Running out of RAM - an 80s BASIC programming simulator for C64 by hamrathdoesldjam

"Running out of RAM" is an 80s BASIC programming simulator written for C64 in BASIC V2.
You earned your first job as a programmer: write a video cassette collection database for a friend of your father.
Now you have to deal with food, sleep and the 38911 BASIC bytes free on your Commodore 64.
The d64 image includes two programs. The smaller one (roor.prg) is uncompiled BASIC and runs really slow. Better use Warp on VICE. The larger file (+roor.prg) is compiled with BasicBoss and might crash. Your choice. ;)
The following instructions are based on WinVICE, but other systems should be similar.
* Instructions to load: *
- Download the C64 emulator VICE and open it.
- Download the roor.d64 disk image from below
- Goto "File" > "Autostart disk/tape image..." and select the downloaded roor.d64 image. Do not double click!
- In the Open dialog you can see a list called image contents. It contains the files of the disk image. Double click on "ROOR" or "+ROOR". The second is recommended, as it's significant faster. For full BASIC experience you can use "ROOR".
- The game should start now.
- On "ROOR" you can press ESC, which will end the execution of the program. you can now type "list:" to see the full beauty of C64 BASIC programming. :smile:
* Instructions to play: *
Each time you press [1] you'll add some lines to your code. Adding more lines will decrease your energy. Less energy means less code and more bugs. So don't forget to debug your code or do something for your health. If you have the money you could buy some extras to get a buff.
Try to sell some cracked games to earn money. Don't forget to buy new games as old cracks are lame and less people are willing to buy the old shit for the same price.
Below most actions are red, green and blue numbers. Green numbers add something, red substracts something. Blue numbers have a random effect, most likely positive.
Ratings
| Given | 10🗳️ | 0🗨️ |
Interesting sim game although I was able to crash it: "string too long error in 35055". It would be fun if there were side events that happen when you write code, or it involved solving literal puzzles like in programming games(e.g. Shenzhen I/O). There is potential for a game here with interesting characters and storytelling, even.
I fixed that silly bug. Forgot to initialize the timer display each time. Should work now.
Having no prior experience with VICE, Basic and C64, I had to spent some time figuring out how to make it run (thanks to @triplefox for the links, though). Maybe a short tutorial with links in the description (or a comment if that's not an option) could be a time-saver for noobs like me :)
The gameplay is cool, although a little slow, I spent a lot of time just pressing 1. Maybe an option for spending a longer time programming would help with that.
This is the 3rd retro game I know of in the competition. (I did an NES game, and there's a 2-player Genesis game called Rad Rhino out there too). It's always awesome to see.
Also... I don't know if you're interested but I did manage to get it working with a web-based emulator! I hosted it [here](http://cpprograms.net/devnull/roor/), or if you'd rather host it yourself here's all the files involved: [roor.zip](http://cpprograms.net/devnull/roor/roor.zip). Just hit space to start; it seems to work alright! It's using the [emscripten port of vice](https://github.com/rjanicek/vice.js)
Thanks for a fun entry!
@cppchriscpp Oh thank you! I fiddled around with c64js and jsc64, but I did not like the Resultat.
Feel free to ping me if you need any help with setting up the basic version, too. I've worked a lot with web-based software and emulators.
https://youtu.be/_MY9TNamvQ8?t=302
As a professional game dev I would suggest... just kidding haha
Nonetheless, if you want to work on this project more I suggest making a difficulty incresing algorithm.
Graphics - very nice. Controls are also working very well.
Maybe you could also take a glimpse at my game? I already enlarged it into a wholesome Android game :)