ELECTRONIC BIRTHDAY CARD

Celebrate Antic's second birthday

by JOHN SLABY

SYNOPSIS
This computerized birthday card runs on any Atari system with BASIC and at least 16k RAM. If you have a 410 or 1010 program recorder, you can add a recorded message to th card.

This program was written for my son's first birthday. Its programming techniques include an altered display list and use of the real-time clock for timing music routines.

Type in the program and SAVE a backup copy. When you RUN it, you'll first be asked for "OLD OR NEW (O/N)?". If you type [O], the data in line 730 will be used. If type [N], you'e prompted the recipient's name, age, sex, and birth date. Then the program waits for you to press a key before doing its thing.

If you have a 410 or 1010 program recorder, you can add a prerecorded message to the program. This will play while a gift wrapped package is displayed on the screen. The message can be up to 18 minutes long. Respond with [N] to the Old/New prompt and enter the necessary data. If you're using cassette only, record the message immediately after the program on the tape. If you're running the program from disk, record the message at the beginning of the tape. Time the recording in seconds and enter this amount at the prompt. Make sure the PLAY button on the recorder is depressed when you RUN the program.

If you have a friend who has an Atari and a program recorder, you can send him a Happy-Birthday-card tape with a prerecorded message. Record the message immediately after the program on the tape, and ask your friend to make sure that the recorder PLAY button is depressed while the program is running.

Divide the message time (in seconds) by four, and replace the 0 at the end of line 5 (TIME = 0) with this quantity. Change GOSUB 700 in line 10 to GOSUB 730. Replace the strings (in quotes) and the number for AGE in line 730 with the appropriate information. The proper sequence is: CSAVE the program, record the message, make the program changes, rewind the tape fully, and then CSAVE the program again. Once the program has run, it can be rerun by pressing any key. If a prerecorded message is used, the tape should be rewound first.

John Slaby is a chemical engineer by profession. He bought his Atari 400 in 1981, programs in Atari BASIC and machine language, and especially enjoys games and graphics. Several of his programs have been published.

Listing: BDAYCARD.BAS Download