F18A - Mission Impossible (Challenge)

[Omega-TI]

F18A - Mission Impossible

 

Okay, I’ve come up with a challenge for all you Uber Programmers of the TI! I’m wondering if anyone has the skill set to design and implement a GUI loader for the TI. If a program such as this could reside in a SuperCart “, it would be ready at a split seconds notice.

 

Now with the ‘extended graphical features of the F18A, it might finally be possible to make a really nice graphical user interface.

The closest thing I remember to this was in TI-Artist, something like that could be updated, modified, and F18Aified. If I remember right it accepted arrow keys, letters or joystick input.

 

So, what do you think? Are you up to it?

[slinkeey]

Sounds like a good project for you.

[+mizapf]

I already thought you talked about "Impossible Mission" from the C64 - a game whose TI port I'm still waiting for ...

 

"Another visitor. Stay awhile. Stay forever ..."

[TheMole]

You mean something like Geos, or like "The Final Cartridge" on the C64?

[OX.]

I already thought you talked about "Impossible Mission" from the C64 - a game whose TI port I'm still waiting for ...

 

"Another visitor. Stay awhile. Stay forever ..."

Now that would be good.

[Omega-TI]

I already thought you talked about "Impossible Mission" from the C64 - a game whose TI port I'm still waiting for ...

 

 

Not me, I've never seen a game called Mission Impossible, and I was NEVER interested in the C64.

[Omega-TI]

You mean something like Geos, or like "The Final Cartridge" on the C64?

 

I had to go to You Tube to look Geos up. That was WAY MORE than I envisioned... but far be it from me to limit a programmer with my puny vision.

A project like this could immortalize a TI'er for an eternity....

"Say, YOU'RE the guy who wrote the GUI for the TI right?" Here, let me bow before a true TI GOD!

(This could be you)

Edited November 9, 2013 by Kevan

[Asmusr]

F18A - Mission Impossible

 

Okay, I’ve come up with a challenge for all you Uber Programmers of the TI! I’m wondering if anyone has the skill set to design and implement a GUI loader for the TI. If a program such as this could reside in a SuperCart “, it would be ready at a split seconds notice.

 

Now with the ‘extended graphical features of the F18A, it might finally be possible to make a really nice graphical user interface.

The closest thing I remember to this was in TI-Artist, something like that could be updated, modified, and F18Aified. If I remember right it accepted arrow keys, letters or joystick input.

 

So, what do you think? Are you up to it?

 

I think it's a great idea. Using the F18A's 4 color bitmap layer it should be possible to create a reasonable looking WIMP interface (perhaps WIJP - with Joystick instead of Mouse). For the GPU it should be an easy task to move windows around etc. - all controlled from the TI side. There is also some unused flash memory on the F18A that could be used for storing frequently used files, managed through this loader.

[Omega-TI]

 

I think it's a great idea. Using the F18A's 4 color bitmap layer it should be possible to create a reasonable looking WIMP interface (perhaps WIJP - with Joystick instead of Mouse). For the GPU it should be an easy task to move windows around etc. - all controlled from the TI side. There is also some unused flash memory on the F18A that could be used for storing frequently used files, managed through this loader.

 

Well, you are the resident expert, with examples of graphical magic already in the public domain, (TI-Scramble & Titanium) so you should know.

Besides the knowledge, it also sounds like you already have some ideas on how to implement this. This leaves me with only one obvious question...

... when do you start?!?

[Asmusr]

Naahh, I'm more interested in game programming than loaders.

[Omega-TI]

Naahh, I'm more interested in game programming than loaders.

 

It's a bummer, but I understand. <sniff> <sniff>

[slinkeey]

All the more reason why this would be a great project for you.

[+mizapf]

 

Not me, I've never seen a game called Mission Impossible, and I was NEVER interested in the C64.

 

 

With static screens, this should have been feasible for our TI (with a much better speech synthesis!).

 

If anyone feels like creating such a game, I'd like to get a version for standard 9918 (or 9938 <grin>). And the number 42 with rice instead of noodles.

[JamesD]

Maybe something like SymbOS or Contiki?

[Omega-TI]

A SymbOS variant would be cool, but I seriously doubt the TI's architecture or memory limitations would allow it.

I've never heard of Contiki, so I cannot comment on that.

 

 

I hate to admit it, but I really think our little TI is going to be limited to a life of small loaders, and maybe if we are lucky, programs that link back to a main menu program. IF PROGRAMMERS GOT TOGETHER AND AGREED (little chance of this in my experience), a small routine could be entered into future programs. What would that little routine function be? CONTROL - Q This would load an E/A 5 program of the users choosing as the QUIT or EXIT program. Another option could be some kind of memory resident routine that would scan for a CONTROL Q and bring up, or load the GUI into memory when detected.

 

Don't get me wrong, both BOOT and 4A/DOS have their uses., I use them both as they have functionality in 80 columns, and work with numerous configurations from V2 Nanos to HDX cards.

 

Now when this NEW 512K Cart is finally released, THIS would be the PERFECT solution for a GUI-DOS. All that banked memory! Could you imagine what knid of system could be designed if it took the whole 512K? Multiple things could be integrated. Heck I can see it's own thread forming, multiple people writing segments for it, testing, etc. It would probably be a project that would take a year, maybe two, but the finished product would be awesome I bet.

[Omega-TI]

 

With static screens, this should have been feasible for our TI (with a much better speech synthesis!).

 

If anyone feels like creating such a game, I'd like to get a version for standard 9918 (or 9938 <grin>). And the number 42 with rice instead of noodles.

 

Looks kind of cool.

Edited November 10, 2013 by Kevan

[+OLD CS1]

I believe our 4As would do just fine running a TI-specific variant of GEOS. The Commodore 128 VDC is register-driven similar to the VDP and runs 2MHz on an 8-bit bus, whereas the 4A is 3.3MHz on a hybrid bus (though the major components, peripherals and expansion RAM, are on the multiplexed 8-bit bus.)

 

I think the most difficult part would be remaining backward compatible. GEOS did a good job of this on the Apple and Commodore by hooking into available RAM vectors which would allow BASIC and ML routines, unless those programs made modifications, to return to the GEOS kernel. But then, GEOS did offer enough applications and a productivity suite that backward compatibility was not much of a problem, that combined with the number of commercial applications which were produced at the time.

 

This is something I have always wanted to see on the TI. With the number of GEOS internal documents out there now, it might be possible to do direct ports of GEOS and its application suites rather than trying to re-invent the wheel. The OS could be disk-based like the original, but it might do well as a cartridge-based system, as well, with the applications on disk. Maybe even do a cross between RAM and ROM in a cartridge so a user could save applications on the cartridge: desktop apps like the calculator and calendar, most used applications like GeoWrite and GeoMerge or GeoDex, etc.

 

As excited as this get me, this is sadly something for someone with much more free time than I. Though if it can wait a couple of years it might make a cool thesis. Speaking of, I have homework to do.

[RobertLM78]

Kevan, you should read the thread "Pie in the sky?" from this last summer. An OS with a GUI is a project I've wanted to do for a while now - but lack the time and knowledge at this point.

 

 

Maybe something like SymbOS or Contiki?

Contiki sounds pretty promising: it's open source, and looks like it's been ported to a few platforms already.

Edited November 10, 2013 by RobertLM78

[TI-Sissy]

Kevan, you should read the thread "Pie in the sky?" from this last summer. An OS with a GUI is a project I've wanted to do for a while now - but lack the time and knowledge at this point.

 

 

Contiki sounds pretty promising: it's open source, and looks like it's been ported to a few platforms already.

 

whatever it is, it make it easy to use. i don't want to offend, but most of you guys middle age to old men. when my boyfriend inherited this old TI he wanted to throw it out because he said it was junk. i think he just could not figure out how to get it to work. i'll admit, it took me some time to figure it out. he said, "i do not have time to waste on old useless tech." the epitaph of hundreds of TI's might resemble that of old cellphones, thrown out. after the owner dies. if their was a windows like cartridge, more of us younger people might give this antique a closer look after you old guys all pass on. my first impression was a glob of cables and pieces that looked to difficult to deal with. if i had not been on vacation, my ti would probably be in the dump too

[Omega-TI]

 

whatever it is, it make it easy to use. i don't want to offend, but most of you guys middle age to old men.

 

Hey, I resemble that remark!

[+OLD CS1]

I, for one, do not plan on passing on for some time -- I still have a good 50 or so years left in me. That notwithstanding, inspiration cannot always come from outside influences. While is it nice to have the guidance of those who have come before us, sometimes we have to look inward to find our drive and motivation, if such drive and motivation is not already latent just waiting to manifest.

 

While some of the younger generation fall into the Apple ideology of "it must just work out of the box," others enjoy the puzzle of putting the parts together and making it work. The YouTube-engendered philosophy of "there must be a tutorial or it's bollocks" is also antithetical to the hacker's paradigm. While we want to leave a legacy which others can pick up in its diminutive minutia, we also have to expect, and be wary, that, for some, what we leave behind will become the immutable gospel from which our progeny may not deviate.

 

My point is more that what I believe really brought you to the TI is your innate problem-solving senses and drive to complete a challenge laid before you and starting with close to nothing -- something your boyfriend, not derogatorily, apparently lacks. There is an allure in taking something which should work and making it work, and sometimes making things work which, by all knowledge available or means provided, should not work. For all of us, old and new alike, I believe our task is to take what has come before us, build on top of it, and provide materials which will teach those who follow. There is always the risk of purity entrenching itself, but there is little we can do to prevent that. We cannot determine how what we do will be applied after us, and the harder we try toward a singular goal the more we will fail at achieving that goal.

 

The onus cannot be on us old farts alone. You will find that age in any field is relative: at "middle-age" I am still a youngster in my development relative to this platform while others in proximity and younger have delved far deeper and mastered far more than I have or ever might. Take Eric Lafortune as an example: he programmed a TI port of "Lode Runner" in his teens using a Mini Memory cartridge and the Line-by-Line Editor, which is not an easy development environment, as well as used a "new" graphics mode not yet exploited.

 

As you make your discoveries you should demonstrate and save your experiences, too, that others may benefit in whatever way they will. If we all cooperate in this seemingly chaotic and unorganized manner, we will find that our experiences together are more "organic" and will grow from themselves rather than be limited to whatever the limited scope of our agreements may be.

 

What would have happened if the Michigan Upper-Peninsula Separatists had decided to blow up Evanston as a show of power during the Faire? Would that have been the end of the TI? I think not! (Matt, keep dem yoopers under control, buddy!)

 

And, by the way, welcome to the community

[+Lee Stewart]

Well said, Alan! And, yes, @TI-Sissy, welcome to the community.

 

...lee

[RobertLM78]

 

whatever it is, it make it easy to use. i don't want to offend, but most of you guys middle age to old men...

LOL - I'm probably one of the "whipper-snappers" here - and like CS1, I have at least another 50 years in me .

[RXB]

Hmm... The 512K cart can only use 8K in the >6000 space so you spend more time moving stuff from the 8K >6000 space to the 32K then you do actually doing things.

 

The SAMS only has to be loaded once and then go. And as it retains the same memory address you can switch out entire 32K at a time unlike only 8K on the Supercart?

 

Yea the Supercart is compact, but limited like hell too.

 

Honestly a 10meg SAMS is possible by just adding more pages. Besides the more banks you add to a Supercart for things like this the more swapping needed to do anything.

[Omega-TI]

 

Yea the Supercart is compact, but limited like hell too.

 

Honestly a 10meg SAMS is possible by just adding more pages. Besides the more banks you add to a Supercart for things like this the more swapping needed to do anything.

 

It may be limiting to some who use emulated SAMS on a PC. But nothing is as limiting to a real TI user as a non-existent device.

Let me know where I can get a 10 megabyte SAMS device to daisy chain with my Nano-PEB then we can talk.