Next up, gedit?? Steady on J Bizzle, don't use up all your best material in the first line...
Jim is back with another non-game entry, this time for the Spectrum Next. I guess I had better dust off the old N-Go (pictured below)
"...exactly what you didn't want, because my NEXT entry in the comp.sys.sinclair Crap GAMES competition isn't a game at all." - J Waterman 2023.
Folks, I present Next-A-Sketch v1.0. An Etch-A-Sketch clone. Jim is awarded extra points immediately for excellent version control, and developer documentation logs, which I have included in the download link.
It is sometimes, wrongly, suggested that Mark Twain barbed 'Golf is the waste of a good walk'. In the same way, in my childhood, I discovered that an etch-a-sketch is a waste of a good sketching opportunity. In fact I remember my brother getting one for Christmas once, and while it looks very interesting, I found it to be entirely frustrating, and not remotely fun even for 5 minutes.
But, it is such a popular toy, it must have some redeeming features. So I conducted some extensive research (thank you Wikipedia) and I discovered TWO THREE! interesting facts about the popular drawing toy, which you may find interesting...
Fact 1 - The Magic Screen
The Etch A Sketch toy was invented in the late 1950s by André Cassagnes, an electrician with Lincrusta Co, who named the toy L'Écran Magique (The Magic Screen).
Fact 2 - It was made with actual plate glass.
Originally, the toy used a plate glass screen, which was criticized by safety advocates for being easily broken and a danger to children. In November 1970, (after 20 years!) Consumers Union filed a petition with the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, asking for emergency action under the 1969 Child Protection and Toy Safety Act. The Food and Drug Administration responded that the toy had been redesigned, replacing the glass plate with plastic.
Fact 3 - There was a sort of computerized version from the 80's.
It was called the Etch A Sketch Animator. There is literally nothing I can say about it that isn't beat into the barren earth by this amazing advert from the time...
N-Go-A-Sketch more like!
Next A Sketch - Jim has designed it so that nearly every single button does something. But at least the programme warns you before doing anything fatal.
I won't list all the features here, as I don't want to spoil the surprises. Let's just say this is a very feature rich application, and you should try it for yourself. (The shape making feature is pretty cool). If you do try it, feel free to send me any masterpieces you make and I'll add them to this blog entry.
This is a much enhanced version of the drawing game, and as such it is almost impossible to use!
Ohh, layers!
So, Jim has made an unnecessarily complicated and convoluted version of the Etch A Sketch....
"It might amuse you for five minutes - but do try all the features before deciding it was a complete waste of time. It was supposed to have been possible to get this done in a day, but after deciding to use every letter on the keyboard to do something, and after having a few troubles getting some of the more complicated features to work properly, it eventually took four days. Anyway... maybe Bizzel Junior will get something out of it?" - J Waterman 2023
Look no colour clash!
The amount of effort Jim has but into something that is almost entirely useless and totally crap is quite impressive. However, I get the feeling that Jim has used this as an opportunity to learn graphical programming in next basic. So actually, people can look at the code and get significant value from it, which isn't crap at all.
Bizzel Junior's remark's:
I'm editing in Fortnight, please leave me alone.
Mrs Bizzels remarks:
It crashed when I entered letters instead of numbers. It's fancy but impractical.
Final Thoughts
I have used up every thing I can think to say about the etch a sketch. (This is foreshadowing for a later review)
Next-a-sketch is certainly a non game, but it's interesting code could certainly help others looking to understand Next basic a bit more. Nice work Jim.
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