Since Apple Basic has been ported to the KIM-1, there are three working Basic interpreters:
Tiny Basic, MS Basic and Apple Basic
I found some old Basic games for old interpreters in the Book "Basic Computer Games" and "More Basic Computer games" by David H. Ahl (All available on my g.drive)
These games have to be fitted for the KIM-1 and its restrictions, but I got at least 2 working:
... and how to play the original Gameboy Tetris against players in the whole world.
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, I introduce to you the
USB to GameBoy Link Cable
This little adapter (a 4$ RaspberryPi pico equipped with some levelshifters and the plug for the Link Cable) makes it possible to connect to a server, where players around the globe can compete. The creator, Stacksmashing, offers prebuild pcb's where you only have to solder the RaspberryPi Pico.
Do I need to say that I ordered the Hardware immediately? Soldering was straight forward and easy, and would be even for beginners and programming the PiPico is literally just drag and drop. After connecting the hardware you have to visit the site https://tetris.stacksmashing.net/ with the chrome or edge browser (as they allow webUSB).
Your running Tetris game will automatically be detected, and you can join or create a round. Finding opponents works for example through the inventors discord channel ( https://discord.gg/YASkVQY5Pr ). Really nice people are awaiting other players. A round can host up to 6 players at once.
It is really a fun toy with hopefully more applications to come. Ach so: I won,
My KIM-1 clone ('PAL-1') is growing fast. After the fabulous dTR Masss Storage by Willem Aandewiel, I got a real Audio-in/Audio-out Expansion Card from Liu:
You see an newly produced Tape Deck sending Data to the brandnew 32k KIM-1 Clone equipped with a brandnew Cassette Interface Kit.
But we haven't reached the end yet. James 'Jim' McClanahan tinkered a bitbit and build a ROM Board containing the most needed Tools for your PAL-1: https://github.com/w4jbm/PAL-1-6502-SBC/blob/main/ROM/README.md And Liu was fast enough to immediately produce this boards :D
IMO, this is definitely a killer application on PAL-1, from Jim with passions, coming soon on Tindie! pic.twitter.com/O57fkYENBo
Storage devices for your KIM-1 microcomputer were traditional either Tape drives or Punched Paper Tape solutions. The possibility to connect the KIM's and it's clones via the serial connection to a modern PC helped a lot for transfering the ASCII data of a papertape to the KIM-1. Yet Tape devices became more and more obsolete and its not that easy to buy cassettes nowadays. Of course you can serve the wave file over the lineout / linein connection of your computer also, but Willem Andewiel figured out a way to simplify it a lot:
The Kim direct Tape Recorder "dTR"
https://willem.aandewiel.nl/index.php/2021/02/20/digital-tape-recorder-for-the-kim-1-and-clones/ The files are stored on an ESP Microcontroller (with wifi access) and can be played back directly to the Tape I/O Line of the KIM; you can also save files from the KIM on the EPS. This works as well for original KIM-1s as for newer Clones. Via the microcontrollers webinterface you can upload and download files.
How to get files on to the dTR? When you load files via Papertape (Terminal) to the KIM, you can store them afterwards on the virtual tape. Another option is to convert the papertape files direct with a program called ptp2hex and upload them via WIFI to the digital Tape Recorder. The Program is available as sourcecode on Willems Github: https://github.com/mrWheel/KIM_TapeDevice/tree/master/papertapeConverter It was originally written for Mac's, to compile it for windows (cygwin) I needed to adjust it a bit: Replace Line 24 with "#include <stdlib.h>" , in Line 151 replace the "int eol = strlen(lineIn) -5;" by "int eol = strlen(lineIn) -6;" under windows the end of the line is 2 characters long - we need to cut off one more at the end of a papertape line ... As I am the only one in the world using this tapedevice under windows, it makes no sense to share it, i guess... anyway: https://netzherpes.de/ptp2hex.zip is the *.exe Thats it. Place it in your cygwin home folder.
Tiny Basic is another Basic Client for old Microcontroller Computers. It's famous for its very little size. For example, it is running on an KIM-1 with only 4K of RAM.
The original author Tom Pittman tells the story of it's creation:
In 1976 at the HomeBrew Computer Club (HBCC), there was a lot of whining about Bill Gates charging $150 for his Basic interpreter. Dennis Allison responded by printing a "Build Your Own [tiny] Basic" article, so I asked if anybody would buy it if it cost only $5. There seemed to be some affirmation, so I wrote my interpreter. Others jumped on the same article, and I wasn't the first done, but I wanted to be paid for my efforts. As far as I know, nobody at HBCC bought it, but I sent a freebie to Byte magazine and they printed a 1-inch announcement. The next month my mailbox was full of orders, every one with $5. I didn't get rich off it, but it did pay a lot of my expenses at grad school.
One of the most obscure Computer magazines formed around this Tiny Basic: Dr. Dobb's Journal of COMPUTER Calisthenics & Orthodontia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Dobb%27s_Journal It lasted 38 Years till 2014 (!)
If you have a KIM or a KIM Clone, I found two working versions; one for 4K Ram, one for KIMs with MEM Expansions. Both run from Adress 0200. Remember to always clear your decimal flags!
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