Omnimaga

Calculator Community => Other Calc-Related Projects and Ideas => TI Z80 => Topic started by: ztrumpet on May 23, 2010, 10:45:37 am

Title: Elmgon Progress
Post by: ztrumpet on May 23, 2010, 10:45:37 am
I started coding on Elmgon again recently and realized I never uploaded the demo I promised a month ago.  I decided to implement other features and then show if to everyone.  I worked on adding features/fixing bugs (one bug took me 4 hours!), but it's finally ready.  I still need to add two features to the engine: Battling and Running into an event (you come to a certain spot on a map and it calls an event program).  Keep in mind that I haven't optimized some things, so stuff like the bottom of prgmZELMMOVE look terrible. ;D  If you have any comments, suggestions, criticism, or you just want to yell at me for taking a month and a half to post this demo, feel free to post them. ;D

Controls:
[2nd] Jump
[Alpha] Stop the demo
[Up] Go in doors
[Left Arrow] Move Left
[Right Arrow] Move Right
[Left or Right when next to something] Trigger event (like talking to a person)

Oh, and if anyone can find any  more speed in the walking loop, you get a cookie! ;D
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: Hot_Dog on May 23, 2010, 12:51:13 pm
Ztrumpet, this is looking awesome!

I'll make a counter offer for more speed in the walking loop: A cookie and a bag of peanuts.
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: TIfanx1999 on May 23, 2010, 02:54:45 pm
This looks really nice. What is the smaller graphic that seems to be following your character around?
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: meishe91 on May 23, 2010, 04:23:01 pm
Seems to be something like a pet (or something like Pikachu and Ash). But this looks awesome, I'll try it out when I get a chance :)
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: ztrumpet on May 23, 2010, 04:40:02 pm
I'll make a counter offer for more speed in the walking loop: A cookie and a bag of peanuts.
Sounds good. ;D

This looks really nice. What is the smaller graphic that seems to be following your character around?

It's actually another person.  I'm demonstrating an aspect of the engine that will let another character follow you if the story wants someone to help you on a certain task. ;D  (In other words, they follow you if I want them to... :D )
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: meishe91 on May 23, 2010, 04:48:49 pm
Oh, so kind of how like in Pokemon games when you have to like save someone from someplace and they follow and battle with you? (Minus the battle with you part.)
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: ztrumpet on May 23, 2010, 05:11:10 pm
Oh, so kind of how like in Pokemon games when you have to like save someone from someplace and they follow and battle with you? (Minus the battle with you part.)
If I want, then yes.  Oh, and Plus the battle part if I want. ;D
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on May 23, 2010, 06:19:27 pm
Darn! I was shocked at the amazingness shown in that screenshot. Look at what pure-BASIC can do still at good speed! I wish we knew those tricks more back in the days. I would have happily used them in Illusiat series. Very nice job! I'll try the demo as soon as I get some time

I'm also very happy this project was revived
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: ztrumpet on May 23, 2010, 07:49:25 pm
Battling and Running into an event (you come to a certain spot on a map and it calls an event program).
Yay, these are in the walking engine!  I haven't put it into the right sub-programs yet, so it doesn't actually call the battle engine yet, it just displays "Battle Time!" on the screen. :P  Now it's time for me to completely rearrange the programs, which should take a while.  Hopefully it goes smoothly, but I think there's going to be a lot of bugs that take a while to fix. ;D

I just checked the FPS on a 84+SE with the new changes, and it's at slightly over 3fps. ;D
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: meishe91 on May 23, 2010, 07:50:09 pm
Just tried it out. It is really cool! Can't wait for more progress. I'm going to go over the code soon.
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on May 23, 2010, 07:51:29 pm
can't wait for battles ^^

I hope you don't have too much trouble with bugs x.x
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: meishe91 on May 23, 2010, 08:13:45 pm
Well haven't gone over code specifically but you get rid of 41 bytes (or bits, not sure which it counts in...) by just removing the spaces and comments.

Except I just realized you're looking for speed...forgot that haha. Ignore that then :P
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: TIfanx1999 on May 24, 2010, 12:37:08 am
I'll make a counter offer for more speed in the walking loop: A cookie and a bag of peanuts.
Sounds good. ;D

This looks really nice. What is the smaller graphic that seems to be following your character around?

It's actually another person.  I'm demonstrating an aspect of the engine that will let another character follow you if the story wants someone to help you on a certain task. ;D  (In other words, they follow you if I want them to... :D )
Ah ok. Now that I think about it, I think you mentioned that a while back. Very nice stuff!
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: Galandros on May 24, 2010, 03:17:31 pm
TI-BASIC although very limited in speed, can actually make the coder only deserve more reward for his work.
And that is actually a amazing and honourable piece of work. It gives definitely one of my favourite ASCII screens.
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: jsj795 on May 24, 2010, 03:28:26 pm
Wow! Great work!
Nice to see more progress ^^
btw, how big is the programs so far?
I can't try it on my calculator and try to look for optimization atm because my friend burrowed my ti 84.
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on May 24, 2010, 03:30:30 pm
my friend burrowed my ti 84.
I hope you meant borrowed  :o

Else, kill him!  :o

(welcome back btw)
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: jsj795 on May 24, 2010, 03:34:32 pm
lol yeah borrowed ^^
well, I have been checking the forum from time to time, although I didn't post.
I have soooo many posts to read atm o.o
I hope to get back my calc in about 2 weeks b/c that's when the school's over
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on May 24, 2010, 03:45:20 pm
aaah ok me too, it sucks if you get free time and can,t even use your calc to code x.x (like Eeems)
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: ztrumpet on May 24, 2010, 04:01:30 pm
I just got a RAM Clear! :(
I now am starting over from what you guys saw in the screenie...
(I'm almost done, but I've been working on it for the past hour...)
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: TIfanx1999 on May 24, 2010, 04:07:09 pm
Good thing you had a recent backup. =D As DJ Omnimaga often says; backup often when coding on calc!
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: meishe91 on May 24, 2010, 04:08:29 pm
Ya, and at least you know basically what you did before so it won't take nearly as long (hopefully).
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: Galandros on May 24, 2010, 04:17:44 pm
Better luck for the future ztrumpet. ;) Hopefully you had recent backups.

Good thing you had a recent backup. =D As DJ Omnimaga often says; backup often when coding on calc!
And releasing a demo is a very welcoming way to backup. ^^
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on May 24, 2010, 04:29:18 pm
That sucks :/ what caused the RAM clear, though? I am surprised considering this project is pure BASIC.

Don't give up, though D:
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: ztrumpet on May 24, 2010, 05:06:02 pm
That sucks :/ what caused the RAM clear, though? I am surprised considering this project is pure BASIC.

Don't give up, though D:
No, I played a game in Asm in Mirage and it froze (the game not Mirage). =/
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: calcdude84se on May 24, 2010, 05:18:21 pm
Oh... that's not good. :( How recent a backup do you have?
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: ztrumpet on May 24, 2010, 05:19:35 pm
 * ZTrumpet checks the first post on page one of this topic...
About that recent... ;D
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on May 24, 2010, 05:22:40 pm
The good thing is that you did not lose too much either. But yeah it's best to always backup stuff often. Also never play other games while programming another. I often saw people getting crashes that way.
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: calcdude84se on May 24, 2010, 05:29:31 pm
a few hours over one day of progress. not to bad... (this is about the only time I hope that people have not worked on a project)
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on May 24, 2010, 05:41:22 pm
That said, it all depends of how long he worked on the game today and how fast, though. I wonder if in USA they celebrate Patriots/Dollard Day this Monday? If he had no school and worked like 9 hours on the game since this morning then that's a lot of progress lost.
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: _player1537 on May 24, 2010, 09:19:34 pm
wow, this looks amazing, I can't wait to see the finished version
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: Builderboy on May 24, 2010, 09:54:52 pm
Congrats on getting a demo out!  And a very shiny demo it is :) It has come so far, and is so awesome!  It really shows how far basic can be pushed.  And thats too bad about the data loss, but at least you had some good backups.  Cant wait to see this progress now that it is active again :)

And i will try to look at the movement code if i have some time, there might be a thing or two, but i doubt it, you have learned well young grasshopper ;)
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: ztrumpet on May 24, 2010, 10:07:30 pm
That said, it all depends of how long he worked on the game today and how fast, though. I wonder if in USA they celebrate Patriots/Dollard Day this Monday? If he had no school and worked like 9 hours on the game since this morning then that's a lot of progress lost.
I lost about 2 hours of progress, but it's fixed now.  I did find a bug that I forgot about, so now I have to fix it.  I've already spent 2.5 hours with this bug, and I'm not even close to a solution. ;D  Hopefully I'll find one. :D

Congrats on getting a demo out!  And a very shiny demo it is :) It has come so far, and is so awesome!  It really shows how far basic can be pushed.  And thats too bad about the data loss, but at least you had some good backups.  Cant wait to see this progress now that it is active again :)

And i will try to look at the movement code if i have some time, there might be a thing or two, but i doubt it, you have learned well young grasshopper ;)
Thanks, from you that means a ton!  I've learned a lot from you and your code, plus it's not hard to see where I got the inspiration from the graphics shown in the demo. :D
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on May 24, 2010, 10:17:11 pm
Ouch I hate those bugs x.x
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: ztrumpet on May 26, 2010, 05:48:58 pm
I think I've found a way to fix the bug.  I'll let you guys know later if/when I get it to work. :)
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on May 26, 2010, 06:20:57 pm
Cool ^^
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: ztrumpet on May 27, 2010, 10:49:02 am
Time for another demo! 
I finally figured a way to fix my bug (I had to move some code around), but after 4.5 hours, it's fixed! :D

When the screen flashes, it means a battle should be there.  I haven't put them in yet, but that should be soon, after I finish getting battles to work perfectly. :)
Also, I added in the ability to call an event if you're standing in a certain spot.  This is demonstrated when you get close to the sword. ;D

I think the walking engine's done now.  What do you guys think? :D

(Oh, and this gif only shows the inside of the temple, because that's where I changed things. :) )

Edit: In this demo, run prgmZELMSTRT to start it. :)
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: TIfanx1999 on May 27, 2010, 11:42:17 am
Ooh, looking nice! I'll download it and give it a try later on today. =D
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on May 27, 2010, 02:36:18 pm
wow really nice :D and the text boxes fits very well, I really love the platformer RPG concept. I wish there were more of those. Nice job :)

The only suggestion I would have is when you jump on a block and the party member isn't standing on one, maybe you should make it move on the same block as yours, since otherwise he looks like he's floating. It would look a bit more realistic :P
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: ztrumpet on May 27, 2010, 03:39:08 pm
I would have done that, but if I did the fps would take a major hit.  I think it would only run about half as fast. :)

wow really nice :D and the text boxes fits very well, I really love the platformer RPG concept. I wish there were more of those. Nice job :)
Thank you.  I'd like to mention my biggest inspirations for this, in order were Illusiat 13, Serenity, and Metroid Pi. ;D
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: meishe91 on May 27, 2010, 06:48:04 pm
Wow, nice. That seems really cool. I have to go to work right now so I can't do much but I will definitely try it when I have time :)
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: jsj795 on May 27, 2010, 10:09:30 pm
Wow! awesome job! I was having some trouble calling an event when you are standing on certain spot X.X
May be I can learn from your codes hehe. Btw, I can't remember if you stated this but how are you doing the collision detection? Are you using pixel check? Because Elmgon seem to be about the same speed as TLM, or may be even faster, and you have pet system too.
And I think I asked this before, how big is the program so far? With all the strings for the map, I'm pretty sure it's getting big, isn't it?

wow really nice :D and the text boxes fits very well, I really love the platformer RPG concept. I wish there were more of those. Nice job :)
Thank you.  I'd like to mention my biggest inspirations for this, in order were Illusiat 13, Serenity, and Metroid Pi. ;D

My inspiration for TLM was from Metroid Pi, Serenity, and Blue Platform ^^

Anyways, keep up the good work!
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: meishe91 on May 28, 2010, 02:44:09 am
I would think pxl-Test( since I think it is the fastest method of collision detection. I could be wrong though.
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on May 28, 2010, 03:33:20 am
Thank you.  I'd like to mention my biggest inspirations for this, in order were Illusiat 13, Serenity, and Metroid Pi. ;D
:-D

My inspiration for TLM was from Metroid Pi, Serenity, and Blue Platform ^^
D-:


/me eats jsj795 then turns his nickname pink
 

j/k Keep up the good work guys ^^
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: ztrumpet on May 31, 2010, 02:33:33 pm
Btw, I can't remember if you stated this but how are you doing the collision detection? Are you using pixel check? Because Elmgon seem to be about the same speed as TLM, or may be even faster, and you have pet system too.
And I think I asked this before, how big is the program so far? With all the strings for the map, I'm pretty sure it's getting big, isn't it?
I use both pxl-test( with checking in a list with xor to make blank pixels solid and solid pixels blank. ;D
Thanks! ;D
The demo is just under 9000 bytes, with 19 maps and 7ish screens of text. :)
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: jsj795 on May 31, 2010, 07:43:20 pm
wow, that seems pretty small o.o
My map files are huge :( The map programs have to contain both 8x16 String and Matrix for each map
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: ztrumpet on July 08, 2010, 03:15:56 pm
*Bump*

For any of you that may think it's dead, it's not.  I've just been concentrating on other projects recently. :)
I added a screenie compilation thread. ;D http://ourl.ca/6317
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: TIfanx1999 on July 08, 2010, 03:55:02 pm
/me breaks out the whip
:P
I'll be looking forward to seeing progress on this when you get back to working on it again. :)
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: Builderboy on July 09, 2010, 01:00:07 am
Yay im glad this isnt dead :)
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on July 09, 2010, 01:04:41 am
Yay to see it's still alive! Can't wait to see more progress once your other projects are finished :D
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: Galandros on July 23, 2010, 09:52:17 am
The screenshots thread makes us want even more an update. ^^
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: ztrumpet on July 23, 2010, 10:48:48 am
The screenshots thread makes us want even more an update. ^^
I really want to update this too, but I feel that I need to focus on my Axe Contest Entry, or I'm not going to finish it. :)

When I work on Elmgon again, I'll be finishing up the battle engine. ;D
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: Builderboy on July 24, 2010, 02:47:45 am
Cant wait to see this have more progress, but yeah good luck on your Axe entry as well :)
Title: Re: Elmgon Progress
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on July 29, 2010, 04:12:43 am
Yeah I think it might be best for people to focus on their entries, now. It's August soon, meaning only 6 weeks left before the contest deadline. Better not wait at the very end :P