8-Bit Software Online Conversion

Push-the-Bale by Carl Wheat. The idea of the game is that you are a worker in a warehouse which stores bales of cotton. You have to manouver the bales onto the white dotted marked storage areas by pushing them round the warehouse. When you have finished one screen the program will automatically go to the next one, but any new screen number can be selected with the "N" key. The following keys can be used to control the man: Z - LEFT X - RIGHT : - UP / - DOWN Delete key - backsteps the last move Escape key - resets the present screen N - enables you to change to one of 50 other screens, and can be pressed at anytime. Q - completely quits the game A joystick can also be used to move the man around the screen. This routine works with my joystick, but I do not promise it will work with every make, as I believe some makes of joysticks return different values. This is a copy of a game I first saw on an IBM compatible PC, and the layout of the screens is identical to the original. You may at times think that it is not possible to finish all the screens, but I can assure you I have completed all 50 myself. Editor's Note: The original version of Push-the-Bale does not appear to work properly under keyboard control on my Master 128. I have therefore put two versions of the game on the menu; the BBC B version should work either with keyboard or joystick, and the Master 128 version will only work with keyboard. If you have a Master 128 and a joystick, try the BBC B version. CLONE DFS file copying utility ------------------------------ by Lars 0sterballe The DFS *COPY has a severe disadvantage, namely that it is unable to rename a file when it is copied unlike the DOS version of COPY. *CLONE overcomes this disadvantage by taking two file name specifications instead of the source/destination drive + filename. The syntax of *CLONE is: *CLONE <src afsp> <dest afsp> where <src afsp> is the name of the file to be copied and <dest afsp> is the resulting file - a clone. To copy the file HUGO from drive 0 to drive 1 type: *CLONE :0.$.HUGO :1.$.HUGO This could also be written: *CLONE HUGO :1.HUGO if drive 0 was the current drive and if $ was the current directory. With *CLONE you can make a backup of a file to the same diskette as it already exists on. This could be done like this: *CLONE file oldfile The file 'file' will be copied into the file 'oldfile'. If <src afsp> and <dest afsp> are identical file names an error will be issued. *CLONE is not case-sensitive. Both <src afsp> and <dest afsp> must be specified. *CLONE is very well suited to exist under the Command Pool/Dynamics SWR. The source code is supplied in the file ':2.ClonSrc'. Program ViewCon to convert VIEW files to plain text (no CRs) This program is derived from VIEWASC which converted VIEW files to plain text, but retained carriage returns. This (to conform to the requirements of 8bs for submissions), also removes carriage returns unless these are multiple (i.e. at paragraph ends). This format is preferable when using EDIT on the Master, but if it is desired for the file to be displayed using the *TYPE command, the original VIEWASC program is to be preferred. The program is loaded by typing '*ViewCon' when an instruction header is displayed and a prompt given for the name of the file to be loaded for conversion. The filename may include drive number/directory in the usual way. On the Master series, temporary filing system instructions are supported. On completion of editing a prompt is given for the filename of the output file. If it is necessary at this stage to input star filing system commands, this may be done, as if the 'filename' string starts with '*' the string is passed to the Command Line Interpreter, following which another prompt is given for the filename (or another star command). To encourage good computing practice, a prompt is also given for a backup copy. The program removes all soft spaces, tabs, highlights, headers, footers and rulers. It removes all stored (edit) commands with any following bytes up to and including the next carriage return, except that text following a 'CE' command is printed as ordinary text. Carriage returns are replaced by spaces unless the preceding or following character is also a carriage return, in which case they are preserved. Error messages on loading or saving are the normal filing system error messages, with the addition of error 129 - "File too long", produced if the View file would be too long to load without corrupting the program. The maximum length handled is of the order of 22K, so this should not in practice be a problem. After a <BREAK>, or after an error on saving,&c., key f2 will save the file currently in memory, which starts 2 bytes above OSHWM, and should therefore be preserved after a <BREAK>. Alternatively, the program as a whole may be restarted by pressing key f0. After an error on loading, or if it is desired to load and process another file, the program may be re-entered at the appropriate point with key f1. IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE that the program requires that BASIC be the current language. The source code for this program is provided in the file ConvSrc.