CommentTime2 Jan 2025 20:01 (2 dni temu) zmieniony
ABBUC is doing two new contests (besides the annual Hardware and Software contests):
1) Abbuc Application Software Contest the rules in D and E can be found here: ->link<-
2) Abbuc Creative Contest the rules in D and E can be found here: ->link<-
Hopefully these two new contests will also become regular and annual Abbuc contests. But this depends heavily on the number of participants. (I assume that Abbuc Software contest will become Abbuc Game Software contest in the future then.)
Thanks, Andreas. If I understand correctly, the goal is to separate the current programming competition into 3 categories of programs: 1. games, 2. utility applications and 3. other - am I right?
For the sake of ambiguity, the third category was named "creative", as if categories 1 and 2 could not be related to creativity ;)
CommentTime2 Jan 2025 20:01 (2 dni temu) zmieniony
Wishlist for A8 Application Software (or better suggestion list)
- a NEO-player for DOS 2.x: this should be a player only, not a tracker, not an editor, no import functions, etc.; just a .NEO-player; it could work similar to Inertia, meaning it detects XRAM automatically, it also detects mono/stereo automatically, so the user only has to choose Pokey or Covox playback and if the latter choose the Covox adress; the player then displays a DIR of drive 1-8 and one can choose a .NEO soundfile to load and play.
- a Gr. XYZ into Gr. 10+11 converter this could be an A8 or PC program that converts one or more popular PC graphic formats (e.g. BMP, GIF 87a, JPG, TIF, PNG) into A8 Gr. 10+11, where Gr. 10 makes use of the GTIA pixel shifting for higher resolution and displays 8 luminances, whereas Gr. 11 displays 16 colours for a resolution of 160x200 or even 160x240 pixels with 8x16 = 128 colours; Gr. 10 only displays the 8 luminances, while Gr. 11 sets the overall picture luminance (it should be possible to set different luminances for Gr. 11, e.g. a picture with luminance 06, another picture with luminance 02, etc.).
- an A8 picture viewer for Gr. 10+11 pictures this should work under DOS 2.x and display pictures in Gr. 10+11 with up to 128 colours and up to 160x240 resolution
- a 50fps/60fps AVF movie player for Gr. 10+11 (for SIDE, AVG, SUB, etc. carts) this should be a new AVF movie player that plays movies in Gr. 10+11 (max. 128 colours, max. 160x200 pixels) instead of the currently Gr.9+11 (max. 256 colours, max. 80x100 pixels).
- a 50fps/60fps AVF movie player for HIP mode (for SIDE, AVG, SUB, etc. carts) this should be a new AVF movie player that plays movies in HIP (Gr. 10+9, max. 160x200 pixels, greyscale only) instead of the currently Gr. 9+11. This would be good for older movies that are black and white only and thus Gr.9+11 would be no longer used for them.
These are just suggestions from me, you may add your own suggestions and who knows, maybe some programmer out there will make a suggestion come true... don't stop believin!
@Adam: You are right ! ABBUC wants to have 3 categories in the programming competition now. And as you already found out, it is sometimes hard to differentiate what belongs to Application or Creative and what belongs to Games or Creative (e.g. if someone creates new levels for an already existing game)...
CommentTime2 Jan 2025 21:01 (2 dni temu) zmieniony
Many players wanted to separate games from non-games in ABBUC contest - I understand that. But further division may be risky in terms of the number of entries.
CommentTime2 Jan 2025 21:01 (2 dni temu) zmieniony
Yes, therefore the ABBUC Application contest also allows programs on other platforms (PC, MAC, ST, Amiga, etc.) as long as they are in some way for the A8.
And the ABBUC Creative contest allows all kind of stuff, not only programs on A8 or other platforms, but also KI generated programs and lots of other stuff (e.g. the new A8 tape/disk covers which Lexx does count as Creative).
We will see how this works out. I guess there will not be many programs or stuff this year, since the deadline for February is quite short, but hopefully these contests will be continued in the next years.
CommentTime2 Jan 2025 21:01 (2 dni temu) zmieniony
The deadline in February 2025? Really? It's a drastic change comparing to previous editions, wouldn't a gradual change be better, more creators friendly?
CommentTime2 Jan 2025 22:01 (2 dni temu) zmieniony
Not all ABBUC contests now have a deadline for February, just the new Application contest and the Creative contest.
The other ABBUC contests (Game Software, Hardware) will still have their deadline in late July, same as in the last years.
The reason is that Abbuc wants to present some of the new application and creative programs or stuff (where possible) on the Abbuc (disk) magazine in March and maybe June, while the other programs and stuff will be presented on the Abbuc (disk) magazine in September.
Currently ABBUC wants to have two contest deadlines: 1) in February for Applications and Creative contests and 2) in July for Games and Hardware contests. (This may change in the future.)
