Atari Lynx 30th Birthday Programming Competition

[+karri]

No. This label run was only a trick to get two sets of carts for PRGE. By aiming for 21 copies I got the labels for 1/3 of the price compared to order only a set for me.

 

After PRGE I don't need these labels for anything. But I will keep the set of cards as a nice memory of a pretty cool comoetition.

[Igor]

 

Not long now!

[Igor]

The results will be announced in a couple of hours! Keep an eye on my Twitter and Facebook accounts ?

[Igor]

Detailed results and my comments and some other announcements will be in the Atari Gamer article tomorrow.

Congrats to the winners and big hand applause to everyone for participating!

 

[SainT]

Fantastic work everyone, there are some awesome games in there! Funnily enough the top 3 were also my top 3.

 

And congratulations to Igor for organising such a fantastic and successful competition, absolutely awesome stuff!

 

And if I could ask anyone who included the LynxGD library code (I think there were at least 2) to provide a new build with the code provided in the previous post and make sure the initialisation code is called to ensure compatibility with the new upcoming revision of the cart.

[Nop90]

Wow, 6th place for Nutmeg was my bet, but 7th place for 4ttude is unexpected.

 

@SainTboth nutmeg and 4ttude use your sd card for saves, I'm going to release an update with the call to the init function, but can't see changes to the lib

Please help me to spot changes if any, because I use a modified version of your code with a timeout in the sd calls, so to not block the code when used without your cart.

Edited October 20, 2019 by Nop90

[SainT]

The only change is not writing 0xaa to the cart1 in the init. Other than that, the init function must be called. I don’t think it was before? At least, that would explain the issues I am seeing!

[drludos]

On 10/20/2019 at 10:11 AM, SainT said:

Fantastic work everyone, there are some awesome games in there! Funnily enough the top 3 were also my top 3.

 

And congratulations to Igor for organising such a fantastic and successful competition, absolutely awesome stuff!

 

And if I could ask anyone who included the LynxGD library code (I think there were at least 2) to provide a new build with the code provided in the previous post and make sure the initialisation code is called to ensure compatibility with the new upcoming revision of the cart.

Is Growing Ties one for the problematic entries?

 

It does use the SD card save functionality, and I used Nop90's code for that as my game is based on Karri/Nop90 CC65 template.

[Nop90]

Today I'll post an updated version of the template. It needs only two small chances.

 

But with these changes Handy hangs trying to access the Sd (i.e. my timeout code doesn't work anymore), whille the online emulator of Atarigamer works fine, so don't know yet If the code needs tunings or if there is something to change in handy.

 

Today I'll try what happens on a real lynx without an sd cart.

[solo/ng]

Played all games in Semptember! Productions were awesome:). As a team we Im happy we have won but (enthusi proably not, j/k; )

But one thing baffle - the final punctation.

I wont talk about other games (dont want to be a devil advocate).

 

The criterias were:

Creativity: its an original game (not a port) and proably never seen this type o game on a lynx before
Implementation: Here im pretty sure we did a decent job
Gameplay: It can vary because its very subjective
Replay: It can vary because its very subjective,
Completion: our final submition was a full game (just without minor stuff)

 

How our game could earn "116" points, did we just get straigh zeros in most categories? Our "creativity" lost to a minesweeper variation? (please no offence!: )

Lynx Quest is also described as "there was no real story" when literally only On Duty and our game have a story/story intro.
Submitted game was completed (all worlds, congratulation screen etc) yet it is described as incomplete. 

 

My 5 cents.

[+karri]

5 hours ago, solo/ng said:

Our "creativity" lost to a minesweeper variation? (please no offence !: )

What! You don't believe it was creative to copy xbomb sources?  

 

I kind of understand that "Find a way to my heart" did not score much. Writing the game took 20 hours and it was submitted already in May.

[enthusi]

We are  very happy with our result

I believe this compo will have quite some legacy value with so many potential full titles after such a long time. Super happy that Lynx Quest is polished into what you intended! 

[Igor]

On 10/27/2019 at 11:37 AM, solo/ng said:

Played all games in Semptember! Productions were awesome:). As a team we Im happy we have won but (enthusi proably not, j/k; )

But one thing baffle - the final punctation.

I wont talk about other games (dont want to be a devil advocate).

 

The criterias were:

Creativity: its an original game (not a port) and proably never seen this type o game on a lynx before
Implementation: Here im pretty sure we did a decent job
Gameplay: It can vary because its very subjective
Replay: It can vary because its very subjective,
Completion: our final submition was a full game (just without minor stuff)

 

How our game could earn "116" points, did we just get straigh zeros in most categories? Our "creativity" lost to a minesweeper variation? (please no offence!: )

Lynx Quest is also described as "there was no real story" when literally only On Duty and our game have a story/story intro.
Submitted game was completed (all worlds, congratulation screen etc) yet it is described as incomplete. 

 

My 5 cents.

 

I (as one judge to remind you) didn't award many points for completeness here. Of course all of this is subjective, hence why there are multiple judges, community input, etc. Your entry was the best looking game I've played on the Lynx, that is without a doubt. Maybe I didn't get/understand the game, but it didn't feel like a full game to me, which itself is something to consider too, if it's not obvious what to do, even the best looking and sounding game can lose points overall.

 

Besides, your team won! Congratulations on that, you've put in an amazing effort and I thank you for participating in the competition. ?

 

[Igor]

Hey everyone, the second batch of prizes have been sent out today (except to anyone in Finland because AusPost has Finland on a blocked country list for some reason). @karri I already messaged you but just so everyone else knows, I'll be checking with AusPost regularly to make sure that your prizes can be sent out as soon as the block is lifted.

[+karri]

Our Post is on a long strike. They increased the wages for the bosses and cut the wages a lot for the workers. For some reason postal workers did not like the idea. It looks like there will be no Christmas cards this year.

[drludos]

Wonderful, thanks a lot Igor!

 

I feel sorry for you Karri, I hope they find a solution (like undo the wage cut for the workers!) in time for Christmas season.

[laoo]

 

I've got mine yesterday! ?

Thanks to @Igor for the competition and to @SainT for the prize!

 

And now... regarding the LynxSD, few post ago was a link to github repository:

On 10/9/2019 at 11:56 AM, SainT said:

https://github.com/RetroHQ/LynxGDLib

[...]

Functions for the new Lynx GameDrive (as its now known!) will be added to this code repository I develop them.

But it's gone now.

Where can I find recent examples how to make use of this cart's features?

[Igor]

Awesome!

@Nop90 wrote some code for the new functionality I believe. However you won't be affected with this cart as it's not the new one, the GD cart is not yet released.

[laoo]

2 minutes ago, Igor said:

Awesome!

@Nop90 wrote some code for the new functionality I believe. However you won't be affected with this cart as it's not the new one, the GD cart is not yet released.

I have some problems grasping LynxSD features and it's versions. I even don't know whether it supports 1 MB cartridges. I've asked a question in other thread but didn't got any answer. Is there any summary anywhere?

[Igor]

You can see the latest firmware code here - https://github.com/ikromin/atarilynx/tree/master/lynxsd-menu

It doesn't look like it supports any cart side that requires AUDIN. Maximum size is 512kb, in Program.c you can see this...

 

			if ((nBlockSize == 1 || nBlockSize == 2 || nBlockSize == 4 || nBlockSize == 8)) {
				nSize = LynxSD_GetFileSize();
				nSize -= 64;

				LynxSD_SeekFile(64);

				nBlockSizeBytes = nBlockSize << 8;

8 << 8 is 2048b, multiply by 256 blocks = 512kb (I think my math is right).

AUDIN is used by the Lynx SD MCU for commands so I guess that's why larger ROMs are not supported.

[laoo]

Thanks for the link to the repository.

Indeed standard software does not support images larger than 256 blocks of 2048 bytes each.

 

But LynxSD_ProgramROMFromFile function seems to support it:

 

FRESULT __fastcall__ LynxSD_ProgramROMFromFile(u16 nStartBlock, u8 nBlockSize, u16 nBlockCount, u8 b512BlockCard)
{
	if (b512BlockCard)
	{
		nBlockSize |= 0x10;
	}

	WriteByte(ECommandByte_ProgramFile);
	WriteWord(nStartBlock); // start block from 0-511 (>255 with 512 block card bit set)
	WriteByte(nBlockSize); // or with 0x10 for 512 block card (a19 controlled by aux pin)
	WriteWord(nBlockCount); // blocks to write
	return (FRESULT) ReadByte(); // waits for programming to end and gets result
}

Look at the mentions of 512 block cards...

So definitely some clarifications could be welcome

 

Edited November 27, 2019 by laoo

[SainT]

2 hours ago, laoo said:

Thanks for the link to the repository.

Indeed standard software does not support images larger than 256 blocks of 2048 bytes each.

 

But LynxSD_ProgramROMFromFile function seems to support it:

 

FRESULT __fastcall__ LynxSD_ProgramROMFromFile(u16 nStartBlock, u8 nBlockSize, u16 nBlockCount, u8 b512BlockCard)
{
	if (b512BlockCard)
	{
		nBlockSize |= 0x10;
	}

	WriteByte(ECommandByte_ProgramFile);
	WriteWord(nStartBlock); // start block from 0-511 (>255 with 512 block card bit set)
	WriteByte(nBlockSize); // or with 0x10 for 512 block card (a19 controlled by aux pin)
	WriteWord(nBlockCount); // blocks to write
	return (FRESULT) ReadByte(); // waits for programming to end and gets result
}

Look at the mentions of 512 block cards...

So definitely some clarifications could be welcome

 

 

The original Lynx cart has support for 1MB carts, yes. Although nothing has ever used this, so the new revision of the Lynx GameDrive will just have 512KB support as maximum.

 

The GitHub repo is back again too! With a few renames for "GD".

 

[laoo]

@SainT Thanks for the clarification.

Although there weren't any 1 MB cartridges till today keep in mind that the scene is rapidly expanding and as we have recently 20+ (counting SV announced productions) high quality new games per year, then you may never know... ?

 

[+karri]

It makes sense to keep 512k as current "state-of-art". My typical games like SillySis to be sent for Silly Ventures shortly is 78k. Even On Duty fits in 256k.

 

Actually I have a few 2M carts already with 64k eeproms. But in reality I don't believe I will ever code a game larger than 512k.

 

(Besides, people don't have the time to play more than for 10 minutes. So there is no point in lots of levels.)

[SainT]

2 minutes ago, laoo said:

@SainT Thanks for the clarification.

Although there weren't any 1 MB cartridges till today keep in mind that the scene is rapidly expanding and as we have recently 20+ (counting SV announced productions) high quality new games per year, then you may never know... ?

 

 

The price of 5V 1MB SRAM has increased quite a lot since I originally designed the cart, so I'm opting for 512K now due to lack of use. If it was actually used, I would continue to support it. I believe there are also some issues with 1MB carts in terms of hardware and the state of the AUX pin not being reliable / consistent on boot through different Lynx models. So I'm not sure 1MB is that useful.

 

However if you are supporting the GD cart, you can load whatever data you like from the memory card, so you're not limited at all by size. The Lynx GD carts are wide spread enough you have a good userbase already. More so than you would ever reach with a proper physical release.