Contest Rules

[appel]

God. My brain is dead after a sleepless night.

[[ERROR]]

Hi,
  I'm new to this 4k programming and am really excited abt it (i work on J2ME).  A few quick qns.

  *  How will the winning entry be judged?  (% of score for technology, % for game play, % for amount of stuff u squeze in etc)
  *  Don't see the results page for the previous contest.  Was there a winner for the last yrs contest?
  *  How many winners will be chosen? (1,3,5...?)

Thx,
Ali.

[appel]

Last years results:
(VIEW IN IE, table buggy in FireFox)
http://games.datadino.com/4K_2005/scores.html#

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[jbanes]

(VIEW IN IE, table buggy in FireFox)

Considering that I developed it in FireFox, I find that a bit hard to believe. Is there a particular problem you've noticed?

P.S. The original spreadsheet can be downloaded here: http://games.datadino.com/4K_2005/4K%20Scores.xls

[woogley]

My entry: http://javaunlimited.net/games/view.php?id=58]
Why is there a link saying "Download archive" even though I didn't supply an archive URL? (I guess I could have as the jar-file is there, but I did only supply the webstart URL)

there was a bug in the script that put "http://" into the database as the archive url, and the script assumed it was a valid archive url.

If possible could the archive link be updated to hold: http://thisistheurl.com/file/Sokoban4k/Sokoban4k.jar (which is the archive URL) or removed. Sorry if this is due to me missing something during the submit.

I got it for you, but for future reference there's an edit link () in the game list that you can use whenever you want to update things like that (fixing typos in description, etc.)

[[ERROR]]

Last years results:
(VIEW IN IE, table buggy in FireFox)
http://games.datadino.com/4K_2005/scores.html#

Thx

[oNyx]

(VIEW IN IE, table buggy in FireFox)

Considering that I developed it in FireFox, I find that a bit hard to believe. Is there a particular problem you've noticed?

P.S. The original spreadsheet can be downloaded here: http://games.datadino.com/4K_2005/4K%20Scores.xls

With firefox 1.5 its a single (very long) row.

edit: doesnt work at all with IE 5.0... works with opera 8

[jbanes]

With firefox 1.5 its a single (very long) row.

I actually had to install 1.5 to try this out. Seems the Gecko engine is screwed up when it comes to loading text files. (The engine loads the original CSV files and uses those to render what you see on the screen.)

edit: doesnt work at all with IE 5.0... works with opera 8

IE 5.0? I don't even know where I could find a machine to test that.

I just tested it on 6.0 without errors, and it should work without error on 5.5. (If my memory is correct.)

[oNyx]

win2k+sp4 (latest)=IE 5.0

[jbanes]

win2k+sp4 (latest)=IE 5.0

Uh, uh. 5.0 was phased out for 5.5 years ago. Microsoft no longer supports 5.0, and it's impossible to get ahold of. If you open Windows Update, IE 6.0 should be on the top of the list of things to update. IE 5.0 is considered a MAJOR security hazard, thus one of the reasons why no one runs it anymore. 

Are you *sure* you're running 5.0?

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[oNyx]

Yes, its 5.0.

(But I'm using firefox of course.)

[DonaldEKnuth]

I got it for you, but for future reference there's an edit link () in the game list that you can use whenever you want to update things like that (fixing typos in description, etc.)

Doh!  Well, thank you for editing for me! I'll try to be more observative in the future. 

[Evil-Devil]

Are obfuscator allowed? I had 1 kb left, but would be nice to have some more left

[Alan_W]

Are obfuscator allowed? I had 1 kb left, but would be nice to have some more left

Most certainly

[oNyx]

>Are obfuscator allowed?

Sure. Most people used even several (joga->jarg or jax->jarg) and kzip for better compression. You can even use something like jasmin (java assembler) if you like.

[appel]

I find BJWFlate to be a better zip compresser than KZip, chops off about 100-150 extra bytes.

[oNyx]

BJWFlate saved only 5 bytes here... and 15 bytes with the -n switch. Heh. Nice find

edit: It can be found here: http://www.clrmame.com/download.htm

edit2: The pattern file gets compressed down to 222 bytes and the class to 3660 bytes. With kzip the pattern file was 246 bytes (24 bytes bigger) and the class file 3651 bytes (9 bytes smaller). If I could somehow put those 2 bits together I would save a total of 24 bytes.

edit3: zipmix (from Ken Silverman again) does exactly that. It compares the stuff from 2 archives and puts the smaller versions of those files into a new archive. W00t!

[Anon666]

More than one file?!
I smell room for optimisation! 

[oNyx]

Its binary pattern data. Putting that in the class would result in extreme bloat. Appending it to the class would break it for 1.6. I'll keep it like that. I like using my editor.

[Anon666]

Its binary pattern data. Putting that in the class would result in extreme bloat.

even when String encoded?

I'm not suggesting you change your editor - just that encoding the data file into a String within your class *should* save space.

[jbanes]

Its binary pattern data. Putting that in the class would result in extreme bloat.

*cough*bull*cough*

Anon666 is correct. Hex encoding the data usually results in superb compression. In my tests, it actually compressed slightly better than binary data. And I do believe that my entry this year (it will be here soon enough ) will further prove out this concept.

[richardGoulter]

So where's the copy of ALL the rules, like whether or not JNLP files count towards game size or not...

and minimum resolution, max resolution, whether or not we can quit with an exception or not, that stuff.

do we just have to guess from the Java Unlimited rules?

[kappa]

not alot of rules but there are a few

http://javaunlimited.net/contests/java4k.php

[woogley]

like whether or not JNLP files count towards game size or not...

just read the rules page ...

Webstarted games' code size will be determined with the JAR that Webstart uses to launch the game

not sure what you mean by resolution... if you're talking about 16bit or 32bit fullscreen stuff that's up to you... but if you mean the game's window size it would be best if you could fit it inside a 800x600 monitor

[kappa]

just a question has any one experianced the anonying linux glitch ( maybe mac too) where when you run a jws game that is unsigned you get a massive fat boarder (Java Application Window) at the top covering a large part of the top of the screen this includes most scores and timers on 4k games.

only way i've come to get past this is signing the jar, i've tested on windows and they have the nice thin java application thing at the bottom, any news if this is a known bug or something? and how do u guys tend to overcome this problem(other than signing)?

[Malohkan]

I just tried some of em on Linux and found the same result.  I don't know what that's about.  Yuck!

[swpalmer]

I think you can turn off the warning banner with the Java preference tool.

[DonaldEKnuth]

I just changed my static screenshot into an animation as I thought it was neat, just wanted to check that it's allowed or if I should change back? Check it out

[woogley]

I don't care heh, screenshots are the least thing I'm worried about. as long as it's not BMP or >100k

[jojoh]

I just changed my static screenshot into an animation as I thought it was neat, just wanted to check that it's allowed or if I should change back? Check it out

Oh no it's a spoiler!!!!