One Line Space Trader

Initial Trading and Travel Portal screen.

Approaching the rebel planet Mars.

Program listing on 48K Spectrum.

Text Listing
1 POKE 23693,7:
 LET s=90:
 LET c=s:
 DIM g(9):
 DIM p(9):
 CLS :
 PRINT "$";c:
 FOR r=1 TO 9:
 LET p(r)=p(r)+(r<5)*(p(r)=0)*INT (r*(7+r/2+RND*5)):
 PRINT 'r;". ";"fuelfoodtechdrugTERAMARSIO  RHEAERIS"(r*4-3 TO r*4);" $";p(r),g(r):
 NEXT r:
 INPUT x,y:
 LET y=y*(y*p(x)<=c)*(g(x)>=-y):
 LET g(x)=g(x)+y*(x<5):
 LET c=c-y*p(x):
 POKE 23620*(x<5 OR x-y),6:
 INK x-4:
 FOR i=1 TO 40:
 BORDER 0:
 RESTORE :
 READ k,r,x,y,f,s,r:
 CLS :
 CIRCLE 72+x*8,32+y*8,i:
 PRINT s,AT 13.5+i/5-y,r+x-7;"X" AND r;AT 11,15;"*" AND k=0:
 BORDER 2*f:
 BEEP .1,24:
 NEXT i:
 DATA CODE INKEY$-48,r-INT (r/11)+2*(RND<.5) AND r,x+(k=6)*(x<15)-(k=7)*(x>-1),y+(k=8)*(y<13)-(k=9)*(y>1),i>10 AND r,s-f,r-r*(INT (i/5)+3=y)*(r+x=22)*(k=0):
 POKE 23620*(s>0),5

About the game

This game was mostly developed by Digital Prawn, as an attempt to fit an entire space trading type game into a single line of code. One Line Space Trader features five visitable planets, enemy craft that attack the player and can be shot down. There's a trading screen where goods can be bought and sold and from where travel to other planets can be made. Again, thanks to Einar Saukas for taking the time to look at optimisations and improvements to this game which made the full buying/selling system possible in a one-liner.

Key, showing in-game features of trading screen.

Key, showing spaceflight graphics.

Game FAQ