The "Little Running Steps" Collection << Back to Apple Oldies Home

Introduction

The "Little Running Steps" Collection consists of 10 disk images containing English and French versions of four PRODOS programs written by Canadian Software Developer Bill Buckels in the early 1990's for use in Elementary Schools: The names of the French versions in the same order listed above are: A separate ReadMe File is provided for each program with program specific details and the information required to use the program.

Apple II Disk images of Program Screen Demos using the AppleVu Slideshow viewer are also provided: The IBM-PC versions of these programs were developed by French Canadian "CourseWare" developers Denis Coulombe and Robert Boivin on behalf of Centre de recherche appliquée pour l'ordinateur (CRAPO) in the late 1980's and marketed to schools across Canada as part of a six program set called "Collection Les Petites espadrilles".

Note: Espadrilles are casual flat sandals originating from the Pyrenees. In Quebec French, however, espadrille is the usual term for running shoes.

The Apple II versions of these programs were published in the early 1990's by Class Software in Winnnipeg, Canada.

Bill Buckels released the Apple II versions to the publisher as programs in the "Tiny Tots Collection" since "Collection Les Petites espadrilles" being an idiomatic phrase in regional Quebec French had no meaningful English equivalent. The "Tiny Tots Collection" was considered a better meaningless English equivalent than literally translating the name to the "Little Running Shoes Collection" which is potentially more reminiscent of smelly feet than educational software. The "Tiny Tots Collection" on the other hand might be more appropriate as a brand name for children's clothing.



It might seem a little bewildering, even to the French in other parts of the world, that Quebec French sprachraum was used by CRAPO in a name for an educational software collection that was targeted simultaneously at both English and French markets. It is perhaps more understandable if you consider that very few francophone Canadians are able to communicate readily even with European francophones, and "Collection Les Petites espadrilles" was initially targeted at a regional Quebec French Market.

It might even seem a little bewildering that sprachraum would be used by educators at all in the titling of curriculum material. Again it is perhaps more understandable if you consider that the 1977 declaration of the Association québécoise des professeurs et professeurs de français defined the language to be taught in classrooms as "Standard Quebec French" (le français standard d'ici, literally, "the Standard French of here").

Setting aside both sides of this unfortunate reality, "Little Running Steps" is probably the best one can do by way of a translated English name for this emulator collection to try to achieve some relative similarity to the intended meaning of "Collection Les Petites espadrilles".

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Apple II Development



The Apple II versions were written in their entirety by Canadian Software Developer Bill Buckels, on the IBM-PC in the C programing language using the Manx Aztec C 6502 Cross-Compiler.

Bill did not have the source code for the IBM-PC version of the programs and it wouldn't have helped much anyway. The IBM-PC was a much more capable and sophisticated platform than the Apple II, so production for the Apple II required a complete rewrite "from the ground-up".

The Manx C compiler provided a rudimentary Graphics Library, but came nowhere close to what Bill needed to complete the four programs in the "Collection Les Petites espadrilles" that he had undertaken to write. So he set to work to create the graphics and the sound routines that the Apple versions needed to behave as closely as possible to their IBM-PC counterparts.

The IBM-PC graphics of the day that CRAPO used (4 Color CGA Mode) were vastly different from Apple II graphics (which were a coarser resolution), and each and every screen and graphics image needed to be redrawn, and reformatted for the Apple II. Using the Graphics from the IBM-PC version as a starting point, Bill developed his own Apple II graphics file formats and programmed his own set of conversion tools which he ran on the IBM-PC to produce the Apple II graphics after creating and editing these in IBM-PC format to suit the Apple II display. He did this in conjunction with writing his Manx C graphics library, since both tasks were complimentary. When the graphics images and graphics and sound library routines were completed he moved forward to writing the programs.

Not only did the Apple II have less capable graphics than the IBM-PC; it also ran more slowly with only 128K of memory, some of it unusable, and with slower disk access and a smaller floppy disk size. To overcome all of this Bill broke his Manx C Apple programs into small modules called "overlays" which ran in very little memory, and he used the upper ram bank of the Apple II to store his graphics libraries and other data to avoid loading from disk where possible. Since the Manx C compiler translates its programs into machine language which runs as quickly as can be on the Apple II, no optimization or additional "tweaks" were required, except to script the game levels using external scripts (also of Bill's design) which further saved on disk space and program memory, and which avoided slow processor intensive operations that would otherwise have been needed.

The finished results run more slowly than their IBM-PC counterparts, but for all practical purposes have all the same functionality.

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System Requirements

All four programs require an Apple IIe with 128K of memory and a floppy disk. They run under the PRODOS 8 Operating System.

They can also be run from a disk image file in an Apple II emulator. They have been tested in Windows XP using Apple II Oasis and AppleWin, and probably work in others.

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Starting "Geometrical Shapes", "What Time Is It?" and "I've Got Money!"

These programs come with PRODOS 8 on their respective distribution disks so no PRODOS Startup Disk is required. Put the disk in the floppy drive and boot the computer. After the program loads, follow the instructions.

If you are running these programs in an emulator, follow the same basic steps.

If you are using the AppleWin emulator from Windows XP Explorer and have File Associations set to use AppleWin to load disk images, just click on the disk image.

If you are using Apple II Oasis select the disk image from the Apple II Disk Manager and send to emulator by right clicking on the disk image.

Other emulators should be basically the same if they work with PRODOS 8 disk images.

If you are using an Apple that boots from a hard disk and will run PRODOS 8 programs, just run GEOMETRY.SYSTEM, TIME.SYSTEM, or MONEY.SYSTEM on their respective disks.

Note: If you need to restart these programs, they will start more quickly since the graphics are already loaded into the upper ram bank.

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Starting "Logical Shapes"



"Logical Shapes" does not have enough room on the program disk for PRODOS 8, so a PRODOS Startup Disk is required, which is provided on side 1 of the "Logical Shapes" disk. Put side 1 of the "Logical Shapes" disk in the floppy drive and boot the computer. After side 1 loads, follow the instructions and flip the disk then press the [RETURN] Key.

If you are running "Logical Shapes" in an emulator, follow the same basic steps. Start "Logical Shapes" disk image 1. When you are prompted to flip the disk load "Logical Shapes" disk image 2 into the same drive then press the [ENTER] or [RETURN] Key (depending on what the [RETURN] Key is called on your keyboard).

If you are using the AppleWin emulator from Windows XP Explorer and have File Associations set to use AppleWin to load disk images, just click on disk image 1 and after it boots select disk image 2 using the menu to the right, then press [ENTER].

If you are using Apple II Oasis select disk image 1 from the Apple II Disk Manager and send to emulator by right clicking on the disk image. When the emulator window appears and has booted disk image 1 right-click on the emulator title bar and select disk image 2 for slot 6 drive 1, then press [ENTER].

Other emulators should be basically the same if they work with PRODOS 8 disk images.

If you are using an Apple that boots from a hard disk and will run PRODOS 8 programs, just run LOGICAL.SYSTEM on side 2 of the "Logical Shapes" disk.

Note: If you need to restart "Logical Shapes", it will start more quickly since the graphics are already loaded into the upper ram bank.

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Keys and Navigation - All Programs



The Arrow Keys are used to navigate the menus and to select choices during activities (Game Play).

The [RETURN] Key or the Space Bar can be interchangeably used to enter selections.

The Escape Key is used to return to the Main Menu and to Exit the program.

The Sound Toggle Key - [CTRL] S toggles the sound on or off at the Main Menu or during any of the activities.

The AlphaNumeric Keyboard keys are used where required to enter information during activities (Game Play) in all programs in the "Collection Les Petites espadrilles".

A mouse is not supported.

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Splash and Title Screens - All Programs



When the program starts, or when the Escape Key is pressed at the Main Menu the Class Software Splash screen is displayed. Press [RETURN].

When the Title Screen displays press [RETURN] for the Main Menu or press the Escape Key to exit the program.

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Main Menu Screen - All Programs Each program has 3 Learning Activities (Games) which can be selected from the Main Menu by moving the Cursor with the Arrow Keys to the desired activity then started by pressing the [RETURN] Key.

Each Learning activity is a Game formatted as a series of graphical questions. The student provides the answers, and when all the questions in the series are complete, the Student is presented with a musical reward. Activities followed by musical rewards is the basic format of all the programs in the "Collection Les Petites espadrilles".

The fourth Main Menu choice exits the Main Menu and returns to the Title Screens. It is the equivalent of pressing the Escape Key.

Sound can be toggled on or off at the Main Menu or during any of the activities by pressing [CTRL] S.

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© Copyright Bill Buckels 2009
All Rights Reserved.