2019 Atari Homebrew Awards Voting Information & Discussion

[TwentySixHundred]

Woke up late, im guessing someone had cheated by the looks of these comments. I will have to go and watch the twitch video and see what happened.

[+Karl G]

@TwentySixHundred - it's not discussed during the awards show. Take a look at the linked thread for information.

 

That aside, I'm looking forward to the polls getting put back so we can see the specifics of the voting. 

[+Nathan Strum]

I don't know if it's cheating, so much as promoting outside of this community. If there had been cheating according to the posted rules for voting, then measures would've been taken to nullify those results. Whether that sort of promotion is in keeping with the spirit of the awards is up to those hosting the awards.

 

Most likely, there will be some additional clarification in the rules next year. Particularly in regards to how long and/or active someone needs to be in the AtariAge community in order to be able to vote.

[Terence Hill]

 

I believe in the ability and neutrality of Atariage and Zero Page Homebrew, so is not a pretty thing to make accusations without evidence.

 

Congrats to all winners!

Edited February 1, 2020 by Terence Hill

[+Cafeman]

6 minutes ago, Nathan Strum said:

I don't know if it's cheating, so much as promoting outside of this community.

 

Yes, as was explained above, it just sounds like the friends of the Rally game developers wanted to vote for its packaging.  So they signed up on AA and voted.  

 

What *is* cheating / dishonest is 1 guy making multiple accounts and voting using each.  There should be no need for that here. Its not like the winner gets a million dollars. Or even a tenner. 

[Lillapojkenpåön]

35 minutes ago, s0c7 said:

 

I hadn't even seen that thread and was starting to doubt my judgement, but I was right. wizard of wor, galagon and aardvark was the ones I had trouble choosing between as they are clean, beautiful, awesome, fresh and original yet fits perfectly to a 2600 game.

 

I will give it clean just to be nice, but the other descriptions don't match.

 

[Swami]

32 minutes ago, Terence Hill said:

 

I believe in the ability and neutrality of Atariage and Zero Page Homebrew, so is not a pretty thing to make accusations without evidence.

 

Congrats to all winners!

1 post 

[bluswimmer]

2 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

No one thought about this happening, so there were no clear cut rules. I am sure there will be next year.

Did something happen? I wasn't able to tune in.

 

EDIT: nevermind, posted before seeing everything else. I'll need to investigate this further, but it seems like there might have been some foul play in the voting. I'll admit that I have used my twitter account in the past to encourage friends to vote for my games, so I guess I'll refrain from doing that in future competitions so it doesn't get out of hand like it seems to have here...

Edited February 1, 2020 by bluswimmer

[Lillapojkenpåön]

To me there's no difference in creating a bunch of accounts and vote for yourself, or ask friends to do it for you, both require you to not care at all about the community or want to reward those that deserve it, I didn't even vote for my own game when it was nominated, I can prove it by the fact that it got zero votes ? as it should.

[+Andrew Davie]

For me, the biggest shock/disappointment was seeing @Nathan Strum missing out on 4th place in the "best graphics" category.

[+KaeruYojimbo]

5 minutes ago, Lillapojkenpåön said:

To me there's no difference in creating a bunch of accounts and vote for yourself, or ask friends to do it for you, both require you to not care at all about the community or want to reward those that deserve it, I didn't even vote for my own game when it was nominated, I can prove it by the fact that it got zero votes ? as it should.

Agreed. It changes the competition from "Who Made the Best Game?" to "Who has the most Facebook friends?"

[TwentySixHundred]

TBH i knew the votes would be skewed anyway by people getting friends, family and fake accounts before the votes even started. Nothing is stopping anyone from making new accounts so it's flawed to begin with. Not that i ever had a chance and was just happy to be nominated but i find those who made it that far got the real votes IMHO...

Edited February 2, 2020 by TwentySixHundred

[+sramirez2008]

17 minutes ago, Andrew Davie said:

For me, the biggest shock/disappointment was seeing @Nathan Strum missing out on 4th place in the "best graphics" category.

Lol! I'm watching the replay now and just got to this category.

[Swami]

Excited to be seeing Tutankhamun for Champ Games for the 2600!! Likely will be better than any on the 8-bit consoles currently.

 

I like all the fresh new original games being made for the 8-bit.

[hizzy]

Who won?

[+Karl G]

The awards went a lot more quickly and smoothly this year compared to last year, I think. It was a great show!

[+Muddyfunster]

I'd be interested to see the final votes for all of the categories.

 

 

Edited February 2, 2020 by Muddyfunster

[davidcalgary29]

12 minutes ago, Karl G said:

The awards went a lot more quickly and smoothly this year compared to last year, I think. It was a great show!

The interviews with the winners were great fun, and I liked the realtime chat as well. I thought this would be a bore, but I actually stayed for the whole thing.

[Randolph Laterca]

18 minutes ago, Muddyfunster said:

I'd be interested to see the final votes for all of the categories.

 

 

Me too!

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

2019 ATARI HOMEBREW AWARDS RESULTS

 

Thank you everyone for an amazing event today. Congratulations to all the nominees and the winners!

 

(SET VIDEO TO 1080P60 FOR FULL QUALITY)

 

Atari 2600: Best Homebrew ≤4K
1) Amoeba Jump by Dion Olsthoorn "Dionoid"
2) Space Game 2KB by Karl Garrison "Karl G"
3) Caverns by Harold Thijssen

 

Atari 7800: Best Homebrew
1) Rikki & Vikki by PenguiNet "TailChao"
2) Baby Pac-Man by Bob DeCrecenzo "PacManPlus"
3) Draker Quest II by Clark Otto "frankodragon"

 

Atari 2600: Best Packaging
1) Rally Racer by More Work Games
2) Galagon (Galaga) by Champ Games (packaging by Dave Dries)
3) Wizard of Wor Arcade by Champ Games (packaging by Dave Dries)

 

Atari 2600: Best WIP
1) Zoo Keeper by Champ Games
2) Ninjish Guy in Low Res World by Vladimir Zuñiga (aka John Von Neumann) "vhzc"
3) Penult by Karl Garrison "Karl G"

 

Atari 8-Bit/5200: Best Homebrew
1) Gravity Worms - Krzysztof "xxl" Dudek, Jakub "Aceman" Szeląg, Kamil "Vidol" Walaszek
2) Jet Set Willy 2019 - Terence "Tezz" Derby (original game by Matthew Smith)
2) Wasteland - Michael Jaskula

 

Atari 2600: Best Music & Sound
1) Wizard of Wor Arcade by Champ Games (sound by Mike Haas with Ross Keenum)
2) Galagon (Galaga) by Champ Games (sound and music by Ross Keenum)
3) Aardvark by Oscar Toledo Gutiérrez "nanochess" and Thomas Jentzsch (design and coding), Nathan Strum (graphics and packaging)

 

Atari 2600: Best Graphics
1) Aardvark by Oscar Toledo Gutiérrez "nanochess" and Thomas Jentzsch (design and coding), Nathan Strum (graphics and packaging)
2) Galagon (Galaga) by Champ Games (graphics by Nathan Strum)
3) Wizard of Wor Arcade by Champ Games (graphics by Nathan Strum)

 

Atari 2600: Lifetime Achievement Award
Albert Yarusso

 

Atari 2600: Best Homebrew
1) Galagon (Galaga) by Champ Games
2) Aardvark by Oscar Toledo Gutiérrez "nanochess" and Thomas Jentzsch (design and coding), Nathan Strum (graphics and packaging)
3) Wizard of Wor Arcade by Champ Games

Edited February 2, 2020 by ZeroPage Homebrew

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

3 hours ago, Karl G said:

The awards went a lot more quickly and smoothly this year compared to last year, I think. It was a great show!

Thanks so much, we had a great crew that helped everything run smoothly. Thanks for watching!

3 hours ago, davidcalgary29 said:

The interviews with the winners were great fun, and I liked the realtime chat as well. I thought this would be a bore, but I actually stayed for the whole thing.

Today's event was our most watched show so far, thanks for hanging out with us for the duration!

 

- James

[Swami]

1 hour ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

Thanks so much, we had a great crew that helped everything run smoothly. Thanks for watching!

Today's event was our most watched show so far, thanks for hanging out with us for the duration!

 

- James

It was two hours, but it went by quickly. Had me on the edge of my chair. Especially, if the cat might do something.?

[+Muddyfunster]

11 hours ago, TwentySixHundred said:

TBH i knew the votes would be skewed anyway by people getting friends, family and fake accounts before the votes even started. Nothing is stopping anyone from making new accounts so it's flawed to begin with. Not that i ever had a chance and was just happy to be nominated but i find those who made it that far got the real votes IMHO...

I think James and the crew did a great job.

 

I was happy just to be nominated and I think it was pretty clear the great titles from Champ Games would sweep the board this year, deservedly so. Galagon and WoW are modern classics for the 2600.

 

I have a lot of friends who are "into" retro games, but not so much into Atari. A lot of them follow my "MuddyVision" page and offered to come and vote for me. I discouraged it unless they wanted to play all the games and vote accordingly. Correct me if I'm wrong, the awards are supposed to be a fun community event..

 

Credit to Al, ZPH and the other folks (Arenafoot etc) who are involved in making the event happen.

 

I'd like to see consideration given for next year to reinstating the Bb category. I think there is a case for its inclusion as Bb games have more limitations to contend with than someone programming in 6502/ ARM and hitting the hardware directly. Just my 2 cents

[Thomas Jentzsch]

3 minutes ago, Muddyfunster said:

I discouraged it unless they wanted to play all the games and vote accordingly.

This!

[TwentySixHundred]

1 hour ago, Muddyfunster said:

I think James and the crew did a great job.

 

I was happy just to be nominated and I think it was pretty clear the great titles from Champ Games would sweep the board this year, deservedly so. Galagon and WoW are modern classics for the 2600.

 

I have a lot of friends who are "into" retro games, but not so much into Atari. A lot of them follow my "MuddyVision" page and offered to come and vote for me. I discouraged it unless they wanted to play all the games and vote accordingly. Correct me if I'm wrong, the awards are supposed to be a fun community event..

 

Credit to Al, ZPH and the other folks (Arenafoot etc) who are involved in making the event happen.

 

I'd like to see consideration given for next year to reinstating the Bb category. I think there is a case for its inclusion as Bb games have more limitations to contend with than someone programming in 6502/ ARM and hitting the hardware directly. Just my 2 cents

Agreed, i was just saying it would be interesting to see how many "new members" of friends, family and users making new accounts actually went though in the voting. I know not one of the votes from new members (if i received any) were on my game Thing is i know Al mentioned alot of "new members" were voting for Rally Racer on that thread. I'm not saying anything bad about the packaging or the game itself but rather i'm sure it wasn't the only one. It's one thing to vote for oneself but to have outsiders that hardly seen the day of an 2600 console or people creating secondary accounts for voting i find that to be bad sportsmanship. Just saying...

 

As for Johnnywc @ Champ games it was a well deserved win indeed and nothing i said was directed his way what-so-ever. Without a doubt it was stiff competition and like i mentioned before i hadn't expected to win or even come close (my game completely aside). I said before actually on 3 different threads i was happy to just be nominated... To finish it up, all the games deserved the win even if they all were or were not the ones i voted for.

 

Lastly once again nothing was directed at ZPH either, yes they do an excellent job not only with the awards but the general weekly show. I can't say enough good things of what they have brought to the community. They weren't even what i was talking about, of course this type of thing is out of their hands.

 

So to summarize it all, as mentioned from a few on this forum and in the Rally Racer thread. Some will look at it as cultural differences while others will see it as bad sportsmanship. But hey at the end of the day it really didn't bother me, i was just throwing it out there. I would be interested to have the "key" to the forum for the day and view from Al's perspective. That way you can see what - how many new members voted and what IP's were used for the accounts, but even still it's not hard to change an IP. Only the Admins know the real percentages to a degree...

Edited February 2, 2020 by TwentySixHundred