S1500 Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 Not unlike the Microvision's games, why not make games that just use the 24x32 tile blocks easily available in the TI-99/4A? Even with that painfully low of a resolution, you have the world's oyster of gaming possibilities available. You don't even have to do individual 8x8 pixel graphics if you don't wanna. The only limiting factor probably is speed in BASIC, which can be augmented somewhat with Extended BASIC. Assembly of course would give you the real fun boost. This might be a fun way to get into basic(ie simple) game programming for anyone. A breakout-like game? Sure, but all I ask is more than 3 angles the ball could thwack the Vaus with. Low-rez game ideas: Space Zap A simple maze-game(like the Atari 2600 one) a crummy 3-d maze game(a la movement in Tunnels of Doom). Making the look-ahead code would be fun, as you would have to draw the perspective ahead of you in U-shaped sections. Tile-based puzzle games(see other thread) A DIY port of Blasto. Add variants A crude version of Minesweeper. The "shoot through the scrolling field" game that's on my LCD keychain. Imagine Arkanoid with the blaster powerup and no pesky ball + Breakout's advancing playfield. Namco's Digger. The list goes on and on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+retroclouds Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 Space Zap would be cool. Just watched the arcade version on youtube Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 just use the 24x32 tile blocks easily available Well, thousands and thousands of games have already been written for the TI-99/4A. Some of the better ones and some of those you propose are available here. Check it out. http://tigameshelf.net Space Zap has been on my list for a while. Haven’t decided whether to mimic the evolving explosion in bitmap or do a clever combined character and sprite explosion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InfernalKeith Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 just use the 24x32 tile blocks easily available Well, thousands and thousands of games have already been written for the TI-99/4A. Some of the better ones and some of those you propose are available here. Check it out. http://tigameshelf.net Space Zap has been on my list for a while. Haven’t decided whether to mimic the evolving explosion in bitmap or do a clever combined character and sprite explosion. I think he means making the game ONLY with 32x24 "blocks" - using only one character defined as "FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF," in other words. Each tile is on or off. Could be fun to try, and would almost need to be in console BASIC to keep the crap spirit going. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 I think he means making the game ONLY with 32x24 "blocks" - using only one character defined as "FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF," in other words. Each tile is on or off. Could be fun to try, and would almost need to be in console BASIC to keep the crap spirit going. Yes, “24x32 tile blocks” were mentioned and so was “You don't even have to do individual 8x8 pixel graphics if you don't wanna”. Which, to me, suggested leaving and having access to the already defined character set. This might of course have been a hint at doing the “blocks” just by setting foreground and background character color to the same. Anyways, I just noted that I’ve been working on the game brought up. Wouldn’t wanna do the Attack Satellite with blocks or character(s) only though. Sorry for drifting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 Low-rez game ideas: A crude version of Minesweeper. Would love to see “Minesweeper” done with “blocks” only. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sometimes99er Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 Okay, couldn’t help it. Here’s a few mockups ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+retroclouds Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 Okay, couldn’t help it. Here’s a few mockups ... The Space Zap screenshot looks great. Guess it would also work well on the Odyssey2 (Philips G7000 in Europe) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InfernalKeith Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 Okay, couldn’t help it. Here’s a few mockups ... The Space Zap screenshot looks great. Guess it would also work well on the Odyssey2 (Philips G7000 in Europe) You know, I was thinking SO retro, I was actually thinking of a "block" game with only black and white to choose from... even though no one had mentioned that. I think I'm going to attempt a maze/dungeon "gather the treasures" type game with blocks later tonight. One question: are we allowing the use of normal text, too, as in an opening screen, score display, etc, or ONLY blocks? Either way is cool with me. Also, is sound permitted? I don't know how old-school we wanna get here. Keith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+acadiel Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 We ought to do a game like this: http://www.handhelden.com/misc/ChaseNCounter.html http://thegame.jellytip.com/user_pages/page.asp?art_id=414 Manual: http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Manuals/GCE-ChaseNCounter.pdf I'd be more than happy to lend my unit to someone to create a game out of it. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S1500 Posted December 12, 2009 Author Share Posted December 12, 2009 What's that one funky, low-res video mode that's available in assembly? maybe that would be a good candidate for low-rez games, that would get a speed boost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+retroclouds Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 What's that one funky, low-res video mode that's available in assembly? maybe that would be a good candidate for low-rez games, that would get a speed boost. Guess you are referring to Multicolor mode? From TMS9918@wikipedia: Mode 3 (Multicolor): 64×48 mode, very blocky and rarely used. Each 'pixel' can have its own color defined though, hence the name. Its sprites still have the same resolution as in screen modes 1 and 2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unhuman Posted December 22, 2009 Share Posted December 22, 2009 Not really sure why you guys aren't using characters instead of using the full cells? Tons of games are already done (including space zap, I think) in basic (MoonBeam Software, maybe?) that use the cells, but with defined characters. Surprisingly, even in slow TI Basic, some of 'em are good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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