Ultima V for TI Calcs

I'll stick with Lazarus!! :)
 
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Wow. The phrase that comes to mind is "Some people have too much time on their hands."

Another phrase that comes to mind is "And that's awesome."
 
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That's impressive!

A great way how to pass those boring hours at school:).
 
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Not to diminish Ranman's effort, but the amazing thing to me is that calculators have advanced sufficiently to play U5.
 
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No doubt!

Now I just need a TI calculator! Damn HP business calc!
 
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TI-89? I have a TI-86 darnit! I take it one of the limitations is the screen?

IIRC TI's use Z80 processors or modifications of it.
 
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You geeks. I've still got my TI-36X Solar from college (and that's getting close to 2 decades, ya whippersnappers). There will be many tears and much gnashing of teeth the day this baby finally dies. I still remember making fun of the HP users for having to use Reverse Polish Notation back in the day.
 
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Wow, if only someone had come out with this when I was in college with my TI calculator. I don't even remember the model # as it was not allowed to be used often in class.

Just thinking that someone took the time to do this is amazing.
 
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When I bought my 86 my buddy bought a 92. He was never allowed to use his because it was large enough to look like a small laptop. Truthfully they were right not to, as you could store a lot of notes in it if you were so inclined.

Looks like you are getting it to work on it there too Ran?

I'd be interested in looking at your code. I would think think since Garriot et al. had basically used the same engine since U3 to make it something similar could be done with yours.
 
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I used to have a TI83, but rarely used it, so I got rid of it. I have no use for one anymore. Still, I can see it becoming popular with people who want to LOOK like they're working!! :)
 
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I originally played U5 on a C64 which with disk drive cost over $1k. Heck, the game cost $75 back then, but I thought it was worth it!!
 
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Impressive. Shouldn't this be posted on the front page? ;)
 
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Maybe in one of Mike's "Whole Game in My Hands" Articles. Last I checked that TI-89 this runs on is handheld...

Anyone know where to get a handy emulator?

I'm glad I paid the extra $30 to get my 86 over the much more popular TI-82 back in the day. The base model now is the TI-83 and TI still makes variations of the 86. Hope I'm not in a math class again in 10 years...
 
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Ah yes... This was my last and favorite Ultima that I played on my old Commodore SX-64. This was an interesting game to port to the TI calcs for many reasons.

TI-89 Calculator Limitations:
  • TI Operating system has a file size limit of 64Kb
  • LCD screen size 160x100
  • RAM 188Kb
  • Flash memory available
    1. Hardware version 1 Flash 384Kb
    2. Hardware version 2 Flash 700Kb
    3. Hardware versions 3 & 4 Flash 2700Kb (Titanium version)

UV for TI was written in C with some 68K assembly routines for graphics. I managed to "squeak" the entire game engine into the 64Kb file size limitation -- it 's currently sitting at 63.5Kb -- not much room to spare.

To be consistent with the original Ultima V map displays, I needed to display an 11x11 tile map so that the Avatar could be positioned in the center. To do this would have required a tile size of 9x9px or smaller -- too much detail loss for me. So, I decided to use 11x11px tiles. This choice gave me a 9x9 tile map on the 89 and the full 11x11 tile map on the 92+. By choosing this tile size, the 89 version required me to implement an "auto" and "on-demand" camera panning mechanism during combat (all combat maps are 11x11 tiles).

I was unable to locate an image scaling algorithm that would nicely convert the original 16x16px 256color tiles to the 11x11px 4color tiles for the TI version without blurring (antialiasing?) the the resultant tiles. So, I began the daunting task of redrawing all 512 tiles by hand.

My goal was to create a version of Ultima V that was playable on my TI-89. Since I own a Hardware Version 1 of the TI-89, it is playable on every TI-89, including the 92+ and V200 variants as well. Ultima V for TI calcs requires a modest 270Kb of Flash memory for storage. Not too shabby for a game that was originally over 1Mb -- and no more disk swapping.

Ultima V for TI calcs is the complete game -- including the character creation and the introduction. The major difference to an experienced classic Ultima player is that the dungeons are from the Bird's Eye view not from the First Person view -- just not enough memory to implement both methods.
 
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Wow, that's absolutely amazing Ranman. Of course, the original UV was made for 64k but at least had the option to swap floppies.

You see about contacting Garriot at NCsoft - he'd probably get a good kick out of it. Very few of these fan made remakes have actually been finished after all and this is quite a hack in the true sense of the word.

edit: I got this working with the tiemu 32bit. Instructions for the regular tiemu can be found here

I am shocked at how good this looks. Its amazing! The commands are a bit cumbersome, especially emulated, but you work with what you got.
 
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Wow, that's absolutely amazing Ranman. Of course, the original UV was made for 64k but at least had the option to swap floppies.
Thanks so much!

You see about contacting Garriot at NCsoft - he'd probably get a good kick out of it. Very few of these fan made remakes have actually been finished after all and this is quite a hack in the true sense of the word.
I have been trying to contact him... no luck yet. Does anyone have any other suggestions as to how to contact him?

edit: I got this working with the tiemu 32bit. Instructions for the regular tiemu can be found here
You may also want to try Virtual TI v2.5. It is more user friendly, but does not emulate the Titanium or the V200.

I am shocked at how good this looks. Its amazing! The commands are a bit cumbersome, especially emulated, but you work with what you got.
Thanks again! I really appreciate the feedback. Do you think I should implement keyboard commands (similar to the original... where 'A' = Attack, etc...)?
 
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That was the first thing I tried and then I went to your instructions when they didn't work.

Using the old keyboard commands is, of course, a lot easier with a regular keyboard, not having to hit Alpha all the time. I'd love to do be able to do that but if I were on my calculator I'd want to just hit the regular key equivalent.

I do like Function menu options. That's a good system, but I would remove the need to hit 2nd if at all possible to finish the line.
 
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