Cemetech Contest #7 Results
Published by KermMartian
13 years, 7 months ago (2010-09-14T18:31:32+00:00)
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After an intensive week of grading, I am happy to announce the results for Cemetech Contest #7, a Doors CS-themed contest. We received a total of nine entries, an excellent number for a summer contest where many Cemetech members were away on vacation, at camp, or simply off the grid. Riverye and I, the two judges of this contest, received two ASM entries, from BrandonW and SirCmpwn, and seven BASIC/Hybrid BASIC entries, from KeithJohansen, Qazz42, Raylin, Souvik1997, Svakk, Xeno_Cre8or, and xXEpicxXXxFailXx. Each entrant clearly put a lot of care, time, and expertise into his entry; we were extremely impressed by everything that we judged. Indeed, considering the stakes and prizes for this contest, it was particularly hard for us to pick the BASIC/Hybrid category winners, and Rivereye and I spent many hours in heated discussion and consultation about how to rank the entries. For the sake of suspense, I'll first announce the ASM winners.
SirCmpwn sent in an ASM entry called AxeAid. It uses the DCS GUI libraries for ASM programs to offer on-calc documentation for Axe, the compiled language for z80 calculators. He also left placeholders for other features, including a sprite editor, that he hopes to complete at a later date. We are happy to award him second place in the ASM category along with an associated USB adapter and power injector for his TI-84+ calculator. First place goes to BrandonW, who went above and beyond in creating a Shell Expansion (SE) called Jerry that lets you use a USB mouse with Doors CS 7. Notably, it does not require the USB8x application to be installed on your calculator, and can handle situations such as mouse disconnects and program executions smoothly and transparently. His entry made particularly creative and skilled use of Doors CS features, shows excellent code reuse and proficiency, and adds a significant feature via an SE. Congratultions to BrandonW, who wins a calculator as his first prize along with fame and prestige.
All of the BASIC entries were very impressive. They covered a variety of genres including games and utility programs, various levels of use of Doors CS libraries including the DCSB Libs, xLIB support, and Celtic III compatibility, and complexity. After careful and excrutiating discussion on the part of the judges, by the numbers four of the seven BASIC/Hybrid entries did not place, but we again are impressed with all of these entries, and hope that the authors will continue to participate in future Cemetech contests. Raylin submitted a pure-BASIC game called Simple RPG, an impressive one-hour effort after a previous Hybrid attempt was accidentally erased from his calculator. We wish him more luck with data loss in the future and salute the quickest-programmed entry ever submitted to a Cemetech contest. Svakk submitted My Flashy DCS Program, showcasing some of the features of the DCSB Libs for BASIC programmers. He gets a gold star for submitting the first entry, a mere few days after the contest was first announced. Xeno_Cre8or wrote Swamp Road DE, a DCSB Lib-based game, but due to unfortunate circumstances, was unable to find a fatal bug. We hope he's able to find it now that he can share his code, and look forward to his continuing efforts to build the DCSB Libs into his projects. Qazz42 made an impressive showing with his first big BASIC project, utilizing the DCSB Libs to write a calc-to-calc chatting program called TI-Mail. He went through many iterations of testing and debugging, and we look forward to his future projects and successes as he builds his coding expertise.
The top three entries each displayed a high level of proficiency with Hybrid BASIC, in varying mixes of graphics, features, use of libraries, and each of the other criteria in the Contest #7 rubric. Rivereye and I each had a different ranking for these top three when we started our discussions, and after several hours of debated and careful regrading, we ended up with a third set of rankings, which we will present here. Had this not been a DCS-centric contest, there would have almost certainly been a different set of first, second, and third place winners. Obviously each of these top three programs are extremely well-made, and in the case of two of them, there are already sequels in progress, which promise to equal or surpass the originals. Putting in a very creative and unique entry, KeithJohansen submitted Yumé, a Japanese-themed RPG with an exciting game mechanic not previously seen in a TI-based RPG. Unfortunately, his use of DCS features was significantly lower than the top two entries, even though it displayed equal or superior use of xLIB routines. We are excited to award him third place in the BASIC/Hybrid category, carrying with it a prize of a USB power injector/adapter. The top two entries earned scores within two percentage points of each other, and the winner was chosen especially on the merits of its superior coding and optimization as well as its use of the DCSB Libs. xXEpicxXXxFailXx wrote a wonderful graphical point-and-click adventure game called Clash of Dimensions which made novel use of the DCSB libraries including the mouse and the GUIMenu. It was with regret that we could not award him and KeithJohansen co-first-place prizes; he wins a USB adapter/injector. Finally, top prize goes to Souvik1997 and his entry Reminder. Although he lost points on originality, his code was much more optimized and cleaner than the other two top entries, and he made extensive use of DCSB Libs, xLIB routines, and Celtic III routines. He even earned a bonus point for a self-modifying DCS icon, a first among BASIC programs of all types to our knowledge. It is with pride that we award him the first place prize of a graphing calculator, courtesy of Cemetech global moderator Shaun "Merthsoft" McFall.
Congratulations to all of the entrants for their amazing work, and good luck to them in their coming projects! Please check out the attached thread for detailed breakdowns of each program, plus userbars for the entrants. Contest entry authors, I'd request that you upload your entry including screenshots to the Cemetech Archives.
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After an intensive week of grading, I am happy to announce the results for Cemetech Contest #7, a Doors CS-themed contest. We received a total of nine entries, an excellent number for a summer contest where many Cemetech members were away on vacation, at camp, or simply off the grid. Riverye and I, the two judges of this contest, received two ASM entries, from BrandonW and SirCmpwn, and seven BASIC/Hybrid BASIC entries, from KeithJohansen, Qazz42, Raylin, Souvik1997, Svakk, Xeno_Cre8or, and xXEpicxXXxFailXx. Each entrant clearly put a lot of care, time, and expertise into his entry; we were extremely impressed by everything that we judged. Indeed, considering the stakes and prizes for this contest, it was particularly hard for us to pick the BASIC/Hybrid category winners, and Rivereye and I spent many hours in heated discussion and consultation about how to rank the entries. For the sake of suspense, I'll first announce the ASM winners.
SirCmpwn sent in an ASM entry called AxeAid. It uses the DCS GUI libraries for ASM programs to offer on-calc documentation for Axe, the compiled language for z80 calculators. He also left placeholders for other features, including a sprite editor, that he hopes to complete at a later date. We are happy to award him second place in the ASM category along with an associated USB adapter and power injector for his TI-84+ calculator. First place goes to BrandonW, who went above and beyond in creating a Shell Expansion (SE) called Jerry that lets you use a USB mouse with Doors CS 7. Notably, it does not require the USB8x application to be installed on your calculator, and can handle situations such as mouse disconnects and program executions smoothly and transparently. His entry made particularly creative and skilled use of Doors CS features, shows excellent code reuse and proficiency, and adds a significant feature via an SE. Congratultions to BrandonW, who wins a calculator as his first prize along with fame and prestige.
All of the BASIC entries were very impressive. They covered a variety of genres including games and utility programs, various levels of use of Doors CS libraries including the DCSB Libs, xLIB support, and Celtic III compatibility, and complexity. After careful and excrutiating discussion on the part of the judges, by the numbers four of the seven BASIC/Hybrid entries did not place, but we again are impressed with all of these entries, and hope that the authors will continue to participate in future Cemetech contests. Raylin submitted a pure-BASIC game called Simple RPG, an impressive one-hour effort after a previous Hybrid attempt was accidentally erased from his calculator. We wish him more luck with data loss in the future and salute the quickest-programmed entry ever submitted to a Cemetech contest. Svakk submitted My Flashy DCS Program, showcasing some of the features of the DCSB Libs for BASIC programmers. He gets a gold star for submitting the first entry, a mere few days after the contest was first announced. Xeno_Cre8or wrote Swamp Road DE, a DCSB Lib-based game, but due to unfortunate circumstances, was unable to find a fatal bug. We hope he's able to find it now that he can share his code, and look forward to his continuing efforts to build the DCSB Libs into his projects. Qazz42 made an impressive showing with his first big BASIC project, utilizing the DCSB Libs to write a calc-to-calc chatting program called TI-Mail. He went through many iterations of testing and debugging, and we look forward to his future projects and successes as he builds his coding expertise.
The top three entries each displayed a high level of proficiency with Hybrid BASIC, in varying mixes of graphics, features, use of libraries, and each of the other criteria in the Contest #7 rubric. Rivereye and I each had a different ranking for these top three when we started our discussions, and after several hours of debated and careful regrading, we ended up with a third set of rankings, which we will present here. Had this not been a DCS-centric contest, there would have almost certainly been a different set of first, second, and third place winners. Obviously each of these top three programs are extremely well-made, and in the case of two of them, there are already sequels in progress, which promise to equal or surpass the originals. Putting in a very creative and unique entry, KeithJohansen submitted Yumé, a Japanese-themed RPG with an exciting game mechanic not previously seen in a TI-based RPG. Unfortunately, his use of DCS features was significantly lower than the top two entries, even though it displayed equal or superior use of xLIB routines. We are excited to award him third place in the BASIC/Hybrid category, carrying with it a prize of a USB power injector/adapter. The top two entries earned scores within two percentage points of each other, and the winner was chosen especially on the merits of its superior coding and optimization as well as its use of the DCSB Libs. xXEpicxXXxFailXx wrote a wonderful graphical point-and-click adventure game called Clash of Dimensions which made novel use of the DCSB libraries including the mouse and the GUIMenu. It was with regret that we could not award him and KeithJohansen co-first-place prizes; he wins a USB adapter/injector. Finally, top prize goes to Souvik1997 and his entry Reminder. Although he lost points on originality, his code was much more optimized and cleaner than the other two top entries, and he made extensive use of DCSB Libs, xLIB routines, and Celtic III routines. He even earned a bonus point for a self-modifying DCS icon, a first among BASIC programs of all types to our knowledge. It is with pride that we award him the first place prize of a graphing calculator, courtesy of Cemetech global moderator Shaun "Merthsoft" McFall.
Congratulations to all of the entrants for their amazing work, and good luck to them in their coming projects! Please check out the attached thread for detailed breakdowns of each program, plus userbars for the entrants. Contest entry authors, I'd request that you upload your entry including screenshots to the Cemetech Archives.
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