Age of Darkness Evo Edition
Demo 10/31/2026

Authored by TIFreak8x
( http://tifreakware.net / http://cemetech.net / https://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/authors/62/6245.html )


Lore drop:

Age of Darkness is an RPG line I started back in the late 90s as a text only/menu based game intending to offer a large map of exploration and things to do. It was huge, buggy, and not the pride of my life. I later played an RPG on the TI-86 called Final Fantasy (because obviously) and wanted to make something like it. It was simple, have black lines on the borders, and opening in those lines that indicated you could go to that screen with a moving character. This was the next step in game making for me, and I made 2 of this style, before I attempted a more sprite based game that ultimately failed (asm helper programs for basic were not as available at this time).

I eventually drifted off the TI scene for a bit as real life tends to do to people. With the newer calculators that came out, it's re-ignited the passion to make something better. I upgraded the RPG Starter Kit for the new Evo calculators, built a level editor, and decided that the second iteration of Age of Darkness needed an upgrade in graphics, and that's where this game is taking us.


Installation instructions:

Connect your Evo to your PC and use the online linking software of your choice to move the files from the RAM folder over to the calculator. You can install them all into Archive, but the game will be noticably slower, so installing everything outside of the picture variable to RAM would be best for performance.

Run AOD.8xp2 from the PRGM > TI-BASIC menu.


Controls:

^v<> (directional pad): Moves ingame character and cursor on menu options
2nd: this selects options and progresses menus
MODE: This accesses the ingame menu from the walking screen only


Game Play:

In typical RPG fashion, you play as a singular character with the intent to save the world. Some aspects of the game still needs a little tweaking, like enemy stats and the like. A lot of your exploration will be interrupted by random battles, and they are very randomly generated. From there, you have a number of random possible encounters in each area, usually around 6 different enemies with their own 16x16 sprite for easy identification purposes!

When you first start, if you are lucky, you won't run into bandits. They can be defeated, but it will take everything you have. You can hope to get access to the weaker enemies, which will help you level up a little before you get to the harder enemies. 

This game is a demo, and there is always a possibility of a bug or two cropping up. I encourage you to save the game often, so if you do run into an issue, you won't lose much progress. If you do run into an issue, I'd be grateful if you could relay to me the steps of what you were doing, and where you were at in game when it happened. Telling me what program it drops to upon error announcement would also be helpful. 

Report bugs to https://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21251 and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!

With the release of this demo, this basically has all the core aspects of the game in place. All that is missing is 4 land areas to explore, between 25 and 30 enemies to fight, numerous chests to find, and the remaining crystals of power to get! Patience, as I work to bring them to the game!