C.S.C.G.C 2023 is open for entries

[TMD2003]

TALKING OF WHICH... did anyone make a recording of the Times Radio interview? I missed it.

I suppose I'd better get cracking doing the same with the CBC interview.

[Jbizzel]

Enjoying the pretty cool-looking "Screwball" game -- honestly if you're drawing your entire picture in paper then what are we expecting in ink?... anyway...

I promise I'm gonna do my game. The loading scr$ will KNOCK YOU OVER, promise. But this was a timely reminder.
And yes, the entire fun/silliness of Screwball Scramble is that you don't control the ball, but the environment (rotating the maze or bars etc.)
...
It might be December but your boy equinox will drop something on you. lol

I LOVE THIS!

[Jbizzel]

Just realized it these news was from last month... sorry!

We're old new now!

[Jbizzel]

TALKING OF WHICH... did anyone make a recording of the Times Radio interview? I missed it.

I suppose I'd better get cracking doing the same with the CBC interview.

Damn!! Not sure if it's available. It was the Ed Vaisey show on 17th July - last 10 minutes.

Hope someone can get it!

[Jbizzel]

https://csscgc23.blogspot.com/2023/08/s ... xkerl.html

Another good one REVIEWED!

[Daveysloan]

Wonderful! I love Space Zap! I used to play it quite a bit in Arcade Club in Bury. I played it just after midnight at their New Year's Party, so for a brief period of time I'm sure I had the World's highest score on it that year.

Always thought it'd make a fun Speccy game. Will be playing this for sure later.

[TMD2003]

"If I was the editor of Sinclair Programs in 1983, would I want to publish this listing in my magazine?"
- me, early 2021

Good to see Kerl is keeping that in mind.

[equinox]

"If I was the editor of Sinclair Programs in 1983, would I want to publish this listing in my magazine?"
- me, early 2021

Historians would later look back at the so-called "83 rule" and say this was probably what killed the CSSCGC.

[TMD2003]

Better that than rule 34. @PROSM had to deal with one of those... in a way.

[uglifruit]

I've stupidly just submitted a game that I'm actually enjoying playing.
It's a worrying trend in my 2023 entries!

[Jbizzel]

I've stupidly just submitted a game that I'm actually enjoying playing.
It's a worrying trend in my 2023 entries!

I am not against the recent trend it good games.

[equinox]

Never heard of Space Zap before (I'm slightly too young to remember Space Invaders machines in the chip shop, but am keen to have them back) — but I agree, this game is moderately hard, and quite fun. Also great colour choice for the lasers: they really look hi-tech and neon and '80s. Disco lasers. It is crap though. Thank God he didn't put it through a BASIC compiler or it would really be brutal (it could keep getting faster as you played).

Did it remind anybody else of Bosconian '87? You know, those space... things... that fire at you in four compass directions.

[Jbizzel]

Agree. I couldn't manage to get a screen grab of the lasers, but they look very good!


A little note: Work is a little hectic at the moment and I have found myself with less time to review games as a result. I have a small pile I'm working through, including some very interesting ones!!

Sorry for the delays.

[equinox]

Re Screwball Scramble, glad to report that I've worked out all the rules for controlling the "board" (since we can't move the ball), by studying things on paper, and have implemented a few bits. I've coded the first part, the up-and-down ramps, and actually implemented acceleration (ball speed increases as you go up and down further), so it is genuinely as bloody annoying as playing the real thing.

Each piece of the game requires some keyboard input, of course, and I'm planning to do a "stop the slider" for the tower jumping part (like in Mario Golf). So if you hit it dead on centre, you might be able to jump from the very bottom to the top in one go. Hahaha, because anyone who actually had Screwball Scramble knows that this was possible, if you had a keen finger and the luck of the Irish.

[equinox]

Re Screwball Scramble, glad to report that I've worked out all the rules [...snip -- Ed]

GO SUB 100+30*l
Look at this nightmare. I shared it on the ZX Discord. If you're very bored, and interested in Screwball Scramble (a rare combination) try to work out what the different variables are doing. That alt-right guy who does amazing AY tunes will crack it in a second, yes I mean you.
https://imgtr.ee/image/uJ5Su

[flatduckrecords]

Re Screwball Scramble, glad to report that I've worked out all the rules for controlling the "board" (since we can't move the ball), by studying things on paper, and have implemented a few bits. I've coded the first part, the up-and-down ramps, and actually implemented acceleration (ball speed increases as you go up and down further), so it is genuinely as bloody annoying as playing the real thing.

This sounds great! I wanted to implement something interesting^* for the ramps in my version, but after a full minute-and-a-half of humming and hawing I decided it was too hard.

We never actually had Screwball Scramble at home, so I only ever got to play it, fleetingly, on the last day of term at primary school. Every year someone or other would inevitably bring it in on that Special Day and ‘Scramble was always a highlight.

The other hit in those days was Mouse Trap; and although we eventually tried actually playing that one as a board game …we quickly realised 100% of the fun was in building the Rube Goldberg machine and none at all from earnestly following the rules. And they say school doesn't teach you anything!

* BRIGHT 1 would accelerate the ball up, BRIGHT 0 would accelerate it down. Or something like that.

[equinox]

We never actually had Screwball Scramble at home, so I only ever got to play it, fleetingly, on the last day of term at primary school. Every year someone or other would inevitably bring it in on that Special Day and ‘Scramble was always a highlight.

Showing my (young?) age, certainly by secondary school people were bringing in the Game Boy to play Tetris on the last day of term.

The other hit in those days was Mouse Trap; [...] we quickly realised 100% of the fun was in building the Rube Goldberg machine and none at all from earnestly following the rules

Absolutely true. Building things and destroying things is fun. You want to be Sir Christopher Wren, or Godzilla (or, in video games, Super Mario Maker, or GTA where you can blow up a police station). Doing stuff with other people's bullt things is just so tiresome. Ever play Jenga? (Oh yeah my family had Mousetrap too. Hard to remember. I do know they made a new version of it more recently and removed all the fun parts. So basically Disney style.)

Re Screwball again: (just the initial ramps) Funny thing is: once you implement PART of physics, you really need to implement ALL of it*. Because of course, I have created a system where the ball can go faster or slower up or down a ramp, but at the bottom of a ramp ("at rest" in physical terms) it will keep bouncing back and forth, because there is no concept of momentum, etc. Which is cool but I didn't really intend Screwball Scramble to be played in space, i was assuming some sort of local air friction. I will probably fix this in the end, when I've done EVERY other thing, with some crappy hack. Because you know this isn't ACTUAL physics. But it really does play well otherwise.

* known as "Feynman's +2a paradox", after the famous physicist and his awful Spectrum model

[equinox]

Right I know I'm now bordering the point where I should stop posting, but this is what I have been repeatedly watching, re Screwball Scramble (mostly to remind myself of the mechanics of the board): look at this guy "speedrunning" it in under 9 seconds:
(my timer is digital because I'm not going to use that damn slow DRAW or CIRCLE routine)



What is the word he says at the end? I think it's "endlich" (German for "finally"!) -- poor Bas**rd.
OK I'll shut up for a little while. I promise you'll love my CGC entry when you get it. It will be HI QUALITY SCRAMBLING.

[Jbizzel]

We never actually had Screwball Scramble at home, so I only ever got to play it, fleetingly, on the last day of term at primary school. Every year someone or other would inevitably bring it in on that Special Day and ‘Scramble was always a highlight.

Also the only way I have played this game!!!!

[Jbizzel]

Another space themed game reviewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwed

https://csscgc23.blogspot.com/

[R-Tape]

Three games in a row that would be in the top set of Cassette 50. Kudos to @uglifruit for using UDG "D" as a machine code routine and a perfect likeness for Darth Sidious!

[equinox]

Did some more work at work.
I made an actual (Excel, odf...) spreadsheet listing which specific places we can move left, right, up or down.
Patience. I know you think I'll never do tihs. But it's going to be great.
Then work's server dude said "all right, you can install stuff" so I stopped doing secret Screwball Scramble for zx spectrum, and spent my afternoon doing installations, and configuring SQL Server.
i promise i'm on your side when i can be. (After work I carefully studied the "blind maze" of Screwball Scramble and worked out which specific x and y coordinates we can move from, in various directions. Truly, I'm on your side.)

[Jbizzel]

@equinox I love this excitement that is being built here. Which discord are you on? I tried to find it, but failed!

Work is still insane and I'm really struggling to finish reviews.and do them justice. But there is some great stuff in my inbox!!

[PeterJ]

@Jbizzel,

https://discord.gg/45W4bUB

[Jbizzel]

I cant sit on this one any longer

A belter of a game from @uglifruit

You know where - please enjoy.