Four Line Game Competition

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Four Line Game Competition

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<p align="right"><b><font size=3>September 15, 2004</font></b></p>

<p><font size=3><b>Four Line Game Competition</b></font></p>
<p><font size=3>Check out the first QB Express monthly programming competition!</font></p>
<p>This month, <i>QB Express</i> is proud to start the first of its monthly programming competitions! Every month, a QB programming competition will be held and judged by the staff of <i>QB Express</i>. Then, in the following issue, the results will be announced. So without further ado, let's get to the first challenge: The Four Line Game Competition!<br><br><br><b>The Challenge</b><br><br>Your challenge is to make the best possible QBasic game program using just FOUR lines of QBasic code. Games may be of any genre or style, but players must be able to win or lose depending on their input (otherwise, it's not a game).<br><br>For this challenge, you may link as many commands together as you can on a single line, using colons or otherwise. Since QBasic is limited to 256 characters per line, your game is limited to a maximum of 1024 bytes of code. You may not use any libraries or external files with the exception of the standard QuickBasic library, QB.QLB. All games must be compatible with QBasic v1.1.<br><br>This challenge was originally held in 1999 as one of <i>NeoZones Productions'</i> CodeX challenges, and had quite a good response. During the month, if I can find any of the original entries of the contest, I will post them at the official message board topic.<br><br>Entries will be due on or before October 10th, 2004 at midnight, Eastern Standard Time. Results will be revealed in Issue #3 of <i>QB Express</i>, which will come out on or around October 15th.<br><br>Here is a complete listing of the rules for this competition:<br><blockquote class="letters"><b>Rules</b><br><ul><li>Your game may consist of a maximum of <b>four lines</b> of QBasic code, excluding remarks/comments. Each line may be up to 256 characters in length -- the maximum allowed by QBasic.</li><li>Programs must be a <b>game</b>, meaning that players must be able to win or lose, or accumulate points based on their input. Games may be of any style or genre.</li><li>You can <b>link</b> as many commands together as you'd like on a single line with colons (:).</li><li>You may include as many lines of <b>remark statements</b> (comments) as you'd like in your program. These may include the title of the game, the programmer's name and contact information, and instructions on how to play for the user. Since you're limited to only four lines of code, your instructions for the controls and the gameplay should probably be included in the comments.</li><li>You may also <b>append</b> remarks to the end of your four lines of code, but they will count as part of your program.</li><li>Your program must be one <b>uncompiled .BAS file</b>.</li><li>No <b>external</b> data files.</li><li><b>No libraries</b> other than QB.QLB.</li><li>No modular <b>SUBs and FUNCTIONs</b>. (You may use GOSUB and GOTO...but no individual SUB / FUNCTION modules.)</li><li>Your program must be <b>compatible</b> with QBasic v1.1.</li><li><b>DATA statements</b> will be considered part of your four lines.</li><li>Entries are due no later than <b>October 10th, 2004 at midnight</b> Eastern Standard Time.</li></ul></blockquote><br>Good luck!<hr><br><center>Send your entries to <a href="mailto:pberg1@gmail.com">pberg1@gmail.com</a>!</center>

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<p align="right"><font size="3"><b>Submitted by

<a href="mailto:pberg1@gmail.com">Pete</a>

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Post by Pete »

This is the official message forum thread for the Four Line Game Competition.

If you've got questions or comments about this competition, or just want to chat about the compo, this is the place to do it.

Also, whenever I receive an entry, I will post that I have received it in this thread.

A little note: Don't post your entries in the forum, send them into my email address -- pberg1@gmail.com
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Post by Pete »

Also, I'm going to see what I can do about getting the entries to the original NeoZones CodeX contest. I was a judge for the original contest, so at one point, I had all the entries. There were over twenty... and some of them were very cool.

There was one where you controlled a one-pixel "racecar" on a cool oval track, and could race with other "cars." There was also a neat game by Pasco where you were a mountain climber, and had to try to make it to the top of the screen.

I'm sure you guys would really want to see these before you try to write your own entries for the contest. They were pretty cool. Definitely budget coding at its best.
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Post by Pete »

I have received the first entry to this contest, from Martin Rampersad. It is a neat racing game called "Remmy Racing".

I have also sent an email about a four-line text adventure by Nixon, but he unfortunately forgot to attach the game! (I sent him an email back, and hopefully he'll soon send me the finished product.)

Everyone else: get working on your entries!
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Post by Pete »

EVERYONE: There's only a week left to get your entries in!

I have only had two entries so far. If more people don't enter, I'm going to have to discontinue the QB Express programming competitions.
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Post by Z!re »

Don't disscontinue them, keep them going, even if you only get a few entries.

The longer it exists the more people will hear about it.

And the more prestigeous it will become to win it.


As for me, I simply don't have the time and will to get into a competition at the moment.


And it really isn't 4lines, it's a 1024bytes challenge.

And QB allows longer lines, I've used string declaration lines:
blah$ = "lfkajdlf [...]
Of up to 1024 characters within the quotas, it take some work, and QB keep messing with it, but it works.



Anyways, keep the challenge.
I have left this dump.
Nixon

Ya gotta keep it goin

Post by Nixon »

You may not have had many ppl know about it, also it is hard to make games in 4 lines(not for me, I made somethjing that can compress a bas file about 100 lines down into 1 line workinh program, mhaha!). Ya gotta keep it going even just for a few ppl cause it helps qbers program better and have something to do. Also I love challenges :)
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Post by Pete »

Shudda has just submitted an entry. This is the third entry so far.
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Only one day left to submit entries!

Post by Pete »

Attention: As of right now, you have exactly FOURTEEN hours to get your entries for this compo in! The deadline is MIDNIGHT, Eastern Standard Time, on October tenth. That's today.

So far, we've had only three entries. We want a whole lot more! Make this a successful competition and send in your games!
Nixon

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Post by Nixon »

Hey pete I found that the news section comments([num]) does not seem to update when someone posts something unless you acess it.
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Post by Pete »

I'm not sure I understand you... Could you restate that?
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Post by Pete »

This competition is now OVER. Results will be posted in the October issue of QB Express, which comes out this Friday.
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Post by Z!re »

On the front page, it says:
comments X

On each news item, it seems the number (x ) doesent update unless you have visited the section, or posted, not sure.
I have left this dump.
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Post by Pete »

Oh, I understand now.

That's a flaw in the script I'm using to do my news; it only updates the count when a new item is submitted to the database... anytime there's something new listed in the "Site Updates" section, the counter should update. There are ways to work around it, but I didn't think it was that big of a deal to worry about. Anyway, I just rebuilt the news, so the comment counts should be up to date.
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