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Titanium


Asmusr

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Tab is the joystick button. I guess there is a convention to use Q as there fire key, but I don't like to have all the keys so close together. Actually Q,A,O,P,Space would be my preferred keyboard controls (in lack of cursor keys), but I thought that would be too far from the standard.

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Tab is the joystick button. I guess there is a convention to use Q as there fire key, but I don't like to have all the keys so close together. Actually Q,A,O,P,Space would be my preferred keyboard controls (in lack of cursor keys), but I thought that would be too far from the standard.

 

It's not just a convention—that's the way the TI keyboard is mapped. Perhaps, you could provide the user with the option.

 

...lee

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It's not just a convention—that's the way the TI keyboard is mapped. Perhaps, you could provide the user with the option.

 

It's only mapped that way by the KSCAN routine, which I'm obviously not using, right? Anyway, I don't mind changing it in the next version if everybody expects Q to be the fire key, but having user defined keys would be too slow, I think.

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I think there is plenty of talent but not enough time.

 

I should have probably qualified that with "active" talent.

 

I'm not planning anymore updates in the short term. I'm looking forward to working on other projects for a change.

 

Thanks for the update. Of course, now that I am hooked on the game... heheheh it is a lot of fun. Looking forward to future updates. My TI has been blocked by pen for a convalescing dog (I did not do that, she did) so I will not be able to report and errant experiences until probably this weekend.

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I'm really loving this game. Level 2 is pretty damn hard. And the enemies look just like the ones in Moon Patrol. The red one has low contrast against the ground and makes for an extra challenge.

 

I've had some issues with controls getting seemingly stuck. I play in Classic99. Sometimes the controls are stuck - my guy kept going left and then wouldn't stop. Sometimes they appear to be flipped. And, sometimes the ship gets stuck in mid-flip, so it's a fraction of the ship (or a vertical line).

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I've had some issues with controls getting seemingly stuck. I play in Classic99. Sometimes the controls are stuck - my guy kept going left and then wouldn't stop. Sometimes they appear to be flipped. And, sometimes the ship gets stuck in mid-flip, so it's a fraction of the ship (or a vertical line).

 

I think the stuck controls are more a part of Classic99. I have seen this behavior in various games, including "Parsec," "Rabbit Trail," and "Spy's Demise." I have a hypothesis about what's causing it and I am going to test it out sometime soon.

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I think the stuck controls are more a part of Classic99. I have seen this behavior in various games, including "Parsec," "Rabbit Trail," and "Spy's Demise." I have a hypothesis about what's causing it and I am going to test it out sometime soon.

 

I have also seen that a few times in Classic99. Sometimes the ship gets stuck moving to the left all the time.

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I think the stuck controls are more a part of Classic99. I have seen this behavior in various games, including "Parsec," "Rabbit Trail," and "Spy's Demise." I have a hypothesis about what's causing it and I am going to test it out sometime soon.

 

Please let me know if you get any clues!

 

You guys aren't using the mouse at the same time as Classic99, or using any applications that steal focus, even briefly? (You should notice the title bar flash to inactive briefly.)

 

That's the only way I can see these symptoms occurring. :/ I guess I can try changing the system from edge-triggered to level triggered with direct keyboard access, but emulators that do that bug me. ;)

 

Edited by Tursi
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Please let me know if you get any clues!

I've seen this issue a couple of times, it 'appears' to happen after I hold down one of the direction buttons for too long. The only thing that fixes the problem is to do a (file)-(cold reset) and then it behaves normally. If you just try to start the game over normally it continues to do it in the next game. It's not that big of an issue to me.

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I'm having the same kind of problem. In May 2013 while wanting to get a high score for Munch Man, I timed the problem. Earliest problem after 1.5 minute and sometimes only showing it's ugly face after 25 minutes of game play. I haven't seen this kind of issue with any other Windows application. I might be wrong, but problem started late last year (somewhere between October and January), and I think I've kept Classic99 pretty much up to date. I'm also experiencing the problem with XB only games. So yes, using only arrow keys with Munch Man should apparently provoke it. No issue with Munch Man in MESS. One mean bug.

 

:|

Edited by sometimes99er
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I'm not surprised that only Classic99 does it, I just haven't seen it myself so it's hard to troubleshoot. Everyone who keeps saying "it's not a big deal" -- it is to me. You're doing me a bit of a disservice by shrugging it off, please help me solve this. :) Keyboard working is basic functionality.

 

The keyboard in Classic99 runs through a simulation layer that runs the actual code from my PS/2 adapter (as a means of partially testing that), BUT keyboard events in Windows don't work like PS/2 events in hardware, so it ended up being an unclean fit. It worked for years, but, I suspect people are exercising it harder these days than they used to.

 

That the arrow keys in a game trigger it is even weirder... but if I can reproduce it I can fix it. I'll play some Munchman. ;)

 

Two things I'll ask people to try when it happens. First, press Enter, and see if that clears it. Second, whether Enter worked or not, next time it happens, press and release the key that is 'sticking', and tell me if THAT works. Finally, report the key that stuck, please, and what you were using it in (because for the arrows at least, it matters whether the system was reading them as keys or joysticks).

 

Thank you!

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Two things I'll ask people to try when it happens. First, press Enter, and see if that clears it. Second, whether Enter worked or not, next time it happens, press and release the key that is 'sticking', and tell me if THAT works. Finally, report the key that stuck, please, and what you were using it in (because for the arrows at least, it matters whether the system was reading them as keys or joysticks).

I pressed enter multiple times, it did not clear, the ship remained on the right-hand side of the screen and could not be moved. Pressing the arrow key, or the other arrow key had no effect. I was using Titanium loaded into Extended BASIC under the BOOT menu in Classic99 of course. The system was reading the keys a joysticks. Hope that helps.

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Two things I'll ask people to try when it happens. First, press Enter, and see if that clears it. Second, whether Enter worked or not, next time it happens, press and release the key that is 'sticking', and tell me if THAT works. Finally, report the key that stuck, please, and what you were using it in (because for the arrows at least, it matters whether the system was reading them as keys or joysticks).

 

I just experienced this a few times with the up arrow (joystick up). Nothing helped except a reset. I was playing in CPU Overdrive mode.

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It looks and plays great, super impressive achievement! Tested on MESS 0.148, no technical issues whatsoever.

 

Few smaller remarks you might want to consider if you ever want to finish it:

- I would love to have the in-game music playing all the time, if possible. This is one of the things missing in most ti games: you have great intro music, and when the game starts: bang! silence, except for the sound effects.

- You might want to look at making the ship's shadow-offset variable, for a sort of parallax scrolling effect (imagine the light source being roughly in the middle of the playing field)

- The way your ship moves back to center position within the playing field after you've turned, or been near the upper/lower edge of the screen looks a bit awkward. Dunno how you could improve that though...

- In a non-memory restricted world, you can have varying weapons/upgrades that drop from killed enemies; but that's probably wishful thinking :).

 

Again, excellent job, very, very impressive!

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- I would love to have the in-game music playing all the time, if possible. This is one of the things missing in most ti games: you have great intro music, and when the game starts: bang! silence, except for the sound effects.

- You might want to look at making the ship's shadow-offset variable, for a sort of parallax scrolling effect (imagine the light source being roughly in the middle of the playing field)

- The way your ship moves back to center position within the playing field after you've turned, or been near the upper/lower edge of the screen looks a bit awkward. Dunno how you could improve that though...

- In a non-memory restricted world, you can have varying weapons/upgrades that drop from killed enemies; but that's probably wishful thinking :).

 

Thank you for your suggestions.

- The problem with the in-game music is that it has to be very simple in order not to clash with the sound effects. I made a compromise and decided to play a short burst of music once in a while.

- Regarding the shadow, I like any idea that generate a spectacular effect with few resources. However, since the shadows from the spheres would not move as well I'm not sure how effectful it would be in this case. And actually, since this takes place in space where light is supposed to come from a star, the direction to the light source would not change when the ship moves. Realism is a key factor here!

- Regarding the way the ships moves, I first kept it centered vertically, but I thought that gave you too little time to avoid approaching enemies, so I decided to move the ship slowly to the top/bottom when you change vertical direction. A problem you may have noticed is that in some cases this actually makes the ship move backwards relative to the surface.

- Everything new I add has to be weighted carefully on a clock-cycle weight. I have used all scrath-pad RAM and most of the 8-bit RAM, so there are very few resources left to play with.

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Hello !!!

 

Wonderfull game but I have a problem trying to play it on real hardware.

 

I only have the standard TI-99 disk controller, so I only can use standard 90 KB disks (the disk´s image size is 180 KB).

 

Is it any way to play this game on a standard TI system?

 

Many thanks in advance.

 

Matias

Edited by matiasmsx
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I only have the standard TI-99 disk controller, so I only can use standard 90 KB disks (the disk´s image size is 180 KB).

Is it any way to play this game on a standard TI system?

 

Here is one solution: http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?ff3=4&pub=5574883395&toolid=10001&campid=5336500554&customid=&mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fitm%2FTandon-IBM-TM-100-2A-5-25-360K-Floppy-Disk-Drive-Tested-%2F281151732363%3Fpt%3DUS_Floppy_Zip_Jaz_Drives%26hash%3Ditem4175f2fa8b

 

In fact I bet there are quite a few guys on here who could set you up, or point you in the right direction. Heck, now might be the perfect time to get a couple of 3.5 inch drives and convert your old 5.25 stuff over. With your current controller the drive on the link I listed will only double your space to 180K, but even that is better than the current 90K!

 

Anyone else have a better option?

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Hello !!!

 

Wonderfull game but I have a problem trying to play it on real hardware.

 

I only have the standard TI-99 disk controller, so I only can use standard 90 KB disks (the disk´s image size is 180 KB).

 

Is it any way to play this game on a standard TI system?

 

Many thanks in advance.

 

Matias

 

You can delete TIC and TIO from the disk. Those are the object files left by the assembler, but they are not needed if you run TITA (E/A 5) or use the Extended Basic loader. I have done that for the attached a 90K disk image.

Titanium90.zip

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Errr....noob question!!

 

How do I get this loaded in Classic99? I've saved it under DSK1 as TITANIUM.DSK and have selected E/A from Cartridge, Apps. On Classic99 boot, selected option 2 for E/A, then option 5 in E/A. Typed DSK1.TITANIUM enter then I get I/O error code 7.

 

Thanks.

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