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Demo News 132
.Start.of.DemoNews.132.........................................................
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DemoNews #132 - 19 Oct 1996
Subscribers : 2565
DemoNews is produced by Hornet. Change : +65
The Hornet Archive is at ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos Archive Size : 3441M
==[Contents]===================================================================
Calendar
Sites
Top Downloads
Uploads
Articles
Introduction................................Snowman
Life Before Demos - Part 2 / 2..............Trixter
You Know You Play Too Much Quake When.......Maverick
TMDC Update.................................Sol
Closing
==[Calendar]===================================================================
Date Event Location Concact Points
--------- ----------- --------- ---------------------------------------------
30 Sep 96 Coven Australia redhaze@student.adelaide.edu.au
student.adelaide.edu.au/~ed
* <-- YOU ARE HERE
01 Nov 96 Wired Belgium darkness@genesis.be
hagar.arts.kuleuven.ac.be/~sdog/wired
?? Nov 96 Demobit Slovakia demobit@elf.stuba.sk
internet.sk/demobit/english.htm
18 Jan 97 Tesko UK party@tesko.demon.co.uk
21 Mar 97 Mekka Germany amable@aol.com
22 Aug 97 AntIQ Hungary aboy@ttk.jpte.hu
www.jpte.hu/~aboy
==[Sites]======================================================================
Category Location Contact Points
-------------- --------- ----------------------------------------------------
Hornet Archive USA ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos
HA Mirrors Sweden ftp.luth.se/pub/msdos/demos
S. Africa ftp.sun.ac.za/pub/msdos/demos
USA (FL) ftp.uwp.edu/pub/msdos/demos
USA (PA) ftp.co.iup.edu/code (from /demos/code)
Other Archives Belgium hagar.arts.kuleuven.ac.be/demos
Sweden ftp.arosnet.se/demo
Spain ftp.siapi.es/blastersound/demos/incoming
Finland ftp.fm.org
Holland sdc.wtm.tudelft.nl/pub/music
==[Downloads]==================================================================
Category Times File
-------- -- ----- -----------------------------------------------------------
Demos 01 00175 /demos/1996/m/machines.a02
02 00172 /demos/1996/m/machines.a01
03 00171 /demos/1996/m/machines.arj
04 00156 /demos/1996/a/ai_strok.zip
05 00148 /demos/1996/c/ctststp1.zip
06 00144 /demos/1996/m/machifix.zip
07 00135 /demos/1996/c/ctststp2.zip
08 00107 /demos/1996/b/babylon.zip
09 00096 /demos/1996/p/pure.zip
10 00094 /demos/1993/0-9/2ndreal1.lzh
Music 01 00500 /music/programs/players/cp16.zip
02 00402 /music/programs/players/m4w230sx.zip
03 00346 /music/programs/players/cp17.zip
04 00311 /music/programs/trackers/scrmt321.zip
05 00307 /music/programs/players/m4w230sl.zip
06 00229 /music/programs/trackers/ft206.zip
07 00198 /music/programs/players/cpxml17d.zip
08 00183 /music/programs/players/play230b.zip
09 00158 /music/programs/players/cpitl17e.zip
10 00137 /music/programs/players/cpawe17c.zip
Graphics 01 00022 /graphics/images/1996/a/airwar.zip
02 00015 /graphics/images/1996/a/ai_nyomo.zip
03 00014 /graphics/images/1996/a/ai_cuccc.zip
04 00013 /graphics/images/1996/a/abc_guar.zip
05 00012 /graphics/programs/vector/veced300.zip
06 00012 /graphics/programs/vector/3dedb09.lzh
07 00011 /graphics/images/1996/g/girl3.zip
08 00010 /graphics/images/1996/b/bye_eden.zip
09 00010 /graphics/images/1996/b/babylona.zip
10 00009 /graphics/images/1996/v/voyeur.zip
Code 01 00084 /code/effects/3dtext.arj
02 00065 /code/effects/stargate.zip
03 00063 /code/effects/dunesrc.zip
04 00061 /code/effects/firewall.zip
05 00060 /code/effects/flame184.zip
06 00059 /code/effects/mphong.zip
07 00059 /code/effects/blobs.zip
08 00058 /code/effects/firetiny.zip
09 00058 /code/effects/araidsrc.zip
10 00057 /code/effects/voxeltut.zip
Incoming 01 00134 /incoming/music/programs/it206.zip
02 00117 /incoming/music/programs/cp17u.zip
03 00081 /incoming/demos/ctstoast.zip
04 00080 /incoming/demos/devotion.arj
05 00080 /incoming/demos/devotion.a01
06 00068 /incoming/demos/mtn-gene.zip
07 00068 /incoming/SKE96/demo/clx_rebe.zip
08 00061 /incoming/demos/3dstuff.zip
09 00060 /incoming/music/programs/itpr102.zip
10 00048 /incoming/demos/hypnotic.arj
Total files downloaded : 68,161
Size of files downloaded : 24,838,873k
==[Uploads]====================================================================
All ratings are subjective.
=---------------------------------------------------------------------(demos)-=
/pub/demos/demos Size Rated Description
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
/1995/g/greetro_.zip 330 **+ MOV95:demo:EE: Greetro by Fatal Justice
/1995/p/posintro.arj 59 *+ Posadas Intro by Iguana
/1995/w/w95spcod.zip 27 WIR95::: Wired '95 Surprise Coding Entries
/1996/0-9/244bytes.zip 0 * ENL96:in8k:06: 244 Bytes by Sands
/1996/0-9/64.zip 76 **+ BIZ96:in64:02: 64 by Inopia, Anomaly, Cygnus
/1996/a/abc_farm.zip 6 **** Farmer by Absence
/1996/a/abc_geys.zip 458 + Geys by Absence
/1996/a/abc_glzd.zip 6 * Glizda by Absence
/1996/a/abc_scrs.zip 6 *** Scars by Absence
/1996/a/agja.zip 67 **+ BIZ96:in64:08: ??? by Trybit
/1996/a/an_dea.zip 705 ***+ BIZ96:demo:03: Dea by Analogue
/1996/b/bagger.zip 329 *+ BIZ96:demo:08: Bagger by XL
/1996/b/bloempje.zip 45 **+ BIZ96:in64:09: Bloempjes & Bytes by Maroon
/1996/b/bm.zip 11 **+ ENL96:in8k:03: Brilliant Move by Future
| Hackers
/1996/b/bulll.a01 1298 **** [2/2] BIZ96:demo:01: Bulll by Trepaan
/1996/b/bulll.arj 1422 **** [1/2] BIZ96:demo:01: Bulll by Trepaan
/1996/c/chipari.zip 14 ** BIZ96:in4k:03: Chiparitus by The Watcher of
| Fatal Vision
/1996/c/cnx_hope.zip 61 *** BIZ96:in64:03: Hopeless by Cronix
/1996/d/ddt-drms.zip 2520 *** ENL96:demo:03: Dreams by DDT
/1996/d/dream_.zip 3 *+ ENL96:in8k:05: Dream by Cobra of PI Software
/1996/d/dummies.zip 1339 ** BIZ96:demo:04: Demos For Dummies by
| Dimension X
/1996/e/efc_fz.zip 69 **+ BIZ96:in64:05: FZ by Excessive Force
/1996/e/embraced.zip 67 ** BIZ96:in64:07: Embraced by Circle of Tyrants
/1996/e/etlife.zip 964 * ENL96:demo:05: Eternal Life by Eternal
/1996/e/experien.zip 685 **+ ENL96:demo:04: Experience by Virtual
| Illusions
/1996/f/firewat.zip 5 **+ ENL96:in8k:02: Fire & Water by Fidel Ink of
| Digital Cascade
/1996/f/fmotion.zip 2099 ***+ BIZ96:demo:02: Full Motion by Spirit New
| Style
/1996/g/gluk2.zip 5 *+ ENL96:in8k:04: Gluk2 by PaR of Future
| Hackers
/1996/h/hellizer.zip 1483 **+ ENL96:demo:02: Hellizer by Queue Members
| Group AD
/1996/h/hlx-extr.zip 560 ** GAR96:demo:03: Holy Extracts by Helix
/1996/k/khalis.zip 1349 **+ Khalis by Dark Face of the Moon
/1996/l/logik.zip 67 *** BIZ96:in64:06: Die Logik by Weird Magic
/1996/m/macarona.zip 211 * GAR96:demo:EE: Macarona by Peus
/1996/n/nm_mistk.zip 21 ** NAID96::: The Mistake by Nuclear Meltdown
/1996/n/noname.zip 36 **+ BIZ96:in4k:01: No Name by Excalibur of Fatal
| Vision
/1996/n/noname00.zip 114 *+ BIZ96:demo:09: No Name by Rubba Design
/1996/n/nosf.zip 1526 *** ENL96:demo:01: Nosferatu by Nephilims
/1996/o/orx-osfp.zip 292 * GAR96:demo:EE: OSFP by Orthodox
/1996/o/otherone.zip 1562 ***+ BIZ96:demo:05: The Other One by Cheese Team
/1996/p/percptio.zip 1926 *** BIZ96:demo:06: Perception by Quad
/1996/p/pls_cntc.zip 2945 ***+ Contact by Pulse
/1996/p/polynomi.zip 38 ** Polynomial by Contortion
/1996/r/ravage.zip 582 *+ BIZ96:demo:10: Ravage by TBE
/1996/r/realsux.zip 39 **+ ENL96:in64:02: Real Sux by DDT
/1996/r/ripoff.zip 583 * BIZ96:demo:07: Ripoff by Acne
/1996/r/rptoasty.zip 928 ** GAR96:demo:06: Toasty by Red Power
/1996/s/skata.zip 62 *+ GAR96:demo:07: Skatalous by Who Knows
/1996/s/sp_slam.zip 63 *** BIZ96:in64:04: Slam by S!P
/1996/s/space.zip 14 *** BIZ96:in4k:04: Space by Laserdance of
| Nostalgia
/1996/s/state.zip 54 *** BIZ96:in64:01: State by Spirit New Style
/1996/t/tbeweird.zip 27 *+ BIZ96:in64:10: Weird by TBE
/1996/t/trx-fgh.zip 63 *** ENL96:in8k:01: Faugh by Agent Orange of
| T-Rex
/1996/v/vi_disto.zip 63 **+ ENL96:in64:01: Distorted by Virtual
| Illusions
/1996/w/weird.zip 400 *** GAR96:demo:02: Weird by Demaniacs
/1996/z/zwemband.zip 15 *** BIZ96:in4k:02: Zwemband by Fyr, Sentinel of
| Image, Infuse
=---------------------------------------------------------------------(music)-=
/pub/demos/music Size Rated Description
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
/songs/1996/it/e/encased.zip 598 *** Encased in Glass by Mute
/songs/1996/it/e/equinox.zip 163 ** Summer Equinox by Jason Cunningham
/songs/1996/it/f/fish.zip 202 **+ Fish by Meat
/songs/1996/it/f/fl_blend.zip 97 *+ Premium Blend by Sabbath
/songs/1996/it/f/fl_wave.zip 200 *+ A New Wave by Sabbath
/songs/1996/it/f/for_dipi.zip 146 * Drunki Punki by Fortune
/songs/1996/it/f/for_drea.zip 438 *+ Forbidden Dreams by Fortune
/songs/1996/it/f/for_imh.zip 327 ** In My House by Fortune
/songs/1996/it/f/for_peac.zip 343 **+ Peace by Fortune
/songs/1996/it/f/for_xgen.zip 284 ** We Are the X-Generation by Fortune
/songs/1996/it/f/forestki.zip 331 *** King of the Rainforest by Toal Nkor
/songs/1996/it/f/frostjly.zip 763 **+ Frost in July by Mute
/songs/1996/it/g/g_bottle.zip 268 *** Bottle Rocketeer by CD
/songs/1996/it/g/galajour.zip 250 *** Galactic Journey by Toal Nkor,
| Pollux
/songs/1996/it/g/gem-drea.zip 264 *** Praying for a Dream by Dilvish
/songs/1996/it/g/gem-litt.zip 162 * Little Things by Arclight
/songs/1996/it/g/gem-nihl.zip 263 * Nihil Ad Rem by Arclight
/songs/1996/it/g/gem-ques.zip 227 *** Questions by Dilvish
/songs/1996/it/g/gem-ties.zip 210 **+ Ties by Dilvish
/songs/1996/it/g/gfd2love.zip 176 *** Desire to Love by Garfield
/songs/1996/it/g/gths-plc.zip 335 **+ My Place in Space (remix) by Graham
| the Happy Scum
/songs/1996/it/g/gths-sbk.zip 296 *+ Stashun Breakdown by Graham the
| Happy Scum
/songs/1996/it/h/hd-edirt.zip 516 *** Eat Dirt 2 by Synapse
/songs/1996/it/m/m_think.zip 350 **+ Unthinkable Thoughts by Super
| Slimer
/songs/1996/it/m/mik-awak.zip 442 *** The Awakening by Mikpos
/songs/1996/it/m/mn_bwrld.zip 229 ***+ Blue World by Merlin
/songs/1996/it/m/mntamph8.zip 401 **+ Mentamorphosis (8 bit) by Tphenity
/songs/1996/it/m/mntamrph.zip 2041 **+ Mentamorphosis by Tphenity
/songs/1996/it/m/mo_line.zip 377 *** Streamline by ChuckB
/songs/1996/it/m/mot-conc.zip 586 ** Concentration by Motion
/songs/1996/it/p/pf-myst.zip 338 *** Mystic Dream by Pop Faktor
/songs/1996/it/p/piremix.zip 311 *+ Pi Remix by Wakko Warner, Lupin
/songs/1996/it/r/retro.zip 126 *+ Retro-Active (Tribute) by Maverick
/songs/1996/it/r/rm-dark.zip 197 **+ Heart of the Dark by Remnant
/songs/1996/it/r/rm-free.zip 151 **+ Freefall by Remnant
/songs/1996/it/r/rs_cured.zip 96 + Cured by Rod Serling
/songs/1996/it/r/rs_letrp.zip 166 * Let the Snares Rip by Rippin Snare
/songs/1996/it/r/rs_place.zip 49 *+ A Strange Place by Rod Serling
/songs/1996/it/r/rs_rvrgl.zip 63 * Japanese Raver Girl by Rod Serling
/songs/1996/it/r/rs_unbld.zip 152 *+ Unblinded by Rod Serling
/songs/1996/it/s/s-return.zip 154 ** Return From the Wasteland by
| Subliminal
/songs/1996/it/s/sahamigr.zip 210 *** Sahara Migration by Mute
/songs/1996/it/s/sandsong.zip 285 ** Song of the Sands by Jeffrey Sawyer
/songs/1996/it/s/sf-vor.zip 216 *** Vision of Rain by Catspaw
/songs/1996/it/s/sf-wlan.zip 544 * Wackylan by Brokenheart
/songs/1996/it/s/sf-youc.zip 244 ** You Can't Save Yourselves by
| Crackerjak
/songs/1996/it/s/sr_mungb.zip 468 * Mungbean Groove by Sirreal
/songs/1996/it/s/sr_quant.zip 34 * Quantum Foam by Sirreal
/songs/1996/it/s/sr_rimu.zip 203 *+ My Rimu Tree of the South by
| Sirreal
/songs/1996/it/s/surplus.zip 138 * Saccharin Surplus by Stein
/songs/1996/it/t/tc_night.zip 740 ** Tonight by Teecee
/songs/1996/it/t/tc_rain.zip 365 ** Rain Under the Trees by Teecee
/songs/1996/it/t/tek-mk.zip 418 *** Mortal Kombat (Foolish Mix) by Tek
/songs/1996/it/t/tf-lunar.zip 238 **** Lunar Lullaby by Stalker
/songs/1996/it/t/tinyfnd.zip 296 * Tiny Foundation by Stein
/songs/1996/it/t/tl-soda.zip 571 *** Club Soda by Ionian Mode
/songs/1996/mod/m/m_clear.zip 178 **+ Superclear by Supernao
/songs/1996/mod/m/m_near.zip 189 **+ Near to You by Mortimer Twang
/songs/1996/mod/m/m_reci.zip 281 *** Reciprocator by Subi
/songs/1996/mod/m/m_three.zip 295 ***+ Three Days EP by The Fox II
/songs/1996/mod/p/phd_fin.zip 353 ** The Final Day by Pirat
/songs/1996/mod/p/phd_gang.zip 158 **+ Ganxta Flo by Juice
/songs/1996/mod/p/phd_xpr.zip 205 ** Xpr-Mental by Juice
/songs/1996/s3m/0-9/0broken.arj 307 *+ Broken (More Broken mix) by Benzel
/songs/1996/s3m/a/airborn.zip 222 **+ Airborn by Gamera, Stein
/songs/1996/s3m/a/ara_sgnl.zip 303 **** Signal by Ara
/songs/1996/s3m/a/atheart.zip 335 *+ At the Heart of It All by Obuk
/songs/1996/s3m/a/away.zip 125 ** Away, At Last by Wolfgang
/songs/1996/s3m/b/bi-moon.zip 318 *+ What the Moon Brings by Bigod-20
/songs/1996/s3m/b/borracho.zip 242 *** Borracho by Anpe
/songs/1996/s3m/b/brb_blnd.zip 66 *+ Blonde Spelling by Barbatruc
/songs/1996/s3m/b/brb_forg.zip 209 *** Forget Me by Barbatruc
/songs/1996/s3m/b/brb_shad.zip 128 **+ Lightning Shadows by Barbatruc
/songs/1996/s3m/b/brb_tdrm.zip 233 ***+ That Dream by Barbatruc
/songs/1996/s3m/b/brb_undw.zip 62 ***+ Under Water by Barbatruc
/songs/1996/s3m/b/bvn-onon.zip 200 *+ On and On by Ned Funky
/songs/1996/s3m/b/bvs-5sid.zip 210 *** Five Sides by Sklathill
/songs/1996/s3m/b/bvs-road.zip 298 ***+ Road to Tomorrow by Sklathill
/songs/1996/s3m/c/castles.arj 86 *** Castles by Dead
/songs/1996/s3m/c/coming.zip 622 * The Coming - Trilogy by Obuk
/songs/1996/s3m/c/cquest.zip 2 **+ Chip Quest by Barbatruc
/songs/1996/s3m/c/cr_ev.zip 210 *+ Elementary Venture by Crash Return
/songs/1996/s3m/c/ct-brute.zip 503 *+ Brute (Absolute Carnage Mix) by
| Stein
/songs/1996/s3m/c/ct-cross.zip 158 **+ Crossing Hearts by Saxy
/songs/1996/s3m/c/ct-dance.zip 163 *+ Dancing Trumpet Madness by
| SuperProz
/songs/1996/s3m/c/ct-sxp6r.zip 115 *+ Sounds of the Forest (remix) by
| Black Monk
/songs/1996/s3m/d/deadsoul.zip 115 + Dead Souls (cover) by Eternal Haze
/songs/1996/s3m/d/digdream.zip 206 *** Digital Dreams by Wolfgang
/songs/1996/s3m/d/dtn-devo.zip 249 ** Devotion by The Peric
/songs/1996/s3m/d/dubu82.zip 249 ** Air Dance by DJ Kike
/songs/1996/s3m/d/dz_facad.zip 323 *+ Endless Facade by Syrinx
/songs/1996/s3m/d/dz_utop.zip 144 ** Envisioning Utopia by C. Ray C.
/songs/1996/s3m/e/emptmind.zip 663 ***+ Empty Mind by Edge
/songs/1996/s3m/f/fd-ring.zip 261 *+ Ring My Bell by Flash D
/songs/1996/s3m/f/fd-slow.zip 197 *+ Slowbreaker by Flash D
/songs/1996/s3m/f/flyinsky.zip 221 *** Fly in Blue Sky by Heatseeker
/songs/1996/s3m/f/footdown.zip 88 *+ Footdown by Araelien
/songs/1996/s3m/f/funckygo.zip 196 *** Funcky Go by Heatseeker
/songs/1996/s3m/f/funkadli.zip 131 *** Moon in Water by Heatseeker
/songs/1996/s3m/f/fyk-btnh.zip 66 + Beatz, Thugs, n' Harmony by Fayk
/songs/1996/s3m/g/gforce.zip 221 *** G-Forces by Interphaze
/songs/1996/s3m/h/hlb-med.zip 67 **+ Meadows by Halberd
/songs/1996/s3m/h/hlb-rem.zip 37 *+ Remorse by Halberd
/songs/1996/s3m/i/io_lock.zip 264 *** Locked Up by Discus
/songs/1996/s3m/j/j-ces.zip 188 *+ Cogito Ergo Sum by Joker
/songs/1996/s3m/j/j-omega.zip 114 * Omega by Joker
/songs/1996/s3m/k/k_efe.zip 397 *** Escape from Earth by Daedalus
/songs/1996/s3m/k/k_elect2.zip 213 ***+ Technoelektrix II by B00mer
/songs/1996/s3m/k/k_exalt.zip 119 ***+ Be Thou Exalted by Siren
/songs/1996/s3m/k/k_gout.zip 337 ***+ Le Gout Qui Dit Tout by Floss
/songs/1996/s3m/k/k_hope.zip 386 **** Hope by Siren
/songs/1996/s3m/k/k_john.zip 321 ***+ Seventh Heaven/Johnny Walker by
| Phoenix
/songs/1996/s3m/k/k_malice.zip 252 ***+ Malice by Daedalus
/songs/1996/s3m/k/klausi.zip 226 **+ Night in the Forests by Klausi
/songs/1996/s3m/k/klausi2.zip 42 ** Klausi's New One by Klausi
/songs/1996/s3m/k/klausi3.zip 49 ** Nick's Piano by Klausi
/songs/1996/s3m/l/lnc-mist.zip 192 *** Misty Morning by Linearic
/songs/1996/s3m/l/lnc-nght.zip 26 **+ Nighttime by Linearic
/songs/1996/s3m/m/m-gryde.zip 201 ***+ Grydemix by Mystical
/songs/1996/s3m/m/m-path.zip 155 **** Path to Freedom by Mystical
/songs/1996/s3m/m/m-stomp.zip 401 **** Stomping on Elephantus by Mystical
/songs/1996/s3m/m/madconc.arj 246 **+ Mad Concert for a Mad Family by
| Dead
/songs/1996/s3m/m/mj-again.zip 363 **+ Again by Justin May, Mike Harrison
/songs/1996/s3m/m/mn_cmoon.zip 178 **+ Crescent Moon by Merlin
/songs/1996/s3m/m/mountain.zip 170 *** Final Mountain on White Lake by
| Heatseeker
/songs/1996/s3m/m/mss-conq.zip 105 *** Conquistador by Picman
/songs/1996/s3m/m/mss-near.zip 402 **+ Nearly There by Porus
/songs/1996/s3m/n/navigatr.arj 291 *** Navigator by Dead
/songs/1996/s3m/n/ni-glen.zip 192 ** Tortuga Glen by Nimbus
/songs/1996/s3m/n/notsofar.zip 325 ***+ Not So Far Man! by Heatseeker
/songs/1996/s3m/n/nv-night.zip 305 **** Escape from the Night by Nova
/songs/1996/s3m/o/obuk.zip 64 * Obuk (Angst) by Obuk
/songs/1996/s3m/o/obuk2.zip 214 *+ Obuk (Laxed) by Obuk
/songs/1996/s3m/o/oldchild.arj 176 **+ Oldchild by Dead
/songs/1996/s3m/o/oq-peace.zip 82 **+ Flower Power by Octoque
/songs/1996/s3m/o/orx-hdtc.zip 89 * Hard Touch by Orthodox
/songs/1996/s3m/o/orx-sfai.zip 229 + System's Failure by Orthodox
/songs/1996/s3m/o/orx-sndr.zip 107 * Sleep and Dream by Orthodox
/songs/1996/s3m/o/orx-tams.zip 72 + The Ambient Source by Orthodox
/songs/1996/s3m/o/orx-tfou.zip 75 + The Fade Out by Orthodox
/songs/1996/s3m/p/pg_gfuji.zip 146 *+ Gabba Mt. Fuji by Jea
/songs/1996/s3m/p/pg_landm.zip 119 ** Frohlicher Landmann by Jea
/songs/1996/s3m/p/psycho.zip 172 **+ Psychopet's Night Out by Phanatik
/songs/1996/s3m/p/psypack4.arj 66 * Get Legalized by Psychotron
/songs/1996/s3m/p/psypack5.arj 87 * Piracy by Psychotron
/songs/1996/s3m/p/psypack6.arj 69 * Apfelsaf for the Bong by Psychotron
/songs/1996/s3m/p/psypack7.arj 61 + Bestial Bass Terror by Psychotron
/songs/1996/s3m/p/psypack8.arj 88 * Acid Break by Psychotron
/songs/1996/s3m/r/remembme.zip 233 **+ Remember Me by Heatseeker
/songs/1996/s3m/s/seahawk.zip 336 *** Sea Hawk - The Barrier Reef by
| G-Force
/songs/1996/s3m/s/sikk.zip 75 + Sikklike This by Obuk
/songs/1996/s3m/s/skinakem.zip 132 * Skinakem / Mekaniks by Obuk
/songs/1996/s3m/s/smi_shim.zip 322 + Shimi Party by Joker
/songs/1996/s3m/s/smi_sttr.zip 246 + Street Trance by Joker
/songs/1996/s3m/s/smi_t4m.zip 207 + Trance-4-Mation by Joker
/songs/1996/s3m/s/smi_zmbi.zip 271 * Zombie (remix) by Joker
/songs/1996/s3m/s/sunset.zip 39 *+ Sunset (cover) by Tuffe Wahlstrom
/songs/1996/s3m/t/tcod.zip 435 **+ The Coming of Dawn by G-Force
/songs/1996/s3m/t/twin.zip 61 *+ Twin Peaks (cover) by Tuffe
| Wahlstrom
/songs/1996/s3m/v/vin_pos.zip 70 ** Positive Feedback by Vindicator
/songs/1996/s3m/x/x_depre2.zip 193 ** Depression by XCEL
/songs/1996/s3m/z/za-boost.zip 304 *+ Bio Boosted by Zarathos
/songs/1996/s3m/z/zombies.zip 165 *+ When Zombies Walk the Earth by
| Lazarus
/songs/1996/s3m/z/zyz-cold.zip 181 * Cold as Hell by Muhahah
/songs/1996/xm/0-9/007.zip 415 *** Agent 007 by MC Dreamer
/songs/1996/xm/a/ab-clan.zip 182 *+ Puerto Rican Clan by DJ Psyko
/songs/1996/xm/a/ab_amb.zip 224 *** Just in Time by Oto Rajnic
/songs/1996/xm/a/ab_clavi.zip 124 *** Variations by Oto Rajnic
/songs/1996/xm/a/ab_disco.zip 105 *** Raining Again by Oto Rajnic
/songs/1996/xm/a/ab_loslo.zip 108 **+ Los Lobos by Oto Rajnic
/songs/1996/xm/a/ab_piano.zip 143 **+ Piano Orchestral by Oto Rajnic
/songs/1996/xm/a/ab_victo.zip 116 **+ Feeling of Victory by Oto Rajnic
/songs/1996/xm/a/abagaba.zip 264 * Abba Gabba Megamix by Bezerk
/songs/1996/xm/a/aero.zip 119 *** Aerobotic by Akbar
/songs/1996/xm/a/agn-b20v.zip 722 *+ Vendetta (Abused 909 remix) by
| Assign
/songs/1996/xm/a/agn-esca.zip 993 ** Escaping Categories by Assign
/songs/1996/xm/a/agn-heav.zip 945 **+ Heavenly Love by Assign
/songs/1996/xm/a/an_hvnlv.zip 710 ** Heavenly Love (remix) by Animal
/songs/1996/xm/a/anotsept.zip 270 *+ Another September by Emulsifyer
/songs/1996/xm/a/axis_md2.zip 204 *** Utopic Dreams by Axis
/songs/1996/xm/b/bb-gashd.zip 262 * Gashead 7 by B0b
/songs/1996/xm/b/bbrownie.zip 47 *+ Barry's Brownie by Tronster
/songs/1996/xm/b/beat.zip 128 + Beat+Beat=Boom by Ruud
/songs/1996/xm/b/bumpers.zip 225 * Get the Big Bass by Gabriel Ilardi
/songs/1996/xm/c/carbon.zip 1636 *** Carbon by Akbar
/songs/1996/xm/c/careful.zip 249 ** Careful! Cool Dream! by Heatseeker
/songs/1996/xm/c/cb-blind.arj 16 *+ Mental Blindness by Guy
/songs/1996/xm/c/cb-take.arj 625 **+ Take a Second of Me by Pedro
/songs/1996/xm/c/cb-tntf.arj 313 *+ The Need to Feed by Logos
/songs/1996/xm/c/cgs-aggr.zip 48 **+ Aggressive Thoughts by Cygnes
/songs/1996/xm/c/cgs-conv.zip 17 *** Convulsive by Cygnes
/songs/1996/xm/c/cgs-hell.zip 15 **+ Lost in Hell by Cygnes
/songs/1996/xm/c/cgs-nota.zip 370 *** No Taste by Cygnes
/songs/1996/xm/c/cgs-nvr.zip 348 **+ Never Say Goodbye by Cygnes
/songs/1996/xm/c/chaosmet.zip 113 + Chaos Metal by Jonymal
/songs/1996/xm/c/childply.zip 500 *** Child's Play by Noiseman
/songs/1996/xm/c/china.zip 448 *** Southern China by The Passengers
/songs/1996/xm/c/concert1.zip 226 *** Little Concert Opus 1 by Dead
/songs/1996/xm/c/cowboys.zip 156 * Cowboys by Gabriel Ilardi
/songs/1996/xm/c/ct-funk.zip 129 * Funky by Embrittlement
/songs/1996/xm/d/divine.zip 231 + Divine Intervention by Belgarion
/songs/1996/xm/d/dixie.zip 126 * Dixie by Lupin
/songs/1996/xm/d/dope.zip 39 + Dope by Ruud
/songs/1996/xm/d/ds-fadeb.zip 138 **+ Fadeback by Pix
/songs/1996/xm/d/dtn-danc.zip 205 **+ Dancing Together by Tragos
/songs/1996/xm/d/dtn-floa.zip 158 **+ Floating by Dynamix
/songs/1996/xm/d/dtn-life.zip 372 ** Life Anthem by Dynamix
/songs/1996/xm/d/dubu83.zip 426 ** Little World by DJ Kike
/songs/1996/xm/d/dubu84.zip 442 ** Pleasure by DJ Kike
/songs/1996/xm/d/dubu85.zip 655 ** Kosmic Dance by DJ Kike
/songs/1996/xm/d/dubu86.zip 234 ** Heaven Voices by DJ Kike
/songs/1996/xm/d/dubu87.zip 290 *+ Etern by DJ Kike
/songs/1996/xm/d/dubu88.zip 318 *+ Party Time by DJ Kike
/songs/1996/xm/d/dubu89.zip 320 ** Dream Rithm by DJ Kike
/songs/1996/xm/d/dx-fairy.zip 227 *+ Fairytale of You and Me by Datrix
/songs/1996/xm/d/dx-godsn.zip 637 *+ Godsend by Deus Ex
/songs/1996/xm/d/dx-letgo.zip 200 *+ You Can't Let Her Go (remix) by
| Datrix
/songs/1996/xm/d/dx-never.zip 58 ** Never Trust a Klingon (remix) by
| Datrix
/songs/1996/xm/d/dx_303.zip 588 *+ DX-303 by Defex
/songs/1996/xm/d/dx_atom.zip 644 *+ Atomic Cafe by Defex
/songs/1996/xm/d/dz_live.zip 229 **+ Live by White Lightning
/songs/1996/xm/d/dz_rvntn.zip 560 *+ Rave Nation by Xaos
/songs/1996/xm/e/ef-olymp.zip 118 *+ Olympico '96 by El Futplex
/songs/1996/xm/e/ef-rawka.zip 320 *+ Raw Kata by El Futplex
/songs/1996/xm/e/ef-rio.zip 212 *+ Rio Mondo by Graham the Happy Scum
/songs/1996/xm/f/flashrem.zip 174 *+ What a Feeling (cover) by Acidic
| Sunshine
/songs/1996/xm/f/flp-mm02.zip 48 * Ode to Summer by Madmax
/songs/1996/xm/f/flp-mm03.zip 151 *+ Superwired by Madmax
/songs/1996/xm/g/gl-mind.zip 473 *** Mind Drain by Glitch
/songs/1996/xm/g/gl-mort.zip 533 **** Mortal Fascination by Glitch
/songs/1996/xm/g/gl-no55.zip 805 **** No Fifty-Five by Glitch
/songs/1996/xm/g/goguit.zip 230 **+ Go Guitar by Decker
/songs/1996/xm/h/hnz-erro.zip 165 ***+ Error 666 by Hunz
/songs/1996/xm/h/hnz-tamp.zip 296 **** Tampon Theory by Hunz
/songs/1996/xm/h/houseit.zip 98 * House It by Tiamat
/songs/1996/xm/h/housfunk.zip 258 *+ House Funk by Tiamat
/songs/1996/xm/m/m_ugb.zip 79 **+ Underground Bliss by Super Slimer
/songs/1996/xm/m/megamix.zip 412 ** Technotronic Megamix by Gabriel
/songs/1996/xm/m/mm-manta.arj 173 ** Manta by Mike Mueller
/songs/1996/xm/m/mnkroots.zip 514 ***+ Mankind Roots by Soundmaster
/songs/1996/xm/m/ms_dfm.zip 37 *** Don't Forget Me by Miss Saigon
/songs/1996/xm/m/mu_embr.zip 599 **** Embance the Light by Darkwolf,
| Peach
/songs/1996/xm/m/mx-wheni.zip 134 *** When I Was by Mordecai X
/songs/1996/xm/n/newage8b.zip 297 **+ Realms of the New Age by Cosmic
| Eclipse
/songs/1996/xm/n/noiseles.zip 167 ***+ Dawn of a New Man by Chris Meland
/songs/1996/xm/p/pg_fujis.zip 414 **+ Toki-Gaba (Fujisaki) by Tanigon
/songs/1996/xm/p/pt-battl.zip 152 *** The Battle Goes On by P-Tec
/songs/1996/xm/p/px-horiz.zip 140 *** Horizon by The Hiocheer
/songs/1996/xm/r/rm-3thms.zip 193 *+ Three Themes by Rimbo
/songs/1996/xm/r/rm-hyper.zip 422 **+ Hyperactif by Rimbo
/songs/1996/xm/r/rsd-feel.zip 303 *** The Feel by Resound
/songs/1996/xm/s/s_ravnit.zip 149 **+ Rave Night (Uh Yeah) by Synthetic
| Minds
/songs/1996/xm/s/sc-blue.zip 341 ***+ Blue by Screamager
/songs/1996/xm/s/sc-mono.zip 298 *** Monotoniq by Screamager
/songs/1996/xm/s/science.zip 223 * Science by Tiamat
/songs/1996/xm/s/sky_eyth.zip 274 ** Eye Tech by DJ Yoyo
/songs/1996/xm/s/sm-angui.zip 223 *** Anguish by Slightly Magic
/songs/1996/xm/s/sm-magic.zip 200 *** Magic Summer by Slightly Magic
/songs/1996/xm/s/sq_cheez.zip 51 **** Cheesemobile by Sequencer
/songs/1996/xm/s/sq_towrs.zip 275 ***+ Towers by Sequencer
/songs/1996/xm/t/tb-wihy.zip 651 *** When I Hold You (Dance Style) by
| The Borg
/songs/1996/xm/t/tears.zip 88 *** Tears by Jaben
/songs/1996/xm/t/techsped.zip 161 + Techno Speed by Tiamat
/songs/1996/xm/t/thetrip.zip 306 *+ The Trip by b0b
/songs/1996/xm/t/together.zip 185 **+ Together With You by Puffin
/songs/1996/xm/t/tr-rembr.zip 421 *** Remembrance by Tracktor
=----------------------------------------------------------------------(code)-=
/pub/demos/code Size Rated Description
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
/compress/lz_asm.arj 9 **** Ar LZ asm sources by Tom Pfau : lz
| compression/decompression, good for a .gif
| viewer, macro library
/compress/lz_c.arj 17 *** C LZ C sources by Haruhiko Okumura :
| compression routines for arithmetic,
| huffman and string search, few comments
/effects/zed3d095.zip 686 ****+ T Zed3D v0.95 - 3D Graphics Reference by Zed
| : Phong, Gouraud, Textures, etc.
/graph/vbe20-11.exe 540 **** T Official VESA VBE 2.0 Specification
/graph/wgt51_r2.zip 1722 **** CA Wordup Graphics Toolkit v5.1 by Chris
| Egerter
/pmode/dos32b35.zip 462 **** CA DOS32 v3.5 Beta by Adam Seychell : 32bit
| DOS Extender
/pmode/pmw124.zip 133 **** CA PMODE/W v1.24 by Daredevil, Tran : DOS
| Extender For WATCOM C/C++
=----------------------------------------------------------------------(mags)-=
/pub/demos/mags Size Rated Description
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
/1995/bistro.zip 488 *** Bistro by Mindprobe
/1996/infy1.zip 1048 ** Infinity #1 by Realm of Darkness BBS : Portugal
| Diskmag
/1996/infy2.zip 1299 ** Infinity #2 by Infinity Network : Portugal
| Diskmag
/1996/luna-001.zip 1022 *** Luna #1 by Moon Hunters : Israeli Scene Mag
=---------------------------------------------------------------------(party)-=
/pub/demos/party Size Rated Description
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
/invites/1996/ai_phobe.zip 475 ***+ SCE96::: Astrophobia (Scenest '96
| Invitation Intro) by Astroidea
/invites/1996/sn96i109.zip 8 SCE96::: Scenest '96 Invitation Text
/invites/1996/tg96inv2.zip 165 *** TG96::: The Gathering '96 Invitation
| Intro by Proxima
/invites/1996/tg96pc.zip 16 TG96::: The Gathering '96 Invitation
| Text
/misc/biz96ans.zip 188 BIZ96::: Bizarre '96 Ansi Compo Entries
/pictures/biz96pix.zip 60 BIZ96::: Bizarre '96 Pictures
/pictures/jun01-03.txt 5 NAID96::: NAID '96 Picture Descriptions
/pictures/jun01_a.zip 878 [1/5] NAID96::: NAID '96 Day 1 Pictures
/pictures/jun01_b.zip 930 [2/5] NAID96::: NAID '96 Day 1 Pictures
/pictures/jun01_c.zip 854 [3/5] NAID96::: NAID '96 Day 1 Pictures
/pictures/jun01_d.zip 1011 [4/5] NAID96::: NAID '96 Day 1 Pictures
/pictures/jun01_e.zip 295 [5/5] NAID96::: NAID '96 Day 1 Pictures
/pictures/jun01_x.zip 1108 NAID96::: NAID '96 Day 1 Pictures -
| Contact Sheets
/pictures/jun02_a.zip 852 [1/2] NAID96::: NAID '96 Day 2 Pictures
/pictures/jun02_b.zip 751 [2/2] NAID96::: NAID '96 Day 2 Pictures
/pictures/jun02_x.zip 413 NAID96::: NAID '96 Day 2 Pictures -
| Contact Sheets
/pictures/jun03_a.zip 878 NAID96::: NAID '96 Day 3 Pictures
/pictures/jun03_x.zip 226 NAID96::: NAID '96 Day 3 Pictures -
| Contact Sheet
/reports/1996/hossos-3.txt 23 BIZ96::: Bizarre '96 Text Party Report
| by MSW
/results/1996/biz96res.txt 2 BIZ96::: Bizarre '96 Results
/results/1996/n96pres.zip 1 NAID96::: NAID '96 Preliminary Results
/results/1996/rage96.res 5 RAGE96::: Rage '96 Results
/results/1996/tg96res.zip 8 TG96::: The Gathering '96 Results
==[Articles]===================================================================
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
:: "Introduction"
:: Snowman / Hornet - r3cgm@cdrom.com
Necros Fixation. The phrase is meaningless but it sounds cool.
_____The WWW
I have made many changes to the web-side of our archive in the past 2.5
weeks. Here's a breakdown...
Top Downloads: I'm gonna be taking /music/programs out of the top downloads.
Also, next week the http transfer logs will be included in the results. You
should also check out the new look of the "Top Daily Downloads" page at:
http://www.cdrom.com/pub/demos/ha/pages/top_day.html
/incoming HTML: You might notice that a few of the /incoming directories now
have experimental index.html files. These pages would look a lot better if
people weren't still using high-ascii in their file_id.diz's. Here's a tip;
you want your file description to look nice on the web, stick to A-Z, a-z,
and standard punctuation.
CGML: Frustrated by some of HTML's limitations, I am going to be creating my
own html hybrid named "CGML". This language will contain more general tags
than HTML and be preprocessed with a global config file so that all pages on
a site can instantly change to a new color/formatting scheme easily and
quickly. It will also give YOU the ability to make new plug-in color schemes
and graphics for the Hornet Archive.
What's In a Log?: The merger of both ftp and html transfer logs into the "Top
Downloads" was not an extremely easy thing to do. I had to create a uniform
log file format that both types of logs could be converted into. From there,
my scripts could work. Cubic Player uses the same strategy for playing music
BTW.
Restructured Database: Our search engine was slowing down. I had to do
something. I ended up doing two somethings. First, our database contained
"/archive/pub/demos" for each file entry. This was removed. Second, all
filenames are now stored backward in the database (example:
/demos/1993/0-9/2ndreal.lzh is now stored as hzl.laerdn2/9-0/3991/somed/).
For reasons I won't even begin to get into, this provides an additional
10-20% speed boost in searches. Woohoo! :)
File size 0k: A bug was introduced when I restructured the database. All new
database entries in the past week cataloged files at 0 bytes. Doh! This bug
has been fixed and the files corrected.
Author/Group Pages: In another month or so, I'll begin work on the
author/group pages. These will be pages containing author and group names
for every file that we have on the archive. Some work will be required
on your end. For example, "Liam" would be noted as a different author
than "Liam the Lemming", even though they are the same person. This is due
to inconsistent author/group naming in our database. It will be up to you
to fix that. :) On a final note, the reason I won't start work on this
for another month is because I'm not yet happy with the state of the archive.
_____Conclusion
Q: Who killed Snap, Crackle, and Pop?
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
:: "Life Before Demos - Part 2 / 2"
:: Trixter / Hornet - trixter@ftp.cdrom.com
_____If You Want Something Done, You Have To Do It Yourself
Demosceners are familiar with speeding up graphics with cute math and
hardware tricks. But what do you do when the machine is simply too slow?
Speed up your hardware. It sounds silly, but there were actually several
ways to make the machine run faster -- via software -- by modifying certain
bits of hardware.
For example, the CPU spent time refreshing early DRAM so that the RAM
wouldn't lose its contents. This refresh rate was adjustable and usually
done way too often, so you could usually lower it a bit and gain more speed
for your programs. Speed increases of 5% to 10% were not uncommon; I got a
15% increase by lowering the DRAM refresh rate gradually until the computer
locked up. :-) I then used the last setting that didn't lock up the computer.
Handy thing to have in your autoexec.bat, that.
But probably the most common method that game programmers used to speed up
the computer was to go for the guts and bypass the operating system in a big
way -- by creating self-booting programs. This solved several problems at
the same time:
* Disk access and loading times were much faster. If you wanted data and
knew where you put it, you seek directly to the track and load the entire
track to somewhere in memory. If you were a real hotshot, you could
trackload "manually" by not using the BIOS and instead using DMA. Very
quick.
* You had more RAM. The operating system took up at least 32K of ram,
which your program could have used. (Hey, PCs came with only 128K of RAM
until around 1985, so you really needed to save RAM.) So, make your
entire program fit into 64K and write a little 446-byte bootloader and
you gain that RAM back.
* The machine was empty. There was no operating system to get in your way,
so you could reprogram timers, write obscene self-modifying code, store
data in unused portions of the BIOS (or vector table -- ACK!), whatever
you wanted to do. If the computer were a parking lot, it would be an
empty parking lot -- you could drive like a maniac for hours and not hit
a thing.
Of course, you had to be a damn fine coder to do this. Being merely
proficient in assembler programming wasn't enough -- remember all those
friendly DOS services you use? Gone. So, you'd better be prepared to write
your own mini-DOS when you needed one.
Sometimes self-booting programs were mandatory; it was the only way to have
any decent form of copy-protection. Stuff like that was really hard to
crack. In fact, I don't think anyone in today's world would have the stomach
to attempt it. Not only does the game boot (hel-LO!), but it then proceeds
to stomp all over memory, usually obliterating the debugger. Your only
chance is to dump the boot sector and attempt to disassemble it manually.
(While the game programmers were tough back then, so were the crackers, so it
got done somehow.) The most common programs that come to mind are the early
Accolade and Electronic Arts games; Pinball Construction Set and Music
Construction Set (forever classics), for example. Of course, the classic
Wizardry did this as well, although it took them two tries to get it right:
The first version of Wizardry was not very friendly to non-perfect-100% IBM
compatibles, so the more you played the game, the less successful the disk
reads were. Odd... The second version played just fine, however. They even
took the time to improve the graphics.
_____Don't Copy That Floppy
Let's sidetrack for a minute or so on copy-protection schemes. Although they
had nothing to do with graphics or sound explicitly, I still found them
absolutely fascinating, since they were also very hardware-intensive.
Copy-protection, for those too young to remember, was a method of doing
something to the diskette the game came on that made writing a perfect
duplicate impossible, which in turn prevented you from coping the disk and
giving it to all your friends, robbing the software company of potential
sales.
A typical method of checking went something like this: When the game started,
it checked to see if it was running on the original diskette by looking for a
specific piece of data stored in an extra sector hidden in a specially
formatted track. If it didn't find that data, it aborted. This way, you
could only make the program run by running it off of its original diskette.
(Nowadays, "copy-protection" is usually as simple as the program asking you
to look up a word on a certain page in your software manual and type it in,
or for CDROM games, checking to see if it is running on the CDROM device.)
Copy-protection used to be included on everything, from games to business
software, simply because software was extremely expensive back then, and a
couple hundred copies of a program could actually make or break a software
company (no, I'm not kidding). People just didn't buy software all the time
because a typical game (for example) was $50. That's normal in 1996, but
very expensive for 1984. (Think about it: $50 in 1984 is like $95 today due
to inflation. I don't know about you, but I'm not willing to pay $95 for a
computer game.)
I wasn't any good at cracking back in 1984 (I barely knew general
programming, let alone assembler), so I had to become good at figuring out
the copy protection scheme instead if I wanted to duplicate the program.
While many crackers learned DEBUG inside and out, I learned protection
schemes and how to duplicate diskettes. Here's some of the more interesting
methods that programmers used to prevent you from copying that floppy with
DOS's standard DISKCOPY:
* Simple trickery. Format a diskette as single-sided, but then store the
secret copy-protection information on a track formatted on the second
side. DISKCOPY would read the boot sector, determine that the disk was
single-sided, and only bother copying the first side.
* User stupidity. The program would simply try writing a dummy file to the
disk. Since most commercial software came on write-protected disks, the
write would fail, and the program would continue. But if you'd just made
a copy, chances were high that you'd forget to write-protect the disk
when you were finished, and the write would succeed, which then aborted
the program.
* Secret hardware information. Most disk drives could actually seek beyond
track 40; usually to 41. Some software companies formatted that extra
track (DISKCOPY didn't go that high) and stored secret info in it.
* Wacko disk formats. This is when you go slightly beyond the obvious,
like formatting a normal 9-sector track with 10 or 11 sectors (or less,
like 4 or 5). DISKCOPY didn't know how to handle stuff outside the norm
like this, so you usually needed a special program like CopyIIPC or
CopyWrite to analyze the diskette thoroughly, then attempt to duplicate
the format. This was about 66% successful; the other 33% you had to do
yourself, usually. Electronic Arts had one of the best schemes in the
early 80's; I couldn't figure it out until about 1985. They formatted
track 15 with over 90 sectors! :-D
* Damage. The most expensive method of copy protection was also the most
effective: Physically damage the disk. Using a laser, it was possible to
burn a small hole in the disk surface, and then all the program had to do
was check to see if there was a read error in that particular sector, and
if so, continue running the program. If you turned the disk surface
manually by grabbing the inside ring, you could actually see a tiny hole
in the disk surface!
If it was so easy (relatively speaking) to figure out these formats, then why
didn't everybody just write bitcopy or nibbler programs to analyze the
diskette and make perfect copies of everything (except the laser hole, of
course)?
It wasn't quite that easy: While the IBM floppy controller could read all of
these formats, it did not have the ability to write all of them. A
third-party company (usually the diskette duplication facility itself)
specially prepared the diskettes using custom floppy controllers. To this
day I don't know if the read-all-but-not-write-all phenomenon was a decision
made on purpose by IBM's engineers or just a hardware glitch that software
companies took advantage of. (Probably a hardware glitch.)
Either way, I eventually broke down in 1987 and bought a Copy ][ PC Option
Board, which went between the floppy drive and controller, allowing me to
write those special formats. Trivia: To this day, there is only one diskette
I have never been able to duplicate, even with the help of my Option Board: A
Cops Copylock ][ demo diskette that I sent away for (Cops was a third-party
copy-protection library you could purchase to copy-protect your own
programs). I never found any programs that actually used Cops as the copy
protection scheme, which was fortunate, since I couldn't copy it. :-(
_____Your Computer Is Too Damn Loud
Ah, music. Certainly one of the most interesting things done with computers
today in the demoscene; in fact, at least twenty times more MOD/S3M/IT/XM
music is being put out per year than demos, and that figure is steadily
increasing. Until Sami came out with Scream Tracker in 1990, there was no
native digital/multi-channel composition program. Heck, until 1986, there
wasn't even any sound hardware you could hook up to your PC. Sure, the PCjr
and Tandy had their own 3-voice sound chip built in, but I didn't have a
Tandy or PCjr.
That didn't stop me. :-) Or anyone else, for that matter. People did the
best with what they had, with surprising results for the time and hardware.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the evolution of composed/tracked
personal computer music hardware and techniques, from the point of a
fledgling demoscener (which means I'll conveniently ignore MIDI):
1981-1982
The PC speaker, driven by a chip that could only produce a simple tone at a
fixed volume, was the only thing that kept us company. If it weren't for
BASICA, we'd live in silence. BASICA had a PLAY statement that took real
notes and octaves; you could bang out a melody relatively quickly, although
it was loud and harsh.
You could fake a chord by quickly alternating between different notes at
the same time (an arpeggio), but this sounded artificial and bubbly. (If
you didn't have a love for computer music, it would quickly drive you
crazy.) Pianoman by Neil J. Rubenking was a music composition program that
did this; you could compose each voice separately, and then combine them
into an arpeggio. A gentler trick was to adjust the pitch up and down very
finely, simulating vibrato. One voice, but at least it wasn't so harsh.
1983
The PCjr is released, and Tandy follows suit a year later with the Tandy
1000, which was a clone of the PCjr. One of the enhancements in the PCjr
was the addition of a 3-voice sound chip that gave multiple channels, noise
generation, tone envelopes, and volume control to the built-in speaker.
Now we had something to play with. The BASICA that came with the PCjr and
Tandy supported a 3-voice PLAY statement, which, if you played your cards
right, could produce some fairly nice sound. One thing I discovered was
that the Tandy chip had a hidden strength in low chord layering.
1984
Music Construction Set, programmed by Will Harvey, came out for the PC in
1984 from Electronic Arts. It had a real staff, with treble and bass
clefs, and had a neato "construction set" motif -- you could drag'n'drop
notes onto the staff before "drag'n'drop" was a common catch phrase.
Best of all, not only did it support the native sound chip of the
PCjr/Tandy, but it could play four voices through the normal built-in
speaker! (Granted, it was difficult to discern between the voices, but it
was possible to hear the overall chord you were going for.) You could even
print out the staff on your printer, although it was one long staff down
the side of the page, and not nicely formatted sheet music. :-)
1986
Mindscape publishes Bank Street Music Writer, the first program I ever
bought that came with its own hardware if you didn't own a Tandy or PCjr.
The "Mindscape Music Board" was a 6 voice sound card which turned out to be
a sine or square wave generator with simple attack, sustain, and delay
parameters. Not exactly FastTracker 2 envelopes, but it was a start. :-)
Plus, it attempted to print out real sheet music, and you could follow your
voices on-screen as they played. I went nuts with this board, sometimes
spending hours arranging the tunes my school choir was practicing.
Although it was very good at producing solid chords (it was a tone
generator, right?), it never took off, because the price was a bit high
($110) and it did sound a bit... "plinky". (Come to think of it, Music
Construction Set for the Apple supported a similar board called the
Mockingboard, but that never took off either.)
I'm fairly certain that I saw the Covox Speech Thing around this time as
well. The Speech Thing was a simple digital-to-analog converter that you
could connect to your parallel port to hear digitized sound. It sold for
about $70, even though the parts cost about $15 -- including the speaker.
:-)
1987
Adlib. :-) This famous board used a chip from Yamaha that produced
Frequency-Modulated (FM) sound synthesis through 2 operators and a variety
of parameters. You could utilize 9 melodic voices, or 6 melodic and 5
percussion.
Armed with the odd Visual Composer, you could compose on a piano roll
instead of a musical staff. It wasn't bad at all; in fact, it sounded
pretty damn good. If programmed correctly, it could layer voices well,
produce decent bass, and fairly full sounds. I still believe that the
Adlib was (and still is) underused by the majority of people who composed
for it.
While I didn't purchase my Adlib until 1989, the board was actually selling
in 1987, and games started supporting it in 1988. Taito's arcade
conversions done by Banana Development supported it passably, but it wasn't
until 1990 that I heard simply beautiful music through it from a game
called Continuum from Infogramme. The game consisted of jumping from
platform to platform to reach a certain object, but the music was so good
that I booted it up just for the music. (It also supported the Tandy sound
chip, but since the music was composed for the Adlib, it was nowhere near
the same quality.)
The great former C64 demogroup Vibrants also did some excellent music
composed specifically for the Adlib board, but this wasn't until much
later, in 1993, when they composed music for a few games. Their
composition program, Edlib, is still freely available. Ever hear techno on
an Adlib? :-) (Their true strength was jazz, which is what they usually
composed.)
IBM Music Feature Card. This board was released from IBM in 1987 in an
effort to draw MIDI musicians and game programmers over to the IBM. It
cost about $250, and played 8 FM voices. The quality of the FM was much
better than the Adlib, presumably since it used a 4-operator FM chip (also
from Yamaha) instead of Adlib's 2-operator chip, and had over 100 built-in
instrument parameters. It also had a MIDI port, of course. Trivia: You
could put two of these boards in your PC at the same time to get a total of
16 simultaneous voices.
1988
Creative Music Systems (the name they had before they changed it to
Creative Labs) came out with the Game Blaster around this time, and it
offered 12 channels, with each channel producing either a single sine wave
of a given frequency and magnitude (in stereo), or noise. The sound
quality was obviously worse than the Adlib -- the board simply couldn't do
much of anything. You can still purchase CMS chips to put inside your
Sound Blaster 1.x and 2.0, but it's really not worth it. The only game I
know of that supported the CMS Game Blaster with decent music was was Times
of Lore by Origin.
Digitized sound! Around this time, game companies had finally started to
use digitized sound for music. (It had been used on the PC for sound
effects as early as 1983, in Castle Wolfenstein / Beyond Castle
Wolfenstein, and in 1987, in the PC version of Dark Castle.) While I had
speculated that you could record bits of music and then rearrange them
cleverly, a French game company called Loriciels beat me to it, with the
excellent games Mach 3 (1987) and Space Racer (1988) (they also did a
then-popular Pong/Breakout/Arkanoid clone called PopCorn).
These games had a really cool (for a PC at the time) musical intro at the
beginning, which was pieced together from small sound snippets that were
arranged on the fly to form a longer piece of music. (You can think of this
as a .MOD file with only one channel and all instruments/samples played at
C#3.) And it played through the PC speaker! Coming from a PC that had a
simple tone generator as a sound device, this just blew me away. Crazy Cars
by Titus also had a snippet of digitized sound at the beginning, but this
was just a 64K sample that looped once. The same went for Wizball by
Mindscape. (Wizball was a fabulous game, IMHO.) Finally, games like
Bop'n'Wrestle used it for the counts and body-slamming noises.
1989
The Sound Blaster hits the scene, and game companies start supporting it.
It's essentially an Adlib clone, but it has the ability to record and
playback digitized sound, allowing for speech and decent sound effects.
(This information was essentially provided for people who don't know what a
Sound Blaster is. I probably shouldn't have even written this paragraph,
since the (in)famous Sound Blaster doesn't need mentioning, but I've done
it already, so... whatever). :-)
1990
True Mixing. While many remember TrakBlaster being the first program to
play MOD files on the PC, a couple of people were mixing before then, most
notably PSI / Future Crew. He had created and marketed Scream Tracker in
1990 as shareware, and it could mix and play up to four voices in real-time
on an 8MHz (or faster) computer.
The early versions of Scream Tracker supported a mode of operation similar
to the old SoundTracker on Amiga -- you could save the song data and
instruments separately. This allowed you to compose over 20 songs and fit
them on the same disk, because you use the same set of instruments with
each song. EGA Megademo / SpacePigs did this -- they had four different
songs that used the same instruments, so the whole thing fit onto a single
360K disk.
_____A Brief Early History of Demos
This has been covered many times before, so I won't rehash The Beginning Of
Demos excessively; however, a few tangible examples would probably serve to
help you picture the transition.
Pirating games led to the birth of the demo scene. It's time everyone who is
in deep denial about this fact comes out and accepts it. You can see this in
the early loaders for pirated games; as early as 1988 you can see some
demo-like effects in small loaders. The loader for Bad Street Brawler is a
perfect example of this: The screen starts as static; then, like a TV pirate
intercepting a TV channel, the screen flickers with the title graphic, until
finally the title graphic is fully displayed. The entire program was only 128
bytes, and was tacked onto the front of a CGA screen dump.
This "loader mentality" took a while to grow, but it eventually did. Many
early intros were simply one effect, but to be impressive, it had to be an
effect never before seen on the PC. "Never before seen" meant one of two
things, actually:
* The effect was an Amiga or C64 effect that was translated to the PC
(common), or
* The effect was an entirely new effect (rare).
Many of the early Brain Slayer intros were good examples of the
Amiga-effect-to-PC trend, and until .MOD playing on the PC became popular,
most early intros had no sound at all.
_____Rose-colored Glasses
Well, our look back has ended, and not a moment too soon, since I've taken up
valuable time that you could've used to write the newest demos. All I ask is
that the next time you take a look at the demos today that contain incredibly
complex 3D objects, particle systems, and multi-channel digital music, or the
next time you compose music with 64 digital channels in Inertia Tracker, you
think about what it used to be like in the old days. Who knows... Maybe some
of you will be as innovative as us old-timers needed to be in dealing with
such limited, slow hardware.
Then again, the driving force behind demos is that the hardware is only as
limited as you think it is. ;-)
_____Epilogue
It just wouldn't be fair for me to end this article without a list of old
demos that you should check out if you want to see the best of the best back
in the old days (from 1990 to 1992). Keep in mind that these demos run at the
full framerate on a 386 running at 16 MHz:
Demo Group Video Sound Support
---------------- ----------- ----- -----------------------------------------
Chronologia Cascada VGA Sound Blaster, Internal speaker, LPT DAC
Dragnet DCE VGA Sound Blaster
Putre Faction Skull VGA Sound Blaster
Unreal vers. 1.1 Future Crew VGA Sound Blaster, Gravis Ultrasound, LPT DAC
Vectdemo Ultraforce VGA Sound Blaster
Coldcut Ultraforce EGA Sound Blaster
EGA Megademo SpacePigs EGA Internal speaker, LPT DAC
And, as always, if you're interested about demos in general, please feel free
to free to check out PC Demos Explained or download the PC Demos FAQ list.
Written by Jim Leonard. Completed September 25th, 1996. Special thanks to
Geoffrey Silverton for some low-level "lowres" information.
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
:: "You Know You Play Too Much Quake When"
:: Maverick - paul@sprintlink.co.za
01. You wish you had a sniper macro for your right eye when watching a live
game (or the girl across the road).
02. You wonder why the guy on TV doesn't switch to his rocket launcher in a
gun battle.
03. Distant lightning makes you want to lob a grenade in that direction.
04. You look furtively all around you when walking through a shopping mall.
05. You reach for a keyboard when having to jump a low obstacle.
06. You realize you can't hold your breath underwater for that long after
all..
07. You miss the moveup and movedown aliases when swimming.
08. You mutter "bad guy rides Arnold's rocket" when watching the climax scene
of True Lies.
09. You propose to your boss that he converts the company Web server into a
dedicated Quake server so you can access it from the LAN.
10. Real gunfire makes you run for the nearest lift so you can join in.
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
:: "TMDC Update"
:: Sol / DEE - jari.komppa@pcb.compart.fi
Some things have changed since the last TMDC article in DemoNews. The prize
list and contact info has changed somewhat, and the invitation demo has been
released. The deadline is still 11.11.96, but *please* send your
contributions as soon as possible.
_____Invitation demo?
Go grab the TMDC invitation demo - it might change your opinion about
textmode demos:
ftp:ftp.cdrom.com//pub/demos/incoming/demos/tmdcinv.zip
The zip also includes TMDC infofile 1.2.
_____Contact info?
The competition is held in the Internet, but you don't have
to have internet access to contribute a demo. You may send your
contributions to:
email: MIMEd to joker@crusaders.no
UUEncoded to jari.komppa@pcb.compart.fi
IRC : _TJ_ (#CODERS)
BBS : TRK +358-9-874-2789 28.8k (Dubius HQ/DEE HQ/Hysteria HQ)
+358-9-857-4506 14.4k (node 2)
Anon uploads are now possible; log on to either node as TMDC, password
TMDC, and you'll get prompt to upload.
Snailmail:
Sol/DEE The Joker
Laurintie 116 Stationsveien 56
Vantaa 01400 2010 STROMMEN
Finland,Europe Norway, Europe
Please include Self Addressed Envelope and International Reply Coupons if you
want to have your disk(s) back.
_____Prize list?
1st place - Full, registered version of Remedy
Entertainment's Death Rally.
- 1st pick from CD pile.
- 386dx25 w/4MB RAM, 40MB HDD, VGA card.
(doesn't include keyboard or monitor, tho..)
- Assembly T-shirt.
2nd place - 2nd pick from CD pile.
- same kind of 386dx25 as above.
- Assembly T-shirt.
3rd place - 3rd pick from CD pile (if any choice).
- Assembly T-shirt.
4th place - 4th pick from CD pile (if any choice).
- Assembly T-shirt.
5th place - Whatever CD is left in the pile.
- Assembly T-shirt.
6-10 place - Assembly T-shirt.
As for what CDs to pick from, you have two Imphobia 'Dreams' CDs, and three
A.C.E Demos Collection CDs.
==[Closing]====================================================================
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Older issues of DemoNews can be located at /info/demonews
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...........................................................End.of.DemoNews.132.
