Space Rales: Compute Your Own Games

Space Rales: Compute Your Own Games

For about $150 you can get a computer (such as the Sinclair), hook it to your TV set, and begin work on your own game programs. The home computer goes hand-in-hand with the video game, no just because some home computer play games and some video games offer home computer options, but because the computer is what is used to both create and play the computer game.

Writing a game program, especially o the intensity of Pac-Man or Centipede requires more than a $150 computer and. basic language handbook. But the hom computer is where you learn to talk to th computer, to speak and think in th language that computer understands am to ultimately command the computer to di exactly what you’ve decided it should do ii any given circumstance.

There is a big difference between playin computers and talking to them. Ever second all over the world there are peopi using computers in the play mode. They’r dialing phone numbers, checking ban balances, balancing their books, maltin airline reservations, and a hundred thou sand other things from innocent to deadly—all on computer play. But most o these people have never actually talked t( the computer and never will. They wantti buy programs and play them, they have m interest or talent for writing the command they obey.

If you want to make the transition fror player to programmer, you have to get computer and learn to tell it what to do. Ii this issue, some of the less expensiv computers are examined, and their potentials described.

"If you want to make the transitic n from player to programmer, you have to get a computer and learn to tell it what to do."

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On the high cost end, a keyboard, two disc drives, and a hard copy printer are all desirable parts of a useful computer system. But this is $1500 to $3000 in hardware investment. On the lower end, there are computers from Sinclair, Radio Shack, and others that will give you complete hands-on keyboard experience in computer programming for $150 to $300. Less if you want to build the computer yourself from a kit. (Unless you are driven to do so, don’t do this, because the physical construction of the computer is an art in itself and without a certain talent in electronic wiring, building your own computer is not the same as a five-piecesof-wood and a dozen nails do-it-yourself bird house.)

Don’t, however, let people who don’t know anything about it scare you off by telling you that writing computer programs is too hard. It’s not at all difficult. What is a tough act is writing really brilliant, useful, bug-free programs. But that’s the same as playing the guitar and writing hit songs or owning a movie camera and winning an Oscar.

These days a basic computer with keyboard and memory costs about the same as a cheap guitar or a cheap movie camera (and a good deal less than any video equipment you might want to get your hands on). So if you can find some way to finance your first keyboard, the rest is up to you.