I can't run this game on my 83 + :(
The game file has 24158 bytes, but, after a RAM Reset, garbage collect and all that, I can't get more free Ram than 23954 bytes!
So Mirage can't unarchive the game and I can't play it.
I'm pretty sure, there isn't anything left in my RAM. I even deleted the lists.

What am I doing wrong?

You're not doing anything wrong, I just couldn't get it smaller! But I've made signficiant progress in the last few days and as soon as I possibly can I'm getting the smaller version out. Mirage sometimes crashes dealing with my program on exit, I believe that's size related. Please be patient! I'm out of the country right now and it's very difficult to get this game tested. This "Inicial Release" in some respects is actually a beta.

U should do a WHOLE memory reset, then u'll have something like 24.4 kb ;) And for the maker: make it for crunchyos and then compile it with compression, it'll be +/- 50 % smaller!

Uh... I didn't notice this Reset-all-Option yet...
Is this a new feature of the 1.18-OS?
I hope my teacher doesn't get aware of this :)

To CrunchyOS: I think, it would take a lot of work for the author to port it, more work than "just" making the game smaller.

No, it's always been there...a reset RAM, reset ARCHIVE (I think), and a reset ALL....

Yeah, it's always been there. I never use it, though, because I would lose the 50+ programs on my SE.

2nd mem 7 :)

Reset your RAM. Then goto the memory manager, and delete all the vars that are unarchived, including reals A-Theta, L1-L6, Strings, etc.

It wouldn't need porting. Well, it might not need it. CrunchyOS has partial Mirage support. The author would be limited to using the routines supported by Crunchy, which he may or may not have done.

Sorry about that. Add the word "already" on to the end of that post and it'll make more sense :)

At last, I got it!

I had to put out my batteries because of an other game that crashed my calc, deleted the lists -and - surprise - I had 24,4 kbytes free RAM.

Note on self for future: A Battery-out-reset frees more RAM than a normal reset. ;)

P.S.
The game is really addictive! I played it 4 hours without a break. This never happened to me with a calc-game before. The author has done a good job, congratulations!

I just had a build that hit 23970 ... if I can get the person who wrote my LZW C compressor (kicks RLE's ass, I assure you) to get online, then I should get down to 23700. The decompressor is ready and waiting, but I'm pretty isolated in Chile and it's expensive to call. The mirage crash appears to be gone at 23970, though.

I'm glad its going to get smaller, it seems like TI consumes MORE and MORE memory from ram with each OS release, they should try to give us MORE ram, not less!

>> make it for crunchyos and then compile it with compression, it'll be +/- 50 % smaller! <<

Doesn't a compressed program get uncompressed at runtime? Or is that only with Lite8x? If it gets uncompressed, it won't make a difference at all whether or not it was compressed in the 1st place.

I just realized, why don't you just make it into an app? It would be autimatically become 32K oncalc, but that would just mean you'd have about 10 more K to work with. You could add a little bit MORE to the game, instead of less...
Just a thought.

I'd thought about that a lot ... but I use a LOT of self modifying code. And to save, you'd have to have at least 612 byte appvar, since the program's constantly writing to the map data.

Don't worry, I'm not taking away features -- just rearranging them, haha.

I prefer a 612 byte appvar and an app to a 23K game.

Well said. But still, I'd have to make some major changes to certain functions whose basis is self modification.

Can you port Harvest Moon to app format once you've released an SE version?

I'll look into it. It'll be very different.

I sure hope that an app version comes out soon!

Just copy the SMC to a scrap ram area for execution.

MWM

The code might depend on the modifications to remain across executions, such as the seed value in a self-modifying random-number generator I've seen. It could be written to store it in other RAM, but it's a little smaller and faster by putting the variable "in-line".

That's good to hear. I downloaded it as soon as it was released and I had been playing it A LOT in school. It was really dissapointing to spend a whole class playing and then come back and find out it didn't save my game. This is by far one of the best games I have found yet, keep up the good work.

I did that a few times when testing, too. But it's very capable of saving! 612 bytes of space swear their lives to that. You'll need a shell that supports writeback. Get this updated version! It's a little smaller and corrects some ugly exit code. (The random stuff on the screen on exit) Long live turnips! ... as long as you water them.

even if you delete everything in the RAM, some of the RAM is used up to create the TOC of archive programs

delete some archive programs to free up RAM (it's true im not kidding)

The VAT takes up too much space on the calc.