Back in 1991, I operated a small software company in Australia named Entertainment Software. Essentially, it was a mail-order business, complemented by several independent computer stores that carried my products.
During that same year, I reached out to Jack Lockerby, an adventure game author from the UK who ran a small business called River Software. Jack had published several text adventure games for the Commodore 64. My goal was to strike a deal with him and bring his adventure games to the Australian market.
I contacted Jack to explore the possibility of striking a deal to sell his adventure games in Australia.
We reached an agreement, and Entertainment Software began selling River Software adventures through mail order and small advertisements in local Commodore computer magazines. Although these games didn’t generate significant sales for me, they were of high quality. However, the market had shifted away from adventure games in general, so we decided to retire the game series in late 1994 before venturing into a new business called Southern Star Computers.
In September 1986, I found myself in year 10 at a regional high school in New South Wales, eagerly anticipating my work experience at a local computer shop called RAMROD. The store manager, Greg, was an absolutely awesome guy who drove an old 1969 VW Beetle with a personalised license plate that read “PORSCHE.”
During my two-week stint, I immersed myself in learning about computers, business, and everything I could get my hands on. Most of my time was spent selling computers and programming an Adventure Game interpreter for a multi-word parser on one of the shop’s KAYPRO luggables.
Fast forward four years, and I was now working for Patronics—one of Australia’s largest software distributors in the burgeoning home computer industry. Little did I know that the multi-word parser from my work experience would resurface, weaving its way into my professional journey.
During this pivotal moment, I joined forces with my colleague Neil Miller to embark on an exciting endeavor: crafting a fresh graphic and text adventure series for the ATARI ST. We wrote the game using STOS, with the intention of marketing it through Patronics and ATARI Australia.
So the Rian Rookaby “Quest Adventure” series was born.
Armed with an ATARI 1040 ST as our development machine of choice, we embarked on the task of converting my original 1986 KAYPRO source code into STOS-compatible code. We meticulously removed errors and significantly improved the code using STOS.
Despite both of us working full-time at Patronics, we dedicated our evenings and weekends to the Quest series. A few months into development, we pitched the idea to our contacts at ATARI, hoping they’d be interested in releasing it alongside Patronics.
The initial feedback was positive—they liked the story and the progress we’d made—but they weren’t fully committed to purchasing it. However, they didn’t shut the door completely. Undeterred, we continued for a couple more months.
Then came the devastating news: ATARI Australia was closing down. Without ATARI, there would be no more ATARI STs in the Australian market. Our Adventure Quest series faced an uncertain fate, and it became clear that finishing a game for a computer that wouldn’t be around much longer was futile.
The code example above was scanned in 2020 and shows the very early beta source code for Rian Rookaby and the Quest for the Sun.
On Monday, June 30, 1986, we launched Comm-Link BBS for the Gosford Commodore User Group (based in Gosford, NSW). Over the past six months, I had worked on designing, programming, and conducting extensive testing to reach the point where users could successfully dial into the BBS, log in, and leave messages for the sysop, Jeff Campbell (affectionately known as “Nuggets” to his friends).
The message was simple:
Message #1
From: Scott
Send To: Jeff
Subject: BBS
Date: 30/6/86
Hello there.
Goodbye....
With that straightforward message, we witnessed a fully operational BBS in action for the first time. It ran on a stock Commodore 64, equipped with a single 1541 disk drive, an MPS 803 printer, and the all-important Commodore-compatible First Nice Modem. After hundreds of hours of work since January of that year, the BBS was finally ready for members to dial into.
In 2020, during my spare time, I scanned hundreds of documents, computer printouts, and notes spanning the past 40 years—all related to my software coding, from design concepts to actual source code. Among these scans were the original printouts of Comm-Link BBS version 1.0, a Bulletin Board Software program I developed for GOSCOM, the Gosford Commodore User Group. I created this program as a temporary solution while the club saved up funds to purchase additional Commodore hardware and commercially available BBS software.
The story begins in January 1986—38 years ago—but reading through the source code and notes feels like just yesterday. During the January 1986 committee meeting (I served as the Software Librarian responsible for managing Public Domain software), the conversation shifted to the idea that we were now large enough to have our own BBS. We wanted something local for members to call without incurring the expense of long-distance STD calls (which were prohibitively costly in the ’80s).
Jeff Campbell, the club treasurer, spoke up, mentioning that he had a second C64—a spare one we could use. He also expressed willingness to purchase a disk drive and modem with the club’s assistance if we all agreed to have our own BBS. Consequently, we reached a consensus: a BBS was in order. However, lacking Bulletin Board software and the funds to buy one of the few commercial BBS options on the market, the conversation shifted toward creating our own solution.
My recollection is a bit hazy, but at some point, everyone turned to me and asked, ‘Why doesn’t Scott give it a try?’ After all, I had experience writing games and utilities and had successfully fixed software in our library.
Without knowing any better, I agreed to give it a try, and that marked the beginning of our adventure in creating a BBS. Between January 1986 and June 1986, we dedicated hundreds of hours to planning, designing, and coding the BBS. With assistance from another club member who modified an Australian modem called the First Nice Modem, I was able to make it work with the Commodore 64, allowing the modem to automatically answer incoming calls.
Once I’d worked out how to have the C64 detect and auto answer the incoming call I set about working on the main program. The coding came about at a fast rate often I was left waiting for decisions to be made on what things the BBS was going to offer until we finally settled on the following –
After figuring out how to make the C64 detect and automatically answer incoming calls, I focused on developing the main program. The coding process proceeded rapidly, although I often found myself waiting for decisions regarding the features the BBS would offer. Eventually, we settled on the following set of features.
COMMANDS
B – Bulletin
E – Enter Message
G – GOSCOM
R – Reviews
P – Please read
T – Talk with Sysop
V – View Messages
I – System Infor
O – Output Magazine
M – Message to Sysop
L – Log off
Without delving into further details at this point, there’s another story I’ll write up someday. It explains how I managed to install a telephone line in my bedroom without my parents’ knowledge—until the day they picked up the phone and heard some wild sounds.
During the first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, I decided to tackle the task of scanning old paperwork and digitizing it on my PC. As I sifted through boxes of documents, I stumbled upon a treasure trove of computer printouts dating back to the early 1980s. These were from my days of learning to program on the Commodore VIC 20 and Commodore 64.
Back then, I was passionate about creating Text Adventures, and my friend Gavin and I teamed up to write a couple of them. The first adventure, “Shipwrecked,” was completed and published. However, the second one, “Space Station Lyra,” only made it to the BETA stage without any playtesting.
Fast-forward to 2024, and I revisited those scanned documents. As I sorted through them, I discovered the printouts, game maps, and other crucial materials related to “Space Station Lyra.” Digging into my old disk images (created about 15 years ago), I even found work-in-progress saves for the game, including a graphic title screen and a custom space-age font.
Using these scattered files and scans, I managed to reconstruct significant portions of the long-lost, never-published game. It’s now about 80% complete, and with some free time, I might be able to finish what we started 39 years ago. The disk image, title screen, font file, and adventure database are all neatly organised in a new D64 image file, awaiting the next steps toward completion.
Over the past 4 years I have been on the look out for some programming books for the retro machines, computers and the original classic consoles from the early 1980’s when I stumbled across an author named Oscar Toledo G. who had written a book on who to program the Intellivision.
Oscar followed this book up with another more advanced programming book on the same platform which took development for this classic console to another level. This was then followed up by a couple of fantastic books for the x86 (PC) and how to write boot sector games in 512 bytes.
Recently Oscar released another awesome development book this time for the Atari 2600 (late last year) and then followed up only a couple weeks ago with on one for developing games for the Coleco console.
Oscar has written some pretty amazing books, well reached and containing easy to follow content on how to make games for these classic consoles or if the PC is more up your alley the challenge of making an actual game in 512 bytes.
A crash course into 8086/8088 assembler programming, in an easy way with practice at each step.
You will learn how to use the registers, move data, do arithmetic, and handle text and graphics.
You can run these programs on any PC machine and no program exceeds 512 bytes of executable code!
Examples:
Guess the number
Tic-Tac-Toe game
Text graphics
Mandelbrot set
F-Bird game
Invaders game
Pillman game
Toledo Atomchess
bootBASIC langauge
This book contains all the elements needed to learn 6507 assembly language, how to control the graphics elements of the TIA, create music and sound, and a step by step guide to the creation of five amazing games:
Introducing “Parachute Rescue”, the retro-inspired game currently in a beta release that will take you on a thrilling adventure to save falling parachute divers from the jaws of hungry sharks! In Parachute Rescue, players take control of a small rowboat and navigate through treacherous waters to rescue parachute divers who have fallen from the sky.
Parachute Rescue (HTML5)
As you play, you’ll encounter various challenges, including rough seas, treacherous rocks, and the ever-present threat of hungry sharks. You must have quick reflexes and a steady hand as you maneuver your rowboat to save the parachute divers before they fall into the water.
Catch the parachute diver
The game features a nostalgic 8-bit art style reminiscent of classic arcade games of the 80s and a chiptune-inspired soundtrack that will keep you engaged and entertained as you play. The gameplay is simple and intuitive, making it easy for players of all ages and skill levels to pick up and play.
Parachute Rescue is available on PC, Mac, iOS and Android, so you can play it wherever you go. It’s a perfect game for those who love classic arcade games and want to relive the nostalgia of the 80s and for those who are new to the genre and want to experience the fun and excitement of retro-inspired gaming.
Don’t let the sharks get the divers
So grab your rowboat and set sail to rescue those parachute drivers! Parachute Rescue is available now and will surely be a hit with gamers of all ages.
Had a few nights free recently so was inspired to create a simple game for the unexpanded Commodore VIC – 20 using BASIC v2.0. For those who have programmed the VIC 20 in BASIC realise that you only have 3.5KB of memory in this configuration.
SNAKE in Commodore BASIC
The inspiration for Snake came from watching ‘The Coding Train‘ on Youtube where a Snake game was created for the Apple II in BASIC. The reason for targeting the VIC was that memory limitation increased the challenge and the ability for using colour, sound and a joystick or keyboard for a controller which were key to the VIC – 20 success.
SNAKE grows when eating the pi symbol (RAT)
Like traditional versions of SNAKE you start with a snake of one segment and eat time you eat some food in this case the pi symbol (which looks like a RAT) your snake increases in size by one more segment.
You snake can grow to 20 segments (memory limits) but be careful as if you eat yourself then the game will end. Also if you go off the size of the screen either top or bottom you may die… To add some challenge going off the sides might wrap the screen or if may kill your snake so be careful and only try it if you feel very lucky 🙂
Track high score
You can view the VIC 20 source code and download for Snake here.
I’ve been continuing to clean up old documents, backup, and take the time to sort these out. Unsurprisingly, after 40 years of working with, programming and running various computer/software-related businesses, I would gather so much stuff.
I’m slowly putting it all together, deleting things that are of anymore and making sure that I capture and detail via these blog items of interest to me or maybe others can stumble across them.
Today, this blog entry relates to a small utility I wrote 20 years ago. In 2002, I wrote a little program that allowed for easy access to Commodore DOS commands; that was nothing new as these types of utilities have been created since Commodore computers came to be.
Screenshot version 1.01 (2002)
The difference with this utility was that it was specifically write to be used with Nick Copland’s fantastic application which turned an old DOS PC into a working hard drive for the Commodore 64.
The program was call HDD-Tools and v2.0 was published for free in 2002. The application gave the user who was using Nick’s software access to the following commands.
All normal Commodore DOS command –
Scratch (delete files)
Rename
Initialise
Validate
Copy
Plus these HDD supported commands –
Directory View
Set Time
Set Date
Blocks Free
Switch Short / Long filenames
Report Protocol Speed
Create DOS Directory
Remove DOS Directory
Create C64 disk image (D64) with you were using the Professional Version of HDD
At the time I released the application as a downloadable (D64) image but I also worked on a cartridge (ROM) release. This release was made; well it went as far as being written and burnt onto a ROM but ultimately never finished. I may still find the source code for this while cleaning up and if I do I’ll release here.
Well continuing on from my last post with an Arduino Nano running TinyBASIC with it 1k of memory I’ve gone one step further and picked up an STM8 BASIC dev board (STM8S103F3 Microcontroller) which is running BASIC and has 611 bytes free.
STM8 BASIC
After wiring up a USB to serial connection following the simple instructions and firing up my serial terminal I was greeted with a really simple user interface.
Embedded BASIC
Coding is pretty simple as you would expect with the BASIC language and within a few minutes I had wired up a simply LED to PA3 and coded the simple yet effective blinking LED demo.
10 REM BLINK LED port A (PA3)
15 CLS
20 POKE $5002,$FF
30 POKE $5000,$FF
40 PRINT "LED ON"
50 SLEEP 1
60 POKE $5000,0
70 PRINT "LED OFF"
80 SLEEP 1
90 GOTO 20
I’ve been playing around with TinyBASIC Arduino Nano tonight and hooked up a blue LED and had it flash.
10 FOR A=0 TO 10
20 DWRITE 13, HIGH
30 DELAY 250
40 DWRITE 13, LOW
50 DELAY 250
60 NEXT A
Parts:
1 x 330 resistor
1 x LED
2 x connecting wires
D13 is connected to 330 resistor to positive LED and negative to GND.Also saved it to EEProm on chip using ESAVE command so that it stored when I turn off and on again.
