|
The ABBUC
programming contest
by Mathy van
Nisselroy
Saturday the
26th of October 2002 was to become a special
day. As usual, the last Saturday of October
(and the day before the night Europe returns
back from daylight savings time) is the day
the ABBUC hold its yearly meeting for all its
members -
which is, as always, followed by a big Atari 8-bit computer show. But this year it was
different. This year, the members of the
ABBUC (well, at least those that were present)
made a decision that might influence the Atari
8-bit world as a whole.
Well, what happened?
For one, people
were chosen to do certain tasks. Andreas
Bertelsmann volunteered for the job of internet
presentation. Carsten Strottman is now
the guy overlooking everything related to the
library of books the ABBUC has in its possession.
Thorsten Butschke sees to it that meetings
and conventions are held, supported and that
prizes are available for contests held at these
parties. And Sorin Pascu, well, he's got
the best job of all.
So what does
the guy do?
Well, he has
to make sure the programming contest is held.
Programming contest?
Yes, the members
of the ABBUC that were present at the yearly
meeting decided, among other things, that a
programming contest is to be held. Everybody
can enter one or more pieces of software he
or she wrote alone or as a group as long as
it runs on an Atari 8-bit (400/800/XL/XE) computer.
But the jury reserves the right to
ban certain software or programmers from the
competition.
Entries should be submitted no later than
15th September 2003.
Does it matter
what kind of software one enters?
No. You
can enter whatever kind of software you want
as long as it runs on an Atari 8-bit computer
(400/800/XL/XE). Whether it's a game,
a tool or a utility.
- Tools and utilities
should be user friendly and run under all DOS
versions.
- Games should
have great graphics, great sound, good music
and should be fun to play for a long time.
- Software should
run on standard 8-bit Ataris and with non-upgraded
1050 disk drives.
But what if I
need a huge RAM-disk?
If your software
needs more data than the computer can handle,
it should test for the availability of a RAM-disk.
If none is found, all data should be loaded
from disk. If a RAM-disk is found, it would
be nice if it could be used. If you do
support a RAM-disk in your software, your software
should be smart enough to detect which banks
of memory are available and configure itself
accordingly.
Please keep in mind that
larger RAM-disks (like the upgraded version of
the Newell 1 MB upgrade and the Mathy RAM-disk)
that still enable you to switch BASIC, the self-test
or OS RAM/ROM on and off, will not allow you
to switch these while the RAM-disk is active.
Switching off the RAM-disk before switching
the status of, for instance, the OS RAM/ROM will
not cause incompatibilities with other RAM-disks,
nor will it take a lot of time and code.
But to write
a nice piece of software I need time!
Yes, that's why
the winner will receive 500 Euros for his or
her effort. Second place will get 200
Euros, third place gets 100 Euros, while fourth
to seventh place winners will each receive 50 Euros.
This sounds to
good to be true, there must be a catch!
Well, the main
goal of the programming contest is to get some
outstanding software written for our beloved
Atari 8-bit computers. We hope competition
will be fearse. This means you'll have
to work hard. We want you to write the
best software you can write.
We're looking
forward to your entry/entries into the ABBUC
programming contest.
|
