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Demo News 073
Start.of.DemoNews.073=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
(JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT WE COULDN'T GET ANY BIGGER...)
______/\___________________________
DemoNews Issue #73 \____ \ ________ _ _ ______ \
December 4, 1994 - December 10, 1994 / | \ _) \ \_/ \ | \
/ | \ \ | \ | \
DemoNews is a weekly publication for \_____ /_______/___| /________/
the demo scene. It is produced at the ===\_____/============|____/==========
Internet FTP site ftp.eng.ufl.edu __ ________________ ___ /\_______
(aka HORNET). This newsletter focuses / \| \ ________ | \/ ______/
on many aspects of demos and demo- / \ \ _) \ | \______ \
making. Everyone is welcomed to / \ \ /~\ \ / \
contribute articles, rumors, and \____\_____/_______/_________/________/
advertisements. ==============================[+tZ^]===
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
SIZE: 78,995 SUBSCRIBERS: Last week - 748 This week - 804 Change - +56
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Section 1.......Standard Information --> Who Are We?
Section 2....................General --> Comments by Snowman
History of HORNET (Dan Wright)
Partyline (TP4, NAID, IBM-Warp)
Section 3..................Editorial --> Demo Dreams by Snowman
Section 4......DemoNews Advancements --> DemoNews Splits in 2
Section 5................New Uploads --> New Files for the Week
Section 6...........Musicians Corner --> Interview with Necros
Section 7..............Coders Corner --> Lemmings, Psycho Neurosis
PMODE/W (PMode for Watcom C)
Using Assembly Part 1 (JsNO)
Section 8.............Artists Corner --> Stony Update
Section 9.............Advertisements --> PMODE/W - DOS/4GW replacement
Raver needs S3M drivers
Ambience by Tran
Data Connection BBS
Lost in Time BBS (Moscow)
Section 10..............Miscellaneous --> ANSI Help
Section 11...........Closing Comments --> Quote for the Week
==============================================================================
((Section 1...Standard Information))
==============================================================================
"HORNET" is the name of an FTP site on the internet. It is a place where
people upload and download files. However, HORNET has grown much larger
since it was first created 2.5 years ago by Dan Wright. Now HORNET
releases a weekly newsletter called DemoNews, and is starting to offer other
services. HORNET specializes in the "demo scene", and files that are re-
lated to demos, coding, music, or graphics are welcome.
Site Name : HORNET
Address : hornet.eng.ufl.edu (128.227.116.7)
Location : Florida, USA
System E-Mail : dmw@eng.ufl.edu
<There are currently 14 active demo-operators for this site>
/ \
|Christopher G. Mann COORDINATOR | MUSICOP Ryan Cramer|
|Jeff (White Noise) WEBMASTER | MREVIEW Per-Ivar Knutsen|
|Kim Davies DNDISTRO | CODEOP Grant Smith (Denthor)|
|Burning Chrome DEMOBOOK | CARTICLE Dee-Cug (JsNO)|
|Styros LINKMAN | CMOVER Andy Younger (King Tech)|
|Mike DREVIEW | CREVIEW David Thornley (Metal)|
|Brenton Swart (Zenith) DREVIEW | AHAND Stony|
\ /
<There are currently 7 other FTP sites that mirror HORNET>
/ \
|FTP Name IP Address Country Base Directory |
|-------------------- -------------- --------- --------------------|
|ftp.uwp.edu 131.210.1.4 USA /pub/msdos/demos |
|*ftp.luth.se 130.240.18.2 SWEDEN /pub/msdos/demos |
|ftp.sun.ac.za 146.232.212.21 S. AFRICA /pub/msdos/demos |
|ftp.uni-erlangen.de 131.188.2.43 GERMANY ?? |
|ftp.uni-paderborn.de 131.234.10.42 GERMANY /pub/msdos/demos |
|ftp.cdrom.com 192.216.191.11 USA /pub/demos |
|freedom.wit.com 144.92.88.30 USA /systems/ibmpc/demos|
\ /
*Only site that mirrors the /incoming directory
[SUBSCRIBING TO DEMONEWS]
You can subscribe to this newsletter by mailing listserver@oliver.sun.ac.za
and putting "subscribe demuan-list your_real_name" in your message.
The listserver is what sends out this newsletter every SUNDAY morning.
kimba@it.com.au is the keeper of the listserver. If you have any questions
about subscribing to DemoNews, write to him.
For those who use the GUI environment check out our DN.HMTL in the
/demos/news directory. The URL is ftp://ftp.eng.ufl.edu/demos/news/DN.HTML
==============================================================================
((Section 2...General))
==============================================================================
Comments by Snowman
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is just a miscellaneous collection of things I have to say about this
week:
- DemoNews subscribers are way up
- Krystall turned 19 on December 2nd (krystall@biko.llc.org)
- Trixter's WEDTRO was released this week (I like it, and its unprecented)
- Lots of cool interviews coming up later (Maxwood, AcmE, Purple Motion)
- I released updated parts 1 and 2 of Denthor's Demo Coding Tutorial.
It is my hope to have all 16 parts converted to C++ by mid-February.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
History of HORNET (Dan Wright)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In order to do a "complete" history of this demo site it is necessary to
step back in time. The year...1985, Christmas time.
I opened my presents Christmas day to discover a C-128, disk drive, printer,
and monitor amongst some other odds n' ends. At the time I was in the 10th
grade and had wanted some kind of computer--a Commodore, Atari, or Apple. I
actually preferred the Atari and Apple because I knew people I could get
software from unlike the unpopular Commodore. I do not recall discovering
demos until late 1986 or early 1987 but do remember a demo called "DNC
Megademo" with all kinds of music and vertical scrolling in the boarders.
Something clicked...I had discovered a very interesting part of the computer
scene. I did a few C-64 demos with a little help and even produced a "demo
disk" of my demos and my computer history. Suffice to say it is a long
story and I won't get into it for this article.
College came around in 1988 and I actually managed to get a lot of use out
of my C-128. Collecting demos and producing demos was quite difficult and
pretty much ended in 1990 at which time I retired my C-128 at my parents
house and started using a REAL computer for reports & such--an Apple
Macintosh.
I did not start learning the "PC" until I took a class called "Introduction
to Computer Software" which was still considered a technical credit for my
major--Electrical Engineering. The time was January 1992--about the time
they actually started making a decent PC (386/486). The "PC" class
introduced me to some POWERFUL machines--x86 and 286 IBM's with CGA & VGA.
Considering we only worked with DOS, Word Perfect, Lotus, and dBase it
really did not matter how bad the machine was...so long as it would boot.
The "PC" class was quite easy for me considering I did all the work, read
all the books and enjoyed working with computers. I ended up with about a
99.3% (out of 100%) grade in the class--missed about 2 questions on one
test. The funny thing about this was I did not have the HIGHEST grade--
being a little bit arrogant and a very hard worker I could not imagine how
ANYONE got a better average but a couple people (out of about 200) did.
That same Spring I saw my first PC intro--Fishtro by Future Crew. This was
quite a jump from the C-64 demos I was use to. Once again I became hooked
and began a quest to find more productions of this caliber.
The Summer of 1992 I took a "C" programming class offered for the 1st time
by the college of Electrical Engineering. The excellent part about the
class was not the programming (though fun) but getting a UNIX account which
had INTERNET access. So, in 1992 I learned the basics of the PC, C
programming, and how to navigate the internet among other things.
So now, we are all caught up. Well, at least to the Summer of 1992 when the
first signs of the demosite became a reality.
My internet, archie, and my quest for demos became quite an undertaking that
Summer/Fall. I became so good at archie I could find ANYTHING--including
software pirate sites--because I knew WHAT to search for and HOW to search.
Of course the downgrade (there is no such thing as an upgrade) in software
now gives us no HITS and no CONTROL C for breaking and displaying hits so it
has made life a little more difficult for those adventurous souls out there.
Searching for demos lead me to a few productions--ultraforce vectdemo,
coldcut--but I did noticed most "demo" hits on archie dealt with GAME demos.
Because there was not central site getting new productions became a matter
of luck.
Fall came and a friend of mine told me our ENGINEERING account (sioux.eel.
ufl.edu) had its own ftp site. Excellent I figured...and even better when I
found out I have FULL write/read/delete access--but so did everyone else. On
this same site under the /pub directory there was the infamous 9 space
directory which contained pirated software of course. Funny I thought...a
pirate site in existence at our university...how convenient. I wanted a
central DEMO site BAD and I though about putting it in the /pub directory of
our site for over a week. Unfortunately the 9space directory remained and I
was not going to delete it cause I was not an administrator and it was not
my problem. What the hell I figured, no time better then the present; I
created a directory called "real-demos" off the /pub structure and included
a few demos--fishtro, unreal, etc.
I'm not sure how I first got the word out but perhaps the 9 space dir
brought a few people into the "real-demos" directory to read my message.
Within a couple weeks the "unofficial demo site" had a few more files and
nothing, not even the 9 space directory, was being deleted.
Now all I needed was to get the word out--but how? Welp, I had recently
discovered the USENET so, why not post to the "...pc.games" The message I
posted on September 4, 1992 is as FOLLOWS:
"I am trying to create a UNIFIED DEMO sight[sic] where people can PUT and
GET DEMOS --and I am not referring to those crap game demos....[this last
statement is probably what nailed me] So, if you are interested in demos or
have demos you would like others to see get them from or put them at the
following: 128.227.56.139 It is my hopes that this can become THE place
where one can go to find the newest/best demos! Spread the word!"
As you can see I never mentioned the directory--bad news--and I posted it on
the ...pc.games section of the newsreader.
This posting drew many people. I am also sure lots went within the 9 space
directory as well as my real-demos directory. Somehow, someway, higher
people from my university discovered this directory-- the 9 space directory.
They captured the post on the newsreader (how do you think I have a copy?),
and matched up that post with the name in the real-demos directory.
Amazingly they were the same.
Their concern was with the 9 space directory on their computer. My concern
was with only my real-demos directory. Anyways, shit hit the fan, I was
called into some meeting and sure enough the demos directory and the 9 space
directory were to be deleted. You live and you learn and sometimes others
will also learn from your mistakes if you inform them.
For those interested the meeting discussed the 9 space directory and its
contents and how I was associated with such. Words were exchanged and a
form of "threat" was actually mentioned--i.e. next time the law will be
involved. I was lucky enough get out of the meeting without any actions
taken against me--or anyone else to my knowledge.
Luckily, by posting the message on the newsreader I drew someone who wanted
to mirror the site--datta@cs.uwp.edu. By doing such he saved the demo site.
I then directed people to this new site and everything worked out well. The
only problem was the transfer rate at the site was very slow for me so I
(and others) wanted to get a mirror. After mailing many messages I tried
another local account (to the University I attend). I mailed the system
operator of wasp.eng.ufl.edu in November to ask about having a mirror for
this site. I would maintain the site and all would run smoothly. Sure
enough, after about a month I had my mirror. And the rest, as they say, is
history...but not quite.
I graduated College Spring 1993 and turned the site over to a new
maintainer--Rob Shady--on Easter Sunday if memory serves me correct. Rob
held the maintainer position for about 6 months. He started off really
aggressive but unfortunately he let the work pile up too much and sure
enough the site slipped into a piece of shit...mainly unorganized. I guess
Rob did not realize the work that had to be put in to keep things up to
date. Actually it is not a lot of time unless you let the work pile
up--which everyone eventually seems to let happen.
I asked Rob about the site during the FALL and we both agreed that it would
be best for him to step down. A few new people came on board along with me
(again) and helped get the site to a more manageable position. Eventually
the two new people vanished or dwindled to doing zip and it was back to just
me again--ugh. Mike came on board (OCT?) and has helped quite a bit with
reviewing demos among doing some coding and fixing a few problems. So, it
was just Mike and I for awhile.
In January Snowman (Christopher) expressed an interest in helping with the
music part of the site. I agreed and Snowman took over the music section of
this site which has eventually led to him now being the maintainer.
ABOVE AND BEYOND
Those who have been visiting this site and reading this newsletter remember
the "TOP25DL" list we use to compile each week. Unfortunately, on the
switchover for new FTP software, this list--generated from the ftp.syslog--
stopped. Mostly because of the ftp.syslog being > than 10Megs and not being
reset each week. So, unless they Sysadmin has a say the TOP25 list probably
won't be back.
Most of you probably know or knew I was able to form the Toxic Zombies back
in 1992 because of the people I met being a maintainer. We produced one
intro--UNDEAD--and I helped with a diskmag called MAYHEM. The Toxic Zombies
are still out there...we are just doing are own thing.
Snowman's MC2 on CD and my idea of a DEMO CD eventually let to ESCAPE. We
discussed and agreed upon the project in April '94 and finished Oct '94 with
the CD being released on November 18th. For those that do not know ESCAPE
is a DEMO (190megs) and MUSIC (MC2 entries and 47mins of Audio) CD. ESCAPE
was done by people in the DEMO scene for the DEMO scene and those interested
in demos. Less then 450 of these CD's will be pressed--EVER. To date 300
CD's have been pressed and approximately 175 have been paid for and
distributed. If demand is great enough we can repress up to 150 more,
however, no promises are being made about doing a repress at this time.
I rescued this site once--good or bad--but do not plan on doing it again. It
is my hopes that Snowman along with the crew he hand picked--except for
maybe a couple--can manage, and continue to manage this site till it goes
away (taken away) or it is passed along again.
SOME UNKNOWN PEOPLE
Most people who have not read back issues of the DEMONEWS have no idea of
this sites history so I hope this brief article helps. A few important
people helped realize this site and the good and bad that surround it.
David Datta -- Maintainer of ftp.uwp.edu. Mirrored the original "sioux"
demo site so there would always be an INTERNET DEMO SITE.
Ron D. -- Help bring about the comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos newsgroup.
esj -- Allow us to have this eng.ufl.edu demo site.
Dan Wright -- Creator/Maintainer of the Demo site 92-94.
EVERYTHING MUST GO
I think that does it for this "COMPLETE" history. I do not want to draw it
out any longer or get in to to much detail. Many thanks to all those who
have helped me and the other maintainers. See ya around.
Sometimes I wonder...what if I had never gotten that C-128 that Christmas?
Wonder why,
Dan Wright
dmw@gate.net
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Partyline (TP4, NAID, IBM-Warp)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This article wasn't as long or extensive as I would have liked, but here are
a few tidbits from 3 upcoming parties.
[The Party 94]
"WHERE & WHEN
The Party 1994 will be held in Scandinavia's largest conference centre.
The centre is of course placed in Herning in the middle of Denmark. The
Party will be held from Tuesday 27 December at 10:00 CET to Friday 30
December at 10:00 CET."
Just today (December 3) I got hold of the official TP4_INV invitation. The
coding was done by Dust, and the music by Zodiak. Its a very nice
production and encourage all of you to download it.
There are a couple of comments I have:
First, I had heard a rumor that the Amiga and PC sections of the party were
going to be held in seperate locations because of tensions last year. This
does not appear to be the case.
Second, I was surprised at the money offered for prizes. I won't say more,
but compare between this party and NAID (a much smaller-scale party):
PC Demo: PC Intro: Gfx Compo: Music Compo: Multich. Music Compo:
----------- ----------- ---------- ------------ ---------------------
1. $1000 1. $500 1. $500 1. $500 1. $500 + GUS Max
2. $600 2. $250 2. $300 2. $300 2. $300 + GUS Max
3. $400 3. $100 3. $200 3. $200 3. $200 + GUS Max
4. $200 4. $100 4. $100 4. $100 + GUS Max
5. $100 5. $50 5. $50 5. $50 + GUS Max
* Includes ESCOM Pentium PC
"The contributions will be assembled to a CD-ROM. All Prize-winners will
get royalties by granting exclusive distribution rights to the CD-ROM
media."
Has anyone seen that ASM94 CD-ROM yet?
"The demo will be shown on a standard 486 DX/2-66 MHz, 4 MB RAM, VL-BUS
VGA card with Soundblaster Pro II or Gravis Ultra Sound (1 MB) and no
other cards. However the demo should be able to run on a standard 386 DX
40Mhz PC."
Well, what if it CAN'T on a 386DX-40? Is it disqualified?
"We will not accept any ... spraycans, weapons or firework."
Wait a second. I thought this party was supposed to be FUN!? :)
[NAID - North American International Demo Festival]
"NAID will be held at Edouard-Montpetit College in Longueuil, 15 minutes
from the well known city of Montreal, in the province of Quebec, Canada.
The event will last 2 days, Saturday the 15th of april from 9am
until 9pm Sunday the 16th."
Prizes: Demo Intro Music Graphic
1st place 1000$ 500$ 300$ 300$
2nd place 600$ 350$ 200$ 200$
3rd place 300$ 200$ 100$ 100$
===== ===== ==== ====
1900$ 1050$ 600$ 600$ = 4150$
I (Christopher) will definately be attending this party. I plan to
compete in ALL competitions if I can.
[IBM OS/2 Warp(*) Demo Competition]
"Future Crew & Accession in connection with IBM Finland are proud to
invite you to participate in a new competition: the IBM OS/2 Warp Demo
competition."
Sorry, but I don't have anything else to add to this article, I'm out of
time.
==============================================================================
((Section 3...Editorial)) <BY> Christopher G. Mann (Snowman)
==============================================================================
* D * E * M * O * * D * R * E * A * M * S *
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 10, 1992 was an important day. That afternoon, at 3:03PM to be more
precise, I paid $239.99 for a Sound Blaster Pro card at Electronics Boutique
in New Philadelphia, Ohio.
Now, you may be wondering how I remembered this so precisely. As it
happened, I stuck the sales receipt in my pocket, thinking that someday it
might be nice to look at again. Just last night I was dusting off some old
souvenirs and ran across this receipt. Although its been over two and half
years ago, I realize now that it was the single most important purchase I
have made in my adult life.
That soundcard, in its funny little way, introduced me to the demo scene.
On January 8, 1994 I contacted Dan Wright at the ftp site ftp.eng.ufl.edu.
I had been using this site to get the latest demos and music, and it seemed
that the music section could use some reorganization. Dan told me that many
other people had come to him the past and offered to help out.
Unfortunately, they left soon after when found out how much work it was.
For the next year, I worked at making HORNET a better site. With the help
of the Escape CD and Music Contest ][, HORNET gradually gained interest in
the demo scene. Well, MC2 is over, the Escape CD is out, and Dan Wright has
left. This was quite disheartening to me and I spent a great deal of time
contemplating how to keep interest in HORNET. DemoNews was the answer.
One of the first decisions I made after becoming coordinator of HORNET was
to get some other people to contribute articles for DemoNews. Ryan Cramer
and Grant Smith were two people I had a lot of confidence in, and they are
making quite an impact here in their respective areas. With 14 people
currently helping out HORNET and DemoNews, things are looking up.
A few things indicate that DemoNews is doing very well. First, there are
some really neat FILE_ID.DIZs that have been created solely for
the purpose of spreading this newsletter on BBS's. Second, the number of
subscribers is way up, having jumped up more than 50 this week alone.
Third, and most importantly, the readers of DemoNews frequently give me
positive feedback.
In the past two weeks, I have received e-mail from Maxwood/Majic 12,
Zodiak/Cascada, and several large demo groups. DemoNews is having
interviews with Skaven, Necros, Purple Motion, and Basehead. Imphobia has
even offered to do some work for DemoNews. A short while ago, I would have
laughed if you told me that HORNET and DemoNews would receive this much
attention.
Well it took a long time, but now I finally have the chance to associate
with everyone I've admired over the years. Much of my Saturdays is taken
up with putting DemoNews together. When I go to sleep on Saturday nights,
I have this little grin on my face, thinking about the e-mail I'll get
come Sunday morn.
This is my Demo Dream come true!
Christopher (Snowman) G. Mann / HORNET December 2, 1994
==============================================================================
((Section 4...DemoNews Advancements))
==============================================================================
DemoNews is becoming ever-larger. As a result, I have split it up into two
sections this week. This is to prevent the mail from bouncing.
There is a lot of material in here, so just read what you want to.
==============================================================================
((Section 5...New Uploads))
==============================================================================
FILENAME.EXT LOCATION SIZE DESCRIPTION
------------ ---------------- ---- -----------------------------------------
.-----------.
| --DEMOS-- | (all locations start with /pub/msdos/demos...)
`-----------'
aiw-1ss .zip /alpha/NEW 2217 Acid in Wonderland #1 (Repackaged)
ambience.zip /alpha/NEW 361 Ambience Demo by Tran (Timeless ][)
mictro .zip /alpha/NEW 506 Michelle Birthday Demo by Snowman (GUS)
orange11.zip /alpha/NEW 41 Orange Presents tai jotain (GUS)
rr-beast.zip /alpha/NEW 283 RR: THE BEAST PROJECT! Intro (GUS)
santa .zip /alpha/NEW 14 Falling Snow by HAL'i
wedtro .zip /alpha/NEW 1016 Wedtro by Trixter (GUS/SB/PAS...) Cool!
.-----------.
| --MUSIC-- | (all locations start with /pub/msdos/demos/music...)
`-----------'
anoxer1 .zip /disks 940 Overload, Anoxer's first musicdisk
byemusic.zip /disks 1191 Bye Bye Music, A musicdisk by Snowman
hadesdsk.zip /disks 974 MDP Music Disk by Hades (15 MODs)
scramble.zip /disks 611 TUC music disk - SB/SBPro only!
awemod01.zip /programs/players 27 SB AWE32 Mod Player from Infinity 2001
morgl110.zip /programs/players 135 Morgul Player 1.10 (uses DSMI)
wmidas .zip /programs/players 51 MIDAS Windows 3.1 sound drivers
conserva.zip /songs/mod 58 Conservative by SCIBOSS/UC
demonich.zip /songs/mod 170 Demonic Child, samples ->The Exorcist
m-creati.zip /songs/mod 38 MOD by Mystical of Purple
m-digmas.zip /songs/mod 59 MOD by Mystical of Purple
m-fastla.zip /songs/mod 126 MOD by Mystical of Purple
m-lobste.zip /songs/mod 106 MOD by Mystical of Purple
m-miximi.zip /songs/mod 14 MOD by Mystical of Purple
m-motiva.zip /songs/mod 76 MOD by Mystical of Purple
m-mule .zip /songs/mod 5 MOD by Mystical of Purple
m-nosewa.zip /songs/mod 43 MOD by Mystical of Purple
m-organi.zip /songs/mod 102 MOD by Mystical of Purple
m-power .zip /songs/mod 61 MOD by Mystical of Purple
m-rivers.zip /songs/mod 87 MOD by Mystical of Purple
m-techth.zip /songs/mod 84 MOD by Mystical of Purple
m-tumbli.zip /songs/mod 91 MOD by Mystical of Purple
canken .zip /songs/mtm 162 Canon & Ken by Fatts Mann
prelop28.zip /songs/mtm 59 Prelude in A Major Op. 28 No. 7 Chopan
sicnh .zip /songs/mtm 50 Something I can never have by NiN
soniks .zip /songs/mtm 198 Soniks by Fatts Mann (techno)
2k-merry.zip /songs/s3m 84 S3M by Mopias 3
asp_mhz .zip /songs/s3m 124 Aspyxor by Mhz
doommus1.zip /songs/s3m 83 Doom Soundtrack 1 by Bolleke
dxtc-ch .zip /songs/s3m 89 Digital Extacy by Discoman
dy_chip .zip /songs/s3m 6 CHiPs by DraYgen/PR
gh-ducky.zip /songs/s3m 41 Rubber Ducky by GodHead/DA
indrag .zip /songs/s3m 70 Industrial Rage by Zer0
iwt .zip /songs/s3m 225 IWT by Bolleke
iwt-ext .zip /songs/s3m 430 IWT extended remix by Bolleke
jehoshap.zip /songs/s3m 161 Jehoshaphat! by Bolleke
liberatn.zip /songs/s3m 122 Liberation of Antwerp 1944 by Bolleke
lv-awake.zip /songs/s3m 91 Awakening by Leviathan/Renaissance
nin-1 .zip /songs/s3m 348 The Downward Spiral by NiN
oxi-idre.zip /songs/s3m 598 Irresistible Dreams by Oxide/Valhalla
oxi-lmac.zip /songs/s3m 254 Love Machine by Oxide/Valhalla
oxi-russ.zip /songs/s3m 40 Russia by Oxide/Valhalla
oxi-whil.zip /songs/s3m 191 While You Are Yourself, Oxide/Valhalla
rev2 .zip /songs/s3m 326 Revelation ][ by Mr.P / PS
robotics.zip /songs/s3m 230 Three Laws of Robotics by Bolleke
shespeak.zip /songs/s3m 388 She Speaks to Me by Ng Pei Sin (16 chn)
sky_trex.zip /songs/s3m 133 Jumper Trex by Trex (4 channel Techno)
smeg_gen.zip /songs/s3m 27 Generica by Smeghead
smeg_opi.zip /songs/s3m 170 Opiate by Smeghead
smeg_rve.zip /songs/s3m 240 Rivet by Smeghead
smeg_trn.zip /songs/s3m 490 Transition by Smeghead (16 channels)
target .zip /songs/s3m 123 Target Man by Bolleke
unkel .zip /songs/s3m 116 Unknown Elements by Zer0
v-songs1.zip /songs/s3m 446 Four songs by Vassago/HardCode
victlap .zip /songs/s3m 128 Victory Lap by Blackwolf/Epinicion
walk! .zip /songs/s3m 76 Walk! - I need 17 min" by Aristocracy
wastelan.zip /songs/s3m 16 Wasteland by Null N. Nothing
artofchr.zip /songs/xm 179 Art of Chrome by LizardKing/Triton
austral .zip /songs/xm 160 Austral by Hades (6 channels)
claustr2.zip /songs/xm 373 Claustraphobia by LizardKing/Triton
infiltr8.zip /songs/xm 485 Infiltr8 202 by Altern8
wf-mages.zip /songs/xm 166 World of Mages by LizardKing/Triton
.----------.
| --CODE-- | (all locations start with /pub/msdos/demos/code...)
`----------'
contrsrc.zip /code/demosrc Source to TFL-TDV Contrast Demo
less_src.zip /code/demosrc C++ Source to Paranoids 4k intro
tsr_xmpl.zip /code/examples ASM file on making TSR's
goushad .zip /code/graph/3d 3D Gourad / TheFaker
cyb3dkit.arj /code/graph/land Doom like source / Phantom
otmvoxel.zip /code/graph/land C++ Voxel terrain / Voltaire
flamoot .zip /code/graph/library Tweaked VGA library / TypeOne
i3ddemo2.exe /code/graph/library C++ LIB for Wolf3D type game
tutorc .zip /code/graph/tutor MS C ver. of Asphyxia Trainer
advhsc18.zip /code/sound TP7 TPU for HSC files / Access
textps .zip /code/text
texttext.zip /code/text
textwp60.zip /code/text Texture mapping info (text)
collstuf.zip /code/utils Various utilities (source)
vblitz12.zip /code/utils Video card timer / Zax
rpdos4g2.zip /code/utils Replace Dos4GW with PMode
pmw100 .zip /code/utils As above
rpdos4g .zip *deleted*
itt .zip *deleted*
.----------.
| --ART--- | (all locations start with /pub/msdos/demos/...)
`----------'
alch162 .zip /arthand 405 Image Alchemy v1.62
.----------.
| --MISC-- | (all locations start with /pub/msdos/demos...)
`----------'
==============================================================================
ooo ooooo o8o oooo
`88. .888' `"' `888
888b d'888 oooo oooo oooooooo oooo 888 oooo
8 Y88. .P 888 `888 `888 d'""7d8P `888 888 .8P'
8 `888' 888 888 888 .d8P' 888 888888.
8 Y 888 888 888 .d8P' .P 888 888 `88b.
o8o o888o `V88V"V8P' d8888888P o888o o888o o888o
((Section 6...Musicians Corner)) <BY> Ryan Cramer [Iguana/Renaissance]
==============================================================================
\ |
\ | _ \ __| __| _ \ __|
|\ | __/ ( | ( \__ \
_| \_|\___|\___|_| \___/____/ Interview: Necros [Legend Design/KLF/iCE]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You may recall from last weeks interview with Skaven of Future Crew that
the only person he greeted was Necros. He said: "...and I'd like to greet
Necros, atleast. He has what it needs. His songs have rhythm, tension,
perfected structure..." And he's absolutely right! While Necros is fairly
new to the demo/music scene, he has really taken it by storm. Necros
probably has more musical knowledge than anybody that I know in the scene,
and his music really shows it. I think that many people (especially us IRC
folks) would agree that Necros's music is some of the best stuff ever
produced in the PC music scene. Currently, Necros's music hasn't been used
in any large scale demos, but now that he has recently joined Legend Design,
I can't wait to see what happens!
I used to see Necros spouting off all sorts of chord progressions and chord
layering techniques on IRC. The stuff that he was saying is amazing! He
has really done his homework in music theory. When you see him apply all
of these concepts into his music, the end result is spectacular. However,
his music is a LOT more than just a bunch of music theory. Necros's music
has a lot of feeling and overall power to it. I think the best way to
describe it would be that its very emotion evoking.
Awhile back, Necros released a groundbreaking music disk called "Digital
Psychosis". If you have not already heard it, you will definitly want to
check it out. Necros also is in charge of "Dissonance", the PC music scene
magazine. His credits also include music for the Epidemic music disk and a
number of excellent individual releases. Necros is definitly one of the
most admired and respected musicians in the scene, I'm very pleased
that we were able to do this interview!
RC = Ryan Cramer [Iguana/Renaissance] - rcramer1@osf1.gmu.edu
NE = Necros [Legend Design/KLF/iCE] - asega@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[start of interview: December 1st, 1994, 7:00pm]
RC: What is your current occupation (student, etc), and how old are
you? Where are you located?
NE: Well right now I'm 19 years of age, study at the State University of
New York at Stony Brook (major in comp sci/philosophy).. I live in
New York State, and for that reason don't know too many Finnish demo
people personally. :>
RC: What is your musical background?
NE: I've played piano/keyboards for about 10 years or so, but only
started tracking around March 1993.. so i guess i'm a newcomer to
tracking, but not to music in general (having a musical theory
background helps out the tracking a LOT).
RC: What music would you say your most influenced by? (musicians,
groups, etc), tracked and recorded...
NE: Umm well i listen to a lot of diverse styles.. in real life some of
my favorite groups would have to be REM, Sting (very big influence),
Rush, the Cure, and also a lot of jazz/classical/techno stuff too.
It's good to listen to a lot of random styles to get yourself open to
new ideas. As far as tracker music goes, well it's a bit more
difficult to pin down specific people but a few of my favorites are
Skaven (nice nice big sound), Purple Motion (siner ecstasy), Mellow-D
(k-rad drums), and a lot of other people as well.. I like stuff that
doesn't stick to formulas (i.e. hard tracker techno and shit like
that)...
RC: Sounds like you've really got a lot of influences. I've noticed
that you can track just about any style of music, which is really a
good skill. What is your favorite style of music to compose?
NE: Well originally I loved tracking ANYTHING at all, since I thought
the tracker was the best thing I'd ever seen on a computer... I love
demo tunez a lot still, since they boil down to pure songwriting
(i.e. you can't mask them with fluff). However, nowadays I go for
more realistic-sounding tunes (i.e. realization and stuff like that).
The ultimate tune, I think, would be able to convince you that it
was coming out of a CD player, not out of a sequence of protracker
commands. :)
RC: That would be neat, I hope that in the future, tracked music can be
created with the same quality as commercial music. With technology
advances, I think that in the future, this will be a reality.
What ever happened to the Psychic Monks? For awhile, everyone
thought that PM was going to be the next USA group to take over the
scene. What happened to the group?
NE: Ahh PM. Hehe, well the group basically died of side projects.. Likuid
Krystal is working on his Doom clone, Pelusa is doing DSIK stuff,
and Oman actually is in Legend Design with me now. :> I regret it
breaking up, but then again i guess that's the fate of all US groups
(laugh).
RC: I know what you mean... :)
Well, now that you (and Oman) have recently joined Legend Design,
what plans do you have for the future?
NE: The future... Well I am VERY busy with school, and only get a couple
of hours of quality tracking done each week, so it's tough to plan
anything big. We're trying to get a musicdisk out by the Party 94
(late December) but my output is shit lately (Quality not Quantity).
I want to do at least one tune behind a kick-ass demo in my life before
I quit this scene stuff ... so i guess that's my ultimate aspiration as
far as the demo scene goes.
RC: I have no doubt that will be a reality. Legend Design is definitly
one of the best groups in the scene. Their demo "Warp" I thought
should have won ASM'94. I can't wait to see what you guys do. There
is a TON of potential!
What equipment and software do you use for making music? ...and
have you gotten yourself a GUS (Gravis Ultrasound) yet? :)
^^^
NE: Hehehehe I knew you'd ask that. :) No, I am a very very broke guy so
I haven't spent the 200 bux to get a GUS yet. I've been promised
ones by many people (ahem) but it never comes through... But anyways
the equipment I use is mainly leeched. Usually I process/rip samples.
However when that gets tiring I try to sample a bit on my own. This
semester I've borrowed some guitars and other equipment from some of my
friends, so hopefully I can start doing much more original samples...
RC: One day, about 10 GUSs will show up on your doorstep. All these
people that have promised you one will finally send 'em, then
you'll have more then you know what to do with. :) I think its
amazing what you've done with an SBPro. Now that your in Legend Design
maybe you could get a GUS from gravis?
NE: Well I love my sbpro, its static makes me feel warm and fuzzy
inside. But maybe I'd switch if i got a GUS for free :> I've tried
to get in touch with John Smith but I've had no luck .. Probably he
thought i was one of the billion other random people begging for them.
RC: How do you go about composing a song? What process do you use? I know
its probably a very complicated process, but give us the simplified
version.
NE: Ok the simplified version of how I do a song: start with drums, get a
beat going, then figure out the major chord changes. Next add
melody/lead lines... I tend to stick to verse/chorus/verse/chorus/weird
middle part/chorus/end usually. It's cheesy but it works...
RC: I know just about everybody has a different way of doing it... :)
NE: I value a good song structure a lot.. It's not often that I can come
up with progressions that interest me enough to finish the song..
well actually it's easier if I use an instrument to play around with
the changes and such first... It's really hard to get a good riff
going while working in a tracker..
RC: That reminds me of what Skaven said last week, about how important
structure is to him.
NE: Structure is VERY important... unless you want repetitive mush. :)
RC: What would you say is your best piece of work (released), and why?
NE: Ack this is a hard question. My favorite demo-style tunes, I think,
are the two I released for epidemic (hyper3/introspection), because I
did those when I was finally feeling fairly proficient with the
demo-tune style. And they exhibit both nice changes/structure and
some decent orchestration (and nice transitions too, the chorus in
hyper still kicks ass). But for realistic-tunes, I've gotta say
"Realization" is my favorite, even if it is very unfinished. The lead
guitar and organ just sound SO nice together.. :>
RC: Yeah, I really liked all of those tunes a lot. The complicated
melodies with your leads in "Hyper3" just amazed me. I especially
liked the changes you made for version 3 of that song. :)
What sort of stuff are you working on now, and how is it different
from your older work?
NE: Well all the new stuff is much more realistic-sounding, I'm going
very 'guitar'-y lately, don't know why (maybe all the alternative
muzik i listen to these days). The problem though is that all my
new stuff SCREAMS out for vocals, but it's just not feasible
because: a) I can't sing, b) The tunez would be like 5 megs :>
RC: Heheh... well maybe someday... :)
Whats your favorite beer?
NE: Umm Molson XXX of course.. But I don't drink beer much lately.. I'm a
hard liquor kinda guy (look what college does to me).
RC: Hows your girlfriend doing by the way?
NE: Well, It's off and on, off and on, she's great but the only problem
is when you combine a relationship with school with stress with
finals with other stuff it adds up to no time for tracking (and you
better believe that I'm not gonna track if I can fool around with my
girlfriend hehe).
RC: Is there anybody you'd like to greet or additional things you'd
like to say?
NE: Well greets are kinda intrinsically lame but I would like to say
hi to a few of my good friends in the scene, Peter (Skaven) and
Jaakko (Mellow-D) and of course my favorite Iguana musician (who
could that be? :>). And also cheers to all PC musicians... it is
you who keeps this scene alive. :)
RC: ...and finally...
NE: *drum roll*
RC: Where can we find your music on the net? Whats the best resource?
NE: Since my hornet dir got deleted (chuckle) you can get stuff
still from it's old mirror:
ftp.uwp.edu - /pub/msdos/demos/music/artists/necros/*.*
Also some of my stuff is floating around on starport and a bunch of
finnish sites. Eventually I will move all the shit to freedom.wit.com
but I'm too lazy to upload until I finish this semester. :>
RC: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview!
NE: 'Tis no problem... if anyone wants to contact me (please no mailbox
floods) I can be reached at: asega@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu
Until then... keep tracking (or if you can't track, drink) :)
[end of interview]
Hope that you enjoyed this weeks interview with Necros. In the future, we
will be including many interviews with more of the scene's top musicians.
Stay tuned!
Ryan Cramer
[Iguana/Renaissance/Hornet]
(rcramer1@osf1.gmu.edu)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
.oooooo. .o8
d8P' `Y8b "888
888 .ooooo. .oooo888 .ooooo.
888 d88' `88b d88' `888 d88' `88b
888 888 888 888 888 888ooo888
`88b ooo 888 888 888 888 888 .o
`Y8bood8P' `Y8bod8P' `Y8bod88P" `Y8bod8P'
((Section 7...Coders Corner)) <BY> Denthor, JsNo
==============================================================================
Lemmings, Psycho Neurosis - Denthor
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, here I am, to deliver the third article for this column.
Let me begin by telling you the responses of various people to the last two
articles :
EzE : You lucky bastard! How come you always get to do the fun stuff? I
want to write one!
Fubar : Shouldn't you be programming right about now?
GoTH : I was beginning to doubt it, but maybe you do have a sense of humour
after all.
I also got a letter asking me if those conversations I wrote last week
actually took place. Yep, they did, I wrote them down almost word for word.
You may blink now.
So the question remains, what to do this week? Here goes...
Let me tell you about how we devised the Lemmings section of our demo,
Psycho Neurosis.
And so the day came when I was bored. Very, very bored. I was at varsity.
The varsity had rows and rows of XT's at that time, I was so bored, I
actually crashed a Physics lecture which GoTH (then Livewire) was taking (a
doze). Sliding into the seat beside him, I woke him up and tourtured him
with my presence, and started doodling cartoons on his notepad.
It was easy to ignore the lecturer.
We started talking about demo effects (vewy vewy softly), and the
bored/sadistic part of our minds came to the fore. EzE had told us a few
weeks before that writing something like lemmings was impossible ... so we
decided to show him. Firstly we drew pictures of lemmings falling off
cliffs etc, etc, and I added in the bit where, if they hit the ground they
splattered and their broken, bleeding corpses were left behind. Physics
does this to us. We even wrote some psuedocode (our first ever for a demo
effect!), and wrote the first draft blind on an XT after the lecture. We
called it the Secret Project and wouldn't let anyone know what we were
working on.
A month or so later, when Fubar had joined the group, we got him to draw us
some lemmings and a background. It turned out rather well, we stuck a
scrolly at the top, added a bit of an intro and viola! we had a section for
Psycho Neurosis.
The way that the code was written was cool, in that we could put in any
background we wanted and the code would handle it. (Except for the cloud
;-)) We could even implement a larger, scrolling background. Eze wrote us
some happy, lemmingy music for the routine, and we shipped it with
Neurosis.
It was quite a hit, people seemed to enjoy it, and we were told more then
once that we were sick, but in a nice way ;-)
An important point to note is that the code was not difficult, it was just
the idea that made it a good effect. The moral of the story? Crash more
Physics lectures!
Next week I will be doing an interview with Maxwood / Majic 12, sould be
fun ;-)
Byeeee...
- Denthor
PS. Still nobody has sent me a GUS! What is this? ;-)
denthor@beastie.cs.und.ac.za
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
______ _ _ _ _
(_____ \ | | | || || | _
_____) )___ ___ _ | | ____ | || || | ____| |_ ____ ___ ____
| ____/ \ / _ \ / || |/ _ ) | ||_|| |/ _ | _)/ ___) _ \| \
| | | | | | |_| ( (_| ( (/ / | |___| ( ( | | |_( (__| |_| | | | |
|_| |_|_|_|\___/ \____|\____) \______|\_||_|\___)____)___/|_|_|_|
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
PMODE/W (PMode for Watcom C) review by StarScream of Renaissance
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is an article about Tran and Daredevil's new PMODE/W (Pmode for
Watcom C/C++). This new PMODE looks to be a very exciting new product and
it could be quite groundbreaking for the demoscene! Special thanks to
StarScream for contributing this article. For more information, be sure
to check out the advertisement for PMODE/W in the advertisements section
of DemoNews. -Ryan
Why Watcom?
~~~~~~~~~~~
Over the past year, a lot of talk has been generated in the demo
scene about the WATCOM C/C++ compiler. Almost all of the new games coming
out for the PC seem to be using it, and with good reason! WATCOM C has many
great features to boast; It uses the Protected Mode of the 386 or higher
processor, and generates highly optimized code which often runs many times
faster than the code generated by a competing compiler such as Borland.
The benefits of increased speed are obvious - if one can develop with
more C and less Assembly but not lose a great deal of speed in the process,
development time can be greatly reduced. Many people are even debating
whether they need to use Assembly anymore! Although WATCOM C can generate
fast code, it can not beat an expert Assembly coder, and I have personally
outwritten it many times with relative ease. Nevertheless, a lot of game
authors have been noticing that a slightly slower routine written in WATCOM
will often do just as well for them as if they had coded the same thing in
Assembly. For this reason, many games are being written with WATCOM.
Protected Mode and Tran's PMODE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Protected Mode of the 386 and higher processors was first put to
use in the demo scene when Tran wrote the first version of his
revolutionary DOS extender entitled 'PMODE', and began using it in Renaissance
productions. Protected Mode allows programmers a lot more flexibility, ease
of coding, and lets them access ALL of memory with NO speed loss. Programs
which use what is known as Real Mode are limited to the bottom 640k of memory
and can only access the other x megs on the computer by slowly swapping them
back and forth.
Tran's PMODE is probably the standard for DOS extenders in the demo
scene today. It has been since its release a few years ago. Tran has been
constantly updating it, and from using it I can tell you that it is nearly if
not 100% bug free now. In fact, the only drawbacks to using PMODE up until
now had been that you usually had to code in all Assembly with it because the
libraries in C didn't work, and that all of the DOS Interrupts had been
remapped, making it take a little time to learn how to use. However,
Daredevil & Tran's new PMODE/W (PMODE for WATCOM!) completely removes these
drawbacks and adds great new advantages as well as we will see later in the
review.
What ISN'T cool about WATCOM C
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Actually, WATCOM C is VERY cool. However, it is packaged with an
extender called DOS4GW, which you may recognize because it pops up an
annoying little thing telling you that's its name every time you run
something coded in WATCOM C. The DOS4GW extender leaves many things to be
desired, but it also has some nice features. Together with WATCOM C it's
allright.
DOS4GW has two great things about the way it works with WATCOM C.
First of all, memory is considered as being TOTALLY linear in most cases.
If you want to access the address 0a0000h, you can without having to change
that number in any way. All of the pointers correctly point to their
respective addresses with no change needed. The other nice thing is the
support DOS4GW has for DOS and BIOS Interrupts. All of these are mapped
directly to their normal Interrupts, so you can access the Interrupts just
as if you were coding in Real Mode. That's nice because you don't have to
learn anything new!
Unfortunately, DOS4GW can NOT be used in the demo scene for a few
reasons which are totally annoying. One of these reasons is its size. DOS4GW
takes up about 250K on disk! That's not so cool for an intro or something.
Another is that it HORDES memory when your program is running - it takes
about 300k (more i think) of memory AWAY from your program for its own
personal use! Finally, it has slow Real Mode/Protected Mode transitions. For
a timing critical routine, it is totally not accurate enough for use. These
are all major problems with the extender that don't seem like they will ever
be resolved - they are just fundamental flaws in the way it was programmed.
PMODE/W
~~~~~~~
For the good part of a year now, I have been wishing that I could use
WATCOM C in things we at Renaissance do for the demo scene. It would make my
life much easier and really help me out a lot. Daredevil and I have discussed
the idea of a using PMODE with a C compiler any times in the past, and at one
point Tran tried adding partial PMODE support to Borland C. However, Borland
turns out to be an extremely buggy compiler (as Tran found out :) and, due to
the nature of the compiler, the support was not even good enough for it to be
a useful tool for me.
Wonderfully, Daredevil and Tran decided to really get down to work a
couple of months ago and made the decision to make a full blooded PMODE for
use with WATCOM C. All that needed to be done was to replace the DOS4GW
extender with their own new version of PMODE. However, this proved not to be
such a simple task. In fact, at least two other people who I know have tried
to do the same thing - their versions, although technically they 'work', do
not allow the same flexibility of coding styles (i.e. the ability to add your
old Real Mode code/libs into your Protected Mode program) and do not emulate
many of the features necessary to WATCOM C well enough or at all.
Tran and Daredevil have written a new and updated version of PMODE
especially for their system with WATCOM C. This new version has a bundle of
great things, one of which is the size! PMODE/W IS UNDER 8K! Compare than
to DOS4GW's whopping almost 300K! PMODE/W also adds a lot of speed to the
switching done between Real and Protected Modes. These are great features,
but the best feature of all I find to be the fact that it is TOTALLY
COMPATIBLE with DOS4GW and WATCOM C! That means that you can add it to your
code later on even if you decide to develop with DOS4GW to begin with and not
have to change ANYTHING! I hear it even runs DOOM and Epic Megagames' ONE
MUST FALL with no differences except for lots more free memory and that the
two games run a bit better.
Here are some of the features listed in the PMODE/W docs:
) No external extender required (everything needed to execute is in the EXE).
) Small size (less than 8k for the entire extender program).
) Low memory overhead.
) Does not require ANY extended memory to load OR execute.
) No annoying initialization messages.
) Fast execution time.
) Free for non-commercial use.
PMODE/W costs $500 USD for use in a commercial or shareware program.
The professional version of DOS4/G costs around $1000. I would opt to buy
PMODE/W in a second because it runs better, gives you memory and will most
likely pay for itself in disk duplication costs! It's use is free if you
want to code any kind of public domain (freeware) software with it, making it
ideal for demo use. In fact, this is one place where it really shines - if
you are thinking of writing a demo I suggest that you use PMODE/W. It makes
life so much easier and allows so much flexibility that I've come to see it
as an indispensible tool.
There are a few features which I have found in PMODE/W which are not
listed in the documentation, but I have come to know about both by using it
and talking to Daredevil. I will list them here:
> Full Interrupt support
> You can STILL use the Watcom debugger! (yes, a debugger for PMODE!:)
> You don't need to worry about developing with it in mind.. you can add it
or take it away at any time
> Zip sizes become much smaller (great for commercial OR bbs distribution)
> Speeds up floating point emulation many 100s of percent
> You can use your old Real Mode code!
> Code can be loaded into extended/expanded memory!
> Full setup program which allows configuration of memory usage etc
There are doubtless many more features I haven't thought of or seen yet, so
I suggest you try it for yourself and see what else you can come up with. :)
Anyway, PMODE/W has been like a godsend for me, so I REALLY suggest you try
it.. it's WELL worth the 50k download! :)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Using Assembly - Part I - By JsNO CODING
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've sent code to a many people around the place. Unfortunately, many of
the people I've sent code to do not have the facilities or the knowledge to
use, understand assembly. I remember one particular person who told me that
he badly wanted to switch to assembly coding, but couldn't because he didn't
know how to implement certain mathematical and logic inferences like he
could in C. Well, this section, which will be split over several issues
will be dedicated to this very topic, but before I jump right into the guts
of the discussion, I would like to talk about obtaining an assembly compiler
and the basic structure of the programming model that I use - "TASM ideal
mode".
There are many Public Domain assembly compilers available on the net. I
haven't used all of them, nor have I investigated most of the modern
up-to-dated projects. Out of the ones I have used, all of them (and I mean
all of them), are not even worth my concentration span. In the commercial
side of things, there are two stable, well founded assembly products.
MicroSoft Macro Assembler (aka MASM) and Borland Turbo Assembler (aka TASM).
I've used both of this products. From my personal experience, MASM is an
absolute piece of shit. I would go as far to say that a brain damaged
departmental programmer I could have done a better job. The version I
purchased was MASM 6.1 (Compilation date: January 1993). A duel platform
compiler, with 32 bit support. When it didn't totally trash my harddisk, the
compilation time would be between 15 minutes to 2 hours...
Now, you might think that I'm being crazy here, I don't blame you, so did
the MicroSoft tech support people, but it was obviously a bugged to the eye
balls.
Now, I really don't want this to be a Microsoft bashing session, as it is
beyond the scope of this text. All I can say here is that Microsoft have a
big habit of crash testing their low priority, low demand products (this
isn't the first time I have purchased defective Microsoft software) and as
result, release bugged, extremely crappy, over rated and overpriced
software.
Why do they do this? you may ask. It's probably due to the introduction of
SDLC development, but quite simply, they are the only ones that can do it
and get away with it!. I don't know about you, but when you pay $300 for a
software produce, you expect it to faultlessly work. (BTW/ Microsoft don't
offer refunds, as I have found out. After 3 disk resends, I demanded my
money back. I eventually did get a refund from the local suppler, but they
have yet to get their return.)
A much better alternative (or rather, the only alternative!) is Borland's
TASM V4.0. At $125, it can do everything that MASM can do. It has a number
of modes of operation, which supports both MASM and Ideal mode. It like MASM
is also a duel platform compiler. The only problem with this product, is
that it is VERY hard to get.....VERY hard!!!!. If there wasn't any such
thing as a little entity called ABSA, I most lightly would give you all a
copy :), because I don't like your chances of getting it. Infact, if you
rang up the sales personnel at Borland Pacific, they probably wouldn't know
what it is!!.
The choice of mode, will be based on your taste. The only difference between
the three modes supported by TASM is the syntax of directives and precision
definitions. The reason why I use Ideal mode is because it compiles quicker
that any other mode, and it is similar to inline assembler of 3GL compilers.
The directives are also very logical and consistent.
Now, I will say this here, when you buy the TASM product, chuck the manuals
in the bin. All they talk about is how good TASM is and how
similar/dissimilar it is to MASM...pull, pull, pull, tug, tug, tug. With the
exception of pages 2&3, the TASM manuals tell you absolutely nothing about
ideal mode or ideal mode programming. There is even no ideal mode examples
in the distribution. I had to rely on example code on the net and trial and
error experimentation on how the directives are arranged.
To an amoeba, the first thing your going to have to know, is the basic
fundamental components you need to make an assembly program. If you want to
make a program to run in real mode, then the following essential components
are needed:
; LAME MODE
ideal
p386
model small
stack 100h
segment I_am_a_tasmanian 'data'
ends
segment i_am_a_newzealander 'code'
assume cs:i_am_a_newzealander, ds:I_am_a_tasmanian
start:
cld
mov ax,I_am_a_tasmanian
mov ds,ax
; mov ax,es
; mov bx,shrink_seg
; sub bx,ax
; add bx,2
; mov ah,4ah
; int 21h
mov ax,4c00h
int 21h
ends
;segment shrink_seg
; db 16 dup(?)
;ends
end start
Basically, I'm not going to waffle on about this too much, as will go on
forever. A glance at the above simple program will answer a lot of your
questions. The header is made up of compiler directives. The "ideal" tells
the compiler to enter into ideal mode. The "P386", tells the compiler that
you are using 386 processor instructions.
To my knowledge, there are certain sub-modes of ideal
mode that are case
sensitive. I Haven't explored this too much, as I have no desire for my code
to be case dependant. But, if you happen to accidentally enter this mode in
compile time (say, a procedure or reference is unexplainably unrecognised),
then it's probably due to this. There are also other funny modes like
"PxxxP" that allow you to use privileged protected mode instructions. Unless
your first name is "Tran" or "Adam", the use and understanding of this modes
is irrelevant.
A lot of C programmers get confused about the "model" directive. In
assembly, all it does is set the defaults for the procedure calls. All any
case, use "small", as you have no problem linking this type in model with
other code.
In "small" mode, the compiler assumes all procedures to be "near" called.
Note that if you intend to link a real-mode module into a Turbo pascal
program, then your code segment must be called "_TEXT", not "code". Also,
the model type has no bearing when linking ideal mode code to 3GL's. As long
as the interface routines are public (which are defined anyway). The stack
directive just sets the stack size. For nearly all assembly programs in real
mode, 256 bytes is ample. Note also that even though the "assume" directive
indicates the main code segment, having the 'code' and 'data' labels missing
from the segment labels will cause the compiler to trap syntaxes in a sort
of semi P386-P286 mode. This is most likely a bug with the compiler, as
this is totally illogical. Examples of this are the following instructions
to be legal:
shl eax,1
movzx eax,[byte ebx+hello] etc
and the following instructions to be illegal:
movzx eax,[byte eax+hello]
mov al,[byte ecx+hello] etc
...where as, all the above instructions are legal under P386 mode, and are
accepted if the main data and code segments are assigned the "flat" names
'data' and 'code' respectively.
The code that has been commented out does the job of shrinking the allocated
memory by the program to that equalling the size of the code, data and
stack. This is because MSDOS allocates all available memory when a program
is EXEC'ed. Therefore, if you use any of the memory management functions,
these functions will return an error when attempting to allocate memory.
Doing this releases any unneeded memory that you won't use.
If you're intending to write a Protected mode program, then *ADVERTISEMENT*
you're going to have to use *Adam Seychell's * DOS32 * product* number
10001110011b. And with every DOS32 you buy, you will get a free set of COBOL
books to the value of 1 cent, and if you ring in the next 2 minutes, you
will get a ......FREE TEDDY BEAR!! ..ring now, but don't send us any money,
we'll bill you!, ring now!!!..... ...But seriously (sorry Adam, I couldn't
help it ;)) , ...I have chosen to use Adam's Dos extender, because I believe
it's the best. If it was a commercial product, I would buy it. But it isn't
commercial, it's for free, which should give people an even bigger incentive
to use it. The construct for a P-mode program in ideal mode is as follows.
; P-MODE
ideal
p386
model small
segment code32 public 'code' use32
assume cs:code32, ds:code32, fs:code32, gs:code32,
ss:code32, es:code32
include "dos32.inc"
start32:
; call debug
cld
mov ax,4c00h
int 21h
ends
end
Don't worry too much about the segment (or rather - "Selector") initiation
directives. All it does is tell the compiler to generate 32 bit instructions
and make the segment pubic for linking with Adam's routines. The dos32.inc
companion file just defines pointers to data and procedures into his code.
The start pointer is actually located in Adam's code. This code switches the
computer into protected mode, modifies the DOS system functions. Once all
this is done, His code then jumps to start32 where our code begins.
The commented out debug code pointer is an initiation entry point into his
debugger, which does the job of plugging his debugging code into the
Interrupt 03. This code kicks in when ever an INT-3 is executed or when the
user hits ctrl-break... The run-of-the-mill 4c00h is terminates the code.
This basically switches the CPU back into real-mode and puts everything back
how it was before your program executed.
In my personal opinion, I don't really see why you would want to use real
mode. The only advantage I can see in using it is if you wanted to debug
your programs with existing commercial tools.....But, anyhow, for those die
hard lame-mode freaks, I'll continue to discuss both.
So now we are ready to actually put code and data into our segments. In next
issue I will be discussing how we model mathematical algorithm's in
assembler. I will also be discussing efficiency factors of instructions
across CPU's. This will aid you in producing to most efficient set of
instructions you possibly can across 386/486 based machines.
Well, Until next time...
:JsNO - Super Real Darwin!
ooo0ooo
Contacts:
Please forward any questions, announcements, material to -
jsno@amigar.apana.org.au.
==============================================================================
.o. .
.888. .o8
.8"888. oooo d8b .o888oo
.8' `888. `888""8P 888
.88ooo8888. 888 888
.8' `888. 888 888 .
o88o o8888o d888b "888"
((Section 8...Artists Corner)) <BY> Stony
==============================================================================
One of the things I will do in the Artists Corner is reviewing all
kind of graphical utilities and paint programs.
I will try to have some reviews every time on several utils and programs.
If you want something to be reviewed leave me a message and if I do have
the util or program then I'll try to review it.If I don't have the
util or program then I'll leave you a note and you can send it to me in
packets sized around 750k.
If you have some questions or remarks then also mail them to me, I'll try
to answer everything as soon as possible.
==============================================================================
((Section 9...Advertisements))
==============================================================================
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-==================================-=====================================-
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------
CALL! YOU CAN'T BEAT THE FEELING!
Moscow, Russia
___ _____ ______________ ___/\ ___ __________/\ /\_____
/ / / _ \/ ___/_ __/ / / \/ / /_ __/ / \/ \ __\
/ /____/ // /___ / / / / / / / / / / \ __\
\______/\_____/\_____/ /__/ /__/__/\ / /__/ /__/__/\__/\__\_____\
\/ <sr>
OVERLOOK World Headquarter
XOGRAPHY Russia Headquarter
Ab0VE Russia Headquarter
CBG Distribution Site
Russian demo groups support
Node #1: +7-o95-952-657o // 14.4k // 00:00-08:00 [MSK/GMT+3]
Its a pity that it works only eight hours a day, but
if you'll support it with your call - worktime will be extended!
Controlled by Steel R(4t
FiDONet: 2:5020/198.2, 2:5020/208.18, 2:5020/323.2
CabiNet: 112:921/950.18
OVRNet (World HQ): 115:3042/1
GSN (Russia HQ): 864:7/1
Why not to support this growing board?
That seemed to be the first demo scene oriented board
located in Moscow of Russia!
There are not so many stuff online - but that depends on you!
So make a call and help this board to join the best demo
scene oriented boards of the world top 10 list! :))
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
==============================================================================
((Section 10...Miscellaneous))
==============================================================================
I have had a lot of compliants lately about the removal of ANSI from HORNET.
Rather than suffer a massive uprising, I would like someone to PLEASE TELL
ME AN ALTERNATE SITE WHERE ANSI CAN BE FOUND. If you have any information,
please send it to r3cgm@dax.cc.uakron.edu.
==============================================================================
((Section 11...Closing))
==============================================================================
The quote for this week comes from "Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift"
lines 27-34.
Dear honest Ned is in the gout,
Lies racked with pain, and you without:
How patiently you hear him groan!
How glad the case is not your own!
What poet would not grieve to see
His brethren write as well as he?
But rather than they should excel,
He'd wish his rivals all in hell.
- Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
-Christopher G. Mann (Snowman)-
r3cgm@dax.cc.uakron.edu
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-End.of.DemoNews.073.
