palmheads Posted October 1, 2018 Share Posted October 1, 2018 Hey Whenever I'm mucking around with my other retro computers, if I see a game they could be cool on the TI-99 for TI-BASIC & mini memory (perhaps for next 4k challenge) I make a note of it. Been playing this game on my ZX81 (real & emulated). http://www.zx81stuff.org.uk/zx81/tape/CityPatrol You are a turret that turns 360 degrees. In front of you is a city scape. The city is in layers - some buildings closer, some further away. You have a gun sight. UFO's fly up/down/between buildings. You have to aim with your sight & shoot them. You can blow up buildings but you lose points. The UFO is also shooting at you (quite effective - a white square with an asterisks when it shoots. Its really playable & enjoyable! cheers Daryn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retrospect Posted October 2, 2018 Share Posted October 2, 2018 This would represent a challenge for anyone attempting to write it in TI Basic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted October 2, 2018 Share Posted October 2, 2018 Though I question to speed in TI BASIC, it looks doable. A lot of VCHARs to plot the buildings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Vorticon Posted October 2, 2018 Share Posted October 2, 2018 Here's a quick demo drawing the city. I don't think TI BASIC is up to the task here since just drawing one screen already takes too long... 100 CALL CLEAR 110 RANDOMIZE 120 CALL CHAR(36,"FFFFC3C3C3C3FFFF") 130 CALL CHAR(37,"FFFFFFE7E7FFFFFF") 140 CALL CHAR(38,"FFFF000000000000") 150 REM BACKGROUND BUILDINGS 160 CALL HCHAR(22,1,38,32) 170 FOR X=1 TO 32 180 Y=INT(RND*13) 190 IF Y>8 THEN 210 200 Y=0 210 CALL VCHAR(22-Y,X,37,Y) 220 NEXT X 230 REM FOREGROUND BUILDINGS 240 FOR X=1 TO 32 250 Y=INT(RND*18) 260 IF Y>10 THEN 280 270 Y=0 280 W=INT(RND*3)+1 290 FOR I=0 TO W-1 300 IF X+I>32 THEN 330 310 CALL VCHAR(24-Y,X+I,36,Y) 320 NEXT I 330 NEXT X 340 CALL CLEAR 350 GOTO 150 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
palmheads Posted October 2, 2018 Author Share Posted October 2, 2018 Here's a quick demo drawing the city. I don't think TI BASIC is up to the task here since just drawing one screen already takes too long... 100 CALL CLEAR 110 RANDOMIZE 120 CALL CHAR(36,"FFFFC3C3C3C3FFFF") 130 CALL CHAR(37,"FFFFFFE7E7FFFFFF") 140 CALL CHAR(38,"FFFF000000000000") 150 REM BACKGROUND BUILDINGS 160 CALL HCHAR(22,1,38,32) 170 FOR X=1 TO 32 180 Y=INT(RND*13) 190 IF Y>8 THEN 210 200 Y=0 210 CALL VCHAR(22-Y,X,37,Y) 220 NEXT X 230 REM FOREGROUND BUILDINGS 240 FOR X=1 TO 32 250 Y=INT(RND*18) 260 IF Y>10 THEN 280 270 Y=0 280 W=INT(RND*3)+1 290 FOR I=0 TO W-1 300 IF X+I>32 THEN 330 310 CALL VCHAR(24-Y,X+I,36,Y) 320 NEXT I 330 NEXT X 340 CALL CLEAR 350 GOTO 150 Oh wow that is slow. Graphically it does look doable though! Could be an XB/Assembly job then Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Vorticon Posted October 2, 2018 Share Posted October 2, 2018 Now mind you there are ways to optimize this significantly using arrays to store the VCHAR data and possibly not having a random cityscape, but I didn't have the energy to get into the weeds that much! Regardless though, I doubt it would still be fast enough to be reasonably playable... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retrospect Posted October 2, 2018 Share Posted October 2, 2018 It would be nice to think TI-Basic could be used here but I agree with Vorticon, it's simply too slow. It was rated as second only to the ZX81 for speed of execution within Basic. I realized it's limitations with the TI Basic version of "Mummy's Tomb" because I wanted four mummies on screen at once and it could do it but you had time to boil the kettle and serve up a cup of coffee before all four of the mummies had decided to move anywhere. XB and the Compiler would probably be your best bet. The only thing faster than that would be Assembly (Which for the ZX81, this game was written in Z80 Assembly) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.