I hate to come across as a whiner, especially since I am actually satisfied by my result, but...
but what you're saying is that I should've let you alter the JNLP *after* the March 1 due date, which isn't fair. this is why you should test, and get your friends to test, and their friends to test. surely somebody has a 1.5 JRE (especially if it was posted on JGO??)
Since the JNLP is NOT part of the entry, but is an OPTIONAL deployment feature, then yes, I think I should have been allowed to fix it. It would not have affected the size, performance, gameplay, design, implementation, or anything else of my actual entry. My entry was posted on JGO, and a great number of my friends did play it. No one else reported the issue with having to download additional components.
His code was tested and found to be compatible with the 1.4 standard for last year's contest.
This, I think, is the biggest point I feel needs to be made. If the contest requirements state that compliance with a certain version of the JMV is mandatory, then the judges MUST have that version installed in order to do their job. I don't care what operating system it's on - it just has to be the correct version of the JVM.
people, take a chill pill

I believe I will do just that. Now, on to coding my entry(ies) for this year's contest....