Kaz Kompo 2007 (in English) by Kaz 2008-01-01 00:41:13

The first days of 2008 can mean only one thing: It`s the time to choose the best Atari 8-bit game of the previous year. Let's get started with Kaz Kompo 2007 ! We will organise a truly worldwide contest for the best 8-bit Atari games! Since every good idea must have its beginning, I decided to organise my contest on atarionline.pl site under the name of "Kaz Kompo 2006". This year's edition has obviously the name Kaz Kompo 2007 and practically unchanged rules. The official compo logo was prepared by Sebastian “5eba” Chabowski and I thank him very much for that. In the contest preparations significantly helped Adam "asal" Salamon who translated this text into english and Andreas “Charlie Chaplin” Koch who translated the rules into german and spends some gift prizes.



The total amount of cash prizes has been increased thanks to the generosity of the following people who donated their last year's prizes (all winners!): Arkadiusz „ArSoft” Lubaszka, Michał “stRing” Radecki, Krzysztof „xxl” Dudek, Michał “Miker” Szpilowski, Adam “Powrooz” Powroźnik, Kamil „Vidol” Walaszek, Tomasz „TeBe” Biela. The financial support was also given by Rafał “Mały” Nowaczuk and Paweł “Pirx” Kalinowski. I have respect for your attitude and I am grateful for your help. Thanks! I myself also donated some money and now the total amount of all cash prizes is 300 euros.

A few words about the rules:

1. Our competition can enter all 8-bit Atari games published in 2007. It doesn't matter if they are commercial or freeware ones, if they won in other contests or not, if they require 64kB or 1MB of memory, if they require particular extensions, etc. It is only important that they were made generally available between January 1st and December 31st 2007.

2. Anyone can vote by sending me an email using the contact form or by submitting a comment below this topic. It is best to provide a full name of a voter OR a nick this person uses on AtariArea or AtariAge forums. I will try to make unknown people reconfirm their votes and if it wouldn’t be possible, such votes won't be taken into account. Voting is public and everyone will be able to see how other people have voted. No monkey business, scams, mistakes or ambiguity.

3. Everyone can vote for up to three games but it is necessary to put them in order since points will be distributed this way: first place - 3 points, second place - 2 points, third place - 1 point. It is possible to vote for one or two games only (for example if a voter believes none of the games deserves the first place) but it is necessary to point out which place is omitted. All the points games get will be added up and on this basis a rating list will prepared. Games from the first three places will be rewarded.

4. Authors and co-authors of the games cannot vote for their works. Instead, votes can be cast on other games or it is possible to vote for less than three games.

5. All doubts will be dispelled and all problems will be solved by me personally. It is intended to make decisions quickly and efficiently.

6. I would like to end voting on Tuesday, January 15th and publish results on 22nd. Thus it is possible to vote until midnight of January 15th.

7. Last year the total amount of all cash prizes was 207 euro, this year it is 300 euro. The authors of the games from the first three places win the following prizes:

1st place - 150 euro

2nd place - 75 euro

3rd place - 75 euro


8. The cash prize will not be given to a game which won any prize in an ABBUC contest - in such cases rewards will be given to the games from lower places. The thing is not to reward games twice, but reward as many game creators as possible.

9. There are also gift prizes founded by Andreas “Charlie Chaplin” Koch. These prizes will be distributed by lot among the authors of other programs and among the voters. Lot drawing will be performed by the sponsor of these prizes - Andreas.

10. I don't exclude that there are people willing to support prize fund, in such cases the prize pool for the next year's contest edition will be increased.

11. Prize money will be sent to the authors of the winning games on condition that an appropriate account numbers will be delivered to me until 31st March 2008 and similarly, gift prizes will be sent if I receive post addresses. If one of the authors fails to deliver me this information until that date, his prize will support the prize pool of the next year's contest edition.

I ask you for understanding for the rules listed above - I didn't want to invent any strict regulations where mainly good fun should be. I hope that common sense will help us to dispel all doubts in contentious issues.

Last year's games:

PERU


USA


SLOVAKIA


GERMANY


CZECH REPUBLIC


POLAND


PPs 2008-01-01 09:52:05

My votes fly to....

3rd) Crownland -> Great potential but the released version lacks a little in overview (I think the time to Abbuc contest ran out to do more). There are some little glitches that destroy this great piece of work a little. We all hope of a Crownland+ or Crownland 2 without these little mistakes and perhaps a little more levels.




2nd) Eckn -> This "puzzle game" is alittle hard to get in, but if you´re in, it´s hard to find an end. The overview shows a lot of work to make it "perfect" like a "full prize game" back in the days.




1st) Yoomp! -> Everything is perfect here. Nice Idea, perfect presentation (even an own great internetsite) and a built in "you can´t stop playing" mechanism ;) For me this is so far the best released "full price game" for our machie --- oops, it is free for all !!! This game as a hotel is hase sure at least those many stars: *************************************
PPs 2008-01-01 09:53:51

last sentence: - is hase sure + surely owns
Kaz 2008-01-01 17:34:35

Thank you PPs, you're first voter in English section. Who's next? Don't be shy ;)
Charlie Chaplin 2008-01-01 19:51:33

Well,
my votes fly to...

3) Caverns of the lost Miner (1 Point)

2) Eckn (2 points)

1) Mule Wars (3 points)

Strange voting eh ?!? But Yoomp an Crownland already won their applause and prizes... so it is time for me to look at the other games I also enjoyed 2007... Greetings, Charlie Chaplin.
Allas 2008-01-01 23:40:39

Kaz, I think 3 votes is too low to choice alternative winners. Maybe next Compo should be replaced this rule. ;)
However, this is my list of 2007 winners:

1st place - CROWLAND - Because it reach a great quality colorful Atari game very polished. Developed with advanced technical programming routines like the multiplexing real sprites and parallax scrolling. The best horizontal platform game ever seen on Atari 8bit computers, and IMHO better that C64 platform games (at least technically).

2nd place - YOOMP! - A great technical game, use the advantages of Atari hardware to get a cool impression. Very very very addictive, and it's only 64K. Unreachable quality for a C64 machine. Was very difficult to choice the 1st and 2nd place between 2 big titles, finally I choice for (I think) the most laborious game.

3rd place - MIND BLAST - Great music, Great colors and great logic concept. This is the best game I've seen from Fandal and for sure is a piece of jewel. Very polished and detailed. I think it was not considered by most of Atarians, because it was launched early months of 2007.

Thanks to the rest of Authors to continue programming on Atari 8bit machines. I enjoyed a lot every game and waste days playing. Really I feel as the 80's with a lot of new, porting o modified software that 2007 brought.
PG 2008-01-02 00:36:57

Thanks for the kind words, Allas, and btw. there's a little cheat in Mind Blast that allows you too choose ingame music - just press Ctrl+Shift+number[1,2,3] to select it (one of them can otherwise only be heard when you finish all 150 levels).
Kaz 2008-01-02 01:07:24

Allas - That's true, I have the same impression. I'm opened for discussion about compo rules.

PG - Thank you for this info - I suppose not too many people knew about. By the way - this game is really good.
PG 2008-01-02 15:14:11

Kaz: well, it was kind of a secret, but now, 9 months after release it is the right time to unleash all the secrets :)
Btw. it would be nice if the article contained links to all the participating productions :-)
Kaz 2008-01-02 15:43:30

PG - you can download all participating games (link mentioned above). What other kind of links do you mean?
PG 2008-01-02 15:46:40

Oh, sorry, I overlooked the download link. I meant links to sites like atari.fandal.cz or other game archives (for each game individually).
Kaz 2008-01-02 20:18:21

PG, I was thinking about but decided to provide a small zip file instead of many separate links. It is easier way to deal with.
Kaz 2008-01-03 04:01:55

Update: Two new german games (commercial release) have been added:

Mini Master-Mind - author: Dieter "Old Men Tower" Gretschel
Multi Master-Mind - author: Dieter "Old Men Tower" Gretschel

You can see them only if you are an ABBUC member.
wobu 2008-01-03 16:19:12

1. ECKN
2. Game Harry
3. Mulit Mastermind
Nux 2008-01-03 17:04:15

The download archive contains 'Caverns of the lost miner' version C, that became obsolete, because Baktra released version D 6 months before.
Kaz 2008-01-03 18:37:35

Nux - thanx for info, I will update a file tonight.
Michael Kalous (Baktra) 2008-01-04 15:53:29

1st place: Crownland
2nd place: Yoomp!

3rd place: Commando+
Irgendwer 2008-01-06 19:37:53

1st place: Mind Blast

(other placements suppressed due to prize exclusion rule (8))
Nux 2008-01-07 16:34:28

Caverns of the lost miner disappeared from download archive. Home page of that game with version D is here:
http://www.baktra.wz.cz/software/calomin.html
(it's not very good game, i think)
PG 2008-01-08 14:16:44

Ok, my top list:
1st - Yoomp (3 pts)
2nd - Crownland (2 pts)
3rd - Jetboy (1 pt)
Kaz 2008-01-15 03:16:08

Nux - strange story, I'll find it out :0.