I was looking at this game and the graphics are no doubt outstanding. I wonder if this will be ported to complete ASM for compatibility with the slower 83+.

Most likely NOT! The 83+ is several times slower than the 83+SE. Also, memory might come to be a problem.

DOH! that's why he was wondering whether this game is ported to ASM! Clearly it would be possible to make the same game in ASM, with less space and faster than the basic version. Nevertheless, it would be much more work for someone, and noone could do it, except for Kevin himself.

Congrats to Kevin btw :)

I'm glad Kevin's on my programming team, he's 1 excellent BASIC coder, he's amazing! Kevin says grayscale in BASIC on TI-83+ is possible, but not for big/fast games.

Tsk, tsk. You kids and your programming teams ;D

u just got schooled son

I'm with u guy! I mean! When I tried at least 5 times to get it on my cal, it wasn't even close to working!

I was pretty shocked when I read that this was done in BASIC. The graphics are very nice... and it was done in grayscale? That's cool, but I bet it slows the game down a lot.

Haha, I think people who can program this well in BASIC should just do ASM (or C). If he can do this in BASIC, imagine what he could do in a lower-level language.

ASM is nice and sparkly but one can accomplish a lot more with a few Basic commands than to shove ASM with unlimited commands. One would stare blankly at the memory map and list of commands and just think "Nice. I'm going to walk this way. *runs*"
If you really have that much spare time to mess around in Basic "Good for you.". Basic-to-ASM is like Z80-to-68K.

you can do a lot more with ASM so i dont know what ur talking about. ASM also saves memory, doesnt require as many files, and runs a lot faster and cleaner. with basic you need to seperate the files more to keep it from blinking and slowing down.

Try programming in straight assembly.
C is easier, yes, but assembly is hard.

See the URL attached to this post for an example of what you can do with Z80 assembly. The code was hand written (about 5.5 years ago).

Thanks alot, Kevin. Now that the bar is raised, my games don't seem as cool.
Good job, though.

Wow. Did i read that right? BASIC! wow. This really is awesome. Basic + greyscale. Just amazing. This requires one of those mAzing candy comercials...

Keep in mind that the grayscale itself is actually made by an ASM module.

Specifically Omnicalc's sprite() function.

Once again, the legions of fantastic BASIC programmers have breasted the impossible. The skeptics have been silenced and the naysayers have been naysaid. Good work Kevin!!! The citizenry of the Land of BASIC Programmers fall at your feet in adoration!!! To thine own self be true, and to thine programming language be also. Thou hast repelled the monster of Assembly that has burned, pillaged, and raped our land for many a year. Three cheers for Kevin!

Hip, Hip, Hooray!!

Hip, Hip, Hooray!!

Hip, Hip, Hooray!!

That was fun to write.

I bet it was.

We should make today a ticalc holiday. Um it could be called basic plus day BPD! or asm death day. ADD! or super cool basic greyscale game that is an puzzle rpg was released day. SCBGGTIAPRWR day rocks!

ASM forever!!! BASIC still sucks!

BASIC is inefficient too...

that was quite hurtful...but not to me!!!! GO ASM! DOWN WITH BASIC!

*falls out of chair* That hurt.

BTW, ASM is THE most inefficient language out there. (one of the reasons few people still use it for computers)

Inefficient as in a major PITA to code, yes. Inefficient as in doesn't handle memory well or run fast, no.

if you'll read his parenthetical, you'll see it was just a typo on his part and that he meant efficient...

The reason people don't use assembly is because it takes forever to code anything. However, it is the MOST EFFICIENT language out there

That's not really true anymore. A really good optimizing compiler can beat even the best assembly programmers. Just because it's written in assembly doesn't mean it will be faster. Modern processors are very complex and a compiler can keep track of things like register allocation, instruction scheduling, cache usage, etc. much more easily than a person can. A naive hand conversion of C to assembly will often be slower and that was true over ten years ago.

Don't know what your problem is, but I go at a pretty decent speed when programming assembly... And, the code is only as efficent as the programmer. So, if the programmer sucks, the code sucks.

The only thing that holds me back when doing assembly is my typing speed, and it's pretty decent (60-70 WPM)

HEX forever!!! ASM still sucks!

Binary forever! Hex sucks!

Unary forever!! Binary sucks!!!

0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 000000000
0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0
0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 00
0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000
0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 000000
0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 000000000
0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000
0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 000
0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 00
0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000
0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0
0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 00
0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 00
0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0
0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000
0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0
0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 00000000
0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0
0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 0000
0000000000 0000000000 0000000000 000

-- brought to you by unary

That just makes me want to vomit.

P.S. I'm Back

BASIC could be made better & faster if someone would write a compiler (which has been done before on other patforms) or dynamic translator.

Ah...wait until you see MLC! ;-)

can anybody tell why ASM is better than BASIC or FLASH
I think BASIC is great for short proggies like solve squareroots and ASM is better for games, does't want to say that there aren't great games of BASIC neither bad math progs of ASM.

My question: why aren't there many flash progs while they have a lot more advantage to ASM and are easier to program?,they needn't occupie RAM sources and have much more control of your calc.

ALL comments are welcome

3l J0j0

Flash APPs are written in ASM, just with different header data.

For building Flash Apps you need to buy TI's Flash-studio (don't know its name) first, and few people will spend money on something that can also be done with normal asm.

Besides, flash apps will need at least 16kb ram, so normal asm progs are often smaller.

Flash APPS are run directly from the Flash ROM, therefore, no RAM is needed, except for the variables that the APP may need. It is true that even if an ASM counterpart is 1k, it will still take up an entire Flash page, or 16k. I don't think you need to buy the FlashDebugger to make applications, though.

hmm.... TILP can also sign TI 83+ applications but, I don't want to explain how to set it up, because it was a pain.

I was hyped up on caffeine when i wrote that. *penguin mints. Jolt gum. And bawls* I didn't mean to diss asm so bad with the ADD. *hangs head in shame*

Penguin mints are GOOD. Me Like!

So is Bawls... and don't forget that Sky Rocket from thinkgeek... (see URL)

What the devil are penguin mints?

Caffeinated peppermints.

w00t!