pixelpedant Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 Incidentally, according to this October 1995 post by Paul Urbanus (whence Urbite) to comp.sys.ti, Jim Dramis (whence Dramite) was the programmer on Spot-Shot. Though the post is of much broader interest otherwise. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roadrunner Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 On 5/4/2020 at 1:30 PM, jwild said: I found Spot Shot by searching the messages. Here are both Spot Shot and Dragonflyer. I played one quick game of Spot Shot after several yesterday of Dragonflyer. They are "very similar". I can't tell just yet if playability is any different between the two. It is interesting in that the two file sizes are different. Download them both and see for yourself and let us know what you think. Good luck. SPOTSHOT32KB8.bin 32 kB · 11 downloads dragonflyer.bin 16 kB · 9 downloads Thanks! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globeron Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 3 hours ago, Ksarul said: DBT had a thing for renaming their cartridges after a year or two--pretty much all of their cartridges went through a rebranding at some point. Some of them are much more difficult to find in one or the other of the two names they used for the same code, but the rebranding was complete, in that the manuals had the names updated as well. What about: * Hen Pecked and Chick Coop (and turn on the lovely sound!) * I believe there are a few more for the TI, need to check on that * (and I believe Defender and a similar version (not on the TI-99/4a)--> Stargate ( 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roadrunner Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 2,120 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelpedant Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 Here's my first serious run at the game, via the "Dragonflyer" dump: 102540, lvl 15 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globeron Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 My highest need to practice a bit more Spot Shot dump. 74.190 lvl 12 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mizapf Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 More practise needed .... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelpedant Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 (edited) Having looked carefully (I think) at extended gameplay recordings for the Spot Shot and Dragonflyer dumps (or maybe EA conversion, in the Spot Shot case), and played them both to level 10+, I really can't find any significant differences. Played both for a good long while the last few days, and compared footage. But it seems like exactly the same game to me. Just seems like they got rid of the words "Spot Shot" in the upper left there, for "Dragonflyer". Didn't even add a DataBioTics credit or copyright notice, or add the word "Dragonflyer" anywhere in-game. I could definitely be missing something. But I don't see any differences, in the game board, pattern sequence, enemies sequence, etc. Just the missing words "Spot Shot". Edited May 12, 2020 by pixelpedant 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fimbulvetr Posted May 19, 2020 Share Posted May 19, 2020 I feel like there is something I just don’t get about the strategy for this game . . . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fimbulvetr Posted May 19, 2020 Share Posted May 19, 2020 Is there a scan of the manual kicking around for this game? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fimbulvetr Posted May 19, 2020 Share Posted May 19, 2020 Never mind, found one! Now I know what the countdown number at the top means, and why I couldn't move to the left at times.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelpedant Posted May 19, 2020 Share Posted May 19, 2020 Yeah, the strategy's deeper than you might first guess. Though one arrives at the basic strategy fairly intuitively, I'd say. Particularly given the game inherently gives you "weak points" in most wall types which inherently encourage regular placement of periodically aligning holes (which is what you really want). I recorded a video with a bunch of gameplay (as I am wont to do), if that helps (skip to 8:05 if you just want gameplay): 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fimbulvetr Posted May 19, 2020 Share Posted May 19, 2020 Your video is where I snagged the screen-capture of the instructions from ... it is a very helpful video. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelpedant Posted May 19, 2020 Share Posted May 19, 2020 Ah, in that case, here's the rest of it: Spot Shot.pdf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fimbulvetr Posted May 19, 2020 Share Posted May 19, 2020 Thanks! It is definitely a fun game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fimbulvetr Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 Well, I definitely improved, but 6210 is as good a score as I can post before tomorrow as I won’t have another chance to play. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globeron Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 My timezone time is up. Did not manage to get higher than my previous score. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mizapf Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 Last call ... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+FarmerPotato Posted June 3, 2020 Share Posted June 3, 2020 May's game was SpotShot, or Dragonflyer, by Jim Dramis/Softmachine later published by Databiotics. I hope you all enjoyed this, it's one of my favorite games on the TI. The strategy is tough to figure out, but now we have a video guide to the game I didn't know it was possible to get to level 15 but y'all inspired me early on to keep practicing. I forgot to post my improved scores, but I would still be in 5th place! Congratulations to everybody who either tested the waters or blew through a dozen levels! fimbulvetr 6210 farmerpotato 34230 globeron 74190 level 12 mizapf 79000 level 15 pixelpedant 102540 level 15 jwild 120880 level 15 Next, Jwild picks the game for the month of June. P.S. why the variability in score at level 15? I consistently get about 5000 per level, with the 10000 bonus after each 3. Is it possible to miss the bonus? Is mizapf playing a different version of the game? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelpedant Posted June 3, 2020 Share Posted June 3, 2020 There's going to be a lot of variability in the number of bonus beetles each person manages to hit, and the distances (since this is scaled by distance like other scoring) at which they manage to hit them, is one major source of variability, I'd say. More so than other scoring, since hitting the bonus beetles is in no way required, as killing other enemies is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwild Posted June 6, 2020 Share Posted June 6, 2020 (edited) Hello all, Sorry to be a slacker. Game of the month for June 2020 is Arcturus. I have only played it a couple of times to see if it is suitable for a month of playing. I see that pixelpedant has a nice thread about Arcturus/Zaxxon clones here. And a nice YouTube video by acadiel here. And a really good history lesson by Pixel here. ROM attached - requires 32k memory. Get your isometric perspective skills going and have fun! arcturus.bin Edited June 6, 2020 by jwild added another youtube video. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwild Posted June 7, 2020 Share Posted June 7, 2020 32540 2.1Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globeron Posted June 7, 2020 Share Posted June 7, 2020 Good choice, fun to play isometric. 34.480 level 2.2 But need to practice on the 3D shootings, hard to find the height. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwild Posted June 7, 2020 Share Posted June 7, 2020 34410 2.3Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jblenkle Posted June 8, 2020 Share Posted June 8, 2020 Arcturus - 6,200 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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