MaxCoderz

My current programming project is keeping me quite tied up right now, and after I finish it, I already have my next program in mind (won't say what it is... but I will say that it is a port of an X-tremely good side-scroller ). So, I thought I'd throw this out there in case anyone wants to have a crack at it.

Remember Tomagatchis (sp?) and Nano-Pets? They were bascially little animals that lived in a key chain, and you had to feed them on a regular basis. You could play, train them, watch them grow, etc. Anyway, this might make an entertaining game for a TI calc... especially for someone who luggs their calculator around school all day for math class and is looking for brief bits of entertainment between classes. It almost might (prepare to be shocked here) appeal to the opposite sex. I don't know about you, but girls playing calculator games sounds kind of nice to me.

The main problem that I see with the project is that there's no real way for the thing to keep track of itself when it's not in use. When your calculator is off, the program has no way of knowing that you pet is slowly burning the food in its stomach and will need to be fed soon. Still, it might be a fun idea anyway.

If anyone does make this, I'd appreciate a shoutout in the credits.

It's spelled "Tamagotchi", and it's quite popular again in Japan. A game called "Tamagotchi's Shop" or something was just released in Japan and is selling very, very well.... It outsells all PSP games together (including Winning Eleven 10)

Also you might heard of Nintendogs, which is also a "virtual pet" thingie... just an advanced one

Yeah, that's the basic concept. Nintendogs is what gave me the idea.

Perhaps this could be done as a virtual fish tank? I'm thinking grayscale, since it would be graphics heavy and wouldn't really need to be that fast. Maybe the program could keep track of how many times it is run, and award you points each time... then you could buy new fish or new decorations for the fish tank with the points.

Just tossing out ideas.

L4E_WakaMol-King wrote:Yeah, that's the basic concept. Nintendogs is what gave me the idea.

Perhaps this could be done as a virtual fish tank? I'm thinking grayscale, since it would be graphics heavy and wouldn't really need to be that fast. Maybe the program could keep track of how many times it is run, and award you points each time... then you could buy new fish or new decorations for the fish tank with the points.

Just tossing out ideas.

The problem is, only the 84 (?) has a clock, which is essiantly for this type of games.

I know. Like I said, that time thing is the basic issue that would make this a challenge.

The best I can come up with would be a bit of code in the game that would check certain often-used variables in the calc... for example, the [Ans] and [Entry] variables. Every time the program closed, it would save the state of those variables, and every time it is run, it checks the variables against what is saved. If they are different, then there has probably been some sort of activity since the last running of the program.

As long as the source code is not released with the game, it might keep your average joe guessing for long enough to be entertaining. This would prevent someone from just running the program over and over again to get points.

The other option is simply to have the program keep track of how long it has been run for. The longer it runs, the more points you get.

http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fi ... 15179.html

It even has sound.

Not bad! Thanks for the link. I think it could be improved a bit though .

A lot of the new students are buying the 84 series calculators. You could use the built in clock on these to monitor how long it has been since the pet has been fed/whatever. When the program is turned on, it could quickly simulate what would have happened to the pet during the time it was off(without the knowledge of the user) and just show your pet how it would be after that amount of time.

But when it ram clears then the clock resets and that makes it a little diff.

Well, that is a problem. But ram resets don't really happen all that often. If it does get reset and the program finds that the time on the calc is lower than the time it has stored, it could just use the amount of time that has elapsed since the calc was reset to determine the effects on the pet. Also, to stop teachers and students from clearing the ram, have the program load up fakeres3 somehow.

L4E_WakaMol-King wrote: It almost might (prepare to be shocked here) appeal to the opposite sex. I don't know about you, but girls playing calculator games sounds kind of nice to me.

A lot of girls i know play Tetris all the time on calcs.....

A girl in my math class got me hooked on calc games a few years ago, I didn't have a calc until she got me addicted to BombKids and PuzzPack.

at my school very few girls play calc games. I wouldn't be surprised if they used it for anything besides basic math operations and function graphing.

Were you thinking of making this yourself, or is it just an idea? I might like to do something like this too, so let me know if you want to design it together. I'm thinking of something with a little more complexity than the original Tomagotchi.

I am planning on making Monster Rancher before I grow up and leave the community, does that count?