Coding games like it’s the 80s | Usborne Computer Programming Book

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 พ.ค. 2024
  • Watch me test out coding a space game from a 1980's Usborne Programming book on a ZX Spectrum.
    Usborne website link (with book downloads) below ⬇️⬇️⬇️
    usborne.com/gb/books/computer...
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  • @ExplainingComputers
    @ExplainingComputers หลายเดือนก่อน +973

    Another great video, but you go make me feel old! I remember writing programs for the Sinclair Programs magazine a lot of years ago. How computing has changed.

    • @IgnoreMyChan
      @IgnoreMyChan หลายเดือนก่อน +30

      Hate to break it to you... You are not the youngest anymore, haha. But still young in mind!

    • @EgoShredder
      @EgoShredder หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      I loved that magazine and I even typed one of the ZX81 games into a reply here the other week on another of Kari's videos. Many of those issues I still vividly remember, after revisiting them the other night. They kinda remind me of Sinclair User but aimed more at young kids starting out, as I was in the early 80s. My first experience was with the NASCOM if you remember that home soldered computer kit. Things got a whole lot easier once the ZX Spectrum hit the scene.

    • @ewasteredux
      @ewasteredux หลายเดือนก่อน +19

      It is always interesting to see the younger generation consider the tech from the 80's worth exploring. She did a great job in the video and I certainly think that deserves kudos. If you make more, I'll watch. And of course I will continue to tune in to @ExplainingComputers as always.

    • @rajveer_2009
      @rajveer_2009 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      *do

    • @TuxedoPanther
      @TuxedoPanther หลายเดือนก่อน +12

      I started with the Vic 20 in the 80s, it had 3.5K of RAM, it didn't stop people making excellent games for it, including chess, that was also hard to beat. I'm now a C++ software engineer, I have made a career out of programming 👍

  • @phykman
    @phykman หลายเดือนก่อน +418

    The hours I spent copying code from a book, trying to debug it, then the excitement when it actually worked.

    • @eng3d
      @eng3d หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      then later hacking it

    • @bulliecasa8722
      @bulliecasa8722 หลายเดือนก่อน +11

      The worst were the ones that made you type in huge arrays of hex digits so it could run parts of the program in machine code. If you made a mistake and typed an 'F8' instead of an 'FB' the program was likely to crash and you would lose everything unless you had remembered to save to tape.

    • @jxchamb
      @jxchamb หลายเดือนก่อน +9

      Did it for fun as a kid and now I get paid to do it.

    • @jbaidley
      @jbaidley หลายเดือนก่อน +24

      I remember getting the error message "TYPE MISMATCH AT LINE 80", so I typed "MISMATCH" into line 80 and it still didn't work! Reader, I rage quit.

    • @leejeary1
      @leejeary1 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      I remember doing one which was 4 pages long and got an error at the end.. the following month in the magazine they apologized as they printed a mistake so got it working in the end 😂

  • @neilbradley
    @neilbradley หลายเดือนก่อน +125

    Kari, I'm a 54 year old software/hardware engineer that grew up in the 80s with those exact magazines and computers. You might not realize it, but you doing this will put you light years ahead of most people in the computer industry because you're literally looking at where computers have come from. If you have that background, you'll much MUCH better decisions as a designer. You're on the right track - keep up the GREAT work! You're going places!
    If you haven't already, check into the Big Five games for the TRS-80, like Robot Attack, Meteor Mission II, Defense Command, etc....

    • @manyifnotmost
      @manyifnotmost หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      50, and I’m about to play this to my seven year old: “This is how dad did computers a few…errr…a while back!” Absolutely top content.

    • @juhajuntunen7866
      @juhajuntunen7866 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      I agree even I play Commodore league back then.

    • @prawnmikus
      @prawnmikus หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Agreed. 55. Taught myself 6502 and wrote games without an assembler! (VIC/64)
      It changes the way you think. It also goes hand in hand with digital electronics.

    • @ironhell813
      @ironhell813 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I did this when I was in middle school. But it was already deprecated. Bought a Tandy color comp from amity and my library had ass old books in it for the comp lol

    • @occamraiser
      @occamraiser หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      I have a few years on you - I was doing my computer science degree at about this time. We learned how things worked, not just how to be a OOD/C++ software engineer, like today. I feel privileged to have had the education I had.

  • @cholohd32
    @cholohd32 หลายเดือนก่อน +153

    51 year old dane here. Those was the good times. 2 whole tv channels on a black & white tv. Rotary phone rang once a week. The inner city bus only showed every 40 mins. People knew how to use typewriters. Then one day my dad brought home a ZX81. I remember thinking this was truly groundbreaking because up untill this point anything on a screen had been completely locked. Today we take it for granted, but back then, being able to type in something as simple as your own name & make it go "beep" made me think this would change the future. A couple of month later dad brought home a similar brand basic type-in games magazine. Spend 4 hours typeing it in, especially as you usually need to "convert" the basic code to be compatible with your type of machine. Didnt have a cassette recorder. So sunday afternoon a week later i typed it all in again, just to play some more. It was different times back then. Today people have a hissy fit if the bus is 2 mins late.

    • @0L1
      @0L1 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      What's the word for feeling nostalgia for times you haven't lived? This is how I feel from reading your comment.

    • @thamessinclair2010
      @thamessinclair2010 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      "Then one day my dad brought home a ZX81. I remember thinking this was truly groundbreaking because up untill this point anything on a screen had been completely locked."
      Exactly the same happened to me. Same experience.

    • @oneeyedphotographer
      @oneeyedphotographer หลายเดือนก่อน

      My first programming languages were FORTRAN and COMPASS for a CDC 3200. Google "CDC 3200 Monash" for the sort of thing. Ours was up about the 12th floor of the tallest building in Perth..

    • @cholohd32
      @cholohd32 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      @@0L1 "Pseudo-Nostalgia" perhaps? Sounds like a good 8-bit game title/plot though as it sounds silly enough to be one like "Rockstar ate my hamster", "Ninja Scooter Simulator", "How to be a complete bastard". :D

    • @valuemastery
      @valuemastery หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      My dad took me to an industry fair in germany when I was very young. Had my first encounter with a computer there. Had no idea what a computer was back then, those were brand new. There was a screen and a keyboard, and I said "look dad, you can type on a TV". I went there and entered my name, then pressed return. Some kind of interpreter must have interpreted it as a variable or command name, and it gave an error message "?bad name". I was shocked.
      One or two years later, our school got its first computer (a Commodore PET), where I started to learn programming in Basic, and later 6502 assembly.

  • @jbaidley
    @jbaidley หลายเดือนก่อน +221

    Loved those books. The hilarious contrast between the art and the actual games was amazing.

    • @BriansManCave
      @BriansManCave หลายเดือนก่อน +22

      Same tactics used on Atari 2600 boxes 😁

    • @JohnnyWednesday
      @JohnnyWednesday หลายเดือนก่อน +29

      Nothing hilarious about it - we didn't see bad graphics back then, we saw an aid to our imagination

    • @JustWasted3HoursHere
      @JustWasted3HoursHere หลายเดือนก่อน +8

      Yep! Like the artwork on Atari 2600 box versus what the actual game looked like. Luckily, Activision moved away from this practice and actually showed the game graphics on the back (as well as the name of the programmer which was the reason the founders of Activision left Atari in the first place: no recognition for their hard work).

    • @BriansManCave
      @BriansManCave หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@JustWasted3HoursHere Yeah! I remember when I seen the box for Keystone Kapers... I knew I wanted the game based on the box alone 🙂

    • @JustWasted3HoursHere
      @JustWasted3HoursHere หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      @@JohnnyWednesdaySo true! It's all relative. I remember being blown away by Pitfall's graphics. So simple in comparison to graphics of today, but at the time it was amazing. Later, I realized the ACTUAL impressive thing about that game is how David Crane was able to squeeze over 200 unique screens into only 4K of ROM space. The way he did it is quite genius. Here he is talking about this very clever trick: th-cam.com/video/MBT1OK6VAIU/w-d-xo.htmlsi=aGV5h8O2Rpf_0Pdp&t=1332 (The whole lecture is quite interesting though).

  • @JohnnyWednesday
    @JohnnyWednesday หลายเดือนก่อน +85

    I'm a game engine developer and I started as a kid in the 80s with these systems - always a pleasure to see them again

    • @yakmage8085
      @yakmage8085 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      I’m a software engineer and same. Though I got my hands on them about 10 years after their prime it was still my introduction to programming. Its a shame we’ve moved so far away from educating people on how to program/use computers

    • @5minutemovies977
      @5minutemovies977 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Which engine(s) are you/ have you worked on? If I may ask.

    • @spyrgelispyy
      @spyrgelispyy หลายเดือนก่อน

      How did you become a game engine developer? I'm currently applying to college, and I'm interested in game engines (among other things) but not game dev itself. I would like to know if you can get such a job from a pure cs background.

    • @Ziflinz
      @Ziflinz 26 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

      ​​​@@spyrgelispyyDifferent game engine developer here, but to answer your question - I have a computer engineering degree. CS is also fine, but a bit more knowledge about hardware helps. I always put more focus on personal projects & research vs degrees when interviewing people.
      (I also grew up in the 80s and spent many hours with my dad's help entering in code for games on my C64 from Byte magazine.)

  • @thomaswinston5142
    @thomaswinston5142 หลายเดือนก่อน +57

    I had a ZX81, VIC-20 then C64. I'm 55 now and still have most these books and others. They were great times. 😊

    • @molenz1960
      @molenz1960 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      I had the acorn electron, c64 then Amiga. Those were the days.

    • @stephenfwadsworth9565
      @stephenfwadsworth9565 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I followed, the same path. Now 52. Although I had seen and used a few machines at fairs and school. The Zx81 was my neighbors. His parents, worked for the local Hardware store, which he now runs. I used to work there after school from 10 to 15. I came back and worked from them when I was 34. As the computer support person. (I also ended up being press ganged into analyzing, their internal systems). Self-taught and my peers were some of the best in the field back then in my country. I from there ran my own company, providing technical and development support. :) Always love to here the path traveled and hopes and ambitions for the future. I am off too teach ICT again at a Mental Health organisation, if all goes as planned in the next two weeks.

    • @neilloughran4437
      @neilloughran4437 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Same here... will be 56 this year and recall the listings from all the magazines and books in those days. I've been a software engineer, teacher, researcher and it all stems from that magic 1981-85 period.

    • @lucasrem
      @lucasrem 29 วันที่ผ่านมา

      go
      why you all cry the same age here ?

    • @thomaswinston5142
      @thomaswinston5142 29 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

      @@lucasrem Your comment makes no sense, you should delete it.

  • @NeilFeltham
    @NeilFeltham 16 วันที่ผ่านมา +3

    I'm a 54 year (feeling very) old analyst that started off on a ZX81, then ZX Spectrum. I'm now repairing and restoring these amazing vintage machines as well as playing some classic ZX81 Games (The Valley of Adventure) and Spectrum games (the likes of Atic Atac, 3D Ant Attack, The Hobbit) On the original hardware using the original tape recorders of the era that I've also restored. It's absolutely fantastic to see the younger generation programming on these machines. Thank you for creating this content and sharing.

  • @paulhammond8583
    @paulhammond8583 หลายเดือนก่อน +137

    I'm a 43 year old guy now, but this really takes me back. When I was 4 years old, my dad bought our family a Sinclair Spectrum (+2, 128k ram). Back then, games magazines had code in them just like this, and I remember the speccy manual itself had a BASIC hangman game you could type out.
    As a young kid I used to love typing out the code and seeing the games running.
    I'm a software engineer now, so it must have made quite the impact.
    It's awesome to see a young lady like you playing about with retro stuff like this. I wish my daughter would get as excited over this stuff as you do!

    • @darran311
      @darran311 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      I'm 43 too and my dad did the same I was about 4 too but he didn't like the keyboard to the point that after seeing my cousins c64 he saved up to get one of those instead

    • @gavconway8737
      @gavconway8737 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      47 here and the ZX 128k was my first computer. Freddie Hardest was amazing!

    • @freshflesh1
      @freshflesh1 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      Stuff you guys with your 128k, my first Speccy was when I was nine and it was a 16k. Best day of my childhood was when my mum surprised me with a ram pack so I could play 48k games!

    • @misterprecocious2491
      @misterprecocious2491 หลายเดือนก่อน

      My first speccy was the 48+ but the keyboard was not as good as the original and then I got a 128+2 with the awful built in cassette deck which failed so many times, why didn't Amstrad fit a external mic in/out attachment, would have saved them alot of money on repairs.

    • @dylanherron3963
      @dylanherron3963 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      I absolutely love the ending of your input, "I'm a software engineer now, so it must have made quite the impact" and that is EXACTLY what every one of those companies and medias were going for, to inspire you to take it further! (Okay, we can definitely argue about "every one" of those companies lmao)

  • @LumpyMoose
    @LumpyMoose หลายเดือนก่อน +60

    I learnt coding in the 80’s from the amazing ‘input’ magazine.

    • @wisteela
      @wisteela หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      I have the complete collection of those in folders. Bought from a car boot sale many years ago.

    • @JustWasted3HoursHere
      @JustWasted3HoursHere หลายเดือนก่อน

      Oh man, "input", "Compute!" and "Compute Gazette", "Info 64" (later just "info") and so many more. Type in games, reviews of games, upcoming software and hardware. Good times!

    • @mlachaise
      @mlachaise หลายเดือนก่อน

      Oh, man. There was a helicopter game in one of those magazines I'm still trying to find. You'd fly around in a chopper and shoot blocks to make your way out, a la "Breakout." To this day, I can't remember the name of the game or the magazine. Thanks for the reminder about "Input."

    • @ruialexandre6197
      @ruialexandre6197 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Got mine. Still remember an article predicting the Internet and accessing the computer to find the bus schedule or buy movie tickets...

  • @anthonymoloney3671
    @anthonymoloney3671 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    I'm old enough to have typed some of these programs into a Vic 20, back in the day. Really glad to see they aren't forgotten. Great video, thank you!

  • @CodingwithThanos
    @CodingwithThanos หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    your setup looks amazing! And your concept and execution just phenomenal! I can't wait for more of your videos 🤩

  • @johnnycash5858
    @johnnycash5858 หลายเดือนก่อน +33

    Kari I'm 43 and I actually had this book when I was a kid. Thanks for the blast of nostalgia and making old things new again with your videos.

    • @lucasrem
      @lucasrem 29 วันที่ผ่านมา

      why you all cry the same age here ?

  • @Baelfyr
    @Baelfyr หลายเดือนก่อน

    Great Video, i really enjoyed learning about old programming books. Its nice to see that not much has changed in terms of learning to code your first programs, making simple games or programs to learn.

  • @sunka23
    @sunka23 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Amazing collection! Thank you for the link - and the video of course! Brings back lots of memories. 🤩

  • @MistaGoodbytes
    @MistaGoodbytes หลายเดือนก่อน +33

    This brings back memories of spending hours typing out lines of Commodore BASIC on my C64 from computer magazines and then spending even more time trying to figure out where I'd made the error when the game wouldn't run 🤣

    • @teebodk3917
      @teebodk3917 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Same here! And quite often the error wasn't made while typing, but was caused by an actually error as printed in the magazine. Of course you wouldn't know that until you'd spent literally hours meticulously going through everything.
      Then once your realized there was a typo in the mag, you'd have to wait a month for the next issue to come out, keeping fingers crossed that they'd figured it out and print a correction (and that the mag hadn't sold out or gone out of business). Quite a few games were never fixed, so the time was simply wasted. One such game I remember with particular dread was called "Grab des Pharaohs" (Tomb of the pharaoh) from the German magazine C64er (at least that's how I remember the name) - this game was in many, many, MANY parts, taking up tens of pages each issue, and the end result was supposed to be a game where you entered a pyramid on an exciting adventure...
      In reality, the listings were full of typos, so each month came with a few corrections, but in the end, it still didn't work properly and was never fixed! Oh, the days!

    • @peterkossits4794
      @peterkossits4794 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      ...and you would find that you had more fun debugging the code than actually playing the game. It was a game within a game.

  • @tom_123
    @tom_123 หลายเดือนก่อน +31

    Usborne books from this era were very special :)

  • @jasonbrown5152
    @jasonbrown5152 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Loved these, not many worked on the c64, but the imagery and illustrations were fantastic and took me too another place. Thankyou.

  • @Shodan-0101
    @Shodan-0101 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Blast from the past!! Love this

  • @justinsheppherd1806
    @justinsheppherd1806 หลายเดือนก่อน +24

    This video gets you a subscribe. I remember typing pages of basic into my Speccy, way back in 1982, only for it to whinge about an error near the beginning. Those Usborne books were great too, though the ones about ghosts, monsters and UFO's were always the most popular and formative on young minds, and they've been reprinted relatively recently, too.

  • @Raelworld
    @Raelworld หลายเดือนก่อน +7

    This is amazing to me! I'm 53, and I can genuinely say that me getting my Speccy when I was 11 defined the rest of my career. I used to know the keypresses by heart. So nice to see you using a real Spectrum.

  • @ronsonwagner9401
    @ronsonwagner9401 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I just found your channel on my TH-cam feed, and I have to say I really enjoyed watching both of your videos. I was born in the early nineties and I've never had to do any programming in BASIC, but I find it quite fascinating. Looking forward to watching more videos from you!

  • @The_BenboBaggins
    @The_BenboBaggins หลายเดือนก่อน +19

    Not sure why you appeared on my feed, but I'm glad you did - I like how relaxed and natural your presentation is.
    Loved a bit of basic coding back in the day on our Amstrad CPC464 (I think that's what it was called)

  • @SteveGodrich
    @SteveGodrich หลายเดือนก่อน +10

    With no internet and needing to save a few weeks of pocket money to get any games, listings in books like this (and computer magazines of the time too) were great for getting new content back in the 1980s. In fact, it was from typing listing like this in, and changing stuff around to see what happened, that I learned how to code. Thanks for bringing back some great memories!

  • @CiderMorphine-xv3gf
    @CiderMorphine-xv3gf หลายเดือนก่อน

    Great content, brings back great memories thanx.
    I remember copying the hangman code that was in the back of the Spectrum 128k user manual. And being so proud that it worked.

  • @sunburystudios8234
    @sunburystudios8234 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    What incredible content, whatever is going on with your mic also has this ASMR effect, the whole flipping through the book was amazing. All the best gadgets, I could watch this all day.

  • @brianturner1692
    @brianturner1692 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    I still have one of these Usborne books, and a few other Spectrum ones, bought in the 80s and they have moved around with me. Good for a nostalgia trip still!

  • @Mike-dw8xr
    @Mike-dw8xr หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    Great Vid Kari!
    I recently discovered Usborne books after watching a vid by Matt Godbolt describing the fundamentals of machine code.
    It seems they nailed it way back then so still relevant today which is a big achievement.

  • @PedroLopez-yo7nr
    @PedroLopez-yo7nr 11 วันที่ผ่านมา

    Thank you. This brought back memories. I use to play games on a Radio Shack TR80 back in high school. Thanks for the links to the books. Looking forward to reading through them.

  • @joysticksnjukeboxes
    @joysticksnjukeboxes หลายเดือนก่อน

    What a nice video, thank you! I remember typing in programs from computer books back then but I don't think I ever saw any of these Usborne books until I heard about them in recent years. They're quite nice with all the artwork, etc.

  • @ctrlaltrees
    @ctrlaltrees หลายเดือนก่อน +7

    Can't believe this is only your second ever video - good stuff! Big fan of these Usborne books, they were a big part of my computer education 😁

  • @ncf1
    @ncf1 หลายเดือนก่อน +11

    wow.. that brings back memories. The excitement, the utter excitement of buying the book from the Book Club in school.. waiting weeks or months to finally get the book.. the anticipation after seeing the pictures! And the inevitable, *inevitable* incredible let down after seeing the final results on the screen! But we were back in the pioneering days, this was all new, always different, always exciting to see what comes next... do you know what its like to see photo-realistic imagery flying around the screen now in a game?! I still cant believe it.. decades have passed but in a flash. Games these days, indeed what can be done on a computer now, is simply incredible to me.

    • @neilloughran4437
      @neilloughran4437 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      yeah same here. Book club! :D

    • @paul_boddie
      @paul_boddie 18 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

      Book club here, too! Scholastic was the company involved, I think.

    • @ncf1
      @ncf1 18 วันที่ผ่านมา

      @@paul_boddie yes i think thats the one!

  • @nitram_nosnibor
    @nitram_nosnibor หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    This is GREAT and TH-cam knows what I love. I am so pleased to see someone of your age into this, I come from this era (loving the t-shirt too) and it brings back wonderful (and sometimes frustrated) memories of a wonderful pastime (plus you're a fellow Brit ha ha). Thank you I will be watching more of your vids, keep up the wonderful work.

  • @micahcowan
    @micahcowan หลายเดือนก่อน +10

    It's great to see someone of your generation making videos about these things! I do hope you'll do many more, perhaps on a variety of different computers of that era (assuming you have access).

  • @CommanderAscorbius
    @CommanderAscorbius หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Great video. If it wasn't for the Usborne books and my local library, I wouldn't have the career in software development I have today. I used to love those books, we always knew the end result wouldn't be as exciting as the art made it out to be, but it got us interested enough to keep us focussed enough to enter the listings and then alter them and understand what was happening. I'd like to see more of these if you're up for making more videos like this. Thank you for the memories :)

  • @sjpwarren
    @sjpwarren หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    I HAVE that book (still!). It and a few others like it helped me learn to program. Thanks for making me feel old. Also thanks for exploring them today. Great Video.

  • @csaunders4z
    @csaunders4z หลายเดือนก่อน

    Awesome video and a great trip down memory lane. I had a bunch of these books when I was a kid, and now I work in video games -- the system works! I got most of these books from my school book fair and had a blast trying to customize the games to my liking. While the programs today seem laughly short and simple, at the time (especially while learning basic) I remember some of them seeming daunting in their complexity! I also remember enjoying the little robot illustrations a great deal. Anyhow, great finds.

  • @Ornateluna
    @Ornateluna หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    Amazing video, it's rather nice to see there are people more like me interested in retro computers.

  • @Gate-of-Dawn
    @Gate-of-Dawn หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    I used to program in BASIC as a kid on my ZX spectrum in the 80's. It was (and still is) a great way to learn all the basics of using variables, functions, IF, loops, for, etc. all used to today in coding. In the 80's I could never have seen myself using 1940's tech or listening to 1940's music then. 40 years later, we have had some advances in tech, but not in culture, if anything we've regressed on that front. I had hoped we would have moved much further on than we have to be honest. Not complaining, just an observation 40 years later. Good luck and best wishes for the channel.

    • @lucasrem
      @lucasrem 29 วันที่ผ่านมา

      If then for loops, sinclair was the most crab basic machine only.
      why you never got that better Acorn Electron, why the sinclair crab ? Need UK only ?

  • @gigsim7115
    @gigsim7115 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Love the studio, the camera angle! Your are a natural. More video !

  • @ki4rex
    @ki4rex 12 วันที่ผ่านมา

    I modified the code from a book similar to these to make my first "for me" games!!!! Thanks for the video and nostalgia.

  • @slowlymakingsmoke
    @slowlymakingsmoke หลายเดือนก่อน +44

    I loved those books as a kid. Amazing that they are still finding a use today.

    • @wisteela
      @wisteela หลายเดือนก่อน

      Great to use with emulators too.

  • @taqyon
    @taqyon หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    Back in my day for the C64 in the back of the mag there used to be a tonne of hex values that one would type in with error checking. It was so exciting to type it up and play it! Thanks for the interesting video! Keep up the good work!

    • @jaycee1980
      @jaycee1980 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Same on the Spectrum.. machine code programs printed out as Hex values, and you would type the whole lot into a Basic program called a Hex loader, then save it to tape.. and hopefully it worked !

    • @markasiala6355
      @markasiala6355 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      My mom, recognizing a bargain, used to help me do the same. She would narrate the hex while I typed. Only person who I know whose mom would read him hexadecimal. 😂

    • @taqyon
      @taqyon หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@markasiala6355 Haha! That's awesome. I was only allowed 45 minutes a day with my computer, after which I had to unplug it from the TV and put it in my room. I would wait until they think I am sleeping and then I would type the hex codes blind into the editor, using the movement of the tape drive to confirm entries xD

  • @HexForger
    @HexForger หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    When I was 12y old (1995) I bought a special edition of some gaming magazine that discussed programming games for x86 architecture (486DX2 instruction set) in TASM (Turbo ASM) and little did I realize back then this was NOT the easiest entry point into game programming (what a shocking revelation!). Funnily enough I'm back to square one as I again code in assembly (though "tad bit" more powerful MVS mainframe architecture). Those were days. Today my two kids learn visual coding by effortlessly moving blocks of code with layers upon layers of frameworks, and I'm just amazed how simple and accessible programming has become.

  • @Jim-mn7yq
    @Jim-mn7yq หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Thx. Got a real kick out of this. I too back in the day spent a lot of time entering code from mags into my machine and learning basic. Yes, please do another game.

  • @htwingnut
    @htwingnut หลายเดือนก่อน

    Nice! I submitted a number of programs like that back in the 80's and had many published. It was great fun at the time. Glad you showcased these!

  • @TheOnlyPommyman
    @TheOnlyPommyman หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    I've still got my books and have them in my classroom. The kids are fascinated by them as it's almost alien to them.

  • @MapedMod
    @MapedMod หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    This channel is going to blow up really soon. Here before 10k subs.

  • @HalfassDIY
    @HalfassDIY หลายเดือนก่อน

    You brought back the memories of all those summer nights of 1981 with my Commodore PET and "101 Basic Computer Games" book ! Man those were great times !

  • @Anthonys_S
    @Anthonys_S หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    I was born in 83 and my first computer was the James Bond version of spectrum zx2 so thins brought back memories . Can’t believe I’ve never found this channel before . Your videos are really brilliant

  • @H3adcrash
    @H3adcrash หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    Those braids are sick! :D

    • @H3adcrash
      @H3adcrash หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@karilawler lol, you're welcome!

  • @PlayBASIC-Developer
    @PlayBASIC-Developer หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    Wow..a video featuring game making in BASIC.. fantastic work Kari !... Those systems were so much fun back in the day.. Entire generations kids learned to code games from such books and magazine listings back in the those days.. Awesome fun !

  • @tineocedric
    @tineocedric หลายเดือนก่อน

    Loved your video and your energy. These types of books/games exactly show where I got stuck in the 80s... All I could find was books and magazines with this type of basic programms. And I was dying to learn how to do the graphical types of games with sprites and assembly, etc... and that was out of reach as the shops in my area didn't have some of the books that taught assembly, etc...

  • @frankryan2505
    @frankryan2505 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Randomly popped up on my feed...this brings me way back!

  • @NumptyMcNumptyface
    @NumptyMcNumptyface หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    BASIC is what got me into programming and culminated in a -admittedly brief- career as a software engineer. It's a shame the language wasn't more standardised even though BASICode tried to remedy that somewhat successfully.

  • @Larry
    @Larry หลายเดือนก่อน +7

    I used to program out of these books on my infant school's BBC Micro in the '80s, I remember doing a horse betting game, and a top down racing game where you avoided the sides of a canyon and stars representing obstacles.

    • @wisteela
      @wisteela หลายเดือนก่อน

      Was that last one Death Valley?

    • @Larry
      @Larry หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@wisteelaThat name rings a bell, yeah.

  • @Bubblegan
    @Bubblegan หลายเดือนก่อน

    I loved these books. I started programming with the TRS80 in the early 1980s. In elementary school, we had one day per week that we could go to the library. I always went straight to the very small section on computer programming. Awesome video! Thanks.

  • @nobbyse16
    @nobbyse16 21 วันที่ผ่านมา

    Brilliant Kari, more videos like this please 👍

  • @spursian
    @spursian หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    I mean, I can’t be the only one who wants Monsters of Galacticon??

  • @Retroguyuk75
    @Retroguyuk75 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    How did you get into retro tech Kari?

    • @Retroguyuk75
      @Retroguyuk75 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@karilawler fabulous 🤩. Then enjoy the journey as much as I do..🙏✌️☮️🕊️

  • @nullobject7966
    @nullobject7966 17 วันที่ผ่านมา

    You're awesome. I bet you've inspired a lot of people. So cool!

  • @ValhallaIronworks
    @ValhallaIronworks หลายเดือนก่อน

    I have SO MANY of these still in my collection. They're what got me started coding decades ago!

  • @KZeroJuanEsp
    @KZeroJuanEsp หลายเดือนก่อน

    I was hopping to see you typping.. really. nostalgia meybe. thanks fot the trip to the past.

  • @GeorgesChannel
    @GeorgesChannel หลายเดือนก่อน

    Really great video, Kari! We 50+ oldtimers all started with BASIC in the 80's (my first computer was a commodore plus/4) and i still love codinf in BASIC. These books are really special. Thank you for sharing! Keep up your great content, which is authentinc and presented from the perspective from your new generation :)

  • @sterlingmoses1044
    @sterlingmoses1044 หลายเดือนก่อน

    What a throw back to my childhood. Thank you for taking the time to produce this content!

  • @fallwitch
    @fallwitch หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Just discovered your channel love it! Looking forward to more.

  • @joesimonetti
    @joesimonetti หลายเดือนก่อน

    Good stuff...I got my start with C64...so cool to see your generation enjoying the vintage hardware.

  • @tedmerrick935
    @tedmerrick935 17 วันที่ผ่านมา

    You have brought us older folks back to our childhood. I love everone talking about the computers we started with back in the 80s.

  • @logothaironsides2942
    @logothaironsides2942 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I learned coding on the speccy! Its not long before you can just type away even with the key combinations. When my kids were growing up, we did quite a lot of coding starting with the speccy and those very same books. Many Schools in the 1980s used the spectrum as a class computer and did projects all around the curriculum using them. It was a real blast from the past watching you code and run one.

  • @fremandn
    @fremandn หลายเดือนก่อน

    Excellent look back in time. I haven't seen program books with this much exposition

  • @nismo2070
    @nismo2070 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Good old BASIC!! That brings back a lot of memories with my VIC-20 and C-64. Buying magazines with programs was a big deal back in the day! Great video!!

  • @chumpster69
    @chumpster69 หลายเดือนก่อน +17

    I typed in every one of those programs on my ZX Spectrum, sometime around 1985.

  • @killianlomax8237
    @killianlomax8237 หลายเดือนก่อน

    The video was awesome already, but the choice of the outro tune was divine! Had an instant 80's flashback.

  • @FunAfter52
    @FunAfter52 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Wow! *New Sub* I turned 59 this year and I've been in a retro mood as of late. I was looking into retro coding and so forth. This is right up my alley. The first computer I ever worked on was a TRS-80. My first computer I bought was a Vic-20 followed by a Commodore 64. I just bought a Commodore 64 mini this month. I am putting together my own "school" curriculum and these look so much fun. Thanks for the video!

  • @ChefOntheway
    @ChefOntheway หลายเดือนก่อน

    Loved. The vid, the content and your retro style ❤❤❤❤. Keep it going

  • @ArtoSantala
    @ArtoSantala หลายเดือนก่อน

    Awesome video! This is how I got started :) Brings a lot of memories.

  • @VegetarianFeast
    @VegetarianFeast หลายเดือนก่อน

    Well done. Great video. Can't wait to see what you try next.

  • @kennardconsulting2
    @kennardconsulting2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Wow Kari! Thanks so much for posting this. I had this exact book when I was learning programming. I vividly remember being transfixed by how amazing the exposition made the game sound compared to how short the code was. Of course it was a bit of a trick, and the game wasn't really as good as it sounded, but it still hooked you in!

  • @adam872
    @adam872 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I loved those Usborne books back in the day. This video brings back a heap of memories of my childhood in the 80's, when I was learning BASIC.

  • @declasm
    @declasm หลายเดือนก่อน

    Awesome! I remember these books being in the school library as a kid. I tried a little while ago to find them again online but they weren't to be found so thanks for the link too.

  • @TheLicewine
    @TheLicewine หลายเดือนก่อน

    How cool is this. I started programming (copy written basic code) my dad's Sharp when I was 6 or so which taught me basic. I then moved up to a ZX81 and Spectrum thereafter coding in assembler. This is like a time machine...cheers, Chris

  • @mfoyle
    @mfoyle 10 วันที่ผ่านมา

    We sometimes had these books in our local library! I used to seek them out and loved bringing them home after school. As you say, the illustrations and stories around the code listings were great fun and I too used to love just flicking through and reading the books!

  • @DragonsTooth
    @DragonsTooth 22 วันที่ผ่านมา

    Wow! Major flashback to my childhood. Thanks. Such fun!

  • @huggyone7611
    @huggyone7611 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Amazing ! Just found this Channel when searching for something else 😅 Happy to see young people to keep alive these computers and understand the feeling we had when they were new. C64, CPC, french computers from Thomson, etc… Thank you for this vidéo !

  • @jynx0riZ0r
    @jynx0riZ0r หลายเดือนก่อน

    Love your retro stuff! Started to code on a C64. Please continue! :)

  • @guesswork8332
    @guesswork8332 หลายเดือนก่อน

    This is awesome. Love the concept. I wish had this when I was a kid.

  • @DLiberator78
    @DLiberator78 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    A fantastic video Kari, I am in my early 50s now and grew up with the ZX Spectrum as it was my first home computer, I still own the Usborne book collection and enjoyed programming from them when I was a kid. It is great to see young people such as yourself taking an interest in these historic computers and programming in BASIC. The other book Usborne Computer Battlegames was very good also. It would be interesting to you program the games in each book as those ones contain animated graphics to create simple games.
    Great content.

  • @Jeff_____
    @Jeff_____ 15 วันที่ผ่านมา

    I had that book in the 80s. I love old school computing. Great video

  • @kevinmillar6598
    @kevinmillar6598 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I remember seeing these books as a kid, but never had a computer to type them in to. I remembered them again a couple of years back after seeing an Apple ][ emulator, but couldn't find the books anymore to try out the games. Thanks for the link to the books, I will give them a try over the holidays!

  • @fabled-pilgrim
    @fabled-pilgrim หลายเดือนก่อน

    This is insane. I remember borrowing that very book from the library in the 80s!! That Usborne series taught me BASIC. Those books must be like gold dust now. Thanks for sharing! 😊

  • @Jennn
    @Jennn หลายเดือนก่อน

    Omg this is so neat!!! Thank you for sharing the link with us!!!

  • @charlesd4572
    @charlesd4572 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    This brought back fond memories - great video.

  • @snackplaylove
    @snackplaylove หลายเดือนก่อน

    This is awesome, I picked up a load of these 2nd hand I]around 1990 but I only had Amstrad so had to do a lot of converting and experimenting which is probably what got me where I am today! Those pdfs bring back a lot of hidden memories!

  • @moopet8036
    @moopet8036 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I had these as a kid, and literally have all the ones you're showing in your bouquet of nostalgia on the shelf next to my desk, and one of them - the "battlegames" one - I just picked up from ebay yesterday. I have no idea why the algorithm showed me this video but I am now Extremely Excited about things.

  • @bowieinc
    @bowieinc หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    First time seeing your videos. You are an excellent presenter. Very natural and enjoyable to watch. I wish I would have known these type in games existed back in the day:)

  • @IanMorpeth
    @IanMorpeth หลายเดือนก่อน

    Back in the 80s I regularly bought the magazines to put the games listings in, spending hours and hours doing it. I’ve still got some of the old magazines, Your Computer and Computer and Video Games. The listings with embedded machine code were especially fun to do, endless lines of hex numbers put in manually - get one number wrong and it’s all over. What fun! There is a short video of a game called Vic Logger for the Vic-20 on TH-cam. I remember everybody in the house playing it. Now it looks so basic but at the time it was completely riveting. I even got a couple of games published in magazines myself, basically knock offs of the old game and watch games. Keep up the good work!

  • @AtomicEggGame
    @AtomicEggGame หลายเดือนก่อน

    This is FANTASTIC video. I remember those years of ZX programming clearly :-)

  • @auroranoir
    @auroranoir หลายเดือนก่อน

    Love the old Usborne books and the artwork was just so evocative!!

  • @Whatthetrash
    @Whatthetrash หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Thank you, TH-cam for such a great recommendation! This video was awesome! Thanks for making and sharing it. :)

  • @mausmalone
    @mausmalone หลายเดือนก่อน

    I came to a hard stop when I saw Computer Spacegames and Computer Battlegames in the thumbnail. I remember borrowing both of them multiple times from my local library when I was a kid. I more or less forgot they existed but once you showed the interiors all the memories came flooding back!