4K Short'n'Sweet game contest

[PeteE]

Looking back on previous contest threads, I'm impressed by how many entries there are this time around. Great job everyone!

[Omega-TI]

 

 

I've updated the game with adjustments to Otto timing to make it more like arcade, also the number of robots in rooms is now random...

 

Joystick shouldn't be too difficult also.

 

 

 

Thanks, I can actually clear a few screens now!

 

Excellent on the future joysticks compatibility... my score should improve even more!

[+Vorticon]

Well that was a fun contest. Thank you Rasmus for coming up with that challenge We need more of these!

[+OLD CS1]

VOTING IS NOW OPEN!

 

See our contestants here.

 

VOTE HERE: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8PYGS6K

 

Voting is open for 14 days. Do not vote more than once and only vote for the games you have tried, leaving the others unmarked. You will be shown the current results after your vote and you can watch results here whether you vote or not.

[+Vorticon]

I personally found it really hard to objectively judge each entry without laying down criteria. I don't know if this will be helpful to others, but here is what I ended up using with each category scored from 0 to 5. I added up the total for each game and ranked them accordingly. The results were interesting and did not necessarily match my first impression of each game. Really fascinating...

 

• Graphics
• Sound
• Playability
• Technical execution
• Originality
• Fun factor

[+nanochess]

There is some reason for not having the vote link in the other thread?

[+OLD CS1]

There is some reason for not having the vote link in the other thread?

 

It was there... dunno what happened to it. I shall fix.

[+arcadeshopper]

man so hard to vote on this one.. such great work from everybody involved!

[Opry99er]

Agreed... razor thin margins for my top 3... Ill have to play some more I think

[Tursi]

Those new entries are a very pleasant surprise! Fantastic presentation all around.

[broettger]

Great job everyone! I am looking forward to playing each of these games.

 

Nanochess - I was saddened to hear that your TI is DOA and I would like to reward you for your efforts in this contest. The game looks awesome. Send me your address and I will send you one of my extra TI-994/A computers. I have a couple that have just been sitting in storage for years.

[+nanochess]

Great job everyone! I am looking forward to playing each of these games.

 

Nanochess - I was saddened to hear that your TI is DOA and I would like to reward you for your efforts in this contest. The game looks awesome. Send me your address and I will send you one of my extra TI-994/A computers. I have a couple that have just been sitting in storage for years.

Thanks! I would really appreciate it

 

Incoming PM!

[Opry99er]

We are very pleased to have you here on The Dark Side, nanochess.

 

When you complete Borzork with speech and sound, I would very much like to buy a cartridge copy from you. (arcadeshopper.com can facilitate cartridge sales for you if youd like to sell them... I think if/when this one is done, it most definitely deserves a full cartridge release)

 

Thanks again for participating, sir.

[+nanochess]

We are very pleased to have you here on The Dark Side, nanochess.

I thought this was the Grey Side, the Colecovision one was the Light Side, the Intellivision one is the Dark side (you don't know Rev and cmart, don't you?)

 

When you complete Borzork with speech and sound, I would very much like to buy a cartridge copy from you. (arcadeshopper.com can facilitate cartridge sales for you if youd like to sell them... I think if/when this one is done, it most definitely deserves a full cartridge release)

 

Thanks again for participating, sir.

I'm pretty happy with the result and its receivement, it was beyond my expectations. So, yes, I'm willing to put speech and sound

 

You're welcome and thanks for your kind words.

[Opry99er]

Well, I voted. Had a chance to play the rest of the games today...

 

I had a super tough time voting, but I can say that my 1,2,3 were (not in order) HeroX, Fork and Borzork. I played the sh** out of Fork the last couple weeks. That was my clear #1 until I played more HeroX and when Borzork came out, it jacked my head all up.

 

Bounce and Pounce felt soooooo good, but a pinch incomplete (as the author described). I actually downloaded Canfield Solitaire instructions and learned how to play it. I have learned to enjoy the game. My own game (Markus of Marinus) is what it is- - a console BASIC dungeon crawler in 4K. Vortex is a really cool game, a very nice implementation and a nice feeling UI.

 

7th Pong is reeeeally smooth... I like the SPRITE motion and it feels exactly as it should. Well done!!!

 

I guess that leaves the Astro Cube... I found this a fascinating little game, and so tiny!!! You left a whole Kilobyte+ on the table, nanochess!!!

 

 

All the entries are excellent, truly great work from the programmers, and it is amazing to me what you all have done in 4K.

 

 

This judging process was unbelievably hard... I went with the top 3 I did because I thought they were technically excellent, the gameplay was addictive, and they were visually beautiful. Many of the other games were also more than worthy, but I had to select, and I feel *okay* about my top 3.

 

Fine, fine work- - all of you!

[Opry99er]

My son also voted. He has played my game for hours on end. I expected him to vote for Markus as his first favorite, but he chose another game.

 

He likes cars, what can I say?

[Opry99er]

this is the best I've done in Vortex... Level 10 is pretty stinkin' tough

[+Vorticon]

I've made it to level 6 once, and I think it was because of a random muscle twitch

[ti99iuc]

Guys, there are little masterworks in this contest. I am preparing a page on my website with all them and inviting people to try and vote.
For the play on line using the Rasmus js99er i'd really like to have .RPK files thare is a way to do them easily please ? someone can convert .Bin in .Rpk ?

I found .RPK just for three of the games but have it will be for me more easy and immediate to create a play-on-line part.

btw, an anticipation for the

 

available Prizes offered by TI99iuc.it/facele.eu :

 

- a Complete (used) silver TI-99/4A with modulator and Video Cable, fully working of course (you can decide if you prefer NTSC of PAL version);

 

- 32K sidecar stand alone card (TI99iuc/Facele version);

 

- 2x PCB for use with 512K Eproms (ti99iuc.it/facele.eu version) + Texas Instruments Calculator;

 

 

the winners also will receive in addition a surprise/gift in the package, of course i will need for your addresses

 

good luck for all ! all great software.

Edited April 3, 2018 by ti99iuc

[Opry99er]

Wow, Ciro!!!! Excellent prizes!!!

[Opry99er]

I've made it to level 6 once, and I think it was because of a random muscle twitch

 

This was my 10th or 11th play. At level 10, it really is a game of chance. 9 was vicious, but 8 was manageable.

 

Lovely game, Walid. Tons of fun.

 

 

Question about the code though.... I began to perceive patterns in the game- - in the way the shield rotated. Were those just perceived (meaning the shield travel direction is random) or are there really patterns in the rotation?

 

You dont have to answer, but I have been wondering

[TheMole]

Yup, very nice work all across the board indeed. I voted and had a hard time ranking them, but in the end just did a bubble sort (compared each game to one the one below it and swapped places if needed until the list felt "right").

 

I really hope we do another one of these, maybe with slightly different rules (e.g. 8k cart-only, or no-holds-barred in terms of memory, or...) so I can perhaps finish my entry (I never got past a prototype of the effect I wanted to go for... it looks cool, but alas time was not on my side... ).

[+Vorticon]

Question about the code though.... I began to perceive patterns in the game- - in the way the shield rotated. Were those just perceived (meaning the shield travel direction is random) or are there really patterns in the rotation?

 

You dont have to answer, but I have been wondering

 

Thank you for the kind comments. This game really started as an attempt to fit a complete game within the 860 bytes available with the Mini Memory line by line assembler. Unfortunately I just could not find a way to do it and it ended up taking about 2.2K. I decided to forgo bloating it and tried to keep the size to a minimum, although I got a bit sloppy in the end. With some effort I could probably squeeze it down to under 2K. As it stands, it's still the smallest entry in the contest

 

The program uses a very primitive random algorithm to generate the rotation changes. There is no pattern built-in but then again it's really pseudo-random anyway... Here's the routine used:

*** RANDOM NUMBER ROUTINE ***
* >83C0 WILL HAVE THE RANDOM NUMBER GENERATED
RN MOV R11,R10				SAVE RETURN ADDRESS
 LI R4,>6FE5
 MPY @>83C0,R4
 AI R5,>7AB9
 MOV R5,@>83C0
 MOV R10,R11
 B *R11 

[+nanochess]

Cool prizes!

 

Here is a RPK version of Borzork, it took me some effort because I don't see a way to disable the automatic header of xas99 and reclaim 20 bytes.

 

So I had to optimize the game further for another 20 bytes.

 

Edit: added also a RPK version of Astro Cube.

borzork.rpk

astrocube.rpk

[Omega-TI]

Should I add these to the FR/FG99 thread? What do you guys think?