Lawn Job is a game I wrote in 1983/84 timeframe when I was in my teenage years. It was written in C64 BASIC and was published in the October 1984 issue of "Ahoy!" magazine as a type-in game.
See the text of the game play description directly from the magazine below. I didn't change the last paragraph because I think it's funny. Please don't send a blank disk or, help me, a blank cassette tape for me to make a copy for you. I still have the old equipment in storage, but there would be a lot of dust and likely the smell of burning electronics if I tried it. I don't recall the count, but a LOT of people did send those in, along with $3. Not a bad gig for a kid.
File extensions:
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lawnjob.ahoy: verbatim text as typed in from magazine
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lawnjob.bas: program listing in ASCII text
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lawnjob.prg: program tokenized for C64 using petcat
Code checked using the Ahoy! Bug Repellent line code checking tool and line codes were verified against the codes in the images excerpted from the magazine. Images included in this repo.
Runs in VICE like it did on C64 with no issues, however, there are a few improvements I would like to make. Issues in this repo for progress.
For the Bug Repellent tool, see: https://github.com/mbuhidar/C64_Bug_Repellent.git
Lawn Job is a game in which you play the role of a lawn boy. As the game begins, you are standing on the walkway in front of your customer's house looking over the task at hand. You must first start your mower by pressing the fire button on the joystick plugged into Control Port 2. As with the typical mower, it will usually take several attempts to start. (Note: mower will not move prior to starting.) After it starts you can begin to mow the lawn. As you mow, you must be cautious not to hit the tree stumps or large rocks which are scattered about the yard. Hitting these will cause your mower to stop as well as cause excessive wear and tear to your mower. You will want to avoid this as much as possible because the extra time spent restarting the mower plus the added wear and tear can lessen your final earnings considerably. When your job is finished, you must maneuver your mower to the customer's front porch and press the fire button. This stops your mower and prompts your customer to come out and examine your work. You then must wait patiently while your work is scrutinized. If your work is not finished. you will be told so and you must restart the mower and finish the job. When the job is completed and the customer is satisfied, your total earnings from the job will be calculated. The amount of time you took (gas monoey) plus fifty cents for each rock or tree stump that you hit (wear and tear) will be subtracted from your base score in order to determine the total amount of money that you earned for the job. If you would rather not type in this program and don't want to spring for our monthly disk (see page 66), send a blank disk (1541 format) or a cassette tape, a self-addressed stamped mailer, and $3 to: Michael Buhidar Jr. Street Address City, State ZIP