Re: A89: Re: Phoenix for TI-89
[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
Re: A89: Re: Phoenix for TI-89
Miles Raymond wrote:
> The bags of money are hard to distinguish between bombs: could you
> maybe increase the size?
> Since there was no text file, and I have never played this game
> previously, I am guessing that the bar that keeps decreasing on the
> bottom is my shield. What is the bar across the top? Why do all of
> the ships go off the screen?
Phoenix was originally a TI-92 game. The TI-89 version you have is one
that was somewhat adjusted to the smaller screen size. I didn't want
to have to lay out everything again, so I just took off the edges of
the gameplay screen. The sides just had the scrolling background,
which was unnecessary. I also had to take off about 10 lines on the
top and bottom, but I don't think you missed anything too important.
The bar on top is originally meant to deal with a display artifact on
the TI-92. Whenever the top pixel in a column is darkened, the entire
column below it appears somewhat darker. As a result, drawing moving
objects on the top line disrupts the entire display. Since it does
darken things in, I colored in the whole top line to make everything a
little darker so fast-moving objects will appear better. I'm not sure
whether this is really useful on a TI-89.
> How come the two, three and four-cannon purchases only work half the
> time? (I haven't gotten enough money to test the other weapons...)
I'm not sure about that; I've never observed that problem myself.
By the way, if you want to get more money for testing purposed, you
can press the LN key on the shop screen. Each time you press it, you
receive an extra $1000. Cheating in this way will, however, prevent
you from entering the high score table.
> WHY IS THE GAME SO DAMN HARD ON EASY?!?!?!?! I'd expect that kind
> of skill level to be more advanced...
The easy level is just meant to be less difficult than the others.
I still wanted it to be hard enough that most players wouldn't win
the first time they played it.
> Why is the exit key "." instead of the "ESC" key?
Since the ESC key is around a lot of other keys you normally use,
people might press it accidentally.
> Why are they scores set so high?? I can't even get on there trying
> my absolute hardest...
You only get into the high scores if you finish the game. In that
case, a "final scoring" screen will appear telling you how you got your
point total. If you don't finish the game, you can never get into the
high score table. Whenever you do finish, you will probably always get
into the default table, though getting to the very top will be extremely
hard.
Follow-Ups:
References: