Many years ago I made a game called Thunderbirds, which was based on the Amiga game of the same name, which was of course based on the 1960's TV series (if you haven't seen the original TV series, you're missing out - no matter how campy the puppets & dialogue are, it's amazing!). It's basically a "platform puzzle/rpg" type game.

Early last year I started reprogramming Thunderbirds from scratch, but I never finished it. I've decided to pick up where I left off and see how it goes. This isn't a sequel to the last version, but is essentially the same game redone, programmed much better. I'm doing this mainly for 2 reasons:

- The previous version was all hardcoded in terms of the existing mission, so that it was near on impossible for me to expand on the game and include the remaining three missions.

- The gameplay & controls were very clunky.

Version 2.0.0 will still be for the TI-83 / 83+ / 84+ series of calculators. Coding is probably around 50% completed at a guess. Some of the improvements are:

- Graphics have been touched up, in particular I'm no longer "borrowing" the earth tiles from Sqrxz, I've drawn new ones that look more like the original Amiga game.

- Missions (or levels) and all their applicable code & data are stored in external files, so that if I decide to go back and add any of the remaining three missions later on, it's fairly straight forward.

- Controls have been adjusted and simplified.

- Gameplay is no longer so stop/start all the time when text hints come up.

- Items sitting about the place now flash so that they're easier to identify, instead of just blending in with the background.

I'll post updates as I get more done and probably some screenshots, here and also on http://www.jvti.org.

Good luck with this James. Hope all works out.
And the screenshot does indeed look fancy.

Thunderbirds are GO!
this is fantastic! to everyone else, he's completely right about the show, by the way. it's one of the few things that both my father and i watched when we were growing up and legitimately enjoyed (along with speed racer and gigantor the space-age robot )

Wow, i played this game when it came out and thought it was awesome (a little short, though). It's cool to see updates to all these great games that helped me get through high school!

Yeah it definitely is / was a little short, which was a big part of my motivation for redesigning it so that it's possible for me to add the other 3 missions later on, provided I have the time / motivation.. But at least now it will at least be possible

Thunderbirds are GO!
this is fantastic! to everyone else, he's completely right about the show, by the way. it's one of the few things that both my father and i watched when we were growing up and legitimately enjoyed (along with speed racer and gigantor the space-age robot )

That's awesome to hear someone else who enjoyed the original series in their youth

Below is a short screenshot showing what the re-programmed version of the game is looking like. As I noted on my site:

"For those who have played previous versions of the game from back in 2000, you will notice a few things, such as the tileset graphics being improved (now looking much more like the Amiga original), some minor interface changes, and things such as status bar text no longer halting gameplay, and items on the ground now flash so that they're easier to identify / find."

Quote from: shmibs on October 19, 2012, 11:08:59 am

Thunderbirds are GO!
this is fantastic! to everyone else, he's completely right about the show, by the way. it's one of the few things that both my father and i watched when we were growing up and legitimately enjoyed (along with speed racer and gigantor the space-age robot )

That's awesome to hear someone else who enjoyed the original series in their youth

I watched it too! Loved it. I watched a few episodes the other day on Netflix. Just as good as I remembered it.

Keep up the great work James!!

I didn't even see the original game...this is great

yay! keep us posted!