The Colour Maximite 2

 I’ve recently purchased a Colour Maximite 2 micro computer.  The Maximite is a small micro computer, similar to that of the ones that were available in the 1980s, such as the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, BBC, etc.  It comes with BASIC already installed, so all you need to do is to turn it on and you can begin to program from the command prompt.

The Maximite is available in kit form or pre-assembled.  I bought mine as pre-assembled.

Here’s the first program I ran.  I didn’t have an SD card at the time.  Although you can enter code in the command prompt, you actually need to creat a program file and save to an SD card to create anything more complicated.  Using the command prompt alone only allows you to enter one line of code.  Once enter is pressed, the line of code is executed immediately.  This is good for testing things, but to write a list of commands in a program, you need to have the SD card to create a program and then edit it in the editor.

Here’s a video of the type-in example program “Circles” which is listed in the user manual.  Notice that I am using a different keyboard.  Not all keyboards are compatible with the Maximite.  My old Apple keyboard would not work due to it having additional USB ports for a mouse.  The second keyboard I tried was a Toshiba keyboard.  This wasn’t recognised either.  The DELL on in the first photo worked fine and this new cheap Perixx keyboard seems to work nicely (£15 from Amazon), although I have lost connection a couple of times for some reason.

Rather Interesting Games

I never used to play games apart from back in the old days with my brothers Gary and Paul and the family get together of Monopoly and Rat-Race. But since I've been married to Becky, it's been a Christmas time tradition to play old board and card games with a few drinks - and what a laugh it is...

Since this time, Becky and I have been playing some rather interesting games together (When we can, which isn't very often nowadays what with the kids). So I thought from now on I'll start posting some up here on my forum as we play them.

Probably nobody will ever see them, but you never know...

We've just finished a couple of games of "Touring", a card game originally from 1906 which apparently was the inspiration to Mille Bornes. The idea is to be the first to travel 110 miles, with various obstacles to overcome. It's a great game with very simple rules.

The Winning Hand

Cellular Automata

THE GAME OF LIFE

This is a simple free to download application I made to demonstrate John Conway's rules for cellular automata.

When the application first launches, you can press enter to run the default examples. Or alternatively press 'E' which will open the editor.

Pressing 'C' in the editor clears the grid, allowing you to start afresh.

Once you've finished editing you can save your progress by pressing 'S'.

Load your saved ideas by pressing 'L' in the editor.

Press 'R' while the program is running to switch the randomizer on or off. This repeatedly plots a random cell within the grid, activating any static cells.

To quickly view information about the program, press 'I'.

This will show the following:

I: INFORMATION

R: RANDOMIZER ON/OFF

E: EDITOR

ARROWS: GUIDES THE PLOTTER

SPACE BAR: PLOTS/DELETES

ENTER: RUN

ESCAPE: QUIT

C: CLEAR

L: LOAD

S: SAVE

SOME EXAMPLES:

Still Life:

These shapes will remain static unless interrupted by other moving cells.

Oscillators:

These shapes will continually oscillate in one position on the grid until interrupted.

Gliders:

These shapes change with each generation making them appear to roam along the screen. This routine again will alter if interacted with other cells.

The default examples shows some of these examples and more such as the Gosper Glider Gun. More information about the examples and cellular automata can be easily found on the internet.

DOWNLOAD Cellular Automata

Here's a simple game I developed over the Christmas holiday. I tried to emulate the style of an Atari 2600 game.

Anyway, It's called Squares, and like the Atari 2600 all the graphics are made out of squares. It's a very fast paced game of skill. Simply move your green square along the path, joining the square dots as you go. When the joined path forms a square, a yellow square is formed in the middle. Do this until the screen is full of these yellow squares, picking up bonus squares, invincibility squares, extra life squares, etc., but watch out for the nasty squares that move around randomly. Squares squares squares squares squares squares squares!!!

Oh my god, I can't explain the rules, it's best if you just download the game and try it.

It runs on the Mac, enjoy....HERE

Screenshots....

This is the first screen. The green square is the player. The red square is a baddy. The yellow square has been formed because the dots have been joined around the perimeter of that square of the grid. The cyan square can be collected by joining the dots around the perimeter of it - that particular square gives a random score boost.

This screen I managed to collect an invincibility square - hence the blue screen. That's the only reason how I managed to take the snap-shot. It was manic and I died shortly after this level.