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Static Line 40
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cRu|________\ | | Issue #40
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|: \ / __/· \__\_ \___\_ \_ _.
October, 2002 || / \ \__/ / / /___// |
288 Subscribers World Wide | /___/ \ / / __/_ / |
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--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Table Of Contents
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
Opening:
Message From the Editor
Letters From Our Readers
Features:
Party Report -- Assembly '02
Using Impulse Tracker in Windows XP
Coming Soon -- MindCandy, the DemoDVD
Reviews:
Music:
In Tune -- Virt's "Witches"
The Lineup -- Introduction: Help Wanted
Demo:
Screen Lit Vertigo -- Demos by Orion, Halcyon and Haujobb
Alternative Review -- The TAP 256.htm Competitions
Opinion / Commentary:
Editorial -- Happy Returns
Inside My Mind -- The Versatility of the Tracker
Another View:
"Creativity" by The Watcher
"Pop Goes the Musician" by Colin D'Cruz
Link List: Get Somewhere in the Scene
Closing: Staff and Contact Information
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Message From the Editor
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
I would like to thank everyone for your patience and understanding
over the last year. I'm pretty sure that we will all agree that this
has not been an ideal year for Static Line. But that's all behind us
now, and I'm finally glad to report that Static Line has returned to a
full agenda. There have been a lot of changes from what you, the
faithful readers of Static Line, are used to.
First of all, thanks to cRu for drawing up two very nice ASCII art
titles for the magazine. The larger of the two appears at the top of
this issue. Also thanks to Ghandy for getting these to me. It seems
very appropriate that we get a new look for Static Line's return.
The format of the magazine has changed slightly as well. In the past,
all guest contributions became "feature articles" regardless of their
focus. To save a bit of confusion, we now categorize every article and
place them where they belong. Opinion and Commentary article submissions
are common. Therefore, guest contributions get filed under the column
header "Another View". These are often very thought provoking articles,
and definately worth a read.
You will also notice that our staff has changed as well. Seven will
continue to provide us with his monthly column as well as his regular
party reports. Tryhuk has sadly decided to move on. While he will no
longer carry a monthly column with us, he has assured me that he may
contribute feature articles when he can. But let us not forget our new
staff members. We welcome three new writers to the Static Line staff:
Novus, Vill and The Watcher.
Novus will be maintaining a monthly column called "The Lineup", which
lists current music with a first impression rating. A brief introduction
of the concept appears in this month's column. He'll be looking for
additional help with this column. So if you want to help contribute to
this fine magazine, this may be your opportunity.
Vill makes his Static Line debut with a column that I titled "Inside
My Mind". This is a last minute title, and it may change when Vill
throws his complaints at me in the form of an e-mail typed with Caps
Lock turned on. Seriously though, his column is a commentary on
creativity in the 'scene. His thoughts might provoke some good debates.
You'll want to read his debut, and keep an eye on him in the future.
The Watcher comes to us with a couple of articles this month.
First, he reviews some contributions to the TAP 256.htm Competitions in
what I hope will become a regular review column about demos and related
topics. He also submitted an very nice opinion article about
Creativity, everone's favorite stumbling block. I hope we see more of
The Watcher in the future, and I'm sure you will too.
Well, it seems to me that we've got a pretty good return issue for
you. In fact, it is the largest issue we have released to date. And
it's jammed with quality articles. As things are constantly changing,
we always welcome your comments. Feel free to send us your thoughts.
Until Next time.
--Coplan
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Letters From Our Readers
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
-=- A Message from Zito -=-
This is Zito/1oo%^mOOdS^Reason^Scarab, maintainer of www.diskmag.de
and main editor of "Jurassic Pack". While reading the latest issue of
your Static Line, I had to notice, that not a single project I am
involved in is listed in your link section. So I thought to recommend
them to you with a little explaination:
www.diskmag.de - a scene portal for various platforms, this should not
be missed!
www.jurassicpack.de.vu - website of the legendary amiga scene diskmag!
Bye!
--Zito
-=- Reply From Coplan -=-
Greetings Zito!
Thanks for giving us the heads up about your projects and the web
pages associated with them. As you know, the 'scene is very vast, and
there are probably a lot of sites we aren't aware of and havn't
cataloged. We're always looking for new links, and I appreciate your
contribution. Both are now listed in our Link List.
Thanks again.
--Coplan
-=- A Message from Christian Wirth -=-
I was wondering when the next issue of Static Line was to be released?
What type of articles do you look for, or is there a format? :)
Also, would you mind linking us in your Archives section of your
publication, our archive is called "ACiD Artpacks Archive", url is
"ftp://ftp.artpacks.acid.org/pub/artpacks/" -- our files date from
1990-2001. We officially stopped taking uploads on 3/14/2001.
Best Regards,
--Christian Wirth
-=- Reply from Coplan -=-
Christian, I actually tried to contact you prior to our release, but
was unable to reach you.
As a general rule, Static Line will be released on the first Sunday
of every month. There will be some exceptions due to holidays or
what-not. But for the most part, I will be able to hold to this
schedule. In general, I ask that article submissions get to me no later
than the Friday immediately before release, but earlier is often better.
Sometimes I hold articles for the following issue. This happens pretty
often, actually. As far as article types? I'm willing to publish any
interesting article that has relationship to the scene. The articles
I'm looking for the most are technical articles or tips articles. But
again, there's no one particular type of article that I'm specifically
looking for.
--Coplan
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Party Report
Assembly '02
By: Seven
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
Assembly! The famous Finnish demoparty! This is the party where
legendary groups released the demos that became true classics. It is one
of the oldest parties in existence, and yet it is still going strong.
It's been said that every scener should visit the Assembly at least once
in his lifetime, and this year I've finally managed to do exactly that.
-=- Thursday, 1 August -=-
Having arrived the day before by plane, I left the hotel at noon and
walked to the party place. Assembly takes place in the Hartwall Arena, a
huge covered hockey stadium build into a hillside in Helsinki. There
were several entrances, one had only a few tens of people waiting in
front of it, and two others had hundreds of visitors queueing up, with
their hardware in small metal trolleys. I had ordered my oldskool
ticket from the Assembly website. But due to revised postal fees,
tickets are no longer sent outside Finland. After asking some gamers and
a security guard to no avail, a fellow demoscener pointed me to the
right queue (thank you Styx), which was the shortest one. Nice!
-=- 13:04 -=-
After having my possesions meticulously checked for alcohol, weapons
and who knows what other forbidden substances, I proceeded to the ticket
booth where a friendly lady *did* find an order form with my name on it;
albeit only after searching twice. Hello heart attack! I told her I
hadn't yet paid for the ticket, which she apparently found hard to
believe. But after some arguing she reluctantly accepted my 30 Euros
(oldskool tickets are half the price of normal tickets).
The oldskool area was a long, small and relatively empty hall. Only a
few sceners had arrived at this point. At one end, a big screen was
installed; so we did't have to run to the main hall to see the compos. I
installed my laptop and got on the network without a problem. Looking
around, the first person I met was no other than Phoenix/Hornet! I was
surprised he still knew me since we've met only once before at
Mekka/Symposium 2k1. He informed me that the DemoDVD project was going
according to plan, although they *almost* lost all their work in a hard
disk crash. But they were able to get it back, and the DVD should be
ready for release sometime in fall 2002. He gave also me a copy of the
promotional videoCD and of the Demodulate CD. The videoCD is meant as a
sample of what MindCandy (the title of the first DemoDVD) will contain,
even though the quality is lower than that of a real DVD. Besides two
trailers, it contains movies of X14/Orange, Gerbera/Moppi Productions,
Panic/Future Crew, Kosmiset Avaruus Sienet/Haujobb, Toasted/Cubic Team &
$een and Tesla/Sunflower. The oldies (X14, Panic, Toasted), especially,
make me feel all nostalgic and fuzzy inside :) The Demodulate CD
contains the soundtrack MOD/S3M/XM's of 380 Amiga and PC demos.
-=--=--
Editor's Note: Phoenix has an article about MindCandy in Static Line
this month. You can find out more about it from that article.
-=--=--
After a while we went food shopping with Howler to last for the next
few days. The fastfood they sell inside the arena has an
amazingly high price:nutritiousness ratio. Later, I made a major faux pas
by offering Phoenix some chocolate-covered nuts, not knowing he has an
allergy to nuts :( Luckily he escaped without injury, and the rest of
the party went by without accidental homicide attempts.
Even though Assembly is one of the largest parties in existence (2700
computers, 4500 visitors in 4 days), it has managed to keep the
'scene feeling alive, mainly by concentrating most sceners in the
oldskool area. That makes it much easier to get to know new people. One
of the ALT-party orgos is selling little name tags sporting "official
ALT-party supporter". Quite a few people are wearing them. I talk
a bit with Unseen Fate/Dawning and Britelite/Decadence, whose group has
made an impressive C64 demo. There should be at least one other C64 entry
and several Vic-20 ones, so that should be an interesting compo.
I also meet Preacher, who is making a 4K DOS intro with lots of
effects (although they're almost all derived from the old tunnel-map
effect) and a funny conversation between two gamers. My own attempt at
making a 4K windows intro was aborted after I learned that entries were
not allowed to write anything to disk. So it wasn't possible to use a
"dropper", a small com-file that decompresses the windows exe file, which
means I couldn't compress the 512-byte large PE header, which means I'd
waste 12% of the 4K right away :( Guess I'll have to finish and submit it
at another party.
-=- 18:30 -=-
The opening ceremony is over! It started with a short clip of the
previous Assembly, followed by a speech by Abyss. He urged the gamers and
the sceners to have some respect for each other (there were some
incidents last year), and to have fun at the best Assembly ever. There
are more oldskool places, more PC places and more visitors than ever. The
prize money is an amazing 40,000 euros, and there are lots of seminars
about console or mobile programming, overclocking, computer music and
more. I'm pleasantly surprised at Abyss: I'd expect a certain amount of
routine or burn-out after organizing this hugely complex party for the
umpteenth time for a bunch of ungrateful nerds, but he's still genuinely
enthusiastic about Assembly and the demoscene. Kudos to him!
The slides on the bigscreen urge everyone to register themselves with
the Zepo system, so you can vote, fill in an poll etc. But no URL is
given, and I search the intranet website in vain until Phoenix has the
brilliant idea to go ask the infodesk. A tad later, the URL is added to
the bigscreen-slide, which proves the feedback between the various parts
of the organizer team works better than at certain other parties I've
been to (Hi Ambience 2k1 Orgos).
Still unhappy about not having anything to enter in the compos, I
took a look at the surprise compos, but the only coding compo is the
Nokia 24-hours compo. There's a 500 MB large development kit available
to test your code on a PC, but it requires Visual Studio 6, and I don't
want to tempt the gods by trying to install that beast on a Pentium 75
laptop.
When I walk around in the main hall, checking out what people are
doing (mostly gaming, of course), people react a bit strange to my
presence. I can't quite put my finger on it, until a finnish gamer
meekly ask a question. When I tell him I don't understand Finnish, he
takes a questioning glance at my T-shirt and nametag, and leaves. In the
sparse illumination of the main hall, the combination of my dark blue
Buenzli T-shirt and the ALT-nametag vaguely looks like the outfit of the
security people, which explains the number of people who swiftly close
their file-sharing programs when I walk past :)
-=- 20:18 -=-
Back in the oldkool area, a guy (wearing a white t-shirt with the
"crying alien"-logo from Gateways/Trauma) asked if I had seen Phoenix.
He was Sol/Trauma, nowadays in tAAt, although he didn't contribute to
any tAAt-release at the Assembly this year. He had some questions about
the DemoDVD, but Phoenix was doing jury duty. Since Sol had to leave
later that night, and would not return until sunday, I promised to keep
an eye open and inform him if I saw Phoenix.
If you didn't know, Assembly has a two-stage voting process. A jury
of volunteers sifts through the entries to separate the good ones from
the junk, and only the pre-selected entries are shown on the bigscreen.
Then the audience can vote on what they like best.
The next familiar face I see is Unlock, who just arrived. We didn't
know about each other going to Assembly, despite the fact that we're
both on the Pain mailing-list. Shame on us :) We walked to the fast-food
selling part of the Hartwall complex to test the pizza. Judgement: it
tastes good, but expensive. I learned that PS/Calodox should be here
too, but he's probably at Boozembly. After that Unlock goes clubbing
somewhere in Helsinki. Phoenix is back in the oldskool area, but now Sol
is nowhere to be found. Thanks to the wonder of mobile communications, a
randomly button holed tAAt member called him, and five minutes later a
historical meeting takes place. Sol works for Fathammer now, and
they're interested in buying a batch of DemoDVDs. In case you don't know
Fathammer, they're a bunch of ex-sceners who are making a software 3D
engine optimized for mobile color devices such as the PocketPC or the
latest mobile phones. They have some impressive screenshots on their
homepage (www.fathammer.com), check them out! <insert rant about blatant
commercialism in party reports>
-=- 22:49 -=-
Nectarine, the one and only demoscene internet radio, has a relay for
400 listeners at Assembly, and it works beautifully. The official FTP
site, on the other hand, is still completely empty. There's a demoshow
on AsmTV, with a panel of sceners giving a commentary after each demo,
and it is shown on the big screen; so I decided to watch it. AsmTV is a
4-day long TV program created mostly live at the party place. It is
actually broadcasted over cable in the Helsinki city area, so people can
watch the compos, the demoshows, the interviews and so on right in the
comfort of their own home. The rest of the world can watch it over the
internet, if have a fast connection. You can watch it at the
party place on some scattered TVs. But occasionally parts are shown on
the big screens too.
-=- Friday, 2 August -=-
-=- 0:10 -=-
The game compo is over, and tAAt is sure to win :) They've created a
little game that, if it ever gets widespread recognition, will result in
men in white coats knocking on their doors to put them in a
straight-jacket...for their own safety of course. "Porrasturvat", which
means "Stair Dismount", is the simplest game I've ever seen. You have to
push someone down the stairs. Just select the body part you want to hit,
the direction and force of the blow, and watch him tumble. I see tAAt a
bit as a joke-group, with higher quality than Rectum Cauda but less than
the average demogroup. But this game is technically quite impressive:
there's a physics engine that calculates how the force of the initial
blow is passed on to the other body parts, how the body is impacted
while tumbling down, and how much damage each body part receives. You
can change the camera position, the user interface is very intuitive,
you can submit your high scores online to compare it to other people.
And the music and nifty sound effects can be switched on and off
separately. Another remarkable game was "Blockofighter", a 3-D
everything-is-allowed fight between two little lego men. Unfortunately,
the battle arena is quite small and suspended in a void. So half of the
games are won by the person who can avoid jumping accidently over the
railing :)
-=- 2:04 -=-
Another demoshow, "Demo Legends", is shown on the bigscreen. But I
start to get too tired to enjoy it. Since there will be three more days
of demopartying, I call it a day and go unroll my sleeping bag.
-=- 6:49 -=-
I'm awake again, and the Oldskool area is a bit more full. More
people have arrived, but the overall activity level is pretty low. There
won't be many compos until this evening when the fast music and the
various oldskool compos are shown. I haven't registered for any of the
seminars, so I'll have to find something else to keep me busy.
-=- 13:06 -=-
Oops! I forgot this report :) Not much is happening. The gamers are
gaming, the sceners are working on their productions, and I've been
reading Iczelion's excellent win32 asm tutorials -- until Phoenix seizes
control of my laptop to check his e-mail. There are already over 500
people who want to be warned when the DemoDVD is finished, and the
promotional trailer plus an interview with Phoenix will be shown at AsmTV
at 18:00.
-=- 17:49 -=-
After some talk with Preacher about his 4K, I went to Boozembly with
Fred, Unlock and another Calodox dude. I asked them how Calodox was
going, since there were rumours it was dead. They confirmed that it was,
indeed, 100% completely dead. There weren't many people at Boozembly, and
nobody I knew. When we went back, the Calodox guys wanted to go to the
city, and Fred gave me his mobile number so I could call him if the
organizers announced a problem with one of the Calodox compo-entries.
100% completely dead must be a relative measure :)
Phoenix is again mailing and updating his website on my laptop, so I
go sight-seeing in the main hall. There's a certain geeky kind of
aesthetic appeal in a darkened hall with literally thousands of computer
screens flashing in addition to the rotating lights, christmas
decorations and other lightshow stuff people have brought. I don't have
a camera with me, but I ask a girl whose PC is showing a slideshow of
party pictures if I can get a copy of an overview of the hall. I
installed that image as background on my laptop.
One of the sponsors of Assembly is AMD, and a couple of crazy Fins are
showing on AsmTV how to overclock one of the newest AMD processors to an
amazing 4029 Mhz using nothing but a paper fan, some duct tape and a
large amount of liquid oxygen (OK, maybe I missed some other ingredients,
didn't follow the whole program).
-=- 21:30 -=-
The surprise music compo is over. It was quite good, but I find it
hard to stay awake again. Maybe I'm getting old, but I really need to
sleep a bit. I've been keeping an eye on the big screen, but I haven't
seen the DemoDVD announcement. Later Phoenix tells met it was only shown
on the TVs, not on the bigscreen. So I missed it :(
The oldskool music has a lot of variation in it, especially since PC
4-channel mods are now considered oldskool too. Some people are saying
this is unfair for the C64 and Gameboy musicians who have to compete
against those, but what is the alternative? There are already 4 music
compos, are we going to split them in even more?
While we're waiting for the oldskool graphics compo to start, Unseen
Fate, another guy and I discuss the efforts of the Asm orgos to keep the
party scene-friendly. We agree they're really doing an effort for us. The
oldskool graphics are OK: there's only one
vote-for-me-cause-i-ve-drawn-lesbian-chicks image. The "Last Battle"
and "Gawd bless America" pics are really very good.
-=- 22:20 -=-
An excellent oldskool compo featured 3 C64 and 3 Vic-20 demos. My
favourite is the PWP entry, bringing us a message of world domination by
mind control. Those pesky Vic-20 users, I've always said you can't trust
them! The C64 demo of Haujobb and Decadence is impressive too, with
voxel-like 3D and even the classic duck.3DS !
-=- Saturday, 3 August -=-
-=- 0:50 -=-
This is phoenix invading this report!
I stopped by Boozembly, and got more done there for the dvd than the
actual party. Well, now I know where to find the sceners I'm looking
for. Saw Crankshaft (Yolk/CNCD) and Jugi "live". Well, they mostly just
played back recorded music. But damn, how cool! I recognized a few
tunes from demos like Codename Chinadoll and Horizontal Cool, but the
treat was Jugi playing a piano solo, which lead into an all-new version
of "Onward, the Dope theme!" So I'm taking a break now, but will try to
be back for Machinae Supremacy (known for their Giana Sisters cover).
This concert is probably the best idea to come to ASM since the Oldskool
area I'm typing this in right now.
-=- 2:58 -=-
Seven typing again.
The concert is over, and it was great. It started with CNCD, then came
Crankshaft featuring Jugi, then Tero, and it ended with Machinae
Supremacy, unfortunately without Rob Hubbard because it was already too
late so he was sleeping :) The wide passageway in which the concert took
place was packed, and Abyss had to ask several times to leave a small
corridor open (due to fire regulations). He also handed out earplugs
during the Machinae Supremacy gig, who were playing much more aggresive
than in the songs on their website. Tragically, they had to stop due to a
casualty: a string on a guitar didn't survive the concert, so they
couldn't play encores :( Anyway, if you like a mix of rock, metal and
SID-tunes, and you have the chance to see them, jump on it!
Some guy is snoring (as in: LOUD), and people retaliate by testing how
much junk they can put on top of him before he wakes up. That turns out
to be quite a lot :) Anyway, I guess I'll follow his example, minus the
snoring...
-=- 8:29 -=-
Back awake because someone dropped a glass nearby. The main hall is
even quieter than yesterday morning. I'm afraid to imagine how it will be
tomorrow :) One of the advantages of having a demoparty in an ice hockey
hall is that there's no shortage of showers. After refreshment, I notice
there are some video clips from AsmTV available on the FTP, but not the
ones from the demoDVD. Guess I'll have to wait till I'm home to enjoy
the trailers.
-=- 11:33 -=-
There was another demoshow on bigscreen; mainly the very famous 94-95
demos that won at The Party, Assembly etc. The PC demos I've already
seen too often. But they also showed Amiga and C64 stuff. Next, they
showed various wild demos from '98, but the Legoland wild demo that won
The Gathering crashed in the middle :(
Hmm, there's someone sleeping under my table, oblivious to the
danger of myself inadvertedly stepping on him. It is not a bad idea to
accumulate sleep, as today is the day when most of the compos will be
held.
-=- 14:28 -=-
The instrumental music compo is over, and I'm 99% sure of which song
is going to win: "Return of the Goblin". To prevent name voting, no names
were shown in the solo competitions (music and graphics), but everyone
with a notion of oldskool music knew, both from the title and the style,
that Skaven had made a sequel to "Catch that goblin!" Most of the other
14 pre-selected songs are ambient or orchestral. There's nothing else that
really jumps out (after listening once, at least), but the quality is OK.
-=- 14:40 -=-
The raytraced graphics compo also contained 15 preselected entries,
the quality was IMHO very good. There was one image of which the idea (2
fish playing baseball in a damaged fishbowl) is ripped from a Gary Larson
cartoon.
-=- 15:33 -=-
The Flash demo compo is over, and while I liked several of the 11
entries, I lack the knowledge to judge them on their technical merits.
Simple 3D objects seems to be a major accomplishment, and rotating cubes
with fuzzy edges are all the rage.
-=- 15:46 -=-
I had to jump through some hoops to start voting: first you need to
register with the Zepo system, which mails you a password with which you
can actually log in. Then you need to tell which table you're sitting
at. This info is compared with the voting key you've been given, and so
on.
-=- 19:29 -=-
The vocal music compo was a bit strange in the sense that several
songs didn't have any vocals at all (that Drunk Piano tune, for
example). Besides, I'm not a fan of vocals in demoscene music. They
sound too amateur-like most of the time. The drawn graphics were OK. At
least it had some very nice pics ("Final Lap" is my favorite), but I fear
the typical images with half-naked chicks will get most of the votes.
The 4K intro compo had a few screw-ups. One intro was announced as being
an Amiga intro but it was on PC, and two ros had to be re-shown at the
end because the music didn't play the first time. Overall, they were
enjoyable. But there weren't any mind-bending intros as at
Mekka/Symposium this year.
The neighbor on my right side, a guy who was running Linux on a
Playstation 2, has moved and his place is taken up by a guy by the
alias: Bemmu. Bemmu is an Anime fan, judging from the movies he's
playing. I like to watch Anime too, and we get into a discussion about
our favourite series. Meanwhile the Alt party organizers have been
organizing some weird surprise compos: Such compos as the "live music"
compo, the short stories compo and the ascii-logo-on-paper compo :)
-=- 23:16 -=-
The 64K intro had some real gems! The best one in the compo is also
the best 64K I've ever seen: Squish by AND. It has reminds me of the
Farbrausch intros because it has great music and lots of 3D scenes. But
unlike "The Product" or "Poem To A Horse", it has also several effects
plus some 3D objects (the monstrous alien f.e.) that are clearly not
generated but modeled. One of the first intros was a java entry with
lots of yellowish photos. The code is probably quite simple; but it
looked good on the bigscreen. There was a cool software-rendered entry
from noice with pencil-rendering, and some intros (Neuroosiverkko/tAAt
f.e.) even had voice synthesis!
-=- Sunday 4 august -=-
-=- 0:25 -=-
The next compo was for mobile platforms such as the GameBoy Advance,
PocketPC, the Yopi (a Linux handheld), various GSMs from Nokia, Siemens
and a TI-82 calculator. The vast differences in platforms made it hard
to compare the 13 entries: the PocketPC has a 240*320 colorscreen, a
200Mhz CPU, and +16 MB of RAM; while the TI-82 has 94*82 black&white
screen, a 6Mhz Z80 CPU and 28 KB RAM. One of the best entries was Limbo
by Byterapers and Doomsday. It really looked like an oldskool demo:
voxel spacing, software rendered 3D objects, a water effect, etc. On the
other side of the spectrum was Perkele Plus, a funny black-and-red entry
for a GSM, with a definition of tunnel effect, a 1-bit plasma, and a
wobbling picture of Rob Hubbard.
The first part of the prize ceremony, for the solo competitions, was
Saturday evening. I think it's a great idea: there are 25 compos (the
game compos included), so it could easily take an hour to announce all
the winners at once, and nobody wants to wait that long on the last day.
Nothing really surprizing happened, except when the first prize of the
oldskool music compo was announced. The prize would be given by Rob
Hubbard himself. But Jamie, the winner, didn't appear on the podium. When
someone finally climbed the stairs everybody applauded, but it was a
friend of Jamie who came to tell that Jamie had left the partyplace to
watch a movie :)
-=- 1:49 -=-
Phoenix had warned me the Wild compo wasn't very good (he's a jury for
that one too), but I thought it was entertaining: there were spoofs of
StarWars and Lord of the Rings. Yodel had made a gangsta music video, and
Project Kazama Hunt was so amateurish it became funny. (Then again, my
tiredness may be influencing my sense of humor). The only "serious" entry
was "We Have The Way Out", showing a coder becoming so frustrated about
his crashing demo he starts to see demo effects everywhere in real life.
I can relate to that.
I'm glad the thoughtfull organizers have put a gap in the schedule so
we can go to sleep without missing anything, but I already curse them
beforehand for starting the animation compo at 8 o'clock.
-=- 5:06 -=-
I wake up without knowing how late it is, but when Unseen Fate asks me
something about Boozembly and I can't understand the question, I
realize I need more sleep.
-=- 7:05 -=-
Awake, second attempt. Still feeling drowsy but I don't want to miss
the animation compo...
-=- 8:45 -=-
The animations weren't as good as I expected: there was no Mass entry
(Mass has been winning Assembly animations like Hybris/Nemesis has been
doing at The Party), a few of the entries were clearly unfinished, and
others were plain weird. The Wisky and Martini entry was my favourite,
with Project Kerosine a close second.
-=- 10:40 -=-
And the final compo has finished. At first I thought the demo compo
would be rather mediocre, but I'm glad the demos from Haujobb, Moppi
Productions and Critical Mass have proven me wrong. Reviews will be
coming in to a diskmag near you :) One new impressive effect is fur
rendering, but I'm not sure which demo(s?) showed it. Two demos had to be
re-shown at the end after increasing the projectors' brightness because
they were too dark. But apart from that there were no technical
problems.
Now all we can do (after voting, of course), is wait for the prize
ceremony. I go outside to get some fresh air, the weather is really
nice, and I join PS, UncleX/MFX, Phoenix, Smash/Fairlight,
Dixan/Spinning Kids and a few other people who are sitting on the warm
asphalt in front of the Arena. The topic of discussion: why were the
Halcyon and MFX demos not selected for the big screen? Is it proof the
jury doesn't do name voting? Or are they biased in favor of "normal"
demos? PS would prefer parties without any voting at all, while Phoenix
thinks people have no right to complain if they're too lazy to do jury
duty. The Russian coder AND, who made the amazing 64K intro: "Squish,"
sits down with the group too. His English isn't exactly fluent, but it's
good enough to answer some questions about Squish. He's been working on
that intro for a year, and he has done it completely by himself: code,
music and modelling. Hats off for such dedication! I'm glad to hear it
should work on an ATI Radeon too.
At last, the prize ceremony begins, and most results are as expected.
The winners are announced; they get on stage and say something stupid
and/or funny in the microphone (often in finnish). AND makes a short but
touching speech in bad english, saying that we are all very lucky to
have such an amazing party in Europe, and the audience gives him a
thunderous applause. Yodel, who won second place in the wild compo with
their gangsta immitation promises to come back next year as a boy band.
Abyss announces that due to the high quality in the mobile compo, and
due to the large amount of prize money, they have decided to award the
top 5 instead of the top 3 entries. Great!
-=- 16:38 -=-
The closing ceremony is over, and everyone starts to clean up. In the
rush, the organizers disconnect the switch in the oldskool area, which
is really stupid because the entries of the compos are only available on
the FTP server. Guess I'll have to download the wild and animation
entries at home. I say goodbye to the people in the oldskool area, and
then I am on my way to the hotel.
-=- Back Home -=-
In the days after the parties, several changes are made to the
results. Whisky & Martini (2nd at animation) is disqualified because it
has been released before, and something similar happens to Yodel's
"What's up in the gangsta hood". Also the results of the 4K compo are
shuffled a bit because some win32 intros did use the file dropper
technique, which was forbidden.
In closing, I must say I really enjoyed Assembly. I met a lot of
interesting people plus some old friends, and I hope to be there again
next year. Kudos to the organizers for making such a great party!
--Seven
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Using Impulse Tracker in Windows XP
By: Coplan
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
-=- Introduction -=-
Recently, I had to bite the bullet and switch to Windows XP. Sadly,
the operating system is based on the Windows NT kernel. Therefore,
"True DOS" doesn't exist in Windows XP. There is a Command Prompt, but
it is limited in what it can do with legacy DOS programs like my
favorite tracker, Impulse Tracker. So finding out that I couldn't use
it in Windows XP (natively, at least) caused some turmoil in my mind.
Hoping that maybe everyone else was ignorant, I tried to run IT. It
ran, and I saw the sound detection program. It picked up my sound card,
and I got a big grin on my face. I loaded a song and two things became
apparent immediately. First, I had very limited Memory. Second, the
sound was poorly timed, the song skipped, and my processor was going
nuts trying to keep up with the song. This is no environment to track
within. Microsoft apparently tried, but failed, at supporting legacy
DOS programs. I guess they never had reason to think people might want
to run oldskool games and media software. So I grew more upset.
For a while, I was dual booting between Windows XP and Windows 98.
But as we all know, that gets old after a while. And honestly, there's
no reason to have that much hard drive space dedicated entirely to a
tracking program. But alas, there is a way to run Impulse Tracker (as
well as other multimedia DOS programs) in windows XP. This article will
focus on how to get IT working. These instructions could very easily be
adapted for other programs as well. Honestly, though, I have only
tested this with Doom and Impulse Tracker. Your results may vary.
-=- First: The Facts -=-
There are some important technical facts that must be mentioned
before you continue. First is the fact that the file systems are
different. Classic DOS utilized a FAT (File Allocation Table) file
system. With the advent of Windows 95 came FAT32 and with Windows 98
came VFAT, a 64 bit file system. The nice thing is that all these were
backwards compatible, so running DOS programs wasn't a problem. But
remember that Windows XP is based on the NT line of kernels. These use
the NTFS standard, which isn't very compatible with the FAT line at all.
DOS programs simply won't work very well. Fortunately, Windows XP reads
both NTFS and FAT-like file systems. Purely for performance issues,
it's recommended that your system partition of your hard drive be
formatted as NTFS. But if you're like me, you have multiple partitions.
This is really the best way to run things anyhow. If you're still
running your massive drives as one partition, you should definately
consider repartitioning your drives. But that's a different column all
together, and I won't cover the reasons here. Basically, I recommend
maintaining your primary system drive as NTFS, but having at least one
additional partition formatted as VFAT. If you want to run DOS programs
in Windows XP, they must exist in a VFAT formatted partition. I'll
leave the configuration and placement up to you. But you'll need to
copy Impulse Tracker to a partition formatted as VFAT. Again, it will
not run on the NTFS formatted partition.
The other thing you have to be aware of isn't so well known. On a
classic DOS or Windows 9x system, you can actually get more than 16MB of
EMS memory useable for Impulse Tracker. I was not aware of this until
it was pointed out by a fellow tracker. Most people don't work in
Impulse Tracker with more than 16MB of samples, but there are a few of
you that will be affected by such a limit. Unfortunately, Impulse
Tracker was never written for a Windows OS. So, since Windows XP
doesn't have True DOS, you will be limited to 16MB. Fortunately, 16MB
will be enough in most cases.
-=- Getting the Sound Working -=-
As I said, audio does technically work in the Command Prompt, but it
doesn't work well, and sound quality is pretty terrible. This is a
Windows XP limitation, but there is a way around it.
You will want to grab VDMSound, an open source legacy audio
application driver. You can get it from the greatest host of Open
Source projects: Source Forge. Specifically, you can grab VDMSound at
the following URL:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/vdmsound/
I don't know why, but when I downloaded the application, the file
became an EXE file. It's actually an MSI file. You may or may not
have to rename the file so that it ends in ".msi". Double clicking
that MSI file will install the program pretty painlessly. Read the
documentation with the application, if you wish. There are a lot of
things you can do with it. But again, I won't go into too much detail
about that. All I need to say is that the command line to load
VDMSound is "dosdrv". That's it. Please be aware, if you do not have
a Sound Blaster card, you will need to read the documentation and
configure a few things. It's not too difficult though, so it shouldn't
really be a problem.
Once you know that VDMSound is working properly, you will need to
create a batch file. This will be a very simple batch file, but it's
essential for memory management which I will cover later. The batch
file really only needs to contain two lines. My batch file is
definately very simple (the greater than sign indicates a new line):
> dosdrv
> it s4
You will need to change the IT command line to fit your sound card
and load the driver that you need. If you type "it /h" at the command
prompt, it should help you figure out what argument to specify. It is
important that you specify your driver, as it doesn't always autodetect
in Windows XP.
-=- Memory and Usability Issues -=-
If you were to run your batch file from the command prompt now,
you'll be able to load Impulse Tracker, and you may even be able to
load and play a very small song. But two problems still exist. First
is the fact that IT doesn't window very well; it needs to be in full
screen mode. Pressing "Alt-Enter" fixes this, but that's annoying, and
sometimes Impulse Tracker doesn't redraw properly. The other issue is
that ever lingering issue of available Memory. Alas, this isn't Windows
9x, so appending commands to your config.sys file doesn't work here. So
how do we solve this problem? We have to trick windows a bit.
Windows XP, apparently, has two types of Shortcuts. If you try to
make a shortcut to a batch file, you have a limited set of properties
that are able to be modified when you edit the shortcut's properties.
With programs, however, you can tweak and modify much more. So, lets do
that. You will need to create a shortcut to any EXE file. I created a
shortcut to IT.EXE (Impulse Tracker's executable), but as you will see
in a minute, it doesn't matter. Now, right-click (secondary click) the
shortcut and select the Properties option. You will get a dialog box
containing tabls for GENERAL, PROGRAM, FONT, MEMORY, SCREEN, MISC and
COMPATIBILITY. If you don't have all of these tabs, you likely have a
batch file shortcut. Anyhow, change any of the information that you
wish, like the shortcut's name, and so on. But there are a few
essential modifications that you will need to make.
Program tab: Change the command line so that it points to the batch
file you created (mine was it.bat). If you feel the need, you can
change the working directory as well...but that's not all that
important, as you set paths in Impulse Tracker. Now the shortcut is
linked to the batch file, but Windows still thinks it's an executable
shortcut. Thank Bill Gates for that loophole.
Memory Tab: This doesn't work quite as well as you'd like. In
Win95/98, you could change it EMS, XMS and DPMI to "Auto" and everything
worked fine. You could even get more than 16MB of EMS. But this is
Windows XP, so EMS doesn't quite work the same way. You should,
instead, change everything so that the highest memory size is selected
(16384). If you don't, you'll only get 4 MB in IT. For me, that's
fine. But for you high quality, large sample guys, 4MB probably isn't
enough.
Screen Tab: Might be obvious, but you'll want to change the Usage to
"Full Screen" so that IT renders correctly.
Contrary to what you might think, you don't need to do anything in the
Compatibility tab. Changing options here doesn't really seem to make
any difference.
-=- Get Tracking -=-
Well, that should just about do it. You might want to make a fancier
Batch file, or tweak some more settings in the shortcut properties. You
may even want to tweak VDMSound as well, but again, the defaults are
usually more than sufficient for most people. But this should be enough
to get IT working smoothly with 16MB of memory. Again, if you don't
have a Sound Blaster card, you will likely need to modify the INI file
in the VDMSound directory so that it reflects the settings of your sound
card.
So that's it. I've been running Impulse Tracker in Windows XP now
for a couple of months, and I have yet to find any problems. Again,
your results may vary, but everyone who has tried this so far hasn't
had any problems. If you discover any problems, please let me know so
that I can inform the public.
Happy Tracking!
--Coplan
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Coming Soon
MindCandy, the DemoDVD
By: Phoenix
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
One of the most ambitious scene projects to date is finally near
completion. Beginning life in 2000 as the "DemoDVD Project", it is now
officially known as "MindCandy vol. 1: PC Demos". For the past two
years, several members of the former Hornet demo/archive crew and Fusecon
(publisher of the Audiophonik CD), with a huge outpouring of help, have
compiled an anthology of demos from the past 12 years onto a double-sided
DVD. Not only to preserve the classics for die-hard sceners, but to
finally put you or your friend's expensive home theater system to good
use. ;)
As you can tell from the title, this first (of hopefully several)
volume focusing on our savoir faire, PC demos. The disc is split into
two sides. The first side, "Transcendental Vistas", features the latest
and greatest Windows demos from 1999-2001, providing ample entertainment
for the masses. Enjoy the colorful world of "Tesla", trip out to "604",
and get chills by the end with "Kasparov". The second side, aptly
titled "Kickin' It Oldschool", is for the historians out there,
showcasing DOS demos from 1990-1998. See how it all began on the PC in
"Megademo", jam out to "Show", and see how demos like "Paimen" and
"Megablast" pioneered modern demo design. Oh yeah, and "Second
Reality"? It's on there. :)
So what else can you expect on MindCandy vol. 1?
- Over 40 demos, lasting 4 hours - far longer than most other DVDs,
but no visual artifacts! Go Trixter, go Trixter. :) Use chapter
menus to select your demo of choice, or just let them all play
while you chill.
- A 16-minute long featurette, entitled "DemoGraphics", produced by
Jeremy Williams of Blue7 Media (he's also known for the "PC Demo
Fan Club" website). Watch for some exclusive demoparty footage,
interviews, and the ultimate behind-the-scenes look for
oldschoolers (we won't spoil *all* the surprises!).
- A multi-page, full color booklet, with an introduction and
listings for all demos.
- Intro and menu music from The Alpha Conspiracy, Virgill, Milan
Kolarovic, and more.
- Mindblowing cover art by Fthr/TPOLM.
- Technical info, demo glossary, and hidden "easter eggs" (what
would a DVD be without them?).
For the hungry, we created some promotional VideoCDs, not so much to
show off quality (DVD quality is a vast improvement), as to simply get a
few demos out there on your DVD player. The first was released at Coma3
in Montreal last November, the second at Assembly 2002 in Helsinki.
Those few who actually got their hands on one are encouraged to make
copies and spread them like wildfire!
The DVD is expected to be completed in late October and available in
late November. So by the time you read this article, it might already be
available. If not, be patient! We anticipate it will be worth the wait,
and we're doing our best to ensure it will be in your hands by the
holidays. :)
For more information, visit the project site at: www.demodvd.org. The
official MindCandy DVD site will soon be online at: www.mindcandydvd.com.
You can also email the crew at trixter@oldskool.org or
phoenix@hornet.org.
To be informed by email when the DVD is available, sign up on the
reservation list at www.demodvd.org/reservations. We'll give you all the
ordering information you'll need.
Thanks to the whole demoscene (whatever platform you are on) for
inspiring and encouraging us to make this project happen.
--Phoenix / DemoDVD team
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
In Tune
Virt's "Witches"
By: Coplan
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
-=- Introduction -=-
So I was kicking around the 'net to find a song to review for the
return issue of Static Line, when I rediscovered the Hellven website.
They're apparently redoing the site, so I was redirected to Scene.org.
No big deal, they had all the releases there, and I started
downloading. I found a song from Virt. The last time I listened to
anything by Virt, it was a song by the name of "The Great Revolt". So
I will admit, I'm not exactly one who knows Virt's music very well.
I'm starting to wish I kept up with it. Well, the first addition to my
Virt collection is a song called "Witches", which is an entirely
different style from "The Great Revolt".
-=- "Witches" by Virt -=-
Unlike "The Great Revolt", this tune is definately not an orchestral
epic tune. This is a pretty hard-core cross between Drum 'n Base and
Jungle. The breakbeats alone have much more relation to Jungle. But as
I always say, classification has always been fuzzy between the
electronic styles. The important thing is that you enjoy it. And Virt
gives us plenty to enjoy here.
The lead starts from the very beginning, if you would call it a lead.
It's repetative; it's very true to style. The song is, instead, shaped
mostly by the base and percussion throughout the song as well as the
whispy mid-range instruments. One of the faults I find in most music
that uses a breakbeat is the fact that the artist doesn't manipulate the
breakbeat at all. Virt cuts, clips, crops, shifts and does whatever
else you could possibly do to a breakbeat to form it into the beautiful
percussive dream that he has created here. Contrary to what you might
think, I'm not commending Virt for this. Albeit, he did a very good job
with it. But it is my opinion that clean, tight percussion is a
requirement of such a style. If you don't have that working for you,
then you have it working against you. I likely won't give your tune too
much thought if you don't do at least this. For the most part, however,
Virt doesn't do anything particularly fancy with his breakbeat. It is,
however, a clean breakbeat. I wish I had the tracker file for this
song, as I would love to see what kind of samples he was using. There
are several different elements to his percussion, and I would like to
know if they're all layered in by his hand, or sampled that way. Either
way, very clean work, some of the best I've seen.
So what sets this song apart from all the rest? It's the stuff you
can barely hear. I suggest grabbing yourself a good set of headphones
(they should be in reach. If not, you should go buy a set if you plan
on doing some serious music mixing anyhow). Plug those headphones in,
and listen to the tune loud enough so that you can hear what's really
going on. There are a lot of things going on in the background. Some
acids, which are much more prominent, a couple of wind effects, some
chirping sounds, and some effects that basically give you the idea that
you're listening to this performance in the sewage systems. These are
the elements that you barely notice, but add such depth to the song.
Another thing I miss about having the tracker files (a reminder, this
is an MP3) is the fact that I cannot learn very much about the samples.
I would love to know the types of manipulation Virt did to the vocal
samples (spoken word). I would like to know if he did this in the song,
or if he manipulated these with a wav editor or a sampler. These are
the things that I'd like to learn about when I listen to music like
this. All I can say with what I have is that the vocal samples are
quite interesting. They have been filtered and modified in such a way
as to give them an industrial feel. They definately have a huge impact
on the song.
The song is entertaining, and at least worth the download. It is
nothing spectacular, but it is clean and tight. Anyone with interest in
this style of music will definately have appreciation for the song.
Many of you will really like it. You will all feel like moving a bit.
But I've heard better from Virt and Hellven. It's a good tune, but
likely won't make my year-in-review.
Song Information:
Title: Witches
Author: Virst
Release date: 6 June, 2002
Length: 4:29
File Size: 4.1 MB
Source: http://www.hellven.org
http://www.scene.org
--Coplan
"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!
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
The Lineup
Introduction: Help Wanted
By: Novus
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
Starting with next month's issue, Static Line will begin featuring "The
Lineup": an ambitious project to screen through all the new tracked
releases each month and highlight the best tracks for your listening
enjoyment. But we need your help to pull this off in as fair a manner as
possible, so that all genres and the fans of those genres are
represented. Please e-mail Novus at vince_young@hotmail.com if you're
interested in helping out or to get more information about The Lineup.
--Novus
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Screen Lit Vertigo
Demos by Orion, Halcyon and Haujobb
By: Seven
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
-=- "Amour" by Orion -=-
(final version)
Found at http://orion.planet-d.net/amour.htm
1st place at the Buenzli 11 democompo.
System Requirements:
16.5 MB HD, PIII 700, 256MB, TNT2 Class 3Dcard, Windows 9x2k
Test Machine: PIII 900 640MB, SB1024, Radeon 8500 LE 64, Win98
The Credits:
Code: Jaylee, Niakool
3D: Danube, Shi, Splif
Gfx: Splif
Music: Willbe, Chaosnet
Voice: Sear
The Demo:
The info file of Amour says "Sur l'autoroute de la vie, l'amour c'est
le page", meaning "On the highway of life, love is the tollgate".
Indeed, Orion has moved on in life, leaving the mutilation of cute fuzzy
animals (see their previous demo, Easter Egg) to others, and has created
a touching tale of the search for love by a young man who is in pain,
depressed and more than a little bit confused.
As we've grown to expect from Orion, the 3-D models and animation are
very good. The movements and facial expressions of our protagonist are
very realistic. The dark, gothic 3-D scenes alternate with sickening,
cute cartoon-like images with way too many little pink hearts. There are
also a few 2-D effects thrown in (for example: radial blur, a plasma, a
water effect and so on) at the start and at the end. Amour is a very
polished demo. Look at the beautiful start menu, or the insects flying
around the lamps, or the name on the battleship.
The music starts as an orchestral piece, then changes into something
more DNB-ish, and is repeatedly interrupted by a short love-theme until
it goes into full soap opera mode near the end. It fits the demo very
well, and the syncing is excellent. The only bad point is the very
noticable french accent of the voice at the start. During the credits, a
jazz tune is played, nothing really special IMHO.
Overall:
Amour is a story demo, and we all know that story demos look less
appealing at home than on the big screen. And it becomes boring too
quickly and so on. Shut up already! Orion stood with head and shoulders
above the competition at Buenzli, and Amour certainly deserved to win. I
recommend everyone with a sense of humor to watch it at least once.
People with ATI cards beware, make sure you get the final version (see
URL above) or else a lot of textures disappear.
-=- "Chimera" by Halcyon -=-
(party-version)
Found at Assembly'02 partynet, now available at a scene.org mirror near
you.
Not selected for the bigscreen at the democompo.
System Requirements:
3.2 MB HD, Windows. Doesn't mention anything, but I guess almost any
3D card, 64 MB and a CPU 400 Mhz or better should be enough.
Test Machine: PIII 900 640MB, SB1024, Radeon 8500 LE 64MB, Win98
The Credits:
Code: Ren
3D, design: Shrine
Music: Crkr
The Demo:
At Buenzli 11, I was caught in a crossfire between PS/Calodox and
Ile/Aardbei. PS thought Chimera was a superb demo and considered it a
scandal that it wasn't pre-selected at Assembly. Ile thought it was a
piece of junk that no-one in their right mind would call a great demo.
They wanted to know what a certain demo reviewer (me, that is) thought
about it. As a blessing in disguise, my PC had died when I came back
from Assembly, so I did't get a chance to watch the entries that weren't
pre-selected. Thus I could invoke ignorance, and avoid the discussion
without being beaten up by either side. But my curiosity was piqued,
so I decided to check it out.
On first sight, and after a black screen for the first 15 seconds,
Chimera shows nothing but extremely slow moving black cubes on a red
background. On second sight, this impression is fully confirmed. It's
only if you look really really carefully that you'll see a few other
things. (Spoiler alert: don't read if you want to find the effects for
yourself). While the demo starts with 100% contrast, the edges of the
silhouettes gather different tints of red until the assembly of cubes
seems to emerge from a red mist. A particle fountain sprays small red
flares on some surfaces, and narrow black lines start to grow from the
cubes: first only a few, but near the end the cubes look almost like
hedgehogs, and finally fall apart. The whole process takes 5 and a half
minutes.
The music starts with a slow, resonating tone, that continues all
throughout the demo. Other sounds join and fade away: a heartbeat-like
bass, or little twittering noises that remind me of the fast-forwarded
sound of water flowing or screeching seagulls. While it's not my style
of music, it fits the slow visuals nicely.
Overall:
I think the assembly jury made the right decision: the subtle effects
would have been lost on the low-contrast bigscreen and the sleepy
public. Even at home, Chimera is not a very understandable demo, and
most people will find it extremely boring. If you want to try it anyway,
the best you can do is to watch it like you would watch a sunrise: don't
expect anything spectacular to happen, just enjoy the slow changes and
the ambient sounds.
-=- "Liquid... wen?" by Haujobb -=-
(bugfixed-version)
Found at http://haujobb.scene.org
1st place at the Assembly'02 democompo
System Requirements:
12.4 MB HD, Windows, a Geforce 3 or better 3D card with OpenGL support
Test Machine: PIII 900 640MB, SB1024, Radeon 8500 LE 64MB, Win98
The Credits:
Code: Cynic, Droid
Music: Vic, Kimmo S.
Graphics: Visualice
The Demo:
After Mekka/Symposium2k2, Haujobb announced they would stop creating
demos. In their own words: "Our demos suck. We stop coding. We continue
boozing." But barely four months later, they've already changed their
mind (except about the boozing), and they won the Assembly democompo
convincingly with their comeback demo "Liquid... wen?"
After a very fancy load screen with waving clocks -- that are entirely
useless for knowing how long the loading will take -- the demo starts in
monochrome mode with the well-known Haujobb logo. As with all Haujobb
demos, most 3D objects are abstract: a morphing chrome blob, a group of
bars moving through a tunnel, a tangle of pipes,... The only recognisable
object is a heart, which also comes back in some of the images. Some nice
effects are parallel moving pictures used to fake 3-D, and the hundreds of
swaying sine waves at the start, which almost look like lightning.
The gray visuals add to the dark atmosphere evoked by the music: It
starts slowly with an ambient lead, which is joined by powerfull
percussion and a very distorted voice. Some lyrics are displayed on
screen, such as "Disconnect me" or "I'd rather be nothing". Together with
the sad poem at the start, and the image of a desolate tower in a
wasteland at the end, it gives a gloomy impression. And then, after 4 minutes of grayness, when you'd expected the demo
to end, a second part starts which is, in my humble opinion, much more
impressive than the first part. The code is a very original mix of 2-D
and 3-D. I think they rendered the 3-D stuff on a rectangular mesh of
polygons, which is deformed using traditional framebuffer effects. There
are blurs, water-effects (using fixed circular deformations), and some
heightmap-based effects. On the 3D side there are two very impressive
alien lovers holding each other, a double transparant tunnel effect and
some beautiful objects made from chrome and transparant lights. Overall
the second part has a much happier feeling. It's colorful and the
designed text-styles are more interesting. The music is ambient and
dreamy, the two lead instruments are a slow sweeping synth and a
repeating (almost echoing) short beep that reminds me of waterdrops
falling. The demo ends with the message "We were _never_ gone".
Overall:
"Liquid... wen?" is an amazing comeback-demo, and probably symbolizes
the changes within Haujobb itself: they've dropped their old style and
started over with a fresh approach. The new effects are really great, and
there's IMHO a more coherent design. They also tried to get as close as
possible to the allowed limits in the Assembly compo: The duration is
close to the maximum 10 minutes, and the size was just inside the 10 MB.
In fact the size difference between the party and final versions is
entirely due to the music of the second part, which was a 64Kbps MP3 in
the party release, and 128Kbps for the final. Unfortunately they also
pushed the requirements: not every scener has a Geforce 3 or better to
enjoy this gem. Another minor gripe is that there's no menu to change
the resolution; so you're stuck in 640x480. But if your hardware can
manage that, make sure to get this one: it's definately worth it.
--Seven
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Alternative Review
The TAP 256.htm Competitions
By: The Watcher
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
I happen to like extreme coding-exercises, and what could be more
extreme than trying to fit a little demo into 256 bytes? In the past it
has been shown over and over again that, using assembler and machine
opcodes, skilled and determined coders could squeeze tiny pieces of art
into this cramped space. The TAP 256b.htm contest however, shows us that
not only it is possible to do the same in good old html, but also that
now and then in doing so quite nice results emerge!
The submission phase for the second edition of this wonderful contest
took place from 2002-08-01 to 2002-09-01, and was hosted at
http://wildmag.de/compo. I'll give a mini review (although some reviews
are actually larger then the entries themselves) of all entries, trying
to take a look at both the visual effect itself AND the actual code
behind it. Next to that, I'll provide the rating I gave all entries on
the voting sheet. If you don't agree, feel free to discuss. I didn't
review any entries that wouldn't run on my version of IE5, just because
(1) I think the authors should've taken the average user, i.e. me, into
consideration and (2) I am a lazy bastard.
"Huemore Consoles" by 23JUL: Doesn't work on my IE5. Looking at the
code, it seems to be all about some glowing/flickering background of a
text area while you type. Alas.
"To Move Consoles" by 23JUL: Nice looking text area that wraps text
around from start to end whenever the mouse moves. Funny, but not too
spectacular. 6.
"Amiga Scroller" - AXELF: Bouncing bar nicely waving colors and
AMIGA-text on it, almost a tribute to the oldskool horizontal copperbar
effect. I like this one! 8.
"make IT easy" by boatman: Just a scaled little mini-GIF of a house with
the text "make IT easy" next to it. The only impressive thing about this
one is the fact that there is an 58-byte GIF involved. Big deal. 4.
"Fake Plasmalines" by Delax: Uses the browser refresh and current time to
produce a colored block of X's in a sinusoid color pattern. Nothing too
fancy, but pretty interesting. 6.
"Galaxies" by Delax: Uses the IE5+ light-filter and sine-functions to
produce some funky rotating particle-like lights, moving around in a
pattern vaguely galaxy-shaped. 8.
"AutoShapes" by FPS: Enumerates all built-in VML structures. If you've
never heard of nor seen VML (like me), this is a nice learning
experience, otherwise pretty boring. 6.
"ColorChooser" by FPS: Little script resulting in three sliders acting as
a color picker. Not very interesting from a demoscene point-of-view, but
decent. 7.
"RubyStar" by FPS: Cool little script resulting in a red semi-3d VML STAR
on the screen, rotatable using the arrow-keys. Both the effect and the
script are good. 8.
"Sinuszoom" by Gargaj: Just some characters (1-9) scaling up-down in a
sine wave. Average, as the author says: "I had no better idea...". Too
bad. 5.
"Trajectory" by Gargaj: A little tracer-worm moving on the screen.
Average, but I like it better than sinuszoom. 7.
"Ugly 2.0" by Gargaj: Shows a colorful pattern of hash-characters on the
screen, refreshing every mouse-click. The pattern is generated by simply
squaring random numbers, resulting in an effect not quite as ugly as the
author states. The script itself is pretty simple. 7.
"Flowers" by mados: Arty! When you move the mouse-cursor, a very slowly
updating mouse-tracer of random-sized plum-colored asterisks is drawn,
resulting in a flower-bed-like pattern. Lovely! 8.
"Jumpy" by mados: Funny effect, a red bouncing 'ball' (huge dot) with
shadow seen from above, that slowly comes to a full stop, but jumps up
when you position the mouse over it. Original idea. 8.
"Plasma" by mados: SVG plugin required, it says. As I don't have the
plugin, no demo for me. Alas.
"Line Art" by midcoast: Extremely simple script, using marquee, resulting
in horizontal lines moving (and fading) in a (considering the simplicity
of the script) unexpected complex pattern. Great work. 8.
"The Psycho Button" by midcoast: Upwards moving rectangles-in-rectangles.
Quite simple, but ok. I would give it a 7.
"The Wormhole" by midcoast: And yet another marquee effect showing
colorful horizontal line-segments moving from right to left in a oldskool
starfield-like manner, refreshing the background-color every 5 segments.
Although this is the author's favorite, I slightly prefer "Line Art". 8.
"Entropy" by milov: Groovy script showing some almost plasma-like scaling
effect of a lot of squares (dashed borders). Nice effect, nice script. 8.
"Keyboard Racer" by milov: An actual multiplayer game(!), where you have
to repeatedly hit the key of your choice as fast as possible (that is,
faster than any of your opponents) to win. Original idea, nice scripting.
8.
"Snowflake Generator" by milov: Every time you refresh this script
generates a new snowflake-pattern. Again a very good (be it a bit
straightforward) scripting job, implementing an original idea. 8.
"News" by Mips: Eek, this entry tries to involve some active-x object
(class-id: 99B42120-6EC7-11CF-A6C7-00AA00A47DD2) I don't seem to have.
Bummer.
"Scrolling of feathery string" by Mips: Horizontal scroller, using a
color-fading font, 'feathered' using the glow-filter. Slow, not very
advanced or fancy. 6.
"Scrolling of meandering string" by Mips: Another horizontal scroller,
this time using the 'wave'-filter giving it a wavering-flag like
appearance. Really, really slow on my machine, and the script is pretty
simple. 7
"Diy" by nelius: Errrr... an inputbox and an eval() of that input. The
author expects the user to type in his/hers own demo-effect code.
Joke-entry. 2.
"Epitrochoid" by nelius: A nice static pattern drawn by kinda standard
scripting. Ok, but nothing special. 6.
"Wannabee 3D-Drop" by nelius: Definitely the best entry by Nelius, an
arty red-blue drop-of-water-like shape made of dots. I give it an 8,
because it is stylish.
"Langton's Virtual Ant": An .swf file (requires flash 6/mx) showing a
little block drawing a pattern (I take it Langton is some mathematician
and this is a famous pattern). Nice, but not amazing. 7.
"Ribbon" by nowak: An .swf file (requires flash 6/mx) showing a thinning
line-tracer following the mouse-cursor. I have no idea how hard it is to
make something this small in flash 6, with the new mx compression
techniques involved, but the effect is just average. 6.
"Simple cellular growth": A really minimalistic .swf file (requires flash
6/mx) showing a cool effect, where a softly vibrating cloud of blocks
grows in a cellular-like matter. Cool. 8.
"Bricks" by poi: Awesome, this simple yet ingenious script allows you to
drag-and-drop a construction using an unlimited supply of lego-bricks. A
well-deserved 9.
"Clouds" by poi: And again Poi's work is stunning, using a very elegant
script, the alpha-filter and some cpu-time he manages to draw a
realistic-looking cloud on my screen! 9.
"Ski" by poi: This poi guy is getting scary! This more complex script
accounts for a downhill-skiing game, very slick use of the webdings
character-set! So there is Poi's third 9 in a row.
"Glowing Cross" by rowan: A fairly advanced (read: obfuscated) script
resulting in a stylish glowing cross being drawn, surrounded by smaller
crosses. A nice 8.
"The Sixth Hour" by rowan: Cool, an even more stylish glowing cross
(grave?) on a starry-night background. Definitely an 8, if not a 9.
"Dancing Lights" by r:type: By heavily overusing the light-filter, a load
of colored glowing blob-like lights is drawn. Nice idea, but really,
really slow unless you have some heavyweight hardware. 7.
"Space Milk" by r:type: Another script by r:type using way too many
pointlights (or is it light-points?) of the light-filter, resulting in
something that looks like a bunch of white 2d-metablobs. Sluggish ones.
8.
"SimpleZoom" by Sid: Simple effect zoomfading the name of the author. Not
bad for a first attempt. 6.
"The Bouncer" by Sid: The character "o" bouncing around the screen. The
code seems overly complex for the job, and the effect is not very
original. 5.
"Fraktal1" by uzec: Rather simple script, creating a nice blocky
"fractal" (I would personally call it a plasma). 8.
"Fraktal2" by uzec: Same idea as Fraktal1, but now in a vertical column
in the middle of the screen. I really like the little colored blocks. 8.
"noName" by uzec: Multicolor block plasma-kinda thingy. The script is
rather simple, the effect is rather ugly. 6.
"St. Patrick's Day" by wolfman: Draws a whole bunch of random-sized,
randomly green colored clovers on the screen. The script is ok, the
effect is pretty arty. A 7.
And that wraps it up. I think I made it clear that in my opinion, the
productions by Poi were definitely the best, but that might just be a
matter of opinion. For those readers who are still with me, I hope
reading these reviews inspired you to create your own mini-productions
(or, if you are one of the authors, create some more). Let's forget about
bloating products like frontpage (ugh) and dreamweaver, and miniaturize
the web!
--The Watcher
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Editorial
Happy Returns
By: Coplan
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
Coplan is many things. You know him as the guy who edits and (for
lack of a better term) publishes Static Line. Some of you know him as a
music writer. A few of you are aware of his ability to play a couple of
random music instruments. By now, most of you are surely aware of the
fact that he likes to talk about himself in third person. But Coplan is
one who has been active in the Demoscene for many years.
Okay, I'll stop the third person bit now.
I entered the 'scene back in 1994. Historically, the 'scene was
pretty mature, and gaining popularity as a direct result of the
popularity of the Internet. To make a long story short, I observed for
a little while and fell in love with the people and the products being
released to the public from the Demoscene. I could've never imagined my
life without the Demoscene.
But then the worst happened.
As you all are well aware of by now, these past two years were quite
a test of my faith and my ability to carry on. I lost a job. I lost a
girlfriend. Sadly, I lost a mother as well. The Demoscene would have
to wait for me. SceneSpot development came to a halt. Static Line
suffered in quality, and eventually came to a halt. I lost touch with a
couple of sceners. The group that was to be formed among a couple of my
buddies never happened. And my music sounded unrefined. And I didn't
have the patience to do any of it. Realistically, I was starting to
think that I never would've returned.
But one day out of the blue a good old friend of mine, Setec, sent me
a new tune. What I experienced when I listened to that tune was not
inspiration, unfortunately. But what I felt was clarity. It was once
again clear to me why I was here in the first place. It was people
sharing their ideas, their expression and their experiences. It is
music and art that is a bit rough around the edges, but has a bite that
won't let go. It is the beginning of a dream. It is solitude. It is a
membership in a very large fraternity.
This is the Demoscene.
This is the same place to which I returned because I missed it. I
missed editing for this magazine. I'll be the first to admit, I rarely
get thanks for such a publication. Albeit, I know there is always room
for improvement. But this is my world. This is my demoscene. And this
is my contribution and my choosing. Every time I sit down at my
keyboard in front of my aged (and probably obsolete) version of Aurora
text editor, I make sure I do better than I have ever done before.
I write these editorials after I've read all the contributions to the
magazine. While I was reading the party report for Assembly, '02 (by
our best Party Reporter, Seven, no less) I realized one very important
fact: We all have our own defining qualities...and nothing can take
that away from us. As I type this right now, my girlfriend is in the
other room sleeping. But that's no matter. The people I love (other
than my family and my girlfriend) are the people I'm speaking to right
now. The people I share a special time with are the people that will
read this once I send it out to the public. With no one else can I
share the idea of free music and free art. We're are talking about the
ability for each and every one of you to share your moment, to share
your skills, and to share your thoughts and creations with each other.
And you choose to share them with each other for free. You choose to
spread your contributions to the world with no cost to another. And you
do it not because you have some need to inflate your ego. It is not
because you want to get some record contract down the line or because
you want to land some job with iD software or Pixar. You do it because
you have a love for the medium. You have a love for the art. And most
of all, you have a love for the Scene. And come the day that you do get
that dream job, or that record contract, you will get the support of
fellow scene members without any doubt.
As a side note: My girlfriend has offered to help me in the editing
of this issue of the magazine. That means a lot to me for a couple of
reasons. The first is purely romantic, and I find appreciation for the
fact that she takes interest in what I do. But the part that really
affects you is the pure and simple fact that I want to expose more
people to the 'scene. I want people to realize what this is about. They
don't have to contribute, they don't even have to download stuff all the
time. But once they see what really exists here, they'll see a lot.
They'll see a unified world that focuses on art rather than politics.
They'll see a world that centralizes around ideas as opposed to war.
This world sees no color, no race and no culture. This world only sees
talent, skill and dedication. This world sees you, the artist, the
creator, the ambasador to peace.
There are people in this world who have experienced such an existance
as the scene. There are people like Purple Motion who now work
professionally creating music left and right. And there are people who
have been lucky in landing that ideal job. But those people will never
forget their time in the Computer Based Demoscene. I don't care what
'scene you were in. Amiga, PC, GFX, Trax, MIDI, Code or what-have-you.
I don't care if you worked on a 486 dx2 33 Mhz or a 2.4 Gig. Pentium 4.
There's an art about you. There's a skill about you. But most of all,
there is a love about you. You exist because you want to learn. You
continue to learn because you want to show what you can do. There's a
great deal of pride in what you do. There is a great quality in what
you do. And what you do is what others look at and say "I wish I could
do that". Welcome to the world in which I belong. Welcome to the world
in which I know I should be contributing. This is the world where I
reside, write, edit, and publish. This is the world where I feel most
at home. And it all has to do with you. The public. The artists. The
musicians. The Demoscene.
So I decided to pick up my roots and see what connections I still had
left. It has only been several months, I should still have some
connections. I was quite surprised to find out how wrong I was. Save
for a couple of expired e-mail addresses, most of the people I tried to
get in touch with not only responded, but were very glad to hear from
me. It was as if the Scene HAD waited for me. This is obviously not the
case, as I had a lot of new music and demos to download. But I was
quite impressed to see the support that I recieved when I returned to my
place in the 'scene. And to think that I get this much caring from
people who most likely have never met me in person. There are a lot of
people in this world that could severely benefit from the lessons taught
by the scene.
Thank you, fellow sceners, for making my stay enjoyable.
--Coplan
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Inside My Mind
The Versatility of the Tracker
By: Vill
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
Greetings, I am Vill, I live in New York City, and I have been
tracking for about six years. My columns will focus on creativity and
imagination.
Remember the whole FT2 vs IT battle back in the day? Was it more about
the programs or the egos? I am not going to settle this argument (because
everyone knows IT rocks your house down) but I will say something as to
stubbonness in the scene in regards to creativity: it sucks the life out
of anything. "I'll never use IT/FT2/Buzz/Psycle/Renoise because..." How
many times have we staunchly uttered these foolish phrases. Although it
may be a blessing to have all these new trackers and mediums for creating
music available, everyone who uses computers knows the pain of learning a
new program. There you are, a Super 31337 Guru in your favorite tracker.
You can strike down a killer beat effortlessly and quickly. Being a good
scener, you drink your Ojuice, and you come across the Next Big Thing.
You sigh, download the program, and fire it up. Well, it's a tracker
allright, it has lines and bars and some technical looking things, but
you are out of your element. After bumbling around for a while you
expertly determine that the new proggy SUCKS and you go flame it all over
creation.
I know just about every time I have done this (minus the flaming part,
I have kept my mouth shut in the scene until now) I have been wrong. It
seems to be a theme in my life, IT Sucks! wrong; Buzz sucks! wrong; She
won't cheat on me again! wrong. Anyway, my point is, as a musician or
anyone involved in computers, you have to take the time to learn the new
things. You stand stubbornly by an outdated program and you inhibit your
creativity.
Sure, sometimes there are programs out there that aren't right for
you. If you want full control over your samples there's Buzz, if you want
a more pure tracker there's Renoise, and if you want a hybrid there's
Psycle. Trying these trackers, as well as the numerous others I have
excluded, will give you an idea on what you need and what you like. An
open mind will allow you to expand, and it will also prevent you from
getting trapped in a rut.
"I am a techno artist. I will write techno forever. Regardless on what
is going on in my life, techno will reflect my creativity. Techno is
life, I worship thee Techno." It's about limitation this time. I'm
talking about turning the boundries upside down and crashing through the
walls of your imagination. Think outside the box? Set the box on fire and
kick it around the room.
We all have musical identities. For example, I write jaded ambient
beats with mellow melodies. I listen to old school hip-hop, electronic,
jazz, and rock. However, when I sit down to write, compose, or
what-have-you, I clear the slate and do what comes to mind.
I recently heard the song "Boom boom boom" by the Venga Boys. For
those unaware, the Venga Boys are a disgustingly-commercial
sugar-dance-teenage-girl kind of group. However, I admit it, I love that
song. It doesn't make me less cool, less Matrix, or unpure as an artist.
Download the song, it's catchy as hell. If you load the tracker everytime
with your style in mind, you are limiting yourself. The self-heralded
techno artist might be great at classical. The ambient sympathizer might
have jungle d&b roots. You never know, so shake it up and smash your
ideals.
So go ahead and remix Old MacDonald. Sometimes you just need to get
things out of your system and let the beats fall where they may.
Obviously, your every musical attempt in the tracker should be fined
tuned and then the best ones polished and released. Writing whatever you
feel, regardless of your musical identity is a great way to overcome
"tracker's block". Peace out.
--Vill
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Another View
Creativity
By: The Watcher
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
Saturday morning, 7:05 p.m.: Waking up next to my girlfriend (who is
still fast asleep), my head boiling with ideas. Not being able to waste
another minute I jump out of bed -- very carefully so as not to wake her
up. I sneak out of the bedroom, into the "holiest of chambers": the
computer-room, and switch on my computer. What might posses anyone to
leave a warm bed (after way too few hours of sleep), occupied by a warm
and lovely girl this early in the morning? I'll tell you what it is:
creativity!
Sometimes it takes hours to gain it, watching demos, listening to
scene-music, trying whatever I can to get a hint of inspiration.
Sometimes it just hit me in the face, when I am walking outside, taking a
shower, or even while visiting the men's room at work. A million ideas at
once seem to pop up in my head, chasing one another inside my mind,
alongside with the overwhelming urge to implement at least some of those
ideas. It might be the implementation of a never-seen-before grand new
effect, some overall design for a complete demo or game, or even a lead
for a tune (like every coder I have the secret desire to amaze all you
trackheads out there by tracking the ultimate tune for my productions all
by myself).
Very often I find myself in a situation where I have no immediate
outlet for the inspiration that just hinted in. Real life (or r/l for
short) has it's ways of putting all kind of obstacles in my way (work,
relationship, house, social-events, family etc.), sometimes leaving me
quite frustrated and irritable. Of course I could just write all ideas
down and implement them when (if ever) I find the time, but it doesn't
work that way: when the moment is gone, it's gone. This early on a
Saturday morning though, there is nothing to hold me back, so now is my
chance. Although I might come to regret the lack of sleep in the course
of the day.
So that is why, at 7:15 p.m., I find myself immersed in hundreds of
lines of gba-code, trying to get a new effect for my gameboy advance demo
running. The thing might never actually get finished, or end up really
ugly and looked down upon by everyone including myself, but all that
doesn't matter. This is my incentive, my "drive", this is what got me
into the demoscene in the first place.
And I still love it.
--The Watcher
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Another View
Pop Goes the Musician
By: Colin D'Cruz
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
Todays popular sound of music has dealt a knockout punch to a lot of
musicians who play musical instruments. Well, what else do musicians play?
Lots! The scene these days is all about musicians who play turntables,
groove boxes, floppy drives and whatever it is that creates todays hip
sounds of popular music. Take the case of my talented musician friend
Earnie the songster. He's been hit by himself! Earnie was among the
first few guitar players who switched over to keyboards with automatic
bass/drums/chords, starting a 'one man band' trend that rendered his
fellow band members redundant. The one man band scene ruled and why not?
Earnie had a family to support, playing in a band could only pay half
his bills, 'being' the band paid all his bills. Few years down the line
the popular one man band trend has given way to the 'no man band'. One
does not necessarily have to be a musician to create todays cool sounds
of popular music.
DJ'ing, programing, sequencing, sampling is where it's at baby. Today
a DJ or a computer programmer creates the cool sounds that spearheads
popular music evolution. So what does my friend Earnie do now? You've
guessed right! Alright peeps in the house, please welcome DJ Earnie
who's gonna spin some mean disc while scratching the shit out of them
vinyl frisbees!
And by the way, DJ'ing these days pays even next
years bills!
--Colin D'Cruz
--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
Link List
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
Portals:
SceneSpot (Home of Static Line).......http://www.scenespot.org
CFXweb.......................................http://cfxweb.net
Czech Scene................................http://www.scene.cz
Danish Scene..............................http://demo-scene.dk
Demoscene.org.........................http://www.demoscene.org
Demo.org...................................http://www.demo.org
<*> Diskmag.de...................................http://diskmag.de
Hungarian Scene........................http://www.scene-hu.com
Italian Scene...........................http://run.to/la_scena
ModPlug Central Resources..........http://www.castlex.com/mods
Norwegian Scene........................http://www.demoscene.no
Orange Juice.............................http://www.ojuice.net
Planet Zeus..........................http://www.planetzeus.net
Polish Scene...........................http://www.demoscena.pl
Pouet.net.................................http://www.pouet.net
Russian Scene..........................http://www.demoscene.ru
Scene.org.................................http://www.scene.org
Scenet....................................http://www.scenet.de
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.au.scene.org
Scene.org Netherlands...................ftp://ftp.nl.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://www.alienprophets.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
Dc5.........................................http://www.dc5.org
Delirium..............................http://delirium.scene.pl
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
Outbreak................................http://www.outbreak.nu
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
Spinning Kids......................http://www.spinningkids.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
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.chillproductions.com
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
Fairlight Music.....................http://fairlight.scene.org
Five Musicians.........................http://www.fm.scene.org
Fusion Music Crew.................http://members.home.nl/cyrex
Goodstuff..........................http://artloop.de/goodstuff
Hellven.................................http://www.hellven.org
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
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
Miasmah.............................http://www.miasmah.cjb.net
Milk.......................................http://milk.sgic.fi
Mo'playaz..........................http://ssmedion.de/moplayaz
Mono211.................................http://www.mono211.com
Morbid Minds..............http://www.raveordie.com/morbidminds
Moods.............................http://www.moodymusic.de.vu/
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://tokyodawn.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
<*> Jurassic Pack...........................www.jurassicpack.de.vu
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://www.wildmag.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
#trax e-mail list.............................................
.............http://www.scenespot.org/mailman/listinfo/trax
Underground Mine.............http://www.spinningkids.org/umine
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 (Hungarian)............................ircnet #demoscene
Programming (Hungarian)......................ircnet #coders.hu
Programming (German)........................ircnet #coders.ger
--=--=--
----=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------
-=- Staff -=-
Editor: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@scenespot.org
Staff Writers: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@scenespot.org
Dilvie / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@yahoo.com
Novus / Vince Young / vince_young@hotmail.com
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
Vill / Brian Frank / darkvill@yahoo.com
The Watcher / Paul-Jan Pauptit / watcher@tuhb.org
Tech Consultant: 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 to 76 columns with two columns at the
beginning of each line. Please avoid foul language and high ascii
characters. Contributions (Plain Text) should be e-mailed to Coplan
(coplan@scenespot.org) by the last Friday of each month. New issues are
released on the first Sunday of every month.
See you next month!
-eof---=------=--=------=--=--
