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Post by n00b on Mar 11, 2023 14:56:48 GMT -6
I saw a post about this on the jam page and thought it was pretty cool. You can use it entirely in the web browser. I played around with it and its pretty awesome. MiniBasic on Itch.io |
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Post by johnno56 on Mar 11, 2023 21:57:46 GMT -6
Pretty cool... Includes my old nemesis... Line numbers...
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Post by johnno56 on Mar 11, 2023 23:16:06 GMT -6
Downloaded minibasic. Looks like it may be some version of Apple soft. It will do PLOT but not HPLOT. Drawing on the screen inverts the Y axis. I think it has a problem with PEEK and POKE. But that was testing an old Apple 2 artillery game. Printing of text, using VTAB an HTAB seem to work just fine. I still need to check out Mini's list of reserved words - assuming they are listed somewhere... But overall it seem to be an interesting Basic.
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Post by johnno56 on Mar 11, 2023 23:51:23 GMT -6
Update: Found the list of keywords. There are not a lot but they cover the basics (no pun intended)
PRINT INPUT ON GOTO IF THEN ELSE FOR TO STEP NEXT END LET DIM REDIM DEF FN GOSUB RETURN DATA READ RESTORE REM STOP BREAK CLEAR CLS HOME HTAB VTAB OFF GET WAIT SOUND OPEN CLOSE PRINT# INPUT# GET# COLOR LINE PLOT FILL RECT ELLIPSE POLY IMAGE PEN NEW LIST LISTREM CD PWD DIR CAT CATALOG LOAD SAVE RUN RENUMBER EDIT ( ) EQV IMP XOR OR AND NOT = <> < > <= >= + - * / \ MOD ^
... and uses the same colour palette as the C-64
palette = ("#000000 #FFFFFF #880000 #AAFFEE #CC44CC #00CC55 #0000AA #EEEE77 #DD8855 #664400 #FF7777 #333333 #777777 #AAFF66 #0088FF #BBBBBB")
Interesting quirk. Tested a simple program without line numbers... When the LOAD command is used, the program loads and immediately executes. run "filename.bas" does not work but load "filename.bas":run does... The default graphics screen seems to be about 1000x600'sh pixels...
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Post by n00b on Mar 13, 2023 14:31:08 GMT -6
I only played with it for about 20 minutes but it is really well built. The dev said he would try to encourage some of his users to enter the jam so maybe we will see a few entries for it.
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Post by johnno56 on Mar 14, 2023 5:16:40 GMT -6
We can only wait and see...
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Post by joestrout on Mar 15, 2023 11:24:17 GMT -6
Hey all, I'm the dev!  So glad you guys are digging MiniBASIC. To clarify, it is not an implementation of Applesoft or any other specific BASIC dialect. It's based on the Microsoft BASIC-80 documentation, and some informal surveying of what's common in various 80s-era home computer BASICs. So to adapt an Applesoft program (like lemonade.bas, or several smaller demos from my own youth, both of which you'll find in the demo directory) takes some adjustments. For example, there is no PEEK and POKE and no poking machine-language routines into memory, which was commonly used to create sound, but it does have a SOUND command (which is similar in capabilities and syntax to that on the C-64). The display is 960x640 (32-bit color). And all this (including the full set of commands and functions) is documented here: github.com/JoeStrout/minibasic/blob/main/DOCUMENTATION.mdI think the MiniBASIC functionality and API are pretty stable, but I'm not done improving it -- when I get a chance (maybe this weekend?), I have in mind a refactoring that should improve its performance substantially. (Though it's already about 5X faster than native Applesoft in my tests, so it's not terrible.) I'm so happy to meet you all and if you have any more questions about MiniBASIC, don't hesitate to ask! |
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Post by johnno56 on Mar 15, 2023 14:19:39 GMT -6
Quick question(s): Will MiniBasic ever have the ability to load images? (eg: 32x32 png files etc) If not, some older basics, Amstrad, Spectrum and BBC had the ability to redefine the ascii characters (during game play only). Could this be a possibility?
By the way... Ahl and Usborne book images are among my collection... Cool reading...
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Post by joestrout on Mar 16, 2023 12:47:21 GMT -6
There is already an IMAGE command that draws an image (loaded from disk) to the graphics display. See the demo/drawing program for an example!
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Post by johnno56 on Mar 16, 2023 13:18:17 GMT -6
Ahh... I must be one of those who suffer from selective blindness... *sigh*
Thank you...
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Post by johnno56 on Mar 16, 2023 16:41:30 GMT -6
Initially, I could not fine the drawing program (see first attachment), so I began loading the other programs... I think I eventually found it... It seems that somehow the drawing program felt a little lonely and decided to merge itself to the "silver mountain" adventure (refer to zip attached - about line #335) Oh well... lol  silverMountain.zip (7.11 KB) ps: I have the PDF version of the book on file... Sounds like fun... pps: I am running the Linux version of MB. J |
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Post by johnno56 on Mar 16, 2023 16:59:08 GMT -6
Oh. Here is something funny. According the book, the game starts off with. "You are at a crossroads. You can go E, W." From "my" perspective, that is NOT a crossroad, that is a "T" junction... Ah... the fun and games with culture and language... Still sounds like fun... lol
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Post by joestrout on Mar 16, 2023 21:44:17 GMT -6
I agree with you 100% about that crossroads! I had the same thought.
But I don't know what the heck happened to your copy of drawing demo! I just checked the build on the web and it's clearly separate there. I'm... completely baffled.
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Post by johnno56 on Mar 16, 2023 23:36:57 GMT -6
Ok. Update. Went directly to the github page and downloaded the missing drawing files and also the silver mountain file. All files ran as coded with no errors... I tested Silver Mountain... Cool game... Next time I play, "make a map"!
Cannot explain the past glitches. I checked and re-checked the downloaded zip file... Drawing programs were not there and the Silver Mountain file was corrupted... It is a mystery to me as well...
Anyway, everything is running fine... The Othello game ran too fine... The rotten thing beat me... grrr... (but it only happened once... Moo ha ha ha...)
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Post by kennn on Mar 21, 2023 3:51:30 GMT -6
It seems that MiniBASIC was developed with Unity. Unity is really versatile and good.
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So glad you guys are digging MiniBASIC.
