Articles by Kevin Savetz

Greetings from the tail end of 2022. This is my annual letter summarizing the computer history work that I did this year. When I wrote last year’s letter, I was in a bit of a funk. I wrote: I doubt I will be as productive in 2022 as I was …

It’s the waning days of 2021, which means it’s time for my annual summary of the computer history efforts I’ve made in the past year. I published interviews with 29 people across 28 episodes of ANTIC: The Atari 8-Bit Podcast. Many of those interviews can be grouped into specific subjects …

It’s 2021. Thank goodness. I don’t need to tell you that 2020 was a horrendous year. I’m just glad that it’s over. Of course, the flipping of the calendar doesn’t change a thing, but the new year brings hope that the days to come will be better than the days …

Hot on the heels of the poker game, I wrote a blackjack game for the 10-line BASIC contest. It is also in TurboBASIC XL on the Atari 8-bit, and also in ten 120-character lines. I borrowed the card shuffling code from the poker game, …

My first entry for the 2020 10-line BASIC contest is a poker machine simulator written in TurboBASIC XL for the Atari 8-bit computer. At ten 120-character lines, it qualifies for the PUR-120 category. It is based on the common “Jacks Or Better” poker machine, although I changed the payouts …

Hello, it’s 2020, and time for my annual look back at the computer history work that I did in the past year. I find it helpful to make a periodic checkpoint, and the start of the new year is a good time to do it.The bulk of the year’s work …

A quickie, final entry for the 2019 10-liner BASIC contest: GARDEN.

Inspired by arjanvandermeij’s #plottertwitter art “8 bits binary flowers,” I wanted to create something similar on the Atari 8-bit. I recently learned how to draw ellipses in my work on Renderiffic, my SVG renderer for Atari 8-bit computers,

…

Use the joystick controller to land your LEM (lunar excursion module) on a moon. Land on one of the green landing pads. The trigger fires the main thrusters, pushing the ship upward against the moon’s gravity. Left/right stick movement fires the side thrusters for horizontal movement.

A control panel

…

My sixth entry in the 10-line BASIC contest is Bomber, a Kaboom! clone. It’s written in Turbo BASIC XL and fits in the PUR-120 category. You need a paddle controller and quick reflexes to catch the mad bomber’s falling bombs. The game ends when you miss five bombs. You earn

…

My fifth 10-line BASIC contest entry is Bouncy, a throw-the-ball-into-the-goal game loosely based on “Cup” by Jonathan Freidin from the 1979 book “More BASIC Computer Games.” I have never actually played Cup, but read the sample game and code in the classic red book many times over as a kid.

…