Re: Is it too hard to program for the Apple?

[bloomer_au <bloomer@iprimus.com.au>]

>     When I started out programming games, I used strictly BASIC and plotted
> my games (all text adventures - my favourites) on a large board, setting
> out the rooms, directions, objects found in each location and would assign
> a subroutine for each room (using GOSUB) and simple input (IN#) to make
> selections: N, E, W, S, LOOK, EXAMINE, GET, DROP etc.  Once I had a basic
> pattern set up, then I could modulize and simply change the data but use
> the same mapping strategy, just changing around some of the paths to make
> each game unique.
>
>     I must have written over 100 games in this manner and distributed them
> to a number of friends over the years.  I never charged for any of the
> games, it was just the fun of seeing who could solve it the quickest.
> Each room had a really toughie poser to find so it wasn't just a quick
> walkthrough.  There were real mysteries in each game and to solve it
> probably about 10 hours of steady play to get to the end.
>
>     My master disks were lost in a flood years ago and this was before
> internet access was available locally (pre-1994), so the games have all
> been lost as far as I know unless someone out there has copies.  I also
> made custom indicia screens with scrolling, sliding, phasing titles and
> credits on each disk.
>
> Tony

Ugh, that sucks you lost them!

I also did the making maps and advance planning method. My program
design came from usborne's 'How to write adventure games' book. I
guess I made about 5 or 6 games using that system. Probably only the
last 2 were really worth playing for strangers, but the program
databases were so large
at that point that there was a huuuuge pause after you entered each
command.