Hope you’re ready for a case of nostalgia overload because that’s exactly what participants of this fifty-second Mini Ludum Dare will be bringing! Personally, seeing how I’m a huge fan of old-school video games… I can’t wait. That and it’s bound to be an interesting challenge for those involved, as I have a feeling few are familiar with the workings of, say, MS-DOS or the Commodore 64, nowadays. Good stuff.
Alright, in case the prospect of going way out of your programming comfort zone hasn’t scared you off yet, let’s go over what’s what. You’ve got until June 23rd (give or take) to piece together a game for old – or downright ancient – hardware. That’s approximately ten days to pick a system, learn the ins and outs of it, come up with an idea, and so on.
Just use whatever packaging is appropriate for your device, and we’ll work out best practices for emulation in the comment thread here…
Probably won’t be easy, but that’s not the point of this particular jam, as there are plenty of alternatives if that’s what you’re after. No, like the #LOWREZJAM, this is retro in its purest form. Far more restrictive than ‘create a game in a low resolution’ though, in that here, you’ll literally have to code like it’s 19XX again. Should you need some help to kick things off, here’s something for C64 and Atari 2600 game making. Note: I have not tried either myself, but they do seem competent.
Now, unlike the main Ludum Dares, these ‘in-between’ jams seem to have a hard time attracting attention; darn shame if you ask me. So whether or not you decide to participate, be sure to help spread the word, eh? Oh and here’s the announcement post. Yay, nostalgia!