so #rare

rare? the developer of donkey kong country?

i love this and will try to submit to lgpt and maybe like DYLMWYTDW

oh fuck, smw and bespoke in a major

let's see how many of these I can manage

what a way to rejoin botb, being thrown into trying new things almost exclusively

it's so interesting to see which formats got in AGAIN this time. the new formats are not surprising to me. I'm surprised about double sap tho

any restrictions about .vgm (like, you can stream only other formats allowed in this particular compo) or none altogether? will it make much sense to deal with popular formats contained within an unpopular format? to be or not? does he exist? :|

no further restrictions afaik, so you can just do ur most favorite common chip for vgm.

but we all know that this is boring ;)

do chips that are interesting like saa, ym2610, etc.

oh this is gonna be interesting

i read boom map as boom bap (i.e. The Genre) and was like wtf when did they add genre as formats on botb ..........

the glorious battle has returned! i may be a little busy but i'll try to do bespoke, tic-80, svg, pd and maybe html5 if i have any ideas

Bespoke is pretty much a wild frontier now lol. There was a talk in the format request thread about VSTs but no rule was added to the lyceum.

Who is, like, in charge of the format?

oddly I am very excited to make something for the PDF format

@Max Chaplin i have now updated the lyceum with what i believe to be reasonable restrictions, basically prohibiting the use of external plugins/devices and python scripting. also a little bit about rendering patches
https://battleofthebits.com/lyceum/View/bespoke+%28format%29

Aw sweet, my favorite formats

yeah, bespoke should be treated like renoise or openmpt

there's no guarantee that a donloader has the additional plugins so don't use external plugins

I’m bad at programming and also somewhat busy but if anyone wants to collab on a tic-80 entry lmk

i will do music for a tic80 game but have very little desire to put in programming work. if that appeals to anyone also lmk

I have risen from the dead to say, thank y'all for letting me bring this batol series back, I'm excited to see all these formats getting some love

Still busy with other stuff, but I should be able to do at least 1 (one) format

anyone wanna collab on a tic80 entry? im the best at music, okay at coding (js in tic), and shit at art.
EDIT: nevermind. got an idea :)

Aiming to gauntlet all 20 formats if I can, 40 days is plenty time to squander :)))

e: My completely reasonable and realistic checklist:

[✅] bespoke
[✅] pdf
[✅] baby-k
[✅] smw
[✅] teletext
[✅] boom
[✅] lgpt
[✅] ntrq
[✅] snibbetracker
[✅] klystrack
[✅] ted
[✅] tic80
[✅] vgm
[✅] pd
[✅] sapx2
[✅] moai
[✅] html5
[✅] ahx
[✅] svg
[✅] bytebeat1k

What are the rules for Teletext rendering? Are we locked into Level 1, or can we go higher?

I really like this premise and art. I hope I can find the time to slam out a no-conversion tool moai for it. Also gotta investigate bespoke!

here is my hopeful and modest checklist:

(will do a thing)
[ ] ntrq
[ ] vgm

(might do a thing if i have time or inspiration)
[ ] lgpt
[ ] smw
[ ] snib
[ ] moai
[ ] pdf
[ ] bespoke

[x] [x] pd(f)

[D|B]OOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Also maybe bespoke. That looks fun.

aiming for pd and vgm

doomguy collecting new weapon emoji

pdf is done - let's try svg *ggg*

i might enter,,

i know we already had a lot of time, but since most of these formats are rare for a reason, i wldnt mind another week... month.... ??? of entry period haha
i know i cld do more with more tiem for sure

I'm still gunning for all 20 formats extension or not

But yeah would be nice to have some more wiggle room, especially since I haven't gotten to tic80 or html5 yet (⁠･ั⁠ω⁠･ั⁠)

2 week extension granted!

very good. me very happi

it gives me joy to see people try something weird

whoops moar tiem

let's freaking goooooo

Okay then:

[x] klystrack
[x] svg
[ ] something else????

holy fucking

oh damn, i dont have to rush now :D
might only enter vgm though,,,

bless the extension 🛐🛐🛐🛐

fyi looks like someone has taken on the development of klystrack - looks like they have done a ton of stuff? https://github.com/LTVA1/klystrack/releases

That's klystrack-plus, it adds a bunch of new features like 4-op FM but is a fork and not compatible with the original (untested, but pretty sure). I don't think it's official and unless it gets admin blessing I'd treat it like a separate extended format.

bit of a dumb question but are you allowed to submit more than 1 entry to this

(I apologise, I'm kinda new to posting entries :/ )

you can post 1 entry per format. that means you can post 16 entries to this battle, if you do one for each format c:

k

Did this get unextended or am I missing time from a recent alien abduction?

I don't think it's been unextended, so you should probably check yourself for mysterious tattoos or surgical scars you don't remember getting.

sap X2 ( )

gotta make sure it gets done

ah well I'll try to have it ready for the next .rar :

now I'm considering making a tic80 entry but I lack any ideas on what to make in it, f

rare formats for sale $99999 fat dollers ebay auction

ruh roh, the time is running out D:
idk if i will make it but we'll see

ok maybe i wont be able to churn out a song in time 😔

part 2 of srb2er doesn't know how stuff works :/

so I kinda just got littlegptracker and I'm considering making an entry using it, but I have 1 question
I understand how what you put in your zip file (just the .dat files and samples), but how do I export the final track to an mp3 when I'm done?

since that tracker has no export function, the common way to do it is to record ur desktop audio (stereo mix) using audacity or similar.
this is the case for a lot of formats here actually, because tools lack a wav export x)

edit; you can also just keep it without a render and someone else on here will do it for you, in case you don't have a proper setup for recording renders)

LGPT actually does have an export function but it's tucked away under a config setting or command line flag. Check the rendering section on https://web.archive.org/web/20180622082008/http://wiki.littlegptracker.com/doku.php?id=lgpt:reference_manual (Wayback link because wiki is down)

What kleeder says is also true, someone will likely come around and upload a render for you at some point if you leave it unrendered...good chance I'll end up doing it :P

(post 56)

oh damn i wasnt aware, good to know lgbt has an export function :o

also damn, 56

wow i didn't know that either, i've been rendering peoples' entries via realtime recording like kleeder described, tysm

battle description say "the 16 least popular formats" while the battle clearly features 20

a big round of applause to funute for finishing the completionist run on this hard major and submitting an entry to EVERY FORMAT!!! AWOAOWOA

We got a nice round number of entries!

Heck yea, I'm glad I managed to hit each format!

For fun, here's a quick retrospective of my experience in each format, from worst to best:

20. lgpt - Looks somewhat promising in terms of features but felt hard to learn with its LSDJ-esque controls across multiple screens, sample setup, etc.
19. sapx2 - POKEY is a weird, quirky chip to work with, and RMT interface being clunky didn't help :/
18. ted - The TED chip is also weird but at least has less to deal with, and so is easier in that sense. Like sapx2, the tool (Knackaetracker or whatever it's called) being clunky did not help here.
17. bytebeat1k - Despite mostly understanding bytebeat/signal it's still tough to debug with, have to resort to trial and error basically. Writing for sizecoding especially doesn't help.
16. ahx - I like what the format offers in terms of its mix of features and restrictions, but HivelyTracker is still rough to use even with some of my modifications.
15. pd - This one looked the most foreign but was surprisingly kind of fun to work in once I started figuring things out.
14. bespoke - Also foreign looking tool but not as hard to grok, although some of the module interactions are confusing (like something about mono/stereo?).
13. moai - Meme tool, but surprisingly kinda fun to "do it wrong" with it2moai and microtones. The OpenMPT edit -> it2moai -> load in browser workflow is not the greatest, and the it2moai process isn't 100% accurate, but eh
12. baby-k - My main gripe is that speed control is global, which lends itself to writing at 1/2 speed to have finer control of each channel, but it makes sense given its no-expansion constraints. Still, a nifty tool for the ol' VIC20.
11. pdf - I mean writing LaTeX again was somehow as painful as I remember it being while being not quite as bad as I thought it would
be.
10. svg - I like doing vector art, but I chalk this format being lower to not having that much time to work on my entry and still figuring out the ropes on Inkscape (vs. GIMP). Actually, rushing vector art sounds like a recipe for disaster (unless doing conversions). Also thought about using Squarish but figured it be better to make use of full fledged vector tooling than use tiles.
9. teletext - Was neat figuring this one out and trying to design around its constraints, and the tools are decent if not maybe a little confusing at first.
8. tic80 - Good feature set for tiny little computer, just didn't like coding in the internal editor (mainly miss vim-like editing). I know there's a way to import/export code but you don't get as close edit-refresh cycles that way.
7. ntrq - Actually Not That Bad for a NES native tracker, and despite also having LSDJ-like controls it's easier navigating around since everything is on one screen. It also helped that I made a simpler entry execution-wise.
6. html5 - Luckily I can kind of get away with doing most of the coding in JS land. Although I was working on a different page idea that would've been more interactive, but that would've involved playing around with the different Web APIs though which I did not have time for :(
5. snibbetracker - Fun set of features, but interface is slightly clunky and 6 channels feels quite a bit limiting. Also some of the features feel weird to use, like having FM but no instrument envelopes for it or having bitcrush be global rather than per channel. Was happier with how my entry for this one turned out than what I expected.
4. klystrack - Really cool set of features, marred by also slightly clunky interface and some stability issues.
3. smw - Hey, I really like making maps/levels. Getting to play around in Lunar Magic again (and general ROM hacking stuff) ended up actually being a big timesink for me hehe. Had very ambitious goals for my entry on this one, happy I managed to hit 95% of the scope here.
2. boom - Boom really scratches the map making itch for me. A lot of the Boom features are neat but also sometimes a head scratcher. This goes above smw since "3D"/FPS mapping I think is a bit more in my wheelhouse than 2D platforming. Also had some very ambitious ideas here and not enough time for the entire scope of work to implement everything, especially with learning some of the fancy Boom features, but still glad to have a mostly complete and fairly intricate Boom map. (Maybe I will finish up the map and do a full release someday...)
1. vgm - Plenty of easy to use tools for this format and lots of chip flexibility earns this format the top spot. It's no surprise this format got 22 entries while most other formats didn't even break double digits.

funute you madlad how?!
do gotta agree with the lgpt placement, it's painful af to use

lgpt and rmt both are cool tools to use imo. it's fun the more you work with them.
and for ted, you simply went with the wrong tool of choice.
I wldnt clean my car with shit if I cld use soap instead. use tedzakker next time! :D

I think I wld place klys much lower and move the other 3 up into the region of ntrq, because they are equally good(or bad).

i hope i fucking lose
seriously though with how really amazing some entries are especially how mindblowing a few bytebeat1k ones are for example i have no confidence in how my results are going to be.

humbly requesting extension of voting time

I added a week. Looks like the two sundays following that are the holiday eves. Maybe those are ok for results streams. dunno

I'll be uploading gameplay/longplay videos for the game related entries (smw, boom, tic80) and putting them here if people wanna use them as a reference for vorting. (e: I think this should be all of them now, let me know if I missed one!)

- cabbage drop - underground adventure

[boom]
- Blast_Brothers - Dark and Scary

[boom]
- Blast_Brothers - mario and luigi and and mario and luigi

[smw]
- Tex - Suppamario

[smw]
- Yung Gotenks - TIC GOLF

[tic80]
- cabbage drop - cabbs noob zone

[smw]
- Ahornberg - Into The Dark

[tic80]
- funute - bouncer

[tic80]
- Lint_Huffer - BotBOOM

[boom]
- funute - Path to Ascension

[smw]
- Yung Gotenks - BOTB Tycoon

[html5]
- funute - Pluot Domain (WIP)

[boom]

(disclaimer: rewind/re-recording used where possible for the sake of brevity)

> (disclaimer: some of these are TAS/re-recorded for the sake of brevity)

Hm, strange, I didn't notice this until the most recent entry went up... :D

Thank you for taking the time to play through these. You did a really good job on my map showing off what there was to show off.

I'm one of those people who always asks "why didn't he just ___" when watching TAS/speedruns/playthroughs, so in case anyone else is wondering:

1. "Why didn't he just race through the Archvile chaos room at 5:05?" - while it's theoretically possible, I found when I tried this that enough enemies would manage to find the exit teleport that I'd end up getting butt-blasted by Barons while dealing with the next room, and then the Archviles sneak through and it's Good Luck Gamer time. It's definitely still a viable option for non-100% speedruns, though.

2. "Why didn't he just ignore those Hell Knights and the whole section around 7:45 between the Archvile room and the shack outdoors?" - the door leading to the outdoors area is locked, he has to flip the switch at 8:45 in order to open it. I'm not completely happy with the lack of clear cause:effect I provided on this portion of the map, but oh well!

3. "Why didn't he just shoot the guy in the secret room?" - there is an invisible wall that prevents the enemy from waking up and bullets from passing through.

Oops I meant just tool-assisted not TAS, they are not meant to be speedruns in any way lol. I definitely used a good number of rewind/rerecords on both you and Blast_Brothers' Boom WADs that's for sure.

Also I'm aiming to show 100%, so for smw that's all levels/rooms/secrets, and for boom that's UV + 100% kills + 100% secrets.

i regret not making rebound 2 2 2 for this

Bump to say: Any of the vorting completionists who got scared by the long German novel, there is now an English translation so you can now read the thing!

https://battleofthebits.com/arena/Entry/Ge%EF%AC%82%C3%BCsterte+Gedanken/63457/#post180622

a very rare release is here!

As much as I love oops I long for the return of rare this year

You could have proposed its return in the Future Battles major because that's why this one exists.