Porting PDP11/VAX programs to the ZX81

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stefano
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Porting PDP11/VAX programs to the ZX81

Post by stefano »

I recently found online the dumps of the tapes from DECUS, the US user group for Digital stuff back in the earlier eighties.
A good part of the programs was created back in the seventies and then adapted to the "new" operating systems, etc. Something was originally written in FORTRAN and then ported to C.
Most of the algorithms are now in the school books, but it is very nice to look at the code the way it was created just to play and experiment !

Here's an animation originally intended for the VT52 terminal to solve the HANOI puzzle.
It requires 16K and the WRX mod, to support the 80 columns.. text is glitchy but gives a reasonable feeling on how it was back in those days. Other builds are possible (e.g. ARX).

Enter the number of discs (up to 12) and enjoy..
hanoi.c
(3.54 KiB) Downloaded 314 times
hanoi.p
(6.24 KiB) Downloaded 343 times

P.S. I'm trying to revive an historical MAZE program based on similar VT techniques, but that one is slightly more complex.
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stefano
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Re: Porting PDP11/VAX programs to the ZX81

Post by stefano »

The promised game. Program header says:

/*
* Amazing demonstration program
*
* Rewritten from a Pascal program marked:
* "Copyright 1976,
* Oregon Museum of Science and Industry
* 4015 SW Canyon Road
* Portland Oregon 97221
* (503) 248-5923
* "Permission is hereby granted to republish (but not
* for profit) any or all of this program, provided that
* this copyright notice is included."
*
* This version by:
* Martin Minow
* Digital Equipment Corp.
* 146 Main St.
* Maynard, MA 01754
*
* Maze may be compiled for RSTS/E RT11 or VMS-native.
* On VMS, maze must be linked with kbgetc and kbputb.
*
*/
maze.c
(32.03 KiB) Downloaded 319 times

For WRX graphics mod, 32K RAM.
To play use QAOP, but perhaps it is more interesting in self-play mode, it will be a sort of rolling demo...
amazing-maze.png
Attachments
maze.p
(13.08 KiB) Downloaded 308 times
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siggi
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Location: Wetterau, Germany
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Re: Porting PDP11/VAX programs to the ZX81

Post by siggi »

Hi Stefano
thanks for that programs. Seems that the Zeddy is PDP11-compatible :mrgreen:

Back in the eighties I also wrote a Hanoi program, running on my Sharp PC 1211 (so no graphics, BASIC, no recursion). But the graphic version on ZX81 looks much better. Here are some pics:

IMG_4988_1024x768.JPG
IMG_4990_1024x768.JPG
My ZX81 web-server: online since 2007, running since dec. 2020 using ZeddyNet hardware
http://zx81.ddns.net/ZxTeaM
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