Start.of.DemoNews.131.........................................................

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                          DemoNews #131 - 30 Sep 1996

                                                          Subscribers  :  2500
 DemoNews is produced by Hornet.                            Change     :    -8
 The Hornet Archive is at ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos         Archive Size : 3284M

==[Contents]===================================================================

           Calendar
           Sites
           Top Downloads
           Uploads
           Articles
             Introduction................................Snowman
             Life Before Demos - Part 1 / 2..............Trixter
             Demos vs. Television........................GD
             A Graphician's Tip Book - Part 6............Shaithis
             Demobit '96 Has Moved.......................Infi
           Closing

==[Calendar]===================================================================

 Date      Event       Location  Concact Points
 --------- ----------- --------- ---------------------------------------------
 30 Aug 96 AntIQ       Hungary   aboy@ttk.jpte.hu
                                 www.jpte.hu/~aboy
 30 Aug 96 Gardening   Greece    gmanol@physics.upatras.gr
                                 westnet.hol.gr/gardening96

                                      * <-- YOU ARE HERE

 30 Sep 96 Coven       Australia redhaze@student.adelaide.edu.au
                                 student.adelaide.edu.au/~ed
 ?? Nov 96 Demobit     Slovakia  demobit@elf.stuba.sk
                                 internet.sk/demobit/english.htm
 21 Mar 97 Mekka       Germany   amable@aol.com

==[Sites]======================================================================

 Category       Location  Contact Points
 -------------- --------- ----------------------------------------------------
 Hornet Archive USA       ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos

 HA Mirrors     Sweden    ftp.luth.se/pub/msdos/demos
                S. Africa ftp.sun.ac.za/pub/msdos/demos
                USA (FL)  ftp.uwp.edu/pub/msdos/demos
                USA (PA)  ftp.co.iup.edu/code  (from /demos/code)

 Other Archives Belgium   hagar.arts.kuleuven.ac.be/demos
                Sweden    ftp.arosnet.se/demo
                Spain     ftp.siapi.es/blastersound/demos/incoming
                Finland   ftp.fm.org
                Holland   sdc.wtm.tudelft.nl/pub/music

==[Downloads]==================================================================

 Category    Times File
 -------- -- ----- -----------------------------------------------------------
 Demos    01 00224 /demos/1996/a/ai_strok.zip
          02 00215 /demos/1996/m/machines.arj
          03 00207 /demos/1996/m/machines.a02
          04 00207 /demos/1996/m/machines.a01
          05 00186 /demos/1996/c/ctststp1.zip
          06 00185 /demos/1996/c/ctststp2.zip
          07 00174 /demos/1996/m/machifix.zip
          08 00114 /demos/1996/c/caleid.zip
          09 00111 /demos/1996/p/pure.zip
          10 00105 /demos/1993/0-9/2ndreal1.lzh

 Music    01 00440 /music/programs/players/m4w230sx.zip
          02 00400 /music/programs/players/cp16.zip
          03 00373 /music/programs/trackers/scrmt321.zip
          04 00315 /music/programs/players/cp17.zip
          05 00228 /music/programs/players/m4w230sl.zip
          06 00206 /music/programs/trackers/ft206.zip
          07 00164 /music/programs/players/play230b.zip
          08 00096 /music/programs/players/cpawe17c.zip
          09 00084 /music/programs/trackers/it205.zip
          10 00076 /music/programs/players/cpgp17b.zip

 Graphics 01 00020 /graphics/images/1996/c/chantal.zip
          02 00018 /graphics/images/1996/t/tubterro.zip
          03 00016 /graphics/images/1996/a/airwar.zip
          04 00014 /graphics/images/1996/g/girl3.zip
          05 00012 /graphics/allgraph.zip
          06 00011 /graphics/images/1996/r/runbitch.zip
          07 00011 /graphics/images/1996/i/impgunwo.zip
          08 00011 /graphics/images/1996/g/godsarmy.zip
          09 00011 /graphics/images/1996/c/crucifie.zip
          10 00011 /graphics/images/1996/b/babylona.zip

 Code     01 00024 /code_review/graph/water/water.zip
          02 00023 /code_review/demosrc/vga-vul1.zip
          03 00023 /code_review/demosrc/ggouro2.zip
          04 00022 /code_review/demosrc/asciisrc.zip
          05 00019 /code_review/demosrc/src_less.zip
          06 00018 /code_review/graph/tunnel/tunnel.zip
          07 00018 /code_review/graph/texture/tmaptut.zip
          08 00018 /code_review/graph/rotation/fullr_1.zip
          09 00018 /code_review/demosrc/phro.zip
          10 00018 /code_review/demosrc/onesrc.zip

 Incoming 01 00126 /incoming/music/programs/cpxml17d.zip
          02 00119 /incoming/music/programs/cpitl17e.zip
          03 00091 /incoming/music/programs/cpwss17f.zip
          04 00061 /incoming/code/3ddemo.zip
          05 00060 /incoming/demos/torso97.zip
          06 00059 /incoming/demos/nil.zip
          07 00056 /incoming/code/ringnes.arj
          08 00050 /incoming/demos/potion.zip
          09 00049 /incoming/music/programs/cs2.zip
          10 00049 /incoming/music/programs/cpiwd17a.zip

 Total files downloaded   :      53,820
 Size of files downloaded :  21,495,637k

==[Uploads]====================================================================

 All ratings are subjective.

=---------------------------------------------------------------------(demos)-=
/pub/demos/demos      Size Rated Description
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
/1996/d/ds-boll.zip     76 **    Dizkoball by Deathstar
/1996/j/jka_nikk.zip  1027 ***   Nikki by Jinrikisha
/1996/l/logus-t5.zip   902 ****  Planet Logus-T5 by Camorra
/1996/t/tsh-asy.zip     21 **    BBS Asylum by Trash
/1996/t/tusken.zip       2 *+    BBS Tusken Raider by Brains Don't Bounce
/1996/x/xlm_de.zip       8 *+    BBS Digital Entropy by Xylem

=---------------------------------------------------------------------(music)-=
/pub/demos/music                 Size Rated Description
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
/contests/tt/tt19-res.txt           6       The Trackering #19 Results
/disks/1995/a/allmk.zip          2483 **    Mortal Kombat 2 Songs : A
                                            | collection of mods and s3ms
/disks/1995/g/goforthe.zip        864 ****  Go For The Record 2 by Chorus, Sid
                                            | of Majic 12
/disks/1995/h/hawkpack.arj        386 **    Music Package Volume 1 by Hawk
/disks/1995/h/hawkpak2.arj        424 **+   Music Package Volume 2 by Hawk
/disks/1995/h/hawkpak3.arj        161 **+   Music Package Volume 3 by Hawk
/disks/1995/h/hell-v1.zip         943 ***   Hello Volume 1 by Primal
/disks/1995/i/is-hos95.zip        858 **    Hooked On Sound by The Pope
/disks/1995/k/kne_gbr3.zip       2526 +     Kone Gabber Disk #3 by Kone
/disks/1995/m/mazvoid1.zip       1105 **    [1/2] Void - Disk 5 by Mazurka
/disks/1995/m/mazvoid2.zip       1037 **    [2/2] Void - Disk 5 by Mazurka
/disks/1995/o/ovr-acmd.zip       1227 **+   Autumn Collection by Overlook
/disks/1995/p/ph-0695a.zip       1403 ***+  [1/2] pHluid 06/1995 by pHluid
/disks/1995/p/ph-0695b.zip       1314 ***+  [2/2] pHluid 06/1995 by pHluid
/disks/1995/p/pure_m1a.zip        711 **    [1/4] Pure Tracks 1 by Pure
/disks/1995/p/pure_m1b.zip        727 **    [2/4] Pure Tracks 1 by Pure
/disks/1995/p/pure_m1c.zip        778 **    [3/4] Pure Tracks 1 by Pure
/disks/1995/p/pure_m1d.zip        503 **    [4/4] Pure Tracks 1 by Pure
/disks/1995/p/pure_m3a.zip        998 **    [1/3] Third Encounter Of The New
                                            | Kin by Pure
/disks/1995/p/pure_m3b.zip       1249 **    [2/3] Third Encounter Of The New
                                            | Kin by Pure
/disks/1995/p/pure_m3c.zip        782 **    [3/3] Third Encounter Of The New
                                            | Kin by Pure
/disks/1995/r/rebirth1.zip       1034 ***   [1/2] Mazurka Disk IV by Mazurka
/disks/1995/r/rebirth2.zip       1058 ***   [2/2] Mazurka Disk IV by Mazurka
/disks/1995/r/remix_1.zip         903 **    Remixes by TKB
/disks/1995/r/ridersmd.zip        501 *+    Strange Style Music Disk by Riders
/disks/1995/r/rot.zip             905 **    ??? by Neophyte
/disks/1995/r/rr_ch6-1.zip        501 **    [1/5] Chapter 6 - The Dawn Of A New
                                            | Age by Radical Rhythms
/disks/1995/r/rr_ch6-2.zip       1315 **    [2/5] Chapter 6 - The Dawn Of A New
                                            | Age by Radical Rhythms
/disks/1995/r/rr_ch6-3.zip       1213 **    [3/5] Chapter 6 - The Dawn Of A New
                                            | Age by Radical Rhythms
/disks/1995/r/rr_ch6-4.zip       1347 **    [4/5] Chapter 6 - The Dawn Of A New
                                            | Age by Radical Rhythms
/disks/1995/r/rr_ch6-5.zip       1338 **    [5/5] Chapter 6 - The Dawn Of A New
                                            | Age by Radical Rhythms
/disks/1995/s/sr-feb95.zip        558 **+   Februrary Compilation by The
                                            | Surrounders
/disks/1995/t/thegirl.zip         386 +     The Girl by Caleb
/disks/1995/t/traxx36.zip         791 *     TRAXX Number 36 by Traxx
/disks/1995/t/traxx37.zip         938 *+    TRAXX Number 37 by Traxx
/disks/1995/v/varie1.zip         1829 ***+  Varie Music Pack by Breeze
/disks/1996/a/ayos3m-1.zip        372 **    First Set by Skilz
/disks/1996/a/ayos3m-2.zip        678 *+    Second Set by Skilz
/disks/1996/b/b-sides.zip        3509 ***   B-Sides by Blanka
/disks/1996/b/b2b.zip            2626 ***   Back To Basics by Labworks
/disks/1996/b/beaver01.zip        167 ***+  Beaver 1 - My Mother Was A Beaver
                                            | by Mass
/disks/1996/b/bw-9x10.zip         645 ***   9x10 Musicdisk by Blackwolf
/disks/1996/c/c_seven.zip        1998 *     Seven by Coiled
/disks/1996/c/castles.zip         177 **    Castles Of War by Chaos InterBot
/disks/1996/c/cb-ep1nr.arj        457 **+   1996 Noise Revolutions by CBR
/disks/1996/c/craw_jnk.zip       1274 ***   Dirty Dish Junkie by LakEEE
/disks/1996/c/craw_sep.zip       1082 ***   Septic Love by LakEEE
/disks/1996/c/craw_vbs.zip       1045 ***   Vibes by LakEEE
/disks/1996/c/ct-axis1.zip       1416 **    [1/3] Chaos Theory by Chaos Theory
/disks/1996/c/ct-axis2.zip       1347 **    [2/3] Chaos Theory by Chaos Theory
/disks/1996/c/ct-axis3.zip        570 **    [3/3] Chaos Theory by Chaos Theory
/disks/1996/d/def-dsk1.zip       1396 ***   [1/2] Defy Disk 1 by Defy
/disks/1996/d/def-dsk2.zip         40 ***   [2/2] Defy Disk 1 by Defy
/disks/1996/d/deste-02.zip       1468 ***   Deste Pack 2 by Deste
/disks/1996/d/dna-unre.zip       1334 ***+  Unreleased - The Lost Collection by
                                            | DNA
/disks/1996/d/dreams.zip         1196 *     Living Dreams by Bakfire
/disks/1996/e/europe1.zip        1321 **+   [1/2] Europe by Andromeda
/disks/1996/e/europe2.zip        1194 **+   [2/2] Europe by Andromeda
/disks/1996/e/exposure.zip       1480 ***+  Exposure by Rhythm Greene
/disks/1996/f/fr-faces.zip       1406 ****  Two Faces by Fatal Rage
/disks/1996/f/frustra1.zip       1072 ***+  [1/3] Frustration by Cybelius of
                                            | Orange
/disks/1996/f/frustra2.zip       1209 ***+  [2/3] Frustration by Cybelius of
                                            | Orange
/disks/1996/f/frustra3.zip       1224 ***+  [3/3] Frustration by Cybelius of
                                            | Orange
/disks/1996/g/gem-1day.zip        629 **    Obsession by Dilvish
/disks/1996/h/hbv1.zip           4092 **    Hypnotic Beats by Labworks
/disks/1996/h/hd-flame.zip       1212 **    Flame Broiled by Hallogen Dreams
/disks/1996/m/m1-1yron.zip       2077 ***+  One Year On by Liam the Lemming,
                                            | Amusic
/disks/1996/m/mdreams.zip        1747 ***+  Marshmellow Dreams by Intra
/disks/1996/m/musica.zip         2672 ***   Musica Slovacca by Blue Zone
/disks/1996/p/ph-0996a.zip       1222 ***+  [1/3] pHluid 09/1996 by pHluid
/disks/1996/p/ph-0996b.zip       1244 ***+  [2/3] pHluid 09/1996 by pHluid
/disks/1996/p/ph-0996c.zip        856 ***+  [3/3] pHluid 09/1996 by pHluid
/disks/1996/p/ptm-para.a01       1106 ***+  [1/2] Paragon by Sir Roger
/disks/1996/p/ptm-para.arj       1422 ***+  [1/2] Paragon by Sir Roger
/disks/1996/r/raf-one.zip        1594 **+   Seeking One by The RAF
/disks/1996/r/resonanc.zip       1926 ****  Resonance by Darkwolf
/disks/1996/s/sb-lor1.zip        1356 **    [1/2] Loss Of Reality by Subliminal
                                            | of Martyr
/disks/1996/s/sb-lor2.zip         645 **    [2/2] Loss Of Reality by Subliminal
                                            | of Martyr
/disks/1996/s/sb-mt1.zip         1392 ***   [1/3] Mindtap by Subliminal of
                                            | Martyr
/disks/1996/s/sb-mt2.zip         1242 ***   [2/3] Mindtap by Subliminal of
                                            | Martyr
/disks/1996/s/sb-mt3.zip         1192 ***   [3/3] Mindtap by Subliminal of
                                            | Martyr
/disks/1996/s/sh-evolu.zip       1636 **+   Evolution by Shaithis
/disks/1996/s/spl9607a.zip       1431 *+    [1/2] Spleen 07/1996 by Spleen
/disks/1996/s/spl9607b.zip       1411 *+    [2/2] Spleen 07/1996 by Spleen
/disks/1996/s/spl9608.zip        1395 **    Spleen 08/1996 by Spleen
/disks/1996/s/spl9609.zip        1054 *+    Spleen 09/1996 by Spleen
/disks/1996/t/tl_mtvtn.zip       1418 **    Motivation by Brass Monkey
/disks/1996/t/tripto2a.zip       1438 ***   [1/2] Tripout 2 by Trip
/disks/1996/t/tripto2b.zip       1463 ***   [2/2] Tripout 2 by Trip
/disks/1996/u/u-dish.zip          588 **+   Hotdish by Injekted
/disks/1996/u/u-lucid2.zip       1796 ***+  Lucid by Ultrabeat
/disks/1996/u/us303.zip          2920 **    Sector 303 by Labworks
/disks/1996/v/viv-aos1.zip       1283 ***+  [1/3] Aspects of Sound by Vivid
/disks/1996/v/viv-aos2.zip       1349 ***+  [2/3] Aspects of Sound by Vivid
/disks/1996/v/viv-aos3.zip        492 ***+  [3/3] Aspects of Sound by Vivid
/disks/1996/w/waveform.zip       1430 *+    The Synthetic Minds by Waveform
/disks/1996/y/yak9604b.zip       2064 *     Yak 04/1996 by Yak
/disks/1996/z/zinc-bs.zip         243 **    B-Sides by Zinc
/programs/mixers/mixer112.zip      17       Mixer for SB16 and AWE32
/programs/players/amp20.zip        55       AMP v2.0 : for SB AWE 32
/programs/players/cpitl17e.zip     18       Cubic Player v1.7 IT Loader
/programs/players/cpiwd17a.zip     16       Cubic Player v1.7 GUS PnP Driver
/programs/players/cpwss17f.zip      4       Cubic Player v1.7 WSS Driver
/programs/players/cpxml17d.zip     14       Cubic Player v1.7 XM Loader
/programs/players/mmp3960.zip      93       The Multi Module Player v3.3960 :
                                            | SB cards only
/programs/players/mxmp15.zip       97       Mxm Play v1.5 : Tiny XM player for
                                            | GUS
/programs/samplers/cs2.zip        201       Compact Split v2.0 and CD Read v1.0
                                            | : Grabs tracks digitally (no
                                            | noise) from audio-cds and splits
                                            | the tracks into perfectly cut
                                            | sample.
/programs/samplers/readcda2.zip    32       Read CD Digital Audio v2.0 : Update
                                            | of readcda.zip
/programs/trackers/ft2doc.zip      16       Fast Tracker 2 Printable
                                            | Documentation
/programs/trackers/vs11_sw.zip    704       Velvet Studio v1.1
/songs/1991/mod/florence.zip      160 ****  Florence by Audiomonster
/songs/1993/mod/electrif.zip      159 ****  Electrification by ???
/songs/1993/mod/hardfolk.zip      293 ****  TP93:m4ch:02: Hardfolk by Trap
/songs/1993/mod/tango.zip          59 ****  Tango Love Song by Lizardking
/songs/1993/mod/trnsatln.arj      213 ****  Trans Atlantic by Lizardking
/songs/1994/mod/e/endoft.zip      119 ****  End of Trouble by Scorpik
/songs/1994/mod/g/guru.zip        100 ***+  Guru by Scorpik
/songs/1994/mod/h/hurr1can.zip    267 ****  Hurricane by Scorpik
/songs/1994/mod/p/proba.zip       219 ****  TP94:m4ch:: Proba Mikrofonu by
                                            | Scorpik
/songs/1994/mtm/mu-hot.zip        208 **    This Beat Is Hot by Mustang
/songs/1994/mtm/seperate.zip      176 **+   Seperate Ways by Fortunado
/songs/1994/mtm/sl_bleuc.zip      222 **+   Bleuciel by SoulCiety
/songs/1994/mtm/sl_juice.zip      237 **+   Juice Tice by SoulCiety
/songs/1994/mtm/sl_magna.zip      139 ***   Magnanimity by SoulCiety
/songs/1994/mtm/sl_nobil.zip      202 **    Nobility of Soul by SoulCiety
/songs/1994/mtm/smnerv.zip        215 **+   ASM94:mmul:: Nervous Breakdown by
                                            | Silent Mode
/songs/1994/mtm/smnogood.zip      352 **    No Good - Start The Dance by Silent
                                            | Mode
/songs/1994/mtm/sunset.zip        237 ***+  ASM94:mmul:: Tropical Sunset by
                                            | Nosferatu
/songs/1994/xm/power.zip          116 **    The Power Of Magic II by Templer
/songs/1995/mod/a/a-provey.zip     39 *     Prove Your Worth by Snarl
/songs/1995/mod/a/a-sublim.zip     30 *     Sublimation by Snarl
/songs/1995/mod/b/boring.zip       83 ****  Slimeless Joe by Crimson Tide
/songs/1995/mod/g/gen-koch.zip     92 *+    Kind of Chaos by Generator
/songs/1995/mod/y/you15.zip       188 **    You (version 1.5) by STrix
/songs/1995/other/bbchip.zip        0 **    Bare Bones Chip by Decker : MDL
/songs/1995/other/beat.zip         33 **    This Is Groovy Man by Vic : PTM
/songs/1995/other/bugfixed.zip    279 ***+  BugFixed by Vic : PTM
/songs/1995/other/can-best.zip    622 **    The Best Life by Cannibal : DMF
/songs/1995/other/can-funk.zip    139 *     Funk by Cannibal : DMF
/songs/1995/other/can-sndc.zip    364 *     Soundcraft by Cannibal : DMF
/songs/1995/other/cereal.zip      160 **+   Cereal Cortex by Vic : PTM
/songs/1995/other/clair.zip       150 ****  Clairvoyence by Vic : PTM
/songs/1995/other/crazy.zip         5 ***   Crazy by Vic : PTM
/songs/1995/other/gherkin.zip     659 ****  Gherkin by Vic : PTM
/songs/1995/other/happy.zip        47 ****  Happy Reefer by Vic : PTM
/songs/1995/other/hawaiii.zip     233 ***+  Hawaiiiii by Vic : PTM
/songs/1995/other/improvem.zip      0 ***+  Chip Improvement by Vic : PTM
/songs/1995/other/inspecto.zip     23 ***+  Inspector by Vic : PTM
/songs/1995/other/interest.zip    243 ***+  Interesting Stuff by Vic : PTM
/songs/1995/other/jd-antig.zip    303 *+    Antigod by Judge Dredd : DMF
/songs/1995/other/jurasicp.zip    161 *+    Jurassic Park Remix by BelGarion :
                                            | MDL
/songs/1995/other/laplage.zip     671 **+   La Plage de Saint Tropez by Vic :
                                            | PTM
/songs/1995/other/logicwar.zip    308 ***+  Logical War by Vic : PTM
/songs/1995/other/necine.zip      151 ***   Internecine by Vic : PTM
/songs/1995/other/penguin.zip      90 ***+  Doing The Penguin by Vic : PTM
/songs/1995/other/perfect.zip     322 ***   Perfect Reason by Vic : PTM
/songs/1995/other/raa.zip          69 **+   Raa! by Daniel Potter : FAR
/songs/1995/other/slider.zip      225 ****  Slider by Vic : PTM
/songs/1995/other/sp-1stry.zip    133 **    First Try by Spleen : DMF
/songs/1995/other/sp-fmove.zip    280 **    Feel The Movement by Spleen : DMF
/songs/1995/other/sp-gamma.zip    174 **    The Way to Planet Gamma by Spleen :
                                            | DMF
/songs/1995/other/sp-heart.zip    128 *+    I'll Give You My Heart by Spleen :
                                            | DMF
/songs/1995/other/sp-sgnsp.zip    178 **+   The Sign of Space by Spleen : DMF
/songs/1995/other/sp-tform.zip    176 **    Trance-Formation by Spleen : DMF
/songs/1995/other/thepharm.zip    510 ***   The Pharm by Vic : PTM
/songs/1995/other/threeitm.zip     62 ***+  Three Items by Vic : PTM
/songs/1995/other/u-beat.zip      626 ***   Underbeat by AstraDyne : MDL
/songs/1995/other/where.zip         3 *+    Where's My Hamster by Vic : PTM
/songs/1995/other/whoa.zip        321 ***+  Whoa! by Vic : PTM
/songs/1995/other/yours.zip       380 ***+  Yours by Vic : PTM
/songs/1995/s3m/a/a-endles.zip    271 ***   Endless Dream by The Walker of PoP
/songs/1995/s3m/a/a-forged.zip    240 ***+  Forged In Faith by Pulse of PoP
/songs/1995/s3m/a/a-forgot.zip     99 **+   Forgotten Dreams by The Walker of
                                            | PoP
/songs/1995/s3m/a/a-funksq.zip    204 ***+  Funky Squad by Firelight
/songs/1995/s3m/a/a-jollys.arj     14 **    The Jolly Happy Song by Phorte
/songs/1995/s3m/a/a-lifeof.zip    296 **    Life of Chaos by Pulse of PoP
/songs/1995/s3m/a/a-oldfon.zip    129 **+   Some of Dat Ol' Fonk by Griffin of
                                            | FTS
/songs/1995/s3m/a/a-open.zip      244 ***   Open Mind by Griffin of FTS
/songs/1995/s3m/a/a-psychi.zip     89 ***   Psychic Interludes by The Walker of
                                            | PoP
/songs/1995/s3m/a/a-rubber.zip    215 *+    Rubber Turnips by FTS
/songs/1995/s3m/c/carnaq.zip      253 ****  JUH95B:mmul:16: Carnaq by Postman
                                            | Pat
/songs/1995/s3m/e/emphysia.zip     61 ***+  WIR95:m4ch:: Emphysia by Hawk
/songs/1995/s3m/e/enafri.zip      323 ***   JUH95B:mmul:06: Enjoy Afri-Cola by
                                            | Resonance, Equalz
/songs/1995/s3m/f/fezz.zip        285 ****  JUH95B:mmul:09: Fezz by Jukka
                                            | Karki, Vinyl
/songs/1995/s3m/j/jazzmyst.zip     88 ***   SE95:mmul:??: Lille Peder Edderkop
                                            | by Jazz, Mystical
/songs/1995/s3m/j/jeesmaan.zip    236 ***+  JUH95B:mmul:14: Jeesmaan by Dune
/songs/1995/s3m/k/kosmoss.zip     100 ***+  JUH95B:mmul:03: Los Kosmoss Erektus
                                            | by Lemming
/songs/1995/s3m/r/reipas.zip      189 **+   JUH95B:mmul:05: Reippaat Ravit by
                                            | Resound
/songs/1995/s3m/s/seaside.zip     319 ****  JUH95B:mmul:15: Seaside Hotel by
                                            | Purple Motion, Mik
/songs/1995/s3m/s/sunsetbl.zip    307 ***+  JUH95B:mmul:06: Sunset Boulevard by
                                            | Prism
/songs/1995/s3m/t/taksi.zip       189 ****  JUH95B:mmul:09: Tohtori, Tilaisin
                                            | Taksin by Sulphur
/songs/1995/s3m/t/te_deum.zip     316 ***   JUH95B:mmul:08: Te Deum by
                                            | Attraction
/songs/1995/xm/a/a-colone.arj     123 ***   Colonel Neb by Phorte
/songs/1995/xm/a/a-manife.zip     203 ****  Manifest by Firelight
/songs/1995/xm/a/a-nocti.arj      153 ***+  Noctivagant by Phorte
/songs/1995/xm/a/a-novind.zip     186 ***+  Novindus by Firelight
/songs/1995/xm/a/a-openai.arj     158 ***   In the Open Air by Phorte
/songs/1995/xm/a/a-suburb.arj     118 **+   Suburbia by Phorte
/songs/1995/xm/a/a-syntat.zip     284 ****  Synthetic Attack by Hunz of Smash
/songs/1995/xm/a/a-tears.arj      204 **+   Tears Awake by Phorte
/songs/1995/xm/b/barock.zip        22 ****  Bach Rock by Vic, Martin
/songs/1995/xm/b/boogie.zip       210 ***+  JUH95B:mmul:13: Boogie by Duke
/songs/1995/xm/d/dalh.zip         471 ***+  JUH95B:mmul:04: Dalh' Merfea by
                                            | Resonatix, Flea
/songs/1995/xm/i/inger.zip        118 +     SE95:mmul:10: Live Is Too Short by
                                            | XIIIM Mistress D
/songs/1995/xm/p/pp_lpek.zip      148 +     SE95:mmul:??: Lille Peder Edderkop
                                            | by Pyramid Power
/songs/1995/xm/r/rn_frnd2.zip     287 *     Friends (Hit U Harder-Remix) by
                                            | Rtificial Ntelligence
/songs/1995/xm/r/rn_frnds.zip      99 *     Friends (Hyper-Remix) by Rtificial
                                            | Ntelligence
/songs/1995/xm/s/sfpoppis.zip     616 ***   JUH95B:mmul:01: Suomi Funland
                                            | Poppis by TOB
/songs/1995/xm/s/smurfene.zip      62 ***   The Smurf Theme '95 by Crimson Tide
/songs/1995/xm/s/sp-hl2hv.zip     248 **+   From Hell to Heaven by Spleen
/songs/1995/xm/s/sp-stalv.zip     147 **+   Still Alive by Spleen
/songs/1995/xm/s/speared.zip      940 ***+  JUH95B:mmul:02: Speared by Guitar
                                            | by Jim Jackson
/songs/1995/xm/s/stealth.zip      409 *     SE95:mmul:XX: Lille Peter Tag Min
                                            | Krop by Stealth
/songs/1995/xm/t/t-wrong.zip      210 ****  JUH95B:mmul:11: What Did I Do
                                            | Wrong? by Tri Sakki
/songs/1995/xm/t/tinsoldr.zip     204 ****  JUH95B:mmul:12: Tin Soldier by
                                            | Sparklite
/songs/1996/it/f/fm-lumi.zip      564 ****+ Luminous / Uvula Groove by Basehead
/songs/1996/it/f/fm-shad.zip      481 ****  Shadow Caster by Necros
/songs/1996/other/barely.zip        4 ***   Barely by Vic : PTM
/songs/1996/other/dropit.zip       64 *+    Drop It by Fobik : MTM
/songs/1996/other/k_2ndcom.zip    252 ***+  Second Coming by Maelcum, The
                                            | Hacker : MTM
/songs/1996/other/k_ldg2.zip      326 ***+  Lodge Of 3 Globes (Remix) by
                                            | Maelcum : MTM
/songs/1996/other/k_mad.zip       221 ***   Madness by Maelcum : MTM
/songs/1996/other/k_org.zip       157 ***+  The Organization by Maelcum : MTM
/songs/1996/other/k_u2.zip        384 ***   Liquid Rave (Where The Streets Have
                                            | No Name) by Inspekdah Deck : MTM
/songs/1996/other/k_willow.zip    151 ***   Dance of the Electric Willows by
                                            | Mental Floss : ULT
/songs/1996/other/wn_dstro.zip    338 **    Destroy The Humans by Maelcum
/songs/1996/other/wn_nostr.zip    267 ***   No Stars by Maelcum
/songs/1996/s3m/d/drs.zip         105 *     ANT96:mbet:??: DRS by Raud of
                                            | Agressive Giants
/songs/1996/xm/f/fm-lab3.zip      523 ****  Lab 3 by Mellow-D of FM

=------------------------------------------------------------------(graphics)-=
/pub/demos/graphics             Size Rated Description
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
/images/1996/c/cowboy.zip          8 **    ENL96:grfx:XX: Last Cowboy by Dragon
/images/1996/f/face.zip           13 *     ENL96:grfx:17: by Boss
/images/1996/g/ganjaman.zip       25 *+    ENL96:grfx:04: Ganja Man by ???
/images/1996/h/hardcore.zip       14 *     ENL96:grfx:14: by Boss
/images/1996/m/machine.zip       179 ***   ENL96:grfx:02: Machine by Gregor
                                           | Barbarian
/images/1996/m/myth.zip           18 *     ENL96:grfx:20: by Boss
/images/1996/p/peredoz.zip        25 **    ENL96:grfx:07: Peredoz by Boss
/images/1996/p/project.zip        44 **    ENL96:grfx:03: Project by ???
/images/1996/s/starship.zip        7 *     ENL96:grfx:19: by Boss
/images/1996/u/untitled.zip      155 **+   ENL96:grfx:14: Untitled by Rogers
/programs/convert/alch162.zip    396       Image Alchemy v1.62 by Handmade
                                           | Software
/programs/convert/bmp2avi.zip     21       BMP to AVI by Paul Roberts
/programs/convert/crop.lzh        35       Image Cropper by Skip Sauls
/programs/convert/emailasc.zip   170       ASCII Art Maker by Don Kreusberg
/programs/convert/slpcxraw.zip    42       Pcx2Raw Conversion by Jinx
/programs/editors/akm-md36.zip   159       Master Draw v3.6 by Arkham
/programs/editors/anim8_11.zip   170       ANIM8 v1.1 Sprite Editor by
                                           | Majestick
/programs/editors/anm8_113.zip   174       ANIM8 v1.13 Sprite Editor by
                                           | Majestick
/programs/editors/apaint01.arj    20       AnimPaint Animation Editor by Sphair
/programs/editors/bsdemo1a.zip    75       Blob Sculptor For 3DS by Steve Anger
/programs/editors/fedit10.zip     27       Font Edit 1.0 by PiCoder
/programs/editors/icspred1.lzh    46       32x32x256 Sprite Editor by YC
/programs/editors/jaw3d11.zip     74       Jaw 3d Model Viewer by ???
/programs/editors/mdraw.zip       49       MDraw Sprite Editor by Matt Miller
/programs/editors/ripaint.zip   2141       Rip Paint Editor by Telegrafix
/programs/editors/sam001.zip      33       Sprite Animator v0.01 by Sliq
/programs/editors/spriv103.zip    23       Spriter v1.03 by Discordis
/programs/editors/winplasd.zip   332       WinPlas v2.0 Demo - Plasmid Editor
/programs/mode/dp400.zip           0       320x400x256 DP2e Patch by Pelusa
/programs/mode/dpx11.zip          15       Any X-mode DP2e Patch by Bartist
/programs/mode/dpxt102.zip         5       Some X-modes DP2e Patch by Eclipse
/programs/mode/squash.zip          5       TSR Makes Aspect 1:1 by Shayde
/programs/players/cybrshow.zip  1410       Fractal Arts by Cyberlight Matrix
/programs/players/disp187.zip    817       Display v1.87 Image Viewer/Convertor
/programs/players/e_fast22.zip   338       Fast FLI/FLC Player by Eclipse
/programs/players/fastl301.zip    24       FastLite FLI/FLC Viewer by Eclipse
/programs/players/fastlite.zip    24       Fastlite FLI/FLC Player by Eclipse
/programs/players/formula3.zip  1308       Multimedia Designer by Harrow
                                           | Software
/programs/players/vpic61e.zip    245       VPic Image Viewer by Bob Montgomery
/programs/vector/3dedb09.lzh     130       3D Polygon Editor
/programs/vector/akm-mm10.zip     83       Master Modeler 1.0 by Arkham
/programs/vector/veced300.zip    323       3D Vector Editor by Grey Cat

=----------------------------------------------------------------------(mags)-=
/pub/demos/mags   Size Rated Description
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
/1996/bn4.zip     1392 ***+  Bad News #4: Desire by Pulse
/1996/budyn1.zip  1383 ***+  Budyn #1 by Abscence

==[Articles]===================================================================

=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=

 :: "Introduction"
 :: Snowman / Hornet - r3cgm@cdrom.com

 I always find it odd how the last thing written in this newsletter is always
 the "introduction".  Anyway...

 Welcome to DemoNews 131.  I think this is a pretty good issue.  Solid
 articles, lots of good stuff to download, error-free (hopefully), and a
 chipper intro.

 I've added some more links to our main /pub/demos/index.html page.  The #trax
 page has undergone some major changes... check it out.  I'll be redoing our
 main page again probably later this week (so it looks more aesthetically
 appealing).

 We've got new tunes this week from Necros, Mellow-D, and Basehead of Five
 Musicians.  All of them are very good.

 John Townsend (Jtown / Hornet) has now officially become our new music
 archive maintainer.  For the next couple of weeks, he'll be in training. Then
 it's time to unleash him.  If his previous dedication to music scene is any
 indicator, we've got a fine new addition to the Hornet staff.

 This past week, I reviewed about 110 megs of music disks.  This makes the
 /pub/demos/music/disks directory current and cataloged and brings
 /incoming/music/disks to near-empty.  Expect more of these massive reviewing
 sessions soon.

 Daredevil / Renaissance has reviewed about 150 files in /incoming/code.  This
 means two things: 1. I really need to start fixing up the /code tree... 2.
 We're going to need someone to actively maintain the /code tree so it doesn't
 fall back into its current state again.  This is a loosely stated APB; anyone
 out there really interested in doing this?

 Hornet will now be helping to manage demoscene.org.  The purpose of
 demoscene.org is to be the central location for web-related activity in the
 demo scene.  From my understanding, this was originally Kodiak / TAP and
 Alpha / KLF's vision.  Unfortunately other priorities came into play (don't
 they always) and Kodiak is unable to dedicate enough time.  So he gave me a
 call, asked if we were interested in maintaining it, I talked it over with
 the group, and two days later we had a decision.  Hell yeah!  Sounds like
 fun. :)  I'll follow up on this next issue of DemoNews.

 To wrap this intro up, I've an observation to make.  Usually I write these
 things very late at night.  Since I can't smoke inside here, I'm outside
 somewhat frequently.  Usually I pace up and down the sidewalk, trying to
 remember if I've forgotten anything.  Well, tonight California's got a
 cloud-covered sky.  Last time outside I looked up and saw the moon shining
 through, lighting up a distant hillside.  It was one of those Kodak moment
 things.  Doesn't have much in the way to do with demos, but inspiring just
 the same.

 Outside-up.

=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=

 :: "Life Before Demos - Part 1 / 2"
 :: Trixter / Hornet - trixter@ftp.cdrom.com

 _____Preface

 This document normally resides at www.cdrom.com/pub/demos/ha/pages/lbd. If
 you are having problems connecting to cdrom.com, feel free to check out this
 article at its mirror site, at http://boxotrix.it-ias.depaul.edu/lbd.

 Technical Notes: This article is a full multimedia hypertext document with
 authentic video clips, sound clips, and screen shots from old computer
 programs.  The following is a table of what formats are included:

 Type         Format            Comments
 ------------ ----------------- ----------------------------------------------
 Video        Microsoft Video   Uses Microsoft Video 1 codec
              for Windows

 Graphics     JPEG and GIF      Support for GIF and JPEG is already built into
                                most graphical browsers

 Sound        Sun/NeXT .au      Netscape has this built-in ("raplayer.exe");
              audio             Sun Sparcs and NeXT boxes have native support

 This document recounts the early days of fun computer stuff on the IBM PC, so
 whenever I refer to "the computer" or a similar generic term, I'm talking
 about an IBM.  If I mention the "Tandy sound chip", I'm referring to the
 sound chip that was present in both the IBM PC Jr. and the Tandy clones (it's
 the same chip).

 _____Introduction

 Many demosceners go through changes in life that affect them profoundly --
 changes that either bring them into or force them out of the demo scene.  I
 find myself in the latter, which saddens me a bit, as I have not yet given
 back fully to the scene that has given me so much.  I also welcome the
 change, as it is time for me to pass the baton onward to the newer generation
 of people who will redefine what demos are. I look forward to what tomorrow's
 enterprising youth with a love of computers can bring to the demo scene,
 which enters its unofficial 11th year (7th year on the PC).

 But the new blood probably has no idea what was interesting before demos came
 around in 1990.  Sure, everyone can download GR8 / Future Crew and have a
 laugh or two, but that's the tail end of what I call "the golden age of PC
 fun."  How did anything become interesting or cool on the PC -- a machine
 with no dedicated graphics or music hardware?  What held our attention before
 demos came along?

 Good question.  Well, this article will attempt to describe the changes in my
 life that brought me into the scene -- what was interesting to me as I grew
 up with a PC, starting out in 1984 with a new 4.77 MHz processor and ending
 in 1990, the proper birth of the PC scene.  It will be fascinating to some,
 and only mildly interesting to others, but it needs to be remembered in the
 sea of Pentium Pros, Windows 95, and accelerated hardware.  Trust me, it used
 to be nothing like it is now. :-)

 Also, I will try to cover some of the more eclectic technical information
 unless I don't remember it clearly, so if you want more info on how something
 was done, email me and there's a good chance I can find it somewhere.  Hope
 you can parse BASIC code. :-)

 So, if you've ever wondered what was interesting or "demo-like" on the PC
 before demos came around, this article will probably explain it. Let's
 journey backward, shall we?

 _____The Wonderful World of Games

 Let's start briefly with something that held my fascination long before demos
 existed (and probably what contributed to their birth): games.  It's not too
 surprising that the most impressive stuff on any home computer is a game.
 Games are, in fact, some of the hardest things in the world to program, and
 in the early days, nothing was more true.

 Think about it: You had to do many or all of the following: accept input,
 display graphics (quickly), play sound effects, process artificial
 intelligence and other game elements, and do it all quickly enough so that
 the user didn't feel cheated out of a decent gaming experience.  Of course,
 there was a multitude of problems in doing this on the original PC:

   * The CPU, an Intel 8088, was a 16-bit processor (8-bit bus) running at
     4.77 MHz.
   * The sound hardware was a single-voice tone generator with no volume
     control.
   * The stock graphics hardware (CGA) was limited to 4 colors, and had an
     interlaced memory organization (not nice and linear like Mode 13h).
   * The bus was so slow that video memory and port writes were
     time-consuming; simply reading the joystick port took up to 15% of the
     CPU's time.

 So it's obvious that a well-written game that was fast and fun to play was
 incredibly impressive, since things just simply weren't fast on the PC.  I
 will mention games liberally in my musings. Just thought you'd like to know.
 ;-)

 _____Teaching An Old PC New Tricks

 How do you make a bland, boring "business" computer do something impressive?
 Good question.  While newer (1984) versions of the PC (IBM's PCjr, and Radio
 Shack's clone, the Tandy 1000) had more sound and graphics capabilities, the
 older PC did not, and that was what had the largest installed user base.  So,
 you had a couple of areas to improve on: Sound, Graphics, and anything that
 would speed up the system.  Since a program's first impression was usually
 how it looked, many chose to improve the CGA graphics.

 CGA (Computer Graphics Array) always struck me as finicky.  The video memory
 layout was interlaced, which means that the first 8K was every even-numbered
 scanline and the last 8K was every odd-numbered scanline. Plus, there were
 192 bytes unused at the end of both 8K sections, so that became annoying to
 skip as well. Finally, you had one of two fixed palettes of nasty, ugly
 colors (cyan, magenta, and white; or red, green, and yellow) to choose from.
 While some of the best artists could deal with four colors adequately, the
 crappy color set usually disgusted the user.

 Well, I quickly found out that by fiddling with the video registers, I could
 get an unadvertised (to my manuals, anyway) color palette that seemed to
 combine the two palettes. The resulting 4-color palette had black, white,
 cyan, and red--much nicer. I'm sure this palette was advertised somewhere
 because some game I had used it, which is what got me sending random bytes to
 the video ports in the first place.

 Sending random bytes to the video registers, by the way, was extremely
 dangerous!  If I had known that then, I wouldn't have even tried at all; I
 was lucky I didn't break anything.  The monitors back then (1987 and earlier)
 were fixed frequency monitors, and ran at low frequencies.  If you told the
 video card to do something outside of those frequencies, you stood an
 excellent chance of damaging the monitor.

 A friend of mine was trying to get the rumored CGA 16-color mode to work
 (more on this later) and destroyed his Compaq's built-in monitor, a small
 monochrome monitor that emulated color with different shades of gray. He went
 to the nearest Compaq dealership to get it replaced, and when they refused to
 fix it, he answered with something like, "Well, I could demonstrate how easy
 it is to break the monitor to your customers by typing in a three-line BASIC
 program on, oh... this machine over here," and pointed to their
 top-of-the-line machine that some customers were huddled around.  They
 quickly replaced his monitor to shut him up. :-)

 Let's face it: CGA was crap. The C64 blew it away in terms of speed, and even
 an Apple ][+ had more colors to choose from.  Anything you could do above
 what it was normally used for, quickly or differently, was neat.  So, a bit
 of experimentation exposed that you could change the background color,
 usually black, to one of the 16 text colors.  This allowed for a quick flash
 (possibly for an explosion in a game), which was slightly impressive since
 nothing about CGA was quick.

 This trick was also commonly used to change the black background to blue,
 which made it easier to draw bright and colorful pictures if you didn't need
 the color black. This same technique could be used to change the foreground
 and background color of the monochrome graphics in CGA's 640x200 2-color
 mode. (Love that 640x200 2.6:1 aspect ratio--NOT!)  This wasn't useful for
 games, but was used to make black-and-white pictures look less... ugly.

 Other palette fun could be had by changing the border color, which was
 largely an overscan hack.  It was cute to have the border change colors and
 not everything else.  I didn't even know the border could be a different
 color for a while -- nothing bothered to change it.  Another cute hack was to
 write to the ports to change from 320x200x4 to 640x200x2 on the fly without
 erasing video memory.  This way, you essentially faked a color-to-mono toggle
 switch.

 The only game I ever ran that used some of the above tricks to do some
 primitive copper effects was California Games (1987).  Its video selection
 menu had the normal CGA 4-color mode, but it also had a mysterious CGA
 "more-color" mode.  The "more-color" mode was only used in two places: The
 title screen and the hackeysack portion.  Why?  Because those screens had a
 clear horizontal division of a graphic on the top half of the screen and one
 on the bottom half.  The "more-color" mode would switch palettes at a certain
 scanline to display one set of colors on the top graphic, and a different set
 of colors on the bottom.

 As you can imagine, this was unnervingly time-critical, and self-programming
 vertical-retrace interrupts took too long (hey, you needed all the speed you
 could get) on a 4.77MHz machine, so this trick only worked on the one machine
 that they could hard-code the values into: The original IBM with an original
 CGA.  I always used to think that this mode didn't do anything until I
 brought it over to my friend's house and saw it work.  It worked pretty well,
 oddly enough.  Maybe I was just easy to impress. :-)

 Here's a bit of trivia: Checking for Vertical Retrace has been the same
 procedure since CGA on up -- you simply monitor port 3dah. Until I discovered
 that port, I always wondered why delaying 13 or 14 ms before updating the
 screen made it nice and smooth, but that's because 1000 ms / 70 Hz (the
 screen refresh rate) is about 14.2 ms. ;-) Nobody ever bothered to monitor
 the vertical retrace port unless they were trying to avoid snow on CGA
 screens.

 Snow, you ask?  What, you don't know about snow?  CGA boards, for a reason I
 can't remember, displayed "snow" in text mode whenever you wrote to the
 screen memory directly (the BIOS writes avoided snow, but were terribly
 slow).  Since I'm typing this article on a CGA PC right now (I'm not kidding
 -- my word processor runs in 384k! ;-), I'll describe what it looks like:
 Every time video memory is touched, small horizontal white lines one
 character cell wide appear and disappear all over the screen. It can get
 really annoying after a while, so many people waited for vertical retrace
 before writing to the screen. This was much slower, but reduced snow a great
 deal, and was still faster than using the BIOS to output text.

 _____Low Resolution equals More Color

 16 colors in graphics mode with a stock CGA board?  Believe it or not, there
 were not one but two legitimate ways to get more than 4 colors on a CGA card:
 An undocumented "low res" mode (which I'll talk about later), and CGA's
 Composite Color mode. Both had drawbacks, unfortunately:

   * Since you only had 16K of video memory, your effective resolution went
     down to accommodate the extra colors--160x200 in Composite mode, and
     160x100 in "lowres" mode.
   * Not all PC's had a CGA card with a composite color jack on the back of
     their CGA card.  The few PC owners that did have one most likely didn't
     know how to turn it on if it needed special activation before the
     program ran.
   * Computer owners that had real monitors had little reason to keep a TV
     close to the computer to hook it up for the extra video mode provided
     by Composite Color.

 But many game companies wanted to have every edge they could over the
 competition, so many decided to use it. (Starflight from Electronic Arts was
 the first mainstream game I can remember (1986) that used it well.)  The only
 drawback, with any sort of compatibility back then, was speed -- if all your
 graphics were in 16 colors, then you had two problems on your hands: You
 either had to convert the 16-color pictures down to 4 on the fly, which was
 slow, or you had to provide both sets of converted pictures on the disk,
 which took up too much room and cost more money. (Remember that back in the
 first half of 1980, disks were still fairly expensive--I remember the best
 price I could get on a 360K floppy in 1984 was a dollar a disk.)

 Still, some companies saw the light and did it, and the result was colorful
 graphics on almost any system. Besides, you could use a lookup table to
 quickly plot the low-res sprites, because a word (two bytes) plotted 8 pixels
 in CGA or 4 pixels in EGA/Tandy (16 colors). (Plus, this gave Tandy/PCjr
 owners some extra speed because they had a native 160x200 mode, so they got
 more color without slowing down.)

 California Games from Epyx supported probably the most graphic options of any
 game in 1987 using this technique, including CGA, EGA, CGA "more-color" (see
 above copper trick), CGA Composite color, Hercules Mono, MCGA/VGA 16-color,
 and Tandy/PCjr.  All the graphics and sprites (except for the font) were in
 160x200.  Mindscape also did the same thing with Bop'n'Wrestle, Uridium, and
 Bad Street Brawler (hi Lord Blix!).

 Many companies used the 160x200 trick even if they didn't have 16 colors to
 store, simply because the sprites took up half the space.  All the "Maxx Out"
 games from Epyx like Rad Warrior used this even though the graphics were
 mostly 4 colors.

 Finally, some adventure game companies found a unique way to store over 200
 or more full-screen pictures on a single 360K disk: Vectors. (By "Vectors",
 I'm referring to a series of points that define the beginning and end of a
 line, outline of a polygon, etc.)  Regardless of how large or complex the
 picture was, you could usually fit a decent-looking scene into about 2K,
 because all you were storing were polygon outlines/definitions. A blue circle
 with a radius of 100 pixels located at (100,130) could take up over 10K as a
 raw sprite/bitmap, but it only took up enough bytes to describe "circle, at
 (100,130), radius 100, color blue" when you stored it as its vector
 definition. The previous example could take up as little as 7 bytes, if you
 did it haphazardly:

 Data               Size
 ------------------ ----
 Draw Element       byte
 X Coordinate       word
 Y Coordinate       word
 Radius             byte
 Fill Color/Pattern byte

 Come to think of it, I'm sure the game programmers were much more frugal than
 that; this was when games had to fit on a single 360K disk.  The previous
 structure would've probably been optimized even further:

 Data               Size             Comments
 ------------------ ---------------- -------------------------------------
 Draw Element       first 3 bits of  Holds 8 different types: Square,
                    first byte       Circle, Line, Pixel, Fill Point, etc.

 Fill Color/Pattern last 5 bits of   Allows for 32 different colors or
                    first byte       patterns

 X Coordinate       word             Must be a word, since the maximum
                                     (320) wouldn't fit in a byte (255)

 Y Coordinate       byte             Could be a byte, since the maximum
                                     (200) fits into a byte (255)
 Radius             byte

 So, even though 7 of the 16 bits in the xcoordinate word are wasted and could
 be used for even more things, we're down to five bytes for the information
 required to draw a large circle on the screen.  You can pack this down even
 further, which I'm sure they did, but I included the above merely as an
 example into the thought process involved.

 Another nice advantage to this system was that you could compose your
 pictures with 16 colors and let the drawing algorithm pick the closest color
 or dither pattern when it drew the vector objects on the screen at runtime.
 But, as with all computer programs, there was the classic speed vs. size
 tradeoff: Drawing the polygons took a lot of time, sometimes as much as six
 seconds for the picture to assemble, which looked sloppy.

 There were other drawbacks to this system as well; the artist was forced to
 use an uncommon vector-editing program, which usually had to be developed
 in-house, and the nature of the whole vector format procedure made it hard to
 produce pictures with a lot of fine detail.  Still, Sierra used it in King's
 Quest I (1983), and the classic text/graphics adventure Transylvania (1983)
 from Polarware used it as well.  (In fact, when Polarware was still called
 Penguin Software, they marketed a vector drawing package specifically built
 for making small graphics for games called The Graphics Magician.)

 _____Graphics Forged From Text Mode

 Ah, now the fun part: 16 color graphics on a standard CGA card. IBM actually
 announced this mode in January of 1982, when the second version of the IBM PC
 came out; it's mentioned in their technical documentation, but they evidently
 saw no need to provide any real documentation for it unless asked.  I guess
 nobody asked. :-)

 By the time I finally figured out how to program the mode, it was 1990 and I
 had a VGA card, so I never had a chance to use it in anything.  Some games
 did use it, though, including a good shareware shoot-'em'up called Round 42
 and two commercial adventure games, one from Sir Tech (remember Wizardry?)
 and another from Macrocom called ICON (1984). Here's how you program the
 mode:

 The 160x100 "graphics" mode was actually a text mode.  The video registers
 were changed so that normal 80x25 color text mode squeezed four times as many
 rows of text characters onto the screen to produce an 80x100 text screen with
 the bottom 75% of the text characters chopped off.  Then, the screen was
 filled with ASCII 221, which is the left vertical bar. Each character on the
 screen was used for a pair of two horizontally adjacent pixels by adjusting
 the foreground and background color of that character. The "blink" option on
 the video board had to be turned off so that pixels didn't blink when the
 right-half pixels (which use the text background color) had a color value
 greater than 7. (Text characters normally blink if the background color is in
 the 8...15 range, but who uses blinking any more?)

 Okay, cute trick.  You could make it work in today's world by modifying it
 for EGA and VGA boards as well; on VGA boards, the text character height is
 normally 16, so it would be changed to 4.  EGA boards, however, normally use
 a text height of 14 pixels.  There is no way to change the text height to
 exactly one quarter of 14 pixels, so a text height of 3 would have to be
 used, which is slightly too small, but that's what you get for using EGA
 after 1990. :-)

 Technical details: Blink is suppressed on CGA boards by setting bit 5 of port
 3d8 hex to 0.  On EGA and VGA cards, blink is suppressed by using subfunction
 3h, function 10h of interrupt 10h and setting BL to 0. Trivia: The 160x100
 mode uses 16000 bytes at b800:0000 hex to store 16000 4-bit pixels, which is
 twice the amount of memory that would be required in a normal graphics mode
 -- so each even byte of video memory is wasted to store the ASCII character
 221.  Moving blocks of video memory around was both fast and annoying, since
 only the odd bytes (storing the text foreground and background colors) had to
 be modified.

 Well, that's enough about CGA's 16-color "graphics" mode.  I was just so
 happy when I figured it out that just had to spew somewhere. :-)  And ICON?
 They added even more depth by using the entire ASCII character set--or, at
 least, the top four scanlines of the entire ASCII character set. (The bat's
 wings were the top four scanlines of ASCII #2, which was the smiley!)  Some
 of the results were fantastic, but that's ANSI from hell that I don't think
 anyone would want to ever attempt again.

 [Stay tuned folks... next week 'll have the second half of this article.]

=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=

 :: "Demos vs. Television"
 :: GD / Hornet - gd@ftp.cdrom.com

 _____Introduction

 The world wide web has given television a run for its money.  Text and images
 can be downloaded and viewed on a display device, in a similar way that
 television images are delivered and displayed.

 At this point in time, that's about where the similarities end.

 The technology behind these two entities is very different.  The web is
 nowhere near the speed of information delivery of a television.

 _____Limitations

 What prevents the web from completely replacing television?  Bandwidth.
 There are currently very few people in the world who enjoy a fast enough
 connection to the Internet who could enjoy realtime images and sounds
 transmitted over the web which matches the quality of a regular television.

 The hardware for such a purpose would probably be a Pentium 200mhz with PCI
 bus, SVGA video with 2mb of ram, a multi-gigabyte hard drive, and at least
 32mb of system ram.  Minimum.  While some individuals or companies are the
 exception, the majority of the public does not quite fit the bill.

 The software technology to power all of this is probably not yet fully
 developed either.  Even still, it won't be like pressing a button on the
 little black box that is one's television remote.

 Users would probably need to close most or all of their other background
 programs (remember: graphical browsing at this stage of the game practically
 dictates that one must be using a windows-type operating environment).

 And don't flop that "remote" down yet either.  Channel-surfing on the web
 won't be anything like a quick "press-a-button, glance-at-image, and-flip-if-
 boring" procedure.

 _____The Main Message

 So, what's the point of all this?

 It can be difficult to enjoy something fully when there are imposed
 limitations.  Starting out at less than 100% of one's capabilities severely
 limits progress.

 While demo scenes based on machines such as the Commodore 64 and the Amiga
 have succeeded and continue to do so today, they have one major advantage
 over the PC scene: everyone shares common limitations.

 _____Demos on the Web

 People fantasize about a demo scene for multiple platforms.  With the
 implementation of Java into the most popular web browsers today, it seems
 more conceivable that such a thing could exist over the Internet.  Browsers
 across multiple platforms already do or will soon have Java capabilities, and
 hey, "everyone" is on the 'net these days.

 While Java programmers worldwide are optimizing their code, much like a
 "standard" demo coder would, there's still a lack of accessibility and
 capability, which will, for the time being, nullify the potential for a
 thriving scene to emerge from this medium.

 Much like television has an advantage over the world wide web, just based on
 the amount of information each medium can deliver in a fixed amount of time,
 isolated computer platforms will have a stronger foundation in the demo scene
 than any attempt at a multiple-platform scene.

 _____Conclusion

 Perhaps the day will come when demos can be compared to television.  It would
 mean that any hardware device with video and audio capabilities will do, and
 the bandwidth or capability for delivering the "full effect" exists and is
 accessible by a majority of the target audience.

 But for now, don't bet on it.

=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=

 :: "A Graphician's Tip Book - Part 6"
 :: Shaithis / Psychic Monks, Immortal Coil - shaithis@buffnet.net

 Been a bit since I wrote anything, eh?  That's probably because I've been
 relocating and such.  I made a move from Syracuse to Buffalo, to pursue a
 career in broadcasting.  (Whatever...like this matters).  Anyway, you'll find
 my new email address above or below or however they decide to format it this
 issue. :)  If any of you wrote to the dreamscape account and didn't receive a
 reply, that's because it's no longer active.

 Uhm...Where was I when last we left off?  Oh yeah... time to talk about
 32-bit apps. God... This topic is big enough to write ten or twelve books on,
 and I'm supposed to cover it in 3-4 issues?  Well, I'll see what I can do.

 For the purpose of this article, 32-bit is going to mean any art application
 that can handle drawing in extremely high resolution, at true color depth
 (16.7 million colors).  The availability of this color depth is entirely
 dependent upon your video card and monitor, so don't blame me if you can't
 use the programs I am about to talk about.

 *What are some 32-bit art apps?*  So glad you asked. Here's an extremely un-
 complete list:

   Photoshop 3.0.5 (For simplicity, I'll only go into the most recent version).
   Fractal Design Painter 4.0
   Fractal Design Poser
   Paint Shop Pro 4.0
   KPT Bryce 2.0 (To be released in oct).
   3-D Studio Max

 There are, of course, many many other 32-bit art applications. These are the
 ones I personally use or have used.

 *Who cares?*  You should, at least if you're interested in producing art for
 purposes other than for use in demos.  Even now, that statement is becoming
 untrue, as faster processors allow demos to move their way into higher color
 depths and greater resolutions than the standard 320x200x256.

 This is in no way meant to insult those of you 256 color artists.  You have
 my respect, absolutely.  I personally prefer to work in much higher
 resolutions and color depths, but to each their own.

 *Just how high are we talking about here?*  Hmmm...the most I've done (due to
 the limitations of my computer) is about 2400x3300x64k.  This equals out to a
 8.5 x 11 page at 300 dpi.  With more memory and a faster processor, it would
 be fully possible for me to create a poster sized image at 3000 or so DPI.
 We're talking thousands, perhaps millions, of pixels here.  It's amazing what
 you can do with these programs.

 *Where can I get these programs?*  Buy them.  They are expensive.  They are
 sometimes quite hard to find.  Buy them.  They are worth it.

 *What can these programs do?*  What can your imagination come up with? Create
 a flawless replica of the "Mona Lisa" with fractal design painter.  Take that
 painting and put yourself standing in the background, waving, with photoshop.
 Don't like Picasso's background?  Use "Bryce" to create purple mountains with
 crystal towers atop them.  Think good ol' mona looks too average?  Use Kai's
 Power Goo to warp her facial features into new and exciting expressions.

 *Why in god's name would I want to do this?*  Why NOT?!?!  Art is meant to be
 fun, an expression of yourself, something to do.  Art is everything and
 anything your imagination can come up with.  There are no limits.  Tired of
 the posters you bought?  Make new ones!  Tired of the same crappy store
 bought wedding/birthday/graduation announcements?  Make yourself some
 exciting ones!  With a good art program or two, you can do just about
 anything you want.

 Okay.  Enough ranting.  My line limit draws nigh, and I can't get into what's
 next without running out of space. My next issue will cover the mother of all
 image editing programs, photoshop. In fact, that'll probably be my next two
 issues. Then on to the marvelous creations of the Fractal Design corp. After
 that, I'll cover a few other programs (especially those produced by
 metatools), and then it'll be on to tips and tricks.

 Hope you're finding these articles informative.  Send me your question,
 comments, and edits.  I'm always happy to hear from people.  Until next we
 speak...

=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=

 :: "Demobit '96 Has Moved"
 :: Demobit Organizers (Infi) - demobit@elf.stuba.sk

 BAD NEWS, DEMOBIT'96 HAS BEEN MOVED

 _____What's happened?

 As you sure can guess, it is because of financial matters.  One of the
 sponsors, Slovenska Sporitelna that was supposed to support Demobit with a
 major amount of money has suddenly decided not to do so.  They made this
 decision one week before the party.

 We are not going to comment on this, you can sure set up your own opinion on
 it.  The party could have been organized from the other sponsor's money only
 but it would cause a significant loss of quality.  From obvious reasons, we
 decided to organize the party in about 2 months.  The exact date and other
 information will be published soon.

 We believe that all the people who have decided to come will get this message
 on time.  For me, moving Demobit's date has been the hardest decision of the
 year.  As Forest says: "Shit happens."

 Again, we regret this and we hope that you are less disappointed than we are
 and have less problems with it than we have. Please stay tuned for additional
 information.

 _____Contact Information

 email : demobit@elf.stuba.sk
 WWW   : http://internet.sk/demobit/english.htm

==[Closing]====================================================================

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..........................................................End.of.DemoNews.131.

