Ahoy! Column Games

A collection of four small games built from readers' answers to a programming-challenge column, chosen from a menu. In Ski Scroll the slope scrolls up past your skier: steer through single trees and clusters on a 500-row run that speeds up as you go, starting with 500 points and losing 40 for every tree you hit; reach zero and you are wiped out. In Generic Game the computer picks four different digits and you have 20 guesses to find them, told after each one how many of your digits are in the code and how many are in the right place. Simple Simon flashes a number, hides it, and you type it back; it grows a digit every round. In Bouncing Balls you steer a chain of eight balls into targets for two minutes. Each game keeps its best score.

Controls: On the menu, up and down choose a game and a button starts it. Ski Scroll: left and right steer. Generic Game and Simple Simon: the stick moves over the digit pad, the left button types a digit and the right button erases. Bouncing Balls: left and right turn (hold to keep turning), up and down change the speed. Either controller works.

ColecoVision version credited in the source to Claude (an AI made by Anthropic) for Amy Studio, in Amy, the language by Amy Bienvenu, 2026: a reimagined adaptation of the published rules. From Ahoy! Nos. 22, 33, 37 and 55, October 1985 to July 1988: original Commodore 64 program (no author named in the issue). A compilation of four short programs from the Commodares column: Ski Scroll (problem 18-3, October 1985), Generic Game (29-2, September 1986), Simple Simon (50-4, July 1988) and Bouncing Balls (33-3, January 1987, a Commodore 128 solution). This is a modern homebrew adaptation, not a commercial Coleco release.