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“If you elect to see all the pictures, this program has the ability of consuming well over six feet of terminal paper per run. We can only suggest recycling the paper by using the other side.”
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LukasMurdock
2022-01-02 19:06:19 -05:00
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01_Acey_Ducey/README.md
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### Acey Ducey
As published in Basic Computer Games (1978)
https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=2
This is a simulation of the Acey Ducey card game. In the game, the dealer (the computer) deals two cards face up. You have an option to bet or not to bet depending on whether or not you feel the next card dealt will have a value between the first two.
Your initial money is set to $100; you may want to alter this value if you want to start with more or less than $100. The game keeps going on until you lose all your money or interrupt the program.
The original program author was Bill Palmby of Prairie View, Illinois.
---
As published in Basic Computer Games (1978):
- [Atari Archives](https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=2)
- [Annarchive](https://annarchive.com/files/Basic_Computer_Games_Microcomputer_Edition.pdf#page=17)
Downloaded from Vintage Basic at
http://www.vintage-basic.net/games.html

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02_Amazing/README.md
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### Amazing
As published in Basic Computer Games (1978)
https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=3
This program will print out a different maze every time it is run and guarantees only one path through. You can choose the dimensions of the maze — i.e. the number of squares wide and long.
The original program author was Jack Hauber of Windsor, Connecticut.
---
As published in Basic Computer Games (1978):
- [Atari Archives](https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=3)
- [Annarchive](https://annarchive.com/files/Basic_Computer_Games_Microcomputer_Edition.pdf#page=18)
Downloaded from Vintage Basic at
http://www.vintage-basic.net/games.html

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03_Animal/README.md
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### Animal
Unlike other computer games in which the computer picks a number or letter and you must guess what it is, in this game _you_ think of an animal and the _computer_ asks you questions and tries to guess the name of your animal. If the computer guesses incorrectly, it will ask you for a question that differentiates the animal you were thinking of. In this way the computer “learns” new animals. Questions to differentiate new animals should be input without a question mark.
This version of the game does not have a SAVE feature. If your system allows, you may modify the program to save and reload the array when you want to play the game again. This way you can save what the computer learns over a series of games.
At any time if you reply “LIST” to the question “ARE YOU THINKING OF AN ANIMAL,” the computer will tell you all the animals it knows so far.
The program starts originally by knowing only FISH and BIRD. As you build up a file of animals you should use broad, general questions first and then narrow down to more specific ones with later animals. For example, if an elephant was to be your first animal, the computer would ask for a question to distinguish an elephant from a bird. Naturally, there are hundreds of possibilities, however, if you plan to build a large file of animals a good question would be “IS IT A MAMMAL.”
This program can be easily modified to deal with categories of things other than animals by simply modifying the initial data and the dialogue references to animals. In an educational environment, this would be a valuable program to teach the distinguishing characteristics of many classes of objects — rock formations, geography, marine life, cell structures, etc.
Originally developed by Arthur Luehrmann at Dartmouth College, Animal was subsequently shortened and modified by Nathan Teichholtz at DEC and Steve North at Creative Computing.
---
As published in Basic Computer Games (1978)
https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=4
- [Atari Archives](https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=4)
- [Annarchive](https://annarchive.com/files/Basic_Computer_Games_Microcomputer_Edition.pdf#page=19)
Downloaded from Vintage Basic at
http://www.vintage-basic.net/games.html

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04_Awari/README.md
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### Awari
Awari is an ancient African game played with seven sticks and thirty-six stones or beans laid out as shown above. The board is divided into six compartments or pits on each side. In addition, there are two special home pits at the ends.
A move is made by taking all the beans from any (non-empty) pit on your own side. Starting from the pit to the right of this one, these beans are ‘sown’ one in each pit working around the board anticlockwise.
A turn consists of one or two moves. If the last bean of your move is sown in your own home you may take a second move.
If the last bean sown in a move lands in an empty pit, provided that the opposite pit is not empty, all the beans in the opposite pit, together with the last bean sown are ‘captured’ and moved to the player’s home.
When either side is empty, the game is finished. The player with the most beans in his home has won.
In the computer version, the board is printed as 14 numbers representing the 14 pits.
```
3 3 3 3 3 3
0 0
3 3 3 3 3 3
```
The pits on your (lower) side are numbered 1-6 from left to right. The pits on my (the computer’s) side are numbered from my left (your right).
To make a move you type in the number of a pit. If the last bean lands in your home, the computer types ‘AGAIN?’ and then you type in your second move.
The computer’s move is typed, followed by a diagram of the board in its new state. The computer always offers you the first move. This is considered to be a slight advantage.
There is a learning mechanism in the program that causes the play of the computer to improve as it playes more games.
The original version of Awari is adopted from one originally written by Geoff Wyvill of Bradford, Yorkshire, England.
---
As published in Basic Computer Games (1978)
https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=6
- [Atari Archives](https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=6)
- [Annarchive](https://annarchive.com/files/Basic_Computer_Games_Microcomputer_Edition.pdf#page=21)
Downloaded from Vintage Basic at
http://www.vintage-basic.net/games.html

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05_Bagels/README.md
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### Bagels
In this game, the computer picks a 3-digit secret number using the digits 0 to 9 and you attempt to guess what it is. You are allowed up to twenty guesses. No digit is repeated. After each guess the computer will give you clues about your guess as follows:
- PICO One digit is correct, but in the wrong place
- FERMI One digit is in the correct place
- BAGELS No digit is correct
You will learn to draw inferences from the clues and, with practice, you’ll learn to improve your score. There are several good strategies for playing Bagels. After you have found a good strategy, see if you can improve it. Or try a different strategy altogether to see if it is any better. While the program allows up to twenty guesses, if you use a good strategy it should not take more than eight guesses to get any number.
The original authors of this program are D. Resek and P. Rowe of the Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley, California.
---
As published in Basic Computer Games (1978)
https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=9
- [Atari Archives](https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=9)
- [Annarchive](https://annarchive.com/files/Basic_Computer_Games_Microcomputer_Edition.pdf#page=21)
Downloaded from Vintage Basic at
http://www.vintage-basic.net/games.html

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06_Banner/README.md
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### Banner
This program creates a large banner on a terminal of any message you input. The letters may be any dimension of you wish although the letter height plus distance from left-hand side should not exceed 6 inches. Experiment with the height and width until you get a pleasing effect on whatever terminal you are using.
This program was written by Leonard Rosendust of Brooklyn, New York.
---
As published in Basic Computer Games (1978)
https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=10
- [Atari Archives](https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=10)
- [Annarchive](https://annarchive.com/files/Basic_Computer_Games_Microcomputer_Edition.pdf#page=25)
Downloaded from Vintage Basic at
http://www.vintage-basic.net/games.html

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07_Basketball/README.md
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### Basketball
This program simulates a game of basketball between Dartmouth College and an opponent of your choice. You are the Dartmouth captain and control the type of shot and defense during the course of the game.
There are four types of shots:
1. Long Jump Shot (30ft)
2. Short Jump Shot (15ft)
3. Lay Up
4. Set Shot
Both teams use the same defense, but you may call it:
- Enter (6): Press
- Enter (6.5): Man-to-man
- Enter (7): Zone
- Enter (7.5): None
To change defense, type “0” as your next shot.
Note: The game is biased slightly in favor of Dartmouth. The average probability of a Dartmouth shot being good is 62.95% compared to a probability of 61.85% for their opponent. (This makes the sample run slightly remarkable in that Cornell won by a score of 45 to 42 Hooray for the Big Red!)
Charles Bacheller of Dartmouth College was the original author of this game.
---
As published in Basic Computer Games (1978)
https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=12
- [Atari Archives](https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=12)
- [Annarchive](https://annarchive.com/files/Basic_Computer_Games_Microcomputer_Edition.pdf#page=27)
Downloaded from Vintage Basic at
http://www.vintage-basic.net/games.html

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08_Batnum/README.md
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### Batnum
As published in Basic Computer Games (1978)
https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=14
The game starts with an imaginary pile of objects, coins for example. You and your opponent (the computer) alternately remove objects from the pile. You specify in advance the minimum and maximum number of objects that can be taken on each turn. You also specify in advance how winning is defined:
1. To take the last object
2. To avoid taking the last object
You may also determine whether you or the computer go first.
The strategy of this game is based on modulo arithmetic. If the maximum number of objects a player may remove in a turn is M, then to gain a winning position a player at the end of his turn must leave a stack of 1 modulo (M+1) coins. If you don’t understand this, play the game 23 Matches first, then BATNUM, and have fun!
BATNUM is a generalized version of a great number of manual remove-the-object games. The original computer version was written by one of the two originators of the BASIC language, John Kemeny of Dartmouth College.
---
As published in Basic Computer Games (1978):
- [Atari Archives](https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=14)
- [Annarchive](https://annarchive.com/files/Basic_Computer_Games_Microcomputer_Edition.pdf#page=29)
Downloaded from Vintage Basic at
http://www.vintage-basic.net/games.html

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09_Battle/README.md
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### Battle
BATTLE is based on the popular game Battleship which is primarily played to familiarize people with the location and designation of points on a coordinate plane.
BATTLE first randomly sets up the bad guy’s fleet disposition on a 6 by 6 matrix or grid. The fleet consists of six ships:
- Two destroyers (ships number 1 and 2) which are two units long
- Two cruisers (ships number 3 and 4) which are three units long
- Two aircraft carriers (ships number 5 and 6) which are four units long
The program then prints out this fleet disposition in a coded or disguised format (see the sample computer print-out). You then proceed to sink the various ships by typing in the coordinates (two digits. each from 1 to 6, separated by a comma) of the place where you want to drop a bomb, if you’ll excuse the expression. The computer gives the appropriate response (splash, hit, etc.) which you should record on a 6 by 6 matrix. You are thus building a representation of the actual fleet disposition which you will hopefully use to decode the coded fleet disposition printed out by the computer. Each time a ship is sunk, the computer prints out which ships have been sunk so far and also gives you a “SPLASH/HIT RATIO.”
The first thing you should learn is how to locate and designate positions on the matrix, and specifically the difference between “3,4” and “4,3.” Our method corresponds to the location of points on the coordinate plane rather than the location of numbers in a standard algebraic matrix: the first number gives the column counting from left to right and the second number gives the row counting from bottom to top.
The second thing you should learn about is the splash/hit ratio. “What is a ratio?” A good reply is “It’s a fraction or quotient.” Specifically, the spash/hit ratio is the number of splashes divided by the number of hits. If you had 9 splashes and 15 hits, the ratio would be 9/15 or 3/5, both of which are correct. The computer would give this splash/hit ratio as .6.
The main objective and primary education benefit of BATTLE comes from attempting to decode the bas guys’ fleet disposition code. To do this, you must make a comparison between the coded matrix and the actual matrix which you construct as you play the game.
The original author of both the program and these descriptive notes is Ray Westergard of Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley, California.
---
As published in Basic Computer Games (1978)
https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=15
- [Atari Archives](https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=15)
- [Annarchive](https://annarchive.com/files/Basic_Computer_Games_Microcomputer_Edition.pdf#page=30)
Downloaded from Vintage Basic at
http://www.vintage-basic.net/games.html

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10_Blackjack/README.md
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### Blackjack
As published in Basic Computer Games (1978)
https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=18
This is a simulation of the card game of Blackjack or 21, Las Vegas style. This rather comprehensive version allows for up to seven players. On each hand a player may get another card (a hit), stand, split a hand in the event two identical cards were received or double down. Also, the dealer will ask for an insurance bet if he has an exposed ace.
Cards are automatically reshuffled as the 51st card is reached. For greater realism, you may wish to change this to the 41st card. Actually, fanatical purists will want to modify the program so it uses three decks of cards instead of just one.
This program originally surfaced at Digital Equipment Corp.; the author is unknown.
---
As published in Basic Computer Games (1978):
- [Atari Archives](https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=18)
- [Annarchive](https://annarchive.com/files/Basic_Computer_Games_Microcomputer_Edition.pdf#page=33)
Downloaded from Vintage Basic at
http://www.vintage-basic.net/games.html

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11_Bombardment/README.md
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### Bombardment
As published in Basic Computer Games (1978)
https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=22
BOMBARDMENT is played on two, 5x5 grids or boards with 25 outpost locations numbered 1 to 25. Both you and the computer have four platoons of troops that can be located at any four outposts on your respective grids.
At the start of the game, you locate (or hide) your four platoons on your grid. The computer does the same on it’s grid. You then take turns firing missiles or bombs at each other’s outposts trying to destroy all four platoons. The one who finds all four opponents’ platoons first, wins.
This program was slightly modified from the original written by Martin Burdash of Parlin, New Jersey.
---
As published in Basic Computer Games (1978):
- [Atari Archives](https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=22)
- [Annarchive](https://annarchive.com/files/Basic_Computer_Games_Microcomputer_Edition.pdf#page=37)
Downloaded from Vintage Basic at
http://www.vintage-basic.net/games.html

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12_Bombs_Away/README.md
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### Bombs Away
As published in Basic Computer Games (1978)
https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=24
In this program, you fly a World War II bomber for one of the four protagonists of the war. You then pick your target or the type of plane you are flying. Depending on your flying experience and the quality of enemy defenders, you then may accomplish your mission, get shot down, or make it back through enemy fire. In any case, you get a change to fly again.
David Ahl modified the original program which was created by David Sherman while a student at Curtis Jr. High School, Sudbury, Massachusetts.
---
As published in Basic Computer Games (1978):
- [Atari Archives](https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=24)
- [Annarchive](https://annarchive.com/files/Basic_Computer_Games_Microcomputer_Edition.pdf#page=39)
Downloaded from Vintage Basic at
http://www.vintage-basic.net/games.html

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13_Bounce/README.md
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### Bounce
As published in Basic Computer Games (1978)
https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=25
This program plots a bouncing ball. Most computer plots run along the paper in the terminal (top to bottom); however, this plot is drawn horizontally on the paper (left to right).
You may specify the initial velocity of the ball and the coefficient of elasticity of the ball (a superball is about 0.85 — other balls are much less). You also specify the time increment to be used in “strobing” the flight of the ball. In other words, it is as though the ball is thrown up in a darkened room and you flash a light at fixed time intervals and photograph the progress of the ball.
The program was originally written by Val Skalabrin while he was at DEC.
---
As published in Basic Computer Games (1978):
- [Atari Archives](https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=25)
- [Annarchive](https://annarchive.com/files/Basic_Computer_Games_Microcomputer_Edition.pdf#page=40)
Downloaded from Vintage Basic at
http://www.vintage-basic.net/games.html

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14_Bowling/README.md
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### Bowling
As published in Basic Computer Games (1978)
https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=26
This is a simulated bowling game for up to four players. You play 10 frames. To roll the ball, you simply type “ROLL.” After each roll, the computer will show you a diagram of the remaining pins (“0” means the pin is down, “+” means it is still standing), and it will give you a roll analysis:
- GUTTER
- STRIKE
- SPARE
- ERROR (on second ball if pins still standing)
Bowling was written by Paul Peraino while a student at Woodrow Wilson High School, San Francisco, California.
---
As published in Basic Computer Games (1978):
- [Atari Archives](https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=26)
- [Annarchive](https://annarchive.com/files/Basic_Computer_Games_Microcomputer_Edition.pdf#page=41)
Downloaded from Vintage Basic at
http://www.vintage-basic.net/games.html

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15_Boxing/README.md
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### Boxing
As published in Basic Computer Games (1978)
https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=28
This program simulates a three-round Olympic boxing match. The computer coaches one of the boxers and determines his punches and defences, while you do the same for your boxer. At the start of the match, you may specify your man’s best punch and his vulnerability.
There are approximately seven major punches per round, although this may be varied. The best out if three rounds wins.
Jesse Lynch of St. Paul, Minnesota created this program.
---
As published in Basic Computer Games (1978):
- [Atari Archives](https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=28)
- [Annarchive](https://annarchive.com/files/Basic_Computer_Games_Microcomputer_Edition.pdf#page=43)
Downloaded from Vintage Basic at
http://www.vintage-basic.net/games.html

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16_Bug/README.md
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### Bug
As published in Basic Computer Games (1978)
https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=30
The object of this game is to finish your drawing of a bug before the computer finishes.
You and the computer roll a die alternately with each number standing for a part of the bug. You must add the parts in the right order; in other words, you cannot have a neck until you have a body, you cannot have a head until you have a neck, and so on. After each new part has been added, you have the option of seeing pictures of the two bugs.
If you elect to see all the pictures, this program has the ability of consuming well over six feet of terminal paper per run. We can only suggest recycling the paper by using the other side.
Brian Leibowitz wrote this program while in the 7th grade at Harrison Jr-Se High School in Harrison, New York.
---
As published in Basic Computer Games (1978):
- [Atari Archives](https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=30)
- [Annarchive](https://annarchive.com/files/Basic_Computer_Games_Microcomputer_Edition.pdf#page=45)
Downloaded from Vintage Basic at
http://www.vintage-basic.net/games.html