Challenging anyone to find/code a game smaller than F8 of Nations

[Segataritensoftii]

Think you can top it? F8 of Nations is a homebrew game for the Fairchild Channel F which, at 38 bytes, is currently the world's smallest game, at least as far as I can tell. So I'm challenging anybody to prove it is not the world's smallest. If anyone can find a smaller game than this one, or make a reasonably playable game in 37 bytes or less, it will win the title of World's Smallest game.

[Nimtene]

Think you can top it? F8 of Nations is a homebrew game for the Fairchild Channel F which, at 38 bytes, is currently the world's smallest game, at least as far as I can tell. So I'm challenging anybody to prove it is not the world's smallest. If anyone can find a smaller game than this one, or make a reasonably playable game in 37 bytes or less, it will win the title of World's Smallest game.

 

What exactly does gameplay

consist of in "F8 of Nations?"

[Segataritensoftii]

Think you can top it? F8 of Nations is a homebrew game for the Fairchild Channel F which, at 38 bytes, is currently the world's smallest game, at least as far as I can tell. So I'm challenging anybody to prove it is not the world's smallest. If anyone can find a smaller game than this one, or make a reasonably playable game in 37 bytes or less, it will win the title of World's Smallest game.

 

What exactly does gameplay

consist of in "F8 of Nations?"

It's basically a lot like that electronic game 'Simon'. It has sound, graphics, and support for more than one action button, all in just 38 bytes. I'd give you a download link, but I forgot where Sean Riddle's home page is, and VESwiki gives a 404 whenever I try to enter it. I was thinking it would be possible to make a more playable game in that much space, provided it didn't have sound. Edited May 24, 2007 by Segataritensoftii

[Buyatari]

ODY1 games have zero

[Atari5200]

i coded a game back in the day for the TI-82 graph calculator that was a game similar to Drug wars only it was a war game and quite playable. Sadly i've lost it but I can probably bet it was close to that in size as it was a text adventure.

[MacbthPSW]

i coded a game back in the day for the TI-82 graph calculator that was a game similar to Drug wars only it was a war game and quite playable. Sadly i've lost it but I can probably bet it was close to that in size as it was a text adventure.

I doubt it. Just your two sentences I quoted take 240 bytes. What kind of playable text adventure could you get in 37 bytes?

[danwinslow]

Thats data, not code.

[MacbthPSW]

Thats data, not code.

If you're talking to me, are you saying that game data doesn't count towards a game's total size?

[Rev. Rob]

Think you can top it? F8 of Nations is a homebrew game for the Fairchild Channel F which, at 38 bytes, is currently the world's smallest game, at least as far as I can tell. So I'm challenging anybody to prove it is not the world's smallest. If anyone can find a smaller game than this one, or make a reasonably playable game in 37 bytes or less, it will win the title of World's Smallest game.

 

 

Where can I find "F8 of Nations"

[Segataritensoftii]

Think you can top it? F8 of Nations is a homebrew game for the Fairchild Channel F which, at 38 bytes, is currently the world's smallest game, at least as far as I can tell. So I'm challenging anybody to prove it is not the world's smallest. If anyone can find a smaller game than this one, or make a reasonably playable game in 37 bytes or less, it will win the title of World's Smallest game.

 

 

Where can I find "F8 of Nations"

VESwiki used to have it, but it appears to be down. I think I have a copy somewhere, though. I'll see if I can dig it up.

[Rev. Rob]

Think you can top it? F8 of Nations is a homebrew game for the Fairchild Channel F which, at 38 bytes, is currently the world's smallest game, at least as far as I can tell. So I'm challenging anybody to prove it is not the world's smallest. If anyone can find a smaller game than this one, or make a reasonably playable game in 37 bytes or less, it will win the title of World's Smallest game.

 

 

Where can I find "F8 of Nations"

VESwiki used to have it, but it appears to be down. I think I have a copy somewhere, though. I'll see if I can dig it up.

 

Cool... it must be the only Channel F homebrew ever.

[Segataritensoftii]

Think you can top it? F8 of Nations is a homebrew game for the Fairchild Channel F which, at 38 bytes, is currently the world's smallest game, at least as far as I can tell. So I'm challenging anybody to prove it is not the world's smallest. If anyone can find a smaller game than this one, or make a reasonably playable game in 37 bytes or less, it will win the title of World's Smallest game.

 

 

Where can I find "F8 of Nations"

VESwiki used to have it, but it appears to be down. I think I have a copy somewhere, though. I'll see if I can dig it up.

 

Cool... it must be the only Channel F homebrew ever.

Not the only one. There were also a few others like Pac Man and Tetris. There was even a homebrew multicart.

[Nukey Shay]

Fairchild PacMan was (is?) a WIP.

[e5frog]

Fairchild PacMan was (is?) a WIP.

 

 

Yes, but fully playable and basically working as it is... Everything is there except a few minor details, no speed increase and the ghosts don't slow down in the tunnel (yet). There will be no speed increase, game is running as fast as it can. Everything else is there I think, different Ghost "AI:s" (similar to original), attackwaves with ghosts returning to corners etc etc etc...

Unfortunately I came across a few bugs and haven't been able to reproduce or find them. One was "the missing dot" - all dots appear to have been eaten but the game doesn't end, wandering ghost - ghost wanders outside the playfield (probably related to an error in the "AI").

 

I also noticed the other day that it might be a good idea to only being able to steer with one of the joysticks when you play a 2-player game...

 

Bugs might have appeared when trying to shrink the code, the intro and graphics takes a lot of space, full game fills a 8kB space on the Multi-Cart - biggest Channel F game ever.

 

 

 

 

Sean Riddle made a program called "lights out" - different patterns on a checkered background where you are supposed to get all blanks.

I made a RAM-test program that tests the RAM of the Chess-cart used for Multi-cart and a program that plays through all notes with the PlaySong-routine.

There's also a homemade program that plots Scramble-looking scrolling mountains.

 

 

Can't wait for the VESwiki to get up again, I've written Tim and asked about it - the whole site is currently just empty.

 

Seans Channel F page: http://members.cox.net/seanriddle/chanf.html

 

 

Here is the code of F8 Nations (pretty fun for a little while):

 

 

; F8 of Nations
;
; written by nycurt

processor f8

;------------;
; BIOS Calls ;
;------------;

prompt			=       $0099
clrscrn			=       $00D0
IncP1Score			=       $02AC

;===================;
; Main Program Code ;
;===================;

;---------------;
; Program Entry ;
;---------------;

org	$800


   LR      $5,A    ; $55 Needs to be at beginning of cartridge
   LR      $A,A    ; Can be anything in this byte. In early versions this was used as code


IF 0
If you add the following code to the beginning of the game, the gameplay will be in color and it will keep track
of your score (which wraps around when you get to 99).

ENDIF

IF 0
   li  $99
   LISU 2                   ; 02b0 6e
   LISL 6                   ; 02b0 6e
   lr	I,A

   li	$d6
   lisu	3
   lr	S,A
   lr	3, A
   pi	clrscrn
nextround:
   LISU 2                   ; 02b0 6e
   pi IncP1Score

ENDIF

nextround:
   li      $45     ; Bit 6 in this byte is used to emit a sound when written to port 5
   outs    5       ; Play a sound





; Store $45 in reg0 - $4 specifies blue and $5 the '5' character to the prompt func. This 
; register will be decremented 1 to 4 times to select a number from '1' to '4'
   lr      $0,A    

; And the byte referenced by the DC with $3 - this gives a number from 1 to 4 for the game
   lis	    $3
; The DC is used in addressing memory. The H register will have been initialized to 0 by the BIOS
; before we are started, so we point the DC at 0. Each successive round will advance the DC by
; one byte. The number that is selected (1-4) is determined by the low-order three bits in the
; byte loaded from the DC. If the user plays for a very long time the DC will increment beyond
; valid memory.
   lr      DC,H
   nm	            ; and #$3 with the memory referenced by the DC
   lr      H,DC

; Loop control variable initialized with the # that the user must match
; The value $10 will be shifted right each time through the loop and will match the correct 
; input value for the button that corresponds to the number.
   lr	    $9,A
   li      $10
loop:
   sr      1
   ds      $0      ; Decrement the value that will be sent to prompt (initialized to $45)
   ds      $9
   bc      loop
   lr	$9,A    ; This has the bit corresponding to the correct button the user must press

   pi      prompt  ; This displays the number (with '?'), and waits for input and delays briefly
; There is no need to write $0 to port 0 to prepare it for input... the prompt
; subroutine will have done so for us... see instructions at $764 in BIOS
   ins     0       ; Retrieve console button state
   com             ; Complement it ($1=but1,$2=but2,$4=but3,$8=but4)
   ni      $F      ; Clip off the top four bits
   outs    5       ; Clear the sound register... We know the relevant top two bits of A are clear
   xs      $9      ; XOR with Reg 9 which contains the correct input
delayforever:
   bnz     delayforever ; User lost the game. Freeze

   br      nextround ; The user entered the correct response. Torture them some more


org $fff		; added only to set a useable rom-size in MESS
.byte	$ff

Edited August 10, 2007 by e5frog

[Buyatari]

Wait a minute not so fast.

 

I spoke with Nolan Bushnell and he told me that there is an offer of $100 per byte shaved off the current 38k byte ammount. Now its only fair you disclose this information and split this right down the middle least the truth come out later and you lose a friend over it.

 

-Woz

[SINGLE TOOTH]

Wait a minute not so fast.

 

I spoke with Nolan Bushnell and he told me that there is an offer of $100 per byte shaved off the current 38k byte ammount. Now its only fair you disclose this information and split this right down the middle least the truth come out later and you lose a friend over it.

 

-Woz

 

????

 

Woz said that to bushnell? WTF

[e5frog]

Wait a minute not so fast.

 

I spoke with Nolan Bushnell and he told me that there is an offer of $100 per byte shaved off the current 38k byte ammount. Now its only fair you disclose this information and split this right down the middle least the truth come out later and you lose a friend over it.

 

-Woz

 

I have no idea what you mean by this post? Or is it just me?

 

An offer of $100 per byte shaved off the current 38 kiloByte of what?

 

 

 

This post was about a program for Fairchild Channel F whish uses BIOS calls and therefore only needs 38 bytes of binary code...

 

... and as "Buyatari" wrote "ODY1" uses no code at all, simply connects circuitry to the code that is already in the machine...

 

I guess you should challenge anyone to make a game on the Channel F smaller than that.

 

 

BTW, here are binaries of "F8 of Nations" that work in MESS (padded to 2kB), both versions. They also work on a real machine (I've tried it):

f8ofNations_b_w.bin

f8ofNations_color_score.bin

Edited August 12, 2007 by e5frog

[Buyatari]

Wait a minute not so fast.

 

I spoke with Nolan Bushnell and he told me that there is an offer of $100 per byte shaved off the current 38k byte ammount. Now its only fair you disclose this information and split this right down the middle least the truth come out later and you lose a friend over it.

 

-Woz

 

????

 

Woz said that to bushnell? WTF

 

::sigh::

 

Come on guys this is like one of the most famous Atari/Apple stories of all time.

 

Bushnell told Jobs he would offer him $100 per chip saved. Jobs had Woz do the all work with the offer to split it 50/50 and Woz did it with 50 less chips. Jobs then lied to Woz and kept most of the cash for himself.

[e5frog]

Wait a minute not so fast.

 

I spoke with Nolan Bushnell and he told me that there is an offer of $100 per byte shaved off the current 38k byte ammount. Now its only fair you disclose this information and split this right down the middle least the truth come out later and you lose a friend over it.

 

-Woz

 

????

 

Woz said that to bushnell? WTF

 

::sigh::

 

Come on guys this is like one of the most famous Atari/Apple stories of all time.

 

Bushnell told Jobs he would offer him $100 per chip saved. Jobs had Woz do the all work with the offer to split it 50/50 and Woz did it with 50 less chips. Jobs then lied to Woz and kept most of the cash for himself.

 

 

Oh... I never heard it, but I'm mostly snowed into Fairchild... Thanks for the explanaiton.

[SINGLE TOOTH]

Wait a minute not so fast.

 

I spoke with Nolan Bushnell and he told me that there is an offer of $100 per byte shaved off the current 38k byte ammount. Now its only fair you disclose this information and split this right down the middle least the truth come out later and you lose a friend over it.

 

-Woz

 

????

 

Woz said that to bushnell? WTF

 

::sigh::

 

Come on guys this is like one of the most famous Atari/Apple stories of all time.

 

Bushnell told Jobs he would offer him $100 per chip saved. Jobs had Woz do the all work with the offer to split it 50/50 and Woz did it with 50 less chips. Jobs then lied to Woz and kept most of the cash for himself.

I heard that before, the other guy just worded it wierd

[e5frog]

It's basically a lot like that electronic game 'Simon'. It has sound, graphics, and support for more than one action button, all in just 38 bytes. I'd give you a download link, but I forgot where Sean Riddle's home page is, and VESwiki gives a 404 whenever I try to enter it. I was thinking it would be possible to make a more playable game in that much space, provided it didn't have sound.

 

 

 

VESwiki is now UP!

 

http://www.bingbangboom.us/productions/ves...title=Main_Page

[Segataritensoftii]

It's basically a lot like that electronic game 'Simon'. It has sound, graphics, and support for more than one action button, all in just 38 bytes. I'd give you a download link, but I forgot where Sean Riddle's home page is, and VESwiki gives a 404 whenever I try to enter it. I was thinking it would be possible to make a more playable game in that much space, provided it didn't have sound.

 

 

 

VESwiki is now UP!

 

http://www.bingbangboom.us/productions/ves...title=Main_Page

Yay! It's back! Let the good times roll again!

 

But... where did F8 of Nations go?

Edited August 15, 2007 by Segataritensoftii

[potatohead]

ODY1 games have zero

 

 

Then the contest would be number of gates, right?

 

Woz probably rules then.

 

Edit: Sorry late to the party, carry on:

Edited August 15, 2007 by potatohead

[Keatah]

Think you can top it? F8 of Nations is a homebrew game for the Fairchild Channel F which, at 38 bytes, is currently the world's smallest game, at least as far as I can tell. So I'm challenging anybody to prove it is not the world's smallest. If anyone can find a smaller game than this one, or make a reasonably playable game in 37 bytes or less, it will win the title of World's Smallest game.

 

Not true. F8 of Nations is still cycling through additional code stored elsewhere like the "bios". Any one of those 128 or 256 byte games for the VCS is smaller, because the VCS has no BIOS or other hidden code in the console.

[CatPix]

7 years necrobump