TI Basic Midnight - Page 1

If I get it done in time, I will be entering Midnight in the zContest 2011.

Midnight is another attempt of pushing TI Basic past its preconceived "boundaries." It's an RPG in the style of Metroid Pi 2 (by Harrierfalcon of UTI; never finished). The screenies should speak for themselves, but if they don't I added some notes:


(Title Screen/Main Menu)


Metroid Pi style graphics.
Elmgon style movement, with bullets that move at 1:1 based on the character/enemies.
At the point of this screenie the grappling hook system was only partially complete; it's done now, as shown below.
There are some other things as well.


(Note that my Wabbit settings are a little strange; it flickers much less on the actual calc.)
Use the Num Pad to shoot the grappling hook.
It'll stop if it hits a wall, a room exit, an enemy, or even a bullet.
This can be used to trap enemies.
Note that I don't have the engine in the main menu code, so there's no way for it to launch the main menu.
Not shown: If you go out of the room and you are caring a block, it goes back to the room it came from, as rooms are Zelda-esq and reset upon leaving them.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that it pauses because I hit a wrong key in Wabbit (it's a debugging thing I have in there).

Midnight will fit in RAM when done, but it's going to be a little large. I believe there will be 25 rooms and 4 bosses when finished.

Let me know what you think!

More info: http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?topic=8261

Good luck! XD
*Yeong is glad that midnight is pure TI-BASIC

Today I finished my ground pound system, which is activated by pressing Down. Next up is making it so you can ground pound through certain blocks.

Screenshot:

Only basic...


Just one word :

Incredible !

I would bet whatever you want that you've made this screenshot on a TI-84 Plus Silver Edition, but even if I'm right that looks really good.
How big is the project ?

I would bet whatever you want that you've made this screenshot on a TI-84 Plus Silver Edition, but even if I'm right that looks really good.

You are correct. It'll still work on the 83+, but it'll be slower. :-/

How big is the project ?

Right now it's at about 7000 bytes, and I'm expecting it will be around twice that large when finished. However, I think it's justified because it'll likely be an hour of gameplay.

That's true, if I play a long game I don't need any other game on my calculator.

Recently I added instant death lasers and made ground pounding into blocks work.

That's all in Basic? How do you draw the sprites/the info below so quickly? It looks great

Maybe text-sprites ? When you optimize well, text-sprites can be really fast

Another point to consider is : does the game run as fast as the screenies ?

(gif speed depends on Internet browser)

Le power of TI-84 Plus SIlver Editions.

Without forgetting ztrumpet programming skills

Of course...

That's all in Basic? How do you draw the sprites/the info below so quickly? It looks great

I'm using a method of Text Sprites known as Dual Layer Text Sprites. This technique was pioneered by Weregoose (UnitedTI) and first used on the game Zoith by SuperSpeeler (a.k.a. Speeler, also of UTI). The technique has been used on a few other games, including Metroid Pi. There is also a variation of this technique used by Builderboy (Omnimaga) in Serenity and in my own game, Elmgon. If anyone would like links to any of these programs, I'll gladly provide them. ^_^
The actual technique works like this (in example form):
Text(-1,0,0,"OOOO
StorePic 1
Text(-1,0,0,"HHHH
RecallPic 1
As you can see it just takes the pixels from two characters and places them on top of each other. It's a very interesting technique that leads to fast, detailed graphics. I really like using it and I still remember the first time I played Metroid Pi and went "How did he draw these graphics?!"

Another point to consider is : does the game run as fast as the screenies ?

This is the speed of the game on the 83+SE, 84+, and 84+SE calcs. Here's what it looks like at 83+ speed:



It's a little slow but still completely playable.
Also keep in mind that it won't run on the 83 (no plus) because it uses many things that weren't added until the 83+, among them lowercase letters.

It's been so long since i've touched BASIC, recalling a pic doesn't erase the screen/gbuf? And to think that i used to consider myself a good BASIC programmer!

Amazing. That's pretty much all I have to say.

ztrumpet (./15) :This is the speed of the game on the 83+SE, 84+, and 84+SE calcs. Here's what it looks like at 83+ speed:

I personally don't find that too bad Still playable, which is the important thing.

First Boss Battle:
This boss fight occurs before you can shoot, fire the grappling hook, or ground pound. Basically you can't do anything more than run around. Due to this fact, you have to find a way to defeat the enemy with its surroundings.
I've yet to add the "cutscenes"/text around both ends of the fight, so note that the final version of this won't be so quick to jump into a boss fight. Also note that I didn't redraw the icons in the HUD after the fight; I figured I could show you guys a screenie tonight or do that, and I chose to make this project update.

Let me know what you think - as always, feedback is greatly appreciated.



Also, if you guys have been wondering why I haven't been posting updates it's because I was really busy with life. Things aren't so hectic now - I still should be able to enter this in the contest.

It's looking incredible like always!

Thanks, chicendude!

My progress this weekend has been concentrated on a lot of things. In doing so, Midnight keeps getting bigger and bigger...

Here are the biggest areas of progress for the weekend:
- Integrating the Main Menu code with the rest of the engine
- Making Saving and Loading a reality
- Adding the capsule collection code
- Making the Acid actually hurt you
- Adding a test system
- Adding a keypress hook system
- Writing the opening cutscene

With all of these changes, there's a lot different. Because of this, I decided to give you guys two screenies this time instead of one. On top of that, the first one also shows the size of all the components of the game right now; keep in mind that I'll be combining all of those programs into just one for the final release.
Thanks for being interested.

Good job.

[mental note]ztrumpet is one the Gods of TI-BASIC[/mental note]
I wish I knew how to do half of this stuff in TIBASIC O.O
Also, I used text sprites once in a game and it works very nicely! I used the method of using Text( and layering characters. I was able to make some very nice looking sprites that way!

Here's a quickly made screenshot from the second boss:

What?! Is that a nibbles boss?!

OMG this is going to be the best game I've ever seen in Ti-Basic O.O

Just one thing... How can you beat this boss ?

Maybe you can plot the Ship using lists, it would be drawn faster

Just one thing... How can you beat this boss ?

You have to hit its front end with the boxes three times.

Maybe you can plot the Ship using lists, it would be drawn faster

I'm actually doing that already. I have a lot of lines, so in order to have that much detail it has to be that speed.

chickendude (./24) :
What?! Is that a nibbles boss?!

That's what I thought too Looks incredible, as always. You really rock at that dual-layer stuff. And I think I've mentioned this before, but I really like games with plotlines

Well, I have some good news, some bad news, and some ugly news:

Good: I found a way to make the program fit in RAM (I think).

Bad: In order to do so, I have to eliminate 4 rooms.

Ugly: Some of these rooms were already "finalized."

Because of this, the total room count will now be 21 and the total cargo capsule count will be 20.

But it will be finished in time, yes? D: