I have not done any coding (used to be programming) since the mid 80’s, so I thought I would give it a go. So…
40 Years Later I’m Learning to Code.
So, I went back to the beginning. No, not Assembly. I have already entered so much hex, 1/4 of my brain is now dead.
I mean BASIC. Apple ][ Basic to be specific. I found an online Apple Basic emulator that is just like it was back in the day.
I also found an OLD book: ‘Write Your Own Adventure Programs For Your Microcomputer‘. Catchy title huh?
So, I am making a text based adventure game, from scratch (mostly).
I was amazed by how much I remembered, so I started doing it & not just copy/pasting from the book. I was figuring out most of it on my own. Except the parser. I had a lot of trouble with that one, at least trying to get it to run fast, so I just plagiarized the one in the book.
Then I took a look at newer code, like: C/C#/C++, JavaScript, Rust & Go, and I could kind of work some stuff out in my head. I did not get Python or Java at all.
I think for now I will stick to Apple BASIC. FYI: I do not write ‘spaghetti’ code. I only have two GOTO statements in the entire program.
As of this writing I am about 80% done with my Text Adventure Game Generation Engine Designer or TAGGED. Now I just need to think of an adventure to put in.
It’s also cool that Claude can convert my BASIC programs into a modern language for me, to use on mobile or something newer.
When I get this done I will post the source code & instructions on how to put your own adventure game into TAGGED, on here & my github.
