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C64 · BASIC · Game 05 BASIC ● 6 of 6 units live

Bleeper

The C64 plays a tone-and-colour sequence and you repeat it from the keyboard — one panel longer every round. Meet the SID chip as a voice, an array as a growing memory, and GET as the way to read the player's echo and check it, press by press.

In Tally the machine discovered. Here it challenges. Bleeper is the C64's take on Simon: four colour panels, each with its own note, light up in a sequence that grows by one every round — and you have to play it back from memory. The trick at its heart is escalation: the chain lengthens each time, and the game is just how far you can hold it in your head.

A C64 screen, black background: four numbered colour panels (red 1, cyan 2, green 3, yellow 4) with YOU HELD 2 and PRESS A KEY TO PLAY AGAIN above them.
Where you're headed: four numbered panels, a sequence that grows each round, and a score that's simply the length you held. This run reached two before a wrong key ended it.

This is the volume's audio-forward game — the one where the SID chip earns its keep. You'll POKE its registers to give each panel a distinct pitch, store the sequence in an array that grows a slot per round, and read the player's reply a key at a time with GET, checking each press against the stored pattern. Sound, memory, and live input, working as one.

What you'll build:

  • A single panel that lights and sounds at once — colour and a SID note together
  • Four panels, each its own colour and pitch, lit by one reusable GOSUB routine
  • A sequence stored in an array and played back by a loop
  • A round that grows the sequence by one random panel each time
  • The player's echo, read with GET and checked press by press against the array
  • A score — the length you held — and a "play again" that starts a fresh sequence

6 units. About 6–8 hours. This follows Tally and builds on Meet C64 BASIC.

Unit roadmap

Phase 1

A panel that speaks

One panel lights and sounds together; then four, each with its own note

Units 1–2 Complete
Phase 2

The machine plays

A sequence stored in an array plays back — and grows by one each round

Units 3–4 Complete
Phase 3

Your turn

Read the player's echo, compare it to the array, and keep score

Units 5–6 Complete