The rules are carefully crafted to provide healthy competition and tries to promote finished products with as much freedom in choices as possible, while allowing a period of exclusive commercial distribution. These rules were carefully crafted and reviewed by #msxdev regulars. If you have any questions about the interpretation of these rules, contact us.
Requirements
- MSX, MSX2, MSX2+ and MSXturboR may be supported or required, but software for lower MSX generations must also run on higher generation hardware.
- Software that only runs on emulators or FPGA implementations is disqualified.
- Common hardware expansions such as Memory Mappers, SCC, MSX-MUSIC or Gfx9000 may be supported or required.
- Uncommon hardware may not be required and will not be considered for judging.
- Software may require common MSX operating software such as BASIC'n or MSX-DOS.
Originality
- Software must not have been released previously.
- Software must have original programming; ie. hacks of existing games are not allowed.
- Ripped graphics or music are discouraged and will be penalised as the judges see fit.
Submitting
- Software may be submitted as .ROM, .DSK, .CAS/WAV or loose files, and must be accompanied by a manual or readme.
- Registration closes November 30th. All participants must submit a working development snapshot at this time or cancel their participation.
- The final deadline is 31 December 23:59 GMT+1. Software submitted after this time rolls over to the next competition, which opens registration on 1 January.
Distribution
- Software will be published for free download on the competition website no sooner than when the competition closes in the first week of January.
- Software is not allowed to be publicly downloadable during the competition.
- Software may be released on physical cartridge, diskette or cassette at any time during the competition, but this must be the same version that enters the competition.
- Selling improved or extended versions after the competition is strongly discouraged. The competition is not an advertising platform!
Judging
- Each participant judges the other participants' entries. Some suggested criteria are: Gameplay/Usability, Graphics/Display, Sound, Technical Difficulty, Hardware Utilization, Overall Quality.
- The comments and opinions of the participant judges will be published on this site for consideration of the voters. Judges are expected to send in their reports between 25 and 28 January.
- On January 29, 30 and 31 everyone (including the participants) that visits the #msxdev IRC channel can vote by conveying a top list of winners.
- Results will be published in the first week of February.
Prizes
- Any prizes are to be donated by the community.
- Sponsors may attach conditions to their donated prize, but for the sake of building a balanced prize pot, it is encouraged to donate unconditionally.
- The competition organization can hold prizes in escrow if this is deemed practical, but is not responsible for the awarding of prizes by individual sponsors.
- Prizes are awarded as soon as possible after the judging results are published.
General
- Blatant disregard for the spirit of the rules may result in punitive measures in current or future competitions.