I'm a college student snood enthusiest as well. I would REALLY be interested in one I can play on the go. (a.k.a. so I don't fall asleep during econ class)

Can't really play it on my comp since half the time it restarts the computer. :-( Thinks it's a DirectX problem.

I don't know about the general college population; but here at <A href="http://www.rit.edu">RIT</A>, Snood has been showing up on most of the Lab Assistant's computers in the computer labs. Oh well, not like we're supposed to be doing anything anyway. Many labbies have become addicted. I quit after I had a dream about Snood.

Hell, it's been showing up on the computers in high schools too. And it's a good game, I only have 2 problems with it, first, it really pale in comparison to the original puzzle bobble/bust a move. Second, it contains gator, which is spyware. Thankfully, Spyware is not only not in 8x programs, it's impossible on a calc!

I introduced it to the students in my computer class, and within a week all 38 computers had Snood installed.

Hey, it looks like a cool game! Too bad I don't have a Ti-86 :-(

Whoa! Didn't this guy retire like 6 times already and now he comes out once again. In my opinion, I think Kirk needs to make up his mind about what he really wants to do.

I retired from programming once, but it turned out to be more of a leave of absence. I retired from ticalc.org once and did not return. That would make a total of one retirement concerning programming for calculators.

I obviously exaggerated a bit, but may point still stands. Anyone interested in a little bit og History, check out these links

http://www.ticalc.org/archives/ news/articles/1/13/13516.html

http://www.ticalc.org/archives /news/articles/0/3/3588.html


Also, you have hyped about several future programs that mnay people wanted to be released, then suddenly, for no apparent reason you annouce you quitting your projects. Then pick up a new one and do the same thing over again. Sorry if I'm being critical, but I hate people that may their private lives seem more important and ticalc.org newsworthy over the vast array of other high quality. Has there ever been another author who official annouced his retirement? No. Well one, but they guy died so it doesn't count.

Here are som more links for y'll interested in some history:

http://www.ticalc.org/archives /news/articles/0/1/1382.html

http://www.ticalc.org/archives /news/articles/0/1/1145.html

http://www.ticalc.org/archives /news/articles/0/0/831.html

If you check out these links, you'll see what I mean. Sorry for being a jerk, but you...

Also, make sure you delete the extra space I added in the URL. I had to do it 'cause this stupid and crappy forum doesn't allow a excess of word with 40 or more character due to formating reasons.

"I'm the watch dog in the political arena , beware of my HATRED"

so you would rather Kirk *not make any programs*, than suprising the community every semester.

The most interesting part of your reply is that I already answered it in my previous post. Your first link describes my retirement from the staff of the WEB SITE ticalc.org, which has nothing to do with programming calculators. The second link is what I described as a leave of absence rather than retirement -- things do change. Interestingly, it was recently announced that Thomas Nussbaumer had "retired" (unless he died as you state, which I don't think anyone is aware of).

I see nothing to explain about in the links you cite as "history". The news mentioned there happened as described. The news posted about me is at the discretion of the news editor. In retrospect it does seem a bit much, but perhaps the news editor thought it would be useful. In any case, it is ungrateful people *cough* who have prompted me to make decisions to stop projects in the past, and perhaps it should be noted that they are free projects on which I spend MY spare time.

I for one support anyone who wants to program for any calculator (except the 83 series). We need more programmers, and we shouldn't complain about a program being released unless we've released a better one

And what do you have against Ti-83, I wonder?

Hear, hear!

There's absolutely no reason Kirk should have to defend how he chooses to spend his free time. Seems like some people just scan the message boards looking for an opportunity to take a shot at someone who's doing them a favor.

By the way, this game kicks ass. I'm especially impressed with the number of angles you can shoot from (which is necessary for this game, anyway) and the speed at which the shooter turns.

Nice job on Znood!

I know this is a really stupid question, but could there possibly be a TI-85 port of Znood in the near future? Otherwise, I can only play it on my friend's 86, and frankly its would be much more fun to play it on my own calc.

In its current form, Znood requires about 2.6kb of scratch space which the 85 doesn't have. I would have to change the way the playing field is stored in order for Znood to function on the 85. 85 is the only port I would probably consider since 82/83 screen is too small for a full-sized game.

So will you do it sometime?

Will you?

Um, doubtful, since I haven't ported any of my other programs to 85. Given the smaller nature of the audience for the 85, it doesn't seem effective to change the way the playing field is stored when it works great the way it is. If someone else wants to try to port it, email me and I'll send the source code.

Any chance you'll release the source man? The game seems really cool, but it doesn't LOOK like Bust-A-Move. Any chance you'll release the source so we can change those characters into Bubbles? :)

The source may be forthcoming in a future version. The point was not to make it look like Bust-a-move, but to make it look like Snood. If you are able to draw 8 highly distinguishable 5x5 shapes that are shaped like bubbles and email them to me, then I might add a graphic toggling feature.

Here's some idea's to make bubbles. I'm not entirely sure how you'd write them (I haven't got much past BASIC) but I know it can be done.

http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/ fileinfo/144/14412.html

http://tcpa.calc.org/members/joe/ tiworld/arch.php

check these out for ideas. Also, be sure to fix the spaces I had to make to post the addresses.

The 89 game uses sprites that are at least 8x8, I can't tell offhand from the screenshot. I need 5x5. The link to the 83 game also uses 8x8, and it only has 4 distinct bubbles, not 8. The larger variety of znoods and the ability to fit more of them on the screen makes the game much more interesting.

What about using grayscale for bubbles? You could do some that way, and it would look better.

Grayscale would not help in creating 8 distinguishable 5x5 bubbles. The bubbles are round, so you lose some more definition just because of that. Additionally grayscale would slow the game down unacceptably, since it would require masked sprites of two planes rather than the current XOR on one plane. As I said earlier, if someone wishes to draw 8 distinguishable _5x5_ shapes then I'll look into adding them. But again I'm not quite sure what the peculiar attachment to bubbles is. The current pieces are just as functional as bubbles and much more distinguishable.

Dunno about the bubbles, but here are 8 5x5 sprites... Link above.

bdesham

Hey Kirk- I just sent you not one, not two, not three, but FOUR complete alternate sets of pieces, none of them what you have now. Check your inbox; don't worry, this is probably the smallest 32-attatchment email on record. They're all 82 bytes each...

How do they look?
--SmartGamer

P.S. And yes, Tim, one of them is a "bubbles" set.