Although I still love the idea of the Console Wars competition, it does seem to be a bit flawed. So I had a few thoughts about it.
The idea of a kind of role play still seems interesting to me. I was around back in the 80's in the latter part of the british microcomputer boom and think it would be interesting to try to create a game on one of those old formats. Of course I could grab a zx spectrum emulator and make something in pure Z80 language. However I'm not a very good programmer so I could just use MMF2 and get other clickers involved?
What would keep everyone happy in a competition based around roleplaying as a team working to a particular format's limitations? Letting everyone design their own format? letting people choose a real console/computer to 'emulate'? is the fun in the limitations?
I think the console wars is a great idea. It just needs solid rules (defined specs for each console) and a start/end date. I felt like we were getting somewhere with the last thread about this competition.
As far as the specs go, the main thing is graphics. This includes:
-Sprite size
-Number of sprites on-screen at once
-Colours
-Screen size
-Frame rate
For music, perhaps a "sample mod" can be made for each console, which would include the exact samples that can be used (sine wave, square, noise, etc) and the number of channels.
I read through the last discussion of this and I must say, this is probably the coolest contest premise ever. I would highly recommend going with Sketchy's suggestion of rigid retro-esque restrictions. For the multiple system aspect, the differences should be significant but balanced. For example, consider the Playstation vs. Nintendo 64: the Playstation discs were able to hold more content, but the 64's cartridges enabled developers to stream content and cut loading times drastically. That would be kind of stupid to simulate for a contest, but I think it's a good example of the concept.
It would be hard to force a certain amount of objects on screen at once. Or at least In my limited knowledge of mathematics it seems like it would be hard.
An alternative to this would be a limit to how many separate tiles can be made per frame or at any one time.
A cartridge based system can simply upload new tiles on the fly but with disk systems that is impossible to pull off, so that would have been a large problem for developers.
So in the competition setup that could mean
Disk based or slow loading console/computer = limited tiles
Cartridge system = no limit to tiles.
Also i love the idea of having to create our own music with limited premade samples. I found a Sega Megadrive/Genesis soundfont recently and have been ripping samples from it and making loads of music. I'm sure there are soundfonts for slightly more retro systems too.
i.e. 3d, 2.5d (visual and/or code style), altered reality, shapeshifting, weapon charging, character selection screens, fire effects, lightning effects, speed/action lines (like in dbz, comics, pokemon, and other things that use this annoying method), best platformer jump effects/feel, typing in attacks style games, etc.
It's quite easy to come up with ideas, especially for something as simple as a competition.
For me at least, the difficult part is making them happen / putting them into practice / getting people to participate / organising an event / etc.
Blood of the Ancient One, Seen only as Shadow, Faster than Lightning, Fierce as the Greatest Dragon, Nearly Invisible, Floating in a Dream, Entered through the Demon Door, Destroyer of Evil in a Realm with a Red Sky Scarred, Who could I be ?
I like the idea of emulating the ZX-era style consoles and would defo be interested, more so than doing NES/SNES/Mega Drive era games (as this is what i see alot of Klikers doing as projects anyways!)
One limitation i would try and simulate would be the memory limit, preventing you from using over a certain amount of lines of code. This would be similar to the 20-event compos, but not quite as restrictive (40 events??)
Well, since the games were coded in assembly that would take up an extremely small amount of memory so there wouldn't need to be such a huge limit. The only reason there ever was a limit is when arcade games were converted and squeezed into 48 kilobytes or something. I'd say graphics probably take up the most memory.
Blood of the Ancient One, Seen only as Shadow, Faster than Lightning, Fierce as the Greatest Dragon, Nearly Invisible, Floating in a Dream, Entered through the Demon Door, Destroyer of Evil in a Realm with a Red Sky Scarred, Who could I be ?
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
Sprites were generally limited per line, not per screen. IIRC the NES and SMS could show 8 sprites per line, the Colecovision could show 4 and the Atari 2600 could show 2 (in addition to three rectangular missile and ball objects)
If you're mimicking a spectrum game you should simulate color clash (or just make the whole game monochrome with a color border) I made a demo a while back: http://www.create-games.com/download.asp?id=6084
- Ok, you must admit that was the most creative cussing this site have ever seen -
I think limitations would do the trick. A palette restriction like 4 colors for example or size restriction like 512 KiB. I also like the 4 lines of code restriction, that would drive innovation real hard.
Me too and some sane size restriction for your *zipped* game. How about 4 colours, 16 lines of code and 64 KiB size restriction? Or isn't MMF able to create such little executable files? Anyways, I like everything lower than 512 KiB.
Well, in a couple weeks I'm going to open up voting for theme ideas for a 48 hour compo. Then the first weekend of June is when the contest will start. So look forward to that.
All platforming problems can be mostly solved here:
you could make balanced limitations to them then!
and they still could be "nes-ish", "n64-ish" and "snes-ish" consoles, just u dont have to stick to its real limitation.
Oops, sorry for that. I think I was mislead by the suggestive title and the fact that the limitations could imply consoles, but not necessarily have to.
Thankfully the GB has 4 grey values which could be a restriction for a console compo. It also has a nice tone generator for composing tunes which could be another useful restriction. The cartridge have sizes going from 256 Kib (that's 8 KiB) till 8 Mib (that's 1 MiB).
Anyways, not favoring the GB, but just to put out an example for a console compo. Sure, you should look up some more details from this system, like the number of sprites, backgrounds, screen sizes, etc... Too create a more accurate competition for this console.
Yeah I'm partly to blame for the confusion even though the topic was made some time ago shortly after my second attempt at a console wars competition was fresh in people's memories.
After having read the two original console wars competitions, I seem to understand the idea a bit more. And I noticed that everybody loves the GB limitations, not really.
The fact is you've multiple consoles, each with their own set of limitations and you should choose what you like best for creating your console game. And there is actually no deadline, so it's not really a competition then. Since I think a competition should include a deadline.
Keep in mind that most competitions needs a number of incarnations before the rules and judging are set out right.
I'am not sure which limitations should be applied to this console compo, but maybe something like: one custom 16 colors palette, compressed 4MiB size including everything, maximum resolution of 320x240, 4 layers, 64 sprites, 8-dir keypad with 4 buttons: A, B, C start, console style sounds and music ...
Sounds and music isn't really my best part that's why I putted in the dots (...) maybe someone can fill in the blanks on them?
O and I probably forgot to mention the magazine part All entries will have a little review in a magazine for this compo, could this be an online magazine? Like a little website with reviews, screens, downloads, final scores, etc...
What about the compo length Should it be like a month? A week or two weeks? Meaning it should run in the summer holiday or could be held along a smaller set of vacation days?
Graphics dimensions from sprites/tiles/backgrounds could also be limited which technically only means a limitation of your sprites and layers any further. With a maximum of 128x128, you need 3 sprites or layers to cover 1 background. And actually I don't think these kind of limitations are meaningful, just like the "you can only have 10 sprites per scanline" limitation. But what do you guys think?
Maybe limitations should be something else besides having to do with Consoles eh?
How about restricting the sizes of the characters and enemies (bosses could have a different size requirement, maybe HUGE)
Or restrict the way it's made a bit ... lets say something like 5 levels within ONE frame.
Perhaps restrict it to complete total non-violence and no educational/school themes either, .. no weapons or fighting, and no learning games. It might seem tough but not really cause it'd leave you themes like pizza delivery, taxi, bus driver, restaurant management, hacky sack, jumprope, avoid/evade games, drawing, puzzles, sports, multiple choice story driven text games, etc.
How about limiting it by type? .. a scrolling 2.5d Beat-em-up game contest, or a one vs. one tournament fighter game contest.
Make your own Mr. Potato Head Contest?
Building blocks game contest?
Mega Man knockoff contest?
Favorite FairyTale as a game, contest?
Hentai game contest?
Romance/dating themed game contest?
Game with a shapeshifter as the hero contest?
Unicorns, Leprechauns, Rainbows and Rainbow Trout contest?
Giant sized main character contest?
Why are so many competitions about different console's limitations anyway? What's the point?, if you want it a little more difficult (or easier depending on your outlook) then you could just add a number of colors limit on top of the theme, 3 or 4 is a good limit (not counting the clear color of course).
Edit: you know, technically, this thread shouldn't even be in this section as it's only meant to announce contests and declare their winners. That's it.
Blood of the Ancient One, Seen only as Shadow, Faster than Lightning, Fierce as the Greatest Dragon, Nearly Invisible, Floating in a Dream, Entered through the Demon Door, Destroyer of Evil in a Realm with a Red Sky Scarred, Who could I be ?
But yeah there's no difference between making a limitation for no reason whatsoever and making a limitation because thats what a particular (imaginary) hardware is limited to.
I thought it might make it a bit more fun if there was something more than just 'here's an idea now make games'.
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Edited by AndyUK
let's do it!!
jenswa.neocities.org
All entries will have a little review in a magazine for this compo, could this be an online magazine? Like a little website with reviews, screens, downloads, final scores, etc...
