Space Trek: TI-99/4a version

[+adamantyr]

 

I have finished my adaptation of Jake Commander's Space Trek game, originally written for the TRS-80 Color Computer!

 

This is a classic Trek game, destroy all the klingons before time expires! You must navigate around an 8x8 size galaxy, finding all the Klingons and destroying them without being destroyed yourself. Please note that the time limit is in REAL time, so if you leave it running, you'll lose the game eventually!

 

You can select a difficulty from 1 to 5, this affects the amount of time you have and how many potential klingons can appear in a quadrant.

 

This is my final version of the game, I gave it to Vorticon to post up on the TI Game Base. The big addition is magnetic storms, as well as making phasers a much more viable and fun weapon to use in game.

 

If you find any bugs or issues with the game, or just have questions, please post on the thread!

 

The zip contains a Classic99 ready Extended BASIC file ready to drop in and load, as well as instructions.

 

Version 3.2: SpaceTrekv32.zip

Edited June 3, 2016 by adamantyr

[+Ksarul]

Nice--the various Klingon-hunting games were always high on my favorites list. . .

[+Vorticon]

Nice--the various Klingon-hunting games were always high on my favorites list. . .

 

Star Fleet 1 was my absolute favorite of this genre. Jerry Pournelle reviewed it in Byte and raved about it.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVAu3xGD16c

[Bill Loguidice]

Looks great.

 

I've been compiling a casual list over the past few years of the various TREK games for some unspecified eventual use. It really is a monumental project, even if you limit it to commercial releases on classic platforms.

[+adamantyr]

Predictably, the moment I post code, I find bugs! Working on V1.1 now... moving from quadrant to quadrant via impulse drive doesn't always work right.

 

I'll also add a Classic99 executable; I noticed when pasting the code that anytime I had longer lines it would fail. (As any 99'er knows, TI Extended BASIC nominally only allows 5 lines or 140 characters, but you can push this by using edit mode to add a little extra.)

[am1933]

Predictably, the moment I post code, I find bugs! Working on V1.1 now... moving from quadrant to quadrant via impulse drive doesn't always work right.

 

I'll also add a Classic99 executable; I noticed when pasting the code that anytime I had longer lines it would fail. (As any 99'er knows, TI Extended BASIC nominally only allows 5 lines or 140 characters, but you can push this by using edit mode to add a little extra.)

re-moving from quadrant to quadrant under impulse,This is actually an easy fix, you will probably find that the negative power coupling has been polarized and is needing replaced.

[+adamantyr]

Okay, version 1.1 is up!

 

Fixes include:

- Made the game TRULY random, I had my randomize statement in an unvisited code area

- Fixed computer calculated courses for torpedos and the ship (It was even crashing with a syntax error for torpedo courses)

- Attached a ZIP file that contains both the listing and a Classic99 ready to run listing of the program

 

I have a curious hard-to-replicate bug where after loading the quadrant map, the game just quits to Extended BASIC saying *READY*, almost like it encountered an END statement in the code... if anyone can figure out what's causing it, let me know!

[Willsy]

re-moving from quadrant to quadrant under impulse,This is actually an easy fix, you will probably find that the negative power coupling has been polarized and is needing replaced.

Er... yeah... that's what I was going to say.

 

I think

 

[unhuman]

[Tursi]

Predictably, the moment I post code, I find bugs! Working on V1.1 now... moving from quadrant to quadrant via impulse drive doesn't always work right.

 

I'll also add a Classic99 executable; I noticed when pasting the code that anytime I had longer lines it would fail. (As any 99'er knows, TI Extended BASIC nominally only allows 5 lines or 140 characters, but you can push this by using edit mode to add a little extra.)

If you use "Paste XB" instead of "Paste", Classic99 will tweak the internal pointers to allow for those longer lines (as well as stripping unneeded spaces to make the lines shorter to enter). The only caveat is if you aren't actually running XB, it might do bad things

[am1933]

Er... yeah... that's what I was going to say.

 

I think

 

Hey-if it's good enough for Han and Chewie.

[+adamantyr]

If you use "Paste XB" instead of "Paste", Classic99 will tweak the internal pointers to allow for those longer lines (as well as stripping unneeded spaces to make the lines shorter to enter). The only caveat is if you aren't actually running XB, it might do bad things

 

Thanks, Tursi! You think of everything.

 

Anyone playing the game? I'm still perturbed by that sudden failure and drop back into Extended BASIC with no error message... I suspect some variable is overwhelming the interpreter which just quits.

[+Ksarul]

I haven't had time to experiment with it yet--I'm busy building a relatively large order of Red 512K boards at the moment. Once this batch goes out, I'm out of them (but only for a week or so, as I have more on order).

[+adamantyr]

Version 1.2 has been put out!

 

Fixes include:

- Base detection wasn't implemented, plus a syntax error crashed the game when you entered a quadrant with a base! It's clear I didn't play a game through to the end... urk...

- BTW, you refuel by just moving adjacent to a base. They also protect you from attack

- Made the explosions a bit cooler looking

[firepod]

I am playing the game now. It's a lot of fun!!!!

[+adamantyr]

Heads up, the "compute course" is not working... I'll fix it this weekend and release a new version. It won't prevent you from playing the game at least! "Spock, what the hell is wrong with the computer?"

[+Vorticon]

I'm going to hold out playing until version 1.95 comes out

[+Vorticon]

A few observations:

• Pressing enter without a value on the Input Course prompt for either impulse or warp yields a Warning: Input Error message which scrolls the entire screen up and thus corrupts it. There is no way to refresh the entire screen, only the central view window.
• Firing a torpedo with a decimal value as a course does not show the path of the torpedo and always gives a miss.
• The compute course is not working as you stated, but also the values displayed are erased too quickly. Perhaps a longer delay or wait for a key press here is in order.
• The long range sensor does not always display all the surrounding quadrants even when the starship is not on the edge of the galaxy.
• I personally prefer using angles in degrees for courses rather than your 1-8 numbering system, but that's just me.

This is still a fun game after all these years Nicely done.

[+adamantyr]

Captain's Log, Stardate 3353.1:

 

Our mission to destroy the klingon incursion in this sector of the galaxy has been problematic. Main computer issues have caused a number of problems. When Mr. Spock fed the coordinates to plot a course to the next quadrant, we ended up going the completely opposite direction. If Mr. Sulu hadn't been so quick on the controls, we'd have gone flying into a star! Mr. Spock assures me that all of the "bugs" will be removed from the system soon.

 

Captain's Log, Stardate 3354.2

 

Once again, the main computer has failed us. The guided torpedo course it provided sent a torpedo flying at a starbase, utterly destroying it! I am not looking forward to explaining this to Starfleet Command. Mr. Spock has informed me that an "input error" was the cause of the problem and he's really seriously got everything fixed now. I have my doubts.

 

Captain's Log, Stardate -32768

 

SYNTAX ERROR, NEXT WITHOUT FOR

[firepod]

This is going to be a sick game once most the bugs get resolved. Wish I was better at spotting the bugs, but to much a newb, trying to soak in all the other info I need to learn, making progress on the programming though. Looking forward to getting an update to the game man, great stuff!!!

[+adamantyr]

A few observations:

• Pressing enter without a value on the Input Course prompt for either impulse or warp yields a Warning: Input Error message which scrolls the entire screen up and thus corrupts it. There is no way to refresh the entire screen, only the central view window.
• Firing a torpedo with a decimal value as a course does not show the path of the torpedo and always gives a miss.
• The compute course is not working as you stated, but also the values displayed are erased too quickly. Perhaps a longer delay or wait for a key press here is in order.
• The long range sensor does not always display all the surrounding quadrants even when the starship is not on the edge of the galaxy.
• I personally prefer using angles in degrees for courses rather than your 1-8 numbering system, but that's just me.

This is still a fun game after all these years Nicely done.

 

Thank you! I'll have to add default values in for those screens, since people seem to like messing with them...

 

When you say "decimal value", I assume you mean a value below 1? That's not a legal value, I'll update it to round up to 1. The number directional system is interesting to me because the CoCo used it to avoid having to rely on trigonometric functions. What I like is that it's actually a lot faster in execution; torpedoes just fly!

 

Hmmm, I need to look at the code for the LRS again... Thank you for the debugging info!

 

Adamantyr

[+Vorticon]

 

When you say "decimal value", I assume you mean a value below 1? That's not a legal value, I'll update it to round up to 1. The number directional system is interesting to me because the CoCo used it to avoid having to rely on trigonometric functions. What I like is that it's actually a lot faster in execution; torpedoes just fly!

 

 

No. Try 8.9 for example as a course. The torpedo simply does not fly and you get a miss message every time...

Regarding the use of angles, it seems to me a bit more intuitive when it comes to choosing non-cardinal directions. You could let the player enter a degree value, and convert it in the background to a decimal value for faster processing of the torpedo path.

[+adamantyr]

 

No. Try 8.9 for example as a course. The torpedo simply does not fly and you get a miss message every time...

Regarding the use of angles, it seems to me a bit more intuitive when it comes to choosing non-cardinal directions. You could let the player enter a degree value, and convert it in the background to a decimal value for faster processing of the torpedo path.

 

Decimals between 1-8 do work... 8 is at the boundary, though, so it may be having problems. I'll investigate!

[sometimes99er]

• Pressing enter without a value on the Input Course prompt for either impulse or warp yields a Warning: Input Error message which scrolls the entire screen up and thus corrupts it.

Adding this one line to the program seems to cure the problem.

 

1 ON WARNING NEXT

[+adamantyr]

Version 1.3 is out!

 

The compute course system should work now; the original logic from the TRS-80 Coco listing was absolutely insane to decode... I ended up throwing it out and writing my own, which passed most of my tests. I increased the time the course is displayed as well.

 

The only bug I couldn't fix was the reported problem with the long range scanner... I don't see any bugs in the routine that could cause a display issue. I'll need more case data (screenshots?) so I can diagnose the problem.

 

Please continue to post any issues here!