Ahl, BASIC Computer Games (1978)

Cite as: Ahl, BASIC Computer Games (1978)
Original: https://archive.org/details/basic-computer-games-microcomputer-edition_202207
sha256: aa3d9a120fa5153eb310b4bc77557b44329861709a28aa73be7f4e0ef9ad6556
Archived: https://archive.org/download/basic-computer-games-microcomputer-edition_202207/Basic_Computer_Games_Microcomputer_Edition.pdf
Accessed: 2026-10-20
Licence: © 1978 Creative Computing
Credit: Edited by David H. Ahl, program conversion to Microsoft BASIC by Steve North, illustrations by George Beker.
Notes: Read: the Workman trade edition scan (Basic_Computer_Games_Microcomputer_Edition.pdf, sha1 abc239e71bfb3d14cdb12c448e0d3c781f161a73). Its copyright page gives the trade edition's first printing as October 1978. Hammurabi is on pp. 78–79 (PDF pages 93–94): description, sample run, and listing. coding-horror-basic-computer-games transcribes the same listing. A primary source for the same reason as the 1973 book: it is the game's own publication.

Cited on

The book's description starts the city with 3,000 bushels in storage, but the listing's first report shows 2,800, because rats ate 200 of a 3,000-bushel harvest.	`p. 78`	Code
Each year land trades at $17 + ⌊ 10 r ⌋$ bushels per acre for a random $r$ in [0, 1), a whole number from 17 to 26.	`p. 78`	Code
DEC's 1975 printing of the listing has the same rules and constants as the 1978 edition, except that its seed check, `INT(D/2)<S`, refuses a planting that would use the last bushel.	`p. 79, line 450`	Publisher
Ahl's 1978 note says the program was "originally written in Focal at DEC; author unknown", and that he converted it to BASIC and added the 10-year performance assessment.	`p. 78`	Publisher
Creative Computing's 1978 BASIC Computer Games, converted to Microsoft BASIC by Steve North, prints the game as "Hammurabi" on pages 78 and 79.	`title pagep. 79, line 10`	Publisher