The code is ready (I think). I’ve made it available in the following locations: github: https://github.com/urbancamo/vaxlander28g wickensonline.co.uk: http://wickensonline.co.uk/static/files/rc202004/vaxlander28g.zip The zip file contains a VAX/VMS executable that will run on a SIMH OpenVMS 7.3 instance without needing to install BASIC to compile. Enjoy!
So I have been working hard over the last couple of days to convert my BBC lander program to VAX Basic. This has not been a trivial task! I decided that I would try and make use of the structured programming facilities available. This requires that sub modules are in separate source files, so I …
So, just a quick update, I haven’t forgotten about RetroChallenge! I remembered that the VAX version of BASIC includes graphics support via the GKS library and thought I might be able to make use of that to code up a graphical version of my BBC BASIC Lander. VAX BASIC is quite different from BBC BASIC, …
I’ve been paying more attention to vintage computing since my portable amateur radio activities have been curtailed due to COVID-19. I recently found an excellent youtube video: Bob Supnik being a key figure from DEC’s history and also implementer of the VAX emulation in SIMH. There was also a very interesting post on the HECNET …
Hopefully not another false start, this is a last minute entry into the RC2020/04 competition, put on unofficially by Mark Sherman, to his credit. I got in touch with John Linville and Dale Goodfellow who used to run the competition with me to see what had become of it, and thankfully it looks like between …
I’m going to give Retrochallenge another go this year with a programming project to emulate the iconic 1980’s handheld electronic game Grandstand’s Astro Wars. I was bought this game as a Christmas present around 1981 and played the thing to death.
So, what to do this time round? Well, I haven’t made my mind up yet, but that’s OK! What I want to do this time is to have fun and not set myself some grandiose goal that will just act like a pair of concrete boots. Some thoughts: Play and document an indie game a …
An update is well overdue. I’ve managed to lose another post as well, but it was pretty much a ‘I’m still on with it’ post. I had a hard lock up whilst running the TERMINAL program and couldn’t clear it with the RESET button, so I had to pull the batteries and switch off the …
Last night I started looking more seriously, as promised, into implementing a telnet client in LUA for the ESP8266 Wifi Module. I have been using an excellent development environment called ESPlorer – this runs on linux, Windows & OS/X. I tried reading the RTC for the telnet protocol but that was, predictably, dry, so I …
This is now the second time I’ve written this blog post. I found an unfortunate consequence in choosing Download rather than Upload in the Tandy 200’s TERMINAL program is that if you give the name of the existing file it is immediately overwritten with a blank document! More care required in future! I’ve spent most …