{"id":1835,"date":"2012-04-19T07:38:08","date_gmt":"2012-04-19T05:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/?p=1835"},"modified":"2016-07-06T14:15:02","modified_gmt":"2016-07-06T12:15:02","slug":"arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/?p=1835","title":{"rendered":"Arena"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes I manage to impress myself bigtime.<\/p>\n

A while ago, I left a comment on Jimmy’s page on Robot War<\/a>, about Arena, which is basically* Robot War for the PC. This morning I received an email from Core War<\/a> fundi John Metcalf<\/a>, saying that he’s never heard of Arena, and would like to know more.<\/p>\n

So I thought about it for about half a cup of coffee, remembered which box it was most likely to be, retrieved the box from behind the Puma<\/a>, and the disk I was looking for was about the tenth disk down (this was the lucky bit — there are about 200 disks in there I guess).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The key point here is that I last used these disks on my father’s PC (the one before the one before the one he has now — it was a 386 on one of those motherboards that still took a 287 coprocessor) back in the early nineties. Call it twenty years plus tax.<\/p>\n

The fact that I can’t find a notebook battery that I had in my hand day before yesterday is not relevant to the story.<\/p>\n

So then I had to fire up the third machine on my desktop**, click the KVM over, and copy the files to something my main machine can read.<\/p>\n

Now I know for a fact that the vast majority of my readers (both of them) are suffering MEGO<\/a> with a side of TMI<\/a>. So here’s a cut line for you. It gets geeky on the other side.<\/p>\n

* Bad pun. Should be assemblerly. You don’t get it. Don’t worry. I’ll explain it.<\/p>\n

** Primary machine is a Windoze 2K box. #2 is my Linux box, and #3 is a 486 (or maybe an early Pentium) which mostly boots DOS (with Windows 3.1 if I really need to do that) and runs my Expro<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(no, those were footnotes. And only a bit geeky. Here’s the cutline)<\/p>\n

The Joint Software Exchange<\/strong><\/p>\n

Back in the late eighties, Jean-Paul van Belle<\/a> ran the Joint Software Exchange out of Fish Hoek. He had a fairly large collection (as you can see, Arena was #1249 in his catalogue) of shareware disks which he copied to floppies (yours, or supplied by him) for a nominal fee.\u00a0 The Simtel<\/a> \/ CICA<\/a> \/ Walnut Creek<\/a> CDROMs pretty much put an end to this era. But at the time I got maybe thirty or so disks from him. Good old 360k floppies.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So, on to the topic at hand. Arena.<\/p>\n

Volume in drive B is JSE # 1249\r\nDirectory of B:\\\r\n\r\nAEDIT\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 COM\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 21,383 02-05-86\u00a0\u00a0 1:23p\r\nAEDIT\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 DOC\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 4,240 08-24-85\u00a0\u00a0 8:02p\r\nALIST\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 COM\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 14,499 02-05-86\u00a0\u00a0 1:41p\r\nALIST\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 DOC\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1,069 08-24-85\u00a0\u00a0 8:04p\r\nAREAD\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ME!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 343 08-21-85\u00a0\u00a0 6:53p\r\nARENA\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 DOC\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 21,343 10-27-85\u00a0\u00a0 9:08p\r\nARENA\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 PRO\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 3,238 10-27-85\u00a0\u00a0 9:12p\r\nCARENA\u00a0\u00a0 COM\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 35,043 02-05-86\u00a0\u00a0 1:53p\r\nCOLOR\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 BAT\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 479 08-21-85\u00a0\u00a0 6:42p\r\nERRATA\u00a0\u00a0 TXT\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 803 11-13-85\u00a0\u00a0 4:46p\r\nMARENA\u00a0\u00a0 COM\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 35,004 02-05-86\u00a0\u00a0 1:48p\r\nMOLE\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 LST\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 119 10-27-85\u00a0\u00a0 8:47p\r\nMONO\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 BAT\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 466 08-21-85\u00a0\u00a0 6:43p\r\nPEEKER\u00a0\u00a0 LST\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 335 10-27-85\u00a0\u00a0 8:47p\r\nRADAR\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 LST\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 385 10-27-85\u00a0\u00a0 8:47p\r\nTARGET\u00a0\u00a0 LST\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 190 10-27-85\u00a0\u00a0 8:48p\r\nJSE\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 COM\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 2,015 02-29-88\u00a0 12:00a\r\nBROWSE\u00a0\u00a0 COM\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 958 01-02-86\u00a0\u00a0 3:54a\r\nJSE\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 TXT\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1,924 02-29-88\u00a0 12:00a\r\nJSDISK\u00a0\u00a0 HLP\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 4,701 01-14-88\u00a0\u00a0 2:15p\r\nARENA V\u00a0 2.1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 0 12-22-87\u00a0 12:21a\r\n       21 file(s)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 148,537 bytes\r\n                         202,752 bytes free<\/pre>\n
If you want to download this, look here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
From ARENA.DOC<\/p>\n
HISTORY<\/p>\n
Arena is a\u00a0 simultion [sic] of gladiatorial\u00a0 combat in the\u00a0 future, where the
\ncombatants are robots programmed\u00a0 by their “Controllers.”\u00a0 Fighting\u00a0 up to
\nsix to\u00a0 a side,\u00a0 the winning\u00a0 robots are\u00a0 those who\u00a0 still stand after the
\nsmoke clears.\u00a0 Robots are given intelligence, weapons, and armor to have a
\nfighting chance of survival.\u00a0 Your position, luckily for you, is of one of
\nthe controllers.\u00a0 You are\u00a0 given a factory where\u00a0 you can build up\u00a0 to six
\nrobots, program them, and send them to the arena to fight the creations of
\nyour opponent.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So far, so good. Sounds like Robot War. However<\/p>\n
INTRODUCTION<\/p>\n
ARENA is written to be both an enjoyable game and an introduction\u00a0 into
\nthe\u00a0 world\u00a0 of\u00a0 assembly\u00a0 language.\u00a0\u00a0 The\u00a0 language\u00a0 is\u00a0 based\u00a0 on Intel’s
\nMnemonics, and thus is ideal for learning Z80, 808x, and 80×86.\u00a0 It is not
\na\u00a0 complete\u00a0 set\u00a0 (missing\u00a0 are\u00a0 stack\u00a0 operations,\u00a0 interrupts,\u00a0\u00a0 logical
\noperators,\u00a0 and\u00a0 other\u00a0 processor\u00a0 specific\u00a0 commands).\u00a0 Version 3 will be
\ngeared after the 8088\/8086 processor, to\u00a0 help all those with IBM PCs\u00a0 and
\ncompatibles.\u00a0 This program\u00a0 is designed to\u00a0 run on the\u00a0 above machine, and
\nany machine that uses MS-DOS.\u00a0 It\u00a0 was written on a Leading Edge\u00a0 FXD, and
\nshould run on IBM, COMPAQ, Sanyo, Corona, etc.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Where the Robot War language is BASIC-like, Arena is based on Intel assembler. Jimmy says that “The [Robot War] programming language you work with is extremely primitive even by the standard of BASIC, with just a bare few commands” — well, here’s RADAR from Arena :<\/p>\n
RADAR.CYB\r\nBrain: 3\r\nCannon: 3\r\nHull (Armor): 4\r\n\r\n1:\u00a0  GUN\u00a0\u00a0 :G\r\n2:\u00a0  RAD\u00a0\u00a0 :G\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 5\u00a0 ;scan\r\n3:\u00a0  CMP\u00a0\u00a0 :S\u00a0\u00a0 -1\u00a0 ;enemy?\r\n4:\u00a0  JEQ\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 6\r\n5:\u00a0  JMP\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1\r\n6:\u00a0  MOV\u00a0\u00a0 :T\r\n7:\u00a0  GUN\u00a0\u00a0 :T\r\n8:\u00a0  SUB\u00a0\u00a0 :T\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1\r\n9:\u00a0  GUN\u00a0\u00a0 :T\r\n10:\u00a0 ADD\u00a0\u00a0 :T\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 2\r\n11:\u00a0 GUN\u00a0\u00a0 :T\r\n12:\u00a0 SUB\u00a0\u00a0 :T\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 2\r\n13:\u00a0 GUN\u00a0\u00a0 :T\r\n14:\u00a0 END<\/pre>\n
And this is pretty much where I gave up playing with Arena. x86 assembler is a necessary evil, I had to commit some as part of my lectures, but I’m an assembler geek of the 6809 \/ 68000 school and that’s not going to change.<\/p>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Sometimes I manage to impress myself bigtime. A while ago, I left a comment on Jimmy’s page on Robot War, about Arena, which is basically* Robot War for the PC. This morning I received an email from Core War fundi John Metcalf, saying that he’s never heard of Arena, and would like to know more. So I thought about it for about half a cup of coffee, remembered which box it was most likely to be, retrieved the box from behind the Puma, and the disk I was looking for was about the tenth disk down (this was the lucky...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computers","category-geek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1835"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3429,"href":"https:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1835\/revisions\/3429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retro.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}