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New TI-99/4A Tunnels of Doom(TOD) game and Game Editor


Fritz442

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Thanks guys for all the input :)

 

Fritz442: (If I may be so bold, might I toss out there an idea for a future version? Being able to do some basic edits to the current save game could be pretty interesting. Nothing crazy like map changes or anything, just simple things like current weapons & items, hitpoints, etc, maybe? Anyway, just a thought. ;-) )

I kinda torn between this, it would make it too easy to cheat in a game to be able to save it, then add HP or a weapon and go back to wailing.

 

jedimatt42:

"I know when I was a kid I played around with the Asgard editor, and I vaguely remember I got particularly involved/stuck/obsessed with it trying to perfect the player character graphics. Does your editor allow that?"

 

Yes, you can change basically all graphics in the game relatively easy, and I couldn't come up with better player graphics so I left them alone.

Edited by Fritz442
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Fritz442: Heck, cheating is already entirely possible. Change the Hero class starting equipment to hero armor, alertness bow, sword king, and two honing stones. Start a new game, and you'll smash that dungeon flat. ;)

 

I'm thinking it'll be useful to test out scenarios and possibly even find new data locations. (Don't know where the ration consumption interval is stored? Add a few Soothing Lights, use them, see what bytes change in the save file. Don't know what the ration consumption interval is? Load someone up with them, use them all, see what changes.)

 

Now that I think about it, editing the save game itself could also be used along with editing the regular game data by people to set up a special game with a specific scenario to play (for example, a zombie survival scenario with 3 old friends that have known each other since high school, each with particular weapons and abilities). You know, that could get really interesting!

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Fritz442: Just tried the editor out. My jaw is still on the floor, I have to reach around it to type. This is incredible! I can't believe how well this is designed, thank you so much for making this!

Fritz442: I just downloaded the editor and had the same reaction as CyberTaco. Wow - simply amazing. I can't believe how much depth the editor has while making it so incredibly easy to make our very own Tunnels of Doom games. I'm looking forward to diving in and making a personalized game that me and my son can play together.

 

Thanks so much for creating this! :)

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Now that I think about it, editing the save game itself could also be used along with editing the regular game data by people to set up a special game with a specific scenario to play (for example, a zombie survival scenario with 3 old friends that have known each other since high school, each with particular weapons and abilities). You know, that could get really interesting!

Yes it could, kinda like 'Halls of Lost...Moria' game where the game is setup for you.

I have this on my TODO list but have a lot of more current changes to be made first.

 

Fritz442: I just downloaded the editor and had the same reaction as CyberTaco. Wow - simply amazing. I can't believe how much depth the editor has while making it so incredibly easy to make our very own Tunnels of Doom games. I'm looking forward to diving in and making a personalized game that me and my son can play together.

 

Thanks so much for creating this! :)

NP David, this has been a fun program to create as TOD is my favorite TI game(next to Adventure)

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Anyone have trouble digging the dungeons created by the editor?

I have quest in tifiles format, loading in classic99 (using the DSK0. feature) and digging works just fine.

I load quest into Fritz' TodEditor, and just save it with a simple description change, it becomes a v9t9 file.

Then going into TOD, digging a dungeon appears to hang. just plays the music forever.

 

I have to say, it was working just fine at the beginning of the day. I feel like I must have changed something in Classic99. Any ideas?

 

I have a 'Forest of Ruins' crawl, tod-edited up and almost ready to share. I just need to be able to test it :(

 

Anyway, I guess I'll try Mess, and also resetting? Classic99.

 

--

 

Regarding the editor. !!! It's really nice!!! great job. I've made some player graphics I really like.

 

Fritz, if you like adding features, here are some suggestions:

  • for 'firing' and 'spinner' graphics, show the set of images on the screen at the same time. Would reduce the 'draw, draw, draw, save, previous, next, draw, previous, next, draw, previous, previous, next, next, next, next. :)
  • for working on the dungeon level environment colors, it would be cool to be able to copy the scheme from lower or higher levels. What I was going for was a progressive motif, so I wanted a lot in common with the previous layer...

--

 

I also had some questions about the meaning of a few things... or the gameplay that results... For quest setup, if a player creates a 3 level dungeon, but the quests are all setup to trigger on level 10, does that mean they all trigger on the lowest dungeon? 3, in this case?

 

If the level is spread out, such as quests on floor 7, 8, 9, & 10, and a player runs a 6 level dungeon, do they just shift up? Does it squash nicely too then?

 

And what is the meaning of the time field? what are the units of that time field?

 

And if this was all written down in some file I failed to read, that is a great answer too :)

 

--

 

And what is super awesome, is that ( once I figure out my technical difficulty ), I've done this morning, what I failed to complete in an entire summer 30 years ago :)

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Ok, So, it seems the TIFILES header gets all 'creative' on me when I use TodEditor's 'save as' feature to a new name. And then those files don't load. I edited the TIFILES header to match a working header with the file name I want, and then the 'digging' of my dungeon works. I'm new, not sure if I am violating some laws of filename conventions for TIFILES, or if there is a bug in the editor...

 

Anyway, another question? Why do scrolls have two images? and only the top half of the 1st image in the editor seems to show up in game. ? I'm guessing for expediency, the odd sized items are just still edited in the 16x16 pixel editor, and we just need to consult 'quest' for a reference as to what parts are useful, is that correct?

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If you post a working and a broken file, we can take a look at what's different. You mentioned V9T9 format getting involved at some point - V9T9 files embed a TI filename in the header, and if it doesn't properly match the disk filename, the file is technically broken. Maybe something goes wrong in the conversion process?

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Thanks for the insight.

 

When loading a typical TOD game in Classic99, the debugger window indicates it is readng 0x3300 bytes..

 

When I try to load one that hangs, it has a smaller byte size... in the case of this badfile - 0x3251

 

link to badfile - https://www.dropbox.com/s/2izthl4tus51dyu/badfile?dl=0

 

To create badfile, all I did was open the original quest file in TodEditor, tweak the game description, and save as 'badfile'. quest is in a tifiles pc file named quest.tfi, with a nice zero-rich tifiles header:

 

07 54 49 46 49 4C 45 53 00 33 01 00 00 00 00 00 51 55 45 53 54 20 20 20 20 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

 

badfile now has a header of:

 

42 41 44 46 49 4C 45 20 20 20 00 00 01 00 00 33 51 55 45 53 54 20 20 20 20 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

 

So, this looks like: "BADFILE " some size data, and then "QUEST " where you would expect it to be in a TIFILES header, but the new file name seems to have written as a v9t9 header over top, and the rest of the TIFILES header not removed.

 

So, it looks like TodEditor writes v9t9 files out. Possibly expects them to already be v9t9 files, and doesn't change the file size....

 

Now, somewhere along the way, I manually placed the tifiles header on my work, and recovered it. And now when saved in TodEditor, it is putting a v9t9 header on, but since my manual tifiles header was minimal, with a large amouct of zeros, Classic99 & ToD seem to be content with the file.

 

I think I got in a bit of a pickle, renaming files willi-nilli... not knowing how much this matters.

 

Surely, I've got some more learning to do. 55

 

-M@

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Thanks for the insight.

 

When loading a typical TOD game in Classic99, the debugger window indicates it is readng 0x3300 bytes..

 

When I try to load one that hangs, it has a smaller byte size... in the case of this badfile - 0x3251

 

link to badfile - https://www.dropbox.com/s/2izthl4tus51dyu/badfile?dl=0

 

To create badfile, all I did was open the original quest file in TodEditor, tweak the game description, and save as 'badfile'. quest is in a tifiles pc file named quest.tfi, with a nice zero-rich tifiles header:

 

07 54 49 46 49 4C 45 53 00 33 01 00 00 00 00 00 51 55 45 53 54 20 20 20 20 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

 

badfile now has a header of:

 

42 41 44 46 49 4C 45 20 20 20 00 00 01 00 00 33 51 55 45 53 54 20 20 20 20 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

 

So, this looks like: "BADFILE " some size data, and then "QUEST " where you would expect it to be in a TIFILES header, but the new file name seems to have written as a v9t9 header over top, and the rest of the TIFILES header not removed.

 

So, it looks like TodEditor writes v9t9 files out. Possibly expects them to already be v9t9 files, and doesn't change the file size....

 

Now, somewhere along the way, I manually placed the tifiles header on my work, and recovered it. And now when saved in TodEditor, it is putting a v9t9 header on, but since my manual tifiles header was minimal, with a large amouct of zeros, Classic99 & ToD seem to be content with the file.

 

I think I got in a bit of a pickle, renaming files willi-nilli... not knowing how much this matters.

 

Surely, I've got some more learning to do. 55

 

-M@

Check your PM's

This is corrected in v1.4.6

Edited by Fritz442
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Anyone have trouble digging the dungeons created by the editor?

I have quest in tifiles format, loading in classic99 (using the DSK0. feature) and digging works just fine.

I load quest into Fritz' TodEditor, and just save it with a simple description change, it becomes a v9t9 file.

Then going into TOD, digging a dungeon appears to hang. just plays the music forever.

I have to say, it was working just fine at the beginning of the day. I feel like I must have changed something in Classic99. Any ideas?

I have a 'Forest of Ruins' crawl, tod-edited up and almost ready to share. I just need to be able to test it :(

Anyway, I guess I'll try Mess, and also resetting? Classic99.

 

--

 

Regarding the editor. !!! It's really nice!!! great job. I've made some player graphics I really like.

 

Fritz, if you like adding features, here are some suggestions:

  • for 'firing' and 'spinner' graphics, show the set of images on the screen at the same time. Would reduce the 'draw, draw, draw, save, previous, next, draw, previous, next, draw, previous, previous, next, next, next, next. :)
  • for working on the dungeon level environment colors, it would be cool to be able to copy the scheme from lower or higher levels. What I was going for was a progressive motif, so I wanted a lot in common with the previous layer...

I also had some questions about the meaning of a few things... or the gameplay that results... For quest setup, if a player creates a 3 level dungeon, but the quests are all setup to trigger on level 10, does that mean they all trigger on the lowest dungeon? 3, in this case?

 

If the level is spread out, such as quests on floor 7, 8, 9, & 10, and a player runs a 6 level dungeon, do they just shift up? Does it squash nicely too then?

 

And what is the meaning of the time field? what are the units of that time field?

 

And if this was all written down in some file I failed to read, that is a great answer too :)

--

And what is super awesome, is that ( once I figure out my technical difficulty ), I've done this morning, what I failed to complete in an entire summer 30 years ago :)

The Save-As has been corrected, it was a bug with saving TI-Header files only. :)

 

The spinner graphic, I can only get 1 screen at a time, but there is only 5 - I have been working on

Copy and Paste routines for all graphics to make it a bit easier.(Try it w/Asgard editor...LOL)

 

Copying the Level color schemes is a great idea...TY

 

If any quest is set to a higher level than built, they all go to the highest level created. IE: quests on '6,7,8,9,10' - and you

build a 7 level game. Then 6 will be on 6,-- 7,8,9,10 will be on 7. The module does this.

 

Time, is the amount of time before the quest is Destroyed! (Its in the manual, for every 10 moves(in the halls), time drops by 1.)

 

I haven't written a Help file yet, but need to. :thumbsup:

 

 

Anyway, another question? Why do scrolls have two images? and only the top half of the 1st image in the editor seems to show up in game. ? I'm guessing for expediency, the odd sized items are just still edited in the 16x16 pixel editor, and we just need to consult 'quest' for a reference as to what parts are useful, is that correct?

 

Scrolls, there are 20 total, the normal scroll is the top half of the screen(8x16). You can now have a scroll that is double that(16x16)

You can also use both half's separately(top 8x16 for scrolls 1-5) and then (bottom half 8x16 for scrolls 6-10) for instance.

 

There now is a 2nd magenta scroll graphic. You can do the same for this graphic too, so you can have 4 different 8x16 scrolls to use,

or 2 half's and 1 large, if you want.

The scroll images are controlled on the 'Misc Setup' screen under 'Items Setup'.

The "1 normal U" means, 1st graphic(green) Upper half.( L means lower half.)

The "2 Large" means, 2nd(magenta) graphic, full size 16x16

 

You can also now have the Lantern, Potion and Money graphics different as well.

These 3 can be altered also, the money for instance can be 'Normal 8x8' '2 High 16x8' or '2 Wide 8x16' just to give more versatility.

Edited by Fritz442
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The Save-As has been corrected, it was a bug with saving TI-Header files only. :)

Cool! Glad to hear that.

 

Time, is the amount of time before the quest is Destroyed! (Its in the manual, for every 10 moves(in the halls), time drops by 1.)

I just got my ToD manual in the mail today!!! Looking forward to reading it front to back. For instance, I had no idea you could negotiate...

 

I haven't written a Help file yet, but need to. :thumbsup:

Most of your editor is very intuitive.

 

Scrolls, there are 20 total, the normal scroll is the top half of the screen(8x16). You can now have a scroll that is double that(16x16)

You can also use both half's separately(top 8x16 for scrolls 1-5) and then (bottom half 8x16 for scrolls 6-10) for instance.

 

Then there now is a 2nd magenta scroll graphic. You can do the same for this graphic too, so you can have 4 different 8x16 scrolls to use,

or 2 half's and 1 large, if you want.

The scroll images is controlled on the 'Misc Setup' screen under 'Items Setup'.

The "1 normal U" means, 1st graphic Upper half.( L means lower half.)

The "2 Large" means, 2nd(magenta) graphic, full size 16x16

These are things like this scroll information, where you have to work in two places two figure out how the images relate to the item setup, that are real gems of knowledge! Thanks!

 

I'm real happy with what I've been able to do so far. Just need to play test it, and then I'll share. :)

 

Thanks,

-M@

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If anyone is interested, here is my first creation from Fritz's editor... To the annoyance of my wife, I feel I have tuned this sufficiently :)

 

https://github.com/jedimatt42/ti-99-tod-games/tree/master/Tod-ForestOfRuins

 

Brief description: a forest floor adventure. You start out with nearly nothing, and there is little more to buy ( shield and leathers if you wish ). There are plenty of other weapons and equipment upgrades available to be found in the dungeon.

 

I have tweaked the player character graphics, and replaced the Hero class with a 'Dwarf'.. I like him.. the Rogue wears a cape... :) I like that too... :)

 

I did not modify the mosters....

 

There are 8 relics to be found. You have no time limit to find them. It's a good old dungeon forest crawl.

 

-M@

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Is the music played when descending stairs part of the data file? or is that in the module? I would swear when playing some of Chris's TOD games, the music is just a little different... or maybe it is coincidental to loading a TOD cartridge off disk. Hacked maybe?

From what I've seen ALL music and sounds are in the module.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 9 months later...

This sounds so cool! My sons have been working on notebooks full of their ToD adventures and now, hopefully, they can make them a digital reality!

 

I can't tell you how cool it is for me at 44 to have my sons, 12 and 9, so excited about coding their own adventures in this ancient TI game that I spent so much time playing at their age. I hope folks don't mind if I come here and pester you with the occasional question, and hopefully reward(?) you with their work.

Edited by navajas
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