Bally Alley Astrocast: Episode 11 - Hamurabi by Richard Houser

In episode 11 of the Bally Alley Astrocast, Adam is joined by his 25-year-old son Dominic. Dominic discusses his memories of growing up with an Astrocade in the house in the late-to-mid-nineties and early 2000s. Adam and Dominic review the Bally BASIC/"AstroBASIC" game Hamurabi.

Recurring Links 

• BallyAlley.com - Bally Arcade / Astrocade Website
• What's New at BallyAlley.com
• Bally Alley Blog
• Orphaned Computers & Game Systems Website
• Bally Alley Discussion Group
• Bally Arcade / Astrocade Atari Age Sub-forum
• Bally Arcade/Astrocade High Score Club
• Bally Alley Astrocast Facebook Page
• The Classic Gaming Bookcast - By Chris Federico

Some Astrocade News/Updates

In this short episode, we decided not to cover any updates, as very few were made since our last recording.

Introduction Notes

• Astrocade Multicart - Pictures of Ward Shrake's Astrocade multicart from the early 2000s.
• Astrocast Multicart Title - 'Title Display' by Adam Trionfo. This homebrew ROM displays an Astrocade bitmap picture. This example displays an Astrocade Multicart title screen. (Nov. 30, 2003).
• Astrocast Theme by Dominic Lowhar - This is an mp3 recording of the theme music for the Astrocast, a podcast for the Bally Arcade / Astrocade.
• Astrocast Theme Sheet Music

Hamurabi Notes

• King Hamurabi by Richard Houser - "King Hamurabi," a Bally BASIC game appeared in Arcadian 2, no. 4 (Feb. 25, 1980): 32-33 and on the tape "Best of Arcadian - 1980." In this video, Dominic and I play a few games to help listeners of the Astrocast to better conceptualize how the game is played.

• 'Hamurabi' by Richard Houser - Bally BASIC Program (300-Baud)
• "Hamurabi" by Richard Houser - "AstroBASIC" Program (2000-Baud)
• "Hamurabi" by Bruce De Vries - BASIC Program Listing in "Cursor" Newsletter.
• "Hamurabi" by Bruce De Vries - BASIC Program Correction in "The BASIC Express" Newsletter.
• "King" and "Emperor" by Richard Houser - Two BASIC type-in programs that are sequels/updates for "Hamurabi."
• "Civilization" for the Atari ST (1993) - Richard Houser, who wrote the Astrocade version of "Hamurabi, used to sometimes play the Atari ST version of "Civilization" during the Atari User Group meetings in the mid-1990s. This is a video of this first version of the game.

• "Hamurabi" Hand-Printed Bally BASIC Program Listing
• "Hamurabi" Arcadian BASIC Program Submission - The original program submission letter for "Hamurabi" contains additional material not included anywhere else, including program subroutine breakdown and varaiables used,
• Atari 8-Bit Computers "Strategy - Hammurabi / Kingdom" Games - The game "Hamurabi" was popular enough in the 1970s/early-1980s that an entire genre formed around it. Here are some games of that genre that you can download from AtariMania.

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