Richard Kemley's fruit machine game is fust like the real thing — but you don't lose any money This is a fruit machine simulation, with most of the features you would expect of an arcade fruit machine, except the cally-doh payout. There is a list of the keys here, which are hopefully quite sensible. Hints on conversion If you have cither a good grasp of Amstrad BASIC or an Amstrad manual then conversion should be simple enough. Otherwise rewriting the program yourself would be a far more educational and rewarding task. It isn't too difficult a program to write anyway, but if you get stuck, you can always refer to the appropriate segment of my program. Remember to use the modular approach to programming. The best method is to first of all write down all the subroutines you think you will need, and make these into REM statements using sensible line numbers. For example, you could take my list of subroutines on this page and type them in. When you list the program you should have just a list of REMs. Then write the BASIC for these subroutines. When you have done this for all the REMs, write a control routine at the beginning which calls up all the subroutines (in the right order, remember). Using this method, debugging is amazingly simple. Use BREAKPOINTS, which are STOP statements placed strategically in a program. For example, if you have an error but don't know where it is in the program, then place a STOP statement somewhere in your control routine, then RUN the program. If the error hasn't cropped up by the time the
program STOPs, then the error comes after the STOP statement, otherwise it comes before it. Then you can place another STOP somewhere else, thus homing in on the error. This way you can easily isolate the faulty subroutine and fix it. This is much better than having to wade through lines of garbage programming, as I like to call it. Home Computing Weekly #119 | 
