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Post by hcmffm on Sept 24, 2024 16:27:37 GMT -5
Thank you, Chris R., Chris S., Roland, Tony, Peer, Phil, and Marc for your feedback and infos. Great to see that people are still around if you need them.  My sympathies go out for those players with the desire to play Spike's Circus. It's a fun game. But with the loss of both sources for physical copies of this title, Alex Nicholson @vectorzoa and madtronix , it's going to be one of those titles not played much. Even with the advance notice. Good and true info, Chris. Spike's Circus is not option until it's available, again. Some Vector War players might have a copy of it, but I guess there would be quite a number of players that don't. ... This year, Vectrex Academy didn't take place so there are little games that are released in 2024. Yes, my apologies for that. This spring semester, it was finally my turn to be eligible for a research sabbatical. I seized the opportunity and took a (long-needed) break from active teaching. I still managed to proceed with some other Vectrex-related stuff.
So there are indeed no new Academy games this year. But there are still all the old ones from the previous years đŸ˜‰ And if everything goes according to plan, then Vectrex Academy 2025 will start next year in March! No need to apologize, Peer. During many years now, the Vectrex community has been blessed with the Vectrex Academy and the many new and interesting games. The prospect of a Vectrex Academy 2025 is great - I cross my fingers that this happens. And you're right, there's still some pearls to find among the games of previous Vectrex Academies. Perhaps someone can help me dive and find those pearls. What do you all think about Hera Primera for the contest? Hera Primera is commercial and not for free but still available. For me this would be fine. And 1-2 commercial homebrew games in the Vector War is o.k., I think. Other opinions? What about "nearly" Vectrex Acedamy titles, like: Gyrostronomy / Gyrostrology... Great that you're around, Chris, and thank you for your suggestion. As Peer pointed out, Gyro* has been played in two very recent Vector Wars, so this is not an option. One more suggestion: What do you think about Ben's Lightpen game "Nuka Bomb", that got published in the "Side Games" and the "Vectral" cartridge? Thank you, Marc, for suggesting Nuka Bomb. Mail Plane is an orginal GCE game using the Light pen and until now, it has never been on the list. Not sure, how many Vector War players have a lightpen at hand and how playable Mail Plane in a competition is. So if we put a Lightpen game on the game list it should be Mail Plane, I think. First decisions: - Sea Pup is in. - Unicorn Galaxy is in. - Thrust is in. - Spike's Circus is out due to restricted availability. Still three or four more homebrews to decide on. |
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Post by fruktodlaren on Sept 24, 2024 23:58:07 GMT -5
First decisions: - Sea Pup is in. - Unicorn Galaxy is in. - Thrust is in. - Spike's Circus is out due to restricted availability. Still three or four more homebrews to decide on. With those three in, we already have a killer homebrew lineup. I think HeraPrimera would be a great addition to the competition. Then it will be lots of space shooters this year, which I don't mint at all as it is one of my favourite type of games second to labyrinth games. I think most of those who preordered HeraPrimera should have gotten their replacement fixed PCB by now. If someone in Europe still has only a non fixed HeraPrimera, I can offer to apply the fix for the cost of shipping to Sweden and back. As for HeraPrimera not being a free game, Unicorn Galaxy is too, right? However, both of them are readily available to purchase, so it should not pose a problem to their inclusion in the competition. |
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Post by D-Type on Sept 25, 2024 0:52:29 GMT -5
Personally, I'm not a physical game collector, so unless it's free, I can't play it. The more physical-only games get added, the more excluded people's like me will become, but we might be silent about it because we don't want to appear as shiny new game killjoys.
Free Hera Primera would be a great addition! :-)
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Post by Peer on Sept 25, 2024 1:07:57 GMT -5
Personally, I'm not a physical game collector, so unless it's free, I can't play it. The more physical-only games get added, the more excluded people's like me will become, but we might be silent about it because we don't want to appear as shiny new game killjoys. Free Hera Primera would be a great addition! :-) Or, in general, if the developers feel like it, what about free special Vector War editions, like we had several in the past? Maybe limited in some way. Those can also work as appetizers to buy the full version after the tournament. |
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Post by D-Type on Sept 25, 2024 1:17:05 GMT -5
This may have been mentioned before, but maybe consider letting people with emulators play? Maybe they wouldn't be included in the league table or just can't win prizes, but it would be likely to encourage more people to join in.
The downside would mean more admin and scorce checking, and as there's only one person doing that right now, I can understand that might not be feasible! I suppose you could cap the number of entrants.
Maybe one day we will have a system that everyone can use for entering scores that would make it easier/quicker for verification. I used to be able to do stuff like that, but other life priorities are in the way now. /Sigh/
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Post by D-Type on Sept 25, 2024 1:20:17 GMT -5
Personally, I'm not a physical game collector, so unless it's free, I can't play it. The more physical-only games get added, the more excluded people's like me will become, but we might be silent about it because we don't want to appear as shiny new game killjoys. Free Hera Primera would be a great addition! :-) Or, in general, if the developers feel like it, what about free special Vector War editions, like we had several in the past? Maybe limited in some way. Those can also work as appetizers to buy the full version after the tournament. Ah, yes, that's a great point. I bet Vyrzon benefited from that and Wet Cat! (Can you buy Wet Cat?) |
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Post by fruktodlaren on Sept 25, 2024 3:12:18 GMT -5
I did not quote the things I am responding to because of general lazyness. I may come off as an elitist gatekeeper now, but playing on real hardware has always been the thing with Vector War. It's only recently that third party controllers were allowed granted they didn't have any built in aids such as auto fire or button press ramping.
Allowing emulators would feel a little like competing in the Olympics over Skype. There is also the risk of cheating via savegames or running the game faster in emulators. So my stance regarding participation through emulation is to not allow it due to all of the above.
Having developers release rom versions of games to players in the tournament is nice. But that should be completely up to the developer to decide. We should not blackmail developers to do so just because their game got featured in the competition.
I can only speak for myself here of course. I have bought a physical game just for the competition once and sold it again afterwards because it felt right at the time.
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Post by D-Type on Sept 25, 2024 4:10:14 GMT -5
"There is also the risk of cheating via savegames or running the game faster in emulators..."
Several of us in this group could hack a game to display false scores in less time then it would take to achieve a score manually!
Luckily dev's respect the integrity of the event. Well, I hope so, anyway. :-D
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Post by Peer on Sept 25, 2024 5:44:45 GMT -5
Several of us in this group could hack a game to display false scores in less time then it would take to achieve a score manually! Or play on a real console that has a custom BIOS with a tampered random number generator and modified score display routines  |
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Post by D-Type on Sept 25, 2024 5:50:50 GMT -5
Several of us in this group could hack a game to display false scores in less time then it would take to achieve a score manually! Or play on a real console that has a custom BIOS with a tampered random number generator and modified score display routines You read my mind ;-) |
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Post by fruktodlaren on Sept 25, 2024 8:32:42 GMT -5
I stand corrected.
Then I change my stance to that I think it should stay as a real hardware only competition, because it feels more genuine that way.
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Post by Peer on Sept 25, 2024 9:44:04 GMT -5
I stand corrected. Then I change my stance to that I think it should stay as a real hardware only competition, because it feels more genuine that way. Yes, for me playing Vectrex games is also all about playing on a real console, and with the original Vectrex controller. And that is how I will play in the tournament. |
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Post by scotthuggins on Sept 26, 2024 22:20:31 GMT -5
But, does that mean we have to have a lightpen in order to be eligible to play Nuka Bomb? Of the original commercial games... Berzerk? It's so quick and fun and it's completely random. I like the idea of that since it's not repetitive and easy to memorize a strategy. Just a thought.
I would like to vote *against* Tour de France - if that's allowed.
Homebrew: the original Omega Chase?
No matter what....SO looking forward to this. Its was a complete blast last year. The most fun I had with my Veccy last year, period!
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Post by Sketcz on Sept 27, 2024 2:17:13 GMT -5
I recently bought a modded Neo Geo Mini controller, with its analogue joystick, for use on my Vectrex. It's a fairly new custom controller - there's no rapid fire, it just has a really nice ergonomic feel and proper analogue input (as opposed to a modded Mega Drive controller). I'm assuming it's cool to use?
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Post by VectorX on Sept 27, 2024 13:52:34 GMT -5
^If I remember correctly with the last several V. Wars you just needed to post saying you were using a non-standard controller and that was it. Helmut may say differently though.
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My sympathies go out for those players with the desire to play Spike's Circus. It's a fun game. But with the loss of both sources for physical copies of this title, Alex Nicholson @vectorzoa and madtronix , it's going to be one of those titles not played much. Even with the advance notice.Good and true info, Chris. Spike's Circus is not option until it's available, again. Some Vector War players might have a copy of it, but I guess there would be quite a number of players that don't.
... This year, Vectrex Academy didn't take place so there are little games that are released in 2024.
What do you all think about Hera Primera for the contest?Hera Primera is commercial and not for free but still available. For me this would be fine. And 1-2 commercial homebrew games in the Vector War is o.k., I think. Other opinions?
What about "nearly" Vectrex Acedamy titles, like: 
