TilEm is dead, long live TilEm2

Benjamin Moody (floppus maximus) and myself Thibault Duponchelle(contra-sh) are proud to announce the first release of TilEm2.

You probably already know TilEm "old" because it was a good emulator serving the community since 2000 (written by Julien Solignac then improved and maintained by Moody Benjamin)
For those who don't know, TilEm is an emulator that reproduce behavior of z80 based Texas Instrument Calculator (TI73 through TI86 including the TI81 :p). As the others emulators, TilEm2 needs an official rom of course.

TilEm old was available for GNU/Linux natively then ported to Windows and Mac.
TilEm2 is already available for GNU/Linux and Windows (TilEm2 is likely to work on Mac OS X, but we have not tested it)

3 years ago, I joined the team and we started to work on a new version of TilEm.
Even if it seems to be a sequel, all the code was written from scratch, including a new emulation core written by Benjamin.

This new version is released for beta testing.

It features highly detailed hardware emulation.
TilEm 2's hardware emulation is greatly improved - it's now at least on par with, and in some cases better than, any other emulator released to date. 
All of the Z80 models are supported (including both hardware revisions of the TI-81 and both revisions of the TI-82); the only part of the hardware that is not currently emulated is the TI-84 Plus USB controller.
 
Sending/receiving programs, variables, and applications :

• TilEm2 uses libticalcs and provides visual feedback by printing progress and allowing cancel.
• You can send single or grouped vars, flashapp, or whatever you want.
• A nice receive window allow you to save programs from your calc to you computer.
• There's also the possiblity to send and receive to and from the ti81.

Grayscale emulation :

• TilEm has had grayscale support for many years (originally an FIR filter supporting only 4 levels; later changed to an IIR filter supporting 64 levels, but with a tendency to flicker.)  TilEm 2, however, uses a completely new grayscale algorithm based on a modified FIR filter, which should work a lot better.

Saving screenshots :

• You can record animations (gif) or simply grab a static screenshot (png, bmp, gif output and more...).
• There's a lot of setting as size (at least 3 default size per model plus custom size), foreground/background color, animation speed.
• And of course a preview window to see before saving what you have done.

A full featured debugger for assembly programming :

• With memory view (could be edited), disassembly view, registers (could be edited), stack, breakpoints, step by step, and more ...

Macro :

• It allow to record key press and execute automatically (at startup or when you load the macro file).

New pack of skin and new skin format (TiEmu skin file) :

• You can now do a skin for TilEm2 in 15 min and you can do some funny stuff(see the documentation about skins)

This version has a new and improved user interface, as well as many
improvements to the hardware emulation.
See the project website at http://lpg.ticalc.org/prj_tilem/ for more
information.

This release is only a step, development goes on. We will add some new features to TilEm2 soon. In addition to the features you will request and bug we will have to fix.
You will find a long user manual here : http://contra-sh.users.sourceforge.net/user_manual.html
This program was made for YOU users.
Please report bugs and feature request (on the Sourceforge forum : http://sourceforge.net/projects/tilem/forums/forum/84646)
The current maintainers of TilEm are Benjamin Moody and Thibault Duponchelle (but many other people have played a part in making this program possible especially Hugues Luc Bruant "fullmetalcoder" who started a qt gui and helped us a little for other stuff and Scott Zeid which provides the pictures from which are based the icons).

Have fun with TilEm2 !!!

Liens :

Official website
Download TilEm2
PDF documentation
Online Doc
Contact

Hi,

The zcontest is a z80 programming contest.

There's 3 different categories :
- TI basic
- Basic extended (axe parser, bbc basic, fast rpl etc...)
- Asm

In each category, there's 2 sub categories :
- Tool
- Game

The deadline is the 1rst december.


### The prizes ###

one TI NSPIRE CX CAS, two TI84+ pocket.fr and three TI76.fr.

Thank you to our sponsor TSPromotion (http://www.boutique-calculatrice-ti.com/
More information here : http://tiforge.info/zcontest3/ (french and english version)

Here the announce of the prizes :

Deeph and myself are proud to announce the prizes.

Our sponsor tspromotion (official website : http://www.tspromotion.fr/   shop  : http://www.boutique-calculatrice-ti.com/ ) will offer very very beautiful gifts !!

Prizes will be distributed like this :

- Each langage is judged alone without taking care about sub categories (game or utility)

- Better project between all langages win a TI-NSPIRE CX CAS !!

- Others winners (2 others categories) win a TI84+ pocket.fr (yes the french pocket version !)

- Second project of all langages win a TI76.fr (another french version especially for english people who can't get it in their country).

 

So by example it could look like this (assuming TIBASIC will be the better project) :

TIBASIC :
1er : TI-NSPIRE CX CAS
2eme : TI76.fr

BASIC extended :
1er : TI84+ pocket.fr
2eme : TI76.fr

ASM:
1er : TI84+ pocket.fr
2eme : TI76.fr

One more time, thank you to TSP for his generous offers.

Even if there 's beautiful prizes, do not forget that zcontest is a funny contest.
The most important thing is to share knowledge, discussing etc...
But winning a calc is always cool :p

Good luck every one !!!

### How to participate ###

You just had to submit your project on the official website before the first december.
(french and english version available!)
You can also open a dedicated subject in the Yaronet subforum : http://www.yaronet.com/sujets.php?f=3179

(French and english spoken on Yaronet so don't worry )

Here is the rules :

zContest is a honorific programming contest.

PROGRAM :

Only TI-Basic, extended TI-Basic/Axe Parser/BBC Basic and assembler z80 programs will be accepted, and for the TI 82, 83, 83+ and 84+ only.

The program should be uploaded in a zip file before 1st December 2011, 23:59 (UTC+1) with all necessary files to properly run the program.

A notice must be included in the zip file, which should describe the game and tell us a little about it.
The program can be split into several parts. Any plagiarism will disqualify both the program and participant from the competition.

The program can not have been published before the opening date of the competition, though its publication is allowed during the contest period.

Each participant may submit up to three programs in several categories.

Juries are arranged by category : a judge will test all the programs from at least one category, but no more than three. The judges will be appointed by the contest organizer, postulation free. Qualifications: serious behavior, general knowledge of video games and TI calculators (registration on the website).
It is obviously impossible for a judge to participate in a group s/he judges.
However, a judge may submit a program for a category that s/he does not judge.

No size restriction, but it will be taken into account when grading.

For extended TI-Basic programs, all libraries may be used. It will be necessary to provide the used library in the zip file.

For assembler or Axe Parser programs, the final archive must contain the source code.

CATEGORIES :

There are three categories for the competition :

    * The TI-Basic, using only the TI-Basic functions of the calculator.
    * The extended TI-Basic/Axe Parser/BBC Basic, which use other libraries, as well as the TI-Basic.
    * The assembler, which will be fully programmed in assembler, running under Ion or any other shell, such as MirageOs.

THEME :

The theme is open, the participant has the freedom to choose his/her subject and program as long as it complies with the prescribed rules.

GRADING OF GAMES :

Each jury member will test all the games in his/her category/ies, and an average will be taken from all the grades.
Any bugs will be penalized.

The grading is as follows :

-Gameplay (ownership, interest, pleasure felt playing the game, interface, scenario ...) : /15
-Smooth, speed of execution : /5
-Graphics (graphics, interface menu ...) : /5
-Life : /5
-Originality : /5
-Technical quality (size/games, technical challenge ...) : /5
-Total : /40

GRADING OF UTILITIES :

Each jury member will test all the utilities in his/her category/ies, and an average will be taken from all the grades.
Any bugs will be penalized.

The grading is as follows :

-Usefulness : /15
-Difficulty : /10
-Quality : /5
-Fluidity : /5
-Originality : /5
-Total: /40

The most important thing is not competition but sharing knowledge, discussing and have feedback on your project.
And have fun

But win a prize is always cool

No need to have a big project, little things are welcome.

There's already some omnimaga's members who participates to the contest, thanks

Good luck to everyone !

Thibault Duponchelle