Here's my comments...

I'm glad there's a pinball game for the TI-89 (and other 68k calcs, as well). I just tried out the game, and it's fun. I like all the options. The more you can customize the game, the longer it will stay on your calculator. The bouncing of the balls, the angles, etc. were better than I expected, which was a pleasant surprise, and all the different items on the playing field also added nicely to the game. It's good to see that the members of the TI Community are still working hard on programming. :)

On a quick side note, if anybody wonders where I am in the next few days, I'll be at camp (no access to computers). I'll be there from Sunday to Friday.

Hm, seems that my own 68k pinball won't be the first anymore - if I ever get around to finish it. Oh well, competition's good for business.

It doesn't matter if it's not the first. Its quality is much more important. Rather devote more time to it than release some unfinished crap too early.

I hope you're not implying that my game is crap...I already spent a good month on it :)

The game isn't "unfinished" because it is fully utilizing everything that it has in its code. It may be considered "incomplete", however, because all of the features I have planned for it in its future have not been implemented (like external tables and external high scores).

Of course not, don't get me wrong. :)

I was just implying that we have lots of programs in the archives that indeed deserve the name "unfinished crap", and making a new one in a hurry wouldn't really improve the situation.

Your program is however really nice, although you could've run a bit more gameplay tests before releasing it. Sometimes there's little to do, because the ball is just bouncing around in itself. Let's say it's still a bit unpolished. :)

I'm going to take your advice and use pixel testing instead...it seems much more accurate. My only concern is if the ball is moving fast enough, it may pass through the flippers even with pixel testing, because the ball may have moved at 7 pixels in the last loop (on solar gravity only), and the ball is only 8 pixles in height and width...

I am aware of the problem of the ball moving around too much to ever reach flippers...I apologize. I'll change the gravity algrithm in the next release to decrease the horizontal vector as well to make the ball movement seem more realistic (more parabolic instead of hyperbolic).

The only good solution would be not allowing the ball to travel more than a pixel during a frame. In my program I use a little trick: I display every nth frame (probably every 10th, I don't remember the exact number), so the internal calculations are more precise than the movement displayed. These extra frames can be done away with much faster, since you don't need to call the slow rendering routines.

That IS a good trick...I'll have to consider implementing that in the next release. I have some questions, though: How do you get the machine to scroll with the ball? How were you able to draw the machine so perfectly within the screen, especially if its image may be transfered outside of the screen memory?

To anyone who knows: In C, how can I display a sprite with coordinates that are outside of LCD_MEM (like at -3,-4) and avoid having an address error because the pointer to LCD_MEM went negative? Basically, how can I get smooth sprite transitions/movements from the top of the screen or from the left, which are the beginning points of LCD_MEM?

I guess it's quite obvious. The whole table image (which is 2.5 times as tall as the display) is stored in one single array. Knowing the Y coordinate of the first pixel to be displayed, I simply copy the appropriate part to the screen buffer.

INGENIOUS! I'll have to remember that algrithm...I've been meaning to implement scrolling on my table, similar to yours...

Darn, I probably could have used that knowledge earlier on...

True, some of the programs do deserve to be called "unfinished crap", but *a lot* more deserve to be called "crap".

Programs like

void _main(void)
{
printf("Hello World!\n");
ngetchx();
}

or

:Disp "Hello World"

// Don't forget about clrscr();

Even some more programs which are more complex are even more stupid. What about all of the BASIC ones for the TI 83+ that take the inverse of the screen? I can do that in one FOR loop, a PIXIL declaration, and an END statement. There are over 10 of those in the TI83+/graphics/media/ folder alone.

Are you serious?? That's just sad.

What's even sadder is how slow they run ;-)

BASIC opens up the door to a lot of crap (so does my C programming, sometimes). The best thing for BASIC is text or math programs. Graphics and action games don't work so well in BASIC.

I program BASIC, but I mainly do math programs. I can use the AMS, and that's pretty big for what I do.

I'm gonna try to learn C.

I'm not saying that all basic programs are bad; I've seen some BASIC programs that are better than ASM programs. The problem is, a lot of people like to release their crap BASIC programs, and that is why it is given a bad name.

Yeah, but ASM is faster, it can do cooler stuff, and due to the prejudice (I can't think of a better word), BASIC doesn't sell as well. You woln't make a name for yourself in BASIC (I mean, how many people even know the name of the major series of math programs I make????). In ASM, at least you stand a chance of getting a news item...

or
PRGM:MEMHOG
:prgmMEMHOG

Actually, that's fun, if you're [really] bored.

If I were that desperate, I'd write a game and play it instead.

My fun is making a program to display a pixel and random coordinates and looping it over and over. I wait until I fill the whole screen up. It uses lots of my battery power too :)

Bio is boring.

But, you also probably worked on the game a lot more than most people would in that one month time. What I mean is... I did KBL in two months (almost exactly), and you probably put more work into the pinball than I did in KBL in your one month (the game is more complex). So, the timespan that you work on a game isn't as important as knowing how much they work on the game every day... and I'm sure you do a very good job of that :) (No, your game is not crap--how could a crap game get a news item?)

yes. That's what I'm doing. What you gonna do about that? ;) hehehehehehe... (inside joke between me and him)

Sorry I beat you to it :)

If you want, I can help you finish yours.