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Omnimaga => Our Projects => Reuben Quest => Topic started by: DJ Omnimaga on March 31, 2014, 03:30:10 pm

Title: Reuben Quest fix for low-RAM 84+ calcs
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on March 31, 2014, 03:30:10 pm
It seems that there are a few TI-84 Plus and TI-84 Plus Silver Edition calculators that have under 24 KB of user RAM even after a full memory reset (RAM+Archive+APPS+Defaults). Mine appears to have 24278 bytes with all 6 lists deleted (OS 2.55 MP) and my two TI-83+ calcs 24389, but ben_g's 84+ appear to have much fewer than that. As a result, those calculators cannot run Reuben Quest: Ev Awakening. I do not know which hardware revisions they are, but I ran into two users in 2005 who had this problem and Ben_g bought his TI-84+ in 2009. A total of 6 users including those so far.

To work around that low RAM issue, I have released a modified version of the battle engine program, which is almost 3 KB smaller. That program is archived during runtime, but when a battle occurs, it is copied into RAM, which is why those so-called calcs with fewer user RAM will get an ERR:MEMORY on Reuben Quest battles (on a normal calc, you should have about 1 KB of it left if you quit a battle with the ON key). I didn't remove anything from the program, but I bulk-replaced many Omnicalc Sprite commands with the much smaller xLIB/DCS RecallPic syntax. As a result, this modified program will not run with Omnicalc, so I recommend Doors CS (in which it was tested). Hopefully xLIB and Celtic III works too. Grayscale was untested, so it might actually look worse than in the original battle program.

To install, install the game normally except for the program GC.8xp. Then install the attached copy of GC.8xp below in your archive.
Title: Re: Reuben Quest fix for low-RAM 84+ calcs
Post by: aeTIos on March 31, 2014, 04:46:10 pm
I think I also have like 23800 bytes of ram. might just be the VAT being real big though.
Title: Re: Reuben Quest fix for low-RAM 84+ calcs
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on April 01, 2014, 02:20:48 am
You need to check after clearing your entire mem (after backing up, of course), because archived files still takes some RAM, thanks to the VAT. After doing 2nd+Mem then reset>all, delete the 6 newly created empty lists in the mem manager then check how much RAM you have. Preferably, post your hardware revision (eg my 24278 bytes user RAM 84+ calc running OS 2.55MP is P-0410N).

I wonder if some OS patches could actually remove some of your user RAM?

In Ben_g's case, to play Gemini, he had to delete everything, even the pre-installed APPs (except Finance, of course, since it can't be deleted), and just keep MirageOS and the game installed. Doors CS couldn't run the game on his calc. In my case, I never tried DCS for that game, but I could at least keep a few extra archived files on my calc (about 8). Reuben 1 battles wouldn't even get close to run, while in my case, if I pressed ON in the middle of one, I still had 1 KB of free RAM.
Title: Re: Reuben Quest fix for low-RAM 84+ calcs
Post by: aeTIos on April 01, 2014, 02:22:21 am
Could also reset ram, then on+clear to skip the archive :)
Title: Re: Reuben Quest fix for low-RAM 84+ calcs
Post by: Sorunome on April 01, 2014, 06:04:43 am
Never knew there was a ram issue, but nice you fixed it ;)
Which reminds me.....
Title: Re: Reuben Quest fix for low-RAM 84+ calcs
Post by: Streetwalrus on April 01, 2014, 04:42:47 pm
... that you have work to do. :P
/me runs
Title: Re: Reuben Quest fix for low-RAM 84+ calcs
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on April 03, 2014, 03:11:18 pm
Never knew there was a ram issue, but nice you fixed it ;)
Which reminds me.....

Reuben Quest Axe remake updates needed? :trollface: