Back in the early 80s, I was “published” for the first time.
I think I was about 12 years old.
It all began when I wrote a computer game called “Omega Battle” for the Dick Smith Wizzard. Now lets not get too excited – the game was almost impossible to play and incredibly BASIC (pardon the pun).
My mother thought the idea of me writing a computer game was simply wonderful and promptly took me to Dick Smith Electronics in Tighes Hill to peddle my wares.
The manager was enthusiastic on my behalf, and went out the back and made a phone call. He then handed me a piece of paper with a phone number on it, and told me to call a particular fellow in head office who would love to discuss my computer game.
Now here was the kicker: This was a Sydney phone number, and we were in Newcastle. That meant an STD Phone Call.
Back then, this was a big deal.
These days, most people would not blink an eyelid no matter what number they were calling or whether they would be charged by the second or not. In those days, the STD pips (several little beeps at the beginning of the call) meant the clock was ticking.
And having an area code meant so many digits to dial, or finger into the rotary dialer! I am even now feeling breathless just thinking about it.
My resourceful mother though, had a cunning plan. We were visiting my Uncle Alan in Glenfield in a couple of weeks, so we could make the phone call then – a local call.
Imagine waiting a couple of weeks for something so exciting to save a couple of bucks. However, back then STD phone calls were so mysterious and ominous that one would not want to risk making one in case your next bill arrived with some huge bank breaking figure.
Anyway, I made the phone call at Uncle Alan’s and was offered $150 for the rights for Dick Smith Electronics to own and sell the game for a period of 24 months. Pretty freakin’ amazing stuff and I still have the letter of offer today.
The game went on to be published in the Dick Smith Wizzard Second Book of Programs. I often wondered if anyone actually went and typed in all 300+ lines of code to play the game.
I was also stunned recently to find that someone had written an emulator for Windows that allows you to run Dick Smith Wizzard programs on your PC, and you can actually download and play Omega Battle. Luckily for me my junior self had coded my name into the game on Line 80, which was subsequently picked up by Google and allowed me to stumble across it via a vanity search.
To be honest my inspiration in writing this article was not about the history of Omega Battle, but to remind those of the long forgotten days and family fear of the dreaded STD phone call.
(and for those who have never heard the acronym used in this way, STD means a long distance phone call)
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OMEGA BATTLE
Can you hold off the invading saucers? You only have 50 shots to destroy the aliens that appear at random on the screen. Be careful not to run into any that appear at ground level, the collision will destroy you!
1 CHAR1,18181818BDBDFF81 2 CHAR8,0000181818 3 CHAR100,0000007E 4 CHAR101,00101010101010 5 CHAR30,42BDA55A5AA5BD42 6 CHAR2,1818183C7EFF5AA5 7 CHAR3,42FFFFFFFF244281 8 CHAR4,181818187E7EDBDB 9 CHAR5,1818995A3C3C5A99 10 CHAR6,1818995A3CFF3CC3 11 CHAR104,FFFCF0E0C0C08080 12 B=23 13 GOSUB7000 14 COLOR1,6,1 15 COLOR2,16,1 16 COLOR16,10,1 17 CHAR105,FF3F0F0703030101 18 CHAR106,01010303070F3FFF 19 CHAR107,8080C0C0E0F0FCFF 20 COLOR4,7,1 25 COLOR13,12,7 26 COLOR17,14,1 27 X=4 28 Y=4 29 COLOR14,7,1 30 COLOR5,16,1 31 CHAR32,00008000000010 32 CHAR91,894A2CF81F345291 35 GOSUB6000 36 T=48 37 S=48 38 P=1 40 A=16 41 H=16 42 N=18 45 CLS 50 PLOTA,23,1 60 GOSUB4000 65 REM 70 REM > OMEGA BATTLE < 75 REM 80 REM > BY BILL BOVILL < 85 REM 99 COLOR12,8,1 100 J=JOY(1) 101 COLOR16,10,1 102 IFE>3THENGOSUB9200 103 IFRND(0)<10THENGOSUB9000 104 CHAR120,3C7EFF5A5AFF7E3C 106 IFH=AANDN=BTHEN9500 110 IFJ=7THEN1000 120 IFJ=3THEN2000 130 IFJOY(3)>0THEN3000 141 COLOR16,8,1 150 COLOR5,RND(2)+14,1 160 CHAR120,3C7EFFA5A5FF7E3C 200 GOTO100 1000 A=A-1 1001 CHAR120,3C7EFFA5A5FF7E3C 1005 IFA=3THENA=4 1010 PLOTA,B,1 1011 PLOTA+1,B,32 1020 GOTO100 2000 A=A+1 2001 CHAR120,3C7EFFA5A5FF7E3C 2005 IFA=31THENA=30 2010 PLOTA,B,1 2011 PLOTA-1,B,32 2020 GOTO100 3000 M=M+1 3005 IFV=99THENRETURN 3006 FORF=21TO10STEP-1 3007 IFM=50THEN9500 3008 IFF=NANDA=HTHEN9900 3009 IFF=YANDA=XTHENGOSUB5600 3010 PLOTA,F,8 3011 PLOTA,F+1,32 3020 NEXT 3025 PLOTA,10,30 3026 PLOTA,10,32 3027 B=23 3028 IFI=1THENGOSUB9000 3029 I=0 3030 GOTO100 4000 FORC=2TO32 4010 PLOTC,24,100 4015 PLOTC,1,100 4020 NEXT 4021 PLOT3,23,107 4022 PLOT31,23,106 4030 FORC=24TO1STEP-1 4040 PLOT32,C,101 4045 PLOT2,C,101 4050 NEXT 4060 PLOT3,2,104 4070 PLOT31,2,105 4500 RETURN 5000 PRINT"THERE ARE THREE LEVELS OF" 5005 PRINT 5010 PRINT"DIFICULTY:-" 5015 PRINT 5016 PRINT 5020 PRINT"1 - BEGINNER." 5025 FORJ=1TO3 5030 PRINT 5035 NEXT 5040 PRINT"2 - AMATEUR." 5045 FORJ=1TO3 5050 PRINT 5055 NEXT 5060 PRINT"3 - PROFESSIONAL." 5065 FORJ=1TO3 5070 PRINT 5075 NEXT 5080 PRINT">WHICH LEVEL?"; 5085 D=49 5090 PLOT16,24,D 5095 IFJOY(3)>0THEN5130 5100 IFJOY(1)>0THEN5300 5110 GOTO5095 5130 D=D+1 5135 IFD=52THEND=49 5140 PLOT16,24,D 5145 GOTO5095 5300 IFD=49THENO=100 5310 IFD=50THENO=50 5320 IFO=51THENO=20 5490 PRINT 5500 RETURN 5600 X=RND(26)+2 5605 Y=4 5610 E=-10 5615 T=T+1 5616 S=S-1 5617 GOSUB9900 5620 RETURN 6000 PRINT"1 > < ASTROSMASHER" 6010 PRINT 6020 PRINT"2 > < SPACESHOOTER" 6030 PRINT 6031 PRINT"3 > < CREEPYCRAWLER" 6032 PRINT 6033 PRINT"4 > < SPACEDOOBER" 6034 PRINT 6035 PRINT"5 > < SPACEPROBE I" 6036 PRINT 6037 PRINT"6 > < SPACEPROBE II" 6039 PRINT 6040 PRINT"WHAT IS YOUR STARSHIP CHOICE"; 6041 D=49 6045 PLOT32,24,49 6046 PLOT31,24,63 6050 REM 6051 IFJOY(3)>0THEN6056 6053 COLOR5,RND(2)+14,1 6054 IFJOY(1)>0THEN6060 6055 GOTO6051 6056 D=D+1 6057 IFD=55THEN6041 6058 PLOT32,24,D 6059 GOTO6051 6060 IFD=49THENRETURN 6070 IFD=50THEN6100 6080 IFD=51THEN6200 6081 IFD=52THEN6300 6082 IFD=53THEN6400 6083 IFD=54THEN6500 6089 CLS 6090 GOTO6000 6100 CHAR1,1818183C7EFF5AA5 6105 CHAR8,000000001818 6110 RETURN 6200 CHAR1,42FFFFFFFF244281 6210 CHAR8,000000424242 6220 RETURN 6300 CHAR1,181818187E7EDBDB 6310 CHAR8,00081C1C0808081C 6320 RETURN 6400 CHAR1,1818995A3C3C5A99 6410 CHAR8,0000000000181881 6420 RETURN 6500 CHAR1,1818995A3CFF3CC3 6510 CHAR8,00000000001C081C 6520 RETURN 7000 CLS 7010 FORA=6TO16 7020 COLORA,7,1 7030 NEXT 7095 PRINT" "; 7100 PRINT" >OMEGA BATTLE<" 7110 FORA=1TO3 7120 PRINT 7130 NEXT 7131 GOSUB8100 7132 GOSUB8000 7134 CLS 7135 GOSUB5000 7136 CLS 7140 PRINT" YOU CAN CHOOSE WHICH" 7150 PRINT 7160 PRINT" SPACESHIP YOU WANT BY" 7170 PRINT 7180 PRINT" SELECTING ITS NUMBER WITH" 7190 PRINT 7200 PRINT" THE FIRE-BUTTON" 7210 PRINT 7500 RETURN 8000 REM > MUSIC < 8005 FORF=1TO3 8010 SOUND2;3,5;3,14;3 8020 NEXT 8040 SOUND2;2,4;2,13;2 8050 SOUND2;0,6;0,15;0 8060 SOUND2;3,5;3,14;3 8070 SOUND2;2,4;2,13;2 8080 SOUND2;0,6;0,15;0 8090 SOUND2;6,5;6,14;6 8091 FORN=1TO100 8092 NEXT 8095 RETURN 8100 PRINT"YOU HAVE 50 SHOTS AT THE EN-" 8105 PRINT 8110 PRINT"EMY.ON YOUR 50TH SHOT YOU " 8115 PRINT 8120 PRINT"WILL BE DESTROYED.AVOID GRO-" 8125 PRINT 8130 PRINT"UND LEVEL ALIENS,THEY WILL" 8135 PRINT 8140 PRINT"DESTROY YOU ON CONTACT," 8145 PRINT 8200 RETURN 9000 REM > ALIEN HYPERSPACE < 9005 CHAR120,003C7E7E7E7E3C 9010 CHAR120,0000183C3C18 9020 CHAR120,0000001818 9030 CHAR120, 9050 PLOTH,N,32 9060 H=RND(25)+5 9070 N=RND(15)+8 9080 IFRND(4)=3THENN=23 9090 PLOTH,N,120 9091 CHAR120,00000018 9092 CHAR120,0000183C3C18 9093 CHAR120,003C7E7E7E7E3C 9094 CHAR120,3C7EFFA5A5FF7E3C 9095 I=0 9100 E=E+1 9110 IFE=20THEN9200 9120 RETURN 9200 REM> S M A R T B O M B < 9205 PLOTX,Y,91 9220 PLOTX,Y,32 9230 IFX=AANDY=BTHEN9500 9240 IFXATHENX=X-1 9260 IFYBTHENY=Y-1 9280 RETURN 9500 PLOTA,B,30 9501 FORQ=1TO5 9505 COLOR4,7,1 9506 COLOR4,1,1 9507 COLOR4,10,1 9508 COLOR4,1,1 9509 COLOR4,9,1 9510 COLOR4,1,1 9511 V=99 9520 NEXT 9521 FORQ=NTO23 9522 PLOTH,Q,120 9523 PLOTH,Q-1,32 9524 NEXT 9530 IFT>52THEN9630 9531 FORQ=1TO10 9532 CHAR32, 9533 CHAR32,AA55AA55AA55AA55 9534 NEXT 9535 FORQ=1TO8 9536 COLORQ,1,1 9537 NEXT 9538 FORQ=12TO16 9539 COLORQ,1,1 9540 NEXT 9541 SOUND2;4,5;4,14;4 9542 SOUND2;3,5;3,14;3 9543 SOUND2;1,5;1,14;1 9544 SOUND2;4,5;4,14;4 9545 SOUND2;3,9;3,17;3 9546 SOUND2;1,7;1,16;1 9547 SOUND2;3,7;3,16;3 9548 SOUND2;1,5;1,14;1 9549 SOUND2;3,5;3,14;3 9550 DATA80,76,65,78,69,84,32,73,83,32,68,69,65,68 9551 SOUND2,1,4,1,12,1 9552 SOUND2;7,5;7,14;7 9560 FORK=10TO23 9570 READF 9580 PLOTK,14,F 9590 NEXT 9591 IFJOY(1)=0THEN9591 9595 CLS 9600 RUN 9630 DATA80,76,65,78,69,84,32,73,83,32,83,65,86,69,68 9640 FORK=9TO23 9650 READF 9660 PLOTK,14,F 9670 NEXT 9671 FORA=1TO10 9672 S=RND(30)+1 9673 SOUNDS;0,S+1;0,S-1;0 9674 NEXT 9680 IFJOY(1)=0THEN9680 9685 CLS 9690 RUN 9900 REM 9905 S=S+1 9910 IFS=58THENT=T+1 9911 IFS=58THENS=48 9915 IFT=58THEN9550 9920 PLOT4,2,T 9930 PLOT5,2,S 9940 PLOT6,2,48 9945 IFE=-10THENRETURN 9950 I=I+1 9960 PLOTH,N+1,32 9982 PLOTH,N,30 9983 PLOTH,N,32 9988 F=10 9990 NEXTF 9998 GOSUB9000 9999 GOTO100
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