Programmer's CHALLENGE: Exploiting the FG99's new capabilities.

[Omega-TI]

With this ultimate new cartridge now being shipped, the potential for a new class of games, menus, utilities and everything else means we could be heading for a paradigm shift in capabilities and playability. I wonder who is going to be the first to code examples and 'write the book' for others to follow? Early adopters will have a leg up for sure. I know I'm not the only one who's looking forward to the first of the new class of games.

 

Having the ability to share data between segments of a program or load into active memory other segments (mini programs) while using the data obtained in the previous segments is awesome. New games may appear to be one huge mega program, but mini chunks is a cool concept and 'doable' without reading from a slow disk drive. I'm thinking games that go beyond anything any of us have ever imagined for the TI are just around the corner. Maybe even some of the recent 'proof of concept' games that could not be finished due to lack of memory could even be tweaked to exploit the FG99? There are lot's of things out there partially finished that could now come to fruition.

 

Will 2017 be the best year yet? Is this the start of a NEW GOLDEN AGE for TI'ers? I know damn near everyone here will be buying one of these soon... if they have not already.

 

Too many things and too many options to instantly process have just opened up! Where will this take us? Speculation anyone?

 

 

[PeteE]

I'm planning to support the FinalGROM 99 for saving your quest progress in the Legend of Tilda. I was planning to use an encoded password that you reenter when starting the game, but I've decided to drop it in favor of the FinalGROM save method. The other method will be saving to disk. The FinalGROM method will actually store the save state inside the cartridge ROM file on the SD card, which is neat because you don't need a disk drive, and can copy the cartridge ROM to a PC and continue right where you left off in an emulator. The emulator won't be able to save to cartridge ROM, at least until the FinalGROM is emulated. But we'll also need to be careful when updating the game because the new cartridge file will have the initial empty save state, and overwriting the file on the SD card will lose your save state. It should be possible to back it up to a disk and restore it, I'll have to remember to add that. Anyway I'm excited to see what else can be done.

Edited July 12, 2017 by PeteE

[Keatah]

Which emulator do you maintain?

[PeteE]

Me? None, I didn't mean to imply that I maintain an emulator. I was expressing my hopes that Classic99, JS99er, MAME, etc will someday add support for FinalGROM's extended features.

[Omega-TI]

I'm planning to support the FinalGROM 99 for saving your quest progress in the Legend of Tilda. I was planning to use an encoded password that you reenter when starting the game, but I've decided to drop it in favor of the FinalGROM save method. The other method will be saving to disk. The FinalGROM method will actually store the save state inside the cartridge ROM file on the SD card, which is neat because you don't need a disk drive, and can copy the cartridge ROM to a PC and continue right where you left off in an emulator. The emulator won't be able to save to cartridge ROM, at least until the FinalGROM is emulated. But we'll also need to be careful when updating the game because the new cartridge file will have the initial empty save state, and overwriting the file on the SD card will lose your save state. It should be possible to back it up to a disk and restore it, I'll have to remember to add that. Anyway I'm excited to see what else can be done.

 

Hey, that's cool! Plans are in place even before they start arriving... I like it!

Yep, I believe that one function alone, (the save capability) will affect our hobby in so many different ways. I'm not just talking about the new class of programs that will arrive either, I'm thinking of a whole new group of TI'ers that will eventually come from because of all the waves Ralfs cartridge will create.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing your new program!