ASCII Fishtank Mini Contest!

Michalson · 2003-12-09T19:18:21

Update 11/19/2002 I've posted an updated version of the rules which includes instructions on how to upload your entry. You can see them at the official site. (A note to judges: I've also deleted the test information from the database, your accounts are still there but the fake entries and all the information attached to them is gone. Also a note to pan narrans, I've corrected that typo on the news page and your display name has been updated) Hopefully this edit doesn't screw up the formatting of the previous stuff in this message EDIT: Just to clarify since this thread is now a "Gamedev Announcement": This contest is not directly affiliated with or run by Gamedev.net (so don't send Dave or Kevin questions about it, they won't know what you're talking about). Contest OverviewThe purpose of this contest is to create the most graphically appealing, interesting to watch fish tank. The only catch is that this is an ASCII (text only) fish tank. No fancy graphics or 16 million colors, the sole method of displaying your aquatic world is through text.The contest will end on November 30, 2002 at 11:59 PM, EST SpecificsEach entry must portray a fish tank/aquarium with your choice of real or mythical sea creatures (though it is expected that most of your sea creatures should be recognizable and not totally alien). You are limited to using either standard 80x25 character or 80x50 character text mode, and the standard palette of 16 foreground colors and 8 background colors (these colors may not be altered). How you go about this is up to you. You may create a 32bit Windows console application, a 16bit DOS application using mode 3, or you may create a pixel perfect emulation of either mode using your preferred graphical API.Additionally...Each individual can submit any number of unique entries (however it is at the organizers/judges discretion to determine if two entries by the same person are not sufficiently different, in which case the competitor may choose only one to be judged).Entries must run on Microsoft Windows 98 or 2000 (preferably they should run correctly on 95, 98, ME, 2000 and XP).The contest is open to everyone that abides by these rules, however entries by judges/organizers are not eligible to win and will be removed from the pool of contestants after the first round (scoring).Existing "Ascii art" libraries, such as aalib cannot be used. If you have any doubt regarding the validity of a library please contact the contest organizer and provide a link to the libraries homepage.These rules may be modified at any time without prior notification.Accurate emulation of 80x25 (8x16 characters) or 80x50 (8x8 characters) should use the following as reference.JudgingEach judge will score entries in three categories:Graphics : General eye candy appeal. Use of shape, color and animation will be considered.Life : How interesting/impressive the behavior (AI) of your aquatic creatures is.Appeal : Overall impression of polish, creativity and original features.All judges will then meet to determine the final winner for each category, and an overall contest winner.Number of winning positions subject to change without prior notice depending on the number of entries received. SubmissionsIn order to qualify you must submit a single ZIP file of no more than 500KB containing:Your executable and any data files it needs.A readme file (plain text or HTML) explaining how to use your program and any special features you wish to point out.The complete source code to your entry.A plain text file, ENTRY.TXT , which lists your name, the name of your entry, your email address and optionally your forum nickname.Instructions on how to submit your entry coming soon LegalitiesAuthors retain all rights and ownership to their entries.If source code is submitted with the contest as per the requirements, then it is up to the entrant to include any terms of use licenses with his/her source code. [edited by - michalson on October 25, 2002 12:06:23 PM] [edited by - michalson on November 19, 2002 6:09:09 PM]

GDNet Lounge Community

Started by Michalson October 20, 2002 11:23 AM

210 comments, last by Michalson 20 years, 4 months ago

Raptor85

180

November 03, 2002 11:53 PM

  |_______________________________________ ||					 ||					 ||					 ||					 | |			  ____		 ||			 /  x \__/|	 ||		*	 \-___/--\|	 ||					 ||		          0     O	 | |	//		 		 ||	\ \	             0		 ||	/ /	  			 ||	\ \	   			 ||_______/_/______________________________|[/code]

mu ha ha ha ha ha
(last post was mine, wont let me delete it)

[edited by - Raptor85 on November 3, 2002 12:55:07 AM]

___________________-http://www.midnightfragfest.com-http://www.tigsource.com/

Anonymous

November 04, 2002 05:12 PM

Could one of you experts give me some prompts to start. I want to use the "default" libraries. How would I enable all of this text handling stuff?

Michalson

1,657

Author

November 04, 2002 05:55 PM

What compiler are you using? Most come with a standard "console" application template. Under Windows you want to lookup (on MSDN) the following Win32 commands to get started with "graphical" console output:

GetStdHandle
Use GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE) to get a handle to the console for use in other functions

SetConsoleScreenBufferSize
Sets the size of the internal buffer (stored used for the console)

SetConsoleWindowInfo
Sets the size of the actual console window

WriteConsoleOutput
Copies a buffer of CHAR_INFO records to the screen. Personally I find this is the best method for "graphical" content.

Anonymous

November 04, 2002 06:16 PM

What are the maxium and minimum dimensions of the window and/or its resolution? Can we have a "fullscreen" aquarium with the tiniest of text?

Michalson

1,657

Author

November 04, 2002 07:45 PM

quote:Original post by Anonymous Poster
What are the maxium and minimum dimensions of the window and/or its resolution? Can we have a "fullscreen" aquarium with the tiniest of text?

As stated before it''s either 80x50 or 80x25 (Depending on your version of Windows you might not be physically able to do anything other than these 2 [except for 80x43]). The size of text is up to the user, though you can assume they''ll go fullscreen in which case it''s 8x8 or 8x16.

Run_The_Shadows

634

November 04, 2002 11:33 PM

Gah I wish I would have had time and attention to get on this when it started. It would have given me a little project, rather than just writing handfuls of little handy code fragments that I might use some day.

Can''t wait for the next little project.

-Ryan "Run_The_Shadows"
-Run_The_Shadows@excite.com
-The Navidson Record! The best film you''ll never see!

Anonymous

November 05, 2002 12:50 PM

How to submit these sweet fishy fishtank?

Michalson

1,657

Author

November 05, 2002 01:26 PM

quote:Original post by Anonymous Poster
How to submit these sweet fishy fishtank?

It will likely be by email to an email account (not my normal account, since hotmail doesn''t allow >1MB), or I might setup a web based file upload (though that will mean no progress bars/resuming which could be bad for 56K users. I also don''t know if the upload would kill my bandwidth restrictions).

This post qualifies for 100 per cent Canadian Content under the rulings of the Canadian Internet Commission and the Federal Ministry of Communication. There are four Americans who worked on this post, but they all have landed immigrant status, and have signed CRTC affidavits swearing that they drink beer, eat back bacon, drive snowmobiles and wear toques. Any resemblance between the Content of this post and the content of any American post is purely coincidental and not the intention of the poster or the various Internet Agencies of the Canadian Government who have screened these posts prior to bulk erasing in accordance with the policies of the Federal Internet Identity Board.

Tandaur

122

November 05, 2002 11:14 PM

Grr i hate windows. Im used to programming MUDs in linux.

I havent programmed in windows since 11th grade which was in
'96.

Doing it as a win32 app not a console app cus i want buttons or
menus. Though i dont recall how to set the window size etc.

Oh well, ill just write my classes and worry about displaying the stuff later.

[edited by - tandaur on November 6, 2002 3:18:32 AM]

TwistedMatrix

122

November 06, 2002 09:53 AM

I have a question. I have many extra sources in my sumbission now that are not required to be compiled to run the ascii fish demo. (These are short programs I am writing alongside to make lookup tables and such for the main program)

My question is: DO all included sources need to be procompiled before the submission is sent (Reason for asking is DJGPP compiles really big EXE''s. I could include them all into the same program, but the code would get too messy to deal with i think.)

thanks...

-= Twisted Matrix =-

- Twisted Matrix

ASCII Fishtank Mini Contest!

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