TI Basic game demo : Supercar

[tibasic]

Here is another game. I was planning to stop or at least wind down on TI Basic game programming so I could focus on other things however I seem to have built up some momentum with this approach.

 

This new game is call Supercar. It is basically a very simple endurance-type game. Your car, which is the fastest car on the track, has to avoid the slow cars and travel as far as you can. I have added some silly Batman type words when you bang into another car for a bit of fun. Your car can endure five collisions after which it stops working and your distance is displayed.

 

As this game is posted in the development thread I guess I could point out some programming approaches I have used.

 

1. Movement

 

To obtain fast game play I have produced the illusion of motion by switching the colour sets on and off. I have used this approach in other games and you may have seen this approach in other people's games.

 

The car is first plotted on the screen at various locations with car characters from each colour set. Initially the colours of the characters are the same colour as the screen. To move the cars I switch each colour set on in turn. For the player's car I use four colour sets (sets 2 to 5) with the cars plotted side by side on the screen. To move the car to the side I 'switch on' colour set 2 and set 3 etc. I also switch off the colour sets that are no longer needed.

 

2. Displaying text on the screen

 

I have used a font from the fonts package by sometimes99er (http://atariage.com/forums/topic/165697-fonts/) in my game. This is particularly useful for this game. It means I need only reserve a few characters and one colour set. To display a message like 'Kapow', 'Bam' or 'Crack' I can plot five characters in a horizontal line and then redefine the characters as I need them.

 

I will add some simple AI to the motion of the other cars and some sound effects. I'll post the finished game here.

 

OLD DSK1.SC1109 to load the program if you have the extracted file in disk 1 folder of Classic99.

SC1109.zip

[sometimes99er]

That's marvelous. So cute. And playable.

 

My car duplicates and disappears from time to time.

[tibasic]

Thanks!

 

Yes I had noticed the duplication bug. Should be easy to fix hopefully.

[mmartin]

exellent job

[tibasic]

Here is an updated version. I have added some minimal complexity to the game.

 

At the moment the colour of a car corresponds to its movement across the track so with a good memory you can anticipate the movements of the cars. I have added a routine so at some point down the road all the cars are the same colour. This makes it more difficult to determine how the cars move. There is a beep before the change occurs so it is not a total surprise.

 

Further down the road again the cars switch back to their original colours. This switching of colours repeats throughout the game.

 

I think I will make more one update and then consider the game completed.

SC0210.zip

Edited October 4, 2017 by tibasic