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Plain Jump v1.0 Released
Posted on 22 September 1998, 00:58 GMT

[Plain Jump Screenshot]
Sam Heald has ported Plain Jump, a game originally made for the TI-85 by Andreas Ess of Icarus Productions, to the TI-82 and TI-83. The game features fast 3D-graphics, a teacher key, a custom level, a high score function, and an on-calc level editor. However you can only have one custom level. External levels will be added after Ash 3.1 is released.

Note: In case anyone is wondering why the game isn't called "Plane Jump", it's because Andreas looked up the wrong word in the dictionary. :)

 


The comments below are written by ticalc.org visitors. Their views are not necessarily those of ticalc.org, and ticalc.org takes no responsibility for their content.


Re: Plain Jump v1.0 Released
Jason K.

Hey, first I'd like to say that this is one of the greatest games Ive ever played!!! Ive used it on the 86 and was excited to hear it was out for the 82/83... :) The 83 version is working pretty damn good, but the 82 version really freaks up my calc. :\ I know that this is only the first release of it, and you were having problems with it just yesterday, so I've read on A82, but there are major problems with it... May it be because i have calc version 18.0? Well, I hope y'all work out the flaws soon, great job anyways!!! :)

     22 September 1998, 01:43 GMT


Re: Re: Plain Jump v1.0 Released
Sam Heald

Strange. I have tested PJ 82 on a ROM 19 calc, and I tested it using ROM 18 on CalcEm. Also my beta testers had no trouble with it.
I admit I haven't tested it under CrASH. Are you using that shell? The 82 version came before the 83 version so something wierd is going on if you are having trouble. Try it under ASH v3.0 and write back. Has anyone else had any trouble?
The trouble I have had over the past 2 days has been keeping the score on the screen and fixing tile detection. Neither would effect gameplay. What exactly is the problem?
Also does anyone else think PJ 82/83 is too slow? I put 2 halts in the display routine because it was a little too fast. Now I have doubts.

     22 September 1998, 02:32 GMT

Re: Re: Re: Plain Jump v1.0 Released
Dimagus Demorath

Just a couple of things that seem wrong with the game: 1) The tiles seem to come down from the top of the screen extremely fast, and then slow down from the middle to the end, so it gets confusing. 2) The edges of some times jut out in some places, making them look weird

     22 September 1998, 02:53 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Plain Jump v1.0 Released
Sam Heald

1)Haven't noticed it

2)Blame TI for making an 82 have a smaller screen(rather larger pixels). The 85/86 version can have smooth lines because the width of the screen in pixels is 128 and the height is 64. The 82/83 version has to draw the same lines with only a 96 pixel width while still maintaining a 64 pixel height. Therefore the lines in the 82/83 version have to be slightly jagged looking kind of like this:
| |
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| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
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You get the idea. The only solution to jagged lines is making the height only 48 pixels. That sucks and makes the game rather unplayable. The jagged lines don't look that bad.

     22 September 1998, 03:30 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Plain Jump v1.0 Released
Sam

I guess comment posting utility doesn't accept multiple spaces. Oh well.

     22 September 1998, 03:49 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Plain Jump v1.0 Released
Nathan Haines
(Web Page)

In actuality, the spaces are there, but according to the way most browsers handle HTML, multiple spaces are only parsed as one space. Sucks, I know, but oh well. <shrug> Blame it on the browsers.

     22 September 1998, 04:29 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Plain Jump v1.0 Released
Sam Heald

I looked at the source, and realized I forgot to put the needed set/res command for CrASH compatibility. The working PJ 82 should be on ticalc.org shortly.

     22 September 1998, 03:03 GMT

Re: Plain Jump v1.0 Released
Jonathan Chum
(Web Page)

Hmmm. I thought Plain Jump was a clone off of the Hp48g series ported to the TI-85. It's similar to a game called Babal designed by French programmer on the Hp48, but the name has changed, and the 3d feel is not really feel that 3d on the TI-85. The ball jumps to far up and across.

     22 September 1998, 02:57 GMT


Re: Re: Plain Jump v1.0 Released
Tim Dean

They all originated from Skyroads. BTW, I do have one gripe about the game--it's should be more analog. Speed up and slow down and all that. Jumping at the same height each time and the ability to stop immediately at any time limits the gameplay.

     24 September 1998, 03:30 GMT

Re: Plain Jump v1.0 Released
Brett b

First of all this is definitly one of the better games for the 83, actually it just rocks.

But there are a couple of bugs, as to be expected, sometimes right after the score on the game screen some extra letters, symbols, or numbers appear, i noticed this after playing ztetris and then playing plain (plane) jump for my 83

That bug that kills more lives than one is quite annoying!!!!!!

but besides that the game is one of the best!!!

metallica-4-life

     22 September 1998, 16:05 GMT

Re: Re: Plain Jump v1.0 Released
Sam Heald

a)It probably has something to do with the use of TEXT_MEM. Probably forgot a neccesary set/res command at the begining and end of the source. I'll look into it.

b)yeah, it sucks I know. At least every 700 points you get a free life. Hopefully, this will get fixed very soon.

Thank you for the compliment.

     22 September 1998, 22:34 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Plain Jump v1.0 Released
Sam Heald

A new version is on ticalc.org with the score display bug fixed.

     23 September 1998, 22:01 GMT


Re: Re: Plain Jump v1.0 Released
SPUI

In the 86 version there is an interesting bug. If you press F1 to save the game just before the end where it loops back, then go back in and instead of looping back it continues to read whatever's next in memory!

     23 September 1998, 00:10 GMT

Re: Plain Jump v1.0 Released
Jwaz

This is already a pretty good game, but I'd like to suggest the following:
- change the ratio of horiz.:vert. pixels, the lines look really bad and noticeably so, because they're on the screen all the time. Just because the lines have a certain slope in the 85/86 version doesn't mean they should be the same for the 82/83.
- use some of those physics equations we all know from school. The path of the ball should be _parabolic_ in the air. Also, the ball's velocity in the plane of the "paths" is unrealistic and annoying.
- the most obvious downside is losing multiple lives at certain points.
Apart from that, it is quite a fun game.

     22 September 1998, 18:55 GMT


Re: Re: Plain Jump v1.0 Released
Sam

-I originally made the slopes steeper. In my opinion it looked worse. The 3-d look gets almost completely lost. If anyone has played the original Zshell version, then you know what I mean. The lines don't look that bad. But I am going to try to straighten them slightly in the next version. Unless, more people agree with you, the slopes will stay as is with possibly a slight improvement.

-The name is PlainJump. Emphasis on Plain. It is simple. The ball flies through the 3-d levels dodging the little holes. Realism is not the point. Just in case you do have a valid point though, please explain what you mean by unrealistic velocity and parabolic jumps cuz you lost me. Do you mean something like air resistence and friction?

-Well, in the betas I sent out, you lost pretty much every life each time you died. I have gotten the bug fixed so now you usually lose one, occasionally losing 2, and rarely at the very most 3. Would you rather I would waited another month to try and weed out this randomly occuring bug, which is the result of probably one line of code among 4000 other lines being slightly incorrect(odds are the problem is something along the lines of changing a "ld b,8" to "ld b,6))? I think not. All I can promise is that is will be fixed eventually. Maybe not today maybe not tomorrow. Probably not till October.

I'm glad you like other than it being ugly, unrealistic, and annoying. :)

     22 September 1998, 22:26 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Plain Jump v1.0 Released
Jwaz

- I guess the lines don't look all that bad, as long as the game's moving along.
- Oh, I thought it was supposed to be called _Plane_ Jump, and the "Plane" only became a "Plain" due to a misunderstanding :). I can understand it being called Plane Jump, because it is essentially a 2d game, and you're just moving along in the plane of the paths. What I was getting at was that the path that the ball takes in the air is unrealistic; it should follow the curve of a parabola, given that there is a constant, downwards force due to gravity. Take a look at any "bouncing ball" program, you'll notice that the ball's path is not triangular, as is the path that PJ's ball follows. Although this isn't essential, it just makes the whole thing look more professional and it'd be very easy to do.
The other thing I mentioned was the acceleration of the ball. What happens in the game when you push the up or down keys is that the ball is given instantaneous velocity. What this means is that it experiences infinite acceleration; one instant it's still (or moving) the very next, it's moving (or still). This proves to cause more of a problem in terms of gameplay than the parabola thing, because it means that whenever you get to a nasty looking spot, you can just stop (instantly)and take your time planning how to get across. Essentially, the gameplay becomes trivial because you can just keep "leapfrogging" from platform to platform. If the player had to accelerate gradually to top speed, this problem would not occur. The ball would have to be travelling quickly to make some of the larger jumps, and therefore would take longer to slow to a halt, making such a tactic unfeasible.
- I can understand this. I am myself currently working on an asm program which is ~5000 lines so far. But you probably should still call this a beta if a fundamental part of it does not function correctly. (btw, in what way are you decreasing the player's life total that it would ever decrease by more than one? You're basically just loading a value from mem, dec-ing it, then putting it back, right?)

Thanks for putting the smiley there in your last comment. I think the game has great potential, it's just that as a "non-beta" release it could have been a little more polished.
Thank-you for replying.

     23 September 1998, 17:04 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Plain Jump v1.0 Released
Sam Heald

I made a similar post about this awhile ago but for some reason it never made it on ticalc.org...

So basically, you would like realistic acceleration and decceleration. Andreas Ess added this feature in the sequel Plain Jump II. I guess I could add it to the 82/83 version temporarily to try it out. I think many people thought the sequel to be a little too slow and realistic, but we'll see. I do know Andreas never bothered porting it to Usgard.

A Point on life bug:
The life decreasing is simply "ld (Life),a / dec a" not much room for error. The problem has to be located in the routine which finds a viable place on which to place the ball. That routine messes up and places the ball on an invalid tile. The routine will then loop back, removing another life, until a viable place is correctly found.

Well, you are right. But the 83 version could have been much worse, considering I don't even own one. CalcEm does a good job, though.

     23 September 1998, 22:12 GMT

Re: Plain Jump v1.0 Released
MERCK Geoffrey

First of all i'd like to say this is a very good job!... Thanks!...
The game really rocks, but i played the HP48 version and it as some pretty nice features:
- bouncing ball (this can be turned off)
- you can adjust the balls speed and the final score depends on the distance you've made and on your average speed...

But as i said before this game is really good and personally i don't care about the lines look!...

     22 September 1998, 19:48 GMT


Re: Re: Plain Jump v1.0 Released
Sam Heald

1)Remembering all the complaints about Mario 86's pogo stick jumping, I think I'll leave it as is.

2)The score is currently determined directly by distance traveled. There are several speeds, but in reality people only use the fastest speed so what's the point.

Thanks, the game scrolls fast enough that the slightly jagged lines are THAT noticeable.

     22 September 1998, 22:44 GMT

Re: Re: Re: Plain Jump v1.0 Released
s

should be "are not that noticeable"

     23 September 1998, 04:11 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Plain Jump v1.0 Released
MERCK Geoffrey

Mmmh... Well i think you missunderstood what i meant wit adjusting the balls speed... I mean the longer you hold a key down the more the ball will go fast, it's like this on the HP48...

     23 September 1998, 21:11 GMT

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