TI Gameshelf

[ti99iuc]

@Vorticon https://www.ti99iuc.it/web/index.php?pageid=database_cerca&archivioid=991

 

You can find It here also

[Asmusr]

@Vorticon Could you please change the text for Bouncy's Obstacle Course to say that it doesn't require 32K except for the disk version? Thanks.

[+Vorticon]

On 5/31/2023 at 2:02 PM, Asmusr said:

@Vorticon Could you please change the text for Bouncy's Obstacle Course to say that it doesn't require 32K except for the disk version? Thanks.

Sure

[Cheung]

Any updates in the not too distant future?

[+Vorticon]

Can someone please test this cart image of They Come At Night on real hardware and let me know if the joysticks work with it? I can't get them to work on my system...

TCAN_8.bin

[JasonACT]

Works OK with my Pi Pico USB joystick on a real machine (I don't have real TI joysticks, thankfully).

[Cheung]

1 minute ago, JasonACT said:

Works OK with my Pi Pico USB joystick on a real machine (I don't have real TI joysticks, thankfully).

Were you able to get through more than 1 day of attacks?

[JasonACT]

I have no idea how to play it, so no, I just moved the cursor around and pressed fire...  Putting black holes wherever the cursor was.

 

[Cheung]

9 minutes ago, JasonACT said:

I have no idea how to play it, so no, I just moved the cursor around and pressed fire...  Putting black holes wherever the cursor was.

 

Vorticon seemed to be having issues with the gun firing. So if you could test that, I would appreciate it.

 

The game manual came be found here.

https://github.com/CheungChang7/TI99_HOMEBREW/tree/main/TCAN/DOCS

 

A video on the game play can be found here:

 

Edited November 7 by Cheung

[JasonACT]

1 hour ago, Cheung said:

Vorticon seemed to be having issues with the gun firing.

The only trouble with the gun firing (with the joystick) is, the monsters move pretty quickly so once they are close, I can't fire quickly enough.  From a distance, it all seems normal and works OK.

[Cheung]

Ok, thanks for looking into it.

[+Vorticon]

5 hours ago, JasonACT said:

Works OK with my Pi Pico USB joystick on a real machine (I don't have real TI joysticks, thankfully).

Thanks for testing, but I'm having issues using standard analog joysticks, both the original TI ones and the Prostick with an Atari adapter, where the response is somewhat erratic. For example, For example, it is very difficult to switch to the inventory without first having a trap dropped on the field even when not releasing the fire button. When switching direction, the player character frequently starts running in that direction instead of just turning even with the slightest tap on the joystick. I don't know what the Pi pico USB joystick is but it's obviously digital and I suspect that there is a difference in response on the TI between digital and analog joysticks. In comparison, I tested Anubis and ZQX-One with the standard analog joysticks and they perform normally, so I don't think it's my system at fault here.

I think this issue is important to sort out for future development of XB compiled games.

[JasonACT]

14 minutes ago, Vorticon said:

Thanks for testing

That's ok, you're welcome.

14 minutes ago, Vorticon said:

I don't know what the Pi pico USB joystick is

It's my home-built side-car device, fires the LOAD interrupt when needed, and patches any CRU reads on the keyboard and joystick ports to emulate the real thing.  It is basically working for everything TI and others produced that used normal joysticks (and/or the keyboard).

 

The thing is, in this game, when you are moving (changing direction) you often start walking - and you can't shoot until you stop at the next character position which takes quite a lot of time (compared to how fast the monsters move).  then if you keep that direction pressed, you still can't shoot, until you release it.  It's a bit like like in Parsec in that diagonals leave you motionless.  Munchman, diagonals keep you going in the original direction, not the new direction you just added in.  It's part of the game, in my opinion.  Alpiner allows all 8 directions.

 

Anyway, I got up to day 16 on this game, and my device isn't doing anything an original controller can't do.  It is just a particularly hard game though.

[Cheung]

4 hours ago, Vorticon said:

For example, it is very difficult to switch to the inventory without first having a trap dropped on the field even when not releasing the fire button.

 

When switching direction, the player character frequently starts running in that direction instead of just turning even with the slightest tap on the joystick.

These issues are not problems with the joystick, they are just part of the game play.

 

To switch to inventory, if you don't want to drop the current resource the cursor is indicating, place the field position cursor over an item that has already been dropped or in the center of the screen where items cannot be dropped.

 

As far as turning direction, yes the control is not very precise. Sometimes it will cause you to walk in the direction you are trying to turn. It's shouldn't be a problem with the hardware as it does the same thing on emulators. That is, unless it's doing it much more on hardware than in emulation.

 

Try not to let monsters get very close to you. If they are one sector away, you're going to die. The game is supposed to be difficult, but not impossible.

 

Collecting bonus items from the field is particularly difficult because of the game play but there are some strategies for specific enemy types that can be used that enable the player to really rack up bonuses.

[Cheung]

3 hours ago, JasonACT said:

Anyway, I got up to day 16 on this game, and my device isn't doing anything an original controller can't do.  It is just a particularly hard game though.

That's a pretty good run. I think my record is about 27 days.

[+Vorticon]

Ok thanks guys. We'll consider these issues as game features 😁. I can barely get past day 3 though!