So, as my first program for the 84CE, I'm porting my old Flamerman 1 game, and Ive run across some bumpy terrain.

1) the old level system stored each level as a string. given the screen size has increased, old level data wouldn't render right (unless option a is taken, from below). what should I do?:
<->a: simply stringcut old levels so game has borders. no change to levels, but change of the level system, could be slower, is simple to make.
<->b: Not an option any more
<->c: merge old levels, and add new ones. no change to level system, but large to store.
<->d: find a new way to store levels, like in lists or matrices, or have strings decompiled and interpreted into map tile data. very complex.
<->e: store strings with something like rle, and parse them.


what do you think I should do?

I decided that I will do something like RLE on the mapping, as well as expand them and the story. I mean, we have more RAM and Flash memory, so it shouldn't pose any kind of real problem.

Now, question #2:
Should I compile a group of pictures to an assembly file, or is it okay to use the image files? I feel that since the users may use certain image files for their own things, I wouldnt want to replace them.

Indeed, we have a lot of memory to work with, so while we still need to be economical with it, there's a lot less pressure to go to extremes with optimization.

It would be cleaner to not use the Image files, in my opinion. Unfortunately, since we don't yet have an App key, there's no possibility of Doors CSE for the TI-84+CE offering its sprite and image tools, but it's definitely planned if we ever do get that key, and I think this would be a good use case for those Hybrid BASIC tools.

heh. something I toyed around with on the 84SE was simply displaying pictures based on the contents of ans (ans=1=Picture 1 from file, etc). so long as I keep the program small enough, I could distribute that along with my program.

nnnng, but then I have to learn ez80, or at least how to implement color.