Post by: Halifax on November 11, 2006, 06:01:00 pm
The z80 TI community is heading in a bad direction for most. Games are becoming generic and anything is being realesed on to the Web. Let's take a look at a handful of programs I found in ticalc.org's recent files. Sieprinski Triangle Drawing, Super Mario Bros(8 Worlds), Quadratic Formula Program, MarioDXX(level), Time/Date set. All these programs really should not even make it to ticalc.org let's face the truth. One thing though is that all ideas really have been used dry and that's why if someone finds a good idea they usually run with it and program many sequels thus locking them into shackles and maknig them prone to stay with that program and not move on to another. It is not the programmers fault though.
Hypothetical:
Let's think about this for a second say that NES was the only console system out there and it was the best. It has been out there for 10 years and great games have come out for it. Developers are finding it hard to develop for and turning away. Gamers are turning away because there are no new games for it. All of a sudden PS2 comes out and blows away everyone with 3D and developers are going crazy with games and gamers and buying it all cause it is great. The PS2 sees the same fate as NES though because it has been out there for 10 years.
I think you understand what I am trying to say. The z80 series has been out there for so long with no new updates at all that have sparked interest. Developers are running out of ideas and thus not getting games out which turns away gamers so that when a game does come out it doesn't get many downloads. That's the thing 83/84(+) has overstayed it's welcome. There needs to be a next generation calculator like an 84+^2. The z80 series needs improvement on this next generation system like memory-mapped display instead out an LCD driver, some vector support,update to a better custom z80 processor like maybe adding some registers and combineing 16 bit registers to 32 bit registers!!!!, a OS resembling a computer OS,Programming API like OpenGL and other things, maybe even throw in included grayscale with black and white. This next-gen calculator would inspire people to develop more things and also be more downloads. I know your saying look at the 89-92-and v200, or look at the TI-Nspire, but I don't want to I want a calculator that I am familar with but still has some new cutting edge features.
I have seen the Assembly advancements in 3-D and I personally think these are the pioneers that are keeping the z80 community a float in the middle of an 800 mile ocean of death.
These are just my opinions about the TI Community, and I am not blaming the programmers I am actually blaming TI.
Points of this articles:
There needs to be a next-gen title
The z80 community is exhausted
TI needs to pay more attention to the 83/84(+) series
(random)Why are all TI Applications 2 pages?
Post by: Netham45 on November 11, 2006, 06:24:00 pm
Post by: Halifax on November 11, 2006, 07:29:00 pm
Post by: spengo on November 11, 2006, 07:56:00 pm
Check out what Ranman's doing with Ultima V. There's a lot of other cool games out there too- oblivion, corridor 99, f-zero, space dementia 1 and 2, and even a gameboy emulator!Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 12, 2006, 02:33:00 am
I think at one point people who want to push limits further will have to switch to 15 MHz models to get more speed and make their games only for their models, but this will not be good for regular TI-83+ users
Post by: Netham45 on November 12, 2006, 02:53:00 am
Post by: Liazon on November 12, 2006, 03:24:00 am
Maybe that's why a game like Digitan's RobotWars seems more feasible on 82 instead of 8xp! 86 games can have sometimes up 8 lvl gs, and it's basically a weaker 83+, but it has a MEMORY MAPPED SCREEN. not to mention, I think you can even mess with the LCD port and tell it to read from a different buffer.
edit:
btw, I've decided to make NanoWar rpg similar to RobotWars (probably won't be as good :)
) and I think I'll probably have to use 8x8 b/w sprites. I haven't done ASM in awhile, but I'll give a shot at it when I'm bored w/ my 68k project or something.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 12, 2006, 05:22:00 am
Post by: bfr on November 12, 2006, 06:19:00 am
A FAT-Engine-type thing would probably be good for Zilog 80 calculators, if they can handle it. But then again, I'm thinking about the amount of 3-D games for 68K calculators, and how fun they were, and how much more fun the 2-D games were... >.> We need a creative person to come up with a good 3-D game then that is actually programmable.
I like my TI-86 and TI-84+ Silver Edition. Even if they phase out, like the probably will (but not soon), I'll still be programming for them (for us old-schoolers). MS-DOS phased away, the TI-58 C phased away, so, my friends, enjoy your Zilog 80 calculators before they are banished from society.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 12, 2006, 06:33:00 am
Post by: Radical Pi on November 12, 2006, 07:35:00 am
It does stink that we're here for the end of the z80 series, and we don't want that, but I think it's really a lack of motivation. I mean, it was discovered that you could use blue on the 84+, yet no one did anything about that yet. I'd like some blue lightning titlescreens on my games that only fit on the 84s.
Also, there's the xLib Guru. I've seen nothing done to it in weeks. Does that mean xlib games will start to decline, with a lack of enthusiasm for that?
You're right about running out of ideas for z80, partially. But No one is applying old ideas to new concepts. I don't see any Super Mario + Grayscale in basic or even ASM. But I'm doing Basic SM with SOUND and sprites!
Thank god DCS6 is being released soon. That along with gCn should spark some creativity. Playing multiplayer games online with a calc is a great idea.
I wish I could understand asm so I could do something in that field, but I'm going to stick with Basic and probably something for DS homebrew.
z80 is only as dead as its programmers. And its programmers have given up.
-Radical Pi
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 12, 2006, 09:16:00 am
Post by: Radical Pi on November 12, 2006, 11:57:00 am
Post by: Halifax on November 12, 2006, 12:51:00 pm
Post by: Radical Pi on November 13, 2006, 12:21:00 am
Post by: JincS on November 13, 2006, 04:32:00 am
Design a new calc, but nix the z8->pop in an old Pentium Processor (P1-P4) would work great) and update the OS to support 32-bit instructions. Then, you could update the OS to support your 3D graphics (with an Allegro or OpenGL port or something), add in your FAT32 filesystem, and have better hardware/peripheral suooprt. That way, you can port ALMOST ALL 8086 ASM games (aka DOS games) to your calc, have a mem-mapped display, (for buffered screen output). There's so many more 8086 asm programmers out there that games would be popping up so fast, we wouldn't be able to keep up with them!
Post by: rivereye on November 13, 2006, 05:39:00 am
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 13, 2006, 05:47:00 am
| QUOTE (rivereye @ 13 Nov, 2006, 11:39) |
| would be great to see a Pentium in a calc is the heat factor |
at least you could cook with your calc
Post by: Fryedsoft on November 13, 2006, 08:48:00 am
And from the looks of it, the Nspire is going to be an ASM'ers dream, but good luck programming a Ti-BASIC Nspire game with http://www.bluecrimson.com/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl?b-tinspire/m-1161633215/.
Post by: Halifax on November 13, 2006, 03:11:00 pm
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 14, 2006, 03:47:00 am
Post by: Halifax on November 16, 2006, 12:20:00 pm
Scuttle is a fast, fun, and efficient BASIC game in which you race around the screen avoiding the enemy and collecting points. Scuttle was my first *real* BASIC game. Soon I'll make an ASM version to fix the problem BASIC has of slowing down after a while, so be on the lookout for that! Enjoy.
He says it is an efficient BASIC game, but then he says of the problem BASIC has of slowing down after a while. Now I am sure that if you look at this game and see how non-complex it is that we can make a general conclusion. This programmer has used Goto in an unefficient way in his BASIC program and I can confidently say this without looking at the source because there is no reason this program should be slowing down at all no matter how long you play it.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 16, 2006, 02:39:00 pm
Post by: dinhotheone on December 12, 2006, 10:46:00 am
I guess TI got some new calc coming out... here
go to this http://www.ticalc.org/
Post by: Halifax on December 12, 2006, 12:00:00 pm
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 13, 2006, 02:57:00 am
so i guess we will need to stick to asm if nobody write a C compiler for it
Post by: JincS on December 13, 2006, 04:45:00 am
*saying this while the article is loading (dial-up), so don't yell at me if I said something stupid*
Oh, and I do realize that heat and power would both be issues with a Pentium-powered calc; I just thought it'd be funny to see (and you could cook with it :P
).
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 13, 2006, 04:49:00 am
Post by: JincS on December 13, 2006, 04:55:00 am
Project Idea? Maybe...
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on December 13, 2006, 05:01:00 am
Post by: Halifax on December 13, 2006, 03:28:00 pm