339 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
339 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
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Cthugha V5.0
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'An Oscilliscope on Acid'
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by the Digital Aasvogel Group. 1993-1994
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Revision V5.0 - 29Jun94 zaph
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Who's this Cthugha dude anyway ?
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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"Cthugha resembles an enormous burning mass continually varying in shape.
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It dwells at or near the star Fomalhaut, from whence it may be called.
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It is one of the most obscure and remote of all the Great Old Ones."
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Call of Cthulhu - Chaosium
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When Cthugha is summoned he is always accompanied by Fire Vampires.
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'There appeared thousands of tiny points of light. ... The myriad points of
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light were living entities of flame! For wherever they touched, fire sprang
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up.'
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The dweller in Darkness, by August Derleth
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What does this software do then ?
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Audio input seeded image processing.
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Cool.
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Hook up your CD player to the input of your soundblaster card,
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or use your CD-ROM player if you've got one.
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Run Cthugha (DOS program)
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Then play some of your coolest music
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- and wow, does your screen look like a 90's lava lamp or what ?
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Cthugha 'listens' to your music, and changes the display dynamically
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to the sound.
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Ever looked an an oscilliscope of your voice or of music ?
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Think of this as an oscilliscope on acid.
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Technical Stuff :
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Sound Cards :
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Tested with soundblaster Pro and 16
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Tested with GUS
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**PROBABLY DOESN'T WORK WITH A PAS AT THE MOMENT :-(
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(Sorry - that's all we had, if you want other cards supported get in
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touch, and we'll see what we can do.)
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Oh yeah, it needs a 386 too :-)
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And it *really* wants a 486 with a good-speed graphics card...
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And it *flys* with a Pentium PCI machine :-)
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Command Line syntax:
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Cthugha: Command line options
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(These are Case sensitive commands)
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-L,-M,-C : Use Line/Mic/CD as input
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-G,-S,-P : Use GUS/SB/PAS (default: search)
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-O : Use OLD SB code (useful for PAS or other cards that dont work)
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-s,-m : Default to STEREO/MONO
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-i,-e : Disable Inbuilt/External Palettes
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-T <num> : Minimum frames before changing
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-R <num> : extra random frames before changing
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time delay formula : delay = t + rand()%r
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-V <0-255>: Set input volume to <0-255>
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-v <rate> : VU bar sample rate (Default=4000)
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-Q <num> : Number of frames before silence change <def:200>
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-f <num> : Start with flame #<num>
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-w <num> : Start with wave #<num>
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-p <num> : Start with palette #<num>
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-l : Lock to first wave/flame/palette
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-d : Pause just before running (usually for debug)
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-X,-x : Debug mode (no sound source needed) - generate random noise
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-t <fname>: Load alternate Translation table file
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-q <fname>: Load alternate Quiet strings from a text file
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-I <fname>: Load settings from .ini file
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-B <num> : Set the beat volume level to #<num> <def:220>
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-b <num> : Set the number of beats to #<num> (0,-ve to disable) <def:16>
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(Notes on BEATS):
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The BEAT flags allow the screen to try to change on a regular number of
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loud beats... Usually this matches either a drum beat, or loud vocals..
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If you set the values too low, everything starts going crazy :-)
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This would be better implemented as a frequency based system, but since
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the FFT code isnt going yet...
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Keyboard Commands (While running) :
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- + Drop/Increase the sample rate by 1000hz
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< > Drop/Increase the noise threshold (blanking level)
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i write current setting to INI file
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w change wave function
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f change flame function
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p changes palette
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t changes table (how it uses the palette)
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d changes display function (up/down etc)
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m massage the audio (figure that one out!!)
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L Lock modes (No random switching)
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c CD player interface
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<space> randomally changes something (maybe the same)
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* Stereo/Mono toggle
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! Toggle Translation Table
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<esc> Exit
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x Exit
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More Tech Stuff :
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Palette File Format :
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The format is the same that FRACTINT uses. If not all color indexes
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are specified then they default to black. The color values are
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specified in RGB tupples (0-255), where 0 is black. Easy !
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The software scans the current directory for palette files (ext .MAP)
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and uses up to the first 25 it finds.
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Format -
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255 255 255 comments index 0
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... ... ...
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255 255 255 comments color index 255
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If you come up with a good palette file,
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email it to zaph@torps.apana.org.au
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Translation Tables:
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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These tables are used to design just about ANY effect, without recompiling
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the source to Cthugha!!!
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Here's how they work.
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You generate a table, 320x204, of integers - the integer represents the
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SOURCE pixel for this DESTINATION pixel.
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e.g in a small 3x3 world..
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123
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456
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789 would do nothing
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236
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519
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478 would rotate around the edge, and pop back to the center...
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Read the source to GENTABLE.C to try to work out how it works, or send me
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some email!
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Several tables are included with Cthugha - try them with the -t <fname>
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option. Currently, only one table can be loaded for a given run of Cthugha.
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Quiet Strings:
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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If everything goes quiet for a while, then Cthugha will pop up one of
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19 strings to the screen
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Each string can be up to 19 characters long, and can be read from a text
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file with the following command line parameter
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cthugha -q filename
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The first 19 characters of each line are used for the string table.
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Contact/Shipping/legal things :
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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CTHUGHA V5.0
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Forward messages to Zaph
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Internet zaph@torps.apana.org.au
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Torps Productions BBS +61-3-813-3688
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FidoNet 3:634/386 (FREQ CTHUGHA for the latest version)
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Compuserve 100240,2002 (I'd rather use Internet...)
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or:
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Zaph
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PO Box 331
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Richmond 3121
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Victoria, Australia
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SHAREWARE (PostcardWare/CDWare)
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Free for non-commercial use - Send a Postcard to show your appreciation
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If you have more money than you know what to do with, then send me a CD
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of something you like listening to with Cthugha on the screen...
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Really, there's no point sending me a cheque for $20-$30, because its going
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to cost to get it cashed anyway, and I'd probably go out and buy a CD with
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the money, so - if you want to send more than a postcard, why not just send
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a CD instead ??
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Commercial users register for US$50 (or AUS$50)
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(Previous versions were US$20, but it costs that much to cash the cheque!)
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Kevin Burfitt
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PO Box 331
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Richmond 3121
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Victoria, Australia
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If you can't afford to register send a video tape of public performance
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or send a postcard :-)
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If you forward this program on to friends, make it available on a
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BBS, etc please include this document (un-adulterated).
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If you run a shareware house/store, the disk you sell this program on
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is not allowed to be sold for more than US$20.
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DISCLAIMER : this software is provided 'as is' without waranty
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of any kind implied or expressed.
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If it works, great.
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If it doesn't, then that's your bad luck - send us some mail and we will try
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to fix it.
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Thanks to:
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Coders:
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zaph@torps.apana.org.au (Kevin Burfitt) Thats me :-)
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moles@torps.apana.org.au (Myles Abbott) Documentation/Ideas
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u23783@vicvm.uic.edu (Daniel Sachs) SBpro/SB16 Stereo Support,
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CD stuff, Borland support
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ukr8@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de (Jochen Quante) GUS support
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ae510@freenet.carleton.ca (Derek Beland) PAS support (not yet)
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General:
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Dean Scully Convinced me to release the beast...
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millen3@rpi.edu (Neal Millen) First person to email me with ideas!
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bl2i+@andrew.cmu.edu (Bryan Lewis) Said nice things about Cthugha
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pgray@umr.edu (Paul Gray) Convinced me to release this version
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markd@bushwire.apana.org.au Offered his site for FTP access
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ID software For DOOM :-)
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Postcards from: (so far!)
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Finland : Toni Nikkanen
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Denmark : Ole Nielsen (and his 5.y.o. Neice)
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Sweden : Nader Attar
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USA : Lang Zerner, Mark Mathais, Gabor Lauffer
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Netherlands: Reinout von Shouwen
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Australia : James Milne
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CD's from: (so far!)
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Pete Namlooks Ambient Compilation 2 from Don Weir, Australia
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Good CD's to watch: (With comments from the net!)
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The Cure:
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Dire Straits: Brothers in Arms
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Ella Fitzgerald: (really!!, the 20's songs - trp@Cs.Nott.AC.UK)
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Enigma:
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Enya: (Excellent with all white palettes - jsee+@andrew.cmu.edu)
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Nine Inch Nails:
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Peter Gabriel:
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Pink Floyd: The Dark Side Of The Moon
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Pink Floyd: Momentary lapse of reason
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Pink Floyd: (actually, anything by Pink Floyd will do...)
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Orbital:
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Smashing Pumpkins:
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Metallica: Orion - use the crawling worms mode :-)
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Metallica: Use Lightning for most tracks
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Hendrix:
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Manic Depression:
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Pete Namlook:
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Klaus Schulze:
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SOURCE CODE:
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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The Source code to V5.0 should be in this archive. If you didn't get the
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source, then email me on zaph@torps.apana.org.au
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If you are interested in contributing to the source, contact me via the
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Internet zaph@torps.apana.org.au
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TroubleShooting TroubleShooting
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Q: Why doesnt Cthugha work with my V2 Soundblaster ?
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A: It might, try using the -O mode for compatibility
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Q: Why isnt there native support for my <xxx> card ?
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A: Because I need someone like you to write it for me!!
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For now, try the -S or -O options...
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Q: How can I register Cthugha ?
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A: You can send me a postcard, its all I ask... if you have too much money
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and don't know what to do with it, then send me a CD of something that
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looks cool with Cthugha!
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(You could send more, but I don't ask for it... so far I've been sent
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several postcards, a couple of long letters, and a CD)
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