1339 lines
61 KiB
Plaintext
1339 lines
61 KiB
Plaintext
.Start.of.DemoNews.113..............................................Size:62,040
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______/\___________________________ __ ________________ ___ /\_______
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\____ \ ________ _ _ ______ \ / \| \ ________ | \/ ______/
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/ | \ _) \ \_/ \ | \ / \ \ _) \ | \______ \
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/ | \ \ | \ | \ / \ \ /~\ \ / \
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\_____ /_______/___| /________/ \____\_____/_______/_________/________/
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\_____/ |____/
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| Subscribers : 1894
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DemoNews Issue #113 - January 22, 1996 | Last Week : 1863
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------------- | Change : +31
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DemoNews is a newsletter for the demo scene. | Archive Size : 1718M
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It is produced by Hornet at the site ftp.cdrom.com. | Last Week : 1628M
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Our demo archive is located under /pub/demos. | Remaining : 1237M
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=-[Contents]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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Line Section
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------ -------------------------------------------------------------------
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33 Calendar
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56 Top Downloads
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111 Uploads
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278 Articles
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280 Introduction................................Snowman
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366 The Party 1995 Review by Hornet.............Stony
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651 Applied VESA................................JsNO
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994 Review of Impulse Tracker...................GD
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1126 The Party 1995 Intros Reviewed..............Phoenix
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1316 Subscribing
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1331 Closing
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=-[Calendar]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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Date Event Location Description
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--------- ----------------------- --------- ---------------------------------
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28 Jan 96 General Probe 2 Party Poland info: /party/1996/GP96
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mail: s146630@ire.pw.edu.pl
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1 Feb 96 8086 Compo Deadline [n/a] info: /hornet/8086
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mail: trixter@ftp.cdrom.com
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17 Feb 96 Awakening U.S.A. mail: norg@cyberspace.com
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--CANCELED--
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29 Mar 96 Mekka Germany mail: PV80090@PH80090.HH.eunet.de
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www : www.xs4all.nl
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/~blahh/RAW/Parties
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/Invitations/Mekka.html
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31 May 96 Naid Canada mail: naid@autoroute.net
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More information is at http://hagar.arts.kuleuven.ac.be/~sdog/party.html
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=-[Top Downloads]-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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Welcome to a new section in DemoNews, entitled "Top Downloads." Dan used
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to produce such a list clear back in 1993. In perspective, our archive was
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getting about 0.5 gigs downloaded a month, whereas now we get around 50-60
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gigs. How times change. The perl script generating this list may not be
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providing completely correct statistics. I'd tell you why, but that would
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be boring.
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Please note that the files listed below do not include the path. If you
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use our archive enough, you'll know the two places to look. Please don't
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write me asking where to get these at... maybe it's time for you to use a
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handy search function on our ALLFILES.TXT?
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Times File Description
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----- ------------ --------------------------------------------------------
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132 acdu0196.zip NO NO NO! Our top downloaded file was an ANSI pack! :(
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96 caero.zip Caero, a TP95 demo from EMF and Plant (demo)
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93 luminati.zip Lumination by Tran and Baseheaed (demo)
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86 dragon.zip Dragon by GooRoo and Khyron (demo)
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85 nooon_st.zip Stars by Noon (demo)
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84 ft204.zip Fast Tracker v2.04 (music)
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81 cp16.zip Cubic Player v1.6 (music)
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77 ftj_ymca.zip Caero, (final version) by EMF and Plant (demo)
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45 scrmt321.zip Scream Tracker 3.21 (music)
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Phear ST3 and FT2 being downloaded 130 times together. Ever more evidence
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of the music scene's growth. How many of those 84 FT2 downloaders do you
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think will register? Notice that if you put the old and final versions of
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Caero together, it is our number 1 download this week.
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What I have just presented to you is completely false, but interesting.
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Below is the actual top 10 download list for the week.
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Times File Description
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----- ----------------------------------- ---------------------------------
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312 /ALLFILES.ZIP Our good friend :)
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301 /00dir.txt A mistake, now removed
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248 /ALLFILES.TXT Our good friend's phat brother
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205 /music/programs/players/00index.txt Looking for cmod30b3.zip? cp17?
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188 /00mags.txt A misplaced soul, since removed
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184 /music/programs/trackers/00index.txt Velvet Tracker anyone?
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153 /incoming/demos/dragon.txt I liked the demo better
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132 /incoming/ansi/acdu0196.zip Doh!
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96 /alpha/1995/c/caero.zip ftj_bonk.zip!
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93 /incoming/demos/luminati.zip Non-satanic demo by Tran,Basehead
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Now you see why I presented the first list rather than the latter one. In
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the future, I'll only present the legitimate downloads (no .txt files). I
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also probably won't have much other textual information in here.
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Anyway, that's a little taste of what people around the world downloaded
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this week.
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=-[Uploads]-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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=----------------------------------------------------------[File Information]-=
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All files listed below are on ftp.cdrom.com under /pub/demos.
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Please keep in mind that all ratings are subjective.
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If your file transfers are too slow, there are several alternatives:
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Use our European mirror at ftp://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/pub/pc-demos
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Try getting files from the web at http://www.cdrom.com/pub/demos
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See /hornet/demonews/101-120/demonews.102 for details about ftpmail.
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You may also wish to check out a couple of other good demo sites:
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ftp://ftp.arosnet.se/e:\demo maintained by Zodiak / Cascada
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ftp://hagar.arts.kuleuven.ac.be/demos maintained by Sleeping Dog / Natives
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=-------------------------------------------------------------[Demos:General]-=
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Location /demos/alpha Size Rated Description
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=-------------------------------- ---- ----- ---------------------------------=
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/1995/s/serenity.zip 44 *+ Serenity by Immortal Syndicate
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/1995/s/snowxmas.zip 190 **+ Xmas 1995 by Snow
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/1995/x/xmas.zip 40 **+ Merry Xmas by Mr. Skitzo and Narq
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Enlight '95 Demos (ENL95:demo:)
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/alpha/1995/g/glitchfx.zip 935 ** 01: Glitch by Queue Members Group
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Enlight '95 8k Intros (ENL95:in8k:)
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/alpha/1995/r/remix2.zip 7 ***+ 01: Remix 2 by Future Hackers
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/alpha/1995/m/m_harm.zip 8 ** 02: Mostly Harmless by TMA
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/alpha/1995/p/pentium.zip 3 ** 03: Pentium by DDT
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/alpha/1995/0-9/6567.zip 9 ** 04: 6567 by Roi
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The Party '95 64k Intros (TP95:in64:)
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/1995/c/ctslasse.zip 64 ****+ 01: Lasse Reinbong by Cubic Team
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/1995/y/ydl_illu.zip 45 **+ 02: Illumination by Yodel
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/1995/c/cda_tp5i.zip 63 ***+ 05: Intro by Cascada
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/1995/t/tc_unr.zip 77 ***+ 08: Unreadable by The Coexistence
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/1995/k/k-louise.zip 64 **+ 13: Louise by Karma
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/1995/c/charf.zip 62 **+ 17: Charity by Symptom
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/1995/p/purmagic.zip 61 **+ 19: Purple Magic by Qurex
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/1995/j/just-ice.zip 60 *** 20: Just-Ice by Spirit
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/1995/a/amb_lola.zip 66 *** ??: Lola by Amable
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/1995/m/maqcolor.zip 47 * ??: 24-Bits Intro by Masqwe
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/1995/n/nocomm.zip 61 **+ ??: No Comment by Vic and Emzet
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/1995/o/okean.zip 63 **** ??: Sea Robot of Love by Orange
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/1995/p/poison.zip 67 **+ ??: Poison by Stupid ASCII Slayers
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/1995/r/royal.zip 64 ***+ ??: The Royal Family by Orange
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=-------------------------------------------------------------[Music:General]-=
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Location /demos/music Size Rated Description
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=-------------------------------- ---- ----- ---------------------------------=
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Digital Symposium '95 Music (DS95:mmul:)
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/songs/1995/mod/p/pugwash.zip 59 *+ 02: Pugwash by Babbage
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/songs/1995/mod/h/hw-djan.zip 214 ** 03: Django by Hollywood
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/songs/1995/mod/r/remembnc.zip 166 *** 04: Rememberance by Elfman
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/songs/1995/mod/s/suburbia.zip 81 ***+ 04: Suburbia by Screech
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/songs/1995/mod/r/rustyjnk.zip 282 *** 05: Rusty Junk Box by Aquafresh
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/songs/1995/s3m/s/speed-up.zip 216 ***+ 06: Speed-Up by Witchunter
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/songs/1995/mod/k/kickback.zip 243 ** 06: Kick Back by Dooba
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/songs/1995/mod/f/funkyt.zip 126 ***+ 06: Funky Trousers by Style
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/songs/1995/mod/d/datacity.zip 145 **+ 07: Data City by Stuart Collier
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/songs/1995/mod/g/grasshop.zip 219 ** 07: Grashopers are Green by Reflex
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/songs/1995/xm/h/heartach.zip 129 *** ??: Heartache by DD
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/songs/1995/xm/b/brdr_rmx.zip 122 *** ??: Border of Insanity by Popz
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=--------------------------------------------------------[Music:Non-Reviewed]-=
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Location /demos/music Size Description
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=-------------------------------- ---- ---------------------------------------=
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/programs/misc/awefxw11.zip 23 AWE32 FX Workshop v1.1
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/programs/misc/awereset.zip 8 AWE32 Reset for Cubic Player 1.6
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/programs/players/pp.zip 22 PolyPlay PTM player
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/programs/players/wzone1.zip 745 [1/2] WildZone v1.0
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/programs/players/wzone2.zip 857 [2/2] WildZone v1.0
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=----------------------------------------------------------[Graphics:General]-=
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Location /demos/graphics Size Rated Description
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=-------------------------------- ---- ----- ---------------------------------=
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/disks/1995/msqpp1.arj 1406 ****+ P&P Gfx disk by Masque [1/2]
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/disks/1995/msqpp2.arj 529 ****+ P&P Gfx disk by Masque [2/2]
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/disks/1995/ppfix.zip 40 [n/a] P&P Gfx disk by Masque FIX
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/images/1995/j/jh-ozone.zip 138 * Ozone Logo by Joe Hova
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/images/1995/m/mk-ritua.zip 422 *** Ritual Emag ad by Mr. Krinkle
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/images/1995/n/natqueen.zip 109 *+ Queen of Rain by Balex-T/Natives
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/images/1995/s/ss-smp.zip 936 **+ Various images by Schizosynth
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/images/1995/s/ss-smp1.zip 692 **+ Various images by Schizosynth
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Digital Symposium '95 Graphics (DS95:grfx:)
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/images/1995/b/babbage.lha 202 ** 03: Babbage by Nerve Axis
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/images/1995/d/darkdcs.lha 38 **+ 04: Dark by DCS
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/images/1995/c/cyanide.lha 49 *+ 05: Cyanide by Maniacs
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/images/1995/m/maffia.lha 192 ** 06: Maffia by Nerve Axis
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/images/1995/b/bliss.lha 22 **+ 07: Bliss by Nerve Axis
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Odyssey 1995 Graphics (OD95:grfx:)
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/images/1995/o/oddy.zip 233 ***+ ??: Atrophy by Schizosynth
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Summer Encounter 1995 Graphics (SE95:grfx:)
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/images/1995/n/nogravit.zip 197 **+ ??: No Gravity by Vivaldee
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/images/1995/r/robozone.zip 76 ** ??: Robozone by Ziax
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=-----------------------------------------------------[Graphics:Non-Reviewed]-=
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Location /demos/graphics Size Description
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=-------------------------------- ---- ---------------------------------------=
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/people/z/zapper.gif 74 Zapper / Force 10
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/programs/convert/alch162.zip 405 Image Alchemy v1.62 by Handmade Software
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/programs/convert/crop.lzh 35 Image Cropper by Skip Sauls
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/programs/convert/emailasc.zip 174 ASCII Art Maker by Don Kreusberg
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/programs/convert/slpcxraw.zip 43 Pcx2Raw conversion by Jinx
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/programs/drivers/sck-v203.zip 12 SVGA driver by Cyberdancer
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/programs/editors/akm-md36.zip 162 Master Draw v3.6 by Arkham
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/programs/editors/anim8_11.zip 174 ANIM8 v1.1 sprite editor by Majestick
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/programs/editors/icspred1.lzh 47 32x32x256 sprite editor by YC
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/programs/editors/mdraw.zip 50 MDraw sprite editor by Matt Miller
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/programs/editors/ripaint.zip 2192 Rip Paint Editor by Telegrafix
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/programs/editors/sam001.zip 34 Sprite Animator v0.01 by Sliq
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/programs/editors/spriv103.zip 24 Spriter v1.03 by Discordis
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/programs/editors/winplasd.zip 340 WinPlas v2.0 demo by ?
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/programs/fractal/dst_frac.zip 12 Fractal Trace Version 1.0 by Gougoutt
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/programs/mode/dp400.zip 1 320x400x256 DP2e patch by Pelusa
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/programs/mode/dpx11.zip 15 Any X-mode DP2e patch by BArtist
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/programs/mode/dpxt102.zip 5 Some X-modes DP2e patch by Eclipse
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/programs/mode/squash.zip 6 TSR makes 1:1 aspect by Shayde/Reality
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/programs/players/disp187.zip 836 Display v1.87 image viewer/convertor
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/programs/players/e_fast22.zip 346 Fast FLI/FLC player by Eclipse
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/programs/players/fastlite.zip 25 Fastlite FLI/FLC player by Eclipse
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/programs/players/formula3.zip 1340 Multimedia designer by Harrow Software
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/programs/players/vpic61e.zip 251 VPic image viewer by Bob Montgomery
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/programs/vector/3dedb09.lzh 133 3D polygon editor by ?
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/programs/vector/akm-mm10.zip 85 Master Modeler 1.0 by Arkham
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/programs/vector/veced300.zip 330 3D vector editor by Grey Cat/Core
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=----------------------------------------------------------------------[Code]-=
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Location /demos/code Size Rated Lang Description
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=-------------------------------- ---- ----- ---- ----------------------------=
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/graph/copper/copper.zip 15 + ---P Simple Copper Bars
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/graph/examples/presamp.zip 85 *** A--- Creating optimial palette
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/graph/library/mpvga10.zip 84 *** A-C- linear 320x200 w/pages
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/graph/tutor/tut20.zip 19 ***+ A--P Denthor's VGA Tutorial #20
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/graph/water/water.zip 14 *** A--- ASM vers. of Iguana's water
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/hardware/cputest2.zip 10 *** A--P Identify CPU type
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/sound/m32pre3.zip 611 **** --C- MIDAS v0.50 pre-release #3
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/sound/mikxmas.zip 267 **** --C- Mikmod 2.10 Watcom fixes
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/sound/mxmp10.zip 69 **** A-C- 6K .XM GUS player (Cubic)
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/tutorial/kmagv2.zip 54 ** ---P King Mag #2 (demos and TPas)
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=----------------------------------------------------[Miscellaneous:Reviewed]-=
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Location /demos Size Rated Description
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=-------------------------------- ---- ----- ---------------------------------=
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/mags/1995/cntrs003.zip 1448 ****+ Contrast #3
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/mags/1995/insight1.zip 1082 ***+ Insight #1
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=------------------------------------------------[Miscellaneous:Non-Reviewed]-=
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Location /demos Size Description
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=-------------------------------- ---- ---------------------------------------=
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/hornet/demonews/demonews.111 45 DemoNews 111
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/info/traxw/traxweek.039 25 TraxWeekly 39
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=-[Articles]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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=---------------------------------------------------[Introduction]--[Snowman]-=
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Hello all, and welcome to DemoNews issue 113.
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Boy it feels good to be writing one of these again. It's been over a month
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since my last DemoNews introduction. Plentiful thank you's fly to Diablo
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for filling in with an issue during the interim. I've moved from Ohio to
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California and have had a bit of difficulty "getting back into the groove."
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I am now officially employed by Walnut Creek CDROM, who own and maintain
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the ftp.cdrom.com server.
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Attention, this is a Hornet production. Time to wake up...
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By now you've all heard about The Party 5. The rave band in the sleeping
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hall, the unshown demos and intros, the spontaneous unannounced graphics
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compo, etc. This week, Hornet (Stony / Hornet to be exact) presents his
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review of this party. I don't plan on including many more articles about
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this party in future issues. It's a dead issue now.
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ftp.cdrom.com has undergone a massive upgrade. The system is now running
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with a P6, 256 megs of ram, and 72 gigs online storage. Our own /demos
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archive has been moved to a more vacant mount and so we have a little more
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breathing room. Watching 500 users online with the processor 50% idle is a
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rather awe-inspiring experience. I actually got to see the new server
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before it went in, and got to actually touch the old server as it was being
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dragged out... hehehe..
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Hornet is now going to officially produce the NAID '96 CD. Walnut Creek
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has unseated Gravis as the primary sponsor of this party, and I for one am
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happy to be a part of the whole thing. We hope to have a /demo CD of some
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sort ready to go before this party starts.
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I had the opportunity to watch David Greenman, principal architect of
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FreeBSD, install the operating system on my computer last week. FreeBSD is
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a PC unix-based operating system somewhat like Linux. As to which is
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better, you'd just have to watch my coworkers fight about it. :) BTW: My
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coworkers laugh at me for using DOS/4DOS, except for Matt (coder of WadEdit
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and a 4DOS user himself).
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Jason Nunn, coder for the Music Contest 3 intro, developer of the
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FunkTracker and Unis669 trackers, and contributor to DemoNews, is leaving.
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He still might write a bloody article now and then, but other duties in his
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life call. On a related note, welcome KiwiDog / Hornet. KD (Chris
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Hargrove) comes to us from the Terraformers and will be helping to manage
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the ever-increasing workload our site seems to generate.
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Recently I spent two days at the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco, vending
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Walnut Creek warez. Even though it was a Mac show (training mission for
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yours truly), I got the chance to see some PC-related stuff. I spoke to a
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man from Intel for about 15 minutes who claimed to have a couple P7
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prototypes in his lab. Iomega was the buzzing company and I sat through a
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goofy presentation. The woman giving it was from the deep south and kept
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saying "Use our new Jazz drive, 'cause its 'yer stuuuuff!" The MacHeads
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found her amusing.
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I also got to talk to the author of "Tricks of the Mac Game Programming
|
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Gurus" (anyone remember "Tricks of the Game Programming Gurus" for PC?).
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Anyway, I said (oh so confidently) "Do you have stuff in there about
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gouraud and phong shading?" He said "No, graphics resource gathering is in
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the second book." I didn't understand. We went through about 3 identical
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question/answer sessions like this one until I finally figured it out...
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the guy couldn't comprehend that someone had actually approximated phong
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shading real-time, not as still-frame. Doh! I also spoke to a former
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student of Ellie Quigley's (author of "Perl by Example", a book I swear
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by). But enough of that... :)
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I went to a party last week with some people from Sun MicroSystems, a
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gentleman who was responsible for fixing bugs in the Solaris OS, and a guy
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who writes 3D simulators for NASA. California certainly is a much more
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active area than Ohio and I hope to get a first-hand glimpse of technology
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that might shape the future demo scene.
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On a side note, Diablo's team of reviewers have been naughty lately and he
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is looking to expand by a couple more. As long as you haven't recently
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written for TraxWeekly, feel free to mail us at the address below.
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Hornet now welcomes you to a new year in the demo scene. Remember,
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ftp.cdrom.com is your warm fuzzy home, DemoNews your irregular e-tome of
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info..fo..fo-MATION, and our group an ever-friendly collection of people
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who would like to get greeted more in demos.
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Take care.
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Snowman / Hornet - r3cgm@ftp.cdrom.com
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=----------------------------------[The Party 1995 Review by Hornet]--[Stony]-=
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[NOTE: In order for this report to fit DemoNews, it had to be reformatted
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a bit. The original can be found at /party/1995/TP95/report.zip]
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Review of The Party 5
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27-29 December 1995
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(this time a short review done by Stony / Hornet)
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_____Tuesday, 26 December (The Beginning)
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This time the report is done by Stony since Meriadoc decided to skip this
|
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party since he has too many things to do for school.
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After having brunch with my family and girlfriend I packed all my stuff
|
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together and went to TyZM with whom I leave to Denmark. This year we,
|
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of course, went with Reality (including Lowlife/Axis, Raver/Effect PC and
|
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Dope/Spaceballs) again as we did last year. We left at TyZM's place at
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16:30.
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|
|
_____Wednesday, 27 December (The Arrival)
|
|
|
|
We arrived at 06:45 in Frederica (Denmark) after a long night of fun and
|
|
without sleep. We entered the Partyplace at 08:00 since they asked $15
|
|
more if we entered before... sounds commercial to me.
|
|
|
|
After putting up a small network we are now playing a bit and of course
|
|
typing this small report. I have had several power-downs now since some
|
|
people wanna hit the switch...
|
|
|
|
I have seen some familiar faces... more should arrive later since some
|
|
groups do leave [for the party] today.
|
|
|
|
The big screen... well better say small... people back in the hall can
|
|
hardly see it. The hall is also much smaller than it was last year in
|
|
Herning. Hope we can follow all compos well enough. Groups who haven't
|
|
reserved probably don't have a place left for them. TNT also arrived at
|
|
about 10 'o clock. It is snowing outside. Phone is expensive, strange
|
|
thing.
|
|
|
|
(16:43)
|
|
|
|
Well.. we are playing network Command & Conquer, quite a nice game, lost
|
|
two times already :(. Nothing special going on, we are waiting for a
|
|
compo. The weather is very nice outside so I'll take a look this eve.
|
|
Most of the people from the bus are asleep or are somewhere in town.
|
|
|
|
(19:00)
|
|
|
|
Going to get some Pizza this eve. Too much light in the hall to see good
|
|
quality on the big screen. Most of the people are in now as far as I can
|
|
see (well... The Raver/Effect PC, noticed that New Order still hasn't
|
|
arrived).
|
|
|
|
No films are shown this time, at least I haven't seen anything of it.
|
|
|
|
(22:48)
|
|
|
|
Just returned from the Pizza Man... pwoaak.. this was the most horrible
|
|
Pizza I have ever eaten (actually half). Now they are showing a short film
|
|
about Somewhere in Holland as it was held in Roosendaal (Holland) last
|
|
year. Still too much light and too much playing of Command & Conquer :).
|
|
|
|
_____Thursday, 28 December
|
|
|
|
(02:15)
|
|
|
|
The 4 Channel Music Compo just started, I can't hear a thing since a lot of
|
|
noise is coming from everywhere. At the moment a rave party is going on so
|
|
people had to move out of the sleeping hall since the rave party is being
|
|
held there... weird too..
|
|
|
|
(10:04)
|
|
|
|
I just woke up since I have been to bed for 6 hours, nothing special has
|
|
happened. Most people are waiting for the compos to begin. I hope some
|
|
nice demos (and of course intros) will show up.
|
|
|
|
(11:30)
|
|
|
|
The fast intro compo just started, they don't announce it, it just starts.
|
|
Still too much light everywhere so you must be in front of the screen or
|
|
else you won't see a thing.
|
|
|
|
(13:20)
|
|
|
|
We just noticed that the graphics compo started, sh*t why can't they
|
|
announce it ?!? I missed the first 8, what I have seen till now is quite
|
|
good, also some rendered are present. About 75 graphics have been shown.
|
|
The gfx compo will be shown again tonight because of the daylight.
|
|
|
|
The graphics I'll vote for:
|
|
|
|
1) 55) Wooooooww!! Two ladies with tattoos... a winner! Danny Rules!
|
|
2) 36) A woman turning her head around towards to the viewer by Angelo/Axis.
|
|
3) 50) Lady with blue hair, nice one!
|
|
|
|
A funny one to mention is Pamela Anderson a.k.a. Silicon Valley :)
|
|
|
|
Lots of ladies are in the pictures this Party.
|
|
|
|
(19:00)
|
|
|
|
Just returned from the McDonalds, one of the main sponsors of this party.
|
|
We had some fun, Dutch people aren't allowed anymore now :) The C64 compo
|
|
just started, lot of people running to the big screen to see what the good
|
|
old C64 still can do. The demos are really good! If people are as
|
|
enthusiastic as they are with these demos then we have good demos for a
|
|
change!
|
|
|
|
(21:00)
|
|
|
|
The wild compo is started and the animation are really great, some
|
|
animations done by PC are a bit sturdy... too bad... maybe there should
|
|
have been a better player for the PC. Amiga animations are really great.
|
|
|
|
(23:00)
|
|
|
|
Went to the toilet a few minutes ago... well.. too bad that some people
|
|
don't know how to behave. All walls are under graffiti and stickers. And
|
|
those guys who do that keep complaining about entrance ?! Party 4 CD is
|
|
also available ($35) and is full of stuff, not bad.
|
|
|
|
_____Friday, 29 December
|
|
|
|
(00:45)
|
|
|
|
The PC demo compo... A lot of entries...
|
|
|
|
Wooooowww.... d/l those demos!! There are really good demos showing lots of
|
|
really fast effects and nice 3D views! Seems that after a long period of
|
|
bad stuff the good stuff is coming... complete 3D 'animations' showing very
|
|
fast!!
|
|
|
|
Not all demos have been shown!! Demos from Acme and Logic Design for
|
|
example, seems as if the dutch are being boycotted...
|
|
|
|
(04:30)
|
|
|
|
Dutch sceners are mad! Why you think?! Because a lot of Dutch productions
|
|
haven't been shown, lot of trouble with the organizers. A list has been
|
|
made for signing for 'The Party 5 Suxx', lot of people have signed. Hope
|
|
things will be solved. Too bad that this all ruins the party.
|
|
|
|
(10:25)
|
|
|
|
Well.. the Party is almost at its end, lot of people are going home
|
|
already, I don't know what time we'll leave.
|
|
|
|
(14:00)
|
|
|
|
The party has ended, the results are in... Danny/Spaceballs won the
|
|
gfx-compo. EMF won the PC demo-compo for the results of the other get on
|
|
to our FTP site.
|
|
|
|
_____Other People's Opinions (Villain / Reality,TST,TPG,TUE,HSE,NO,???...)
|
|
|
|
Well, so here we are, at the great 'Party 5' in Denmark. This is my first
|
|
Party (Denmark that is), and so far I think it isn't really worth the long
|
|
trip over here. We were driving all night to be here in time and when we
|
|
came here, we had to pay an extra 25 Guilders for entering the party-
|
|
place, which we (of course, Dutch as we are) didn't do.
|
|
|
|
This was the first of many disappointments for me. But then again there is
|
|
always a bright side to things. I met (again) a lot of new people here,
|
|
and I finally got the change to defeat Stony in Command&Conquer (loser ;)
|
|
|
|
Well, so far so good, we will sit out this party, but it isn't quite what I
|
|
expected it to be (I didn't even get a *REAL* Party bracelet, instead we
|
|
got some paper thingie *SNIF*). Ok, this will do for me for now, I hereby
|
|
give the keyboard to this guy (read: Raver) next to me with his PlayStation
|
|
Logo behind his Windows'95 (AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA).
|
|
|
|
Greets, stuph, enzo,
|
|
|
|
_____Other People's Opinions (The Raver / Effect PC)
|
|
|
|
I hope I can type something here because I have gotten no chance yet to
|
|
sleep, and will not get any the next hours because some *sswipes (read
|
|
organization) decided to keep the Rave party in the sleeping hall. (Well,
|
|
at least The Fox 2 will do some music at it!)
|
|
|
|
We are going to eat some real food soon, the cheese I have taken with me is
|
|
getting some weird color! aaaaargh. (it smells they say!!) I would also
|
|
like to say something about the whristbands! they s*ck. It is some paper
|
|
thing taped around my whrist and it's annoying me! ok enough talk. cya
|
|
|
|
_____Other People's Opinions (Dope / Spaceballs, Organizer of SIH '96)
|
|
|
|
My feet hurt. My eyelids are heavy. The walls under my eyes have reached
|
|
the bottom part of my chin...
|
|
|
|
I WANNA SLEEP!
|
|
|
|
But I can't because some nerd (read: organizer) has placed a RAVE party in
|
|
the sleeping hall :-(... Picture that: you want to sleep and the hall is
|
|
constantly filled with at least 150 decibells. I spoke with the
|
|
organization today for about 1.5 hours and they couldn't give another
|
|
explanation then that the rave party was supposed to be in another hall. I
|
|
don't care...
|
|
|
|
My feet hurt!
|
|
|
|
_____Other People's Opinions (Harmony)
|
|
|
|
Hello Dope, are you having fun...........?
|
|
|
|
So... this is supposed to be the party... I'm having a really good time. I
|
|
wish that we had more days than just 2.5. It is so crowded! Again, lots of
|
|
people I know and lots of people I met. It's a pity that the screen isn't
|
|
as big as expected.
|
|
|
|
Last night I almost didn't get any sleep, there was a rave-party goin' on
|
|
in the sleeping hall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I woke up after half an hour
|
|
finding my fingers in my ears! That was horrible.
|
|
|
|
I found out that Denmark looks lovely being covered with snow...
|
|
I haven't seen that much snow in a very long time.
|
|
|
|
Well...I liked the compo's that I've already seen. I think that that
|
|
cola-crash was quite a mess and the wild was wonderful! Well, as you see
|
|
I'm not so tired as my brother, though I didn't get much more sleep as he
|
|
did. I leave yo'all here, 'cause I have some things to do. I wish you all a
|
|
very happy new year and see you at SIH '96 !!!
|
|
|
|
_____Other People's Opinions (Walyx / TNT)
|
|
|
|
Well, this is the first time at a party outside of Holland. Seems to be
|
|
that there were a lot of groups to have a demo ready, but weren't shown on
|
|
the big screen. I don't know, but I think that they deserved to be shown
|
|
on the screen too. About the screen, it was a little dark and not that
|
|
big, furthermore the screen could be placed a little bit higher. And after
|
|
all, in the beginning, the first night, there was a great RAVE party, for
|
|
those who like it, I didn't! I wanted to sleep.
|
|
|
|
_____Other People's Opinions (Twynn / TNT)
|
|
|
|
Hello... well, don't expect too much text here, because I'm quite sleepy..
|
|
I think this wasn't a really great party.. I mean, I also visited the
|
|
Party '92 and it was much much better then.. They hadn't got silly
|
|
rave-parties in sleeping-halls till about 04.00 am.. I really can't imagine
|
|
that somebody can think of organizing this. But I guess that the whole
|
|
organization sucked!! I mean.. why were all the dutch demo's
|
|
disqualified?? (well, maybe analogue came through but that's maybe because
|
|
they are not completely Dutch!). Well, that's it for now...
|
|
|
|
_____Saturday, 30 December (back to Stony)
|
|
|
|
(16:45)
|
|
|
|
Here I am sitting behind my new keyboard since my party keyboard is broken,
|
|
I went in a rush to the nearest computer shop to get myself a new one.
|
|
|
|
I arrived back home at 04:00 this morning after a 12 hour trip with a lot
|
|
of fun and without sleep. I was in the same bus with The Wizz / Reality,
|
|
Dope / Spaceballs, 'God', Harmony / Ind, The Raver / Effect PC, Lowlife /
|
|
Axis and Tyzm / Ind. The Raver, Harmony, Tyzm and I stayed awake with
|
|
Turbo and Red Bull, some powerdrinks. We had a lot of fun and were totally
|
|
broken when we arrived back home.
|
|
|
|
_____Conclusion
|
|
|
|
I have had a lot of fun during the Party 5, too bad that the organization
|
|
this year wasn't quite well. Last year the Party was much better. I hope
|
|
these guys do better next year.
|
|
|
|
Most releases for the compos were very good, the productions are worth the
|
|
d/l so get on to Hornet FTP now !
|
|
|
|
_____Last Word
|
|
|
|
I want to thank The Wizz for organizing the bus-trip again, thanks to all
|
|
other people present in the busses for the fun we had. See ya guys in
|
|
February on our Party meeting. Take care dudes.
|
|
|
|
This report is quite different from the last ones, no reviewing has been
|
|
done on any productions.
|
|
|
|
For any remarks just mail me.
|
|
|
|
With regards.
|
|
|
|
Stony / Hornet and Trance - pvanmun0@pi.net
|
|
|
|
|
|
=------------------------------------------------------[Applied VESA]--[JsNO]-=
|
|
|
|
_____Introduction
|
|
|
|
With the advent of faster machines, and succession of VESA standards, demos
|
|
written for VESA modes are now very much viable. This article will be
|
|
discussing how you would go about making a VESA demo and to provide you
|
|
with some code that I used in my Oz96 entry.
|
|
|
|
If you are a Real Mode coder, then read no further. The code I am providing
|
|
is writing for 386 P-mode. If you intend on applying following ideas in
|
|
real-mode, then I send my best wishes to you, but adhere to this warning.
|
|
You are now creating a demo that will require approximately 6-8 times the
|
|
resources both in memory and in CPU (assuming a 640x480 demo). Implementing
|
|
a P-mode demo for VESA will be far less painless.
|
|
|
|
_____How VESA Came About
|
|
|
|
The IBM VGA standard was made by the one company - IBM. This made life very
|
|
simple, as hardware communication was standard across different brands. You
|
|
could code a demo for your machine, and you know it will work on every
|
|
other machine that had an IBM VGA card.
|
|
|
|
When the SVGA extension flowered, many companies took it upon themselves to
|
|
create their very own hardware standards. I'm not really sure on the finer
|
|
details of how SVGA developed, and why IBM never took the initiative of
|
|
designing the initial SVGA extension, or why companies were even given the
|
|
opportunity to develop SVGA in the first place, but these companies did.
|
|
The result was many brands of SVGA cards, all with their own special port
|
|
layouts.
|
|
|
|
There developed a problem here, as the application designer now had to
|
|
write code to talk to a whole range of SVGA cards on the market. The
|
|
solution was to make a common standard. However, instead of an expensive
|
|
(and possibly disastrous) hardware reform, it took place as a software
|
|
reform.
|
|
|
|
The VESA standard describes a set of functions (implemented in software)
|
|
that an application program will use in order to get the graphics card to
|
|
do desired tasks. Each company would make their own VESA driver that
|
|
offered the above common functions. An application now would be much more
|
|
simpler, as it only had to talk to a VESA driver, which all had common
|
|
interfaces. It is the VESA driver that converts the common VESA
|
|
communication to the diverse hardware that is out on the market. The
|
|
complexity is removed from our program and is placed into the driver.
|
|
Hence, a brilliant software solution to a complex hardware problem.
|
|
|
|
Also, could you image having to support all the different cards on the
|
|
market?. Imagine having to buy all the different type of cards, and then
|
|
writing code for all those of them. It would be a nightmare, not to mention
|
|
the endless debugging you would have to for each card. If the VESA standard
|
|
hadn't come along, I would have never considered writing a demo in
|
|
640x480x256c.
|
|
|
|
_____Implementation
|
|
|
|
The implementation I am going to describe is for 640x480 256 colour. You
|
|
can go for higher modes, but I don't think we have the computing power
|
|
these days to do it. We might have to wait another 2 years or so before
|
|
1024x768 (or truecolour 640x480) fully animated demos come out.
|
|
|
|
So anyway, the implementation I came up with is to first allocate a
|
|
640x480 buffer of memory.
|
|
|
|
mov edx,SCREEN_X*SCREEN_Y
|
|
mov eax,0EE42h
|
|
int 31h
|
|
mov [Rendbuff],edx
|
|
|
|
This buffer of memory is where the painting/blittering/rendering code will
|
|
do all of it's writing. Once rendering has finished, the data from this
|
|
buffer would then be copied to the visible screen.
|
|
|
|
The logic around this comes in two forms:
|
|
|
|
a) video memory is very slow. Therefore is a far quicker to do all your
|
|
fiddly rendering to a memory buffer first.
|
|
|
|
b) If you are operating in a Banking type mode, then your rendering
|
|
algorithms will be a lot simpler, as they won't have to take into account
|
|
the bank positions of the screen. Also, far less port communication will be
|
|
done, as copying will be done in a single blow.
|
|
|
|
So, now we have a rendered buffer, we now have to communicate this to the
|
|
screen. So now do we do this?. Well, for a start, we must understand the
|
|
way VESA operates, and what features we actually have available to us.
|
|
|
|
_____Banking Communication
|
|
|
|
Back in the dim dark days of VESA 1.x, the only way we could talk to any
|
|
graphics card was by Banked calls. The idea around banked talking is that
|
|
the screen is split up into so called "banks". To paint graphics to a given
|
|
part of a the screen, one would select a bank, and then paint graphics to
|
|
the usual A00000h video area. The reason for this is simple. In Real mode,
|
|
we only have conventional memory, in which we only have the common old 64k
|
|
(A000:0000) screen memory available to us. Banked mode allows us to talk to
|
|
the entire range of screen addresses with a single 64k chunk of memory.
|
|
|
|
mov edx,BANK_WE_WANT_TO_SELECT ;copy part of render buffer
|
|
mov esi,[Rendbuff] ;to bank X
|
|
mov edi,[VideoPtr]
|
|
mov ecx,10000h/4
|
|
rep movsd
|
|
|
|
This was a very elegant solution to get around the "Real mode" thing.
|
|
But-of-course, this idea is nothing new. Similar ideas are implemented with
|
|
VGA 640x480x16 and various CGA modes.
|
|
|
|
To set a bank, we set the following registers and perform the following INT
|
|
call:
|
|
|
|
edx = BANK_WE_WANT_TO_SELECT
|
|
|
|
mov edx,[edx*4+BankSetTable]
|
|
xor ebx,ebx
|
|
mov eax,4f05h
|
|
int 10h
|
|
|
|
The BankSetTable reference you see in the above code is just a table that
|
|
provides a quick look up. From card to card, the values in this table are
|
|
different and quite intensive to calculate. To calculate the table
|
|
contents, we apply the following algorithm:
|
|
|
|
BankSetTable dd 128 dup (?)
|
|
|
|
movzx eax,[esi+ModeInfoBlock.WinSize]
|
|
movzx
|
|
ebx,[esi+ModeInfoBlock.WinGranularity]
|
|
xor edx,edx
|
|
div ebx
|
|
xor edx,edx
|
|
xor ecx,ecx
|
|
@@loop02:
|
|
mov [ecx*4+BankSetTable],edx
|
|
add edx,eax
|
|
inc ecx
|
|
cmp ecx,length BankSetTable
|
|
jb @@loop02
|
|
|
|
In English, we feed the algo two factors, The Window (or Bank) size in
|
|
kilobytes (ie 64k) and the Window granularity (a better word would be
|
|
alignment) which tells the way in which the banking is positioned on the
|
|
screen.
|
|
|
|
To calculate our bank factor we perform a simple divide:
|
|
|
|
BANK_FACTOR = WINDOW_SIZE / WINDOW_GRADULARITY
|
|
|
|
Each bank X 's value, will be X * BANK_FACTOR. We simply then put these
|
|
values into a table.
|
|
|
|
For quiche eaters in mind, a less confusing (but slower) version of the
|
|
above concept would come in the form of:
|
|
|
|
procedure set_bank(bank : word);
|
|
var
|
|
bank_factor : word;
|
|
begin
|
|
bank_factor := bank * (ModeInfoBlock.WinSize /
|
|
ModeInfoBlock.WinGranularity);
|
|
asm
|
|
mov dx,[bank_factor]
|
|
xor bx,bx
|
|
mov ax,4f05h
|
|
int 10h
|
|
end;
|
|
end;
|
|
|
|
As we tend to do lots of bank calls when using this mode, you can
|
|
understand why I prefer to put the bank values into a small table.
|
|
|
|
_____Linear Communication
|
|
|
|
With VESA 2.00 standard and above, we can perform linear communication.
|
|
This method is dead easy. The VESA driver supplies the video memory
|
|
address, and you just copy the data straight to that address area. Easy,
|
|
fast, convenient, no mess, no worries. ;) You could even blit directly to
|
|
that address and bypass buffering, but I seriously wouldn't recommend it.
|
|
|
|
_____Applying Page Flipping
|
|
|
|
Just like you're normal run-of-the-mill MODEX demos, we need to perform
|
|
page flipping in order to make our graphics glitter free. We do this by
|
|
writing a Interrupt Service routine (ISR), to keep track of when we can
|
|
"flip" to a fleshly updated invisible page.
|
|
|
|
I won't bore you with the details on how to do this. This was an area
|
|
covered by Trixter in Demonews #111. So i refer you to that article on how
|
|
it's done. All I want to discuss here is how to set the screen offset
|
|
address through the VESA driver. As follows:
|
|
|
|
edx = THE START ADDRESS AT LINE X
|
|
|
|
xor ecx,ecx
|
|
xor ebx,ebx
|
|
mov eax,4f07h
|
|
int 10h
|
|
|
|
So if you want the start the screen to begin on line X, you set EDX to this
|
|
line number.
|
|
|
|
_____VESA 2.0 (Vbe2.0) P-mode Calling
|
|
|
|
VESA 2.00 also offers direct P-mode calling. Conventionally, communication
|
|
to the VESA driver was done through the INT 10h interrupt service (as
|
|
you're probably already have seen). What VESA 2.0 allows you to do is call
|
|
the various VESA functions directly when in P-mode. As the VESA driver is
|
|
running in real mode, it will cost you a state switch, plus the usual
|
|
interrupt overhead maintenance. Interrupt calling from a real mode program
|
|
to a real mode service isn't so bad. But from a P-mode program it can
|
|
become quite costly, and will chronically degrade your demo's performance.
|
|
|
|
To use this service, you can read the address positions of each function
|
|
provided by the VESA information block, then call those functions directly,
|
|
with the same parameters as with their INT counterparts...
|
|
|
|
Well, almost the same.
|
|
|
|
There is a difference in parameters of the Real mode VESA "set offset
|
|
address" function, and the P-mode "set offset address" function (Funct.
|
|
4707h).
|
|
|
|
The INT version sets the start offset by line values and pixel positions
|
|
(X,Y type thing). CX should contain the desired pixel position in a given
|
|
scan line, hence giving you sideways movement, and DX should contain the
|
|
first displayed scan line giving you up/down movement.
|
|
|
|
mov ecx, X movement in pixels
|
|
mov edx, Y movement in pixels
|
|
xor ebx,ebx
|
|
mov eax,4f07h
|
|
int 10h
|
|
|
|
With the P-mode function however, we have to set up the DX:CX as an actual
|
|
offset. For standardisation purposes, My code communicates the INT
|
|
parameter type. When we want to use the P-mode services, the parameters are
|
|
converted from the INT type to the new P-mode type. Hence:
|
|
|
|
SCREEN_X = 640 (in our case)
|
|
CX = X
|
|
DX = Y ----converted to---> DX:CX
|
|
offset
|
|
|
|
mov eax,SCREEN_X/4
|
|
mul edx
|
|
mov ecx,eax
|
|
mov edx,eax
|
|
and ecx,0ffffh
|
|
shr edx,16
|
|
|
|
The stepping isn't byte by byte, rather double word shifts. As a result we
|
|
have to divide SCREEN_X by 4. I can't seem to find an attribute in the VESA
|
|
information block that would define such a factor. The VESA 2.0
|
|
documentation points to a "colour depth" value??, but, this area was very
|
|
poorly documented and left a lot of unanswered questions..
|
|
|
|
For now though, 4 seems to be a universal memory alignment, and seems to
|
|
work across all computer/cards. Whether or not this value varies around
|
|
computers I don't know.. but this is the best I can come up with for now.
|
|
|
|
_____Using the Code
|
|
|
|
The code i'll show you is a combination of Adam Seychells VBE2.0 library,
|
|
my initial VBE1.2 library and a bit of code generously donated by Tran's
|
|
"Hell" demo. I merged them all to get this current code. The following text
|
|
describes this code:
|
|
|
|
The first piece of code you'll need is..
|
|
|
|
mov bl,00b
|
|
call CheckVbeMode
|
|
jc @@init_error
|
|
|
|
This function will return CF=N if your card supports the 101h
|
|
(640x480x256c) mode. It also accepts two bits in the BL register. Now you
|
|
don't really have to know much about this, as you would normally set BL to
|
|
0. I've put this is here for debugging reasons, so that I can override
|
|
Linear mode and P-mode calling detection.
|
|
|
|
If CF=N, we can then put the card into hires 640x480x256c mode and initiate
|
|
the background screen flipping code:
|
|
|
|
call setvbemode
|
|
call set_IRQ00
|
|
|
|
Once we have done this, we can how begin our demo.
|
|
|
|
call my_main_demo_routine
|
|
|
|
For our purposes, your demo routine may look something like this:
|
|
|
|
proc my_main_demo_routine
|
|
@@paint:
|
|
|
|
<put you're graphics routines in there
|
|
that will paint data to "[Rendbuff]">
|
|
|
|
call [sync_screen]
|
|
call key_pressed2
|
|
jnc @@paint
|
|
call get_key
|
|
ret
|
|
endp
|
|
|
|
This would be a typical "scene" in your demo that would do some sort of
|
|
animation or rendering to the [RendBuff] buffer (For example, it could be
|
|
the initial logo screen, or a 3D mapper etc). Once you have finished all
|
|
rendering, the [sync_screen] routine will then be called. This will copy
|
|
the data in the [RendBuff] buffer to the current invisible screen (if isn't
|
|
making any sense, then refer to Trixters article on page flipping DM#111).
|
|
|
|
In between, traces, there are time windows where we can flip without
|
|
causing glitching to appear. The flag [byte sync_screen_flag] will go low
|
|
every time a window is current. When this happens, the [sync_screen]
|
|
routine will flip the screen, making the invisible part (the screen we just
|
|
updated) visible.
|
|
|
|
There will be occasions when you want to paint a static image on to the
|
|
screen. Applying this image in a timed manner may not be necessary.
|
|
Therefore you can use this routine.
|
|
|
|
call [update_screen]
|
|
|
|
This routine is the same as the last, except it's not timed. There are no
|
|
[byte sync_screen_flag] wait code in this routine.
|
|
|
|
To, exit out of hires mode, and to halt our background flipper, do:
|
|
|
|
call reset_IRQ00
|
|
mov eax,3
|
|
int 10h
|
|
|
|
and that's all there is to it. My R2SR demo source code, it provides an
|
|
excellent example on how to do a SVGA demo (NB/ the code will only be
|
|
available after the Oz96 results are released). You may also like to have a
|
|
look at some of the bit blitters and 3D mappers i have in there. It's a
|
|
good resource for linear blitting.
|
|
|
|
See ya later.
|
|
|
|
Jason Nunn - jsno@topend.org.au
|
|
|
|
|
|
=-------------------------------------------[Review of Impulse Tracker]--[GD]-=
|
|
|
|
_____Introduction
|
|
|
|
Impulse Tracker has been called "Scream Tracker 4" by many people, and for
|
|
many reasons. The similarities in appearance and operation are what make
|
|
this tracker very similar to the well-known tracking program from Psi of
|
|
Future Crew. However, its advanced features make it more than just a clone.
|
|
|
|
Impulse Tracker's most interesting feature is the use of 'New Note Actions'
|
|
which allow a composer to manipulate 'overwritten' notes. It also adds the
|
|
power of Volume Envelopes while maintaining its mouse-free interface.
|
|
|
|
The coder, Jeffrey Lim, wanted to produce a tracker that people would use,
|
|
so he maintained the Scream Tracker interface instead of inventing a new
|
|
one, while adding some excellent features of his own.
|
|
|
|
_____Features
|
|
|
|
New Note Actions let a composer do more than interrupt a note by playing a
|
|
new note in the same channel. The previously played note in a channel can
|
|
be faded, cut off, or even continued as if nothing had happened in the
|
|
channel. This is done using the New Note Actions and virtual channels.
|
|
|
|
The program supports 64 actual channels (but only 32 on a Gravis family
|
|
soundcard) and up to 256 virtual channels. These virtual channels can not
|
|
be written to with sample and effect data as regular channels can, but they
|
|
are used to handle the New Note Actions (NNAs). Notes that are to be faded
|
|
or continued depending on the NNA used, are swapped out to the virtual
|
|
channels.
|
|
|
|
Volume envelopes are also offered in this program. The volume envelope
|
|
editing window is on the Instrument Page (F4), on the lower right. When in
|
|
edit mode, volume points can be raised or lowered, and shifted left and
|
|
right along the graph. Envelope points can also be added or deleted as
|
|
desired.
|
|
|
|
Impulse Tracker also has a Global Volume setting for each sample.
|
|
Therefore, if a user wants to replace a sample after having entered many
|
|
different volumes throughout the song, the volume can easily be adjusted by
|
|
lowering the global volume to match the previous sample's volume.
|
|
|
|
Pattern length is selectable as well, with a default of 64 rows, and a
|
|
range of between 32 and 200 rows per pattern. This is a nice alternative to
|
|
using the old Cxx (pattern break) effect, especially when composing in an
|
|
odd time signature requiring an alternate pattern length.
|
|
|
|
_____Interface
|
|
|
|
The author has attempted to recreate the Scream Tracker 3 interface that is
|
|
preferred by many die-hard Scream Tracker users. This allows for a smooth
|
|
transition between the programs. Even the colors can be matched from the
|
|
Palette Editing Page (CTRL-F12) by selecting the 'Gold' color scheme.
|
|
|
|
The pattern editor is like that of Scream Trackers, allowing for fast and
|
|
easy operation. Being that this is the section of the program where
|
|
composers will spend their most time, ease of use is of great importance.
|
|
|
|
The sample page is a bit different compared to the Scream Tracker layout.
|
|
The note tuning column (C4SPD in Scream Tracker) has been moved from its
|
|
original location next to the sampletext, to the editing window for loop
|
|
and sustain points. This makes tuning samples more difficult than in Scream
|
|
Tracker. The tuning value represents the pitch at C-5 (note C, 5th octave).
|
|
The full range of notes allowed in Impulse Tracker is C-0 to B-9 .
|
|
|
|
Also, with the new interface on the sample page, it is not possible to play
|
|
multiple samples at once. This was useful for doing things such as voicing
|
|
chords before tracking, and tuning samples.
|
|
|
|
_____Online Help
|
|
|
|
A scrolling window containing help text is a feature that moves away from
|
|
the boring multi-screen help section in Scream Tracker. Cursor arrow keys
|
|
will scroll the help window vertically. The 'global' key for the help
|
|
screen is F1, unlike Scream Tracker's F10 key.
|
|
|
|
However, some sort of indicator should be displayed to let the user know
|
|
that there is more information and to use the cursor keys to scroll.
|
|
|
|
_____Sound Features
|
|
|
|
Impulse Tracker will work with any SoundBlaster or Gravis family soundcard.
|
|
It also can play on the PC speaker, for those who don't own a soundcard.
|
|
|
|
Surround sound is supported on the SoundBlaster Pro and SoundBlaster 16
|
|
soundcards. It is not available on Gravis soundcards.
|
|
|
|
Stereo panning is controlled visually instead of with hex-characters to
|
|
indicate pan position. Small blocks are used to mark the pan position of
|
|
each channel. They can easily be shifted to Left, Middle, Right, or
|
|
Surround by using the L, M, R, and S keys, respectively. The pan positions
|
|
can also be adjusted using the cursor arrow keys.
|
|
|
|
_____Module Support
|
|
|
|
If you want to develop routines for playing .IT modules in your sound
|
|
library, you can refer to the included file ITTECH.DOC which explains the
|
|
different file formats associated with Impulse Tracker. This file is very
|
|
similar in layout to the TECH.DOC provided with Scream Tracker 3.
|
|
|
|
In case you're switching from another tracker, and hate to waste all those
|
|
unfinished songs you were working on, don't let compatibility stop you.
|
|
Impulse Tracker can import songs in the MOD, S3M, and MTM formats.
|
|
|
|
The newest version of Impulse Tracker now saves in .S3M provided the user
|
|
doesn't use any non-compatible Impulse Tracker features, such as
|
|
instruments, ping-pong loops, etc. There is a section in the documentation
|
|
explaining what features are not compatible with the S3M saving option.
|
|
|
|
_____Conclusion
|
|
|
|
Impulse Tracker is a program which underwent many hours of conception,
|
|
design, and implementation. The author continues to improve it, with the
|
|
help of users' bug reports and ideas.
|
|
|
|
With the number of users interested in using Impulse Tracker to develop
|
|
their music, it should only be a matter of time before the format is widely
|
|
supported.
|
|
|
|
The latest version of Impulse Tracker is on ftp.cdrom.com in the directory
|
|
/demos/music/programs/trackers . Updates of the program are uploaded to the
|
|
directory /demos/incoming/music/programs . The filename will be it???.zip
|
|
where ??? is the current version number. A worldwide web page will soon be
|
|
available also.
|
|
|
|
You can send email to the author of Impulse Tracker at the following
|
|
address: pulse@smug.student.adelaide.edu.au . Write 'Impulse Tracker' as
|
|
the subject.
|
|
|
|
GD / Hornet - gd@ftp.cdrom.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
=---------------------------------[The Party 1995 Intros Reviewed]--[Phoenix]-=
|
|
|
|
[This is part 2 of "The Party 1995 xxx Reviewed." Refer to DemoNews.112
|
|
for more information and a little disclaimer.]
|
|
|
|
Name : Lola Effects: **
|
|
Group : Amable Design : ***
|
|
Filename: amb_lola.zip Music : **+
|
|
Country : Germany Overall: **+
|
|
Place : Not shown
|
|
|
|
[ ] Low, booming intro music [x] Phong blob
|
|
[ ] Member names in intro [x] Techno music
|
|
[ ] Lens flare [ ] chrmface.3ds
|
|
[ ] Colorful tunnel [ ] duck.3ds or dolphin.3ds
|
|
[ ] Group Logo in corner
|
|
|
|
Don't quite know why this wasn't shown but.. has decent design, kind of
|
|
Orange-inspired. Not many effects, I like the pic of the happy African
|
|
dude. :)
|
|
|
|
Name : Poison Effects: **
|
|
Group : Zden & Moshe Design : ***
|
|
Filename: poison.zip Music : ***
|
|
Country : Slovakia Overall: **+
|
|
Place : Not shown?
|
|
|
|
[ ] Low, booming intro music [ ] Phong blob
|
|
[ ] Member names in intro [x] Techno music (very much so!)
|
|
[ ] Lens flare [ ] chrmface.3ds
|
|
[ ] Colorful tunnel [ ] duck.3ds or dolphin.3ds
|
|
[ ] Group Logo in corner
|
|
|
|
This is pretty much a techno-based intro. It's in black and white, and
|
|
very flashy with lots of fast-moving lines. A must for hard techno-fans
|
|
(those who were keeping up everyone try to sleep raving at the Party for
|
|
instance :), otherwise probably not worth getting.
|
|
|
|
Name : Just-ice Effects: **
|
|
Group : Spirit Design : **
|
|
Filename: just-ice.zip Music : **
|
|
Country : ? Overall: **
|
|
Place : 20th
|
|
|
|
[x] Low, booming intro music [ ] Phong blob
|
|
[ ] Member names in intro [ ] Techno music
|
|
[x] Lens flare [ ] chrmface.3ds
|
|
[x] Colorful tunnel [ ] duck.3ds or dolphin.3ds
|
|
[ ] Group Logo in corner
|
|
|
|
Amazingly, this is the first Spirit intro NOT to have any toruses. But it
|
|
turns out they can't do much besides them. :)
|
|
|
|
Name : Louise Effects: **
|
|
Group : Karma Design : ***
|
|
Filename: k-louise.zip Music : **
|
|
Country : France Overall: **+
|
|
Place : 13th
|
|
|
|
[ ] Low, booming intro music [ ] Phong blob
|
|
[ ] Member names in intro [x] Techno music
|
|
[ ] Lens flare [ ] chrmface.3ds
|
|
[ ] Colorful tunnel [ ] duck.3ds or dolphin.3ds
|
|
[ ] Group Logo in corner
|
|
|
|
Well, another Orange-wanna-be group forms on the scene, kludged from French
|
|
groups Eclipse, Kloon, and Zuul Design. They were the only group at TP5 to
|
|
learn from Stars by Nooon that naked cartoon chicks = votes. So this intro
|
|
has that, plus the techno music, plus a neat background, and some
|
|
blurry-outlined vectors, hard to describe. Nothing amazing but worth a
|
|
peek.
|
|
|
|
Name : The Royal Family Effects: **
|
|
Group : Orange Design : ***
|
|
Filename: royal.zip Music : **+
|
|
Country : Finland Overall: ***
|
|
Place : 9th
|
|
|
|
[ ] Low, booming intro music [ ] Phong blob
|
|
[ ] Member names in intro [x] Techno music
|
|
[ ] Lens flare [ ] chrmface.3ds
|
|
[ ] Colorful tunnel [ ] duck.3ds or dolphin.3ds
|
|
[ ] Group Logo in corner
|
|
|
|
I wonder about Postman Pat's infatuation with England.. anyway what's so
|
|
unusual about this intro is the fact that it's all _video clips_, like
|
|
Complex's "Message from the Cosmic Brothers". Of course, to fit it in 64k,
|
|
some changes had to be made, like mono-color, and very low resolution (less
|
|
noticable because of a TV-snow fill method). So I gave it 3 stars for what
|
|
P.P. accomplished.
|
|
|
|
Name : Unreadable Effects: ***
|
|
Group : The Coexistence Design : **
|
|
Filename: tc_unr.zip Music : **
|
|
Country : Germany Overall: **+
|
|
Place : 8th
|
|
|
|
[ ] Low, booming intro music [ ] Phong blob
|
|
[ ] Member names in intro [x] Techno music
|
|
[ ] Lens flare [ ] chrmface.3ds
|
|
[x] Colorful tunnel [ ] duck.3ds or dolphin.3ds
|
|
[ ] Group Logo in corner
|
|
|
|
It starts off saying "No donuts (LGM dejavu?), no ducks (phew), no
|
|
optimization (of course not), not Just art (though I wish it would've been
|
|
instead :)". The best effect is a plasma zoom. That's followed by an
|
|
attempt to mimic the reflected cube & lit tunnel Cubic wurfel-modes. They
|
|
threw in a lemming for good sport, and at the end it says "intro finished -
|
|
system crashed". Well, it doesn't hurt to be honest. :)
|
|
|
|
Name : TP5 Intro Effects: ***
|
|
Group : Cascada Design : **+
|
|
Filename: cda_tp5i.zip Music : ****
|
|
Country : Sweden Overall: ***
|
|
Place : 5th
|
|
|
|
[ ] Low, booming intro music [ ] Phong blob
|
|
[ ] Member names in intro [ ] Techno music
|
|
[ ] Lens flare [ ] chrmface.3ds
|
|
[ ] Colorful tunnel [ ] duck.3ds or dolphin.3ds
|
|
[ ] Group Logo in corner
|
|
|
|
Yay, another all-blanks production. Well, it was a real rush job so they
|
|
didn't have time to include the usual demo effects, heh. But it's still not
|
|
bad. The music was made at the party by Zodiak and Necros, and The Edge's
|
|
code includes a phong pillar scene and a flat shaded cube with full
|
|
shadows. Then the shadow becomes a bigger cube and they spin around, it
|
|
actually looks nice.
|
|
|
|
Name : The Sea Robot of Love Effects: ****+
|
|
Group : Orange Design : ****
|
|
Filename: okean.zip Music : **** (a P.O.V. thing :)
|
|
Country : Finland Overall: ****
|
|
Place : 3rd
|
|
|
|
[ ] Low, booming intro music [ ] Phong blob
|
|
[ ] Member names in intro [ ] Techno music
|
|
[ ] Lens flare [ ] chrmface.3ds
|
|
[ ] Colorful tunnel [ ] duck.3ds or dolphin.3ds
|
|
[ ] Group Logo in corner
|
|
|
|
Wow, none of the blanks are filled. The music by Dune is not quite the
|
|
usual techno music. As you could see by the stars, I _really_ liked this
|
|
intro. It was just snow-blurred enough to give it a TV-like feel
|
|
(something Orange has been working on for a while now), and the whole thing
|
|
is smooth and artistic, with mostly meshed vectors.
|
|
|
|
Name : Illumination Effects: ***+
|
|
Group : Yodel Design : ***
|
|
Filename: ydl_illu.zip Music : ***
|
|
Country : Sweden Overall: ***
|
|
Place : 2nd
|
|
|
|
[ ] Low, booming intro music [x] Phong blob
|
|
[ ] Member names in intro [x] Techno music
|
|
[x] Lens flare [ ] chrmface.3ds
|
|
[x] Colorful tunnel [x] duck.3ds or dolphin.3ds
|
|
[ ] Group Logo in corner
|
|
|
|
This intro is quite short, but nice. It has faked 18-bit color through
|
|
vertical bars rather than horizontal. Features stuff checked in the boxes
|
|
above plus some nice tetrahedral prisms. IMO didn't quite deserve 2nd
|
|
place.
|
|
|
|
Name : Lasse Reinbong Effects: ****
|
|
Group : Cubic Team & $een Design : **+
|
|
Filename: ctslasse.zip Music : **
|
|
Country : Germany Overall: ***
|
|
Place : 1st
|
|
|
|
[ ] Low, booming intro music [x] Phong blob
|
|
[ ] Member names in intro [x] Techno music
|
|
[ ] Lens flare [x] chrmface.3ds
|
|
[x] Colorful tunnel [x] duck.3ds or dolphin.3ds
|
|
[ ] Group Logo in corner
|
|
|
|
Well, this intro has all the standard effects, 3ds objects, plasma,
|
|
rotations, rippling, etc. What probably got it voted 1st place was
|
|
the harming of the all-too-familiar 3d objects :).
|
|
|
|
_____Conclusion
|
|
|
|
There you have it. I hope my review of the TP5 demos and intros wasn't too
|
|
cynical. But one thing can be said: lack of originality. I hope to see
|
|
some more innovative ideas at Juhla 3 or even Oz96. Until then, we can
|
|
always flash back with the Freedom CDROM. :)
|
|
|
|
Phoenix / Kosmic - vossa@rpi.edu
|
|
|
|
|
|
=-[Subscribing]-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|
|
|
|
_____How to subscribe to DemoNews
|
|
|
|
Mail to : listserver@unseen.aztec.co.za
|
|
Body : subscribe demuan-list [first_name] [last_name]
|
|
|
|
The listserver will send DemoNews to your e-mail's return address.
|
|
|
|
_____Back Issues
|
|
|
|
Older issues of DemoNews can be located under /demos/hornet/demonews.
|
|
Newly released issues of DemoNews are posted to /demos/incoming/news.
|
|
|
|
|
|
=-[Closing]-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|
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For questions and comments, you can contact us at r3cgm@ftp.cdrom.com
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Your mail will be forwarded to the appropriate individual.
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...........................................................End.of.DemoNews.113.
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