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Amstrad Action TYPE-IN PROJECT

Started by CPCIak, 09:56, 03 January 10

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Bryce

#50
Quote from: Zoe Robinson on 20:22, 22 October 13

I had a problem like that just today when the emulator I was using to generate the .dsk images crashed, taking the 800-line text editor from issue 24 with it. After that, I saved every 100 lines.

That was the other problem. You'd save it to tape so that you could continue later and the bastard wouldn't load a day later and you had to start again.

Bryce.

Edit: Ooo, you've suddenly transformed from a wedding guest to being a tiger?

Nich

Quote from: Zoe Robinson on 20:45, 20 October 13
Sorry for my first post being thread necromancy but did this project ever get completed? If not, is there any interest in continuing it? I'd love to get involved and see it through to completion.
It's a long way from being completed. A lot of the early issues have loads of type-ins in them, and nowadays I don't have the time to type them all in, test them and document all the bugs (and there are usually plenty of them).

I keep reminding myself to return to the project one day, but I never get a chance to do it! Maybe I'll try typing in the listings from later issues of Amstrad Action...

Bryce

Can't you just OCR them?

Bryce.

Zoe Robinson

Quote from: Nich on 20:34, 22 October 13
It's a long way from being completed.


By my calculations, it's 24% complete [issues 1-24 are done, as are 102-105; making 28 out of 117 issues completed]. That's pretty good going.


Quote from: Nich on 20:34, 22 October 13
A lot of the early issues have loads of type-ins in them, and nowadays I don't have the time to type them all in, test them and document all the bugs (and there are usually plenty of them).


I decided to skip documentation and just make sure the programs run, so I could get stuff uploaded quicker. I'll document later. :)

Quote from: Nich on 20:34, 22 October 13
I keep reminding myself to return to the project one day, but I never get a chance to do it! Maybe I'll try typing in the listings from later issues of Amstrad Action...


Cool. :D

Zoe Robinson

As an aside, whoever decided on the colour scheme for issue 25's type-ins pages needs a slap. Grey-on-grey? Really? *sighs*

Bryce

They always seemed to have a bad choice of colours or even worse a picture behind the code?? I mean wtf? Was it meant to be some sort of protection against photocopying?

Bryce.

Zoe Robinson

Quote from: Bryce on 21:04, 22 October 13
Was it meant to be some sort of protection against photocopying?
Oooh, good point! I hadn't considered that...

Edited to remove some weird 'size' codes that had crept in...

TFM

Come on for us colorblind, they used perfect color schemes.  ;)
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

Zoe Robinson

Quote from: TFM on 22:28, 22 October 13
Come on for us colorblind, they used perfect color schemes.  ;)


They cater pretty well to us deafies, too.  :D

AMSDOS

Quote from: Bryce on 20:20, 22 October 13
I don't think I'd have the heart to type in one of those type-ins again. I'm still suffering from childhood memories of spending an entire weekend inputing meaningless Hexcode only to be presented with some obscure error message or an instant crash with no clue where the error might be (and usually it was a typo in the magazine).

Bryce.

You should have seen "Extended Basic Graphics Routines" program from "Your Computer" magazine. You type-in a small Hex Loader program and then you type in the Machine Code line by line, the good thing about that program was after you typed in the Machine Code you entered the Checksum number and if it was wrong you would have to enter that line again, which I thought was clever cause you could easily check to make sure if it was correct.  :D The "Alpine Road Race" Game from the same magazine was also similar to type in, though it had a bit more BASIC to it as well.

My worse experience (as well as Nich Campbell's I think), well for me at least was typing in 10 Lines of Uuencode for a Tetris game. At the time I only had a 464, so couldn't send for a Disc and the worse thing about that was the game work much better with the Caps Lock On so you could move the blocks Left of something, for a long time I thought there was something wrong with the program, though as it turned out I had correctly entered almost straight away.  :o
* Using the old Amstrad Languages :D   * with the Firmware :P
* I also like to problem solve code in BASIC :)   * And type-in Type-Ins! :D

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AMSDOS

Quote from: Zoe Robinson on 19:44, 22 October 13
Thanks for the replies, guys. I've started working on the type-ins again, although I've not sent links or anything to the other site (yet?).


So far, I've only finished issue 24 (September 1987). I'm rather impressed with the text editor that was in that issue - 800 lines for a decently-functioning text editor? Nice!

I made another little thread here which has a couple of AA type-ins on it too though I simply made it to highlight some interesting programs which might off fallen under the radar over the years, even though one of the games I have there is perhaps better known, I think I only put it there cause it had some tricky BASIC 1.1 stuff in it which I rewritten to appear the same on a 464.
* Using the old Amstrad Languages :D   * with the Firmware :P
* I also like to problem solve code in BASIC :)   * And type-in Type-Ins! :D

Home Computing Weekly Programs
Popular Computing Weekly Programs
Your Computer Programs
Updated Other Program Links on Profile Page (Update April 16/15 phew!)
Programs for Turbo Pascal 3

Gryzor

Regarding the colour scheme used in magazines, I think the reason might have been simple: back then magazines didn't always have colour pages throughout. When they were laying out the pages, pasting pieces of paper together, they didn't always know if it was going to be colour or not. Of course it's still not justifiable - they should have assumed the worst, but there you have it. Instead of grey on grey they may have intended for glorious red on green or something.

Zoe Robinson

Issue 25 is now typed-in and available on the wiki. Due to the limitations of MacCPC (it didn't like loading files using BASIC and didn't like RSXes), I haven't been able to test this one as thoroughly as the last one, so if you try it out and spot any problems please let me know so I can fix them.

I'm going to keep going through these issues until they are done but I'm aiming for one issue a day during the week, maybe two a day at weekends, depending on free time; so it may be a while before they are all online. :)

Gryzor


Zoe Robinson

Ego enhancement detected!  :laugh:

Seriously though, I'm happy to help out and this is a fairly straightforward way to do it.

By the way, does anyone have that little type-ins booklet that came with (I think) AA 64? It was small, had a green cover and the intro text waffled on about how to make it Christmas every day? If so, could you scan it or take pictures of the pages or something, so we can add that to the type-ins pool as well? I seem to have lost my copy in my last house move. :(

Gryzor

Quote from: Zoe RobinsonEgo enhancement detected!


Real Woman Test (TM) passed :D

Nich

Quote from: Zoe Robinson on 20:26, 23 October 13
By the way, does anyone have that little type-ins booklet that came with (I think) AA 64? It was small, had a green cover and the intro text waffled on about how to make it Christmas every day? If so, could you scan it or take pictures of the pages or something, so we can add that to the type-ins pool as well? I seem to have lost my copy in my last house move. :(
This booklet came with issue 76 of Amstrad Action. I have a copy of it (which was very kindly donated to me by CPCManiaco, as I have also lost my own original copy).

If I get a chance to start working on the type-ins project again, this will have to be my first job! :)

Zoe Robinson

Quote from: Nich on 21:38, 23 October 13
This booklet came with issue 76 of Amstrad Action. I have a copy of it (which was very kindly donated to me by CPCManiaco, as I have also lost my own original copy).


Wow, it's a lot newer than I thought, then! No wonder I couldn't find a copy on my Google searches. :)

Quote from: Nich on 21:38, 23 October 13
If I get a chance to start working on the type-ins project again, this will have to be my first job! :)


Yay! :D

00WReX

Nice work on the Issue 24 & 25 type-ins and the additional updates to the wiki AA pages.  8)

Cheers,
Shane
The CPC in Australia...
Awa - CPCWiki

AMSDOS

Quote from: Nich on 21:38, 23 October 13
This booklet came with issue 76 of Amstrad Action. I have a copy of it (which was very kindly donated to me by CPCManiaco, as I have also lost my own original copy).

If I get a chance to start working on the type-ins project again, this will have to be my first job! :)

Explains why I don't recall this Booklet because I originally missed out on AA76, I only recall the Booklet which came with AA56 which was a sample of the Cheat Mode 2 Book they were flogging.

AA73 I thought has some interesting programs in it, though I guess it would look funny to have AA25 followed by AA73, might be better to send those programs to CPC-Power.  :D
* Using the old Amstrad Languages :D   * with the Firmware :P
* I also like to problem solve code in BASIC :)   * And type-in Type-Ins! :D

Home Computing Weekly Programs
Popular Computing Weekly Programs
Your Computer Programs
Updated Other Program Links on Profile Page (Update April 16/15 phew!)
Programs for Turbo Pascal 3

Zoe Robinson

Quote from: AMSDOS on 04:49, 24 October 13
AA73 I thought has some interesting programs in it, though I guess it would look funny to have AA25 followed by AA73, might be better to send those programs to CPC-Power.  :D

The scans of AA26's type-ins are very difficult to read so maybe I'll do AA73 next, unless someone else gets there first. :)

Nich

Quote from: AMSDOS on 04:49, 24 October 13
AA73 I thought has some interesting programs in it, though I guess it would look funny to have AA25 followed by AA73, might be better to send those programs to CPC-Power.  :D
It isn't necessary for us to complete each issue in chronological order!

AMSDOS

#72
It's good to see the old BASIC Art on the Wiki  :D

You might want to do a search for the Quick Format Program cause I know I've posted it on the forum in the past - might save you some typing.

You might want check out CPC-Power just in case they have something on there which is complete.  :D
* Using the old Amstrad Languages :D   * with the Firmware :P
* I also like to problem solve code in BASIC :)   * And type-in Type-Ins! :D

Home Computing Weekly Programs
Popular Computing Weekly Programs
Your Computer Programs
Updated Other Program Links on Profile Page (Update April 16/15 phew!)
Programs for Turbo Pascal 3

Zoe Robinson

I'm going to have a look around for programs that are already typed in, so they can be loaded into this project. To that end, I'll be spending the next couple of hours trying to get together all the type-ins from the AA covertapes, so we have those ready to work with. :)

Zoe Robinson

Oookay... copying the type-ins off the covertape project will not be happening. The covertapes I've managed to find are all .cdt files and while it's nice to hear the old loading noise again (as a side note, wow those emulators play loading noises loudly! Even I could hear them and I'm mostly deaf these days), it will actually be quicker to type in most of these programs than it will be to find them on the damn tapes.

Still, it was worth a try! :D

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