Floppy disc game challenge

[Jonax]

Here a pretty cool initiative by some Korean site. A floppy disc size game making contest.
It is apparently still ongoing, you have until September 4th (?) to create a game less smaller than 1.44 MB.
Unfortunately zip compression is not allowed. Otherwise one of my ReactOS games would fit neatly. Also the entries got to be new.

It sure is a stretch nowadays but totally possible for a pascal programmer.

Also in my case there is a language barrier to navigate the Korean site.
Anyway. Below are the links. Any participants?

https://2pgarcade.com/


https://www.tomshardware.com/software/korean-outfit-hosting-1-44mb-game-development-contest-to-honor-the-floppy-disk-entrants-must-confine-entire-fileset-including-resources-engine-and-library-to-miniscule-storage-format

[SilverWarior]

Unfortunately zip compression is not allowed. Otherwise one of my ReactOS games would fit neatly. Also the entries got to be new.

Try compiling this same game with old Borland Delphi instead of Lazarus and ti might fit the size criteria.

Why would application compiled with old Delphi be much smaller than the application compiled with modern Delphi or Lazarus?
When you are compiling a Win application in Delphi or Lazarus the compiler stores a lot of string literals into the executable. These strings literals represent string values for most of the standard error messages, texts that can be seen in standard dialogs etc.
In fact if you build an empty VCL (modern Delphi) or LCL(Lazarus) application these string literals can easily consume 60% of entire executable size.
Since VCL in old Delphi had les functionality and was targeting older Windows versions the old Delphi stores a lot less string literals. Also all the stored string literals are stored as ANSI Strings (1 byte per character) and not as Wide Strings (2 bytes per character).
You can even compare your own bVoud game that you compiled with Borland Delphi to other games of yours that you compiled with Lazarus.

It sure is a stretch nowadays but totally possible for a pascal programmer.

Well if you target Windows platform using VCL or LCL they you might need to use older compilers to avoid problems with to many string literals being stored in executable as I wrote above.
You could make a purely text based game that runs as console application. FreePascal has several units that might be helpful for this like CRT and Graph.

[Jonax]

Delphi 3 comfortably does the trick. 16- bit and considerably smaller exe files. Problem is mainly that my Delphi skills are a bit rusty after 15 years on Lazarus.
They are similar but not totally the same.
Also I would need to make a new game for the contest. Is possible for sure but a bit tight. For the Delphi 3 I'd rely on the ReactOS, which actually is doable.

Will any other PGDers make an attempt for the challenge? There's still some time but I can't promise I'll actually make anything.

[SilverWarior]

Delphi 3 comfortably does the trick. 16- bit and considerably smaller exe files. Problem is mainly that my Delphi skills are a bit rusty after 15 years on Lazarus.
They are similar but not totally the same.

You can always start making the game in Lazarus and then porting it to Delphi 3 just before the deadline. Most of the LCL components are based on their Delphi counterparts so this shouldn't pose much problem.
On the other hand since both Lazarus and FreePascal are open source you can always recompile LCL with only those components and classes that you actually need. Meaning that Lazarus might be able to make even smaller executable. But you would probably need help from some FreePascal/Lazarus experts.

Also I would need to make a new game for the contest. Is possible for sure but a bit tight.

Yes there is no longer much time. But hey if you don't manage to finish the idea till deadline you will at least have some new game to work on.

Will any other PGDers make an attempt for the challenge? There's still some time but I can't promise I'll actually make anything.

I'm considering to make an attempt on purely text based game that will run inside console or command prompt. I already have a code snippet that allows me to output coloured text with coloured backgrounds in console. Just need to write myself a proper code for handling console inputs so I can detect individual key presses or perhaps even mouse clicks. Yes even old DOS text-mode had limited mouse support.
I'm not sure on game idea yet. But I'm leaning into space trading game where you control your ship using text interface.

But if you might be interesting to work on something together with me let me know. Maybe together we have better chance on making something before the deadline. The competition does allow games made by teams.

[Jonax]

Sorry for late reply. You know how it is. Away from keyboard and plenty of other things to do.

I haven't even started on this yet. Teamwork sure has pro's and cons. Let's keep the idea open.
No commitment yet.

But yes, text based it super fine for this type of challenge and space trade is a great concept.
I personally prefer low violence or no violence games so space trade is a big plus.

[Jonax]

Update. At least I managed to install my Delphi 3 on ReactOS. Am seriously rusty but managed a Hello Delphi3 program which landed at ~190 kB

[SilverWarior]

Am seriously rusty but managed a Hello Delphi3 program which landed at ~190 kB

Nice.
I wonder how big would Hello World app be if compiled with Delphi 7.

[Jonax]

Nice.
I wonder how big would Hello World app be if compiled with Delphi 7.

Probably a bit larger but I would assume it'd still fit the 1.44 MB limit

[Jonax]

Updates: I have no Delphi 7 myself but internet search indicates the exe files should be farily small.

Some good news and some bad news about my Delphi 3 on ReactOS. I really started dabbling with a new tiny program concept. And it does compile.
But the cut and paste doesn't work in Delphi 3 on ReactOS. I can't really complain. ReactOS is highly alpha. I should be glad it compiles at all.
Anyway that complicates the programming immensely, as I tend to rely a lot on cut and paste when starting a new project.