17/01/09 - Well, that's it folks! The CSSCGC 2008 website is finally the way I want it to stay. I'm no longer maintaining or checking this site and so I'll just leave it online as-is. As it is on a free hosting server, the ultimate fate of the site is out of my control - although I do have it all backed up. I sincerely hope that you all enjoyed the compo, the website and the updates. This is Digital Prawn at CSSCGC 2008 command centre, signing off! (click, the lights are now off.)
17/01/09 - The individual submissions, tapemags and results download links have now all been replaced with links to the download page. I recommend that you download the CSSCGC 2008 archive zipfile from the download page and then you will have everything from the 2008 compo in one simple download.
17/01/09 - I've now added the download page. Here you can grab the full CSSCGC 2008 archive file from the World of Spectrum website.
17/01/09 - I have now completed the CSSCGC 2008 stats page.
17/01/09 - I mentioned on comp.sys.sinclair last night that I had finished working on the site. Oops! That was slightly premature. I still have to change the submission download links over to the main archive file when it appears on WoS. This is particularly important since a few of the existing MediaFire links have inexplicably stopped working. Still, I hope to complete all final changes to the CSSCGC 2008 website sometime this weekend!
17/01/09 - CSSCGC 2008 forum is now closed to posting, although it currently remains online for browsing only and its contents have been added to the archive file.
16/01/09 - Uploaded the CSSCGC 2008 archive file to WoS. Hopefully it will appear after next update.
16/01/09 - Made a start on the stats page. Not much on it just yet. Will add a few more stats before I end CSSCGC 2008 website maintainence altogether this weekend.
16/01/09 - I'm happy to say that I have now posted the winner's prize to na_th_an of "The Mojon Twins".
15/01/09 - "CSSCGC 2008 Tape Magazine" - January '09 edition (The final ever edition) is out now!
15/01/09 - I've now added the CSSCGC 2008 full results list directly to the results page. So no need to download the text file of the results any more (although it is still available).
15/01/09 - I'm glad to write that "The Mojon Twins" have replied to me and that they do want the winner's prize. I'll be sending it out sometime in the next few days.
15/01/09 - Announced the results on many of the remaining forums and groups. Announced that the CSSCGC 2008 forum will be closing on Saturday. It performed a useful job over the past year, offering a compo-specific place for people to discuss submissions and the usage picked up a bit in the final weeks. However its job is now done and I'll no longer be maintaining it or checking it after Saturday. Also, contacted "The Mojon Twins" so they can send me an address for delivery of the CSSCGC 2008 prize.
14/01/09 - Surprise change of plan - I had some extra time today to tidy up the results file and so I have now announced the results three days early. Congratulations to "The Mojon Twins" for winning CSSCGC 2008 with "The Ultimate First Communion Simulator". Commiserations to "Cruddy Software" for losing it with "Lapland Theme Park Manager". Please download the full results textfile here.
14/01/09 - Wednesday lunchtime and almost five days after the compo ended. Despite the fact that we've been a bit busy in work recently I managed to sneak in another three hours of judging "in the background" whilst supposedly doing other tasks this morning. All 123 games in the compo have now been finally judged, taking about 23 hours to do in total (for the second pass of judging alone that is). *Phew* It was an amusing task, but I'm certainly glad that is now finally done. I'll stick with the original results announcement date of Saturday though. I can certainly use the time remaining to tidy up and perform final amendments to the results file.
13/01/09 - Tuesday evening. Got another solid three hours of uninterrupted judging done tonight. Luckily a few of the titles already had "first pass" judging that was pretty much spot-on with no re-write needed. That sped things up a bit. 106 games are now judged with just 17 left to do. I should be able to polish those off tomorrow evening. I still feel I might have one or two titles ranked in the wrong place though and so I may still make a couple of minor changes to the rankings before Saturday. But the priority is finishing the actual individual game judging first! The results file now approaches a whopping 100K in size and so I have doubly backed it up onto two separate USB devices. Glad I made a test posting to uk.test a few days back, learning that the maximum message size when posting to USENET from Google Groups appears to be 190000 characters. This is almost twice what I need for posting the results to comp.sys.sinclair.
12/01/09 - I did another hour of judging late last night and three hours this evening. That's a remarkable seventeen hours spent on judging so far (second pass alone!), but it doesn't seem anything like that much. I'm not doing any more tonight, but I've now judged 88 games with 35 still to do. At this rate, I could have all of them judged by Wednesday evening. This would be great as it would allow two further evenings for spell-checking, corrections and any last minute alterations before going public on Saturday. Also I nipped down the Post Office and sent out Mulder's raffle prize at lunchtime today.
11/01/09 - I'll just keep these updates going until the results are announced. It's Sunday evening and I've spent approx thirteen hours over the weekend getting 63 out of the 123 entries finally judged. (second pass of judging) Still 60 remaining to do which I should easily be able to manage down the week, in the evenings. I'm so glad I allowed myself a week to get the results together. I'm also thankful that the crap game arcade exists which has saved me quite a bit of time in the judging so far!
09/01/09 - Behind the scenes, the second pass of judging will be carried out starting tomorrow. (First pass of judging already mostly completed). Tonight has been very busy indeed (in a good way!) and was spent engaged with various end-of-compo activities.
09/01/09 - I announced that a CSSCGC 2008 stats page will eventually be made available on this site. This will be done sometime after the announcement of the results.
09/01/09 - Don't forget if you still want your digital "Certificate of Participation", then please let me know!
09/01/09 - The CSSCGC 2008 raffle was drawn this evening and has been won by Mulder for submitting game 46 (Ultimate Jetpack Simulator 2008). So congratulations to Mulder on winning that!
09/01/09 - The deadline has passed (whoosh). CSSCGC 2008 is now closed to submissions. Thanks to all who entered! Results will be announced on Saturday 17th January 2009.
09/01/09 - Andrew Owen has submitted "Advanced Disappointment Simulator".
09/01/09 - Arda has submitted "Crap Factor".
09/01/09 - Firelord has submitted "Starting Next CSSCGC Server Simulator".
09/01/09 - Dr BEEP has submitted "Ultimate last minute sent in simulator".
08/01/09 - Andrew Owen has submitted "GarageBEEP".
08/01/09 - Final Reminder: The competition closes tomorrow afternoon. So if you have anything you are thinking of sending in, then now's the time. Thank you!
06/01/09 - BloodBaz has submitted "Knot in 2D".
04/01/09 - Arjun has sent in an updated version of Swift Turtle (Version 1.1) and included a compiled version. Full details of the update on the game download page.
03/01/09 - Arda has submitted "Reflex Meflex 09".
03/01/09 - DrUnKeN mAsTeR has submitted "Advanced 10 PRINT Simulator".
01/01/09 - Happy new year to all spec-chums and all the best for 2009! (and to "ace-chums" too :) ) We now enter "CSSCGC 2008:Endgame". Eight days remain in the 2008 compo at present. Also CSSCGC 2009 is now underway, run by Guesser. For the time being, entries are welcome in either competition, so please keep them coming in!
31/12/08 - Woody has sent in an updated version of "Advanced Fruit Machine Simulator".
28/12/08 - Woody has submitted "Advanced Fruit Machine Simulator".
27/12/08 - Woody has submitted "The Skier".
27/12/08 - Compo updates:- (1) Added results page. It is just a placeholder page for now. (2) There's a completely random raffle that ANY entrant could win. Added a new raffle page with the details.
26/12/08 - Woody has submitted "Road Crosser".
25/12/08 - Breaking News just in from Noddy Holder:
It's Christmas!!!
24/12/08 - Woody has submitted "Dot Man".
24/12/08 - bobs has submitted "Text-Only Grand-Prix 2009".
24/12/08 - Hajo Spuunup has submitted "Mushroom Man".
20/12/08 - Arjun has submitted "Swift Turtle".
20/12/08 - Woody has submitted "CrapBot".
17/12/08 - Gavin Callard has submitted "Advanced throw some shoes at a prat".
17/12/08 - Woody has submitted "Mind Game".
16/12/08 - Woody has submitted "Scumball 2".
14/12/08 - Woody has submitted "Music Demo".
12/12/08 - chop983 has submitted "The Tunnel".
11/12/08 - Ian has submitted "attack of the flying saucer!".
10/12/08 - ADJB has sent in an updated version of "Advanced Paint Drying Simulator" (now with loading screen).
10/12/08 - Arda has submitted "Advanced Lawn Mower Simulator+ Expansion Pack".
10/12/08 - ADJB has submitted "Advanced Paint Drying Simulator". This marks the 100th title in CSSCGC 2008 and so congratulations to ADJB and all other entrants on reaching this milestone!
09/12/08 - Arda has submitted "Escape From Body". (Thanks also to Chris Young for digging it out.)
09/12/08 - Woody has submitted "Don't Lose Your Head".
09/12/08 - It was decided today that the competition results will be announced on Saturday 17th January 2009.
07/12/08 - Apenao has submitted "Game of the Yet to come".
07/12/08 - Woody has submitted "Identity Parade".
06/12/08 - Paul E Collins has submitted "Didge's Dungeon".
06/12/08 - Woody has submitted "Earth Invasion".
06/12/08 - cruddy software have submitted "Lapland Theme Park Manager".
06/12/08 - Mulder has submitted "Hammy Time".
05/12/08 - Official "Certificate of Participation" now available to all entrants. Get yours today!
04/12/08 - Dr BEEP has submitted "Ultimate crap game last minute entry simulator".
01/12/08 - "CSSCGC 2008 Tape Magazine" - December edition is out now!.
30/11/08 - Guesser has submitted "Turing test Simulator".
29/11/08 - Woody has sent in an improved version of "Rescue Planet Earth". Now updated on the game page and in the 128K crap game arcade.
29/11/08 - chop983 has submitted "Randomaze".
23/11/08 - Woody has submitted "Rescue Planet Earth".
23/11/08 - Arda has submitted "Bubble Fight".
22/11/08 - Woody has submitted "Dumb Miner".
15/11/08 - Andrew Owen has submitted "Mode2 Tile Editor".
14/11/08 - Woody mentioned that the paths through the tunnel sections in "Escape from Niburon Prime" are actually completely visible on a real 48K machine and also in the more recent versions of SpecEmu.
12/11/08 - Woody has submitted "Escape from Niburon Prime".
05/11/08 - ADJB has submitted "The Advanced Lawngrower Simulation".
04/11/08 - Apenao has submitted "200. Yes, 200 but with da big balls".
28/10/08 - Dr BEEP has submitted "ultimate eye surgery simulator".
28/10/08 - Guesser has announced the URL of the CSSCGC 2009 website which at the moment contains a countdown to the start of CSSCGC 2009. Guesser says this will automatically change to the actual compo page when it starts. CSSCGC 2009 will be at http://alistairsserver.no-ip.org/public/cgc/
22/10/08 - Gianfranco Zuliani has submitted "Brainf*ck Interpreter".
21/10/08 - Dr BEEP has submitted "Elmo's karaoke C-rap (and many more)".
17/10/08 - Arda has submitted "CAR".
15/10/08 - mile has submitted "ZX Road King".
13/10/08 - Dr BEEP has submitted "Fun BASIC".
29/09/08 - polomint has submitted "ZX Webcam".
28/09/08 - polomint has submitted "ZX Outlook".
28/09/08 - Dr BEEP has provided a brief note on activating the "Easter Egg" in "Mini Game Compo Simulator".
27/09/08 - "CSSCGC 2008 Tape Magazine" - October edition is out now!.
26/09/08 - Dr BEEP has sent in an updated version of "Mini Game Compo Simulator".
26/09/08 - Dr BEEP has submitted "Mini Game Compo Simulator".
23/09/08 - Andrew Owen has submitted "HunchBack '08".
20/09/08 - WorldofSpectrum forum member Vertigo yesterday informed me that due to various other commitments he regrets that he will no longer be able to organise & host CSSCGC 2009. Thanks anyway Vertigo for offering to help out, it was much appreciated. Instead, comp.sys.sinclair and WoS poster guesser has offered to organise & host CSSCGC 2009, provided he has a suitable hosting arrangement. This is being discussed on comp.sys.sinclair at the time of writing.
20/09/08 - Andrew Owen has submitted "ColorPRINT".
20/09/08 - "Advanced 16K Spectrum Emulator" has been superceded by "Improved Advanced 16K Spectrum Emulator", a collaboration between Andrew Owen, Dr BEEP and James Smith.
18/09/08 - Andrew Owen has submitted "Advanced 16K Spectrum Emulator".
17/09/08 - Andrew Owen has submitted "16K Spectrum Emulator".
13/09/08 - Bonny Bonnet Hood Softwarts have submitted "La Pugly Ugly - The Long Journey".
13/09/08 - Ben Rapier has submitted "The Eric Morcambe Catching Invisible Things in a Bag Simulator".
13/09/08 - Ben Rapier has submitted "Advanced 10 PRINT "HELLO "; 20 GOTO 10 Simulator 128K Edition".
11/09/08 - Matt_B has submitted "Advanced Night Out Simulator".
11/09/08 - Dr BEEP has submitted "Tracers".
10/09/08 - Arda has submitted "Slap Me Forum Troll".
04/09/08 - Jimmy released v1.77 of "Twenty Commodes" (Updated in the downloadable zipfile in the Games section, not yet updated in the arcade).
02/09/08 - Shaun Bebbington has submitted "Bounce! (Preview Edition)".
01/09/08 - Shaun Bebbington has submitted "Advanced 10 PRINT "Hello " 20 GO TO 10 Simulator".
31/08/08 - Shaun Bebbington has submitted "Bindoku!".
14/08/08 - Jimmy sent me an updated copy of "Twenty Commodes: Gridrunner", running under the latest emulator version. This is now updated in the downloadable zipfile and in the 128K arcade.
13/08/08 - Yesterday, Jimmy released v1.76 of "Twenty Commodes", I have now updated it on here.
12/08/08 - I placed another crap game for the "Twenty Commodes" platform in the 48K arcade (again not a compo entry). "SpecVic Mini Adventure" - instructions available here.
08/08/08 - Steve K has submitted "Daily Mail".
02/08/08 - The August edition of "CSSCGC 2008 Tape Magazine" is out now!
23/07/08 - Jimmy has released version 1.73 of "Twenty Commodes".
20/07/08 - I placed my "SpecVic Matching Cards" snapshot for the Speccy 48K in the "main street arcade" page. (It's not a compo entry). This game runs under "Twenty Commodes".
18/07/08 - Jimmy has re-submitted a newer bugfixed version of the "Twenty Commodes" emulator (v1.68), along with another VIC-20 game, "GridRunner".
18/07/08 - Jimmy has released an updated version of "Twenty Commodes" as well as an additional snapshot containing the game "Blitzkrieg".
13/07/08 - Garry Wishart has submitted "Elfen".
11/07/08 - James Smith has submitted "Twenty Commodes".
09/07/08 - James Smith has submitted "UK101 emulator & MTV - 70's style". (Emulator by James Smith - also contains MTV game by Gavin Callard).
23/06/08 - I have now relocated all images and corrected all image links on the CSSCGC 2008 website. This should finally put to rest a problem where some users could not see the images. This was first reported by Paul E Collins back in early January. I'm sorry this took so long to fix - it didn't help that I could not reproduce the issue on any of my own systems for some reason. If you see any further broken image links then please report them to me and I will fix them.
22/06/08 - Many thanks to Gavin Callard for editing the HTML of the three games pages to change the image links. Thanks also to Vertigo and the others who had reported the "broken image link" problem. All images for the CSSCGC 2008 website have now been re-located onto the Photobucket free image hosting service.
15/06/08 - Chris Young has submitted "Fluke".
13/06/08 - Yesterday, WorldofSpectrum forum member Vertigo kindly offered to host CSSCGC 2009. This means there is no longer a booby prize for coming last in CSSCGC 2008. Thanks very much to Vertigo!
12/06/08 - The hosting of CSSCGC 2009 has been opened up to anyone who would like to do it. Please email me via the submission address if you would like to do this. The first person to volunteer will be the host. Failing this, the old rule will still stand and the loser of CSSCGC 2008 will host next year's compo.
31/05/08 - The June tape magazine is out now.
23/05/08 - Firelord has submitted "GOD Simulator 2008".
22/05/08 - Firelord has submitted "LOST 2008 - The Adventure".
22/05/08 - Steve 'sparkes' Parkes has submitted "Advanced Lawnmower Starter Simulator 2".
22/05/08 - Steve 'sparkes' Parkes has submitted "Advanced Lawnmower Starter Simulator - The petrol edition".
20/05/08 - Steve 'sparkes' Parkes has submitted "Commodore 64 Emulator".
20/05/08 - Firelord has submitted "Crap Games Competition - The Adventure 2008".
18/05/08 - Firelord has submitted "Redefine Keys The Adventure 2008".
16/05/08 - Chris Young has submitted "UFO: UK".
15/05/08 - Mulder has submitted "Ultimate Jetpack Simulator 2008".
15/05/08 - Firelord has submitted "Deadly Warriors The Adventure 2008".
09/05/08 - C.M. Gilles has submitted "Harry the Magical: Harry and the Orden".
16/04/08 - Mulder has submitted "Mrs Nibbs Cupcake Capers".
15/04/08 - Lucas Pelaez has submitted "Achtung Minen".
13/04/08 - Updated the rules section to clarify that games submitted for multiple platforms are considered as a single entry for the purposes of judging and also for the purposes of counting the total number of games entered into CSSCGC 2008.
13/04/08 - Steve(spt) has submitted "20 Questions".
11/04/08 - Hernán Pablo Alvarez has submitted "Dharma Initiative Swan Station Computer Simulator".
10/04/08 - Updated the rules section to clarify that updates to existing submissions are allowed.
07/04/08 - Gavin Callard supplied an even faster version of his Sudoku game. Also he supplied a snapshot of the world famous "AI Escargot" Sudoku puzzle. I've added both to the download.
05/04/08 - The April MegaTape is out now. Many thanks to SnakeOilSteve for assembling last month's CGC submissions into the MegaTape, and for providing the cassette inlay.
05/04/08 - Unsatisfactory Software have provided the original ZX81 version of "Barcode Hangman". It is now available for download and for online play in the "Crap Game Arcade".
03/04/08 - Gavin Callard has provided an updated version of "The Sudoku Challenge".
03/04/08 - Bubu has submitted "Mini GameZX".
02/04/08 - Gavin Callard sent me a HiSoft BASIC compiled version of "The Sudoku Challenge" which I have added to the downloadable zipfile.
30/03/08 - Gavin Callard has submitted "The Sudoku Challenge".
29/03/08 - James Smith has released an updated version of "Virtual ZX Spectrum" (v2.03) with bug fixes and improvements.
26/03/08 - Steve has submitted "Advanced Coat Getting Adventure Simulator".
26/03/08 - Woody has released a version of "Sub Chase" for the 16K ZX Spectrum. This is now available via the Sub Chase download link. Also it is available as an "Easter Egg" for play within the "Virtual ZX Spectrum" in the "Crap Game Arcade".
25/03/08 - Woody has submitted "Sub Chase".
22/03/08 - James Smith has submitted "Virtual ZX Spectrum".
20/03/08 - Paul E Collins has submitted "Multiload Hangman".
17/03/08 - Unsatisfactory Software have submitted "Barcode Hangman".
17/03/08 - Unsatisfactory Software have submitted "Sim City: The Text Adventure".
11/03/08 - Gavin Callard submitted his Sinclair QL version of "More Tea Vicar" on 10/03/08, but it took me a day to work out how to load and run a file in the QL2K emulator! Now added to the downloadable zipfile, along with a short README I wrote with emulator loading instructions.
09/03/08 - Any (very) short articles or crap game reviews would be welcomed for inclusion in the tape magazine, in fact anything at all to do with CSSCGC or crap games is welcomed. If you have any such material then please send it to the submission email address and I will import into the mag and credit you in the mag itself. Please keep any magazine submissions below 2K of text if possible, and use only plain text, because of the limits of the tape magazine.
08/03/08 - The Mojon Twins have submitted "Ultimate Anger Simulator".
02/03/08 - GreenCard has submitted "Drugsy".
01/03/08 - The March edition of "CSSCGC 2008 Tape Magazine" is out now!
29/02/08 - The ZX81 arcade The Back Porch recently became a "ZX80 & ZX81 arcade" after Simon Holdsworth kindly provided me with an updated version of his JtyOne emulator that can emulate both the ZX80 and ZX81.
26/02/08 - Jupiter Station is now up and running, using Troel's Noergaard's ZZ Ace Emulator. Again there is only one game available to play, so any further Jupiter ACE submissions would be welcomed!
26/02/08 - The Back Porch has now opened, using Simon Holdsworth's JtyOne emulator which is based on Mike Wynne's EightyOne Emulator. It is a side-arcade for submitted ZX81 games. So far, there is only one game available to play there. So further ZX81 entries are welcomed!
26/02/08 - Gavin Callard has now released a version of his "More Tea Vicar" game for the 16/48K ZX Spectrum. He has now pledged to release this game on every single platform that is permitted in CSSCGC 2008 (and that is quite a few of them), so I will keep playtesting and adding the different "ports" to the downloadable MTV.zip file as he sends them in.
25/02/08 - The Golden Goose! arcade has opened, using Troels Noergaard's ZZ Spectrum Emulator to allow online play of ZX Spectrum 128K Games. The original ZX Spectrum 16/48K arcade has been rebranded as The Main Street Arcade.
25/02/08 - steve has submitted "ShitStack BrickBat".
24/02/08 - Gavin Callard has now released a version of his "More Tea Vicar" game written in Forth for the Jupiter ACE. I have added it to the existing downloadable "More Tea Vicar" zipfile. So please download again if you want the Jupiter ACE version (and I know you do!) It runs in the EightyOne Emulator.
23/02/08 - The first version of the comp.sys.sinclair Crap Game Arcade 2008 is now up and running. So far you can play 20 out of the 28 submitted games online. The arcade page is currently based on the 48K QAOP emulator. I'll shortly be seeking permission from the author of the ZZ Spectrum 128K/+2/+2A/+3 emulator to see if I can use it on the arcade page. The arcade page requires both Java and Javascript browser support.
22/02/08 - This year's competition is now open to "Sinclair Derivative" machines the Jupiter Ace and the Sam Coupé. After all they do feature in this wikipedia list at the time of writing.
22/02/08 - Anne 'Two taps' Sullivan has submitted "Helen 'nnngggghhh' Keller's Super Off-Road Racer".
22/02/08 - Avatars were enabled in the CSSCGC 2008 forum.
22/02/08 - The rule regarding "extreme" game submissions was clarified slightly, making the rule more accurate but less serious and moved further down to a less prominent position than it apppeared previously. Please see the rules section and this forum post for further information.
14/02/08 - Gavin Callard has submitted "More Tea Vicar".
14/02/08 - Minor website improvements. The CSSCGC 2008 logo at the top of the page is now a clickable hyperlink to the main page. Added a second games navbar at the bottom of each games page, as it was easy to miss the one at the top.
14/02/08 - It was also decided a couple of days ago that games for the Cambridge Z88 will be permitted this year. (oops - Just remembered to post this now).
13/02/08 - Guesser has submitted "Martin Kelner's Scissors Paper Stone".
13/02/08 - Mulder has submitted "Stay On The Road".
12/02/08 - Graz has submitted "The Ark in Space".
12/02/08 - Gavin Callard has submitted "The Hat Factory".
12/02/08 - I have decided to allow Sinclair QL games into this year's compo.
12/02/08 - BloodBaz has submitted "Advanced PURPLE Loading Simulator".
10/02/08 - steve has submitted "RPS".
10/02/08 - SnakeOilSteve (aka steve) has submitted the first "full length" review on the CSSCGC 2008 forum, for the game Crysis. Reviews of any length welcomed on the forum for any of this year's games. Feel free to register on the forum and post any comments or reviews you may want to share with other crap game spectators!
10/02/08 - The February edition of CSSCGC 2008 Tape Magazine is out now!
07/02/08 - So far, it's been a quieter week for game submissions now that the compo activity has settled down a bit. Of course the upshot of this is that I was able to dedicate more time to hunting down even more channels of Sinclair (and clones) user activity on the Internet.
I've now also announced the compo on many further lesser known channels around the world (too many to list here). I've been most surprised at finding such a huge number of forums & groups etc.. dedicated to the Sinclair computers and clones. Many of these have medium to low activity and a few of them are still going very strong with long time loyal members.
As far as further CSSCGC 2008 compo announcements go, I will continue to search, locate, join and post on other channels throughout the year as I find them, but as these will be typically low activity forums from now on, it'll be unnecessary for me to mention any further forum compo invitation announcements here.
07/02/08 - My membership to the Yahoo group ts2068 was approved today and so I submitted a compo announcement to the group. I also announced the compo on the neoncherry forums.
04/02/08 - There are even more Sinclair related forums out there than I realised. I thanked icabod and TMR for their announcements of the CSSCGC 2008 compo on sites http://raww.org and http://www.oldschool-gaming.com respectively. Also signed up to the forum at http://www.neoncherry.com (pending administrator verification).
04/02/08 - I couldn't resist taking a personal journey into the outer reaches of lesser known Sinclair hobbyist groups on the Internet. Today I announced the compo on these channels which all have very low activity:- USENET groups hr.comp.sinclair (Croatian), alt.fr.micro.sinclair (French), alt.pl.comp.spectrum (Polish), kiel.computer.zx81 (German/English), and these Google groups, "ZX81 User Group" (English), "Usuarios de microcomputadores Sinclair en Chile" (Chilean).
03/02/08 - Gavin Callard has submitted "Target Man - Deluxe Edition".
03/02/08 - Can you help? If you know of any further Internet forums, Usenet groups, Mailing lists or other channels that I have not discovered, and I could announce the compo on, then please email me and let me know. I'm always happy to announce the compo to people who would otherwise be unaware of it, as long as it is a directly relevant forum. (I will attempt posting in any reasonable language, but the forum must be primarily concerned with Sinclair computers or clones). Thanks!
03/02/08 - Announced the compo on the Brazilian Yahoo group "TK90X". Apart from awating membership to North American TIMEX Yahoo group "ts2068" (which may or may not still be regularly moderated, I'm not sure), I have now announced the compo on all relevant Internet channels that I am aware of.
02/02/08 - Graz has submitted "The Boat of Doom".
01/02/08 - Joined the Brazilian Yahoo group "TK90X". It's quite alive I'm happy to say. I hope to prepare a compo announcement for posting on there soon.
01/02/08 - Announced the compo on the Greek retromaniax forums.
01/02/08 - Stefano Bodrato has submitted "Mr Yellow meets mr Cyan".
31/01/08 - Reversed order of news items on this page such that latest news is now at the top, and old news at the bottom. Scrolling down no longer needed to view latest items.
30/01/08 - Finally successfully posted to FIDONET group fido7.zx.spectrum. I've now announced the compo on there. I learnt that you must supply personal "Magic Number" within each post or they get rejected.
30/01/08 - Mojon Twins have submitted "The Ultimate First Communion Simulator".
30/01/08 - Announced the compo on the Italian zxspectrum mailing list at www.freelists.org.
29/01/08 - I have come to realise that the Russian FIDONET group fido7.zx.spectrum is something quite outside the usual USENET hierarchy. I learn that you have to do the following to subscribe:- (1) Submit a post using an ordinary USENET client. (2) Wait for the moderator's automated message to bounce back to your email account. (3) Copy and paste the unique string of numbers from the moderator's message, and use an e-mail client with an identical email address to your news client in order to email this number back to the automated FIDONET registration system. (4) Wait for a reply from that email, and you finally become registered on fido7.zx.spectrum, Yippee! (5) I will probably have to resubmit my original bounced back post using my news client program (I will discover this tomorrow).
29/01/08 - I just found an excellent Greek speccy forum at http://www.retromaniax.gr/forumdisplay.php?f=7. Alas I know hardly anything about Greek. However, I somehow think this is not going to stop "CSSCGC 2008 Compo Announcements - The World Tour." in it's tracks. Time to consult Wikipedia on the Greek alphabet, and to learn a few words I think. That's hopefully all that should be needed to get the message across, as the attempt to spread the compo around the rest of continental Europe continues!
29/01/08 - After being a lurker for a few months, I finally subscribed to the Italian "zxspectrum" mailing list at www.freelists.org. I hope to announce the compo there at some point.
29/01/08 - Pavero kindly thanked me for announcing the compo on the http://zx-spectrum.wz.cz/ forum. It certainly would be interesting to receive some Czech crap game submissions.
29/01/08 - Announced the compo on the Czech forum at http://zx-spectrum.wz.cz/
28/01/08 - Applied to join the ts2068 Yahoo group with a view to possibly announcing the compo there. This is pending the Moderator's approval.
28/01/08 - It is regrettable that the forums at www.ts1000.us went offline recently because I would've announced the compo there. However, on the bright side, today I found an active German ZX81 forum at http://zx81.tlienhard.com/ I have announced the compo there this evening. I really hope to get some ZX80/ZX81 games in the compo.
28/01/08 - A. J. Moss has resubmitted "Oh My God!" after adding a holy hand grenade weapon to the game.
27/01/08 - steve has submitted "Advanced Loading Simulator".
27/01/08 - bigjon has submitted "Silent Letter Shootout".
27/01/08 - Apenao has submitted "Un-Space Invaders".
27/01/08 - A. J. Moss has submitted "Oh My God!".
26/01/08 - compiuter has submitted "GoatFall".
26/01/08 - James Smith has submitted "Flight Simulator 2008".
26/01/08 - I translated the trivial instructions for "Boofy 3" into English. They are available in the CSSCGC 2008 forum.
25/01/08 - Mojon Twins have submitted "The REAL Phantomas Infinity".
25/01/08 - Mojon Twins have submitted "Turtogas".
25/01/08 - Radastan has submitted "Crysis".
24/01/08 - Tidied up the website a little due to excessive clutter. Added nav bar to main page and moved news section to this seperate page.
24/01/08 - Corrected a previous mistake, the game "Buffy Adventure" was the wrong game I loaded from the TRD disk image. The correct game that was intended to be submitted was "Boofy 3", I've now corrected this on the games page.
23/01/08 - Added new rule about disallowing potentially offensive games.
23/01/08 - steve has submitted "Advanced Lawnmower Simulator: The Adventure".
22/01/08 - Slider has submitted "Buffy Adventure".
22/01/08 - Radastan has submitted "Eat Shit!".
22/01/08 - Radastan has submitted "SUICIDE IT".
22/01/08 - My post to fido7.zx.spectrum was rejected because I used google groups. I may try again at some point using a news client after consulting the fido7 information page.
22/01/08 - Announced the compo on the Russian forums at zx.pk.ru and the Russian Usenet group fido7.zx.spectrum (pending moderation). I welcome any Russian games/? ??????????? ????? ?????????? ????.
21/01/08 - Google have approved the use of ads on this site, and as can be seen I have placed some on this page. To start off with they appear as generic public service ads, but after the site has been trawled, they may provide specific ads based on website content. I may continue to experiment moving the ads around, changing the style, or adding them to some of the other pages later.
21/01/08 - Announced the compo on the Spanish forums at foro.speccy.org and the Spanish Usenet group es.comp.sistemas.sinclair. I welcome any Spanish games/Doy la bienvenida a cualquier juegos españoles.
20/01/08 - I've applied to allow Google ads on this site such that if some small revenue is generated (as yet unknown) then it may pay for the P&P of sending out the winner's prize.
20/01/08 - There's now a small prize available for the winner of this year's contest. Details here.
20/01/08 - There was a problem with my webring.com account due to having a space in the username. The nice people at webring.com have now fixed this problem, and the site has been properly added to the "Crap Games" webring. So thanks very much to webring.com staff for their free support and rapid assistance.
17/01/08 - Paul E Collins submits Advanced Lawnmower Simulator 3D.
14/01/08 - Added new page which describes more in depth how this year's compo will be judged.
14/01/08 - Added WebRing code to this page. Membership of this site to the "Crap Games" webring is now pending approval from the webring manager. In the meantime it appears just as the generic WebRing textbox.
11/01/08 - Gavin Callard submits Advanced Betting Simulator 2008.
11/01/08 - After consulting further with Paul E Collins, it appears that on some systems the starfield background on this page may not appear (you may see a plain black background instead). We think this may possibly be caused by some form of Awardspace image download blocking, but are not 100% sure of the exact cause.
10/01/08 - Website has now been successfully tested for compatibility with the lynx text based web browser. (although I regret that downloading the games won't work in lynx due to incompatibility with mediafire file hosting).
10/01/08 - Hopefully the website problem reported by Paul E Collins where the background can appear white is now fixed.
10/01/08 - Paul E Collins has got the ball rolling with the very first compo entry in 2008 - Kabaddi.
09/01/08 - The CSSCGC 2008 Forum is now up and running. Thanks to Zoffy for the idea.
09/01/08 - At the request of members of the speccy community, the rules were amended to allow immediate downloading of submissions.
09/01/08 - The 2008 competition is officially declared open and announced on CSS and WoS.
