Login
Back to forumReply to this topicGo to last reply

Posted By

Csabo
on 2016-12-31
18:28:15
 2016 - The Year in Review

Wow, the last one of these was 10 years ago. And, since no-one has asked for them ever since, here it is: 2016 - The Year in Review, from the Plus/4's point of view. Here we are in the truly fortunate position to examine last year in 8 bits: no deaths, no voting upsets (unless you count CD5 :-)), only happy news. Let's see then!

Emulators
Well, we pretty much only have YAPE left, and it saw 3 updates this year (1.0.9, 1.0.10, 1.0.11). Additionally, the JS version of YAPE came online on April 1st (along with some April Fools jokes): this is a really cool feature. Now, if you like, you can send a link to that friend who would not be able to install an emulator, and they can see your favourite game or demo right in their browser. Here's to hoping this feature will get better and faster in the future. December brought us another surprise: Plus4Emu also got updated. Fingers crossed that this trend continues.

Utilities
We had some updates and some new utils this year, among them are WinMTAP 1.0, Plus4HTML, Pixel Polizei, MultiPaint, Regenerator. There are still many gaps to be filled in terms of utils, so let's hope next year we will have even more.

The Collection
Our ever-growing collection... grew some more :-) One nice addition was the original TAP for Botticelli. Big thanks to Acrid, Lacus, Perfect Darky, Sanya and everyone else I may have forgotten for sending in the scans, TAP images, and previously missing programs. I guess this would be the section to mention site updates: although our little home looks mostly like its old self, there have been some small improvements here and there.

Demos
Unfortunately we don't have much here this year. The list of demos is dominated by pictures from George and carrion. The big thing was Crackers' Demo 5. It came together nicely and it's something to be proud of. 20 parts contributed, but the main thing to note is how much buzz and excitement it generated, both in our scene, and outside of it.

Games
Finally, let's take a look at the games. Hugohunt started the year off. Next, MOS2 aka The Lands Of Zador dropped. It's a massive achievement, but IMHO it did not receive the welcome from our scene as it deserves. Pac-Pac from Skoro was a huge hit, however. There was a huge resurgence of BASIC games this year, some of them are: Blasto, Randtown Builder, Randtown Crusher, Frutty Man +4, Hitball, Brickhunter, Bombrunner, Castle Matcher. This is definitely a good trend, let's hope it continues!

That's it in a nutshell. What (Plus/4 related things!) did you like or dislike about 2016 ? Discuss on the forums! Happy New Year to everyone!

Posted By

Mad
on 2017-01-01
18:28:15
 Re: 2016 - The Year in Review

Happy NEW YEAR to all c16 plus/4 folks, from here, too! Let's see, what 2017 will bring in 8bit! A good start and all the best to you! happy

Posted By

Luca
on 2017-01-02
02:18:33
 Re: 2016 - The Year in Review

Weeks ago, somebody raised doubts about the quantity of releases in 2016, nonetheless, as expected, in the very end it has reached a value absolutely in the line of the last 15 years (!), just afer the big black hole at the end of the century (ooh dark ones those times!).

Happy new year to all of you buddies! I wish for you (and for me, 'coz unfortunately I would need it at least till S. Valentine) a time of peace and serenity, to spend even on the Plus/4, both in bigger and in little projects.

Posted By

Lavina
on 2017-01-03
16:51:53
 Re: 2016 - The Year in Review

Thanks for doing this.

Posted By

MMS
on 2017-01-03
18:44:15
 Re: 2016 - The Year in Review

Thank you for the summary. happy

I just wanted to mention the new (very capable) TED music editors too, and heck, that was happened in 2015

Posted By

Csabo
on 2017-01-03
21:03:09
 Re: 2016 - The Year in Review

Yup, that's already been more than a year! Time flies, doesn't it? The other thing that I didn't mention is that Club Info is still kicking, the only remaining diskmag. Though who knows, maybe the next Lone News is just around the corner wink

Posted By

Luca
on 2017-01-04
02:09:39
 Re: 2016 - The Year in Review

Csabo: Heh... What really stops me to release issue 21 is that I really would have the time to revolutionize the diskmag's code and do it from scratch 'coz we all know that Lone News is a diskmag born at the beginning of the scene's darker years, just to keep it alive, and it lives thanks to a hypothetical spaghetti code with no irqs involved which simply worked, slightly changed one time only just to include a SID option...

Posted By

MMS
on 2017-01-04
09:49:59
 Re: 2016 - The Year in Review

For me (as an average user) the Lone News is a perfect discmag.
I did not realize anything from the spagetti code. 😀

Posted By

Luca
on 2017-01-04
10:32:59
 Re: 2016 - The Year in Review

MMS: do you wanna see the paradox? LoneNews Editor is faaaar more advanced compared to the item it should depend from grin

Csabo: you also had suggested me that RLE stuff just about a diskmag, do you remember?

Posted By

Csabo
on 2017-01-04
10:46:37
 Re: 2016 - The Year in Review

I do happy Not necessarily RLE, but a form of tokenizing compression. I think it should be simple to implement, quick to decompress (so no delay for the user). Though that's on the technical side, from a UI point, I think any newly coded diskmags should have proportional fonts. (See "Attitude" on C=64. One has to admit, they have more diskmags and better ones, but they also have massive number of people working on them, and perhaps more importantly, actual stuff to write about wink)



Back to topReply to this topic


Copyright © Plus/4 World Team, 2001-2024