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 »

The Eagle Has Landed! I am now in The Fens and I can see for miles out my bedroom window. Already I have the internet set up. That bald Australian with initials "RM" might not be so horrible after all.

Because of the change of connection, Thunderbird threw a hissy fit and forced me to log into my three Gmail accounts via the web portal. And what did I find sitting there in the Spam folder, but a CSSCGC submission from 5th March! It's a "ZX81's birthday" entry as well... but we in Sinclair world are used to delivery delays! Anyway, amongst the chaos of the new house, I'll find some time to review it soon enough, although I've been up since 4:00 this morning getting a hired van back to its home safely, and I'm not going to last much longer beyond dinner time tonight.

The upshot of all this is, if you've submitted an entry and I don't acknowledge it within a day or so, try again, harangue me about it, here or anywhere else I might be found. I don't want to miss any Crap Game Action!


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

Post by TMD2003 »

END OF WEEK 13:

It's the first report from the Marshlands... and it's not good news, in that I haven't had a chance to review the recovered entry, because landing in the new house wasn't the end of the move - there was a lot more stuff to recover and I've only just finished that today. Hence, I couldn't give the entry the attention I would usually do, and rather than rushing the review and doing a half-arsed job, I'll give it my full attention tomorrow, and it'll form part of the Week 14 round-up.


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

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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, I quote from dulux.co.uk...

"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.

(Incidentally, the colour I am looking for is bright orange. If it turned up and I opened the tin to find it was lots of blobs of red and yellow that hadn't been stirred together properly I'd wonder which one of you lot was responsible!)


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

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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.


(I notice that the pace of posts on this particular sub-forum has slowed to World of Spectrum levels, but it's not just QL entries I'm short of. I haven't had anything for the Spectrum since 13th March...)


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

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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 over on Sinclair ZX World 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 (yes, you lot, this is where you come in), 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!
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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.

Important note: QL submissions are particularly welcome at this time because I've reinstalled QemuLator on my main PC, so I don't have to switch to the old laptop to use it...


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

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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 - 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. Look at the bottom of the relevant thread on Sinclair ZX World:
https://sinclairzxworld.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4179


I AM STILL WAITING FOR:
- *anything at all* for the ZX80
- 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)

And while I realise all the above may not be this forum's strength (with the possible exception of the recycling challenge, because it's every bit as possible as I believe it to be), I also want:
- MORE QL entries! (Look, I even put it in Mode 4 QL colours!)


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

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We interrupt the schedule of weekly summaries for some big news...

We have our first entry in the Green Challenge for porting... or should that be recycling games, CSSCGC or otherwise, to new systems. Tobias Fröschle has taken Einar Saukas' 10-line ZX81 text micro-adventure from 2016 - which was in itself a conversion of a Spectrum original co-authored with Digital Prawn in 2007 - and converted it for the QL! It's definitely derived from the ZX81 version, and it fits into one line of SuperBASIC.

Presenting, technically not for the first time, Minimal Caves:

Image

Do you know what this means? Well, do you?

There are now more QL entries in this year's competition than there were in its entire previous history! All the way from 1996 to 2020, there were only ever two entries, and it'd only have been one if I hadn't thrown in this masterpiece at the end of last year...

I don't know if Tobias is a member here or not - it's a bit hard to tell, but how else would he have known about the competition? Either way, those who have contributed, give yourselves a round of applause that's ever more out of tune the higher the pitch gets.

Don't let it stop here, though. There's plenty of juice left in the QL tank this year... isn't there?


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

Post by tofro »

TMD2003 wrote: I don't know if Tobias is a member here or not - it's a bit hard to tell, but how else would he have known about the competition?
Well, last time I looked, I was. ;)

I would like to emphasize that all credits for the game should in fact go to Einar, who did the original ZX81 version and its Spectrum predecessor. I just happend to come across this code and was amazed how much you can cram into how small of a program when using the two sharpest blades in the Sinclair Basic arsenal, co-ercion and string slicing - and then simply had to see if I could make it run on the QL. The QL version just adds a bit of case-insensitive string comparisons and a REPeat loop, it also profits from some simplifications thanks to string/float coercion (the ZX-81 version has quite some of VAL$/STR$ commands the QL can do without. When you look through the program, you could even cut some further bytes.

The fact that you couldn't get the file to run without a line number on JS ROMs is an interesting find: Actually, there's no reason it shouldn't, and you might indeed have found a yet (to me, at least) unknown error in the Sinclair ROMs ;)


ʎɐqǝ ɯoɹɟ ǝq oʇ ƃuᴉoƃ ʇou sᴉ pɹɐoqʎǝʞ ʇxǝu ʎɯ 'ɹɐǝp ɥO
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Re: The comp.sys.sinclair Crap Games Competition 2021: 25th edition extravaganza!

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tofro wrote:
TMD2003 wrote: I don't know if Tobias is a member here or not - it's a bit hard to tell, but how else would he have known about the competition?
Well, last time I looked, I was. ;)
That clears that up, then! I'm more likely to be able to put a name to a forum ID on Spectrum Computing (and to a lesser extent WOS) than here.
tofro wrote:I would like to emphasize that all credits for the game should in fact go to Einar, who did the original ZX81 version and its Spectrum predecessor.
Which is, in effect, what I did - with Green Challenge entries, I made it very clear in the rules to give credit to the original author, so when it came to posting the review I've made sure to show the original in the Green Challenge header. I think that works best for everyone.

Einar is a level 60 wizard when it comes to cramming as much as possible into one line of BASIC. He's a level 60 wizard at Z80 machine code, as well.
tofro wrote:The fact that you couldn't get the file to run without a line number on JS ROMs is an interesting find: Actually, there's no reason it shouldn't, and you might indeed have found a yet (to me, at least) unknown error in the Sinclair ROMs ;)
As should be reasonably obvious in the time I've been here, I'm no QL expert. I saw in your original message you'd tried this program on QemuLator with Minerva and QPC2, but I thought I'd see what happens on QemuLator with JS for good measure. The microdrive-image light came on, it went off again, nothing happened, nothing executed, there was no cursor, and it didn't matter whether I tried LRUN or LOAD. Adding a line number - i.e. breaking your "sophisticated copy protection" - made it work on JS, but I intended to review your original file, rather than one I had to modify, even slightly. Switching to Minerva, it worked every time, so that's what I posted.

Of course, if you've got any more where that came from - maybe even something of your own composition - I'll run my careful eye over it!


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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