See the rules here: http://javaunlimited.net/contests/java4k.php

From what I understand from those rules, applets are allowed? Sweet! =D

I've changed my mind about not joining the competition. I just can't stay away.

Yay, Markus is back in!

The good news: Markus is back in. Better games, thus twice the fun!
The bad news: There goes the chance for the rest of us

markus:
first off, yes, applets are allowed (the submit page hints at them even).

second, I don't see a problem with throwing the exception... what's the worst that could happen?

Ah, but you can let IOExceptions from reading data files just fall out of main this way. They shouldn't happen if the data file is present so you don't really want to catch them anyway

Its definitely cheaper than try, catch, exception, exit.

Kev

Yeah.. "oops".

True. As I remember, I actually introduced that little trick of adding "throws Exception" to the main method. (Primarily because I didn't like Abuse's method of hacking the initializer thread to run his game.)  Getting an unexpected exception seems unlikely if you've properly tested your code. I think what Markus was getting at was exiting the game using a trick like this:

"String blah = null; blah.toString();"

That just smacks as bad programming practice to me. He may save himself all of 10 bytes, but I'm going to be staying away from that one with a ten foot pole.

Yeah, because writing a game in 4k is all about "good programming". 

I've said it before and I'll say it again: The entire point of contests like this is not to break the rules. The point of contests like this is to show your mastery by knowing when to break the rules. IMHO, using creative algorithms, sophisticated toolkits, and space saving programming practices of ways of breaking the rules in a "good" way. I draw the line at anything that smells like a hack, as it's bound to get you in trouble. (As oNyx learned the hard way with the sound bank.) 

Why do you guys turn this into such a big deal? Let everyone do as they want, and then we'll see what works. It's 4k, the rules should obviously allow this kind of hack, although not everyone may like it. I myself use System.exit(0)

Agreed, thus, let him have his hacks. If they work, it's fine, if they don't it's not your problem anyway

Hey. It was a gray area, because that bit was completely left open. Since the contest was from devs for devs I assumed it would be fine to rely on the soundbank (which is there by default with the sdk/jdk).

This year I certainly wont use any sound (only ~90 bytes left anyways)

I did not realize this was an issue. I had compensated in the LadyBug game on windows as the box appears at the bottom.  So I left some blank spacew at the bottom that could be safely covered up. I guess you screen shot is from a Mac or linux platform. I could always add some blank sace at the top as well. I hate to have to sign my game not only does it waste space it also makes me grant permission for the game to run. Who knows what the game will do. I much prefer to see a game that needs no protected calls so will run with out the need to be signed.

Agreed, lack of time is a problem, although this is the last day with lots to do in school
After today, I might find the time to create a few more games, perhaps better ones at that (better than my old games that is, they still won't be anywhere near comparable with some of the other games in this contest).

There's no rule about resolution. These young wipper-snappers seem to think that we're all still 15 and can read the tiniest screen without eye strain. God forbid that anyone should figure out how to scale images! </grumpy-old-man> 

1024x768 or greater is a pretty safe assumption these days. Any developer running at less than that needs his head checked. (Especially his eyeglass perscription.) Any user running at less than that is WAAAAAAYYY behind the curve.