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Underground refueling suspended


SteveB

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After 39 years it occurred that narrow tunnels are dangerous for spacecrafts.

 

Engineers: We build you refueling tanks on the surface.

Pilots: A fly-by refueling in the middle of a fight isn’t any safer.

Engineers: Yeah, but it’s cheaper to build.

Pilots: F*ck you!

 

We are proud to present you Extended Parsec! This game includes adaptations of the classical levels … and a bunch of new ones. Instead of repeating levels with increased difficulties we are offering 25 distinctive levels with some references to Eighties Games Classics. The levels are a little easier than the originals, but hey, we want to entertain you for an evening, not through your whole adolescence. It is meant as a casual game for the 21st century.

 

This game is also an example of what is possible with Harry Wilhems BASIC Compiler, XB256 and Structured Extended BASIC (SXB) / TiCodEd. SXB Source-Code, a module-image and compiled Extended BASIC of Extended Parsec is attached.

 

Extended_Parsec_1.0.zip

 

Have fun!

 

SteveB and Grammostola

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One more thing … we have some kB left for additional levels… suggestions, especially with graphics, are welcome! The game implements the three “Engines”:

  1. Swoopers/ LTFs / Saucers
  2. Urbites / Dramites / Bynites / Killer Satellites
  3. Asteroid Belt

These engines are configurable. All Enemies may be animated with up to 7 images, flight paths and entry points are flexible, missiles may be redefined and colors can be set. Asteroids may spread a little from the horizontal line. Play all levels to get the picture of what is possible.

 

Share your Ideas here!

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14 minutes ago, SteveB said:

One more thing … we have some kB left for additional levels… suggestions, especially with graphics, are welcome! The game implements the three “Engines”:

  1. Swoopers/ LTFs / Saucers
  2. Urbites / Dramites / Bynites / Killer Satellites
  3. Asteroid Belt

These engines are configurable. All Enemies may be animated with up to 7 images, flight paths and entry points are flexible, missiles may be redefined and colors can be set. Asteroids may spread a little from the horizontal line. Play all levels to get the picture of what is possible.

 

Share your Ideas here!

some use of Speech Synthesizer would be great ? 

 

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… and for those who want to tinker with the code: Install TiCodEd from www.lizardware.de and use the included short manual or the TiCodEd Beginners Manual to familiarize yourself with the possibilities of Structured Extended BASIC and the many helpful features of TiCodEd, the TI Code Editor. TiCodEd will translate the modern BASIC to standard Extended BASIC to be used in an emulator or the real hardware, or get compiled.

 

And yet Extended Parsec is not a perfect example for SXB, it is somehow it’s midwife. Extended Parsec was started with TiCodEd 1.1 and by using TiCodEd in practice on a bigger project we learned what was actually missing, resulting in the latest version 2.0 of

TiCodEd. With the latest features, like BEGIN - END blocks for multiline IF - THEN - ELSE, the code would look nicer. Some variables would have meaningful names if we had the Variable-Tab with “short names” at the time, even though we retrofitted some variable names. And the sprites and characters would have been defined in the charset-editor and dynamically linked to the code.

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12 minutes ago, Asmusr said:

I would find the code much easier to read if each statement was on a separate line. Maybe that would require "BEGIN - END blocks for multiline IF - THEN - ELSE"?

Or how about curly brackets? 

{

    ?

 

}

 

(just kidding) 

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1 hour ago, OLD CS1 said:

After fighting flying toasters, I was convinced this refit of the Parsec included an improbability drive.

We could consider a level with bowls of petunias ... but we have reached normality. Whatever this might be. Please excuse the inconvinence.  

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Looks nice! Here's a couple of minor adjustments you might consider.

1 - I am used to playing this game using ESDX with period as the fire button and  cannot play this game using the joysticks with Q for fire. Any chance of adding that option.

2 - When you run out of fuel the sprite showing the engine exhaust goes away. If you happen to come down to a refueling station you start flying again, but the sprite for the exhaust does not return.

Looking forward to getting past level 1!

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@SteveB thanks for creating this - I immediately loaded it on the StrangeCart and tried to play it! And it did launch, but I could not play it since I don't use joysticks... I haven't read the thread here, but I think the message just prior to this one is talking about the same stuff. TI's own joystick are in my opinion just garbage (sorry to say that), what joysticks do people use?

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9 minutes ago, speccery said:

@SteveB thanks for creating this - I immediately loaded it on the StrangeCart and tried to play it! And it did launch, but I could not play it since I don't use joysticks... I haven't read the thread here, but I think the message just prior to this one is talking about the same stuff. TI's own joystick are in my opinion just garbage (sorry to say that), what joysticks do people use?

I'm using one from retroradionics (Retroradionics) that is very good for the price. The stick is a Sanwa clone, but is really great for MunchMan. I have also some custom made sticks using parts from Sanwa, Seimitsu and Industrias Lorenzo. These have better quality, but also higher costs. In general, you need different types of sticks depending on the game  you are playing (shootemup, platform, etc.).

 

 

 

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15 hours ago, senior_falcon said:

Looks nice! Here's a couple of minor adjustments you might consider.

1 - I am used to playing this game using ESDX with period as the fire button and  cannot play this game using the joysticks with Q for fire. Any chance of adding that option.

2 - When you run out of fuel the sprite showing the engine exhaust goes away. If you happen to come down to a refueling station you start flying again, but the sprite for the exhaust does not return.

Looking forward to getting past level 1!

I never manage to hit the fuel tank ... it took several attempts to hit the ground and not the remaining enemy. I think I got this fixed now.

 

And I added ESDX keyboard control, colon for fire beside Q. I hope the additional CALL KEY and arithmetics doesn't disturb the timing too much. You should get to level 22 because this is your special appreciation level.

 

Extended_Parsec_1.0.1.zip

 

PS: In level 13 I discovered the RND*0 bug you fixed with ISABELLA 8. Thanks again!

Edited by SteveB
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On 11/11/2021 at 7:19 PM, TheBF said:

Or how about curly brackets? 

{

    ?

 

}

 

(just kidding) 

Curly brackets would work fine with me. But having multiple statements on a line goes against everything we have learned about readable computer languages over the years. 

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6 hours ago, speccery said:

@SteveB thanks for creating this - I immediately loaded it on the StrangeCart and tried to play it! And it did launch, but I could not play it since I don't use joysticks... I haven't read the thread here, but I think the message just prior to this one is talking about the same stuff. TI's own joystick are in my opinion just garbage (sorry to say that), what joysticks do people use?

atari 2600 compatible ones with this adapter

https://www.arcadeshopper.com/wp/store/#!/TI-99-4a-to-Atari-Joystick-adapter-assembled/p/76477502/category=0

 

my preference: 

http://www.bxfoundry.com/

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Whoa! I finished the game on the 2nd attempt now that keyboard control works! True to the original, I could not refuel, I either shot the tank or crashed to the ground. I also flew through the tank, so not sure how fueling should be done. But finished nevertheless, and truly enjoyed that. 

I ran the game with StrangeCart in ROM cart mode. Very nice to see what can be done in Extended Basic. I guess I now know where I need to take the StrangeCart Basic interpreter... Need to add sprites, for sure :) 

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6 hours ago, speccery said:

I also flew through the tank, so not sure how fueling should be done.

This is actually how you should refuel, by making contact to the fuel tank a tone should sound and the gauge should go up ... slowly. You may change the Lift to 1 by pressing 1 for more precise movements.

  

6 hours ago, speccery said:

Whoa! I finished the game on the 2nd attempt

... and it was actually not meant to be that easy ... ? 

 

Edited by SteveB
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Played on my stream last night.. I noticed a tendency of the game to keep moving my ship down if I held fire and down.. and then centered the joystick continuing to fire.. I'll have to try keyboard..

Also the ships that come from behind hit my ship and we're destroyed if I had the fire pressed..

Otherwise very fun and great ideas

Greg



Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

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Found a bug...  If i am to the right of an alien, I can kill them if they're on the same level, even if they're behind me.

 

Sometimes things go a little bit haywire with attackers going a bit below the ground. 

 

Sometimes shooting things doesn't detect things properly - missed shots.  Shoot right through pacman sometimes.

 

This is fun. 

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Found a bug...  If i am to the right of an alien, I can kill them if they're on the same level, even if they're behind me.
 
Sometimes things go a little bit haywire with attackers going a bit below the ground. 
 
Sometimes shooting things doesn't detect things properly - missed shots.  Shoot right through pacman sometimes.
 
This is fun. 
We discussed the first featurev today on the zoom and it's a feature not a bug

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

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On 11/13/2021 at 8:14 PM, unhuman said:

Found a bug...  If i am to the right of an alien, I can kill them if they're on the same level, even if they're behind me.

 

Sometimes things go a little bit haywire with attackers going a bit below the ground. 

 

Sometimes shooting things doesn't detect things properly - missed shots.  Shoot right through pacman sometimes.

 

This is fun. 

I have had the "The Attack" go off the top of the screen.  The do a few passes of the screen and move down to where you can shoot them.

Yes, the pacman collision detection is the most noticeable

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After all, it is pure Extended BASIC. To make it work we had to compromise. Especially the laser shots ruin the timing as the extra code extends the loop execution time. We experimented with synchronising, delaying the normal execution without shooting, but then it felt sluggish. Even the original game has some timing issues and we somehow copied their remedy: The enemies slowly move to the center to get back into the game. In the original, it moves towards your ship. So it is occasional errors versus game speed.

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