Interest in a nesdev coding compo?

[Bregalad]

Some newer emulators may reject it, probably for the same reason they reject CNROM with more than 32k of CHR-ROM.

Not really - ONLY NESTOPIA DON'T SUPPORT IT. Nestopia isn't "some emulators". And it doesn't support NROM with PRG-RAM either. It's kinda dumb if you ask me - it's not because no commercial games used one configuration that this said configuration doesn't exist.

[Jeroen]

You guys did get the part where I said it was allowed right? Blargg: I knew it was possible on a board I just wasnt sure how many emulators supported it (and more importantly the powerpak) One of membler's games uses chr ram on nrom.

[Dwedit]

It's the new emulators that try to simulate actual boards, vs the ones that emulate the Mapper numbers.
For instance, QuickNES seems to cap CNROM at 32k, but Nestopia does not. For a while, FCEUX was capping CNROM to 32k as well, but that restriction was later relaxed.

Many newer emulators do not allow WRAM to exist on boards where it did not traditionally exist. So mapper 0 may no longer have WRAM, along with mapper 2, mapper 3, etc. Some other emulators always emulate WRAM regardless of which mapper it is.

The newest versions of FCEUX force "bus conflicts" by comparing the value written to ROM with the value there, this breaks some ROM hacks, such as "Mario vs Air Man".

[Kasumi]

I always wanted to make something for a compo, but I don't know if I would be willing to pause the development of my main project for this.

I'm in this boat.

I'd like to see some kind of a prize. Maybe everyone could chip in a little bit for a powerpak or some other cool NESdev-related thing?

But for a good prize, maybe I'd consider it. If it would be a powerpak, I for one would suggest a cash equivalent to prize's price (and then you save on shipping) for those who already have one. I have a feeling at least a few of the people here who'd enter do.

Also I'm confused. I realize chr RAM would be allowed now, but is it still NROM only?

Luckily my current project is still NROM, but I don't think I'd enter it in a competition at the moment. I'd have to do something new.

[tepples]

I see... Still, I don't know why sometimes compos are so restrictive. Is that so entries will be easier to judge (since one will not be superior to others because of hardware features)?

That, and the byte budget helps contestants set realistic goals for their entries. If you think you can make something as ambitious as SMB1 in the time limit, go ahead.

As for taking away 8 KiB, there are a bunch of game designs that require placement of large numbers of background objects at granularity smaller than 8px: Qix, Hatris, and Blockout. The programmer can gain some of that data back using tokumaru's codec.

[Drag]

What will the theme of the compo be?

[Jeroen]

Just a "Game" no real theme. As for a price...well I cant really afford anything good by myself...anyone care to donate/chip in?

[3gengames]

How about to get money we could take some entries, and stick them onto a "Mini Game" cart and have a limited run or something on NA or somewhere where people would want to buy them, use all the money raised to reward the games makers. Would that be cool? But each winner getting a card would probably be a little.



If we set it to NROM only, we could be able to add each game to a bank of PRG-ROM on MMC1 or some othr maper, Make a program that runs from RAM from the title screen/ROM to switch to the right bank, then jump to the games program. That would be cool

[tepples]

Great idea about selling copies on NA. Gbadev.org did that too, though it was easier on GBA because of the fairly easy availability of commercial Chinese-made flash carts. A collection of the top six entries would work if you can find a supply of cheap SGROM donors (see list), and you could sell a PocketNES version on the side to reach customers who have a GBA SP or DS Lite but lack a working NES.

If we set it to NROM only, we could be able to add each game to a bank of PRG-ROM on MMC1 or some othr maper, Make a program that runs from RAM from the title screen/ROM to switch to the right bank, then jump to the games program.

And I've already made a prototype of the MMC1 multicart menu that I'll let you use. It just needs to be fixed to run from power-on instead of relying on Zelda.

[Jeroen]

Well we'd have to get someone to make the carts, I mean I like the idea. But i'm sure as hell not making them

[3gengames]

I think that the community should make a new screen for it


Yeah well that is possible right? Have a MMC1 switch program ROM from the menu to the NROM game right? If so I could program it although I haven't used mappers yet....


EDIT:

I'm sure RetroUSB has enough parts for our needs. And ROM's can be gotten offline for cheap if we buy all 40 in one lot I'm sure that'd be like $30 for the ROM'S, $9 for the board, $4 for the case, and $4 for a ciclone, and $3/label. Add $4 for the shipping of parts from RetroUSB and that equals about $23 per cart. That isn't bad. We would need to get quotes to actually get a price though....

[tokumaru]

Well we'd have to get someone to make the carts, I mean I like the idea. But i'm sure as hell not making them

What ARE you doing then? As the host of the compo you gotta do something!

[Jeroen]

I'll be a judge and i'll set up a website. As well as set up a team of jury members. <--volunteers? I'll also lay down some money for the price (but I simply cant pay for say a powerpak all by myself)

[3gengames]

I really want to help with the site! I have a GREAT layout done that is VERY editable with Javascript, works in IE last time I tested it, too.


Also, maybe use a MMC1 mapper with a 256K PRG ROM and put even more games on it That would be 8.....Unless you can't put 256K CHR on it....

[Jeroen]

Cool. I'll have to see how hosting is gonna work out (guess i'm paying for some webspace )