I have been trying to freakin get jotima on my calculator for OVER 3 MONTHS!!! everytime i try it, either ticonnect says that my calculator doesnt handle this type of file (it IS .8xp for my ti84!!) or it just wont work!! im REALLY pissed right now because im just tired of trying to get it! can ANYBODY help me get it, because I really want to play it because i hear its really good!

I renamed this topic title, because first it was all caps and secondly Joltima is not stupid nor the author.

If I remember, it had something to do with Joltima having been compiled using something else, causing it to not be sendable with TI-Connect. It can only be sent using TiLP on 84+ or TI-Graph Link on older calcs

Wasn't there a CrunchyOs port of that game that worked fine with TI-Connect, though?

First thing, never trust extensions. I can rename any test.8xp file to test.exe, and then have people wondering why they can't run the executable file on their computer. It's all about what lies under the hood in the binary.

Upload you exact file, that you're trying to send, and I will have a look at it. It's probably just something minor regarding the file header.

This problem happens with every version of Joltima for the 83+ that didnt got recompiled recently I think. Back in 2002-2003 I read a lot about TI-Connect not sending Joltima, but I forgot what it was. I'll do some research I think

EDIT: Unfortunately I can't find anything anymore. Most websites regarding this probably shutted down. IIRC it was because Joltima was compiled using something different than most ASM games or something like that. Prbly something with the header. Unfortunately I got Joltima from TIcalc.org and all other sites did too, meaning we're stuck with this version unless someone managed to recompile it after disassembling it

Alright, just as I thought. The header was clearly chopped and screwed by some application named Bin2Var, and the fact that anyone even got TiLP to send it to the calculator is amazing. Even more amazing is the fact that anyone even got it to run after being sent to the calculator because the header wasn't just incorrect, but the variable format too.

Also, you were right. TI-Connect reports errors about the version because the file was specifying a value that isn't even in use.

Anyways, here is a patched version of Joltima that works: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?imqr3wtkdm

So now, just send those two files to your calculator with TI-Connect, un-archive JOLTIMA and run it with "Asm(prgmJOLTIMA)", and the game should start up no problem. I have verified this on my end with my TI-84+ BE. (By the way, make a note that you need 22 KB of RAM free to even be able to un-archive Joltima.) So maybe it has something to do with what Iambian said about ZJLOAD? I don't know, I tried using ZJLOAD directly, but it didn't do anything, so I had to un-archive Joltima itself.

Anyways, if you have anymore problems with my patched files, just ask! Otherwise, have fun with the game. (From the little bit I played, it seems pretty fun. )

Oooh yeah Bin2Var, now I remember. This is what caused the transfer problem.

Should I update the RPG archives on Omnimaga with the new version? (when they are finished)

Yes you should. And the new versions are finished, I posted the link above: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?imqr3wtkdmj

Aah ok, that's cool then. I saw the link I was just unsure ^^

I don't know what other game used Bin2Var though, because it was so long ago when this problem was being talked about. I think United-TI, Calcgames (site, not forums) and TI-Freakware didn't even existed. Almost all info regarding this was either scattered all around the web on forgotten sites/comment pages or completly lost

Ah, I see. You know, if I ever have some time one day, I could always go back through the ticalc.org archives and compile a list of what games did use Bin2Var, and patch them if necessary. And yeah, I can tell it must have been a long time ago, because I've never heard or seen Bin2Var. I think I'm going to do a little digging for it though.

EDIT:

Well, I found Bin2Var on ticalc.org: http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/143/14394.html. (By the way, that link is to Bin2Var 1.2) It was released in 2000. The porter of Joltima is also the author of Bin2Var, and he generated the files for Joltima with Bin2Var 1.1. He released the C source code for both Bin2Var 1.1 & 1.2, so I had a look at it. As I read through the source I found where he made his mistakes. He takes a binary dump (the binary representation of assembly code which can be generated by almost all assemblers such as SPASM, TASM, etc.) and he retrieves the size of it. He never adds the necessary 2-byte number of tokens section to the front of the data and also does all size calculations on the raw data. So that's where all the problems stem from.

Well, that should clear everything up.

thanks everybody (mostly DJ and Halifax) but everyone else too, and now my problem is solved