Shooting Stars Game
35 years ago I came across a game called Shooting Stars in a magaine called BYTE. I wrote a program in BASIC to play this game on one of the earliest personal computers, a North Star Horizon. Here is the same game, updated to run on a web page.
The game represents the universe; blue spheres are stars and black discs are black holes.The object is to end up with a black hole in the centre and stars everywhere else.
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The game represents the universe; blue spheres are stars and black discs are black holes.
The player shoots stars (by clicking on them) which die and turn into black holes.
When a star dies, it affects other stars and black holes in its particular galaxy. It turns stars into black holes and black holes into stars.
The player shoots stars (by clicking on them) which die and turn into black holes.
When a star dies, it affects other stars and black holes in its particular galaxy. It turns stars into black holes and black holes into stars.
The galaxy of each star or black hole can be seen when you place the mouse over it
The object is to end up with a black hole in the centre and stars everywhere else.
It can be done in 11 moves
The original article in BYTE where I first saw the game mentioned is on the web here.
The author, Willard I Nico, explains that he first saw the SHOOTING STARS game in the September, 1974, issue of PCC (a computer hobbyists newspaper of the time, also available here) as a program called TEASER.
PCC Editor, Bob Albrecht, told him that the program was contributed to the Hewlett-Packard software library, initially written in BASIC
PCC Editor, Bob Albrecht, told him that the program was contributed to the Hewlett-Packard software library, initially written in BASIC
For more about PCC see here.