--- cybergoth@xxxxxxxx wrote:
> I'm just curious as how to interpret "Overcoming
> known Batari BASIC limitations")
That means, the extent to which the final game doesn't
look or feel like it was written in BASIC.
> Considering someone wrote a 4K game making use of
> the SC extra RAM capabillities and on some future
> day someone else comes up with a funky BS design
> allowing to run the game (with few modifications)
> from cartridge, would this be considered a "regular"
> cartridge?
No, it would be considered a Supercharger with a fixed
game that self-loads inside it.
If the goal is to be able to win the contest and still
offer a cart, here are some workable scenarios:
-The game only uses the Supercharger to load in level
data. It is therefore portable to a banked ROM.
-The game uses a small enough block of RAM to be
ported to a Superchip or RAM+ cartridge.
-Someone comes out with a "Cuttle Cart Jr." cart
device that lets you embed the game on a self-loading
cart.
-The game is eventually chopped down enough to run on
a standard cart.
So the effort spent to win the contest won't
necessarily preclude the game appearing later on a
cart.
Just remember that I'm going to favor entries that
make more aggressive use of Supercharger features
rather than sticking to the lowest-common-denominator.
Games that do not use the Supercharger features for a
meaningful purpose are not acceptable. For instance,
you are not allowed to just throw in a useless
subroutine that modifies Supercharger RAM. Don't
spill over into SC RAM to store stuff that could just
as easily be squeezed into the internal 128 bytes.
This kind of thing will be pretty obvious.
I would hope that people don't just do the bare
minimum to qualify. It really goes against the spirit
of the contest.
BTW, those who want to add some of their money or
merchandise into the contest pot are free to contact
me about doing so and becoming a judge. But they have
to first agree to the overall goal I'm setting for the
contest.
I have a short list of people to ask about donating
some prizes to sweeten the pot.
I'd like to be able to offer 2nd and 3rd price prizes.
I'm also definitely going to have
(trophies|plaques|ribbons|patches) made this time.
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