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About bjbell52

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  1. I'm trying to write a short user defined function in Atari 7800 Basic. I can't find any examples in the sample programs that come with it. The 7800 User Guide says you can and gives this example... It doesn't compile, I get this error message "ERROR, extraneous end statement found. I originally didn't indent the "end" but I tried to indent it and that didn't work. What am I missing? function sgn rem this function returns the sign of a number rem if 0 to 127, it returns 1 rem if -128 to 1 (or 128 to 255), it returns -1 (or 255) rem if 0, it returns 0 if temp1=0 then return 0 if temp1 <128 then return 1 else return 255 end
  2. I just got this error message from Visual Studio. I keep getting stuck so rather than reboot I tried changing the code to start at a random x and y location. Unfortunately, I forgot the random function an Atari 7800 basic doesn't work the same as the old Atari basic, so I did what I always do, I multiplied rand by 154 for the position and $A0 for the y position. That's when I got this error... I change the code to just rand and the problem went away. So, I'm reporting it . My bad *** (246): WARNING, there seems to be a problem. your code may not run properly. please report seeing this message.
  3. This is what I've done the past week. I'm using the plotvalue trick and it's a great help. I'm working on moving the hero (does he have a name) and thanks to that hint, I can see the value of the tiles he's on, the ones to the left or right, and the ones to the top or bottom. It's really helping me figure out his movement. I have one with the plotvalues and one without. A7800_ Atari 7800 (NTSC) Cool [a7800] 2021-05-03 19-38-12.mp4 A7800_ Atari 7800 (NTSC) Cool [a7800] 2021-05-03 20-59-29.mp4
  4. Thanks. I'll probably need those programmer's help from time to time.
  5. Thanks. I'm trying to get Visual Studio Code editor working. Write now I use notepad to enter code, then I go to DOS and run 7800bas to compile it. Then I move it into the MESS emulator folder, and finally mount the compiled program in MESS to run. VSC looks like I can do everything from that program.
  6. I'm trying to use Visual Studio v0.7.1 but I can't get it to compile and run. It opens up a browser window and tries to connect to the place I have my source code using http://localhost:8080/ . The error message says it can't connect. I did a search for port 8080 and it's not in use. Any ideas?

  7. That's the game. It's written in Atari Basic and uses Atari's string moving routines to move the 5 sprites vertically. It was Softsides first Atari disc enhancement. I just wish I would have followed up and wrote an article demonstrating the technique so people could write games entirely in Basic.
  8. I'm retired and needed something to keep my brain working so I decided to port a video game. One of the first Atari 800 games I bought was Apple Panic. I decided it would be a nice place to start. Never having written in Atari 7800Basic, it's a learning experience. I've received help from others who have posted on this forum and I probably will ask for help from time to time. The last game I wrote was back in 1981 - I wrote a volleyball game on the Atari 400 for Softside magazine. It probably was the first they published that used player/missile graphics entirely in basic. This is as far as I have gone with my Apple Panic game written in 7800Basic.
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