CSSCGC 2020

[TMD2003]

Fix your bugs, Daz! No sooner have I tested "Whole Lotta Love" than I can tell that's a G coming from that BEEP when the screen says E, and it's supposed be E. Nothing musical gets past me, and the aural torture of trying to make a QL play a tune that isn't totally off-key is sharpening my pitch sensitivity so that it could cut through sheet steel.

What I do approve of is that this is the second CSSCGC game released this year to feature Iron Maiden! 'Arry Bomber 'Arris will be chuffed to bits. No prizes for knowing what the first was.

[TMD2003]

We interrupt this year's competition for some CSSCGC news from days of yore.

Back in 2004, I wrote Advanced Horseshoe Magnet Simulator for the ZX81, and sent it to that year's competition, run by the tragically deceased Jim Langmead. And as I've just tidied up my Sinclair webpages and amnow linking to those pages in every signature on every Sinclair forum, the pages can be easily found.

That... thing I wrote, which was little more than a 1982-style type-in based on a tired old joke that had its own thread on WOS at the time... has just found some use in the QL world, 16 years after I wrote it. One of the users has written a ZX81 emulator for the QL, and AHMS has helped him debug it.

You see, if you put the programs out there, eventually, someone will find them. And I'd like to think Jim L would approve if only he could have known.

Let's all play some crap games! I've got a couple still in the pipeline for this year, and with a bit of luck, you'll see them before Christmas. Isn't that right, [mention]PROSM[/mention]?

[ketmar]

heh. writing crap games is a great way to experiment with some things you won't touch otherwise. or refine some tools. or try some ideas. once you stop trying to make something Good, you have an endless sea of possibilities before you. my entry, for example, my entry was used to debug my patches to .txt -> zx basic .tap translator. and believe it or not, but i had some fun actually playing it too. i really tried several wight factors to get a better playfield... ah, and it is just fun to write code! ;-)

[PROSM]

[mention]uglifruit[/mention] has sent us a port from the CASIO MG-880: Digit Invaders!

Review and download at: https://connosoft.com/csscgc2020/reviews/028.html

[uglifruit]

Thanks for the review. (And, indeed, all of your reviews which continue to be more entertaining than the subjects being reviewed). I really enjoyed programming this one, not so much for the game, but in looking into the history of the calculator game it's based on. I found it genuinely fascinating, and ended up spending many hours reading about it.

Also, as you mentioned, I saved/loaded a data array from basic. A first for me!

[TMD2003]

5,320 and level 6 on my first attempt! Not bad, I'd say. And, have I started a trend for conversion of calculator-based games? I'm sure there are more of them out there.

Loading the tape without flash loading reveals an interesting fact: the program uses a character array saved to the tape, which makes it probably the fifth program ever to use such a contraption, alongside such classics as Make-a-Chip.

And I've been responsible for two of them - Corona Capers, earlier this year, has three character arrays in its loading process, and Super Mario Fruit Machine from 2004 had both types of array - in fact, it had all four Spectrum loading headers. Then, courtesy of Paul E. Collins, there was Brad: The Game in 2014, which used 500-and-something character arrays to load the "chapters" from a choose-your-own-adventure that spanned over a megabyte and took... quite some time to load from tape. And if we're including loading data from tape for save high scores or saved game data, then I've got another one of those covered in the Casio MG-777 Games compilation, and Redcoats used both types of arrays to save its map layouts.

I confidently predict that there will be at least TWO more entries for this year's competition, that will contain loaded arrays, and both will involve all four headers... but it won't be at all obvious for one of them. How, Who, What, Why, Where, When? Johnny (not that one) Reveals All... about three months into next year!

[PROSM]

P.S. I am making an effort to catch up on the backlog and right the wrongs of my crap time management. Expect to see more reviews coming soon (famous last words!)

Famous last words indeed! But, be assured, this competition will be over by the 31st of December for the next host to take over in good time.

In the meanwhile, we have a new entry which is the last of the July batch. It's The Adventures of Mr P.N., by AsteroideZX!

Review and download here (slightly NSFW): https://www.connosoft.com/csscgc2020/reviews/029.html

[R-Tape]

But, be assured, this competition will be over by the 31st of December for the next host to take over in good time.

Glad to hear it. Punctuality is the CGC's watchword.

In the meanwhile, we have a new entry which is the last of the July batch. It's The Adventures of Mr P.N., by AsteroideZX!

Dirty boy! Still, change the clockweights a bit and cover up the body hair, and it'd be a superior alternative to Weetabix vs the Titchies.

[PROSM]

AsteroideZX has cleaned up his act a bit with a new game - THIS IS CYAN

Review and download at: https://www.connosoft.com/csscgc2020/reviews/030.html

[TMD2003]

Two reviews in two days? That's more like it. Maybe my last fabulously innovative sacrifices on the altar of crapness will be revealed before Christmas after all. Brace yourselves!

I might even be tempted to throw in a last-minute entry, seeing as there's been nothing for the ZX81 yet. My dreams of a QL entry to complete the set have taken a bit of a hit in the last week, though...

[RWAC]

AsteroideZX has cleaned up his act a bit with a new game - THIS IS CYAN

Review and download at: https://www.connosoft.com/csscgc2020/reviews/030.html

Amazing! I can't wait for This is Magenta.

[PROSM]

[mention]p13z[/mention] sends us a half-decent BASIC game with some innuendo wedged in, called Uranus Pentrator.

Review and download at: https://www.connosoft.com/csscgc2020/reviews/031.html

[PROSM]

[mention]p13z[/mention] gives us a taste of the open road with his latest entry, Route 66!

Review and download at: https://connosoft.com/csscgc2020/reviews/032.html

[TMD2003]

So, that was the BASIC parallax game that I was so concerned about? Top banana. Corona Capers lives to fight another day, even if I'm absolutely sick to death of everything COVID-related, and I'm going a bit mad being locked in the house for an entire month... again.

This is screaming out for a sequel, set in Australia - something like Adelaide to Perth across the Nullarbor Plain. Change the colours, change the direction (as it's east to west, and Australia drives on the correct side of the road), change the distance to be measured in km, job done.

Progress on what might be the first (and maybe only?) ZX81 entry for the year continues unabated...

[R-Tape]

It may be a pile of crap, but that's a gorgeous landscape. If this was released back in March, I might have 'played' this for longer than I'd like go admit.

This is screaming out for a sequel, set in Australia - something like Adelaide to Perth across the Nullarbor Plain.

Route A66 from Penrith to Scotch Corner would be more cgc.

[PROSM]

[mention]TMD2003[/mention] sends us the first ever CSSCGC game on MGT +D floppy disk, and also the first in the TRD format. What ever will he do with all that space? Why, create a game filled with digitised images, called +D Blue Peter!

Review and download at: https://connosoft.com/csscgc2020/reviews/033.html

[TMD2003]

I am going to have to take issue with something here... I admit I didn't have to write the Blue Peter theme for this game (having already done it for a previous would-have-been submission which will instead be my next review in this year's competition), but... 7% for sound? Aliengun was given 30% and that was just a few BEEP-derived sound effects, and Advanced Art Simulator had 7% for sound.. and it's silent! (I just checked the listing and there's no BEEP anywhere; I suppose the sound rating may have been for the loading noise?)

What I've just sent a couple of days ago (which isn't the other game still waiting to be reviewed I mentioned above), I won't gripe too much about a 7% review for sound... because it's for the ZX81. (And Complex Maths... WITH DRAGONS! for the ZX80 somehow managed 2%...)

Anyway, have about as much fun with +D Blue Peter as you can manage, or alternatively, if you're Russian (or you know how to operate a Beta Disk interface on a Spectrum not fuelled by vodka and semechki), this is the alternative version alongside the original:



The flags on the ship are different. Why is that? 75 crap points and a packet of Rolos I've already eaten go to anyone who can point out what's going on here. For anyone wanting to point out that there was a Beta Disk submission in 2008 - the only one time that has ever happened before - it was in SCL format, despite Digital Prawn's review that said it was TRD (and that it would only run on a Scorpion - not true, I've had it running on a Beta-equipped 128K, on Fuse). And there must be some difference between the two, mainly because I find TRD is perfectly reliable and SCL... isn't.



...wait a minute...

...[mention]PROSM[/mention]...

...you've just copied the ratings straight over from Route 66! And that only has a single BEEP, right at the end. (No, I didn't leave it running for 30 hours, I looked at the listing.)

My eyes, pull the wool over them, you cannot!

[PROSM]

...wait a minute...

...@PROSM...

...you've just copied the ratings straight over from Route 66! And that only has a single BEEP, right at the end. (No, I didn't leave it running for 30 hours, I looked at the listing.)

My eyes, pull the wool over them, you cannot!

Whoops! Thank you for spotting that. That's what I get for not checking the full page before I upload it!

The webpage has been updated (you might need to refresh the page for the changes to appear). The correct scores from the spreadsheet are:

• Graphics: 65%
• Sound: 62%
• Gameplay: 7%
• Innovation: 34%
• Total: 42%

Apologies for any distress caused by the comparison of your game to Route 66. I assure you it isn't that bad (though it is bad ).

[TMD2003]

Now, that's better! Or, should I say, less crap. It's what I'm going for.

I've been making my own spreadsheet throughout the course of the year, and there are some games that have an identical final rating even to the quarter-of-a-% accuracy that this system will give. It was inevitable seeing as six games are all rated at 24%. So +D Blue Peter is now up to the same rating, to the quarter-%, as Sir Clive's Ink Lair! That was a good one. I will consider it a great honour.

I should also mention... I am hoping that the comment about Lord Yes Sir Alan "You're Fired!" Sugar travelling to 2022 to escape YOU KNOW WHAT doesn't age badly. A little over a year from now, I suspect I will find out that it will. That's a depressing thought.

[TMD2003]

Well, I've done it... I've submitted my final entry for the year, which will make eight in total - making up for lost time, seeing as I hadn't previously sent an entry since 2004. You've seen five of them now.

This last game is, in a shocking display of originality, written about someone called Clive. Are there going to be sarcastic groans along the lines of "WELL, HOW VERY ORIGINAL!"? Have I been fashionably late to the Big 80th Birthday Celebration Challenge? Find out, hopefully before Christmas!

[R-Tape]

I stumbled on this sentence while collating the CGC stuff for the DB:

Of course, being BASIC, it scrolls up the screen like a slug attempting to valiantly make its way through a puddle of honey.

Beautiful. Just beautiful.

[TMD2003]

I may have used that description myself in the info file for one of my later games...

Also, there I was thinking there'd be a review emerging here. Especially as I rescinded my last promise about "my final submission for the year"... and put in another one.

So I know I have four in the queue...

[PROSM]

Azimov sends us his take on a viral multiplayer phenomenon: Among Bad!

Review and download at: https://connosoft.com/csscgc2020/reviews/034.html
Send all corrections to the usual address

Next up is an Andy Jenkinson game, and then another of [mention]TMD2003[/mention]'s mega games (1 of 4)...

[TMD2003]

Mega games indeed! Note that "game" will be used in the loosest sense of the term, but it'll be mildly entertaining for three minutes at least.

So far, of the 34 games reviewed, only 11 have managed a score of 30% or more. It's a bit crowded in the 20s! And despite my valiant efforts to be a bit less crap than the competition, I've still managed to block up the bathplug with three 20-somethings already, though with DNA Dilemma that wasn't far short of deliberate.

Big surprises are in store for anyone who doesn't already know where to look. With a bit of luck, all my contributions will not inflate the 20s any more than they are already. And will there be a last-minute grab for Crap Glory? Dog Track Simulator is in the lead at the moment, on 21%.

[PROSM]

[mention]uglifruit[/mention] lets us test our typing wits against the computer in his latest entry, This Game Will Pit Man Against Machine!

Review and download at: https://connosoft.com/csscgc2020/reviews/035.html