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

I suspect that IKA, Verge, and Sphere will all be less than 1 MB if you use 7z. You could also pretty easily make an HTML5 game in less than that, and HTML compresses very well.

Also it's generally not useful to both use UPX with compression enabled and 7Z. Using 7Z over the entire project will allow compression between multiple files, while if UPX uses compression then you are making 7Z's (or even just zip's) life harder by making the files less compressible as a whole.

Another pro tip, a .bmp (or .gif without compression enabled) inside a 7Z or XZ archive is almost always smaller than a .png will be, since zlib/zip/DEFLATE in png has such a worse compression ratio to LZMA2 in 7Z/XZ.

It's also pointless to put a .png inside a .zip, since they use the same compression method (zlib/DEFLATE).
iddalai
RPG Maker 2k/2k3 for life, baby!!
1194
author=Avee
I love the idea!

If anybody needs a pixel artist, let me know.
Otherwise, I might make a game on my own.


I would take your offer if I wasn't too afraid of becoming ambitious and probably never finishing the project thus wasting your time and talent :P
I just realized that the reason why my RPGmaker 2000 un-compressed project was under 1.44 mb is because literally none of the RTP is in there.

X) I think I'm in trouble.

I need to figure out how to make it playable without the installer thigny before I can even START trying to make anything...
Corfaisus
"It's frustrating because - as much as Corf is otherwise an irredeemable person - his 2k/3 mapping is on point." ~ psy_wombats
7874
author=Aegix_Drakan
I just realized that the reason why my RPGmaker 2000 un-compressed project was under 1.44 mb is because literally none of the RTP is in there.

X) I think I'm in trouble.

I need to figure out how to make it playable without the installer thigny before I can even START trying to make anything...


Just take your project folder, the files that you used (use RMTool to find/import them) and add "FullPackageFlag=1" in the .ini file and you can bypass the installer, which is already highly recommended.
author=iddalai
author=Avee
I love the idea!

If anybody needs a pixel artist, let me know.
Otherwise, I might make a game on my own.
I would take your offer if I wasn't too afraid of becoming ambitious and probably never finishing the project thus wasting your time and talent :P


I like a challenge. I wouldn't say no to making something ambitious in record time.

If you already have a concept or story in mind, we can discuss how to keep it small :)
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
Try sitting on it. That is how I get all my stuff to fit in my luggage.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
If nothing else, this event seems like a thing where The "How the Hell Did They Do That?" Award could, and should, apply.

*Edit: Speaking of, I should probably include this event in the Misao nomination monthly data report!
iddalai
RPG Maker 2k/2k3 for life, baby!!
1194
author=Avee
author=iddalai
author=Avee
I love the idea!

If anybody needs a pixel artist, let me know.
Otherwise, I might make a game on my own.
I would take your offer if I wasn't too afraid of becoming ambitious and probably never finishing the project thus wasting your time and talent :P
I like a challenge. I wouldn't say no to making something ambitious in record time.

If you already have a concept or story in mind, we can discuss how to keep it small :)

I'll PM you to discuss this :)
You'll probably like small size music files for your projects so here is a great place to find Midi music:

http://charas-project.net/resources.php?wa=0&lang=en&area=17&howmany=all&fsearch=

If you know other locations for Midi music, feel free to share your links!
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
author=Avee
For video game Midis, since 1996!

https://www.vgmusic.com/


Ahh, my misspent youth!
author=Irog
You'll probably like small size music files for your projects so here is a great place to find Midi music:

http://charas-project.net/resources.php?wa=0&lang=en&area=17&howmany=all&fsearch=

If you know other locations for Midi music, feel free to share your links!

Jikes. Sound. Forgot again that you guys like sound for everything ...

About Midi: Alas, as far as I know, browsers usually play only .wav or .mp3 - or maybe .ogg ... anybody got good resources on .wav game sounds?
iddalai
RPG Maker 2k/2k3 for life, baby!!
1194
If you need 8bit sounds then you can make your own using this: https://www.bfxr.net/

By the way, can we use rips from old games and free-to-use resources? Or are we forced to make our own resources (apart from RTP)?
SunflowerGames
The most beautiful user on RMN!
13323

I found something heavily text based / combined with 7 zip to meet the size requirement. I got a base code to compress down to 468kb. It will launch by opening a webpage on the internet. I'm not sure if this bends the rules too much or not, since it requires some sort of internet program in order to run (ie. explorer / chrome /ect)
"Any modern game engine is fair game, as long as the compressed game still fits into 1.44 Mb."

Just want to clarify this rule.
This means if the entire game folder is 1.5 Mb or something, but manages to get under 1.44 Mb when zipped, the game is still allowed?

Edit: Asking because a 2k3 project with no resources is still 1.5 Mb.

author=Garage
About Midi: Alas, as far as I know, browsers usually play only .wav or .mp3 - or maybe .ogg ... anybody got good resources on .wav game sounds?
.wavs files are infamous for being bloated. Less than a minute of it can lead to several times over 1.44 Mb.

You might be able to get away with .ogg if you're willing to go into a file's metadata and clear out all you can. Still wouldn't be suitable for music though.
Use opus for browser sounds. It's far and away the best choice for compressed audio, and all browsers support it.
author=iddalai
If you need 8bit sounds then you can make your own using this: https://www.bfxr.net/

By the way, can we use rips from old games and free-to-use resources? Or are we forced to make our own resources (apart from RTP)?


Yup! Rips and free resources are 100% allowed.

author=seacliff217
"Any modern game engine is fair game, as long as the compressed game still fits into 1.44 Mb."

Just want to clarify this rule.
This means if the entire game folder is 1.5 Mb or something, but manages to get under 1.44 Mb when zipped, the game is still allowed?

Edit: Asking because a 2k3 project with no resources is still 1.5 Mb.


Yup! We're taking into account the compressed file size, not the uncompressed one. If it were somehow possible to make a 1 Gb game fit into a 1.44 Mb floppy that would count.
Why can't the event start alreadyyyyyyy
author=seacliff217
.wavs files are infamous for being bloated. Less than a minute of it can lead to several times over 1.44 Mb.

You might be able to get away with .ogg if you're willing to go into a file's metadata and clear out all you can. Still wouldn't be suitable for music though.
I'm aware that .wav files are not very efficient, and real music files using anything but .midi would eat through the 1.44 MB restriction like it was candy, but I'm planing to keep sound minimal.

Luckily, a high quality sound track wouldn't fit the style of my project anyway.

Might get way tougher then I thought, though. What's one of the first hits when googling for "8 bit sound"? A pamphlet on the history of computer music and it influence on--whatever.

The next is about sound effects for old-style games ... recorded in 16bit at 44kHz sampling (or 24bit at 48kHz) .... right.
I have a question. During the development of this project, does the game body need to include RTP content based on Rpg Maker 2K3? Or is it possible to publish only works that do not contain RTP content?