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Demo News 149
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Subscribers : 2538
DemoNews 149 - 21 September 1997 Archive Size : 5.8Gb
>------------------------------------------------------------------ Contents --
Introduction .................................... Snowman
Calendar
In Review
/demos ........................................ Phoenix
Articles
Email: PalmPilot Demos ........................ Daniel Potter
Public /music Ratings ......................... Snowman
Caramel & Jisemdu On The Run .................. roboMOP
Coding Mathematics (part 2) ................... Tiberius
The Weird Act Of Optimizing For Size .......... Gyr
Girls' Safety At Demo Events .................. roboMOP
Advertisement: GUS ViperMAX ................... Synergy
Advertisement: Digital Anvil 3D Coder ......... Andrew Sega
General Information
>-------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction --
Hello all, and welcome to DemoNews 149.
_____Introduction
This is a well-rounded issue of DemoNews. I am very pleased with the
variety and quality of articles submitted this week. DemoNews's 5th
anniversary is on 24 September 1997 and it makes me happy to get a solid
issue out just in time for the occasion.
If you want me to keep releasing DemoNews on a semi-regular basis, I need
new articles. I know in my heart that at least 10 or 20 of you out there in
scene land have the ability and drive to write something. Here's how it
goes:
"Hi Snowman, I'm thinking of writing an article for DemoNews. Is that ok?"
"Sure! Just be sure to structure your article as closely to DemoNews
formatting as possible (proper capitalization, sentence structure, paragraph
headers, etc.)"
"Here's my article."
Send me articles!
_____Assembly '97 Culture
Howler wanted me to mention that he's got a bunch of scanned pics from
Assembly '97 online: http://www.evitech.fi/~velipkk/asm97gallery/
Some of these are really cool and I suggest you check the site out.
_____Changes To The Archive
File Tagging: I have completed the "Tag" option for files. Tagging allows
you to mark a whole bunch of files you want to download, then have them
bundled up in one big .zip file. Tired of the click->save, click->save,
click->save repetitive motion disorder? So am I. Soon I'll also have
something up that will allow you to tag all of the files that resulted in a
search (which should make things even nicer). One thing that I am really
happy about is having a .txt file inside the big tag.zip file that describes
all of the files you selected. Kudos to Murray Stokely (maintainer of the
ACiD Artpacks Archive) who has had file tagging working since 20 January,
and who gave me the inspiration to implement it on The Hornet Archive.
Links Bump Bump Away: My time is very limited these days. In order to free
up some of the effort it takes to maintain the archive, I have shifted the
responsibility of link maintenance to others. J. Rice has been doing an
excellent job with the "Zen Of Tracking" pages so now he gets all of the
music links. Similarly, 3D Addict has been going a great job with the "Gfx
Zone" pages so now he inherits all of our graphics links. I'm thinking of
asking the guy who maintains the "FAQSYS" code pages if he wants to take
over our code links.
_____Conclusion
I do not use ICQ.
I think that killing little animals is wrong.
I do not use a mouse with my email.
I prefer uuencode over mime-attach.
I do not drink and drive.
I like big moose.
I do not use hotmail.
slam, Slam, SLAM! 7 I's and a triple exclamation.
Online, experimental poetry.
Snowman / Hornet - r3cgm@hornet.org
>------------------------------------------------------------------ Calendar --
Date Event Contact Info
------------ ------------- ----------------------------------------------------
22 Aug 1997 Crash http://www.xi-media.com/crash
CANADA
22 Aug 1997 AntIQ
HUNGARY aboy@d-eyes.jpte.hu
25 Aug 1997 NetZone http://www.quaternet.fr:8082/users/b/brunel/p2b5.htm
FRANCE brunel@quaternet.fr
25 Aug 1997 Ritual http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Way/2660/index.html
ISRAEL t3a@netvision.net.il
29 Aug 1997 Gardening http://fryni.physics.upatras.gr/~g97
GREECE g97@fryni.physics.upatras.gr
30 Aug 1997 Gravity http://www.polbox.com/g/gravity
POLAND gravity@polbox.com
30 Aug 1997 Evoke http://kaoz.org/evoke
GERMANY poti@bigfoot.com
06 Sep 1997 Neither Nor http://www1.ai.fh-nuernberg.de/~unix169/neithernor.1997.html
GERMANY magus@innocent.com
06 Sep 1997 I. Gathering http://www.metro.it/ig97/new
ITALY ig97@metro.it
13 Sep 1997 Bizarre http://bizarre.cybercomm.nl
HOLLAND bizarre@cybercomm.nl
* <-- YOU ARE HERE
02 Oct 1997 Distance http://distance.home.ml.org
NORWAY walker@gim.net
03 Oct 1997 InterJam http://home.pages.de/~interjam
GERMANY info@interjam.inka.de
>----------------------------------------------------------------- In Review --
-- /demos ------------------------------------------------------------------>
:: Phoenix / Hornet - phoenix@hornet.org
Well, for once this is actually a WEEK in review :). I have not looked at
too much new stuff this week, but how about a couple 4k intros:
"Shapeshifter" by Chrome (/demos/1997/c/chr-shap.zip)
How about some realtime sound synthesis.. in 4k? Be sure you have a GUS
(1MB?), it's worth getting just to believe it.
"Typhoid" by Gyroscope (/demos/1997/g/grc-typh.zip)
Many 64k intros don't have effects like these. Take, for example, a
stereogram vector part. Pretty neat.
Correction:
I mentioned this already on CSIPD, but in DemoNews 148 I mentioned that
Sunflower by Pulse was the winner demo of Gravity '97, when in reality it
placed 2nd.
>------------------------------------------------------------------ Articles --
---------------------------------------------------------------------------->
:: "Email: PalmPilot Demos"
:: Daniel Potter - bard@mail.utexas.edu
[Editors note: This was actually a personal email sent to me in response to
the editorial I did in last issue. It so aptly demonstrates the "demo
scene" way of thinking that I felt it should be printed.]
It seems that our demoscene has come a long way from the cool place of
innovation that it used to be. It seems that the proper demoscene way to do
things today would be to dig in and take over Windows so it could use their
drivers to write lowlevel to the card, but ignore the rest of it. Just like we
used to do in DOS.
But no one thinks about that anymore because it's too hard. Just like they
used to use the CTVOICE.DRV instead of writing a Soundblaster driver. Can't
figure out the API? Pull out the debugger and dig into the ASM code. Phaw.
Or, they could be disassembling someone's 3D driver, and writing drivers for
their own DOS programs that use those 3D cards, like we used to do when we
couldn't get Creative Labs to release a free SDK and we're all too poor or
cheap to buy one. Anyway...
I just got one of these cool PalmPilot things. Have you seen them? They
have a relatively fast Motorola processor, and a 4-color grayscale LCD
display, pen input, 512k-1M of ram, yadda yadda. =) Basically, they're an
early Macintosh that fits into your hand. But they're highly extensible,
and easy to program for. They're also amazingly simple to take over for
your own purposes once your program is running. I think I see the potential
for a demo scene popping up there, as strange as that sounds. Hehe.. demos
you could take on the road with you anywhere.
I started toying around with a demo for it the other day. Alas, it seems
I've lost my touch, as my cube sort of shifted into randomness instead of
rotating properly after the first few degrees, but I guess I'll refigure
that out. Anyway, it ran reasonably fast, even using the built-in OS
drawing primitives.
There don't seem to be any demos out there yet. There do seem to be the
beginnings for some from what I've seen -- people starting to make use of
the hardware in the thing, especially the 4-gray mode. The big limitation
I guess is that the OS is built for using the speaker as a PC-speaker. They
claim it can't do more than one tone at once because it's a piezo speaker.
We saw what happened to that kind of limitation. ;) I think one of my
earlier goals will be to find the actual ports where the speaker resides,
some PC speaker mod player code, and some Amiga mod player code... =)
Anyway, just thought you might find that idea fascinating, and I wondered
how things are going. I started to save DemoNews into the DemoNews folder
and read it when I got home, but then shock took hold of me and I said
"Whoa! There hasn't actually BEEN one of these in ages!" so I went ahead
and read it. Anti email spam warnings, "competing with the screen saver
scene". Hehe... the scene really has gone down hill...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------->
:: "Public /music Ratings"
:: Snowman / Hornet - r3cgm@hornet.org
_____Introduction
While Music Contest 5 was in progress, I developed a system for public
rating of new songs uploaded to the archive. It was beta-tested extensively
by a crack crew of sceners and most of the bugs were worked out. However,
I wanted to wait until after MC5 was over before I put the system online.
Well, the time has come...
_____Our Current Situation
In the next couple of weeks, public music rating will be up and running.
All of you will be given the opportunity rate the music on the archive.
This will be an awesome opportunity for you to delete most of the songs that
SHOULDN'T BE THERE. So much new music is uploaded to our archive that it is
no longer necessary to consider every song a precious gift to the scene.
Rather, only 20% or so of all songs uploaded exemplify the virtues of
quality tracking and I aim to see the other 80% thrown to the four winds
(deleted).
Date Size of /music Size of archive % of /music in archive
----------- ---------------- ----------------- ------------------------
14 Jan 1995 107M 429M 24.9
15 Jul 1995 404M 871M 46.4
18 Jan 1996 841M 1718M 49.0
16 Jun 1996 1496M 2542M 58.9
16 Jun 1997 3350M 5026M 66.7
21 Sep 1997 3908M 5837M 67.0
The important figure here is the last column (percentage of /music as a
whole of the entire archive). Today, /music accounts for over 2/3rds the
size of the archive! This doesn't make a lot of sense. The Hornet Archive
is for the PC demo scene. Although we do keep music online, the original
goal has always been to provide a home for demos. And true to that original
mission we shall remain.
_____What Will Be
My goal is to decrease the size of The Hornet Archive to 4.0 gigs by the end
of 1998. The only directory targeted for down sizing is also the only
directory that has grown drastically out of control: /music. Once the
public rating goes online, I will keep tweaking the system until we are
deleting more songs than are being uploaded. It won't be enough to simply
rate all new songs that are uploaded because we have at least a gig of
unreviewed tunes from earlier this year.
When I say "tweak the system", I mean a couple of things:
1. There will be public and trusted voters (like in MC5) with public voters
having a strength of 1, and trusted voters having a strength of 3. From
the outset, it will probably take 10 vote strengths to "lock" a song's
rating. If it looks like songs aren't being voted on enough, I'll drop
that number lower and lower. It may end up that it only takes 1 trusted
vote or 3 public votes to lock a song... too early to say.
2. I'll probably start out by keeping songs online that have gotten a
locked rating of *** or higher. If that doesn't delete enough songs,
I'll increase the cutoff point to ***+ or **** if need be.
_____Conclusion
I said that my goal is to have the entire archive down to 4.0 gigs by the
end of 1998. I do not take goals lightly. You may see me do some rather
extreme things in order to get the size of /music down. I intend to return
the "fun" factor into random /music/song directory browsing. Keep reading
DemoNews for updates on the public rating system.
"You have _four_ songs on The Hornet Archive? Whoa. You must be a really
kick-ass musician!" - Anonymous, 1999
The day of reckoning is here.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------->
:: "Caramel & Jisemdu On The Run"
:: roboMOP / Imphobia - mop@thepentagon.com
_____Introduction
For the first time in a scene event, the music competition at The Gathering
1997 has been awarded with an additional and special prize - the possibility
to record the winning module in a professional sound studio and release a CD
single!
_____The Duo
Between May 13th and 14th, the winning duo, musicians Caramel and Jisemdu,
both of Norwegian origin, found their way to the busy studios of NRK Radio
P3 in Oslo, one of the most heard Norwegian national radios.
"We have recorded our original module from the competition, plus a remix",
says Jisemdu, who explains that this specific occasion was a very good
opportunity for the two. "I think that record companies will have to start
to open their eyes when it comes to computer music", he adds.
BMG Entertainment, one of the sponsors of this project, say that they are
happy to have discovered new Norwegian talent and of the opportunities that
the computer offers when it comes to both making and hearing music.
Apart from their CD-making contract, the two received 5000 NKR each. "I
don't know where the money really went, but I spent it all", says Jisemdu,
whilst Caramel comments that he spent his share on clothes and CDs.
Gathering organizer Shady says that the main idea for putting forward such
an ambitious price started, thanks to his good contacts in varied artistic
areas. "Giving more recognition to the sceners that win competitions, in
more mainstream ways, and showing how great the scene really is to others,
is no easy feat. Music is quite easy to sell, and so this year round we
settled on such an idea."
_____Who Are They?
Caramel (20) is a much known name in the scene. He has been fiddling with
trackers since 1992. Even though he is more known to work under the
Fascination label, he is also active for Sound Entity and SOTU, two music
based scene teams. Caramel likes to spend his free time playing the sax and
bass.
The 19 year old Jisemdu is a musical feat on his own. He has been playing
the drums since he was 3 years of age. Today he is more intent to act in an
acid-jazz band called "State of Mind". Guitar and piano are his favorite
instruments. The musician from Stavanger is a member of Dance, Proxima,
Tpolm and Sotu, but just like many old musicians of today, his first
tracking experience occurred in 1991, on Amiga. During late 1995 he
released his first modules to the general public.
_____Plastic What?
"I'm the guilty one here", smiles Caramel when DemoNews asks for the reason
for selecting such an un-linear name for their module. "Plastic Nudity is
just a name that popped out of my head some day. It doesn't mean anything.
I like making titles with no bearing."
Caramel says that the drums are partially taken from a sample CD called
"Gota Yashiki Groove Activator". Other parts were made by Jisemdu himself.
The slap and funk bass was played by Caramel, whilst Jisemdu did all the
guitar sounds, and additional moog-sampling!
"We made it in three weeks. As we live in completely different parts of
Norway we had to e-mail it back and forth more than 1000 times. We
corrected and added things as time went by", say the two.
Perhaps their song is partly inspired by Jamiroquai and the Cardigans, as
Caramel likes to think.
_____Mega Multi Channels
The two musicians managed to win a mixed competition where multi channel
modules were unfairly put against 4 channel ones! Needless to say that
Plastic Nudity was a 14 channel song. "When we started to make this tune,
we didn't know that there was only going to be ONE music competition. By
using more than 4 channels one can afford to add more ambience by means of
echoing and similar effects. Still, I don't think that the more channels
can make a better musician. Some works from Jogeir or Tip & Mantronix are
far better than most of the multi channel music I hear these days", says
Caramel.
Jisemdu agrees that it was maybe foolish to combine both contests since
multi channel ones surely have an extra advantage. "Yet a good musician
knows how to handle the limits that there are in a 4 channel module, so this
is no excuse after all", he continues.
When DemoNews demanded the reason for a merged competition, the organizers
pointed out that handling both contests brings a load of hassle. "The
necessity for two compos is dwindling away. The 4 channel one will die
sooner or later or become a step child concerning prizes. We would have
turned the music contest into a single / dual compo with equal prizes in
case the ratio had been too great to be usefully incorporated. But this did
not happen", replies Shady of Crusaders.
_____It's Out Now!
Plastic Nudity was released in mid June with a cover picture done by Louie
of TBL. "I wouldn't give our song much chance, because it's made to sound
real with live drums and guitars. I think that if a scene musician wants to
make it in the real world he must orientate himself more towards the techno
or ambience branch. Plastic Nudity isn't very sellable after all, because
it falls between two shelves - it isn't synthetic enough to be called
techno, and it isn't real enough to be called rock", says Caramel, who is
quite happy that there could exist a future in tracking. "Although I
personally am not very keep in grasping such possibility", he concludes.
_____Conclusion
DemoNews will report about the end success of this project when the first
sales figures will become available.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------->
:: "Coding Mathematics (part 2)"
:: Tiberius / Inspire Media - tiberius@mailhost.net
_____Introduction
In this second part of coding mathematics we'll look at the vector. The
things we will look at are fairly basic but important in coding.
_____What Is A Vector?
A vector is a journey from one point to another in 2 or 3 dimensions. The
opposite to a vector is a scalar which is a one dimensional journey. For
example, if I went on a vector journey I might go 2 steps forward then two
steps left. If I went on a scalar journey I'd walk in whatever direction I
happen to be facing.
That is the discerning difference in simple terms. Vectors have _distance_
and vectors have _direction_. I'll start by defining a system for two
dimensional vectors. If there are two dimensions we need two ways of
referencing these dimensions. Usually we use 'x' for horizontal and 'y' for
vertical. Some math texts use 'i' and 'j' respectively (with a squiggly line
under them which tells us they are vectors). I will use 'x' and 'y' to
reference _points_ and 'i' and 'j' to define a vector. This is the common
way of doing things.
_____Vectors In Two Dimensions
That probably confused you if you haven't done this before, so I think it's
best to dive in with some practical application.
We use coordinate axes (singular: axis) to represent plotted points/vectors.
y+, j+
^
|
|
x-,i- <------O------> x+, i+
|
|
v
y-, j-
'i' and 'j' are unit vectors. They represent a journey of 1 unit in a given
direction. The 'O' is called the origin and is the point (0,0). All points
are relative to the origin. We represent all points in the form (x,y) where
x and y are the positions in units up the respective axes.
Let 'v' equal a vector.
v = 5i + 2j : This vector represents a journey 5 units to the
right and 2 units upward.
(5,2) : Is the point we would end up at if we took the
journey along vector 'v' from the origin.
_____Vectors In Three Dimensions
This is a fairly simple extension of what you just learnt. Basically we
define another direction in which a vector can point, perpendicular to the
other two axes. If you image a desk with a piece of paper on it, the x and
y axes extend along the sides of the piece of paper, the new axis would
stick through the piece of paper from the floor, toward the ceiling. We will
define this axis as 'z' with the unit vector 'k'. (Therefore we have 'x,y,z'
and 'i,j,k' respectively).
k+
|
| /
| /
------O------i+
/|
/ |
j+ |
We might write a vector 'v' as v = 3i - 2j + 6k. This vector from the origin
would end at the point (3, -2, 6).
_____Operations With Vectors
Okay now we know what a vector is, how it looks and how to define one.
Great... now what can we _do_ with it???
Addition:
Vector addition is fairly simple. You add the unit vectors of each vector
together separately. The resulting vector is the addition of the first
two.
eg. let u = i + 2j - 7k and v = 3i -j + 4k
u + v = (1+3)i + (2-1)j + (4-7)k
= 4i + j - 3k
Why does it work? Take a simple case. I want to add a vector '5i' to a
vector '8i'. If I were to walk each journey I would end up '13i' from my
starting position. Since each unit vector is perpendicular to any other
the addition of each component has no effect on any other component.
Subtraction:
Vector subtraction is the same as addition except you subtract the vector
components from one another. Take care to SUBTRACT the SECOND vector FROM
the FIRST.
eg. u - v = (1-3)i + (2 - -1)j + (-7 - 4)k
= -2i + 3j - 11k
_____What About Multiplication??
We can multiply a vector by a scalar by multiplying each component of the
vector by the scalar. By the doing this you are scaling the vector. eg. If
we multiplied a vector by the scalar 0.5 the resulting vector would be half
the length of the first. Conversely if we multiplied by the scalar '2' the
resulting vector would be twice the length of the first.
let v = i + 2j - k
To find a vector one quarter the length of the original:
resultant = (1*0.25)i + (2*0.25)j - (1*0.25)k
Multiplication of a vector with a vector falls into scalar or vector
results. These are also referred to as the 'dot product' (scalar) and the
'cross product' (vector). With the current level of knowledge you have there
is not much use in me going into these. We will prove the equations for
these in a later issue of DemoNews.
_____Homework
The homework section will appear in every part of the series. You'll never
learn this stuff properly if you don't practice so here is your chance to do
so. I'll give answers in the following issue.
Q1. Write the definition of the vectors from the origin to the following
point in 3 dimensions.
(a) ( 1, 1, 1)
(b) ( 2, 6, 1)
(c) (-1, 2, 0)
Q2. Assume all of the following are vectors. Complete the operation given.
a = i + j + k
b = 2i - k
c = 3i + 3j - 6k
(a) a+c (b) a-b (c) b-a
(d) (a+b)-c (e) c-(a+b) (f) (c+a)-(c+b)
Q3. Find a half and 4 times the following vectors:
(a) 3i - 2j - 4k
(c) 3j + 2k
_____Conclusion
Next issue we'll derive a formula to rotate a vector in 2 dimensions
relative to the origin. I know... you can't wait! =)
If you have any comments/suggestions/fixes/gifts then send them to Tiberius
at: tiberius@mailhost.net
Until the next part!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------->
:: "The Weird Act Of Optimizing For Size"
:: Gyr - laurie@dcc.net.au
_____Introduction
Anyways, I was taking a look around Hornet yesterday, checking if anything
was new. I see this message about Snowman needing articles for DemoNews.
"Why not", I thought. So I digitally put my hand up, and Snowman said go
for it. Woohoo. That's where I ran into a problem. What the hell was I
going to write about? Damn my brain. Hmm... hang on... I've got an idea.
"The Weird Act Of Optimizing For Size" (by gyr)
_____Warped Obsessions
"What's this about", I hear you say. Well, let me elaborate. There are
some people out there that have a rather warped obsession. An obsession
that things must be as small as they can be. The origin of such a little
scene probably originated from 4k's. People cranking stuff into 4096 bytes
that most people would have trouble putting in under 400k. But then 4k's
started getting smaller... 2k intros... 1k intros... 512 byte intros. Eek,
now we're getting small. But then a funny thing happened. A person called
Gaffer (howdy :) decided to find out how small he could get a fire effect.
All in 128 bytes.
Gaffer's fire epitomizes everything these people do perfectly. Not only is
it damn small, but it looks SO nice. It's freaky. It's insane... it's
double the size of zoon's fire? Wahuh? What's happened here? This sort of
thing happens all the time. No matter what you do, there are always people
who can do something smaller (but not necessarily better). For example,
checking for the escape key...
Normally it would be...
MainLoop:
.
.
.
in al, 60h
cmp al, 1
jne MainLoop ; or at least for me it would be.
But one bright person (Os2man :) decided that
in al, 60h
das
jz MainLoop
could save a byte (although this is highly crappy, a down right bugger to
get the program to run properly first time ;)
Damn, where was I? Oh yes... fires aren't the only thing that have been
"smallerized". There is a 3D star field (123 bytes) but my all time
favorite is Descent in 4k... Sanction by Omniscent is perhaps the best
example of the kind of things people like us do. We see something large,
and can't help but make it small. It's fun. I've spent a weekend hacking
away for ages, and all I've achieved is one byte smaller. But happy I was.
Maybe it's just that we're all insane. ;)
Then just when you thought you'd seen it all, seen the smallest
of the small from the insanist of the sane, you find something like
Os2man's 23 byte horizontal starfield. Eek! How can things get
that small? It's not right. It can't be. ;)
_____Retrospective Time
So what has this article achieved? Mainly that anyone who can do this sort
of stuff should be physically restrained from coming within three meters of
your code :) But most of all, that more people should get a look at,
appreciate, and maybe even better the code that these people produce.
Well that concludes a somewhat biased opinion (see the optimizers hall of
fame ;) on this sort of thing. But as I feel rather democratic at the
moment, I'll head off to irc to see what people think of it...
I asked something like this:
"I am writing a DemoNews article thing. Anyone want to comment on the
people who optimize their code for size?"
<ex_> I have something to say in that article on size optimization:
"don't do it" :D
<harmless> Yeah that they shouldn't bother ;)
<e_megas> Optimization for speed is a Good Thing, but optimization
for size is a thankless task for all but coders.
<pfister> I think its pointless nowadays except as an exercise.
<fungus> Size optimizing is fine as long the execution time is ok too.
<deathscar> Size optimizing is less relevant these days :) Unless you're
writing BIOS or things like that.
<gooroo> I have no opinion.
<trickser> I like it. Optimizing for size is an art form.
<wbinvd> Optimizing for speed is a greater art form... hehe
Well it seems not everyone is as impressed with this sort of thing as I
am... well, we're all not insane are we? :)
I'll leave you all with the definitive word from the original lunatic. ;)
<os2man> I think size optimization is an interesting challenge. Even
more so when you refuse to compromise on quality as you shrink your
code.
_____References
Optimizers hall of fame:
http://www.dcc.net.au/laurie/optimize.htm
Fluff's programming home page, has some nice small stuff on it, plus some
examples of #asm compos:
http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/3642
and of course, http://www.hornet.org ;)
_____Further Example Of Stupidity
Here's the source to the 77 byte 320x200x256 PCX viewer:
code segment para public 'CODE'
assume cs:code, ds:code
.486
org 100h
start:
mov bl, ds:[80h]
mov [81h+bx], ch
mov ah, 3dh
mov dx, 82h
int 21h
jc fuckhead
xchg ax, bx
mov al, 13h
int 10h
push 0a000h
pop es
mov ah, 3fh
mov ch, (64768)/256
mov dx, 3c8h ; pure evil
int 21h
xor di, di
lea si, ScrPal
decode:
lodsb
cmp al, 192
jb single
and ax, 63
xchg cx, ax
lodsb
rep
single:
stosb
cmp di, 64000
jbe decode
mov ah, 3
xchg ax, cx
out dx, al
inc dx
SetPal:
shr byte ptr [si], 2
outsb
loop SetPal
int 16h
mov ax, 3
int 10h
fuckhead:
ret
org 3c8h ; evil zoon trick ;)
db 128 dup (?)
ScrPal db 64000 dup (?)
ends code
end start
_____Conclusion
Warped people aren't we? ;)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------->
:: "Girls' Safety At Demo Events"
:: roboMOP / Imphobia - mop@thepentagon.com
_____Introduction
A particular DemoNews issue from the first season of 1997 featured the
experiences of a girl who found various difficulties when attending a demo
event (she remained unnamed). Many thought that the fact on its own was
normal daily routine; boys like to whistle to girls. Boys like to touch the
bottoms of girls. Boys like...
Yet this story gave birth to much discomfort and scene chit chat in various
discussions on IRC and miscellaneous scene media. The name of the girl
still remains anonymous, but DemoNews dares to sort out the offending and
careless events from the professionally-organized ones.
_____Gathering Perspective (1992 - 1993)
Since the early scene years of 1992, The Gathering has always been
considered a positive party attraction by the female part of the demo scene.
Even way back in 1992, five scenesses (female sceners) made their way to
Norway - which on it's own, can be considered as very peculiar in scene
terms. "Even though they were on the minority, we did whatever it was
possible for us, to prepare a more comfortable environment for the girls, by
having separate changing and sleeping rooms and showers", says Shady of
Crusaders, main organizer of the event.
"We were probably the ones who started out with special settings for girls,
and I believe that we have done a lot in this field", continues the
Norwegian Crusader. Excluding female organizers, the following 1993
edition, was attended by 1 coderess and a few sceners' girlfriends with few
or no interest at all in scene nature.
"However, there were much female visitors that came directly from the
outside neighborhood, because they took some interest in the general
partying and the males in there! I am also told that some sceners even met
future girl friends here", smiles Shady, who continues to say that the
reason for the presence of all these girls does not come out of the blues.
In fact, the organizers had put out an active marketing plan in the local
area, weeks prior to the party. Teenage 18 year old girls were also invited
from school to take a look at the happening. "Since girls could come in for
free, many felt like losing nothing to come, and take a stroll in this
wondrous world of electronics."
_____Gathering Perspective (1994 - 1996)
In 1994, the organizers could spot 30 girls inside the party halls. "12
females were part of the arrangement committee, 2 were main organizers but
9 were there to enjoy the party. In 1996, however, with a change of pace,
direction and defined goals, girls were amongst our primary priorities.
Around August 1995, we sat down to discuss the things we had in mind with
the girls in our vicinity. Six of them formed Crusaders Girls. It was
their own initiative, and not something that was forced upon them from our
side. We have certain provisions about the use of the Crusaders name, but
the girls are an independent group, making own decisions and having personal
goals."
Shady says that the girls were given the task of 50% of the media handling
(talking to the press, presenting the party), and were also responsible for
handling the information and the internal supplies; but the most important
task was that of providing the party with a certain atmosphere and angle
that would attract other girls. Here DemoNews wonders, if these particular
settings were the main ace of the organizers, for having managed to achieve
one of the finest (biggest) scene events in 1996.
"The scene itself will evolve and change over the years as it always has,
but the inclusion of girls will change it even more. Girls have to approach
the scene in their respective way, and the change will come slowly as more
girls enter into the scene. The scene can't change itself to politically
correct itself to female needs, just like that, overnight. Girls must adapt
first, which is not necessarily any bad thing, because it's just the way the
scene has always worked in other areas (trackmos, design, fast processors).
The scene will evolve by itself, without anyone making any pushing."
The Crusaders Girls provided sleeping areas, parted showering facilities and
arranged meetings with all girls at the party (scenesses and non), to speak
amongst themselves. "This time we had 12 girls participating in our
internal group. Other 8 girls attended the party to stay hooked on IRC for
free, compete in the competitions or participate in other ways. I can also
assure you that a few of the 15 or so girls that initially had no interest
at all in the scene, and came here just because of their their boyfriends,
changed into interested living scene-creatures in a matter of days", says
Shady.
During live interviews that appeared on the national Norwegian TV, girls
made their way to the front rows, to give out their opinion about scene and
similar; "I came here to watch, learn some things from the boys present, and
now I'm whizzing around on IRC and learning to code in C++" This particular
sceness is not one of a breed; in fact DemoNews knows that our demo world
enjoys the presence of more than 300 females.
_____Gathering Perspective (1997)
In 1997, female attendance was even estimated beyond the 350 mark. During
this edition the female part of the organization proved to be of special
importance.
After a troublesome accident with an anonymous individual that set up a
porno ftp site on The Gathering server, the female responsible for taking
care of the present medias was attacked fiercely. The National Norwegian
Radio broadcast a live interview about the matter. This specific
interviewer tried to allude that TG was just a meeting for 3000 sex-crazed
lunatics, locked for 5 days in a row, watching 24 hours kid-porno and maybe
even worse... "Seen from our point of view, it was one singular incident
which could have ACTUALLY destroyed the chance of arranging another TG",
says Shady, who continues to add how his colleague did a formidable job, by
explaining and giving facts that this was surely not the case.
_____Roles And Security
Still, the idea of half a dozen or so lonely females amongst a mass of 2000
boys, can sometimes give birth to feelings of inadequacies, as is the case
of "Ms. X" and her fastidious experiences. "I don't think that a female
who attends such parties has to really look out for herself. If she's
really alone (in the truest sense), that might be the case though. However,
I really doubt that any party of our size these days only has one single
girl attending. Organizers have the duty to provide ample opportunity for
girls, and guards just have to watch out the rules about the girls' rest
rooms. Comments and other harassing attitudes are anyway, a big problem.
We have never experienced it too badly at TG, but the girls in the front
lines HAVE to be mentally strong and able to deal with this kind of humor,
by themselves. Unfortunately it's the way the world works, and scene party
or not, delinquency exists everywhere."
Shady points out that The Gathering crew has always taken great care of
female attenders, and therefore never experienced deep problems of any kind.
"We always have had girls working together with other arrangers, thereby
making it really easy to cope with most uncertainties. Still our point of
view is that security is what the girls make for themselves. They have to
carve out a place in their own terms. Girls are probably the single most
influential group to come into the scene, therefore we prefer to let them do
everything by themselves, together with the rest of us. In this way both
sides can prosper."
Shady says that his impression is that girls seem to be the most wanted
thing in the scene. "They get more press coverage than other known groups,
and therefore they bring their own advantages to the scene. Sceners just
have to behave themselves like they normally would do at school. In a group
of 2000 males, one expects a few without decisively good manners. But this
must not influence the decision of a girl to join the scene or not. From
the feedback we personally got after our last party, the scene wants girls,
to make this demo culture a breathing, living, prosperous and more
interesting scene."
_____Conclusion
DemoNews leaves Shady and the Crusaders to their busy days, preparing for
another Easter party in the land of Norway. Judging from the particular
success of the past edition, the 1998 attendance is expected to burst beyond
known limits. The organizers will continue to put up more scene propaganda
amongst females - on their own, the typical intelligent girls of today seem
to already find a keen interest in computers and associated cultures. As
many would surely agree, there are better chances that a girl turns sceness,
than to convince an ardent games player to find interest in demos.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------->
:: "Advertisement: GUS ViperMAX"
:: James Hsu / Synergy - synergyh@ms4.hinet.net
_____Introduction
$79 New GUS in USA!
Synergy now has an American branch. The end-cost to order a new ViperMAX is
$89 ($79 plus tax and shipping). Dealer prices are as low as $69 (shipping
fee excluded, minimum order 10 soundcards).
ViperMAX = GUS MAX (GF1) + SB Pro (ESS1688) in H/W. Win95 (GUS+SB), Win
3.1(GUS+SB), DOS drivers (GUS+SB), and DirectX (ESS1688) supported. Not Plug
& Play, but driver is auto-installed. 1Mbyte RAM on board. It is geared for
gamers, MIDI, MOD music players and demo groups. Our Win 95 driver came out
a year and a half ago, has been updated twice, and is very stable.
Features include...
_____Native Game Support
ViperMAX wavetable mode - UltraSound, it has most USA PC games natively
supported. Select UltraSound to have the best sound or select SB Pro to
have the fair sound. There is no more software emulation program SBOS
needed.
_____Better MIDI
5.6Mbyte General MIDI patches stored in hard disk, plus 3.4Mbyte others,
total is 9Mbyte. ViperMAX has 1Mbyte RAM on-board. When playing a MIDI
song, patches being played will be downloaded from HD to on-board RAM thru
Windows Patch Cache API. Patch Maker allows user to make or edit patches,
and allows the user to switch patch bank.
_____Superior MOD Performance
A MOD is a kind of true digital music and the UltraSound is the best sound
card for playing them. Most Sound Blaster cards only support 2 digital
channels. When playing MODs, they need a lot more CPU time to software-mix
several channels into 2 channels (and often sacrifice sound quality). The
UltraSound supports 32 digital channels with hardware-mixing!
Music Contest 5 just finished, and Synergy has donated 20 ViperMAX's to the
winners as prizes:
http://www.hornet.org/music/contests/mc5
ViperMAX is bundling the best MOD files (over 105Mbyte) in its Install CD.
All these songs were rated ****+ or ***** on hornet.org. Also, many
trackers (Fast Tracker 2, Impulse Tracker, Scream Tracker, etc.) and players
(Inertia Player, Cubic Player, MOD4WIN, etc.) are also included.
_____Best Demo Support
There are many "computer graphics + sound" demo shows held in Europe every
year, such as Assembly in Finland, Party in Denmark, X'95 and X'96 in
Netherlands, and The Scene in Singapore. The UltraSound has top notch
support from these shows and is a sound card standard in PC demo groups.
_____Price/Performance
Only money order accepted. E-mail USA address for detailed information.
USA Branch :
Ms. Susan Lai
Corp : President
6611 Walton Drive,
Huntington Beach, CA 92647
USA
Tel : (714) 848-4692 (* Use E-Mail preferred *)
Fax : (714) 847-8828
E-Mail : SLai954028@aol.com
_____Conclusion
The GUS isn't a PC demo scene standard by accident. Help support the
soundcard that supports the scene. Buy a ViperMAX today!
Best Regards,
James Hsu
http://www.computex.com.tw/synergy
---------------------------------------------------------------------------->
:: "Advertisement: Digital Anvil 3D Coder"
:: Digital Anvil - careers@digitalanvil.com
_____Introduction
Company: Digital Anvil, Inc.
Job Title: 3D Graphics Developer
Location: Austin, Texas (USA)
Status: Full time
Salary: Commensurate with experience
_____Job Description
Talented developer with strong 3D graphics background needed to work with
product teams at leading-edge computer entertainment company. This position
is responsible for helping to design and maintain Digital Anvil's code base
for 3D graphics rendering.
Some specific areas of responsibility include:
1. Help maintain and develop rendering pipeline optimized for
hardware-accelerated 3D rendering
2. Perform ongoing R&D in several key areas of graphics technology, with
a focus on delivery of practical implementations:
- Optical effects (explosions, weapons effects, lens flare, particle
effects, etc.)
- Shading and illumination models
- Offline mesh processing / optimization tools
- New rendering techniques, including volume and surface rendering
_____Requirements
BSCS or equivalent experience. Must be proficient in C++ development under
Win32. Familiarity with DirectDraw, Direct3D immediate mode, and/or OpenGL
required.
Candidates should be prepared to demonstrate and discuss previous work,
including code samples. Good documentation skills are a must.
_____Benefits
Major company benefits with complete relocation package paid. Stock options
awarded based on experience and qualifications.
_____Conclusion
We're always looking for adventurous, creative men and women who share our
vision of the potential of interactive entertainment. Resumes may be sent in
confidence to careers@digitalanvil.com, or faxed to the attention of our
Personnel Director at 512-457-0404.
>------------------------------------------------------- General Information --
_____The Hornet Archive (mirror sites)
Current mirror information: http://www.hornet.org/ha/pages/mirrors.html
USA (master site) http://www.hornet.org
ftp://ftp.hornet.org/pub/demos
Australia http://www.livewire.com.au/pub/demos
ftp://www.livewire.com.au/pub/demos
Germany ftp://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/pc-demos
Poland http://ftp.icm.edu.pl/pub/demos
ftp://ftp.icm.edu.pl/pub/demos
Portugal http://mirrors.telepac.pt/pub/demos
ftp://mirrors.telepac.pt/pub/demos
Portugal http://hornet.esoterica.pt
ftp://hornet.esoterica.pt
Sweden ftp://ftp.luth.se/pub/msdos/demos
USA (/code only) http://www.co.iup.edu/code
ftp://ftp.co.iup.edu/code
_____Where To Get DemoNews
New issues - http://www.hornet.org/incoming/info
Old issues - http://www.hornet.org/info -> "DemoNews"
_____How To Subscribe To DemoNews
Mail: listserver@unseen.aztec.co.za
subscribe demuan-list YOUR_NAME
_____How To Unsubscribe From DemoNews
Mail: listserver@unseen.aztec.co.za
unsubscribe demuan-list
_____Where To Send Questions/Comments
questions@hornet.org
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EODN
