Computer Bible Games : Computer fun for the whole family

by J. Conrod

Computer fun for the whole family for the--Timex/Sinclair, Radio Shack TRS-80, Texas Instruments TI-99, plus suggestions for adapting to other computers.

Games:
- The Elephants Are Coming to Noah's Ark
- Gathering the Heavenly Manna
- Helping the Isrealites Find QUail
- Helping Moses Find Water
- The Amorites Are Coming
- Daniel in the Lions' Den
- The Mansions in Heaven Adventure
- The Great Comission Number Game
- Be Prepared for the Rapture

Errata for TI-99 version of the code:

Corrections to Page 111
150 DIM A$(2,36)
230 S=INT(RND*34)+2

Corrections to Page 112
500 FOR J=1 TO 36

Corrections to Page 113
1110 DATA SNOLITANTAME,LEEKIZE,ALINDE,SEOAH,LEJO,SOMA,DIABOAH,NAHOJ
1120 DATA CHAMI, NUMAH,KABUKKAH,PHANHAIZE,GAGIAH,CHAIRHAZE,LAMICHA
1170 DATA LAMENTATIONS,EZEKIEL,DANIEL,HOSEA,JOEL,AMOS,OBADIAH,JONAH
1180 DATA MICAH,NAHUM,HABAKKUK,ZEPHANIAH,HAGGAI,ZECHARIAH,MALACHI

Corrections From Page 115
230 S+INT(RND*19)+2

192 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1984

Reviews

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

Who's up for some excerpts from an early 80s fundamentalist programming book? I know I am!

Dediction, P3: "God is the Creator of the laws of technology by which computers run. Man has made progress in the field of computers only by the discovery of and obedience to these laws of God."

Noah's Ark game, P13: "The purpose of this game, however, is to remember that God has promised never again to flood the world, but He still hates wickedness and wants us to live righteous lives."

Amorites game, P52: "The Amorites were one of these nations that had to be defeated in order for the Israelites to possess the land and live godly lives there. In Exodus 23 God said that if the Israelites obeyed Him, He would be an enemy to the Amorites and any other group of people that was an enemy to the Israelites. The purpose of this game is to remind us that we must resist and fight against sin that is all around us."

Rapture Game, P94: "The object of this game is to be the player who witnesses to the most people before the Lord returns and raptures the Christians, thus ending the opportunity to witness."

There's a few word scramble games near the end. Here's an excerpt from one, P134:

360 PRINT " COMPUTER HAS CHOSEN A"
370 PRINT " PERSON FROM THE BIBLE"
380 PRINT " YOU MUST GUESS THE PERSON"
390 PRINT " BY UNSCRAMBLING THE LETTERS"
400 PRINT " YOU MUST ALSO SHARE WITH"
410 PRINT " THE OTHER PLAYERS THIS"
420 PRINT " PERSONS IMPORTANCE"

So get this, author J. Conrod didn't know how to code a word scrambler, so he stores a scrambled version of each word, along with an unscrambled version, P135:

830 DATA SEUJS,MYTTOIH,ROOMTABLEWH,SMUDECOIN,APTILE,NOJH
840 DATA SEHEBALIT,SMAJE,PREET,IMNOSE,LARGEBI,TAMWHET,DGO
850 DATA BEEEZED,WARDEN,SMOATH,DOHER,CHAPASAI,TUITS,KRAM
860 DATA JESUS,TIMOTHY,BARTHOLOMEW,NICODEMUS,PILATE,JOHN
870 DATA ELISABETH,JAMES,PETER,SIMEON,GABRIEL,MATTHEW,GOD
880 DATA ZEBEDEE,ANDREW,THOMAS,HEROD,CAIAPHAS,TITUS,MARK

Gads. Even in junior high (when I got my first computer), I could have totally whipped out a word scrambler, e.g.:

10 REM YES, I WROTE A STRING SCRAMBLER FOR THIS BOOK REVIEW
20 INPUTA$:L=LEN(A$):DIMB$(L):FORI=1TOL:B$(I)=MID$(A$,I,1):NEXT
30 FORI=1TOL:R=(RND(1)*L)+1:T$=B$(I):B$(I)=B$(R):B$(R)=T$:NEXT
40 PRINT"SCRAMBLED: ";:FORI=1TOL:PRINTB$(I);:NEXT

And like every other game in this book, it tells the user who typed it in that they were not allowed to share it with their friends (if they hadn't read the book), P133:

80 PRINT " USER AGREES NOT TO COPY"
90 PRINT " THIS SOFTWARE EXCEPT AS";
100 PRINT " PERMITTED IN THE SOFT- ";
110 PRINT " WARE LICENSE ON PAGE 2 ";

There's a lot of leaders in silicon valley who cut their teeth on 8-bit systems, but there's no way this book inspired any of them.