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Omnimaga => News => Topic started by: DJ Omnimaga on May 26, 2010, 03:58:35 am

Title: Video tribute to Axe Parser project
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on May 26, 2010, 03:58:35 am
After several hours of work (and many software crashes), the Axe Parser tribute video I promised for weeks is finally here! This video showcases several programs people have made or are working on using the new programming language for the TI-83 Plus and TI-84 Plus series:



Enjoy!
Title: Re: Video tribute to Axe Parser project
Post by: Galandros on May 26, 2010, 04:11:38 am
Another great video related to calculators by DJ.

I hope it gets exposure, so more excellent games appear. Axe Parser can beat every interpreted language we could do for z80 in speed.
Title: Re: Video tribute to Axe Parser project
Post by: Quigibo on May 26, 2010, 04:40:22 am
Nice!  I can see a lot of effort when into this, great variety of screenshots!  Excellent job :)

I hope it gets exposure, so more excellent games appear. Axe Parser can beat every interpreted language we could do for z80 in speed.

You know I have this little fear inside me, however small, that if it does get really popular, is there a likelihood we could see a new rush of "bad" games?  Imagine how the TI archives used to be with BASIC programs; many of them were pretty low quality with very little effort put into them becasue they were quick and easy to make.  I really hope that doesn't happen with Axe programs, I doubt it.  But so far, I haven't seen any axe games uploaded to ticalc.org beyond this community.
Title: Re: Video tribute to Axe Parser project
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on May 26, 2010, 04:56:35 am
Thanks ^^

It took a while to start up. The longest part was compiling (and making) screenshots and convert them in Avi format. In some cases this screwed up a bit, so I had to find ways to make sure the converted files are useable in the video editor. On top of that I got a few crashes during making the vid. Fortunately, though, it's MUCH less of an hassle to make a video on a Quad Core Intel i7 2.80 GHz with 8 GB of RAM than an Intel Celeron 2.93 GHz with 1 GB of RAM. You have absolutely no idea how much pain it was to make
&fmt=18 (even the 2009 one wasn't as bad because it didn't have as many special effects and there were much less screenshots used since it only covered 2009 programs rather than 2001-08)

Nice!  I can see a lot of effort when into this, great variety of screenshots!  Excellent job :)

I hope it gets exposure, so more excellent games appear. Axe Parser can beat every interpreted language we could do for z80 in speed.

You know I have this little fear inside me, however small, that if it does get really popular, is there a likelihood we could see a new rush of "bad" games?  Imagine how the TI archives used to be with BASIC programs; many of them were pretty low quality with very little effort put into them becasue they were quick and easy to make.  I really hope that doesn't happen with Axe programs, I doubt it.  But so far, I haven't seen any axe games uploaded to ticalc.org beyond this community.
This is one worry I had since this project started getting popular. With every easy thing involving creation, it attracts a wider programmer audience and a lot of people who have no idea what is considered bad may not think before uploading. Fortunately, though, Axe is not built in the calc when they buy it, so by the time they discover it, they might have improved their skills a bit with TI-BASIC. Also, Axe is pretty fast so even the crappy programs might end up enjoyable.

Let's hope that it won't end up too bad. However if it does, at least you'll still have made one great piece of software and I don't think people will start bashing Axe as a language like in 2003-05 with TI-BASIC because it's so much faster. The only issue if ticalc ASM section gets flooded with crappy Axe programs is that Axe programmers might start getting a crappy reputation, though.
Title: Re: Video tribute to Axe Parser project
Post by: meishe91 on May 26, 2010, 05:04:49 am
@Quigibo
Ya, that would really suck and I know where your coming from. But considering what it takes to even learn Axe I would bet all the games will be at least tolerable.

@DJ
Very epic, my friend :)
Title: Re: Video tribute to Axe Parser project
Post by: calcdude84se on May 26, 2010, 07:47:11 am
Awesome video, DJ. Where are all these programs? I've never seen them.
And, yeah, for that to happen to Axe, or to any high-quality program, would be terrible.
This is why I don't program in BASIC unless I'm bored and can't be bothered to do it in Axe or ASM.
Title: Re: Video tribute to Axe Parser project
Post by: kindermoumoute on May 26, 2010, 07:57:36 am
Good video, i like it ;)
Title: Re: Video tribute to Axe Parser project
Post by: tr1p1ea on May 26, 2010, 08:11:09 am
Awesome video, and dont worry Quigi, the good will far outweigh the bad.

Sick music btw, love that song.
Title: Re: Video tribute to Axe Parser project
Post by: TIfanx1999 on May 26, 2010, 10:14:13 am
Nice video DJ! @ Quigibo: I wouldn't worry to much. There are plenty of bad ASM and BASIC programs out there as well. In short: any language will have both good and bad programs written for it. As this progresses more, and more people become aware of it, I'm sure the will be more programs written for it.
Title: Re: Video tribute to Axe Parser project
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on May 26, 2010, 12:27:55 pm
Thanks a lot guys and tr1p1ea glad you like the song ^^

Where are all these programs? I've never seen them.
All are scattered accross the Projects post and critique topic, the routines one and some are either in our projects (like Portal X) or in the other calc projects and ideas sub-forum. A lot were compiled for old versions of Axe, though (such as 0.0.5) so they will most likely not compile for newer versions

Btw good programs can be done in BASIC too. See Contra 83, FFTOM (altough the code quality is very dated) series, Builderboy stuff and more. The contest entries were quite good too (even if one was a bit too fast to be playable easily) and I saw many other cool stuff being done before. I also spent a lot of time working on my old RPGs to make them as good as possible, even if back then I did not know half of the optimizing tricks you all know today. In the past (before 2005 mostly) I remember ASM fanboys bashing all BASIC programs and programmers no matter how good they were because they were blinded by the crap on ticalc.org. The issue with BASIC is that it's both easier to access and extremly slow than any other language, which causes even more crappier games to come out. Result: 95% of the Ticalc.org BASIC archives are filled with redundant crap and the good stuff barely gets recognition.
Title: Re: Video tribute to Axe Parser project
Post by: Quigibo on May 26, 2010, 02:19:31 pm
But so far, I haven't seen any axe games uploaded to ticalc.org beyond this community.

Scratch that.  Just noticed one this morning and it was actually pretty good.  I'm hoping someone will make "Axe Murderer" which would be a game about a serial killer.  Maybe I'll do that eventually... (make the game I mean ;) )
Title: Re: Video tribute to Axe Parser project
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on May 26, 2010, 02:30:55 pm
Yeah I noticed the Zombie game. I'll try it later I think. So far on ticalc there are:

Animation Pack for TI-BASIC & Axe programmers
Axe Tunnel
Axe Zombie
Eat Nethams
Obstacle Snake

Not sure if there are others (there could be if somebody passed an Axe game as an ASM one on ticalc by not including the source/giving credits)

Btw on a off-topic note, anybody knows if NewProg for 68k calcs is interpreted? I find it weird that NewProg would get its own category on ticalc.org if it's not the case, considering TIGCC programs existed for almost a decade, yet are still uploaded under the ASM sections.
Title: Re: Video tribute to Axe Parser project
Post by: ztrumpet on May 26, 2010, 04:49:10 pm
This is an awesome video!  Great job on it DJ!  I think it's very well done.  Thanks Quigibo! ;D
Title: Re: Video tribute to Axe Parser project
Post by: Raylin on May 26, 2010, 07:16:58 pm
Nice!  I can see a lot of effort when into this, great variety of screenshots!  Excellent job :)

I hope it gets exposure, so more excellent games appear. Axe Parser can beat every interpreted language we could do for z80 in speed.

You know I have this little fear inside me, however small, that if it does get really popular, is there a likelihood we could see a new rush of "bad" games?  Imagine how the TI archives used to be with BASIC programs; many of them were pretty low quality with very little effort put into them becasue they were quick and easy to make.  I really hope that doesn't happen with Axe programs, I doubt it.  But so far, I haven't seen any axe games uploaded to ticalc.org beyond this community.

Noobs can't get Axe. Hopefully. Maybe. Possibly...
Title: Re: Video tribute to Axe Parser project
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on May 26, 2010, 08:27:01 pm
well, my worry is that a lot of the graphical commands are practically the same thing as in TI-BASIC. It's possible to make a game without using pointers and just text and variables. My guess is that we may see some bad games come out, but the amount will be much lower than in BASIC. It's certain that the early Axe games might be simple, though, because many people will try to make clones of already existing ASM games in Axe to show how the speed of the language compares to straight assembly
Title: Re: Video tribute to Axe Parser project
Post by: Galandros on May 28, 2010, 04:05:55 pm
Seems that your video is going to be an excellent showcase of Axe Parser in ticalc: http://www.ticalc.org/archives/news/articles/14/146/146335.html

It surely makes you feel great knowing your video will inspire new coders for Axe Parser. ^^
Title: Re: Video tribute to Axe Parser project
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on May 28, 2010, 10:57:23 pm
Yeah I saw, and I got a few comments about the videos and most people said "wow that vid just makes me want to learn Axe."

Even Iambian did, despite being an hardcore ASM programmer since 2003

Also since the Axe topics are flooded with posts I'll not post the following there, I'll post it in this news instead:

Congrats Quigibo for the ticalc.org feature :D

It will be hard to decide for 2010 POTY if Calc84maniac releases Project M or F-Zero before December 1st 2010. ;D
Title: Re: Video tribute to Axe Parser project
Post by: Ti-newb on May 30, 2010, 10:22:46 pm
Great Vid DJ. and Great Creation Quigbo =D

EDIT: Quigibo*
Title: Re: Video tribute to Axe Parser project
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on May 30, 2010, 11:54:01 pm
Thanks ^^