Task: Try the Atari 8-Bit Twitter Bot
Needed: Web browser and a twitter account
Time: 5-10 mins
Introduction
I have previously posted about the thriving Atari community on twitter. A fun new twitter bot has appeared in the last few weeks called the @atari8bitbot. This bot was developed by @KaySavetz and @BillKendrick and lets users post Atari 8-bit code which generates an automated reply with a short video of the resulting execution. This is really fun to play with and the bot accepts BASIC code by default with special commands for assembly, PILOT, and LOGO. If you like twitter this is worth a try.
Instructions
The default is BASIC. Simply enter a program from Atari BASIC or Turbo BASIC XL and tweet it to @atari8bitbot! Super easy. Here is my fist tweet to the bot as a simple example:
@Atari8BitBot
10 GRAPHICS 2+16
20 SETCOLOR 0,6,INT(15*RND(1))
30 POSITION 4,5
40 PRINT #6;”TGIF TWEEPS!”
50 GOTO 20
For PILOT, LOGO, and assembly you need to start the post with a {P}, {L}, or {A}, respectively.
Comments
Thanks to Kay and Bill for implementing this cool bot. Definitely give it a try and check out all the other tweets and replies. Of course, you code is limited to 240 characters!