158 replies to this topic

[Mohamed]

Drumroll....

Welcome to the second UCF Programming Competition, this competition is designed to award our best programmers for keeping us supplied with tons of cool games and conversational topics!

Heres how it works:
Competitors will be grouped into three catagories, ASM/C programmers, ASM/C gamers and BASIC gamers, each competitor will create a program/game and submit it to the judges who will then select the top three from each category.

To Qualify:
All programs/games must be submitted at the same time, when the contest ends; all games must be the work of the competitor, not a friend or otherwise; all games must be started after or within five days before this post, as one of the main purposes of this contest is to inspire new games to be made it would not be fair to accept games that would have already been made regardless; anyone can enter, even if you dont think you will win go ahead and give it a try, it will be good practice and you might learn something.

The Scoring:
Will be defined later!
Main point: the better the looks, originality, quality, life time, package (included documentation and screen shots ...), sure the better the score.
RPGs are allowed, if you thought something else, forget it!!!

The Judges:
BASIC games: Andy, Mohamed, maybe someone else.
ASM/C games: 2072, huhn_m, Mohamed, Roeoender.
ASM/C programs: 2072, Mohamed, Roeoender.

To Enter:
Simpley say so here, members who already registered through the Competition Registration topic are added here.
Anyone could participate as long as the competition is still running.

Deadline:
BASIC games: November 1st
ASM/C games: December 1st
ASM/C programs: December 1st
Any earlier submissions are welcome, but I prefer you keep optimizing till the last second.
We will only recieve ONE copy of the program.

Submitting Programs:
Mail them either to Mohamed or 2072.

Important Notes:
The final awards will only be given by the end of the competition; regardless of the time of results.
Results should be announced by the end of the year.
Judging will take place like last year.
Users will be given the top three winners of each category (mind they will be graded by judges, because they're given points) to choose the best.
Source code must be provided to judges, you could ask us not to give it to the public, but it's necessary for judgement.

The Prizes:
These prizes will only apply for the first 3 places:

• Super Member status (look at the end of the post).
• 128x128 Avatars.
• Member title: "UCF BASIC Programming Champion" or "UCF ASM/C Programming Champion" according to your place.
• Given a special avatar and an image in the signature with the winning place title and a special contest logo (hopefully designed by Crimson or any other volunteer - if you think you can help, tell me or Crimson).
• First place in each category will be given an e-mail re-direct at the casiocalc.org domain.
• Bragging rights.
• I will create a full review on the first winning ASM/C game (unless one of them is an RPG).
• All Casio site owners should link the results page to their sites!

ALL COMETITORS: The game you'd release in public MUST have the "2004 UCF Competition" title with the ranking if it's a winner, so all of you shall prepare the title in your games, so that adding the ranking should be easy if it wins.
Just make sure that the title appears in an obvious place.

What will Super Members have more than normal ones?

• 100 storable messages instead of the current 50
• Can delete own posts
• Can open/close own topics
• Can delete own topics

Names of Competitors:

BASIC:
- andy.davies
- Brazzucko
- casiokingdom GAME RECEIVED
- CrimsonCasio GAME RECEIVED
- Daruosh
- Freakazoid
- genesis GAME RECEIVED
- Mr_Sparkle
- Nikko
- Ocire
- octobclrnts

ASM/C Games:
- Bija GAME RECEIVED
- C@siomax GAME RECEIVED
- Didj
- Fantasy
- madjar GAME RECEIVED
- mastermage
- superna
- X-thunder28
- Marco GAME RECEIVED

ASM/C Programs:
- 4nic8
- huhn_m PROGRAM RECEIVED
- tekkeitserktok

[Mohamed]

Good Luck everyone in the competition, I just have some tips that would produce better games and accordingly better results:

* If you're going to implement a font in your ASM/C program, try to make it good looking since it's very important, two of the best examples can be found in: GComm & Scorch.

* If you're going to use grey scale, use it where necessary, don't just use it because you can.
Mind you that a B&W game could look much better than a grey scale one.
It's all up to your good taste.

* If your program or game could contain help or readme, then it's better for sure.

[Mohamed]

So, have everyone read this topic?
Clock started ticking.

Just keep us update with your progress.

[X-thunder28]

Sources needed:
Hmm I want to know if the sources packages will influence on Jury! i.e. comment, explanations, etc!
Because all comments are in french in my program...

Another question: a lot of my files are older than the date of start, because when I'm create a new game, I'm using a model!

Can we ask for beta testers? because the game I'm working on has many possibility... and bugs will appears for sure!

[Roeoender]

Don't worry X-Thunder28, the source code don't have to be commented nicely in any way (although I've got a habit of naming and commenting all my code in english eventhough it isn't my native language). Really you won't get any negative marks for your style of coding.

To be more precise:
From the source code we want only to see what was your real amount of work was and if it was really made by one person etc. Moreover it will help to judge the complexity of your program - in previous competition it was called "Programming Skill". Please don't run your code through a code beautiflier and don't remove comments.
The source code must be complete

BTW The games MUST be able to communicate with the player in english (docs and the game itself). It really doesn't need to be a perfect english (but well - you can ask someone to correct it), if you wish you can also make a version for your native language.

Another question: a lot of my files are older than the date of start

Well it is a problem for us, the judges, but forcing people not to use it would be stupid (it's like reinventing the wheel). Probably we will give some little bonuses for those people who had to start from nothing, but don't expect they'll win just because of that .

Moreover you can use all videly known casio libraries like memzone, grayscale etc.
it just won't affect scoring by itself.

As for beta testers - as you probably know beta tests can be made when you have a beta version of a program (that is almost finished), it would be suspicious if you would have a beta right now.
Remember that this must be only your work, so you can present your allmost-finished game to some testers (but first contact the judges about who your beta tester is), just don't get them too involved.

Judges will be your ultimate testers -> Moha: 2072: Roe:

BTW I've just compiled a hello-world-style program in watcom C/C++ 11.0c and it worked for a calc. The rumor is that watcom C/C++ produces the fastest code for 16-bit DOS And what is most important this commercial compiler is now free, the source code was published and now an Open Watcom project is based on it. I think it is worth looking.
That is all for now, and happy coding!
Roeoender.

[C@siomax]

finally .... I'll try to participate in asm/c category

[Mohamed]

finally .... I'll try to participate in asm/c category 

If all these competitors (or even half the number) are going to complete their projects, it would be a great success.

Glad you're back C@siomx, willing for beta-testing.

[CrimsonCasio]

quick question: do the above mentioned judges have the required modles to test all these programs? as i recall thats why i was a judge last time...

[Mohamed]

You're talking about BASIC, correct?
I believe Andy has both, and I do too.

[CrimsonCasio]

andy doesn have a CFX, do you? (you'll need a color calc)

[Andy.Davies]

i have an AFX and an FX, no colour calc tho

[genesis]

I won't be using colour though, it's not worth the hassles. I'm still unclear on the compatibility, does that mean a program can run on any calc if it doesn't have colour but only the colour calcs if it does?

Also, in the judging, will you be looking at how well you used the features of your calc? Or will you just be looking at the program? And when you talk about source code, are you actually judging the code as well?

[Roeoender]

Also, in the judging, will you be looking at how well you used the features of your calc? Or will you just be looking at the program?

It depends. That is you must mainly concentrate on your game/program to be well designed don't add something just because the calc allows that - the features must be coherent with the program. But from another point some features like highscores and savegame are almost always adequate for games.

The source code topic again:
As I can see you'll go for the BASIC competiton - I am not a judge but I am sure that if you invent some clever optimisation or another new mechanism (for storing game map, plotting graphics etc.) you'll definietly get more points for "programming skill", if you'll use only "if"s and "print"s and well known programming patterns then don't expect to have high score in this category.
So in answer to your question:

source code, are you actually judging the code as well?

Yes it will affect the final score in the way described above.

BTW To all BASIC programmers:
Don't expect that the calc will be in a proper configuration before running your game, that is:
don't assume that Angle is in Deg mode,
don't assume that Grid and Axes are turned off,
don't assume that Lists and Matrices will be cleared
when your game is launched.
This is definietevly a lack of programming skill.

In a readme for your game please write what variables, lists, matrices etc. your game use.

Sorry Andy/Moha for putting my nose not into my category, but I just had to write it

BTW In the previous competition the initial amount of competitors was more-less the same and the final amount of games was, uhm, low. So still I am not so enthusiastic about it.

Roeoender.

[casiokingdom]

In the previous competition the initial amount of competitors was more-less the same and the final amount of games was, uhm, low. So still I am not so enthusiastic about it.

i think there is a lot more of participants this year. and i'm sure most will finish

[Roeoender]

i think there is a lot more of participants this year. and i'm sure most will finish

Well this pushed me to do a comparsion:

2004'ED               2003'ED
-- Basic Games: --    -- Basic Games: --
1 andy.davies         1 casiokingdom
2 Bob Vila            2 betoe
3 Brazzucko           3 bob vila
4 casiokingdom        4 _BW_
5 CrimsonCasio        5 Brazzucko
6 Freakazoid          6 Fantasy
7 genesis             7 Spank
8 Mr_Sparkle          8 rjstephens
9 Nikko               9 PerCasioAdAstra
10 Ocire              10 Scatnut
11 octobclrnts        11 Nanard (classpad)
12 PerCasioAdAstra    -- C/Asm games: --
-- C/Asm games: --    12 AlephMobius
13 Bija               13 Zan
14 casioworld         14 Roeoender
15 C@siomax           15 huhn_m
16 Didj               16 C@siomax
17 Fantasy            17 superna
18 madjar             18 Rigel
19 mastermage         19 Endi
20 superna            20 4nic8
21 X-thunder28        21 MasterMage

** New Category: Asm/C programs:
22 4nic8
23 huhn_m
24 tekkeitserktok

So as you can see the amount of competitors is *exactly* the same (as the 2003'ed didn't the programming category).

And I fear that most won't finish.
Roeoender.

[octobclrnts]

You seem to have such faith in the competitors (sarcasm). This is not good, you should trust us. I hope that by the end of the competition we can prove you wrong.

[Roeoender]

It is not a lack of faith (uhm, side-joke ) it's just a practice, probably you didn't notice: I joined the previous competiton in ASM/C and I was the only person who succesfully finished the game for the comp and for Basic games only the Brazuzcko's one was a breakthrough.
Please use the search engine to read about the history of the previous competition.
Well I am sure that the previous competition gave people some experience and raised the probability of success.
I just wanted to stimulate programmers and warn about very probable scenario.
BTW most programmers underestimate the effort - what they think is 80% complete is really complete in 30%, and then the holiday ends and you won't have as much time for coding. Voila - another project bites the dust.

So you all, just prove that I am wrong.

Roeoender.

PS. You can post here how advanced you are in your project, like this (example):
game engine: 20%
other routines: 15%
game story: 0%
graphics, sprites: 5%
graphics, screens: 0%
documentation: 0%
Just don't say exact what your project is

[X-thunder28]

okay:
General: ~1%

[Bob Vila]

a big 0%

[casiokingdom]

and for Basic games only the Brazuzcko's one was a breakthrough.

lol, thx roe....how about the rest of us? i think Genesis and i (lol, modesty:)) created pretty good games using a CFX. and this year, the participants seem more dedicated.

[Roeoender]

You made me play those games once again. And now, well, I sustain my opinion.
The amount doesn't make the quality and each of those mini games was easy to do. Btw1 you got Dim Error when you start using game from the first minig (F-puncher) on AFX. Btw1 first pressing EXE should bypass all those intro animations as it gets crazy waiting for it to finish for the 100th time.

I played snakees, scorches, rpgs even Civilization written in Basic - those game define the level for me.

Just treat this post as motivation.
Roeoender (won't judge Basic comp).

[casiokingdom]

lol, ok, i understand your opinion.
btw you need to reset the highscores before you play minigames. that's why you got a dim error.

[Mohamed]

Just treat this post as motivation.
Roeoender (won't judge Basic comp).

Why not? It's starting to get interesting now.

BTW: Daruosh added to BASIC competitors.

[casiokingdom]

IS Daruosh programming with a CFX or AFX?

[betoe]

As i know Daroush have a classpad.

[Mohamed]

IS Daruosh programming with a CFX or AFX?

He didn't tell me, he has to answer for his self.

[genesis]

The amount doesn't make the quality and each of those mini games was easy to do. Btw1 you got Dim Error when you start using game from the first minig (F-puncher) on AFX. Btw1 first pressing EXE should bypass all those intro animations as it gets crazy waiting for it to finish for the 100th time.

Really? I thought my game was the one with ALL the problems and Minigames was perfect all the way through! Or was that a lie?

Lets not attack the judges until AFTER the competition...

[Roeoender]

Finally I managed to port my Falcon to Open Watcom C/C++ from Borland C/C++ 3.1. Results?
Great! The game although really heavly optimized/profiled with Borland after porting to Watcom runs faster by about 30% and from 54Kb went down to 48Kb!
So actually it is too fast right now and I am adding some features to slow it down


So if you are programing anything that depends on speed or size then go ahead switch to Open Watcom, it is totally free!


Roeoender.

[C@siomax]

is there really difference between watcom and Digital Mars ??

[Orwell]

I wanted to try Open Watcom too... but i have some problems with the TCC-like "asm" syntax...

All my asm instructions are currently written like this:

asm {
mov ax,bx
shr dx,3
}

and it seems that Open Watcom only accepts instructions like

asm("mov ax,bx");
asm("shr dx,3");

Is there any solution to make OW accepts my syntax? I have functions that make sometimes hundreds of asm lines...

[Roeoender]

Hi Orwell, I had the same problem fortunately both Borland C and Watcom suport "__asm" keyword which can be used in the same fashion as "asm" in borland. The only difference is that you have to put asm labels inside __asm {} statement, that is:

void asm_routine ()
{
  __asm
  {
    cmp ax,100
    je AsmLabel
    jmp EndLabel
AsmLabel:
    //some code here
EndLabel:
  }
}

in Borland C you had to put labels outside "asm" block (AFAIR Borland Pascal used Watcom's convention).

To support both Borland and Watcom in my programs I use

#ifdef __WATCOMC__
// watcom dependent code goes here
#else
// borland version of the same code goes here
#endif

statements, as the watcom compiler predefines __WATCOMC__ before compiling user's code.

Another (more advanced) way for putting asm code is to use #pragma aux statement (described in help files in the binnt directory) - it allows to pass arguments to routine by registers not by stack which is faster.

As for digital mars - I downloaded 8.4 version but the compiler is soo tiny itself that I won't believe it will generate better optimized code. DM seems to be rather lightweight compiler, while Watcom C is a commercial compiler (that competed with Microsoft Visual C++ for many years) that went opensource.

Roeoender.

[Orwell]

Ok thank you Roe, the "__asm" keyword works now fine (i've juste added something like #define asm __asm)
But for labels that's another problem cuz i used to write my labels like it:

asm {
    mov bx,4
    mov ax,bx

} myLabel: asm {

    add bx,0x10
    push bx
}

But with OW, " } myLabel: asm { " must become "myLabel:" and i don't think i can use some macro to do it since the signs '}' and '{' are there
The only way i see should be to write something like

#ifdef __WATCOMC_
myLabel:
#else
} myLabel: asm {
#endif

but this is really unplaisant

[genesis]

The Scoring:
Will be defined later!
Main point: the better the looks, originality, quality, life time, package (included documentation and screen shots ...), sure the better the score.
RPGs are allowed, if you thought something else, forget it!!!

Does originality just mean whether you copied another game? I mean, just because someone's made an RPG (maybe not even on a calc), doesn't mean you can't make one! And surely, you don't need comments in your source code! As for looks, you won't get penalised for not using pictures, right?

[/list]ALL COMETITORS: The game you'd release in public MUST have the "2004 UCF Competition" title with the ranking if it's a winner, so all of you shall prepare the title in your games, so that adding the ranking should be easy if it wins.
Just make sure that the title appears in an obvious place.

Is it OK if my game just shows the following banner on the title screen, because I like the way it is now (and I don't have room to put the ranking IFF I GET ONE ):

UCF PROGRAMMING >>>
<< COMPETITION 2004

EDIT: I'm not saying I'll get a ranking but rather modestly, if I get one, I won't show it off.

[octobclrnts]

Are we just supposed to have a place for the ranking, until we know it and then add it in?

[Mohamed]

genesis: you don't lose points because you're doing a game that was done before, but you score more points if you come up with a new idea, or even a known game that is on the calculator for the first time.
As for the ranking, you're talking like you've already scored one.
I prefer you add it iff (not a typing mistake, if and only if) you win, you might add it in another screen that follows the first one.

octobclrnts: exactly.

[octobclrnts]

thank you

[Roeoender]

I've just got some info with screenshots from C@siomax about his production for the competition, and it's really good as it not only looks good but is impresive as a programming task .
So what is the progress of the other ASM/C competitors?

Roeoender.

[Bija]

my program has quite progressed but it won't be a impressive game (i have been programming for a few months)
moreover there is a casio challenge too (see the post) and i participate too

so i will make 2 games but they won't be great

[4nic8]

I make a program, which isn't a rally new thing, but will have some options never made before. I've got some troubles with hardware, but I hope I'll cope with that...

graphic library - 80%
fonts - 100%
engine - 20%
"the thing" - 10%

[C@siomax]

Hi all

I got a question ...

I'm participating to the 2 comps, but I DON'T have time to code 2 different games !!

So I will present the same game for the two comps ... this implys that my project will surely be known publically before ucn's dead line ... and will automatically be disqualified for the ucn comp

What to do ??