Published by epsilon5 3 weeks, 3 days ago (2021-07-01T04:26:33+00:00)



Overview
As I'm sure most of you are aware, Cemetech Contest 25 has been over for some time, so it's time for the results! I was very impressed with the turnout and quality programs made for this contest, so excellent work to all of the participants.

Rules
As outlined in the initial post for the contest, the rules are as follows:


Judging Results and Feedback
As stated above, there were two variables for the final results of this contest: the results of the judging and the results of a community poll. Each entry was judged based on these criteria:

So, here are the results of the judging:

1st place: Fire and Flames by slimeenergy (judging score: 8.4/10)
2nd place: Food Fighter by KingDubDub (judging score: 6.7/10)
3rd place: Hot Chicks by commandblockguy (judging score: 6.5/10)

There were 26 total votes in the community poll, and as outlined above, the winner was to receive an additional 50% of those for the final standings, which evaluates to 13 votes for Fire and Flames. If you competed in this contest and would like to see the judges' feedback on your entry, please send a private message to me (epsilon5).

Prizes
Courtesy of tr1p1ea, there will be some prizes for the contest! These will be awarded in the form of Steam vouchers, in the following amounts: $25 for first place, and $10 for both second and third places.

Final Results
And now, it's time for the final results. In third place for the contest, with 3 total votes, we have Food Fighter by KingDubDub. This entry was praised by the judges for its gameplay, graphics, and novel execution.


In second place for this contest, with 7 total votes, we have Hot Chicks by commandblockguy. This entry's humor and day/night cycle impressed the judges, as well as its integration with the TI-OS time.


That leaves just first place: Fire and Flames by slimeenergy, with 11+13=24 total votes. This entry wowed the judges with its graphics, unique idea, deep gameplay, polish, and replayability.


Userbars
Finally, I've made some userbars for the contest, which (hopefully) can be uploaded to Cemetech and have their links posted here by an admin. They can be clicked to find their links.





Congratulations to all of the participants in this contest!

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Published by mr womp womp 2 months, 3 weeks ago (2021-05-04T17:53:57+00:00) | Discuss this article

According to their website, TI will be releasing a Python version of the TI-84 Plus CE for the American market!

A few weeks ago, Adriweb noticed this updated banner on the main American TI website seemingly confirming the rumors that Python was coming. Presumably the hardware will be the same as the TI-83 Premium CE Edition Python and the TI-84 Plus CE-T Python Edition. Software-wise, I would expect just added support for Python to the English 84+CE OS (and setting the flag so that the OS accepts the Python app).

It will be available in 10 colors, including 2 brand new colors!

• Bright White
• EZ-Spot
• Matte-Matic Black
• Radical Red
• Bionic Blue
• Measure Mint
• Galaxy Gray
• Rose Curve Gold
• Totally Teal
• Infinitely Iris
• Positive Coral-ation

It is slated for release in Fall 2021.

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Published by epsilon5 2 months, 3 weeks ago (2021-04-30T02:33:36+00:00) | Discuss this article


Let's just ignore the fact the contest ended a month ago, alright
Now that CC25 is over and the judging is (mostly) done, it's time to vote! Thanks to everyone who participated in this contest. The poll will be open for 10 days after this post is published. While screenshots are included, please try the programs out before voting-don't based solely on the visual appeal of the programs. A post with the reasoning for your vote and feedback for the participants would be greatly appreciated, as well. With that said, here's the lineup:

The Quest to Heal the Dragon by Privacy_Dragon (thread)

In Privacy_Dragon's CC25 entry, a text adventure written in Python, the player must prevent a sick dragon from burning down a forest. Be sure to check out the thread for more information and the development process!

MCadmin by ACagliano (thread)

ACagliano's CC25 entry, MCadmin, tasks the server admin of the Cemetech Minecraft server with preventing the server from overheating or crashing for 5 minutes. It features plenty of inside jokes, a nice graph, and real-time statistics of the server. Check out the thread and readme for more information.

Fire and Flames by slimeenergy (thread)
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In slimeenergy's CC25 entry, the player must burn down a certain percentage of various buildings with weapons including a lighter, napalm grenade, and flamethrower. With an isometric view of each level, stats screen, and tutorial, it's a very complete and polished experience, so be sure to check out the thread for more information.

Planet Saver by Alvajoy123 (thread)

Alvajoy123's CC25 entry, Planet Saver, is a game in which the player must guide the planet Earth through an endless storm of asteroids, complete with many animations, a custom font, and some screen-fading effects. Be sure to check out the thread for more information!

Flambé by Oxiti8 (thread)

Oxiti8's CC25 entry, Flambé, is not one game, but many. It features a variety of different minigames, from one where a stove must be lit with a match to one where the program itself must be launched within a time limit. Be sure to check out the thread to learn more about the development process.

Hot Chicks by commandblockguy (thread)

In commandblockguy's intentionally misleading CC25 entry, Hot Chicks, the player must prevent a group of chickens inside a chicken coop from dying of either heat or cold by turning a heat lamp on and off. Be sure to check out the thread and readme for more information.

Food Fighter by KingDubDub (thread)

In KingDubDub's CC25 entry, the player must kill waves of sandwich men with a flamethrower. There's also a mechanic in which the sandwiches drop ingredients that can be placed into their appropriate slots in the room to gain some bonus points. Check out the thread and the readme for more information on the project!

That's all the entries for this contest. Please remember to vote in the poll within 10 days, and to give the authors feedback wherever possible. Have fun!

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Published by epsilon5 3 months, 1 week ago (2021-04-16T22:57:41+00:00) | Discuss this article

NOTE: Cap'n Hook was accidentally omitted from the October PotM poll, and so is included in the voting for this month instead.

As usual, there were a lot of great projects in December of 2020. Be sure to check out the project threads in the forums, and give the authors feedback and encouragement!

• A dragon on the CE!: This month, Privacy_Dragon continued brainstorming ideas for an upcoming dragon game, as well as finding someone to create art for the game.
  
• Bubbles!: SomeCoolGuy continued work on his port of a bubble-shooting game to the CE, this month getting the basic mechanics of the game mostly completed, as well as the system that allows buttons to snap to the grid. Check out the thread if you haven't already, there's some great progress and screenshots.
  
• CE C Toolchain and Libraries for the TI84+CE/TI83PCE: MateoConLechuga & Co. (jacobly, Adriweb, and many others) finished a new release of the CE toolchain this month, v9.0. It adds some great new features, such as a garbage collect handler, bug fixes, and a major upgrade from ZDS to LLVM.
  
• Dragonbot, a discord bot I am making: Privacy_Dragon announced a new project this month, a Discord bot. In addition, there are instructions in the thread on how to add this bot to a Discord server, so be sure to check it out and support the development of Dragonbot.
  
• ez80 and z80 syntax highlighting for Visual Studio Code: Liberal_Eater released a new update for a syntax-highlighting add-on to aid in ez80/z80 development in Visual Studio Code this month, improving the "problem watching" feature, which checks for possible errors in the uncompiled code, as well as making some behind-the-scenes improvements.
  
• HexaEdit CE: Captain Calc completely rewrote his HexaEdit CE program this month, improving the backend code, updating the GUI, and adding new features. Be sure to look at the project if you haven't already, or are interested in a new tool that enables you to view the hex equivalents of variables on your CE.
  
• iPhoenix's Cemetech Userstyles: _iPhoenix_ improved his Cemetech userstyle this month, creating a fix for the high CPU usage of the snow animation within the site, adding real-time previews to the post editor, and adding a spoiler effect to posts with [size=1] or [size=2] tabs. Check it out if you're interested in an enhanced and modernized Cemetech experience.
  
• Isomorphic Keyboard: _iPhoenix_ created a new type of keyboard this month- an isomorphic keyboard. It aims to make chords easily to play and be more accessible to beginners, requiring less practice to memorize chords and scales. There's a link to try out the keyboard as well, intended for mobile devices with multi-touch capabilities (although it works fine on a PC as well).
  
• Jetpack Joyride for the TI-84 Plus CE: King Dub Dub continued progress on his port of Jetpack Joyride for the CE, focusing on improving the code behind the project. Many bugs were fixed, as well as the addition of lasers and some new GUI elements. There's a download link and plenty of screenshots in the thread, so go look at them and show KingDubDub some support!
  
• Latest News on TI-Trek: ACagliano and the rest of the TI-Trek team made some great progress this month, adding the TrekFilter, repeat offense logging, general optimization and improvements, to the service, engine/speed configuration in the calculator portion, and a new utility that allows users to build custom icon packs for the game. This is a great project that has a lot of progress, so go look at it and give ACagliano and the rest of the team feedback and encouragement.
  
• Memorized the Sequence: ShinyGardevoir created a new game for the TI-84 Plus CE/TI-83 Premium CE calculators this month, in which the player memorizes a sequence of numbers and inputs it back into the calculator. It looks like a great learning project and way to test memorization skills, so give ShinyGardevoir feedback and encouragement.
  
• Sonic TI-Blast: Oxiti8 released a few new versions of the Sonic TI-Blast game for the CE this month, adding a new stage, transitions, and color. In addition, there have been some bug fixes and other improvements made as well. The program is available for download, so be sure to play it if you haven't already.
  
• Tanks! CE: commandblockguy ported Tanks! to CEmscripten this month, meaning that the game can be played from a web browser, without needing a ROM. There's a link to do so in the thread-take a look if you want to try out the game on your PC.
  
• TI-84+CE Mode7 test: tr1p1ea announced this month that he'd have a demo of MarioKart (TrakOiram?) available in the New Year, a promise that I'm pleased to say has come to fruition. Go try it out!
  
• TIGHT: TI GrapH Theory: kg583 announced a new project this month, TIGHT. It is a TI-Basic library that "allows for the creation, manipulation, and analysis of discrete graphs", utilizing lists and subprograms. It already has some basic graph operations done, as well as a Github page. There hasn't been much recent activity on the project, so go post in the thread and give kg583 some encouragement.
  
• Two-player Pong/Breakout mashup: Candledark announced this month (a little questionable but I'll say it was in December) a new project, which is a mashup of Pong and Breakout. More interestingly, Candledark has made a new way to create configurable controls within games or programs using the C libraries, which certainly could be useful for shells and other projects. There's a screenshot and some plans for the future in the thread, so take a look at it.
  
• VYSION CE: epsilon5 completed a 1.0.0 archives release of his new shell for the CE calculators this month, VYSION CE. It has a lot of cool features, like a full filesystem, an optional cursor-based GUI mode, customizable wallpapers and GUI colors, stable program running, a file explorer, a desktop, and much more. Be sure to take a look at it if you haven't already, and give epsilon5 some support as he rewrites VYSION for 2.0.0!

That's all for this month! Remember to vote in the poll for your favorite project of the month, and stay tuned for the Projects of the Year 2020 post.

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