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Best Plain Old TI BASIC Games (w/MP3)


ballyalley

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Here is my latest TI-99/4a/Atari video, called "TI-99/4a Collection Overview (Part 4) - Atari Update, TI NanoPEB Preview and Escape in TI BASIC:"

 

https://youtu.be/E6XAwMRy_p0

 

(Here's just a regular link:)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6XAwMRy_p0

 

It's been fun playing BASIC games.

 

Adam

 

In this 30-minute video, I use my standard TI-99/4a with a tape interface cable to play one TI BASIC game from 2019, written by "BleepBit", called "Escape."  I load the game from "tape" (a WAV file) from my laptop.  In order to create the "tape," I loaded a disk image in MAME and saved it as a WAV file.

 

Thanks to my friend Rick, who repaired my Indus and 1050 Atari disk drives for my 130XE.  He also taught me how to play Star Raiders, which I "showoff" a bit in this video (trust me; I don't have any skill at the game).

While I play "Escape," I give an overview of it along with some narration.  I tried "Escape" in TI Extended BASIC, hoping it would play faster, but it didn't work properly.  In this video, the colors of the game are nearly-completely washed-out: the game is displayed in blue-toned B&W, but this game is actually quite colorful.  I'll try a direct-capture of "Escape" using my Framemeister in an upcoming video, just as an experiment.

I show the BASIC listing of the game.

 

In the last year or so, "BleepBit" has made a recent port of the arcade game "Pengo" written in Extended BASIC that has been compiled.  You can see it here:

 

https://www.bleepbit.com/2019/05/12/pengo-tribute-for-ti-99-4a/

 

I also show my Atari 130XE next to my TI for size comparison.  Since it's a new toy, I briefly show a close-up of my NanoPEB that I got this week, which supports an additional 32K RAM, four virtual floppy disk drives and a serial port.

 

In my next TI video, I'm going to ditch showing any Atari hardware or software and I'm going to play some more TI BASIC games that have been recommended in this thread:

 

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/311431-best-plain-old-ti-basic-games/

 

Over the past few days, "sparkdrummer" has added 24 games to the above thread:

 

1) Alphabet Soup
2) Astromania
3) Attack Man
4) Battle over Titan
5) Blackbeard's Treasure
6) Casino Blackjack
7) Cavern Quest
8) Crazy Fun House
9) Cross Country Car Rally
10) Death Drones
11) Desert Trek
12) Garbage Belly
13) Life (Assembly Language, Loads in Console BASIC)
14) Lunar Lander
15) Moonbeam Express
16) Moonvasion
17) Night Mission
18) Pharaoh's Tomb
19) Robot Runner
20) Same Colors (Assembly Language, Loads in Console BASIC)
21) Strike Force 99
22) Super Frogger
23) Tank Battle
24) Zerozone

 

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to pick a few of these games to try them out.  I'll probably pick a couple of them and make a video of some gameplay, possibly with some narration.

 

Thanks, "sparkdrummer," for placing so many games directly into the TI BASIC Games thread.

 

Adam

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Pewterware cassette games.

All are console basic except for:

TRACTOR FOLLIES

UP PERISCOPE

Tested, they load fine

BLUEGRASS SWEEPSTAKES.mp3 CHALLENGE POKER.mp3 DECATHELON.mp3 GOBLINS REVENGE.mp3 MATCH WITS.mp3 ROLL FIVE.mp3 TRACTOR FOLLIES_XB.mp3 UP PERISCOPE _XB.mp3

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37 minutes ago, sparkdrummer said:

Pewterware cassette games.

All are console basic [...]

 

It's great that all of these games for TI BASIC are finding a home here.  I presume that the tape inlays and/or instructions for these games are archived someplace. Since I'm new to the TI computer, I don't know where to look for documentation for the games.


Also, is there a way to tell which TI BASIC programs will work 100% properly in Expanded BASIC?  The reason that I ask is that "console BASIC" (meaning TI BASIC, I presume) games and programs get that nice speed boost from Extended BASIC.


Finally, I'm intimately familiar with tape archiving in the Bally Arcade/Astrocade world.  There are archiving tools available that will "digitally archive" (make a perfect digitally copy, not just digitally record an analog signal) programs from tape.  Most of the time, this means that a compressed (zipped file) is compressed up to 100x.  Meaning, a WAV file that was 1MB will be about 1K.  Is there a tool like that for the TI-99/4a?


Adam

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Some console basic games work ok in  extended basic, some don’t. Easiest way to tell is to load the console basic game into extended basic and hit run. If it halts with an error, it is console basic only. 
HOWEVER

There is a workaround to run in extended basic. You simply merge BXB into the already loaded CB game and it will run. 
somebody much brainier than me can explain why. 

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I use BXB myself. Only problem for console-only guys is it requires disk drive or one of the modern alternatives and of course XB to run it and the resulting upgraded TI BASIC program. MERGE is not supported by the cassette routines. I suppose with a console-only TI you could get the BXB listing and type it in to add it to whatever TI BASIC program you wanted to run in XB.

 

Once it's created on a disk system, it could be saved to cassette again so a console-only system could then load it from tape.

 

Edited by Ed in SoDak
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American Software Design & Distribution

Tested - they load fine.

 

Text Adventures:

In Search of the 4 Vedas

007: Aqua Base

Haunted House

 Miner 49'er

Stone Age

 

Console Basic:

Barnyard Fun

Laser Shield

3-D MAZE.mp3 IN SEARCH OF THE 4 VEDAS.mp3 AMERICAN DERBY.mp3 007 AQUA BASE.mp3 BARNYARD FUN.mp3 BOMB SQUAD.mp3 HAUNTED HOUSE.mp3 LASER SHIELD.mp3 MINER 49ER.mp3 MR FROG.mp3 STAR BATTLE 2056.mp3 STONE AGE.mp3

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On 10/15/2020 at 11:09 AM, sparkdrummer said:

American Software Design & Distribution

Tested - they load fine.

 

Text Adventures:

[...]

 Miner 49'er

 

When I first saw this, I misread the name of Miner 49'er and thought it said "Miner 2049'er."  Now that would be an interesting text adventure.  Maybe it might work like this:

 

You find yourself on a platform that seems to call out to you to walk over it.

 

> WALK ON PLATFORM

 

The platform turns into a solid color.

 

> AGAIN

 

The platform turns into a solid color.

 

Okay, enough of that what-could-have-been: that would be one slow text adventure.  ?

 

"Miner 2049'er" is one of my absolute favorites on the Atari 8-bit; I'll have to try the cart out on the TI.

 

Adam

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FUTURA cassette software

Tested - they load fine.

 

I believe ALL STAR BASEBALL will run in Console Basic as well as Extended Basic.

AIR MISSLE COMMAND.mp3 ALL STAR BASEBALL.mp3 ALL STAR BOWLING.mp3 COSMIC DRIFT.mp3 FITZ.mp3 FLY SNUFFER.mp3 FOWL PLAY.mp3 GETCHA.mp3 LONDON BLITZ.mp3 MINE FIELD.mp3 STARSHIP CONCORD.mp3 THE HUSTLER.mp3 TIC TAC TOE.mp3

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1 hour ago, sparkdrummer said:

INSTRUMENTAL SOFTWARE SYSTEMS (ISS) cassette games.

 

Thanks for uploading all of this software in this thread.  I've downloaded it all.  By weeks end, I hope to try some more of it.

 

I presume these tapes are rare and only had small advertisements in magazines.  Can anyone point me to ads for this software?  How about documentation?

 

Adam

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This has become an intriguing thread lately, to that end has anyone found or is their consensus on a microSD card based small handheld MP3 player that works with the TI?  Cheap Chinese stuff can be hit and miss, and purchasing a limited read-only pre-filled unit off of fleabay while "interesting" is not something I'd want.  So, what do you use, and how much did it cost?  In this day and age it sure beats messing with tapes.

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17 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said:

I use my phone.  Everyone has one of those anymore.

Last time I tried that the audio was not loud enough...  

 

** EDIT **

 

Although, I've gotten a new phone since then.  I also cannot find the stereo to mono adapter.  It's getting nothing with the TI cables mono plug.

Edited by Omega-TI
Added an after thought
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15 minutes ago, Omega-TI said:

Last time I tried that the audio was not loud enough...  :_(

 

I have two tricks: amplify the source without allowing clipping (use sox or Audactiy,) then combine the outputs of both channels from the phone audio into one.

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