70 replies to this topic

[adamantyr]

Seems like things are too quiet around here... time for another contest!

I live in the Pacific Northwest, so I'm used to rain and rainy days. I remember spending many hours of my childhood in front of my TI, playing games while the weather was too nasty to go out in.

So, I propose this for a contest: write a game that you'd play on such a day. It should be fun to play as well as hold your interest for at least an hour. A good cerebral game with thinking, strategics, and brain challenges is the ideal. There's nothing wrong with a fun little sprite shooter, but they generally would only occupy you for a few minutes. Then you'd be looking for another game. No game will be "refused" based on these guidelines, but it will be considered in judging if the game involves a lot of manual joystick movement and not a lot of thinking.

Also, unlike the other contests, we'll open this up on the technical side while limiting the theme. Write in any language/platform you want! The only rule is, it can't require hardware that isn't common. Pascal is right out.

All entries should be posted to the "Official Rainy Day Game Contest" thread which I will start as soon as someone has a game to post.

Contest guidelines:

• Write a game on platform language of choice
  
• Must be loadable with BASIC, Extended BASIC or the Editor/Assembler cartridge
  
• Can use 32k memory expansion, and a single drive/disk for data storage (Keep it to a classic 90k disk if you can)
  
• Can use machine language subroutines
  
• All entries due by October 3rd, 2011
  
• You may enter as many games as you wish, but only one will be considered for prizes
  
• Game may be either an original idea or a port of another game for another platform

At least six contest entries must be presented for prizes to be awarded.

The winning entries will receive:
1st Prize - F18A board, serial
2nd Prize - 250k RAMdisk
3rd Prize - Full-color original printed manual for Pitfall! cartridge


Games will be judged in three categories, in order of priority:

• Game Play (Must be fun and involving, have depth)
  
• Performance (Should be playable on iron, but CPU overdrive is fine)
  
• Graphics (Gotta look good)

Incidentally, if I do write an entry for this contest, it's not a contender. Please offer any comments, suggestions, concerns, criticisms, etc. on this thread.

Adamantyr

Edited by adamantyr, Tue Aug 23, 2011 1:52 PM.

[matthew180]

Let me try to "up the ante" per se and generate some excitement for this contest. If Adam wants to form a small committee of judges for this (so he can participate and contend for the prize), I'll put up an F18A board, serial #1 as the prize. It is possible that they will be just about ready by then, and if they are not, the winner will get the first one when they are done.

Oh, and since I can't win, I'll volunteer as a judge if Adam wants to go that route.

[adamantyr]

matthew180, on Tue Mar 22, 2011 5:58 PM, said:

Let me try to "up the ante" per se and generate some excitement for this contest. If Adam wants to form a small committee of judges for this (so he can participate and contend for the prize), I'll put up an F18A board, serial #1 as the prize. It is possible that they will be just about ready by then, and if they are not, the winner will get the first one when they are done.

Oh, and since I can't win, I'll volunteer as a judge if Adam wants to go that route.

An F18A board, sounds like an intriguing prize! And I'd be happy to have judging help, any other volunteers? Three would work for settling ties.

Adamantyr

Edited by adamantyr, Tue Mar 22, 2011 6:03 PM.

[unhuman]

wow. That's a pretty amazing prize. Gotta start thinking & training!

[retroclouds]

Indeed, a very nice 1st price

hhmmm... does any type of game do or is it restricted to turn-based games only ?

[adamantyr]

retroclouds, on Wed Mar 23, 2011 12:02 AM, said:

Indeed, a very nice 1st price

hhmmm... does any type of game do or is it restricted to turn-based games only ?

It's not restricted to turn-based. Just not something you'd only play for a few minutes because there's not a lot to it to experience. Obviously this favors a more cerebral type of game.

Just to throw out a game idea: take your favorite board game, and adapt it to the TI!

Adamantyr

Edited by adamantyr, Wed Mar 23, 2011 12:30 AM.

[adamantyr]

Oh, and since it's open to all TI-99/4a languages...

I keep hearing how Forth is the greatest language platform on the TI ever made... well, it's showtime, Forthies!

Adamantyr

Edited by adamantyr, Wed Mar 23, 2011 9:08 AM.

[ti99userclub]

Great !!! other new software for ti99 .... soon on these pages !!!!

Edited by ti99userclub, Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:25 AM.

[GroovyBee]

One of these days I'll have to enter a TI programming contest. Alas, I've way too much 7800 stuff to be working on at the moment . Good luck guys'n'gals.

[ti99userclub]

Adamantyr
if i can help, i can put up an original Pitfall's Manual i create for the first batch of retrocloud's cartridge (You can see it on my site)
it's full color and professionally printed, in 5 different languages (Ita, Spa, Eng, Ger, Fr)

you decide if 2nd, 3rd or 4th place

[matthew180]

adamantyr, on Wed Mar 23, 2011 12:34 AM, said:

Oh, and since it's open to all platforms...

I had to re-read that a few times. I think a better phrase, to avoid confusion, would be "open to all 99/4A languages". To me, "platforms", especially here at A.A., means other computer systems, i.e. Apple, Atari 400/800, C64, etc.

[adamantyr]

matthew180, on Wed Mar 23, 2011 7:01 AM, said:

adamantyr, on Wed Mar 23, 2011 12:34 AM, said:

Oh, and since it's open to all platforms...

I had to re-read that a few times. I think a better phrase, to avoid confusion, would be "open to all 99/4A languages". To me, "platforms", especially here at A.A., means other computer systems, i.e. Apple, Atari 400/800, C64, etc.

Good point! Fixed.

Adamantyr

[adamantyr]

ti99userclub, on Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:26 AM, said:

Adamantyr
if i can help, i can put up an original Pitfall's Manual i create for the first batch of retrocloud's cartridge (You can see it on my site)
it's full color and professionally printed, in 5 different languages (Ita, Spa, Eng, Ger, Fr)

you decide if 2nd, 3rd or 4th place

That sounds nice! I don't think I got one with my cartridge... I'll put it at 3rd prize, I got one potential 2nd prize of a 96k RAMDisk.

Adamantyr

[marc.hull]

adamantyr, on Tue Mar 22, 2011 4:13 PM, said:

Seems like things are too quiet around here... time for another contest!

I live in the Pacific Northwest, so I'm used to rain and rainy days. I remember spending many hours of my childhood in front of my TI, playing games while the weather was too nasty to go out in.

So, I propose this for a contest: write a game that you'd play on such a day. It should be fun to play as well as hold your interest for at least an hour. A good cerebral game with thinking, strategics, and brain challenges is the ideal. There's nothing wrong with a fun little sprite shooter, but they generally would only occupy you for a few minutes. Then you'd be looking for another game. No game will be "refused" based on these guidelines, but it will be considered in judging if the game involves a lot of manual joystick movement and not a lot of thinking.

Also, unlike the other contests, we'll open this up on the technical side while limiting the theme. Write in any language/platform you want! The only rule is, it can't require hardware that isn't common. Pascal is right out.

All entries should be posted to the "Official Rainy Day Game Contest" thread which I will start as soon as someone has a game to post.

Contest guidelines:

• Write a game on platform language of choice
  
• Must be loadable with BASIC, Extended BASIC or the Editor/Assembler cartridge
  
• Can use 32k memory expansion, and a single drive/disk for data storage (Keep it to a classic 90k disk if you can)
  
• Can use machine language subroutines
  
• All entries due by July 1st
  
• You may enter as many games as you wish, but only one will be considered for prizes
  
• Game may be either an original idea or a port of another game for another platform

The winning entry will receive:
1st Prize - F18A board, serial
2nd Prize - ?
3rd Prize - Full-color original printed manual for Pitfall! cartridge


Games will be judged in three categories, in order of priority:

• Game Play (Must be fun and involving, have depth)
  
• Performance (Should be playable on iron, but CPU overdrive is fine)
  
• Graphics (Gotta look good)

Incidentally, if I do write an entry for this contest, it's not a contender. Please offer any comments, suggestions, concerns, criticisms, etc. on this thread.

Adamantyr

For clarification.... Where would games like Dr. Mario fit in since it has elements of both types of games ?

[adamantyr]

marc.hull, on Thu Mar 24, 2011 12:05 PM, said:

For clarification.... Where would games like Dr. Mario fit in since it has elements of both types of games ?

I could see myself playing Dr. Mario for an hour on a rainy day... that would involve a lot of manual dexterity, though, and it's not exactly deep...

Adamantyr

[rocky007]

it's my luck i wanted to start a new game port this week-end it's perfect

i could offer something for prize, but i've nothing connected with TI99 to offer ( except a defective Disk controller )
maybe something for console ( pS3 / xbox ) or PC ?

[unhuman]

Maybe we have a Dr. Mario Contest. Everyone write it and we pick the best one.

[adamantyr]

Let me offer up an idea I may turn into a game, as an "does not qualify for a prize" entry, since I'd be a judge...

My brother had a game on his Color Computer called "Stellar Empires". It was a turn based multi-player game in which you took control of star systems, which increased resource output and allowed you to build warships with which to take over systems or defeat other players. The span between systems (on a 2D coordinate map) determined how many turns before ships could arrive, so you had to reinforce border systems periodically in case of attack. Basically a simplified version of Risk, in space. It had an AI player, but I honestly don't think it did much other than issue silly threats in the message system.

I've taken a stab at writing this for the TI once or twice in the past... the last time was 6-7 years ago in an early Classic99 build. I've also written a version in Java using object-oriented design as a console application, which was entertaining... nobody had ever really planned Java to be used for DOS-style apps, it lacks fundamental key controls.

For the TI version, my target platform would be Extended BASIC, with 32k RAM required. I'd probably offload graphics definitions and other static data to disk in order to free up space for game code. I'd really like to try and make a "smart" AI player like my Java version was, although it may process too slowly to be fun in Extended BASIC.

I'd want to add some new features as well, such as different warship types, an alterable tax rate (increase production at the expense of greater risk of rebellions), and ship battles that are more complicated. In the original game, the side with the more ships automatically won and destroyed the other fleet, while taking some losses, a tie meant all ships were destroyed. I'd rather that a defeated fleet suffer greater losses, and retreat to the closest owned system.

Obviously, multi-player games where one of the players has to turn away while the other takes their turn are a bit old-school... but I don't think I want to tackle a "modem" version right now... on the TI especially, this is pretty complicated. Which is why I'd want a smart A.I., so a single player can pit himself against a computer opponent.

Sound intriguing?

Adamantyr

[adamantyr]

Hopefully someone will see fit to post some neat game construction stuff for the contest this weekend... besides me, I mean.

I made a start of things for "Stellar Empires" by generating the random galaxy. Instead of using an array, I'm storing the data in long-length strings. It creates a little overhead extracting data.

The map size is 20x30, to easily fit the TI screen and give me some display room on the bottom. I'm using the display to act as a tracking system for already occupied coordinates, and generating other details like the system class and name. Class 3 and 4 systems will also have their own native fleets to contend with, but only 1/3 of the systems will be that caliber. Player systems will automatically be class 5 and will overwrite the existing data.

I decided to have a little fun with the system names. Instead of having a set of names assigned randomly, why not use suffixes to generate completely random names? So I made a set of 64 suffixes that each name is comprised of 2-4 of them at random. They seem fairly random; the chance of two systems having an identical name is pretty remote... examples generated include "Memfogcha", "Vorxenros", and "Oracammil"...

Here's the code so far:

Spoiler

10 DIM SN$(60),NR$(64)
15 RANDOMIZE
20 FOR I=1 TO 64 :: READ NR$(I) :: NEXT I
100 NP=2 :: GOSUB 10000 :: CALL CLEAR
110 FOR I=0 TO SC-1 :: PRINT SN$(I+1)&" SYSTEM" :: Y=ASC(SEG$(SY$,I*3+1,1)) :: X=ASC(SEG$(SY$,I*3+2,1)) :: C=ASC(SEG$(SY$,I*3+3,1))
120 PRINT "COORDINATES: "&STR$(X)&","&STR$(Y):"CLASS: "&STR$(C): : :: NEXT I
130 GOTO 130
10000 SC=(10*NP)+INT(RND*6)*NP :: CALL CLEAR :: SY$,CU$="" :: DISPLAY AT(21,1):"GENERATING GALAXY..." :: FOR I=1 TO SC
10010 RANDOMIZE :: CALL PEEK(-31808,X,Y) :: Y=INT(Y/12)+1 :: X=INT(X/8.6)+1 :: CALL GCHAR(Y,X+1,G) :: IF G<>32 THEN 10010
10020 CALL VCHAR(Y,X+1,31) :: SY$=SY$&CHR$(X)&CHR$(Y) :: IF I<(SC/3)THEN C=INT(RND*2)+3 ELSE C=INT(RND*2)+1
10030 SY$=SY$&CHR$(C) :: N=INT(RND*3)+2 :: FOR J=1 TO N :: SN$(I)=SN$(I)&NR$(INT(RND*64)+1) :: NEXT J :: CU$=CU$&CHR$(0)
10040 IF C<3 THEN S$=RPT$(CHR$(0),3) :: GOTO 10050 ELSE S$=CHR$(INT(RND*8)+1)&CHR$(INT(RND*4))&CHR$(INT(RND*2))
10050 CU$=CU$&S$ :: CALL HCHAR(23,1,42,I) :: NEXT I :: RETURN
30000 DATA ARD,ALA,BEL,BAT,CAM,CER,DIV,DOR,ELI,EVE,FAR,FUL,GEM,GAR,HAB,HEL,IET,ILI,JIL,JAF,KET,KOR,LUS,LOR
30010 DATA MAN,MIL,NUL,NOV,ORA,OME,POT,PER,QUE,QUA,RAC,ROS,SUR,SOL,TOG,TAC,UNI,UBU,VOR,VAN,WEK,WAY,XNA,XEN
30020 DATA YAV,YEL,ZAR,ZON,BOW,CHA,DEN,LAG,REL,SHE,TEL,MEM,NAT,PAL,OLI,FOG

Adamantyr

[InsaneMultitasker]

Hmmmm... time to put on the ol' thinking cap. Our spring will probably be rainy as usual, so this could be a perfect time for a bit of 'strategery'.

[marc.hull]

InsaneMultitasker, on Fri Mar 25, 2011 11:39 PM, said:

'strategery'.

Is that a Gdub quote ?

Excellent-a

[rocky007]

official : i started my game and it's about water ...

[adamantyr]

rocky007, on Sun Mar 27, 2011 12:41 PM, said:

official : i started my game and it's about water ...

Awesome! Any more info available yet? What language are you writing in?

Adamantyr

[InsaneMultitasker]

Could it be a program about water, in water?

http://waterlanguage.org/

[sometimes99er]