Editing 99 'Vaders

[99V]

Hey there, in another thread I've been trying to fix a few lines of code for the game

 

I need to know the Y axis positions for all 10 alien chutes where they fill up before dropping.

 

Each chute is one character wide, so including the outside boundaries counting as character spaces also,  it can be determined where the chutes fall on the Y axis. The first empty space at the left edge of the screen would be 1 (or did TI do something weird back then and call that 0)?

 

If anyone can determine those and send them in, it would be greatly appreciated. 

 

Thanks 

Edited August 7, 2023 by 99V

[99V]

It looks like I may be able to do this with a high res pic online. I guess we can still use this for discussing editing of 99 'Vaders. Sorry for all the trouble. 

[99V]

If anyone knows if TI BASIC started the Y axis for VCHAR at 0 or 1 for the first column on the left please let me know. I will try to find it in the manual but the one I have is not searchable. 

[99V]

The manual says 1 through 32 for the columns 👍

[99V]

Good news!

 

99 'Vaders has no more floating decimals 😁

 

Next stop compiling

 

Then super fast game play

[Ed in SoDak]

I’m late to the party I see. My old Mac can’t handle the last forum ugrade. Leaves me stuck with my iPad, it’s a hassle shuffling files back and forth. 

 

Here’s a screenshot showing character count for one line and where I inserted it into your code to display it while running. OOPSIE. I left out column #6. My bad. 

 

The attached “99VLIST” version is listable and runs in console BASIC. I can’t make my man move to the right or up. Can’t shoot anyone either. I can only move Left, so no surprise all I do is Die!! LOL

99VLIST

Edited August 7, 2023 by Ed in SoDak

[99V]

Hey Ed, nice to have you here. One problem is there is no up, only left and right. You definitely can't win with no laser either, but I give you props for playing with only one of three things you need.

 

We are very close for the columns I got 8, 10, 12 and 14 for the left inner four and 19, 21, 23, and 25 for the right inner four. Does yours look like that? Thanks for your help BTW. You did more than I did. I just moved my fat finger across the screen to count. 

 

I didn't count the outermost columns on either side because that is a different subroutine when a lander pops out. 

[99V]

Does your first column one start at the left edge of the screen?

[99V]

I judged where the mother ship starts by the ships at the top of the board and used the high score characters to help also. 

[Ed in SoDak]

I read some in the pdf manuals, then verified it with some test code to display something at row/col 0,0 and at 1,1. Zero is treated as though it’s a one, occupying the same screen location.

 

Column 1 is one space to the left of the mother ship. Yes, it is at TI’s column 1.

 

You can see the row of numbers I inserted into the program. I didn’t think the center part had any aliens so didn’t include 13-16 in my count. When I was trying out the game, obviously I wasn’t living very long so probably never got a chance to see any invaders from those locations. 

 

In the screenshot of game play, I used photoshop to insert the numbers seen below the mother ship to show which columns held an invader, except for position 6, which I missed seeing. Oopsla!

Edited August 7, 2023 by Ed in SoDak

[99V]

If you look at this pic there are ships at the top. It looks like 2 spaces then a ship then a space then a ship. That's 5 spaces and then it seems to be under the partition before the first chute which would be 6. Do you see it differently. My eyes are getting bad. 

[Ed in SoDak]

Not sure I’m following you, but yeah looks like 6 to me too.

 

In my screenshot above, there’s that row of numbers I inserted into the graphic that shows the column number, just refer to that.

[99V]

So for the furthest left chute you see column 6? I'm just trying to get our visuals to match. I do appreciate getting other eyes on it. 

[99V]

My eyes are so screwy that I don't see your numbers under the chutes. That's why I was asking about the numbers for the columns. 

[Ed in SoDak]

Maybe this will help. I upped the graphic a bit. That’s all 28 positions TI allows in BASIC and Extended BASIC.

 

On the “6” I thought you were asking which column a part of the ship was in. Nevermind.. -Emily Litella

Edited August 7, 2023 by Ed in SoDak

[99V]

Now I know why I got confused

 

Regular text is 28 characters wide

 

But when using CALL VCHAR  and CALL HCHAR you get the full 32 wide by 24 deep character spaces so I was starting all the way on the left edge when counting columns and you were starting where text would start.

 

In fact we used column 1 on the left edge to pile up aliens that hit the ground. 

 

Mystery solved!

[Ed in SoDak]

Oops! Ha Ha. No extra charge for that! 

[99V]

👍

[99V]

I got the word from the laboratory that the game is running too fast! 👾

[ti99iuc]

In fact, I remember that the big test job done with the compiled games created by @tmop69 was also to be able to find the right compromise between speed and playability because then among other things, it often happened that too fast also changed the dynamics of the original game causing the correct objective to be lost then. 

it used to happen that to find the right settings for running a game, one would study for more than a day!
Tmop hated me I think because I was very punctilious and often found bugs and glitches native to the games that then had to be fixed :p 

 

I really wish that your game will preserve the original gameplay @99V

 

[99V]

Yes I agree. If it is 3-4 times faster that would be good. 

[99V]

Right now it's probably 100 times faster

[+OLD CS1]

One of the things I did when making my programs compile was increase the input detection loops.  In TI BASIC, and in many cases Extended BASIC, as well, detecting a key press then continuing with other tasks runs slowly enough to maintain a playable pace.

 

Obviously this goes out the window when compiled, so I run input detection in a loop of say 200 detections at a time before moving on to other maintenance tasks (like moving an object, ticking down a timer, updating a score, &c.)  If that is too fast then I adjust the loop upward -- which introduces its own level of suck as you have to compile every time to test.  But, the payoff is great as this also helps make the program feel more responsive and does not require that a player hit a key at just the right time.

 

Generally speaking, the delays are linear.  If a loop of 200 iterations takes one-half second, then a loop of 400 iterations should take one second, and so on.  Each loop will have different results depending upon what it is doing, of course.

 

Another thing you can do is take advantage of CALL SOUND to introduce measurable delays.  For example, this snippet will introduce a three-second delay.  The second statement waits until the first statement completes, thus causing a pause in the program. 

 

1200 CALL SOUND(3000,110,30)
1201 CALL SOUND(1,110,30)

 

The limit in the duration value is 4250ms (4.25 seconds, as calculated from the max internal value of 255 / 60,) so if you want longer delays you can chain statements.

[99V]

23 hours ago, Ed in SoDak said:

Emily Litella

I got the reference. The days when sketch TV was good.

[99V]

8 hours ago, OLD CS1 said:

One of the things I did when making my programs compile was increase the input detection loops.  In TI BASIC, and in many cases Extended BASIC, as well, detecting a key press then continuing with other tasks runs slowly enough to maintain a playable pace.

 

Obviously this goes out the window when compiled, so I run input detection in a loop of say 200 detections at a time before moving on to other maintenance tasks (like moving an object, ticking down a timer, updating a score, &c.)  If that is too fast then I adjust the loop upward -- which introduces its own level of suck as you have to compile every time to test.  But, the payoff is great as this also helps make the program feel more responsive and does not require that a player hit a key at just the right time.

 

Generally speaking, the delays are linear.  If a loop of 200 iterations takes one-half second, then a loop of 400 iterations should take one second, and so on.  Each loop will have different results depending upon what it is doing, of course.

 

Another thing you can do is take advantage of CALL SOUND to introduce measurable delays.  For example, this snippet will introduce a three-second delay.  The second statement waits until the first statement completes, thus causing a pause in the program. 

 

1200 CALL SOUND(3000,110,30)
1201 CALL SOUND(1,110,30)

 

The limit in the duration value is 4250ms (4.25 seconds, as calculated from the max internal value of 255 / 60,) so if you want longer delays you can chain statements.

My thing to do for fun with a compiler is write a program and then keep adding crap to it because it never slows down.