Zero Lines Maze: What the 8-Bit Guy's One-Liner Can Still Teach Us
by ibobev on 5/26/2026, 1:22:36 PM
https://retrogamecoders.com/zero-lines-maze/
Comments
by: newmana
It takes 40 seconds to precompute the lookup table.<p>Robin released at least 2 faster/improved versions that run in a couple of seconds - less string concatenation which is slow in BASIC <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw2hvtF95Qw" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw2hvtF95Qw</a>
5/28/2026, 5:05:56 AM
by: madanparas
There's a 300-page MIT Press book analyzing exactly this line of code: 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); :GOTO 10. It's free as a PDF and covers the mathematics (Truchet tilings), the C64 hardware, and the cultural history. The article doesn't mention it.
5/28/2026, 4:03:53 AM
by: jason_s
Oh that -- I used to print those out from my C64 to my Star Micronics dot-matrix printer and add selected white-out / ink to make them more interesting.
5/27/2026, 3:57:37 AM
by: teaearlgraycold
The author of the article says the 8-Bit Guy is controversial. Why is that?
5/28/2026, 4:49:59 AM
by: aa-jv
It seems that the BASIC's of yesteryear still have a lot to teach us.<p>My favourite example is the annual BASIC 10 liner competition:<p><a href="https://basic10liner.com/" rel="nofollow">https://basic10liner.com/</a><p>Basically, folks compete to write the best, most interesting, most inspiring 10 lines of BASIC code imaginable .. and ooh boy, has there ever been some truly amazing stuff! A dynamically generated dungeon crawler, a full implementation of lunar lander, countless arcade-style games, an implementation of Brainfuck .. the list goes on and on .. all in just 10 LINES OF BASIC!<p>Another source of BASIC inspiration, I find, is in the synthesis one-liner scene - which of course, is dominated by the C64 for its synth goodness, but there are other examples out there where, in just a single line of code, entire techno and other electronic-music tracks are generated, on the fly, by ye' olde 8-bit computer of choice (C64, mostly, though..) The bytebeat techniques in use by some synth-one-liner hackers seem to be continually producing extraordinary results.<p>For example:<p><a href="https://replicate.com/andreasjansson/synth-one-liner/readme" rel="nofollow">https://replicate.com/andreasjansson/synth-one-liner/readme</a><p>.. and a good treatise on the various techniques:<p><a href="https://countercomplex.blogspot.com/2011/10/algorithmic-symphonies-from-one-line-of.html" rel="nofollow">https://countercomplex.blogspot.com/2011/10/algorithmic-symp...</a><p>I think there is a lot of value in learning BASIC using these kinds of techniques in this day and age. I know for sure I'd struggle to have a full Lunar Lander or Asteroids implementation of just 10 lines of javascript, if that is even feasible .. but seeing so many BASIC implementations is just truly inspiring.<p>What we have lost in the rush for shiny bloat, eh folks?<p>The old adage that limits produce wonders, is never truer than in the 10 Line BASIC competition entries ...
5/27/2026, 10:39:21 AM
by: fortyseven
Nothing like ignoring the spirit of the thing by turning it from one line to nearly a dozen.
5/26/2026, 11:18:37 PM