic back in 2014 to get up to speed with sB (SmallBASIC interpreter before MS made their version Small Basic.)

[johnno56]

I have quite a few "ebooks" with "old" games.... David Ahl programs were among my fist programs.... I still have an actual hard copy of his 1978 book....

Line numbers and text. The many, many, many hours of keying in those listings.... All those years ago... and I 'still' can't type... lol  There is something said for those old games. The ability to stir the imagination. Simplicity of plain text and fitting them into limited memory. 4, 16, 32 and 64k of ram.

I only hope that, during the "conversion", that the "feel" of the games are not lost.

"I hope someone else enjoys / finds this useful."... You're "preaching to the choir."

J

[johnblood]

I only hope that, during the "conversion", that the "feel" of the games are not lost.

I hope so. I may fork the repo and just convert the BASIC to QB64 for practice.

@bplus  :)

[bplus]

@johnblood

You know I think it would be easier just to start over from scratch once you get the gist of what the game does.

Here it took about an hour to get the game going and another 2/3 hour to make pretty.

Code: QB64: [Select]

1. _Title "Acey Ducey" 'b+ 2021-03-03 see how long it takes to write game from scratch 12:15
2. ' 1 hr to get it going + 2/3 to make it pretty,
3. ' thing is there is no end to making pretty, I could add comma's to player's total for next beautification.
4. Randomize Timer
5. Cards$ = "23456789XJQKA" ' I guess Ace is highest
6. player& = 100 ' player
7. round& = 0 ' round
8. Do
9.     round& = round& + 1
10.     CPR 2, "Acey Ducey   Round #" + ts$(round&)
11.     card1& = Int(Rnd * 13) + 1 ' not exactly playing from a full deck here, could draw 5 aces in a row
12.     card2& = Int(Rnd * 13) + 1 ' ok it's like 13 cards shuffled before each draw
13.     cardWinLose& = Int(Rnd * 13) + 1
14.     CPR 5, "First Card: " + Mid$(Cards$, card1&, 1)
15.     CPR 6, "  2nd Card: " + Mid$(Cards$, card2&, 1)
16.     CPR 8, "Player you have: $" + ts$(player&)
17.     CPR 10, " Of that amount, please enter how much you would like to bet"
18.     Locate 11, 11
19.     Input " that the next card is = or between those two cards"; bet&
20.     If bet& > player& Then bet& = player&
21.     CPR 13, " Win | Lose Card: " + Mid$(Cards$, cardWinLose&, 1)
22.     If cardWinLose& > card1& And cardWinLose& > card2& Or cardWinLose& < card1& And cardWinLose& < card2& Then
23.         CPR 15, "Player Lost $" + ts$(bet&)
24.         player& = player& - bet&
25.     Else
26.         CPR 15, "Player Won $" + ts$(bet&)
27.         player& = player& + bet&
28.     End If
29.     CPR 20, "Zzz... press any"
30.     Sleep
31.     _KeyClear
32.     Cls
33. Loop Until player& <= 0
34. CPR 23, " Player you are bankrupt, good day!"
35.  
36. Sub CPR (Row, S$) 'Center Print Row
37.     Locate Row, (_Width - Len(S$)) / 2: Print S$
38. End Sub
39. Function ts$ (N As Long)
40.     ts$ = _Trim$(Str$(N))
41. End Function
42.  
43.  

I found a really cool loop hole that will make you a ton of fake money legally (sorta).

  [ You are not allowed to view this attachment ]  

Today's quiz, how did I do that? ;-))

Edit: fixed wording

[johnblood]

You know I think it would be easier just to start over from scratch once you get the gist of what the game does.

Here it took about an hour to get the game going and another 2/3 hour to make pretty.

My goal of eating up your free time is working. Ha-ha-ha-ah-ha.

Joking aside. Nice job. I'm not at that level yet. :)

[bplus]

My goal of eating up your free time is working. Ha-ha-ha-ah-ha.

Joking aside. Nice job. I'm not at that level yet. :)

Man this stuff is fun way to eat time! I think this will be next app for SB1 Interpreter :)

Plus you might pick up hints for coding, seeing how others might convert old code or start from scratch and do same functionally.

[johnblood]

I think this will be next app for SB1 Interpreter :)

@bplus  What's that?

[bplus]

SB1 is my idea of what GW Basic would look like wo line numbers and a few less "" for strings, except even GW had better string evaluator.

I don't think it had ElseIF?

The project is in Programs board under name Shorthand Basic. If you are just getting up to speed with QB64, save it for later because it might mess with learning QB64 basic's first.