Blue Max source code for you.

[Savetz]

Courtesy of Bob Polin, the source code for Blue Max. (An interview with him is forthcoming on the ANTIC podcast.)

 

On disk 2, there are two bad sectors (511 and 540) that I have been unable to read even after multiple attempts. (Not sure what those correspond to, but there are two files with 0 sectors listed in the directory.)

 

Bob would like to see his source code in ASCII format, but the format of these files looks unusual to me. Normally I just export the files to my Mac then do search-replace of the RETURN characters and things look OK — but that doesn't seem to be good enough in this case - there are still weird messy characters. Can someone make a pretty version for me to send to Bob?

 

Blue Max Source disk 1.atrBlue Max Source disk 2 fxed.atr

 

Share and enjoy

Kevin

[+Bryan]

Wow... thanks Bob/Kevin! This game is a timeless classic for me!

[Justin Payne]

Did you already interview him? If not, I love to get some questions answered, stuff that I was going to mention during my review of the game on the Podcast.

[Savetz]

I already did the interview. But if you still have questions after hearing it, let me know.

 

-Kevin

[+doctorclu]

YESS!!

[Justin Payne]

Will do. Where not recoding the XEGS Podcast until next weekend so hopefully you'll have it posted by then.

[sup8pdct]

Its written in Synassembler. Need to load each file and print them out.

 

James

[DanBoris]

Here are the disks extracted as ASCII files. Most of the files are Syn Assembler files, but the files called MAX on the second disk might be binary.

BlueMax.zip

Edited March 5, 2016 by DanBoris

[luckybuck]

Thank you so much Bob Polin and Kevin!

 

Again, you made the community much richer!

 

Will mirror on the Wiki.

 

 

 

 

[Heaven/TQA]

Cool!

[Mclaneinc]

Its so weird to be sat here with the actual source code passed on via Kevin from the actual programmer of a game I played (and still play) on my start in the Atari history.

 

Sort of like the arc of the covenant from Indiana Jones...

 

Many thanks Kevin and do please pass on all our thanks to Bob for a game that will remain timeless to us lot...

[Rybags]

I've not looked at it but is there any special comments or stuff relating to corrupted screen when you bomb your own runway?

[DanBoris]

I've not looked at it but is there any special comments or stuff relating to corrupted screen when you bomb your own runway?

 

 

Unfortunately the code is entirely uncommented.

[Savetz]

Here's my interview with Bob: ANTIC Interview 141 - Bob Polin, Blue Max

[+Bryan]

Unfortunately the code is entirely uncommented.

 

I don't know how these guys did it. If I don't comment my code it becomes foreign the moment I look away from it.

[Rybags]

Could it be possible they had some special editor that maintained the doc elsewhere but merged while writing?

 

Such a scheme could have sped up assembly times plus allowed for more complex programs to be assembled.

[Savetz]

By Steve Hales' account (ANTIC Interview 140 - Steve Hales: Slime, Dimension X, Fort Apocalypse), Bob was brilliant and just remembered everything

Edited March 6, 2016 by Savetz

[+Bryan]

Well, if he was a card counter then that makes sense.

[+Stephen]

I've not looked at it but is there any special comments or stuff relating to corrupted screen when you bomb your own runway?

That was the first thing I wanted to investigate.

[Mclaneinc]

Well, if he was a card counter then that makes sense.

 

Subtle

[+Stephen]

Here's my interview with Bob: ANTIC Interview 141 - Bob Polin, Blue Max

LMAO - he called Ohio "the armpit of the country" and said he "was bored to death".

[Justin Payne]

Has anyone ever detailed out which body parts match to states. So far, Ohio is one armpit and probably the right one. I think we all know what Florida is. 😉

[Shannon]

Schweet! You score all of the good interviews!

[MikeSilva]

 

I seem to remember at the time being told that Bob Polin only had a 20-column printer (printers were expensive then!) and that he would come into the office with listings on rolls of receipt paper. Might explain the lack of comments, if true.

[Justin Payne]

It was the first game from the guy and a pretty impressive one at that. I'll forgive him for a lack of comments but let's all learn a lesson from this. Comment your code for the next generation of retro nerds.
It's funny about comments. I'll add them and then I think, "Is that code really need comments" so I might leave it out. Six months goes by and I look at that code and wonder what I was up to. I guess comment everything isn't a bad thing.