Re: Fraction Fever

[Dan <danlovy1961@gmail.com>]

Dan Lovy here!

It was with great amusement that I received a note from Neil Thayer
about this post.  Yes, I am the author of the Apple II version of
Fraction Fever.  I have in my collection of life memorabilia, a shrink
wrapped copy of this disk.

A few notes -

--You are correct, this was written in compiled BASIC.   I was having
performance issues so I coded a few key routines in 6502 assembler
(the worlds first risc chip).

--This was my first commercial software title.  I began working at
Spinnaker just after graduation.  I got the assignment after boasting
to my boss that I could code it up in 2 weeks.  So, yes, I was working
around the clock.

--This was 30 years ago, and the second time someone has found me
based on finding my name in a Spinnaker product.

I challenge this group to find my name in other Spinnaker Software
products.  HINT - The other mention was found in a C64 version of a
Trillium (Spinnaker's adventure game spin off).

Prize - TBD


On Jan 13, 8:24 pm, datawiz <rich.mar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm beginning to believe that every game has a story embedded in it,
> if you look hard enough....
>
> I was playing with Fraction Fever, making sure that everything worked
> (and brushing up on my basic math! who thinks edu-wares are a waste of
> time?) and out of curiosity, I decide to take a closer look at the
> disk. I know it used a modified DOS 3.3, so I booted up a DOS 3.3
> disk, replaced it with the cracked game disk and ran CATALOG. Imagine
> to my amazement that the author, back in 1982, left in 3 assembly
> language source code files on the retail game disk!
>
> FRAC.SRC
> INSTALL.SRC
> SCAN.SRC
>
> All 3 files are available here:http://204.16.8.40/other/fraction/
>
> The source code are nicely commented by the original author, Dan Lovy
> and dated to 1982/1983. On the SCAN.SRC listing, Dan lists the
> following in the comments:
>
> ;*******************************
> ;     KEYBOARD SCANNING AND
> ;         JOYSTICK INPUT
> ;
> ;  FOR APPLE II FRACTION FEVER
> ;
> ; PROGRAMMED BY DAN LOVY
> ; OCTOBER 15, 1982 (A WEEKEND ARGG!!)
> ;********************************
>
> And in the FRAC.SRC file, we see the following:
>
> ;*********************************
> ;  RANDOM FRACTION PLACER FOR
> ; APPLE II FRACTION FEVER
> ;
> ; PROGRAMMED BY DAN LOVY
> ; 10/17/83
> ;*********************************
> ;
>
> Almost 1 year difference between the Fraction source code (Oct 17,
> 1983) and the Scan source code (October 15, 1982)?
> Seems like a long time for such a simple game. While entertaining,
> Fraction Fever is no Prince of Persia. :)
>
> A little research shows that October 15, 1982 is actually a Friday.http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=1982&country=1
> And while many acknowledge it's the start of the weekend, it's still a
> weekday and poor Dan shouldn't have complained too much about it.
>
> However, October 15, 1983 IS a weekend, a Saturday in fact.http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=1983&country=1
> So it appears poor Dan mistook the year for 1982 instead of 1983.
> Along with the comment (A WEEKEND ARGG!!) it might appear that
> Spinnaker Software had Dan working around the clock to get this game
> complete. Enough for him to forget the appropriate year, AND forget to
> delete this source code from the final retail disk. It certainly
> starts to feel like a pressure cooker environment. :)
>
> I love good comments in code. Not only do they tell about what code is
> doing, but there are glimpses about the personal nature of the
> programmer (at times).
> In the FRAC source, it appears the original code was written or
> prototyped in BASIC, and probably converted to assembly for speed:
>
> ;4114 NU=FN RAD(DE)
> ;4116 A2=A2+3*ST+3*FN RAD(LN)
> ;POKE A2+1,DE-NU:POKE A2+2,NU
>
> And as programmers, we always know that sometimes it's easier to use
> someone's code, rather than write your own...
>
> ;*********************************
> ; SIXTEEN BIT DIVIDE
> ;*********************************
> ;
> ;SEE 6502 ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE SUBROUTINES (OSBORNE)
> ;PG. 245
> ;FOR ALL THE JUICEY DETAILS!
>
> Wasn't it Picaso who said Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal?
>
> ;******************************
> ; MULTIPLY ROUTINE
> ;
> ;********************************
> ;
> ;LIFTED FROM C64 FRACTION FEVER
>
> And finally, sometimes the labels and variable names we choose can
> tell others a lot about what we are thinking at that moment:
>
> OUT LDA INKEY
>  BEQ KLUDGE ;FIX APPLE ASCII
>  SEC
>  SBC #128
> KLUDGE LDY #1 ;GET RIGHT BYTE OF VARIABLE!
> GARB2 DFB 0
>
> Dan Lovy, where ever you may be, thanks for the hard work on Fraction
> Fever, but thanks most of all for remembering to comment your source
> code and forgetting to delete it! I enjoyed the story you left behind.
>
> Rich