Simon

By Steven Flintham

Originally published in EUG #70

ROCK PILE This is Steven Flintham's definitive PD version of the electronic game of the same name. It was originally released by BBC PD in 1991.

Technical information

There are two points to be noted about the program.

Firstly, the game screen was drawn using the extended plot options available on the Master (and GXR). This was because I needed arcs, segments and pattern fills to create the screen. This is then saved as a screen on disc, and loaded in by the main game. The screen could not be drawn in the main game because the BBC B and BBC B+ do not have the necessary plot commands unless a GXR is fitted.

The second point to note is that the game checks to see if your computer has Acorn style sideways RAM which supports the *SRDATA series of commands (as fitted in the Master 128 and BBC B+ 128K). If it does, the game screen is loaded into the sideways RAM and displayed from there, which means that no disc access is needed once the game begins, and also means that the screen is displayed more quickly.

Copyright

Simon v1.00 is Freeware. This is similar to Public Domain software, with the exception that I retain the copyright of the programs. However, they may still be freely copied and distributed, provided no profit is made in the process.