I am not an experienced Axe coder, but I do have a bit of experience with game methods. I am wondering if there is any way that it could be sped up just by changing the method to another (as opposed to having Runer come in to mangle the code up a bit ^_^ ). So, I am wondering, how are you doing collision detection? A few weeks ago, I had an epiphany on how to do a really fast and simple collision detection. It is by no means obscure and is an idea that has been around, but because I figured it out myself, I like to promote it

(Pretty much, you draw to another buffer that I call the collision buffer. You draw any area that is occupied by another piece, so all you have to do is pixel test that buffer, once. That is super fast in Axe.)

Pointer-based detection would probably result in much smaller code than having an entirely separate buffer just for collision points.

I suppose that I should post before the discussion gets too far away (not that I mind )
I'm not doing physics-based collision detection for this, as the game is essentially a tileset. Basically, once you press a key to move in a direction, the process goes as follows:

if nothing is there, move there
if it's a door, new room (this is ostensibly the fastest and least-noticeable laggy part)
if it's a wall, do that stuff
if it's an object, see if you can pick it up, then pick it up, etc.
if it's a monster, determine attack power, attack, determine if it is dead, do things involving experience points, level-up, clear the space, etc.

then the mosters move
determine how what direction to try to move towards you
similar processes all happen here as when you move (e.g., check if an object is in that space, do attack subroutines, etc.)

Basically, all of these things happen (and some more stuff that I probably spaced on just now) between each screen refresh when you press a key. Like I said, I've tried sprinkling screen refreshes into this process, but it makes the time between when you press a key and when it will become responsive to input again extremely lagged after they start adding up.

When I get to a project that involves active movement, this will obviously be a much larger problem. For now, at least, I'm okay with it. I might get more bothered by it when the game itself is completed, but that's still a ways away. I very much want to add an into screen/menu/something as well, but the amount of space this game is taking up continues to grow and might preclude anything fancy on that end.

It's nice to see you back into calc programming (in which years did you originally start and stop actually?). Also I like Rogue-like games and I wish there was one that got finished for z80 calcs. This one looks very nice so far.

It's nice to see you back into calc programming (in which years did you originally start and stop actually?).

It feels good to be doing it again. I think that I probably started programming on calcs (I had been programming in VB and C++ mostly before that point) in maybe 1996 on a TI-85, then in 1999 I got a TI-83 and started playing around in ASM probably in 2000 or so. I pretty much stopped programming everything altogether around 2003 or so, then picked up programming for work and personal projects just a couple of years ago again. There's only one thing that I've found on the interwebs still that I programmed back in the day called "Falling Down Drunk":

http://ti83.free.fr/prgm/asm/autres/e_autres.html
http://www.calc.org/search.php?calc=ti83&ad=desc&s=89&p=20

Feel free to download it and laugh, laugh the night away.

I think that I was a freshman in highschool at the time that I programmed that. It's absolutely stupid, but it goes to show just what kind of things are funny to 14-year-olds (I think that I coded it back in 99 then released it in 2000 online when I got an internet connection back). It was also the very first ASM thing that I ever coded, so why it has outlived any of the other things that I ever released is completely beyond me. I remember that someone asked me to make it for the purpose of two people loading it on their calcs, then you would mash the button as fast as you could and basically "race" the other person. I'm actually borderline ashamed of that program looking back on it now.

So, that was a long response to a very short question

So can anyone elaborate on what a rogue like game is?
***feels dumb now***

Don't feel dumb! Roguelikes are a (somewhat) obscure subgenre of RPG. The keystone of these games is the randomness. Levels are randomly generated, monsters are randomly generated and placed, as are items. A lot of times, even the items do different things on each playthrough (e.g., a blue potion this time might be a heal potion, next time it might be a fire potion, etc.). Another main thing to roguelikes is permadeath. Basically, each play is completely unique and you can't backtrack. If you have a bad playthrough this time, it's okay, because you just start fresh again. Sometimes the randomness comes together in your favor, most of the time it doesn't

Another key to roguelikes is that they are typically very strategic. You have to sometimes really stop and think about whether you should use an item, what your chances are of attacking a monster or trying to plan a route of escape, etc. They're a lot of fun, although some of the greatest ones have a really steep learning curve.

I think that some of the most popular ones of alltime are DoomRL, Nethack, and Angband. I'm partial to Nethack myself, but there are really a lot of incredibly innovative and awesome ones out there.

Also I like Rogue-like games and I wish there was one that got finished for z80 calcs. This one looks very nice so far.

Thanks! Roguelikes are definitely my favorite genre, and I've been playing a ton of Cataclysm and Brogue lately, both of which are really interesting and progressive games in their own way. I've hoped for years that someone would do a 7DRL competition for the z80 calcs. Unfortunately, that kind of seems unlikely, as anyone who creates one would have to meet multiple criteria (enjoy roguelikes, know how to code, know how to code calcs, have the time to do it, etc.).

Wow, that seems really cool That is the type of game I would like because it wouldn't be the same each time I played through o.o