The Pop-Culture E-Zine
Kevin Lieber of Vsauce2 fame checks out the old, interesting and weirdly obscure 10kg portable CP/M machine, the Zorba!
Now imagine lugging this beast around to play video games like Zork! That is exactly what Kevin does as he dives into the complexity of this early text adventure which paved the way for the Skyrims and Witchers of today 😉
source: Vsauce2
We’re excited to announce the 2018 Reset C64 4KB game coding competition. This year’s competition theme is once again…. Craptastic!
“What the bloom’n heck does craptastic mean?”, I hear you ask.
It certainly doesn’t mean crap, although it can! Craptastic can mean ludicrous, bonkers, outrageous, funny, wacky, far out, and silly. The theme simply implies that the compo is just for a bit of fun, not a serious coding competition. You are more than welcome to make an excellent game to submit for the compo. Your game may contain some humour or silliness to fit more with the theme, but it doesn’t have to!
2016 Craptastic Comp Winner: Goblin by Vanja Utne / Pond Software
In the 2016 competition, some entries were truly excellent, others excellent but silly, others truly awful but funny! It’s just a chance for people to do something a little different if they wish and explore ideas/concepts that wouldn’t normally work well in a more serious compo.
Please remember that this competition is limited to 4KB. Yes, any entry submitted can be no more than 4KB when compressed. If your game is more than 1 file, then all the files put together must not exceed the 4KB limit.
We want craptastic game entries! Remember, the key word here is fun! We want both coders and players alike to have fun and enjoy this comp!
Submit your entries to RESET (via email) by 30th June, 2018 (23:59 GMT).
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RULES
Basic rules are as follows:
4th place in the 2016 Craptastic Comp: Bonkey Kong by Graham Axten / Pond Software
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SCORING SYSTEM
The scoring rules are very simple. Depending on the number of entries, the judges will award points to each game over several criteria (as discussed below). If there are 6 entries, 6 points go to the best, then 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 to the worst.
If a panel member has entered a game themselves, then the number of points that they can award will be adjusted (in this example, to 5) and they will not score their own release.
The criteria that each game will be evaluated on are:
Originality – New idea or “rip off”? Off the wall ideas encouraged.
Concept – Quality of game design, is it fun, is it bonkers, is it craptastic?
Execution – Execution of design, taking into account controls, NTSC/GS compatibility.
Presentation – Quality of graphics, audio and overall presentation. Supremely bad can be seen as a positive in some cases!
Gameplay – A measure of how enjoyable the game is to play.
Lasting Appeal – replay value, addictiveness.
OMG factor – when you see it, do you think “wtf!?” This is the true measure of craptasticness!
When the panel has scored each game accordingly, the totals for each criteria will be divided by the number of judges to produce a mean average. These averages are then added together for each game to give a final score.
CSDB will not be used for voting. Also, entries should not be uploaded to CSDB, or elsewhere until after the competition has closed. Feel free to post screenshots or info though.
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PRIZES
A craptastic gaming comp requires craptastic prizes, right? Actual prizes and more sponsors will be announced soon!
For now, a big thank-you to the following sponsors for their support.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
So, what are you waiting for? Get coding, and remember, have fun!!
Previous competition (to help you get inspired): http://csdb.dk/event/?id=2483
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Unkle K / Reset C64
Father, husband, teacher and retro gaming/computer enthusiast! Editor of Reset… C64 magazine.
Follow Reset C64 on Twitter
Consider yourself a top Galaga player? Then you only have till March 1 to qualify for a chance to be flown over to Score Wars (in Sante Fe, New Mexico) by Meow Wolf to compete for the $10,000 top prize!
So what are you waiting for, get on over to the Score Wars website now to register your high score!
source: Score Wars
We love our video game reviews and descriptions to be short, sharp and most importantly, witty!
Luckily for us JB Hi-Fi staff have a knack to nail their game reviews and descriptions. Who needs to read pages full of text when you can just rock up at a JB Hi-Fi and get informed on the spot.
Here are (quite) a few JB staff write-ups that caught our eye today:
A very cool video of the evolution of Nintendo consoles by our good friends at GameSpot Today I Learned!
Before some of you say, “But where is the Game Boy, DS and 3DS?”, relax, this is the evolutionary line of their consoles, not their handhelds. Having said that, it seems like the Virtual Boy doesn’t fit in any category 🙁
How many Nintendo consoles have you owned since their Color TV-Game 6?
source: GameSpot Today I Learned
We’ll keep this short and sweet – if you want to realise your childhood dreams of making a new (cartridge based) playable game for the NES but don’t have the necessary coding expertise, then hit the NESMaker Kickstarter immediately. Hurry up, ’cause there are only a few hours left to secure this awesome bit of dev-kit!
Go on, unleash your inner game developer without the need of coding skills!
PS: Don’t worry about funding, the project has already blown waaaaay past its goal and has unlocked a number of stretch targets!
source: The New 8-Bit Heroes
By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.
When I was little and I would get my weekly allowance, I would run to my local arcade and play Bally Midway’s Rampage; one of the greatest arcade games ever made. Warm memories of turning cities to rubble with George, Ralph or Lizzie’s fists are still fresh.
I felt disgusted when I saw the trailer for the new film based on the Rampage video game starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. It actually made me a little angry. My first thought: Does Hollywood have to suck the life out of everything 1980’s nostalgia? Can’t they leave Rampage alone – something that brought me so much joy when I was a child.
I saw the Rampage trailer before I watched Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. If Johnson can make Rampage as fun as Jumanji, the film just might work.
image source: Den Of Geek
Rampage was such a unique game. I hated getting hit with dynamite thrown by soldiers out of high-rise windows. There was something satisfying about causing so much destruction on each level. I usually played as Lizzie, a Godzilla-like dinosaur/lizard transformed by a radioactive lake. I chose Lizzie because I was a super fan of Godzilla movies when I was little.
The sounds of the arcade game are iconic. The familiar sounds of punching a building to pieces and reducing it to a pile of bricks gives me a childlike, reminiscent delight. The hardest part of the game was knowing if the people who appeared in the skyscraper windows were good or bad. Some were there to give you food, others were there to be saved for points, and some were there to throw explosives at you. The latter were the ones that made the game so challenging.
image source: The Arcade Flyer Archive
The helicopters that attacked you from above were my favorite part. There was nothing more gratifying than punching one of them out of the sky and watching the chopper explode. Punching the vehicles below you, like taxi cabs and railcars, was oddly gratifying as a kid as well.
I hope in the film they have soldiers and helicopters firing at the large creatures. That could be entertaining if the CGI team push their skills to the maximum. I believe the film is set in Chicago, a city that was on the dateline in the classic arcade game.
The filmmakers could do something original and exceptional with Rampage. Although, the track record of the quality of recent video game adaptations has been dreadful.
If we had a dollar for every time we have been asked to list our favourite Atari Jaguar games, well, we’d be able to buy a few Snickers bars. Jesting aside, you can stop Googling for the ‘best atari jaguar games‘ as we present to you, the definitive list (in no particular order) of the best Atari Jaguar games of all time*
*List may change when another awesome Jag homebrew title is released!
Before you get all, “But where the hell is AVP?”, relax, it’s a great game, so it makes the honorary list:
So there you have it. What do you reckon, agree or disagree? What are your fave Atari Jaguar games?
PS: If you want to have a robust discussion about our choices, hit us up on Twitter or Facebook.
“In a world of fun and fantasy, and ever changing views
And computer terminology, Commodore is news
Are you keeping up with the Commodore?
‘Cause the Commodore’s keeping up with you“
If you remember this (in)famous 80s jingle, you’ll know that it was for a particular 8-bit micro computer.
If you were curled up in bed this morning and missed the chat about all things Commodore 64 (and the comeback with the new THEC64 Mini) on Nic Healey’s 2SER Breakfast show, then you are in luck – go and listen to it over here!
Let the C64 legacy live on!
If you were like us, you may have backed New Wave Toys’ first Kickstarter which was a Replicade Centipede mini arcade machine.
When we got the note that their Replicade X Tempest mini arcade was now live on Kickstarter, we jumped on it right away! Yes, we broke our first New Year’s resolution – no backing Kickstarters in 2018, but we made an exception for this, cause it is that good.
The Replicade X Tempest Kickstarter has already blown past its goal, so this will happen and we can’t wait! For everyone that went gaga at our photos of the insert coin light up keychain, here is your chance to grab one by backing this campaign with as little as $25USD.
Instead of regurgitating all about New Wave Toys’ Replicade X Tempest mini arcade right here, why don’t you go and check out the Kickstarter now and decide for yourself.
source: Replicade X Tempest on Kickstarter