Fadest

Yes, did not enter the compo for a while so I was extra motivated and focused during the convention. Hope to see you soon at an AC or eJagfest.

Yes, but while it is fun in Space Invaders (game becoming frantic after some time), it is not appropriate in a game like ABL. And speed coding is always cheating If you want to make clean stuff, you end up with the skeleton of your project, and nothing more after 24 hours.

As some of you are aware, each year the french RGC association organise a few conventions. Las WE, it was the AC (formerly known as Jaguar Connexion and for a very brief moment Atari Connexion, now it is just AC where the A means what you want to read : Atari, Amstrad, Amiga, Alternative, Avocado, ...) And each year since 2009, during the AC, there is a speed coding contest, open for every retro coder. The goal is to make a game in 24 hours, on an old console, with a given theme, and a given constraint. This year the theme was in relation with the 20th birthday of the RGC association, and we had to make a Party Game, the constraint was quite obvious : including at least one member of the RGC team inside the game. The speed coding last a bit more that 24 hours (minus the time for eating, sleeping, discussing with nice people and other useless activities). I chosed to code for the Jaguar, with the awesome JagStudio. To be compliant with the theme, it is a 8 players game (after all, the more we are at a party game, the best it could be), with some mini games inspired by board and card party games. So it requires 2 Team Tap (fortunately I have them) and 8 jagpads (fortunately, @Zerosquare and @RadiATIon lent me 4 of them for the public demo). The theme is to collect the biggest amount of video game cartridges (= points), and all games are retrogaming related. Sorry for the bad picture quality, they are taken from my old CRT TV. To be compliant with the constraint, I chosed to make a tricky selection menu (which was probably a good idea only on paper, as it took me lots of time to implement). There are 20 physical cards, where each one represent a RGC staff member, of a usual speed coder. Each card has the pseudo, a number to enter with the num pad, and should have a special power to activate in the game. But I did not have time to implement the special power part (hence the bad idea), so it is just drawinf a physical card, and entering the code to associate Jagpad with the avatar. I will give during the post the kind of super power that were expected. Of course, there is a leaderboard screen. I expected to code 2 or 3 mini games, I finally have 3.9 of them (the 4th one is just missing the end condition and points display), which is not too bad in 24 hours. So, here are the games, with a 2 players game (which is not a good idea, being 3 is probably the minimum as with 2 players, games 1, 3 a 4 will give same amount of points to each player): 1/ The compatibility test The games displays 9 randomly selected retro consoles, and a theme. Each player must chose the 3 consoles that in his opinion fits the theme the better. Right now, themes are in french, the one is the exemple is "Forgotten ?" Each time 2 players at least have chosen the same console, they get points. Of course, the more players chose 1 console, the more they will get points. In the exemple, Odie and Icemen both think the PCFX is a forgotten console, so they get 20 points. (note the nice 70's tablecloth ) 2/ The Congis sur Thérouane Flea Market The whole team is going to a flea market, and they visits stands one after the other. There are 2 types of stands: ones that have cartridges, and threats. The threats represnet events that occured to the RGC during during these 20 years : Atari Advocate (they got a kind of C&D letter to not use the word Atari inside the name Atari Connexion), the diseases (SARS, Covid) that led to cancel some conventions, and the city hall letters, because from time to time, relations with city can be hard (the date of a convention had to be postponed, ...). After each stand, the players chose to leave (they secure their loot but will get nothing more) or continue. Players who chose to lease also share the leftovers cartridges. So, if the stand is full of cartridges, they are shared between remaing players, and the rest is put aside-in this exemple, there were 5 cartridges, so 2 for each player and 1 put aside): The game continue until all players have left, of 3 threats of the same kind are encountered. Players that are still active lose their loot... In this example, Odie is leaving (and will get his 10 cartridges + 2 leftovers) whil Icemen is brave and decide to continue, even if 2 letters from the City have been encountered. If a third one occur, he will lose everything. (special power power could be to be immunised to the 3rd threat of a kind, but still vulnerable to the 4th one) 3/ We are all friends, let's make gift distribution One again, 9 random consoles are displayed, and each player must chose the one he would like to receive as a gift, and the one he really don't want to receive. Then every player will secretly offer 1 console (and can offer a given console only once) to every other player. And gifts are revealed, if someone has offer to another player his preferred console, both will get 10 points, if he offered the unwanted one, they get -10 points (one speaical power would be for a compulsive collector that get 5 points even if people offer hime the unwanted one). Here, Odie has offered Iceman a Jaguar which is obviously the gift of choice for every tasteful collector, they both get 10 points. As the 4th game is not completed, here is the "final" leaderboard. AS Iceman lost everything in the flea market game, Odie won(as said before, they can only get same amount of points in games 1 & 3) 4/ The pixel drawing game One player is randomly selected as the designer, he chose a keyword between 9 displayed on screen and must represent it on a 8x8 pixels grid, and 4 colors (white, default background, Red for C button, Blue for B button and Black for A button) Other player have only 1 try to find good answer. What do you think Icemen tried to draw in these examples ? So, what's the status of the game, it is barely playable as we manage to make a 8 players games during the convention. There are some flaws and enhancement to do before an eventual release (from the most important to the less urgent): - 4th game needs to be completed, - timer pause between actions are probably too long, especially in the gift reveal phase, - the character selection screen is not appropriate and need to be reworked, - rework assets definition (to save time, everything is in 16 bits which is a pity for memory but a big time save) - interface in mini games can be greatly enhanced, - adding sort in the Leaderboard, - adding option to freely play only 1 mini game, - adding kind of hub (think of the boardgame part in Mario Party) - probably change all assets as right now, if features Sony, Nintendo, Sega, Microsoft, Atari, ... consoles, games & characters. Not sure this is a good thing. Also, it is very RGC team related so not everyone could understand relation between name and avatar. This is far more job than the initial 24h run.

For A Bug's Lynx, during the speed coding, as the game was becoming faster and faster when you eat the gems, I stacked them on the same position. Was a bit crap, but I guess it was a nice 3AM workaround

My original also not works. I think Karri is right about the AUDIN

I don't know if I am reputable but I certainly can't afford this kind of operation right now... But there are definitely other potential entity I can think if who could do this.

BrewOtaku is a magazine about homebrews written by kojote and published on paper by Dragon Box. It has a test of Running Knight by @drludos from the LynxJam. BrewOtaku – The Homebrew Gaming Magazine BrewOtaku - itch.io Also, I will soon have the LynxJam 23 in stock at Yastuna Games shop, cart only. PAckaging remains exclusive from K-Retro

Pro Controllers or regular controllers ?

I have already asked him many times but... Beginning of next week, Iwill order the packaging, so pre-orders are going to close this week-end. Right now, there are 20 games booked which is very good. I guess the run will be around 35/40 games.

What about a brawler ? Super Lynx Bro. (don't count on me for this, vs fighting and brawler are nightmare to code & balance)

I already wrote somewhere to stop me if one day I plan to make as YnxaTennis or Ynxa Kart (on the other side @LordKraken also wote we could reuse Scooternia engine for Ynxa Kart, so who knows...)

The GemTos is a french convention for every Atari fans that will held in St Just en Chaussée on may 4th & 5th. This will be the third edition of the convention. Yastuna Games will release a new game exclusively for the french GemTos convention, in limited numbers. So it means the game should not be available after the convention, apart for limited remaining stock. But I know it is frustrating not being able to attend a nice event, and not being able to get a game only available for this occasion, so here is the deal I can offer you: Every people who preorder the game before March, 22 will be able to get it at the convention price, and low postage fees. The game will not be available for pre-order on yastuna-games.com, so in order to book it, you must contact be by mail , private message here on AtariAge, yAronet (Fadest), Facebook (Yastuna Lynx or Yastuna Games), Twitter (@YastunaL) , Discord... FAQ: 1. Why do you not reveal the final cover of the game and some screenshots ? The game is part of the GemTos game coding contest, so I prefer to keep it secret until the convention to keep it exclusive to the contest. 2. Which kind of game is it ? The rules for the contest is to make a puzzle game for an Atari machine. Examples in the rules are a Bubble shooter like or a Candy Crush like. This is not a Bubble shooter or Candy Crush like, but this is definitively a puzzle game, inspire by another classic, but with my own take. The game plays in Tate mode. 3. Why not releasing it a usual ? To be honest, puzzle games do not sell very well on Atari Lynx (CSS Traffic Regulation is less than 50 sales), so my first intention was to make a very small run exclusive to the GemTos (less than 20 games), rather than the 100 production run I am doing usually. But I know I would disappoint some fans around the world, so I am finally adding an option for everyone to book the game. Only issue is that you know you will get a puzzle game made by Fadest, but you don't know which game... 4. What is the price of the game ? Production costs have risen up recently and low production run imply higher costs, but I want to keep the price at 40€. This can be done by using Paypal by friend method of payment. 5. What are the postage fees ? They are a bit lower than on yastuna-games.com France: 6€ European Union + UK: 11€ Rest of the world: 16€ 6. Will a second run be produced ? the game be available on yastuna-games.com afterward ? There is no plan for a second run. If after the GemTos, some games are still available, they should end on yastuna-games.com. 7. Is the game 100% complete ? What if the game is not released finally ? The game is around 90% completion and there is very high probability it will be ready for the deadline. If some external reason lead to a cancellation of the release, I will of course refund every buyer with Paypal by friends. 8. Any other thing you may add about the game ? It features Leaf in a very different kind of game than the Ynxa platformers...

There is an Analogue mode, a Lynx mode and a Lynx+ mode. Did not dig into them to compare yet.

So I received mine today. Only tested with a few of homebrew (mostly my games), and a New Generation demo on Lynx GD It seems to works well, games with EEprom are working (this was one of my fear as this not something standard back in the days). For games in Tate mode, you must go into setup to rotate controls, but maybe the formware is aware of official tate mode games and it is not required (only tested with CSS Traffic Regulation and an upcoming surprise release) Some (many ?) times, I got a with screen with "Error." written in red, I get this is the "Insert game" or the Analogue, most of time, cleaning cartridge was OK, sometimes, never managed to launch the game (but I was using special 3D printed carts so maybe they are a bit too thick) Only game I did not manage to get running is Alpine Games, first edition (green PCB), screen goes black just after the title screen (it works on real Lynx). Maybe @Songbird new release work, I don't know. Lynx GD is working, I managed to run last NG demo (Unknown world), which is streaming some data from a file on the SD card, so this is a good thing. Biggest disappointment is that I broke wy good old proptotype @Lynxman flashcard because of the adapter (one component is too big, and to low on the card and got scratched). I don't know if "retails" flashcard have the same issues (my other ones are at some other devs home for their developments). Oh, one thing, you must put the card with the sticker facing the outside of the adapter, unlike on the Lynx...

Maybe 2600 audience give more feedback to WIP games, but for Lynx, if we get 2 or 3 answers talking about the game when a WIP is announced, it is a lot.

So, not being nominated is a good reason to stop working on a game ? If true (and I suspect it can be, at least for me), maybe the WIP categories are completely missing their objective...

Basically, downloading a ROM and playing it with an emulator or on a flashcard is quite the same thing... There is no more support the community in one case or another (unless you support BigP via its patreon and of course, you support the flashcart builder). Until there are ROM sold locked to a particular device. Now, I can understand a developer focusing on real hardware and not making effort to support emulators if the exeperience given to player can be slightly different because of emulator problems.

I really like Ridiculous Reality on the Atari 8 bits, so I borrowed the concept (but it probably come from something older), but in a puzzle game, instead of a more frantic platformer. I am also happy it is nearly a full game (with a tutorial, a story and an ending - even if just simple screens right now) Now I can put the intermediate screens & level design outside the main file, I will have more space to enhance it a bit. By enhancements, I mean new intermediate screens & storytelling, new & more levels, reworked assets, and maybe replace Leaf ability (the teleportation is maybe a bit strong, at least, it is hard to design levels because teleport can break complexity - hence the limited number per level). I'd also like to add something I could not do in the jam because of scarce memory: the notion of time. Something like planting a seed in the past with Grandma, that will become ivy Leaf can use to climb (so no more ladders in some levels) for example... Just need to find some motivation to take the time to do it.

Thanks you, much appreciated. For the AHA, it simply did not get enough points with 6 voters on 7 participants (I did not vote for my own games - ethical reasons) to be in the final list.

That would be a strange way of doing game for a coder I guess sometimes the tileset can fit a previous unfinished prototype or POC like @Nop90 did, but this can never be an intentional move. And even, this imply quite a lot of work to replace placeholder graphics by a given tileset (so not made on the game requisite - on the opposite to commission a graphist to rework on assets), especially if this is quite an old code. And I am very happy it gave nop90 the occasion to rework on his game because I found the idea very promising many years ago and it is a nice thing the game has been resurrected.

Just actually saw you got problems with going back from the map, this is something I have never encounter on real Lynx or emulator. What kind or joystick are you using ? Is it a direct connection to the Lynx rubber pad ? Will try to find one of my modified Lynx to test it with a pad also, but your problem is very strange... Looks like when you press the button, the Lynx receive many input (maybe false contact ?)

Just add a quick look at the replay this morning (without sound). It seems you got stucked in the 3rd tutorial level with Leaf. When you are on the map, you can select the destination room, then press A to teleport Leaf. When you go back to the gameplay display, Leaf is now in the new room... I should add some comments in the inter-mission screens (also Ether can slide in the 4 directions), but the memory is full, adding something means removing something else or get corruption on screen. Next version will no more be a BLL only game but a full ROM, so many things will be stored in the ROM (levels, spritesheet for each character, intermission screens, ...) and only loaded when needed so it will save RAM and allow me to put a bit more things into the game.

By lowering I mean a used game or used item at 50% of initial value is not suspect and probably closer to reality.

Lowering the value of goods is also an option.

Yes, VAT is mandatory on everything (just like if you go to the US and come back with some stuff, you should declare it and pay VAT) Video Games should not be taxed if they are correctly declared with code 95045000 (unless Sweden is different from France), but Video Games Parts is taxable. The problem is that for gift usually the custom code is not mandatory so they can do what they want. Myself, I got VAT and an extra tax on candies (I guess it was not books)...