Do you want an _offline_ retro gaming league? Please let me know!

[skeezix]

I've posted it to gp32x forum, but _please_ reply here or there; I'll duplicate the poll here, but pick one or the other to register your poll in (feel free to reply to both forums of course)


http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/58283-anyone-want-a-gp32-offline-gaming-league-discuss/


edit: And hey Craig/ED, you want to toss in any prizes, like a $20 certificate at GBAX or a TV-out cable or anything?


Quote:


Here's a crazy idea, a variation of some ideas proposed in the past. This is not Pandora specific (include Caanoo, Wiz, Gp2x, even PSP), but I don't want to spam all the sub-boards until we nail it down and if lots of folks think its a groovy idea.


Proposal -- an _offline_ gaming league, where each week or two we have a game selected across the league, with various objectives posted as a method of scoring. At the end of each period, the scores are posted to a thread and the league admin teracks the scoring. At the end of the season, the scoreboard is completed, and perhaps even the top few guys get some recognition or even prixes, if it takes off.


Season length: Maybe a 'quarter' (3 months?)


One game period: Biweekly? (you don't want it too rapid, since that elimintes us folks with kids and jobs and whatnot and favours unemployed folks


Scoring: Varies by game, so the league administrator, when he releases the next game to start a period, publishes the scforing system. ie: The league admin has to do a bit of pre-period work to determine scoring. Coudl just be "the score you got", or could be "in Dungeon Master, for reeaching floor 5, you get 100 points; for reaching floor 7, you get 300 points", that sort of thing.


Themes of any given season (could run multiple, but then oyu divide up our commnity too much to keep critical mass?) -- each season could be themed -- Atari ST season, or Arcade season, or something. Or it could be a total free for all where the emu selected is available across all devices noted as being acceptible.


Dropping in/out: would be 100% fine; if you were on a trip or couldn't make a submission at end of period, fine, we're all in it for fun, who cares!


Scoring and Submissions; I'm thinking we coudl go on an honor system -- people post their score or achievement; we coudl be a little hardcore ands request a screenshot to 'prove' it; really really hardcore would be requiring a savestate upload somewhere, and then other folks in the league or the league admin would have to go through and tally points, but that seems like way too much work, even if only sa half dozen participants.


Prizes; none to start with, do it for bragging rights. Hell, coudl even be somethign simple like a badge on your left-side posting avatar But if it takes off, we coudl toss something in .. hell, I'll throw a TV-out cable or something in, buty you end up getting prizes fir people with the wrong gear, so hard to do


IT seems like if people want to do this, then the hardest part is finding a league admin. Now, I coudl do it, but I'm a pretty busy guy. I'm willing to organize the first couple rounds and kick off games, but you all know I'm going to pick a Atari ST or SNES game But I wouldn't mind finding a league admnin who has _lots of free time_, since I could see this being lots of fun/work - make a website, watch a league forum, tally scores and audit scores, research and select the next game and determine scoring rules for that game, etc. This could be a great opportunity for someone who isn't a coder, say -- someone who really wants to help out in the community but doesn't know what to do. (I'm thinking Blue Protoman here, lol


Hell, we could go nuts, make a emuholic vs gp32x vs wraggster thing if it takes off, make some site-competition


If we can get 10+ people who commit to playing a few games to start with, across emus across platforms, I will start it up and take care of setup!

 

[Prometheus]

This sounds a bit like the high score challenges on AtariAge! Am I thinking along the right lines with that?


If so, it sounds like it could be fun.


(I'm holding off on voting for the minute, just in case I've understood it wrong, and also because I'm sure there'll be numerous times where I wouldn't be able to take part due to not owning some games. )

 

[skeezix]

Never heard of AA High Score thing, so maybe Emphasis on not destroying peoples lives though, not on ebing too competitive -- I don't want it purely based on high score, I'd rather it be objectives (which could include score, but other stuff), and not just arcey games. But stuff where objectives can be met with a reasonable time frame, and bonuses for those who go all the way... so that those of us with tight timelines can still play and have fun, and not get destroyed by those who have infinite free time.


So if you like it and want to play .. chekc that vote; we'll try to make sure its all feasible for our members.


ie: No 'complete a 20 hour game of Master of Magic' to get points, though if MoM got picked, it could be 'ge to a certain building' or 'levle your hero to this' or 'take over 2 enemy cities', or something.


Up to the league admin


Leaning towards games that are easier to make sensible scoring systems though ... no 'complete Link to the Past to get 1 point' bullshit


jeff

 

[Prometheus]

It does sound like the AtariAge thing. :lol: Sounds perfect. I won't always have the time, but I'd love to take part, so I've voted for the first one (unless I was supposed to vote for "Great idea, I don't have time", in which case I'll switch it over to that one ).

 

[skeezix]

Definition, Type-A OCD personality -- someone who, rather than actually playing games, comes up with a way to make playing games into a lot of work.

 

[Blue Protoman]

I know some games which would be VERY good for such a tournament. Ever heard of Totally Tiny Arcade?

 

[RobFord]

Sounds like a great idea.


Bring on the ST, my first computer back in the day.


Any idea when you are thinking of starting?

 

[skeezix]

So far, assuming both boards are separate voters, we have 7 people. I'd like to see more before I commit to anything


(Or ideally, someone else steps up to be league admin .. I'm working on firmware, a game, and other projects .. it woudl be way awesome if someone whose looking for a way to help out the community would jump in


jeff

 

[milkshake]

So far, assuming both boards are separate voters, we have 7 people. I'd like to see more before I commit to anything


(Or ideally, someone else steps up to be league admin .. I'm working on firmware, a game, and other projects .. it woudl be way awesome if someone whose looking for a way to help out the community would jump in


jeff

if there was someway to validate highscores like an API for any pandora application that would say enable screenshot capture and auto upload as a future project I might be inclined to create a tournament site for such things, but not if poeple are left to just say "I got 1000000000 points" I dont trust people specially those with pandoras they all look shifty to me

 

[SNESFAN]

...i hate my life


edit: but seriously, if we could do achievements on emulated games you could totally count me in.


http://www.bslapps.com/

 

[skeezix]

milkshake -- I'm not really planning on making it pandora specific at this point -- why exclude 3/4 of our forum? (especially given how many pandora's are in the wild right now.)


Why not trust people?


jeff

 

[Blue Protoman]

Vote Blue Protoman for Guy Who Selects The Games

 

[moxie]

Sounds a bit in the same vein as the Together Retro thing on Racketboy, but with a bit of competition thrown in. Sounds fun - I'm all for

 

[skeezix]

Vote Blue Protoman for Guy Who Selects The Games

I mentioned you in the descfription for a reason .. lots of enthusiasm and energy that could be put to good use


But its not about _picking games_ -- thats part of it. (Or for each period in the week before, open a poll listing 2 or 3 options so the most popular one wins?) -- the real meat of it is talling and verifying scfores, keeping a webpage detailing the contendors and status, and in the week before the period starts playing through the game to determine how it will be scored. After a season or two it'd beeasy to just re-use socirng schemes I bet, but for the first while its actually challenigng to come up with a fair scoring system for many games I"m sure (to include score bonuses for various obscure achievements etc.) For pure arcade shmips it could just be 'game score / 2700' or something (depending on the game, so that each game period has roughly the same point value), but for wargames or RPGs or run and jumps you might do it all different .. for bubble bobble, could say 'bonus points for making level 5' and 'more bonus for making level 10' and 'making level 50', that soret of thing.


So 'league admin' might be good for you, but its more than justpicking games (its also not a nazi role, probabyl need to negotiate things out with people; lots of time invesment I fortell.)


jeff

 

[Blue Protoman]

I can do that. I have a lot of time on weekends.

 

[WizardStan]

I can do that. I have a lot of time on weekends.

You seem to have a lot of time 24/7...

 

[skeezix]

We're on the order of 12 bodies; whats the critical mass? Thats getting there


jeff

 

[Blue Protoman]

We should discuss this in the IRC channel over the weekend. I'm usually available at certain points in school but I wanna have a lot of people partake in such a discussion, and I'd like to guarantee my own presence. We should organize a specific time to meet, in a specific channel. My vote is 3:00 PM EST on Saturday, on #retrogamepandora on irc.freenode.net.

 

[skeezix]

Weekends are out for me, prettymuch (taking care of my kid and making sure she has a good time


jeff

 

[Blue Protoman]

Shame, you deserve to be there, having started this thread. What about Friday evening?