Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!super!udel!gatech!purdue!decwrl!mejac!gryphon!keithd
From: keithd@gryphon.COM (Keith Doyle)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: BADGE contest suggestions
Message-ID: <8653@gryphon.COM>
Date: 12 Nov 88 09:37:18 GMT
References: <5299@louie.udel.EDU>
Reply-To: keithd@gryphon.COM (Keith Doyle)
Organization: Trailing Edge Technology, Redondo Beach, CA
Lines: 57



After reading Marv's frustrating posting about the comedy of errors
his killer demo entry was subjected to, I figure now is as good a time
as any to make my input with regards to the contest.

After reading the rules as posted to usenet, my first impression is that
they were much too picky about issues that have very little to do with
the aesthetic impact of the demo.

According to the BADGE official rules, it is clear that only the purest
of hackers is qualified to produce a killer demo entry that adheres to
all of the rules.  Issues like cleaning up the use of all resources,
returning of all memory, making a demo "draggable to any drawer on a
hard disk" etc, are issues which are superfluous and unknown
to any non-hacker artists who desired to enter the contest with
works perhaps based on their artistic skill instead of programming prowess.
Especially without time for a proper "beta-test" and considering the Amiga 
libraries themselves have been known to violate some of these rules.

It is clear that only a combination hacker/artist can be a winner in a
contest with such restrictive rules.  I had an occasion to talk to a few 
non-hacker artists who ended up spending more time on trying to figure out 
what the rules meant and how to comply with them than they did actually 
producing the "glitz" for their demo.  

So I'd like to see the contest a lot less restrictive.  If there's
a potential killer demo out there that takes over the system, requires
4 disks, and leaves with the workbench in a mess when it's done, I'd 
like to see it, I'll bet its a doozy.

I realize it is nice for the people who are "packaging" the resultant
demos for redistribution to be able to provide clean, easy to run and install
demos, and further to support good programming practices and standards, 
should demo creators be spending more time on those issues than the aesthetic
characteristics?  If you're evaluating a commercial package that's one thing,
but we're talking about *demos* here.

At least such a contest could more actively encourage those who have not the 
time or experience or perhaps even the interest to have leared all of the 
nuances of the Amiga operating system to share some of their talents with us
and not just those who can recite the RKM chapter and verse.  Perhaps 
including a still-art category is a good idea as well.  

At the same time, I don't want this to be taken as a flame on 
Randy or Tom or any of the other BADGE contest personnel.  I expect 
organizing a contest is a heck of a lot of work and probably done
for little or no rewards.  Just thought I'd make a couple of suggestions
for next time.

I know we are talking about the Bay Area *Developers* GroupE (or whatever 
the acronym stands for), but I'd like to see a contest that's a little
more for everybody.  You really don't have to be a *developer* to create a
killer demo.

Keith Doyle
gryphon!keithd