Reuben Quest 12th anniversary sees 2nd sequel release by @Sorunome

[DJ Omnimaga]

On December 11th 2004, I released an hybrid TI-BASIC JRPG called Reuben Quest: Ev Awakening for the TI-84 Plus. It made the ticalc.org headlines for being the first grayscale game ever written in BASIC with the help of ASM libraries. Using Omnicalc sprite command rapidly generated nearly-flickerless grayscale almost comparable to the only other TI-84 Plus grayscale game available at the time, called Desolate by @tr1p1ea . It was also notorious for being the first ever grayscale JRPG release for a TI-Z80 calculator other than the TI-86. The game involved finding items and clues to help you progressing, while fighting monsters in turn-based battles along your way.

Then on January 15th 2005, a sequel titled Reuben Quest: The Lost Mirror came out, also making ticalc.org headlines. This game used the same engine as the first game, but was longer and had more advanced puzzle-solving elements, as well as more items. However, this marked the beginning of a years-long TI community trend where people started loathing calculator games with a large file size (ironically at a time when TI-Z80 calculators with 1.5 MB of Flash became widespread) despite their usually higher amount of content, and as a result, this was my final RPG release until the release of First Fantasy: Mana Force last year.


Then one decade after the release of Reuben Quest, @Sorunome remade the original game in Axe Parser language then the sequel in Z80 assembly. Both also got featured, competing in the same POTY, just like the original games did in 2005, and the sequel remake won the 2014 Program of the Year award. The two remakes featured much faster speed, an extra shade of grayscale and updated graphics.


Soon after, Soru decided to reboot the series and make a second sequel: Reuben Quest: Lost Between Times. Two years after its development started, it is finally out (quite fittingly, just a few days after the series' 12th anniversary and on the day the original game was featured on ticalc.org front page) and it takes Reuben Quest series to a whole new level!


The game remains true to the first two games and brings back several puzzle elements from them. The game is even longer, new graphics have been added to the classic sprites and there are many more possibilities, such as the bomb and hookshoot items. While the battles remain turn-based, they are now in active mode, meaning that enemies will attack you while you select commands and at different speeds depending of their stats. This game should give you a Zelda feel even more than the first sequel did, while also keeping some classic JRPG elements with the random enemy encounters.


Download link: http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/468/46837.html
Official sub-forum: https://www.omnimaga.org/reuben-quest/
CodeWalrus topic: https://codewalr.us/1605
Reuben Quest Wiki: http://reubenquest.net

[Streetwalrus]

Glad to see this finally completed. Congratulations to Sorunome and everyone else who contributed.
now I need to get illusiat done...

[DJ Omnimaga]

now I need to get illusiat done...

^This. Also good job Soru

Also I just remembered how hard it was to take screenshots from a BASIC or non-GRAYLIB Axe grayscale game

[Sorunome]

Yay, thanks for the news post and stuff, I sure hope that you guys enjoy this game

[naz2a]

Congrats on completing the game Foxy! :3 @Sorunome
Could you post more gifsss?

[p2]

naz you can play the game yourself even without a 83+ // 84+ calc if you just use one of the emulators
wabbitemu for example works fine for me, but there are several to chose from

[DJ Omnimaga]

WabbitEmu seems to crash randomly with this game but it's not as bad as with Reuben 2 ASM. Just make sure to do frequent savestates.

You can use TilEm too, but if you use TilEm then you can forget about increasing emulation speed to level up your character, because TilEm not only lacks the ability to choose emulation speed, but will emulate at about 1500% speed (if not faster), making the game unplayable.

[Dudeman313]

2nd sequel??? Huh??? Missed SO MUCH... I'd be playing it now if I had a calculator, because seriously, what's the point of playing a game for a mobile device on a non-mobile device?

[DJ Omnimaga]

what's the point of playing a game for a mobile device on a non-mobile device?

It depends. you can resize emulator windows to fill most of the computer screen and play the game as if you were playing a NES game on an emulator.

[Sorunome]

In wabbitemu the keybindings are actually quite good to make reuben enjoyable to play! ^.^

[DJ Omnimaga]

Personally I like the default key setup, but the coolest part would be if I had a gamepad on which the d-pad can be mapped to stuff. As for speed it depends: I usually play Reuben at normal speed but during grinding I like playing at 4x speed to speed up the process.

[Sorunome]

I actually did most of the development at 400%, heehee

[p2]

Dont forget to mention you also did almost no beta testing and just sent the builds to others like me to try it out

[Sorunome]

Dont forget to mention you also did almost no beta testing and just sent the builds to others like me to try it out

Yeah, that, too. And SpiroH pushed me to do a release rather sooner than later, else the game would have had like an additional month testing period and stuff