This program will quiz you on the Presidents of the United States, on the countries of the world and their capitals, or on the states of America (also provinces of Canada) and their capitals. Each round is 15 multiple-choice questions with five possible answers, answered by pressing a letter; the program reports “YOU GOT n OUT OF 15!” at the end. The Presidents quiz can ask by description, by name (which number President was he?) or by number (who was the 24th President?), and the geography quizzes can ask for the capital of a country or state, or the country or state for a given capital.
The loading name is QUIZ; the program is credited on screen to Kristian Boisvert, ©1987 Byte Power. The magazine says the idea came from a subscriber. It was published on the Fall 1987 (Issue 8) tape of Byte Power.
Program Analysis
The BASIC is only a loader. Line 9000 sets white ink, paper and lower-screen colours (POKE 23624,63) so the tape messages are hidden, does CLEAR 29999, loads a 3,836-byte block at 30000 and calls it, then loads the 24,415-byte main block at 40231 and starts it with USR 40231. The quiz itself is machine code, and its question data (presidents with descriptions, countries, states and provinces with their capitals) is stored as text in the main block.
Notable Techniques
IF PEEK 23681<>0guard: if the user has donePOKE 23681,0before loading, the program stops and lists line 9999 instead of running, Byte Power’s standard method for making a personal backup.- Answer and question strings are held in fixed-width text fields in the code block.
Potential Issues
- The presidential data ends with Ronald Reagan as the 40th President, so the quiz reflects 1987.
- The on-screen menu calls the second quiz “Capitals of the world”; the magazine calls it “Countries of the world”.
Image Gallery
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