A83: A Request (long)
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A83: A Request (long)
If anyone has played the old classic PC game 'Tank Wars', you will know what I
am talking about. Hopefully someone will be able to make a close of it for the
TI-83 (or other calculators) using the information provided in this message.
The concept is 2 immobile tanks placed on opposite ends of a randomly drawn
terrain. The tanks themselves are small semicircles with a line jutting out
that is the cannon indicator. One of 9 cannon shell types (bought in an
intermission screen by money earned during the battles) can be fired by
pressing the 1-9 keys (see shell listing later.) Each player (hopefully
initially an AI player and eventually a linkplay system) takes turns firing
their tank shell, taking into account wind velocity (higher the numbers the
greater the effect), direction, gravity, and the type of shell being fired.
The player tries to damage the opponent's tank until it is destroyed, at which
point the round ends and both players go to a menu screen to purchase new
items.
The weapon types:
1. Small shell - low blast radius, low damage, high quantities, cheap.
2. Large shell - medium blast radius, medium damage, less quantities, somewhat
more expensive.
3. Cherry Bomb - direct hits only; high damage, medium quantities, somewhat
expensive.
4. Hydrogen bomb - high blast radius, high damage, can damage own tank if
misfired, affected more by gravity, low quantities, expensive.
5. Atom bomb - very high blast radius, very high damage, very damaging to
self, affected a lot by gravity, very low quantities, very expensive.
6. Groundbreaker - erodes 33% of the ground where it hits, increasing the
chance of the terrain above falling. Deals no damage if hitting a tank.
Moderately expensive
7. Earthshaker - erodes 66% of the ground where it hits, otherwise same as
above. More expensive.
8. V-Laser - flies straight up to the sky; flies horizontally until directly
above the targeted area (launched by firing an initial marker tracer that
deals no damage, all in one turn.)crashes down, burning away all it hits until
it hits the bottom of the screen or the enemy tank, where it deals moderate
damage. 1 shot per purchase, costly.
9. H-laser - same as above but flies up until matches a horizontal target, at
which it burns a streak horizontally throught the terrain.
Other items (purchaseable but not selectable; always on):
10. Inertia dampener - lessens the damage a tank receives from falling.
Costly.
11. Shields - lessens all damage dealt by cannon shells. Very costly.
The graphics - the terrain should be randomly generated probably using a
statistics plot and a shading routine. The tanks are just semicircles with a
line emanating out from the center, the line moves according to the angle of
the shot. Each bomb, aside from the hydrogen/atom bombs and the lasers could
easily be represented by a small +, while the atom bombs would be a kind of
>0> shape and the lasers just straight (vertical/horizontal) lines. A shield
effect would just be a larger semicircle that appears above the tank when it
is hit, showing that it is activated.
For the other graphics: bottom row is the display. Listed on the display are
the current windspeed and direction (probably like 876 >), the currently
selected weapon, ammo remaining for the current weapon, own tank's hit points,
and the round score.
The sides of the screen serve as borders - if a shot (any shot besides the
lasers) hits a border, it will bounce back with correct physics.
I can't make this myself - I am VERY unskilled in the ways of just regular
BASIC programming, but I'd be very helpful anyone willing to work on this. I
don't have the original game anymore (it would run WAY too fast on my P2 400
anyway, it came out when the 386's were still popular if I'm not mistaken...)
Marc Bunin
RBunin@aol.com
(I know, I know, I'm getting ISDN soon...)
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