You've probably seen this game featured on ticalc.org. But here is a topic about it.



Now I'll take this opportunity to explain the weird technical side of it.

First off, the game was originally designed to be run on 83+'s. So the whole thing was written with 6MHz. The playing field actually 150 rows tall by 104 pixels wide. The whole thing scrolls 2 pixels per frame. This is how I got such good scrolling. When the screen has to scroll up or down, it doesn't have to re draw anything because that part of the screen is already drawn, it just goes and looks for it.

The screen is 104 pixels wide so that all I have to do is copy and paste the new shapes in when it is their time. Then they get naturally shifted across the screen. To make the whole process easier, the entire 150 row screen buffer is upside down. It just makes for easier math, (and causes DCS glitches).

To make all this happen at 6MHz, most of the game actually executes in the free space between screen writes. I disable the port ($29) delay so that I must use around 80 t-states between writes. Starting at the right side of the screen, the first three columns of 8 are spent copying the last 8 columns to plotSScreen. The 4th column is spent drawing the square. It also copies attempts counter from another buffer where it is pre drawn. And the last 8 rows are spent shifting the screen buffer. This is why the attempts is slightly off center, the right four columns are pulled directly off the big screen buffer and cannot be changed every frame.

There, now finally you all will know the thought that went into this. Ha!
Actually, it only "glitches" because while the RAM copy of the archived program is getting deleted after playing, DCS displays the hourglass over the last contents of the graph buffer, which is the upside-down first 64 rows of PlotsScreen. Smile Regarding that perfect run - was that automated, or are you just that good? Or, third option, did you spent several days screenshotting over and over until you got it right? Laughing At any rate, excellent job, and I'm extremely impressed by the fastcopy wasted-cycle use trick. Thanks for sharing the technical details.
That screen shot was first try. While there is a little luck involved, this game is mostly skill. I can beat the xbox level within 3 tries and the ipod within about 7.

Just beat it first try on calc. Razz

The same thing applies to playing it on an ipod. I can beat the xbox one in about 5, and the ipod in 10.

But the xbox version... I played it at my friends house. 150 combined tries and I never got past the back to back triple. I feel that one is luck based.
Very impressive! I did about 5 runs while I was testing it under Doors CS, and I got a few hundred pixels over. What's next on your game-making agenda now?
Star fox. There'll be an update in about 10 minutes. I want Star Fox to be the next epic game that is remembered for several years.
thepenguin77 wrote:
Star fox. There'll be an update in about 10 minutes. I want Star Fox to be the next epic game that is remembered for several years.
Haha, you already managed to pull off two ticalc.org game features in one summer somehow, what more do you want? Wink
  
Register to Join the Conversation
Have your own thoughts to add to this or any other topic? Want to ask a question, offer a suggestion, share your own programs and projects, upload a file to the file archives, get help with calculator and computer programming, or simply chat with like-minded coders and tech and calculator enthusiasts via the site-wide AJAX SAX widget? Registration for a free Cemetech account only takes a minute.

» Go to Registration page
Page 1 of 1
» All times are UTC - 5 Hours
 
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum

 

Advertisement