2003 MiniGame Compo


 NEWS AND UPDATES

That's it -- minigame submission has been officially closed! The minigame team will be busy verifying the remaining games, and sometime reasonably soon we'll have a vote pack put together with voting instructions and deadlines. In the meantime, visit the Minigame BBS, and stay tuned!

NEWS AND UPDATES
10/01   OK, that's it -- all games and updates are now on the page, and the votepack will be coming out soon (eventually?). Thanks! -- The Mgt.
10/01   Updated Superfly1k (Flicker fix for NTSC Atari's). Updated Jammed (Just updated game description.). Updated Florbingel (bug fixes). Updated Rush Hour (fixes problem with certain emulators).
10/01   Added Mahna-Malysz (4k).
10/01   Added Marz (1k).
10/01   Added Minima Reloaded (4k).
10/01   Added MArkanoid (4k).
10/01   Added tb_6502 (4k).
09/30   Added Stack 'n' Smile (1k).
09/29   Added Rush Hour (4k).
09/29   Added Orthopede (1k).
09/29   OK folks, this is it, the contest will fold up in about eight hours. I will add a news item here when the submission deadline has officially passed. Over the next few days we'll be putting a votepack together containing all the submissions, emulator readmes, and voting info/deadlines. Good luck to all!

 Vote/Submit a Game

To vote or submit a game, please log in below. Don't have an account? Then register here.

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(Note that this account is separate from the BBS.)

 4k Games (37)
The Potion ThePotion.zip
The Potion Author: Peter Karlsson
Platform: Commodore 64

You are going about doing your own business, when you suddenly are transported to the middle of a dark forest in a far away land. You have no idea what you are doing here or how to get out, it is your task to find out.

Florbingel Florbingel.zip
Florbingel Author: Roberto Martin
Platform: Commodore 64

Florbingel has been conquered by all the horde of monsters of the evil Struck. You, with a reduced number of armies must reconquer your country. You only have 14 days to conquer Florbingel. Good luck!!

zblast SD zblastSD.zip
zblast SD Author: Russell Marks
Platform: Spectrum 128k

zblast SD is a fairly manic shoot-em-up, with 20 waves of baddies to destroy.

Galaxy Patrol Galaxy_Patrol.zip
Galaxy Patrol Author: Michael Martin
Platform: NES

Welcome to Galaxy Patrol! You must fly through the starfield, avoiding stars and collecting fuel so as to continue your journey. Your score is based on the amount of fuel you have spent.

Scrolly Stack ScrollyStack.zip
Scrolly Stack Author: Russell Marks
Platform: Spectrum 128k

Scrolly Stack is an action puzzle game. It's essentially a Tetris Attack clone.

Smash 4k Smash4k.zip
Smash 4k Author: Richard Bayliss
Platform: Commodore 64

This is a fly and dodge 'em game, featuring eight levels (each level gets faster after each level). There's also some heavy techno music in the background (Which I composed a couple of years ago). It's fast and furious!

Amusement Park 4000 AmusementPark4000.zip
Amusement Park 4000 Author: Jonathan Cauldwell
Platform: Spectrum

Anyone familiar with Bullfrog's Theme Park will recognise this. Run your own theme park, decide on advertising and put money into R&D to develop new rides. Can you build a park to stand the test of time, or will you go bankrupt? Annotated source included.

Arachno Joe ArachnoJoe.zip
Arachno Joe Author: Dinu Cristian Mircea
Platform: Spectrum 128k

Scale the heights of a skyscraper while avoiding dozens of fast-moving enemies in this frantic game ! As a special agent, your job is to collect and disarm the bombs which terrorists have placed on the face of a building. They're obviously not going to remain idle while you're doing this - play the game to see what they've got installed for you !

Squirrel Quest SquirrelQuest.zip
Squirrel Quest Author: Richard James
Platform: VIC-20

Squirrel Quest 1: The Evil Weasel is a simple RPG game for the Vic20

bomber4k bomber4k.zip
bomber4k Author: RoboNes
Platform: NES

perilessly fly over 3 cities and destroy each one to win

SCSIcide SCSIcide.zip
SCSIcide Author: Joe Grand
Platform: Atari 2600

SCSIcide, as its name suggests, is nerdiness to the core. You are a disk drive read head, and your mission is to read the color-coded bits of data as they scream past you on 10 separate data tracks. As each bit is read, your read head changes color to indicate which random bit you must read next. Read all of the bits in the required order and you advance to the next platter (level). If you take too long, your latency buffer times out, your disk crashes and the game ends. Your score is displayed at the top of the screen, of course, in hexadecimal notation. Atari Paddle Controllers are required.

Jammed Jammed.zip
Jammed Author: Thomas Jentzsch
Platform: Atari 2600

A puzzle game for the Atari 2600 based on the board game Rush Hour. The screen is quite simple since the main objective of this game was to squeeze as many puzzles as possible into the 4K. By using some "weird" compression tricks 600(!) unique puzzles are included.

Climber 5 Climber5.zip
Climber 5 Author: Dennis Debro
Platform: Atari 2600

What a beautiful day for a baseball game. Sure your friends laugh at you because you're the ball boy but you made the team. The bad thing about being the ball boy is that the games are played with only one baseball. So if a batter hits a homerun the game waits for you to bring the ball back to the park. You have an important job as ball boy. That's why you have the number 5 on your back to show that you're an important part of the team. The opposing team comes up to bat. The pitch is thrown and "WHACK!" it's a homerun. The ball flies out of the ball park and lands on a partially constructed building across the street. Sure it's dangerous to climb the construction site and avoiding the moving girders but that's you're job as ball boy. The team is counting on you.

Space Treat Deluxe SpaceTreatDeluxe.zip
Space Treat Deluxe Author: Fabrizio Zavagli
Platform: Atari 2600

This is an Atari 2600 game. In Space Treat Deluxe, you control a ship that must reach the top of the screen, collect the tasty treat located there, and get it back to its base at the bottom of the screen before your fuel runs out, while avoiding the flying drones. Webpage http://www.atariage.com/software_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=2380

Skeleton+ SkeletonPlus.zip
Skeleton+ Author: Eric Ball
Platform: Atari 2600

In Skeleton+, your objective is to hunt down and eliminate 40 or 80 skeletons lurking about in a 3D maze without being killed yourself! There are eight mazes, with each maze containing 5 or 10 skeletons (depending on difficulty setting). Complete all eight mazes and you'll gain your freedom!

Qb Qb.zip
Qb Author: Andrew Davie
Platform: Atari 2600

In Qb you match the pattern of blocks on the playing grid to the target pattern by jumping from block to block, and sliding blocks into their correct positions. Collect fruit in the correct order for extra-lives, and throw the bad guys off the screen. Easy to learn and difficult to master action-puzzler, a game in a genre of its own.

Tic Tac Zac TicTacZac.zip
Tic Tac Zac Author: Stefano Bodrato
Platform: Spectrum

A simple Tic Tac Toe (tris) game. Written in C with Z88DK + inline assembly. The border should be stable on a standard gummy (48k) Speccy, so set up your emulator carefully, or use the original machine.

PIPES 4K PIPES4K.zip
PIPES 4K Author: Fernando Miguel Barletta
Platform: ZX81

This is a classic puzzle game in which you need to create a path to take the gas out of the maze. Every 5000 pts. extra life and 20 seconds extra time. The game ends when you lose all your lives. Move with the cursor keys and release gas with "0".

Pipeline pipeline.zip
Pipeline Author: Dominic Morris
Platform: Spectrum

This is a remake of my 1992 BASIC game pipeline. It is of course, a pipemania clone. (notice: the game name was pipes but has been changed to pipeline to avoid confusions with the ZX81 entry Pipes 4k).

Dunjon II Dunjon2.zip
Dunjon II Author: Ghislain de Blois
Platform: VIC-20

DUNJON II is a never-ending, self-contained fantasy role playing adventure game all packed into 3279 bytes of RAM for your Unexpanded VIC-20. The goal of this game is that you must toil and wander the dangerous dungeon levels, hacking and slashing your way to great fortune and glory.

Bellringer Bellringer.zip
Bellringer Author: Geir Straume
Platform: Commodore 64

You are the Bellringer. Run through the castle, avoiding the evil knights, and ring four bells in the correct order to lower the walls which block the entry to the next castle section. But hurry! You only have ten minutes to get through the four sections.

Djihad Chess DjihadChess.zip
Djihad Chess Author: Heiko Irrgang
Platform: Commodore 64

Djihad chess is a chess variant where you bomb yourself or the other away including the adjoining fields around you. Its a pretty quick two players chess variant.

Oystron Oystron.zip
Oystron Author: Piero Cavina
Platform: Atari 2600

Your objective in Oystron is to shoot the Space Oysters and convert them to pearls, collecting the pearls and then depositing them into the Pearls Zone. When you complete a row of pearls, you will receive a bomb to use against the Oystron. The game also includes a Warp Phase, where you travel at high speed between Space Oysters and enemies.

Telematch Telematch.zip
Telematch Author: Luis Claudio Grosso
Platform: MSX

TELEMATCH for MSX It's a five game pack (Prctice, Squash, Soccer, Advantage Soccer and Tennis). It emulates the AY-3-8500 chip made by General Instruments. .

BoxBoy BoxBoy.zip
BoxBoy Author: Neal Tew
Platform: NES

BoxBoy is an action puzzle game. By controlling four separate characters, arrange the moving boxes in the correct order before they drop off the screen. Starts out slow, but picks up speed quickly. Have fun!

Gunfight Gunfight.zip
Gunfight Author: Manuel Polik
Platform: Atari 2600

...It's shoot-out time and you've got to be faster than your opponent or the computer. Move, dodge, or hide behind a covered wagon or cactus. But whatever you do, don't waste your time because your opponent is shooting back. Take your position, aim, and fire before he gets you...

Warring Worms WarringWorms.zip
Warring Worms Author: Billy Eno
Platform: Atari 2600

Warring Worms is like an advanced and expanded version of the classic game Surround. While avoiding walls, each worm can shoot a cannon that will destroy a single block on the playing field, or kill the opposing worm. There are eight starting playfields, a single player and two player mode, hostile environment games, wrap around games and every combination of those possible with a total of 256 game variations in all! This version is set to a good 1 player mode as the default, be sure to set the left difficulty to advanced for full speed!

Play Ball! PlayBall.zip
Play Ball! Author: Paul Grenfell
Platform: Spectrum

Inspired by such classics as Atic Atac, this is a game where you must retrieve your footbal and then escape from a house... all before you run out of time!

Plat 3064 Plat3064.zip
Plat 3064 Author: Tom Walker
Platform: Commodore 64

Plat 3064 is a generic platform game with a whole 4 levels!

Skatebob Skatebob.zip
Skatebob Author: Niklas
Platform: Commodore 64

This time Bob is going to skate on strange platforms on his way upward the building. Watch out for baloons, they give you extra pts/lives. Skate or..

4KKong 4KKong.zip
4KKong Author: Mickael Pointier
Platform: Oric

This is a port of the famous dual screen handheld game featuring the courageous little plumber and the evil king ape ! Use the keyboard to free the poor damsel in distress.

Munchie Attack Munchie_Attack.zip
Munchie Attack Author: Joey Parsell
Platform: NES

Eat all the food that you can, while avoiding the deadly shuriken.

Rush Hour RushHour4K.zip
Rush Hour Author: Fabrice Frances
Platform: Oric

Rush Hour is a full-featured version of the eponym board game. Try it and you will become addicted. For the Oric Atmos.

tb_6502 tb_6502.zip
tb_6502 Author: Vince Weaver
Platform: Apple ][

In the future all spammers were exiled to phobos, but one last marketing droid escaped! You are Tom Bombem, and your job is to destroy the incoming objects and save the Earth!

MArkanoid MArkanoid.zip
MArkanoid Author: Stefano Tognon & Luca Carrafie
Platform: Commodore 64

A mini version of Arkanoid, but with great sound!play it as usual.Needs 8580 chip for a real emotion.Look carefully: there is a secret feature, and lot of screens.

Minima Reloaded MinimaReloaded.zip
Minima Reloaded Author: Robin Harbron
Platform: Commodore 64

"Welcome brave knight!" says Lord Macbeth, “We need you to find and return the 8 rings of our kingdom!” This is a major upgrade to Minima from the 2001 compo. It features a new map, 8 new monsters, additional strategic elements in the combat/upgrades system, a view map feature, towns you can enter and explore, complete with shops and townsfolk, additional music and graphics, and more!

Mahna-Malysz MahnaMalysz.zip
Mahna-Malysz Author: Piotr Fusik
Platform: Atari 800

Polish ski jumper Adam Malysz is the world champion. Use Fire or Shift to control Adam. Avoid other ski jumpers, birds and ... just watch out!

 1k Games (26)
K-Tris KTris.zip
K-Tris Author: Richard Wilson
Platform: Amstrad CPC

I wonder what it is? Full Tetris with colour, piece preview, score, lines and levels. Source included.

Whack Whack.zip
Whack Author: Aleksi Eeben
Platform: VIC-20

Whack is a rogue-like dungeon exploring game for unexpanded VIC 20. Find your way through the dungeon levels and bring the Amulet back to the surface. Watch out for fierce guardian Denoms and other creatures living in the dungeons.

Tammerfors Tammerfors.zip
Tammerfors Author: Aleksi Eeben
Platform: VIC-20

Use joystick to steer your car through the Hameenpuisto park and all the seasons. Survive the rush hour. Reach the next season checkpoint before the time runs out. Bonus and extra time collected at each season change.

tinyzb tinyzb.zip
tinyzb Author: Russell Marks
Platform: Spectrum 128k

tinyzb is a very crude shoot-em-up. It's a heavily cut-down version of zblast SD.

DUAL 1024+ DUAL1024plus.zip
DUAL 1024+ Author: Darren Hatch
Platform: Commodore 64

After completing your last mission you must now save the planet OX3 454. You must shoot down all 21 enemy aircraft who will try to stop you from saving the people of planet OX3 454. Happy shooting!

Semi Stack SemiStack.zip
Semi Stack Author: Russell Marks
Platform: Spectrum

Semi Stack is an action puzzle game similar to Tetris Attack. More precisely, it's a cut-down version of Scrolly Stack.

Re-Connectris ReConnectris.zip
Re-Connectris Author: Anders Carlsson
Platform: VIC-20

Re-Connectris, the follow-up to Peter Karlsson's "Connectris 128" from MiniGame compo 2002. This version is completely rewritten in machine code and features, apart from the original rules, shifting of rows. Included is pre-assembled binaries for VIC-20 and C64 (located in the extras directory together with source code).

Kilopede Kilopede.zip
Kilopede Author: Jonathan Cauldwell
Platform: Spectrum

Fred has allowed his back garden to become overgrown of late. Deadly centipedes and vampire bats patrol the giant mushrooms, and Fred needs to exterminate these pests before he can invite his neighbours around for a barbecue. Help him to destroy the lethal flora and fauna with his trusty shotgun - before the wildlife makes a barbecue of him! Annotated source included.

Tic Tac Math TicTacMath.zip
Tic Tac Math Author: Peter Karlsson
Platform: Commodore 128

This is the classic Tic Tac Toe, but with a twist. To place your game piece on the board, you must give the correct answer to a mathematical problem. If you give an incorrect answer, your opponent gets the piece.

dotathon 2 dotathon2.zip
dotathon 2 Author: Russell Marks
Platform: Spectrum 128k

dotathon 2 is a simple tunnel-following game, a bit like the first bonus stage in Tempest 2000.

Garden Garden.zip
Garden Author: Ventzislav Tzvetkov
Platform: Oric

Pick flowers from the Garden and run away from yourpursuer. After taking all the flowers, a new level appears, but the bad guy is one step nearer to you.

Superfly 1k Superfly1k.zip
Superfly 1k Author: Matthias Luedtke
Platform: Atari 800

Try to move the your helicopter as long as you can without playfield collision. Just use the joystick trigger to handle the helicopter. The game will get harder every 1000 points (up to 20000 points, that's the hardest level), good luck :o)

AntiISDA Warrior AntiISDA_Warrior.zip
AntiISDA Warrior Author: Ventzislav Tzvetkov
Platform: Oric

Your server full with all those 20+ years old Oric Atmos warez, of whichnobody cares anymore since ages, unfortunatelly is being attacked by someISDA agents and they want to format your only hard disk you ever owned (40 MB). They are attacking from various ports, so you have to aim yourping bombs more preciselly with the left and right shift keys. Press (SPACE) to shoot.

Maziacs1 Maziacs1.zip
Maziacs1 Author: Paolo Ferraris
Platform: Spectrum

You are at the entrance of a huge maze armed with just one sword. Your goal is to find the treasure and go back to the exit with it. But several monsters called maziacs are here to defend the treasure.

Escape from Pong Escape_from_Pong.zip
Escape from Pong Author: Adam Gashlin
Platform: NES

You play a Ping Pong ball trying to escape from 12 paddle- and obstacle-filled levels.

Space Probe SpaceProbe.zip
Space Probe Author: Ventzislav Tzvetkov
Platform: Apple ][

Pass through the five deadly zones with the help of your Lazer beam.

Rally 1k Rally1k.zip
Rally 1k Author: Fernando Miguel Barletta
Platform: ZX81

This is a simple rally game. You need to complete a entire lap around the track as fast as you can. The game ends when you complete the lap. Use arrow keys. Try to beat 20 seconds/lap. (The game is a fixed version of Rally 1k that I made for this contest last year. I was using an emulator which was twice fast than the original zx81, so the game resulted very slow.)

The Gigabonux Gigabonux.zip
The Gigabonux Author: Simon Guyart
Platform: Oric

A strategy (or sort of) game where you have to deal with random numbers in order to score points and try to get various bonuses. The Gigabonux is the ultimate bonus you can get !

BreakOric 1K BreakOric1K.zip
BreakOric 1K Author: Ventzislav Tzvetkov
Platform: Oric

Yet another breakout clone, easily fitted in the 1K limit.

Bowling Master BowlingMaster.zip
Bowling Master Author: Ventzislav Tzvetkov
Platform: Oric

Prove your Bowling skills to your friends.

QWERTI QWERTI.zip
QWERTI Author: Peter (TheSpider)
Platform: Oric

Written for the Oric range of computers. Test how fast your reactions are with QWERTI. The true challenge of how quick you can type.

Haras Haras.zip
Haras Author: Stefano Tognon
Platform: Commodore 64

An Oil's Well clone. No more word is needed...

JoustPong 1K JoustPong1K.zip
JoustPong 1K Author: Kirk Israel
Platform: Atari 2600

"The future of gaming can be summed up in two words -- Pong and Joust" --Otter on rec.games.video.classic JoustPong is an old school Pong Deathmatch...but with a flap button! Press the joystick button to flap against gravity. Who will be the first to 10 points, you or your Atari 2600?

Orthopede Orthopede.zip
Orthopede Author: Attila Grosz
Platform: Plus/4

Orthopede is a 1-kilobyte clone of the popular arcade game, Centipede. You have the destroy the mutant robo-snake that is mercilessly advancing towards your space ship. If he catches you, you lose a life! If you succeed destroying it, you will advance to the next level with increased difficulty.

Stack 'n' Smile stack.zip
Stack 'n' Smile Author: Nicholas Campbell
Platform: Amstrad CPC

A very simplified version of UBI Soft's excellent game Pick 'n' Pile. Stack and swap the bricks so that columns containing three or more bricks, all of the same colour, are formed. The column(s) will then be removed and more bricks will appear. You have five minutes to achieve as high a score as you can.

Marz Marz.zip
Marz Author: Robin Harbron
Platform: Commodore 64

Your goal is to totally destroy all the towers or whatever you call 'em on the ground. You score points each time you successfully score a hit, and bonus points depending on how high up you are from the ground when you clear the level. There are 6 different patterns and then things wrap, and the speed picks up. My high score is 7006 - can you beat it?

 Rules
The rules for submission are as follows. There are a couple of changes this year, so be sure to read the rules carefully.
  1. The competition is open to games for "classic" 8-bit computers from the 80s, such as the Commodore 64, Sinclair Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and so on. To be eligible for competition a platform must have a "sponsor"; see the FAQ below for more details. The following platforms currently have a sponsor: Commodore 64/128/VIC-20, Plus/4, PET, Vectrex, Spectrum/128/ZX81, CPC, VZ/Laser, NES, Colecovision, Oric.
  2. There are two categories this year: 1k and 4k. As with last year, the maximum size of the executable, including any headers, loaders, basic stubs, and data files, is 1024 or 4096 bytes. The game should autostart or start with RUN from the basic prompt.
  3. The "keep it clean" rule: Porn, profanity, etc. will probably lead to an unceremonius dumping of the game. Also known as the "Don't submit a hacked Custer's Revenge" rule!
  4. The closing date for entries is September 29, 2003, 12.00 GMT. Clarification: that should really be 00:00 GMT, i.e. Monday at midnight GMT, around 4PM Monday where I am. Oops.
  5. Voting and Submitting files:
    • To vote or submit a game you need to create an account, above. This account is separate from the BBS and the information is used absolutely only for the contest.
    • You can edit your vote sheet at any time; at the end of the contest, you will be asked to submit your sheet after verifying that it is correct. Voting is not mandatory for all games.
    • Games are submitted using the submission form above. Entries must follow the guidelines on the webpage, must be in a common emulator format, and so on. Note that it is your responsibility to submit a game screenshot and description for the webpage.
    • If you can't use the webpage, then email the organizer and we'll work something out.
  6. The Minigame BBS is up and has been thoroughly spiffified, and it's a great place to get help with an emulator or figure out just how the heck a game works. Discussions which may influence votes should of course be avoided, and will be dealt with savagely.
  7. Entries must not require any non-standard external hardware or software (but are welcome to use it if available). Common sense applies here -- standard peripherals such as a joystick or disk drive are of course fine.
  8. There is no limit to the number of entries from each author. The MiniGame homepage will be regularly updated with new entries, and authors may ask for their entries to be updated or removed at any time up to the competition deadline.
  9. Entries may use all the capabilities of the computer. This includes access to all memory, sound chips, ROM routines, and use of compressors (providing that the decompressor is contained within the code).
These rules should be considered final, but changes or clarifications will be highlighted above.

FAQ

  • Q: What's this about a "sponsor"?

    The competition has been too successful! Trying to make something run on an unfamiliar emulator for an unfamiliar platform can be extremely difficult; moreover, the large number of platforms and entries makes it a gargantuan task for just one person; finally, it's pretty unfair to the authors to have someone totally unfamiliar with their machine representing their program.

    If you would like to see a platform represented (or would like to volunteer! Yeah!) please email the organizer and we'll work something out!

  • Q: Can sponsors submit entries?

    Absolutely. As long as a submission meets the requirements, it may compete.

  • Q: Why 4k? Why not 2k?

    The 4k category is for those who want to write more of a fully fledged game (as opposed to an enhanced 1k game). If it turns out to be a lousy category, then something else will be tried next year!

  • Q: I'm writing a game for multiple platforms. How should it be submitted?

    The general idea is one game, one vote. Therefore, please pick a version that you'd like to compete, and place the rest in the "extras" area.

  • Q: I'm concerned about 24/7 voting. Will people vote consistently over time? What if someone updates an entry? As a competition, should we even be able to download games early, let alone vote?

    Part of the problem is, again, the success of the contest -- last year involved a brutal 62-game playing and voting session, and this year I'd like to avoid that (and I'm not so sure my votes were so consistent after e.g. game 42; I'm not even sure I was conscious).

    The votesheet is just a piece of paper for keeping notes. You still have to submit it, at the end of the contest, when you're satisfied with it. If someone updates an entry -- well, after you play that updated entry, you can update your votesheet.

    Finally, as to being able to download, I believe that downloading games during the contest stimulates interest in the contest, and I don't believe it has caused any issues the last two years. And, of course, there are just too many entries. So, I suggest trying the votesheet this way, and if we find it causes problems we can do something different next year.

  • Q: Please clarify rule 2, about starting with RUN.

    The general idea is that the game should be started in the standard way for the platform, whatever that may be. On a Commodore machine, it's LOAD followed by RUN, on a Spectrum it's LOAD or RUN depending on the model, on a CP/M machine you'd just type the name of the executable on the commandline. So no loaders (they count toward the size), the user shouldn't have to type any special commands to start (like SYSxxxx on a C=), and so on. Autostarting executables are OK. This makes life much, much easier on those trying to run (and judge) the programs.

  • Q: My platform has a big header and is at a disadvantage.

    Actually, the header losses are all about the same. More broadly, every platform has some dead weight in the executable, including differences in sprite sizes, bitmaps, screen clearing, CPU architectures, system resources, etc. The competition will never be "fair". The computers are so different in their capabilities that it's impossible to create a perfectly level playfield. The computers have different strengths, and different weaknesses. Be creative, use nasty tricks, and make as good a game as you can in 1K or 4k.

  • Q: But...

    It's a nightmare. Consider the CPC AMSDOS header -- 128 bytes. Most of that, however, is empty, and programmers routinely store code and data in it. Checking that this header doesn't contain code/data is a truly awful prospect; by contrast, including headers gives around a 10-byte penalty -- just like pretty much every other platform.

    Let's say you take away the header restriction. Commodore 64 and Speccy files do not autoboot, so they need a BASIC program to start with RUN. Now you need to either not count the BASIC header, or else remove the RUN restriction. Now life is tougher on users, so maybe external loaders should now be allowed -- can we put a title or other information in the loader? Then, of course, C64 programs also store a two-byte load address in the file, so maybe that shouldn't be counted. And in the first contest MV stored the score in the BASIC line number, so maybe that should be counted after all. But if you want to get really technical, then the file structure includes... But then this obscure computer has... But compared to this other computer it...

    And remember, this makes life much, much easier on those trying to run (and judge!) the programs, especially on unfamiliar platforms.

  • Q: But...

    It's like representative democracy: it's not that it's the best system, it's that it's the least worst system.

  • Q: How do I determine file size?

    • Commodore 64: Extract from a .d64 if necessary, then ls -l (unix) or dir (dos) -- i.e. memory plus two bytes.
    • Speccy: We use a perl script for .TAP files (basically it's the memory used: the 17-byte header, data block byte, and checksum do not count, but the BASIC header etc. does).
    • CPC: Use CAT
    • NES and 2600 cartridges: The .NES file header is NOT counted. The 6502 interrupt vectors are. Otherwise, all unused bytes must be set to zero.
    • Apple 2: Files should be submitted on a DOS3.3 .DSK image. The file size is the 256 times the number of sectors minus one.
  • Q: I'd like to make an Atari 2600 VCS game, but the minimum cartridge size is 2K.

    Use the last 1024/4096 bytes of the cartridge, fill the rest with 0s, and don't use the 0s as data (or code, but I don't know what a lot of BRK would be good for). (And we'll find you a sponsor, if you really do want to submit a 2600 game!).

  • Q: I'd like to write a game for a 16-bit platform, such as the TI99/4a, but it says the competition is for 8-bit computers.

    As long as the computer's capabilities are on par with the other, the "bitness" doesn't matter. You'll most likely just be at a disadvantage with a larger architecture, so it's up to you.

  • Q: Can I submit previously written stuff?

    Yes, as long as you've written everything yourself. You are for obvious reasons not allowed to use other people's material without their express permission. This includes graphics and tunes (i.e. ripping is verboten).

 Relevant Stuff
Some links that could be considered relevant:
2003 Minigame BBS
The BBS, where you can vote, submit, talk, fish, etc.
Last year's BBS
Messages and discussions from last year.
Readme files
Emulator instructions for different platforms.
2002 Minigame Competition
Last year's ruling competition.
2001 Minigame Competition
Results from the first ruling competition.
C= Hacking magazine
Issue 21 contains write-ups of some of the 2001 C64 entries.

 Who To Blame
The 2003 Minigame Team: The main organizer of this competition is Stephen Judd sjudd@ffd2.com.

Thanks to MagerValp, who I stole most of the ideas and rules from.
Thanks to Matthew Westcott, who MV stole most of the ideas and rules from.