I used to own a ZX Spectrum 48K. First computer I ever owned. My mother who was a single mom and a self employed translator raising me and my two younger sisters on her own saved money for months to buy it for me. I taught myself programming BASIC on its wobbly rubber keyboard during the nights under a blanket as an 11yo. so my mom wouldn't notice, because there was school the next day. I'm an IT professional today. I have very fond memories of these times.
My Mum bought us a second-hand ZX81 (with RAM pack!) and a bag of games as our first computer... and I learned BASIC on that, then on the +2... and I'm an IT professional (to a certain extent!) today as well! "Here's this game. You can do it too, if you put your mind to it!" was a lovely time. Later when the type-ins were just pages of machine code numbers without explanation it lost its charm.
I was so much hoping the story would have a happy ending, but then I read the part about becoming an IT professional. I am so sorry. Take heart. You are not alone.
You've not seen my Kevin Smith videos yet. Mind you, I didn't know that Richard Evans was a famous person. From what I can gather on the comments, he's a film reviewer from Milwaukee. It'd be nice if it was actually the same person!
Spelunker shout-out! This looks like a lovely little thing. I recall typing in quite a few games that were a bit like this on the ol' Atari. Surprising what you can do with BASIC if you really think things through.
Yeah! I watched your Spelunker video yesterday evening and thought of his ankles, and compared to this bloke who can fall 60 feet. Not as good as Chel from Portal though who, because of those things on her ankles, can fall FOREVER! And it's REALLY tightly designed. Later levels require you to plan your route carefully, and make maximum use of the jumping arc. It's superb!
Thank you very much! I wanted to get something out, so for me this was a QUICK video. It really helps when the game itself is really good. A bit of a dust and polish and we're good. It has a good difficulty curve and is well architected too. Proper job!
Wow! It's not the biggest type-in I've done, but it's certainly large enough that you wouldn't want to handle it after your tea but before bedtime. It's lovely when you type these things in and they actually do work!
Thank you. Dodgy dealers seem to have always been a thing, from Ea-Nasir (the first documented complaint letter!) to Daley! All he wanted were some nice traps to keep his diamond - AS BIG AS A CHILD'S HEAD - safe. All he got were some poisonous rocks!
Wow! You have outdone yourself with the opening alone, James! The paper sand is especially inspired! I’ve long wondered what you’d do with an actual filming budget? 😂 Interesting game? Got a kind of Super Meat Boy feel to it with some interesting mechanics & challenging level design but I *hate* timers in games. Still your redesign does make it look a lot better & adding a high-score table is a welcome addition. Great video, thanks.
You are welcome! With sand, I either have to drive to the beach or make do somehow, and as I had sheets of sandpaper in the house.... might as well use them! The timer can be removed or disabled quite easily. I never actually found it to be an issue, but after you complete it once, the clock gets faster. Completing it once is a challenge enough... you only get ONE extra life for completing the game!
Another magnificent video. The in-jokes continue to increment register A. A question regarding the game over screen. The last few letters tend to take a while to appear. Is this because appearance of letters is random? If so, how does it know the sentence is complete and to print the rest of the screen?
Thank you very much! Yes, the appearance of letters is indeed random. It does 100 beeps, and for each beep it prints a random character of that line. So there is indeed a chance that it may miss out letters... But after it has finished BEEPing the 100th time, it prints the whole string out as a safety net!
01:42 are you using sandpaper for the desert? your practical effects and mixing of computer-generated imagery is always impressive and interesting to look at.
Yes! I bought 4 sheets of sandpaper for my Pyramid of Iunnuh video and then just plopped it on the dining room table. It didn't lie flat, but that looked a bit like sand dunes! It's fun trying to do things quickly and simply! I've moved away from AI art as this sort of stuff is more fun!
Only a minute in but I see this has potential for the 2 decent Oasis gags I hope you know at least one of them. One isn't so good (don't look back at hangars - something to do with learning to be a pilot). The one about the soup(do you want the Oasis soup or the Blur soup?) is quite good though.
@@WhatHoSnorkers That's one of the best action games written in BASIC I have seen so far and Snorkification made it even better (not sure about the flashing though). I'm sure there's an easy way to reduce the ghosting (which was a big improvement on the flashing however, so good job) involving whether you actually moved or not, and old positions etc. but this RUclips comment is too narrow to write down the complete proof I am afraid. EDIT: The Indiana Cojones game was also very well done for a BASIC game
@@ParadigmShifter-zx5fq Yes, the Flashing did get a bit excessive! It's a cracking game though, with decent falling action and everything. There are two sorts of movement happening, ones you control (left and right) and ones that are automatic (jumping an falling), and it's the latter where it's gets tricky. Indiana Jones y el Idolo de Oro was indeed a superb BASIC game as well!
Ahhh, now it makes sense. I was literally unaware of his involvement in that. I had hear of Red Letter Media not but watched any of their stuff. I've also not read The Scarlet Letter... or seen "Easy A" which does look like great fun. Of course, he COULD have written this. He'd have been 8 years old but it's not totally impossible... just highly unlikely!
0:44 😂😂😂 This is hilarious, 2:08 Costing 95P Now let's see if this would have been Worth spending my pocket money on back in the day 😂 , 2:25 Not sure if I would have Had the patience to have spent an hour and a 1/2 typing that in But I'm sure my dad would have 😂 A very simple looking game, Definitely interesting although I don't think I would have appreciated it back then As there was just so many more better things to be playing on the Speccy , Definitely one I probably would have only played once, Thanks for showing this as I have never seen it before, Thanks for sharing fantastic video have a wonderful weekend
Thank you! It was a fair amount of typing in, and it doesn't look the fanciest... but there's a solid platformer in there, and it gets VERY tricky. The first time I played it I ended up repeating the first level 7 times as I typed a number in wrong. Type-ins were clearly on their way out in 1985 but this was a good one! And you have a great weekend too!
I used to own a ZX Spectrum 48K. First computer I ever owned. My mother who was a single mom and a self employed translator raising me and my two younger sisters on her own saved money for months to buy it for me. I taught myself programming BASIC on its wobbly rubber keyboard during the nights under a blanket as an 11yo. so my mom wouldn't notice, because there was school the next day.
I'm an IT professional today. I have very fond memories of these times.
My Mum bought us a second-hand ZX81 (with RAM pack!) and a bag of games as our first computer... and I learned BASIC on that, then on the +2... and I'm an IT professional (to a certain extent!) today as well!
"Here's this game. You can do it too, if you put your mind to it!" was a lovely time. Later when the type-ins were just pages of machine code numbers without explanation it lost its charm.
I was so much hoping the story would have a happy ending, but then I read the part about becoming an IT professional. I am so sorry. Take heart. You are not alone.
I have to admit that i've never been so disappointed in never seeing Rich Evans in my life
You've not seen my Kevin Smith videos yet. Mind you, I didn't know that Richard Evans was a famous person. From what I can gather on the comments, he's a film reviewer from Milwaukee. It'd be nice if it was actually the same person!
Once again im left staggered by the visual effects
Spielberg needs to take some inspiration from this for his next film
He'd save a fortune that's for sure! Glad you liked it!
Puts a whole new aspect on "the floor is lava". Excellent as always!
Thanks Ponder! Some of those later levels were INTENSE!
@@WhatHoSnorkers So I saw!
Congratulations on the 1K. Maybe you can release a compilation cassette to celebrate.
I need to do something nice...
The game sounds are so oddly catchy. ;o
They do have a bit of rhythm to them!
You're a wonder Snorkers! Brilliant work! And congratulations on 1k! 🎉
Thank you Lee! And thanks to Mr Evans too... I've found another one of his games to type in!
Spelunker shout-out!
This looks like a lovely little thing. I recall typing in quite a few games that were a bit like this on the ol' Atari. Surprising what you can do with BASIC if you really think things through.
Yeah! I watched your Spelunker video yesterday evening and thought of his ankles, and compared to this bloke who can fall 60 feet. Not as good as Chel from Portal though who, because of those things on her ankles, can fall FOREVER!
And it's REALLY tightly designed. Later levels require you to plan your route carefully, and make maximum use of the jumping arc. It's superb!
I wonder how I'm going to say "BEST VIDEO EVER" when absolutely all of your videos are "BEST VIDEO EVER"!!!
Thank you very much! I wanted to get something out, so for me this was a QUICK video. It really helps when the game itself is really good. A bit of a dust and polish and we're good.
It has a good difficulty curve and is well architected too. Proper job!
@@WhatHoSnorkers And Nefertiti!!!
She inspired the pyramids!
Bloody hell, I remember typing this in way back when. Quite proud of my achievement when it actually ran.
Wow! It's not the biggest type-in I've done, but it's certainly large enough that you wouldn't want to handle it after your tea but before bedtime.
It's lovely when you type these things in and they actually do work!
Excellent work as always! By the way, that poor Pharaoh was getting ripped off by the contractor.
Thank you. Dodgy dealers seem to have always been a thing, from Ea-Nasir (the first documented complaint letter!) to Daley!
All he wanted were some nice traps to keep his diamond - AS BIG AS A CHILD'S HEAD - safe. All he got were some poisonous rocks!
Excellent work as always that contractor has worse deals than the Admiral.
He's got to keep himself in sheepskin coats somehow, margins were very tight in Ancient Egypt...
Glad you enjoyed it!
This game reminds me of zx81 game but better and the snorker version is amazingly done as always ……brilliant vid as always x
Thanks Daph! It's a simple game but it packs a lot in!
Wow! You have outdone yourself with the opening alone, James! The paper sand is especially inspired! I’ve long wondered what you’d do with an actual filming budget? 😂
Interesting game? Got a kind of Super Meat Boy feel to it with some interesting mechanics & challenging level design but I *hate* timers in games. Still your redesign does make it look a lot better & adding a high-score table is a welcome addition.
Great video, thanks.
You are welcome! With sand, I either have to drive to the beach or make do somehow, and as I had sheets of sandpaper in the house.... might as well use them!
The timer can be removed or disabled quite easily. I never actually found it to be an issue, but after you complete it once, the clock gets faster. Completing it once is a challenge enough... you only get ONE extra life for completing the game!
Very cool!
Yeah, it's a really interesting puzzler of a game... TIGHT controls too!
Congratulations on reaching 1K !!!
Thanks Nick! Five year mission complete!
You’ve reached 1k! Time to plug in a ram pack.
Yeah! And hold it in place with Bluetack! When we used our ZX81 we gave up on the RAM pack in the end.
@@WhatHoSnorkers it made typing those listings in even more exciting. Like a game of buckaroo. One wrong move and everything is lost.
@@gedbyrne8482 Oh yes, I remember that well! Loading Rocket Man, loaded on the third go then you pressed a key too har and BOOM.
Original Content!
Not often you can say that these days! Not found anywhere else!
WORLD EXCLUSIVE
It's not often you get to do that, so I'm milking it!
What a fantastic C&VG cover that is! Busy as all hell!
I've got a million ideas, so let's just use them all!
Another magnificent video. The in-jokes continue to increment register A.
A question regarding the game over screen. The last few letters tend to take a while to appear. Is this because appearance of letters is random? If so, how does it know the sentence is complete and to print the rest of the screen?
Thank you very much! Yes, the appearance of letters is indeed random. It does 100 beeps, and for each beep it prints a random character of that line. So there is indeed a chance that it may miss out letters...
But after it has finished BEEPing the 100th time, it prints the whole string out as a safety net!
@@WhatHoSnorkers Ah! Very smart, and you’d barely notice more than one letter appearing at the end if it got that far.
@@Justin-TPG Yeah, it's really well done!
Shortly after this, mister Evans moved to Milwaukee and started reviewing bad movies.
The home of Laverne and Shirley!
01:42 are you using sandpaper for the desert? your practical effects and mixing of computer-generated imagery is always impressive and interesting to look at.
Yes! I bought 4 sheets of sandpaper for my Pyramid of Iunnuh video and then just plopped it on the dining room table. It didn't lie flat, but that looked a bit like sand dunes!
It's fun trying to do things quickly and simply! I've moved away from AI art as this sort of stuff is more fun!
@@WhatHoSnorkers I understand exactly what you mean.
Only a minute in but I see this has potential for the 2 decent Oasis gags I hope you know at least one of them. One isn't so good (don't look back at hangars - something to do with learning to be a pilot). The one about the soup(do you want the Oasis soup or the Blur soup?) is quite good though.
Do you want the Oasis soup or the Blur soup?
"What's the difference?"
The soup is the same, but with the Oasis soup YOU GET A ROLL WITH IT
@@ParadigmShifter-zx5fq Cracking! I'll have to remember them! I've got Mancunian style fishing hats after all...
@@WhatHoSnorkers That's one of the best action games written in BASIC I have seen so far and Snorkification made it even better (not sure about the flashing though). I'm sure there's an easy way to reduce the ghosting (which was a big improvement on the flashing however, so good job) involving whether you actually moved or not, and old positions etc. but this RUclips comment is too narrow to write down the complete proof I am afraid. EDIT: The Indiana Cojones game was also very well done for a BASIC game
@@ParadigmShifter-zx5fq Yes, the Flashing did get a bit excessive!
It's a cracking game though, with decent falling action and everything. There are two sorts of movement happening, ones you control (left and right) and ones that are automatic (jumping an falling), and it's the latter where it's gets tricky.
Indiana Jones y el Idolo de Oro was indeed a superb BASIC game as well!
The Red Letter Media algorithm has tricked me
Welcome to the Snorkers cinematic universe. A cast of dozens, all of whom are me in different costumes...
Ahhh, now it makes sense. I was literally unaware of his involvement in that. I had hear of Red Letter Media not but watched any of their stuff. I've also not read The Scarlet Letter... or seen "Easy A" which does look like great fun.
Of course, he COULD have written this. He'd have been 8 years old but it's not totally impossible... just highly unlikely!
How do you get the budget to film in locations such as Egypt in this video?
I'm a cultural and environmental nightmare, what with my private jet, film crew and floating museum...
@@WhatHoSnorkers I bet that Middle Aged' Teenage Snorkers is a nightmare to work with, though. Flippin' little yobbo he is!
He's easily distracted by some Sherbert in his trailer thankfully!
IsItAnyGood told me to subscribe to your channel. lol 🤣 hahaha your funny. I'm from Australia 🇦🇺.
Thank you! In some of my videos I play the famous Australian, William "Horace" Tang...
@@WhatHoSnorkers your welcome 🤗 oh ok
0:44 😂😂😂 This is hilarious, 2:08 Costing 95P Now let's see if this would have been Worth spending my pocket money on back in the day 😂 , 2:25 Not sure if I would have Had the patience to have spent an hour and a 1/2 typing that in But I'm sure my dad would have 😂 A very simple looking game, Definitely interesting although I don't think I would have appreciated it back then As there was just so many more better things to be playing on the Speccy , Definitely one I probably would have only played once, Thanks for showing this as I have never seen it before, Thanks for sharing fantastic video have a wonderful weekend
Thank you! It was a fair amount of typing in, and it doesn't look the fanciest... but there's a solid platformer in there, and it gets VERY tricky. The first time I played it I ended up repeating the first level 7 times as I typed a number in wrong. Type-ins were clearly on their way out in 1985 but this was a good one!
And you have a great weekend too!
YES! Middle aged teenage Snorkers..!
He gets into some scrapes, doesn't he?