[Game]Pysconian(1984) port

pyscocga

Some of you who follow things on Pokitto Discord channel know that I obtained a copy of the original Pysconian shop demo disk from 1984. This disk (by accident) contained the original source code for the intel 8086 (IBM PC XT) and CGA graphics version

Luckily, both Pokitto and the 8086 are so-called little-indian processors, meaning that porting the game was easier than I thought

I am still working on the port of the 1997 Pysconian “Deluxe” version. As it ran on more powerful “big indian” machines, optimizing the code will take some time.

Meanwhile, enjoy this CGA-coloured, PC beeper-sound blast from the past!

Game pop file

pysco84.pop (340.1 KB)

Plain .bin fie (alternative)

pysco84.bin (214.8 KB)

POP banner

py_banner2

Poster art

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I’m struggling to decide if this is a joke or a mistake.

(The term ‘little Indian’ reminds me of a certain rhyme that would probably be frowned upon in the modern era.)


Ironcally ‘endianness’ did actually start as a joke, but few people these days have actually read Guillver’s Travels so the reference flies past most people’s heads.

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The funny thing is, I did read Gullivers Travels, but it was in Finnish. So I did not realize the Endian story - which is one of the main themes in the book. Thanks for pointing that out, I love detail like this.

If I remember correctly, the dispute is between “thin-enders” and “thick-enders” in the Finnish translation.

Little-indian came from the R Scarry book that we have

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Nice 80’s PC feeling even if I am not a fan of CGA-colors :wink:

The game Too hard for me. I could not get past the first level :slight_smile: Any chance to get an “Easy” mode?

The screen shaking effect is cool.

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Ah, that makes sense. Can’t say I’ve read that one. :P

I remember hearing a story that the reason native Americans came to be known as Indians is because some explorer thought he’d ended up in India, but I don’t know how much truth there is in it.

‘Thin end’ and ‘thick end’ probably makes more sense in a way.
Personally I think Swift deliberately chose ‘little’ and ‘big’ to make the argument sound more childish.

Regrettably I haven’t read Gulliver’s travels, partly because I’ve never encountered a copy and partly because I don’t really read fiction books these days.
(I won’t say I don’t read fiction because I sometimes read news articles. :P)

The IETF still host the original document by Danny Cohen that proposed the term ‘endianness’ if anyone wishes to read it.


In case anyone is interested, the rhyme I was thinking of was from a certain Agatha Christie novel now titled “And Then There Were None”.
Fortunately I doubt many people know what I’m referring to.
If you want to know more then read the Wikipedia article about the novel,
I won’t derail the thread any further with that one.

Updated / buxfixed with POP files

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