adamantyr
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Posts posted by adamantyr
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Latest version was released a few days ago.... I'm pretty sure the game is solid and stable now. Anyone who was holding off on playing, this is the time!
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I would definitely focus on game play and what you find fun and challenging over "stupid and frustrating". That is the hallmark of a game designer over a copier.
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On 6/19/2023 at 5:20 AM, TheMole said:
I think I have the core ghost catching mechanic implemented. It's not 100% identical to my two main sources of inspiration (SMS and C64), but it comes pretty close, imho...
Note that I'm showing a ghost in each location to facilitate testing for now, things like haunted buildings, the PK energy progression and getting paid for catching ghosts aren't implemented yet. Wanted to get the more challenging technical bits done first. It turns out that getting the whole state machine implemented was a bit more challenging than I thought... from laying down the trap (which turns into characters to keep the 4-sprites-per-line limit under control) over positioning the men and ultimately animating the victory or loss condition... all these "phases" are treated as different states in the game engine.
Lastly, just wanted to point out that I used Bill Murray's "he slimed me" quote from the movie in lieu of the one used on the C64 to keep the quality as high as possible.
Hope you guys like it!
Nice work! I would definitely test the speech out on hardware; the emulators all use a slightly later generation core.
Also, please make sure music can be disabled. While I enjoy the tune, it's nice to have the option to not listen to it non-stop. Plus you could then add in some sound effects for the proton guns, the trap, etc.
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16 hours ago, TheMole said:
So, quick question to those of you that know and have played the game... I'm on the fence about the approach for the driving segments. I could go home-computer style, where you have a huge car filling almost the entire screen, and the game play is limited to potentially vacuuming ghosts, as shown here:
I've heard people call this part of the game boring (although honestly, I kinda like the more chill gameplay myself), so the console versions spruced it up a bit, where you also have to avoid cars and obstacles (and in the NES version even pick up fuel barrels), and the graphical presentation has been changed quite a bit:
Which would you prefer?
I only ever played the C64 version myself. I think it really depends on if you want to implement all the various car upgrades and different models of car. If you do, I'd stick with the passive version. If not, then the small mini-game of dodging cars and grabbing fuel works.
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1 hour ago, TheMole said:
Nah, nothing as fancy as that... and for gameplay reasons, it probably wouldn't be a good idea, might make the game too easy...
Here's how the C64 and Amstrad CPC do it:
I think model after the C64 but lose the center column, go single color, but have it rotate color rapidly between red, blue and yellow. I used color rotation in RoA frequently to zazz up single color sprites at low cost.
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23 hours ago, TheMole said:
So, here are some mock-ups showing some of the game's screens. These are all made in Gimp and haven't been put into the game yet, but should all work within the restrictions of the tms9918a.
A lot of the inspiration for the graphics comes from the Master System version, but I'm also looking at the MSX and C64 versions closely for each part of the game. Any feedback is welcome!
Excellent graphic work! I'm very excited to see the finished product.
I would say using a consistent color for the tops of buildings will help users navigate the main map easier; most of the ports only use a limited number of colors anyway.
Looking at the MSX screenshots, I'm surprised at how pedestrian it looks. Definitely shoot for the stars; the Sega Master System has a much better appearance.
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Glad to see you are free, Gary!
I almost put a reference to Oasis Pensive Abjucators in RoA, but I thought there was no real way to do it that would work. (A dreamy merchant at an oasis?)
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I found that software sprite rotation... isn't great. I wrote a small test program and found that it caused a lot of blinking that was pretty harsh.
FORTUNATELY you should be okay, because it's only horizontal that's the problem. If you only use four sprite (two proton streams and two for the target ghost) you should be okay. You DO have 32 sprites to work with, although I would warn you can't use half-bitmap/enhanced graphics mode in that case, only full bitmap, because the table masks mess up the sprites and you're limited to 8 unique sprites. (If you use 9 or higher, they just repeat the first eight.)
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15 hours ago, llabnip said:
With three cups of coffee and some help from @Tursi (mostly to eliminate things to try) I've got a discovery. ROA is making use of the 9901 timer. When I did my re-write, I didn't understand that very well - and based on some experiments and some reading, it looked like it was mostly used for Cassette IO handling which I wasn't supporting. So I simplified my handling of anything 9901 timer-based... and by simplified I mean I almost totally ignore it. I suspect ROA is one of those rare games that makes use of it. I don't know if it enables the timer interrupt or if it's just setting and checking the countdown register... but this is my current best guess as to what's going wrong with DS99.
It does use the timer, but it's for random numbers. The clock runs so fast it's usable in any state. (I originally used the VDP timer, but it produced predictable patterns for battlemap generation.) I'm not sure if that would cause the game to not work, though, unless even trying to set the CRU bits to access it caused your emulator to crash.
Also, for the 180K version, you have to use the cartridge binary, and put all the rest of the files from the game disk on a single disk, and split the world disks into four disks. And be sure to configure their location in the configuration menu.
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On 1/30/2023 at 10:23 AM, Asmusr said:
Regarding 4MB SAMS, the hardware only exists in very low numbers, and I'm pretty sure Realms of Antiquity does not depend on that.
Yeah, it runs on the 1mb version. It may even break on the 4mb version.
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On 1/27/2023 at 2:08 PM, InfiniteTape said:
Realms of Antiquity. It's a modern TI release by @adamantyr. It's not free, but it may push your implementation in new ways. http://quixotic.adamantyr.com/roa.htm
Yeah, developer of Realms of Antiquity here.
In order for it to run, you will need to emulate the SAMS card, which provides 1024mb of CPU memory to the base TI.
Hardware details can be found here: http://www.unige.ch/medecine/nouspikel/ti99/superams.htm
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BLWP, by having an isolated register set, is useful because it's sort of like a method in a high-end language like Java, C, C#, etc.
For BL/RT, I usually set up an internal stack and burn R10 as a pointer for it, so I can push and pop return addresses off if needed. That way BL routines can call other BL routines but still work their way back to the original caller.
What I did find when coding Realms of Antiquity was that I'd frequently run into issues where I was using registers to hold specific values at the top of a return stack, and either I'd end up running out of registers to use or worse, accidentally use one and cause a bug. That's where I would convert some subroutines into BLWP versions, because then they operated independently.
Also, I've used register sets in the regular CPU memory areas other than the scratch pad and not had performance problems. It's all about the context of what you're using them for.
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Cool to see this available for the TI as well, thanks Evie!
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A fantastic job, sir! I salute you. If Hell's Halls had been in the BASIC contest years ago, you'd have won, hands down!
Sadly my game crashed with MEMORY FULL a bit ago, after I reached the 3rd level. I was playing in emulation; I guess loading the BIN file doesn't perform a call FILES(1) operation. *sigh*
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Excellent! I just ordered a copy.
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Great looking game! So Flooraway's only competition is Flooraway 2, hmm? (*cough* APERTURE *cough*)
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Yep, build 4.20.043 released to address this. And I cleaned up some other potential issues.
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Well done mapping the entire thing! I never got even close to the end.
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Ah man, that Taxan monitor is sweet! Sadly I'm in the US so no go for me. Also looking at the connectors I don't think I have anything to hook it up to.
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On 12/21/2020 at 9:34 PM, Tursi said:
I wouldn't be a TI programmer without the Mini Memory. I was already being seduced by the ability to do assembly on the Apple 2s at school and my friend's Atari 800, but my locked down TI was BASIC only. MiniMemory finally let me experience 9900 assembly and made me stay with the TI for many more years.
Limited, yeah, it is, but I love it.
And we are ALL the better for that. I consider that the greatest achievement of the Mini Memory cartridge. Thank you, Mike. For all you do.
Adam
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On 12/8/2021 at 4:19 AM, digdugnate said:
Sheesh...
I did not know Gary personally. Way back in the 90's I sent his company an inquiry about how to pay for a TIM chip for the TI and got no response. Shortly after he was "disinvited" to the Chicago Faire for numerous complaints of not shipping promised product.
Much later on the internet I encountered him in the TI Yahoo Group and here. I spoke with him a few times about my XB3 supercart; it was good to get clarification of how many were shipped. I heard how he was doing XBox mods now and thought "ah, more of the same" and decided I wouldn't send any money his way.
Despite the fact you can say justice finally caught up to a grifter, it's still pretty sad. I'm not sure why Nintendo is levying another 10 million fine, it just sounds like they are using him as an example to scare other pirates and hackers.
Of course if he has the money to actually pay those fines...
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6 hours ago, Vorticon said:
Who did the splash screen for the game?
Me
Based upon Thomas Moran's "Grand Canyon in Yellowstone".
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2 hours ago, broettger said:
Now, I have a theory. When I copied the disk images over to the tipi, they were expanded into separate folders. I copied all of the files into one folder to assign to dsk1. In that process I was warned about a duplicate file and I stupidly let it overwrite the file. I don’t remember the file name, but I bet that is the source of my problem.
Update - The file is MH2. It exists in both ROAWORLD12.dsk and ROAWORLD34.dsk. I copied from 34 over 12.
Well the file in question you have an issue with is MT0. I would start a fresh install and copy the SAV and SG0-3 files to it. That should fix the problem.
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1 hour ago, broettger said:
I think I came across a bug in the version 4.18.041 when talking to the hermit back in Althorpe. My responses seem to match the last line of text and what appears to be nonsense when I select any response.
Hmmm I don't have a repro on my end... that particular text is from another file entirely in fact.
I would reset your game and see if it repros consistently. If it does, zip up your entire game folder and message it to me. (You can do so here on the forums or in Discord.)
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Thoughts on revising or compiling others' programs
in TI-99/4A Computers
Posted
I recall someone asking me in the past if they could compile it and I asked them not to, because I felt the game was written for and balanced to the speed of TI-Basic.
But I'm all right with it, so long as someone doesn't complain the game's too hard because certain puzzles relied on the slowness to give you time to react.