The DOS Games July 2024 Jam  is a great chance to add some new features and bugfixes to my Robo-8 fantasy console. I was planning this for quite a while now,  the Jam is a neat frame and motivation for finally getting my hands on this.

Here is the list of ideas I want to work on during the next weeks.

Hot-Switching Cartridges
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It would be nice to play the next game by switching the cartridge while a game is already running. Right now, this is bugged and does not work well. According to this Reddit post I could lean back and say: “Well, at least this is very realistic!” But for my fantasy console I want to make this work properly.

Mobile mode switch
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Next “would be nice” point on my list is playing games on touch screens. For this to work, some additional buttons for direction control and additional inputs are needed. I am thinking of a “Mobile” switch, which brings some dead controls to life. Like in these old documentations, where the flip of a switch is activating a whole series of additional control panel buttons.

Help/Tutorial Printout
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Last idea I have is adding a help text section to the Robo-8 game configuration file. Players can read this help text by requesting a printout (again, another “physical” control next to a kind of printer slot). When the button is pressed, an animated “printing” process is presenting the help text on a sheet of paper, underlined by this nasty dot matrix printing sound that is waking the dead.

Maybe a 3rd game?
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Yeah, a third game would be nice. If you know any simple classic (DOS) game, that doesn’t need too fancy logic to work, this could be a good candidate. Please share if you don’t mind.