GLaDOS
Level: Goblin
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Registered: 06-13-2009
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Here I am again, after being inactive for about 2 years.
I am currently working on a clone of DROD for the TI-8x series of graphing calculators (the TI-83+ and TI-84+). It's written in Axe, a quite powerful and rather new programming language for the TI-8x calculators.
There are a few old threads about similar projects on this forum, but I have never seen an actual remake of the game for any TI calculator, so I decided to start writing my own.

Currently, the code consists of some buggy AI and file format reading tests which cause the calculator to crash frequently, but I hope I will be able to get a beta out when the game is somewhat playable and stable. Right now, I'm really busy with several school projects at once, so don't expect anything in the next few weeks. However, I am going to spend quite some time of my holidays with working on DROD8x, but I cannot gurantee any release date as I'm usually a slow and lazy programmer.

Here is a a list of features that are most likely going to be implemented:

- 3-level grayscale graphics
- Roaches, Roach Queens, Evil Eyes, Rock Golems and Wubbas
- Force Arrows, Orbs & Doors, Pressure Plates, Trapdoors, Tunnels, Hot Tiles and more!
- Secret and optional rooms
- "High Score" saving (least moves)
- A fully featured on-calc hold editor
- 12x12 tiles per room, at least 8x8 rooms per level, 8 levels per hold and a theorhetically infinte number of holds supported via hold linking
- Adjustable controls

Also, it should be worth noting that "DROD8x" is merely a working title, including "DROD" in my remake's name would most likely infringe CaravelGames' rights, so I will change it before I release this project. Name suggestions are always welcome.

I would like to thank a friend known on this forum as "reyll3" for supporting the project, being a future beta tester (when the game will actually be test-able) and perhaps even a room architect (I'm a horrible DROD level designer).

I hope this project will satisfy those who happen to have a TI-83+ or TI-84+ calculator and desperately want to play DROD during maths class.
But as I said, do not expect anything in the near future. This is my first big project in this programming language and I might not always be able to find free time to work on it, so I might not even be able to release a public beta it this year if I get unlucky.

This post will be the place where I am going to announce changes and updates to the project. Be sure to check back every now and then if you want to keep informed about it.

Comments, suggestions, complaints, compliments, questions or any other kind of feedback? Post here.

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[Last edited by GLaDOS at 05-31-2011 04:06 PM : my god, it's full of typos ]

Banjooie
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Here I am again,

It's always such a pleasure.

west.logan
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Sounds quite interesting. I'm assuming it can be ported to the 89 fairly easily (I'm not familiar with Axe though I've done some very basic TI programming).

The 89 would give you more pixels on the screen. I'm done with classes myself but hopefully someone finds it a bit useful and I'd certainly be willing to see it!

____________________________
-Logan

Someone Else
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Nice! I'm not sure my calculator is up to it though (I'm going to go find it, wherever it is, so that I can try anyway).

GLaDOS
Level: Goblin
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Registered: 06-13-2009
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Thanks for the feedback, guys!

Banjooie wrote:

Here I am again,

It's always such a pleasure.

Remember when you tried to kill me twice?

west.logan wrote:
Sounds quite interesting. I'm assuming it can be ported to the 89 fairly easily (I'm not familiar with Axe though I've done some very basic TI programming).

The 89 would give you more pixels on the screen. I'm done with classes myself but hopefully someone finds it a bit useful and I'd certainly be willing to see it!

I'm sorry, but I don't think porting it to the TI-89 would be that easy, as it uses a completely different processor (Motrola 68k) and Axe is only available for certain Z80-based calculators, as it compiles the code into assembly, unlike BASIC, which is interpreted.

Someone Else wrote:
Nice! I'm not sure my calculator is up to it though (I'm going to go find it, wherever it is, so that I can try anyway).

I'm planning to compile it as a flash application, so if your calc is a TI-83+, TI-83+ SE, TI-84+ or TI-84+ SE and has enough free archive memory, it should be able to run DROD8x fine.

GLaDOS
Level: Goblin
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Registered: 06-13-2009
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There has been quite some progress with DROD8x recently. There is a basic in-game GUI and the roach AI and collisions are working just like in the real DROD.

This is what it currently looks like:


As you can see, roaches can't be killed yet, but they won't step on your sword either. Also, the death message is obviously temporary and will be replaced later.
The text "NDROD" in the top left corner means "NotDROD", which will also be subject to change. The middle left pane will continue the current room position, level and hold as well as the clock. The bottom left pane will display a 3x3 map of the nearby (explored) rooms, their completion state and a level progress bar to the left of the minimap.

It should be noted that I'm currently compiling DROD as an assembly program for faster testing, later versions will certainly be compiled into a flash app. Also, to save memory inside the application (due to a size limitation of 16KB), I will probably use a separate AppVar for storing most strings, which will most likely allow for localization of the game.

west.logan
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Very cool. It will be interesting seeing what kinds of puzzles can be made on such a small map...

Could the side bar be eliminated? Or brought up as a menu?

____________________________
-Logan

GLaDOS
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west.logan wrote:
Very cool. It will be interesting seeing what kinds of puzzles can be made on such a small map...

Could the side bar be eliminated? Or brought up as a menu?

The side bar is probably not going to be removed, memory limitations wouldn't allow me to increase the size of rooms by more than 4 squares in either direction anyway. There is quite a lot of base code already which is written specifically for rooms with no more than 12x12 squares, increasing the room size would require me to rewrite a lot of code.

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[Last edited by GLaDOS at 06-18-2011 03:23 PM]

da rogu3
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That looks.. pretty awesome actually.

Don't think I have the TI-8 series , but I'll be very interested to see how the finished program looks like.

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[Last edited by da rogu3 at 06-18-2011 10:10 PM]

Syntax
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I'm amazed... great work!

This is a calculator right? (like plussing and stuff)

GLaDOS
Level: Goblin
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da rogu3 wrote:
That looks.. pretty awesome actually.

Don't think I have the TI-8 series , but I'll be very interested to see how the finished program looks like.

Thanks, the finished program will look similar in design to what it looks like right now. There will just be more monsters and other stuff.
I might actually make a remake of DROD8x and its editor in Visual Basic (the only computer programming language I am decent at ) if I have time.

Syntax wrote:
I'm amazed... great work!

This is a calculator right? (like plussing and stuff)

Thank you! And yes, this is a calculator, a graphing calculator to be more precise.


So, right now I'm working on multiple roaches in one room. It is working quite well so far, however, killing the last roach causes the game to glitch up completely (UI and room are messed up and the risk of a RAM clear is high). The cause of this is likely an object pointer underrunning and changing its value to "255", which obviously messes up the RAM.

I'll upload more screenshots as soon as I've fixed this issue.

GLaDOS
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Time for another update! I uploaded the current state of the project as a demonstarion application.

There have been lots of improvements lately: multiple monsters in a room work correctly, monsters can actually be killed with your sword, the AI for Roach Queens is implemented (they don't lay eggs yet though) and there is a very basic level editor!
Right now, the level editor is integrated into the main app but it will be an external program later. The reason for that is that testing and debugging monster AIs and certain cases is much faster and easier this way.

I've uploaded a demo of the current state of DROD8x. When you start up the app, the first thing you'll see is the level editor. Move the cursor with the arrow keys and place tiles/monsters using the [Y=]~[TRACE] keys (Floor, Wall, Roach, Roach Queen). [DEL] removes all tiles from the level, [CLEAR] exits the editor and [ENTER] plays the level. Note that the levels are not saved yet and you can not restart the room once you die.

After you press [ENTER] in the editor, the game will start up with the player being in the top left corner. Use the number keys to move orthogonally and diagonally, rotate your sword clockwise/counterclockwise with the [(] and [)] keys or press [CLEAR] to exit. Everytime you make a move, all roaches in the room move a step towards you (and all roach queens away from you). Try to prevent the roaches from killing you by smiting them with your sword, as they will not step on the tile it is on. You 'win' when you cleared the room from all monsters, nothing happens when you do so though, yet.

This is what it currently looks like:


Known bugs:
- Roach queens don't move correctly when going straight up or down.
- Sometimes a single roach does not follow you when another roach is killed in the same turn.

Demo download link:
http://adrian.diabetes-im-alter.de/drod8x/DROD.8xk
Send it to your calculator using a program like TI Connect which can be downloaded from http://education.ti.com/

Note that the name of this project is definitely going to change. DROD8x and NDROD are just temporary working titles.

By the way, sorry for double posting so much, but simply editing the first post wouldn't draw people's attention about updates and I try to reply to every feedback message I get. :/

Penwielder
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GLaDOS wrote:
By the way, sorry for double posting so much, but simply editing the first post wouldn't draw people's attention about updates and I try to reply to every feedback message I get. :/

Oh, that's quite all right. It's not like you're posting within twenty minutes of yourself. I may not have said anything here yet, but I am glad to hear about this now and then.

I've seen a lot of this type of calculator, and this isn't the first time I've been surprised by their capabilities. One thing I could mention (looking at those screenshots) is that I don't really think there's any need to display monsters on the minimap, but if it works well (or if it's just easier for whatever technical reason), then it's cool.

I'll be looking forward to trying to build some levels on that once you've got green doors, an editor that saves, and other basic functions in place. Perhaps a few of us could work together somehow to make its default hold.

____________________________
Penwielder's Palace, Detention Complex, Archipelago, Cube of Memories

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[Last edited by Penwielder at 07-01-2011 11:14 PM]

GLaDOS
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Penwielder wrote:
Oh, that's quite all right. It's not like you're posting within twenty minutes of yourself. I may not have said anything here yet, but I am glad to hear about this now and then.

I've seen a lot of this type of calculator, and this isn't the first time I've been surprised by their capabilities. One thing I could mention (looking at those screenshots) is that I don't really think there's any need to display monsters on the minimap, but if it works well (or if it's just easier for whatever technical reason), then it's cool.

I'll be looking forward to trying to build some levels on that once you've got green doors, an editor that saves, and other basic functions in place. Perhaps a few of us could work together somehow to make its default hold.

Thanks for your feedback.
Also, don't worry, the minimap was just made for debugging purposes.
It displays the mask of the room (where it's solid and where you can pass). I made it for getting rid of inivisible wall problems with roaches I had before, and it'll soon be replaced by a 3x3 map of the explored surrounding rooms.

So what I'm going to focus on next will be persistence of created rooms and actual rooms/levels/holds instead of just a single volatile room, and then more gameplay features.

UrAvgAzn
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This looks really impressive. I have a TI-83 for calculus, and it would be really interesting to play DROD while sitting in class. :p

Great work, GLaDOS!

____________________________
"The leaf, still green, must someday fall.
Such grief, such joy, to live at all."
- T.A. Barron, The Lost Years of Merlin

Samuel
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Nice work man, I'm getting a TI-84 next year (compulsory for my school's math lessons) and can't wait to play it >.<

____________________________
I believe in everything until it's
disproved. So I believe in fairies,
the myths, dragons. It all exists,
even if it's in your mind. Who's to
say that dreams and nightmares
aren't as real as the here and now?
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