If you chose to use Celtic III for the main ASM library, you can use its line read commands to extract various data from programs straight from Flash. That way, and if coded properly, you can have few "subroutines" clogging up the file system.

You'd have to jump through a couple of hurdles, but you'd, in essence, use the "stringread" command to extract the byte that represents the tile you're moving into, the "hextodec" command to convert it to a number, then some simple tests in BASIC to determine if that number belongs to a tile that you can/cannot move into.

Beyond that and manually having to do what a matrix does internally, there's really no difference between using binary strings for the string tilemapper and using a matrix-based one found with xLIB.

Despite the fact that Newegg.com said that it was still in the process of charging me for the item, it was UPS that woke me up this morning. That extra $25 really did me good, but what pissed me off was the fact that the problem wasn't the battery at all.

The problem was the charger reporting incorrectly. The laptop read that it was receiving a charge, but apparently, it wasn't strong enough to charge the battery. Orienting it like TV rabbit ears did the trick.

On the bright side, now I have two batteries I can use. The project can now continue.

On another note, my ZPMs are not fully charged yet. Waiting for them to do so.

One bugfix: If you press MODE when faced with the option to "Challenge Again?", the calculator will crash. Creds to "Adam" from teh college's math lab for finding this bug. Fixed in five minutes. Post delay: 2 days.

On another vein: The conversion process is nearly completed as far as doing it roughly. After I get it to actually compile, I'll start modding the existing system to best utilize the appvar storage space for work RAM.

Why it won't compile? "tasm: cannot realloc for macro definition"
What's it mean? Ain't got a clue. TASM's manual and Google has both failed me.

Yo. Welcome back to teh Omnimaga place. Other intros already done over IRC.

This is the version that has been uploaded to ticalc's archives (which will appear in a few days, probably).

Difficulty has been tweaked to weaken the bombs (they last 4 seconds from start to finish), and the bomb count has also been dropped by 1. Auto-fire has also been weakened to a 1 game-cycle delay as opposed to a 0 game-cycle delay (which effectively cuts your fire rate in half). Netham45 has a 2 game-cycle delay. Also, you aren't given the extended grace period that you had between the time you start exploding and the time you actually use that life. It's been strictly restrained to the "border". The border itself has been shortened by one game cycle (which isn't a lot) for the DevBlock and increased by 2 or 3 for Netham45.

It now takes skill to beat the demo on the higher levels. Carelessness will lead to a game over, even on easy mode.

EDIT: A screenshot that has been circulating around the #Omnimaga channel, which depicts two iterations before this one - http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=iz4zt5gmdmm&thumb=4

I guess you're right about the difference not being shown in the stage portion. In fact, there was literally no difference, save for just the boss. This post has been edited to reflect that, and the previous post's attachment removed to promote this version. Getting to the boss in "Easy" will be easier.

Also, note that in this version (and the one that was promptly removed), spellcard bonuses are implicitly supported (don't get hit or use bombs and you'll receive it). In addition to that, you get a "continue" screen but not yet an official game over screen. There *is* an ending if I haven't already mentioned it, but it is the same no matter which mode you choose. It just thanks you for playing the demo. Couldn't put in any other information since I ran out of space AFTER I optimized the crap out of the space-eating runs. There's actually one more run I can go ahead and optimize but it'll save me a whopping 20 (or so) bytes if I undertake that task. Might just do it since I want the thing to be as lean as possible whenever I actually get to the 2 page app conversion.

I also believe that for the real story, I'll be pucrunch-ing the data so it'll fit nicer. If I can, I might just move from Spiffy to pucrunch totally. "If I can" being if I can work around with a load of data manipulations to prepare the result for insertion, and if I get significantly better results using pucrunch.

EDIT2: Starting to reminisce now. When I look at the screenshots of the previous iterations of the game, the engine seemed to run significantly faster than this version. Understandably, since the game now has most everything it needs, but it still bugs me.

The demo version of the app has now officially run out of space. The differences, other than one crippling bugfix, should you choose a pacifist style, which has been fixed, include a nonspecific background for the title screen, a screen for the n00bs should you choose "Easy", and a simple story only visible should you choose "Easy". Might tweak one or two things before I post a release.

After this, I'll be working on converting it to a two-page application. Then, I'll be adding in content. I've already got something concrete from someone at my college, so I'll be going for that one. Generic storyline, but it'll be good. Just trying to see how epic the system can get.