Welcome to the 4th Retro Platform Jam! The objective of this jam is to make a game for any obsolete console or computer, either for real hardware or emulation.

The official community of the Retro Platform Jam is the RetroDev Discord Server. Join us today at:

https://discord.gg/YQbTYuKgWK

Outside of Discord, follow @RetroDevDiscord on Twitter.

Theme

SUPER. One element of the game should be over-the-top, excessive, or extra. Possibilities include a hilariously dramatic intro, extreme weapon effects, or music that goes unreasonably hard.

Platforms

Games for the Atari 2600, NES, SNES, Game Boy, Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, 68k Macintosh, Apple II, Commodore 64, Amiga, Spectrum, DOS, MSX, PC-88, PC-98, Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64, PlayStation 1, Dreamcast, PICO-8, and more will be accepted! Platforms satisfying these criteria are allowed:

• Any game console or handheld released before November 22, 2005.
• Any non-Windows, non-Mac PC Operating System released before October 24, 1999.
• Windows 95 or earlier, as long as the game runs on a 486, Am5x86, or PCem virtual machine configured with a 486.
• Mac OS 9 or earlier.
• PC-9800 series computers (exempt from Windows restrictions).
• Any other computer, embedded device, or electronic device released on or before December 31, 1999.
• Pico-8.

Rules

• You may use any assets you have the rights to use. This includes libraries, frameworks, engines, external tools, and previously-made graphics or audio.
• Games must be either new or ported to a new platform. The game cannot have been released to players or submitted to a Jam previously unless a port to a new platform is submitted to the Jam.
• Your submission should specify which emulators or hardware revisions your game has been tested on. Users on the RetroDev Discord server may be available to help test your game on hardware, at their discretion.
• Team submissions are accepted with no team size restrictions.
• No NSFW content, sexism, racism, discrimination or any kind of exclusion is allowed.

If possible, we heavily suggest you record and upload a video of your game running on an emulator or hardware. This is especially important if your game runs on a lesser-known or difficult-to-emulate platform.

Voting

Games will be rated by participants and contributors in the following areas:

1. Fun - how fun is the game to play? How good does gameplay feel?
2. Game Design - how well is the game constructed? Do the game systems work together to make a cohesive whole? Are there innovative game mechanics or concepts?
3. Platform Usage - this is basically our graphics and audio category, but submissions might be for platforms with radically different capabilities. Do the graphics and audio represent the standards and style of the chosen platform? Are the graphics and audio aesthetically pleasing and/or creative?
4. Theme - how well does the game use the Jam’s theme? How creative is the game’s interpretation of the theme?

Resources for Building Retro Games

Not sure where to start? The RetroDev Discord server is full of people willing to answer any questions we can and to facilitate learning. Additionally, we maintain a list of tools and documentation for developing on retro hardware here:

https://github.com/DogedomStudioS/retro-platform-jam-tools/wiki

Feel free to submit Pull Requests with any tools or sites we've missed!