A-S-D-W to move
Anyone been playing with BASIC Engine lately?
8 days later
Between the disaster of a job I was involved with, COVID-19, and the mess things have been since, I had to put mine down in the fall of 2019, but as of late I'm looking to get back into it again. I was working on a classic 8-bit BASIC converter, an update of something I created back in the 80's, and my need for it came up again so I'm picking up the project again.
a month later
Hawk I'm tempted to make a RPi 3-footprint sized PicoMite VGA. It's not that difficult, I think. The RPi Foundation gives you all the info to implement a board similar to the RPi Pico using the RP2040. I may try this, since the micro is really cheap, and I have a few ideas of how to solve the footprint limitations.
Dmian My PicoMite VGA is still still in my workshop waiting to get built. I did get a step closer last weekend though, by 3D printing a case for it. A guy from a BASIC programming group on FB designed it. It printed really well.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5872053
4 days later
I have built every kind of MMbasic board they have I think. They do work well , very small , strong basic language. The Pico line are easy to do. I recommend them. They even have a web enabled one now. Go to the backshed.com for all the info. I spend a lot of time there since this one has been kinda sparse lately.
- Edited
Okay, I know I said I would be visiting more frequently, but we've have one more time with my brother in law's health problems. My sister and I have been playing physical therapist for months. He has been on the mend from a bout of sepsis, that had him millimeters from death. In any case, I thought I would be back more often at my last post...but it has taken this much longer to get him from the wheelchair...to a walker...then a cane....and now just his feet 
My stint as a physical therapist has come to an end, so more time for hobbies!
I have been playing a little here and there, starting stuff, getting part of the way, starting something else, etc. Kind of learning some stuff about game design that I didn't know before - and still a long ways to go Forever ago I designed assets for a Star Raiders type game (the Atari 8 bit version), that I really want to get back to. That game is probably still my favorite game of all time. Just an amazing feat in an 8K ROM. I've designed assets and quite a bit of code of an Arkanoid type game. I've made a few test programs for different parts of the game, and need to weld them together and get the game put out here one day. The wife and I made some assets for a Bejeweled-ish type game and layed out some of the logic, but still have more learning to do. She also helped me make some graphical assets for Columns/Tetris type game, but screen layout and graphics tiles/sprites are as far as it has gotten.
@davegardnerisme Is adding the extra sprites something that a neophyte, such as me, could do, or do you have something ready to burn to a microSD card? Some more sprites would be great for something I was playing with! I was going back and forth with the idea or reloading a sprite image to reuse the sprite or using different frames of a sprite. The former would be wayyyy better.
@Gadgetjack Thank you for posting the code, I will play about with that some!
Semi-related to having more sprites available: have any of you guys used BLIT, somehow non-destructively, as sort of a jumbo sprite? I'd reckon the LT is fast enough that on something that is only about 128x72 (a particular space ship the wife designed) that I could read the background data around the asset to be moved into an array(s) (just a few pixels on all four sides, depending on the movement increment), move the asset, then write the background date back to the appropriate pixels.
My biggest stumbling block is sound. As bad as I am with the other stuff, it is an order of magnitude worse for me dealing with sound. I do have a bunch of really good public domain MOD files for background music, so that is no problem...unless I try it on the LT, in which case an error is thrown.
One last question I have pertains specifically to BASIC Engine LT. No matter what capture device I try, it doesn't capture what is happen in Engine BASIC, only the underlying Linux test stuff. Hints and tips greatly appreciated!
Also, if there is a Discord server or Facebook group where BASIC Engine stuff is discussed, please let me know! I really dig the old school forums, prefer it even, but getting direct notifications would make me interact much more frequently.
Thanks for sharing @painintheworld, sorry to hear about your brother in-law’s illness. When life throws you a curved ball, you just make the best of it as you can.
Your BASIC Engine plans sound interesting. I’m not planning anything so lavish. I’m was working on a card game. I prototyped the card routines and displaying the cards, but haven’t got any further than that. I’m hoping that this new TV box I got that runs BASIC Engine will motivate me to get back into it. Meanwhile, I have an unbuilt PicoMiteVGA calling to me.
Keep sharing your progress.
I agree that a FB group would be easier to keep up with if you are already monitoring FB. Forums have their benefits, but you do have to go an visit them specifically. Maybe turn on the email notifications. That’s what tells me when there are replies to my posts at least.
I had some time, so I decided to dust off my BASICEngine project and try it again. Before the chip shortage, I had bought two Libre ALL-H3-CC 1Gb boards and cases to use with my BASICEngine project. Turning them on, I found that I had the NG firmware on one and the LT firmware on the other one. I have spent the last few days reviewing the NG Reference Manual page to get familiar with the commands again
I decided the best way to get use to using the commands is to port a program to BASICEngine. I chose an Apple II program to port. Since I have never used an Apple II, I am having to research the Apple commends to match up with the BASICEngine commands.
I have found an issue that I need help with. The Apple uses the Input command to get string Input from the keyboard. In BASICEngine I found the Input$() command but it is for Data read from file. It has SEE ALSO [INPUT] but the link doesn't go to the INPUT command. I checked and this is also in the Classic Reference Manual. I didn't get a syntax error in the BASICEngine port, but I don't know how to use it. Is this an undocumented command in BASICEngine?
Willard Willard, if you don't get this worked out today (it is 19:02 Eastern Time in the U.S. March 8th), I will be back to my BE stuff tomorrow and will take a looksee.
Hawk Thank you, Hawk. Evidently it was a ruptured abscessed tooth that turned to bodywide sepsis. It was VERY touch and go for two weeks, with one foot over death's door threshold and the other foot on a banana peel. He has pretty good health insurance, but not HI that wanted to pay for two full-time physical therapists for weeks on end. His wife (my big sis), me, his two kids, and a close friend of his were given instructions on what to do, and we did it.
I've been really wanting to get a PicoMite VGA (already made up). I really dig the Color Maximite and Color Maximize 2.
In BASIC Engine land, I still prefer BASIC Engine NG. The inbuilt BLIT command and MOD player work correctly in NG. It feels more authentic in a way, I reckon.
2 months later
uli hello. I'm a developer of TauonPC computer which is compatible with BASIC Engine. I currently have about 300 TauonPCs left in the warehouse in China. They lack SD Card extension cord but still are very good option to be used with Basic Engine on sd card. Are you interested in any way to distribute them between your users? I can offer them at the original manufacturing price, which is less than the current PCB costs.
tauonpc I’d like to be in a position to help, but every person I know who is interested in BASIC Engine is on this site. You could perhaps put a post in the Modern Retro Computing FB group.
Unfortunately Uli seems to have moved onto other things, so BASIC Engine remains what it is.
Have you considered sourcing an alternate SD card extension? After seeing how you used it to move the SD card away from the board I sourced and purchased some to experiment with. There seem to be others available that may suit the Tauon PC-1.
The Tauon PC-1 remains a very good attempt to bring a very affordable all-in-one retro styled PC to the market.
It would be interesting to try BASIC Engine on a TauonPC computer I have seen other users on this Forum use it, but I never had the opportunity to use it. After looking at the TauonPC computer forum, it appears to be close to the Orange PC Pi in hardware compatibility. It looks like it can run the NG firmware, can it run the LT firmware? Hawk may be able to check this out on his TauonPC computer.
Are the TauonPC computers in mainland China or Tawain? I saw a YouTube video that they were shipped from Tawain. I think the BASIC Engine forum members are located worldwide. Where is Uli located?
If the V88 Mini.Android TV box and the TauonPC computer are priced comparatively, then the TauonPC computer would seem to be the better option to purchase for BASIC Engine.
It may be interesting to see how many ways we can Mod the TauonPC computer to use BASIC Engine. I think I saw Hawk make a custom case and keyboard for it on the TauonPC forum.
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Willard The Tauon PC-1 should be able to run both the NG and LT versions of BASIC Engine. I haven't tried the LT firmware at all yet.
I had been planning on making a mechanical keyboard version of the Tauon PC, fitting it to a new case. The existing keyboard is OK, but I find the key layout different to what I use day-to-day, so programming on it becomes somewhat frustrating.
With respect to making an "all-in-one" computer for BASIC Engine, I realised that I could just mount the computer on the back of the monitor and use a USB dongled wireless keyboard and mouse. No cables required.
This is the one I have at home. 
I have been working on the mechanical design of an "all-in-one" "Boot-to_BASIC" keyboard computer based around the PicoMite VGA, running MMBASIC. It has an active community on The Back Shed forum.
Aside from working on the physical hardware designs for these computers, one of my goals is still to write a card game for them. I'm running out of excuses to get it done.
5 days later
Tauonpc , was wondering what kind of price you have on your little pc keyboard unit. Curious....
a month later
Gadgetjack depends on the amount you are interested in. Cheaper than you can get a similar SBC+Mouse+Keyboard.
a year later
Hi! Just checking in to say that I haven't forgotten BE. I'm not touching BASIC lately because I just bought a pinball machine, and I'm dedicated to it. I'm also moving soon, so I'll be busy.
But I still come here often, and still hope this project can continue, because time passes and I'm still convinced is the best modern BASIC system out there, and I don't want to see it languish and die.
Hope everybody is doing fine.
Cheers!
Dmian Your post prompted me to visit and see what’s happening. I was discussing the various “Boot to BASIC” modern retro computers that are around now. He knew most of them, but I couldn’t remember BASIC Engine.
I’ve been playing with other original old computers and my printers and plotters.
I still want to make a all-in-one BE computer, but I need to wait for the warmer weather for my printer to work well in my shed.