Interviews
Fritz442
Chris: What was the key factor for you wanting to make a Tunnels of Doom editor for use on the PC?
Fritz442: I had heard of the original editor in the late 80’s but never found one. I was getting some games from Triton at the time I found out about it and tried to order one but Triton shut down. Then about 3 years ago I found one and got it. I tried it and began to write a game but saw how difficult and slow it was, and thought there had to be a better way. That’s about the time I came across Atariage and was hooked.
I searched but found no newer versions and decided to create one. I began with a text editor looking through the files and began to see a pattern of names and character data. The editor started with just editing the monster data then soon spread to all aspects of the game file. Knowing what I wanted to do, there was no way I could do this on the TI. One main reason to create and release this editor was to see some new games for TOD.
Chris: Did you collaborate with anyone when coding this editor, if so who and what contributions did they make?
Fritz442: I have been working mostly alone on this project not really thinking it would really be as useful as it has become. I have had two testers (Opry99er and Iwantgames) which I would like to publically thank for their support, comments and testing.
Chris: What are the key differences that your TOD Editor on the PC has over the TOD Editor for use on the TI by John Behnke?
Fritz442: Memory… The things I have done here would simply not be possible on the TI. To be honest I’m not really that good at TI programming, I made a few small programs over the years but nothing great. But without John’s editor I would not have even started this project, his showed me where some things were saved and how they were saved which started it all.
With this editor you have the ability to create eight different quest images as opposed to two. This is probably the main option I concentrated on when beginning the quest interface. I have seen a few people ask if this was possible and I found large empty blocks of space in the file, then began coloring these blocks and writing the image data there.
Chris: What language is your TOD Editor programmed in?
Fritz442: Its’ created in Visual Basic 6, a fairly easy program to write with. It’s amazing how TI-basic can be copied here and most of it will run with little adjustments.
Chris: How many estimated hours of programming and debugging did it take?
Fritz442: I have been working on this for about 3 years, on and off at times. A lot of late nights (with AC/DC and VanHalen) at the beginning then tapering off over the past year. Does debugging ever end? LOL
Chris: Now that’s the type of music I like to program to and of course the Scorpions!
Chris: I know your TOD Editor saves in TIFILES format, how difficult was it to code the program to save in TIFILES format specific for TOD files?
Fritz442: Not really too difficult, since we start with a existing game file I’m only retrieving, editing and saving data back to the same file. A small bug has recently crept up with saving a copy of a file with the TI Header, I rewrote the save routine and added the ability to Add or Remove the header if needed.
Chris: Follow-up - What exactly did you have to do in order to understand how the data needed to be saved for a TOD game. For example, what did you do to figure out where the weapons data, quest objects, etc. that needed to be stored in the file?
Fritz442: This was probably the most time consuming of all. I opened the game file with a hex editor and began scanning through the file looking for text first. Then examining the data between the text, changing it to see what changed in the game. This back and forth seemed to take forever at first but then gradually I saw patterns and that went a little faster.
After the monster, weapons, quest data was found I began to look for other data that could be altered (textures, colors, etc.) Then I found what I called the ‘control data’ which is the data that tells the module where to find the items in the game file, so I could move items around in the file to create the colored backgrounds for the quests and other items.
Chris: Have you run into any compatibility issues with original TI hardware or emulators and if so what?
Fritz: None that I have found so far.
Chris: Follow-up - Have you been able to test the TOD created files for compatibility issues with the Nano PEB or CF7+ devices and if so were there any issues and could you explain.
Fritz442: I have tested these files on real iron, Classic99, NanoPEB, CF7+ and an HxC floppy emulator and have had no issues.
Chris: How much testing was done on the actual TOD file created and for what actual TI hardware and emulators?
Fritz442: I have been testing files created since the start, many, many hours of testing and playing have been done. Most testing was done on Classic99 as it made it easy to flip back and forth to see changes and test/repair them. After that I moved it to real iron to test again.
Chris: What are your future plans for this editor as far as any new features you plan on adding?
Frits442: Nothing major at this time, as I am just cleaning up some misc. items before I proceed deeper. There are still large sections of the files I haven’t gone through yet. I am constantly looking through the files to find things to edit, some work and some do not. The main objective here is to not break a file and make it unplayable.
Chris: Are you willing to take user feedback in consideration for later versions to help not only report bugs but maybe add new functionality?
Fritz442: Yes. I am always thinking of ways to add functionality. I like user feedback to see how others use the editor and hear what they understand in the interface and what needs to be changed. I will take all suggestions, but not all can be utilized (but if I can I will).
Chris: Are there any plans on providing a possible HELP file or documentation for this software so that end user could have a better understanding.
Fritz442: Yes. I wanted to create some sort of help file before I released this, but some were asking so I went ahead and released it. It’s pretty self-explanatory for the most part, but a few will need explaining and some (wall/floor textures, floor colors, item setups) need experimenting to get the effect you want.
Lastly, I would like to thank Chris for creation of these newsletters to keep alive the passion that I and others have for the TI, and I am honored to be a part of them.