Here are my thoughts on the entries, on order of how much I liked them:
ASM Programs:1. JezzballI love Jezzball! This is a faithful enough rendition, much closer to the original than the other Jezzball that has been made. It was quite enjoyable to play. Though yes, it is troubled by a lack of originality. This one will definitely be a keeper one my calc!
2. Tip OverI thought this was a pretty clever game, though I've never played the computer version. I (being rather bad at games) did not make it through all the levels, which is a good thing. It is quite enjoyable to play, and would deserve a place among PuzzPack. Kudos for having so many levels! A keeper on my calc.
3. OmnibladeFound this to be pretty fun. It
was very similar to Phoenix (amusingly the exact same charge that was leveled at my program Adropod - but we all like Phoenix, for all that!). Mainly I have to say I liked the minigames! This one will be a keeper on my calc.*
4. Furious PongThis... was weird. The graphics were impressive: the most impressive of the whole contest, in fact. And I must say, the Normal mode was the best calculator pong I've played yet! But the "furious" part was, frankly, lost on me. I always beat the AI anyways. Mostly just 1:Found the animations of like 100 balls flying around amusing and 2:Found the massive management of balls, paddles, scores, and shaking the screen very impressive. A good game of pong with a few balls, and a good demo for Axe!
5. Piko PikoSadly I must say (as this whole review set is based on my own opinions, nonobjective) that the premise of this game isn't my cup of tea. Good graphics, of course, and good gameplay for what it does.
6. Advanced Powder ToyThis game could show some promise. As everyone knows, it'll need more specks; just the way it is. And active mechanisms (like fans) would change it quite a bit. So really, I think it's interesting - very cool as far as it goes - but would need to go even farther to win. It is pretty fun to mess around with anyway.
7. Digger...what?
Sadly, not only was there not enough of it in place for me to grasp the concept (that or it just moved too fast), but after running it twice, it refused to run anymore, even after clearing the RAM. So I dunno. I didn't get a good look at it.
TI-Basic Entries:1. Plot+Thought I wouldn't be so base as to like my own program better than everyone else's? Too bad. Waluigi time.
2. Toy WarsI had a pleasant surprise with this one, imagining it would be "just a stupid Basic game". (I need to browse the TI-Basic section more!) It was fairly enjoyable though! I was happy to see an AI (or 5), and the game mechanics are well thought out. Of course it ran pretty slow, but I'm used to it. Saly, it threw a memory error due to too many nested loops whenever I was about to conquer a foe! Also, as with many extensive TI-Basic programs, it required a huge slew of variables like Matrices, Pics, Subprograms, Lists, etc.
3. BreakoutLike ToyWars, I had low expectations. I thought it probably would be text-based! But, it actually ran surprisingly smooth. While it isn't possible for it to compete with ASM, for Basic it is good! It was crippled by a lack of originality, though. And it would be nice to use less subprograms. But, congrats to the maker for making it as smooth-running, phisicswise, as it is!
4. Binary PuzzleSadly, Binary Puzzles are also really not my cup of tea. It was a decent (binary puzzles are pretty basic) implementation though, with obviously a ton of effort put into it!
5. War GamesYeah, totally. I had fun with this one changing the response statement to 'Too bad. Waluigi time.' Is it based off an actual computer program like that?
*What in the world is my calculator like?! Yeah, I'm a game packrat. I keep anything I think I might ever want to play - a total of about 50 programs by now. DoorsCS 7, with its folders and AutoRunFromArchive, is what makes it possible, though even it staggers often under the load.
