Color Eights

Permalink: http://sarrazip.com/dev/color8.html

By Pierre Sarrazin

Color Eights is a card game derived from Crazy Eights (but slightly different) for the TRS-80 Color Computer.

The program requires a CoCo (real or emulated) with at least 32 kB of RAM for the Disk version or 16 kB for the cartridge version. The game runs in the PMODE 4 (256x192) graphics mode. It does not require a joystick. The game should be compilable and runnable on the Dragon computer, but the orange and blue colors will not appear correctly on a PAL screen.

The current version is 0.1.14 (2024-06-08). OS-9 support has been restored, after having been suspended in version 0.1.13.

I can be contacted (in French or English) at sarrazip at sarrazip dot com.

Download

This program is distributed under the GNU General Public License (version 3 or later).

• Floppy disk image for Disk Basic (8.7 kB)
• To run the game under Disk Basic, uncompress this file, mount the .dsk file in drive 0 and type DOS.
• Floppy disk image for NitrOS-9 (8.5 kB)
• To run the game under OS-9, uncompress this file, mount the .dsk file in OS-9 and run the color8 command.
• Source archive (26 kB)
  • Not required to play the game.
  • Requires CMOC for compilation.
  • Requires the Cardgame library (version 0.1.12 or later).
  • Also requires the BControl library to compile the game for NitrOS-9.

See SHA512 signatures for these and other files.

Usage

From Disk Basic

Once the disk image has been copied to an actual floppy disk on a real CoCo's drive 0, or mounted in drive 0 under an emulator like XRoar or MESS, type this command in the Basic interpreter: RUN"COLOR8"

Another way to start the game is to type: DOS

Color Eights does not use the high speed poke.

In NitrOS-9

• create a 32x16 terminal with shell i=/v1
• switch to it with the Clear key
• mount the .dsk as /d1
• type /d1/color8

NitrOS-9 may ship with Color Eights, but the shipped version may not be the most recent.

How To Play

Left and right arrows: move the cursor over your cards. SPACE: play the current card. P: pick a card. Q: quit the program.

You cannot pick if one of your cards is playable. If the picked card is playable, it is played.

An 8 changes the requested suit. So does the joker, which also makes the opponent pass their turn and makes them pick 5 cards.

A 2 makes the opponent pass their turn and pick 2 cards (4 cards if 2 of spades).

A jack makes the opponent pass their turn.

Other resources

• CMOC, the 6809-targeting C-like cross-compiler I wrote and which is necessary to compile Color Eights.
• Color Verbiste, a partial CoCo port of my French conjugator, also written with CMOC.
• My page on emulating the CoCo on a GNU/Linux system.
• MESS (Multi Emulator Super System).
• XRoar, a Dragon/CoCo (1 and 2) emulator.
• My home page.

Last update to this page: 2025-02-22 15:06:27 EST5EDT