Video:Video
By Fred Rodney
1984
Source: Source: ARCADIAN, 6, no. 11/12 (October 1984): 113.
Documentation by Adam Trionfo

"Video:Video" is a video art program that uses four-color graphics on a split 
screen.  When the program is finished it loops and starts again.

No instructions were included in the Arcadian, but the program should first be 
saved after it has been typed.  The program includes its own title screen that 
can be used to after the program has been debugged.  In order to draw the title 
screen and then automatically save the program, type: CLEAR; GOTO 15.  A title 
screen is drawn and then the program automatically saves itself.  This archived 
version of "Video:Video" uses this title screen created by Fred Rodney.

This was the first program that I typed on my PC running Windows XP.  I posted 
how I went about doing this to the Bally Alley discussion group on February 22, 
2011.  Included here is a slightly altered and shorted version of that posting:


I used txt2prg, the program that allows you to type text files on your PC and 
translate them to a binary file which can be translated to a 300-baud WAV file 
via another Windows command line program called KCS.  For my first effort, I 
typed "Video:Video" by Fred Rodney.

Here is the process that I used to take a program typed-in using Windows 
Notepad and ended up with a 2000-Baud program:

1) Typed the program in Notepad in Windows XP.

2) Used "txt2prg" to create a binary "prg" file.  I had made several errors 
that "txt2prg" did catch so that they didn't make their way into the final 
program.  Well... all right!

3) Used KCS on Windows XP to translate the "prg" file to a 300-Baud WAV file.

4) Loaded the 300-Baud WAV file into AstroBASIC (the BASIC with the built-in 
audio interface) using Jay Fenton's "300-Baud to 2000-Baud Translator" from the 
AstroBASIC manual.  In the end I didn't want a 300-Baud program-- that's just 
too slow for me!

5) Saved "Video:Video" from AstroBASIC as a 2000-Baud file.

6) Ran "Video:Video" in AstroBASIC.  Fixed one syntax error (I missed typing a
semi-colon).

7) Allowed "Video:Video" to run.  It draws some pretty shapes on the screen-- 
it seems similar to early Bally BASIC programs that create "Video Art," but 
this one is a bit more complicated.

I wanted to test out txt2prg and I'm happy to report that it was super easy to 
use.


If you like simple Video Art programs, then you'll enjoy Video:Video.


Video:Video was typed-in, per Paul Thacker's request, on February 22, 2001 by 
Adam Trionfo.  Debugging was completed on February 25, 2011.