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by jimsmart 1819 days ago
> But you can only go so far with Scratch vs other programming languages.

A friend has built some pretty amazing stuff in Scratch, including a BBC Micro emulator (runs 60+ games), a few arcade game ports, and lots more [1].

As a developer myself, I find it quite surprising how far one can go with Scratch. (FWIW I've never coded with it myself)

[1] https://scratch.mit.edu/users/RokCoder/
3 comments
IdiocyInAction 1819 days ago
People have also made neural networks using Redstone in Minecraft. You can make anything you want in Scratch; the question is whether it is wise to do so.
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username90 1819 days ago
He seems to code an interpreter in scratch and then do the other stuff. Coding an interpreter is a lot easier than coding a game, and after that you really aren't coding in scratch anymore.

Complex minecraft works similarly, instead of working in redstone they make the logic gates and then the bit adders in redstone and then used programming as normal on those constructs.

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jimsmart 1819 days ago
In the case of his Beeb project, the 'interpreter' you speak of here is in fact a fairly full featured emulator. Although yes, the z-machine (Zork) is an interpreter of sorts.

But all of his other games - including the clones of arcade games - aren't emulators nor interpreters. They're just games, written from scratch (pun unintended), from the ground up, in pure Scratch.

After all, his day job is in fact games dev - and with 25+ years experience (I worked with him mid-90s), one could say he's a veteran in that field.

In reality, it depends on the what the game actually is, as to whether it is harder to implement than an emulator or an interpreter. e.g. I strongly suspect that Battleships was much easier to implement than the Beeb emulator was.

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jjoonathan 1819 days ago
Were there advantages? Or was it an exercise in determination?
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jimsmart 1819 days ago
He's been in the games industry for some years now, and as a side-project he teaches kids how to code — I'm pretty certain that he builds such crazy projects mostly as a fun hobby, perhaps also partly as a showcase for his teaching.

IMO, for these kinds of projects, I suspect Scratch doesn't offer many advantages (if any at all). He likes a challenge :)

— More details, including an interview, can be found here:

https://www.coderkids.com/blog/who-is-rokcoder

He's pretty responsive to comments on his Scratch homepage — and can also be found under the same name on Twitter/FB/etc. He's always been happy to help others. Give him a shout if you have any specific questions.

(FWIW: I worked with him — Cliff — for a short while, back in the 90s)

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