Programming Retro Games in Python | 80s Usborne Computer Coding Book
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Published 2024-04-27
Today join me as I have another go coding some retro 80s computer games. This time I'm typing in games from the Usborne book: "Computer Battlegames", using my BBC Micro Computer from the 1980s. Then I convert the games to work in the computer language Python.
And don't worry, you don't need retro hardware to try the original BASIC language out yourself, as you can easily recreate this with an emulator. For the BBC Micro, my favourite emulator I like to use is "BeebEm" ( www.mkw.me.uk/beebem ).
As mentioned, for those who haven't seen, here is a link to my previous "Coding games like it's the 80s" video ➡️ • Coding games like it’s the 80s | Usbo...
Usborne website link (with book downloads) below ⬇️
usborne.com/gb/books/computer-and-coding-books
Links below ⬇️ to the 8BitDo retro style keyboard ⌨️ I use in this video (Amazon Affiliate Links)
N Edition ... amzn.to/4bwkMzH (US link) or amzn.to/4aIWzoY (UK link)
Fami Edition ... amzn.to/3WVXvTl (US link) or amzn.to/3yA5fjV (UK link)
C64 Edition ... amzn.to/3UZ9VqX (US link) or amzn.to/3UQNqEK (UK link)
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🎶 Music & Sound Effects 🎶 (Affiliate Link)
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All Comments (21)
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When I was younger I always found the artwork was vastly more impressive than the game.
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As a 49 year old, it is refreshing to see someone so young interested in retro micros!
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The artwork in those books is amazing. Somehow the style always reminded me of the movie parodies in MAD Magazine
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Those books got me started. I never looked back. Today I'm an enterprise systems architect.
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"over 40 years ago". Don't mind me crying over here
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Just found this channel yesterday, seeing such a young person interested in our yesterday is brilliant and so are you 😇
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Worth noting that the `msvcrt` module is only available on Windows systems so if you are using Linux or Mac you can use the 'keyboard' module.
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At 48 years old, being a dentist, I remember writing those programs in Atari Basic (it is what was strongest here in Chile), "thanks" to the pandemic I decided to return to programming and learned Python, not yet enough to dedicate myself to this passion for programming, but I do like being able to "convert" those programs from Basic to Python and see them work again. Thank you very much Kari for the endearing content you generate. Greetings
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10:35 thought you had 3 hands for a second 🤣 good video, keep em coming
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It's great to see you getting into rhe gateway drug that got so many of us into programming back in the day 💯
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Wow... With so many retro computer channels on here now, it's refreshing to see something a little different. The old programming books, particularly those aimed at children, may be the most overlooked aspect of retro computing. I had one such book in the 80s, and I read it over and over again, and typed in the programs that were in the back. I've spent recent years collecting many books. Maybe this will encourage me to do a little exhibition of a neat little program or two.
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54 year old BBC Micro owner here. That start-up sound at 1:10 brings back so many memories. 😍😍
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These books started my journey in to programming on the ZX Spectrum+ back in the 80's.
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I did not know you could get those books online for free - thank you! I had so many of them when I was a kid which was, sadly, when the BBC Micro was contemporary.
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Love seeing younger people loving the stuff i used to do in my teens in early 80s. The BBC was a very upmarket machine in its day.
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Amazing video, Kari! Combining old tech with new is what i love doing also! Great T-Shirt of Robocop. Love the movie too. Keep up your great work!
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Reminds me of when I first got into microcomputers way back in the late 1970s. So much effort, so much fun.
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Awesome stuff. I used to have these books back in the day, the artwork stoked my naive young mind and I honestly imagined graphics akin to the artwork in the book!!
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I remember programming games like this in class when I was a kid in the early 90s. I love how the artwork during those times sparked your imagination and basically created the graphics and sound of the game in hour head haha.
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I just took a short glimpse of your video, but this is precisely my style. Simply showing the original code and new code side by side is fantastic. So, there is no room for magic, just craft, transforming old code into a new environment. Really cool!
