adamantyr
-
Content Count
1,852 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by adamantyr
-
-
5 hours ago, Sid1968 said:6. What Compiler/Interpreter/Assembler do you prefer best?
This largely depends upon if you want to do your compiling on a modern PC and move the resultant code to the TI, or if you want the original experience of compiling on the machine itself. (I don't recommend it, unless you like waiting a LONG time for things to build.)
On the TI itself, the Editor/Assembler package is the best and most common system for writing assembly code. You'd get the most support for it by far, as the others (Such as Art Green's RAG time assembler) are not as well known or used these days.
In emulation, there's some nifty tools written in Python (Xdt99) that can handle most of your needs. I think the library still uses Python 2, though, so it's a version behind.
I myself use A99, which is a rather old compiler tool originally written on the Amiga. I got a copy of the source and binaries from someone on a TI group years ago. I write a lot of my own tools in C# to handle binary copies, translating object code to literal binary code, and so forth and built a package system to create the files for my own CRPG project. This is because I'm using the SAMS memory system, which no current assembler compiler supports natively.
At some point I may just write my own compiler in C# just so I got something I can add the bells and whistles I want to easily.
-
2
-
1
-
-
2 minutes ago, Sid1968 said:I read that Super Extended Basic is a successor of Extended Basic, and Mechatronic Extended Basic a successor of Super Extended Basic. So Mechatronic Extended Basic should be the best Extended Basic Version in my opinion, because of its highest level of development. Certainly exept RXB.
Extended Basic III from Asgard is probably the end of that particular chain. The cartridge is really rare though (I have one, I only got it because I pre-ordered) and for the most part, RXB gives you all the same functionality improvements with the added bonus of being actively supported.
-
1
-
-
23 minutes ago, Sid1968 said:What version of extended basic is the best?
Rich Gilbertson's RXB. In terms of power, flexibility, and awesomeness, it has the crown.
Sadly under-utilized as many TI programmers are culturally biased towards sticking with classic TI-Extended BASIC.
-
2
-
2
-
-
9 hours ago, --- Ω --- said:My take, sometimes going cheap is NOT always the best solution.
The Lotharek HxC
The unit slides into the PEB but depending on your setup...
Additional requirements: New cable or converter as it uses the connector used on 3.5" drives.
You'll also need a Y adapter for the power.
Possibly a mounting plate and a 1/2 height plate to fill the gap if you don't have a second drive internally.
It will look exactly like a regular drive to the TI, but requires the use of a program to make virtual disks and TI99Dir to copy files over to the SD card. It works, but there are couple of time consuming extra steps in copying over new stuff over.
Gotek
It essentially behaves the same as the Lotharek (with the appropriate software), but I *believe* if you want it to show what disk you are actually using, it requires an add on LCD display. While functional it does not appear as aesthetically pleasing as the Lotharek.
P-Box TIPI/RPi
This, in my opinion, (when it's available again) is the BEST, but not cheapest route. It does give one the most 'bang for the buck' though.
Not only will it give you a simulated hard drive, it also simulates disk drives. I prefer the format it stores it's files in, as you are not restricted to a limited number of files 'per disk' and does not require a conversion program, however in some very rare instances when a program requires a true disk format, it's not going to behave. But unless you use Multiplan or some other rare program it will not be an issue, especially if you are using your physical drive as well.
With the TIPI, you will not need additional cables, converters or other garbage. Just the power cable going to the RPi. It loads and saves much faster than disk or HxC, and when copying can do it wirelessly over your home WiFi network. You can even map the TIPI on your PC as "T" drive and use programs like TI99Dir, Classic 99, or even your Internet browser to save and load programs with the TIPI.
Besides all of the other stuff, it'll also give you Internet capability to use Stuart's Internet browser, the TELNET program to call the BBS and play some of the online games if you wish and mouse support for some existing programs.
The Lotharek is a bit better of a system than Gotek, from my estimation. I have both drives in one system.
The TiPi blows both out of the water though for convenience and ease of use. All I do is upload files directly from my PC to the simulated drive, and bam, it's there on my hardware. No converting to disk images or dealing with some weird problem with disk file sectors not aligning properly. Yes, you pay a bit more for it, and you have to wait for the cards to get back in stock and do a bit of setup work yourself, but if your intent is to develop software in emulation and port to the hardware, I can't see it being done any other way without being a major pain, IMHO.
-
2
-
-
12 hours ago, --- Ω --- said:I've not come across this scene in Dragon's Lair yet, but it looks like another way to die in the game. 😝
That's from the sequel Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp. Apparently that is Eve, when Dirk travels in time to the Garden of Eden.
-
1
-
1
-
-
1. Tunnels of Doom
2. Dragon's Lair
3. Red Baron Flight Simulator
-
1
-
-
Wow, some amazing artwork on the manual!
Mind you, part of me thinks "The manual is probably 1,000% cooler than the game" simply because you couldn't produce a very long or complex graphic adventure in TI BASIC.
-
1
-
-
I'll be at the Expo!
Name: Adam Haase
Handle: Adamantyr
Location: Marysville, WA
-
I'll be there!
-
1
-
-
I have that cartridge too. Never used it. Heck, if someone wanted to buy it from me, I'd sell it.
-
10 minutes ago, Mike Harris said:That's cool..but what does the gibberish > mean?
It looks like a CPM command prompt.And what is a Sound List?
That's the TI form of "hexidecimal number". So >DF is like 0xdf in PC land.
A sound list is a list of sequential sound commands in a byte format that is interpreted by the ROM routine and played accordingly.
All lists are started with a byte count value of how many to process, not including the duration byte at the end.
There are commands to "Pass this frequency to voice #1", or "change the attenuation (volume) of voice #1 to this". There are also a few commands to redirect to a different area of memory for the next sound bit.
All of them are ended with a duration byte, which indicates how many 1/60 seconds to play. A duration of 0 is the null terminator for the list.
-
1
-
-
It's doable, but tricky.
The method you are describing above is the ISR ROM method of playing music. It takes sound lists and plays back the notes accordingly. It has the advantage that you can just point the routine at a memory area and it will take care of the music for you on interrupts. The disadvantage is it's limited to 1/60 of a second for any given note, doing multiple voices is painful, and having anything other than square tones (no volume decay) requires manual work. It's good for sound effects, not so great for music.
For my CRPG, I wrote my own music player, using some of the structures that the late Bruce Harrison (Writer of the excellent "Art of Assembly" articles featured in MICROPendium magazine) did with his own TI company, which produced several disks of music. I've attached a sample of it below, which can be compiled in Editor/Assembler and executed. It features volume decay, and a relatively easy way to program in music via note lists for each voice through equates for the various lengths. The downside? It takes a LONG time to transcribe from sheet music.
Also, one annoying factor is that the TI sound chip just, well, isn't as good as the ones featured in slightly later machines. They synced the chip to the 3mhz clock, which means it can't really do base notes, and the total sound range is only about five octaves (10-bit or 1024 unique frequencies). Both the MSX and Colecovision, if I recall, offer a seven octave range and 12-bit frequencies.
-
2
-
1
-
-
Indeed the Adventure cartridge is probably one of the best two-word text adventure engines ever made. It's ONLY real problem is the memory limitation of around 12k, since it was designed to run on the base TI console which only had 16K of VRAM for storage.
-
2
-
-
Congrats to the winners! If only I had used that awesome RXB platform, I may have been more of a contender. *Wink at Rich*
-
2
-
-
3 hours ago, arcadeshopper said:I'm ordering a cable made from my vendor..will have them at arcadeshopper.com when they are done.. would be nice if there's a pal console in the states i can test on.. lmk
I bought a PAL TI and if you want it, we could do business. I can bring it during the retro expo unless you need it sooner. PM me if interested!
-
1
-
-
49 minutes ago, majestyx said:Wanted to report an issue which may be known, as I saw it in another, older thread which I can't seem to locate right now.
Every so often, Classic99 locks up on me, with 2 of the 4 cores of my CPU registering at full usage. When I open the debugger, it is blank. I am using the latest version QI399.006 on a Windows 7 64-bit machine. I've included a screenshot below of what it looks like when this happens. When it finally unlocks, the debugger goes back to working and displaying all kinds of numbers updating on the right-hand side of the window.
Don't know if this provides any useful information, but just wanted to report it, since I believe that Rich (author of RXB) was the person who had this issue in the thread I am referring to.
I have also had Classic99 lock up on me as well, on Windows 10 64-bit. Often it happens after I've been running an instance for awhile.
I couldn't really point to any particular cause, but the lock-up during Tursi's gameplay of Python is pretty much the same thing I'm seeing; the screen freezes and the emulator ceases to respond to input, and I see CPU usage spike up.
Whatever regression it is, it's only started to show up in the last couple releases I think.
-
On 8/3/2019 at 5:56 PM, Tursi said:Thanks for the images, SeniorFalcon, that made it easier for me to try them all out.
If anyone would like to see, I streamed my impressions on Twitch. Still working out how to use that thing properly and this was a good test. Split into two videos cause Classic99 locked up and I paused while I looked into that. https://www.twitch.tv/tursilion/videos
Love the videos! Hmm that sneaky python heard your disparagement of his programming language and crashed your emulator it seems...
-
1
-
-
As I have two entries, I will also not be voting.
-
40 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said:CTRL characters on the TI can take you up above 127 when entering BASIC. Check the Reference Guide for keyboard scan values. Below 32 is possible with the right scan mode, but not in BASIC editing. This is a trick I have used frequently, but makes it difficult to post the listing.
Yeah, and sometimes it messes up cut and paste on the modern computers too.
-
Oh yeah, this bug is in the software itself. My brother and I discovered it back in the 80's while playing Parsec. It had some other weird effects too; we started getting killer satellite's showing up before we hit level 4.
-
2
-
1
-
-
5 minutes ago, GDMike said:Gotcha..now I got the picture. Yep. Im so happy with my SAMs card. I've been able to use it a lot further with the assistance of TForth..FBForth takes advantage as well as the RXB. I've gotten some code in assy for it and played a little, but I need a little more experience in assy to make use of it. But in TF I was able to make 3 char font sets that were each called by one word at snap! 5 or 6 blocks of code, but in assy I'm always worried about running out of memory just writing code...with file after file of 500+ lines of D/V80.. I just don't know how to manage my code yet..def a learning curve..
It's not too bad in assembly, the biggest complication is coming up with a module-based approach with code management. I baked my own for my CRPG work, at some point when I'm done with the game I'll discuss it at length.
A cross-assembler that could build modules that are dynamically assigned to pages IS possible but I honestly think trying to apply a modern design system to what is essentially 8-bit architecture will get too top-heavy. Just my opinion though. I honestly feel C is too much overhead for the TI-99/4a.
-
3
-
-
Hi all,
So I'm cleaning up my basement and I find these relics... anyone else attend this? Besides Rich, I remember you were there!
Adam
-
5
-
-
What Senior Falcon said, we need some more information on what that routine is doing.
I thought at first your screen buffer was being written outside of with a line like LI R0,921, but I realized you're in text mode so that's valid. I'd advise using a mnemonic like SCRADR just to keep them cleaner.
Your KSCAN routine is slightly inefficient as well; you can do a CB @STATUS,@SPACEB to check the flag instead of moving and then shifting R0.
-
7 hours ago, unhuman said:DataSoft did the computer versions. They had an ad looking for developers in some computer magazines... TI was on the list. I applied when I was 13 or so... I never heard back.
Ah that's right... I forget where I read about it, it was an article somewhere, where someone (must have been from DataSoft) expressed shock and dismay that Texas Instruments expected Zaxxon to be portable within such a tight technical confine.
3 hours ago, digdugnate said:I thought this was interesting:
"Gerry Humphrey, Datasoft programmer: "... Regarding Zaxxon, I don't remember a TI99/4 version being done, however, there
- were a handful of games that were done (such as Canyon Climber) that were never released. Some of them did make it on to diskette
- and get copied around in the mid 80s. I don't have any copies of them. I don't remember the main TI programmer (I think his first name
- was Jeff and he did work at Big Five Software (the Miner2049er people - although they started out as a TRS-80 software company)
- before coming to Datasoft. I haven't had any contact with my Datasoft co-workers in the last few years. Bryan, I am not sure, but the
- following sounds like they were done or at least considered
- Canyon Climber looks about the same on all platforms. If I remember correctly the background was green on a TI version (as opposed to
- the orange on other versions.) I am not sure about the Wizard in the Forest game. The Zaxxon port might have been outsourced. If you
- can put it somewhere where I can get it to take a look, it would be cool. Also, I would need to know where to get a compatible TI
-
emulator. The TI hardware sucked for gaming development compared to most other platforms. But we were not putting out high
- resolution 30fps games back then either. As far as the list goes, I am definately not an expert on what we did on the TI. This is the first
-
time that I even had to think about it in years My favorite game to work on was Pooyan as it had a lot of moving objects, some basic gameplay, and could be played via keyboard just as well as via joystick..."
- Terry Heim, Technical Editor of Enthusiast '99 Magazine: Terry Heim: "Actually, I was the Technical Editor for that publication back
- in the early 80's during the hayday of the TI 99/4 Home Computer. Probably one of the coolest things I've done in my career to date."
- -- Terry
- http://www.ti99ers.org/timeline/time2001.htm
I'd have loved to have seen Pooyan on the TI. Ever since I saw it on my brother's TRS-80 Color Computer, I love the colorful graphics and hectic gameplay. I've mused at times doing a port myself, but I got other TI stuff I need to finish first, no distractions.
It doesn't surprise me that TI hardware was difficult to work with. I do remember reading somewhere (again, I don't recall the source) that the Atarisoft developers had nothing but base TI's and the Editor Assembler. I'm SLIGHTLY skeptical of this because some of the things done with games like Donkey Kong are pretty advanced.
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
A worse programmers questions
in TI-99/4A Computers
Posted
It's a custom-built cartridge, unfortunately, with some weird internals for switching banks that doesn't align with FG99.