Re: A83: Some questions...

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Re: A83: Some questions...


On 16 Dec 97 at 8:06, Dimitri Hammond wrote:

> 
> Well Jonathan, welcome to the cool world of ASM programming!
> 
> I've been with the program for only 2 years, but I know a whole lot,
> and would be more than happy to help on any questions!
> 
> Now, let's see...
> 
> > Is there a PIC->ASM image translator?
> 
> Not that I know of.  I wanna make one, but I'm doing finals this
> week.  Check ticalc.org (you have ben there, right?).  WHile there,
> check the sources dir (ASM source code) to help you in learning the
> lang.
> 
> > How do you work with sprites, and what exactly are they?
> 
> Well, sprites are little pics that you save off the screen, then
> load back onto the screen @ any pos.  Kinda like moving pieces on a
> board game.  It's what almost every graphical program uses (it's a
> technique).  There's some good asm journals by Ahmed El-Hewl @
> ti-philes.com on that.(Asm journal 6?).  Check it out.  I have more
> info on my comp, but wy web page doesn't have it on it yet...  If
> you want me to, I can send you some, if not all of my text files on
> ASM.  I have a FULL 3-ring binder of stuff!

Thanx for the kind offer - if you can help me out, it'll be great.  
I really need sprite info.  I have the help file, and I've looked 
through ASM journals 1-5, understand most, don't understand 6 & 7.   
Let's see...actually, do you want to get involved with a game I'm 
doing?  I'm sure you know Mechwarrior, right?  Well, I'm doing 
MechwarASM (self explanatory!)  If you want to look at the source 
code so far, feel free to ask.

The basic idea:

User starts off in load game/new game screen after credits - new game 
resets vars, load game restores (obviously)

The rest aren't done yet...
We have a base, with a shop, with briefings, and damage and weapons 
buying-weapons & damage kind of work like Mechwar:Mercenaries; little 
graphic of weapons (sprite) revolving, damage by zones, highlighted 
and program asks how much damage you want repaired.

Enter mission - Rader @ upper right; Player's mech status @ lower 
right (wireframe diagram w/ shading for damage) Enemy mech @ lower 
left (similar to player mech) Weapons highlighted by box (Mechwarrior 
2 style) Crosshair at center for aiming; missile type homing missile, 
you get to target the enemy using the enemy mech display, kind of 
like targeting a Maverick in flight sims - crosshair in middle, press 
up/down/left/right to move image so crosshair moves on it, plus a bit 
of random movement so it's not too easy.

Firing - little sprite goes out/little sprite comes in.

Acutally, I have the essence of the game in BASIC; damage and stuff 
is already handled quite well, just need to convert to ASM and add 
good graphics.  (BASIC program is >15K!!!)

> > I also have a game in progress that uses a mission structure, with
> > text-based "briefings."  How would you draw the text on the graph
> > screen, and can the text wrap around by itself?
> 
> Well, you'd use _vputs.  Umm, to find out more of that, head to
> ti.com & llok up 83-asm info and they'll have all this documentation
> labled things like "TI-83 Display","Basic TI-83 Design Information"
> etc...  As I said, I have all of this, and I'd be more than glad to
> send you the dir.

Actually, I was just wondering if you can type and type...have you 
worked in TI-Basic?  If you have, you know that when you use Text the 
text goes off the screen if you go too far and you have to manually 
wrap it; I was wondering if ASM can automatically wrap it.

> > Can you use lists in ASM?  Or should I use variables instead of 
> > lists?
> 
> Yes you can, but I haven't gotten it to work myself, so if anyone
> out there has info, please send some to me & Jonathan!
> 
> > Also, is there a way to do "save games" in ASM?  I have an 
> > implementation in Basic where all variables are stored to lists, and
> > lists are renamed. (I use L1-L6 in the program and rename them when
> > saving)  Is there a better way?  How can you save the "free space"
> > variables, e.g. 8265h - 8500h, as it is my understanding that they are
> > deleted after the program quits.  In the same variables, are they
> > limited to numbers, or can you use strings?
> 
> Well, this is where it gets a tad bit more complicated.  First of
> all, you could store the asm FS vars (8265h-8500h) into real vars
> (A-Z, & theta) by a little routine that I could go into explanation
> later (I'm running out of time now). As far as game saving goes,
> there's many ways to do it.  Save info in lists, make a new program,
> protect it, and throw all your stuff in there (I just recently
> learned how to do that (C;*), save it to REAL vars, or find some RAM
> spot that isn't going to be editied sometime soon, like the
> _asmflagsN RAM spots or somwething...

Let me know...

> > Can you compare strings? (I mean, can you say cp a,b) and have a and b
> > be strings.
> 
> Umm, I don't even know how to do  strings in ASM, if it's possible
> at all.

Isn't strings in ASM like:

string:

	.db "This is a string",0

> > Quote of the day:
> > 
> >      The strongest bulwark of authority is uniformity;
> >      the least divergence from it is the greatest crime.
> >                                   - Emma Goldman
> > 
> Uhh, yeah!  'Dyou get it?  ^^^

Sure, I chose the quotes myself...it kind of relates to the "Big 
Brother" that George Orwell thought of - the idea is that if 
authority is everywhere, then everyone will be the same; everything 
will be uniform.

Jonathan Wang
jwang@isb.bj.edu.cn
jonathan_wang@hotmail.com

Come visit my home page:
http://www.htmlinfo.home.ml.org/

Quote of the day:

     The great trouble with the young people today
     is their freedom; they can no longer disobey.
                            - Jean Cocteau
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