About
Bird Strike is a BBC Micro video game written by Andy Frigaard and published by Firebird Software (Telecomsoft) in 1984. This repository preserves and reconstructs the original 1984 BBC Micro source code for Bird Strike, recovered from a 1984 5.25-inch disk backup consisting of BBC BASIC, assembler, and binary graphics/data files, with some sections rebuilt from disassembly where the originals were missing. It also includes an updated "Clean" version of the source with added comments, relocatable code, bug fixes, and profiler-guided optimizations, intended as the best starting point for further development.
How it differs from the original
The buildable version reproduces the original tape release byte-for-byte except that it omits the original copy protection and tape loader (which included music and instructions); the separate "Clean" version goes further, rewriting the level-to-level logic to fix bugs and make difficulty parameters easier to adjust.
Getting started
The game can be played online directly in the JSBeeb BBC Micro emulator, or built from the provided assembler source using Beebasm to produce a bootable disk image runnable in the BeebEm emulator or on real BBC Micro hardware.
History
The recovered source was originally developed on cassette tape before later files moved to disk; the 2021 release credits Iain McLaren's earlier disassembly and debugging work, and the Stardot community, for making the project possible after a 37-year gap.