There is teams of three. Each team will develop a for a different console. The console which has the best line-up of games wins the console war.
Real World Example:
Team 1: SNES
Games: Super Mario World
Super Metroid
A Link to the Past
Team 2: Mega Drive/Genesis
Games: Sonic the Hedgehog
Battletoads
Mortal Kombat II
Team 3: Neo-Geo
Games: Metal Slug 3
Nam-1975
Blazing Star
Team 4: TurboGrafx-16
Games: Bonk's Revenge
Bomberman '93
R-Type
Except the Consoles would be based on your post above. One has the best graphics, one has the most power, two have the other combinations.
Originally Posted by Slowbro I have an idea for this. Make it team based.
There is teams of three. Each team will develop a for a different console. The console which has the best line-up of games wins the console war.
Real World Example:
Team 1: SNES
Games: Super Mario World
Super Metroid
A Link to the Past
Team 2: Mega Drive/Genesis
Games: Sonic the Hedgehog
Battletoads
Mortal Kombat II
Team 3: Neo-Geo
Games: Metal Slug 3
Nam-1975
Blazing Star
Team 4: TurboGrafx-16
Games: Bonk's Revenge
Bomberman '93
R-Type
Except the Consoles would be based on your post above. One has the best graphics, one has the most power, two have the other combinations.
Thats a good idea. A crack team of inhouse developers getting the launch line up ready lol. Perhaps we could bundle the entries together as a sort of pack in demo disk for each console. Just so that people don't have to finish their games (as some people don't)
This is what I had in mind for selecting specs. We can either invent one computer per person or have various computers then get teams together later on.
Standard computer specification (no enhancements)
256x192 screen resolution
8 colours from a palette of 16
32 unique background objects
16 unique sprites
1 layer only + separate background colour
no more than 30 frames per second
128k ram (mfa files have to be 128k or less)
double pixel width
3 channel sound (square wave, triangle wave, saw wave, noise etc)
Choose list 1 or list 2. Pick 4 from list 1 or 2 from list 2.
Enhancements - Pick 5 from the list below
Square pixels
4 channel sound
samples allowed in music (but only 3 channels unless you also choose 4 channel sound)
16 colours (you can choose any 16 colours)
64 unique background objects
32 unique sprites
Transparency
256x224 resolution
2 Layers
Status bars or Huds with their own unique palette
256kb ram (mfa can be up to 256kb)
Enhancements 2 - Pick 3 from the list below
Unlimited sound
Unlimited layers
1mb ram (mfa can be 1mb)
320x240 resolution
128 unique background objects
16 colours + sprites have their own 16 colour palette ( you can choose any colour)
Graphical extensions or effects allowed (Mode 7, resize/scale, ink effects, alpha channel etc)
Ok Ive come to the conclusion there isn't likely to be enough people contributing to have several teams i'm afraid. there were never many entries on previous Console wars competitions...
256x192 screen resolution
8 colours (you can define your palette)
32 unique background objects (max 16x16)
32 unique sprites (max 16x16)
1 layer only + separate background colour
128k maximum rom size (game can't exceed 128kb)
3 channel sound (square wave, triangle wave, saw wave, noise etc)
Pixel explosions and fire effects etc and Text don't count towards the object limit.
double pixel length background
sprites use only 3 colours + tranparent
Game carts can come equipped with up to 5 additional add-ons. These add to the price of the cart but
allow for better looking or sounding games.
Enhancements - Pick up to 5 from the list below
Square pixels
4 Channel digital sound chip
Sprites and Backgrounds get their own 8 colour palette (16 colours + background)
64 unique background objects (max 32x32)
64 unique sprites (max 32x32)
Enhanced graphics chip allowing for semi Transparency effects, rotation, resizing, distortion etc.
256x224 resolution
2 Layers + allows for a gradient background instead of a single colour
Active picture objects or text blitter allowed (to load images from external sources)
256kb rom (game can't exceed 256kb)
As with Nes and Snes carts, games can come equipped with extra hardware at an additional cost.
These can be calculated later on and maybe we can write out reviews for the other games too.
Say a game would normally cost £15. Add £2.50 for each add on up to a maximum of 5.
I'm in but i have a question. Can we use the Quick Backdrop object to create long backdrops? Strange question i know but if it obeys the 16x16 limit i assume it would be ok.
Originally Posted by lembi2001 I'm in but i have a question. Can we use the Quick Backdrop object to create long backdrops? Strange question i know but if it obeys the 16x16 limit i assume it would be ok.
I'm in. I'm just debating inside myself whether or not I should go for the 64 uniques/32x32 enhancement. I kinda wanna limit myself, but I feel like the idea I have wouldn't work that small.
That would be a problem. But I mean for you to just have an MFA,CCA or GAM file + any outside files Zipped or Rar'd.
If you want to include an executable in order for those without MMF2 to actually play the game then feel free to do so. I just feel the source is a more accurate equivalent to a rom image.
Originally Posted by AndyUK That would be a problem. But I mean for you to just have an MFA,CCA or GAM file + any outside files Zipped or Rar'd.
If you want to include an executable in order for those without MMF2 to actually play the game then feel free to do so. I just feel the source is a more accurate equivalent to a rom image.
Thanks for clearing that up, but you might want to rethink the memory limits. a blank mfa is 260kb lol
Thanks for clearing that up, but you might want to rethink the memory limits. a blank mfa is 260kb lol
Maybe set the limits to 388Kb and 516Kb respectively (this factors in the 260Kb base file)?
As opposed to simple blank files, are there any other additions brought into MFA files when graphics and sound are added? I mean, in addition to the size of an audio file, are additional functions added to the MFA that increase file size? Perhaps all this needs to be double-checked prior to limiting file sizes...Although I do certainly agree in spirit that the file size limits should be followed.
Originally Posted by AndyUK That would be a problem. But I mean for you to just have an MFA,CCA or GAM file + any outside files Zipped or Rar'd.
If you want to include an executable in order for those without MMF2 to actually play the game then feel free to do so. I just feel the source is a more accurate equivalent to a rom image.
Thanks for clearing that up, but you might want to rethink the memory limits. a blank mfa is 260kb lol
I just made a blank mfa. it's 19kb for me. When zipped it's 9kb.
What I really want to do is clarify exactly how much of your game is just the code, graphics, music, whether internal or external. So it's a totally level playing field. MMF2 exes are bigger than say. TGF1 exes.
Instead of imposing a memory limit why not impose an object limit? This would get around the overhead issue. For example, for the basic limits set the maximum number of objects on screen at any one time a maximum of 20.
I guess we could have an object limitation. although I don't want new rules added in the middle of the thread so people can easily miss them.
But... I guess it would be cool if more than 20 visible active objects causes slowdown, bar text. Say... half the frame rate. More than 30 halves it again.
Let me know if your game uses tons of objects. Don't want to render anyone's work useless.
I have a problem getting objects to be active and non-active. I'd like a counter that only shows objects that are visible in the frame so we can actually have a sprite/object limit of some sort.
The only way i can think of is to have a mask and an animation object for every sprite so i can easily display a certain amount at once and be able to see how many are in a frame.
Originally Posted by Akai_R Or you could include a blank mfa with your game when you post it. Just an idea!
If someone else posts his or her game before you, you could take that mfa (that might be larger than yours) and say it's one you generated.
Maybe you could post a blank MFA file, and make everyone download that as the source file with which they would build their project. Watermark it in some sneaky way so that you know that your blank MFA is the one you created.
Originally Posted by Akai_R Or you could include a blank mfa with your game when you post it. Just an idea!
If someone else posts his or her game before you, you could take that mfa (that might be larger than yours) and say it's one you generated.
Maybe you could post a blank MFA file, and make everyone download that as the source file with which they would build their project. Watermark it in some sneaky way so that you know that your blank MFA is the one you created.
I have a sneaky feeling that as soon as you open the blank mfa and edit it the file size is inflated dependant on your build and extensions.
I have temporarily postponed work on my game until we have established exactly what this limitation is going to be.
It looks like there are far too many variables to be able to include a filesize limit.
But we can still limit the amount of frames or the size of each frame. I guess the size of the frame roughly corresponds to the amount of Ram in a console/computer? So i guess it kind of makes sense.
Ive been trying to make some reliable flicker when there's more than 20 objects on screen. So basically if there's more than 20 'sprites' they will randomly vanish until there's only 20 showing.
But it's not working properly.
So for now i'm just going to actually make the game.
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Edited by Fish20
jenswa.neocities.org
