Yearfall
Turn the bare simulation into a finished game — a year-end report, a population bar, colour and sound, a final rating, and replay.
The simulation works; now it becomes a reign you feel. This unit splits each year into a clear year-end report, draws the population as a bar, colours the good and bad news, judges your ten years with a title, and loops back for another run.
10 BORDER 0: PAPER 0: INK 7: CLS
20 LET a$ = "*** YEARFALL ***": LET y = 4: GO SUB 9000
30 PRINT AT 7, 4; "Rule a kingdom for 10 years."
40 PRINT AT 8, 4; "Feed your people."
50 PRINT AT 9, 4; "Plant crops. Trade land."
60 PRINT AT 10, 4; "Grow or collapse."
70 PLOT 104, 84: DRAW 0, -20: DRAW 8, 0: DRAW 0, 8: DRAW 8, 0: DRAW 0, -8: DRAW 16, 0: DRAW 0, 8: DRAW 8, 0: DRAW 0, -8: DRAW 8, 0: DRAW 0, 20: DRAW -48, 0
80 PRINT AT 14, 4; "Press any key to begin"
90 PAUSE 0
100 RANDOMIZE
110 LET pop = 100: LET grain = 2800
120 LET land = 1000: LET yr = 1
130 CLS
140 INVERSE 1: PRINT AT 0, 0; " *** YEARFALL *** Year "; yr; " ": INVERSE 0
160 PRINT AT 3, 2; "Population: "; pop; " "
170 PRINT AT 2, 2;: INK 4: FOR j = 1 TO INT (pop / 10): PRINT CHR$ 143;: NEXT j: FOR j = INT (pop / 10) + 1 TO 30: PRINT " ";: NEXT j: INK 7
180 PRINT AT 4, 2; "Grain: "; grain
190 PRINT AT 5, 2; "Land: "; land; " acres"
200 LET price = INT (RND * 10) + 17
210 PRINT AT 6, 2; "Land price: "; price; " grain/acre"
220 INPUT "Buy(+)/Sell(-) acres: "; trade
230 IF trade > 0 AND trade * price > grain THEN BEEP 0.1, -5: GO TO 220
240 IF trade < 0 AND -trade > land THEN BEEP 0.1, -5: GO TO 220
250 LET land = land + trade: LET grain = grain - trade * price
260 INPUT "Grain to feed: "; feed
270 IF feed < 0 OR feed > grain THEN BEEP 0.1, -5: GO TO 260
280 INPUT "Acres to plant: "; plant
290 IF plant < 0 OR plant > land THEN BEEP 0.1, -5: GO TO 280
300 IF plant > grain - feed THEN BEEP 0.1, -5: GO TO 280
310 IF plant > pop * 10 THEN BEEP 0.1, -5: GO TO 280
400 LET grain = grain - feed - plant
410 LET starved = 0
420 IF feed < pop * 20 THEN LET starved = pop - INT (feed / 20)
430 LET pop = pop - starved
440 LET yield = INT (RND * 5) + 1
450 LET harvested = plant * yield
460 LET grain = grain + harvested
470 LET births = 0
480 IF starved = 0 THEN LET births = INT (RND * 6) + 1
490 LET pop = pop + births
500 IF pop <= 0 THEN GO TO 900
600 CLS
640 INVERSE 1: PRINT AT 0, 0; " *** YEARFALL *** Year "; yr; " ": INVERSE 0
660 PRINT AT 3, 2; "Harvest: "; harvested; " grain"
670 PRINT AT 4, 2; "("; yield; " grain per acre)"
680 IF starved > 0 THEN BORDER 2: PRINT AT 6, 2; INK 2; starved; " people starved.": BEEP 0.2, -10: BORDER 0
690 IF starved = 0 THEN PRINT AT 6, 2; INK 4; "Nobody starved."
700 IF births > 0 THEN PRINT AT 7, 2; INK 4; births; " newcomers arrived."
710 IF births = 0 THEN PRINT AT 7, 2; "No newcomers this year."
720 PRINT AT 9, 2; "Population: "; pop
730 PRINT AT 10, 2; "Grain: "; grain
740 PRINT AT 11, 2; "Land: "; land; " acres"
750 PRINT AT 14, 2; "Press any key for next year"
760 PAUSE 0
770 LET yr = yr + 1
780 IF yr > 10 THEN GO TO 900
790 GO TO 130
900 CLS
910 LET a$ = "*** YEARFALL ***": LET y = 4: GO SUB 9000
920 IF pop <= 0 THEN PRINT AT 7, 4; INK 2; "Your kingdom collapsed.": BEEP 0.5, -15: GO TO 1030
930 PRINT AT 7, 4; "After 10 years..."
940 PRINT AT 9, 2; "Population: "; pop
950 PRINT AT 10, 2; "Grain: "; grain
960 PRINT AT 11, 2; "Land: "; land; " acres"
970 IF pop >= 200 THEN PRINT AT 13, 4; INK 4; "Wise Ruler!": GO TO 1020
980 IF pop >= 150 THEN PRINT AT 13, 4; INK 4; "Prosperity!": GO TO 1020
990 IF pop >= 100 THEN PRINT AT 13, 4; INK 6; "Steady Hand.": GO TO 1020
1000 IF pop >= 50 THEN PRINT AT 13, 4; INK 6; "Hard Times.": GO TO 1020
1010 PRINT AT 13, 4; INK 2; "The People Suffer."
1020 BEEP 0.1, 10: BEEP 0.1, 15: BEEP 0.1, 20
1030 PRINT AT 18, 4; "Press any key to play again"
1040 PAUSE 0
1050 GO TO 10
9000 PRINT AT y, (32 - LEN a$) / 2; BRIGHT 1; a$
9010 RETURN
A report worth reading
The bare numbers are now a proper year-end screen (lines 600–760): the harvest and its yield, the
starvation or relief, the newcomers, and the new totals. Colour carries the verdict — starvation
prints red and even flashes the BORDER (line 680), relief and births print green — so a glance tells
you whether the year went well. The population bar (line 170) draws one block per ten people in green,
turning an abstract count into something you watch rise and fall. INK, BORDER and a row of
CHR$ 143 blocks were decoration before; here they report the state at a glance.
A verdict and another run
When the ten years end (or the kingdom collapses), lines 900–1010 judge you on the final population: a
ladder of IFs from Wise Ruler! down to The People Suffer., the same best-first rating ladder
Three in a Row used. Line 1050 — GO TO 10 — returns to the title and a fresh kingdom, so each reign
starts clean. The title screen (lines 20–90) draws a small castle in lines before you begin.
What you built
Yearfall is your first simulation. You held a world in three persistent variables, spent them under constraints — feeding, planting, trading — and watched a random harvest and a growing population turn those choices into outcomes you could not fully predict. Above all you built delayed consequence: nothing here punishes you at once, but a thin year narrows every year after it, and playing well means thinking past the turn in front of you. That is the idea behind every management and strategy game, from city builders to spreadsheets of empire.
Next: Crates — the last game of Volume 2, where state lives in the exact position of things on a grid and the rules of what may move where become the whole puzzle.