Re: 8-Bit BTCS --- BTI Dungeon EDITOR FULLY FUNCTIONAL
Posted: Sun May 14, 2017 3:12 am
So I finally had some time to myself and so I downloaded this "Dungeon Wizard" that Twoflower pointed out. After messing around with it for 15 minutes I'll post my micro-review thus:
1) The program is written in machine language but runs as though it's in BASIC. Hardly a complaint given my program was also in BASIC, but I feel it should be slightly more responsive. Oh well.
2) I tried with all my might but I just could not get to the "marker editor" without it throwing a tantrum. I'd enter the menu for it, and then in exactly 1 second after displaying the menu it would say "NO FREE MARKER!", despite following the instructions on exactly placing a "marker" within the dungeon level...
3) Some of the sub-menus have no escape mode. For instance, I selected the "Disk Menu", and it prompted me to LOAD a dungeon disk. I didn't actually want to load anything, so I hit the back arrow key but to no avail. No amount of key mashing would let me return to the main menu...
4) Finally, the most glaring issue I have with this software is that the method of implementing doors and walls is straight up wrong. Casual BT players might not realize this, but each dungeon level's cell has its own 4 'walls', which contain either a wall, a door, or nothing. Which means that there is no way at all to place one-way walls or one-way doors.
I find that it's a nice build upon what I attempted, but my opinion is that it's unfinished and it needs refinement. The programmer(s) could have done away with the graphic intro screens and the music and used that space to expand it a bit better.
Still, not awful.
1) The program is written in machine language but runs as though it's in BASIC. Hardly a complaint given my program was also in BASIC, but I feel it should be slightly more responsive. Oh well.
2) I tried with all my might but I just could not get to the "marker editor" without it throwing a tantrum. I'd enter the menu for it, and then in exactly 1 second after displaying the menu it would say "NO FREE MARKER!", despite following the instructions on exactly placing a "marker" within the dungeon level...
3) Some of the sub-menus have no escape mode. For instance, I selected the "Disk Menu", and it prompted me to LOAD a dungeon disk. I didn't actually want to load anything, so I hit the back arrow key but to no avail. No amount of key mashing would let me return to the main menu...
4) Finally, the most glaring issue I have with this software is that the method of implementing doors and walls is straight up wrong. Casual BT players might not realize this, but each dungeon level's cell has its own 4 'walls', which contain either a wall, a door, or nothing. Which means that there is no way at all to place one-way walls or one-way doors.
I find that it's a nice build upon what I attempted, but my opinion is that it's unfinished and it needs refinement. The programmer(s) could have done away with the graphic intro screens and the music and used that space to expand it a bit better.
Still, not awful.