timsellers.net/blog

04/11/06 : Beeb stuff

I picked up HTML (and CSS) over the years, and consider myself quite proficient now. I know what I need to know in PHP. But BASIC - specifically BBC BASIC - is the only actual programming language that I ever learnt (and mastered).

I actually still had a BBC Micro until a few years ago, before it finally gave up the ghost and went to Silicon Heaven. I then discovered emulators (like BeebEm) and have recently found BBC Basic for Windows - allowing me to write stuff in BASIC that can be compiled and run on any Windows PC. This means that I can once again delight my family by writing those text-adventures I used to write years ago.

(Actually, delight isn't quite the right word. I think they think I'm a bit sad for bothering. But I shall make them play my games anyway! Bwa ha ha ha ha!)

Anyway, if you're bored, you can download a re-written version of a game I wrote years ago: Darkhall Manor (94.1k, should run from any Windows machine, work safe).

03/05/06 : Old games

I have finally completed Zelda II : The Adventure of Link. For the NES. From 1988.

Ok, I haven't actually been playing it since 1988 - I didn't even have an NES then - Sarah had it before I met her. The last time I played the game was about five years ago, and I got bored of it before completing it (as I did with the first Zelda game, which I got from Ebay not that long ago). Still, I'm glad I did it, and I enjoyed it more this time. It's probably the most difficult of the series. I guess now I'll have to play the first one - just so that I can say I've completed them all.

Then perhaps I'll try to complete Twin Kingdom Valley - an adventure I had on my Acorn Electron / BBC Micro. Which I did have in 1988.