Bally Arcade/Astrocade-Related Comments by Todd Johnson
May/June 2022
Comments Compiled June 14, 2022.
Version 1.1

These remarks were posted in the comments area for the video called "A Real 
Computer? Exploring the Bally Computer System aka Astrocade" by "8-Bit Show And 
Tell," which can be viewed here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69meAjHBAmU

This is the video's description:

"I was surprised to see the fairly obscure Bally Home Computer System video 
game console listed as a home computer in the 1979 Popular Science Buyer's 
Guide. Is it really a legitimate computing platform? Known by many names, 
including the Professional Arcade, and the Astrocade, we explore the system 
both as a video game console, and by attempting to program the famous 10 PRINT 
using its Astro BASIC videocade cassette cartridge."

The video was posted on May 21, 2022.  Todd Johnson, who created "Crown of 
Zeus," a BASIC game published in 1982 and 1983 in the "Arcadian" newsletter for 
the Bally Arcade/Astrocade, made a post in the comment area.  Paul Thacker and 
Adam Trionfo asked him additional questions about his time with the Astrocade.  
These comments are compiled here.

Todd has a somewhat limited YouTube channel of his own:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVnyGWOFOBDF5cnKRi4j0lg

It's nice to see the Astrocade get a little bit of attention outside of our 
small community.

--------------------

This is the exchange of remakes from the YouTube comment area:

TODD JOHNSON: I had programs published in the Arcadian. It actually worked just 
fine. There was a 48K expansion you could buy (I did) which you had to assemble 
using wirewrap and other tech of the time. The only issue I had was the 
controllers would eventually die. The potentiometers would fail and it became 
impossible to play the games whether in Bally BASIC or machine code. You could 
create your own machine code programs for the machine as well as BASIC. I got 
extremely proficient at typing on the calculator keyboard with overlay and 
could write a new game in about a day or two.

ADAM TRIONFO: Hey, Todd! I know your excellent Astrocade game. It's "Crown of 
Zeus" from November 1982. This game is probably the most RPG-like game on the 
Astrocade. It is for AstroBASIC only. It takes you to a dark decaying castle in 
the evil land of Sorom. You've been asked, as the best warrior in the land of 
Beekum, to retrieve the Crown of Zeus which the Scromites have stolen. The 
crown, when worn, gives the wearer the awesome ability to cause anything he or 
she wishes to vanish. Apparently the Scromites have not yet discovered the 
crown's powers. But as you hid in the forest outside the castle, you saw a 
troop of orcs from the warring land of Machor slip in through the front gate. 
They surely know the power of the crown and will have to be dealt with...

You can read more about Todd's game, here:

https://ballyalley.com/program_downloads/2000_baud_programs/arcadian/programs_a
-h/programs_a-h.html#CrownofZeusToddJohnsonAB

I'd love to see the AstroBASIC/Bally BASIC programming scene create some new 
games.

TODD JOHNSON: It has been such a long time. I had to draw the zone pretty much 
like the maps they made and then translate it into sort of an 'in-BASIC' 
database of x y z etc that were set to various numbers that let the program 
know which way it would let you move and what was in each room. The memory 
would not allow me to put the actual names of monsters etc in the game, so you 
had a piece of paper that listed each number and what it meant. Glad to see 
that part of it still lives on :)

PAUL THACKER: I'm a fan of the game as well, and love that you have a whole 
sci-fi backstory behind it. I've digitally archived many Astrocade tapes. Do 
you know that the other games in the Gibeleous series--The Rescue Of Catherine, 
Escape From Rantanam IV, and The Tower Of Machor--are considered lost media? Do 
you still have a copy of the games and instructions by any chance? You can find 
my contact info in my channel's About tab, or there's a link to our discussion 
group at the bottom of the Bally Alley homepage.

ADAM TRIONFO: I forgot to mention exactly what Paul mentions in his post here 
about your hopefully-not-lost follow-up to "Crown of Zeus." It would be great 
if those tapes could be recovered and archived. Also, in August of 2017, I made 
a video of your game, which you can watch here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uSGE2JYzl0

We played your game as part of the Astrocade high-score club that same month:

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/267047-hsc02-round-7-conan-the-barbarian-the-
crown-of-zeus/

It's nice to see that you have fond memories of the Bally console/computer.

TODD JOHNSON: I'm afraid it will stay lost. Basically, the other games used the 
same main code but with a different piece of paper to correlate numbers with 
monsters. And a different set of values in the 'in-line database'. There were 
many things I wish I could have included in the games but couldn't with the 
less than 4K RAM. Much of that RAM was taken up by the BASIC module itself. So 
yup the game wasn't very forgiving (it was intended that you figure out how to 
plot the rooms and improve with each try) but I thought stating that in the 
instructions would be too much of a giveaway. And I freely admit it could have 
used some play testing by others! I especially wanted to add a few more lines 
to update the enemy strength, but they just weren't there.

PAUL THACKER: Thanks for the reply. We scanned a collection of papers from Bob 
Fabris, the Arcadian editor, and someone actually sent him a very detailed map 
they made of Crown Of Zeus.

ADAM TRIONFO: Thanks for letting us know that you don't have the game anymore. 
Perhaps the two sequels to "Crown of Zeus" exist on a tape someplace in the 
world. I suppose that you must have sold at least a few copies of the two 
sequels. Can you remember how many you sold? Paul refers to the maps that were 
made for your game. There are expertly made and I love the way that they both 
look.

TODD JOHNSON: It was strictly a hobby and not a business so very few were sold. 
I would say in the low teens :) One person kept asking for more, but I entered 
my last year in college and didn't have time.

--------------------

Note:

This document, in an earlier form, was originally posted to the Astrocade 
discussion group, here:

https://groups.io/g/ballyalley/topic/91466463#19348

Version History

1.1 - Added additional information on March 4, 2023.  Version 1.1 is the first 
version to appear on BallyAlley.com.


END OF DOCUMENT