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

General games-related topics
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!

Post by TMD2003 »

END OF WEEK 14:

In this week's CSSCGC review: there's only been one submission this week, which was Salvador Camacho's Camel Racing, for the 16K ZX81. And also for the same machine and the same memory capacity, Colin Williams' MotoRace81 wasn't submitted this week, but Google decided to hide away the message in my Spam folder for three weeks, to my utter frustration.

Talking of which...
dulux.co.uk wrote:We apologise for the inconvenience, but at the moment we are only open for Dulux TESTER orders. Dulux products are still available for purchase via our stockists’ websites and stores which you can find directions in our site. We kindly invite you to continue browse our site for colour ideas and inspiration for your decorating project.
Thank you, Dulux, thank you so bloody much. I really wanted to get on with fettling New CSSCGC Towers so that it's closer to being the way I like it, but you just had to throw a spanner in the works, didn't you? Thing is, I was about to say "why don't you all send me some Crap Games to review while I twiddle my thumbs waiting for the opportunity to buy the paint I want", but instead, the rather shonky built-in cooker I've been saddled with has given me plenty to think about. The hobs and grill are all very second-hand but working fine, the oven isn't. No problem, I thought, it's bound to be easy to replace the element, right? Only when I took it out if its hidey-hole and disassembled it as far as I needed did I find that it's not the element that's to blame; at some stage there has been "a small fire" somewhere deep within its bowels that has charred all the wires leading to everything on the grill, oven, fan and everything else it operates with. So I have bought a brand new cooker (last time I did that it was still working 18 years later)... and a circular saw, because the worktop and units are going to need a certain amount of surgery.

Of course, if anyone wants to write a Crap game for the QL, SAM Coupé, Lambda 8300, ZX80, Didaktik M, Z88 or any other machine I might be considering that's themed around home improvement (and the only one I can think of is Terminal Software's Carpet Capers...), or around misfiring electrical appliances, then feel free to do so.
Spectribution: Dr. Jim's Sinclair computing pages.
Features my own programs, modified type-ins, RZXs, character sets & UDGs, and QL type-ins... so far!
User avatar
1024MAK
Posts: 5102
Joined: Mon Sep 26, 2011 10:56 am
Location: Looking forward to summer in Somerset, UK...

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

Post by 1024MAK »

Not sure I can help with that, but this 1k byte ZX81 program can occasionally generate three letter words:

Code: Select all

1 PRINT CHR$ (RND*25+38);
2 IF PEEK 16442=INT PI THEN GOSUB 9
3 GOTO SGN PI
9 SCROLL
10 SCROLL
11 PRINT AT 19,SGN PI;
12 RETURN
Have fun... :lol:

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.
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!

Post by TMD2003 »

I'm not sure I have an appropriate three-letter word to describe my frustration, but I'll just change line 2 from INT PI to VAL "4" and it'll come up with something eventually...

Because...

END OF WEEK 15:

What has happened? I've had ONE entry in the last month, plus that other ZX81-birthday-celebration game that Google tried to hide from me. And, following that debacle, I've been checking my spam folder semi-regularly, and nothing has been trapped in there. The stream has dried up.

I can't spend all my time installing new kitchen appliances... mainly because that job is now done, and I no longer have an in-built oven that's tried to self-immolate. I have a shiny new free-standing replacement, and a new-found appreciation for circular saws. I'm annoyed it took me this long to get one.

But even so, I'd rather be reviewing Crap Games! I have nothing to review! GIVE THEM TO ME!
Spectribution: Dr. Jim's Sinclair computing pages.
Features my own programs, modified type-ins, RZXs, character sets & UDGs, and QL type-ins... so far!
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!

Post by TMD2003 »

Rejoice! The famine is over... and if you read this forum, you've already seen the game. One half of DnD said I could include Zonkey Kong in the CSSCGC (and the other sent it to me in a separate email which formally confirmed their intentions), so I have - and the review I wrote last night was so long I had to spend some time cutting it down, so it might look rather abrupt in places where the literary surgeon's knife has been. (That's where the link leads to.) I think it still gets the point across, though.

This stage, I reckon, is the hardest:

Image

This is probably the least crap ZX81 game ever to appear in the CSSCGC. It's not Jewel of Ankhel grade (very few entries ever can be), but if ZXDB was still indexing "high-quality CSSCGC software", I'd nominate this one.

Talking of really rather good ZX81 games, of course I had to mention Paul Farrow's stunning Kong game for the ZX80. I wouldn't expect anything anywhere near a game of that quality, but I remind you all, I do have a challenge to write something in machine code for a 1K ZX80...
Last edited by TMD2003 on Fri Apr 23, 2021 8:08 pm, 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!
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!

Post by TMD2003 »

END OF WEEK 16:

What do you know? On the Spectrum's 39th birthday, another week of CSSCGC flies by without a Spectrum entry, which is odd. However, thanks to Dave Spinnett and Don Crawford from Michigan in the good ole' US of A, we had another ZX81 game, the quite fabulous (if not totally exclusive) Zonkey Kong, and debate is still raging on the thread next door about its rather capricious controls. This is what ultimately saved Don and Dave from having to run next year's competition, as the Least Crap Game Of The Year so far, still Hedge1970's Mono-Rail Simulator from the end of January, works absolutely fine every time and if a control key doesn't work on it, it's you that's screwed up, not the code.

I'm still a bit concerned about the dearth of recent entries. I've just managed to order the paint that New CSSCGC Towers will be decorated in (and a very C64-ish primrose yellow for the small bedroom was quickly rejected in favour of something darker - so I'm going to need some entertainment while it dries because I'm not going to sit there and watch it. More for the ZX81 or Spectrum, another QL game, a debut this year for the ZX80, or weird creations like the SAM Coupé, Z88 and Lambda 8300... all are welcome. Right now, very welcome!
Spectribution: Dr. Jim's Sinclair computing pages.
Features my own programs, modified type-ins, RZXs, character sets & UDGs, and QL type-ins... so far!
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!

Post by TMD2003 »

END OF WEEK 17:

Am I doing something wrong? Did I run over all your dogs or something, even though my still-fantastic-at-gone-13-years-old Honda hasn't left the driveway for the last four weeks?

This is a roundabout way of saying... it's been another barren week. Surely the excitement of going down the pub for the first time in... however long it was has died down by now (and I'm still on an embargo until I can actually go in, order a pint at the bar and sit wherever I like as close to as many people as I like, which isn't usually anyone but at least I had the option to if I wanted, i.e. things are NORMAL).

I dread the thought that, despite having 19 entries in already, this will end up being a year with only 25 or so in total, and I've invested too much in this competition to see it wither and die that way, like my plants out the front of the house are doing because they didn't like trying to grow in a small pot.
Spectribution: Dr. Jim's Sinclair computing pages.
Features my own programs, modified type-ins, RZXs, character sets & UDGs, and QL type-ins... so far!
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!

Post by TMD2003 »

END OF WEEK 18:

One entry, is, I suppose, better than none - so cheers to Daniel "McFly" Aguilar for Magiapotagia, even if it'll take no more than two minutes to see its entire content.

Also, I have updated the review of Zonkey Kong. As you can see on the relevant thread here, DnD are still developing it to smooth out all the problems that were highlighted in my review. While the CSSCGC site will still be hosting the original version (so that your experience matches the review), you'd be advised to download the revised version instead.


I AM STILL WAITING FOR:
- *anything at all* for the ZX80 (come on, you lot, you're supposed to be aficionados of the old black and white machines - if I can get ZX81 entries from here, the yoghurt pot shouldn't be too much of a stretch!)
- sub-heading to the above: the Blue Challenge, i.e. something in machine code for the 1K ZX80, and I know some of you out there could do it!
- something specifically for the 128K Spectrum
- *anything at all* for the SAM Coupé
- *anything at all* for the Next (provided, at this stage, I can run it on ZEsarUX's TBBlue mode)
- an entry for St. Greta of Stockholm's Green Challenge - recycle an old CSSCGC entry for a different machine
- MORE Red Challenge entries, i.e. a game based on a YouTube channel (better still, if it's one I would actually watch)
- MORE QL entries (which may not necessarily be this forum's strength, but maybe someone will try it as part of the White Challenge to tackle a machine you've never tried before)
Spectribution: Dr. Jim's Sinclair computing pages.
Features my own programs, modified type-ins, RZXs, character sets & UDGs, and QL type-ins... so far!
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!

Post by TMD2003 »

I didn't post this one here immediately the way I would usually do with ZX81 games (or ZX80 - there is going to be one, isn't there?), but it is ZX81 related... just not quite as directly as usual. Here goes with the latest weekly review...

END OF WEEK 19:

This week's action has been a solitary game... a solitary line of code, even. But, for all its simplicity - and that it's a entry for the Green Challenge so he didn't have to come up with it himself - Tobias Fröschle's Minimal Caves, a QL port of Einar Saukas' Tenliner Cave Adventure on the ZX81, fills me with the joys of spring that have really not been forthcoming out there in meatspace.

Why, if you didn't know already? Because getting more entries for the QL this year than there have ever been in the entire previous history of the competition was one of my big goals for this year. And also, with 21 entries in total, I'm now level with the total number of entries that Paul E. Collins received in 2002. The next target is 25 entries - equalling Arda's 2012 competition, and Shaun Bebbington's 2018 competition that now only survives as a series of Twitter posts. 26 entries will see me equal GReW's ill-fated 2017 competition when only 23 of those were ever reviewed, so I'd like to get past that hurdle as quickly as possible.

Is now a good time to mention that my house improvements have stalled because I'll be bereft of the paint I need for the next phase until Wednesday? Yes. Yes it is. You all know what to do.
Spectribution: Dr. Jim's Sinclair computing pages.
Features my own programs, modified type-ins, RZXs, character sets & UDGs, and QL type-ins... so far!
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!

Post by TMD2003 »

Well, that was an unfortunate mistake. I was posting my weekly CSSCGC reports yesterday evening... and forgot to copy it here!

(You haven't missed anything... much.)

END OF WEEK 20:

Bah! Nothing to add this week! And there I was, hoping for some intense Crap Game action to take my attention away from it hammering down with rain all week and blowing a howling gale. It was not to be.

But I do have a bit of a treat for those of you who like maths programs on a long computer with a weird storage system, and that'll have to suffice for now.
Spectribution: Dr. Jim's Sinclair computing pages.
Features my own programs, modified type-ins, RZXs, character sets & UDGs, and QL type-ins... so far!
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!

Post by TMD2003 »

I will now make up for Friday's mild mishap.

Because... here's a game you've all seen before! Not only was its original version submitted to the CSSCGC ten years ago, but it was picked up by some bloke from Vietnam, tweaked a bit, renamed "Flappy Bird" and the next thing you know, it was a major sensation.

And now, better late than never, and in glorious ROM-graphics-o-vision, Salvador Camacho brings us the ZX81 version of Zhunder Vlade. Håpla!

Image

This is a Green Challenge entry exactly as I worded it on the Challenges page - an existing Spectrum CSSCGC entry down-converted for the ZX81. Other such combinations (even up-conversions from ZX81 to Spectrum, Spectrum to QL, Spectrum to SAM Coupé, Spectrum to Next, ZX80 to ZX-Uno...) are just as acceptable. I can almost see St. Greta's face contorting itself from her usual sour, joyless expression into something resembling smugness.

Maybe make the next challenge something really special, eh? Something very small, very BASIC, but not in BASIC... on a 1K ZX80. Is anyone up to the challenge?
Spectribution: Dr. Jim's Sinclair computing pages.
Features my own programs, modified type-ins, RZXs, character sets & UDGs, and QL type-ins... so far!
Post Reply