Whoa, read my mind exactly! These programmers AND non programmers need to pull ourselves together. I am just learning ASM and making my first game. I had no idea how hard this was, and when I found out, I stopped criticizing games. I agree with you totally and support you for writing that article.
-Joel

On second thought:

Yes, this is a sad, sad world. Only the webpage superpowers and rising superpowers (CCIA) are mantained at regular intervals. There are practically no sites worth seeing other than these:
CCIA
ccia.calc.org
TICALC.ORG and affiliates
www.ticalc.org (you are here.)
Dimension TI
cccia.calc.org or www.calc.org
Assembly Coder's Zenith (rival of TICALC.ORG
www.acz.org --I believe I'm not quite sure. (No disrespect intended.)
TI's website (of course, it is a major corp.)
www.ti.com
TI-Files and its WONDERFUL archive system

Justin's website for Joltima
www.community.net/~jman/
A few personal websites with large archives (few)
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
I do not mean to be critical of anyone who believes otherwise, however, I have spent months and months searching the internet and I have not found anything better than these. If I had, they would be mentioned above.

bye.once.more.

Um...ACZ isn't a competitor of ticalc.org. They're a programming group who has posted helpful tutorials, hosts 86 and 89 central, and also work together to make great games. ticalc.org and ACZ are totally different, and are hardly competitors.

I can't say that I agree or disagree. However, I don't believe you should post which sites you believe are best, when there may be scores more that you don't even know about. I wouldn't publicly name a site that I prefer over another, though I may name certain aspects of a site.

In my opinion, the best sites fall into three categories: (1) Everything. (2) Specialized. (3) Personal works' pages.

(1) The 'everything' sites are those like ticalc.org and the TI-Files and Dimension-TI... There are more, but those three are the most recognized. Basically the sites that contain not just a bit of info here and a few programs there, but everything!

(2) Specialized pages... such as one for a specific calculator, or platform, or assembly in general, etc. Though there are many great ones, none are extremely well known because they don't cover all aspects of TI's graphing calculators.

(3) I like these pages the most. A page built for one author's, or one group's work, and no one else's. Pages like Wouter Demuynck's Asm Corner, Jimmy Mardell's page. You can usually enjoy these pages more simply because they always have the information you come for, which is about the author and his programs.

Why I took the time to type all this, I'll never know... So please don't criticize me for wasting my time, I already know. Criticize me for something else :).

I'm sorry but do you have any idea what the hell you are talking about? I mean acz.org and ticalc.org are far from competitors. You must have named CIAA atleast 6 times in that post. Are you some kind of wanna be member, member or what? Superpowers? Rising superpowers? I didn't know that web sites could be either of those. Also you gave the url to CIAA twice also. Incase you didn't know the ONLY two url's to dim-ti are www.calc.org and www.dimension-ti.org. Please, these are the post that are making the TI community worse. Please, don't respond to this and say this is a kind of post that is making the community worse because it isn't much better than the one I'm replying to, I know.

If you don't know what you say, don't say it.
(simple request)



-danny

Opps I was just reading my post, I mean CCIA.



Opps ;)



-danny

try that url. I have used it often.
I use these terms loosely.
"If you go, go all out"
Plenty of crap pages exist that haven't been edited or changed since July 1998.
I may have been wrong about competition between ACZ and ticalc I saw something on their site and may have jumped to a conclusion. But is competition really bad?? Without the flames of course it may spawn faster production of higher quality games. I'm not a "wanna-be". I do not know assembly though I am making a futal attempt at learning it. I dislike having to type this comment which is really off of topic. CCiA hasn't been around long enough to get as large as ticalc, ti-files, or dimention-ti so I used that label.

||ME||

Personally, I think that it is quite clear that there is a HUGE problem concerning people learning to program ASM. It is very hard! I think that we should have a chat room designated just for that purpose alone. This way, people can go in and actually talk to other people instead of some stupid tutorial. I mean, don't get me wrong, i really appreciate the time that people have taken to write tutorials, but they could never be nearly as helpful as sitting down with someone who actually programs assembly and talking to them. I mean, whenever you have a problem, they probably have been in the exact same position before, and know exactly how to fix it! I think that if we made it easier to learn ASM, it would greatly improve the ti community. There are a lot of GREAT programmers out there who just are having trouble getting started.

I also think that the biggest thing that is hurting the ti community right now are the current flames going around. Those will die down unless we let allow that kind of thing to go on. If we can't stop people from doing that, then there should be somewhere that they can go and argue without disturbing the rest of us. Some of the comments links that I read look like the freaking Jerry Springer show! I mean, c'mon people........show some maturity. Anyway, I do have to say that I, too, like the thrilling games of yesteryear MUCH more than today's games. Today's games just do not have nearly as high of a quality.

I think that the games are very good that are coming out for the ti calculators, but that there just isn't enough programmers. Just think if we had two times as many programmers. You'd have two times as many awesome games to play on your calculator! Wouldn't that be great? :O)

Ryan
Royalnut13@aol.com

There are channels on EFNet for discussing assembly programming. They are #z80asm and #68kasm.

and #ti-asm, where you can discuss any problems, projects, releases, break-throughs, etc. regarding TI assembly.

There is only one way, inmy opinion, to learn assembly. Through tutorials. And one tutorial stands out in my mind...

It was by this guy who was just learning assembly himself for the TI-83, and he commented on everything. It is in the format of a windows help file, so you can search for things. It has about 60 lessons on every major and minor part of assembly, and since he was learning as he went along, everything is well documented.

It is the premiere assembly guide. If I new the guys name (lost the file) I would congradulate him on a job well done. Any beginning assembly prgrammers should look for it, it is in the TI-File archives under documents and utilities.

KnightRT

The author's name was James Matthews, and the instructions to download the help file (105 kb) are below. It is a great tutorial, though there are so many that it is hard to label one the best.

This is a Windows file. I do not recommend downloading it if you do not have Windows or a Windows clone (such as Xwindows).

Go to the TI-Files, go to the Columns section, go to Assembly, then to TI-83. Matthews' file is the last one on the list.

Yes...
Point me in the direction of one for 68k, if you could. I know it's hard, but I'd like to learn.

Hey, not to put others down, but twice as many programmers means twice as many bad games. I do appreciate the hard work of Don Barnes, Dan Eble, Magnus Hagander, Joe Wingbermuehle, Thomas Fernique, and the two guys who single-handedly made a working version of Street Fighter 2. This is good programming.
This should be the standard for making games. Don't rush out clones of the same game over and over, but come up with new ideas. Nibbles and Tetris do not have to be cloned 4 million times over.
Beta testers are a MUST. How else are you going to make a working version. Many people (not me) are very willing to sacrifice their calcs to play new games. I've had my own share of crashes.
Oh, and another thing...Can we find a standard for shells and libs? I've seen many a time where one game does not play on one shell, because it doesn't have the libs. This is crucial, especially when there is only one version of it. Can we all agree on a set of libs that programs can share, and that all of the shells support? And if there is a special lib, such as japlib for the 89, would it be possible to include it in the zip file with the program that uses it? I've been caught many times without certain libs, and it pisses the heck out of me.
Games aren't what they used to be, but if certain guidelines are followed, they certainly could be.

Snake

Justin, I'd like to say that you're absolutely right in your article. I agree that there are too many flames and too much hostility about off-topic issues in this comment system. I also am really disappointed in the strong competition and hatred between TI-Files and DIM-TI. Another example of the site competition is that it leads to channel takeovers on IRC, one of which I believe #ti was responsible for, just yeaterday. It's very disappointing to see the TI community deteriorate like this.
I have discussed the issue with Matthew Christenberry and Adam Berlinsky-Schine and neither can give me a good reason why they continue to hate each other to this day. I don't mean to single them out but conflicts like this are common among the TI community. This has led to much of the deterioration of the TI community. Both Adam and Matt have offered me a position on their staff or a possibility to become a staff member but I have since declined both since I don't wish to become involved in the meaningless bickering between TI-Files and DIM-TI.
The TI community has also seen a lack of professionalism recently. The firing of Bryan Rabeler is one example, the continuous site competition is another. The site that prided itself on professionalism and being better than the others proved otherwise. The EFNet channel #ti is one such example of unprofessionalism because of the bickering among owners and ops of the channel in a previous news item. There are many other examples of the unprofessionalism also but I've listed enough.
It disappoints me to think that the TI community will not turn around most likely. Unless some people, including myself, can shut up and not flame and not act hostile, I see that there will not be much improvement. It's good that someone, namely the author of this article, finally adderessed the problem but is it too late?

I have to disagree with you on most counts here, at least those pertaining to me.
"I have discussed the issue with Matthew Christenberry and Adam Berlinsky-Schine and neither can give me a good reason why they continue to hate each other to this day" - I haven't ever discussed this issue with you (can't speak for Matt). If you had, I would have given you many good reasons. I don't think TI-Files is much at war with Dim-TI as it is at war with me personally, for reasons most of you are aware of. I won't go into detail here to respect ticalc.org's request of "no webisite competition" even though this article is begging for just that. But since my reputation is reflected in Dim-TI's, TI-Files has every right to not like us.
"Both Adam and Matt have offered me a position on their staff or a possibility to become a staff member but I have since declined both" - I never offered you a position, I think you offered one for yourself and I said no :)
Nothing about IRC is professional. Few of the #ti owners are ticalc.org members. Their reputatation shouldn't be reflected in your view of ticalc.org

On all other counts I agree with you and Justin. The TI Community does need to shape up. Justin, the one thing you left out of your article is your suggestion about how to improve the situation. It is no easy task. I'd be interested in hearing some methods of improvement, rather than just complaints.

I agree on most of the parts; however, where you see this hatred between Dim-TI and TI-Files is beyond me. For as long as I've known the TI-Files (Quite a long time actually) and Dim-TI (Ever since it started), I have never seen a deep and bitter resentment toward each site. Each site respects one another, for we both work dillegently and for the same cause, and friendly cooperations have been made between both sites in the both recent and far past. Also, has anyone else noticed that articles such as these actually demeanor the state of the accused (TI community in this case)? No offense Justin, you had a very well-written article that voiced a pure and truthful opinion, but derogatory comments (as innocent as we know they are) actually hurt more than help. Has anyone noticed that postings here have been mostly negative and controversial, and even at times accusational? Seems to me like now that the problem (if it is one, competition has never been a problem to me) is let out into the public, people naturally find a scapegoat. This happens to ironically be the people that are the backbone of the accusers. So in short, the people who accuse and castigate TI programmers and the TI websites are really biting the hand that feeds them. I agree, some programs have lacked originality, but that occurs in any product, whether it be non-profit or a major commercial industry. Look what happened to Macintosh and IBM. In the 80s, Mac decided to copyright their BIOS so no one could copy it and they could regulate prices as they chose. IBM did not, and clones spawned up everywhere, drastically lowering the cost of such computers. Now, the question people asked themselves was "Do I want a high-end Mac for a LOT of money, or a normal IBM-clone for a decent price?" You make the decision. The same goes for TI games. Cloning, as unprofessional and unoriginal as it may seem to some of you, actually helps the industry. I won't go into details, but see DOOM or Command & Conquer. Those revolutionized the computer gaming industry. So, instead of berating these occurances, we should be congradulating the hard-working backbone, not trying to break it. That's my opinion, feel free to comment on it. Competition is always a good thing ;)

I think that this is the first timeI've used ticalc's nice little comment section. I can't recall at any time ever talking to George about anything involving Dim-TI and The TI-Files. Nor, do I remember offering George a position on the staff. As I recall, George came to me offering himself a position, as in Adam's case, and I said that I didn't know him well enough, or long enough, and to check back with me in a few weeks. For future reference...please check your facts before you go and try to make them public.

Hehe George you really made yourself look like a jackass this time. sorry if this is off topic.




-danny

What are you talking about? I spoke with Adam Berlinsky-Schine and he knows I didn't lie. Matt Christenberry also knows I am not lying. I might have been quite unclear but I did not lie. What do you mean I made a jackass of myself this time? I was unclear but I never lied. I think you owe me an explanation. Don't just post an call someone a jackass. That's called a flame. I think you should apologize for the flame.

Ok here's my standing on the subject. First off if you people can't see that there is a reason these are called rival sites then YOU have a problem. This isn't a perfect world therefore there are going to be conflicts and people are not going to get along. Second off, you really have no right to talk about either site the way that you did. You don't know the whole story and neither do I and neither of us probably ever will. So how about we stay on topic. This board is not used to bash sites or site workers. Just thought I would give my two cents.