2019 (so far :D) in one picture

[Fadest]

I am starting to prepare myself for the next RGC in 1 month in Paris.

So I had to look back to 2109, and in my opinion it is one of the biggest year for the Lynx. So many things...

Of course, 11 new games for the programming competition, new developpers, games completed and released this year, new hardware...

Just one example : Retroguru (Nop90) released no less than 5 completed games this year, and maybe a sixth one for the SillyVision Lynx Compo... Awesome work !

 

So I started to design a poster for the RGC, and I'd like to share with you the preliminary draft. And I probably forgot so many things (did not even mentionned new development tolls, like Milfork or Unity 8 bits as I haven't tested them yet - and upcoming part is really limited to some selected and recents projects), so feel free to point me toward missing stuff, or mistake...

 

 

For developpers, if you uploaded a ROM of your game, I will put it on SD flash card and Agacart for demonstration during the show. If you don't want me to do so, drop me a PM. If you want to send me another version, drop me a PM also.

Edited November 6, 2019 by Fadest

[agradeneu]

2019 is not over yet - more to come!?

Edited November 6, 2019 by agradeneu

[Fadest]

I know, the RGC is the 1st WE of december, 1 week before the SV, and this poster is for my stand at the RGC.

I can put exclusive infos from my projects on the poster, but I am not aware of other projects by other people (or I can't speak about them)

[Nop90]

2 hours ago, Fadest said:

Retroguru (Nop90) released no less than 5 completed games this year, and maybe a sixth one for the SillyVision Lynx Compo...

I'm a member of the Retroguru team, and at the moment the only one developing for the Lynx, but not all the works I release are from Retroguru. I have to point it out because some games of mine aren't at the level of the Retroguru ones for quality of music and gfx.

 

Retrogru games are only Xump and Nutmeg.

 

Biniax and Griels's Quest (not finished but fully playable) are open source games that I ported to Lynx (in reality I rewrote them reusing their original gfx)

 

4Ttude is from me in collaboration with @marss.

 

As anticipated by Songbird there will be a phisical release for the end of this year of Biniax2: it is not Biniax, but a very much bigger work. Maybe you can ask Songbird a screenshot to add to you poster.

 

And obviously you can count on a new big release for Silly Venture released by the OCEO team with me as main coder and marss as GFX artist.

 

Last but not least I have an HW mod for he Lynx that needs only the final test. If I find time to finish the test (and it works as expected) I could post about it in two weeks, so leave a little space in your poster ?.    

[Fadest]

There is only 3 options :

- you never sleep,

- you never eat something else than cookies while coding,

- your hardware mod is a cloning machine

 

Nice you team up with Marss for the SV. I guess I know the game he wants to present, if it is this one, you have a potential winner in your team. 

If needed, I will find space (the first idea was 30 years - 30 cool things but I guess we are over than 30 right now). I can remove some of my stuff nobody heard or seen before.

[LordKraken]

Actually i think you should talk more avour your unknown stuff

Thanks for the poster its a great idea!!

(Ps: lord not load :D)

[+-^CrossBow^-]

The poster looks really nice, but I've a few suggestions:

 

- All the hardware should be grouped together either at the end or beginning of the poster

- All the software should be grouped together by publisher/author. So all the Songbird stuff should be together as an example.

- perhaps a light color used on the text under the pics to make it stand out more against the grey background

- text tightened up a bit. Example would be hardware description that needs three lines vs 2 lines. The 2 line entry has the word hardware space way below the first line.

 

[Fadest]

15 minutes ago, LordKraken said:

(Ps: lord not load :D)

Oups, please note it was correct for BomberCats...

Corrected on my version. Also corrected for non Retroguru games.

 

4 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

The poster looks really nice, but I've a few suggestions:

 

- All the hardware should be grouped together either at the end or beginning of the poster

- All the software should be grouped together by publisher/author. So all the Songbird stuff should be together as an example.

- perhaps a light color used on the text under the pics to make it stand out more against the grey background

- text tightened up a bit. Example would be hardware description that needs three lines vs 2 lines. The 2 line entry has the word hardware space way below the first line.

 

Thanks,

You are right. The first intention was to be chronologic. In fact it is, but notion of date and months have been removed. So different organisation (hardware / commercial releases / downloadable) is probably the way to go. Just need to find how to keep the notion of event (Atari Gamer programming competition) inside the classification.

 

[KevinMos3]

What are "Jimmy Pond", "Yellow Submarine", and "Hyperdrive Odyssey" on your poster?  I've not heard of those projects and haven't been able to find any info on them.  They look very interesting.

 

[Fadest]

 

Jimmy Pond and "Yellow Submarine" are the 2 entries for the french AC coding contest this year.

The goal is to code a game in 1 day, with some constraint. This year, it was a tribute to Steve Bak, with Aquatic theme and reuse of one of his characters.

Last minute condition was to add a scrolling...

Of course, I did not intend to make a game with scrolling (can't compare with Steve Bak...), so all my previous ideas (Cuthbert goes Walkarouand underwater game for example) was useless...

 

Vince made a game where a submarine has to hunt another one, with differential scrolling. Ther is no Rom AFAIK but a video is here :

https://www.yaronet.com/topics/9-190581-ac-2019-speed-coding#post-24

 

I left the competition for hours, and finally started to code something very late in the night (so it was more a 6h coding competition, because my son was here, and we had to sleep outside the event). Jimmy Pond is a cool game. It was intended to be an exploration/adventure game, kind of Labyrinth with some enigma, but in fact, there is only 4 "levels" where you go straight and there is no real challenge. The game use heavy graphics, they are nice but they eat all the RAM (didn't implement a load from ROM unless I was really blocked).

As you can see in the attached ROM, there is no real interest after the 45 seconds spent to go through the game on the first try...

Needless to say it didn't won the competition (cant code A Bug's Lynx or Tetris Raiden in 24 hours every year...)

But it is important because finally, I put all the ideas I wanted to do (exploration, levelling, ...) with it on a paper, designed a better built game engine, created many levels, and made Ynxa (yes, event if they seems to have nothing in common, Ynxa is the "son" of Jimmy Pond).

 

HyperDrive Odyssey is the game I initially planned to submit to the programming competition, it is based on a print to play boardgame with the same name. The game engine is really nice and you get more powerfull with time. There is scenario with 8 or 9 missions (only 1st one is 75% written for Lynx engine, but nearly all the game engine is done, so it is just a question of coding specific event for other missions). You have a ship and must explore space, fight, trade. Theer are pirates, regular forces, and a threat from the outside. It's a boardgame (with a bit of choose your adventure system), not an Elite clone (but probably inspired by Elite), so each mission can be played and replayed independantly.

  

But finally, the author did not want me to make the game, so I cancelled it (and made Ynxa instead). This is why I will not distribute the Rom, only showcase it at the RGC, in order to see if there is somme interest and if I should try to find another game system and another scenario. Or if people prefers short arcade games on system like the Lynx.

 

 

I have put these 3 games on the poster, because the AC (mostly for computers and programmers) is the sister convention of the RGC (more gaming and consoles), so the 2 entries of the AC Coding contest must be presented, and as said before, I want to check interest for Hyperdrive Odyssey, and discuss about its interest and potential.

 

Oh, and Silly Blaster will be shown during the RGC "behind closed doors" for testing and debugging and officially revealed at the SillyVenture.

 

AC2K19.lnx

Edited November 6, 2019 by Fadest

[drludos]

Woaw, that's a very cool poster !

2019 was indeed a great year for the Lynx, I discovered some projects on your poster (those AC games, but other games too like Griel's Quest!).

 

There's a 80% chance that I'll be able to submit something to the SillyVenture too, although it will a be a very small game (smaller than Growing Ties), but I hope people will enjoy it anyway! It's cool to see that so many people will make an entry - with the two competitions combined, we'll get more than 20 new lynx games in total, that's awesome.

 

And Nop90, I also wonder how you manage to make so many stuffs, you are incredible! Because the poster doesn't even mention your ComLynx Experiment (with modified Handy) or your upcoming Atari 2600 emulator :).

 

HyperDrive Odyssey looks like a really cool game! It has a "Out There" feeling. It's sad that the original author didn't approve it, but don't you think you could rework it into a totally original game with new graphics and necessary changes to the story or mechanics? I mean, video games history is full of similar examples, like Donkey Kong that was a Popeye game originally but they didn't get the license in the end so they designed original characters.

 

Anyway, thanks a lot Fadest for the poster. You should send it to Igor too, I think he'll be happy to share it on AtariGamer.

 

P.S.: It's Dr. Ludos and not Dr. Ludo (but honestly, it's not an issue)

Edited November 6, 2019 by drludos

[Igor]

Very cool! Thanks for putting that together, it shows that 2019 was really quite amazing for the Lynx.

For the game entries, you can do a search by year on Atari Gamer - https://atarigamer.com/lynx/games?z=1&q=year&v=2019

 

[Fadest]

15 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

The poster looks really nice, but I've a few suggestions:

 

- All the hardware should be grouped together either at the end or beginning of the poster

- All the software should be grouped together by publisher/author. So all the Songbird stuff should be together as an example.

- perhaps a light color used on the text under the pics to make it stand out more against the grey background

- text tightened up a bit. Example would be hardware description that needs three lines vs 2 lines. The 2 line entry has the word hardware space way below the first line.

 

Do you think somethink like this is better ?

[Fadest]

11 hours ago, drludos said:

HyperDrive Odyssey looks like a really cool game! It has a "Out There" feeling. It's sad that the original author didn't approve it, but don't you think you could rework it into a totally original game with new graphics and necessary changes to the story or mechanics? I mean, video games history is full of similar examples, like Donkey Kong that was a Popeye game originally but they didn't get the license in the end so they designed original characters.

This is my intention, but the Hyperdie system is the core of the game and very innovative/original, need to find something else to manage power reserve.

Story and graphics (they are already my own graphics anuway) are not a big issue, more a question of time.

But the question is, are there some Lynx fans willing to read lot of text on Lynx (rather than card or computer, xhich are more convenient) for a game with basically no action, only reflexion.

[LordKraken]

Maybe your question is the solution to your IP issue, simplify the game mechanics so that it becomes less text and also different enough from the original game?

Really like the graphics btw!

[Fadest]

New template, with some new exclusive info inside

[Igor]

Better and better! This is really encouraging me to think of what I should do for next year!

[Fadest]

New upgraded version.

I think this one is more readable (full color for categories, only outline for developpers, different fonts for categories and developpers), and there is enough space for some other SV releases and even to add new Christmas projects...

Edited November 7, 2019 by Fadest

[LordKraken]

If I may suggest a last cosmetic modification, I would replace Atari Gamer / Silly venture and AC text with their logo, according they are fine with that

[+karri]

I believe that Igor was going to participate in Silly Ventures also.

And enthusi was preparing a demo for Silly Ventures afaik.

 

So you may need a bigger canvas  

 

Did we just break the record of how many games were released for the Lynx during one year? Even when the Lynx was new I don't believe they released this many titles in one year.

[drludos]

Woaw, I love this updated version, it's easier to read and it has new unique info!

(is it mandatory to include the "silly" word in a silly venture submission? ;))

 

Fadest, I hadn't realized that you released 6 new Lynx Games this year, that's quite an achievement! And special congrats for the boxed release with Der Luchs!

It would be a world record I guess, if Nop90 didn't release 8 games on his own ;).

 

I agree with karri, it may be that 2019 is actually a bigger year than most the commercial life years of the Lynx!

Edited November 8, 2019 by drludos

[Fadest]

7 hours ago, karri said:

I believe that Igor was going to participate in Silly Ventures also.

And enthusi was preparing a demo for Silly Ventures afaik.

 

So you may need a bigger canvas  

There is space under Assembloids, Lynx Quest and over Igor's apec to add their entries to the SillyVenture.

But if there is other entries, yes I will need a second poster

5 hours ago, drludos said:

Fadest, I hadn't realized that you released 6 new Lynx Games this year, that's quite an achievement! And special congrats for the boxed release with Der Luchs!

It would be a world record I guess, if Nop90 didn't release 8 games on his own ;).

Can not compare, Nop90 release 8 completed projects mostly made in 2019.

In my 6 entries, there is 3 prototypes (Jimmy Pond, HyperDrive Odyssey) that are here only because it is the RGC, 2 old games mostly completed for years (it is more about polishing things rather than coding, but ut takes so much time...) and I cheated because Raid on Tri City will be a 2020 release, not 2019 but it is hard to put it in 3 zone (to come, Luchs, Fadest) and once again, it will be demoed during the RGC (after all, the original game came from the AC).

 

But yes, it has been an incredible year, would be a great line up for a console relauch

And this is probably incomplete... 

[LordKraken]

Quote

would be a great line up for a console relauch

What if the secret hardware project is in fact the Atari Lynx 3

[Nop90]

3 hours ago, LordKraken said:

What if the secret hardware project is in fact the Atari Lynx 3

That's my second hw project. Not kidding ?, but nothing that can realistically see the light.

 

More an exercise to remember something of my studies of electronic.

 

On Miky/Hayato side I'm designing how to add 8 programmable counters to a 65816 using AVR chips.  On Suzy side another 65816 with a large rom bank of precalculated values for 16bit math (there is a well known open source resorce for it). Memory access is alternate by the two chips in the classic scheme of opposite levels of the clock. I don't like FPGA because if I have to play with old hardware, I want to see the wires (again the goal is not to make something, but to study hw from the '80s)

 

Project name is Timelord (for the two 65816 hearts... yes I'm a fan of the Doctor).

 

And I have great dreams of the two cores working in 65816 mode with full access to 4Mb of ram, dual port vram for a 320x240 video buffer.

 

But really, this is only a dream, just an exercise for taking the brain active in week end, so don't expect anything in less than 10 years.

 

The other project is something very simple and low cost (3 €): it only misses the final test drive to see if the device speed is enough. Otherwise I'll have to redesign it from scratch. So no spoilers for the moment.

Edited November 8, 2019 by Nop90

[+karri]

36 minutes ago, Nop90 said:

That's my second hw project. Not kidding ?, but nothing that can realistically see the light.

 

More an exercise to remember something of my studies of electronic.

 

On Miky/Hayato side I'm designing how to add 8 programmable counters to a 65816 using AVR chips.  On Suzy side another 65816 with a large rom bank of precalculated values for 16bit math (there is a well known open source resorce for it). Memory access is alternate by the two chips in the classic scheme of opposite levels of the timer. I don't like FPGA because if I have to play with old hardware, I want to see the wires (again the goal is not to make something, but to study hw from the '80s)

 

Project name is Timelord (for the two 65816 hearts... yes I'm a fan of the Doctor).

 

And I have great dreams of the two cores working in 65816 mode with full access to 4Mb of ram, dual port vram for a 320x240 video buffer.

 

But really, this is only a dream, just an exercise for taking the brain active in week end, so don't expect anything in less than 10 years.

 

The other project is something very simple and low cost (3 €): it only misses the final test drive to see if the device speed is enough. Otherwise I'll have to redesign it from scratch. So no spoilers for the moment.

Seriously, we need to meet. Below is my TARDIS control panel: