In January 1985, T&D Subscription Software mailed out a cassette (#31) with my game GRID RUN (super thrill for me to see my game distributed!) . On that same cassette was something called “Structured Compiled Language”, which boasted BASIC-like syntax and would compile to the “Holy Grail” of MACHINE LANGUAGE!
I was initially excited, but when I tried it out the limitations (no string manipulation, no negative numbers, etc) discouraged me from pursuing it any further.
Fast forward to 2017, I was considering writing some Machine Language routines for Forest of Doom and I remember SCL. Fact is, I didn’t know anything about Structured Programming in the 80’s, but having since studied it in University and worked for about a decade full-time as a Computer Analyst / Programmer, I could see the benefit of SCL over Assembly Language.
SCL has its limits, but I can bang out some human readable code in a short period of time, and even tweak the compiler (written in BASIC) to suit my needs!
I seem to have off-loaded a tedious and slow bit of BASIC code, used for navigating the Adventure Map, into a Machine Language routine. The game was OK in BASIC, but this creates the possibility of incorporating some music playing code from Simon Jonassen!
