sometimes99er #101 Posted December 17, 2015 (edited) The real-life cartridge is moving into some of the final stages. To spice up this next release, a whopping 9842 lines of assembler source has been added to the original 2275 lines. Release date early next year. Special thanks to ksarul and arcadeshopper. Edited December 17, 2015 by sometimes99er 3 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vorticon #102 Posted December 17, 2015 Looking forward to it Very absorbing game! 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Opry99er #103 Posted December 19, 2015 Happy dance... 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sometimes99er #104 Posted December 19, 2015 (edited) Looking forward to it Very absorbing game! Happy dance... Thanks. Here's a happy dance for ya. The Minesweeper cartridge on sale is basically an 8K ROM. The Nonogram cartridge will be a 64K ROM. 64K consisting of the game itself and a string of enhanced demos. I'll get into more details soon ... Edited February 4, 2016 by sometimes99er Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sometimes99er #105 Posted December 21, 2015 (edited) The bonus material includes a more than 8 year old demo.GraphicsPreviously I had noticed picture conversion tools for the MSX and Coleco. This enables you to turn a picture with many colors into a 9918a bitmap using Floyd-Steinberg dithering algorithms. I set out to make a tool in C#. This produced an output of 12K data.My preferred output is the 8K ROM cartridge format. Something had to give. I could go for smaller pictures or try to compress the data. Simple RLE compression only helps with chunks of repeating data, so the pictures had to have less detail. Make it so (Picard).The picture was taken from the Internet and I can’t find it again. I think it was a “free stock” photo. SoundWhat I did was to extract or convert VGM files to ISR files. The files become both a bit smaller and somewhat easier to play. Still music files with effects are generally rather large or need relatively large players, at least with the 8K ROM size and 256 bytes of CPU memory (no Memory Expansion) in mind.The music included here is short and repetitive, but I think it’s okay for a quick picture on screen. The music is taken from the Hyper Sports arcade.CartridgeHere’s the demo as a standalone cart. Fctn Quit to quit. Edited December 25, 2015 by sometimes99er 4 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sometimes99er #106 Posted December 22, 2015 (edited) This bonus is also a more than 8 year old demo.Graphics Got the idea of maybe remaking the startup-screen of the Amiga 500. That's the insert-amiga-workbench-v1.3-disk-screen. Colors and detail would seem to fit. And so it did, quite well, and in ordinary graphic mode. Only needed one support-sprite in the upper right corner. Next idea was to have the Amiga mouse-pointer move around with some prerecorded smooth movement. Just circling around a bit. I used some free tool to record mouse-movement and converted the PC screen-coordinates to fit the TI. Sound The music here is again short. And it's repeated with a pause in-between. It's taken from the 1985 Ping Pong arcade.CartridgeHere’s the demo as a standalone cart. Fctn Quit to quit. Again my favorite format of 8K ROM without need for Memory Expansion. Edited December 25, 2015 by sometimes99er 3 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sometimes99er #107 Posted December 23, 2015 (edited) This next bonus is a mini game and as it happens it's also more than 8 years old. Graphics This is as simple and minimalistic as one can probably get. A single pixel border. A snake only consisting of the same 7 by 7 pixel square. A few letters and digits for score and high score. Controls You move around using the joystick. Try and avoid the walls and yourself. Sound Sound-effects are handmade. Music is out of Lemmings from the Sega Master System. Cartridge And here it is. Fctn Quit to quit. Edited December 25, 2015 by sometimes99er 4 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Opry99er #108 Posted December 23, 2015 This cartridge sounds like it is going to be a treasure chest. 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mantadoc #109 Posted December 23, 2015 This next bonus is a mini game and as it happens it's also more than 8 years old. Graphics This is as simple and minimalistic as one can probably get. A single pixel border. A snake only consisting of the same 7 by 7 pixel square. A few letters and digits for score and high score. Controls You move around using the joystick. Try and avoid the walls and yourself. Sound Sound-effects are handmade. Music is out of Lemmings from the Sega Master System. Cartridge And here it is. Fctn Quit to quit. snakec.bin snake.rpk Nice little game, Karsten 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sometimes99er #110 Posted December 24, 2015 (edited) Next bonus is an almost 8 year old demo inspired by a 1MB Game Boy Color (GBC) demo named Bitte 8 Bit. Graphics 1. Early DOS-like startup (40 column). 2. Then comes a Win98 splash (half-bitmap) - inspired by the GBC. 3. This is then shot down - inspired by the GBC. 4. The splash clears with a marmalade effect (hence the title of the demo). Maybe an effect originating from the Amiga which could run this stuff solely through the Copper. 5. Then comes the blue screen of death (40 column). Controls Use keys 1, 2 and C. Fctn Quit to quit. Sound Sound-effect of gunshot is handmade. Cartridge Edited December 25, 2015 by sometimes99er 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sometimes99er #111 Posted December 25, 2015 (edited) Next bonus is an over 7 year old demo.Graphics This time I wanted to paint in full bitmap. Mouse movement recorded from a PC paint program and then converted coordinates to fit the TI screen. First run through draw lines, one per frame, between mouse positions and does so with a fat pen (4 pixels adjacent). Next run through is simply plotting all the positions. And finally it's all done drawing with a thin pen. Controls Fctn Quit to quit. Sound Music is from Jail Break arcade. Cartridge Edited December 25, 2015 by sometimes99er 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sometimes99er #112 Posted December 26, 2015 (edited) This bonus is again an over 7 year old demo. Graphics I wanted to imitate the Etch A Sketch drawing toy. Using full bitmap. And you can draw. Controls Use joystick. Press the N key to get a new fresh etch screen. Fctn Quit to quit. Sound Music is Dance Of The Four Little Swans from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake taken from Lemmings on the Sega Master System. Cartridge Edited December 26, 2015 by sometimes99er 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Ksarul #113 Posted December 26, 2015 My grandmother used to build the Marx Toys version of the Etch-A-Sketch. . .along with a lot of the other toys they manufactured. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sometimes99er #114 Posted December 27, 2015 My grandmother used to build the Marx Toys version of the Etch-A-Sketch. . .along with a lot of the other toys they manufactured. Nice anecdote. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sometimes99er #115 Posted December 27, 2015 (edited) And this is then the last bonus being added to the Nonogram cartridge. A 7 year old demo. Graphics All kind of colors jumping up and down in half bitmap, with a slowly revealing splash in the middle. Controls Fctn Quit to quit. Sound Music is from Jail Break arcade. Cartridge Edited December 31, 2015 by sometimes99er Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+arcadeshopper #116 Posted December 27, 2015 The carts are up on arcadeshopper pre-sale expect them to ship out to me this/next week.. 4 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sometimes99er #117 Posted December 27, 2015 The carts are up on arcadeshopper pre-sale expect them to ship out to me this/next week.. Yes. Everyone. Please go to arcadeshopper.com and order now ! 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+arcadeshopper #118 Posted January 6, 2016 The carts are up on arcadeshopper pre-sale expect them to ship out to me this/next week.. First cart orders shipped today! 3 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
am1933 #119 Posted January 6, 2016 Just ordered my copy, looking forward to trying it on the real deal. 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sometimes99er #120 Posted March 17, 2016 Nice review at TI-99/4A Game Shelf. Thanks. This is a picture logic puzzle where cells in a grid must be colored or left blank according to numeric clues on the sides of the grid to reveal a hidden picture. Simple and clear presentation, but absorbing gameplay. It's gets pretty tough beyond level 5, but you are always tempted to try one more level. Very well done. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sometimes99er #121 Posted March 19, 2016 (edited) The 64K binary image used for the cartridge including bonus material. Inverted layout and boots from any bank. Edited March 19, 2016 by sometimes99er 3 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sometimes99er #122 Posted March 23, 2016 Thanks for the article. http://mag.mo5.com/actu/81763/nonogram-le-picross-du-ti-994a 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sometimes99er #123 Posted October 9, 2016 If you ever made it through the 39 puzzles, you've seen this one with a whole lot of cakes moving around ... 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+OLD CS1 #124 Posted October 9, 2016 The cake is a lie!!!! 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Ksarul #125 Posted October 9, 2016 What, you want it to spit a real cake out at you? LOLOL I like the slices of cake just as they are--no issues with high-calorie, sugary foods that way. I never get enough time to sit through all 39 puzzles, unfortunately--but the fact that there are always new ones to play with gives this one lots of play value for me. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites