Short and Sweet (SSGC) contest

[sometimes99er]

Hmmm... I think it's starting to get a bit chaotic now.

I agree.

 

OKay all! Here's the deal. I've updated Opry99er.com again. Starting this week, I will be showcasing one SSGC entry per week...

Oh, so this is going to take like a long time.

 

[Opry99er]

No... The judging will be done Wednesday. But I'll be putting one game on showcase each week for the next few months anyway-- with a little write up... Just for fun and exposure for these games. Contest judging will end Wednesday. It's close... Almost tied between the 3. But there will be a 1, a 2, and a 3.

[sometimes99er]

No... The judging will be done Wednesday. But I'll be putting one game on showcase each week for the next few months anyway-- with a little write up... Just for fun and exposure for these games. Contest judging will end Wednesday. It's close... Almost tied between the 3. But there will be a 1, a 2, and a 3.

Okay, thanks for the info. So I guess all the reviews and tech stuff is optional if one has the time etc.

 

[Opry99er]

Yea...hell, the whole flippin thing was optional!!!! But yea, I thought it would be nice to leave this thread with a bit of good words, good advice and tips. Expect to see the judging sheet Wednesday!!!! I'll post it to Opry99er.com and link to it here. peace out!!!

[unhuman]

Any chance we can glean some insight into the top 5? Looks like Dark Maze is one of em... To quote Weird Al... "I wanna know!!! I wanna know!!" Suprisingly, my wife does too. She keeps asking.

 

-Howie

[Opry99er]

Well---- it would be a big old fat spoiler if I were to give that info out!!! Although I will say this--- in the top 5, there is a wide variety of game types/formats... Arcade, RPG, strategy.... There is a game or two that didn't quite make the top 5 because they fared somewhat poorly on the real hardware.... There are a couple in the top 5 that struggled on hardware, but are just so damn good in CPU overdrive that they are still in contention.... And keep in mind, I'm not judging code, just games and how they measure up in several categories. All in all, I'd say we have a marvellous new bunch of games--- all worthy of praise and glory... Let us sing the glorious TI Faire song in unison and chant in binary and perhaps Bill Cosby will come shower us in Jell-o pudding while we dance around a stack of rare 3rd party cartridges!!!!

 

<<click here for my TI music video>>

 

Edited April 25, 2010 by Opry99er

[+InsaneMultitasker]

...and perhaps Bill Cosby will come shower us in Jell-o pudding while we dance around a stack of rare 3rd party cartridges!!!!

 

It had better be sugar-free pudding or the ants and other *bugs* will certainly wreak havoc

[Opry99er]

Oooooooooooh.... Someone just threw down the bad-pun gauntlet... And threw it down HARD!!! Anyone care to accept the challenge?

Edited April 25, 2010 by Opry99er

[Opry99er]

Okay guys--- here's the deal.... I had hoped today would allow me a bit of real hardware testing time--- but I spent most of my day at my storage garage finding all kinds of craziness!!! Found an original 300 baud phone coupler modem, some speech synths, a console I didn't know I had, a TI program recorder, some TI internal documentation on console BASIC and all kinds of hardware manuals!!! Anyway, I'll try to get all the hardware testing done tomorrow--- just 4 or 5 games left to transfer and test. So far it's been a blast!!!

Edited April 27, 2010 by Opry99er

[Opry99er]

Go to this page

 

http://www.opry99er.com/ssgc.php

 

Here are all the entries I've played and tested so far... I made comments and a brief review of each game, also put the first zipfile compendium at the top of the page. This is not the collection zip that will be available on TI format... The instructions and text files are all still in the zip. This was fun... but this page took WAAAAY too long to put together!!!! PLEASE go to this page and tell me if I forgot anything, left anyone out, etc... If I used a name you'd like me to change... (for instance... Sometimes99er vs Karsten) let me now that too. There's a comment section at the bottom... I had a comment box next to each game, but it slowed the page down quite a bit. Now its fast, still looks good, and there's one comment box for all the games. Tell me what you think!!!

[unhuman]

Very nice... I'd love it if you updated my screen shot to be "accurate" There's one here:

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/159498-ssgc-submission-inaccurate-invaders-now-with-less-inaccuracy

 

It's nice to see the entries all stacked up like that. Do not envy your job at all.

 

Thanks - Howie

 

Go to this page

 

http://www.opry99er.com/ssgc.php

 

Here are all the entries I've played and tested so far... I made comments and a brief review of each game, also put the first zipfile compendium at the top of the page. This is not the collection zip that will be available on TI format... The instructions and text files are all still in the zip. This was fun... but this page took WAAAAY too long to put together!!!! PLEASE go to this page and tell me if I forgot anything, left anyone out, etc... If I used a name you'd like me to change... (for instance... Sometimes99er vs Karsten) let me now that too. There's a comment section at the bottom... I had a comment box next to each game, but it slowed the page down quite a bit. Now its fast, still looks good, and there's one comment box for all the games. Tell me what you think!!!

[The Codex]

Good job man, looks like a nice catalog of titles all sitting up there.

[Opry99er]

Thanks... It's obviously gonna SUCK selecting the order of the winners... I'm so close on 4 games... I cant decide between any of the 4, so how the hell am I gonna pick a #1, #2, and #3? Well... it'll be decided tomorrow... so that's that. =) I hope nobody's angry.

[+Vorticon]

Go to this page

 

http://www.opry99er.com/ssgc.php

 

Here are all the entries I've played and tested so far... I made comments and a brief review of each game, also put the first zipfile compendium at the top of the page. This is not the collection zip that will be available on TI format... The instructions and text files are all still in the zip. This was fun... but this page took WAAAAY too long to put together!!!! PLEASE go to this page and tell me if I forgot anything, left anyone out, etc... If I used a name you'd like me to change... (for instance... Sometimes99er vs Karsten) let me now that too. There's a comment section at the bottom... I had a comment box next to each game, but it slowed the page down quite a bit. Now its fast, still looks good, and there's one comment box for all the games. Tell me what you think!!!

 

Thanks for organizing that fun contest Owen It really brought many of us out of the woodwork and I hope it will encourage more people to program the little machine. These little games are the perfect companion on a long plane trip!

[+Vorticon]

Go to this page

 

http://www.opry99er.com/ssgc.php

 

Here are all the entries I've played and tested so far... I made comments and a brief review of each game, also put the first zipfile compendium at the top of the page. This is not the collection zip that will be available on TI format... The instructions and text files are all still in the zip. This was fun... but this page took WAAAAY too long to put together!!!! PLEASE go to this page and tell me if I forgot anything, left anyone out, etc... If I used a name you'd like me to change... (for instance... Sometimes99er vs Karsten) let me now that too. There's a comment section at the bottom... I had a comment box next to each game, but it slowed the page down quite a bit. Now its fast, still looks good, and there's one comment box for all the games. Tell me what you think!!!

 

Owen, I just realized that your site does not display my latest version of Gravity Run that I uploaded on the 14th. That version has a background of stars and a shield option. Could you please double check on that and update the game screen shot?

Thanks!

[Opry99er]

Ahh--- you're right... I will fix that now! I took several of these pictures before the contest ended-- so I'll update this pic. Thanks for the input

[Opry99er]

Walid... I had the old version of the game in the zip too. Sorry about that. I went ahead and fixed the pic and re-made the zipfile to include the most recent version of Gravity Run. Apologies... it's fixed now. =)

[Opry99er]

It looks like there's another game that is not on the page. It's called SKYDIVER, and it was buried in the thread. Dangitt!!! Well, I'll be modifying the Opry99er.com/ssgc.php page to add this new game. If anyone knows of anymore games that didn't get attached to the entries thread, please let me know. I will announce winners of the contest tonight, and it would be a shame if a game gets left out of the judging. This is why the "entries" thread was put up... For this very thing.

 

By the way, there's been some good response on these games thus far--- A few friends of mine have taken a fancy to Classic99 and have been helping me in my judging process. I gave them very specific instructions. "Tell me which games you'd like to have playable to you all the time." I've had several suggestions, and they're all good. In fact, my buddy John drove to my house last night and borrowed an XB manual and my Smart Programmers Guide for the TI-99/4a. We might have a new programmer entering the mix due to the games in this contest!! He has actually done the majority of his programming in html... He's a web developer and he absolutely flipped over LUNAR RESCUE and Sniffing Zombie. =) Anyway, if you'd like to generate some more interest in the TI community here, go to your other forums on Atariage and promote this forum!!! If we can get some more quality programmers in the fold, this could truly be a "Renaissance" of TI software development... And you all have contributed already! =) Thanks again, and I'll have the results of the contest by tonight.

[Opry99er]

Howdy everyone!!! Well, it's been the hardest thing I've ever done as pertaining to the TI. It made programming "Honeycomb Rapture" feel like a walk in the park!!! I've expanded the winning prizes to 4. Below are the prizes for the winners. I had to pick an order of winners, but I won't select your prizes. 1st place picks first, 2nd place picks second, etc. Anyway, here are the prizes

 

*CF7+ sidecar peripheral (slimline)

*Myarc rs232 card with original manual & Terminal Emulator II cartridge with original manual

*A 64k Jon Guidry cartridge board and game case (for making homebrew carts)

*A Navarrone 3 cartridge expander device (allows for three carts to be plugged in at once... select with 3 way toggle)

 

This contest was amazing. There were brilliant games... some I enjoyed playing more than others... and some that worked better on the real TI than others. In the end, I had to balance my criteria and find the best games that would fit into as many of them as possible. The selection process for the final 6 was tough. Narrowing it down to 5 took me 3 days. Narrowing it down to 4 took me up until about a half hour ago. I wish I could give out 17 CF7+s to each of you who entered. However, since I can't do that, I had to rip parts of my SOUL out to narrow these down. =) I found that I had an emotional attachment to several of these early on... There are a couple that I'm addicted to and want to see expanded. It appears that Fly Guy has a sequel in the works, thanks to Matthew180. Much excitement has been stirred up during the course of this contest, and the community owes you all respect and gratitude. You are all already on 2 websites, soon to be 3, so your games are DLable by anyone. If this was your first TI experience, I hope it was a good one. Anyway, without further adieu......

 

(S)hort and (S)weet (G)aming ©ontest Winners!!!

 

1) Lunar Rescue (Marc.Hull)

2) Inaccurate Invaders (unHUman)

3) SSGC Racer (Kurt Woloch)

4) Chronicle of Sniffing Zombie (Sometimes99er)

 

There were games like Fly Guy, Beryl Reichardt, and Dark Maze that I really considered hard... Thin Ice, another... Wow. Canyon bomber reminded me of an old 2600 I used to have!! Gravity Run was soooo slick and responsive on the real hardware. ZomBXB and the accompanying TI Farmer were all amazing. TI Simon, I have to say, brought me back to my childhood. In the end, Lunar Rescue won because of how smooth it was on hardware, the scoring engine was fair and tough, and the graphics were great. Inaccurate Invaders, the updated version, was stronger on hardware than I thought it would be. You cannot play this game thinking about TI invaders... This game stands on its own, and a work of art for the contraints of this contest. SSGC Racer was unbelievable in every way. In CPU Overdrive, the gameplay/racing is second to none. I actually liked playing this game in CPU overdrive better than I like playing Pole Position! The only problem is that if you play the game in CPU overdrive, the music and speech are messed up... too fast. Chronicle of Sniffing Zombie is amazing. It is clean, fast, fun, and challenging all at once.

 

In the end, I didn't select my 4 favorite games. Had I selected my 4 favorite games, the winning list would be very different. Since I'm an RPG guy, I was very excited about Dark Maze and Beryl Reichardt. In CPU Overdrive, these games make my road trips FLY by. Loved these games, truly.

 

I selected these 4 on their replayability, graphics, performance on hardware, overall design and user interface. Truly, there were games that were unbelievably designed, but they just didn't cut it on the real TI. I could have selected any number of others, but these were the ones I settled on. Each of you will receive a diskette with all the games and a nice printed manual with the docs you provided. This has been so much fun, until the judging. =) You are all deserving and you have all made an excellent contribution to the TI community. Thank you all very much.

 

If you want a copy of the diskette, PM me your address and I will have a physical diskette for you within the month.

 

BTW, my wife says I should give all my stuff away, consoles, PEBs, carts, peripherals, everything to you guys as prizes... I don't think she fully appreciates the majesty of the silver and black... As a matter of fact, she said she would pay for shipping on all that stuff. She really doesn't like my hobby. =)

Edited April 29, 2010 by Opry99er

[Kurt_Woloch]

OK... I guess now comes the picking of the prizes... and we will have to give you our addresses. I guess Marc Hull is on first... should we all do it in this thread?

[Opry99er]

We'll wait for Marc. . You out there, Okie?

[+adamantyr]

A hearty congratulations to the winners! A lot of awesome and impressive work from everyone.

 

Now comes the challenging contest... Write a game, still loadable with cassette and no memory expansion (about a 14k limit) in TI BASIC ONLY.

[Opry99er]

Oh God!!! Do we have to snail mail a cassette in?!?

[+adamantyr]

Oh God!!! Do we have to snail mail a cassette in?!?

 

Nah. Actually, it's pretty easy, you can't even GET the memory expansion in TI BASIC. And in the old days on hardware, it was possible to write something so long that it was impossible to load it from anything but cassette because it needed the space that the disk drive controller needed to work.

 

Quick way to check available memory in TI Basic, place by itself or at the start of a program:

 

1 M=M+8
2 GOSUB 1

 

After it crashes, print M and you know your available memory in bytes.

[Opry99er]

Wow.. Well, I'm in---- if Mark Wills isn't starting a Crap Game contest, this one would be very cool!!! I bet we could get Keith Bergman to enter this one--- right up his alley... So I'm taking bets.... I bet he'll find a way to torture frogs this time.