CSSCGC 2020

Introduce yourself. Pimp your website, competition, event or other activity here, as long as it's Spectrum related.
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PROSM
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New entry: Advanced Greta Thunberg Simulator

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Presenting Advanced Greta Thunberg Simulator by Matt Rudge! Review and download at: https://www.connosoft.com/csscgc2020/reviews/023.html

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New entry: ZX Super Spelunky Ultimate

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[mention]ketmar[/mention] sends us his new game, ZX Super Spelunky Ultimate!

Review and download: https://www.connosoft.com/csscgc2020/reviews/024.html

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Re: CSSCGC 2020

Post by ketmar »

[mention]PROSM[/mention] thank you!
we can propel ourselves as high as we want, if we keep pressing the jump key whilst in mid-air
oops. this definitely wasn't planned! i swear i debugged it!

p.s.: ok, i guess i will declare it "gameplay mechanics feature".
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New entry: Sir Clive's C5 Adventure

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Matt Rudge sends us another game, this time for the Sinclair Birthday challenge, called "Sir Clive's C5 Adventure".

Review and download at https://connosoft.com/csscgc2020/reviews/025.html

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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!)
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Re: CSSCGC 2020

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And I thought my vision of the future was bleak.

What John also hasn't told you all is that there are THREE editions of the game on the tape! The first is the one that's been reviewed, the second is a dismal-weather version where the sun has ceased to exist (to the sound of excited squealing in a Liverpool accent), and finally... the action is transferred to a part of rural Cambridgeshire that I'll soon be moving to.

Meanwhile, I've got a couple more games in the pipeline, and I'm still aiming for that "high quality" category, even though I'm obviously going to be stretching one idea thinner than Bilbo Baggins over a piece of toast (or whatever the analogy is supposed to be). Connoisseurs of lesser-used Spectrum formats will have cause to celebrate...
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Re: CSSCGC 2020

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TMD2003 wrote: Tue Oct 06, 2020 10:41 pm And I thought my vision of the future was bleak.

What John also hasn't told you all is that there are THREE editions of the game on the tape! The first is the one that's been reviewed, the second is a dismal-weather version where the sun has ceased to exist (to the sound of excited squealing in a Liverpool accent), and finally... the action is transferred to a part of rural Cambridgeshire that I'll soon be moving to.

[...]
I forgot about that actually! Yes, there are three versions, each in varying states of development. Matt actually sent me an email with the corrected tape only a few hours after his first message, but I got the files completely mixed up. Apologies to Matt!
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New entry: Sir Clive's Ink Lair

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Another entry, this time from [mention]uglifruit[/mention]: Sir Clive's Ink Lair!

Review and download at: https://connosoft.com/csscgc2020/reviews/026.html

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Re: CSSCGC 2020

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A Crap Game, in machine code? I need to learn more of it and up my game! It is, as the review says, horribly hard, though. I challenge D.A.R.Y.L. to get to the end of it in one piece. Billy Mitchell's probably got a lot of time on his hands these days...

Although, let me tell you this, CGC aficionados: you haven't heard the last this year, from a certain former Tottenham Hotspur owner who likes winners, but is no gambler. And if you want to know what I mean... sharpen up on your third-party Spectrum floppy disc formats. That's all I'll say for now...
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ketmar
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Re: CSSCGC 2020

Post by ketmar »

TMD2003 wrote: Mon Oct 12, 2020 11:33 pm A Crap Game, in machine code?
yeah. it is almost cheating. almost...
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Re: CSSCGC 2020

Post by uglifruit »

ketmar wrote: Mon Oct 12, 2020 11:38 pm
TMD2003 wrote: Mon Oct 12, 2020 11:33 pm A Crap Game, in machine code?
yeah. it is almost cheating. almost...
I do feel I let myself down there, but rest assured the game is crap, I promise.

In my defence "Frogger" (Cassette 50, side 1, game 4) uses a Machine Code routine.
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Morkin
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Re: CSSCGC 2020

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uglifruit wrote: Tue Oct 13, 2020 10:32 am I do feel I let myself down there, but rest assured the game is crap, I promise.

In my defence "Frogger" (Cassette 50, side 1, game 4) uses a Machine Code routine.
...The only problem is that Frogger is the best game on Cassette 50 by miles, so you're probably looking at the wrong program for inspiration there... :lol:
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Re: CSSCGC 2020

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I think any crap game that auto-runs, rather than having the user RUN [ENTER] to get started is probably over-reaching the Cassette 50 heady heights.
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Re: CSSCGC 2020

Post by R-Tape »

Sir Clive's Ink Lair is inspired! Funny letter too, especially the beard stuff.

33170, 20
33181, 13

...makes it vaguely playable.

I was about to triumphantly post that I'd discovered the secret cheat mode, but then noticed that it clearly said so in Jon's review and Andy's instructions! :roll:
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Re: CSSCGC 2020

Post by uglifruit »

R-Tape wrote: Tue Oct 13, 2020 1:36 pm 33170, 20
33181, 13
Goodness gracious! That's the first time I've been POKEd like that, I feel... defiled.
(You're right, that does make it almost approach playable.)
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New entry: Guitar Weirdo

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Daz Peet sends us his musical simulation game, Guitar Weirdo!

Review and download at https://connosoft.com/csscgc2020/reviews/027.html

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TMD2003
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Re: CSSCGC 2020

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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.
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Re: CSSCGC 2020

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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]?
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ketmar
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Re: CSSCGC 2020

Post by 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! ;-)
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New entry: Digit Invaders

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[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

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Re: CSSCGC 2020

Post by 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!
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Re: New entry: Digit Invaders

Post by 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.
PROSM wrote: Sun Nov 01, 2020 9:08 pm 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!
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New entry: The Adventures of Mr P.N.

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PROSM wrote: Tue Oct 06, 2020 10:18 pm 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

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Re: New entry: The Adventures of Mr P.N.

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PROSM wrote: Sun Nov 22, 2020 10:41 pm 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.
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New entry: THIS IS CYAN

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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

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Re: CSSCGC 2020

Post by 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...
Spectribution: Dr. Jim's Sinclair computing pages.
Features my own programs, modified type-ins, RZXs, character sets & UDGs, and QL type-ins... so far!
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