Announce: C40 contest
strenhol...@gmail.com
decided to upgrade this machine for 2007. The new C-40 machine is
available at an even lower price than the 2004 Commodore 32, has an
easier-to-read LCD panel display, and is far more portable than our
earlier model.
While completely compatible with the Commodore 32 games, the C-40 also
has an expanded memory. This machine has some 40960 bytes of memory
that game cartridges can use. Like the Commodore 32, this C-40 can
play both z3 and z5 z-machine games.
We are looking forward to shipping some games that will take full
advantage of the C-40s large memory for the Christmas season this
year. This is where you come in: We are introducing a C-40 contest
where anyone on the internet can make a z3/z5 z-machine game that fits
in 40960 bytes or less. Unlike the previous Commodore 32 contest, one
is not required to use Inform nor the minform library to make entries
for this contest. Any system that the contest entry writer can come
up with to pack as much adventure in 40960 bytes is welcome, including
home-grown parsers and optimized assembly language. In addition,
games are not limited to text adventures; ASCII arcade games are
welcome, as long as they can be played on the C-40's 80x24 display.
We are also looking for judges to judge the games in the contest.
The rules of this contest are:
* Any kind of game that is a Z-machine version 3 or Z-machine version
5 game that fits in 40960 bytes or less is welcome.
* All games submitted to this contest must be original for the
contest.
* All games must run correctly in Frotz 2.43 using an 80x24 display.
* All games must be submitted on or before Monday, December 4 2007.
* All games are to be submitted to me via email.
As a matter of convenience, I have version 6.15 of Inform along with
the mInform library available for people who want to use this SDK
(Software development kit) to make entries for this contest:
http://www.samiam.org/moof/inform-615-minform.zip
This will run in both *nix systems (including Mac OS X) and on
Microsoft Windows. Windows users: You will need to create a directory
named \tmp before being able to compile programs with the inform.exe
program included in the zip file.
Based on the Commodore 32 entries, one should be able to fit a small
10-room adventure in the 40960 bytes allowed in the C-40 contest, or,
with some clever programming, a large 25-room adventure.
Of course, one could opt to make a huge Scott-Adams style adventure
with dozens of rooms. Or, for that matter, one can make a very
extensive ASCII ART arcade game in 40960 bytes (but remember the 80x24
rule!).
- Sam
David Fisher
news:1191445786.1...@22g2000hsm.googlegroups.com...
>
> We are looking forward to shipping some games that will take full
> advantage of the C-40s large memory for the Christmas season this
> year. This is where you come in: We are introducing a C-40 contest
> where anyone on the internet can make a z3/z5 z-machine game that fits
> in 40960 bytes or less.
> * All games must be submitted on or before Monday, December 4 2007.
Great idea. Should people send an "intent to enter", or just submit
something?
The old C32 page doesn't seem to exist any more
(http://www.gis.net/~daveber/minform/c32.htm); is there another web site?
(The only page I could find was Mike Snyder's reviews at
http://www.sidneymerk.com/c32comp04.shtml).
David Fisher
David Fisher
news:11914669...@kangaroo.ozonline.com.au...
> <strenhol...@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1191445786.1...@22g2000hsm.googlegroups.com...
>>
>> We are looking forward to shipping some games that will take full
>> advantage of the C-40s large memory for the Christmas season this
>> year. This is where you come in: We are introducing a C-40 contest
>> where anyone on the internet can make a z3/z5 z-machine game that fits
>> in 40960 bytes or less.
> ...
> (http://www.gis.net/~daveber/minform/c32.htm); is there another web site?
Never mind ... I found the IFWiki page
http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php/Commodore_32_Contest (which has a link to an
archived version of the old site).
David Fisher
strenhol...@gmail.com
> Great idea. Should people send an "intent to enter", or just submit
> something?
No need to send an intent; just submit something before the deadline.
As an aside, I am willing to beta-test any and all entries submitted
to me early (one problem the Commodore 32 contest had was untested
entries).
Oh, I forgot this rule:
* Any entry submitted to the C-40 contest must be one where there is
permission to redistribute the submission on my webpage and on the IF
archive.
In other words, by submitting an entry to me, you are giving me
permission to redistribute the submission from my web page and the IF
archive. This is pretty much implicit with any IF contest, but I'm
explicitly spelling it out here.
Note that the submitter is allowed to assert copyright rights on their
submission if they want to, such as restricting commercial use. What
I am trying to stop is the unlikely, but legally possible case, of
someone giving me an entry, then suing for copyright infringement when
I redistribute the entry on the IF archive.
- Sam