Blasting Off

Anybody remember the old Texas Instruments 82 (TI-82) Graphics Calculator? Back when I used one in High School, I had a friend who developed a calculator program involving the buying and selling of drugs in randomly generated cities. The program, "prgmDRUGLORD" included a subroutine where the drug dealer encountered the police and had to fight them off.

I borrowed the program back in 1996 because I saw potential. I renamed the program "prgmSPACER" and like a true science fiction afficionado, I changed the story. Instead of illegal drugs, I changed the products to science fiction-related items: a fictional alloy called "Plasteel," a mundane cargo "Food," and the essential fusion power source "Deuterium."

The program underwent several changes. I changed the police that the player fights to "Space Pirates," and changed the randomly generated cities to randomly generated planets. So the program underwent a makeover.

In late 1996, I rewrote the source for the program, converting it from a derivative work into an original work, including original solutions to problems posed by the idiosyncrasies of programming on a calculator, and tried to add extra subroutines. As the player earned money (called "trade notes"), he or she could "promote" from the rank of Intern, to Commander, to Captain. At the rank of Captain, the player gained access to weapon upgrades--powerful plasma torpedos, and enhanced laser turrets.

The pirates also grew more ferocious, boarding your ship, ramming you toward planets, smashing you between asteroids, blasting you with pulsed neutrino emissions that could even send you reeling back in time (and cause you to lose a level of rank!)

I even went as far as introducing different subroutines for saving the game, and I even wrote a sequel. In the sequel, the player is forced to deal with a group of five ultra high powered pirate ships.

And for the past few years, I have had no need for "prgmSPACER" or my old TI-82. So now, in my spare time, I've begun an ambitious new project--converting SPACER into a database. Microsoft Access will never be the same.