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Intelligentleman

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Posts posted by Intelligentleman

  2. Posted

    32 minutes ago, DZ-Jay said:

    👍

     

    Now (perhaps out of personal self-interest to expand the Intellivision programming community and see more games being made for the Intellivision), let me once again encourage you to take up IntyBASIC. :)

     

         -dZ.

    Alright, I'll look into getting it set up. I might be more inclined to make "experiences" rather than traditional "games" however. No idea really.

  3. Posted

    3 minutes ago, DZ-Jay said:

    The problem is that, in my opinion, some of those concepts are corrupted by the need to fight the language in order to get anything done.

     

    For instance, if you want to teach a child how Boolean logic influences control flow, you can expose them to the "IF" statement, but other than trivial comparison, you saw how convoluted it is to express something as fundamentally simple as the concept of "not equal."

     

    That's what happened to me as a child.  I was purposely exaggerating the experience for dramatic effect, but essentially, I ended up learning how to fight with ECS BASIC more so than learning how to think logically.

     

    Still, it's not completely useless, so don't let me discourage your child.  Just be aware that it tends to enforce a set of bad habits for anybody clever and curious enough to want to break away from the short examples shown in the user's guide.

     

         -dZ.

    Totally get what you're saying. If I was going to ever introduce programming to my kids, I can see using the ECS - but only so far as to show them the concept of using alphanumeric "words" and "phrases" to literally tell a computer what to do.

     

    Then, if they started showing real interest, that's when I'd switch them over to something worth spending time to learn. At first, they don't even need to know about different programming languages. I just want them to understand that we tell computers what to do, then the computer does it. (At least for now... lol, that is quickly changing).

    • Like 1

  4. Posted

    4 minutes ago, carlsson said:

    So you like Mattel, and you like computers, but you don't like every computer that may have been sold through Mattel.

    Well for example. My son wouldn't even be interested in a computer that was styled like either one of those cases. He would be turned off because they don't even resemble a "real" computer aethetically. Compated to the INTV/ECS and Aquarius, which at least look like something "serious." Well, to a 6-year-old kid, anyway.

  6. Posted

    2 minutes ago, DZ-Jay said:

    I understand.  Same with me.

     

    My recommendation is ...

    If you had an Intellivision, go for IntyBASIC.  If you had an Aquarius, do that instead.

     

    If you had an ECS ... play with it for a while, then go for IntyBASIC. :)

     

    Alright. So essentially that is what's happening here. The last piece of the puzzle will be IntyBasic, I suppose. But I'm still enjoying the novelty of programming on the ECS. I love the look of the display too. It's completely impractical due to the GIANT font size, but man does it look cool when you write even just a simple program on there! haha.

    • Like 1

  7. Posted

    DZ-Jay, i know you said that none of the skills you learned on the ECS translated to the "real" computers, BUT, what about as a tool to simple understand the concept of programming a computer in the first place. Young kids today have no idea how a piece of software comes to be in the first place. So I still think the ECS is good in that regard.

  9. Posted · Edited by Intelligentleman

    1 hour ago, carlsson said:

    The Aquarius was considered outdated when it was released in c:a June 1983, which explains why it was brought off the shelves in October and that the rights were reversed back to Radofin. Still it appears to have a rather fast BASIC for being a 3.58 MHz Z80 machine with Microsoft, so while it may have limits on the graphics side, it would run laps around the ECS BASIC in terms of execution time (and program complexity).

    Awesome. Just bought a complete Aquarius set - base system, tape deck.

     

    EDIT: Oops, does not include the mini expander or printer. The printer I can take or leave. But I need that mini expander!

    • Like 1

  10. Posted

    11 minutes ago, carlsson said:

    Nintendo actually comes to my mind with Mario Maker. Actually they were early with that, since Family BASIC for the Nintendo Famicom has a number of built-in Mario graphics for you to reuse as you find fitting. I'm not sure if the Family BASIC even allows you to define your own graphics or if you're stuck with the Mario ones.

    I thought of that, too. However, Nintendo is also one of THE most draconian companies when it comes to punishing fans for their homebrew creations. At least they are in recent times.

  12. Posted · Edited by Intelligentleman

    Man you guys really hate ECS BASIC. I guess I have the advantage(?) of discovering it without any pre-launch expectations. I'm not disappointed by it because I knew it was a wonky setup going in. Also, the ability to pull in graphic assets from the Mattel cartridges is rad - whether you can do anything remotely interesting with them in a program or not. I don't care what anybody says :P What media company today would openly invite you to mess around with their IP and, potentially, make an entertaining game out of it for you and your friends?

     

    Aside from that, a person in this thread shared a link to some of his ECS programs, and just from reading through the code, they look awesomse!

    • Like 1

  13. Posted

    6 minutes ago, DZ-Jay said:

    By the way, if you want to compare a string name, you can do it, but one character at a time.  Something like this:

      

    10 SET A$ = "DZ-JAY"
15 A = 0
20 PRIN "WHAT IS YOUR NAME?"
30 GET B$
40 FOR I=1 TO 6
50 IF A$(I)=B$(I) GOTO 60
55 A=A+1
60 NEXT I
70 IF A=0 GOTO 100
80 PRIN "HELLO DZ-JAY"
90 PRIN "NICE TO MEET YOU."
95 GOTO 110
100 PRIN "WHO ARE YOU?"
110 GOTO 20

     

    That code is untested, but it shows how you can compare strings.

    Yes I think this is exactly what i was hoping to do. Thank you.

     

    I'd like to make a fun little game for my son to help him learn his numbers, letters, and other fundamental things. He's 6 and he loves all things mechanical, Electronics... 

     

    So if I can make him feel like he's on a "mission" or something fun like that, he might learn better. I could layer in some game elements over time. Sound effects for wrong answers. 

     

    Or what would be really fun is if I could animate the running man and then ask the user questions. Correct answers trigger a chime or maybe turns the running man a different color. Incorrect answers slow him down until he falls like in night stalker.

  15. Posted

    11 minutes ago, Zendocon said:

    You might want to look at that link to my old website from the 90s for examples.  There's a lot that you should be able to do but can't, and I tried hard to find various workarounds.  The biggest problem you'll run into is space limitations.  With only 2K on-board RAM, your programs are limited to 90-100 lines approximately.

    Can we make the ECS query a cassette drive to load in more information while discarding code that is no longer needed?

  16. Posted

    4 minutes ago, Zendocon said:

    You might want to look at that link to my old website from the 90s for examples.  There's a lot that you should be able to do but can't, and I tried hard to find various workarounds.  The biggest problem you'll run into is space limitations.  With only 2K on-board RAM, your programs are limited to 90-100 lines approximately.

    Good to know, thank you. Is it possible for the ECS to run a program from tape/storage? Or does it always want to load the data into the RAM?

  21. Posted

    9 minutes ago, Zendocon said:

    I'm pretty sure you can't do string comparisons.  You can have three string variables: A$, B$, and C$, if I recall.

    Could there be a way to say: if input equals some weird combination of chars that couldn't possibly have been entered by a human... GOTO (line)?

  23. Posted

    10 minutes ago, DZ-Jay said:

    I don't have an ECS at hand to test, but I suppose you compare to equal, and branch over of so.  Like this:

      

    10 IF (A=0) GOTO 30
20 REM Not equal here ...
30 REM Continue here.

    As long as you are playing with the ECS, here are some sample games made in the past by others:

    http://spatula-city.org/~intvlib/inty/ecsbasic.html

     

    Enjoy!

    Thanks friend. That's a little beyond my understanding, but just knowing there's a workaround is exciting.

  24. Posted

    Just now, DZ-Jay said:

    Hmmm ... now that I review the manual, it doesn't seem to mention it.  It could be that you have to do two IFs ...

    Can you explain that? I don't see it in the manual either, and I thought maybe it was an "advanced" command reserved for the home computing guide book. lol.

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