Spectrum Computing

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Bearing in mind that it's the official start of the festive season, I'd like to make a call for submissions for the Woot! 2018 Tape Magazine.

Pretty much anything is welcome: games; minigames; demos; music; art; articles, can be polemic; SCREEN$; gags, or ideas for them; cartoons etc.

It'll need an AY track to accompany the mag part if anyone's up for that.

Even if you just have an idea for a cartoon, article, fake interview, gag or mashup idea post or PM it so that I can realise it.

Break out the sherry and mince pies, and check out the 2016 & 2017 editions for inspirations. If anyone could spread the word outside of SC, that'd be nice.

The deadline is the 9th December. I know that's soon, but I need to have it finished early in the month.

[mention]ffumanchu[/mention], I've had a PM off you, but I can't see it, possibly because your mailbox is full. If in doubt use the email addy I sent you.

R-Tape wrote: ↑Wed Oct 31, 2018 9:06 pm @ffumanchu, I've had a PM off you, but I can't see it, possibly because your mailbox is full. If in doubt use the email addy I sent you.

@R-Tape thanks, my doubt is how many scr$ one is allowed to submit. I´ll send it to you before december.
cheers

ffumanchu wrote: ↑Tue Nov 06, 2018 3:58 pm @R-Tape thanks, my doubt is how many scr$ one is allowed to submit. I´ll send it to you before december.
cheers

If you have a lot of material, perhaps we could put it all together in a standalone demo with music. I'm keen to see these!

Ta for this. BTW don't forget to zip them if they are .scr

Does anybody fancy contributing a short review of Mighty Final Fight and/or Ninja Gaiden to appear in the tape magazine?

I’m doing other reviews, but don’t feel I’m the best person to do these two games justice.

R-Tape wrote: ↑Mon Nov 12, 2018 1:26 pm Does anybody fancy contributing a short review of Mighty Final Fight and/or Ninja Gaiden to appear in the tape magazine?

I’m doing other reviews, but don’t feel I’m the best person to do these two games justice.

Hi Dave, I could do them. Just let me know:
- how many words (about) for each review?
- should I include some images?
- should I include a final rating? if so, overall or divided into categories (graphics, sound, playability etc.)?

Alessandro wrote: ↑Mon Nov 12, 2018 4:19 pm Hi Dave, I could do them. Just let me know:
- how many words (about) for each review?
- should I include some images?
- should I include a final rating? if so, overall or divided into categories (graphics, sound, playability etc.)?

Good man!

~500 words (can be more if you feel it's really justified)
no images, I'll include part of a screengrab to go alongside it
I'm not doing a rating with mine, but if you want to then one overall would be best.

The magazine part is coming together quite nicely. Doing these tape magazines are the only times I have problems with memory space—the 48K is nearly full. Though I shouldn't be surprised when using so many compressed SCREEN$—thank god for ZX7.

I've not had any minigames, utilities or demos yet; is anyone planning to submit anything? Dec 8th is a tight deadline I know, but we're only after short things that are fun rather than top quality (though epic and top quality is also welcome).

Hello, deadline is the 8th? Earlier up it says the 9th! I'm used to software deadlines being extended but not reduced!

I have been making a game, should be ready next weekend & I'll send you a private message if it's ready then. It's more of a Christmas cracker novelty than an epic new masterpiece, still I started on it in September and it's been fun to make so far.....

textvoyage wrote: ↑Sun Nov 25, 2018 1:44 pm Hello, deadline is the 8th? Earlier up it says the 9th! I'm used to software deadlines being extended but not reduced!

My mistake. The 9th Dec is correct. Though it's more a deadline for me to finish my bits. I could hang on a week after that as long as it's a standalone submission.

It's more of a Christmas cracker novelty than an epic new masterpiece, still I started on it in September and it's been fun to make so far.....

Sounds perfect. The best bit is getting the mag released, and relaxing with a bit of time to play the submissions. Cheers!

Hmm, how about a short assembly tutorial? Something simple, but practical and/or flashy? Or not quite the content you have in mind?

Ast A. Moore wrote: ↑Sun Nov 25, 2018 5:47 pm Hmm, how about a short assembly tutorial? Something simple, but practical and/or flashy? Or not quite the content you have in mind?

No that sounds great (asm is fun after all). Did you have a standalone .tap (or whatever) in mind?

Ast A. Moore wrote: ↑Sun Nov 25, 2018 5:47 pm Hmm, how about a short assembly tutorial? Something simple

Personally speaking I'd like that, I still struggle with assembly and would like to know more. Maybe a demo of drawing a Christmas tree with flashing lights or something, with some way of conveying to the user how it's done, educational like the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures we get on TV.

R-Tape wrote: ↑Sun Nov 25, 2018 6:12 pm Did you have a standalone .tap (or whatever) in mind?

I can provide a .tap, sure. But then the listing itself plus some minimal writeup will eat up a lot of RAM, too. It’s ultimately your decision. I don’t want to pull the rug from under something much more fun and Christmas-themed.

Ast A. Moore wrote: ↑Sun Nov 25, 2018 6:19 pm I can provide a .tap, sure. But then the listing itself plus some minimal writeup will eat up a lot of RAM, too. It’s ultimately your decision. I don’t want to pull the rug from under something much more fun and Christmas-themed.

There's definitely a place for something like this. The only thing is that I make it clear that I've no room left in the actual tape magazine part, or time to spend formatting new text submissions, so I'm only after content submitted as tape files that I can append, or other types of files that I can include in the download folder.

In summary, I'm after all manner of interesting content, as long as it can be provided in a standalone format that I don't need to tinker with.

On that note—if anyone fancied doing a picture quiz that runs on a Specrum it would be most welcome!

R-Tape wrote: ↑Sun Nov 25, 2018 7:10 pm In summary, I'm after all manner of interesting content, as long as it can be provided in a standalone format that I don't need to tinker with.

Oh, I get it now. You meant a .tap file that would work as a self-contained tutorial. Well, I’ll see if I have the time to cobble together something like this, but it might not be in the cards.

Ast A. Moore wrote: ↑Sun Nov 25, 2018 7:30 pm Oh, I get it now. You meant a .tap file that would work as a self-contained tutorial. Well, I’ll see if I have the time to cobble together something like this, but it might not be in the cards.

Grand. I know what a faff making such articles is; despite best efforts to make the code seem organised, it still turns into a maze of workarounds. That's my experience anyway. It would be great if you manage it tho.

Thanks for the submissions so far. Things are looking rather healthy now.

I'm running wayyyy behind, so Woot! won't be released for about a fortnight. If you're working on something then you have a while yet. Best to let me know that you might have something in the pipeline though.

Oh bloody hell—I haven't started xmas shopping yet either

Just had a look at the wOOts in the archive, and they only have the main program. I'd expect them to have all the other programs as part of the TAP, or as separate TAPs in the same download..?

I have an idea, Dave, I'll let you know later

Joefish wrote: ↑Fri Dec 07, 2018 1:37 pm Just had a look at the wOOts in the archive, and they only have the main program. I'd expect them to have all the other programs as part of the TAP, or as separate TAPs in the same download..?

Aye I know what you mean. Each entry has the list with links for all the compilation contents, and I think they all have files, but there should be a bundle there really. I'll get a bundle sorted at some point in the future.

Ivanzx wrote: ↑Fri Dec 07, 2018 1:58 pm I have an idea, Dave, I'll let you know later

Cool. I'd be interested to hear ideas, but I should point out that any submissions now (unless they're SCREEN$) will probably have to be 'standalone' (basically I shouldn't have to do any work on them).

R-Tape wrote: ↑Fri Dec 07, 2018 3:11 pm

Joefish wrote: ↑Fri Dec 07, 2018 1:37 pm Just had a look at the wOOts in the archive, and they only have the main program. I'd expect them to have all the other programs as part of the TAP, or as separate TAPs in the same download..?

Aye I know what you mean. Each entry has the list with links for all the compilation contents, and I think they all have files, but there should be a bundle there really. I'll get a bundle sorted at some point in the future.

If WOOT tape included several games, we would need to preserve the entire tape, surely. But that's not the case. Instead, each game distributed with WOOT was a separate file, exactly the same file you will find in each game's entry page. So there's no need to store each of these files again in the WOOT page. You just need to click on any game from the WOOT list to obtain its file.

Just my 2 cents...

Maybe you're right. I didn't scroll far enough down the page to see all the other contents were given as links.

The tape magazine is going to spill over, so there'll be a side 2. It's going to be a slideshow of screens compressed with ZX7. If anyone wants to submit anything it would be most welcome—things like game mashups, xmassy scenes, zx-memes, things like this. They don't have to be redballoon, MAC or Andy Green standard (though that would be welcome!), as long as they're fun.

Deadline is now 15th December.

Things are coming together. Woot will be out sometime around Wednesday.

Thanks for the submissions everyone. Let me know if you're still working on anything.