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https://www.theguardian.com/games/2023/jul/06/people-competing-to-make-the-worst-computer-games-possible>
"Retro video games have never been more popular, mostly because gamers have
never been older. The home-computer generation of players are now in their 40s
and 50s, and as we get older, we’re spending more time down memory lane. Who
wouldn’t want to replay the classics of their youth on mini versions of the
original consoles and computers, or even on a phone?
The ZX Spectrum – released in 1982 – had only eight basic colours, a rubber
keyboard and 48K of RAM (your 4GB RAM phone has nearly 90,000 times more);
nonetheless, some still view it like others view the Beatles. Games such as
Manic Miner,
Chuckie Egg and
Atic Atac were truly original, unlike
anything seen before. But some remember it just as fondly for being, well, a
bit crap.
The Comp.Sys.Sinclair Crap Games Contest (CGC for short) has run almost every
year since 1996. The idea is to write the crappest Spectrum game possible.
Described by its contestants as an institution in the Spectrum community, this
year it’s being hosted by 44-year-old Jamie Bradbury from Hull. “I got involved
about seven years ago, when I came back to the first computer I had as a kid,”
he says. “I always wanted to make my own game; it was an unfulfilled childhood
ambition. Now, I’ve got the bug. It’s fun to cook up the stupidest possible
idea and enjoy the misery of whoever has to review the damn thing.”
“What makes the CGC entertaining is the self-deprecating, sardonic British
humour,” explains 43-year-old Paul Collins from Reading, who first entered the
CGC in 2000 with
Pear-Shaped (“a simple maze game where you try to collect as
many pears as possible”) and
Crap Football, featuring a digitised Des Lynam.
“There are ideas that can’t possibly work, eg
Sim City: The Text Adventure or
Blind Flight Simulator. Or names that are just funny, like
Whack a Nun II
and
European Sandwich Hunt.
“It’s mad that CGC has been going on for over a quarter-century… It’s
definitely an institution shared by the Spectrum community. I’ve got some ideas
for this year, but I’m quite lazy so I don’t know whether I’ll get them done.”"
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
