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Time Pilot, Manic Miner, Tutankham and Vanguard? Games that were all in Homebrew development (and am very much looking forward to) but haven't heard update about them in absolutely ages.

 

(Well that's a bit of a lie actually, I know the guy that's doing Tutankham has recently got back into it.)

 

Is there any others in development that have lay dormant for too long?

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Time Pilot - by retroclouds. I think development has stalled.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVNgiQRHZV4

 

 

Manic Miner - by Willsy. I think development has stalled.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZzq-ebcM80

 

 

Tutankham - by retroclouds. Currently in development (according to his AA signature).

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If6C6jPQR9w

 

 

Vanguard - by Atarisoft

 

RX 8549. Apparently never released.

 

 

Vanguard - early prototype exists by TI / Paul Urbanus (?). I have the binary somewhere.

 

 

:)

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Guess I can give some details on this:

 

Time Pilot, that's me. I have a prototype with the moving clouds, rotating ship and flying bullets (which I'm kinda

proud of, because they are implemented as soft-sprites).

I stopped development on this a long time ago because there is no cartridge board able to run this

game. It'll probably need 1 to 2K of RAM. This game was written before SPECTRA. So it needs to be changed to use the SPECTRA2 library.

 

Tutankham, that's me again :ponder:

This game is currently being modified for working with the SPECTRA2 library. Only uses 256 bytes of scratchpad RAM so we will for sure see a cartridge version there.

 

Manic Miner, that's a game written by Willsy before he started working on Turboforth. Dunno the status of that one.

 

Vanguard, There's a prototype with the the flying ship and scrolling background. This is done by mr. Uranus who wrote Parsec. He started working on the old source code he recovered a while ago. Dunno the actual status of this one.

 

TI Intruder, A game in the style of River Raid started by marc.hull. Airplane with scrolling background working. This project is currently stalled

and looking for an assembler programmer who is willing to finish the game.

 

For myself I can say that it's not unusual to start working on multiple projects and hop from one to the other. Writing, debugging, testing and completing a game in assembly language can be a very frustrating thing.

 

One of the reasons why there aren't many new homebrews (compared to the Colecovision), is that if you wanna get your arcade game to run from a cartridge on an unexpanded TI-99/4A, you can only do it in assembler (and perhaps GPL).

 

Looking at the Colecovision, *all* new homebrews are written in C. Except for the MSX/arcade machine ports done by opcode. They are in assembler, but that's actually patching existing Z80 code. Due to the TMS9900 code we need to start from scratch.

 

 

EDIT: The only arcade games we could port over to the TI-99/4A would be the Tomy Tutor games (because of the TMS9900/TMS9918VDP). However, the onces I played didn't look worth the effort.

Edited by retroclouds
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The only arcade games we could port over to the TI-99/4A would be the Tomy Tutor games (because of the TMS9900/TMS9918VDP). However, the onces I played didn't look worth the effort.

 

I think Tomy Tutor has the TMS9995 - maybe not much of a difference.

 

TI-99 versus Tomy Tutor

 

Yeah, I also thought the games were not worth while, but they're actually not all that bad. Bios and games are available from the site linked above.

 

car-azy-racer (educational)

cave crawlers

deep six

jungler

loco-motion

pooyan

scramble

torpedo terror

traffic jam

 

tomy.gif

 

:)

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For fun I just checked the ROMS of the Tomy Tutor games "Scramble" and "Jungler". Bot are 8K ROMS.

 

I also took a quick look at the Tutor memory map. I presume that on the Tutor the games runs from the ROM cartridge space at >8000.

On the TI-99/4A we are at >6000 so it means all machine code should be relocated.

On the Tutor scratchpad memory is at >E000 we are at >8300.

Sound port, VDP data/regsiter ports are also different.

 

Dunno how the keyboard/joysticks on the Tutor work. Guess one would have to take a look at the MESS source code.

Too make a long story short, I think it should be possible to make a Ti-99/4A cartridge with one of the above games.

 

hhmmm. Here's the memory map of the Tutor. I do like the fact that the Tutor has a 16K cartridge ROM space. That's much better than the 8K ROM space we have on the TI-99/4A.

 

 

 
                 *** $0000-$7FFF is the 32K BIOS ***
it is also possible to replace the BIOS with an external ROM (see $E000 range)

0000                            
                               reset vector (level 0)
                               0000-0001: WP   0002-0003: PC (%)
0004
                               level 1 and 2 IRQ vectors (%)
                               idem. These just seem to reset the system.
000C
                               additional vectors
0040
                               XOP vectors (%)
			The BIOS doesn't seem to use these for XOPs.
			Instead, this is a branch table.
0080
			BIOS code
			(CRU only: $1EE0-FE: 9995 flag register;
				$1FDA: MID flag)
4000
			GBASIC
			(on the American v2.3 firmware, the GPL
				interpreter and VDP RAMLUT co-exist
				with GBASIC in this range)

             *** $8000-$BFFF is the 16K option ROM area ***

8000
			BASIC (Tutor only) and/or cartridge ROM
				(controlled by $E100)
			To be recognized, a cartridge must have a
			$55, $66 or $aa header sequence.

                        *** end ROM ***
C000
			unmapped (possible use in 24K cartridges)
E000
			I/O range
			---------
			9918A VDP data/register ports: $E000, E002
			"MMU" banking controls: $E100-E1FF
				$E100 write: enable cartridge, disable
					BIOS at $0000 (???) -- magic
					required at $E110 for this
				$E108 write: enable BASIC ROM, disable
					cartridge at $8000
				$E10C write: enable cartridge, disable
					BASIC ROM at $8000
				$E110 must be $42 to enable $E100
					and to replace the BIOS with
					an installed cartridge ROM.
					BLWP assumed at $0000 (??).
			SN76489AN sound data port: $E200
			Device handshaking: $E600
				Unknown purpose, disk drive maybe?
			Printer handshaking: $E800
			This is a standard Centronics port.
				$E810 write: parallel data bus
				$E820 read: parallel port busy
				$E840 write: port handshake output
			Keyboard lines: $EC00-$EC7E (*CRU*)
				(CRU physical address $7600-$763F)
			Cassette lines: $ED00-$EEFF
				$ED00 (*CRU*): input level
					(physical address $7680)
				$EE00 write: tape output zero
				$EE20 write: tape output one
				$EE40 write: tape IRQ on
				$EE60 write: tape IRQ off
				$EE80, A0, C0, E0: ???
				
F000
                               TMS9995 RAM (*)
F0FC
                               ??
FFFA
                               decrementer (*)
FFFC
                               NMI vector (*)
FFFF

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Ox, for all these games, maybe is better do not wait for release of your gamebase... :D

 

when you release the gamebase completed at now ? v1.0 ? :D i am very curious !! :D

 

I would'nt mind getting my hands on the beta versions just so I can make place-holders in the Gamebase TI-99/4A project for their future release.

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Barry Boone converted a number of Tomy Tutor games for use with the Geneve (which has a 9938 and 9995) years ago. I do not recall whether they run natively or via the GPL interpreter.

 

I thought about that earlier but they do run in MDSO mode. Probably a worse starting point ?

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Barry Boone converted a number of Tomy Tutor games for use with the Geneve (which has a 9938 and 9995) years ago. I do not recall whether they run natively or via the GPL interpreter.

 

I thought about that earlier but they do run in MDSO mode. Probably a worse starting point ?

 

The MDOS files are on whtech.com under geneve/tomy tutor games. Barry Boone described the tomy dumps in an email quoted below:

 

 

Well, The tomy dumps work as follows...

 

The first few files of the games are all identical... and represent the Tomy

internal ROM

that was patched to use the Geneve's keyboard/joystick, and patched with the

I/O addresses for video/sound.

 

The rest of it is a ROM dump of the original game, pretty much in unmodified

form.

 

The Tomy had an immense ROM library of routines to handle graphics, sound,

etc, so the game carts spent most of their time calling subroutines. The

subroutine vectors are located in a table starting at memory location >0000.

This made the subroutine vectors be in a fixed location, while the ROM

locations of the routines could change, if that was needed, and it allowed

them the option to come out with future machines that could run the

cartridges.

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Barry Boone converted a number of Tomy Tutor games for use with the Geneve (which has a 9938 and 9995) years ago. I do not recall whether they run natively or via the GPL interpreter.

 

I thought about that earlier but they do run in MDSO mode. Probably a worse starting point ?

 

The MDOS files are on whtech.com under geneve/tomy tutor games. Barry Boone described the tomy dumps in an email quoted below:

 

 

Well, The tomy dumps work as follows...

 

The first few files of the games are all identical... and represent the Tomy

internal ROM

that was patched to use the Geneve's keyboard/joystick, and patched with the

I/O addresses for video/sound.

 

The rest of it is a ROM dump of the original game, pretty much in unmodified

form.

 

The Tomy had an immense ROM library of routines to handle graphics, sound,

etc, so the game carts spent most of their time calling subroutines. The

subroutine vectors are located in a table starting at memory location >0000.

This made the subroutine vectors be in a fixed location, while the ROM

locations of the routines could change, if that was needed, and it allowed

them the option to come out with future machines that could run the

cartridges.

 

 

ok, thanks for the info. Guess that kinda explains why the game ROMS are only 8K.

That also prevents the idea of putting such game in a TI-99/4A cartridge.

Would be interesting to see what routines are in the ROM library though.

But I'm quite sure it's all undocumented.

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Ox, for all these games, maybe is better do not wait for release of your gamebase... :D

 

when you release the gamebase completed at now ? v1.0 ? :D i am very curious !! :D

 

I would'nt mind getting my hands on the beta versions just so I can make place-holders in the Gamebase TI-99/4A project for their future release.

 

Yes, I think it's a good thing. Also because I know you've arrived at about 2000 games already recorded and is already a great number ! :) ... I Have cataloged only 800 ... I go very slow ... perhaps will be the same games but until I see your work I can not know it .... :D

Edited by ti99userclub
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I will have to say, that I have played Jungler at the arcades in the Golden Eighties, and I loved that game A LOT!!!!!! It´s very good eat-or-shoot-other-worms-and-beware-of-getting-eaten-alive-maze-game!!!!! :) I still am sad that MSX doesn´t have Jungler, even it was made by Konami. :sad:

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Ox, for all these games, maybe is better do not wait for release of your gamebase... :D

 

when you release the gamebase completed at now ? v1.0 ? :D i am very curious !! :D

 

I would'nt mind getting my hands on the beta versions just so I can make place-holders in the Gamebase TI-99/4A project for their future release.

 

Yes, I think it's a good thing. Also because I know you've arrived at about 2000 games already recorded and is already a great number ! :) ... I Have cataloged only 800 ... I go very slow ... perhaps will be the same games but until I see your work I can not know it .... :D

 

Well Ciro my PC power supply stopped working on Tuesday and I've just now got it back up and running, there's a little over 1900 entries up to now so it's looking to be around the 2000 entries mark and then it's a matter of tieing in the screenshots, extras and factual data - so it will still be a while until release.

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Ox, for all these games, maybe is better do not wait for release of your gamebase... :D

 

when you release the gamebase completed at now ? v1.0 ? :D i am very curious !! :D

 

I would'nt mind getting my hands on the beta versions just so I can make place-holders in the Gamebase TI-99/4A project for their future release.

 

Yes, I think it's a good thing. Also because I know you've arrived at about 2000 games already recorded and is already a great number ! :) ... I Have cataloged only 800 ... I go very slow ... perhaps will be the same games but until I see your work I can not know it .... :D

 

Well Ciro my PC power supply stopped working on Tuesday and I've just now got it back up and running, there's a little over 1900 entries up to now so it's looking to be around the 2000 entries mark and then it's a matter of tieing in the screenshots, extras and factual data - so it will still be a while until release.

 

 

Ok Ox, ;)

i will be patient... ;) just an little ask...

think you can be possible you release only a complete program list (also in a simply .txt file) to look only the titles ?

just for know if a program/game will exist already in your database or not...

 

;)

 

Thankyou...

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Ox, for all these games, maybe is better do not wait for release of your gamebase... :D

 

when you release the gamebase completed at now ? v1.0 ? :D i am very curious !! :D

 

I would'nt mind getting my hands on the beta versions just so I can make place-holders in the Gamebase TI-99/4A project for their future release.

 

Yes, I think it's a good thing. Also because I know you've arrived at about 2000 games already recorded and is already a great number ! :) ... I Have cataloged only 800 ... I go very slow ... perhaps will be the same games but until I see your work I can not know it .... :D

 

Well Ciro my PC power supply stopped working on Tuesday and I've just now got it back up and running, there's a little over 1900 entries up to now so it's looking to be around the 2000 entries mark and then it's a matter of tieing in the screenshots, extras and factual data - so it will still be a while until release.

 

 

Ok Ox, ;)

i will be patient... ;) just an little ask...

think you can be possible you release only a complete program list (also in a simply .txt file) to look only the titles ?

just for know if a program/game will exist already in your database or not...

 

;)

 

Thankyou...

 

Yes sure, when I have entered all the games I have to my disposal in the gamebase I will post it on here or the GB64 site - and if I have missed anything that you know of or have in your collection then you can let me know?

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Ox, for all these games, maybe is better do not wait for release of your gamebase... :D

 

when you release the gamebase completed at now ? v1.0 ? :D i am very curious !! :D

 

I would'nt mind getting my hands on the beta versions just so I can make place-holders in the Gamebase TI-99/4A project for their future release.

 

Yes, I think it's a good thing. Also because I know you've arrived at about 2000 games already recorded and is already a great number ! :) ... I Have cataloged only 800 ... I go very slow ... perhaps will be the same games but until I see your work I can not know it .... :D

 

Well Ciro my PC power supply stopped working on Tuesday and I've just now got it back up and running, there's a little over 1900 entries up to now so it's looking to be around the 2000 entries mark and then it's a matter of tieing in the screenshots, extras and factual data - so it will still be a while until release.

 

 

Ok Ox, ;)

i will be patient... ;) just an little ask...

think you can be possible you release only a complete program list (also in a simply .txt file) to look only the titles ?

just for know if a program/game will exist already in your database or not...

 

;)

 

Thankyou...

 

Yes sure, when I have entered all the games I have to my disposal in the gamebase I will post it on here or the GB64 site - and if I have missed anything that you know of or have in your collection then you can let me know?

 

Hi Ox,

maybe I explained evil, I would want to have a list of your titles in a .txt now, so if in the list i see a title of a game you've already converted i will jump that title in my program ;)

In this way, already from today, I will convert only those games that are not present in your current list ...

but do not worry, if for you it could be a problem i will wait the GB relased ;)

Thankyou.

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  • 5 months later...

Putting a shout out here to Willsy & Co. as to updates on Manic Miner etc. I'm trying to get the TI99 Gamebase out for Xmas and I'm wondering is there any chance of any playable or complete versions of the games mentioned previously in this thread.

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