3H-GDC m.V: Something Special (winner: BeanDog)

Sean T. McBeth · 2006-02-24T12:48:17

3H-GDC m.V download submissions Winners: BeanDog d000hg DrPetter Summary: For the fifth competition I want to do something special. Some of my fondest programming memories began years ago with a copy of an old Borland C compiler (4.52, to be precise, with worse C++ support than VC6) that had a wonderfully featureful CONIO library. You can actually see one of my efforts from those days in my Showcase -- the ASCII Fish Tank. So, this time you will all be competing on a level playing field in terms of graphical quality. ASCII art is not the Theme of this competition, that is still to be determined, but submissions must fit this style. Hopefully with the focus taken completely off graphics, some deeper gameplay can be developed. Date/Time: The contest will be held on Saturday, February 11th, 5PM Eastern Standard Time (2200 GMT). Prizes: a Pi T-shirt or a Perl T-shirt. (courtesy of the right-honorable Frunicus Maximus) 3 months of GDNet+ (via the pockets of capn_midnight) Sumbission: Previous Submissions can be found on the contest website. Theme: The Stars The past four contests were "Black and White," "Fire," "Crackers", and "CARTS". The emphasis is originality in interpretation. With the Crackers theme there were entries that featured fire crackers, saltines, people "cracking" windows open to prevent leathal doses of methane gas, and southern honkeys. ADDITIONALLY: this particular contest will be an ASCII "graphics" competition. There are plenty of ASCII art libraries available, though I highly suggest the .NET 2.0 Console Class. It has everything you will need, and even has a Beep method! W00t! If you decide to use a graphics API and copy the style of a console application, your program must be as near of an emulation to a real console application as possible. In general, this usually means a minimum of using a monospaced type-font, 16 foreground colors and 8 background colors, and 80 columns by 25 rows, though there are many console applications that are capable of higher performance. Rules:Submissions must meet a predetermined theme (which will be revealed 15 minutes before the beginning of the contest) Any Language (C, Java, C#, Python, &#106avascript, Brainf***, I don't care) or API (SDL, Allegro, PyGame, JOGL, etc) are acceptable, as long as you handle all distribution yourself (Ideally include all assemblies. You *may* link to a direct download, but a download page is UNNACEPTABLE. One click should be all I need to download the components I need). Do not assume the Judges have any particular machine setup. Judges will inform users of their machine setups. So called "Game Makers" are NOT acceptable. The process must require you to write a significant portion of code to produce a stand alone executable. If you are not certain if your particular system constitutes a "Game Maker," then ask in the thread. Judges reserve the right to disqualify entries that they deem were made with an unnaceptable "Game Maker" based on their own subjective definition of the term. You may use any base code that you have written. You may post this code in a source tag in the forum on Friday night before the competition to keep the playing field even (anyone may use it if they want), if you so choose. Judges will judge on a full binary version of the software. They will not compile the software. Source code is not required, though you may request source code to be posted with your submission. Judging will be conducted by a panel of non-competitors Judging will be based mostly on overall gameplay and originallity of game design. Graphics will be a minor part, but mainly in the fluidity of the graphics (stuttering, tearing, flickering graphics will be very bad)*. We understand that content will be light, that graphics will be underdeveloped, that input MIGHT be a bit akward. Gameplay is the key. prizes (when available) are listed above runners up receive nothing. we will attempt to pursue full legal action against nefarious ne'er-do-wells (those that would upload destructive code). Three hours is plenty of time to make a classic arcade game, or something new with simple gameplay. Check out the previous contest to see what was done. Gameplay is what this contest is about. 3H-GDC m.II 3H-GDC m.III 3H-GDC m.IV If anyone wants to volunteer as a Judge, please post here and list your machine specs as well as your pertinent software running on your computer. For example, I'm: Processor: Pentium4 2.4GHz Memory: 768MB RDRAM GFX: Radeon 9800 Sound: SB Audigy 2 OS: Windows XP Pro SP2 Other Software: Java 5, .Net 1.1, .Net 2.0, DX9c (October 05), MDX 9 (August 05) *this time, everyone's graphics will be practically the same. [Edited by - capn_midnight on February 15, 2006 7:40:51 AM]

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Started by capn_midnight February 01, 2006 10:22 AM

213 comments, last by capn_midnight 18 years, 2 months ago

d000hg

1,208

February 02, 2006 02:56 AM

Interesting idea. I like that I can still use D3D and quads - makes it easier to just draw 'character C at (X,Y)'. I shall definitely go this way I think. If I were to go full-screen, would that be OK - of course DOS was full-screen?!

Would you mind specifying what limits on foreground/background colours and special abilities like blinking and beeping are acceptable? And maybe the maximum 'resolution' in rows and columns - it makes sense to use the most we can get away with!

A console app could use proper sound and music normally - are these OK for this contest or just a BEEP?

Is mouse/joystick support allowed - you'd expect not to see it in a classic console app I guess?

Thankyou.

capn_midnight

1,708

Author

February 02, 2006 07:55 AM

Quote:Original post by d000hg
Interesting idea. I like that I can still use D3D and quads - makes it easier to just draw 'character C at (X,Y)'. I shall definitely go this way I think. If I were to go full-screen, would that be OK - of course DOS was full-screen?!

Fullscreen mode is fine, but remember that it does not affect the actual character resolution

Quote:
Would you mind specifying what limits on foreground/background colours and special abilities like blinking and beeping are acceptable? And maybe the maximum 'resolution' in rows and columns - it makes sense to use the most we can get away with!

As a bare minimum I'd like to see a monospaced font (usually fixedsys or Lucida Console), and a window that is a fixed 80 columns by 25 rows. Color isn't strictly necessary for the format, but I will assume everyone will WANT color. As a minimum it will be 16 foreground colors and 8 background colors. You can also include a blink attribute. If you choose not to include blink, you can choose to go up to 16 background colors as well.

Quote:
A console app could use proper sound and music normally - are these OK for this contest or just a BEEP?

yeah, sound of any type is fine.

I just found the System.Media.SoundPlayer class in .NET 2.0, if anyone else is interested in it. It looks to be identical in functionallity to the Win32 PlaySound function, so there is no need PINVOKE that anymore.

The Microsoft.DirectX.AudioVideoPlayback.Audio class is also very easy to use, much more featureful than System.Media.SoundPlayer, unfortunately it adds an extra dependency to your project, so you'll have to way those pros and cons.

Quote:
Is mouse/joystick support allowed - you'd expect not to see it in a classic console app I guess?

Thankyou.

I'm on the fence about mouse input, but joystick is a definite NO. It's just not standard hardware and I don't feel like tracking mine down.

[Formerly "capn_midnight". See some of my projects. Find me on twitter tumblr G+ Github.]

DrewGreen

370

February 02, 2006 02:06 PM

I can judge if needed.

Couple of links that may or may not be useful/inspirational:

Basic ascii art tutorial

Text Mode Demo Contest site <- Got this from a link on these forums but can't remember where. Might have been ApochPiQ's journal. Check out "InnerFlux" by Crimson Shine from TMDC8 :) Haven't had a chance to look through them all yet though.
(try running it via 'demo.bat block' as well as the standard mode, as per the readme)

Don't forget to check out the TMDC links page for a few bits of useful code, such as TextFX4 & AALib.

"I must not fear. Fear is the mindkiller. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn to see fear's path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." ~Frank Herbert, DuneMy slice of the web

d000hg

1,208

February 02, 2006 02:12 PM

Thanks for the detailed response.

Quote:Original post by capn_midnight
As a bare minimum I'd like to see a monospaced font (usually fixedsys or Lucida Console), and a window that is a fixed 80 columns by 25 rows. Color isn't strictly necessary for the format, but I will assume everyone will WANT color. As a minimum it will be 16 foreground colors and 8 background colors. You can also include a blink attribute. If you choose not to include blink, you can choose to go up to 16 background colors as well.

Can I have total freedom with the palette - ie 16 shades of grey?

capn_midnight

1,708

Author

February 02, 2006 02:43 PM

Quote:Original post by d000hg
Thanks for the detailed response.

Quote:Original post by capn_midnight
As a bare minimum I'd like to see a monospaced font (usually fixedsys or Lucida Console), and a window that is a fixed 80 columns by 25 rows. Color isn't strictly necessary for the format, but I will assume everyone will WANT color. As a minimum it will be 16 foreground colors and 8 background colors. You can also include a blink attribute. If you choose not to include blink, you can choose to go up to 16 background colors as well.

Can I have total freedom with the palette - ie 16 shades of grey?

no, I think that's against the spirit of the style.

[Formerly "capn_midnight". See some of my projects. Find me on twitter tumblr G+ Github.]

Extrarius

1,412

February 02, 2006 05:45 PM

Quote:Original post by capn_midnight
[...]fixed 80 columns by 25 rows[...]

No 80x50? I much prefer square characters (8x8)

"Walk not the trodden path, for it has borne it's burden." -John, Flying Monk

d000hg

1,208

February 03, 2006 02:05 AM

Quote:Original post by capn_midnight
Quote:Original post by d000hg
Thanks for the detailed response.

Quote:Original post by capn_midnight
As a bare minimum I'd like to see a monospaced font (usually fixedsys or Lucida Console), and a window that is a fixed 80 columns by 25 rows. Color isn't strictly necessary for the format, but I will assume everyone will WANT color. As a minimum it will be 16 foreground colors and 8 background colors. You can also include a blink attribute. If you choose not to include blink, you can choose to go up to 16 background colors as well.

Can I have total freedom with the palette - ie 16 shades of grey?

no, I think that's against the spirit of the style.

Fair enough. In which case, is there a fixed set of colours I should use? Does anyone know rgb values - or how can I find them out?

Quote:Original post by Extrarius
Quote:Original post by capn_midnight
[...]fixed 80 columns by 25 rows[...]
No 80x50? I much prefer square characters (8x8)

I agree. Please?

Fruny

1,658

February 03, 2006 03:17 AM

Prize offer: In keeping with the theme, winner's choice of a Pi T-shirt or a Perl T-shirt.

"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it." — Brian W. Kernighan

paulecoyote

1,065

February 03, 2006 05:48 AM

interesting sounding competition! I'll try and remember when it is this time [smile]

Anything posted is personal opinion which does not in anyway reflect or represent my employer. Any code and opinion is expressed “as is” and used at your own risk – it does not constitute a legal relationship of any kind.

capn_midnight

1,708

Author

February 03, 2006 07:38 AM

Quote:Original post by Extrarius
Quote:Original post by capn_midnight
[...]fixed 80 columns by 25 rows[...]
No 80x50? I much prefer square characters (8x8)

I talked about this with michalson.

[Formerly "capn_midnight". See some of my projects. Find me on twitter tumblr G+ Github.]

3H-GDC m.V: Something Special (winner: BeanDog)

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