DICE FACTORY (c) 2026 Keith Bergman www.orphantech.com last edit 1-20-2026 1am ---> WELCOME TO THE DICE FACTORY! Dice are falling off the assembly line at the Dice Factory! Score points by shooting dice above the conveyor belt and forming hands. Meet your goals and reset the machine before it overheats! The object of Dice Factory is to create a series of 'hands' similar to the ones found in Yahtzee, with two rows of dice -- one moving left-to-right on a conveyor belt, the other placed one die at a time by the player. The assembly line "overheats" a little each turn, and more when a die falls off the right edge or is discarded by player. When the overheat meter tops 100%, the game is over. The overheat meter can be reset to zero (a "shift change") by scoring one of every hand on the board: Yahtzee, Four of a Kind, Three of a Kind, Full House, Small Straight, Large Straight, and 2 Pair. ---> GAMEPLAY: The conveyor belt starts out about half full of dice, and moves left to right at a rate of once per turn. A new die appears on the left with each movement. Empty spaces on the belt stay empty - the other dice don't "catch up" or group together. When the belt moves, if a die is on the rightmost edge, it falls into the discard basket, and the overheat meter goes up by the number on the die. After the belt moves, a new die appears in the player's basket, centered at the bottom of the screen. The player can "shoot" the die into the top row, above the dice on the belt, by pressing A-M to launch it to the labeled spot. Player can launch a die at any spot, unoccupied or occupied, in the top row. If a die is already in that space it will be discarded, and its total added to the overheat meter. Player can also press N to shift the top row one position to the left or right. Dice in the extreme left or right positions will "wrap around" to the other side. The die in the player's basket will be discarded, and its total added to the overheat meter. Player can also skip turn, which discards the die in the basket and runs up the meter, but has no effect on the gameboard. After the player has chosen, the computer scans the playfield from right to left, looking for hands. Dice must be grouped in five adjacent spots, either with two on top row and three on the bottom, or vice versa. (Five of a kind in just the top row, for example, cannot be counted as a Yahtzee.) If five adjacent dice are detected, small lights will appear by each one. If the grouping is not a valid hand, the lights will disappear and the search will continue. If the hand is valid, those dice will disappear when the lights do, the type of hand will be displayed, and the total added to the player's score (displayed just below the discard bucket on the right). All five dice disappear, not just the ones with point value -- for example, 4-4-4-5-6 would count as a Three of a Kind for 12 points, and all five dice would disappear. If this is the first hand of its type to be won, a red box will appear next to that hand on the scoresheet in the middle left. All seven types of hands must be highlighted to have a Shift Change and reset the overheat meter to zero. ---> HERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DICE FACTORY AND TRADITIONAL YAHTZEE: The player can continue to score more of the same hand. There is no limit to how many straights, pairs, or even Yahtzees one can score. The only limit is the eventual overheating of the conveyor belt that ends the game. Here's where it gets tricky -- the computer will always pick the rightmost hand to scan, and will take away those dice. Careful planning is needed to avoid losing a needed hand when a smaller one is scored. For example, if you had dice laid out like this: 6 6 6 5 6 6 6 5 The computer will read this hand first: 6.6.6.5 6 6.6.5 The player will score 25 points for the full house, the computer will take away those five dice, and the Yahtzee that could have happened will be lost. 6 6 6 Once you've gotten some of the easier hands on the scoresheet, part of the challenge is NOT getting them again... keeping dice spaced out enough that if the right die appears on the conveyor belt, you can build the proper hand. Because of this scoring dynamic, high point hands will always get their maximum point value, even if you need a lower point hand on the scoresheet. For example, if you already have a Large Straight, and need a Small Straight, but you arrange a 1-2-3-4-5 hand, the computer will tally it as a Large Straight for 40 points. A 1-1-1-2-2 will always tally as a full house, not a three of a kind, even if you already have a full house on deck. And a Yahtzee, while awesome, will not count as a 4 of a Kind if you already have a previous Yahtzee 'lit up' on the scoreboard. You'll have to actually get a Four of a Kind with one odd die out. In addition to racking up points, you'll need to keep building those hands even when you don't need them, to keep your conveyor belt clear. It only takes a few 5's and 6's falling into the basket to really get that overheat meter 'in the red.' ---> DOUBLE TIME & CHANCE Speaking of which... just in case things weren't chaotic enough, once your meter is over the 50% mark, TWO new dice appear on the conveyor belt each turn. This rate of speed stays for the rest of the game, even if the player gets a Shift Change and resets the meter. It may seem like the odds are stacked against you -- and they are! But we did bring another Yahtzee tradition back to help in some small way. Player can choose Chance once per round, and select any group of five adjacent dice by moving the dot back and forth with S and D, and selecting with the ENTER key. Those five will disappear and be added to the score whether they're a legitimate hand or not. The die in the player basket will be discarded and its total added to the overheat meter, so make sure the five you pick are worth it! If you pick a die without four more dice after it, you will only get points for the dice that actually disappear. Chance is reset after a Shift Change and can be used again. ---> STRATEGY TIPS: - Chance can be used in a desperate situation to keep high point dice from falling into the basket, even if all five of the spots at the right side are not occupied. Chance can be selected anywhere on the playfield, even if some or all of the next five spaces are empty. - Try to avoid leaving one die "orphaned" on the conveyor belt when you make hands with dice in the middle of the grouping. Once a single die is alone on the right of the belt, only a Chance can get rid of it before it falls into the basket. - Remember that you can replace a die in the top row with the one in your basket, if the conveyor belt dice move into a grouping you can quickly 'edit' for a winning hand. Again, this adds a little to the overheat meter so use with caution. - Throw a couple dice down toward the right side of the playfield early on, if they don't meet your immediate needs for a hand you're building. You'll be glad they're down there when the conveyor belt fills up later, and starts moving twice as fast, and you have to try to build hands as quickly as possible from keep dice from falling off. ---> GAME NOTES: - this game will run in standard TI BASIC with no issues. it has also been coded to run smoothly in Extended BASIC with no modification. There is a few seconds' lag time when the computer is checking for valid hands, but overall the game feels acceptably fast to me even in native BASIC. It has not been compiled, or tested in any other variant of BASIC. - Dice Factory is free to distribute throughout the TI community. I ask that you do not distribute modified or compiled copies, although you are of course free to do whatever you want with it in your own weird little computer nook. - Any updates or bug fixes will be posted on orphantech.com and in the AtariAge forums and the TI 99ers Facebook group. I plan to release a limited number of physical copies of Dice Factory on cassette tape later this year. ###