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Please note also - THIS BLOG ENDS HERE WITH THE LAST ENTRY FROM NOVEMBER 9th 2021.

I have prepared a new blog with wordpress at https://vintagecomputing.info !!!

Thank you.

I finished an almost playable version of my almost pure data driven Text Adventure Game, which is written in BASICA (GWBASIC). It was done just for fun, to show that modular programming is also possible with an old programming language.
It is *very easy* be modified to have a totally different story line, because most of the game flow is stored in DATA lines.

These DATA lines look like this (excerpt):

4110 DATA "Grass,1,the border,0"
4120 DATA "Grass,1,grassland,0"
4130 DATA "Grass,1,Stones,2,Plants,1,stony ground,0"
4140 DATA "Grass,1,Stones,2,grassland with stones,0"
4150 DATA "Grass,1,Insects,1"
4160 DATA "Grass,1,Trees,1,Nuts,4,a forest,0"
4170 DATA "Grass,1,Trees,1,Nuts,4,a forest,0"
4180 DATA "Grass,1,Trees,1,Nuts,4,a forest,0"
4190 DATA "Grass,1,Trees,1,Nuts,4,Stones,2,a forest and stones,0"

Each object has it's "object" or "item" type in a following number.
There is a type 0 for a description (only), and another type 9 for special descriptions.
The rest of the types are consumable, can be used as a weapon or can be killed ;-)

The map is a rectangle with 11 fields (height and width), but this can be easily changed, too. Also, the descriptions which are shown for each item type can be changed easily.
Just take a look into the source code (at the end all data is listed).

This is still Version 0.90 and contains an extra bug (for testing, line 4060), and has a command not ready implemented, "DRINK" (but the rest is working fine).

Take a look at the running program, I made a video and uploaded it on youtube (see "related link").

The source code of version 0.90 can be downloaded >here<.

Added later: Meanwhile I finished the program to be fully functional, see >here<.

Not well known in Europe, but in Japan: The fastest 8086 PC ever is a NEC PC-98DO+ (one of the later models of the PC-9801 series), build around 1990.
The PC has a NEC V33A CPU running at 16 MHz, which is something between a 8086 and a 80186, but not an AT compatible (or higher). It has an EGA graphics card, a YM2608 (OPNA) sound chip/card, and of course already using a HDD, too.

The design looks like the later EPSON PC clone design, but we know, NEC build their PCs a bit before EPSON did it, too.
Unfortunately the V33A CPU is *not* pin compatible with the standard 8086, instead, it has a separate address and data bus, but has the same instruction set as the NEC V30 (which is pin compatible with the 8086). May be it is possible to build a CPU adapter for it, but it's far too late to have still a high demand for this ;-)

Still have no time to finish my modular text adventure game in plain GWBASIC. I am still struggeling with the complexity to have something like a evaluable map with items, story elements and terrain details. At the moment, only the command interpreter is finished, and a basic mechanism for going around and looking the items you can see or get, beside some debugging infos.


But while surfing through the world wide web, I found a really nice archive of vintage computer advertisments mainly from the late seventies/early eighties.
E.g. Cromenco's Z-2 system, which is a really nice S-100 bus computer, but meanwhile hard to find. It's named as "Low cost harddisk system", which may sound unbelievable, also because this system wasn't cheap at all (below $10000 ... wow isn't it worth the price :facepalm:).
It's running CDOS 2.x (Cromenco Disk Operating System, which can run CP/M programs, too) or Cromix. The Z-2H was the hard disk version, the Z-2D the diskette version.
Further infos can be found at >http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/crom/index.htm<

For the URL of the advertisment site, see "related link" below.

Most of us can't remember this "PC" (no, not an Intel PC, of course).
But it even has elements (parts) which are similar to the first IBM PC (e.g. the power switch).
In 1973, a prototype for programming APL was build, named SCAMP.
IBM developed it further to the Model 5100 (followed by 5110, 5120).
It already had a 16bit "CPU" (in fact, the CPU is a module with more than one IC), which addressed 64KB RAM, and had also a kind of bank switching for accessing memory (like the later CP/M 3.0 computer).
I am fascinated about it's mass storage (a QIC magnetic tape) and it's professional finish (... what else do you expect from IBM in 1975 ?). Beside APL, it can be programmed in machine language and of course in BASIC (not Microsoft BASIC !).

This is an advertisment which praise the systems versatily and obvious portability (24Kg) ;-)
Interestingly, the first IBM PC got the model number 5150... also not by accident.

Last but not least, a popular japanese anime series and movie and also a well known video game for several game consoles named "Steins;Gate" has also an IBN 5100 (sounds similar, eh) as a guest star. See here:

I wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year 2019 !

Btw. There is an Amiga demo existing, which contains digitalized singing ("Leise rieselt der Schnee", means "silenty is falling the snow") and a colorful picture showing a lot of Santa's ... but it's an unusual demo, hard rock inspired a bit, and the gestures are unusual, too ....

There are other Amiga demos which shows 3D effects and more, but not really XMAS related.

Also, I've found an improved version of CPMLS (running on Windows).
Take a look at http://www.sydneysmith.com/wordpress/2251/cpmfs-2-00/ to get more infos.
Really useful.