Looking some old games
Sorry guys, the TI99/4A is a bit of an odd beast and I am not very familiar with it. I couldn't access your uploads at dropmefiles, actually I don't seem to be able to access that website at all from here (in Thailand), the browser just cycles endlessly.
I couldn't find Star-Ride anywhere but I took a look at TI-Wars, very difficult to figure out how to load it since it needs a memory expansion. The controls seem bizarre, but the block of keys around QWE, WSZ, ZXC all do something. The controls should allow you to either move or fire a torpedo in one of the eight directions but it's hard to work figure it out. I think there is something up with the control loop since the gameplay is far too sluggish and the basic code is a mess. I suspect this may have been a magazine type-in or a user group contribution, my copy is on a compilation disk with a bunch of other programs. Finding proper instructions might help.
Sorry I wasn't able to help with this one. 🙁
- STAR-RIDE - Unstable operation and strange game controls.
Not sure how much help this is going to be, but I did get this working. (I think.)
Controls: Arrow keys move the reticle around. TAB fires.
The movement isn't exactly responsive, rapidly tap the TAB key to get it to fire. You can move diagonally by holding down two arrow keys at the same time. I couldn't get joystick to work. (didn't try real hard) If you get a "game over" it doesn't seem to present any option for trying again and just sits there. So I would quit out with ALT-4, then type RUN again at the prompt. Annoying, but better than having to load the game from WAV file again.
I used the Classic99 emulator started in Extended Basic. The file I found was "STAR-RIDE.wav". From the Basic prompt, OLD CS1 starts the tape load process. The tape controls are found under the Disk menu. RUN to start after load completes. Hopefully at least some part of this helps, and good luck.
@porkbelly , @lanhawk , thanks for your feedback! I continue to deal with these games (in addition to debugging these two German games).
Hi guys! @sightsaber finally pulled it off and managed to launch all the remaining games for TI-99, and we are done with this platform 🙂
https://dtf.ru/retro/2823371-igry-po-star-wars-s-drevnih-vremen-do-nashih-dnei-chast-59-ti-99
Congrats!
My approach to games I can't play "I guess I'll just skip it for now".
Your approach: "No Sightsaber! I won't move on until you manage to run this version on this Brazilian TI-99 clone!"
@admin6572 Ah-ha-ha))) That’s right! 😀
Quote from The Wargaming Scribe on 17 July 2024, 9h34Your approach "No Sightsaber! I won't move on until you manage to run this version running on a TI-99 Brazilian clone!"
Appreciated!
Hi guys!
The upcoming part of our marathon will be dedicated to missed games for already completed platforms; a significant portion of the games are taken from a French magazine called Hebdogiciel. Among them there are several interesting and unusual games. And there is one of them, Star Wars written by Stéphane Marty for the Commodore VIC-20 platform, with which launching problems arose. After loading the main menu and selecting any of its items, the program gives an error:
?OUT OF DATA
ERROR IN 22
This has been tested both on two versions of the VICE emulator and on MAME. I tried to check the program code, but with my modest knowledge of BASIC I did not find the error.
@porkbelly , can you take a look?
(link)
@sightsaber The problem is a matter of how to load the game and you have to do part 1 first. I got it to work by entering that one line manually. This would work better with both files on a disk image, but working with what we have..... Instructions:
- Start Vice running in VIC-20 mode with 16 KB for Memory Expansion.
- Drag and drop "star2.prg" into the VIC-20 window, then reboot the machine, ALT-F12. This sets the file in drive 8 for later.
- Enter this line manually: 10 POKE44,32:POKE46,32:POKE8192,0:POKE8193,0:POKE8194,0:NEW
- after hitting [Enter] for the line above, type RUN [hit Enter]
- Now enter the following 2 commands to load "star2" and start the game:
- LOAD"STAR2",8
- RUN
Good luck!!
@lanhawk , thank you very much!
The second option, with dragging and reloading, worked: it seems that in the first case the program does not remember the path to the file.
Manual line entry can be replaced by Edit => Paste (the texts must be written in lowercase letters).
P.S. Do you also have an artifact with doubling of lower laser cannons?
I always forget about the cut and paste with lower case letters. (shows how frequently I do this.)
Yes, I see the same artifact doubling. It is also present in the .gif file included with the download. Hopefully it still works so you guys can play it.
Unfortunately, we couldn't play it fully. The controls work strangely (only fire works fully), and on the second level the game freezes up all the time.
Overall, the game is a port of Star Wars Arcade.