2600 Homebrew of the Year 2005

[Cybergoth]

it's a hell of game.

 

Agreed.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

it's a hell of game.

Agreed.

Me too!

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Hm... I have placed it here for those who are interested in Homebrews

But this is the Homebrew Programming forum, isn't it?

[Cybergoth]

But this is the Homebrew Programming forum, isn't it?

 

Uhm... no. I normally move all programming related postings into the individiually best suited neighbour sections.

 

It's just the whole parent section that is called "Game Programming" though. Maybe it should be renamed a bit, to make it embrace this forum and the hacks section as well. Dunno, maybe something like "Retro Game Creation"...

[Omegamatrix]

I did vote for Crazy Balloon, but it was a real toss up as there were a lot of good homebrews to choose from. I'd like to saw hats off for Fall Down, Strat-O-Gems Deluxe, 2005 Holiday Reindeer Rescue Cart, and Swoops. I would have voted for the 1K version of Go Fish! if it had been released as a homebrew and included on the list. The physics of that version of the game is spot on, and is a hell of a lot of fun to play.

[Shawn]

it's a hell of game.

Agreed.

Me too!

 

 

Ha, Ha I fixed it. You guys not like it? I thought it was damn good myself.

[+Nathan Strum]

I would have voted for the 1K version of Go Fish! if it had been released as a homebrew and included on the list.

 

[+batari]

I would have voted for the 1K version of Go Fish! if it had been released as a homebrew and included on the list.

 

Go slower, not faster

up or down the raster

refrain from jerky motion

and splash into the ocean

I'll leave you with this clue:

It's 10 days early for you

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I would have voted for the 1K version of Go Fish! if it had been released as a homebrew and included on the list.

Go slower, not faster

up or down the raster

refrain from jerky motion

and splash into the ocean

I'll leave you with this clue:

It's 10 days early for you

Fishing for votes?

[+Nathan Strum]

:D

[cd-w]

Two votes now for Hunchy 2 (and neither were from me) - many thanks as I was beginning to think it wouldn't get any votes at all!

 

Chris

Edited April 6, 2006 by cd-w

[Zach]

Two votes now for Hunchy 2 (and neither were from me) - many thanks as I was beginning to think it wouldn't get any votes at all!

 

Chris

Hunchy 2 is a great game. It's just that it's not the only one.

[Jess Ragan]

Gotta give my vote to Strat-O-Gems. It's the best looking puzzle game on the system for sure... only Klax and QB come close to competing with it. And it looks a hell of a lot better than Acid Drop!

 

No love for Solar Plexus, I see. What really hurts is that there's a negative review of the game on the Atari Age Store, the game's one and only distributor. Ow, my pride!

 

JR

[supercat]

No love for Solar Plexus, I see. What really hurts is that there's a negative review of the game on the Atari Age Store, the game's one and only distributor. Ow, my pride!

 

How old are you, Jess?

 

I ask, because Solar Plexus bears a strong resemblance to the style of games that were released by the boatload in the early 1980's. Make the player avoid some moving sprites which use different NUSIXz modes without any apparent awareness of what the modes "mean" (even if there are three enemies in a row, the game never treats them in any way as three individual items). Had Solar Plexus come out in the 1980's, it would not have been the best, nor the worst; it's probably about typical for the genre.

 

To produce a really successful game, you need to figure out what you can do that's never been done before--at least not as well as you can do it. Some of the effects (like the "GAME OVER") are really quite nice, but had the game come out in 1984 nobody would have thought much of it. By contrast, if someone in 1984 had seen THRUST+, the response would have been "THAT's an ATARI!?" The scrolling background was a somewhat rare thing back then, but a tether like the one connecting the ship and the pod would have been totally unheard of.

[ScottHuggins]

supercat,

 

maybe "mythicon" would be enough of an analogy? firefly, anybody?

 

 

 

No love for Solar Plexus, I see. What really hurts is that there's a negative review of the game on the Atari Age Store, the game's one and only distributor. Ow, my pride!

 

How old are you, Jess?

 

I ask, because Solar Plexus bears a strong resemblance to the style of games that were released by the boatload in the early 1980's. Make the player avoid some moving sprites which use different NUSIXz modes without any apparent awareness of what the modes "mean" (even if there are three enemies in a row, the game never treats them in any way as three individual items). Had Solar Plexus come out in the 1980's, it would not have been the best, nor the worst; it's probably about typical for the genre.

 

To produce a really successful game, you need to figure out what you can do that's never been done before--at least not as well as you can do it. Some of the effects (like the "GAME OVER") are really quite nice, but had the game come out in 1984 nobody would have thought much of it. By contrast, if someone in 1984 had seen THRUST+, the response would have been "THAT's an ATARI!?" The scrolling background was a somewhat rare thing back then, but a tether like the one connecting the ship and the pod would have been totally unheard of.

[Jess Ragan]

No love for Solar Plexus, I see. What really hurts is that there's a negative review of the game on the Atari Age Store, the game's one and only distributor. Ow, my pride!

 

How old are you, Jess?

 

I ask, because Solar Plexus bears a strong resemblance to the style of games that were released by the boatload in the early 1980's. Make the player avoid some moving sprites which use different NUSIXz modes without any apparent awareness of what the modes "mean" (even if there are three enemies in a row, the game never treats them in any way as three individual items). Had Solar Plexus come out in the 1980's, it would not have been the best, nor the worst; it's probably about typical for the genre.

 

To produce a really successful game, you need to figure out what you can do that's never been done before--at least not as well as you can do it. Some of the effects (like the "GAME OVER") are really quite nice, but had the game come out in 1984 nobody would have thought much of it. By contrast, if someone in 1984 had seen THRUST+, the response would have been "THAT's an ATARI!?" The scrolling background was a somewhat rare thing back then, but a tether like the one connecting the ship and the pod would have been totally unheard of.

 

In all fairness, the game WAS designed with Batari BASIC, and it IS my first effort. Although it's nothing special audiovisually, there aren't many games that play like Solar Plexus. Dodge It on the Fairchild and Solar Fox on the 2600 (both strong influences) are the only ones that come to mind.

 

Scott, don't you think comparing Solar Plexus to a MYTHICON game is hitting a little below the belt? Seriously.

 

Uh... by the way, for what it's worth, I'm in my early 30s.

 

JR

[Cybergoth]

Scott, don't you think comparing Solar Plexus to a MYTHICON game is hitting a little below the belt? Seriously.

 

But that's just what it is. The store review is also spot on.

 

In all fairness, can't you face realities and do an objective judgement of your creation? I thought you wrote all the Colex reviews? They're pretty good, so generally you know how to properly rate a game in context. I see you're rating all C language Coleco homebrews with "C" while you give Eduardos assembly programms "S" ratings, so you're also aware of the quality difference of machine language vs. higher level language programming.

 

So what's wrong with you? Seriously.

[+batari]

Scott, don't you think comparing Solar Plexus to a MYTHICON game is hitting a little below the belt? Seriously.

 

But that's just what it is. The store review is also spot on.

 

In all fairness, can't you face realities and do an objective judgement of your creation? I thought you wrote all the Colex reviews? They're pretty good, so generally you know how to properly rate a game in context. I see you're rating all C++ Coleco homebrews with "C" while you give Eduardos assembly programms "S" ratings, so you're also aware of the quality difference of machine language vs. higher level language programming.

 

So what's wrong with you? Seriously.

I think it's better than the Mythicon titles that others are comparing it to. Firefly and Sorcerer, for instance, would rightfully get 1/5 and Solar Plexus got 2/5 in the review.

 

But I think that Solar Plexus is a valiant effort given what you had to work with (batari Basic 0.2.) That release was quite the mess, and you managed to get around all of the bugs and quirks and get a complete game going.

[Jess Ragan]

I dunno, maybe you should have told me this back when the game was in development... and I repeatedly asked for suggestions as to how it could be improved. It's a little late for them now that the game is finished.

 

It's hard for me NOT to take these complaints personally, especially when you add salt to the wound with comments like "What's wrong with you?" I also take exception to Solar Plexus being compared to one of the worst 2600 games ever made. But you are right... I've dished out some pretty harsh criticism in the past, and it's only fair for me to expect it in return.

 

That's all right, though. I still had fun making Solar Plexus, and I still accomplished my lifelong goal of creating my very own 2600 game. On top of that, all the effort I put into this game (and make no mistake, I spent many hours with it) was justly rewarded with over a hundred dollars in royalties from the Atari Age store. Sorry, Cybergoth, but the way I look at it, I'm a winner... even if my game isn't.

 

And Batari, I appreciate all the hard work you've put into your BASIC compiler, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. You've opened doors that were once bolted shut for many classic video game fans. The only people who don't seem to like that are the old school assembly programmers, who clearly feel their territory has been invaded.

 

I was on the 2600 game development mailing list briefly and was stunned by the elitism I found there... several of the people on the list went out of their way to make me feel unwelcome, despite the fact that the list was requesting entries for a Batari BASIC coding contest. It's fine if you want to keep the list exclusive, but don't invite me, then tell me to leave once I arrive!

 

JR

Edited April 7, 2006 by Jess Ragan

[Cybergoth]

I think it's better than the Mythicon titles that others are comparing it to. Firefly and Sorcerer, for instance, would rightfully get 1/5 and Solar Plexus got 2/5 in the review.

 

The differences between Firefly and Solar Plexus seem to be minimal. Firefly has more colorful graphics, background music and way complexer gameplay in a variety of different screens. Solar Plexus on the other hand has better SFX, Title and Game Over screens and scoring.

[+Nathan Strum]

Now I know why Albert has so much trouble getting people to write reviews.

 

I didn't mean to stir anything up with the review, and when I wrote it, I realized that Solar Plexus was a first attempt at a 2600 game and was created with batari Basic. But I didn't review it based on the circumstances under which it was created - I judged it based on the final product, period.

 

To me, it feels like a mini-game, or part of a larger game, rather than a complete game unto itself. It may have fared better as one of several games on a multicart, rather than a stand-alone title. (I thought the story in the manual was very entertaining, however.)

 

As far as development goes, I didn't recall seeing anything about the game in development at AtariAge. After a search, I found an entry which made it seem that the game was basically done (no pun intended)...

There's no room for any more changes or additions to the game, but I would nevertheless like your thoughts on the game.

If I'd seen that, I probably wouldn't have felt my feedback would have done any good, development-wise.

 

That said, I have a lot of respect for anyone with the dedication to put together a 2600 game, and I think Solar Plexus is an admirable first effort. The important thing, if you're creating something for yourself, is if you're satisfied with it. Sure it's nice if other people enjoy it too, but at some point you have to either ignore criticism, or take whatever parts of it you think are valid and use them to improve the next time around.

 

And as far as this poll is concerned, it's about Homebrew of the Year. So that means someone has to think a game is better than every other game in that list to vote for it at all. So to get even one vote is quite a feat for any game.

[+batari]

I was on the 2600 game development mailing list briefly and was stunned by the elitism I found there... several of the people on the list went out of their way to make me feel unwelcome, despite the fact that the list was requesting entries for a Batari BASIC coding contest. It's fine if you want to keep the list exclusive, but don't invite me, then tell me to leave once I arrive!

I vaguely recall that. I understand why some on [stella] don't want bB programming discussions, as the list has quite a legacy (nearing 10 years) and most discussions are of a highly technical nature. Maybe some do not want too many newbies poking their heads in with questions that could be answered by just reading the docs.

 

I suspect that the quiet bB programming fans outnumber the outspoken critics on the list, but we'd never know. I wonder why they couldn't just ignore the bB questions? It's a low-traffic list anyway, and lately, it's been nearly dead.

[Jess Ragan]

Yeah, Solar Plexus was pushing the 4K limit when I wrote that. I could theoretically have crammed in more features, but not without sacrificing others. There's a second game hidden in the code, y'know... it was included as a joke, but it still took up about 1K of space. Perhaps I could have put the remaining memory to better use, but hindsight is 20/20...

 

I just find it peculiar that the guy who helped with the production of Solar Plexus would later go on to pan the game in a review. I'm not angry... just slightly bewildered. It's a weirdly ironic twist even M. Night Shaymalan wouldn't have seen coming.

 

JR

[Thomas Jentzsch]

IMO Nathans review is very good. There is no bashing or so involved, he just describes what he likes and what he doesn't like and gives a fair score based on that (also check his Marble Craze review for another example).

 

And Solar Plexus is probably about as good as any game based on the old bBasic can be (unless the gameplay is really great, e.g. something like a new Tetris). There are limitations when using a higher language and they show, especially on such a weak machine like the good old 2600.

[+Nathan Strum]

I just find it peculiar that the guy who helped with the production of Solar Plexus would later go on to pan the game in a review. I'm not angry... just slightly bewildered.

Well, I didn't have anything to do with the production of the game. Just the artwork on the outside (and even that was just a partial contribution). So I didn't feel there was any conflict of interest. I didn't have any reason to either unjustifiably praise or bash the game. I just wrote an honest review of it.

 

Admittedly, it's a little strange writing reviews for games I had some involvement with (up until this point, mostly label artwork), but I have no reason to give particularly good or bad reviews to any of them. I have no agenda to push, since I make no royalties off of the sales. But if I review one game, then I feel obligated to review them all, and the reviews will be an honest reflection of my opinion. To do otherwise wouldn't be fair to people using the reviews to evaluate their purchases.

 

Also, I posted all of the reviews in my blog, prior to them going up in the store, in case any of the programmers wanted to comment on them. In fact, that helped change my review of Marble Craze, although it didn't improve its score any.