Short and Sweet (SSGC) contest

[Opry99er]

How bout just LOOP PONG? No printing... That would suck worse.

[The Codex]

I wrote a 3D Pong a while back where the point of view is that of the ball. (Plays more like solo squash than ping pong, though.) It was called PWNG'D.

[marc.hull]

Hi.

Can anyone here explain to me the function of the CALL LOAD calls in Marc's awesome Lunar Rescue game? I can't seem to make sense of them...

 

Walid

 

 

Thanks for the kind words Walid. The purpose of them is to (and I am sorry but I don't have the data in front of me...)

 

1) set the highest sprite # for auto processing (supposedly get some speed boost but I am not convinced..)

 

2) Stop all sprite motion (so you can increase the velocities of the meteors "all at once". This may never be relevant but theoretically the delay caused by XB during velocity change could cause some meteors to overrun their neighbor causing coinc disaster. Don't know if anyone could reach that high a level.... Also it helps in keeping sprites in sync as in the explosion sequence)

 

I am not a big believer in disabling the quit or break key. Doesn't really help anything.

 

Disabling the sound processor doesn't have much use either unless you want to have a silence feature. But since we are all over 14 years old now and don't have to conceal our late night gaming from our parents....

[Opry99er]

I gotta say, I've been going through all these updated game posts and docs... I'm blown away! You guys take it to the next level for sure. You know, if a few of these games were expanded to stretch beyond the 30 line limit of this contest, I know there could be some really special games...

 

These are all amazing... I'd like to say a few things about some of the games

 

ZomBXB and TI Farmer should really be truly hybridized... I love the docs for the new ZomBXB!!! Hilarious... but I'd love to see a full game of it

TI Simon--- Classic premise, classic gameplay!!! I'd love to see this one get expanded a bit. Maybe a rotate feature to really mess with people! hehehe

I loved Dark Maze... But I'm partial to RPGs. This one got played quite a bit when I DLed it. =)

Helm of Reichardt... Wow, the docs, storyline, packaging, the PNG with the key on it. Very cool game and overall packaging.

Lunar Rescue is becoming one of my favorite re-play diddies

Snifing Zombie is beautiful!!! Love the colors and screens

Thin Ice... very challenging, good replay value

Gravity Run is great, love the changing of colors by level. reminds me of a mini-game hybrid of the fueling tunnels of Parsec and the asteroids of the same game. Very fun and excellent XB-ing!

 

I'm just impressed all over, 100%. This judging will be one of the hardest things I've had to do in a loooong time. =) Can't wait to post these games to my website after the contest, and I really can't wait to see em' on the Hidden Reef!!! I'd be willing to post these all to the TI BBS if you guys are interested in that. Just let me know and they'll be available to get online with your TI and DL them straight to disk! =) Thanks again, guys, for making this such a fun contest. Happy programming!

 

 

<<edit>>

By the way, I think there are still some games that have been in the works that are not yet posted to the Official Entries Page. I hope they get there... Otherwise I have to go searching... and all searching and no gaming makes Farmer Owen a dull boy!

Edited April 12, 2010 by Opry99er

[Opry99er]

Got some Classic99 videos made up of all these games and I'll be making a big compilation video with all the bells and whistles. . Great stuff guys!!

[The Codex]

Kneel before the unstoppable power of PRINT LOOP PONG! Unzip to your Classic99 DSK1 dir, load, play, and delete, all within mere minutes!

 

PRINTPONG.zip

 

Press any key (except Q) to bounce the ball back when it is about to hit a paddle. Press Q to Quit. Can you discover the awesome secret technique to amassing an ELITE KILLER MEGASCORE?!?

 

Anyone wishing to further waste their time can also download my "3D" "game" for Windows, PWNG'D! You are the ball in a landscape of trippy graphics and abrasive synthpop. Use the left and right arrow keys to keep the paddle in front of you (it is green when you are lined up to hit it, yellow when you are in danger of missing it). This is written in a really old (and now dead) game development language, so if it doesn't run on your shiny new computer, consider yourself lucky.

 

 

Consider these a gauntlet thrown for the Crap Games competition. A gauntlet that has been places it really shouldn't have been.

[Opry99er]

Tried PRINT LOOP PONG... Pretty

terrible, man... Pretty fricking terrible.

 

29 hours until the contest

officially ends. Any surprise entries? last minute revisions? We shall see. Good luck to all the programmers--- I have been tied up using the crap out of Magellan on Beryl Reichardt, so I've been away from the SSGC games a few days. Just tried the final version of SSGC racer again... It's really a lovely presentation! Anyway, 28 hours and 55 minutes now.... Tick tock tick tock...

[InfernalKeith]

Tried PRINT LOOP PONG... Pretty

terrible, man... Pretty fricking terrible.

 

29 hours until the contest

officially ends. Any surprise entries? last minute revisions? We shall see. Good luck to all the programmers--- I have been tied up using the crap out of Magellan on Beryl Reichardt, so I've been away from the SSGC games a few days. Just tried the final version of SSGC racer again... It's really a lovely presentation! Anyway, 28 hours and 55 minutes now.... Tick tock tick tock...

 

 

Nothing from me, unless I throw good sense to the wind, blow off a ton of work, and finish the game idea I started sketching out on vacation (and then got no further with). It was basically a little trading game with ships sailing on a sea with some ports - I dig the idea and I might still develop it, but probably not in one day.

 

I haven't had any TI time to speak of in the last while, which stinks, but self employment means making hay while the sun shines (Owen, you know that dance). Hopefully I'll get some time soon and can get back to work on some projects. I think I've missed a few of the entries, too, although the ones I've seen so far have been uniformly awesome.

 

I plan to flesh out Thin Ice a little bit for my own release of it, just basically adding a save-score ability and the chance to play multiple boards if you survive the first round. Other than that, it's pretty much done, and for contest purposes the one that's there now is it.

 

The newest evolution of my plan is to finish Enemy Lines (the board game), do the little tweaks to Thin Ice, then get to work finishing up a definitive version of Herding Cats and my quasi-RPG, Downward -- then release them all together as one package in time for the Faire. Which year's Faire? No comment.

[unhuman]

Please don't miss my update to Inaccurate Invaders. It's just less inaccurate now

 

Tried PRINT LOOP PONG... Pretty

terrible, man... Pretty fricking terrible.

 

29 hours until the contest

officially ends. Any surprise entries? last minute revisions? We shall see. Good luck to all the programmers--- I have been tied up using the crap out of Magellan on Beryl Reichardt, so I've been away from the SSGC games a few days. Just tried the final version of SSGC racer again... It's really a lovely presentation! Anyway, 28 hours and 55 minutes now.... Tick tock tick tock...

[Opry99er]

I'll try it out tonight!!! Thanks!

[+Vorticon]

Well, in a frantic last minute energy burst, I reworked Gravity Run a bit, with the main change being the addition of shields. You get one shield every 100 points which you can activate by pressing Q. This only works on the obstacles but not on the plasma field, and you only get approximately a 2 second respite with each shield, which means you have to activate it when you are very close to the obstacles, especially on the lower levels.

I also softened up the collision parameters for the plasma field and made some minor cosmetic and auditory changes.

Overall, I think I am now pretty satisfied with it and it is more balanced although still pretty tough, at least until one gets the hang of the gravity and thruster characteristics. Comes in exactly at 30 lines, but I did not bother optimizing it too much so late in the game

 

Walid

Gravrun.bmp

[The Codex]

Finally got some time to play your game Walid, very nice! Looks slick and has a good level of challenge to it.

 

Also, Kurt, great job on updating SSGC Racer. It was already an amazing technical feat, but that polished opening is simply incredible within the confines of this contest.

 

Well done to both of you!

[Opry99er]

Well I have quite a challenge ahead of me!!! These games are so good!!! You all have done a marvellous job and are a true testament to the power of our community. Consider yourselves immortalized forever, as this is the largest number of new games that have come out on the TI in years!!! These will be distributed at this year's Faire and will be available for download at my site for sure--- I was also hoping Walid would post the compilation .DSK image on the gameshelf website as well. Anyway, I will need a week to properly test these games on a real TI and on Classic99 and make the best decision I can make here... It is fairly obvious that some of these games are more suited to "CPU Overdrive", and probably won't fare as well on the hardware--- but this is not a disqualifying factor.... I am taking into consideration several things here, which I will lay out in the next few days... If your game kicks ass on hardware as well as emulation, you've got a leg up--- but it doesn't mean you automatically win by any means... Graphics, playability, re-playability, originality, user interface--- all these will be taken into account during this process.. If you coded on real hardware, let me know... Also if you used emulation, which emulator? I want to include that info on the diskette for the Faire.

[Opry99er]

By the way, I found another game in the forum which was not attached to the main thread.. If you guys know of one that was submitted on an unrelated thread or whatever, remind me if it. Don't want to leave any 30 liners out. Thanks!! You know what would be cool? What if you all pick a game that's not your own and write a short 2 paragraph review of it? I'd love to see that-- A peer review so to speak. . Just a thought

[+InsaneMultitasker]

I was thinking that maybe as part of your compendium - and if the authors felt this was valuable - each author could describe how their program works and some of the tricks they used to make things "hum". Sort of a mini tutorial via their own programs that folks could look at and learn from. Cause you know, SSGC#2 could be right around the corner.

[Opry99er]

You know that's a great idea Tim!!! Everyone hit "walls" in their programming, and I bet you all gained valuable knowledge. Since the contest is officially over, let's dedicate this thread to SSGC tips and tricks!!! Well, how bout TI Simon?? I loved that game... Teaching my niece how to play it was a blast!

[+Vorticon]

I'm definitely going to post the compendium on the Gameshelf and will highlight the winning entry with screen shots and credit. I agree, this is the most software activity I have seen on the TI for a loooong time

 

Walid

 

 

Well I have quite a challenge ahead of me!!! These games are so good!!! You all have done a marvellous job and are a true testament to the power of our community. Consider yourselves immortalized forever, as this is the largest number of new games that have come out on the TI in years!!! These will be distributed at this year's Faire and will be available for download at my site for sure--- I was also hoping Walid would post the compilation .DSK image on the gameshelf website as well. Anyway, I will need a week to properly test these games on a real TI and on Classic99 and make the best decision I can make here... It is fairly obvious that some of these games are more suited to "CPU Overdrive", and probably won't fare as well on the hardware--- but this is not a disqualifying factor.... I am taking into consideration several things here, which I will lay out in the next few days... If your game kicks ass on hardware as well as emulation, you've got a leg up--- but it doesn't mean you automatically win by any means... Graphics, playability, re-playability, originality, user interface--- all these will be taken into account during this process.. If you coded on real hardware, let me know... Also if you used emulation, which emulator? I want to include that info on the diskette for the Faire.

[The Codex]

You know what would be cool? What if you all pick a game that's not your own and write a short 2 paragraph review of it? I'd love to see that-- A peer review so to speak. . Just a thought

 

Thin Ice - A Review

 

This charming puzzle game comes to us courtesy of forum regular Keith Bergman. Following on the heels of his game Herding Cats, he is showing himself to be a master of two things - devious puzzle games and cruelty to animals. Actually, given that both games also involve you trying to avoid having your critters plunge through holes, he may be the master of three things.

 

Anyway, about the game. The premise is simple enough - cross from one side of the screen to the other, collecting treasure and avoiding the expanding areas of danger. And if you are content with a low score it's easily achieved. But the cleverness, and indeed the fun, comes from trying to maximise your score by taking greater risks as the board disintegrates around you. Adding to the lure of danger is a bonus counter that clicks up the longer you postpone your escape. Soon enough you find yourself taking nerve-wracking chances to beat your previous score, cursing aloud when that one last path to safety crumbles before you.

 

A game that is accessible to players of many ages and abilities, Thin Ice has the compelling hook and elegant simplicity that are the hallmarks of good puzzle games. Recommended highly.

Edited April 19, 2010 by The Codex

[Opry99er]

Excellent post! I also have been having a good time playing this game. And I'm quite glad to hear that Vorticon will be adding this compendium to the Gameshelf!!!! That's pretty awesome. How fun has this contest been?!?

[unhuman]

Tips from Howie - Inaccurate Invaders:

 

1. Move groups of objects in coordination by using characters in strings / DISPLAY AT. When a collision is detected (GCHAR), the location in the string is calculated rather than known. This allows consistent behavior to be managed with minimal code / performance hit. It was tricky to debug problems, however. But, I nailed them.

2. When moving things side to side using DISPLAY AT, if you put empty characters on both sides, you get erasing chars, without having to do that work yourself...

3. If you know there is a gap and collisions are missed - you could do GCHAR on 2 locations to minimize the misses (this was a late change I made)

4. Sometimes if things aren't responsive enough, you could do user interaction multiple times within your game loop. This may have a slight impact on other performance - but does give the perception of increased responsiveness.

5. If you are animating multiple objects simultaneously - use CALL CHAR.

6. When I explode objects, I just move a hidden sprite into view at the location of the explosion. At the end of the game loop, I just move the explosion to invisible location.

7. To build upon #6, sometimes it's just better to do something than to calculate whether or not you need to do it before you do it. IE - moving explosion to invisible location - no reason to check if need to move it, just move it. This also helps to keep the time the game loop takes consistent.

8. Understand the behavior of IF THEN ELSE. It has some funny behaviors that can be beneficial...

9. Leverage variables to do animation. For example, I keep track of variables that indicate state of var. For example, if a character flips between 2 states, I keep track of a variable that every loop does X=1-X, which gives a value of 1 and 0 alternating. Makes things easy and fast. And you can re-use that state for multiple things that have similar alternating states.

10. Don't forget RESTORE. I used this to restore and re-read the state of the invaders at the start of each level. This allows an easy reset within minimal work.

 

There, 10 tips from 29 lines of code. Not a bad ratio, eh?

 

A non-Inaccurate Invader tip:

1. When animating a magnified (4 char) sprite, you could just animate a single part of it by doing a call char. If you have multiple sprites of same characters - this is better than call pattern.

 

I'm regretting not using my remaining line of code - think I could've made my title screen a lot nicer. Oh well.

 

-Howie

Edited April 19, 2010 by unhuman

[InfernalKeith]

Holy crap, Codex. *I* like my game more now. Thanks!

 

I will write up a coupla small reviews tomorrow night - I'm toast from yet another family roadtrip, and I still have a couple more hours of work to do tonight before bed, but the next couple weeks should finally slow down the carousel a little bit and give me some me time for programming, game playing, internet smack talk, and the like.

 

The only tech notes I could provide for Thin Ice would be its main trick, of randomly advancing the ASCII value of a random bunch of tiles on the board by 2, and having those ASCII values redefined as the various levels of cracking in the ice (and then by a solid blue square denoting water). That allows for (relatively) quick game board manipulation in a small main loop. Not fast enough to crack in real time whether you move or not, but hey, that's XB for you. And it makes it more of a puzzler than a white-knuckle arcade game, which is what I like to make anyway, since I basically wanna be Not Polyoptics circa 1982 when I grow up.

 

I'm so pleased with how this has all developed. Even if there's really only a few of us here in the sandbox in the grand scheme of things, it sure as heck beats programming in a vacuum. And the quality of the work being done here is beyond what anyone would have a right to expect from a bunch of frazzled grown-ups with scant free time. I'm proud to be along for the ride here, and I'm learning a ton from you knuckleheads. Thanks to everyone who's contributed such cool games for our kickass little orphan.

[unhuman]

I'm so pleased with how this has all developed. Even if there's really only a few of us here in the sandbox in the grand scheme of things, it sure as heck beats programming in a vacuum. And the quality of the work being done here is beyond what anyone would have a right to expect from a bunch of frazzled grown-ups with scant free time. I'm proud to be along for the ride here, and I'm learning a ton from you knuckleheads. Thanks to everyone who's contributed such cool games for our kickass little orphan.

 

Yeah, I'll echo that. I wouldn't have done this if I didn't notice the contest, and somehow my twisted mind got all excited. Not quite sure why, but clearly it was the right place / right time for me. I'm super excited now about TurboForth, for some reason, and I've never used that language. I don't know ASM very well, and learning it for the 9900 really is not in the cards. I should be doing c99, but for some reason, not really interested in that. And, of course, as a bonus, it gave my wife another thing to make fun of me for.

 

I've been working on a game for the ColecoVision in C, but I've been away from that for a few years. A port would be fun, though, if I could make the original fun - and I was having issues with that, so, not sure that'll continue.

 

And, one day, perhaps, I'll be lucky enough to catch up with Codex (coincidentally, he lives < 1 mile from me) for a few beers... How could that possibly be bad?

 

-Howie

Edited April 19, 2010 by unhuman

[Opry99er]

We're a better community for having you on board, Howie. Thanks for contributing and I can't wait to see what else you've got cookin'.

[Kurt_Woloch]

Hmmm... I think it's starting to get a bit chaotic now. As far as I understand, three things should be done by each programmer now:

 

1. An explanation of how his program was created, which tools were used etc. (for the TI Faire if I understand right)

2. A review of one (or several) other SSGC entry (entries?)

3. An explanation of tricks used in his game

 

If we mix all three of those, plus the regular discussion, in this thread, things might get pretty confusing. I think we should devote a separate thread to the reviews (2.). Maybe we should keep the tricks here (3.), but maybe not. I'm not sure where the explanation (1.) should go... should it be written here or in my game's original thread?

[Opry99er]

OKay all! Here's the deal. I've updated Opry99er.com again. Starting this week, I will be showcasing one SSGC entry per week... this week it's "Dark Maze". Please go to Opry99er.com and check it out. As far as "contest judging" is going, Ive narrowed the "best" games down to my Fav. 5 and I just need to do one more bit of testing on the real iron to make my final decisions... This has been so hard, I can't even describe it... Essentially, my judging is based on the following factors.

 

*Creativity/Originality

*Replayability

*User interface

*How does this game play in emulation

*How does this game play on hardware

 

I have to say, there were 10 or so games that are perfectly deserving of this prize--- but anyway, here are the final prizes... The 1st place picks first, 2nd place picks second, 3rd place picks third. and that's it

 

*CF7+ sidecar peripheral

*Myarc rs232 card/Terminal Emulator II cart

*Brand new Jon Guidry cart board and cartridge case--- I have a few EPROMs available you can install onto the cart board and make your own homebrew cart. =)

 

Thanks again for participating. The real winner here is the TI... Hope you all had as much fun as I did