knudsen (01/29/83)
After typing the previous article, I remembered that I have considered getting my son a different beginning program rather than LOGO. He is already getting too old (8 years) to get much thrill out of turtles dragging ink spots across the screen (which he can do faster with a joystick, anyway). He is into video games and robots and things shooting each other (a shame, but...). Radio Shack has a CoCo rompack called "Robot Battle" which lets you write simple programs for two robots, which then act out your commands on the screen. They can scan for walls, robots, missiles and change direction so as to dodge these or shoot back, or whatever. The programming language and the screen-oriented editor (at last! I thought the Shack would never discover screen editors!) are really pretty sophisticated. The system is menu-driven, and indicates which choices are currently valid (what will Tandy "discover" next)? Best of all, it costs only $40 (forty) bucks. The robots move around like turtles, tho rather slowly. The language is very [almost too] concise, rather than wordy like BASIC. A similar system has been out for [overpriced--you said it, TomA] Apple II, and was reviewed in some mag (Byte?) within past year. If you're into nonviolence, the robots can do plenty without shooting each other--square dance, avoid bumping thins, etc. Warning--the quantity and quality of games for the CoCo has finally (after slow start) got to where this machine could be "expensive in the long run" too. All (?) thesse games are volent, of course. In Robot Battles the contest is not who has the fastest reflexes, but who is the craftier and more imaginative programmer. A chance to get revenge on the joystick jocks, maybe? mike k