DICE RACK - new XB game release

[InfernalKeith]

I'm happy to release Dice Rack, a new Extended BASIC game for the TI 99/4A.  It's a sort of sequel to my game Dicecrash, with some refinements and a different approach.

 

The Dice Rack is a 5x5 grid, and you have limited control over the dice falling into it.  You open gates to let the dice fall into the rack, and try to score points vertically.  However, any points you score from hands formed HORIZONTALLY will count against your total.  Fill a column, and the dice shift and collapse.  Drop a die in a full column, and it falls out of the rack.  All of those things add to your point goal and create more of a challenge.

 

It's nothing earth-shattering, but I think it's pretty slick, and I hope you like it.




Here's a link to a walkthrough video where I play a round to demonstrate: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DICERACK.zip

Edited May 30, 2020 by InfernalKeith

[InfernalKeith]

And I KNEW I'd forget something in the doc file.  When you move the die before it drops, you're instructed to press S or D, but the arrow keys work as well.  Minor point, but I know most of us are playing on emulators now.

[ColecoFan1981]

How did you get those screenshots - what emulator were you using?

~Ben

[InfernalKeith]

Just grabbed them in Classic99, then loaded them into MS Paint as .bin's and resaved them as .jpg's.

[+cvga]

Nice work. Did you create the rules for the game? How often do you personally beat the computer?

[InfernalKeith]

I did, it's an original (as much as any Yahtzee-influenced dice game can be original).  I can beat the computer about 50% of the time, but I haven't played it enough yet to get a real strategy worked up.  I tend to focus on my vertical hands and not pay as much attention to the horizontal ones, and then I'm unpleasantly surprised when there's a straight fully formed to take out 50 points from my total.  I feel like there's some strategy to be derived from reclosing open gates and dropping lower dice down to "break up" vertical hands, but I was shooting for starting and finishing this game quickly, so it hasn't been that exhaustively played yet to where I feel like I have a handle on strategy.

 

[Omega-TI]

Nice looking game.  Any plans to compile it and turning it into a cartridge BIN?

[InfernalKeith]

I wasn't planning to, unless someone has a specific reason for it.  I am thinking I might collect this, Dicecrash, and Sixxit and make a small run of physical copies with a box and manual, just for fun.  But they're all small and not that speed-dependent, so I don't see much benefit besides saving a few seconds of load time.

[+Ksarul]

I like the idea of a boxed three-fer set!