Oh my gosh! I've updated! Yeah actually I've been taking quite a long break, basically trying to keep myself out of the house and off the computer. But yesterday, I began job training as part of a summer youth program and I guess getting into a schedule got me back to thinking about the site, afterall I kept busy on this site when school was in session!
As far as unique news goes, Aaron Curtis is planning a newer version of YAS to fix a few text display issues with 82 emulation and a problem with Solomon's Key. A release date has not been set.
ZAPO is finally getting down to business and working on a few group oriented programs. Program descriptions and release dates have not been released.
My friend, Ko Ihara has designed a calculator console for my website where you click on various buttons to go to different pages. It would take a lot of updating to the site, but there wouldn't be frames anymore... And to view the screenshot, there'd probably be a javascript watermark. Still planning this out, if you have any suggestions, post it on the Message Board.
Thursday June 17th, 1999
I am finally out of school!
Sent an email to Rusty Wagner, creator of Virtual TI, in regards to backing up a TI-86 to the emulator with a Graph Link Cable. My hope is to include my TI-86 calculator-state files in the My TI-86 Setup section, then you can load them on your TI-86 emulator, or maybe even send them to your TI-86!
I've been working on a TextView-compatible document for the Term86 key layout during the time I had in class after finishing finals. It's not easy just pasting it from notepad into a basic program because the spacing on the Home screen and the graph screen are completely different. Anyway, you can download it here.
Phil Killewald has written a pretty easy to follow and understand article about Assembly programming on the 86. He's just started with the very basics, most of which I know, but that's about it. :) Look forward to future articles from him.
I will resume testing 82CrASH programs with my TI-86 later tonight.
A newer release of Fall Down Forever should be released by the time you read this. The newer version fixes a bug where the calculator would go completely off (sometimes crash, sometimes not) if you tried to pause the game with [MORE]. Recovering the calculator would be sheer luck.
Another Term86 session last night. I spent a total of 20 minutes to type two four sentence emails... something like that. I can't imagine chatting on it. Takes some practice I imagine. :) Also, Snap86 did not work in conjunction with Term86, so getting screenshots may be a little more difficult than I imagined. I'll have to use the emulator, and even then it's quite tedious since you have to hold various shift-type keys to enable another key. Like hold down X-VAR, then press a number to type out a number. It's more functional on a calculator, but not on an emulator.
Something else I tried... though failed. It seems it may be possible though. Anyway, I tried backing up my TI-86! But to where, how? Here's what I did:
Load up Virtual TI Emulator
Connect Graph Link Cable to calc and PC
Enable Cable Link, Com1 (my glink port)
Then, I tried backing up from my TI-86 to the emulator.
It wouldn't make it through a full backup, it'd stop at some point and give errors. I tried with "Restrict to Actual speed" and without it. Perhaps you may have better success, since I remember reading about this being the only way to backup a TI-86. Anyway, after you put your backup on the TI-86 emulator, if your calc ever crashed, you'd just reverse the process, and send the backup from the emulator to your calc. If it works for you, let me know.
Sunday June 13th, 1999
I've began the process of building parallel port links to sell at school to make a little side cash, maybe a TI-89 this fall? Dunno. :) School is almost out, and lots of finals so I'll have to make these news updates quick and short. Sorry.
Aaron Curtis's newest release of Fall Down, called Fall Down Forever is a very nice improvement to Fall Down. This release includes grayscale, animated rolling ball, interesting transitions, top 5 highscore saves and more. Something interesting I noticed was the fact that the icon for Fall Down forever is a giant two, much larger than the imagined 8x8 icon size limit.
Friday June 11th, 1999
I've finally got my TI-86 to work with my USR Courier 9600 External modem! And I logged onto my local BBS, composed an email, and played the door game L.O.R.D. (Legend of the Red Dragon). The problem I had before was that the modem and calc simply could not communicate whatsoever. David E. West informed me to disable carrier detect, with the AT&C0 command. And to disable it in the first place, it had to be connected to the computer. Anyway, things run great now, and I shall have screenshots soon.
Tetris Attack by Aaron Curtis for the TI-86 has been released. Check it out! So far, I've gotten to level 44, and the three letter password? It's z80. :)
Wednesday June 9th, 1999
Well, I logged onto a local BBS, called Upper Transylvania, one that I have been a member since August '96. I rigged my Virtual TI emulator, with a TI-83 rom file, and hooked up the USR Courier HST 9600 External to the computer through Com1. Then I selected the option to connect the emulator to a "graphlink" on Com1. Ran Telnet83, and connected! But, this is all on my computer... no portable remote logon yet! They run WildCat v4.2 BBS software... definitely not Calculator Terminal friendly. I took a screenshot for some not so substantial proof due to the garbled characters, but ah well. There is a date on it though. :) Click here to see it.
From ticalc.org's archives, a link cable capable of sending data at up to 56000 bps was added to the hardware archives. Called the GraphLink56k, this is incredible to TI hardware enthusiasts. However, the schematic is available only in Protel95 format, a program for drawing out electronics schematics. You can download the trial version of Protel99 here. It is about 70 megs.
I have been unsuccessful at using my modem with a TI Graph Link, USR Courier HST 9600 External, null modem adapter and gender changer. Also, the readme in Term86 isn't that helpful, so with the advise of a 3Com representative, instruction manual of this decade old modem, and the much better readme in Telnet83, I will try again. Hopefully, with some success. :)
I received my order from Roger's Systems Specialists. Now I am able to use my Graph Link as well as connect it to my USR Courier 9600 external modem (it's huge!) with the gender changer and null modem adapter. The modem will need a ton of tweaking (it's 12 years old, some of the AT commands are little different), so until then, I will delay the section about "86 Online Communications." I plan to get on local BBS's and eventually get a shell account with a local internet provider.
I am planning to redesign the site and keep the current layout. It will be frameless, but it will require javascript.
I have extended the Voting period to two weeks since I can't come up with topics with choices that fast per week, and biweekly will give you more time to vote! :)
From a recent ticalc.org newsletter, an interview with Aaron Curtis, author of YAS, falldown and other 86ASM programs briefly mentioned one of his next programs would be a port of TCPA's Tetris Attack. Rumors indicate that it will be released soon.
Diamonds86 was released today to ticalc.org's archives. Quite possibly one of the most popular games for HP calculators, it is more of a "finally!" that this game is available for the 86. The 82 CrASH and ASH versions have been far from stable on the 86, and Diamonds written in 86ASM will definitely be much better.
RealmZ for Usgard has not passed validation for compatibility with YAS and Virtual TI. OnCalc testing will resume later.
Friday June 4th, 1999
Clem's new program, called TextView is great! If you know the basic structure of HTML tags, then using this will be incredibly easy. If not, memorizing the tags is easy too! Basically, you create a BASIC program, put T: at the top of the it, and insert little tags like #B for bold, #I for italics, #U for underline and much much more. In fact, I converted the entire MegaMan 85 readme file into a TextView program file, with line breaks, bold, tabs, and more! Click here to get it! For more information about Clem's upcoming programs, visit his page at http://clem.acz.org/.
The pause system in Mega Man 85 is kind of weird... it uses [more] to pause and [enter] to unpause, although there are delays involved, so sometimes it doesn't happen right away.
Wednesday June 2nd, 1999
acz.org has been going through a few server problems, so most were not able to download Assembly Studio 3.1. However, it has been added to ticalc.org's file archives. You can get it here (990kb).
Well, not to my surprise, MegaMan 85 crashed as I hit a key in which I assume paused it. The screen froze, so I figured I paused it. I pressed all the keys, and it didn't unfreeze. I tediously pressed the [ON] button, and the right screen MegaMan logo split, and surrounded the main screen on the left and right side. Pretty weird. I'll give it some more testing.
There is the possibility of having a news script up, where I allow various people to just come in to the site and post something that will appear in the news... We'll see. :)
Tuesday June 1st, 1999
MegaMan 85 in Usgard was released and as stated in Dave Jaklitsch's readme, this works with YAS. A bit slow, but much faster than the BASIC version of MegaMan 86, which were horrendously slow; also the graphics were subpar, as they had to be redrawn for _each_ movement.
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Jeremy Goetsch of has released an update to Assembly Studio 86. New features include color syntax highlighting, different output formats, an improved sprite editor, and other additions and changes.
My order from Roger's Systems Specialists still has not arrived yet. Well, it's Memorial Day weekend so I figure there must be a one or two day delay in shipping it. But they're in California, like me.
May's news are in the Archives. So far, May '99 has had the most news to date.