I thought there were enough pong games available already. Bill Nagel, Merlijn den Boer, Christopher Derycke "Black", Joel Seligstein and Emanuel Seitinger all made a pong game for the TI-83. Seems pretty much to me, so why a pong contest?

Well there was a vote with like 10 different game ideas and pong was selected by most people.
Actually I selected it aswell, more because the basic concept of a paddle and a ball with multiple angles can be cooked up in asm in like 45 minutes. So it's easy, and it's a small game. So the challenge ill be making the smallest version possible, if you are an optimize freak like I am, I am really looking forward to it. I think this contest is a nice step in the good direction for a more interlink the different programming communities there are: spitfire, greenlight, drubu, united ti, detached solutions. Currently it are totally really different communities, I would like to see some bonding :).
Trust me that pong is not the last contest that will be held, so in a new version you can have input if you want...just post it on the board.

And to address Mr. SulfurOxidizing C02-carbonsourcing, you know who you are ;).
If a price or something materialistic is the first thing you think of when there's a contest, then I think you differ from most of the programmers out there. Programming is something that you do because it inspires you and you like doing it. So only join if you like to take a challenge, programming wise.

I voted for Pacman. It's still a simple game, but it has more degrees of freedom, sort of. Maybe next time.

No, Pacman doesn't exactly have many degrees of freedom, even Pong could have more.

If the paddles could move up-and-down and side-to-side, the game would be air hockey. :-)

BTW, Spitfire and Greenlight don't exist anymore, they merged to form Greenfire.(see link)

Mmm, yeah that makes it clear. I'd like to participate, but unlike most of you I haven't got that much spare time. And of course, I'm very (,very) slow at programming...

Anyway, I think the contest is a good idea.

on the iste it said that it can't already be released but can optimise it or change something?

i just hope that ticalc does get everyones entry. Otherewise we will have to scroll through a phat section of pong games, and they wont all be winners

On word: Sad

I mean, why Pong, the simplest and most boring game around?

I think that's the point. The idea is to take something usually considered to be boring and to make it more interesting. I think this could turn out to be pretty good, if someone gets some creative ideas.

how is a pong game made in general? I tried to make it once but what ends up happening is that i cant figure out how to let the calculator recognize from which direction the ball i hitting a wall, so lets say it came from the right, it would always bounce back to the right... you might not understand what i just said, but, yeah or... what ends up happening is that every game, the ball follows the same path, which is really boring after a while, hehe

Well, this is what I'd do.

Have variables holding the coordinates of the ball (say x, and y). Have two other variables representing the direction for x and the direction for y. How about dx and dy? (In TI-BASIC you'll need one-letter variable names)

If it moves left, dx=-1, if it moves right, dx=1
Work it the same way for dy.

Both of them will either by 1 or -1. Then just keep doing x+=dx and y+=dx (or X+A->X and Y+B->Y).

Then, if you come in contact with a wall, just make dx or dy (depending on whether the wall hit was horizontal or vertical) negative. Like dx=-dx.

Get it? It's a really simple concept... you can expand upon that however you like

Yeah. I made a pong type game using that type of routines on my 85 when I was in Algebra I. Not that hard.

Right, four-directional pong games are VERY easy to program.

On the other hand, some people may find getting a 360° pong game to work is a bit harder (but not TOO much harder).

the sign of an asm programmer: There are only _256_ degrees in a circle, lost one.

Just use sines and cosines to get delta y and delta x (respectively), for a 360 degree pong game.

!256 degrees!

how is a pong game made in general? I tried to make it once but what ends up happening is that i cant figure out how to let the calculator recognize from which direction the ball is hitting a wall, so lets say it came from the right, it would always bounce back to the right... you might not understand what i just said, but, yeah or... what ends up happening is that every game, the ball follows the same path, which is really boring after a while, hehe

the most basic way to do it is the ball has an x and y velocity, a vector, and when it hits the top or bottom wall the y velocity is multiplied by -1 and when it hits either paddle the x velocity is multiplied by -1. Every game loop you change its position according to the vector and test collision. That would make a pretty bad version though, and there are more accurate ways to do it, but in general they build off of that model, and can incorporate trigonometry.

I'd suggest looking at the code of some arkanoid-style games for help.

It would be more interesting if the contest was extended into TI-89 developement. I bet there would be more development if TI-89 users could get involved.

maybe, but then again there are already more innovative pong games for the 89 than for the 83+, i think. And who says we need a contest to make a new pong game for the 89 anyways. Furthermore, i think that making a pong game, or any game in general, that is really high quality requires much more skill on the 83 platform than on the 68ks.

If it did, I would enter. I think I'll make one anyways...

take som advice and do the ball progrgam first then paste it in