Hello folks,
first of all, sorry for not speaking the polish language - I am from Germany you know ! Well, this year (2003) ABBUC started the first atari software contest, with prices up to 1000 Euro. First price was 500 Euro, second price 200 Euro and 3rd-7th price 50 euro each. Alas only 5 atarians took part on this contest, with the following results:
- Neo-Tracker by EPI/Allegresse: Did not work on the real Atari, did also not work on the emulator due to wrong (ramdisk-) bank-settings. It also did not fit to the rules, where no program should require more than 128kbytes of RAM. Thus this program was disqualified !
- SAP-XL-Player by EPI/Allegresse: Afaik, SAP is a sort of Audio-format to emulate/play-back Pokey-sounds on the PC. Most SAP sounds are rather big and since they originate from Pokey-sounds, why should anyone need an XL/XE player for those SAP sounds ?!? Well, the player program worked, but the SAP demonstration sounds (given by the author) had lengths between 300 and 980 kbytes. Thus, it could not be used properly on a 64k or 128k Atari. Therefore this program was also disqualified...
- TIP-Viewer by EPI/Allegresse: The version which was send to the contes chief did not work, fortunately I had a working copy at home ! So, the program did take part in the contest and won 50 euro...
- a dice-game (which name or author I do not remember): The game was programed in Atari Basic, was extremely slow and lame and looked like a 20 year old type-in listing from some (old) magazine. Still the game took part in the contest and won 50 euro...
- a shooter-game (which name I forgot, author: WASEO, Thorsten Helbing): The game was also programmed in Atari Basic and was extremely simple, even for a type-in listing it would have been too simple (and probably would never have been published in any of the old type-in magazines). Nevertheless the game took part in the contest and won 50 euro...
As you see, the quality rules did not fit for any given program. Some programs (like Neo-Tracker, SAP-Player) also did not fit the max. RAM-size rules, thats why no-one earned the first or second price (500 or 200 euro). But wait: The money is not lost !! ABBUC will do another contest in 2004 and therefore we will spend a whopping 1850 Euro !! So, everyone can take part in this contest, but please - be aware of the written rules !!
As far as I remember the rules are:
1) the programmer/author gives ABBUC the right to publish the program on their magazine (which has 400 subscribers!). the author does not lose the copyright, so he can make the program Freeware or PD some time after the contest...
2) the program must work on every 8Bit Atari with a minimum of 64k RAM and a maximum of 128k RAM (it is not nescessary, that the program works on any 16k or 48k Atari; but it is forbidden to make the program XL/XE incompatible or 400/800 only); since 50% of the ABBUC members still have only 64k machines, a good 64k program will be prefered over a good 128k program, nevertheless a 128k program still has the chance to take part in and win the contest...
3) the program must not require any additional and non-standard hardware (such as hardware updates/upgrades, like second Pokey/Gumby/Stereo, Covox, SID, sound-card, graphic-card, second Antic, second GTIA, harddisk, CD-ROM, Flash-RAM-card, FLASH-ROM-card, etc. etc.) but it might support some of these hardware upgrades, as long as it still works on a normal atari computer. The program might as well support any of the Atari input devices, like keyboard, joystick, paddles, lightpen/lightgun, or (st-) mouse; but one should avoid the not so common input devices like: Atari Touch tablet, Koala pad, CX-85 numeric keypad, VCS touchpads (numeric keypads), etc.;
4) if the program uses extra-ram or ramdisk it should a) be compatible to the 130XE standard and b) not use the separate Antic access. Thus, it should use the standard banks E3, E7, EB and EF and it should work on any XL/XE/XEGS machine that is upgraded with such extra-ram / ramdisk.
(Thats where neo-tracker failed: it used the banks x2, x6, xA and xE, which switched off the OS and thus crashed the computer; standard 320k memory settings are: 23,27,2b,2f,63,67,6b,6f,a3,a7,ab,af,e3,e7,eb,ef for compyshop and megaram ramdisks; and: 83,87,8b,8f,a3,a7,ab,af,c3,c7,cb,cf,e3,e7,eb,ef for most other ramdisks, like toms, newell, rambo, etc. But as said before: only programs that use a max. of 128kbytes RAM will take part in the ABBUC software contest!)
5) Quality: the most difficult part, I know. the program should meet some quality aspects to win the first or second price. As for now, programs that look like 20 year old type-in listings or programs that have been there before a dozen of times (gr. 9+11 viewers, clones of Pong, Breakout, Tron, Tetris, etc) will not have this chance... You know, the chief of the software contest (Sorin Pascu) and the chief of ABBUC (Wolfgang Burger), as well as the ABBUC members will discuss and vote for this rule (so don`t blame me)...
Thats all what I remember of the rules. Afaik ABBUC will present a homepage for the software contest soon (somewhere at www.abbuc.de). There you can read the rules and view some pics of the software contest 2003. There you can also take part for the software contest 2004. As said before, for the software contest 2004 ABBUC will spend 1850 euro - a good chance for everyone to win some money... greetings from ABBUC, Andreas Magenheimer.
