12th January 1996

LINE CRASH.

This is the very first game that I ever wrote for any computer. I wrote it when I was only 10 years old in 1984, and only now, have I unleashed it onto the Internet. The game runs on the Atari 8-bit (that's the 400/800/XL/XE) in Basic. To run the game, type in:  RUN"D:LINECRAS.BAS" and press RETURN. You can view the source code (the Basic listing) by either breaking out of the game, or by using 'LOAD' instead of 'RUN' when loading the game.

The idea is to use the joystick to try and draw a line around your opponent. If they crash into a line, they die, and you win.

The game requires two players (Both Joysticks) (I couldn't be bothered to use the extra joystick ports of the 400/800 and make it a four player game, and besides, it would have been slowed down even further). The game plays so slowly that it's unplayable, so for any speed, I would advise you to run the game using Turbo Basic, or some other means of accelerating Atari 8-bit Basic programs, or alternatively, use an emulated Atari (eg. PC XFormer) on a high speed computer. The reason that the game is slow is due to my implementation of the algorithm for collision detection. What I should have done was just to detect the value of the playfield directly ahead in the direction that the line was going. Instead, I foolishly checked the value of the playfield in all 8 pixels surrounding the 'head' of the line, and to prevent this from detecting collisions with the previous pixel of the line, I made the head of the line a different colour when it expanded, then I did the colision detection, and finally I checked all 16 squares surrounding the 8 squares that surround the 'head', and if any were the same colour as the 'head', they would be changed to the colour that the collision detection would detect as a collision. This can be observed by the lines having a small green bit at the front, which becomes red along with the rest of the line.

But anyway, if you want to see what Line Crash has grown into over the years, take a look at the Atari ST version (for details on how to get it, see the Wacko Software homepage at http://www.xs4all.nl/~ellman/ae-a/wacko or alternatively, one of the FTP sites it's on is ftp.uni-kl.de in /pub/atari/games/linecras.zip ). It features the following.

+ It uses the quick algorithm that I should have used in the Atari 8-bit bersion.
+ Up to 8 players can play (2 normal joysticks, 2 plugged into the printerport, and if You've got an STE or Falcon, you can plug four more joysticks into the side).
+ The Computer can play some of the players, and some can even be turned off.
+ You can change the size of the playfield.
+ If a line dies, it is either still lethal, or you can pass through it, depending on what you chose.
+ Select the speed of the game. The fastest speed is just WICKED!!!

I would be very interested in hearing any coments about this, my first ever game.

Andrei Ellman,
Willem Pijperstraat 63
1077XL, Amsterdam
The Netherlands

E-mail: ellman@xs4all.nl
WWW: http://www.xs4all.nl/~ellman/ae-a

AE.