Let's Type UFO from Popular Computing Weekly (1986) | The Impossible Type-In?

In this video, I attempt to type in UFO, an ambitious Commodore 64 game published across four issues of Popular Computing Weekly in 1986. Its author, Steve Pattullo, recently told me that the listing was so difficult that he doesn't think anybody successfully typed it in at the time. Naturally, I had to try. UFO is no ordinary BASIC type-in. Three separate programs are needed to create its sprites, machine-language routines, custom character set, and finally the game itself. And with pages of densely packed code and frustratingly ambiguous PETSCII graphics, getting it running turns into considerably more of a challenge than I expected. Along the way, we'll take a look through the 1986 issues of Popular Computing Weekly that published UFO, explore how the game was created, and hear from Ste about what happened after its publication — including the readers who eventually gave up on typing it in and simply mailed him £2 for a copy. After roughly ten hours of typing, debugging and reconstruction, I managed to get very close. But was UFO really an impossible type-in? And can I actually get the whole thing working? Let's find out. Happy typing! 🕹️ Join our Discord! Download the files from my type-ins (including UFO), chat with other members of the community, and share your mods. Join here:   / discord   Do you like these type-in videos? We have lots more! Check out out playlist here: 👉    • C64 - Typed in Games and Apps from Magazines   0:00 Intro 0:34 Typing Program One – The Sprite Loader 4:19 Typing Program Two – The Character Set Loader 7:23 Typing Program Three – The Main Game 10:43 Let's Take a Look at Popular Computing Weekly 13:31 Let's Run UFO for the First Time... And Then Debug It 17:22 Let's Play UFO. Kind Of. 21:21 Final Thoughts