S.I.M. Combat

S.I.M. Combat, originally named S.I.M., is an unfinished text-based role-playing game made for the TI-83 Plus calculator by Gregory McLeod and published by McLeodGaming. It is the most recent role-playing game to be created by Gregory McLeod, as well as the final game he would create for the TI-83 Plus.

The game was initially planned to release in July or August of 2004, but after numerous delays, it was divided into several parts to be released individually, and a demo containing the first chapter and four parts of the second chapter was released on January 30, 2005. The remaining parts were planned to be released in the future, most likely as a Flash game instead, but there has been no additional word about the game since the demo's release.

Plot
The game begins in the year of 3000, and a man named Dr. Fritz has completed S.I.M. (Semi-ficial Intelligence Mechanism), an advanced combat-centric robot that he says will bring a new age of fight simulation. He awakens the first S.I.M. of millions, who he names Primo.

Sometime later in Newport City, a boy named Mitchell Fisher is hoping to get an S.I.M. for his birthday, as his friend Ben had already gotten a Gun Type. He soon receives a Spirit Type from his friend Sandra, and Mitch bets that his will be stronger than Ben's. After unboxing the S.I.M. and turning it on, it explains itself to Ben, revealing that it is just like a human except it cannot feel physical pain and that it can eat by consuming food or absorbing light.

Mitch names his S.I.M. Pryce, and he brings it to Ben's house to fight his own S.I.M., Sniper. Mitch wins, and Ben recommends that Mitch goes outside of town to train elsewhere and make Pryce stronger. Mitch promises to return after both of their S.I.M.s have grown stronger for a rematch, and after receiving the Town Key from Sandra, Mitch and Pryce leave Newport City and find a Monorail Station to travel to new places. After arriving in La Plaza Verde, they find a Novice S.I.M. Competition to enter in which Mitch must win several consecutive matches in a row and a prize awaits the champion. The Verde Cup Match begins, and Mitch is first to fight against Geo and his S.I.M., Quake. Mitch wins this battle.

The remainder of the plot is unknown, as the game is yet to be completed.

Gameplay
The gameplay of S.I.M. Combat is similar to that of other role-playing games. The player must progress by entering certain landmarks around a linear overworld map, talking with and battling certain characters encountered along the way. The player also has to manage their health points (HP) that decrease every time they are attacked, as losing all HP will result in the game ending. Similarly, the player has a limited amount of Tricity points (TP) that can be used during combat to use Tricities. They also can collect certain healing items to restore a certain amount of HP or TP, as well as money to buy more items from S.I.M. shops.

Much of this game is presented with text, including the overworld, where the player and environment are represented by symbols. However, unlike other text-based role-playing games from McLeodGaming, the frequent conversations between characters and the battles are mainly presented with images of the characters. Aside from the overworld, the player progresses by selecting from a list of options on the screen. These options can be selected either by scrolling to them and pressing "Enter" or by pressing the numbered button corresponding to the option. The options themselves are separated into two sections of gameplay, with one being a pause menu used when traversing the overworld and the other being used for battling against opponents.

The player can open the pause menu by pressing ALPHA while traversing the overworld. From this menu, the player has a variety of options they can perform. The main option is equipping weapons, armor and accessories, of which the player can carry up to eight before needing to drop one. Pryce can equip one of each of these equipment types: weapons affect its attack power in battle, armor affects its defense power, and accessories affect miscellaneous things. The player can also check their HP, TP, attack power, defense power, and equipment in the status menu, as well as their items and money acquired. The player can also save all of their progress to a file that can be loaded from the main menu, and they can exit the game.

The combat of this game occurs after talking to certain characters or during competitions, in which the player comes across an opponent they must fight using S.I.M.s. Winning competitions allows the player to upgrade Pryce's maximum HP and TP, as well as its attack and defense powers. The battles themselves are turn-based, in which the player has the option to either attack the opponent, use a Tricity or use an item. Attacking will deal a certain amount of damage to the opponent, who will then respond with an attack of their own to the player, ending the turn. Randomly, Pryce will block an opponent's attacks to deal less damage to it than normal. Tricities are special techniques that can be performed to deal strong damage to an opponent or, in the case of Recover, heal Pryce's HP. Each requires a certain amount of TP to perform, and TP will gradually refill with the end of each turn. Additionally, certain Tricities can only be used when equipped with certain weapons. Dealing enough damage to the opponent will defeat it, ending the battle and giving the player a certain amount of money. The player can also use a healing item, but this takes up their turn.

Trivia

 * This is the first game by McLeodGaming to have a demo released, as well as the only TI-83 Plus game to have one.
 * Because the weapons required to use certain Tricities, including Energy Blast, Slice 'N Dice, Element, and Clipse Bomb, were never implemented into the game, these Tricities are inaccessible by normal means.
 * Additionally, the lack of competitions in the demo means that TP cannot be upgraded, so the player’s maximum TP (20 TP) will not be high enough to use Slice 'N Dice, which requires 30 TP, Element, which requires 40 TP, or Clipse Bomb, which requires 50 TP.

External link

 * Download the S.I.M. Combat demo to your computer (requires a TI-83/84 Plus to run).