ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³                                                                             ³
³                <<<  THE FUTURE CREW INFORMATION PACKAGE  >>>                ³
³                                                                             ³
³                                Version 1.7                                  ³
³                                                                             ³
³                                06-DEC-1994                                  ³
³                                                                             ³
³                                                                             ³
³            This file contains general information about the Future          ³
³            Crew and our demos. It also includes frequently asked            ³
³            questions we often receive by mail and instructions on           ³
³            how to contact us best. Please read this info-file before        ³
³            contacting us.                                                   ³
³                                                                             ³
³            We will update this file as things change, and if the            ³
³            above date is rather old, you can get the most recent            ³
³            version of this file either by E-Mail from Internet or           ³
³            from our distribution sites.                                     ³
³                                                                             ³
³                                                                             ³
³                                                                             ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³                                 CONTENTS                                    ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

         1: Opening words
         2: Commercial Productions
         3: Disclaimer, The Distribution and Use of Our Demos
         4: The Current Memberstatus
         5: List of all Future Crew releases
         6: How to Contact Future Crew
         7: Frequently Asked Questions
         8: International Demo Competitions
         9: The History of The Future Crew
        10: Final Words

        The following info is in FCSITE17.TXT:
         1: Official Distribution Site BBS List
         2: How to Become a Distribution Site


ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 1:                            OPENING WORDS                                 ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

        Welcome to the FCINFO file version 1.7 !

        This textfile is a new revision of FCINFO16.TXT, which was
        originally spread with the 2nd Assembly '94 invitation intro.

        This textfile was written to tell you about Future Crew, to
        give you answers to most of the things you would probably like
        to ask us, and to tell you how to get more demos.

        If you are interested in us making a demo for you, please,
        start reading from the next paragraph in this file.

        This file has changed quite much since FCINFO16.TXT, mostly 
        because we tried to make this a little shorter. The most important
        change is the contact information part.

ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 2:                     COMMERCIAL PRODUCTIONS                               ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

        If you find our demos and programs interesting and would like
        us to make a presentation for your company, do not hesitate to
        contact us.

        When contacting us, please include a short explanation what would
        you like us to do. That would help us greatly in evaluating the
        size of the project.

        Our resources are limited and we choose the projects we make with
        care, but especially our musicians and graphic artists are always
        looking for new projects.

        Since normal mail is a slow way to communicate, we would prefer
        the communication be made through e-mail (or if e-mail is not a
        possible way of communication for you, you can always try to send
        a fax).

        You can find our contact information from this file.


ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 3:          DISCLAIMER,  THE DISTRIBUTION AND USE OF OUR DEMOS              ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

        All our demos and programs, except the ones which we have created
        for different companies, are freeware.

        This means that you can copy and distribute them freely as long
        as you make no modifications to them. Also, no money can be charged
        for our products. This means that you can not sell these products
        without our permission. However a small compensation for copying/
        spreading them is acceptable.

        Future Crew's freeware software is supplied "as is". The authors
        hereby disclaim all warranties relating to all Future Crew freeware,
        express or implied, including but not limited to damage to hardware,
        software and/or data from use of Future Crew's products. In no event
        will the Future Crew be liable to you or any other party for any
        damages. Your use of this software indicates that you have read and
        agree to these terms.


ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 4:                         THE CURRENT MEMBERSTATUS                         ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

        Alias:          Real name:        Born:   Main responsibility:
        --------------------------------------------------------------
        GORE            Samuli Syvahuoko  1973    Organizer/PR/E-mail
        Psi             Sami Tammilehto   1973    Coder
        Trug            Mika Tuomi        1972    Coder
        Wildfire        Arto Vuori        1975    Coder
        Purple Motion   Jonne Valtonen    1976    Musician
        Skaven          Peter Hajba       1975    Musician
        Marvel          Aki Maatta        1975    Graphics Artist
        Pixel           Mikko Iho         1975    Graphics Artist
        Abyss           Jussi Laakkonen   1975    BBS Coordinator/PR

        FC Internet Division:

        Henchman        Markus Maki       1974    E-mail/PR/betatesting
        Jake            Jarkko Heinonen   1973    E-mail/PR/betatesting


ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 5:                    LIST OF ALL FUTURE CREW RELEASES                      ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

   Filename        Size   Released   A Short Description
   ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
   YO!.ZIP         32 kb   2-24-89   YO! intro, VGA textmode/PC-speaker
   GR8.ZIP         31 kb   7-12-89   GR8 intro, EGA/No sound
   FC-SLIDE.ZIP   350 kb   7-23-90   Slideshow I, a graphics collection, SB
   ST224.ZIP      130 kb   2-22-91   Scream Tracker 2.24 shareware version, SB
   MENTAL.ZIP      90 kb   7-02-91   Mental Surgery demo, SB/Covox/PC-speaker
   STMIK020.ZIP   170 kb   8-10-91   Scream Tracker Music Interface Kit 0.20
   FISHTRO.ZIP    230 kb   4-08-92   Assembly'92 invitation intro, SB
   STMIKFIX.ZIP    10 kb   7-14-92   A Bugfix to STMIK
   UNREAL.ZIP    1350 kb   8-06-92   Unreal megademo, SB/SBp
   STARPRT2.EXE     6 kb   9-13-92   StarPort BBS intro, VGA/AdLib
   THEPARTY.ZIP   165 kb  10-02-92   The Party II invitation intro, SB/SBp
   PANIC.ZIP      950 kb   2-04-93   Panic trackdemo, SB/SBp
   ASM-93.ZIP     400 kb   6-15-93   Assembly'93 invitation intro, SB/SBp/GUS
   WCHARTS.ZIP    680 kb   6-26-93   Worldcharts magazine issue #1, SB/SBp/GUS
   SOULOMAT.ZIP   100 kb   7-10-93   A song by Purple Motion (.MOD)
   ICEKNGDM.LBM    65 kb   8-01-93   Winner of PC graphics compo at Asm'93
   ICEFRONT.ZIP   180 kb   8-01-93   The winner of PC multichnl compo at Asm'93
   CAN'T.ZIP      125 kb   8-01-93   The second in PC multichnl compo at Asm'93
   STRSHINE.ZIP   225 kb   8-01-93   The third in PC multichnl compo at Asm'93
   TROLL.LBM       85 kb   8-01-93   The fourth in PC graphics compo at Asm'93
   SUNDANCE.ZIP   235 kb   8-10-93   The winner of PC 4chnl compo at Asm'93
   2NDREAL1.ZIP  1250 kb  10-07-93   Second Reality, Asm'93 winner, SB/SBp/GUS
   2NDREAL2.ZIP   790 kb  10-07-93   Second part of the Second Reality demo
   2NDR_MS.ZIP    280 kb  11-01-93   Skaven's songs from Second Reality
   SYMPHONY.ZIP   260 kb  11-01-93   Symphony by Skaven (.S3M file)
   PMFRACT.ZIP    210 kb  11-05-93   The winner of Megaleif ST/PC music compo
   BUSMATKA.ZIP    75 kb  11-09-93   Finnish invitation to Party3 bussymatka
   STARPORT.ZIP     5 kb  11-21-93   StarPort BBS intro II, VGA/Adlib
   SP2SRC.ZIP      30 kb  12-02-93   StarPort BBS intro II sources
   UNREAL11.ZIP  1335 kb  12-28-93   Unreal version 1.1 for Gravis UltraSound
   JOURNEY1.ZIP   867 kb  12-28-93   First Musicdisk by Purple Motion
   JOURNEY2.ZIP  1015 kb  12-28-93   Second Musicdisk by Purple Motion
   CHMIND.ZIP    1420 kb  02-20-94   Chaotic Mind - Music collection by Skaven
   2NDPATCH.ZIP    36 kb  02-20-94   Slowdown bugfix patch for 2nd Reality
   ASM-94.ZIP     221 kb  04-08-94   Assembly'94 Pre-Invitation Intro
   SCRMT301.ZIP   291 kb  04-18-94   Scream Tracker 3.01 BETA
   ASM-94_2.ZIP   567 kb  07-03-94   The Assembly '94 Invitation Dentro
   SCRMT32.ZIP    176 kb  12-06-94   Scream Tracker 3.2

   You SHOULD be able to find all of the above from our Distribution Sites.


ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 6:                 HOW TO CONTACT THE FUTURE CREW                           ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

        NOTE!  OUR BBS NUMBER HAS CHANGED! The new number is a 11-node
        ringdown. Also, StarPort can now be accessed internationally via
        internet.
        ALSO, SNAIL-MAIL ADDRESS HAS CHANGED!

        Our snail-mail address is:           Our home BBS is:

        Abyss / Future Crew                  StarPort - FC WHQ BBS
        c/o Jussi Laakkonen                  +358-0-615 00028
        V„h„ntuvantie 5 C 34
        00390  Helsinki
        FINLAND

        GORE's cellular phone (GSM): +358-40-502 3025
        Fax: +358-0-420 8620  (at GORE's place)

        StarPort is available also for internet users. You can connect
        to StarPort either with "ftp" or "telnet/rlogin".
        Try "rlogin mpoli.fi -8e -l pcboard" or "telnet mpoli.fi" and put
        pcboard as the username. IP-Address for Staport is 193.210.15.65.
        If you want to transfer files, you can login to ftp.mpoli.fi as
        anonymous. FC demos can be found in /starport/fc.

        You can also e-mail us:

        Please direct general questions, requests for information etc.
        ONLY to fc@unix.mpoli.fi.

                Future Crew     fc@unix.mpoli.fi
                Abyss           abyss@unix.mpoli.fi
                GORE            gore@unix.mpoli.fi
                Marvel          marvel@pcb.mpoli.fi
                Pixel           pixel@unix.mpoli.fi
                Purple Motion   purple.motion@pcb.mpoli.fi
                Skaven          skaven@mkoski.otol.fi
                                or skaven@unix.mpoli.fi
                Jake            jtheinon@cc.helsinki.fi
                                or jake@unix.mpoli.fi
                Henchman        mmaki@cc.helsinki.fi
                                or markus@unix.mpoli.fi

        Comments and opinions are always appreciated, but if you
        also have questions, consider first if you might find the
        answers elsewhere, for example from the Frequently Asked
        Questions section inside this file.

        The best and the fastest way to contact us is through e-mail.
        We receive a lot of mail and simply can't answer all of it.
        We get a LOT of e-mail so you may have to wait for our reply
        for a while. We TRY to answer as many e-mails as possible,
        but because we get many e-mails every day, we simply don't
        have time to answer to all of them. Please, ask only FC-related
        questions! We are not some all-around info forum or internet
        users help center!

        If you use normal mail (snail-mail), please enclose a return
        envelope ready with your address and an international mail
        coupon. We simply can NOT afford to pay hundreds of dollars
        a year just to answer to our mails. This means: no mailing
        coupon = NO reply.

        To get our demos you can call our many BBSes around the world.
        You can find the list of these BBSes in the FCSITE textfile.
        Also, very good anonymous ftp demo sites (in addition to
        ftp.mpoli.fi) are ftp.uwp.edu and ftp.eng.ufl.edu. Our demos
        can be found in the directory /pub/msdos/demos/groups/future.crew.


ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 7:            FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE FUTURE CREW              ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

        Here we have compiled a list of questions along with the
        answers (in random order) which are being asked often in
        the letters we receive. Hopefully you will find the answers
        to your questions from here and save us and yourself from
        unnecessary work.
 
Q: Where can I get your and other groups' demos?
A: There are several ways to get demos.
   The best way (if you have a modem) is to call an FC distribution site
   near you. They have all of our productions online and you can download
   them freely. Also many normal BBSes carry our productions and other
   groups' demos. If you don't have a modem, then getting our demos is a
   lot harder. We don't have a mailswapping system. So, if you have a friend
   who has a modem, why not try to get him to call one of our distribution
   sites. Another VERY good way to get demos is from the INTERNET. Good
   anonymous ftp demo site is ftp.eng.ufl.edu. Our demos can be located
   in the /pub/msdos/demos/groups/future.crew directory.

Q: When will you release your next demo?
A: We had planned to do a demo for Assembly '94 but we noted that we didn't
   have enough time to make a demo good enough that it would have satisfied
   us. At the moment, we are planning to make a demo someday, but the
   release date is not fixed. You might see a demo from us at Assembly '95.

Q: Have you released any musicdisks?
A: We released Purple Motion's musicdisk called Journey at The Party 3.
   Skaven's musicdisk - Chaotic Mind - has also been released. A new music
   disk is not in our plans right now, but our musicians contribute songs
   to many other groups musicdisks.

Q: When will you release a MOD/S3M player?
A: It has already been released along with Skaven's and PM's musicdisks.
   It's called the MusicDiskPlayer (MDP) and it plays 4-8 channel ProTracker
   MOD files and all S3M files. It support SB, SBPro and GUS. The most recent
   version (v1.1) was released with Skaven's Chaotic Mind musicdisk.

Q: When will you release a new version of Scream Tracker?
A: Currently, the newest version of Scream Tracker is 3.2 and a new version
   is not planned. Maybe we will make some bugfixes, maybe not.

Q: What soundcards will you support?
A: At the moment our productions support the following sound cards:

        Gravis UltraSound   - for it's programming advantages and for
                              being the new standard on the demo scene
        Sound Blaster Pro   - for being the old standard on the demo scene
        Sound Blaster       - for being the basic sound card

   Support to other sound cards is always possible, but right now we
   don't see enough demand to support any other sound cards.

Q: Why aren't we supporting General MIDI?
A: Simply because our musicians don't like the idea of using a preselected
   patch of samples over and over again in all their songs. They want there
   to be the so called artistic freedom of using any kinds of sounds they
   like. General MIDI and other such things are not a good thing from our
   point of view - they are a limitation.

Q: What programming books would you recommend to learn assembler and VGA?
A: This is a hard question, and a general answer is, that any book will do.
   You can get the basics from a book and books are a great reference,
   but when it comes to creating something new, you can't just read it
   from a book. We have all learnt to code the hard way (a lot of
   miscellaneous books and a lot of experimenting). Anyway, here are 
   some of the books we often find handy (there are undoubtably newer
   prints, so check them out):

        Mastering Turbo Assembler, Tom Swan
                Hayden Books 1989, ISBN 0-672-48435-8
        PC System Programming, Michael Tischer
                Abacus 1990, ISBN 1-55755-036-0
        The Programmers PC Sourcebook, Thom Hogan
                Microsoft Press 1988, ISBN 1-55615-118-7
        Programming the 80386, John H. Crawford and Patrick P. Gelsinger
                Sybex 1987, ISBN 0-89588-381-3
        Programmers guide to EGA and VGA cards, Richard F. Ferraro
                Addison Wesley 1989, ISBN 0-201-12692-3

   Also, most up to date are many software 'books', such as interrupt 
   lists from bbs'es. We have also found a lot of valuable information
   in articles and such. In short, there is no magic way of learning to
   code, it really takes a lot of work.

Q: How did you learn to code?
A: Learning to code demos is a long and very very difficult process. It takes
   years to learn to code demos very well. A good way to start is some high
   level language like Pascal or C and then started to experiment with 
   assembler. It takes a lot of time and experimenting to get better, and
   there are no shortcuts (for book recommendations, see a question before
   this). The main thing is trying to understand what you do, then trying
   to change the program to see what you get, and gain wisdom in what's
   the best way of doing things. Learning to code well requires a lot of
   patience, a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of time. It is not easy.

Q: I'm a beginner programmer. I wonder if you could help me learn demo coding?
A: Unfortunately our time does not allow that. If we would help others, we
   couldn't get anything done. We have released a few source codes of our
   productions, look for them in the releases-list.

Q: What programs do you use to do your demos?
A: We use the following programs to do our demos; For code we use Borland
   C++, Microsoft C, Watcom C, Stonybrook Pascal and Turbo Assembler. For
   graphics we use Deluxe Paint 2 Enhanced and 3D Studio 3.0. For making
   the music we use Scream Tracker 3.2, and for digitizing the samples for
   our songs we use Advanced DigiPlayer 3.5 beta and Wavelite for Windows.
   Scream Tracker 3.2 and Advanced DigiPlayer are our own programs made by
   Psi. Then we have all kinds of utilities crafted for our needs.

Q: How long does it take to make a demo like Second Reality?    
A: The complete time that it takes to make such demo can't really be counted.
   Most of our knowledge is based on years of hard work and on our previous
   works. All of us do little experiments on their freetime and when a 
   "critical mass" is achieved the making of a demo begins more seriously.
   From this point to a final demo (in the case of a major production like
   Second Reality) it takes around three to six months.

Q: Are you going to make games in the future?
A: Why not. It all depends if we have the time. We have always a few game
   projects cooking, but they are far from being finished. But we will
   let you all know when we have a game coming, don't you worry!

Q: What do the members of Future Crew do besides computers?
A: Most of us are studying at the moment. In real life most of us are quite
   normal(?) human beings. Our hobbies are for example, sci-fi, movies,
   weight lifting, techno, hi-fi, etc. And most of us have or have had
   a girlfriend.

Q: Exactly where do FC members study and what?
A: Here is the complete list:

        Psi             - University of Turku, Computer Science
        Trug            - Working full-time with various projects
        Wildfire        - Helsinki University of Technology, Computer Science
        Purple Motion   - last year in high school
	Skaven		- not studying at the moment
        Pixel           - not studying at the moment
        Marvel          - not studying at the moment
        Abyss           - Helsinki University of Technology, Computer Science
        GORE            - studying in a business school/commercial college
        Henchman        - Institute of Technology, Computer Engineering
        Jake            - University of Helsinki, Computer Science


ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 8:                     INTERNATIONAL DEMO COMPETITIONS                      ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

        For those who have no idea what the above are, I will explain.
        Demo competitions (= parties) are international events where
        the demo scene people go to meet each other and to compete in
        the many competitions that are being held. These competitions
        (= compos) are the demo, intro (= a demo sized under 64kb),
        music and graphics. There are often different compos for different 
        machines (PC, Amiga, and C-64). There are also prizes in
        each compo (cash or computer hardware & software). The cash prizes
        are usually the money people pay as the entrance fee (usually 
        about $20-30 US/person) and the possible computer hardware & software
        has usually been sponsored by various computer companies. All
        contributions are being experienced on a big screen (many meters
        wide) and with the aid of a powerful audio system. After this all
        the people or a selected jury vote and decide which contributions
        are the best. After this the prizes are being given out and the 
        party is over. In the process people of course get to know each
        other better and exchange new ideas.

        All contributions are usually being released at the party itself,
        but sometimes the PC demos are not. This is very unfortunate,
        and will probably change in the future. The reason why this is
        allowed to happen is because most demos haven't been beta-tested
        well enough before the party and might not work on most machines.
        So, the groups are being allowed to finish their demos after the
        party and then release them when they so see fit. But if they do
        not release their demos after a certain period of time (like
        1-2 months), the party organizers will release the version which
        was contributed to the competition.

        Parties usually last for three days (a weekend) and are usually
        organized by bigger demo groups.

        There are a few big demo parties being held annually in Europe,
        The Party in Denmark at Christmas-time and Assembly in Finland
        in the end of Summer.

        A few months before the party, the organizing demo groups usually
        release special invitation intros to advertise their parties.

        There were around 3000 visitors at Assembly'94m Most of them were
        PC people, and about 800 came outside Finland; from Scandinavia,
        Germany, Belgium, USA, Canada, Hungary and Spain and other countries.

        At Assembly'94 were 4kb intro, 64kb intro, PC demo, graphics and music
        competitions. The quality was good in all competitions, especially
        in 4kb intro competition, organized for the first time.

        You can obtain a list of ASM'94 CD-ROM retailers from StarPort
        when it becomes available. Assembly organizers will not sell any
        CD-ROMs. If you are interested in becoming a retailer, please contact
        Sound Solutions in Germany.

        Assembly '95 will also happen in August 1995 in Helsinki, Finland.
        More info will be spread later. Don't forget to attend it!


ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 9:               THE BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FUTURE CREW                       ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

 - 1986-1987 -
  Future Crew (FC) was founded in the year 1986 on the C-64. And only one
 member has been in the group for the whole time - Psi. FC did two
 demos on the C-64 before moving into the PC scene in the year 1988.

 - 1988 -
  FC's first PC demo was a EGA sinus -scroller called GR8. At that time
 the members were HAL, JPM, SS (Psi) and SIDDER. And DARK POWER
 was FC's BBS.

 - 1989 -
  Then there came YO! which was quite popular for a while. It used one of
 the VGA's textmodes and included 'nice' PC-speaker music. It had
 many scrollers, a sinusing YO!-logo, a little bouncing ball and
 a 2D-starfield. At this time ICE joined and so FC
 had another BBS - SILICON DRAGON.

 - 1990 -
  In the year 1990 there was only one demo release from us, the Slideshow I.
 It was the first PC demo which included 4 voice SoundBlaster music. It
 didn't include any other special code for it was a VGA picture slideshow.
 And at this time there were a lot of members in FC: Psi, ICE, HAL, JPM,
 SID, BIG, DAC, MAC and SEBU.
  Only shortly after Slideshow I, Psi released his Scream Tracker 2.0
 - a 4 voice music editing program inspired by the Amiga SoundTracker.
 ST 2.0 was a real success.

 - 1991 -
  In summer 1991, FC released a demo called Mental Surgery. It had a big
 scroller on the top of the screen, 3D-starfield, a nice writer, music
 scopes and of course 4 voice SoundBlaster music. This was the last FC
 demo that worked on a 286 machine. At this time the members were: Psi,
 ICE, Dr.Venkman and Purple Motion. Little after this I (GORE) joined FC
 and ICE lost the interest to demos and left FC along with his BBS.

 - 1992 -
  So, FC lived quietly for about half a year. But when the year 1992
 came Trug, Pixel, Skaven and Abyss joined FC. And as Abyss joined, FC
 had a BBS again, called StarPort. So, in the beginning of the year
 1992 FC had the following members:

 Psi            - Code
 Trug           - Code
 GORE           - Organizing
 Pixel          - GFX
 Abyss          - BBS Support
 Skaven         - Music & GFX
 Purple Motion  - Music

  It was at this time that we had begun making UNREAL. Our first plan was to
 release it at MEGA-Leif Convention - An Atari ST/PC party held in Uppsala,
 Sweden. But about a month before MEGA-Leif, MeeGosh/Rebels (Amiga) called
 me and told me about ASSEMBLY'92 and that it would be cool to have also the
 PC scene there. So, he asked us to do an invitation intro for the PC scene
 about this mega-event. We agreed and so, UNREAL was put to rest as Psi got
 the idea of making something different - namely the Fishtro. It took us
 about two weeks to create Fishtro from nothing, but when we went to MEGA-Leif
 Convention, we still had a few little bugs in it and therefore we couldn't
 release it until a week after MEGA-Leif.
  After we came back from MEGA-Leif, we started on making Unreal again in
 order to get it finished for Assembly'92.

  In July'92 came Assembly'92, and we won the demo competition with Unreal.
 Around 1000 people attended this party, which wasn't so bad as it was being
 held for the first time. The total amount of PC people was 300.
  After this we were contacted by the organizers of a big Amiga/C64/PC party,
 called The Party 1992. They asked us to organize the PC demo compo there and
 to make an Invitation Intro for it's PC side.
  At that time we had the following members: Psi, Trug, Wildfire, Pixel,
 Purple Motion, Skaven, Abyss and GORE.
 
  The Party 1992 Invitation Intro was mostly coded by Psi and WildFire.
 WildFire was our new coder who joined us in autumn 1992. He had before been
 active on the Atari ST scene.
 
  Then it was the time for another big demo. The making of Panic began.
 It was the normal process of making demos with blood and sweat and annoying
 deadlines. Wildfire was the one to assemble the demo together, but lots of
 code was also done by Psi and Trug.
 
  Then it was the time for The Party 1992. As we thought that it would be
 really nice to get as many people as possible to The Party as cheaply as
 possible, we decided to organize a bustrip there with the Amiga people.
 So we managed to load two buses full of computer freaks and start our trip
 to The Party.
  At that time The Party 1992 was the biggest demo party ever. There were
 about 2500 computer freaks of which around 300 were PC dudes.
  There we entered the demo compo with Panic, and to our surprise we came
 second. Witan's Facts of Life had won the demo compo. We were quite
 disappointed by this, because there was absolutely no voting. The voting 
 system on Amiga just didn't work. And then some Amiga organizer just asked
 the last remaining PC organizer (A member of Danish Elite) "What do you
 think were the best PC demos?" without telling him that these were going
 to be the official results. And without thinking the PC organizer just
 said "Witan's, FC's and Sonic's".
  However, The Party 1992 was a nice party.
 
 - 1993 -
   After The Party 1992 we lived quietly for awhile. The only big change was
 that Marvel (formerly in Sonic Amiga) joined us. So we now had two GFX
 artists. Then we began thinking of making a diskmag (Worldcharts). At first
 nobody really wanted to code it, so we thought that we would make it as a
 co-operation with Stone (a finnish demogroup). But after some co-operation
 trouble we began making it 100% by ourselves. Only the first issue was
 released. Then we decided to stop making it, for we had other more important
 projects to attend to.
   Then it was the time for Assembly'93. Once again we were the PC organizers
 and we made an invitation intro about it.
 
  Assembly'93 was the biggest summer demo party ever. There were about 1500
 people on the party place of which around 550 were PC demo freaks. Asm'93
 was also a big advancement on the PC side. For the first time we also had
 an intro, a music (4 channel and multichannel) and a graphics competition.
 Second Reality was also first presented at Assembly'93.

  Next was The Party 1993 (also known as The Party 3), and all we can say is
 that it wasn't such a good party as it could have been. This was NOT the
 fault of the PC organizing group Access Denied, but instead it seemed that
 the Amiga organizers had underestimated the PC side and thus treated the PC
 side somewhat unfairly. Already there is some talk about organizing a
 PC-only party for X-mas'94.
  Anyway, we released the GUS version of our old Assembly'92 winner demo
 Unreal, and Purple Motion's musicdisk called Journey (which also includes
 the MDP - our MOD/S3M player for GUS/SB/SBPro).

 - 1994 -
   Future Crew is now almost 8 years old. We had big plans for this year,
 both in the demo scene and in the commercial market. We organized
 Assembly '94 with Accession, Sonic PC, Virtual Dreams and The Movement.
 It was a big party, with about 3000 visitors. It was held on August 5th-
 7th in the center of Helsinki (the capital city of Finland). Our major
 release this year has been the long-awaited Scream Tracker 3, a project
 which has been in the making for over 2 years.
 Next, FC will go traditionally to The Party '94, held again in Herning,
 Denmark, just after Christmas.


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³10:                          FINAL WORDS                                     ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

	Thank you for reading this file.

        Signed,         GORE, Henchman & Abyss / FC
