Description

You have traveled back in time to the 90s! You look around your room and see a massive collection of games. Mario, Zelda, Mega Man, Castlevania, Metroid, Sonic, Street Fighter, and more, all waiting to be played. You can listen to your older brother playing Doom in the other room and The Simpsons on the family TV. You see posters of the Ninja Turtles and Transformers, along with countless toys of all kinds. You can even sense the smell of pizza coming from the kitchen! So many great memories are coming back to you!

You go and turn on your computer and see something different. Not only is your computer more advanced than it ever was before. (Heck, you don't even remember having a computer all for you, you always shared the family computer) It now has a brand new program pre-installed: RPG Maker. "Awesome!" you think, "I can make one of those cool Final Fantasy games!". You proceed to spend hours planning how to make your dream game; thinking of sharing it with all your friends at school until you realize something... You only have a single floppy disk to put the game on.

Well, not everything was better in the past.

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The 1.44 Floppy disk event is a way to celebrate the now-obsolete data storage medium and also a way to go back in time and appreciate how valuable space back then; where every single byte was valuable and games were optimized to make the most of each one (Unlike modern games were 50+ GB games has kind of become the norm).

The idea is simple: Make a game that can fit into one floppy disk. While there were lots of different kinds of disks with varying capacities back then, the most standard and well-known was the 1.44 MB one. You are free to do whatever you want as long as it can fit into those 1.44 MB. You are not restricted to the technology of the era either. Any modern game engine is fair game, as long as the compressed game still fits into 1.44 MB.


RULES:
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- Teams are allowed.

- You may use any engine.

- You can use any resources you've made in the past. This includes making resources before the event officially starts.

- The games must be uploaded to the event page.

- There must be at least 10 minutes of gameplay.

- The game size can't be larger than 1.44 MB. (After compression of course)

- RTP is allowed but the game should run without it installed. If you need help here are some tutorials for RPG Maker 2003

- The game should be able to run out of the box with minimal fussing. This ideally means that it should run by just clicking the .exe file. But if the game requires some extra files then those same files should go within the 1.44 MB limit.

- The event begins on Wednesday the 14th of April and ends at 4:00 am Thursday the 29th of April. (14.4 days. Get it?)

- RPG Maker VX / Ace, MV, and MZ are not available for this event. Their projects even stripped down to the bare minimum don't give enough room to fit into 1.44 MB. You can still use them if you somehow manage to make the game fit though. Good luck!

- Any questions? You can send a PM to "El_WaKa" on RMN or "WaKa" in the Discord server.

REWARDS:
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The best overall game will not only receive "The Golden Disk" achievement but it will also get to pick a free steam key from a list of almost 400+ games! All aspects of a game are taken into consideration (graphics, sound, gameplay, etc.) with the extra emphasis on how much unique content is available in the limited space.

There are also some extra achievements and makerscore to be won!:

"Don't copy that Floppy" 14 MS: For releasing a demo.

"The Master Copy" 60 MS: For finishing a game.

"The Golden Disk" 70 MS: For the best overall game.

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The event is over! Check out the results over here!
Congratulations to Unchained by Decky! You won the Golden Disk!

Details

  • 04/14/2021 12:00 AM
  • 04/29/2021 04:00 AM
  • 10

Achievements

Registration

You must be logged in to sign up for 1.44 Floppy Disc Event .

Teams Members Entry
Looks like I need to try something beside MV
This team has performed an illegal action and will be shut down.
Nostalgia
Everybody do the flop!
Tass Times in RMN
www.eMachinesFloppyDiskSettlement.com
Mirak calls for help! But no one came...
shittyabandonwarez.cn/dos/drekirokr-3540/download/
I miss floppy disks
flop pies
Diskette 0 Drive Seek Failure
Keep on smilin'
Insert the system disk before inserting the game disk.
C:\DOS\Run
It's very interesting
Fflo's Quest inside Naughty Lord's Dungeon, should be "released" on the Nintendo DS
RM1K44(B)
Flippity Flappity Floop
Keep the faith and run away!
RPG Maker 1440
Momekas one man band
Yeah why not
Floppy, but not sloppy
You said we couldn't, so we did.
360kB is enough for anyone
Sandware
I copied that floppy
is it time?
A floppy disk or floppy diskette (sometimes casually referred to as a floppy or diskette) is a type of disk storage composed of
Floppy0153
Floppy Disks were invented by computers to help us
RM_256k
Friends: The JRPG
1998 called. ...Can...Can I stay there for a while? Please? :o
Team Double Density
(A)bort (R)etry (F)ail
Final Fantasy but bigger
GOT 144 PROBLEMS BUT THE DISC AIN'T ONE
Still Loading...
An excuse to use RM 2k again
First time using 2003. Hope this works
Vitrolic Virtue Studio
Floppy Healy
America On-Lion Free Trial Disc
Floppin' on the Floor
Magick SOFT

Posts

iddalai
RPG Maker 2k/2k3 for life, baby!!
1194
In a couple of weeks, I'll play everyone's games. Hopefully it won't be too late to lose people's interest...

@pianotm thanks once again for the input! I had planned to add an NPC warning about mimics, but from what you say, that may not be enough. I'll have to think about how to deal with the mimic in the finished game, since I don't want to make the ice dungeon enemy's harder.

@Ulevo thanks for the kind words! I wanted to make an old-school style RPG Maker 2000 game, so I'm glad that you find it comfortable to play.

@Marrend thanks for the feedback! I'm really frustrated about the missing file error :/ that alone invalidates my entry since it doesn't run outside of the box. I thought I had tested that when I was feeling better, but somehow one of those slipped by me. What happened was that I got ill midway into the event and couldn't test enough or finish the project. Since you mention the game is hard, can you let me know if you played version available here or the gamepage version? The gamepage version is much better balanced since I did some changes after the event.
Thanks for playing!
Thank you for playing my game, Marrend. The reason it's mostly dialogue is that it's comprised mostly of (consensually transcribed) rp logs. Best way to make sense of the lore is most likely to read the charcherry weekly articles.
I'm thinking later on when I make the second half, I'll add in a "are you here for the text or the gameplay" question at the start and send off the player according to those expectations.
gameboy roms
I think these were all made with GB studio, and have the same common issues with the platforming. Between inertial movement and bumping heads on the top of the level, it is too easy to fall into pits or otherwise miss jumps.

I don't have a gameboy color, so played all of these on the emulator chosen by the respective devs to include with their downloads.

ExGf (CrazyBabi & Marmalade)
I liked the mario parody and level design. Got as far as the third zone before the platforming became too difficult.


Lily's Birthday + Picross (Soul)
The included emulator seems to have a little input lag so I had to anticipate the jumps to be able to pass the platforming. I like the variety of cute graphics. Would recommend doubling the frequency of checkpoints as some parts can be frustrating without save state scumming.

Picross seemed to keep repeating puzzle #1 after completing it - so this bonus game is more of a tech demo for now.


Detective Waka (Mirak & Avee)
A humorous take on various RMN members, but also has solid RPG, Action RPG and platforming minigames. The platforming section has several "levels" with only 5 lives to make it to the end or have to redo the who;e thing. This was too frustrating to complete without using save states for me. Otherwise I enjoyed the rest of the game.


Category Pick: Detective Waka

Interactive fiction

Spaghetti Vase (Lav)
A return of Thoren and June, with some new friends for a dimension hopping romp. Despite feeling at times as though the primary audience is the RP group it originates from and that I'm missing in jokes, I enjoyed the humour and story here and it's well produced. Nice star gate sequences.


Romance in Shaly (Delsin)
A lesson in knowing when and why you should Dennis. I've played a few Twine games before, but they all used clicky links rather than the drop down menu to choose actions. I'm not sure about that interface choice, but I appreciated the "undo" button for the many bad ends. Lots of Delsin brand wtfery to enjoy here.


The Fisherman lived happily ever after (Kory)
This one in Inform7, a command parser adventure game. It's a long time since I played one of these, so ended up playing "guess the verb" quite a bit when knowing what action I wanted to do. The story itself is nice and has time travel which is always good.


We Live to Serve This Ship (Corfaisus)
A slice of life aboard a pirate ship. The tileset is used well, and the story is a bit of world building revealing an implied setting.


Spider Trek (MacShift)
You're a spider, get out of the house without getting squished, eaten, put in a jar or a multitude of other bad ends. I liked the way the bad ends were explained with spider facts where not obvious. My only criticism would be there's no obvious way to quit the game from full screen without killing the process.


Swamp Game (Racheal & MakioKuta)
A small text adventure with graphic backdrops across a handful of locations. Failures send you back to just before the last decision rather than needing to start over. I liked that when failing due to not having built stats enough before taking an escape route. The monochrome backdrops remind me of early adventure game graphics, didn't encounter any bugs - well done.


A Vacation in Nebula (Frogge)
I like the CGA-esque palette and screen overlay. It's a visually cohesive dreamscape to explore and look around. Music choice is relaxing and fits the mood.


Category Pick: A Vacation in Nebula

Action / Arcade

Keep on Smiling (Garage)
Pac Man but with Emoji. Plays very much like Pac Man itself. Ghosts AI is challenging but possible to deal with. I had trouble with the spreading fires on the later levels. You're branching out from renpy, hope you learned new things making this kind of game.


Ultra Smug (Avee)
Pac Man but with Ultros and a Moogle. The tentacles seem to move randomly which makes the game an excercise in patiently waiting for the tentacle to move out of the way so you can grab the dots. The kupo nuts are helpful to collect the last few where a tentacle is stubbornly sticking in ones spot. Graphics / animations are good, particularly poor moogle being squished by a tentacle.


Rome Defender(Irog)
Seems to be a test bed for an action RPG with a horde of enemies spawning around the map edges and coming to the player. The animations are smooth, though I noticed sometimes enemy path finding gets stuck on an object and several enemies pile up there until the player moves to the other side. It's good to see people try out custom engines even when not getting as far as you would with something pre made.


Villain(NotADev)
An action RPG with pixel movement in RM 2k3. At least the player has pixel movement, the enemies are more tile based. I liked the smooth movement and the well choreographed boss fight. I guess you're playing on the original meaning of "villain" (one who lives in a village) vs (untrustworthy / evil). Challenging enough to be interesting without being frustrating. Good Work.


Category Pick: Villain

Other/Experimental
2033 Project(Backwards Cowboy)
You've made a nice tileset, but there doesn't seem to be anything to do yet.


Dread the Rabbit(Momeka)

You're the other person in this event to have made a turn based roguelike. This one with randomized artifacts and your very nice pixel art. At one point I got stuck with no key to progress forward - perhaps the bomb artifact destroyed it? The weapons only being usable a few times before breaking makes the game a lot more difficult.


Hyper Digger(Orochii)
I like the cyberspace flavour of this, and it's very stylish as far as it goes. Probably the only game where you can do a side quest for a domestic appliance.


Fflo's Quest inside Naughty Lord's Dungeon(Fflo)
The red dot and maze did not line up in my browser (firefox), making the game difficult to play. I stumbled into some random encounters and a "you win" without ever finding the sword or potions. It's good to see people try out custom engines even though you'd get more done using something pre made. Hopefully you learned some neat tricks to use in future games.


Unbit(Kazesui)
Enjoyed this a lot, reminded me a little of portal 1 and antichamber. Like the use of logic gates in puzzles in the second part. The 3D section is a little rough, but it's 3D in 2k3 so an achievement in itself. Would like to see it fleshed out with some more puzzles and an ending that's more than just the game closing.


Ruby Wolf(WolfCoder)
While this is mostly a tech demo at the moment, I liked the battle system giving the player choices during the enemy turn. But with the limited enemies available at the moment, it always makes sense to spend energy to dodge or block rather than save it for an extra attack.


Temple Guardian(Dune)
A kind of tower defence thing where you mix spells to try and survive. At the very start, there are no enemies on the screen, and mixing up a spell gets stuck at the "choose a target" step. Otherwise it's a neat (if tricky) little game. I found I needed to keep the readme open to track who is immune to what.


Category Pick: Unbit

Classic RPGs

These are all a bit longer so will follow up in another post after giving them a proper play.

Unchained(Decky)
Oath(Iddalai)
Magic Quest(pianotm)
Floppy Disk Mainland(ulevo)
Thanks for your feedback Deckiller !

I tried to build a combat system where you need to accurately time your attack to avoid damage. The recovery time after a gladius swing is apparently too short. The enemy movement code needs improvement too.

You probably killed a few more than 81 enemies. This version of the game has a bug: it displays the number of corpses and forgets to count the enemies showing a dying animation.




Thank you for playing my game Coelocanth !

Indeed, the enemy pathfinding needs to improve. This game is my first time building a melee combat system and I learned a lot from the experience.
Fflo
Be careful ! I'm French
3650
author=coelocanth
The red dot and maze did not line up in my browser (firefox), making the game difficult to play.
Gah! I knew I would get some visual problems. Otherwise, it works well with Chrome and a screen width of 1,366px like me.

There are some battles which are impossible to win if you don't have the sword or the shield equipped. There's a little factor of die-and-retry.
Hey, I just wanted to apologize to everyone, last week was kinda rough and I wasn't in the best mood. But now, my primary objective for the week is to play and review every single game, and of course, pick the overall winner!

I just don't want to play 5 mins and be done with each game, you know? Everyone deserves a proper look and review, and I'll do my best to provide.
iddalai
RPG Maker 2k/2k3 for life, baby!!
1194
You don't need to review my game (since it's incomplete and I didn't have time to test the event version properly). Just hearing your general thoughts is cool enough for me.
Mirak
Stand back. Artist at work. I paint with enthusiasm if not with talent.
9300
No worries waka! I too am taking my time with those reviews. There were a lot of entries!
author=Fflo
author=coelocanth
The red dot and maze did not line up in my browser (firefox), making the game difficult to play.
Gah! I knew I would get some visual problems. Otherwise, it works well with Chrome and a screen width of 1,366px like me.

There are some battles which are impossible to win if you don't have the sword or the shield equipped. There's a little factor of die-and-retry.


OK - it works better in edge after adjusting the window size until the dot and maze line up. Just a bug you can probably fix easily enough now you know about it. I managed to find the potions on one try (but got in a fight where the baddies hit harder than potions could keep up with healing), and sword + shield + victory on a second try.

As for encounter balance, all I could suggest with it being a single level maze is to adjust the random encounter rolls by the number of steps taken so you would usually meet the weaker enemies earlier on and stronger ones after wandering around for a while.
author=Marrend
I've got some small tidbits of notes for what games I've played from this event so far.

*Edit: I've re-arraigned the post to have the Floppy Disk games at the beginning for the sake of convenience.


It occurred to me that people might think my game title is a reference to Star Trek. (It was the working title, but I'm awful with naming things so I drew a blank when it came time to change it at the very end. Sorry, Star Trek fans!)

Thank you for playing my game and sharing your thoughts!

author=coelocanth
gameboy romsSpider Trek (MacShift)
You're a spider, get out of the house without getting squished, eaten, put in a jar or a multitude of other bad ends. I liked the way the bad ends were explained with spider facts where not obvious. My only criticism would be there's no obvious way to quit the game from full screen without killing the process.



I was kicking myself when I realized it was kinda tricky to end the game! I'll put in a quit button or something when I upload it to the game page that's currently pending.

I'm glad you liked it despite the issue, and I appreciate your feedback!
So I did make a playlist of games that have pages for this event: https://rpgmaker.net/users/Liberty/playlists/121171/

Lemme know if I'm missing anyone's games (just finished doing the queue, btw, so ones that were there that got accepted should be on the list).
author=Liberty
So I did make a playlist of games that have pages for this event: https://rpgmaker.net/users/Liberty/playlists/121171/

Lemme know if I'm missing anyone's games (just finished doing the queue, btw, so ones that were there that got accepted should be on the list).


Ultra Smug's gamepage
My entry's gamepage was made early. That's probably why you missed it :P
Classic RPGs

Unchained(Decky)

Very nice mapping - classic REFMAP is an S-rank tileset, and it's been used well here.
There are plenty of random encounters, but each fight is a puzzle if trying for the bonus. A possible issue with the bonuses is that they are a "double win" mechanic. If you're doing well, you get more stat up items. But if you're doing badly you only get 1 stat up item and need to grind 4x as much to catch up.
"End the battle on full HP / SP" challenges are a bit obnoxious in the event version, as you can't see enemy hp, and need to win on a turn the enemy is guarding using basic attacks.
Story is entertaining at least.
I used the casual herbs as recommended, so can't comment on balance without them.


Oath(Iddalai)

Fairly original setup for an old school dungeon crawl.
I think like Piano, you're going for an early dragon quest feel.
I liked the royal family's dialogue at the start.
There may be balance issues, as even with the best armour available in shops and the ice ring, I was getting killed in 1-2 rounds on the first floor of the ice dungeon.
I couldn't find anyone to recruit in the castle or town, though there are weapons for different classes. Should the pub be enterable at some point?
I think this could be a decent game with a balance pass.


Magic Quest(pianotm)

Nice original tileset, which evokes the feel of old games like Ultima (and presumably early dragon quests, which I haven't played).
Cursed belt is a nasty surprise, but you don't really lose progress on death so no need to save scum this game.
Progression is well balanced for the most part - the minotaur is brutal when first encountered.
For some reason the area around the dwarf town has only starter tier monsters, making it troublesome to grind the gold for the upgrades here.


Floppy Disk Mainland(ulevo)

I like what you were trying to do with the windows 95 styled window skins. But a lot of the text in the game is nearly white on a white background and therefore hard to read.
Perhaps you can change the text colours, or use a \c code in all the messages to make them more easily readable.
You've got a decent quest structure, but some of the directions were hard to follow.
If you continue with this, try to fix the colours and line wrapping in the message windows or go back to a darker coloured window background.


Category Pick: Unchained
Decky
I'm a dog pirate
19645
Thanks for the feedback! I had the same gut feeling about the bonus system being a "rich get richer" situation. I think I'm going to overhaul that whole system a tiny bit for next week's final version: winning a battle will get you one of every herb, and winning the bonus will get you another extra random herb (as well as a token to be exchanged for awesome endgame items). I'm also scaling back the number of full HP/SP bonuses - only one of each per area, max.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
More notes on the Second Mellynd War Floppy Disk games! \o/
author=Marrend
More notes on the Second Mellynd War Floppy Disk games! \o/


Villain did turn out harder than I intended BUT the ghost does point out the save point to you that is right before the archer you got killed by.
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32347
Thanks for the feedback, Coelocanth!
Based on you feedback, I've uploaded a new download file for my game. Thanks for all your comments !
author=coelocanth
I like what you were trying to do with the windows 95 styled window skins. But a lot of the text in the game is nearly white on a white background and therefore hard to read.
Perhaps you can change the text colours, or use a \c code in all the messages to make them more easily readable.
You've got a decent quest structure, but some of the directions were hard to follow.
If you continue with this, try to fix the colours and line wrapping in the message windows or go back to a darker coloured window background.
I already know. At that time, I will release a new version to solve this problem.
Hey everyone, so making the reviews is taking longer than I thought it would (I'm not complaining though, you guys really made a lot of awesome games). But I was wondering... do you prefer to wait until the reviews are all done or you want to receive your badges/prizes sooner?