Re: [OT]Retro computing
- Posted by K_D_R Jul 03, 2013
- 2067 views
The original BASIC version of Trek would run on some machines like that, it probably still required at least 8K of RAM I think. Maybe even 4K. I don't remember.
IIRC, a version of Trek ran on a basic VIC-20, which would have been 5k - screen memory = about 3.5k.
Even more astounding to me was the VIC's word processor, written in Basic 2.0 by TOTL software, which supported embedded footnotes. I think the first version of the Totl Text was pure basic, but subsequent versions had a printing routine written in machine language.
At one point, I toyed around with the idea of sponsoring a Euphoria programming contest to see who could come up with the best euphoria clone of Totl Text. Rob Craig talked me into sponsoring a contest based on some problems he had in mind. This was the very first Euphoria Programming contest.
I thought the first programming contest was a smash success. I learned something about "real" programmers - they love a challenge and they are highly competitive. I suspect that programmers who made over $50/hour nearly 15 years ago, gleefully spent hours perfecting code in order to win part of a $100 prize which was split between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners.
Something else was accomplished by the first Euphoria Programming contest. At the time, in the mailing list discussions,there was a tremendous amount of acrimony and complaining about Euphoria's design and lack of features, etc. All of that stuff vanished, at least for the duration of the contest.
Pardon the digression.
Suffice it to say, a lot can be accomplished with 3.5k.
Regards, Ken Rhodes
