Retrospectiva: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- Q: It is valid to enter the contest with a work I had already shown in a private forum or only to my friends/colleagues in a social network, chat or instant messageing service?
A: Yes, a work is considered unreleased and therefore valid to enter the contest as long as it has not be previously published at a place accessible to the general public. Releasing to a closed group of friends/colleagues is not against the rules. - Q: Do I retain the rights over my work?
A: Of course, the only condition to enter the contest for your works to be free to download from this site. - Q: Can I derive a commercial, physical version of a work I presented in the contest?
A: Yes, once again the only condition is for the contest version to continue to be free for download. - Q: Is there a memory size limit for the game?
A: No. You can use all the available BASIC memory, or load extra data from disk or tape. As long as the game remains as pure BASIC, without calls to machine code routines outside those present on the chosen platform ROM. - Q: Can I use a cartridge based BASIC variant?
A: Only if such variant is of common use for the chosen platform, or there is a disk or tape version available. (Ie: TI Extended BASIC, Simons’ BASIC) - Q: Can I enter the contest with a game for CP/M, GEOS or another operative system for 8-bit computers?
A: Only if a native BASIC interpreter and/or compiler exists for that OS. - Q: Can I enter the contest with NES, Gameboy or another 8-bit game console music?
A: Retrospectiva is mainly aimed at micro and homecomputers, but it’s open to any device powered by an 8-bit CPU, be it computer, game console or programmable calculator. - Q: I’m from <INSERT_COUNTRY_NAME>. Can I participate in the competition?
A: Yes, Retrospectiva is open to participants from the whole world. Only condition is for the text in all entries to the BASIC game category to be in English or Spanish. - Q: I took a picture of my dog. Can I run the image through a converter and enter the competition with the resulting image?
A: Converting a picture that has not been modified in a creative way by the author goes against the competition’s spirit: to promote the creative use of old computers. We reserve the right to refuse graphic entries that look like straight conversions.
Please leave us a comment if you have a question not covered above.
Starting today, you have eleven months to submit your entry.
Hi. Great to see that BASIC is still alive and kicking.
Can programmers of the DRAGOn 32K HOME COMPUTER also enter the competition?
Perhaps you should check out the DRAGON support on archive.worldofdragon.com
Your site will be a fantastic platform for my DRAGON BASIC written games.
Regards, Cloete – Pretoria, South Africa.
Yes Cloete, this competition is for all the 8-bit computers, including Dragon and CoCo.
In the BASIC competition, does POKEing a value into memory to display this same value on the screen count as listable BASIC?
Yes, peek and poke is allowed.
The code must be listable only so we can check that no custom ML routine is called, other than that, you can use any programming technique you want (in case of graphic/text display: poking to memory, calling ROM routines or pure BASIC dedicated sentences, for example).
HI IM WRITING A MULTI-LEVEL ( 12 LEVELS HOPEFULLY ) GAME “BANANA MAN” FOR THE ZX SPECTRUM TO ENTER YOUR COMPETITION, THIS WAS A GAME I ORIGINALY WROTE BACK IN ’80’S / 90’S TO SUBMIT TO A MAGAZINE BUT BY THE TIME IT WAS COMPLETE THE (TYPE INS SUBMISSIONS ) WERE FINISHD ! OVER THE YEARS MY ORIGINAL CODE HAS BEEN LOST ,SOOOO , IM CODING THE GAME FROM SCRATCH ( FROM MEMORY ) WHICH IS A CHALLENGE IN ITSELF !
I HAVE A COUPLE OF QUESTIONS:-
1] CAN I USE UDG’S ?
EG :-
POKE USR”A”+A,B …. ETC ETC ,
DATA 10,20,30 …. ETC ETC .
2] IM USING ‘OUT’ STATEMNTS TO PORT 245 FOR BORDER COLOR FLASH AND BEEP EFFECTS IS THIS ALLOWED ALSO ?
3] IM CODING ON THE SPECTRUM EMULATOR, AS I DO NOT AT PRESENT OWN ANY 8 BIT COMPUTERS ( ALTHOGH I WOULD LOVE TO GET BACK A FEW IVE HAD OVER THE YEARS) , ZX81,ORIC1,SPECTRUMS IN ALL VARIANTS AT SOME POINT ) BBC MICRO ETC … IS THIS OK AS I CANT TEST THE GAME ON THE REAL ZX HARDWARE ?
4] WHAT FORMAT DO I MAKE A SUBMISSION IN ( REAL AUDIO CASSTTE / .WAV / .SNA / .SZX ) ETC ? ( AT PRESENT IM SAVING IN .SZX FORMAT ..
5] HOW DO I MAKE MY SUBMISSION ? ( I CANT SEE ANYWHERE ON THE RETROSPCTIVIA SITE TO UPLOAD SUBMISSIONS ) ???
MANY THANKS … SIMON
Hello Simon, in answer to your questions:
1,2 and 3 : Yes thats ok.
4 : Tape files (.WAV or .TAP) are prefered to snapshots (.SNA or .SZX)
5 : Send us a mail to info(at)rsp.retrocomputacion.com with the file attached, check the “Entry submission / Registration in the competition” section on the rules page for the info you need to include.
Thanks for your interest.
Is the Tandy Color Computer 3 allowed?
If so, can OS9 level 2, Basic09 be used in the game catagory?
Also, in the music catagory, can a custom music program be written/used to create the music as long as the program uses the Coco’s hardware and does it have to be in basic?
Can the Orchestra90 program pak be used for music output. The Orchestra90 is emulated in all Coco 3 emulators. This would be used for stereo output from the custom program.
Hi SoundChaser
Yes, the CoCo is allowed and so is Basic09. (Remember, only pure BASIC for the game category, no use of custom machine code procedures or modules)
The music category is not limited to BASIC, you can use any language or music writing program you like.
As for the Orchestra90, if it’s widely and accurately emulated then it is allowed too.
JUST THOUGHT ID GIVE A LINK TO SOME NICE 48K SPECTRUM GRAPHICS
FOR ANYBODY WANTING TO ENTER THE ‘GRAPHICS’ SECTION OF THE COMPETION
http://zxspectrum48.i-demo.pl/zxgallery.html
CHEERS
SIMON…
FOR INSPIRATION MAYBE ?
1 rule states: the code must be LIST-able. When on a ZX Spectrum UDG are used, how do I identify a graphical A to graphical U for UDG in the LISTing?
We only need to be able to list the game to check it doesn’t have any calls to custom machine code.
While an UDG guide is in no way mandatory, if you prefer to include one by way of a screenshot or a couple or REM lines (*) then it’s ok.
(*) For example:
100 REM UDG GUIDE
110 REM ? ? ? ? ?
120 REM A B C D E
this might help also , if you load your basic program ( using UDGS )
then llist and print the listing , ( before running the game ) the listing
should print udg “A” , not the actual graphic character !
hope that might help also
simon
Hello, I’m teaching a class of teen kids who are learning Atari BASIC for the first time. This contest looks like it would be a great motivator for the kids.
Would Turbo Basic XL be allowed for the competition? (It’s not the cartridge basic that was more common the platform, but it’s significantly faster).
Hello Joe, yes Turbo BASIC XL and it’s compiler are allowed 🙂