RC2018/09 -- Results!

All doubts aside -- we now have results to announce for the RC2018/09 event!

Thanks

Many thanks are due to Michai Ramakers for his assistance with the judging. Michai is primarily responsible for the comments on the projects for RC2018/09, leaving me to handle the clerical work and to render the final judgments. Without Michai's help, this round's results would likely be even more delayed -- no one would want that!

So, with no further ado...the winners that I have selected for RC2018/09 are (in no particular order):

Winners

• Cole Johnson
• Pim van Tend
• Mats Engstrom

I felt that these projects were the best in this round at demonstrating technical skill while also providing useful and entertaining presentation of each projects progress. Well done!

Prizes

I am offering lightly used copies the following three books from my own collection as tokens of appreciation to the Winners listed above:

• The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles by Noam Nissan and Shimon Schocken
• Commodork: Sordid Tales from a BBS Junkie by Rob O'Hara
• Let's Go Dizzy! The Story of the Oliver Twins by Chris Wilkins and Roger M. Kean

If you are a winner, please contact me (linville at tuxdriver dot com) with your delivery address and your book preferences in numbered order, ASAP. Hopefully that gets the books to those that will want to read them...

Honorable Mentions

• Tom Raidna
• Raphael Assenat
• Davy Mitchell

In addition to the prize winners, I felt it necessary to name a few in the "honorable mention" category. Honestly, there were a lot of great projects this time around. There were also remarkably few drop-outs (other than me) -- great effort all around!

Seeya!

If you haven't had a chance yet, then please go check-out the entrants list to see the comments from Michai (and a few from me). Really, this was a great round of RetroChallenge. Was it the best round ever? Maybe, or maybe not. The next round will be RC2019/03 in March -- I guess you'll just have to stay tuned...

Tabulation Delays

It's been two weeks -- where are the results? Is John napping again?? Well...

Not Exactly

There was the usual initial grace period for allowing slow finishers to, well, finish. After a few days I also got some helpful comments from Michai in order to aid the judging. Beyond that...yes, I was a bit slow and lazy...but there was also this Super Secret Awesome Work Project that pinned me down a bit, plus a few normal life events, etc.

That Blows

Oh, and the remnants of a hurricane came through the area and knocked-out electrical power and normal Internet access. Don't worry, no one was hurt and it was mostly just a big inconvenience. We have a gasoline-fired generator for powering modern conveniences (like the well pump), so we got to burn a few gallons of gasoline by keeping food frozen and the lights on. Fortunately the weather was comfortable too. Nevertheless, it was a bit rougher than my soft, first-world family would have liked!

Hopefully everyone can forgive me for getting a bit further behind on the RC2018/09 judging. Don't worry, I'm still on it... ;-)

RC2018/09 Checkered Flag

OK, September has come and gone. Hopefully everyone got a good opportunity to enjoy some retrocomputing time and if not...well, there will be another event in March... :-)

Checkered Flag

The competition is over for now. So relax, pour yourself a nice beverage, and enjoy a little break. If you are like me, that will probably lead to some rethinking and second-guessing about various aspects of your project. But that's OK -- you can check-out anytime you like, but you can never leave...

If you need another 24 hours or so to finish your write-ups then take it. I probably won't start the big review for another day or two. I expect that Michai will provide me with his own comments, and I'll invite anyone that would like to privately comment on the projects to feel free to send those comments to me soon. I hope to be a bit more timely with the judging this time than last time, but it will still likely be roughly a week or more before I finish. So, check back here starting then.

Competitors, Thanks!

Of course, I would like to thank all of our competitors for volunteering to share their projects in order to entertain us all. Hopefully we are also advancing the retrocomputing hobby and building the interest in the history and preservation of these ancient idols of technology. Let's hope so, anyway! Oh, and stay tuned...