New Contest?

[Retroo]

So i was thinking its about time for a new contest. So im making a topic to see interest/ideas for themes. Then we can ask an admin to make an topic in the contest board. So what do you guys think? 

[personitis]

I'm honestly interested but the motif and time frame will determine if I enter myself. At least if something does kick off, we'll have more hacks to play. :bounce:

[RealRed]

I'm up for a contest if the contest is "see who can crack the demo system first".

[JAM]

RealRed
I did that already. Problem is to make something like "demo recorder".



On-topic: I have idea to limit the patch space this time. Like "do what you want but the final IPS size should be less than certain value". Applied a patch that repointed a lot of data to free space? XX kbs is wasted unless repoiting this was really needed. Leave a lot of unchanged room data offscreen? YYY bytes are wasted more. I just want to set the limit similar to NES developers have before: "You have only X Kbytes and you must create the game under this size".

It could be the "2015 contest", for example. Because we have a really good hacks this year. 201,500 bytes is the size limit and same numbers could limit hackers one more time. Like, 20 days to submit a hack and 15 days to play and vote or something like that.

[Lunaria]

Sound fairly dumb JAM, instead of re-pointing, people will just overwrite and corrupt other parts of the ROM to save size. Let's not promote bad hacking practices, eh?

[RealRed]

RealRed
I did that already. Problem is to make something like "demo recorder".

Huh? What? Where are the control inputs stored in the ROM? There's actually an unused demo recorder in Super Metroid, it may just be a matter of figuring out how that's used.

[JAM]

Sound fairly dumb JAM, instead of re-pointing, people will just overwrite and corrupt other parts of the ROM to save size.

Nope, it's not I what meant. That's what most GOOD hackers think in general, for example: "I want to add some tiles to tileset 1 and 7. Then I must repoint all tilesets using the patch elsewhere to not overwrite anything. Oh, and if I will have no space, I'll just expand the ROM". Another example is when this patch is used just to repoint palettes without even touching the tiletables.

I just want to get a hack without pointless repointing (tilesets that will not be altered, in this case). And a polished hack without garbage like unused PLMs and enemies placed off-screen. 200 kb is enough for mini-hack to be made in 20 days or month, but not enough to make hack like Darkholme Hospital. If you're the newbie hacker, then 200 kb is also enough to make a GOOD half-hack.

RealRed
I did that already. Problem is to make something like "demo recorder".

Huh? What? Where are the control inputs stored in the ROM?

It's a secret. =) But if you want custom demos for Hyper, I'll do it.

There's actually an unused demo recorder in Super Metroid, it may just be a matter of figuring out how that's used.

It's not working as it should to. Plus, I have no ability to WRITE data to the ROM directly (as devs could do), using the ASM code. So, demo recorder should be rewritten to save the data to Super RAM (and then inserting it manually to the ROM) or to unused part of RAM, like $7F:FA02 and then extracting the data from the savestate. Something like that.

[RealRed]

It's a secret. =) But if you want custom demos for Hyper, I'll do it.

That's the plan!

Sorry for hijacking the topic.

[squishy_ichigo]

How about a contest, where everyone uses project base as a base for the project.

Yeah, that's right, just let that sink in for a minute, and soak into you.

[personitis]

JAM: while it would be nice to have a hack/ROM where such is the case, if I must be completely honest, it's more obsessive than it is helpful. It would place more work on organization and could easily take away from room building/game design which is what making a hack or at least what the end product is about: a playable game (for a contest even).

[Retroo]

How about a contest, where everyone uses project base as a base for the project.

Yeah, that's right, just let that sink in for a minute, and soak into you.

Yes I also had that idea.

[personitis]

If using Project Base as a base, what if someone reverts all the changes and makes it vanilla again?! :awesome:

[begrimed]

:O Project Base contest? Snap, I might do a little something for this, depending what the rules end up being.

[Quote58]

Just wanted to say I love Jam's idea about space conservation. It is an important habit to get into with rom hacking, and can challenge you to write much better code.
However, it'd be a terribly boring contest. Project base could be a neat one though.

[Cpt.Glitch]

A project base contest sounds like a great idea. 

[JAM]

Just wanted to say I love Jam's idea about space conservation. It is an important habit to get into with rom hacking, and can challenge you to write much better code.
However, it'd be a terribly boring contest.

Yes, but imagine hack like Project Base with little IPS size, so you midth say: "Is it only 200 kbs?", like anyone wondering about recent hack contest with "20 room" rule. But yeah, to polish a hack there are a lot of time needed. Too bad... I was expected to see hacks like So Little Space by MetroidMst and Babylon V (or any other name with V at the end) by FullOfFail.

[FullOfFail]

Just wanted to go on the record and say I like the Project-Base suggestion. Though, the rules would have to be clear. Can we change the mechanics? Can we change the palettes? etc

[Vismund Cygnus]

I think the idea behind using Project Base is mainly in the physics changes, etc. Given that there are two different palette sets for the hack now I don't see why changing them up wouldn't be allowed.
If this were to go ahead my suggestion would be to have a longer period to work on the hack in order to increase the level of polish. The problem with most of these contest hacks is that they rarely stand up to the "real" hacks released by the community,  and in general authors discontinue work on them once they're submitted. Even a 3-4 month work period would help with fixing this issue , and perhaps this would make a contest with some A-Level stuff produced.
That said, I'm more than happy to co-organise this with whoever decides they want to be responsible for the delivery of some clear guidelines.

[biospark]

How about a contest that rewards you for hacking a game other than SM?

>_>

<_<

[begrimed]

Changing up the palettes/mechanics is all part of the fun. I can get behind a longer work period, too. What kind of rules could this have? Going on a theme seems overdone. What about no theme? Just make whatever kind of hack you want in X months, using any version of Project Base that you want.

[personitis]

Going back to my earlier (somewhat) joke post: if the project is centered around PB, mechanic changes are allowed, and someone wants to change things to vanilla, then why not just omit the forced use of PB and allow whatever to be used as a base? Either way, I feel like I may actually partake in this.

[Vismund Cygnus]

Your hack must be a hack of a hack. There's an idea for ya. ;)

[RT-55J]

Your hack must be a hack of a hack. There's an idea for ya. ;)

Somebody ought to pare down Redesign into something that can be completed within a human lifetime.

Maybe not for a contest, but somebody still should.

[squishy_ichigo]

>hack of a hack
>redesign
Make an entire hack where you are in the Lost Caverns, with various shitty puzzles!

[Retroo]

I Think we should not make to many rules but what about some minimum rules like


ATLEAST

* 10 rooms
* 2 bosses
Etc...

Also what about you can not make any physics changes?  :^_^: