The comp.sys.sinclair Crap Games Competition 2021: 25th edition extravaganza!

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TMD2003
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Re: The comp.sys.sinclair Crap Games Competition 2021: 25th edition extravaganza!

Post by TMD2003 »

It's been a bit slow going in this forum recently. Not as slow going as the "Games" section of World of Spectrum, though. What has happened to that place?

END OF WEEK 21:

21 weekly reports for 2021, and barring one mild errorthat you see above, I've managed to keep to the regular schedule. There was one entry this week, Salvador Camacho converting his own Zhunder Vlade for the ZX81 from its Spectrum original that was first entered in the 2011 CSSCGC.

"That is a promise, it is also a threat" said Richard O'Brien one day. To that end there has been one of these from John Connolly. I'm sure I also had promises from Peter Jones way back in the past, and "+3code" 9who has no other name) is threatening to make the most minimal SAM Coupé game ever. Also, I've had a reply via email from Colin Williams who's finally read the review of MotoRace81, and I'm trying to convince him to turn his ability with Z80 assembler to tackle the Blue Challenge so I finally get a ZX80 entry.

As ever, anything I get for the ZX80 and ZX81 will be published here as soon as I review it, there'll be no need to wait for the weekly round-up (which only tends to be one game anyway right now).

Did I hear the promise of a Lambda 8300 entry from somewhere here...
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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1024MAK
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Re: The comp.sys.sinclair Crap Games Competition 2021: 25th edition extravaganza!

Post by 1024MAK »

TMD2003 wrote: Fri May 28, 2021 9:10 pmDid I hear the promise of a Lambda 8300 entry from somewhere here...
I may, or may not have given hints and/or indications of what I may or may not do.

But I don’t remember saying on here that I had or was working on a Lambda 8300 entry. I did however point out on page one of this topic that you may appreciate a Lambda 8300 entry...

I do have an idea for something, but I have not yet decided on which system I am going to try writing it on. However, it won’t be a ZX80.

Mark
ZX81 Variations
ZX81 Chip Pin-outs
ZX81 Video Transistor Buffer Amp

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Step up to red alert. Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb :!:
Looking forward to summer later in the year.
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TMD2003
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Re: The comp.sys.sinclair Crap Games Competition 2021: 25th edition extravaganza!

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END OF WEEK 22:

I was going to say "to my utter dismay, I've had a barren week again". But it's not my fault, nor yours, it's Google up to their old tricks again, hiding CSSCGC entries in my Spam folder! So I have had an entry this week, and it comes from former host Lee Prince, who's promised that there's more to come! So, what do you get if you cross Head Over Heels with Viz and include none of the gameplay from either of those games? You get... something NSFW and not entirely family-friendly. Professional offence-takers approach with caution!

Also, technically, that isn't the full quota for this week. Barely an hour ago I've been sent something that Google didn't intercept from Jamie Bradbury, who's making a valiant attempt to make up for that Chuntey Simulator... thing, by making a game that (hopefully!) works for a Sinclair-related system I am not at all familiar with. (But it is mentioned by name on this forum!) And because I'll have to do a bit of extra hardware learning, that game can't be part of this week's round-up, but I'd hope to have it assessed this weekend. Cricket, F1 and essential house decoration might still get in the way, 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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TMD2003
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Re: The comp.sys.sinclair Crap Games Competition 2021: 25th edition extravaganza!

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And as for that thing I was sent by Jamie Bradbury (who is a member here, I notice), this should be of interest to a handful of people here, so it gets published now rather than waiting for the weekly round-up!

Do you have a Cambridge Computer Z88? Do you want to play Boggle on it? Do you have a friend to play with? If you own and use a Z88... you probably don't have any friends. But isn't it good to know that, theoretically at least, it is possible? Jamie's Z88 Boggle proves it.

Image

If you want to play this for yourself, the OZvm emulator is your best bet. ZEsarUX has a Z88 facility, but I've been unable to find a way to make it recognise either the .txt file of the listing (which OZvm can), or the .z88 snapshot I made with OZvm.

Better still, I've got another game in the pipeline to review as soon as I can!
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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TMD2003
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Re: The comp.sys.sinclair Crap Games Competition 2021: 25th edition extravaganza!

Post by TMD2003 »

Big news from CSSCGC Towers: the ZX80 makes its debut in this year's competition! And not before time, either.

I'm strangely fond of Noughts and Crosses games, as that's what I did the first time I ever tried to program a ZX80. After consultation with the tragically-now-late Jim Langmead, he accepted it for the 2004 CSSCGC and it became the first ever entry for the ZX80 (with a suitably scathing review on top of that). Salvador Camacho is now repeating what I did 17 years ago, only this time, it's in machine code! (Well... it's written in C, and compiled with Z88DK, but it works.) It doesn't meet the Blue Challenge, mind, because it requires more than 1K. But look what an expanded ZX80 can do, with machine code!

Presenting... Tic Tac Toe Hell. Why that title? Try it and you'll see...

Image
Spectribution: Dr. Jim's Sinclair computing pages.
Features my own programs, modified type-ins, RZXs, character sets & UDGs, and QL type-ins... so far!
Moggy
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Re: The comp.sys.sinclair Crap Games Competition 2021: 25th edition extravaganza!

Post by Moggy »

If noughts and crosses in more than 1k blows your mind God knows what part of you Stephano's FIDE compliant ZX80 1k machine code chess would blow. :lol:
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TMD2003
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Re: The comp.sys.sinclair Crap Games Competition 2021: 25th edition extravaganza!

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Moggy wrote: Sun Jun 06, 2021 10:41 pm If noughts and crosses in more than 1k blows your mind God knows what part of you Stephano's FIDE compliant ZX80 1k machine code chess would blow. :lol:
Every fuse in the box, most likely... except the one that remembers that only the original 1K Chess was ever written at a time when there were no helpful external tools to ease the process!

Meanwhile, because I will not forget...

END OF WEEK 23:

This is good! I'd been concerned that the competition was withering for some reason I couldn't put my finger on (and if that sounded filthy, it wasn't supposed to). If I wasn't getting any entries in May when it was constantly chucking down with rain, what chance did I have when the sun came out? Well, this week... there's been three entries, all for different machines.

Number one (and number 24 overall) was Jamie Bradbury's Z88 Boggle - only the third-ever entry for the Z88 in 25 years, but now accessible to ever more people because the review has been UPDATED to add loading instructions for ZEsarUX as well as OZvm, for which César Hernández Bañó can be credited. Gracias!

Number two (quarter of a century!) was Salvador Camacho's Tic Tac Toe Hell, this year's first ZX80 entry (though you'll need a 16K RAM pack for it), and - unless I'm very much mistaken - the first ever ZX80 machine code entry. I'm hoping it's not the last for the old yoghurt pot this year, and some of you more experienced in Spectrum or ZX81 programming will take up the challenge of trying to make the most restricted of the Sinclair computers (that isn't the MK14...) do something useful.

Number three is the one I haven't revealed yet, submitted yesterday and for which I wrote the outline of a review in the small hours of this morning. Lee Prince has resurrected an old CSSCGC joke that refuses to die, based on the last two pages of this thread. Advanced Adding A TXT File To An EPROM Card For A Z88 Emulator Simulator has, to the surprise of nobody who will "play" it, gone into pole position for Most Crap Game Of The Year, as the first to score 1/10 for attainment and not be wrecked by any demerits. If you're interested in seeing how to generate weird error reports - including those for the 128K Spectrum - I recommend this one!
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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TMD2003
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Re: The comp.sys.sinclair Crap Games Competition 2021: 25th edition extravaganza!

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END OF WEEK 24:

It's satisfying to not have to report a blank week again, thanks to Andy Jenkinson. His was the only submission this week, the triumph of style-over-substance that is Rubik Code, for the 48K Spectrum. Play it if you dare, and see if you can work out the tactics for solving the grids the way I did.

VITALLY IMPORTANT MESSAGE:

We are now half way through the competition.

The end of week 48 will be 3rd December, by which time the competition is scheduled to have finished. I may, or may not extend the final deadline past the end of November, depending on how many entries I've had by the end of October, and also according to how eager a host there is for next year. I've already got a ton of ideas stored away, and I've just finished one of them a few minutes ago, although I'll make some other versions of it (disc, microdrive, etc) just because I can. So, I will have something all ready to go the instant the next host is ready to kick off (much the way Alexandre Colella did in January) - and I don't want to be hanging onto it until April or May!

As this is a more "niche" forum in the Sinclair world than SC or WOS, I wouldn't be likely to lumber anyone who only lurks here with the burden of hosting next year's competition (which is the "prize" for Least Crap Game Of The Year), but if I know in advance there's someone who can be relied on to kick off next year's competition on time, then I am much more likely to extend the final deadline until anything up to 17th December, which will be the end of week 50.

Meanwhile, amongst you lot in particular, I am still looking for:
- FIVE MORE ZX81 entries to get us into double figures
- MORE ZX80 entries, one of which I would hope enters the Blue Challenge to make something in machine code for the 1K ZX80
- MORE weird machines such as the Lambda 8300, Jupiter Ace, Timex models, MK14...
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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TMD2003
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Re: The comp.sys.sinclair Crap Games Competition 2021: 25th edition extravaganza!

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Crikey o'blimey! I've had a busy week, and because it's unlikely to relent, I must tackle the problem head-on. This involves me preparing for a residential weekend in which I will have absolutely no access whatsoever to Tim Berners-Lee's wondrous creation. Hence, I can't leave the usual weekly report until after dinner, but even so, I've made time for a couple of reviews, and who cares if it's early? Neither are for the old black-and-white-and-silent machines, but don't let that put you off!

END OF WEEK 25:

Number one for this week, and number 29 for the year, is Gonzalo Medina's allegedly-first-ever attempt at programming a Spectrum (which I don't believe for a minute, "I have no idea how arrays work" be damned), Las Aventuras de Eustaquio I. Knowledge of Spanish isn't necessary to guide Eustaquio through his quest on the Earth, Moon and Mars, and I've thrown in some English translations where I thought it necessary - see "Jim's additional material".

Number two this week, and number 30 for the year - so I'm now tied for entries with the 2016 competition - is a second entry from Andy Jenkinson, the bizarrely-titled Cliff Richard Loves Rihanna... FACT!. Written mostly in BASIC but enhanced by 5.7K of machine code, it's a sort-of-dating-sim based on some childhood playground game that showed which boys and girls secretly loved each other and which had cooties (or does that only happen in 'MURICA?) It features a proportionally-spaced font that Andy put to good use in Sir Clive's Ink Lair last year, an AY soundtrack that technically doesn't need a 128K Spectrum (but will require a Melodik AY Soundbox), and has the potential to throw a sack of spanners in the works of more friendships and relationships than (anti-)social media ever could. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!


HASTY EDIT: I've had no time to look on the QL Forum this week, but in posting my weekly review I've found there's been a game waiting there for me for three days. This will be part of next week's round-up and I'll review it as soon as I get the time.
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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TMD2003
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Re: The comp.sys.sinclair Crap Games Competition 2021: 25th edition extravaganza!

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END OF WEEK 26:

As ever, I've checked the nefarious GMail spam folder to see if there's anything waiting for me - there isn't, which means that technically, this has been a blank week, but owing to the weird way that Life, The Universe And Everything works, the one game I've reviewed this week was not only sent (well, posted at the QL Forum instead) last week, but was on the same day as the previous entry... the game is Steve Poole's Thor Game, designed to run under SMSQ/E on QPC2 with 8-bit colour (and maybe more), but will also run on regular-black-box-QL systems, if you're prepared to accept a few compromises or make a few edits as I've specified in the review.

Steve is a Methuselan 73 years old. I am nowhere near that, but I am going to rack up another completed year this month. And as I'm going to be 42, why not enter some Hitchhiker's themed games for the Yellow Challenge? I might be more strict with that from now on - merely putting "the answer is 42" as a final victory message won't cut the Dentrassi mustard any more. Also, it need not necessarily be a game - if a Commodore 64 can generate a random haiku (as I translated for the 16K Spectrum last year), surely a Spectrum can be programmed to write Vogon poetry? Or, seeing as the haiku program would quite easily fit into the smaller model, who's going to prove that it's possible on the ZX81? One of you lot could do it, I reckon.
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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