Vote for your favourite games from the Atari Lynx 30th Birthday Programming Competition

[+karri]

Comparing short games to long games or demos is really like comparing apples to oranges. Different taste. Different fruit.

 

For me the ride has been interesting. I am very much looking forward to meet KevinMOS3 and VladR at PRGE, Martin Wendt in Amsterdam and hopefully other active Lynx enthusiasts as well.

 

So... It is about time for the next game. This time a super-silly-top-secret project for Silly Ventures. It will be more colorful than "Find a way to my heart". Much shorter than "On Duty". Less ? more ?. You guys need some sweet stuff in your Lynxes. I am not giving up - yet.

[PFG 9000]

Crap, I missed the deadline and didn't get to vote.  I wish the deadline had been a little more clear from the beginning.  I struggled to get a number of the games to work initially, and still haven't been able to get 4TTUDE and Nutmeg to work.  Everything else worked for me eventually.

 

I struggled to rank these games because it seemed the battleground was uneven.  How do you weigh an ambitious, groundbreaking, but unfinished game against a smaller, simple, yet complete game?  Do you dock points against a game for being unfinished, or do you praise it for lofty ambitions?  As somebody mentioned previously, it would help to rate the unfinished games against each other, and to have a separate competition for the finished games.

 

In the end, I found Lynx Quest, On Duty, Growing Ties, Assembloids, and YNXA to stand out from the others, but all for different reasons.  Lynx Quest has probably the best pixel art I've seen in an actual game on the Lynx.  On Duty seems like a wonderful, varied, ambitious title offering many hours of entertainment.  Growing Ties looks really basic, but it has that addicting mechanic and just enough polish to make it stand out.  The same goes for Assembloids.  YNXA seems like the Metroidvania-lite that we never got on the Lynx, again with good potential for hours of fun.

 

All of these titles were really impressive though.  I have a great deal of respect for everyone who invested time and labor into these wonderful projects.

[Igor]

Good points Kevin. I really wasn't expecting to have so many entries in this competition, but it's good to learn from all this and feedback is always good (for the next one maybe?!).

[+karri]

Yay! I finished the Jukebox(es) with all the games and videos. The presentation part is now ready and being packed as I speak. Just the interactive posters eat up half of my suitcase. I am a bit scared to see how much it all weighs... 15kg with two interactive posters running my Jukebox + mednafen emulation of all games using Sony PS Classic Joypads. That leaves 7 kg for clothes and other stuff. The hand luggage has a 8 kg limit ( = laptop plus 2 power banks + Andy Weir: The Martian to read during my loooong flight.)

All electronics goes into the white boxes. Speakers did not fit in so they are on their own.

I also spent 30 minutes going through my envelopes to see how much currency was left over from my last US trip years ago. (75 cents) Not really worth the time to look for them.

 

After this is done I still got 2 weeks to finish On Duty. The boxes did not arrive last Friday as the printer promised. Should I get worried?

 

PS. I just checked the fine print. I am allowed two carry on pieces with a total weight of 10kg! So that will be the Lynx units and the carts. Plus a Pi for programming them. So even if they misplace my luggage I should still have On Duty carts and Lynxes with me.

[Igor]

Awesome Karri! I'm done with the display I'm sending too. Might have to ship it express, it's cutting it short. Fingers crossed for your boxes being ready on time!

 

 

Edited October 5, 2019 by Igor

[+karri]

Really? There is virtually zero chance to get your display to US by post. Express or not. Just the customs take a week or two.

 

What if you send me a copy of the video? I could re-encode it for my Jukebox and name it "Igor was late - see it here". Do you also have some catchy music to the video?

[+karri]

Btw. I have got several video clips from the developers for games like Nutmeg, 4Ttude. But for most games like Undergrouns, The Inside World, Ynxa, Lynx Quest and perhaps others I have just recorded my lousy gameplay for a little less than a minute.

 

If any of you want to be sure that your entry is presented in the best possible way please send me a link to your video before 17th of October. I bought my flight tickets for the wrong day (I forgot that the earth rotates. It takes zero time to fly from Finland to Portland - amazing isn't it. This alone proves that the earth is not flat. Perhaps they should continue to fly west when I go home. Then the return trip would also take no time! Did I just invent time-travel?). So I should have extra time in Portland to put in better versions of the video while I set up the Jukeboxes.

 

[solo/ng]

On 10/2/2019 at 4:50 PM, KevinMos3 said:

I found it difficult to limit my votes to a top 3, because to me, my personal top 4 are pretty much tied.  It seems like the poll could be split into 3 categories: one for multi-level games (like On Duty, Nutmeg, Ynxa), one for quick twitch or puzzle games (like Assembloids, Growing Ties, 4ttude, Find a Way to My Heart), and one for demos (like Inside World, Lynx Quest, Undergrounders).

 

(...)

About Lynx Quest - the game has all levels and worlds. It was a demo only at 1st September (with one world and one boss) but after 7th September - its fully playable and you can fully finish the game. We have a final submissions .rom with all worlds, all 4 bosses and semi-randomized levels - (384 possible layouts) on the last deadline day. The crunch was real;). As far I know Igor updated the rom on AtariGamer :).

 

It had small bugs, needed better balance (was too hard) and dint have few minor things - most is already fixed (or going to be) - a 1.02/1.03 version of the game will be posted very soon.

 

 

[Igor]

Yep the current version is the one for judges with 30 lives and level skip.

[GadgetUK]

Wow is all I can say - some great entries here!  I love Lynx Quest in particular, but the other entries are sweet too!

[EmuDan]

Well, looks like I got here too late for the vote, but I really liked Assembloids, Nutmeg, and YNXA. Really hard to pick a top one, since all three are fun. I also would give an honorable mention to Growing Ties

[Igor]

Not too late to enjoy all the games though! ??

[Igor]

On 10/6/2019 at 9:33 PM, karri said:

Really? There is virtually zero chance to get your display to US by post. Express or not. Just the customs take a week or two.

 

What if you send me a copy of the video? I could re-encode it for my Jukebox and name it "Igor was late - see it here". Do you also have some catchy music to the video?

Brian and I are hopeful. It was posted 2 days ago and arrived in customs today. Australia Post said that it will be 4 days door-to-door, including the customs time. It was sent express, which is about 3x more expensive than the standard shipping. I hope they are right about the times. Will see! Thanks for your offer though! The winners are now known, but the announcement video is not yet recorded - that video will be played on the big screen at the Mark/Space booth anyway.

[+karri]

Wow. I had no clue when we discussed about a mini competition about making a LCD game for the Lynx that it would turn to a gigantic competition with multiple teams and lots of new games for the Lynx.

 

Perhaps I should get some birthday props for my stand. After all, with two entries out of the 11 being written by me I have great chances to be in the top ten!

[Igor]

Haha, you do indeed! Now stop fishing for info!

[+karri]

It took a while to burn all the games on cart for PRGE.

 

I have to remember to bring with me some ComLynx cables as well...

[Igor]

Looks good! What kind of shells are those?

[+karri]

Just my 3D printed black ABS. Btw I found out that 2.6mm is too much for Lynx I. Tomorrow I have to reduce the thickness. Perhaps 2.55mm would work?

[Igor]

Ah ABS, I really should try that! I use 2.5mm for my shells, the 2.6 was only experimental to see if I could get rid of those defects on the rear.

[Turbo Laser Lynx]

7 hours ago, karri said:

It took a while to burn all the games on cart for PRGE.

 

I have to remember to bring with me some ComLynx cables as well...

Beautiful! ?

 

7 hours ago, karri said:

Just my 3D printed black ABS. Btw I found out that 2.6mm is too much for Lynx I. Tomorrow I have to reduce the thickness. Perhaps 2.55mm would work? 

How thick are the carts in the freely available 3D printing file? When I sold a few RRR and Sylvester carts I noticed I had some issues with homebrew carts on one Lynx I. I just unscrewed the screws on the cartridge port side ever so little and voilá, all the homebrew carts started working perfectly on it.

 

[+karri]

I really don't know. My guess is 2.5mm.

[Turbo Laser Lynx]

Thanks, I'll try to find a program where I can open the file and look it up.

[Igor]

If you're talking about the file that Karri shared, it would be 2.5 as per his original design I think. I need to get my act together and post my variant. After getting translucent PLA I noticed where I can improve the design so I've been hesitant to post the version I use now. Also I'd want to post it with full design specs, etc, and that will take some time to draw up.

Edited October 11, 2019 by Igor

[+karri]

The cavity for the chips in your shell is too deep. The label is nothing, pcb is 0.8mm, chips is 1.0mm. That should leave 0.7mm for the shell.

[Felyx]

Too bad the poll closed before I could vote

Why it has been closed that soon?