On 2012-09-18 18:26:58 +0000, Hot Rod <hotrod.apple2@gmail.com> said:Some of you may remember Scott Schram as the author of a few early Apple II games. While dusting off some old info on secret keys (his games had them), I found this article he wrote about those days. I wonder if he kept source code...http://schram.net/articles/games/ ]HRI just emailed him, I will let everyone know if he replies.
Here is his reply by email: Hi Adam, Thanks for writing and for the kind words about my games.I regret that I don't have the source code to my games. �I did have the diskettes for the longest time (and an Apple IIe). �I donated the Apple IIe to a school while they were still using them and thinking about what I would do with the "obsolete" diskettes, I tossed them.
Never throw away any of your own work. �It's among the few things that can never be replaced. �And I didn't imagine that there would be emulators, or even, say, the possibility of adapting one of them for the iPhone. �Which would surely be easier with the source code. �(And in Labyrinth in particular, there were lots of tuning settings for the levels that were intended to make it progress nicely.)
I wish I could read the code, particularly the comments, just for the sake of seeing what I wrote when I was 21. �Some of it was ridiculously complicated, and I was only able to do it because I was naive about the impossibility of it. �And that is all I did, all day long. �(Until later games, when I took up karate training because my fitness was shot.)
For example, the Apple II had 2 screen areas in memory. �I would draw on the hidden screen and then switch screens and erase appropriate areas on the newly hidden screen and redraw it. �I didn't like flicker.
And I didn't like games where collisions didn't perfectly match with your perception of them. �If it looks like you hit something, then you did.
You did not want to ship a game that had a bug in it. �The expense of replacing mailed diskettes would have been awful, and technically the author had to pay for that.
The advent of the iPhone ecosystem (and Steam and Mac App Store) has provided a market again for one-person or small teams to make a living.
All the best, Scott (PS You may quote this message on the group if you like.)