Over the long holiday weekend, I have been working on a TI-BASIC re-make of the game BLOXORZ.
This has been ported to the Nspire and Prism, but not on a Z80-based calc. Perhaps an ICE or C port of this is due for the CE?
So far, it has all the main parts of the game, including:
The hardest part is keeping the main game loop at an acceptable speed. There are a lot of conditionals and edge-cases when moving the block around (and even more so when changing bridge states or resetting the stage), and every If-Then adds to the noticeable latency that affects user input.
Graphics are implemented using Pt( and Line( commands, using the box- and plus- shaped plot points to cover larger areas. Loading each stage takes a while, so while loading or resetting the stage, a black border is drawn to indicate a loading state.
Except for Text( commands, everything is done relative to the window variables. So, in theory, this works on color calcs too. I've tried it, and it looks terrible. Pt(3) is not a nice + that fits in the same grid as Pt(1) and Pt(2), so it ruins a lot of the graphics and every movement ends up having a "shadow".
It has been submitted to the Archives in its current state with only 20 of the 33 stages implemented. I will update it once I play through the remaining levels, write down how they work, and port them to this format (I have also made a level editor that runs on-calc, but it's too slow to realistically use outside of an emulator).
P.S. I used to really like BLOXORZ, as it was a fun novel puzzle. Now that I've play-tested these 20 levels to no end, it has lost its luster. Too much of a good thing, as they say. Maybe the next 13 stages can re-ignite that spark.
This has been ported to the Nspire and Prism, but not on a Z80-based calc. Perhaps an ICE or C port of this is due for the CE?
So far, it has all the main parts of the game, including:
- Main menu with wipe-in title
- Start game splash-screen with instructions
- Saving progress automatically, with Resume Game option
- Stage Passcodes (match 1-1 to original BLOXORZ)
- Play elements: soft and heavy switches, bridges, weak tiles, and teleport/split switch
The hardest part is keeping the main game loop at an acceptable speed. There are a lot of conditionals and edge-cases when moving the block around (and even more so when changing bridge states or resetting the stage), and every If-Then adds to the noticeable latency that affects user input.
Graphics are implemented using Pt( and Line( commands, using the box- and plus- shaped plot points to cover larger areas. Loading each stage takes a while, so while loading or resetting the stage, a black border is drawn to indicate a loading state.
Except for Text( commands, everything is done relative to the window variables. So, in theory, this works on color calcs too. I've tried it, and it looks terrible. Pt(3) is not a nice + that fits in the same grid as Pt(1) and Pt(2), so it ruins a lot of the graphics and every movement ends up having a "shadow".
It has been submitted to the Archives in its current state with only 20 of the 33 stages implemented. I will update it once I play through the remaining levels, write down how they work, and port them to this format (I have also made a level editor that runs on-calc, but it's too slow to realistically use outside of an emulator).
P.S. I used to really like BLOXORZ, as it was a fun novel puzzle. Now that I've play-tested these 20 levels to no end, it has lost its luster. Too much of a good thing, as they say. Maybe the next 13 stages can re-ignite that spark.
