<< SOLAR STRIKER >>

The ultimate (?) Shoot'em up
for Ti89, Ti92 and Ti92+

By Brian TRIBONDEAU & Benoît SCHERRER

WEB : http://www.ti-fr.org/t3

SOMMAIRE

I ] Description
II ] Requirements
III ] Functioning
IV ] Historical
V ] Contacting us
VI ] Thanks, etc...


I ] Description

SolarStriker is a Shoot'em up in greyscales conceived to exploit at best the power of 68000 processors, as well as the associated memory capacity. That’s why the whole game has been written in assembly, and none of the graphics has been compressed, in order to live up immediately to the user’s expectations. The title and the general functioning come from the Gam-Boy version of the game, the appearance and the movement of the bonuses, as well as the differential scrolling, are inspired by Tyrian on PC. The menus are based ( or try to be... ) on an interface in transparency, and the idea of the metaballs comes from the very numerous demos viewed on PC.
Most of the graphics have been taken from the Game-Boy version, as well as the movements. The level editor allows you to recreate a completely different game, because the use of the sprite and movement tables allows to build hundreds of new enemies, and even to develop a new scenario by rebuilding the graphic part of the game.

II ] Requirements

It’s necessary to install a shell on your calculator :

TI92 (I & II)

TI89 ou TI92+ (HW1 & HW2)

Fargo II byDavid Ellsworth
GRAY4LIB is required.

DoorsOS II by Xavier Vassor, or any other compatible shell.
GRAPHLIB is required.

Memory : About 15 Kilobytes free are needed to start the game, and about 30KB in RAM to store it. The global size depends on that of the levels only, and each level may reach a considerable size (64 KB) and can be archived. But as a level of 64 Kilobytes represents more than 300 sprites of size 32*32, it’s very improbable to see one before a long time ! Concerning the creation of levels, it is essential to refer to the documentation provided with the SDK.

III ] Functioning

Effect

Keys for TI89

Keys for TI92 & TI92+

Validation in the menus.
Fire during the game.
2ND LOCK
Moving in the menus.
Moving during the game.
Directional PAD Directional PAD
Return to the main menu during the game. SHIFT SHIFT
Pause DIAMOND 2ND

Note : The auto-fire is automatically engaged, so no need to smash in the key as when you start a game in Phoenix. My poor TI suffered from all these people (of which me ! ) who wanted to play it and simulate the “Rapid fire unit”…


 

Doc1.bmp (122934 octets)

OR

Doc2.bmp (122934 octets)

To start the game, just write Solar() and press Enter

 

With a shell, just select Solar and press Enter

 

IV ] Historical

VERSION AVAILABILITY

DESCRIPTION

0.10 Alpha TI92

- Very first version !
- Bug in the level description

0.11 Alpha TI89,TI92(+)

- Presentation page
- First random crash

0.12 Alpha TI89,TI92(+)

- Suppression of the presentation page
- Second random crash

0.13 Alpha TI89

- Very stable version ( but not for a long time... )
- POTM : TI89 - TI92+ with 63 votes (73.3 %)

0.20 Bęta TI92

- Addition of the menus
- Addition of the weapons ( Level 1 -> 4 )
- Simultaneous departures
- Documentation in French
- Still so stable...
- Very short example of Phoenix

0.30 Bęta TI92

- Definition of the enemies, sprites and shoots properties
- A lot of new bugs

0.50 Bęta TI92

- Animation and resistance of the enemies
- Possibility to handle Bosses
- Conditional explosions
- Blocking of the conditional timer

0.60 Bęta TI89,TI92(+)

- Routines of enemies shoots ( Non-directional )
- Routines of collisions improved
- Suppression of the simple scrolling
- Simple management of lives
- First level of SolarStriker

0.65 Bęta TI92

- Routines of enemies shoots ( complete )
- Addition of game functions (Bonus, score and lives)
- Management of the “pause” key
- Informational texts

0.70 Bęta TI92

- Differential scrolling with use of mosaics
- Inclusion of the menus
- Documentation in French & English

0.90 Bęta TI89,TI92(+)

- Support for external levels
- Correction of the last bugs


Final

This version is the last, and the program can be considered as finished.

 

V ] Contacting us

To report a bug or a crash, it is indispensable to precise the game version, the ROM version, the shell used and the circumstances of the crash, otherwise there won’t be any answer from us ! You can also ask us questions about the game and its functioning, as far as the answer is not in the documentation. Concerning questions about 68000 assembly, use the Jimmy Mardell’s guide as much as possible. The documentation of Fargo and DoorsOS also includes a lot of help files concerning the hardware-related routines ( keyboard, traps, auto-ints, etc... ). We’ll answer as often as possible if the answer is not in a 68k tutorial. On the other hand, if it is for offering us a good job well remunerated, which doesn’t take too much time, do certainly not hesitate to contact us ;)

Authors of the SolarStriker project :

Brian TRIBONDEAU :
- Game routines (moving, fire, collisions, etc...)
- Menus
- Graphics
- French documentation
- SolarStriker : Episode I

Mail : brian.t@free.fr

Benoît SCHERRER :
- Differential scrolling
- Management of the external files
- Score displaying
- Level editor in C++ for Windows

Mail : p.c.scherrer@wanadoo.fr

Jeremie KNUSEL :
- English documentation

VI ] Thanks, etc...

We insist on thanking all those who helped us to release this project, in one way or another. Mainly in alphabetical order, and hoping we don’t forget anybody :

Programmers, testers, webmasters, etc...

- Jean-Baptiste CANAZZI
Thanks a lot to him for his program PCX2BIN which will have been very helpful, as well as for all his precious advises.
- Thomas CORVAZIER
- Patrick DAVIDSON
- DeathWolf
- Florian DREVET

For his excellent Zguide
- David ELLSWORTH
For Fargo II
- Frédéric JOUAULT
- Robert MACUBA
- Patrick PELISSIER
- Nicolas POUILLOUX
- Xavier VASSOR

For DoorsOS and the phone bills
- Rusty WAGNER
For VirtualTI68k
- The staff of Ti-Fr

Personal and futile thanks from :

Brian TRIBONDEAU :

- Pascal LECLERC
- Alexandre ONZON
- Alexandre FONTAINE
- EFREI - P1 2004

Benoît SCHERRER :

- Vincent SCHERRER
- Anton IVANOV
- Jerome HAMM


http://www.ti-fr.org/t3 ou brian.t@free.fr

SOLARSTRIKER TI89, TI92, TI92(+)
By Brian Tribondeau & Benoît Scherrer