InfernalKeith

I bought one last time Jaime put them up, and it arrived today. I'm about to go plug it into my TI 99/4A. I may actually be able to send you guys my game without having to mail someone a floppy disk! Ain't technology grand.

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 200428044512 These tend to sell very quickly, so if you're thinking of grabbing one, now's the time.

Working with graphic characters is not necessarily bad. One benefit is you don't have to worry about "invisible" cats if you get 4 of them lined up in a row Just out of curiosity, how many cats will there be on-screen ? Keep up the good work! I figured the game doesn't need sprites, so why mess with them? I have it set for up to 30 cats, which will vary by level. On some levels you'll get many and some are 'expendable,' on others, you'll get only a few and need to try to save them all to proceed. All of that is subject to change, of course, once play-testing levels begins, or if I have to start conserving memory (not a problem yet). On my demo level I'm using to test, I have 15 cats on screen, and they move quickly enough, though some disappear rather soon due to holes in the floor, etc.

I can't use CALL MOTION, CALL POSITION, etc because these are all graphic characters, not sprites. There are actually no sprites being used in the game right now, though I may utilize them for an animation when a cat hits the "cat-a-pult." Many of the tools will be things done while the action is stopped -- moving the exit, "bumping the table," etc. Only the repellent and the cat magnet are conditions which will affect the cats' movement in each cycle of the game, once they're activated. I actually feel a little weird about the fact that those two tools DO influence the cats' otherwise random movement -- the whole idea of the game being that you CAN'T tell the cats what to do. But without them, I think the game would be TOO random and would end up frustrating. As it is, there will still be plenty of chances for cats to veer off in unexpected and dangerous directions - even these tools won't be absolute behavior changers. (It'd be easier to program if they were!)

OK, I know it's not much, but here's actual photographic evidence that I'm working on a program. I went out for breakfast this morning, kidless, after realizing last night that I'd made a mess of the probability portion of my main game loop. Basically, if the player uses the "catnip magnet" or "cat repellent" options, I want there to be a much greater chance that each cat will toward (or away from) that point on the screen. So if either of those items are deployed, the loop vets each random movement number, and - if it clashes with the item in question, like if the cat was to move north and there is a cat repellent to the north - there's a 90% chance that the direction will be rejected and the loop will select another direction. It's not a particularly difficult concept, just tedious to get right (at least the way I came up with doing it). There are eight conditions under which the "90% chance of rejection" scenario kicks in (I'm allowing diagonal moves to proceed normally, to avoid even more long IF-THEN-AND-AND statements to slow things up.. which is why the probabilty of rejection for the other four directions is so high). For example: IF the cat is to move north, and IF the device is north of the intended destination, and IF it's a repellent... it kicks out. IF the cat is to move north, and IF the device is SOUTH of the intended destination, and IF it's a catnip magnet... it kicks out (we're "attracting" the cat south by limiting its chance to move north, away from the catnip). etc, etc. I *think* I've got this all figured out, on paper. It was nice to get away from the screen, and the internet, and other distractions, and just drink coffee and work the formulas out. It all seems a lot simpler NOW. Later tonight I'll strip out the crappy code I WAS installing to do all this, add my new solution, and let 'er rip. This is probably the most cumbersome part of the whole program. Many of the "tools" the user gets to manipulate the playfield will be coded in 2-3 lines, tops. If this routine works out, a lot of the rest of the game will fall together over the weekend. Real screen pix soon, I promise! Keith

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?

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.

That's it! The missing ingredient in my coding work! I must add that cold, round, 12-ounce peripheral to my system immediately.

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

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.

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

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 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"

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 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

Have I mentioned lately that you're my hero?

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. http://tigameshelf.net 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.

Just in time for Christmas, if Santa has $2,000 he'd like to spend on you: http://cgi.ebay.com/Texas-Instruments-99-8-99-4a-floppys-xs-2-3-contl_W0QQitemZ320455846441QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4a9ca82a29 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?

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 http://c64s.com/game/101310/quinx/

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

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)?

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?

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.

> 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.

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.

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!