Gee-k.net

My previous post was about me learning how to make a program in BASIC, and it worked!
There was a little bit of complicated math (for my brain), but it wasn't exactly an awe inspiring program. So I decided I would make it a bit better. Make it so that you can use it over and over just by using the arrow keys to select your day, month, year and it would automatically update the day of the week on the fly.
So that's exactly what I've done. So technically I've actually made my 1st ever real Amstrad program. wooo!
Anyway, back to the point.
I started by making my layout, placing the "Day Month Year" labels where I wanted them and then then placing the arrows above and below them. Then I put some placeholder date text... Read More!

It's been a long time since I posted anything on here. I've let the ball drop as it were!
A few things have been going on since I last posted. I started making a how to video on making an external 3.5" floppy drive for the Amstrad cpc 6128. After recording a bit of footage and editing it down a bit, I managed to delete my /home partition on my pc when I was updating my OS that I was using for making said video. So, I've lost all my footage. I'm not sure yet if I will re-record it all and try again. In the meantime I decided that I would try making a more complicated (yet simple enough) program to get to grips with using Locomotive BASIC.
I can't remember why I chose to make this particular program, but I somehow did...
... Read More!

I was looking through the contents of the cassette that came with the Teach yourself Amstrad basic book and found a blackjack game.
I played it for a bit and found it quite addictive, even with it's lack of graphics, sound or even wording that looked vaguely human.
I was thinking about how I could make it better by using sprites for a few things. Maybe even add some background music and sound effects. This led me to look into how to make sprites for the Amstrad. It took me a good bit of searching and reading to try find something that might work. I was thinking I might need to just remake it all in assembler, but I don't quit... Read More!

I gave myself a lesson in drawing things to the screen in BASIC. It took a good long while but I eventually got the hang of it. I'm sure there must be another way of drawing the amount to screen that I have. Otherwise drawing anything in games would take forever too.
I saved my work to some cassette and disk files if anyone else wants to see my "handy work" and then offer advice on how it could be done quicker and better.... Read More!