Omnimaga
Calculator Community => Other Calc-Related Projects and Ideas => TI Z80 => Topic started by: JamesV on October 18, 2012, 09:32:44 pm
-
Many years ago I made a game called Thunderbirds, which was based on the Amiga game of the same name, which was of course based on the 1960's TV series (if you haven't seen the original TV series, you're missing out - no matter how campy the puppets & dialogue are, it's amazing!). It's basically a "platform puzzle/rpg" type game.
Early last year I started reprogramming Thunderbirds from scratch, but I never finished it. I've decided to pick up where I left off and see how it goes. This isn't a sequel to the last version, but is essentially the same game redone, programmed much better. I'm doing this mainly for 2 reasons:
- The previous version was all hardcoded in terms of the existing mission, so that it was near on impossible for me to expand on the game and include the remaining three missions.
- The gameplay & controls were very clunky.
Version 2.0.0 will still be for the TI-83 / 83+ / 84+ series of calculators. Coding is probably around 50% completed at a guess. Some of the improvements are:
- Graphics have been touched up, in particular I'm no longer "borrowing" the earth tiles from Sqrxz, I've drawn new ones that look more like the original Amiga game.
- Missions (or levels) and all their applicable code & data are stored in external files, so that if I decide to go back and add any of the remaining three missions later on, it's fairly straight forward.
- Controls have been adjusted and simplified.
- Gameplay is no longer so stop/start all the time when text hints come up.
- Items sitting about the place now flash so that they're easier to identify, instead of just blending in with the background.
I'll post updates as I get more done and probably some screenshots, here and also on http://www.jvti.org (http://www.jvti.org).
(http://imageshack.us/a/img855/6394/tbdev01.png)
-
The logo-screen is looking nice! :D
The game idea is sounding nice! Some screenies would defenetley be cool :D
-
Good luck with this James. Hope all works out. :)
And the screenshot does indeed look fancy.
-
Wow, i played this game when it came out and thought it was awesome (a little short, though). It's cool to see updates to all these great games that helped me get through high school!
-
Thunderbirds are GO!
this is fantastic! to everyone else, he's completely right about the show, by the way. it's one of the few things that both my father and i watched when we were growing up and legitimately enjoyed (along with speed racer and gigantor the space-age robot :P)
-
Nice! (Even though i never got to figure out how to play the first game :\ )
-
Wow, i played this game when it came out and thought it was awesome (a little short, though). It's cool to see updates to all these great games that helped me get through high school!
Yeah it definitely is / was a little short, which was a big part of my motivation for redesigning it so that it's possible for me to add the other 3 missions later on, provided I have the time / motivation.. But at least now it will at least be possible :)
Thunderbirds are GO!
this is fantastic! to everyone else, he's completely right about the show, by the way. it's one of the few things that both my father and i watched when we were growing up and legitimately enjoyed (along with speed racer and gigantor the space-age robot :P)
That's awesome to hear someone else who enjoyed the original series in their youth :D
-
This seems promising. I would like to see some screenies as soon as possible. :)
I didn't see the original show, but I did see some clips from Terrahawks which was a puppet show too but from the Early 80's.
-
Below is a short screenshot showing what the re-programmed version of the game is looking like. As I noted on my site:
"For those who have played previous versions of the game from back in 2000, you will notice a few things, such as the tileset graphics being improved (now looking much more like the Amiga original), some minor interface changes, and things such as status bar text no longer halting gameplay, and items on the ground now flash so that they're easier to identify / find."
(http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/9653/tbdev02.gif)
-
Looking nice, great work so far! :D
I kinda like it that you show how monochrome still suits well
-
Thunderbirds are GO!
this is fantastic! to everyone else, he's completely right about the show, by the way. it's one of the few things that both my father and i watched when we were growing up and legitimately enjoyed (along with speed racer and gigantor the space-age robot :P)
That's awesome to hear someone else who enjoyed the original series in their youth :D
I watched it too! Loved it. I watched a few episodes the other day on Netflix. Just as good as I remembered it.
Keep up the great work James!!
-
Darn this looks really nice. At one point I also really need to watch Thunderbirds. So far I watched an episode of Terrahawks (puppet show) but not Thunderbird.
-
I didn't even see the original game...this is great
-
I've finally spent a few hours getting some more work on this done - slowly it will creep towards completion :)
-
yay! keep us posted!
-
Good to hear! :) Any more screenshots? :)
-
Umm... JV, is this dead? On Cemetech, you said this would be finished by late 2015. It's early 2016, and there aren't any updates on your site...
-
Umm... JV, is this dead? On Cemetech, you said this would be finished by late 2015. It's early 2016, and there aren't any updates on your site...
Woah, I didn't expect to see a reply to this topic! Heh yes I did jokingly say that based on my rate of progress at the time, I should be finished by late 2015. Unfortunately after that, I never really progressed any further.
The code all still exists, but I haven't touched it in 2.5 years. I'm not sure that it's worth completing on the 83+/84+ anymore, although I'm not totally against the idea :) I do have early ideas to make a Thunderbirds game on the TI-84+CE, although nothing solid yet, simply ideas rattling around in my head (among many others) :P
-
Maybe you should do both, when you're finished with AB5.
-
Maybe you should do both, when you're finished with AB5.
I'm definitely not against that idea :) I have a bunch of other projects I want to work on as well, so I'm not sure if Thunderbirds will be next up after AB5. I'm not entirely sure whether I want to try to clone the original Amiga game as I originally intended, or create my own game instead. But I'll work that out over time!
-
James, i wouldn't mind helping out with this project, you could share your ideas for what you wanted to add/change and i can get started on implementing them as you still focus mostly on the ab5 series :) Both Alien Breed and Thunderbirds were games that really impressed me back in the day (and still do today!). Another game i've been meaning to overhaul for a long time now is Dying Eyes.
-
James, i wouldn't mind helping out with this project, you could share your ideas for what you wanted to add/change and i can get started on implementing them as you still focus mostly on the ab5 series :) Both Alien Breed and Thunderbirds were games that really impressed me back in the day (and still do today!). Another game i've been meaning to overhaul for a long time now is Dying Eyes.
Thanks for the offer, chickendude! At this stage I'd like to work on it myself. I will say that seeing some interest in it here is certainly giving me more motivation to get back on to doing something with the project. It would be great to finish this in some form as a tribute to the late Gerry Anderson (creator of the original Thunderbirds TV series).
I'm considering taking the new 83+/84+ code that I'd written as a "program" and converting it to a flash app, and also creating an 84+CE colour program version that (for the most part) runs off the same code base.
It would be great to have the 83+/84+ flash app version utilising greyscale as well, to give the graphics some more clarity. I've not done anything in greyscale on the 83+/84+ before, so that in itself would be a good little thing for me to learn :)
-
Especially considering you don't have to deal with a smooth scrolling tilemap, i'd say grayscale would work pretty well here :)
-
Especially considering you don't have to deal with a smooth scrolling tilemap, i'd say grayscale would work pretty well here :)
Exactly :) Plus some of the visual effects such as rising water would look much nicer with grayscale.
I opened up my code last night and ran the game just to see where I was at - which was pretty much halfway through having mission 1 re-written with the new code base, graphics, etc. I'm confident that if I start a new 83+/84+ flash app version (with grayscale) and an 84+CE program version (with colour) that I can improve upon this "v2.0.0" substantially. I'll try to make some time to start experimenting over the next week or two (whilst still moving along with AB5 v3)
I think I need to get myself more determined to finish this, with all 4 completed missions as well!
-
Here's the beginning of the TI-84+CE version:
(http://imageshack.com/a/img924/8413/C3331v.gif)
-
Hmm... I never thought they might look like that. They will have moving limbs, right? And won't they be front-facing, not creepily staring at you all the time?
What does the original game look like? Nevermind; I looked at the first post, and used Google. They are creepy! :P
And why does the dude turn green near the end of the GIF?
:angel:
-
Hmm... I never thought they might look like that. They will have moving limbs, right? And won't they be front-facing, not creepily staring at you all the time? What does the original game look like? Nevermind; I looked at the first post, and used Google. They are creepy! :P
And why does the dude turn green near the end of the GIF?
:angel:
Haha yes they will have moving limbs, and front-facing when walking. When standing still they tend to look "out of the screen" creepily :P
The green thing is just a glitch in the GIF, it doesn't actually occur on CEmu or on calculator :)
-
@JamesV Wow, that's gonna look really nice on the color model. :D
-
Oh, good. I can't wait!