HEXAGONO

Hexagono is a game where players take turns to draw walls on an hex pattern. Players who close an hex cell take an extra move. The player who closes more hexes wins.

A version using squares was very popular when I was a child.

Install

Simply extract the zip file in a place you can read from a FreeDOS computer (i.e., that PC from the nineties you have in the attic) or, alternatively, from a DOS emulator.

Running with an emulator

I recommend  dosbox-x  because it can open files from folders.

Extract the zip file inside a folder of your computer, then "mount" that folder from dosbox-x using the "Drive" menu.

Running from PC-BASIC

You can also run the GWBASIC source with the GWBASIC emulator PC-BASIC

Compiling with QB64

The source file is likely to be compiled with QB64, but you might need to remove line numbers using REMLINE.BAS (included with DOS 5.0-6.2).

Controls

The program is controlled by the keyboard. Use numeric keypad.

• 8: UP
• 4: LEFT
• 6: RIGHT
• 2: DOWN
• SPACE: Put wall
• If you use the original GW-BASIC program, you can use arrow keys, too.
  It seems ASIC manages non-printing keys in a different way than GWBASIC
  or QBASIC.

Why did I made this crappy piece of software?

This is my third approach to this problem.
In the late nineties/early 2000s I wrote a C program with intensive use of
unions to control the hexagon walls. Like this one, that was a console-only
program, made for the "Tengo rallos en los ojos" compo.

In the late 2010s I used Construct2 to make an android app called "Cuadrado",
with square pattern.

This time I have made a basic program for the "COM" jam. There is difficult to
make .COM apps these days, and there is even more difficult to made them with
a basic compiler (most free basic compilers make 32-bit code). So I used ASIC.

I tried to make my (gw/q-)basic fully compatible with BAS2ASI source translator.
It implied:

• Avoiding the use of multiple commands after THEN.
• Avoiding the use of multiple dimensional string arrays.
• Using ":" before ELSE
• Putting DIMs at start of code, and DATA just after DIMs
  
  Files

Files

FILE	DESCRIPTION
HEXAGONO.COM	MsDOS/FreeDOS EXECUTABLE FILE
ASIC_SRC/	Source files for ASIC compiler.
ASIC_SRC/HEXAGONO.ASI	ASIC hand-quilted source.
ASIC_SRC/HEXAGON_.ASI	BAS2ASI generated source. You need to delete REMs to use it.
ASIC_SRC/HEXAGON_.BAS	GWBASIC source without Spanish chars.
TOOLS/	TOOLS for GWBASIC to ASIC conversion
TOOLS/TOASCII.BAS	Substitues Spanish characters by CHR$() (you need gw-basic to run it)
GW_SRC/	GWBASIC source files.
GW_SRC/HEXAGONO.BAS	GWBASIC source.
GW_SRC/HEXAGON_.BAS	GWBASIC source without Spanish characters.
README.MD	This file

Compiling for Windows / Linux / MacOS

1. Install needed Software: QB64
2. Compile.

Compiling for PC-DOS / MS-DOS / DR-DOS / freeDOS (.COM file)

1. Install needed software:
1.1 ASIC from [John Kierman webpage](https://publish.uwo.ca/jkiernan/asicinfo.htm)
1.2 A basic interpreter/compiler compatible with GW-BASIC, such as [PC-BASIC]
(https://sourceforge.net/projects/pcbasic/)
2. Strip off international characters from HEXAGONO.BAS
2.1. From Basic, load and run TOASCII.BAS ( LOAD "TOASCII.BAS":RUN or use the menu if your basic has one).
2.2. Copy the resulting file over ASIC_SRC/HEXAGON_.BAS
3. Convert HEXAGON_.BAS to HEXAGON_.ASI
3.1. From ASIC, execute BAS2ASI on the HEXAGON_.BAS: BAS2ASI HEXAGON_.BAS
3.2. If you find no errors, execute BAS2ASI again, this time with NOCOMMENTS NOWARNINGS NOERRORS
4. Fine tune BAS2ASI bugs:
4.1. Open the file in ASIC.
4.2 Replace the FOR F=1 TO VALUE@ with FOR F=1 TO VALUE
4.3. Replace string-to-int assignments with string-to-string assignment
4.3.1. Search for 'ASIC0 = "' and replace for 'ASIC0$="', then modify neighbour lines accordingly.
5. Press "Compile" in ASIC. Good Luck!