Darkblasters: A new graphical TI-82A/84+/84+SE/84+T RPG written in TI-BASIC

So I wanted to have something Illusiat-related, since Illusiat 20th anniversary is on the horizon, but the Illusiat 1+2 remake or Illusiat 13 revival finally never happened. That said, I still got something somewhat similar, RPG-related: Darkblasters!

Back in late 2012, when the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition color screen z80 calculator got announced, I wanted to experiment with layered text sprites. Games like Serenity and Metroid Pi used this technique, although the latter did not use the shifted method. In the process, I wanted to attempt making an RPG like Illusiat 6/Nemesiat, but with larger maps while being (hopefully) smaller.

I eventually got the color calculator model before pushing this RPG engine further, so only the walking engine was done and in 2014 it was posted in Omnimaga downloads section. I have recently uploaded it to TI-Planet, Cemetech and Ticalc.org as well. (As it turn out, layered text sprites would not work on the CSE, making a direct port of this engine impossible. )

https://tiplanet.org/forum/archives_voir.php?id=2790407
https://www.cemetech.net/downloads/files/2178/x2410
https://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/476/47676.html

Almost 9 years later, it's being revived as Darkblasters! It features four dungeons, a town and a forest, all with over 390 rooms to explore, some magic spells and items, but no shop and in-game currency. There will be no experience points, so your max HP/MP will go up every battle, along with your skill points. Magic will get stronger the more you use it. You'll also not be able to enter buildings in the town, but you will be able to talk to NPC's.

My goals:
-Keep the game and its RAM usage as small as possible
-Hopefully keep it in one file, unlike my entire RPG calculatography.
-Make sure that the speed remains fast enough for 15 MHz calcs. 83+ will be playable, but not the most optimal experience.
-Keep compatibility with the TI-82 Advanced and TI-84 Plus-T models. (This is why the game remains in pure TI-BASIC)

So far, what is implemented are the 390 rooms, connection between each area, magic animations (although they're currently separate from the game), the intro text (same) and everything shown in the screenies above. The file size is 5753 bytes right now.

EDIT: Changed one of the screenshots to a newer one and added a 5th one. Old screenies will remain as links above.

Last Edit: September 08, 2021, 10:16:19 PM by DJ Omnimaga