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I have almost completed a demo version of graphical Battlebots, using sprites on the graph screen, rather than ascii text. All I really need is what the opponents should look like, as I can't decide, and BASIC is too slow for rotations and such. Also, this prog runs in psuedo ram. (Side note: I think it's stupid that TI gave the SE 2x the ram of the 83+, but because of the low-bit language, you can only access 1 piece at a time, and the OS doesn't support it, that would be awesome for basic programmers, as you can't call subroutines through mirage,...)

KL
vrmlbasic@hotmail.com
AiM: VrmlBAsic

One problem I myself found with graphical games inb basic is it limited amount of pictures, i myself have found a slight way around this although it comes at the huge sacrifice of speed (only for new pictures however)
The way I went around this is to use the pic locations as temporary storage for your most used pictures and create the actual picture using the program(time cumsuming) and store it, recal it when needed, delete it or replace it with a different picture.
This can get very time comsuming but the benifits I found outweight the sacrifice.
You get reduced file size(don't have to keep pic), less files to transfer(make a single file create several pictures using the graph commands especially line), and you can use more than 10 pics in your game.
Contact me, if you would like to know more, unless you find a better way.

Hey ace, you don't even USE pics to make a graphical game, you write a dynamic pixel/line drawing system. Pictures suck, they are too huge for any prog that wants to look professional.

you CAN CALL SUBROUTINES through mirage, but they(the subs) must be unarchived before you start mirage

does anybody know where i can get a program that can do a rom dump using a usb cable? I'm finally have some time look at some asm proogramming and the virtual ti would help alot although i can't quite use it since it doesn't support usb.

you cannot prog with VTI, and it DOES support USB, I think you mean the graph link prog.

I'm now (re)starting SimCity 3000. I started making it a long time ago and got bored with it, but now I'm reinterested in it. Actually, I'm almost done (!), the only things I have to do are integrate taxes (so you can get money) and make it so that the people moving in and out of the city are not random, but depend on demand for that particular zone, which is determined by the tax rate and the proportion of that zone to the other two. So far, the speed of the whole program is incredible (unfortunately, it uses Omnicalc), even the simulation. I might post updates here if I remember. And yes, you can "actually see the little buildings".

-silent_fury

thats kool. Boredom for me anyway is the number one cause of abandiom projects. that and not well planned programs.

I'm pretty much done, except for ironing out miscellaneous bugs. One thing: I haven't made it so that people moving in/out of the city depends on anything but taxes. In other words, you could fill the entire map with residential zones, and the map would fill with houses very quickly. My question is: Does this matter? Does anybody really care? I mean, in order to build a nice looking city, you would _have_ to build roads and water and parks and utilities, but you don't have to... Any opinions on this? If not, I'll just release it.

Never mind, I went ahead and did it. Simulation runs a little slower now, but you still get about an average of 10 "move in/move out"s per minute. So, all I have to do now is write the readme, and then release it. Be warned: This game is not small (9-10K). I included some help files that can be viewed on calc; these are in a 3kb program that can be deleted once you know what you're doing. Be warned again: This game takes some work for you to be able to play it. Due to errors with omnicalc and the link cable or something, before you play it, you will have to scroll through about 5 programs and everywhere you see this:
:
:0,0,0,8,8,5,6
or something like that, you have to change it to:
:sprite(0,0,0,8,8,5,6
Not that hard, but is it going to stop anybody from playing it? Just trying to get some opinions here.

Hey, Silent Fury, I hate to break the news to you, but omnicalc's sprite routine won't work in an actual program. Unless I did something wrong, after you input the "sprite(" command, if you move the cursor it will change to a "?". It may just be me, but I don't think it will work. E-mail me if I am incorrect, but I am pretty sure it won't.

Gerhalt

omi calc doesn't support the os 1.15. I'm not sure why but i believe it's due to the fact that the calc has a limited amount of space for the os and the new os took enough so monicalc can't instal due to not enough space. (if you noticed, the install appears different than when installed on os 1.14 or less)

It should work. I have OS 1.15, and omnicalc works fine for me. Installs fine and everything. Also, the App variables for Omnicalc only take up about 31 bytes, so it should work. I don't know why it doesn't.

Gerhalt

I also have OS 1.15, and other then not being able to rename illegal tokens when I uninstall Omnicalc (the calc freezes), it works perfectly fine.

Don't you think I would have noticed that maybe... hmmm... FIVE MINUTES after starting the game if it was an issue? Like what ace said, omnicalc is incompatible with os 1.15...

What the heck is omnicalc, and the speed that you 'boast' of is nothing, as that means that it takes 6 seconds for one "move in/move out"

I would assume that omni gives basic-level asm to basic programmers who don't understand how to take basic to the next level via dynamic programming. That sprite command is too bloated for me, although it might be useful later on.

Just a question, do any of you SERIOUSLY program??

Vrml, omnicalc is an Application which adds some added math equations, ability to change basic system flags such as lowercase, stuff like that. And no, most of these people cannot program :). Well, Basic, but Basic sux.

Gerhalt

hmm, I'd like to see for myself what this prog does, can you send me a LOA so that I can download it?

I shouldn't even respond to that, but i have to defend my dignity :)
Yes, I seriously program. I spend at least an hour per day, usually more, programming either basic or assembly (still shaky on asm). This has become a lot harder recently since my sister is taking Advanced Math and the calc is pretty much hers now.
Also, that "10" figure was off the top of my head. Just to fix this, I went and actually checked. Speed is about 39 moves per minute. The 10 was just to let people know that it wouldn't take 45 seconds for somebody to move in or out, like some previous simcity programs.
The only reason I used Omnicalc was so that the speed of the program would be increased. This also saved me from having to draw every sprite with 20+ "pxl-change" commands.
I also think it takes away from your argument that omnicalc sucks in that the first thing you do is ask what it is. If you don't know what it is, don't bash it. Omnicalc has some serious issues, and I'm not defending it or anything, but still...

It's not that Omnicalc is incompatible with v1.15, it's that v1.15 is incompatible with Omnicalc. TI explictly added a check for tokens beyond the built-in ones, and prevents them from displaying properly. They still work, however.

Also, various crashes with things like the clipboard result from the app being so extensively integrated with the OS that sometimes they just don't get along...not much I can do, it's basically a big hack.

I stand corrected. I didn't know you posted here Michael. Oh, wait. You do own a TI-83 Plus. :)

Gerhalt