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CodeWalrus Website => Contests => Topic started by: caleb1997 on February 17, 2016, 01:33:31 PM

Title: Anyone interested for another CW challenge? (Contest 3 ideas walriistorming)
Post by: caleb1997 on February 17, 2016, 01:33:31 PM
Over at Cemetech (https://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=245654#245654), they are doing small contests based on replacing built-in calculator functions. The one that they are doing right now involves SortA( and SortD(. The trick is to create a program that can sort a list of 256 items without using those two commands. Why don't we do something like that? My vote would be going for doing the mean (average) of a list, without using the built-in command to do it. What do you people think? Should we do something like this?

Rewards could be given out as userbar sigs.
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: aetios on February 17, 2016, 01:36:59 PM
That kind of feels like stealing ideas. Code golfing would be cool though, but I'd like a restriction on the language; not only for fairness but also to make people familiar with new languages :D
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: caleb1997 on February 17, 2016, 01:50:43 PM
Ok then. Let's do code golfing. Perhaps a challenge every week or so?

Any ideas on what challenge #1 should be?
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: aetios on February 17, 2016, 02:08:15 PM
Make a program that converts any binary string to a hexadecimal string and print it on the screen. The binary string can be in any form: a matrix, a string, or anything else that can store something binary. The binary string should be taken in via ANS.
Categories are size and speed, language is TI-Basic. Deadline is next week on wednesday, 23:59:59 UTC ( that is, the night between wednesday and thursday)
Deadline in other time zones:
CET: 00:59:59, thursday.
EST: 17:59:59, wednesday.
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: Snektron on February 17, 2016, 02:27:52 PM
Quote from: caleb1997 on February 17, 2016, 01:33:31 PM
Over at Cemetech (https://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=245654#245654), they are doing small contests based on replacing built-in calculator functions. The one that they are doing right now involves SortA( and SortD(. The trick is to create a program that can sort a list of 256 items without using those two commands. Why don't we do something like that? My vote would be going for doing the mean (average) of a list, without using the built-in command to do it. What do you people think? Should we do something like this?

Rewards could be given out as userbar sigs.

Seems like a cool plan, but the last codegolfs we had always died out after a few weeks
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: aetios on February 17, 2016, 02:37:05 PM
Eventually we'll have a code golf reboot reboot reboot reboot reboot reboot reboot.
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on February 17, 2016, 05:36:33 PM
My opinion is that the TI community has been oversaturated with mini-contests oriented towards code-golf lately. I don't think restarting a 3rd Code Golf reboot or CWick Contests now would be very successful, so it would definitively have to be something different.

One idea I had for CW was a contest where we take one of my old BASIC game code, then people optimize its programs, one by one. It wouldn't necessarily be a contest per-SE, but it might still be fun. Or we could have RPG-oriented contests where people create the best possible lightning magic animation they can, or other spells.
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: aetios on February 17, 2016, 06:26:59 PM
You're right, there are too many contests. It would be cool if we had a thing where we can work 'interactively' on projects, eg with those type together things online.
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: caleb1997 on February 17, 2016, 07:27:16 PM
Quote from: aeTIos on February 17, 2016, 06:26:59 PM
You're right, there are too many contests. It would be cool if we had a thing where we can work 'interactively' on projects, eg with those type together things online.

Google Docs lets up to 8 people work on the same document at the same time.
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on February 17, 2016, 11:36:59 PM
If it happens on Google doc or some online program editor (maybe the C editor on TI-Planet for TI-84+CE games?), then it would be nice to cross-post updates here, though, for more visibility.
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: c4ooo on February 17, 2016, 11:46:05 PM
Hey hey hey dont pull hte carpet from under me :P
/me runs
Pimath said he had considered a reboot reboot, but no solid plans.
A thing ime considering is making a mega copy & paste of all the code golfs in one topic, and allowing people to submit entries for past challenges.
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on February 18, 2016, 02:17:24 AM
Yeah I was just pointing out, in case you guys wonder why a reboot of the reboot isn't as successful. Right now Omni has a bit more activity than last Summer from what I could gather, but it depends if people got bored of Code Golf contests or not. And in CW case a lot of CW users participated to Code Golf. And I see. that could be an idea. It's always better to try new stuff sometimes.
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: Araidia on February 18, 2016, 03:00:59 AM
Maybe some sort of non-walrii pixel art contest?
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: caleb1997 on February 18, 2016, 02:16:57 PM
That is possible... But I don't have anything to create or modify images with.
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: Araidia on February 18, 2016, 09:06:55 PM
Quote from: caleb1997 on February 18, 2016, 02:16:57 PM
That is possible... But I don't have anything to create or modify images with.
You can try Piskel (http://www.piskelapp.com)
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: Dudeman313 on February 18, 2016, 09:18:05 PM
Piskel's awesome. We could definitely get some contests out of that. Maybe like a 32x32 contest? It's not too big to take forever, but not too small to be terribly difficult or too challenging. Or maybe it could be non-walrii but :walrii: sized(24x24)?
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on February 19, 2016, 06:51:04 AM
Pixel-art contests are something we could attempt, but when we tried on Omnimaga in 2005 and 2006, most people near the end just took existing pixel art then changed the color depth >.<. We would need a way to ensure they didn't cheat. One way is to keep the resolution very small, such as 16x16 or 24x24, but then fewer people participate.
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: Dudeman313 on February 20, 2016, 08:03:05 PM
What about something like POTY, with Walrii themed entries of only games, with calculator specific sections, so that those voting wouldn't have to worry about being unfair? Of course, votes would only count for a little, maybe 20% of their total score, and the entries would also be separated by language of creation, with Pure BASIC also separated from Hybrid.
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on March 14, 2016, 03:14:33 AM
Although Code golf has been overdone in recent years (resulting into lack of interest over time) and that we can't really financially afford to organize prize-based contests every 4 month, I was thinking that it would be a good idea to make a topic about what kind of contests or challenges we could do in the near future to keep people interested during periods of lower activity on CW.


The idea I had recently was not a programming competition, but rather an optimizing game/challenge. It would be team work and happen in the form of a discussion topic. Basically, the challenge would involve optimizing one or two program or parts of a program from my old TI calculator BASIC games, such as, for example, the Illusiat games that don't have 50 sub-programs, or some of the Omnimaga Pack games such as Mortal Kombat (yes, there's actually a Mortal Kombat clone for 84+ series), while not severely harming execution speed. The program code would be posted in the first topic post, then members would find what needs optimizing in them, then post their version of the code. Each program would be optimized one by one, then after several replies in the topic, if it becomes clear that no more optimization can be found, then the final code would be saved and we would jump to another set of programs in the next challenge.

Once the entire game has been optimized, each program would be repackaged, then the game re-released on ticalc.org and other places, with every participant listed in the credits section. This would give some new life to old games that people liked, but that were coded too early in the programmer's coding carreer or before the advent of TI-Basic Developer wiki.

The challenge could also involve making the code clean or reducing the amount of sub-programs while still keeping speed/size intact :trollface:

We could maybe do it with Axe Parser  and hybrid BASIC games as well, if the authors give permission to release new versions, eg with CW releases.
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: Dudeman313 on March 14, 2016, 04:14:03 AM
This sounds fun to me! :thumbsup:

I also see  it as an excuse to port some stuff and secretly add :walrii: s in the games. :trollface:

Another idea would be to take a game and rewrite it for the calculator of your choice or the language of your choice, but keeping the same style of the old game. Like porting an Illusiat game to the CE, but turning it greyscale instead of color.

Or maybe even an ________to basic contest, to see how good you could replicate another game in basic.
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on March 14, 2016, 01:32:04 PM
That could work, but be a bit more complex and deter some participants. It could be done for certain challenges later for more variety, though.
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: Dudeman313 on March 14, 2016, 01:46:45 PM
Oh, okay.  :D
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: Snektron on March 14, 2016, 03:08:31 PM
Sounds like a cool idea, especially because axe (and basic too, but less) has so many secret optimization tricks
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: aetios on March 14, 2016, 03:10:03 PM
I'm all for this! :D
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on March 14, 2016, 03:53:07 PM
Do you think those contests should also allow minor aestetical improvements to games? For example, in Mortal Kombat, the title animation could be made faster. No graphical changes, though, unless it involves a color port.
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: Dudeman313 on March 14, 2016, 07:42:26 PM
That would be cool.
And maybe even authors could add one request to be in the optimized program, as a challenge?
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on March 14, 2016, 09:48:23 PM
That could work.

So yeah, if this goes through, I am really considering Mortal Kombat standalone as first challengd (it used to be standalone, but I then put it in a multi game pack). I would do Balltrix, but Ztrumpet remade it years ago in his own game pack and Xeda recently made an ASM version (which I forgot to feature on cw front page)

(https://img.ourl.ca/mk84.gif)

(Note that the game isn't that great, but it would still be fun to see it optimized like mad and especially get rid of that flicker).
Title: Re: Next CW contest (or challenge) ideas brainstorming
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on May 03, 2016, 06:30:45 PM
So who would be up for an optimization challenge? There would be no prize since it would not be a competition, but rather people suggesting optimizations to a poorly-optimized game to improve it. Would you guys be fine if I launched it now or are you too busy with school finals and stuff? And would you be ok if it involved TI-BASIC and/or Axe? For Axe I would need suggestions for games/programs, though, preferably ones that you created in your early days of TI programming.
Title: Re: Anyone interested for another CW challenge? (Contest 3 ideas walriistorming)
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on May 04, 2016, 09:04:35 PM
*bump*

Anybody interested?
Title: Re: Anyone interested for another CW challenge? (Contest 3 ideas walriistorming)
Post by: Snektron on May 04, 2016, 09:23:46 PM
It could also revolve around a larger subject, for example "something with space"
Title: Re: Anyone interested for another CW challenge? (Contest 3 ideas walriistorming)
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on May 04, 2016, 09:44:42 PM
Yeah, I was mainly wondering about the optimization thing, though. Of course, other ideas are welcome, though, but I thought the optimizing thing could be a nice idea for refurbishing old calculator games by staff and to help new programmers learn new tricks and stuff.  We did it on Omnimaga back in the days.
Title: Re: Anyone interested for another CW challenge? (Contest 3 ideas walriistorming)
Post by: Unicorn on May 05, 2016, 06:50:34 AM
The optimization idea seems interesting...

I had an idea. What about making sure all of the participants learn a new language and create the same game?
Title: Re: Anyone interested for another CW challenge? (Contest 3 ideas walriistorming)
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on May 05, 2016, 06:53:56 AM
If we ever do that then it would need to be a small game. Also it would be hard to detect if someone is lying about not knowing a specific language or not.
Title: Re: Anyone interested for another CW challenge? (Contest 3 ideas walriistorming)
Post by: Unicorn on May 05, 2016, 06:58:50 AM
You could tell id someone is lying by the speed of their finishing it and state of their code.
Title: Re: Anyone interested for another CW challenge? (Contest 3 ideas walriistorming)
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on May 05, 2016, 07:05:05 AM
Yeah true, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything.
Title: Re: Anyone interested for another CW challenge? (Contest 3 ideas walriistorming)
Post by: alexgt on May 05, 2016, 04:59:54 PM
We could make a contest that makes visually attractive eye candy that is intractable with the user. Those would be cool to judge ;)
Title: Re: Anyone interested for another CW challenge? (Contest 3 ideas walriistorming)
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on May 05, 2016, 05:05:04 PM
Do you mean like graphical demos but interactive?
Title: Re: Anyone interested for another CW challenge? (Contest 3 ideas walriistorming)
Post by: Scipi on May 05, 2016, 05:26:06 PM
I've always wanted to do a contest or jam where participants make a programming game like Core Wars or TIS-100.
Title: Re: Anyone interested for another CW challenge? (Contest 3 ideas walriistorming)
Post by: Snektron on May 05, 2016, 05:31:47 PM
You had a cool idea and are searching for a way to show it off? :P
Though it is a cool idea
Title: Re: Anyone interested for another CW challenge? (Contest 3 ideas walriistorming)
Post by: Scipi on May 05, 2016, 05:42:29 PM
Quote from: Cumred_Snektron on May 05, 2016, 05:31:47 PM
You had a cool idea and are searching for a way to show it off? :P
Though it is a cool idea

Unfortunately, I don't. XD I just want an excuse to make one and stay committed to it. ;)
Title: Re: Anyone interested for another CW challenge? (Contest 3 ideas walriistorming)
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on May 05, 2016, 05:56:47 PM
So what about taking a small TI-BASIC game that is horribly optimized, has memory leaks and unnecessary flickering, posting the source on the forums, then discussing all together what optimizations could be made to it? Then once we can no longer find anything else to optimize, the game is re-released with a new credits section and in its optimized form. I think this could be a nice way to prop up forum activity and get the community to work together. I am really curious as this could be a neat solution while we gather ideas for a later, larger contest.  There would be no deadline: If it gets done in a week then be it, we jump to another game afterwards (perhaps different languages each time?)