2006 Mini Game Compo

[Dave Neuman]

Here's some notes I took regarding the 2600 titles. No scores though, as I ususally try to put them in the context of the whole contest. Considering previous years 4K titles, I'd think they'd have ranged from 1/10-7/10.

 

Space Battle

Gorf shots suck, how often need I say that? Nice title screen.

 

I could only afford the Quark Laser when I built the ship.

"All hail the supreme Gorfian Empire!"

I may have enough funds to upgrade it now.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Looks like the website is slowly comming back now.

[vdub_bobby]

Looks like the website is slowly comming back now.

Or not.

 

Looks like it is still dead...

 

Does anyone remember what the deadline for 8K games is? Manuel, are you still going to submit Star Fire? I'm planning on submitting Go Fish!...

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Hope it comes back soon, else the whole compo is probably doomed.

[+batari]

Hope it comes back soon, else the whole compo is probably doomed.

I suspect it may be doomed anyway. Although the 2600 and the Colecovision had a decent presence compared with previous years, but the other platforms, esp. the C64, were disappointing in both quality and quantity. It makes me wonder if we should host our own 1k and 4k contests here on AA and let the members vote on the games. We'd certainly get a lot more people voting, but submissions would probably be limited to Atari consoles/computers and maybe the Colecovision.

[+5-11under]

Hope it comes back soon, else the whole compo is probably doomed.

I suspect it may be doomed anyway. Although the 2600 and the Colecovision had a decent presence compared with previous years, but the other platforms, esp. the C64, were disappointing in both quality and quantity. It makes me wonder if we should host our own 1k and 4k contests here on AA and let the members vote on the games. We'd certainly get a lot more people voting, but submissions would probably be limited to Atari consoles/computers and maybe the Colecovision.

 

Sounds like a good idea, whether it's strictly 2600 or not (I prefer not).

Thanks,

5-11under

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Sounds like a good idea, whether it's strictly 2600 or not (I prefer not).

Atari, if any restriction. But without competition of various other platforms, I would miss some challenge.

[MacbthPSW]

Atari, if any restriction. But without competition of various other platforms, I would miss some challenge.

Yeah, you'd find it way too easy to win, right? Also, going Atari only would take away from the original point of the competition - proving that the C64 is better than the Speccy! (just kidding, Malc)

 

FWIW, some of the better C64 competitors have gotten pulled into paid work, and are either too tired, lazy, or spoiled to get anything done. I've still got a couple part-done games that might be able to cause some trouble in a future compo.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Yeah, you'd find it way too easy to win, right?

Nah, my chances wouldn't change at all.

 

But there are a lot of excellent 2600 programmers around now.

 

Also, going Atari only would take away from the original point of the competition - proving that the C64 is better than the Speccy! (just kidding, Malc)

I wonder if this question was ever answered. Maybe there is a third option?

 

I've still got a couple part-done games that might be able to cause some trouble in a future compo.

Looking for war to this. How about your Atari 2600 programming plans?

[supercat]

Atari, if any restriction. But without competition of various other platforms, I would miss some challenge.

 

There are arguments both ways. After all, there's a certain challenge to creating a 1K game on ANY platform, but at the same time the 2600 has some limits of its own. It may be that getting a particular game into 1K on the 2600 is a major technical achievement, while on other platforms it would be trivial; I don't think most voters would be aware of such distinctions.

 

For example, if I were doing SDI (my 1K entry for 2005) on the Apple II, adding a numeric score display would have been pretty easy. Just set the screen for split hires/text mode and show the score at the bottom. But on the 2600, adding a numeric score readout would require storing the font someplace and require more code than would be needed on the Apple.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Atari, if any restriction. But without competition of various other platforms, I would miss some challenge.

 

There are arguments both ways. After all, there's a certain challenge to creating a 1K game on ANY platform, but at the same time the 2600 has some limits of its own. It may be that getting a particular game into 1K on the 2600 is a major technical achievement, while on other platforms it would be trivial; I don't think most voters would be aware of such distinctions.

Probably, but isn't it part of the challenge to overcome those limitations? After all the 2600 scores pretty well in the compo and has even won twice now.

[MacbthPSW]

How about your Atari 2600 programming plans?

No progress lately, unfortunately. I had started on something again late last year, but then got a GBA gig and never got back to it.

 

For example, if I were doing SDI (my 1K entry for 2005) on the Apple II, adding a numeric score display would have been pretty easy. Just set the screen for split hires/text mode and show the score at the bottom. But on the 2600, adding a numeric score readout would require storing the font someplace and require more code than would be needed on the Apple.

Yeah, especially in the 1k it's all about making the most of the strengths of your platform to get the maximum "wow" effect. If you need to devote a lot of code to do something on one platform that's really easy/free on another, you should probably either change platforms, or change your idea (if you're looking to compete well).

 

To follow with your example, the Apple II or Spectrum needs a whole lot more code to get a "sprite" on screen than the 2600 needs because it has real hardware sprites. So then the A8 or C-64 perhaps has the best of both worlds, with easy text/tiles/sprites and lots of spare RAM.

 

But even then things aren't perfect for minigames on the C-64, for example - the big 63 byte sprites require some special handling when you only have 1k to go around. And some other things aren't easy - I've been working on and off on a C-64 port of Cosmic Ark (my favourite 2600 game), and doing the tractor beam on the C-64 is a pretty big pain, while it's basically free on the 2600. I'm sure someone could think of some similar trade-offs on the A8.

[supercat]

But even then things aren't perfect for minigames on the C-64, for example - the big 63 byte sprites require some special handling when you only have 1k to go around.

 

Yeah, but there's plenty of RAM to unpack things into. And even if most of a game is going to be in ASM, sometimes tables and things can be generated with a small amount of BASIC code--an option not available on the 2600.

 

And some other things aren't easy - I've been working on and off on a C-64 port of Cosmic Ark (my favourite 2600 game), and doing the tractor beam on the C-64 is a pretty big pain, while it's basically free on the 2600. I'm sure someone could think of some similar trade-offs on the A8.

 

How far does the tractor beam reach? Just use two or three double-height sprites for it (total 84 pixels or 126 pixels).

[Cybergoth]

FWIW, some of the better C64 competitors have gotten pulled into paid work, and are either too tired, lazy, or spoiled to get anything done. I've still got a couple part-done games that might be able to cause some trouble in a future compo.

 

Maybe the Game Over(view) contest will give you a boost? Jaymz explicitely encourages submitting 8K entries to that as well

[vdub_bobby]

Looks like the website is back up - in the intervening time, though, I missed the 8K deadline.

 

Not many games in that category; voting is underway now.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

8k competition voting has been started and will last until the end of month. No Atari submissions this time.

 

But nevertheless the submissions deserve some feedback. So please vote.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

8k Results published.

[Rom Hunter]

Perhaps a stupid question, but: where can I download all the Atari 2600 entries?

 

Edited December 31, 2006 by Rom Hunter