Looks good.  I love "potentially askable questions"

Okay, so i'm trying to make a platform game. and making a matrix to store the map in the program.. is very very large. And im pretty sure Strings would be easier. so here are my questions/options

First. make a string into a Matrice... HOW?

Second. the Celtic option.. *forgot exact name. but it uses a BINSTR instead of a Matrice*.. Can anyone tell me how that works?

Or.. any other suggestions?

*I might just make 1 BIGGG Map and have it scroll, or.. hit the end of the screen, and make myself appear in the other.. map.

If this is for the contest, we can't help you with #1 (turn string into matrix).  We can, however, explain how Celtic III's tilemapper works.

"Binary string" isn't quite the best choice of words.  For a tilemapper, each sprite is represented by a number, which is the entry in the matrix for xLIB's tilemapper.  Celtic III's string tilemapper uses the elements of the given string as these numbers.  It allows you to use tiles numbered from 0-255.

If you were to use base-10 numbers in the string, you would need three digits for element.  By converting those numbers to hexadecimal you make it two digits for each element (thereby cutting 33% off the size).  Each number from 0-255 also designates a token on the calculators, so by using those tokens instead of hex digits you're again cutting one digit per element.  This string of tokens (or "binary string") requires one byte per element, whereas the "hex string" requires two bytes, and a decimal string would require three bytes.

Does that make any more sense?

Welcome to Omnimaga TravisE!  Now we really have some pull over at ticalc.org...

Oh, and here are some complementary Omnimaga peanuts

Yeah. i just finally realized Geekboy's .. Skill level shall we say? and it's basically what mine was.. about just 1 month ago, so very very close to my skill level.. And my skill level isn't all that great either.. so this project is going to take a loooonnnggggggg while.

(long story short. We're both pretty new at this.. *i think he is.. at least from what ive seen him and i do*)

Everyone's got to start somewhere!

you know.. I think Geekboy has his calculator's ram cleared.. the most.. Just working on the 1 prgm we weremaking.. which took like.. 20-30 mins. he cleared his ram like.. 2-3 times.. even though we wern't running the prgm..

And when he clears his ram. he's like. No biggie ! and imlike >=OOO

I think he deserves an award =D.

thanks!
funny story, I was playing around with Celtic III and trying to figure out identity(4 and I accidentally cleared my RAM, and everything I had made was lost....luckily I had backed it up to make this I am glad I did

Ahem   Some new stories?

What about routines? If I borrow routines from previously-released work (so long as its my own) and use them for a brand new game?  Furthermore, are we allowed to use routines that are staples of asm programming, such as ionfastcopy?

Edit: And can it be an Application?
Editx2: What if I wrote an entire engine, but never actually fashioned a game out of it, but the engine is still my original work? Is that acceptable?

1) Borrowing routines from your previous work should be fine.  I'll have to discuss this with the other judges though, so it could change.

2) Routines from Ion and MOS are acceptable, as they've become standard components of Asm programming and are accessible to everyone.

3) Applications are fine.

4) It has to be a playable game, so you can't submit just an engine.

To change data in ROM (the flash archive on the TI calculators), it first must be cleared, which is accomplished by applying a large voltage to a part of the chip to set/reset some connectors/links.  Then, another high voltage is applied to the necessary "links" to set them.  You can probably figure out how it can get worn out.  But that takes a ton of writes, and you probably won't get to the limit where damage occurs during the lifetime of your calculator.

I see. but it wouldn't be possible to run purely on ram would it? cause im guessing the TI-OS in archive..

The ROM page that the TI-OS is on rarely gets modified, so you shouldn't need to worry about the OS getting 'worn out'.