Cats? In space?

This had to be done.



This isn't a serious contest entry, but if it gets finished? I'll enter it. The point of this game isn't set in stone yet but it'll probably involve nomming space goodies.
Much like the online Flash game, and (as someone told me earlier today) a version of it on the Nspire, you'll be nomming goodies while avoiding veggies. My additions will include levels set to the length of the galaxy you're exploring. After all, Nyan Cat is in FTL, since space can't possibly look like that and no one really knows what happens if you go faster than light. So artistic license. And I'll probably say that much in-game too. The working title of the project stays, tho. NaCaNiS

No, the screen doesn't flash like that in the emulator. The screenshot "feature" doesn't quite work perfectly yet in WabbitEmu, but it works well enough to get the point across.

Right before I got that working, I had to stamp out a rather entertaining bug. I'll share it since you might find it awesome too: http://i.imgur.com/Zo8y3as.gif

EDIT: Neglected to mention (for ease of identification) that this project is written in Z80 Assembler and the target platform is the TI-84 Plus C

EDIT: Yus.

Yeah I really need to fix that. I have no idea how the screenshotter code even works ill get there its on the todo list. Looking awesome tho

Looks to me like it grabs the screenshot even when you are clearing the pixels for the background. Great work; it is looking pretty sweet right now.

I could watch that screenshot for hours.

Yeah I probably just need to tie it to the screen refresh But i want to re implement the entire way the cse LCD is implemented in wabbit emu. I am personally not happy with the back end. But this is a discussion for a different topic

Keep up the awesome work iambian!

One quick question: How are you drawing those sprites? When the stars collide with the cat, does the cat have a transparent layer?

All the sprites (including the text) are drawn vertically while using the LCD's windowing mode. The write cursor moves downwards and wraps back to the top while moving left, and since I use the window thingie, it makes outputting sprites easy. Just set the bounds then OUT a bunch of times. I use the xlibc color palette so I can write the same value to the port again for a little bit of extra speed.

All the sprites (except the text) have a transparent layer. The sprites in that animation are drawn in this order: stars, rainbow, poptart cat, text. The stars don't collide with the cat; they are just overwritten except in the instance where there's a transparent pixel since what was there before is already on the screen.

Hahaha nice work man! Looks great .

If that's an actual Nyan Cat game? That's awesome! I would take out the part where it says this had to be done, though.

It's a lot less than I would've liked (procrastinated too much), but I submitted something, and it is (probably) playable. I call it "Nyan Cat: NaCaNiS"and I completely forgot to add the contest tag to the entry. Whoops.

EDIT:


I will have to say, though. This was a great experience coding something for the Ti-84+CSE in assembly. I may continue working on this even after submission to include that story mode I've mentioned in the chat a few times, and to optimize for speed.

Some of this will eventually wind its way into what me and geekboy are planning for CaDanC.

Even though the contest is over, I'm still working on the project in an attempt to get it as close to the original idea I had when I first started on it.

So far: A real title screen, with the current mode of play as "Arcade Mode" and a separate help/about screen. Added an interrupt for key debouncing and buffering for superior key response. The game runs a slight bit slower because of that, but it's barely noticeable.



Todo: Game loop optimizations, game mode UI tweaks, and a plan for how story mode will be implemented

This is awesome Iambian. Do you think it will be soon available for download? I really like the speed. It seems on-par with the Nspire Lua version despite the 84+CSE limitations.

The contest version is already available in the Cemetech Archives:

Nyan Cat: NACANIS

Thanks for the link. I'm downloading right now so I can try soon

V0.2 was submitted to the archive and accepted. It features improved key detection.

The current development version (0.3) was changed in the following ways:

* UI tweaks. Hopefully makes the game run faster and easier to use
* Parallax changes: Stars move slower than objects for far-away feel



TODO: Game loop optimizations, tweak to scoring modes, implement arcade mode plan, plan out story mode.

Details: Stars now move at 2px per frame and one generates once every 8 frames. Before, it moved 7px per frame and one generated once every 4 frames. The collectables still move at 5px per frame.

More improvements. v0.3 now has the following changes:

* Nom Meter. Get extra points when you fill it up
* Items have a different score value
* Mercy invincibility if you accidentally ingest vegetables
* A scoring system that actually works
* Difficulty ramping as the game progresses.



Todo: Suggested graphical changes made in the 'tank, story mode planning, game over animation, and more optimizations, in no particular order. Also might need to investigate collision detection for fast movements and determine if any fixes need to be made.

Details: When your invincibility is about to run out, the cat blinks twice as fast. Originally, was going to just stop blinking during that time but still allow invulnerability. The nyan timer doesn't advance during invincibility. Game progression is tied to the nyan counter's timer, but not the score itself. It is possible to get extra lives now. Barring a few graphical upgrades or new bugs found, arcade mode is done.

Even more improvements. v0.3 is about ready to release with these new changes:

* We've got an honest-to-goodness game over sequence now.
* Help menu now has graphics to indicate what is nommable and what isn't.



Todo: Story mode cutscene and level structure, other optimizations

Details:
Yes, the fade out is that slow. Haven't yet figured out how to make that effect run any faster without bloating the program any further than it already is.

The rainbow is supposed to look faded out when you're low on lives. You *do* get three lives to start with but I rebuilt this with just one for ease of testing and this screenshot.

There's a reason why the game over screen looks the way it does, and that'll be explained when I implement story mode. Some items that are nommable aren't represented in the help menu. Those will be explained in the readme, and the scoring for all items.

That new menu is fancy! Keep up the good work!

This is giving me incentive to work on graphics... not one of my strong suits.

The idea about temporary invincibility after you eat a vegetable is a good one, and should help even poor runs through the game last longer. As I said on IRC, I continue to be impressed with the effort and depth that you're putting into this project, and this rumored Story Mode is intriguing indeed.

This may or may not bea bug. I turned on my calc, went right to Doors and ran NACANIS when the title screen appeared, the background had changed from blue to black.