Not-So-Triumphant Return and a Question

Post by **L4E_WakaMol-King** » Wed 19 Apr, 2006 9:02 am

Hello MaxCoderz

A few of you might remember me from a few months ago. I was working on a graphic adventure game project and had posted a few sample screenshots and a download.

I was/am a resident of New Orleans, and the Hurricane made my life really chaotic with changing schools for a semester and then changing back. When I got back, classes were super condensed to make up for lost time and I've been really busy and really loaded down with work. As a result, I haven't had much time for programming... not to mention the fact that my graphic adventure project has some kind of extemely annoying and hard to find bug in the dialogue engine. To make a long story short, that project has been put on the back burner until I find the time and the patience to finish it... not to mention good material to fill all the holes in the story.

Since summer is about to start for me, I want to take up calc programming again. This time I've picked a slightly less ambitious project, though one that should produce a game that is still quite original and entertaining. This game won't have choose-your-own dialogue and the environment interaction will be a lot easier to program. It's a port of a game already wirtten, so I won't have to worry about the story.

The game I've picked is Loom, a lesser-known graphic adventure from LucasArts. This has always been one of my favorite video games / stories, and I think it can be ported to the calc. If you've played Loom (award yourself 10 cool points), you know that the spells are all made up of four musical notes, and the game itself has a beautiful soundtrack.

So, my question is this: can a game have background music? To my knowledge, not a lot of calc games (this will be TI83+ ion assembly) have been created with music. The first use of music in this game will be a very simple push-a-button, play-a-note, make-a-spell-after-4-notes sort of thing. That should be fairly straight-forward. The more complicated part comes in having music behind the cuts scenes of the game.

That's my question... is it possile to have something like that? Can I put music behind a cut scene? I am not familiar with how music works on a calc, but I can imagine vagualy how it is done. As far as I can figure, it would be possible... but I want an expert's opinion before I put more work into this port.

Sorry for being gone so long... stupid hurricane. I have actually been coming here every now and then to read up on the latest... just not posting since I haven't gotten much farther on my graphic adventure project. I hope everyone here is doing well. Let me know if this is possible and I'll try to post some of my preliminary graphics work by the end of the week.

the_unknown_one · Post by **the_unknown_one** » Wed 19 Apr, 2006 11:07 am

I know and played Loom, great game, can't wait to see a port for this! Suckage about the hurricane

And yes, you can put music into games... But it won't be pretty (beeps). I've put sound into a game I used to work on... It aint that hard, you just have to get the right code and then "compose" the music.

threefingeredguy · Post by **threefingeredguy** » Wed 19 Apr, 2006 3:04 pm

Actually, I was wondering where you were.

kalan_vod · Post by **kalan_vod** » Wed 19 Apr, 2006 3:16 pm

Welcome back! I am very happy you are ok, as I was a resident of Slidell, LA. I had many friends and family members there too. If you check your graphic adventure game thread, you can see I was really wanting to hear from you on it

. I hope you are able to work on the game one day, but Loom sounds like a great idea. I know you can make it have music in a game, but it will not be as good as bens' quad music player. Dwedit had Ice Climb in asm with sounds, when you jumped it would beep and what not. Eventually the beeps got higher pitched as you got higher up in the level. Good luck and hope everything works out for you!

the_unknown_one · Post by **the_unknown_one** » Wed 19 Apr, 2006 3:26 pm

Threefingeredguy's also putting sound in a game (I think our game, HP: HQ, but I'm not sure).

threefingeredguy · Post by **threefingeredguy** » Wed 19 Apr, 2006 3:43 pm

Yeah, one interrupt set up to play the tone, one set up to control the length (meaning change the tone after a certain amount of time), and one left over. On the 84+, there are more interrupts, so I might try to make multi-channel sound, but I'm pretty sure I'd have to use a different method than the one I am doing to achieve that. Ok, so as I learned from Jim e and do not have the code handy, I can't really explain the code to you without probably leaving something important out. But it is possible to have it playing on an interrupt, allowing for games with background music. I also, before I could regulate note lenght automatically, made a TI-Piano. It just plays the notes you hold down, with the Y= through Graph buttons being the octave regulators. It amuses me, but it is a totally useless novelty

.

Timendus · Post by **Timendus** » Wed 19 Apr, 2006 4:03 pm

...?

Your calculator has multiple interrupt routines running at the same time..? Please do explain

Post by **L4E_WakaMol-King** » Wed 19 Apr, 2006 5:30 pm

Interesting. It's good to know that the music will be a possibility... it really added to the game, and I think that a large-scale game with a sound track will be somewhat novel and well-liked among the calculator community.

I have to do the graphic and story work before I start programming, and then the music will probably be towards the end of that process, but just for kicks, can someone direct me to a place that I can learn about calc music?

I'm not familiar with interrupts, but then again I wasn't familiar with assembly at all less than a year ago, so hopefully I can figure it out.

By the way, would this make it possible to put background music behind the actually playable parts of the game?

Also, here's a look at the sprites I'll be using. For those of you that have played Loom, this is the first big cut scene where Atropos is weaving the Transcendence draft on Hechel in the sanctuary of the Weavers.

The Dialogue for this scene:
Atropos: You have heard the findings of this council, dame Hetchel. Have you anything to say in your own defense?
Hetchel: My elders, my actions speak for themselves.
Lachesis: This wreckless defiance is intollerable! Any secret you share with Cygna's son could be turned against us.
Hetchel: His powers are awakening, and the craft is very strong in him. We dare not desert him now.
Lachesis: Stuborn old fool, who are YOU to decide such things?
Atropos: Enough, Lachesis. Hetchel, I am grieved to see your many years of service end in such disgrace.
Hetchel: My destiny is your to weave.
Cletho: Hetchel, the fabrick of your life has been woven by your own choices.
Atropos: Gaze once more upon the great loom, if you would know your ultimate destiny...
FOR THAT DESTINY IS NOW UPON YOU!

If you haven't played, please tell me what you see in the image. I won't describe it (what the characters look like, what that thing is in the background, etc.), because it should be more or less apparent from the sprites. There will obviously be dialogue and maybe a few character portraits, so the finished game will be easier to decipher... but just for the hell of it, I'd like to know what you all see.

Once there's actually enough material to start one, I'll make a thread in the Projects forum.

the_unknown_one · Post by **the_unknown_one** » Wed 19 Apr, 2006 6:46 pm

Wow nice sprites, looks very much like the real game!

Sweet.

d4vz · Post by **d4vz** » Wed 19 Apr, 2006 9:08 pm

Loom! Yes!!! Great idea. I'm very excited to see how this project will turn out.

threefingeredguy · Post by **threefingeredguy** » Wed 19 Apr, 2006 9:51 pm

Timendus: It's just what Jim e told me. Like I said (or thought I said) I only have the piano working now, I don't know how to set up multiple interrupts. Or maybe I interpreted what he was saying wrong.

Timendus · Post by **Timendus** » Wed 19 Apr, 2006 10:05 pm

If I understand correctly, there are multiple devices on the calculator that trigger interrupts at different frequencies, and you can choose which ones should interrupt and which ones shouldn't, so you can somewhat control the interrupt calling speed. I think that's what Jim e has been playing with for some time, and that's probably what he meant.

threefingeredguy · Post by **threefingeredguy** » Thu 20 Apr, 2006 12:27 am

Yeah, all I remember is it involved calls to 31h and 32h for one, 35h and something else for the other.

Post by **L4E_WakaMol-King** » Thu 20 Apr, 2006 3:47 am

Hmm, this is all a bit on the technical side for me. Does PindurTI simulate sound? If not, what do you recommend testing the sound end of this game on?

kalan_vod · Post by **kalan_vod** » Thu 20 Apr, 2006 4:56 am

Taking a 3.5mm->2.5mm converter and connect a pair of head phones to it, then connect to your calcs port.