Why are there no crap game competitions for the Atari 800 or XL?

[Frozone212]

Is it just for the Sinclair line/commodore or is no one interested?

[carlsson]

In order to answer this question, you must know the history behind the comp.sys.sinclair Crap Games Compo.

 

First we have the infamous cassette compilation "Don't Buy This Game" by Firebird. It consisted of a number of unsolicited submissions they had gotten from various people. All those games were far below commercial standard, and instead of just rejecting those, for fun they released this compilation. I believe all profits went to charity.

 

Then we have the Cascade 50 compilation of simple games of various origin. Some may have been type-ins or public domain, others may have been developed in-house or outsourced. A few of the 50 games may have been decent, most were awful. The Cascade 50 compilation was released on a few more formats, with whatever games they had available to include.

 

Finally the magazine Your Sinclair had a column Crap Game Corner where they reviewed readers' submissions, which could be seen as an extension of the Firebird release.

 

In 1996, people over at the Usenet group comp.sys.sinclair determined they should continue the tradition by forming a "competition" for crap games. The contents and quality have varied over the years, from the most simple ones to rather elaborate, but often unplayable games. Many games tend to draw upon current news events, or be demakes of otherwise known games. Most have a sense of humor built into them, knowing very well this is crap.

 

A couple years later, people over at the C64 camp decided to try this as well, but without the same tradition and history in crap games, in my humble opinion it never has worked out as well as the CSSCGC does. Commodore people either overwork it so the games no longer are crap, or don't try at all so there is no humor or sense of recognition involved.

 

I'm sure people in other camps has tried as well, but it takes quite a bit of feel for it to get it right. I mean you probably can get Japanese to play reggae as well, but will it sound like Jamaican?

 

Also there is the matter of effort. Why spend 1-2 evenings, sometimes up to a week on making a game that is deliberately bad if you can spend the same time making a truly playable, enjoyable game if the culture anyway isn't quite there?