What to Do After You Hit Return

What to Do After You Hit Return or P.C.C.'s First Book of Computer Games is the first computer game book written by Howie Franklin, Marc LeBrun, Dave Kaufman, and others at People's Computer Company in 1975. It was published by Hayden in 1977 and then by SAMS in 1980 (ISBN 0810454769).

The book contains several educational programs in BASIC, and encourages playing games in the classroom without using the computer, to teach children how the programming language works. Each game is devoted a page or two to demonstrate how the game works, and the code is listed in the back of the book.

Games

Some of the games in the book include:

• Snark—the player must "net" the "snark", a point on a 10×10 Cartesian coordinate system. The game asks for x and y coordinates and the radius of the "net". The computer replies if the snark is in, on the circumference of, or outside a "net" centered on the coordinates. The object is to capture the snark by finding its exact coordinates with a net of 0 radius.
• Number—the player guesses a number from 1 to 100, trying to identify the computer's target number.
• Letter
• Abase—the player chooses a base from 2 to 10 and guesses a number the computer has chosen in that base.
• Trap—the player chooses two numbers from 1 to 100, trying to identify the computer's target number. The computer responds if the target is below, between, or above the two chosen numbers.
• Stars—the player chooses a number from 1 to 100, trying to identify the computer's target number. The computer responds with 1 to 7 stars, with more stars indicating that the guess is closer to the target.
• Clocks—the player chooses a time from 00:01 to 12:00, trying to identify the computer's target time. The computer responds with a set of code words to indicate how far off the guess is.
• Bagel—the player chooses a three digit number, trying to identify the computer's target number. The computer responds with a set of code words to indicate if digits are in the correct place (fermi), correct digits are present but in the wrong place (pico), or no digits are correct (bagels).
• Quadgt—the player chooses a four digit number, trying to identify the computer's target number. The computer replies with how many digits are in the correct place and how many digits are correct but in the wrong place. After a certain number of guesses, the computer begins to tell the player some of the digits.
• Life—a version of Conway's Game of Life
• Lunar—a version of Lunar Lander
• Button—based on the children's game button, button, who's got the button?, the player guesses which one of seven friends in a circle holds a button. After an incorrect guess, the button-holder may keep the button or pass it to a neighbor.
• Dr.Z—a therapist simulation, where the computer asks the player a series of questions. With the exception of the reply giving the computer the player's name, the questions are canned and are not affected by the player's responses.
• Star Trader—An interstellar game of mercantile skill. It evolved into Trade Wars, which has been cited as an influence for Eve Online, Star Citizen and many other games of the space trader genre.
• Hunt the Wumpus—The player must Hunt the Wumpus in a network of caves, superbats and bottomless pits. The game was also a major influence on Trade Wars.