ABBUC software competition 2015

[+therealbountybob]

Jim Slide All puzzles should be able to collect all items (or it tells you on screen if not). "Adventure mode" collect all the crowns, ability to skip through levels and return to any level - perhaps a level selection screen to indicate which levels you have left to do. % for progress or only scores for completed levels

[+skr]

Theoretically there could be about 400 votings, if every member would take the chance to vote. But still not everyone is aware of the option to vote by email or snail mail. And as a matter of fact we also have some passive members, who still receive the magazine but don´t read it, or at least read it but do not check the software as they might not have genuine hardware and are members for kind of sentimental reasons only. And I think there is a small amount of people too, who are that oldschool, that they even do not have internet access.

 

Anyway. For next year I am thinking about the possibility for online voting by visiting the ABBUC web site. But that needs a verification of the member and I will have to discuss this with Wolfgang and our IT guys. And most importantly I have to finish the new designed pages for the software ressort first and bring them online. Still way to go, as I am extremely busy in real life with occupying three full-time posts in my Planetarium and giving lectures at a University in my free time.

 

As there are many clever people here, I would gladly take any advice or hint. But I ask you to it by email or personal message, as it is really hard to track here in the forums. And don´t be pissed off, if your idea doesn´t get realized. Some things are not so easy as they seem to be, when it comes to do it for a Club where you have to respect many peoples roles and positions.

Edited October 26, 2015 by skr

[Sikor]

O.K. - joystick mastah in attachment, last place. I wrote it only for fun in extremally short time - officialy it was only three games for Abbuc, so - I made it for more entries.

JOYMA.XEX

[Gury]

Great competition! Thank you for all entries.

[powersoft]

No worries Sikor, in my oppinion ALL entries are welcome and need to be respected.

 

Neverheless you spend less time in it BUT you SPENT time in it.

 

So you got my respect also for this entry.

[analmux]

No advanced techniques, but great games. All nice works. Especially, to my opinion:

 

Place 1: Jim Slide

Place 2: Toy'Swap

Place 3: 3plex

Edited November 15, 2015 by analmux

[1NG]

Do you want to contribute a level for more sliding fun?

[chinnyhill10]

Apologies for the bump but as after the last competition people seemed interested in my review of RGB, this year I've done one for Jim Slide:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7TSSEC6InA

 

Sorry it's late. Meant to get it done after the results were announced but have been very busy!

[Poison]

Apologies for the bump but as after the last competition people seemed interested in my review of RGB, this year I've done one for Jim Slide:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7TSSEC6InA

 

Sorry it's late. Meant to get it done after the results were announced but have been very busy!

 

great video:) But you use version of game where is music played badly. There is bad stereo detection and music play strange:(

[gambler172]

I'm surprised by the fact Bomber is not #1 ...

 

Jim Slide and Bomber both great games, but bomber is really a very fine piece of artwork.

 

I voted 9 points for Jim Slide and 10 for bomber.

 

Nice games this year.

 

I must say that Little Game was very hard to get used to, but now I'm better at it, I think Little game has serious potential of being a real nice a8 game.

I wonder that sooo many people voted for Bomber.It is only Kaboom...not more.Sure the graphics are great.But the gameplay is not really great and in some levels,the bomb colour is bad.

For me only 5 points.Jim Slide and Gravity were my favorites

Edited January 8, 2016 by gambler172

[gambler172]

O.K. - joystick mastah in attachment, last place. I wrote it only for fun in extremally short time - officialy it was only three games for Abbuc, so - I made it for more entries.

joyma.png

JOYMA.XEX

Hi Sikor

your game is not so bad.And i appreciate every

entry for this contest.

greetings Walter

[chinnyhill10]

 

great video:) But you use version of game where is music played badly. There is bad stereo detection and music play strange:(

 

 

That's the output from my Atari 65XE and its exactly how it plays. It is not an emulator. It does not have stereo as far as I am aware.

 

The version of the game was downloaded from the official repository where all the files are.

[1NG]

Apologies for the bump but as after the last competition people seemed interested in my review of RGB, this year I've done one for Jim Slide:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7TSSEC6InA

 

Sorry it's late. Meant to get it done after the results were announced but have been very busy!

 

The video is awesome!

The actual Jim Slide has already some things changed. (The shown version is a prototype with bugs and made available on a known page illegally)

The Jim Slide Module Edition, also in a nice Box, will be done in April with new features. So you are not late :-)

I think I will address the "bombs problem" in it too :-)

And I will release the small introduction too at the facebook page. So look for an update... and like Jim Slide if you want. Jim loves you :-)

[chinnyhill10]

 

The video is awesome!

The actual Jim Slide has already some things changed. (The shown version is a prototype with bugs and made available on a known page illegally)

The Jim Slide Module Edition, also in a nice Box, will be done in April with new features. So you are not late :-)

I think I will address the "bombs problem" in it too :-)

And I will release the small introduction too at the facebook page. So look for an update... and like Jim Slide if you want. Jim loves you :-)

 

 

Ah sorry. That's annoying as I didn't realise it was unfinished. I downloaded it at the start of December. Thought it was from the same page I linked to in the video description.

 

Is the version in the description correct (won't repost it here in case it isn't). If not send me the correct one and I'll replace it.

 

If you let me know when you update the game I will annotate the video as well so people know the issues have been addressed.

Edited January 8, 2016 by chinnyhill10

[1NG]

To simplify things: The Abbuc Version V1.09 and the prototype V1.12 is hereby given free for all.

This does not mean later versions are free software. They may be givven free in a few years, when Jim Slide is not available anymore. Until then please respect the work of all people that took part on Jim Slide.

 

Sliding is fun!

 

PS: If you want to contribute a level for the Limited Jim Slide Module Edition, then there is still time until March 2016. Be part o it!

[kiwilove]

Apologies for the bump but as after the last competition people seemed interested in my review of RGB, this year I've done one for Jim Slide:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7TSSEC6InA

 

Sorry it's late. Meant to get it done after the results were announced but have been very busy!

It was good for me to see this, as I don't get around to playing some games. You provide a good review with fair comment.

Possibly one way to help make something stand out - is to make use of animation for that character or characters.

 

Of course this needs to be part of the design process when the programming is being worked out and on. Simple graphics could make use of simple animation also. Something to bear in mind for the next project - maybe?

 

Harvey

[+Adam+]

@chinnyhill10
You said something like that in the video: "some of the items are hard to see (...) It's such a shame, because a simple colour change there would make all the difference" - these words make me think that probably you are not aware that there is no colour attributes map on 8-bit Atari (known from C64 or ZX Spectrum) and that the number of colours (by line) is limited. But maybe I'm wrong and this is just my overinterpretation Maybe what you tried to say is that all fruits and bombs should be drawn with white, yellow or green pixels (i.e. the other which were available here)?

Edited January 9, 2016 by +Adam+

[chinnyhill10]

@chinnyhill10

You said something like that in the video: "some of the items are hard to see (...) It's such a shame, because a simple colour change there would make all the difference" - these words make me think that probably you are not aware that there is no colour attributes map on 8-bit Atari (known from C64 or ZX Spectrum) and that the number of colours (by line) is limited. But maybe I'm wrong and this is just my overinterpretation Maybe what you tried to say is that all fruits and bombs should be drawn with white, yellow or green pixels (i.e. the other which were available here)?

 

 

Exactly. Just any colour that makes them stand out from the other items (within the limitations of the system). Even on S-Video it was hard to see (although to be honest the s-video out from my XE is pretty rotten hence why I'm interested in the new video mod).

 

As Larry Bundy Jr points out in the video comments "a stick of TNT, or better yet, just a Skull and Crossbones." would work well especially if colour limitations come into play.

 

​It's a tiny graphic design thing in an otherwise wonderful game. Certainly didn't spoil my enjoyment.

Edited January 10, 2016 by chinnyhill10

[1NG]

I changed the bomb.

I also worked on a skull, crossed bones and dynamite some time, but in only 4 pixel width nothing really good came out. And there is another thing: The Jim Slide Limited Disk Edition Box comes with a very cool poster from a talented (and expensive) english artist (In fact there are two posters in every box). He worked over 30 hours on that. So the bomb should be a bomb.

 

I also thought of doing a zooming game. Zoomed in eveything has nice graphics, but you can't see the whole level, so it is a bit more difficult to solve. Zoomed out (Fullscreen like now) only limited graphics is possible on the small Atari. But an ST Version may follow. That will give 8 Pixel width and 16 colors, so no problem there.

Since nobody wants VBXE and only 200 (IMHO) of them were sold until now, that is not an option either.

 

Overall I am not an artist, only the designer and programmer. So doing everything alone is not as easy as doing games in a developing team. I am very happy with the support of Poison and the level designers that used my level editor. At the moment the costs for doing Jim Slide for material, postage, posters, holograms, disks, sleeves, sticker, cases/boxes, glue, round-corner-pucher, box package and the nice professional Jim Slide boxes are not covered by the sold Editions. So it seems, that no further development will follow like this. All the time for designing the game, programming and testing is done for zero money of course. This is done as a once in a life time thing. It was fun and I am happy with the result. My family does not care much about expensive projects though

 

Because back in 1987ff I programmed on the ST (and I liked it very much!), Jim Slide ST is a cool project, because I always wanted also to do a complete game for ST some time. So I hope I can also check that point on my want-to-do list some time

 

I have another project in development since 2010, but it may be a little to big for me. We will see Doing TenLiners for the Nomam is also much fun and way easier.

 

Next thing is the Module Edition. Estimated release is april this year. Projects have to have an end some time. Everyone who wants to support Jim Slide can contribute some levels for the module edition. Credits in the game and a legal, personal copy of the rom is included. Box Edition is already cheap available, considered the limited amount and the costs I had. No second run is planned, as I had a lot of work for glueing all the sleeves, stickers, ... after cutting them out of the fine printed coated paper, punching round corners, folding and so on for weeks. And the mess of all the stuff...

Edited January 10, 2016 by 1NG

[matosimi]

I changed the bomb.

I also worked on a skull, crossed bones and dynamite some time, but in only 4 pixel width nothing really good came out.

My suggestion in this case would be using simple 2-frame animation running in VBI, which will flip bomb char in charset... meaning 8*(MVA bombanimation1,x charset+bombchar*8,x)... and same with bombanimation2. It could be black (as it is) in odd frames and red in even frames.

You can create flickering bomb very easily this way and it will not cost you much work/VBI time.

[1NG]

Changing the char is a good idea. Identifying bombs by animation. Only that there is no ram left in Disk Edition for another 1K font (Lots of music and levels use most of the memory and are already packed). But in Module Edition it should work.

[matosimi]

Changing the char is a good idea. Identifying bombs by animation. Only that there is no ram left in Disk Edition for another 1K font (Lots of music and levels use most of the memory and are already packed). But in Module Edition it should work.

you dont need +1k for that... you just need 16bytes for data of those 2 altering chars... and small code that will do the flipping (writing 8 bytes to actual 1k charset)

[kiwilove]

Changing the char is a good idea. Identifying bombs by animation. Only that there is no ram left in Disk Edition for another 1K font (Lots of music and levels use most of the memory and are already packed). But in Module Edition it should work.

Simple animation is always a good way to have something stand out, particularly when few colours are present.

 

There are always what-ifs you can see - after a project is completed. It has occurred to me that it would have been neat to have an after image present when Jim is sliding around.

 

Even if you're not into graphics design - if you have the animation or procedures in place for the graphics, it's easy enough to get someone else to do any final tweaking over any graphics that need that extra retouching. What extra small touches you can put in, does help the project overall. It is this extra attention to detail that can help lift the project. Players notice and appreciate such aspects.

 

It's always good to see something new and different.

 

Harvey