Omnimaga
General Discussion => Introduce Yourself! => Topic started by: Sitarknight on July 15, 2011, 06:07:37 am
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Hello everyone, I'm SitarKnight, I joined this community after seeing some videos of the TI-Nspire and TI-84 Plus playing games. One of the things that really got my attention was the video of the gameplay for Desolate. It totally inspired me to wanna go out and buy a calculator (which I don't yet have) and learn how to make my own games. (which I know nothing about and would appreciate some help on the matter)
I don't really have any background with programming, but I'm willing to learn. Any advice would be highly appreciated:) Thank you for reading.
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Welcome! If you want to try some games right now, you can download Wabbitemu which allows you to emulate a TI-83+/84+(SE). It'll also allow you to do everything else you can do with a calculator, like programming :) You might want to try making a few TI-BASIC programs first. It's easy and simple (and very good at math), but quite slow. Afterwards, if you want to make games with a bit of action, try Axe. It requires you to install the Axe app to your calculator, but it's definitely worth it. The syntax might be a bit tricky at first, but it's much simpler than asm, and the games will be quite fast.
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Will Wabbitemu run on Linux? I have no experience in how to make any TI-BASIC programs at all :/ is there a certain section I can find out how to, or a tutorial or youtube vid on how to do it? Not sure what you mean by quite a bit of action, I'm mainly wanting to make some rpg's. So you program games on the calculator itself?
Sorry for my lack of understanding, I'm a noob >.<
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Will Wabbitemu run on Linux?
Sadly not. There are other emulators that run on Linux, but I don't think that they're as complete as Wabbitemu. Maybe you could try wxWabbitemu (or is it called vxWabbitemu?), which is based on Wabbitemu.
Not sure what you mean by quite a bit of action, I'm mainly wanting to make some rpg's.
If you want to make an RPG, TI-BASIC is a pretty good choice. By action, I meant something like a platformer or adventure game where your character reacts to your input in real-time.
So you program games on the calculator itself?
TI-BASIC and Axe are almost always programmed on calculators, but assembly (which is the hardest language) is usually written and assembled on computers.
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Hmmm I guess I should get the calculator soon then. Oh so does that work for an rpg like say, Tales of Phantasia? Also, is it possible to use TI-BASIC on the Nspire series or say, the Voyage 200?
On a side note, is $40 a good deal for a TI-84 Plus silver edition?
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You can use wxwabbitemu, it works on Linux and is still being developed, so you have to compile from source. It's not hard to, it's actually very simple.
http://code.google.com/p/wxwabbitemu/wiki/installing_wxwabbitemu (http://code.google.com/p/wxwabbitemu/wiki/installing_wxwabbitemu)
I'm one of the active developers and I wrote that so you can install it easily :)
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Hmmm I guess I should get the calculator soon then. Oh so does that work for an rpg like say, Tales of Phantasia? Also, is it possible to use TI-BASIC on the Nspire series or say, the Voyage 200?
On a side note, is $40 a good deal for a TI-84 Plus silver edition?
BASIC does exist on the Nspire, Voyage 200, and 84 Plus series, but it is horribly crippled on the Nspire. However, on Nspire OS 3.0.1 and 3.0.2, Lua is supported, which would be much more powerful than Nspire BASIC, though still a bit limited.
Out of the 3, the Voyage 200 probably has the strongest implementation of BASIC, supporting sprites and other advanced features right out of the box. The downside is that there are only a few active 68k programmers, so support might take a little more time than for the 84 Plus. There are at least one or two active 68k BASIC programmers here, though. I don't believe he has a Voyage 200, but he'd probably be able to help at least a little bit.
As for the 84 Plus, the $40 sounds like a good deal, but if possible make sure it's in good working condition. 84 Plus BASIC is compatible with the 83 Plus, and there are a lot of people here with experience in 84 Plus/83 Plus BASIC, so support would probably be easy to come by. It doesn't support things like sprites out of the box, so if you wanted to make a game that actually looked like Tales of Phantasia, sprites and all, you'd need to use an ASM library.
With Voyage 200 BASIC and 84 Plus BASIC, I would recommend playing around with it for a while before attempting to use an ASM library.
If you're looking to use BASIC, I would recommend the Voyage 200 or 84 Plus. Though the Nspire(not the CX, though) has a 84 Plus emulator, it doesn't support certain things, like TI-Boy.
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Thank you FinaleTI, that was alot of helpful info. I believe I will go with the TI-84 then, I plan on doing a custom paint job for it ^_^ lol. Are there books on how to learn programming, BASIC, AXE and ASM?
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Hello, Welcome to the forums ! I'm surpised you didn't receive peanuts yet ???
If you don't know anything about programming, maybe it is your chance to learn ASM because that was my knowledge in BASIC that made me lost in ASM (I'm French, but you surely noticed it by non-understanding my sentences ;D). But BASIC and Axe are reputed to be easier. It's your choice ;)
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Hi! Welcome to the forums.
If you're interested in Basic for the TI-83/84 series, try http://tibasicdev.wikidot.com/home (http://tibasicdev.wikidot.com/home)
Their forum's aren't as active, but they do have the best introduction to TI-Basic (in my opinion, at least :))
For Axe, the best way to learn would be by first reading all the documentation that it comes with, then by asking loads of questions here.
We also have a tutorial section: http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=articles;cat=11 (http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=articles;cat=11)
As for books... Not so much. But learning programming (in any language) might be something to consider.
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Hey, welcome to Omnom.
You're getting a calculator just to play games? :< What a shame. Would be more exciting if you developed games or wrote some programs for the calculators! Trust me, that totally beats gaming on the calc. If you want to get started on some simple stuff, try picking up TI-BASIC, (or if you got an nSpire, try nSpire BASIC. Both are similar, the only differences are the reaches of each dialect.)
Don't call yourself a noob. Noobs have no will to learn and only ask for things. Newbs are people who want to learn more but don't know where to start. ;)
Good luck on your adventuring in programming and have fun here at Omnom!
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Hi, welcome ot Omnimaga!
Wow, I haven't heard of many people getting a calculator to play games on it :P
If you go with the nspire, I would suggest learning nspire BASIC. It's really easy to learn and offers a easy stepping stone to Lua (also easy to learn).
Have fun, and here are your peanuts! (http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc143/drumbboi/peanut-bag.gif)
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Welcome here! It's always nice to see some fresh talent around. I can't wait to see what you come up with!
(Just try not to bite off too much for your first project. As someone who's developing one right now, let me tell you that RPGs are not for the faint of heart. Good luck! :P )
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Sorry for my lack of understanding, I'm a noob >.<
We welcome noobs here! :)
About the books question, z80 and Axe aren't exactly ISO standards, so unfortunately, no books. However, if you're looking to learn ASM/Z80 google "Learn ti-83 plus Assembly in 28 days". That is a really good guide. Also, one of the admins here, Hotdog, wrote an ASM tutorial as well. I'm not really sure where it is, but it can't be too hard to find.
As for Axe, read the documentation and the PDF file in the zip. Then, ask questions in the dedicated subforum here (http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?board=162.0).
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(As someone who's developing one right now, let me tell you that RPGs are not for the faint of heart. Good luck! :P )
How true.
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Welcome! I was a newbie a few months ago. You will be surprised how fast you can learn a programming language.
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ohithur, you!
most people come into calc programming without any experience in other places. it's a wonderful place to start if you plan to go on to develop for other platforms and a wonderful hobby if you decide to never progress further.
like everyone else, i'd recommend the 83/84 series just because the community for it is still so active and, because they've been around for so long, we know nearly everything there is to know about how they work (with one or two exceptions...).
there are three main methods used for programming the 83/84 series: BASIC, which is probably the easiest place to start, axe, which uses basic tokens and is easy to pick up, but allows much more functionality (especially now that quigibo released version 1.0 =D), and asm, which allows direct access to the hardware, but can be a little verbose and takes a while to learn. all three of these languages have 'addons' which can be used to increase their ease of use (and, in the case of BASIC, their speed). BASIC has asm libraries like Iambian's Celtic III, Xeda's Batlib, etcetera, which allow things like sprite commands to be put inline in your BASIC programs. axe has things called axioms, which are optional additions written in assembly which give more functionality. asm has libraries (like ion) which allow you to benefit from what other people have written already and not have to write it again.
the 83/84 line are my favourites, but that doesn't mean all the others are worthless. the Casio PRIZM, in particular, is looking very promising, as it already supports code in asm and C (which, if you don't know, acts as a standard coding language and has been implemented on thousands of different devices), and has a larger screen and 16 bit (i think) colour support. plus, if you buy your calc in stores (which i don't recommend, because TI overprices), it costs about the same amount as an 83+ :P
i hope you are happy with your choice and have a wonderful time here!
oh, and do you play maple story? if so, you should check out wakfu. it's still in closed beta for NA, but i got a key yesterday and can say that it is, unquestionably, the best mmo i have every played.
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@AGVolnutt and Pianoman, I'm actually buying a calculator to learn to do programming cus I've always wanted to make my own video games, and with the way my life is, I have alot of free time lol
@Binder News, thank you so much for all the great resources :)
And @shmibs I'm definitely gonna start off with a TI-84 Plus Silver Edition, as it doesn't cost that much at my local pawn shop. Yeah, I've seen the Casio Prizm, man it looks sexy ;) lol. If I make a good game on the 84, I wanna try to make an advanced version of it on the Casio Prizm.
I used to play maplestory quite a long time ago, was somewhat famous too lol. I try to stay away from MMORPG's as I get addicted pretty fast
>.<
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Welcome! Guess another Coding Knight has arrived :)
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Coding Knight? Well maybe in time, but for now, I'm just a Sitar Knight :P lol
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Will Wabbitemu run on Linux?
Yes, through wine. For responsiveness though ( for gaming and such ) use wxwabbitemu. If you need a debugger ( for assembly etc ) use wine.
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Or else you can try in a virtual machine, such as VirtualBox.
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Welcome to Omnimaga, Sitarknight!
It's cool that you want to make games for the calc, and that's leading you to buying one. :) I wish you the best of luck with learning to program.
If you would like to start with an RPG, try something really, really small. It's really hard to write an RPG. Click on Elmgon in my sig to see what I'm struggling with, and I've been programming calcs for about 4 years.
I hope you enjoy Omnimaga! :D If you need any help, just ask. :)
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Hey Sitarknight, Welcome!
I'm a noob too, so if you need someone on your level, talk to me and i'll see what i can do.
I'm mostly on the irc, so catch me there.
Good luck with the programming, and hope you have a great time here!
Ti-Programmer (Ti-PrgmR)
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@ztrumpet Well it looks like you've got a lot done judging by the screens. Kind of reminds me of Zelda for the gameboy, or Final Fantasy Adventure. I'm more than likely gonna have lots of questions starting off, I hope I won't get on your nerves XD
@Ti-Programmer thanks, I need all the help I can get :) I read a post of yours earlier on a different topic, I'm sure I'm more noob than you >.< lol
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Welcome sitar :) hope you enjoy your stay.
I also suggest using the 84+ to boot, but also consider the Prizm as well ;) I have both and I can't complain about the programability of either.
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@Ashbad Which would you say is easier to program?
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I'm more than likely gonna have lots of questions starting off, I hope I won't get on your nerves XD
No problem. :) I, as well as most of the people here, will be more than happy to answer your questions if it allows you to succeed. ;D
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Hmm, both have a BASIC implementation on them, but in the long term the 84+ would be easier because the next level up there is Axe, which is a lot easier than C; and, z80 assembly on the 84+ is simpler than SH3 ASM on the Prizm, if you ever try that. So, I guess I would suggest to start with the 84+ ;)
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Plus the 84 is a lot more open--after some recent events it's pretty much as open as a device ever will be :P
Bigger community, more developed.
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Wow. I'm flabbergasted (lol yes i used that word) that wabbit isn't made for linux considering how many linux users we have here! Even I didn't know this.
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Hello everyone, I'm SitarKnight, I joined this community after seeing some videos of the TI-Nspire and TI-84 Plus playing games. One of the things that really got my attention was the video of the gameplay for Desolate. It totally inspired me to wanna go out and buy a calculator (which I don't yet have) and learn how to make my own games. (which I know nothing about and would appreciate some help on the matter)
I don't really have any background with programming, but I'm willing to learn. Any advice would be highly appreciated:) Thank you for reading.
What calculator you should get depends on what you want to do.
If you want a large base of existing software to learn from and play with, the 84+ series is your best bet. It has a lot of existing stuff like Axe, many active developers, and it's fully hacked as well as extraordinarily well documented.
If you want a lot of memory as well as a good BASIC, then the 89's and other 68K calculators are nice. However, they have almost no developers remaining and finding help may be difficult.
If you want the best hardware, the Nspire series has it. However, it's very difficult to ensure future compatibility and TI tends to block exploits, meaning that running code is often difficult.
If you want the platform with the most potential*, the Prizm is the way to go. You can program for it in a number of languages, it has a useful (if slow) implementation of BASIC, and the hardware is far better than the 84+ series. It even has a high resolution color screen, so that you can draw those pretty images that the 84+ can't. The main problem is that the Prizm is so new that a lot of programming tools and documentation don't exist yet.
There's also the HP calculators, which are insanely good at math, but tend to be rather user unfriendly and lack almost any sort of community.
*I'll admit to being a bit biased :P
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Also, the Nspire, (non-CX, and you have to buy another keypad from TI) has an 84+ emulator, so you can have the advantages of the Nspire with most (unfortunately, not everything is emulated correctly) of the software base of the 83/84 series.
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Plus the 84 is a lot more open--after some recent events it's pretty much as open as a device ever will be :P
Bigger community, more developed.
The TI-83+SE is technically slightly more open, since TI hasn't released 1.03 on it. :P But yeah, the TI-84+(SE) is the one that you can do the most things with.
Also, the Nspire, (non-CX, and you have to buy another keypad from TI) has an 84+ emulator, so you can have the advantages of the Nspire with most (unfortunately, not everything is emulated correctly) of the software base of the 83/84 series.
The 84+ emulator on the Nspire isn't very good for programming. You can't use 2.43, you can't write to flash, programs that use USB don't work, old games don't work because of hidden instructions, etc.
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Alright, thanks for all the great info everyone :) Ok, get myself a 84+SE, learn BASIC, ASM, and AXE. Hone my skills, then move on to a Casio Prizm when I feel I'm ready :) lol
I kind of wanna paint the casing and add a backlit screen, is that a bad idea or no?
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Wow. I'm flabbergasted (lol yes i used that word) that wabbit isn't made for linux considering how many linux users we have here! Even I didn't know this.
Technically wabbit does have a port, wxWabbit (http://code.google.com/p/wxwabbitemu/)
which compiles itself automatically. is already pre-compiled.
just use:
/path/to/compiled/file/wxwabbitemuor to permanently set it (after compile):
sudo mv wxwabbitemu /usr/bin/wabbit(You can change "/usr/bin/wabbit" to whatever you like, you just have to leave it in the "/usr/bin" dir.)
Then just execute it.
Or if you are more technical, get wine and Wabbitemu For Win32 or 64 (http://group.revsoft.org/Wabbitemu.exe)
then:
cd /path/to/downloaded/file
chmod +x ./Wabbitemu.exe
sudo wine ./Wabbitemu.exe
Then just use it like regular, all the stuff is the same
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Alright, thanks for all the great info everyone :) Ok, get myself a 84+SE, learn BASIC, ASM, and AXE. Hone my skills, then move on to a Casio Prizm when I feel I'm ready :) lol
I kind of wanna paint the casing and add a backlit screen, is that a bad idea or no?
Paint should be easy, backlight is tricky. To do it correctly it requires decent patience and knowledge on the subject, and if you mess up you have a good chance of ruining the screen.
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Alright, thanks for all the great info everyone :) Ok, get myself a 84+SE, learn BASIC, ASM, and AXE. Hone my skills, then move on to a Casio Prizm when I feel I'm ready :) lol
I kind of wanna paint the casing and add a backlit screen, is that a bad idea or no?
Yeah, go for the paint and backlight. Just be careful.
As far as which 84+SE to get, try and get one that has a letter between A and F as the last digit/letter of the serial number, which is stamped on the back of the case. Those have more RAM. ;D
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Coding Knight? Well maybe in time, but for now, I'm just a Sitar Knight :P lol
Knight that codes :D
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Alright, thanks for all the great info everyone :) Ok, get myself a 84+SE, learn BASIC, ASM, and AXE. Hone my skills, then move on to a Casio Prizm when I feel I'm ready :) lol
I kind of wanna paint the casing and add a backlit screen, is that a bad idea or no?
You can't do much wrong with paint, but for the backlight, I would suggest just taping some LED's at the side of the screen, outside of the calculator. This should give you enough light if you take bright LED's. Also remembr that soldering anything to the INSIDE of your calculator will void the warranty, and if you are using LED's for this, don't forget to use a resistor when you use the calc's 6v battery pack.
But anyway, i really think you should paste LED's or other lights to the front of the calculator, pointing at the screen. A screen that isn't made for use with a baklight has a mirror at the back, which usually isn't fully transparent (I tried it with an other kind of LCD some time ago, and only a rectangle in the middle was illuminated). And many other screens with baclight also have the light in front of the screen anyway.
By the way: welcome to omnimaga
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Hi and welcome to the forums Sitarknight. :)