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2020 RESET64 C64 Craptastic 4KB Game Competition Results

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Thanks to the competitors, judges, sponsors and everyone in between for making the Reset64 2020 4kb Craptastic Game Competition our most successful yet! Also, a special thank-you to Richard Bayliss for once again compiling the official compilation disk. It was an amazing competition with a record 38 entries making the deadline. Each of these games are an outstanding achievement and it was great to have both novice and experienced coders participating and exploring their ideas.

The expert judges this year are Rob Caporetto, Andrew Fisher, Raj Singh, Richard Tappenden, Paul Koller, Louie Dimovski and Andrew Hayes. We couldn’t have done it without the judges, who extensively played, critiqued and reviewed each of the 38 games. There was a lot of variation between scores from each judge, which illustrates just how different concepts appeal to different people! Overall, it was a very close competition and there wasn’t much separating each placing.

The Winner: Fall by Megastyle!

Thanks again to the compo sponsors – Bitmap Books, Protovision, Fusion Retro Books, Freeze64, K&A Plus, Puddlesoft, Megastyle, and Ready64. Please visit and support the competition sponsors. A big mega special thank-you to Ausretrogamer for hosting and publishing the compo updates and continued support!

Judges’ comments and more information about each game will be published in the near future. Until then, enjoy the games (which can be downloaded from the 2020 Craptastic page) and congratulations again to all of the entrants and winners.

PLACINGS

1. Fall – Megastyle (28.71)

2. Dots – James (28.57)

3. Jumpin Jalopies – Megastyle (27.71)

4. RodMän Jr – Misfit (27.43)

5. Bring Back My Bones – Commocore, Hose It Out – Oziphantom (27.29)

6. Orcapult – Puddlesoft (26.86)

7. Avoid – James (26.71)

8. Star Lair – Malcontent (26.43)

9. SWYD – Megastyle (26.29)

10. Blockheads – Carleton Handley (26.14)

11. Rainbow Edge Run – Geir Straume (25.29)

12. Makealevel – Monsters Go Boom (24.57)

13. Jump4k – Megastyle, Kung Poo Fighter – Megastyle (24.43)

14. Al-Bert – Derek (23.86)

15. Ewe Woz Ere – DESIGN/chaos, WYR – Malcontent (23.57)

16. Mini Danmaku 64 – Cogitare Computing  (23.43)

17. Stacks – Derek (23.29)

18. A Day in the Life of a Teleporter (BASIC 10 Liner version) – Roman Werner, Flappy Space – Megastyle (22.86)

19. Spunk v.s. The Rest – Twain Pain Games (22.57)

20. Plazzle – Goerp (22.29)

21. Dodonuts – DESIGN/chaos (21.71)

22. Make Them Jump 2K – map/Plush (21.57)

23. Snout About – Nick Sherman (21.29)

24. Fight – Megastyle (21)

25. MeteorMath – fancollector1980 (20.57)

26. Parking Ticket – Ruerob (20.29)

27. A Day in the Life of a Teleporter – ZeHa (19.71)

28. Customs – Vk4mx (19.29)

29. Zzaped in the Butt! – TND (18.71)

30. Kugelblitz – Haplo (17.43)

31. Cover Fire! – Jammer (17.29)

32. Country Pop – Tomaes (16.17)

33. 1991 USSR deep space probe control centre janitor – Goerp (15.71)

34. Rescue64 – Syed (12.43)

Dots

Jumpin Jalopies

RodMän Jr

Bring Back My Bones

Hose It Out

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Unkle K / Reset C64
Father, husband, teacher and retro gaming/computer enthusiast! Editor of Reset64 C64 magazine.

Follow Reset C64 on Twitter

2020 Reset64 4KB Craptastic Game Competition

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We’re excited to announce the 2020 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!

2018 Craptastic Comp Winner: Conga 4098 by Paul Koller

In the previous competitions (2016 and 2018), 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 RESET64 (via email) by 30th June, 2020 (23:59 GMT).

Take a look at our page for the 2018 Craptastic Comp Winners and download the games!

RULES

Even a craptastic comp needs some basic rules, so here they are:

  • The competition deadline is 23:59 GMT on the 30th June, 2020. All entries to be submitted to [email protected]
  • All entrants must register at [email protected]
  • Entrants are free to preview screenshots and videos of their game(s) to other publications/websites.
  • The competition will only begin when there are at least 5 registered entrants.
  • All submitted games MUST be 4KB or less (when compressed or uncompressed), and executable on a stock C64 on either or each of tape, disk and cartridge. Your submission may have a separate docs file (either as a C64 executable or a txt file, which doesn’t count towards the 4KB cap).
  • The games must be previously unreleased and your own work, whether that be by yourself or as part of a collaboration.
  • PAL must be supported, with additional NTSC support optional (but encouraged).
  • Participants may submit multiple entries, either as an individual or within a team. Team entries must be registered by an individual, and any potential prizes will be sent to the registered individual only.
  • Entries should be submitted exclusively to RESET64 by the competition deadline. Please feel free to share your entry as you wish after the competition has ended (after the compo deadline has passed).
  • There will be a panel of judges (TBA), and entries will be scored on a point distribution basis across several criteria. The decision of the panel is final.
  • Games must be submitted as freeware.
  • Games will be published (not necessarily exclusively) on a future disk compilation for the whole world to enjoy, after the competition has concluded.

We reserve the right to change, add or delete rules during the competition if deemed necessary!

3rd place in the 2018 Craptastic Comp: Snake-a-Space by Jamie & Molly Fuller.

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 and 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.

PLEASE NOTE: 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.

PRIZES

A craptastic gaming comp requires craptastic prizes, right? We have some fantastic prizes lined up for this year’s comp thanks to some very generous sponsors.

A big thank-you to the following sponsors and supporters:

ausretrogamer

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Unkle K / Reset64
Official Twitter account for Reset64 Magazine – dedicated to the world’s favourite 8-bit computer!

Follow Reset64 Magazine on Twitter

 

 

 

 

Sam’s Journey on THEC64 Mini

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The greatest ever Commodore 64 platformer (yes, it is!), Sam’s Journey has now been tweaked to play natively on THEC64 Mini!

When C64 games publisher and our very good friends at Protovision gave us the news that they are working with Knights of Bytes to bring us a THEC64 Mini version of Sam’s Journey, we must admit, there were lots of high-fives around the office.

If you don’t know anything about Sam’s Journey, well, all you need to know is that it is an absolutely sublime platformer and one of the best games released for the C64 in the past decade.

So what’s different about this version you may ask? Well, this version permits the THEC64 Mini user to read and start the game from a USB stick, making the previous workarounds totally obsolete. THEC64 Mini version also allows the user to jump by means of the additional buttons where you previously had to use the “joystick up” move. Oh yeah, this version of Sam’s Journey also takes advantage of better loading routines (taking advantage of the latest THEC64 Mini firmware).

If you have THEC64 Mini, then this special version of Sam’s Journey is a must! The download package is available via Protovision as well as on itch.io. If you already own Sam’s Journey, then you are in luck, as this special version is available free of charge to you!

 

Galencia on Steam!

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The 2017 C64 GOTY, Galencia is now on Steam! So for those that missed out on Jason Aldred’s brilliant shmup on the C64, you are in luck, just head to Steam and buy it immediately!

If you are asking yourself, what is Galencia, then let us enlighten you – Galencia is a tribute to the great ‘stars and space’ shooters from the 1980’s, a love letter to Galaga and similar games from the golden age of arcade games.

Thanks to the awesome Jason Aldred, we have 5 x Galencia Steam keys to giveaway! All you have to do is tell us what your fave shoot’em up is on Twitter or Facebook (you must follow us and/or Like our page to be in the running).

The Galencia Steam keys giveaway will close at 4:00pm on July 31 (Australia Eastern Standard Time). Giveaway winners will be announced on August 1! So go on, what are you waiting for, hit Twitter and Facebook!

The lowdown:

Oh yeah, Galencia on Steam is enjoying a 40% launch discount, so go and get pew, pew, pewing!

PS: Jason has informed us that there is a sequel in the works, Galencia: Khaos Sphere that you can back right now on Indiegogo!

 

Galencia Blasts Onto Your C64

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Fire up your trusty Commodore 64 and grab Jason Aldred’s brilliant new shoot’em up Galencia.

For those that have been away on Mars and have just landed back on Earth, Galencia is a fast action shoot ’em up for the C64 in the mould of Galaga, but even better! Yes, it is that good that we reckon it is even better than Galaga – there, we said it.

Galencia features 50 action packed levels with asteroid fields, challenging stages, boss battles, ebb and flow difficulty curve and siren enemy with tractor beam for double ship action (Ed: oo’er!). The game includes gorgeous intro, launch and completion sequences, coupled with 6 unique SID chiptunes for your aural pleasure.

Blast-Off!

But wait, there is more! In-game options include:

  • Load, Save and Reset High Scores
  • Extensive CRT options including 3 levels of Starfield Brightness
  • 3 different Score Palettes
  • Tournament Mode
  • Music and Simultaneous Sound Effects or Sound Effects only
  • 3 selectable difficulty levels; and
  • Pause and Quit game options

There are many great people behind great games, just like the peeps that had a hand in creating Galencia. We can all thank these talented group of people for making such a wonderful and sublime game:

  • Jason Aldred: programming and graphics
  • Pulsebot: all music and some sound effects
  • Saul Cross: additional graphics and sound effects
  • Lobo: physical artwork including box and manual
  • Mark Hardisty: manual back cover illustration
  • Flemming Dupont: concept art
  • Jakob Chen-Voos: Protovison

Even the great Julian ‘Jaz’ Rignall gives his sizzling approval!

You can grab the digital version right now via itch.io for US$4.99 (which is an absolute steal!), or for the more traditionalists among us, Galencia will be available on physical media from Friday, November 17 via Protovision Games, just take a look at these tangible temptations:

  • Cassette (without box) €10.00 – comes on a green cassette with a j-card that can be flipped around for an alternative cover picture. The tape comes in a neon green jewel case (front side is fully transparent, only back is neon green).
  • Cassette (boxed) €30.00
  • Disk (boxed) €30.00
  • Cartridge (boxed) €40.00
  • Disk and Cartridge Special Edition (boxed) €50.00

All boxed editions of Galencia will come in a fully printed cardboard box with custom inlays to hold the disk, tape or cartridge, which will also include:

  • a full colour manual with 16 carefully designed pages (A5 sized),
  • Galencia coaster with a scratch free glass surface,
  • Bee key ring that can serve you as a trophy when you battle against vermin,
  • Big Galencia sticker that you can stick on your disk sleeve if you have the disk version; and
  • While stocks last – the first 200 boxed version orders will receive an additional small Galencia sticker!

With the Disk and Cartridge special edition, both physical media will be in the one box with all of the above inclusions, plus a space amulet that is much needed in higher levels of Galencia, as it has been reported to promote good fortune!

Oh yeah, the game works on both PAL and NTSC C64 computers, with all physical editions containing the tape and disk digital images. If you don’t have a C64, then emulation is fully supported through VICE.

So what are you waiting for, go and pilot the 1981 Galencia Fighter to restore order, before it’s too late!

The game is never over!

The eyes have it!

Credit where credit is due

Tough choice – will you grab Galencia on cart?

On disk?

Or on tape? The choice is yours (you can’t go wrong!)

Time to squash some bugs!

Go on, get blastin’

image source: Jason Aldred – Galencia HQ