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Static Line 31
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_\\__T_A_T_I_C___L_I_N_E________________________________________ March, 2001
__\\_________________________________________________________________________
\\//__ Monthly Scene E-Zine ________________________________ 205 Subscribers
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Table Of Contents
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Opening:
Message From the Editor
Letters From Our Readers
Features:
ZTracker Review - A MIDI Tracker
Columns:
Music:
In tune -- Wayfinder's "Resurection (The Race Part IV)"
The Listener -- Music from Hellven, Park
Retro Tunage -- Dust to Dust by Leviathan
Demo:
Screen Lit Vertigo -- Amiga Demos
Intro Watch -- "256b.com" and "Metazlo"
General:
Scene Sense: -- Round 2 - The Battle of the OS
Editorial -- Rebuttle to PsiTron
Link List -- Get Somewhere in the Scene
Closing:
Credits
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Message From the Editor
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It seems as though I forgot this part when I e-mailed it. I
appologize for all of those who got the e-mail without the Message from
the Editor. I've been a bit abscent minded lately. I'm sure you all
don't mind.
Anyhow, this is a pretty full issue, as we got all columns accounted
for this month. I think hell might freeze over, as I am reviewing an
MP3 this month. Then, Seven went nuts with his new high-speed internet
connection, and reviewed a bunch of old-skool amiga demos. Then, Gekko
introduces us to 128 byte (yes, 128 byte) intros. Setec comes back for
a brief article about ZTracker, a midi-tracking program for those with
great sound hardware, and a need to use a tracker. Then, Tryhuk brings
us plenty of music to listen to, including his monthly selection of
classic tunage. Finally, PsiTron and I duke it out over the OS issue.
Until next month, enjoy!
--Coplan
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Letters From Our Readers
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-=- Letter from DarkFury -=-
I saw much response and people's talk about OS usage. I'm assuming it
was at least somewhat in response to Psitron's article in Static Line
#29. I'd like to say, I'm glad to see proponents of more than
windows/linux/ect just bashing each other. Dilvish's discussion on what
is required for a useful OS design was a good overview of just what is
needed for a good platform (See "Letters" issue #30).
As you mentioned in your conclusion to SL #30 was that we can't
exclude those who simply spread demos or give ideas to
trackers/coders/artists because they do contribute. We used to have a
scene designation for people that distributed demos (ie. couriers)
although i remember that being a diskette and bbs thing, i see many
people today who share demos with there friends in similar ways. CDs and
home viewings are much easier today, but that doesnt mean the job has
changed. Also, I've seen a good deal of credits for 'design' or 'ideas'
in demos recently, this doesnt really take anything but creativity and
good design sense. Second, I agree, we should encourage the growth of
the scene, but we can't limit it only to the most popular platforms. The
changeover from amiga to pc wasnt just a one step deal, and currently
while we may still have the same essential architecture, windows is
heavily reliant on APIs and not much else, while some parts of the
abstraction inherent in this design are great for support and
compatibility, they do incur a good deal of performance decrease. There
are many ways to get around this though, for anyone who cares, it's not
easy but i'd say as a real performance freak that it's worth it. The
problem I really see today is the lack of actual enthusiasm about the
scene. example - In NA more than anywhere else, we have a huge lack of
demo parties for how many sceners there are (or atleast were). So as
I've thought for a long time now, the answer isnt to chose the scene's
OS/software/hardware/motto but to encourage everyone to do their part.
The real problem is simply narrow-mindedness that's keeping many from
doing all the amazing things that are possible. We have 1+ GHz
processors and we're still seeing the same old stuff... I'm seeing
better grafix on 3d accelerators, but not nessacerily on faster
systems... assuming everyone is a gamer or a video editor so they must
have the newest card is NOT the way to go, it does give some really
impressive things to those that do have that, but we need to keep that
whole 'availabilty to the masses' idea in mind as well.
--DarkFury of Nutropik
-=- Letter from Cmicali -=-
I saw there is a list of new and old trackers in the latest static
line... i was wondering if you could get someone to do a review, or at
least mention a tracker i am developing. It started as a tool for
myself, but there was enough interest from others that i developed it
publicly. I wanted to move to MIDI and real hardware, but i hate
regular sequencers, and i love Impulse Tracker, so i made a win32/dx
version of impulse tracker that is midi only. it's called zt, and it's
available at http://ztracker.sourceforge.net/ .. it's open source and
still in development, but it is very useable and many people are
already using it. You can check some tracks made with just zt at that
site. Thanks! :)
--C.micali (aka zephyr)
-=> Reply from Coplan:
I know it took a while, but we have been playing around with ztracker
a bit since it came out. Setec has agreed to write a brief review of
the program for us, and you can find it in this issue of Static Line.
It's an interesting program, and the review is worth checking out.
--Coplan
-=- Letter from SagaCity -=-
A small excerpt from an article in the last issue of static line:
It is clear to many that Windows lacks that real-time support and
stability to provide a good home for the demo (or video game)
community.
And after that the author rambles on about how we need a new OS and
all that. This kind of talk is utterly pointless. It is completely
pointless to develop a new 'demo-only' OS. It is completely pointless to
try supporting the hundreds (thousands) of different videocards and
soundcards. It is completely pointless to try making it compatible with
other OS-ses.
Why? Windows does all that.
--SagaCity
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ZTracker Review
A MIDI Tracker
By: Setec
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-=- Introduction -=-
About two years ago, I went out and spent a fortune on a synthesizer
module and a MIDI keyboard to go with it. I felt like taking my music
one step further and got into the MIDI part of musicmaking. So having
brought home this newly aquired gear I loaded Cubase and expected music
to come pouring out of me ...to this day I have still not completed a
tune in Cubase! Or any other topnotch sequencer for that matter.
I realized that I was craving for a tracker interface. Whenever I
tried to make something, I kept longing for that extremely precise
control you have in trackers. The intuitive layout of things, the
ability to easily handle multiple tracks at once. None of these things
seemed simple in Cubase. Making small riffs had me going nuts, it was so
impractical. So much work to get something that I could have easily
cooked up in five secs in ft2.
So here comes salvation it seems: ZTracker.
ZTracker is basically Impulse Tracker ripped of all sample facilities
and, instead, blessed with full MIDI implementation. So instead of a
sample and an instrument page you get a single instrument page that
allows you to link each instrument to a specific MIDI out port and
channel. My prayers have been heard!
-=- Interface and features -=-
As hinted, the overall interface is very much the same as that of IT,
so if you are used to Impulse Tracker you shouldn't have too much
trouble switching to ZTracker. The pattern editor is almost a complete
replicate of IT's, and it seems like all hotkeys are kept the same as
well. The only major difference here is the fact that each note entry,
in place of the usual effect column, has a "note lenth" column. This
specifies - obviously - a length in ticks until a note off message is
sent. I personally really disliked this approach at first, until I
emailed Christopher (the ZTracker developer) and realized that the good
old note off command was also available. Somehow this usual approach
seems more natural to me, but I can see how the ability to specify an
exact note length can come in handy at times. Anyway, having both
options sure cannot hurt!
The note length column does have one side effect though; there is no
effect column in the standard viewmode. To access the effects you need
to switch to a view that allows you only three tracks visible at a time.
For me personally, this is a bit of a letdown. Especially when you look
at how well MIDI effects are implement. A simple Sxxyy command allows
you to send any CC messages you wish. Marvelous for making filter sweeps
and any other realtime effects you might want. Your synthesizer really
sets the limit here. Whatever it will do, ZTracker will allow you to
tell it to. This all just makes it that much more regretable that the
effects column has been hidden this well. The option to exchange the -
for me, rarely used - note length column with effects would have been
wonderful.
Block functions are also nearly identical to IT. Copying, Pasting,
interpolating volume and effect data, transposing are all implemeted.
But it doesn't stop at that. ZTracker introduces an absolutely marvelous
way to enter volume and effect data. Pressing shift-` presents you with
mousedrawing mode, something I have never seen in a tracker before. This
is extremely useful for any sweeps of volume or effect data. Just hold
down left mouse button and drag it down the track. The horizontal
position of the mouse will set the effect data for the corresponding row
of the track. It really cannot be any simpler than this.
The earlier mentioned note length option also adds a few block
commands. One really useful command is ctrl-` which sets all note
lengths in the selected block to the length betweens consecutive notes.
This implies that note off messages are not automatically send on new
note entires. This is one thing you really need to remember. Awful
harmonics when i first tried to sequence a small string section. :)
The order list is identical to IT, so no surprises here. The obvious
differences are the instrument pages. Basically the idea of instruments
are the same as those in any standard tracker. Only now instead of
supplying each instrument with a number of samples you link it to a
specific MIDI channel on a specfic MIDI out port. Each instruments has
the following variables: bank, patch, default volume, default length,
global volume, transpose and channel. Worth noting is that the global
volume setting - one thing that really tends to make mixing easier - is
still available. Also the possibility to send bank and patch settings to
your MIDI module is great, if you don't want to setup performances for
each tune (this is actually how I do it, but nevermind that). There is
an update device command that sends bank and patch data to the
corresponding channel so it seems all options are covered. Visually this
all looks a lot like the instrument editor in IT, so the interface is
the same, the options just differ. There are no volume or panning
envelope pages though, so any such settings need to be made externally
on your module. No hassle, though it would have been marvellous if such
envelopes were available. This is dreaming though, and it would probably
be pretty hard to implement. Plus the amount of midi messages nescessary
would probably clutter the device quite rapidly.
-=- Chatting with the outside world -=-
I experienced absolutely no problems with ZTracker and my MIDI
modules. Everything was peachy, timing was acurate and all messages
seemed to work perfectly. Also, it seems quite stable. My windows
usually seems to die quite often but after thorough testing I didn't
manage to kill ZTracker one single time. Always impressive for a windows
application. :)
It is also worth noting that ZTracker happily loads .IT files, which
is marvelous if you - like me - fancy trying to remake some of your old
work with external hardware. It loads patterns and order lists and just
whipes the samples so you are free to link each instrument with any
channel you want. Speaking of samples, it is worth mentioning that
ZTracker in NO Way supports samples! There is simply no sample playback
facility so if you want that option you need to use a software sampler
that is linkable via midi. It is a shame, really. Sample possibilities
would really ensure that ZTracker would be the ONLY tracker I ever used
from now on. As things are - software sampler being as unstable as I
think they are - I am afraid I won't really be able to make a complete
tune in ZTracker. Still, it might very well turn out to be the backbone
of all riffs and chord progressions.
-=- Conclusion -=-
This is a wonderful tracker. The implementation of midi is thorough
and flawless. Every possible aspect I could think of seems to be there,
and the interface is as straightforward as any other tracker. The
transition from an ordinary tracker is as easy as can be.
I cannot help feeling that it is a bit of a shame about the lack of
sample playback facilities. Christopher - the developer - makes it
pretty clear in the readme that something like that will never be a part
of ZTracker and I can understand that it would add a huge workload to
what is probably already a big project. I just wish he could somehow
team up with Pulse and merge Impulse Tracker and ZTracker. Having all
those features available in one tracker would certainly make it the
center of all my music production. I would probably never see a need for
any high-end sequencer again, except perhaps for final mastering. An
application that blended the two trackers would be a godsend.
The only other issues I have are minor ones. Including a help function
that simply listed the commands and such would be nice, and I would like
the ability to set a default pattern length as well (it uses 128 lines
now, which seems a little long to me).
I love this tracker. I have been looking for something like this for a
very long time and when I finally found it, I would have never thought
it to be this complete. I have stated it a lot already, but the
implementation of midi is sooo flawless. If you have the need to control
external gear via midi, and you are a little tired of working with
Cubase or a similar sequencer, well then this is exactly what you need!
ZTracker efficiently brings external gear into the world of tracking.
You will love it!
-=- Notes -=-
ZTracker - developed by Christopher Micali (micali@concentric.net)
This program is 100% Free and is available for download at:
http://ztracker.sourceforge.net
The application was tested using Windows 98 and an external Roland
USB MIDI interface as well as a Terratec EWS64xl soundcard. Neither had
any problems at all working with ZTracker. The SoundBlaster Live is
supposed to work perfectly with ZTracker as well.
--Setec
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In Tune
Wayfinder's "Resurection (The Race Part IV)"
By: Coplan
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It's a cold day in hell.
Coplan (the guy who likes to refer to himself in third person) is
reviewing an MP3. I have reasons. For one, most of my favorite groups
and trackers are now releasing mostly in MP3 format. Next is the fact
that I fell in love with trance lately, and I have been doing some tunes
offered in both MP3 and IT (mind you, the MP3 sounds better
cross-platform). Then, I realized that soundcards are still far from an
exact science, especially while using an old tracker like IT, or Fast
Tracker (mind you, I can't actually get Fast Tracker working). I went
around visiting some of my favorite sites two weeks ago, and I started
collecting scene MP3s. Some of which are very good, and with some of
the post-processing that I assume is being done makes the tunes sound
very professional. This month, I'm going to review yet another
Wayfinder song. I know it seems as though I review his music a lot, but
I think he deserves it. It just goes to show that he's a tracker that
has found a groove, and can release one successful song after another
without fading. I admire that, and I'm a bit jeleous. Since it is an
MP3, I will have to go about things differently.
The song opens kinda quiet, with nothing but a simple little base
line. Then the drums start to kick in, specifically the base drum. In
a more traditional style song, I would pick on the percussion, as it is
very monotonous (base drum, synth-claps, hi-hat, crashes). But this is
a trance tune, and there is no such thing as a trance tune without this
monotonous beat. If you're composing within a certain style, know the
style's definition, and make sure you follow most of the requirements
before you claim it to be of the said style. Anyhow, i'm drifting
again.
What makes this song for me is the piano and the high pitched
trance-pads. The piano work reminds me of a Robert Miles song
(commercial artist from a couple years back, famous for songs like
"Children" and so on). Yes, it's a bit repetative, and it's a simple
riff, but somehow, I'm pulled into the song for this reason. Then, in
comes the trance pads. If played flat, I think the pads would be pretty
boring. But since Wayfinder has done lots of post-processing, adding
lots of echos and effects, the pads sound truly mesmerizing.
Something a lot of people will overlook in a song like this is the
fact that there is a rigid chord progression in effect. In some parts
of the song, you will hear some low strings in the background. At
other parts, the strings raise an octave, and carry out the chord
progression at the higher octave. The chord progression remains almost
unchanged throughout the song (no key changes or anything). If I had a
modular version of this song, I'd be willing to bet that if I were to
mute those string channels, the song would come off as very obtuse with
very little depth what-so-ever. It's these little things that can make
or break a song. If someone tells you that they don't like a song, but
they aren't sure why...9 out of 10 times, it's for something simple
like that.
A friend of mine, who's a DJ, loves to come to me every so often and
ask for all the MP3s that I have along the dance/trance/club/etc.
genres. I'm going to set this one aside for him. He will burn it to
CD, and using his new Pro-Scratch 1 (http://www.americandj.com), he'll
be mixing between CDs. This song is pretty easy to mix into another
song, as there is a very long time at the end for the DJ to blend in
the next song. I know it's nothing that was intended by Wayfinder (or
maybe it was), but it's something I thought I should point out.
BTW, for you DJ's out there, you really should check out that
Pro-Scratch 1.
Anyhow, the tune is among my favorite trance tunes, especially from
Azure (http://www.azure-music.com). If you havn't visted their site
yet, you should. It's good tunes to load into your favorite MP3 player.
--Coplan
Song Information:
Title: Resurrection (The Race Part IV)
Author: Wayfinder of Azure
Filename: az-17.mp3
File Size: 9.5 MB
Source: http://www.azure-music.com
"In Tune" is a regular column dedicated to the review of original and
singular works by fellow trackers. It is to be used as a tool to expand
your listening and writing horizons, but should not be used as a general
rating system. Coplan's opinions are not the opinions of the Static
Line Staff.
If you have heard a song you would like to recommend (either your own,
or another person's), We can be contacted through e-mail useing the
addresses found in the closing notes. Please do not send files attached
to e-mail without first contacting us. Thank you!
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The Listener
Music from Hellven, Park
By: Tryhuk
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Another month gone and once again I'm writing reviews in the last
minute. This is the reason why I will take it a bit faster, but I
believe it will be enough to point you on some of the interesting music
that came out during last month.
"Urbanism" - is a new musicdisk by hellven featuring altemark and
alphaconspiracy as guest stars. I got to say that I like their tracks
best. Altemark came up with industrial "gospel", a song with an unusual
sound that combines heavy industrial sound with very rhytmic percussion,
embosomed with sharp rusty sounds. This track is definitely worth
listening, especially because of its strong dictating tempo. Necros
came of course with "electronic style", a remix of depeche mode. Also a
well done and interesting song. Of course there are also other
interesting tracks, like "looking out - cityscape" by virt, a typical
demoscenish ambient flight with blippish sounds, in the second part
slipping off to pop. And I can't forget to mention a co-op of members
of oldskoolers night55, xerxes and scirocco. Their "roughcut" is
directing to a new down-tempo synth based electronic style and with
success.
http://urbanism.hellven.org/
Charity Ep - easy album with no potential hits, but with calming,
enjoyable music. I would like to point here only one: "goodnight kiss"
by nagz. It is that kind of meditative, floating, moody track we used to
hear from dune and with a significant influence from blade runner. I
think it's most enjoyable track out of this months selection and my
personal pick - don't miss it.
http://www.parkstudios.net/
TDR releases - tokyo didn't sleep and released a bunch of good
songs. Among best of them belong "move on (d-soul mix)" by josef
saddler, a bit moby like mix of house and soul, a dreamy "fais moi
fremir" with nice female vocals and sensitive saxophone or kriis "blunt
times" signed as rhytmic soul, but again succesfully balancing on the
edge of styles. All of the tracks are on that high level that they
can't be described, they have to be heard and I'm afraid that more
detailed selection is a matter of your personal taste.
http://www.tokyodawn.org
Theralite features Xhale "in collaboration with frode kloevtveit and
roger langvik on trumpet and bass. again with the claustrophobic
confined dark atmosphere and the minimalistic breaks but this time on a
more tripped out downbeat side" (i stole this definition from their
website. perfect things don't have to be improved)
http://theralite.avalon.hr/releases/thera013.html
OF course I wanted to mention "ddd" by fun tourist and "halfmoon" by
esem, but both tracks are reviewed at goodstuff, so go there for a
review. Just a note - both tracks are superb.
http://konsumer.de/goodstuff/
And fot those who are disgusted by large mp3 releases, here is a great
chip musicdisk "merry christmas" from fairlight members:
ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/music/groups/fairlight/flt_012-merry_christmas.zip
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Retro Tunage
Dust to Dust by Leviathan
By: Tryhuk
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It makes me sad when I realize how much does the scene forget on the
people who were really good at the time, but they just didn't release
enough crap to have it laying on every ftp. Among them belongs
Leviathan. I still remember his "Dust to Dust" as one of the best
tracked songs I ever heard. It opens with a nice bass and a slow
tambourine that dictates the tempo. In the background is an organ
and in a moment song bass catches the tempo and the song starts to
gather percussion. This slowly grades to first strong moment where some
of lead instruments appear. I intentionaly say some, because one of the
strongest points on this tune is how the leads are handled. But I'd like
to mention bassline first, because it is in this track often played
almost on the place of lead and it is handled really well. I remember I
read somewhere that A.Dvorak (czech composer) said once that from the
bass you can recognize the composer. Although he meant rather a bass
note in the chord progression, this song brought me to remind this
citation. As the leads Leviathan uses an organ, which is also often used
as a background instrument. Next it is an electric guitar and of course
a piano. Melody is very good (more, it is lovely) in the whole track at
all, but when I forget the melody, I like a lot how the instruments in
the lead cooperate - organ plays the melody and guitar repeats it. They
go on with the melody - organ plays and guitar repeats. I feel that
this is a right point to stop this review. All I have to say is that it
is a damned good song that flows really well and it is one of best
tracked guitar tunes. And one more thing. It has full five hornet stars.
Song Information:
Title: Dust to Dust
Author: Leviathan
Release date: 1995
Length: 3m40s
Filename (zipped/unzipped): k-dust.zip/k-dust.s3m
File Size (zipped/unzipped): 257k/400k
Source: hornet archive
ftp://us.hornet.org/pub/demos/music/songs/1995/k/k-dust.zip
--Tryhuk
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Screen Lit Vertigo
Amiga Demos
By: Seven
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Finally I've internet access at home (cable of course), so I should
never have to mess around with diskettes anymore to get new demos.
You've no idea how easily disks can go defective if you've got to
transport them by bike during the winter from work to your home, forcing
you to go back after working hours and try to copy it again, and
again... Needless to say, one of the first sites I visited was
scene.org, looking for the latest productions. Alas, we're in february,
everybody is hibernating and the few small parties that have happened
since last month didn't bring us any high-quality releases :(
Performance 2001 is ending today but its demos haven't been uploaded yet
and the SL deadline is today). Then I read on Orange Juice that a number
of Amiga demos from '94-95 had been converted to mpg's for a videoCD
project. Aha, that's something to test my bandwidth on... Half a
gigabyte of mpgs later, I decided to do a quick review of these oldskool
gems, because some of them are really great. Of course I can't comment
on the technical side, since I've never owned an amiga myself.
You can find all these mpgs at http://www.byterapers.com/~sivu/amiga
So, here we go:
Name/Group: Nexus 7/Andromeda
Year: 1995
Size: 61 MB
Duration: 6 min
Comments:
This seems to be a technical showoff, no story, just well-synced
fullscreen effects like landscapes, a 3D discoball, motion blur and
original parts named "gouraud pulse", "shade cluster" and "plasma zoom".
Our friend the Luxo lamp is in there too, albeit a little bit more
primitive than f.e. in Spot/Exceed. Instead of greetings, they send
insults to some other amiga scener. Oldskool attitude, yes.
Name/Group: Deep/CNCD & Parallax
Year: 1995
Size: 37 MB
Duration: 3 min 30
Comments:
Some great pictures in here, sometimes used in effects like polar
distortion or as the background of a transparent refracting cube. Two
tunnel-variants are shown, one textured with a 3D landscape, the other
intersecting with a cube. There's one 3D part with totaly psychotic
colors and too much motionblur (and the mpg artifacts don't help
either), but the rest is OK.
Name/Group: Deep (Psilocybin mix)/CNCD & Parallax
Year: 1995
Size: 42 MB
Duration: 4 min
Comments:
Basically an heavy upgrade of Deep: more colorful parts, more complex
objects, a lot of very weird texts, and female body parts sprinkled
through the demo. The 3D plasma landcape and the rubber pilar at the end
look great too. If you don't want to download both Deep and Psilocybin
mix, choose this one.
Name/Group: Baygon/Melon Design
Year: ?
Size: 40 MB
Duration: 4 min
Comments:
Has some Danish design but without the high resolution: a 2-color twirl
effect, wireframe 3D objects, b/w graphics, space invader monsters,
50 % of the soundtrack is made of a "back to school" sample, which got a
bit on my nerves. 1/3th of the demo is text shown at the end (no
scroller, just static).
Name/Group: Booo 2/Melon Design
Year: ?
Size: 22 MB
Duration: 2 min
Comments:
A short jokedemo. After a short fakir-intro with sitar music, some
flashing b/w effects are shown with a house tune. The message at the end
is very oldskool too: "256 colors bring no talent", followed by a fine
32-color picture.
Name/Group: Ninja /Melon Design
Year: 1994
Size: 22 MB
Duration: 2 min
Comments:
A cartoon-style demo about a ninja slicing someones head off. No
effects, little story, just 100% graphics. The movie-style music really
fits with it. Halfway there's a 1-second stall, but maybe that's a
download error.
Name/Group: Planet M. /Melon Design
Year: ?
Size: 46 MB
Duration: 4 min 30
Comments:
This demo doesn't really fit in any category. It starts with some gray
low-res animations of girl faces, followed by a really ugly spiral in
contrasting colors. The melon logo is used in a lot of effects, it's for
example projected in 3d on a 2d naked body. An original part is the 3D
cube that moves to the screen and "hits" it, causing the corners to be
flattened. The music starts very gently, but changes quickly to a 100%
beats tune.
Name/Group: Mina Omistan /Movement
Year: ?
Size: 25 MB
Duration: 2 min 10
Comments:
A videodemo with a very low-fi soundtrack: some screamed vocals over
a drum and a guitar sample. The mono-color video fragments show an asian
putting on sunglasses, a drummer, someone playing a guitar,... The
dancing tuaregs don't really fit in, but they're funny :)
Name/Group: Zif / Parallax
Year: 1995
Size: 62 MB
Duration: 6 min
Comments:
A heavy 3D demo, with lots of phong/metal shaded objects inside:
a face, a car, the letters of the credits,... Sometimes the framerate
slows down noticeably :/ The start and end logos are great, and there are
some more handdrawn pictures too. I don't really like the music: 50% beats,
50% more beats.
Name/Group: Gevalia / Polka brothers
Year: ?
Size: 23 MB
Duration: 2 min 10
Comments:
Very fast-paced demo, with some great effects: weird wireframe
tunnels, a 2D animated crocodile, more fast anims seen through a dot
filter, a fast tunnel made of xor-ed b/w polys... Add to this a good
picture of a demon, plus that jazz-on-speed music... wow! A pity it's so
short, and some texts are non-english :/
Name/Group: Prey / Polka brothers
Year: 1994
Size: 53 MB
Duration: 5 min 10
Comments:
At the start, there's some kind of "feeling-buildup": scary texts, a
drawing of a man and a woman fighting with a knife, and horror- style
music. But after that, Prey becomes a full-screen-effects-with-
pulsating-music type demo: polar effects, 2 intersecting sine surfaces,
a texture mapped tunnel in ugly colors (are those amiga coders
colorblind, or is it just very hard to do that? I guess the latter).
There's an excellent picture at the end of a monster having catched a
little boy, I suppose the demo's name originates from that.
Name/Group: Twisted / Polka brothers
Year: 1994
Size: 59 MB
Duration: 5 min 40
Comments:
My favourite of the pack: perfect syncing on a stirring soundtrack
that switches between rock, house and pure demostyle, great design
(those cubes turning into TV-screens! The poems you just can't read
completely in time!) and lots of splendid visuals: fractal, wireframe
and solid tunnels, long dotfilter animations, a fire effect, several
short movie fragments... If this was the normal level of the amiga scene
in 1994, I can understand that they looked down upon the PC scene.
Name/Group: Faktory / Virtual Dreams & Fairlight
Year: ?
Size: 25 MB
Duration: 2 min 20
Comments:
A short weird demo, with a "man VS machine: who's in control" theme.
The effects include twisting tunnels and a bumpmapped morphing
metal-surface, the pictures that are shown allong are mostly
photo-based. There are few 3D objects, but that screen with a robot-hand
looked cool :)
Name/Group: Sumea / Virtual Dreams & Fairlight
Year: 1996
Size: 31 MB
Duration: 3 min
Comments:
This demo has the most advanced 3D of all: it starts with a ride
through a sewer tunnel, till we bump into a TV showing a
ball-with-holes-and- a-lightsource-within. Some balls jumping through
hoops are very motionblurred, I prefer the part where balls fall on the
floor, breaking in hundreds of pieces (good physics!). There's one very
colorful picture of a man standing, the music is house/goa with
distorted voice samples in it.
Sorry to the cable-deprived part of the scene for reviewing such
large productions, I truly hope next month will bring us many good &
small PC demos :)
--Seven
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Intro Watch
"256b.com" and "Metazlo"
By: Gekko
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
-=- http://www.256b.com -=-
I would bet most coders out there have been to at least one demo party
in their life. And while at that party, they probably watched all the 4k
and 64k demos, and listend and watched all the music and gfx. But at
more than one point were there another compo at that party. One that
wasn't announced that much. More kept behind the "Big boys". The secret
number no one ever mentioned was a compilation of three digits 2,5 and 6
and included the character 'b'. Together they formed the word '256b'.
When was the first time anyone ever came up with the idea for a
256byte compo? I don't know. I am however sure that back in 1995, Steve
Havelka organized the '256Byte Game Contest' on internet for a small
numer of coders. The idea was, as the name suggests, to write the
funniest and best game in only 256 bytes, and the winner was awarded $5.
Today, there have been numerous 256b compos, and they have been in
all kinds of shapes and categories. Demos have contained some of the
most profound coding instructions ever seen, and have featured stuff
like phong toruses, tunnel effects, bumpmapping and etcetera. However,
this wasn't the case back in the middle 90's when plasmas were still
trendy, and would make you win any compo. Until the increasing usage of
the FPU (math co-processor), doing 3-D in 256 byes was something people
thought impossible. There were however the psuedo ones, such as
'Sqwerz3' by Matju/Trimaje and 'SukaForte' by PaN/Spinning Kids, both in
'96, but nothing that was 'true' 3-D with the rest of the demoscene. I
wasn't until at Coven '97 when Fysx presented his demo called 'Sputnik'
that the world realised what could be done in what people called "A
ridiculous size". Sputnik featured the worlds first phong torus in 256
bytes. After that the barriers had ben broken. 3-D seemed like easy when
implementing the FPU. And some weirdo even did it in 128 bytes!
'Til a couple of days ago I did not have the slightest clue why
people were so obsessed with the '256 byte' size limit. But when going
through an old and discarded hard drive I found the answer in one of the
info files for the 256b Game Contest back in '95. The file said that the
inspiration came from Steve Wozniak, who appearently wrote an entire
machine language monitor in under 256 bytes on the Altair 8800.
Ofcourse, back then in 1975, the RAM of the 8800 was, yeah you guessed
right, 256 bytes.
Gotten hungry to see what people have made in this tiny size? Check
out www.256b.com and see for yourself.
Insomniac (webmaster of 256b.com)
email: insomniac@256b.com
url: http://www.256b.com
-=- Metazlo -=-
4k intro by Upi/Throb
3rd place at Mindresources 2001, Russia
Download:
ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/incoming/MINDRESOURCES01/in4k/metazlo_f.zip
Requirements: Windows, OpenGL, 3d video card, sound card
There is a lack of activity on the scene in the beginning of the
year, but now seems to have lasted even till the end of February. In the
month, apart from this intro, I have not seen any outstanding release.
This intro is for coders only. It can impress a programmer very much,
but it would not qualify for a piece of art. It contains meta-balls and
meta-toruses, which are very complex effects, especially in 4 kilobytes.
On the other hand, there has been little effort invested in the design
and objects appear to be blocky. There is music, but it is so repetitive
that it gets on one's nerves after a few seconds. This is probably the
reason why it did not win in the competition.
--Gekko
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Scene Sense
Round 2 - The Battle of the OS
By: PsiTron
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
Last month, Smash wrote a rather in-depth article stating that he
thought Windows was, in fact, a very viable location for the scene to
be in. It is quite clear that our opinions differ, but if he intends on
saying I am absolutely wrong, I intend on making my apparent wrongness
quite clear. I do not intend on stepping on any toes, I respect his
opinion as I hope he respects mine, but I think it is important to
defend what I think is a very different interpretation of the scene. In
actuality I believe this goes closer to the heart of the matter: There
are currently different ideas about what the scene is and how it should
be run.
A lot of commotion has been stirred in regards to allow anyone to
access what the scene has. I have no problems with that, but should the
scene go out of it's way to complete such a task. Should the scene
simply stay on an operating system that even idiots can make fun of and
ridicule? Should the scene merely go with whatever is popular? I say
no, because the scene is much more than eye candy for the average Joe.
For Joe (and I'm sorry for anyone reading this named Joe =) is not going
to much care about the hard work that went into it. He is not going to
care about what a tracker is or perhaps even what assembly is. True, he
might says something like "wow" or "cool", but he will not appreciate
the culture involved in it.
And yes, deny it or not, shrug it off if you wish, the scene has a
culture. And that culture has a history. Is it a coincidence that
before Windows the scene happened to be on the most powerful computers
at the time? I think not, because the scene is not about saying some
profound message in a demo. It originated in doing the impossible and
while one could argue that one could do impossible things with Windows,
one should not have to. Because the scene has also been committed to
excellence, the elite (even by self-proclamation) have pushed the scene
forward, not backward as the case I am seeing. Part of the reason
Windows sucks so much (aside from the fact that a certain company made
it) is that it is so damn user-friendly that, in trying to make it idiot
proof, they sacrifice usability. If you think the scene ought to do the
same, what is the point or purpose of a demo in the first place. Go and
throw down with an MPEG made in 3D Studio MAX and tack some audio onto
it if you'd rather. Why spend countless hours slaving over a computer
tracking, coding, pixeling, whatever, if you drown it in the dirty swamp
that infests our lives enough already? So people who are not going to
understand the significance of it all merely have easier access to it?
As a scener, I am not here for the average Joe near as much as I am
here for myself, then for the scene.
Having said that, if one wants exposure, it really does not matter
what OS the scene may be on as long as it is on the Internet. If someone
wants to watch a demo THAT bad, they will likely begin to use Linux,
demOS or whatever. To say that Windows is the one and only operating
system for the scene is ludicrous. That is just undermining better
alternatives for the betterment of all users. Why should the scene
continue to use Windows because everyone else does (and for another
statistic, 85% of all computers have Windows on them, a tad bit more
realistic than 99%).
There are infinite possibilities and solutions to make the scene
better, but if one is unwilling to change because the rest of the world
is unwilling to change, well, no one's going to change. All we will all
be stuck with the crap that most complain about every day. Do we want
that? Does the scene benefit from that?
Of course not, and Linux is merely a possible solution that I rather
enjoy. True, hardware support might be lacking (if you noticed I
mentioned this in my last article), but Linux is very stable (hence
instead of demos dying right in mid demo, they will just not work) and,
consequently, most new hardware is present in new releases of the
kernel. True, 3D Hardware support is lacking slightly in Linux, but
likewise there is not much demand for it, unfortunately. However, I
must say that Unreal Tournament runs noticeably faster in Linux than it
does in Windows. By no means am I saying Linux is perfect, few (if any)
operating systems these days are, or even that change will happen
instantly and overnight. The point I am simply trying to make is that
the scene has options and it is not just Windows.
The bottom line however is that both the OS war and the war over
Scene-Ideals are far from over. The only deciding factor will seem to
be time because, like it or not, change takes time. But if it is
anything I have learned about the scene is that it is, in fact, always
changing - sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. And, after
having read this, you may think I am crazy and, well, stupid. But I
give you my two cents, nonetheless, on what I think it best for the
scene, and while some may think it is worth just that - two cents - I
do it just so some may see another side of the same coin.
--PsiTron
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Editorial
Rebuttle to PsiTron
By: Coplan
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
It's not often that I'll jump into a mass argument, but this one is a
hot one, and frankly, I'd like to put an end to it. Plain and simple, I
disagree with PsiTron on many things relative to his OS War. I have
asked him not to continue with this discussion next month. But I will
allow feedback, and I will carry out my side of the argument right here.
Has the scene ever truly flocked towards power? Possibly, back during
the days of Amiga. But that has nothing to do with Amiga being the most
powerful OS at the time. At the time, OS was hardware specific. The
fact that people used Amiga for the demoscene has to do with the fact
that they could. Mind you, tracking evolved from one simple fact that
the Amiga could do it, and its competitors could not.
So, lets stick with modern times. What are the major OS's out there?
You can't compare simple statistics. The reality is that Mac OS (of any
version) is installed on 12% of the machines out there, Linux on 8% and
some Microsoft platform (NT, 2000, 98, DOS, etc) is installed on 69% of
the computers out there. That leaves another 11% to other operating
systems including Unix, OS/2 and so on. But that doesn't take into
account the use of said computers. What about the home market? Well, I
would hope that the majority of you don't do your demo and tracking work
at your place of employment, you do it on your home computer. Of the
home market (and this is the important number), Mac OS is installed on
10% of the computers, Linux on another 8%, Microsoft's OS's on 80%
leaving only 4% for other alternatives. Even still, of the small 8% of
linux computers used at home, I'd be willing to say that most of them
are used by geeks who have a lot invested in the internet. Linux is
great as a network machine. But when it comes down to it, it sucks as a
multimedia machine.
Don't get me wrong, I am a big supporter of Linux and the OpenSource
community. I participate in it myself, and I do my best to promote it
when I can -- and when it seems logical. But for Linux, their time has
yet to come. Until the time comes that video cards come with two CDs
(one for windows, one for linux), and sound cards get 100% support for
linux (Creative offers drivers for their sound cards, but they aren't
100% supported), Linux is no place for anyone willing to do things like
music or demos.
So this comes down to my point, again. And I'll repeat it whenever
I'm asked. What is the best place for the demoscene and computer based
music scene? I'll simply respond with "Wherever the people are." As I
said in my column in issue #30, we cannot forget the average listener of
your tunes and the average watcher of your demos. You'd be surprised to
find out that almost a 3rd of them don't write music or code. Why the
hell should the demoscene move if all our popular applications are
meant for the Windows OS (or DOS)? I'm not a huge fan of Windows, but I
know that tracking is next to impossible in Linux. When someone ports
IT to linux, maybe I'll reconsider that fact. But I boot to windows to
track, and that's something that I have grown to accept.
So, it seems as though PsiTron is a one-man army fighting a pointless
cause. The scene might jump to Linux one day, but it won't be until
the OS is more widely recognized. Even PsiTron himself has admitted
that "85% of all computers have Windows on them". The statistic is
grossly in-accurate, but even so.... Why shut out 85% of the computer
users out there to stage a small revolution so only 15% of the people
can enjoy the scene. Of those 15%, how many actually use linux? And of
the Linux users, how many know how to track or code demos? How many
care?
Like it or not, you are going to use Microsoft OS's for the scene for
a while. Might as well get used to it.
--Coplan
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Link List
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
Portals:
Orange Juice.............................http://www.ojuice.net
Scene.org.................................http://www.scene.org
SceneSpot.............................http://www.scenespot.org
CFXweb.......................................http://cfxweb.net
Pouet.net.................................http://www.pouet.net
Demoscene.org.........................http://www.demoscene.org
Scenet....................................http://www.scenet.de
Demo.org...................................http://www.demo.org
Czech Scene................................http://www.scene.cz
Hungarian Scene........................http://www.scene-hu.com
Italian Scene...........................http://run.to/la_scena
ModPlug Central Resources..........http://www.castlex.com/mods
Norvegian Scene............http://www.neutralzone.org/scene.no
Polish Scene...........................http://www.demoscena.pl
Russian Scene..........................http://www.demoscene.ru
Spanish Scene............................http://www.escena.org
Swiss Scene..............................http://www.chscene.ch
Archives:
Acid2.....................................ftp://acid2.stack.nl
Amber.......................................ftp://amber.bti.pl
Cyberbox.....................................ftp://cyberbox.de
Hornet (1992-1996)........................ftp://ftp.hornet.org
Scene.org..................................ftp://ftp.scene.org
Scene.org Austra........................ftp://ftp.nl.scene.org
Scene.org Netherlands...................ftp://ftp.au.scene.org
Swiss Scene FTP...........................ftp://ftp.chscene.ch
Demo Groups:
3g Design..............................http://3gdesign.cjb.net
3State...................................http://threestate.com
7 Gods.........................................http://7gods.sk
Aardbei.....................................http://aardbei.com
Acid Rain..............................http://surf.to/acidrain
Addict..................................http://addict.scene.pl
Agravedict........................http://www.agravedict.art.pl
Alien Prophets...................http://alienprophets.ninja.dk
Anakata..............................http://www.anakata.art.pl
Astral..............................http://astral.scene-hu.com
Astroidea........................http://astroidea.scene-hu.com
BlaBla..............................http://blabla.planet-d.net
Blasphemy..............................http://www.blasphemy.dk
Bomb..................................http://bomb.planet-d.net
Broncs..................................http://broncs.scene.cz
Byterapers.....................http://www.byterapers.scene.org
<*> Bypass.................................http://bypass.scene.org
Calodox.................................http://www.calodox.org
Cocoon..............................http://cocoon.planet-d.net
Confine.................................http://www.confine.org
Damage...................................http://come.to/damage
Eclipse............................http://www.eclipse-game.com
Elitegroup..........................http://elitegroup.demo.org
Exceed...........................http://www.inf.bme.hu/~exceed
Fairlight.............................http://www.fairlight.com
Fobia Design...........................http://www.fd.scene.org
Freestyle............................http://www.freestylas.org
Fresh! Mindworks...................http://kac.poliod.hu/~fresh
Future Crew..........................http://www.futurecrew.org
Fuzzion.................................http://www.fuzzion.org
GODS...................................http://www.idf.net/gods
Halcyon...........................http://www.halcyon.scene.org
Haujobb..................................http://www.haujobb.de
Hellcore............................http://www.hellcore.art.pl
Infuse...................................http://www.infuse.org
Kilobite...............................http://kilobite.cjb.net
Kolor................................http://www.kaoz.org/kolor
Komplex.................................http://www.komplex.org
Kooma.....................................http://www.kooma.com
Mandula.........................http://www.inf.bme.hu/~mandula
Maturefurk...........................http://www.maturefurk.com
Monar................ftp://amber.bti.pl/pub/scene/distro/monar
MOVSD....................................http://movsd.scene.cz
Nextempire...........................http://www.nextempire.com
Noice.....................................http://www.noice.org
Orange.................................http://orange.scene.org
Orion................................http://orion.planet-d.net
Popsy Team............................http://popsyteam.rtel.fr
Prone................................http://www.prone.ninja.dk
Purple....................................http://www.purple.dk
Rage........................................http://www.rage.nu
Replay.......................http://www.shine.scene.org/replay
Retro A.C...........................http://www.retroac.cjb.net
Sista Vip..........................http://www.sistavip.exit.de
Skytech team............................http://www.skytech.org
Sunflower.......................http://sunflower.opengl.org.pl
Talent.............................http://talent.eurochart.org
The Black Lotus.............................http://www.tbl.org
The Digital Artists Wired Nation.http://digitalartists.cjb.net
The Lost Souls...............................http://www.tls.no
TPOLM.....................................http://www.tpolm.com
Trauma.................................http://sauna.net/trauma
T-Rex.....................................http://www.t-rex.org
<U> Unik........................................http://www.unik.de
Universe..........................http://universe.planet-d.net
Vantage..................................http://www.vantage.ch
Wipe....................................http://www.wipe-fr.org
Music Labels, Music Sites:
Aisth.....................................http://www.aisth.com
Aural Planet........................http://www.auralplanet.com
Azure...................................http://azure-music.com
Blacktron Music Production...........http://www.d-zign.com/bmp
BrothomStates.............http://www.katastro.fi/brothomstates
Chill..........................http://www.bentdesign.com/chill
Chippendales......................http://www.sunpoint.net/~cnd
Chiptune...............................http://www.chiptune.com
Da Jormas................................http://www.jormas.com
Fabtrax......http://www.cyberverse.com/~boris/fabtrax/home.htm
Five Musicians.........................http://www.fm.scene.org
Fusion Music Crew.................http://members.home.nl/cyrex
Goodstuff..........................http://artloop.de/goodstuff
Ignorance.............................http://www.ignorance.org
Immortal Coil.............................http://www.ic.l7.net
Intense...........................http://intense.ignorance.org
Jecoute.................................http://jecoute.cjb.net
Kosmic Free Music Foundation.............http://www.kosmic.org
Lackluster.....................http://www.m3rck.net/lackluster
Level-D.................................http://www.level-d.com
Miasmah.............................http://www.miasmah.cjb.net
Milk.......................................http://milk.sgic.fi
Mah Music.............................http://come.to/mah.music
Maniacs of noise...............http://home.worldonline.nl/~mon
MAZ's sound homepage..................http://www.maz-sound.com
Med.......................................http://www.med.fr.fm
Mo'playaz..........................http://ssmedion.de/moplayaz
Mono211.................................http://www.mono211.com
Morbid Minds..............http://www.raveordie.com/morbidminds
Noise................................http://www.noisemusic.org
Noerror.......................http://www.error-404.com/noerror
One Touch Records......................http://otr.planet-d.net
Park..................................http://park.planet-d.net
<*> pHluid..................................http://phluid.acid.org
Radical Rhythms.....http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/merrelli/rr
RBi Music.............................http://www.rbi-music.com
Ruff Engine................http://members.xoom.com/ruff_engine
SHR8M......................................http://1st.to/shr8m
Sound Devotion................http://sugarbomb.x2o.net/soundev
Soundstate.........................http://listen.to/soundstate
Sunlikamelo-D...........http://www.error-404.com/sunlikamelo-d
Suspect Records........................http://www.tande.com/sr
Tequila........................http://www.defacto2.net/tequila
Tempo................................http://tempomusic.cjb.net
Tetris....................................http://msg.sk/tetris
Theralite...........................http://theralite.avalon.hr
Tokyo Dawn Records........................http://tdr.scene.org
Triad's C64 music archive.............http://www.triad.c64.org
UltraBeat.........................http://www.innerverse.com/ub
Vibrants................................http://www.vibrants.dk
Wiremaniacs.........................http://www.wiremaniacs.com
Zen of Tracking.........................http://surf.to/the-imm
Programming:
Programming portal......................http://www.gamedev.net
Programming portal.....................http://www.flipcode.com
Game programming portal...............http://www.gamasutra.com
3D programming portal.................http://www.3dgamedev.com
Programming portal......................http://www.exaflop.org
Programming portal............http://www.programmersheaven.com
Programming portal.....................http://www.freecode.com
NASM (free Assembly compiler)......http://www.cryogen.com/nasm
LCC (free C compiler).........http://www.remcomp.com/lcc-win32
PTC video engine.........................http://www.gaffer.org
3D engines..........http://cg.cs.tu-berlin.de/~ki/engines.html
Documents...............http://www.neutralzone.org/home/faqsys
File format collection...................http://www.wotsit.org
Magazines:
Amber...............................http://amber.bti.pl/di_mag
Amnesia...............http://amnesia-dist.future.easyspace.com
Demojournal....................http://demojournal.planet-d.net
Eurochart.............................http://www.eurochart.org
Heroin...................................http://www.heroin.net
Hugi........................................http://www.hugi.de
Music Massage......................http://www.scene.cz/massage
Pain..................................http://pain.planet-d.net
Scenial...........................http://www.scenial.scene.org
Shine...............................http://www.shine.scene.org
Static Line................http://www.scenespot.org/staticline
Sunray..............................http://sunray.planet-d.net
TUHB.......................................http://www.tuhb.org
WildMag...............................http://wildmag.notrix.de
Parties:
Assembly (Finland).....................http://www.assembly.org
Ambience (The Netherlands)..............http://www.ambience.nl
Dreamhack (Sweden)....................http://www.dreamhack.org
Buenzli (Switzerland)......................http://www.buenz.li
Gravity (Poland)............http://www.demoscena.cp.pl/gravity
Mekka-Symposium (Germany)...................http://ms.demo.org
Takeover (The Netherlands).............,http://www.takeover.nl
The Party (Denmark).....................http://www.theparty.dk
Others:
Demo secret parts....http://www.inf.bme.hu/~mandula/secret.txt
Textmode Demo Archive.................http://tmda.planet-d.net
Arf!Studios..........................http://www.arfstudios.org
#coders..................................http://coderz.cjb.net
Demonews Express.........http://www.teeselink.demon.nl/express
Demo fanclub........................http://jerware.org/fanclub
Digital Undergrounds.....................http://dug.iscool.net
Doose charts...............................http://www.doose.dk
Freax................................http://freax.scene-hu.com
GfxZone............................http://gfxzone.planet-d.net
PC-demos explained.....http://www.oldskool.org/demos/explained
Pixel...................................http://pixel.scene.org
IRC Channels:
Scene.........................................ircnet #thescene
Programming.....................................ircnet #coders
Programming....................................efnet #flipcode
Graphics.........................................ircnet #pixel
Music.............................................ircnet #trax
Scene (French)..................................ircnet #demofr
Programming (French)............................ircnet #codefr
Graphics (French)..............................ircnet #pixelfr
Scene (Hungari
an)............................ircnet #demoscene
Programming (Hungarian)......................ircnet #coders.hu
Programming (German)........................ircnet #coders.ger
--=--=--
----=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------
Editor: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@scenespot.org
Columnists: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@scenespot.org
Dilvish / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@yahoo.com
Gekko / Gergely Kutenich / mont@tar.hu
Psitron / Tim Soderstrom / tigerhawk@stic.net
Setec / Jesper Pederson / jesped@post.tele.dk
Seven / Stefaan VanNieuwenhuyze/ seven7@writeme.com
Tryhuk / Tryhuk Vojtech / vojtech.tryhuk@worldonline.cz
Technical Consult: Ranger Rick / Ben Reed / ranger@scenespot.org
Static Line on the Web: http://www.scenespot.org/staticline
Static Line Subscription Management:
http://www.scenespot.org/mailman/listinfo/static_line
If you would like to contribute an article to Static Line, be aware
that we will format your article with two spaces at the beginning and one
space at the end of each line. Please avoid foul language and high ascii
characters. Contributions should be mailed to Coplan
(coplan@scenespot.org).
See you next month!
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