Esoteric Awards


 * Note: this article is a work in progress; it is known to be incomplete, and is probably inaccurate to boot. You can help by expanding and correcting it.

The Esoteric Awards, called the Essies for short, are a competition, originated by Ben Olmstead, designed to test the skill of esoteric programmers, through either design of or programming in esoteric programming languages.

2001
The first Esoteric Awards were held in 2000, but the deadline kept getting pushed back until it became 2001. The contest organizer was Ben Olmstead; judges included John Colagioia. The categories included:


 * Best New Esoteric Programming Language
 * Best Language Implementation in an Esoteric Programming Language

The entries included:


 * Sorted!
 * Hunter
 * (definitely others)

The winner was Sorted!, by Gerson Kurz.

2002
The Second Ennuial Esoteric Awards were held in 2002. The contest organizer was John Colagioia. The categories included:


 * Most Entertaining New Turing-Complete Toy or Language
 * Best Treatment of a Mainstream Programming Language as an Esoteric Programming Language
 * Iron Programmer

The entries included:


 * Choon
 * Clunk
 * GraNoLa/M
 * Kayak
 * Lazy K
 * NICE

It is not known if a winner was picked.

Source:

2003
It is not known if the Essies were held in 2003.

2004
The Esoteric Awards were held again in 2004. The categories included:


 * [Best] Turing-equivalent Language
 * [Best] Under-Turing-equivalent Gimmick
 * [Best] Program in an Esoteric Programming Language
 * Anything Goes

It is not known if any entries were submitted. It is likewise not known if a winner was picked.

Source:

2006
The 2006 Esolang Contest was organized from this wiki in 2006, in somewhat the same spirit as previous essies. Like most of the others, it foundered.