DZ-Jay

* Well, I can. I can tell you anything I want. Try to stop me.

The thing about UFOs is that nobody can tell you what they do or do not look like*. Perhaps there is a universe in which UFOs are cheesy looking cheap sci-fi special effects composites, and your version would just fit right in there. dZ.

Why don't you call your band: "Maybe, but I'll have to think about it..." I'm positive there is no other band with that name. Although I'm afraid to search on the Internet because I'll probably find some freaky porn with that title. Rule #34 and all that. -dZ.

You mean... "What if you expanded the idea to a Classic Gaming Fiction subsection where those What if-discussions would share space with pure fiction?"

LOL! Seriously, there's the sheer amount of work in playing each game enough in order to be able to assess its quality across all categories; then we had some technical difficulties with at least one game, which was not really the fault of the author, but perhaps some configuration issue; and now it's just the daunting task of collecting all judges' scores and compiling them into a spreadsheet (remember, all this is done by hand in multiple threads to keep track of everything). When all that is done, then the officiator needs to put it all together into a post, include all games with their source and instructions in usable packages, and write up the final results. It's a huge amount of work, I know -- I did it last time. All the judges want to make sure everything is done right and above board. We all agree that the quality of all entries is so good, they deserve to be judged fairly and thoroughly, and for their scores to be properly accounted. It'll take some time, but it'll be for the best. We just ask the participants and the community to please be patient. -dZ.

That's part of the problem. We now require a coin toss to figure out what to do with the extra points.

Yeah, we've had some technical difficulties. We're using a D20 to score the winner and it chipped one side. . . Just kidding! The Judges judged their just judgements jesterday. We now await for the final collation of all scores into the super-computer, and for it to tell us the winner. -dZ.

Yup. More or less, plus illustrations. Let's see first ... I still need to finish it. I'm still at page 34 in the beginning of chapter 8. -dZ.

Well, I thought it was important. The story has grown much bigger than the original 10-pager I had in mind. It's not quite a novel, but it'll reach about 100 pages, on a large 7x10 format. If it were a paperback at 5x9, it'll most likely be much bigger. I think I've outgrown my audience. It's still written in simple(ish) language and approachable for kids, and the topic and themes are certainly for children, but it's going to be a relatively big story. I just hope it is interesting enough for children to follow through to the end. We shall see soon. I will test it on my nephew (11 years-old) and my my granddaughters' step-brother (9 years-old). We shall see how it holds up. -dZ. P.S. Adults who've read it, love it -- so there's that.

Back in Part XI I mentioned how I forgot to have Carol find a new uncharted tunnel -- which is important to the plot -- and that instead of going back and re-writing the passage to add the missing discovery, I decided to leave it as is. I then had to employ a special device to advance the plot, essentially just making Carol come back to the cave and do a second walkthrough looking for presents, just in case she missed some. I think it worked, since a lot of us tend to do this sort of thing. I know that before I leave, say, a hotel room, I always stop and do a run-through inspection through the entire place just to make sure I didn't leave a shoe or a tie or my wallet behind. Better safe than sorry, I say, and Carol is always cautious. However, this whole device exposed a new problem: The cave has now been seen three times -- once by Finnley Elf, the original cartographer who made the map, and twice by Carol -- and yet that stupid tunnel kept getting missed. It must be really hidden then, so now I have to come up with a way to discover a very secret tunnel in some spectacular way that justifies not having seen it before, yet still serve its purpose of giving Carol access to entirely new areas to explore. It was supposed to be just another tunnel which was missed by the original guy, and now it has turned into a big attraction, calling unwarranted attention to itself. My biggest concern was that I had already come up with the way Carol would discover the tunnel: She would feel a breeze and follow it to a crack in the wall. So you see, that put me in a pickle: I don't think I can use that discovery device any more since the tunnel must now be really, really hidden and secret. I wracked my brain trying to think of a way to describe such a hiding trick. I already used the "secret tunnel" device, concealed by snow, when describing the entrance to the caverns. I've already had Carol discover a small hole on the bottom of a wall that was barely visible. What else could I do? I had to describe how much hidden this tunnel was, in order to explain how it was missed by Finnley and Carol (twice) ... I've been writing Carol's whole traversal through the caverns in a cinematic way, as if I were describing a movie unfolding before my eyes, so I needed to come up with a visual design for this super-secret hidden tunnel ... Or ... did I really? In my desperation, it occurred to me that this is very much not a movie, that writing is a non-visual medium, and that I have something at my disposal that no movie does: a direct, almost hard-wired connection to the reader's imagination. So, I cheated. I just hand-waved the whole thing and left it to the reader to design. Did you see it? I've bolded the critical bit on the passage above. Is it a mirage? Is it like a house-of-mirrors effect? Is it a reflective "invisible cloak" like the Predator creature uses? What is it and what does it look like? I don't know. I really have no idea -- but more to the point, it really does not matter. Let the reader figure it out if he wishes, and let Carol go about her business. She has a new cave to explore. Ta-daaa!!! It's quite liberating, really. You know that thing people say, "some things are better left to the imagination"? Well, some things indeed are better left to the imagination; especially if you can rely on someone else's imagination to do the work for you. And yet ... it doesn't really feel like cheating (oh, it totally is -- I completely hand-waved the whole thing just for the sake of keeping the plot going). It feels right, as if anything I could have come up with would have just been either lame or silly or just too conveniently coincidental. I don't think I'm a genius for that. For all I know, they teach you that in the first three pages of chapter one in Creative Writing 101 class (perhaps even as a thing to avoid). I also really do not know if it works as well as I think it does, but it feels fine to me and that's as good as I need it to be right now. So that's it for now. Carol moves on. She's got a new tunnel to explore, she'll soon discover the Snowflake Gardens and have a major encounter with the Evil Snowman, leading to the final confrontation. All good things to come. Until next time. See ya'! -dZ.

Intellivision sprites are 8x8 or 8x16 blocks, and they are a single color.

I think the hardware guys can answer with more accuracy, but I would imagine that it does not make a difference whether you pause or not. The machine will generate heat in any case, and like you said, pausing will extend the session time. dZ.

Yeah, pausing for few hours shouldn't be a problem; just keep the vents clear and the console in an open and ventilated area. I would try to avoid keeping the console on for days, though. These are old machines. They were built to work reliably and to last, but Rey are still over 30 years old. dZ.

Well, it's doing work, sure, the machine will always be engaged while the power is on. In case it is your concern, it will generate heat; perhaps not as much as while processing a game when the rest of the devices are engaged as well, but the console will heat up. It will save your screen by blanking it, and will allow the player to go to the bathroom or get a drink, which were the main objectives, I suppose. All that said, I recall back in the day leaving my console on for days (and it has happened to me in the last few years as well, by accident), without any I'll effects. Just make sure the vents are not covered. dZ.

All it does is set up a "dummy" ISR (I terrify service routine" that does nothing, and disable the active display, which makes blanks the screen with the border color. Then the CPU goes on a loop reading the I/O port waiting for a key event. It really is just a "busy wait." The screen blanking helps to prevent "burn in," which was common on the old CRT television sets. dZ.

Oh, then, I should have stayed quiet about my personal scores. Hmm... TO EVERYBODY: Ignore all my comments above. I gave 10's to all games on all categories. So if you lose, it's not my fault.

Ah, I get it ... sort of like how my real game development happen!

By the way, I don't know if the judges' individual scores will be published, but if they do, I want everyone to know that I did not score them "on a curve." That is, to me "1 to 10" is relative to what a great Intellivision title would be, not just the best among the 12. In other words, a "10" in a category does not represent the highest mark among the entries, but the highest possible mark the best Intellivision title would get. I understand that this may seem a bit harsh, but for criteria like "Presentation" and "Execution," I wasn't judging the potential of the game, but the actual implementation that was submitted. My comments on each one do reflect my views on their potential, which is why some games get high praise from me with relatively lower scores. That's what I thought would be most fair. Every judge's mileage may vary. -dZ.

Ha! There ain't no pro-er castinator than me! ... Nah, seriously, I left the writing down of my judgement to the last minute, but I followed each project carefully during their development and played every single ROM provided throughout the competition. What I had to do was just a few final play-throughs on the console of each entry, and finalize my impressions. At least some of them showed major improvements in quality and stability from the last published version prior to submitting. It's been a treat. -dZ.

I agree, it is very cool indeed! You see pictures and movies of people back in those days debugging programs with reams of printed code and a pencil, or sitting at a telex typing computer instructions. To me, watching this video feels like a window into "the future" of the past. Interactive debugging on-board an Intellivision feels like ahead of its time back in the early 1980s. Thanks for doing this! -dZ.

Nah, I think we're done. I betcha you won't guess who left the judging for the very last minute? -dZ.

That's great! Keep it up! -dZ.

I wrote some thoughts in my blog on the judging experience and the contest entries, for whoever cares to read it. TL;DR: Judging was hard, if I was too tough it's because I care about the potential of the games, and thanks to all the programmers for putting the effort and participating!

So, today is the last day for the judges to submit their entry scores for the IntyBASIC Programming Contest. As a judge, I took the job very seriously. I will be honest, though, it was a lot of work. It was also tough because you want to make sure to be fair and consistent, while at the same time you wish to promote and encourage only the highest quality standards for the community. I think I may have been too tough on some of the games, but it's because I think the talent is good and the games have great potential, and I don't wish to just "award a ribbon" for participation. Other judges may think differently, and that's their prerogative, but I have seriously high and very particular standards for what constitutes a good Intellivision game. That's not to say that other judges celebrate mediocrity or have low standards (I really do not know, and actually do not care), but that everyone's judging criteria is personal and different, and therefore very subjective. Mine doubly so. Anyway, so 12 entries were submitted to the contest and they varied greatly in theme and style -- which is exceptionally good for our community. We need more games and we need to move beyond the typical arcade/micro port. That said, some of the entries were typical arcade/micro ports, but even those had a nice twist and offered an interesting take on the original. Of course, as it always happens, some entries were better than others, and even some of the best games with the most potential for greatness were less polished than other more simple ones, raising the latter above the former. This variation in conceptual quality and implementation polish is also a good thing: it shows that programmers are following their own beat rather just re-using established libraries or ideas. Honestly, I can see that most of the flaws of some of the games are due to experimental techniques or game-mechanics of dubious feasibility. Yet, the fact that they followed through and implemented such features, even if not entirely successfully, makes our community richer. And that's a reason to celebrate: whoever the elected winner of the contest prize is, the Intellivision Community is the ultimate winner. As a final word, I want to congratulate all the programmers who participated in the contest, and I want to thank them for putting their time and effort -- their blood, sweat, and tears, as it were -- into their projects. I may not have liked them all, and I may have judged some of them poorer than others, but I am absolutely glad that they were all made, and wouldn't want it any other way. Cheers! -dZ.