InfernalKeith
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Posts posted by InfernalKeith
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Sometimes99er.... You have some kind of super-secret invisible, top security clearance programming computer, don't you? I mean, the fonts (which I'm jealous of) the pixel manipulation... Sh** man. =) The rest of us are just "jerkin off" (pardon my language) =) Keith, the premise of this game is very intriguing... I'm looking forward to seeing some demo code I can paste into Classic99. =)
Whoa!!
I obvioualy didn't get photos done yet, but I did work literally till I passed out last night. The main game loop is nearly done. Cats are now actually roaming the screen, falling down holes, and (very) occasionally finding their way out the exit. Tonight I start adding in all the player manipulations. My worry for tonight is that adding the extra checks for the catnip and cat repellent (increasing the probability a cat will or won't go one way) will slow down the main game loop, which pacing-wise is pretty much perfect right now, and performs a lot better than I expected out of XB.
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That's it! The missing ingredient in my coding work! I must add that cold, round, 12-ounce peripheral to my system immediately.
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Okay, I know this thread will be a letdown at the moment, as I don't have any photos yet. But I was able yesterday to finally tear into a significant chunk of the game code, and I can actually see a possibility of finishing it before the end of the world, so I'm excited and I wanna start the thread now.
I'll take some pix tonight, although since I'm using a real TI, they'll be much lower quality than an emulator screen-grab.
The concept of Herding Cats is simple: you can't herd cats. That's why it's a cliche.
In each level of Herding Cats, you find yourself confronted with a screen full of randomly wandering little black cats, and your goal is to get as many as possible into a large red exit before the time runs out. But you can't tell the cats what to do. So what to do?
Adding to your misery: on some levels, there are holes in the board, through which a cat will fall and never be seen again. Walls will occasionally pop up, which can both help and hinder your cause. And on some levels, cats who collide with a wall, or with each other, will unceremoniously blow up.
However, you can "stop the music" at any point and employ one of the following fifteen tools, each of which costs you a varying amount of points:
- exit expand: makes the exit 2x as big, thus making it more likely a cat will wander in
- double exit expand: makes the exit 4x bigger
- exit move: move the exit anywhere on the screen
- catnip magnet: make the cats much more likely to go toward a certain point on the screen
- cat repellent: the opposite effect as the catnip magnet
- turn back time: effectively gives you 100 more 'cycles' to achieve your goal
- bump the table: cats fall toward one side or the other
- catdozer: moves across the screen from left to right, "scooping up" any cats it encounters and pushing them toward the edge
- build walls: block off certain areas, one square at a time, to keep cats from wandering off
- cat rapture: bring all dead cats back to life
- cat-a-pult: create a small area that, if a cat steps on it, "bounces" the cat across the screen
- cut the table: removes half the table, creating less empty space for the cats to wander off into
- cat-a-port: randomly teleport all cats on screen to a different location
- cat bookie: score extra points for each cat through the exit
- fill hole/destroy wall: does just what it says
If you can get enough cats into the exit by the end of the level, you can move on to the next one. If, somehow, you save ALL the cats, you get a huge bonus.
I am programming Herding Cats in Extended BASIC on an expanded TI 99/4A system (32K). After toying with the idea of loading each level from disk, I am creating version 1.0 to be one self-contained program.
My biggest concern right now is speed: I'm trying to keep the code as simple and tight as possible in the main game loop so that it doesn't take too long to determine where each cat will move, if it's stepped into a hole or the exit, etc. Graphically, the game will be simple, but I will jazz it up with an intro screen if memory permits.
I'll post screen photos and some pix of my notes later. After getting to really roll up my sleeves and do some coding last night, finally, I'm very enthused about it, and I think it's going to come together quickly.
Keith
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My TI's are both suffering with broken keyboards-- so I need to make a breakout box for a PS2 keyboard one of thee days. It's a fairly simple thing to make, I have heard/read.
Many of us have more spare TI consoles than we know what to do with lying around. If you'd like a working console for the cost of shipping, just let me know and I'll get one in the mail for you.
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I'm sure many GREAT games will come out of this competition. I look forward to playing them all on my TI. I will also be submitting a new XB game... Unfortunately, no cartridge implementation possibilities, due to the limitations of the language, but it will be fun nonetheless. I'll post some pix and video shorts here on a dedicated thread... I hope some of you have the time to give me a
hand.
Whew! I had it in my head that the deadline was the end of THIS month, and I thought I was doomed. I still plan to try to get my game, Herding Cats, ready for the contest. I will start a dedicated thread for it when I have some photographic evidence that it actually exists.
(Owen may tell you not to hold your breath - I think I told him to expect photos two months ago - but the project is not dead, just glacial). Keith
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Awesome, thanks! I think I looked at every Google result I pulled up EXCEPT that one. The manual doesn't show the number of each castle (shown in brackets in that transcription). Of course, why would they? Not likely someone was gonna have two copies of the game lying around back when they were new and expensive.
Thanks again!
Keith
I picked up a big lot of Odyssey 2 games, including two Quest For the Rings, one of which is missing a bunch of tokens. I'm cannibalizing one to put together one complete set.
Of the 23 castle tokens, can someone give me a breakdown of how many of each you're supposed to have for the four dungeons? Once I get that sorted, I'll be able to put my complete set together and ditch the other one to trade for spare parts.
Thanks!
Keith
The directions can be found here: http://www.ozyr.com/o2/o2quest.html
This is an excerpt from that website:
Tokens
23 Castles (Symbols on underside - The Dungeons [x7], Crystal Caverns [x6], The Infernoes [x4], Shifting Halls [x6])
3 Dragon Monsters
3 Nightmare Monsters
10 Rings
1 Quest
1 Hourglass
8 "Possessions"
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I picked up a big lot of Odyssey 2 games, including two Quest For the Rings, one of which is missing a bunch of tokens. I'm cannibalizing one to put together one complete set.
Of the 23 castle tokens, can someone give me a breakdown of how many of each you're supposed to have for the four dungeons? Once I get that sorted, I'll be able to put my complete set together and ditch the other one to trade for spare parts.
Thanks!
Keith
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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
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Have I mentioned lately that you're my hero?
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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.
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.
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Just in time for Christmas, if Santa has $2,000 he'd like to spend on you:
To be fair, it IS a nice lot of stuff, I think the p-code card goes for a lot on its own. But man... two grand. Do the 99/8 prototypes in existence fully function? Like, if you wrote a program on one, could you distribute it to the other few people who have one?
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I've got one that's pretty obscure... in fact, I've never talked to anyone who's played it before I showed it to them!
It's a game I played on the C64 called "Quinx." (Not "Qix," the line drawing game.) In Quinx, you're a small man defending a piece of notebook paper against inkblots. If they traverse the paper before you step on them, they eat a chunk of it. Periodically, the paper changes color, and whatever piece you're standing on becomes the active playfield - you must still control 25% or more of the paper at the end of each cycle to keep going. Also, there are food-based power-ups, which cause a tooth decay meter to rise. Let it go too high, and a dentist walks down the screen and forces your player over to a toothbrush (and off your paper, where the inkblots are merrily eating it up).
It sounds like someone had too many drugs and fell asleep in school, right?
I would not even mention it, because I know it's so hard to explain, but someone has made the game playable in Flash, so you can try it out.Advantages: static play board (no scrolling required), baddie sprites line up vertically (no four-or-more sprites on a line, except perhaps in very rare cases). I'm not sure how you'd handle drawing ink lines across the tablet paper, or deal with the ravaging inkblots when they "eat" the paper, but I'm sure these are not insurmountable obstacles.
I guess the real question is, does anyone want to port a game no one's ever heard of?!
Keith
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OK, I'm officially planning to enter my current project, "Herding Cats," into the competition. This will give me a deadline to work toward, which may be the only way it gets done.
Do you want us to post screenshots, status updates, and the like, or should we leave our projects "shrouded in secrecy" until the deadline?Keith
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Well... there's a Colecovision version of Tapper, and the Colecovision has got the same graphics chip as the TI-99. And performance-wise, I think the TI-99 should be able to do it at least as well as the Colecovision version actually has got pretty choppy animation (some parts of the action only move forward at 2-3 fps!)
That’s right. And thanks for bringing my attention to it. The ColecoVision is a very good implementation. Good combination of character and sprite graphics. And the flicker is kept at a moderate level. Good. Had one go with the CV and got to screen 14. Forgot all about the aliens.
If I did a Tapper clone, I would probably also look at the original arcade, rethink some of the layout and graphics, add something new, and certainly remove the “shell” game in between levels.
As I have merely released 88 demos and not a single complete game yet, I’m going for something a bit simpler (less code). With this hobby, I can’t help being a bit of a “drifter”, so ...
Ah, but without the shell game, how can you subtly work in that lucrative sponsorship from Budweiser (or Mountain Dew, depending on the version you're playing)?
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I know squat about the programming logistics of it, but I'd love to see someone do Elevator Action for the TI 99/4A. If the up-and-down scrolling wasn't a problem, the rest of the game seems pretty basic - walking sprites, shooting, doors opening, etc.
And I know Tapper is on the rarity list as planned, but never finished -- would love to see that one, again, just because I love the game. I could see the four-sprites-per-line issue becoming a problem with Tapper, though. Maybe flip the playfield so the bars go vertically on the screen?
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Not to go off on a tangent, but is that prototype of Tutankham on videogamehouse.net playable, and/or downloadable from anywhere? Would love to try that out sometime.
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> In my experience the TI games just got better and better as time went on, as the games got more and more advanced. Almost anything from 1983 from
> TI looked good, such as Slymoids. All I know is that I enjoy Hustle even with its graphics not being very hot, it kind of gives it a charm since
> it makes it feel like an early title which it is.
Definitely true. I also love finding identical (or similar) games on other platforms and comparing them. I wanna do some YouTube episodes like that at some point, where we look at Hustle on the TI, Collide on the Vic 20, Surround on the 2600, etc, and compare and contrast.
My favorite moment in a recent excavation of some old Vic-20 cassettes was finding not one, but two versions of Car Wars (Dodge 'Em, for you non TI people) in a row.
The thing is, I STINK at the TI Car Wars, but could kick the computer car's butt on (whatever the car game on the Vic is called... it's late and I'm too tired to go look).I thought Slymoids looked good, but I don't like the gameplay at all. But Sneggit, Treasure Island, Microsurgeon, Fathom, Moonsweeper... they were definiely just hitting their stride in game making on the 99/4A at the time.
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The Taito puzzle game you're thinking of might be Puzzle Bobble (Bust-A-Move).
I'd personally like to see an RPG like Final Fantasy made for the TI. Something like that would be neat. Maybe a sequel to Tunnels of Doom that takes place above ground and is similar to a Final Fantasy type of game.
There is a CRPG in the works. Checkout:
http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/150398-ti-994a-vintage-crpg/
I'm also working on what I've taken to calling an "RPG lite," but since it's so early in development, and I'm not an RPG expert by any means, I dunno if it'll be a worthy addition to the pantheon. It'll be adventure-y, anyway.
Actually a little bit of a TradeWars or Elite feel, but in a classic RPG setting. If that makes any sense.And I highly recommend a read of Adam's CRPG blog -- when he does get it done, it's gonna be incredible, from the looks of things.
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LOL! Kind of hate to put these types of feelers out since most people will try to gouge in this situation, but have kind of gotten the itch to acquire an Astrocade system. Not looking to pay top collectors dollars here, just looking for a boxed system with many games. Controllers must be in perfect condition and I'd like the console to be in near mint shape too. Am aware of the problems of the early machines, power supply wise - so can perform some upgrades and mods too if necessary. Sort of looking for a "complete" and nice system.... so don't be shy. Am not afraid of fronting decent coin if the system warrants it, but again - am not looking to pay ePay or "collectors" from Europe type prices....
I don't know where to get a system, but atari2600.com had brand-new Astrocade controllers ridiculously cheap a while back -- something like $8.95 each. Last time I looked, which was a couple months ago, they no longer had both numbers (the controllers, though identical, were labeled "1" and "2"), but one of them was still in stock.
I kinda hovered on Ebay till I found one (unboxed) that I ended up getting relatively cheap -- haven't had a problem with it yet. There's a guy selling lots of 6 new, sealed games at a time right now, and he has been for a while now - if I didn't have those games already I'd grab 'em.
I plan, long-term, to try to do a stripped-down conversion of one or two of my BASIC games on the Bally BASIC cart at some point. 1.7K of thrills!
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Well, you can get around the 256 Bytes RAM limit a bit by also utilizing the RAM the VDP offers, so you actually have 16K minus what you need for displaying the screen content. Of course, VDP RAM is somewhat more cumbersome and slow to access.
The TMS9900 CPU is also slower than the Z80 in an MSX machine. How much slower, however, depends on where you keep your variables and where your program gets executed from. Fastest would be to have it all in 16-bit CPU ROM, but there's only 256 bytes of that. All other RAM and ROM (except for the built-in system ROM) is either indirectly accessed (VDP / GRAM / GROM) or only 8-bit (RAM expansion / cartridges), or both. At least that's how I think it works.
The CPU also gets slowed down by the fact that it has no accessible internal registers, so all register accesses actually are reads and writes to RAM.
But since the register file can be relocated in RAM, programs could be sped up by applying a different programming technique where your locate your variables in a way that variables that are commonly used in one routine get laid out next to each other, so that they can be accessed faster by relocating the register file there and then treating the variables as being R0 through R15. What comes to mind here would be some kind of control over game objects, where for the processing of each object the workspace pointer points to that object's variable set, so its variables can be accesssed as R0 through R15, which saves a lot of reads and writes during the actual routine. The code resulting from this technique, however, would look a bit different from what you're used to on another machine.
Not saying that the two games you mentioned aren't total crap (I actually kinda like Hustle, but The Attack is a piece of garbage).
But consider that when those were being made, you had clueless TI people who treated all software development, especially games, as an afterthought. In retrospect, it seems pretty obvious you'd want to dazzle people right off the bat with the capabilities of your machine, and that it might make some sense to hire a graphic designer or two to wow the folks with your software, and make the hardware a must-have that way. But in 1979-1980, they were inventing the home computer industry as they went. They had no idea.
By the time the machine's user base got too big to ignore, we started seeing games like Fathom, Microsurgeon, TI's Q*Bert port - hell, Parsec's a nice-looking game. If there'd been one or two more years of active development in the games field, by full-time game coders, we'd have really seen some amazing things, and a lot of great programming knowledge would have been learned.
Also, like mentioned above, much of the energy of the TI community that remained loyal has been focused on hardware, utility software, etc. I think people that were way into gaming over all else probably defected to Spectrum or Commodore pretty quickly once TI went under and the third-party houses dropped what little support they'd started to show.
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Maybe I'll resurrect the crap Logo I wrote in high school in Apple BASIC (actually called "cheap_ripoff_logo" if I remember correctly). It drew a turtle, asked for user input, but then wouldn't do anything but make rude retorts to Logo commands (telling the turtle to go backward would elicit "do I look like I have eyes in my butt?" or some such 13-year-old hilarity). It actually went down a storm with my classmates, and got us out of half a period of class one day while my teacher showed it off to everyone.
It may be almost too good, though, compared to some of those other listed ideas...
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Any reason for the preference for an arcade game, besides personal preference? Not complaining, just asking.
That's a pretty nice prize! I keep getting sidetracked on my new game idea, but I should have some kid-free time this weekend to get a nice bit of work done on it, and will submit some pix and information when I have some.
Keith
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The first 'gold box' games that came to my mind were from Keypunch Software, but I don't know if/when they sold them in Target. They generally have three or four cheap-o games (sometimes in BASIC) on one disk, and retailed for a pretty low price. I've got a few with copyright dates as late as 1987 or 1988 on them, though I can't imagine too many people were thrilled with the games they got if they bought 'em then - they have the look of 1982-era software about them, for sure. Kind of the equivalent of those "250 GAMES FOR YOUR PC!" CD-ROMs you see at Office Depot now, with clunky games going back to the mid-90's on them.
One of my favorite little geek-outs, when I pick up a batch of old computers or software, is to check out the original price stickers on them. Seeing stickers for Rink's, Nichols, Conley, TG&Y, Ames, etc brings back a lot of memories (as do the prices - $50 for Connect Four for the TI 99/4A??)
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I too would love to see such a forum. I dabbled in TMS9900 back in the day and wrote several Extended Basic programs. Still have my TI hooked up and would peer into the group often - if not just to catch up and maybe get back into programming. The TI-99 is a VERY compelling little computer to program and work with. Extremely user friendly. Heck, even the battery is still good after all these years on my Mini-Memory cartridge! lol
I'm excited to hear about people getting back into coding for this wonderful machine. I just hope that not everything will be reliant on 32k+ memory and disk drives. I gave that stuff away years ago. Everybody has a cassette interface and most have Mini-Memory I would think though. And oh yeah, that doo-dad that allows to to transfer files via SD card that has memory built in. Hmm... maybe it's time to invest in one of those. Anyone have one they'd like to sell?
Actually, it seems the "stock" TI people program for is indeed the 32K expanded system with disk drive and Extended BASIC. It's much more versatile and opens up the user to a world of XB software written in the 80's and 90's, without the long load times of cassette. Of course, with emulators, it's all academic anyway as most people can just use their 'virtual' drive.
I'm Luddite enough to program on my stock system, but I do have a 3.5" drive installed. I haven't yet tried it, but there's PC software (recently updated to run under all newer Windows versions) that will allow the PC to read/write TI disks. I'm hoping to install it on my wife's older PC this weekend and give it a whirl; that'll be the ultimate for getting stuff from the interwebs to the 99/4A machine. The compact flash card for the 99/4A also includes the 32K memory expansion built in, so a lot of people are moving all their stuff from floppies to the CF drive and then disconnecting their bulky expansion boxes entirely, just using the CF like a big hard drive. (If I could ever score one of the CF devices when they go on ebay before they vanish, I'll probably do the same).
My programming efforts right now are in Extended BASIC, because I'm just now getting back into programming at all after a long absence. Once I finish up a couple of my pet projects, though, my plan is to use them as 'guinea pigs' to learn to convert them to assembly. One of my games, in particular, is probably gonna have speed issues in BASIC, and will likely run a lot better once it's faster.
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Herding Cats (RGPC)
in TI-99/4A Development
Posted
Sounds marvellous !
I'm definitely making a lot of dumb mistakes due to being rusty at programming, too... little things, like in the main game loop, if the cat in question has already left the playfield, it increments the loop and goes on to the next one without doing anything else. But the number of 'moves' shouldn't increase, because no one moved on the screen in that time. I ran it and saw the clock ticking up and up with no cats moving. Oops.
I will say, my organizational skills have never been better. I used to write code when I was a kid and a week later, I'd go back to it and have no idea what the hell I'd just done. Keeping notes, using subroutines, and having the code flow somewhat logically -- who'd a thunk it?