Mad Scientist - ASM Contest [Final Results]

Hallo, I'm MarioFanGamer and welcome to


Mad Scientist ASM Contest is a contest which focuses on one ability: Programming. More specifically, this is pure programming. That means, there is no level to design, there is no music to compose, and there are no graphics to create outside of a tech demo.
The goal is to create a patch, sprite, block, UberASM code, etc. under a week within a given theme and limitations. There will be three rounds in total.

Submissions are open, meaning there are no signups. As such, you can join and skip rounds as you please. For example, you could skip round 1, but enter rounds 2 and 3.

General Rules

You can:

• Use existing resources to support your submission.
• Use SA-1 (bonus points for using more advanced features).
• Create badly optimised resources — only the results matter.

You cannot:

• Abuse emulator inaccuracy. Emulator accuracy is considered important for this contest.
• Use existing code and modify it, unless explicitely stated. Around 66% of the code should be original.
• Submit a resource that cannot be inserted on a(n almost) unmodified ROM.
• Use Open Bus. This works on BSNES and a real console, but not on SNES9x (though why you would want to use Open Bus anyway is a mystery).
• Obfuscate code. Any code which is executed should stand in plain text and may not be unreadable for the sake of being unreadable! If you need a piece of code to be obfuscated, use it sparingly and preferably put a comment to explain what's going on here! Obfuscated code includes but is not limited to: Inserting precompiled code and then executing it, pushing precompiled code onto the stack and then executing it, and excessive use of macros and defines!
• Reveal your name! Much like in other contests, we want anonymity in the contest to minimize any bias.
• Submit a ROM! Not only do you get disqualified, but also get warned for redestribution of a commercial ROM!

Other rules:

• All resources have to work with the latest versions of Lunar Magic, Asar, GPS, PIXI, UberASM (it's up to you whether you want to use the tool or patch) and SA-1 Pack.
• All submissions must work on SNES9x v1.60 and BSNES v115. If you can't use BSNES v115, make sure you keep the list of inaccuracies in mind below.
• Individual rounds might have special rules. Be aware of exceptions!

Breaking most of those rules excluding obfuscation and author revelation in which the points are reduced result in a disqualification of the round.

List of SNES9x inaccuracies includes but is not limited to:

• RAM initialisation: SNES9x initialises RAM with the value $55. If you want to have compatible resources, always clear it first!
• Illegal WRAM access on SA-1: You can access WRAM with SA-1 even though SA-1 should only be able to access ROM, I-RAM, BW-RAM and its own registers.

To submit your resources, please write a PM to MarioFanGamer under a title along the line of "Mad Scientist" or "ASM Contest" and the name of your submission (e.g. "Mad Scientist - Super Block") a ZIP, RAR, TAR or 7z with the following items:

• The used resources (preferably in separate folders or with a readme), including level, graphics and musics.
• A BPS of the submission.
• A movie file (be it an actual video or an emulator recording) which showcases the submission (optional). This is done so so we can upload the entries to YouTube. GIFs and other animated images, despite being technically videos, don't count, though they still are helpful for me for a short demo.

Be careful that staff logs uploads to the File Bin if the uploaded file happens to be big. This makes judging for staff more difficult since they get spoiled by the log. Relatedly, any user can sniff on anyone's file bin which might spoiler them also. Use other hosting sites such as Dropbox or Google Drive to upload your files until we find an alternative solution!

Judging and Scoring

Your submission will be moderated once the deadline finishes, but judging is public.
After the submission period ends, there will be a four day judging period. To submit a judgement, write a post to this thread with the order of the entries based on what you find the most appealing. You may not write a judgement in the same round where you participate (you may write one in any other round where you didn't participate, though).
A higher total placement means more points. The points are scaled logarithmically to the amount of submissions. That means, a single point in a round with many submission weighs less than a point in a round with fewer entries, but first place is still weighed higher in the former than in the latter.

Rewards

All participants receive a trophy but the top three can also a pick video game from our huge list of download codes.

Start of the Contest

The first round starts on October 10th (one week as of the posting), at 18:00 UTC.

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Changelog (dd.mm.yyyy):

• 03.10.2020 20:36: Clarified what happens when you break a rule.
• 04.10.2020 9:51: Added information about
• 15.10.2020 19:27: Put a note that you should avoid to use the File Bin as much as possible.
• 15.10.2020 19:36: Added another note that it isn't just staff with the potential issue of uploading the entries to file bin.
• 25.10.2020 07:45: Mentioned the reason why a video is preferable.

Why i cannot use a lot of macros and defines? they do all easier to read and use .

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An ASM contest? Can't wait to get last place

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I suck at ASM and AMK

Finally just when i start to forget how it works lol

When the round starts.


The emphasis is on "obfuscated code", not "macros and defines". Using a lot of macros and defines is fine, it's when their sole purpose is to make the code harder is where the submission gets into trouble.

fuck yeah time to make a fool of myself again

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Hack・Ports・ASM・"Uploader"

Isn't it a bit of a contradictory to check for both uberasm patch and uberasm tool? Because if you have an RTS, it won't insert with the tool. If you have RTL, it won't insert with the patch. How would one make their code compatible with both?

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Want progress on 100 Rooms of Enemies: The Nightmare Edition? Go here to see.

(rip my other userbars momentarily)

I'm highly interested in participating, but not sure yet if I can. A submission period of only a week is pretty short for me, especially since I'm a really slow coder, yet always decide doing stuff with a really big scope that will eat a lot of time. I guess I will make my participation dependent on whether a particular round seems interesting to me and whether I can quickly come up with an idea.

I do like that rounds are separate, though. The first Mad Scientist has shown that a KO system doesn't quite work for this type of contest, and using this system also gives me the opportunity to skip a round I find boring, yet still potentially participate in a later round I find interesting.

This does make me think there should be trophies for the winners of each individual round as well, though. If someone is only interested in a single round and decides to only participate in that, then even if they score really well in it, it will still be tricky to have any chance at earning any of the victory trophies. I think having separate trophies for single-round victories would work around that problem. It would give people who can't participate in all rounds a motivation to still participate in singular ones.

EDIT: Just realized that the opening post doesn't even mention victory trophies at all. I do think dedicated victory trophies would be a nice motivator to do well.

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Feel free to visit my website/blog - it's updated rarely, but it looks pretty cool!

A good way to score high is by making a complex custom boss from another video game.

I guess MarioFanGamer means that we can use both of them - whatever we prefer - so it should be compatible with one of them.


I think this actually depends on the difficulty of each round. I hope they won't be as advanced/time consuming in comparison with the rounds of the previous one. If in some round one has to code a moderately simple block, for example, it will be more about the creativity shown that the time spend coding it.

I feel like if the rounds of this contest are well though, it can serve to deliver a ton of fun resources to the section.

It's stated here:

Yeah, last contest someone made a Birdo boss and obsfucated the entire code (they assembled and stored it in a bunch of bytes) to ensure no other people would use it really easily, and then tried to justify themselves when confronted about it.
That's why that rule was thought about, to avoid issues like this.

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Você sempre alegre e eu sem razão
Estou dividido entre o amor e a paixão

i mean

But seriously, I'm sure keeping its gameplay quality high in the boundaries of SMW (lol grab block chucking) and the sheer amount of time it would take to code it would honestly be a factor in limiting the chances of that happening


the best part is that it was a complete rando that made that robirdo boss and i think they also never posted before or after. they just showed up for the contest and decided "hell yeah im gonna win this contest with my epic boss but first let me obfuscate this code so these peasants can't use it in their romhakes or study from it"


I'll try to participate in every round, dunno if I'll make submit anything though '~'

Even if I don't win, if I get something out that'd be nice.

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Hack・Ports・ASM・"Uploader"

I think I will enter even though my ASM skills need a lot of work and such.

How many round will have the contest?

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Twitter
SMWControlLibX GitHub
My Discord Server
Snestorage where you can download my resources

It certainly would be interesting to see if an actual boss were released. As a rule of thumb, creating a good boss is about as difficult as creating a good level which means you can create one in a single day in theory (or three days if designing, coding and drawing are separate), though if you had to code a boss, I'd allow pairing up with someone for the graphics.


Prolly should update the rules to clarify that you can use either of them.


I picked the rounds in such a way that they don't become too complicated. For one, that's how the previous contest failed and for the other, it's time constrain on the calendar. Let me known if you need an extension, though, and I'll handle it with PR how we should handle it.


I surely hope so as well. It's a bit sad to see that only a few submissions were ever released in our sections (Erik's shell minigame came into my mind).


Nope, you have to work alone.


Aside what the others wrote, the last contest did have a no-obfuscation rule but Un8Y found a loophole by pushing Robo-Birdo's main code with the use of PEA to the stack and then execute it.


Right here:

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I also have got a question for you guys: What do you think if I should participiate in the contest even if I'm the host and collect the resources (i.e. I know who is who and what the theme is)? It just is too fun to not participiate.