NEW TI-99/4A Games

[Toucan]

Well, there is an effort to get some new TI games out on the streets after seeing some of the new Colecovision titles. One project involves a sequel to Parsec and another possibly on Super Mario World from the SNES. What I can post here is a title screen (current title) for the new Parsec and title for a TI converted Malaika. Included is an emulator ROM image that shows the title screen moving around. Figured some might be interested in hearing about this project, which seems to be going places. The idea behind this is to get the most out of gameplay and graphics on the TI system, since people have been impressed by the Coleco offerings of recent and feel the need to do the same on the TI.

 

BTW, these projects are being headed by Torben Andersen. You can e-mail me if you have any ideas, suggestions, or know about the TMS9918A graphics chip! Any help is appriciated of course. A screen shot of Super Mario World will be coming in the next few weeks hopefully. We're trying to get the graphics down right now on that one (and it's no easy thing to do!)

titlc.bin

Edited October 18, 2006 by Toucan

[Dan Iacovelli]

good lluck with the new ti games I did a couple in xbasic that were pretty good but not great.

[JB]

Nifty. The 99er needs love, and more Parsec is ALWAYS good.

 

 

Curious about what hardware level you're working with...

Are you using the RAM expansion, or base system?

 

And any plans to hit the speech synthesizer?

</hopeful>

[Albert]

Those title screens look very cool, I'm looking forward to seeing how these projects develop! Thanks for letting us know about them.

 

..Al

[AussieAtari]

Excellent news indeed!

 

I'm with JB for speech capability.

[AussieAtari]

Now all we need is the TI99/4A CF-adaptor to be available commercially (other than eBay) and we'll be back in TI heaven.

[jaybird3rd]

Niiiiice!

 

Glad to see that the TI is finally getting some homebrew support. I'd love to know what development tools you're using.

[Duke 4ever]

Those graphics look awesome for a TI994a!

[Toucan]

Nifty. The 99er needs love, and more Parsec is ALWAYS good.

 

 

Curious about what hardware level you're working with...

Are you using the RAM expansion, or base system?

 

And any plans to hit the speech synthesizer?

</hopeful>

 

Lucky for you, there is talk of getting speech in these games. Recording speech using a tool called Quadravox which converts WAV to LPC on a PC is being looked into. Just being looked into at this point, and will be used if possible. As to RAM expansion and what not, this should be made as a cartridge on MESS and if really lucky a stand-alone cartridge for sale on-line (therefore we have a good amount of memory to work with). I do have connections to a guy in South Africa who has the know how to make the carts and get the molds done. Could be exciting

Edited October 19, 2006 by Toucan

[JB]

Awesome! I wasn't even expecting that. I figured built-in voice was the best I could hope for.

 

So base system + maybe speech?

 

 

 

It'll be cool to see new software again. I hope there's enough market to justify carts.

[Toucan]

Smurfs on the loose! (Sorry, got excited about this new development and posted one of Torben's older ideas). I guess a Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle should be next on the TI? Just kidding. Torben better keep his mind concentrated on Parsec now

[Toucan]

Awesome! I wasn't even expecting that. I figured built-in voice was the best I could hope for.

 

So base system + maybe speech?

 

 

 

It'll be cool to see new software again. I hope there's enough market to justify carts.

 

Well, I just sent Torben assembly code for scrolling and such. Assuming he can build off of that, I think there is possibly a demo coming up here soon for Parsec II. Don't quote me on that though!

Edited October 19, 2006 by Toucan

[SteveW]

Sign me up for one of the new cartridges! And by the way, wasn't there technically a sequel to Parsec called Beyond Parsec?

 

I'm trying to imagine the TI doing something along the lines of Super Mario World. I've seen some good scrolling on the TI, but nothing as smooth as a SNES. It's going to be interesting to see how this one develops.

[Toucan]

Sign me up for one of the new cartridges! And by the way, wasn't there technically a sequel to Parsec called Beyond Parsec?

 

I'm trying to imagine the TI doing something along the lines of Super Mario World. I've seen some good scrolling on the TI, but nothing as smooth as a SNES. It's going to be interesting to see how this one develops.

 

Yep there was a sequel to Parsec, but this will be one done along the lines of the original: scrolling screens, enemies blasting, etc. Even having levels where you go through caves and such. More like a Gradius/Parsec combo. So more or less one true to the original, unlike Beyond Parsec which was a two player game and took place on a single field where you shot asteroids at each other (which is why this will be called Parsec II instead of Beyond Parsec, to show that this is along the lines of the original).

Edited October 19, 2006 by Toucan

[+remowilliams]

Sign me up for one of the new cartridges! And by the way, wasn't there technically a sequel to Parsec called Beyond Parsec?

Sort of. It's not really a whole lot to do with Parsec aside from the asteroid and ship player shapes. It's a two player game as well. Interesting nonetheless.

 

Those screens above look amazing. Sign me up for new TI games

[JB]

I used to have a Beyond Parsec disk.

No clue what happened to it.

 

Don't think it really counts, though.

[+remowilliams]

Don't think it really counts, though.

As a sequel to Parsec (at least in my opinion ) I don't think it counts either.

 

 

For those who haven't played it - its a two player game (each player controls one of the ships on the left or right) and you try to destroy the other guy by shooting him directly or crushing him with an asteroid that you can give momentum to by shooting.

 

Interesting, but I was expecting a Parsec sequel when I first saw it, so it had build in disappointment factor

 

Included is an emulator ROM image that shows the title screen moving around.

Is it possible to load the image on a real TI99?

[Toucan]

Is it possible to load the image on a real TI99?

 

 

Yes, it is possible. I'll have to ask Torben not to convert it to a cartridge .bin and leave it as a .dsk file since he is using E/A and a stock TI system. With the disk, TI99-PC can be used to convert the image to a real TI disk and played that way.

[AussieAtari]

New TI cartridges would be uber cool!!!!

 

Running on the base system with speech module would be excellent as not all of us have fully expanded TI's.

[Toucan]

For the heck of it, here's the latest with the Fuel bar that will be used in the new Parsec game. Don't worry, I won't post too many updates for each small thing. But, I figured the fuel bar would be interesting for people to see since it is nicely done!

[JB]

New TI cartridges would be uber cool!!!!

 

Running on the base system with speech module would be excellent as not all of us have fully expanded TI's.

And those of us that do don't necessarily want to leave the PBox hooked up.

 

Was more curiosity on my part than anything else.

As I understand things, the RAM expansion makes life a LOT easier because even if you don't need the space, expansion RAM is faster than onboard RAM(due to TI's making all internal RAM video RAM).

 

For the heck of it, here's the latest with the Fuel bar that will be used in the new Parsec game. Don't worry, I won't post too many updates for each small thing. But, I figured the fuel bar would be interesting for people to see since it is nicely done!

Ooooohhhh... that IS a nice fuel bar.