Compiled gorilla.bas to modern web

Software
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I’ve recently spent some time developing a local-first web-based retro OS system meant for relaying some services I needed across the network when I discovered I can make a hell of a lot more with it. And this lead to Continuum RX which I am currently hosting here:

But can also be downloaded and ran locally. If you want to take advantage of Chrome’s built-in LLM model, run the above link in Chrome and access ARIA. This will have Chrome download a 1.5gb nano LLM model to your machine and use that machine to answer queries.

However, during this exploration, I also designed QBNext. This is an application you can install there on Continuum RX which takes QBasic 4.5 code and compiles (yes, “compiles”) to web. html/js.

So, circling back to the title, you can use Continuum RX to compile gorilla.bas to a self-contained .html file that just runs.

Path to try it:

  • access the https://continuum.tape-drive.xyz link, click start then click on the “Start temporary session”
  • hover the system tab on the bottom right, access catalog;
  • on applications click on QBNext and install;
  • on desktop, go to applications, expand the panel, click QBNext;
  • in the examples dropdown, click Gorilla
  • compile, run.
  • on the bottom right: save standalone
  • again go to bottom system tab and find file manager
  • in there you will find the file you just saved, right click then download.

Run that html file and you have a working gorilla game.

If you have some interesting qbasic programs, I’d love to try them over.

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If “gorilla.bas” is the early game where one threw bananas at a gorilla to score points then “Well done!” . A favorite of mine years ago and may try your kind offer on my laptop. Single-player games should make a come-back as failure-prone internet (UK rural…) makes M-player games hopeless. I have a collection of early books with Spectrum Basic programs galore which I have previously offered free on this site - no takers so far so happy to pass them on in bulk or single volumes to UK addresses. Collection un-indexed but could check for any title/game of interest.

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You’ve pretty much captured what I’m trying to send out with this project of mine.
And, by the way, yes, I exemplified “that” gorilla.bas game made by Richard, Lyle & Lance. At that time it was meant as a showcase for the QBasic interpreter they bundled with MS-DOS 5.0. However, as far as I was concerned, it was a cool game on the work PC my mother happened to work on. Pretty much on par with Prince of Persia 1 since I can’t remember which I played first.

Regardless, QBNext is a bridge that (hopefully) enables anyone with QBasic knowledge to just write such code and have it run on modern machines as an html wrapper, a single tile in a larger tapestry layed out with Continuum RX which is a pet project of mine.

But to come back to what zingged my ear. Continuum is also a far-cry for that offline-couch experience where you’d pick up a controller, maybe a friend picks up another and you both play a game that can handle you both. I am also hoping for that rudimentary multiplayer that means basically: you, me, him and let’s go!

Coincidentally, I also have some books about Spectrum BASIC, Assembly and other things. I’m not sure if people really appreciate these artifacts nowadays, and in all honesty I can’t blame them. If I meet one single individual that would say: “f the book, but give me the pdf”, I would respect that person for at least trying to access that particularly old topic.

So, yeah, we both have paper, but I think it means more to us for all the wrong reasons. :slight_smile:

And, not the least, thanks for looking at this!

"Advice", the board game by Alick Elithorn, a modern port
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Thanks to you; A couple and more decades back a great friend created a 2-player board game he called Advice, initially sold as a physical set of pieces and a chequered board. In due course it was engineered into a PC-based version and after that into a “C-based” version that ran over the then rudimentary on-line services. I hold the original versions. Functionally the game is simple but the PC version was based on a game-playing engine. I have often thought it could be “apped” but a Qbasic version might be much easier to define. The complexity of the PC version arose because Dr Alick Elithorn , the creator of Advice (see Wikipedia for details) , was an early AI proponent and was able to surround himself with technical friends who wrote the software and tested the game with me as a player. I have often thought a simpler version that required 2 players at one PC would be a feasible QBasic challenge, by avoiding the AI element and just supervising the rules of the game. Game details omitted here as Wikipedia covers it adequately.

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I’m kind of a fan of this kind of games such as you describe.

Is there a playable version I can look at?

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Hi, The off-line i.e. physical version is detailed in Wikipedia - I have a set, the PC version ( Man v Machine/player 2) I can send you the PC file set and a bunch of played games (the PC version keeps a record file of the moves), and , somewhere in my archives I have the “C-based” networked version too. I was gifted the copyrights when Alick died. “C” version was then in development and was tricky to run and probably too far back for current “C” versions to accept. Let me know an e-mail or postal address if you would like a copy of the PC version to experiment with.

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Should add that the PC version runs happily on W10 and earlier MS systems.

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Thanks for this, it was really interesting to go down this particular rabbit hole, so to say. :slight_smile:

More, here: "Advice", the board game by Alick Elithorn, a modern port

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Hi, I am greatly impressed - you have achieved an amazing leap forward for Advice and the example on Youtube captures both the spirit and the intention of Alick’s game. To have done all that in just a day or so bodes well for the underlying development you revealed in your original post. I will ferret through my archive for a “whitewash” game where one player V the original PC version wins without losing a piece, and for the document that gave me control(?) of the PC version. And, Yes , Alick, although irrascible when crossed , was a delight to know and share in his social life as a practicing Forensic Psychologist who invented this game and also the Maze Test used by the US Army for its recruits.

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I have located the original demo PC version (< 400Kbytes) and test-ran a saved .gam of a win. Just press YES when it asks if you have a licence ( shades of Lady Bracknell - Oscar Wild). If you would like any of the files I have I will need to bypass this site’s options for just .jpg’s etc. Norton checked the old PC playable as OK.