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 »

New stuff has indeed arrived, and it's not for the ZX81 or ZX80 - but I'm going to leave the screenshot in this one, and if you read on, you'll see why.

END OF WEEK 31:

One entry this week, and I'm only now getting round to posting it because the game is so very basic that it took several evenings to find the right words to review it. But I've done so, and I present Steve Poole's third effort for the year, another barest-of-bare-bones game that I see as being the equivalent of a ZX81-style game on the QL (*COUGHpayattentionpeopleofsinclairzxworldCOUGH*), in that everything is kept completely standard (including all the window sizes and positions) with the specific intention of making the code as easy as possible to examine, vary, and improve. Just be aware that you'll need to be on QPC2 for this one rather than QemuLator or anything really old, as it uses SMSQ/E-only features.

It's called Adrien's Bubble Burster - Adrien is Steve's grandson, and though I don't know how old he is, the implication is "not very" (probably one digit). Adrien understood how the code worked and was playing around with the commands and values after about half an hour of Grand-père d'Angleterre explaining it, and if he can do it, anyone can!

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!
Crayon21
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Re: The comp.sys.sinclair Crap Games Competition 2021: 25th edition extravaganza!

Post by Crayon21 »

ok, THIS is my entry
runs on 2k zx80
Attachments
crap game.z81
(4.65 KiB) Downloaded 89 times
In Heck, there are two options for perpetual torment:

Eat the Puckerberry and suffer for eternity:
drink nothing but a cocktail of The Last Dab and Mexican Cake blended and served with
habanero slices
:twisted:
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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 32:

Roll of the dice, take a spin on the wheel. The Angel and the Gambler regularly tops (or bottoms) the polls for Iron Maiden's Worst Mistake Ever (because any band that's been going as long as they have will always have some clangers). I don't think it's all that horrific, but it does clearly have problems that could, and should, have been fixed. And so is the case with Rob Edwards' latest gambling-related CSSCGC entry, Lottery, for the 48K Spectrum - which uses scratchcards instead of roulette. It's the only one to have been submitted this week, but a week with one game that gets a demerit point is still better than a week with nothing! Technically, this has been a week with no submissions, mainly because Google yet again threw Rob's message into the Spam folder - it should really have been part of last week's round-up - but that problem has been permanently sorted.

With 36 games in the can, a Cassette 50 style compilation isn't all that far away. However, five of those 36 are for the QL and that never used a tape (as we know it - a shrunk-in-the-wash 8-track cartridge doesn't count!)
Last edited by TMD2003 on Mon Dec 13, 2021 10:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
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 »

Err, a microdrive cartridge is a tape (a continuous loop of tape). However, what it is not, is an audio cassette….

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

:!: Standby alert :!:
There are four lights!
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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I read that in the adenoidal voice of one of Techmoan's puppets (who don't make nearly enough appearances these days). You know the one I mean!
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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This post does not exist.
Last edited by TMD2003 on Mon Dec 13, 2021 10:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
Spectribution: Dr. Jim's Sinclair computing pages.
Features my own programs, modified type-ins, RZXs, character sets & UDGs, and QL type-ins... so far!
Crayon21
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Re: The comp.sys.sinclair Crap Games Competition 2021: 25th edition extravaganza!

Post by Crayon21 »

I had a good laugh when reading. Thanks for having me

is it only one submission per year or can i submit more?
In Heck, there are two options for perpetual torment:

Eat the Puckerberry and suffer for eternity:
drink nothing but a cocktail of The Last Dab and Mexican Cake blended and served with
habanero slices
:twisted:
User avatar
TMD2003
Posts: 149
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2020 5:39 pm

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

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This post does not exist.
Last edited by TMD2003 on Mon Dec 13, 2021 10:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
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 »

I had another look at ZX80 programming myself, finally getting some machine code to work on it. It has made me rethink the Blue Challenge on this year's competition, in which the idea was to get the unexpanded 1K ZX80 to do... something, in machine code. And by that I meant entirely in machine code - fill up the memory with about 700-and-something bytes and... you've got a rudimentary version of Nim, or Noughts And Crosses, or something similar. Salvador Camacho did make Tic Tac Toe Hell, but that's a deliberately-cheaty version, and it was written in C using Z88DK and compiled, and although that qualified for the White Challenge (Salvador had never even thought of making anything for the ZX80), it wasn't suitable for the Blue as it required 16K of memory. When I came up with the challenge, I was under the impression that machine code programming on the ZX80 was similar to the ZX81, in that the code would be held in a REM statement and executed from there, and it was only after I opened this can of worms in mid-June that I discovered the truth.

Even at this late stage (in that there's three and a half months to go, possibly four if I'm generous in the end (which is much more likely, now that I know I've got a trustworthy host for next year lined up), I am going to revise the Blue Challenge to something that I think is more manageable, but retains the spirit of the original in some way.

BLUE CHALLENGE V2.0:
Write a game for the ZX80 (anything up to 16K) which uses all eight of the Integral Functions: CHR$, STR$, TL$, PEEK, CODE, RND, USR, ABS.


Given that USR is involved then this will involve machine code, but it can be something as simple as, say... changing decimal into hex or binary. You know, like I just did. And in order to read the hex output from my program, both CHR$ and PEEK have to be used in combination with each other. So that's three functions dealt with already - the other five shouldn't be too much of a problem.

People of Sinclair ZX World: being the aficionados of the pre-Spectrum models that you are (right?), the Blue Challenge was aimed squarely in your direction. It is now that much more accessible than it was before. Who's going to tackle it? Don't let me down!
Last edited by TMD2003 on Mon Dec 13, 2021 10:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
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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Location: Looking forward to summer in Somerset, UK...

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

Post by 1024MAK »

This…
65F0C297-17A4-4961-8BD1-8A6A32ED9790.png
65F0C297-17A4-4961-8BD1-8A6A32ED9790.png (7.26 KiB) Viewed 1588 times
… is under construction..

But as I temporarily have new duties for the job which they pay me money, my free time is rather different than before. And as I have many other things to do, hobby time is a bit limited.

So like many government construction projects, there is no planned “finish” date… but I hope to make faster progress after summer fades out and winter draws in.

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

:!: Standby alert :!:
There are four lights!
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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