"MiSTer Community Plays" Events

[PistolsAtDawn]

(i.e. "MiSTer Community Plays <Bonk's Adventure [TurboDuo]>", etc.)

Many years ago I was part of the OpenPandora handheld Linux PC / game system community, and one of the things we did was have informal events where we'd vote on games to play "together" (no netplay here) then share high scores and thoughts about the game over a week or so. The Pandora had a lot of decent emulators on it for the time (~2010-11, prior to Retroarch), but the fact that it covered so many different platforms was what made these events truly great as it forced me to discover games and systems I had not previously known. Honestly, I had a blast with these events since it allowed me to play the game solo, but also together with the community. That fits my preferences very well. I feel like a not-insignificant part of this community would agree (but what do I know?).

This sort of event is a lot better (IMO) when everyone is on unified hardware using the same software, as we are in this community. These events done on a dedicated hardware platform helps eliminate arguments about the fairness/equity of the competition due to there being no differences in hardware performance. Nobody's beefy gaming PC with their $8000 GPU is going to give them an edge over your integrated GPU used SFF PC you got off of eBay (that'd be me). We're all on the same(ish) hardware with MiSTer where the differences are as close as makes no difference. Your performance then will mostly come down to skill, but the focus should still be on experiencing these games together as a community rather than just a pissing contest about high scores / skill.

Some of the esoteric games that are available on the MiSTer fit this role really well as they will be lesser-known games with a higher chance of people experiencing them for the first time during this event, making it more novel and compelling than playing something as widely-experienced as Super Mario Bros. That's not to say it should be limited to these games though. That should be up to the voting community.

And for players who already know the game that's voted for, hopefully you can still get something out of the events by showcasing your in-depth knowledge of that game through the discussion posts. Involved, passionate players make these events fun! You could brag about your own amazing scores while coaching people newer to the games to help bring their scores / performances up. (Obviously not every game made has scores, but you get the idea.)

Would anyone be interested in such a set of events for our community? Perhaps bi-weekly, monthly or as frequent as is desired? I'm not proposing I be in charge of this, by the way. I'm not sure I would be available enough to run them, but I would be happy to help at least.

[Newsdee]

There's a game of the month event in the MiSTer discord. This month it's Zelda the Minish Cap on GBA.

[PistolsAtDawn]

There's a game of the month event in the MiSTer discord. This month it's Zelda the Minish Cap on GBA.

Ah, I wasn't aware of that. I don't like Discord or their terms of service, so I avoid it unless it's my only method of contacting someone.

I would personally prefer to not use it for anything to do with the community side of MiSTer as I've seen others express this same sentiment. I'm not looking to have an argument about why though.

[akeley]

I'm of a similar persuasion, but the truth is that's where the action is these days...Discord, Twitter, etc. In 2022 forums are a social media niche and MiSTer's community isn't that big to start with, so here's a low traffic zone.

I like your idea, and would probably participate, but even when I was playing in a HSC on Retropie forum some years back there were very few people interested - and their user base is much bigger. So, you probably won't get much traction here, though I'd like to be proven wrong.

[Chilli_Vibes]

Ah, I wasn't aware of that. I don't like Discord or their terms of service, so I avoid it unless it's my only method of contacting someone.

Totally agree. Last year, I joined Discord for some PC mods, mostly ENB, Reshade, texture mods. I was a member for 2 weeks when I suddenly got a message from "Discord". The message was basically a sort of hostage note. We need a valid mobile phone number, your account has been suspended, and won't unlock until you validate a code sent to my phone. So, my account was held hostage unless I handed over my mobile phone number. I contacted them, told them my email address was just as valid, and I had validated that email address, so send the code to that. The mods/owners/whatever, told me that the account was suspended, and only could be unlocked by this code. I told them to eff off, my mobile number was private between me, my family, and friends, and none of their business, and that they would never get it.
Suffice to say, I never got my account back, despite doing nothing wrong. This is what sickens me with these companies, Facebook included. The fact that they're able to, seemingly legally, hold your account hostage unless you hand over information that is private to you. Even Google is ramping up the "Validate your account" bullshit, by emailing me messages that I need to give them my personal mobile number - they too can feck off.

[Newsdee]

You have your reasons to use or not whichever platform you want.
But nowadays social platforms are more suited for these coordinated events, rather than forums which are more about information sharing now. Maybe something like this could be organized on IRC (I wonder if there is a MiSTer channel... there is a Telegram one at least)

It's always possible to have a forum-only discussion of whichever game is being this month, which would allow you to participate without having to organize a separate event.

[Wave]

I say go for it. This sort of experience-sharing is cool and I like to see it.

I'm currently playing TMNT Hyperstone Heist for a similar sort of thing in another community.

[PistolsAtDawn]

Ah, I wasn't aware of that. I don't like Discord or their terms of service, so I avoid it unless it's my only method of contacting someone.

Totally agree. Last year, I joined Discord for some PC mods, mostly ENB, Reshade, texture mods. I was a member for 2 weeks when I suddenly got a message from "Discord". The message was basically a sort of hostage note. We need a valid mobile phone number, your account has been suspended, and won't unlock until you validate a code sent to my phone. So, my account was held hostage unless I handed over my mobile phone number. I contacted them, told them my email address was just as valid, and I had validated that email address, so send the code to that. The mods/owners/whatever, told me that the account was suspended, and only could be unlocked by this code. I told them to eff off, my mobile number was private between me, my family, and friends, and none of their business, and that they would never get it.
Suffice to say, I never got my account back, despite doing nothing wrong. This is what sickens me with these companies, Facebook included. The fact that they're able to, seemingly legally, hold your account hostage unless you hand over information that is private to you. Even Google is ramping up the "Validate your account" bullshit, by emailing me messages that I need to give them my personal mobile number - they too can feck off.

Right. Exactly the problem with these services. It's not a community platform, it's monolith with terrible terms of use that are applied haphazardly and indiscriminately with nobody to appeal to when you need it. The forum has no such problems and doesn't exist solely to monetize your activity.

I may proceed with this anyway. It doesn't need huge participation to be fun. I would love some suggestions for lesser-known games to vote on for the first event!

[Chilli_Vibes]

Perhaps, we could have our own events on this forum ?

[PistolsAtDawn]

Perhaps, we could have our own events on this forum ?

I can't see why not. Any suggestions on games to vote on for the first event?

[charmless]

Sounds like fun. Go for it!

[Chilli_Vibes]

I wouldn't know where to start
Perhaps have systems without save-state support, so no chance at, ahem...using them
What would be a preference for system ?
8-bit, or 16-bit ? Arcade ?
There are thousands of hidden gems out there, most of us have probably never heard of, so would love to get some unknown games.

I suppose, to get the ball rolling, one of the new up-and-coming cores is the brilliant R-Type. What about R-Type, across as many systems as it was ported, including the excellent (for the time) ZX Spectrum version.

[Xbytez]

Perhaps, we could have our own events on this forum ?

Sure, this is not a problem, I am happy to setup a dedicated sub forum for this type of activity.

If those users who wish to start this brainstorm an outline and flesh this out further.

[PistolsAtDawn]

I wouldn't know where to start
Perhaps have systems without save-state support, so no chance at, ahem...using them
What would be a preference for system ?
8-bit, or 16-bit ? Arcade ?
There are thousands of hidden gems out there, most of us have probably never heard of, so would love to get some unknown games.

I suppose, to get the ball rolling, one of the new up-and-coming cores is the brilliant R-Type. What about R-Type, across as many systems as it was ported, including the excellent (for the time) ZX Spectrum version.

I like the idea of selecting games that are available on multiple platforms as that increases the room for discussion on that game. Or series of games that span multiple platforms are good too, like Darius. Looser and less restrictive feels like a better way to go with this as it's only meant to be fun anyway.

Since the forum is indeed less active than other platforms, what I was thinking about with respect to selecting games by vote would be to have this setup more as a series of ongoing discussions rather than discrete events that would start and stop based on calendar dates. That way if someone wants to jump in and discuss their thoughts / share their scores / whatever on that post topic two months after the beginning of it, that's totally cool and not just resurrecting dead posts. If this would indeed have it's own forum section (thanks, Xbytez!), then I think this makes more sense as it's already separated off from other general discussions and won't clutter things.

I was thinking about keeping a running list that people would be free to suggest whatever games they'd like to see, and we'll add them to it and pull from that for the voting. The winning game gets played and taken off the list of potentials. The specific reasons I was thinking this are:

• It could encourage us to move a bit quick with our selections and keep the list rotating

• We don't just skip good game suggestions that it didn't win that round's vote (as we might if each time we ask for new suggestions and then vote on only those)

• Each successive post can have it's own vote on the next game without having to first make nominations

• We can cover a lot of different genres if we organize this so that each topic runs concurrently with the others

So if organized in this way, I might feel more comfortable suggesting light gun games for the list like Hogan's Alley (NES) than I would be otherwise, as I know the number of MiSTer owners who use a light gun must be comparatively low compared to the overall population. If that kind of game doesn't suit a particular player, that's okay because we can start a new topic each week if we want while older topics still welcome new participation. Nobody needs to be left out for a whole month then (or however long until the next time).

I'm only taking the lead in suggesting organization here because this was my topic, but I don't like being a dictator, so please share any thoughts you have! I would very much welcome participation in governance of this as well as players!

[Chilli_Vibes]

Sure, this is not a problem, I am happy to setup a dedicated sub forum for this type of activity.

If those users who wish to start this brainstorm an outline and flesh this out further.

Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. It then keeps the discussion out of sub forums, where it's more for cores.

PistolsAtDawn , some good ideas there. The rotation system would be good as games aren't removed, they'll be there for any future members joining.
Also, some games might need some time to learn, so perhaps rotate them over a few days ?
I was wondering, is there a Windows app, or online website out there that can randomize a set of chosen names then choose a winner ?
Or is there a better way ?

[PistolsAtDawn]

Sure, this is not a problem, I am happy to setup a dedicated sub forum for this type of activity.

If those users who wish to start this brainstorm an outline and flesh this out further.

Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. It then keeps the discussion out of sub forums, where it's more for cores.

PistolsAtDawn , some good ideas there. The rotation system would be good as games aren't removed, they'll be there for any future members joining.
Also, some games might need some time to learn, so perhaps rotate them over a few days ?
I was wondering, is there a Windows app, or online website out there that can randomize a set of chosen names then choose a winner ?
Or is there a better way ?

A randomizer would be easy to use. So maybe the voting then is on what makes the list? Like nominations are made and then we vote on those?

Then when it's time for a new round, we run the randomizer to select the next game?

I like that too.

[Chilli_Vibes]

Yep, whatever is easier, and best for all. Excellent.

[charmless]

A randomizer sounds like a good idea.

[PistolsAtDawn]

Yeah, the more I've thought about it, a randomizer does seem like the best way to do this. There's also an element of surprise to each new round that way.

A shared Google Sheets document would be an easy way to proceed. We could get the randomizer built into the list itself that way through an embedded function (surprisingly easy to do). Press a button, get your random selection from your running list. I can get this setup no problem.

So we would definitely need time to let people nominate and vote upon games to add to the list. I propose what we do is to open a new voting period at the same time we open a new post for the current game/series selection. That way hopefully once we've decided to do another round, we've had the opportunity to complete the vote and add another game to the list. However long we need those voting periods to be is fine. Maybe bi-weekly periods?

How many games should we add to the list with each vote? One? Also, we would need to start with a pre-seeded list so we don't have to wait weeks and weeks to build it up before starting.

I see this whole thing as very casual, focused on having fun and discovering games you haven't played, or perhaps elements to that game/series that you weren't aware of yet. Sharing tips, memes, interesting videos, high scores, etc. about the game/series will probably be the part I will personally enjoy the most. At 38, my reflexes aren't what they were at 16, so I won't be the leader in any high score competitions, and likewise for those who aren't amazing players I want there to be enough substance to this series to keep it interesting beyond your score/performance.

This idea was partly inspired by the YouTube channel Video Game Esoterica in that he's really passionate about the games he highlights and likes to focus on lesser-known games that deserve a bigger audience. But also, we shouldn't restrict which games we play to just those. I simply see a greater potential for us to laugh and have fun with hidden gems than we would with games that are super-well-known already like Super Mario World.

But on the flip side, SMW has so many mods, randomizers, fan content and way to experience it beyond the original form that it could still be a lot of fun to dig into it. Despite having owned a SNES since it was released, I know there are still things in SMW that I haven't explored. I've never done a speed run on it either. The same with The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past and its randomizers.

[charmless]

Casual play and discussions sounds like the best choice to me. I'm 46 so compared to mine your reflexes are probably cat like. But I'm up for some light hearted highscore chasing or "let's try our best to beat this game" as well.

[Chilli_Vibes]

Well, I'm 53, so imagine what my reflexes are like, lol.
To be fair, I do see myself as a better gamer today, than I was in the 80s. I couldn't see my 80s self coping with modern PC gaming, or modern console games. I also give games more of a chance, than I did back then. Back then, I used to get bored really quickly, and want to move onto something else. Today, probably because I am more relaxed, I take my time, enjoy games more.

[Newsdee]

System of the month or even maybe genre of the month sounds good to me.

Some computer cores need some fiddling too, so discussing how to get them to run can be useful.

Recently I've been revisiting the Amiga library, there are some interesting adventure games there, but you have to ignore the lucasarts and sierra games to not drown them out fame-wise.

[Malor]

I'll keep an eye on this and will be happy to join in, but I was mostly a computer gamer, and won't have good suggestions for Mister-playable titles.

I'm also another oldie whose reflexes have degraded, so I may not do well with fast-action games of any kind.

[Newsdee]

I was mostly a computer gamer, and won't have good suggestions for Mister-playable titles.

Maybe we should split consoles from computers?

I'd be happy to suggest some computer games to try (which I've been meaning to get into myself).

[charmless]

System of the month or even maybe genre of the month sounds good to me.

Some computer cores need some fiddling too, so discussing how to get them to run can be useful.

Recently I've been revisiting the Amiga library, there are some interesting adventure games there, but you have to ignore the lucasarts and sierra games to not drown them out fame-wise.

System and/or genre of the month sounds good. Nice to have some focus when it comes to what games to suggest.

[Malor]

I was mostly a computer gamer, and won't have good suggestions for Mister-playable titles.

Maybe we should split consoles from computers?

I'd be happy to suggest some computer games to try (which I've been meaning to get into myself).

Well, we're already dealing with probable low audience level, so splitting even further might exacerbate the issue. I'd leave anything on the table, if it runs well on the Mister.

Maybe some of you folks in Discord could point people here; I'd do it myself, but Discord's insistence on a phone number is keeping me out. I'd like to hang out there, but I have no interest in improving their surveillance to that degree.

[charmless]

I was mostly a computer gamer, and won't have good suggestions for Mister-playable titles.

Maybe we should split consoles from computers?

I'd be happy to suggest some computer games to try (which I've been meaning to get into myself).

Well, we're already dealing with probable low audience level, so splitting even further might exacerbate the issue. I'd leave anything on the table, if it runs well on the Mister.

Maybe some of you folks in Discord could point people here; I'd do it myself, but Discord's insistence on a phone number is keeping me out. I'd like to hang out there, but I have no interest in improving their surveillance to that degree.

I think not separating consoles and computers makes sense. Growing up in a specific country (Sweden in my case) and beeing a specific age means that I grew up with with a dominans of certain machines. I wouldn't mind beeing "forced" to play stuff I've never experienced before.

The idea of a sort of book club for video and computer games sounds really appealing to me.

[pgimeno]

(I wonder if there is a MiSTer channel... there is a Telegram one at least)

See this thread.

[PistolsAtDawn]

System of the month or even maybe genre of the month sounds good to me.

Some computer cores need some fiddling too, so discussing how to get them to run can be useful.

Recently I've been revisiting the Amiga library, there are some interesting adventure games there, but you have to ignore the lucasarts and sierra games to not drown them out fame-wise.

I think genre of the month or system of the month would work too. Actually, that might even make this easier as we have a list of cores we can use to randomly select from each time, then everyone can make suggestions based on that console or computer platform. We might even not need to do any voting that way.

Thoughts on that?

I would want to include computer systems supported on the MiSTer as I know there are some real gems to be played on them. The Amiga is one such system that I have never experienced, so your input and guidance would be great!

I think not separating consoles and computers makes sense. Growing up in a specific country (Sweden in my case) and beeing a specific age means that I grew up with with a dominans of certain machines. I wouldn't mind beeing "forced" to play stuff I've never experienced before.

The idea of a sort of book club for video and computer games sounds really appealing to me.

Connecting with players like you is my main motivation for wanting something like this. Your experience in gaming is going to be significantly different from mine, so your recommendations will most likely be new to me. My first computers were IBM-PC machines with MS-DOS and Windows as those were basically the only platforms in the USA aside from Apple. Having seen all the love expressed for other platforms like the Amiga, MSX, Sharp x68000, etc., I now want experience them!

Also, this is kinda a book club for gaming, isn't it? Haha!

[Hetzen]

Definitely up for this. Console, computer and arcade. Probably need a thread for suggestions, then a new topic when that suggestion is selected.