40x30 EGA Contest

[ShannonSmith]

Can I get expressions of interest for a 40x30 EGA game contest. Would be similar in format to Java4K, several months long ending around July.
Applets only, 40x30 pixel canvas with colours only from the EGA palette.

Eg:

[Orangy Tang]

I'd be interested in something like that.

[teletubo]

I would as well !

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[Alan_W]

So we can have 16 colours from a palette of 64 colour based on two bits each for Red, Green, Blue?
40 x 30 pixels.
- It'll need a really small font 8x6, maybe proportional to fit in the maximum number of characters.
- I wonder if I can do any antialiasing with that limited colour set to get subpixel rendering - Only 16 colours - custom drawing routines?

It would be an interesting challenge.

Edit: A quick go at antialiasing down to 16 colours of EGA palette.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/alan.d.waddington/images/bird30x40EGAzoom4.gifhttp://homepage.ntlworld.com/alan.d.waddington/images/bird30x40EGA64zoom4.gif
| ----------Original---------- | ---------16 Colour--------- | ---------64 Colour--------- |

[Abuse]

Wow, that's 1728 screens if it was a 1080p play area!

[teletubo]

I think it could also do with 80x60 ... why not to be a little different from the other contest ?

[ShannonSmith]

I think it could also do with 80x60 ... why not to be a little different from the other contest ?

Other contest?

So we can have 16 colours from a palette of 64 colour based on two bits each for Red, Green, Blue?

Any colours from the full EGA palette, the 16 colour at a time limit is a bit impractical. I think we just want a retro-feel rather than trying to adhere strictly to all the limitations of EGA controllers.

Wow, that's 1728 screens if it was a 1080p play area!

I think we will up-scale to 4x so you don't have to squint while playing,  we will still be easily able to fit all the entries on a single web page.

[teletubo]

Other contest?
 

the one from the screenshot you posted here

[ShannonSmith]

It wasn't a contest, I was just playing around after I saw the 40x30 EGA version of Eye of the Beholder Markus did and thought I had to have a go. I think it makes a great format for a contest and I just posted it as an example.

[Eli Delventhal]

I'd be very interested - Java 4k always gets on my nerves because of how much effort I have to put into compression. Being able to make whatever I want with a very small resolution instead? Awesome! Great idea. Whenever you get this rolling I'll sponsor it with a subforum and all my modly powers.

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[teletubo]

It wasn't a contest, I was just playing around after I saw the 40x30 EGA version of Eye of the Beholder Markus did and thought I had to have a go. I think it makes a great format for a contest and I just posted it as an example.

Ops, sorry I misunderstood you .

I'd be very interested - Java 4k always gets on my nerves because of how much effort I have to put into compression. 
Being able to make whatever I want with a very small resolution instead? Awesome! Great idea.

That's exact the same reason I don't bother joining the 4K contests

[ShannonSmith]

Ok, well that's certainly enough interest. It would be awesome if we got another contest as popular as 4k but 6 months out of phase. 4k finishes at the end of Feburary so how about end of August.

Demonpants if you want to go and create a sub-forum and move this post there that would be awesome, but we should probably come up with a catchier name than 40x30EGA first though.

[kappa]

sounds like a great idea, I'd enter.

Whenever you get this rolling I'll sponsor it with a subforum and all my modly powers.

winner gets to hold the unique forum rank of 'Pixel Master' until the next contest where he must defend his title

[Eli Delventhal]

Ok, well that's certainly enough interest. It would be awesome if we got another contest as popular as 4k but 6 months out of phase. 4k finishes at the end of Feburary so how about end of August.

Demonpants if you want to go and create a sub-forum and move this post there that would be awesome, but we should probably come up with a catchier name than 40x30EGA first though.

What about Like Eegeeay?

No. That's stupid.

Pixel Press? Tiny Game? Java Mini?

[ShannonSmith]

I'm terrible at coming up with names. I could never do a game with a proper story because I would get stuck trying to come up with character names.

PixelBash
PixelJam
MicroJam
?

[moogie]

I'd be very interested - Java 4k always gets on my nerves because of how much effort I have to put into compression. Being able to make whatever I want with a very small resolution instead? Awesome! Great idea. Whenever you get this rolling I'll sponsor it with a subforum and all my modly powers.

interesting, it is the challenge of compressing a fully fledged game into the 4k limit that appeals to me... compression is one fun part of it

a 40x30 pixel comp is an interesting and different challenge. I will have to think about what game would lend its self to such a small resolution

[ShannonSmith]

a 40x30 pixel comp is an interesting and different challenge. I will have to think about what game would lend its self to such a small resolution

Try opening a paint program and create a 40x30 pixel image. Start drawing a few pixels and I think you will amazed at how many ideas start flowing.
Also I think 40x30 pixel remakes have a lot of potential: Mario Bros, Street Fighter, Prince of Persia could all work at that resolution.

[kappa]

I hope 30x40 will be allowed too, better for stuff like shmups

[Eli Delventhal]

Imagine if we have everyone's entry running all at once on the same page (as applets).

[ShannonSmith]

I think having them all on the same page would be awesome but it would be tricky to get them to all play nice with sound/focus/cpu etc.

Kapta's entry would have to go on the bottom row or he would screw with the grid layout but other than that I think having 30x40 entries as well would be fine. I'll draft up some some rules soon.

[kappa]

all entries on one page would be really cool, however I'm not sure running multiple applets on one page is such a good idea, I'd hate to see what it'd do to a computer with java plugin1 installed (applet dos attack)

we could do something like warioware though where you have a menu and just pick a game to play.

[fruitmaze]

It sounds very interesting, but not sure if I have understood it correctly. Does the applet have to be 40x30 px big? Isn't that going to be very very small to play on? Or should you be able to play it in full screen?

[kappa]

I'm going for a 40x30 game, however when its run as an applet its scaled x10 the original size (400x300).

[pjt33]

I might be interested.

[ShannonSmith]

Does the applet have to be 40x30 px big? Isn't that going to be very very small to play on? Or should you be able to play it in full screen?

40x30 pixels, optionally scaled up by a factor to make it a bit more playable. I think 4x scaling works pretty well (160x120), any bigger than that and it's starts to look too blocky.

[CaptainJester]

I would give it a try too.

[fruitmaze]

I see, well maybe 400x300 might work as well. Anyway sounds like a fun challange! I will definitely give it a try. But how will we post our contributions? Will we upload our applets to a common server from where they can be played, or just post links to our own pages where the applet is?

[ShannonSmith]

Ideally we would have a similar setup to Java4K but we would need to find a clone of appel willing to put the time and energy into hosting. I would love too but I'm afraid I really don't really have the time. I think for the first contest it will be host your own, if it is half as successful as Java4K and we decide to do it annually then we will really need to get a website for it.

[jimsmi6]

Ideally we would have a similar setup to Java4K but we would need to find a clone of appel willing to put the time and energy into hosting. I would love too but I'm afraid I really don't really have the time. I think for the first contest it will be host your own, if it is half as successful as Java4K and we decide to do it annually then we will really need to get a website for it.

This sounds like an awesome idea. I'm also up for participating in this.

I've wanted to make something similar ever since I saw that Trogdor flash game (http://www.homestarrunner.com/trogdor.html).

As for scaling, I've been messing around in GIMP for the past couple minutes with the example you posted. It seems like either 4x (as you noted) or 8x would be the best option.

Edit: Here's some code that has all of the EGA spec RGB values in it. It's a bit ugly but if anyone wants to optimize it then go ahead: http://pastie.org/916717

[zammbi]

Sounds like a great idea. I been meaning to do a contest, this one I might do and then port it over to android.