one thing i would recommend would be, like mario, to make the game consist of a main program and a series of levels bundled together, without a save feature (or the rudimentary one you mentioned), and then make a level editor so people can make their own series of levels and thus make the replay value triple at least. the option of alternate enemy and world sprites would make things even more fun. i'm envisioning a sort of generic platformer upon which people can build their ideas without having to go through the trouble of writing an engine on their own (although anything like that can certainly wait until after the contest ends if you don't have the time ).

yes

that's actually the sort of game i'm making for the contest. ^_^

who can guess the name of this fellow, whom i've been fangirling over for the past couple of months?
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hmm, that's funny
i'm going into computer systems engineering next year, my brother is in college right now working on computer information systems, and my friend is doing computer science.

from what i've seen of the three so far, computer systems engineering is more hardware related (constructing/piecing together hardware and things like that), computer science is more straight programming, and computer information systems focuses more on the big picture (making things work together, networking, marketing, etc.)

i'm doing systems engineering because i really want to transition into robotics stuff (for which i'm most likely going to work on an electrical engineering degree as well) but also wanted to learn some programming, which is incorporated to some extent into all three fields. if i were you, though, i'd probably go for computer science, just because it would probably be easier to find a job, there's more 'hands on' work involved, and you could more easily avoid other people and hide in a basement when working than you could with information systems

keep in mind that i'm not actually attending classes for any of these fields yet, so anything i say could potentially be erroneous/not apply to your school.

why would a programming camp disallow the use of laptops?
just wondering, as i'm going to one later this year and they said the same thing.

megaman 2 is the easiest of the series. once you figure out the patterns all the enemies/bosses use, though, you can almost run through any of them with your eyes closed. it's sort of like guitar hero :p
metroid is long, and both contra and battletoads are difficult, but for me the hardest game has always been blaster master. there is no save function, in overhead mode being hit both takes away health and makes your weapons less effective, and there are certain glitches which, if ignored, and get you stuck in a spot that is impossible to escape, requiring a restart . oh, and it's long as well, meaning that beating it is at least a day long ordeal.