Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!killer!texbell!uhnix1!sugar!peter
From: peter@sugar.uu.net (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: BADGE contest suggestions
Message-ID: <2983@sugar.uu.net>
Date: 13 Nov 88 01:32:48 GMT
References: <5299@louie.udel.EDU> <8653@gryphon.COM>
Organization: Sugar Land Unix - Houston, TX
Lines: 55

In article <8653@gryphon.COM>, keithd@gryphon.COM (Keith Doyle) writes:
> 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.

But they have a LOT of impact on how useful the demo is to Amiga dealers and
owners. They basically amount to:

	"The program must run to completion and either exit cleanly or
provide an obvious method for exiting cleanly".

This is so fundamental to Amiga programming that I find it hard to believe
people wouldn't bother with it, yet when I got my copy of the BKDC0 disks
about a year ago I was horrified to discover how much of the software didn't
do this.

> 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.

No, any competant developer should be able to do it. If you are not a competant
developer, find a developer to help you and share the glory or use a driver
program and do all your work in Videoscape or Sculpt or something.

Certainly the people responsible for the Sculpt and Videoscape driver programs
should have been competant to make them exit cleanly on demand.

> 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.

But it shouldn't be shipped to hundreds of dealers and Amiga fanatics who
are going to spend more time apologising for them then showing them.

> 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...

It's more than "nice", it's necessary. The original purpose of the BKDC is
to produce these nice demo disks. If the demos don't let you get back to
the workbench or leave it in weird modes (such as interlace) they certainly
won't help sell Amigas. I'm embarrassed to show some of them... sigh...

I'm a little touchy about this point, since several of the top entries broke
the rules. I know Workbench Lander wouldn't have beaten Marketroids (one of
the best of the "well behaved" demos), for instance, but it might have placed
higher if the Badge people had been as strict as they talked.

PS: For a real kick, try running Viacom or DropShadow and Wavebench.
-- 
		    Peter da Silva  `-_-'  peter@sugar.uu.net
		     Have you hugged  U  your wolf today?

	      Disclaimer: My typos are my own damn business.