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adamantyr

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Posts posted by adamantyr

  1. Posted

    Not a problem for me, I got several monitors that work just fine. :) In fact, I may see if anyone here wants to purchase one.

     

    Only stipulation is I really REALLY don't want to ship anything, so pick-up is vastly preferred.

     

    I'm not a huge fan of how the TI composite signal renders on modern TV's. I mean, it's sharp as heck, VERY readable on light colored screens. But the lack of a CRT means the original "glow" effect is gone, and colors get a little muted and muddy against black screen.

  2. Posted

    Excellent! I presume you mean to use the Adventure cartridge and Adventure Editor?

     

    I think the last time I tried to put together an adventure on it (a "Prisoner" one), I quickly found my imagination outstripped the 12K of memory available.

     

    I've considered at times that it would be fun to write a new text adventure engine that could utilize the full 32K RAM and disk system of the TI, so that a larger more opulent adventure could be written. Granted, Infocom adventures ARE the best, but there is something nice about the simpler two-word text adventures.

    • Like 1

  3. Posted

    13 minutes ago, FarmerPotato said:

    9900 Family Systems Design p 8-132 says Single Operand Instructions that compare results to zero are:

     

    INV, NEG, INC, INCT, DEC, DECT

     

    These do NOT compare results to zero:

     

    B, BL, BLWP, CLR, SETO, ABS, SWPB, X

     

    So, either SETO or ABS leave the jump undetermined.

     

     

    That's interesting because both the TI Tech Pages and Classic99 contradict that.

  5. Posted

    Hi,

     

    I got a TI console without a box, I was curious if anyone had a spare box they could send me to store it? Just the box will do, the interior styrofoam holder isn't necessary.

     

    I tried getting one on eBay, but the guy (charging $9.95 for shipping alone) REFUSED an offer of $5. Dude, it's an empty box. Seriously.

  6. Posted

    1 hour ago, boggystudios said:

    This is kinda like a video card upgrade for a modern computer when you think about it.  I think it would be pretty awesome to have something similar to a sound card upgrade as well (maybe MK3...?).  IDK just thinking out loud.  This type of stuff is really cool to me.

     

    For the TI, this would be a sound CHIP upgrade. :D Which you wouldn't have to do much to improve it. There has been expansion cards for the P.E. Box to add a better sound system as well, such as the ForTI card.

  7. Posted

    A big part of why I find many of the TI games boring is that they are shallow and simple. Basic shoot-em-ups that you wouldn't spend more than 30 minutes playing.

     

    This in itself isn't a surprise, since the platform was originally intended to be a console. (And in that, wow did they fall short compared to the MSX, which is considerably better designed for both cartridge AND disk/cassette gaming.) The 32K / Disk system upgraded TI would be a much better platform for more nuanced and deep gaming, but unfortunately it was difficult to acquire during the active phase of the TI-99/4a (1980-1983) so most of the best games on that came out long afterwards.

     

    That's one reason I'm doing my CRPG... it's the kind of game we never had. (P.S. I'll be hopefully starting beta testing with external people next month.)

    • Like 2

  8. Posted

    Surprised there has been no non-love for Hunt The Wumpus. How could a fairly basic computer game (and literally able to do in BASIC), become a full-fledged cartridge game?

     

    I think it gets a pass because it's actually a pretty good implementation of the game. Yes it's a simple game, but on cartridge it responds quickly and well. It's also way MORE exciting and thrilling to a small child than any of the education carts were. :)

    • Like 3

  9. Posted

    There was no Zaxxon on the TI. Sega literally told Texas Instruments they were insane when they said "You have to fit it in an 8K ROM".

     

    Burgertime is a pretty bad port. In particular, the developer(s) didn't seem to get that restarting the music AFTER every sound effect is a horrible effect.

     

    To elucidate on my post from earlier, Star Trap has the look from a screenshot of being a cool Star Wars arcade game, or even Star Raiders. Instead you get a static unmoving screen, recycled Parsec laser sounds, and other than bitmap drawn lines for laser blasts, something that could have been easily written in Extended BASIC. On a cartridge for $29.95. A total freaking rip-off.

    • Like 1

  11. Posted

    thanks for steering me correctly! i could've sworn you had to put the filename. :)

     

    Sadly, TI's cassette system wasn't nearly as advanced as some other systems. My brother's TRS-80 Coco actually could play and search for specific files on the tape; it would just not read the data if it wasn't the right file.

  13. Posted

     

    You are hardcore using TI BASIC. That's truly 10 lines. With XB it's more like 50 statements but limited chances to loop (ELSE can't contain a NEXT for instance).

     

    Not on the TI, no.

     

    The TRS-80 systems regularly had 2-line contests in magazines; they could go up to 255 characters in a line, AND you had insane BASIC parsing that allowed NEXT after ELSE. I think my favorite though was just "NEXT" without a variable, which meant "end ALL ongoing loops here."

    • Like 1

  15. Posted

    TI's Pac-Man is defintely slow... it looks like they ARE using multi-plexed sprites to achieve ghosts with different colored eyes, I had heard from someone they were using character patterns but the behavior doesn't match.

     

    One thing I noticed is the chase algorithms do NOT match the arcade, where each ghost has a separate chase tactic. At one point I had all four just following me everywhere.

  17. Posted

    Joystick required. Dodge the cars and get your python across the road as many times as you can!

     

    post-17978-0-53169600-1559759190.png

    100 CALL CLEAR :: CALL SCREEN(4) :: CALL MAGNIFY(3) :: CALL COLOR(9,12,2,10,2,15,11,13,13) :: FOR I=128 TO 140 STEP 4 :: READ C$ :: CALL CHAR(I,C$) :: NEXT I
110 CALL CHAR(96,"000000F0F",97,"0",104,RPT$("8000",4),105,"0") :: CALL HCHAR(23,1,105,128) :: CALL HCHAR(10,1,112,192) :: FOR I=1 TO 31 STEP 2
120 CALL VCHAR(1,I,104,2) :: CALL VCHAR(23,I,104,2) :: NEXT I :: CALL HCHAR(3,1,97,224) :: CALL HCHAR(16,1,97,224) :: CALL HCHAR(6,1,96,32) :: L=1 :: S=0
130 CALL HCHAR(19,1,96,32) :: N=MIN(3,1+INT(L/2)) :: Z=2 :: FOR I=0 TO 1 :: FOR J=0 TO 1 :: FOR K=0 TO N-1 :: C=1+K*80+RND*60 :: V=(J=0)*MIN(4+L,48)-(J=1)*MIN(4+L,48)
140 CALL SPRITE(#Z,136+4*J,3+INT(RND*14),20+I*104+J*32,C,0,V) :: Z=Z+1 :: NEXT K :: NEXT J :: NEXT I :: CALL SPRITE(#1,128,14,176,120)
150 CALL JOYST(1,Y,X) :: CALL COINC(ALL,I) :: CALL POSITION(#1,R,C) :: IF I THEN CALL DELSPRITE(ALL) :: GOTO 110
160 IF R<16 THEN CALL DELSPRITE(ALL) :: S=S+10*L :: L=L+1 :: DISPLAY AT(12,14):S; :: GOTO 130
170 CALL MOTION(#1,-X*4,Y*4) :: A=A+4 AND 4 :: CALL PATTERN(#1,128+A) :: GOTO 150
180 DATA 01030303010000000003070E0C0C070100808080E0F0381838F0C000000000C0,00010101070F1C181C0F03000000000380C0C0C08000000000C0E0703030E080
190 DATA 000000000304047FFFE75B3C1800000000000000FECE87FFFFE7DA3C18000000,000000007F73E1FFFFE75B3C1800000000000000C02020FEFFE7DA3C18000000
    • Like 8

  19. Posted 

    100 CALL CLEAR :: CALL CHAR(128,"03060C183060F0FC1818",130,"8142241818244281FF8199A5A59981FF",136,"0") :: CALL COLOR(14,13,13)
110 CALL HCHAR(24,1,136,32) :: CALL VCHAR(23,1,128) :: CALL SPRITE(#2,131,7,185,48+RND*96) :: DISPLAY AT(1,1):"SCORE:";SC :: A=0 :: P=10
120 R=185-32*COS(A) :: C=1+32*SIN(A) :: CALL SPRITE(#1,130,2,R,C) :: DISPLAY AT(3,1):"POWER:";P
130 CALL KEY(3,K,S) :: IF K=68 THEN A=MIN(PI/2,A+0.1) :: GOTO 120 ELSE IF K=83 THEN A=MAX(0,A-0.1) :: GOTO 120
140 IF K=69 THEN P=MIN(P+1,30) :: GOTO 120 ELSE IF K=88 THEN P=MAX(P-1,1) :: GOTO 120 ELSE IF K=32 THEN 150 ELSE 120
150 Y=-P*COS(A) :: X=P*SIN(A) :: CALL SOUND(-100,-7,2) :: CALL SPRITE(#1,129,2,176,5,Y,X)
160 FOR I=1 TO 3 :: CALL COINC(ALL,K) :: CALL POSITION(#1,R,C) :: NEXT I :: IF K THEN 180 ELSE Y=MIN(Y+1,10) :: CALL MOTION(#1,Y,X)
170 IF R<188 THEN 160 ELSE CALL DELSPRITE(ALL) :: GOTO 110
180 CALL DELSPRITE(ALL) :: SC=SC+10 :: CALL SOUND(-100,2000,2,3000,2) :: GOTO 110

    I threw this one together for the contest. It won't win, I don't think, but fun to put together. :)

     

    Use S and D to change the angle of the cannon, and E and X to increase or decrease power, and space to fire. 10 points every time you hit the target.

     

    I have NOT tested if every location is accessible, nor if the coincidence checking is thorough enough to always get a hit. For 9 lines though it's pretty decent.

    • Like 8

  22. Posted

    I think you misunderstand data loaded from secondary storage devices and DATA statements in the actual program, which the 10Liners contest definitely allows. You must not use it to load own machine code routines though, just for graphics or other purposes of filling arrays.

     

    Does XB support multiple statements on the same line? Perhabs RXB or other modern versions of the language. I think the fact that reglar TI BASIC and TI Extended BASIC don't seem to support multiple statements on the same row is the reason why no TI-99/4A entries have been entered into the competition, as you normally can't pack anywhere near 80 columns of code without it.

     

    TI Extended BASIC permits multiple statements in a single line. It's not quite as voluminous as other 8-bit machines, like the TRS-80 Color Computer which allows 255 characters, but it's enough you can write something decent in 10 lines.

     

    The good thing about such contests is that we always get a lot of participation here; there's plenty of XB familiar programmers on the board. :)

    • Like 1

  24. Posted

    I don't think adamantyr is using Magellan, but when I have been working on projects that needed lots of tiles (Dungeons of Asgard), what I needed was to have them in the tile set so they could be exported (even though the 256 limit was exceeded). Sometimes I would also have liked to have different tile sets for different maps, but that can be dealt with by having multiple files.

     

    I don't use Magellan for my game, no. That's partly though because I built my tools for map creation on the TI awhile back. :) And I have other metadata (lighting and elevation) that is stored along with the tiles, something that's beyond Magellan's boundaries.

     

  25. Posted

    I presume, as you mention "software sprite", you mean that you used characters to create these?

     

    I am not familiar enough with either XB256 or RXB to comment on their capabilities in this area, but what you describe is a pattern mapping, right? You want to quickly blast out the character patterns at different positions on the screen?

     

    Unfortunately, there's no "direct memory" work you can really do here to achieve this in XB or most flavors of it. Part of the problem is I presume you want to have a "transparent" block which will just skip and show the background. Different character patterns CAN be drawn relatively quickly by using DISPLAY AT, but having done this myself in an early version of Wizard's Doom, I can assure you it won't be fast enough for an action game.

     

    What IS possible in XB, though, is to write an assembly language routine to do the work for you. I wrote routines to draw the 3D maze portion of Wizard's Doom quickly on screen and it worked pretty well. This is a similar operation; each different frame of your karate guy can be stored as a number value, and a LINK that just passes a starting position and the frame ID would then be able to draw the pattern out.

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