The Sinclair QL Forum

Staying indoors thanks to a few inches of snow here (this is Wales after all), so for a bit of fun I ported a ZX81 BASIC game by Trevor Toms to QL SuperBASIC. On the theme of snow, it's a downhill ski run, where you have to guide a skier down a curving ski run, using the left and right cursor arrow keys. Avoid hitting the course marker posts or straying off course - you get a penalty point for this. Keep your "score" as low as possible.
It's fairly basic graphically as it stands, and well commented for anyone wishing to tinker with it to enhance it.

To run it, just use LRUN flp1_SKIRUN_bas. The instructions are in a Quill doc file called SKIRUN_doc

It should run on any system, including unexpanded QL. You'll need to tweak the running speed by altering the value of the slowdown factor variable called "slowdown" in line 160. Very low value for slow systems such as unexpanded QL. On my QPC2 system, it needs a value as high as 200,000. Other systems will be a trial and error with values somewhere in between.

At the moment, it has two courses chosen at random. More can be added by adding values to the variable course$ by following instructions on how to code that. There are 3 skill levels, based on course width.

Enjoy yourself in the snow!

Thanks Dilywyn, your Suggestions implies this simple game could do with a 21st Century Makeover.

The challenge starting with some user defined FONTs ie. SKIRun_fnt. For which may I suggest the QBITS FontEdit2SE. Create Flag Posts for the ‘*’ maybe some Fir Trees (simple design) to the sides not forgetting the Skier with central, left, right positions.

Way back I did make a start on design of a Curling game. The SKI run is a simpler option may take a closer look at a makeover in the coming weeks.

QBITS

Will look forward to the 'Qbits Makeover' ! Your software always looks great.

Personally, rather than having the program loading a SKIRUN_fnt , I'd put the font within the program as DATA statements. Easily done using my Font2Data program https://dilwyn.theqlforum.com/fonts/font2data.zip after the font itself has been created.

For such a small program I'd prefer the program to be self-contained and not have to be configured to "find" the font file etc, makes it easier to just put the program in a directory of your choice. Just personal preference with small programs like this one.

Hehe, that reminds of ferries in Switzerland. Makes great fun!

Hi,

Looks good, maybe a version of Horace Goes Skiing for the QL.