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| Subscribers : 1903
DemoNews Issue #115 - February 8, 1996 | Last Week : 1865
------------- | Change : +38
DemoNews is a newsletter for the demo scene. | Archive Size : 2064M
It is produced by Hornet at the site ftp.cdrom.com. | Last Week : 1953M
Our demo archive is located under /pub/demos. | Remaining : 915M
|
=-[Contents]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Line Section
------ -------------------------------------------------------------------
32 Calendar
52 Top Downloads
75 Uploads
346 Articles
348 Introduction................................Snowman
389 Editorial: The "Tonbal Tes" Threshold.......Snowman
631 OS Candy and the Future of Demos............Finrod
844 Proba Generalna ][ Mini-Report..............Maf
896 Subscribing
911 Closing
=-[Calendar]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Date Event Location Description
--------- ----------------------- --------- ---------------------------------
17 Feb 96 Awakening U.S.A. mail: norg@cyberspace.com
--CANCELED--
29 Mar 96 Mekka Germany mail: PV80090@PH80090.HH.eunet.de
www : www.xs4all.nl
/~blahh/RAW/Parties
/Invitations/Mekka.html
06 Apr 96 X Netherlnd mail: cba@xs4all.nl
www : www.xs4all.nl/~herkel
31 May 96 Naid Canada mail: naid@autoroute.net
More information is at http://hagar.arts.kuleuven.ac.be/~sdog/party.html
=-[Top Downloads]-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
NOTE: Statistics are sometimes slightly off due to symbolic links, mirrors,
renamed files, and other things which affect the log files.
Pc Times FileName.Ext Pc Times FileName.Ext Pc Times FileName.Ext
-- ----- --------.--- -- ----- --------.--- -- ----- --------.---
<COMBINED LIST> <DEMOS LIST> <GRAPHICS LIST>
1 00294 ftj_ymca.zip 1 00289 ftj_ymca.zip 1 00030 girl3.zip
2 00237 cmapaim.zip 2 00235 cmapaim.zip 2 00028 seduct.zip
3 00202 animate.zip 3 00202 animate.zip 3 00026 airwar.zip
4 00197 ft204.zip 4 00176 nooon_st.zip 4 00024 dst_frac.zip
5 00194 cp16.zip 5 00155 luminati.zip 5 00024 final.zip
6 00184 acdu0196.zip <MUSIC LIST> <CODE LIST>
7 00176 nooon_st.zip 1 00194 ft204.zip 1 00086 kmagv2.zip
8 00172 demonews.114 2 00193 cp16.zip 2 00063 dn114_3d.zip
9 00157 luminati.zip 3 00142 scrmt321.zip 3 00061 water.zip
10 00142 scrmt321.zip 4 00136 k_emerld.zip 4 00059 fmoddoc2.zip
5 00124 k_hippo.zip
<Files downloaded total : 052362>
=-[Uploads]-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
=----------------------------------------------------------[File Information]-=
All files listed below are on ftp.cdrom.com under /pub/demos.
Please keep in mind that all ratings are subjective.
If your file transfers are too slow, there are several alternatives:
Use our European mirror at ftp://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/pub/pc-demos
Try getting files from the web at http://www.cdrom.com/pub/demos
See /hornet/demonews/demonews.102 for details about ftpmail.
You may also wish to check out a couple of other good demo sites:
ftp://ftp.arosnet.se/e:\demo maintained by Zodiak / Cascada
ftp://hagar.arts.kuleuven.ac.be/demos maintained by Sleeping Dog / Natives
=-------------------------------------------------------------[Demos:General]-=
Location /demos/alpha Size Rated Description
=-------------------------------- ---- ----- ---------------------------------=
/1995/d/donuts.zip 39 *** Donuts! by Strontium 90
/1996/0-9/1291.zip 3 * 1291 by Key G and Sebl
/1996/j/jff-zzzz.zip 61 ** Birthday Intro by JFF
Enlight 1995 Fast Intros (ENL95:infs:)
/1995/r/rt_mmax.zip 34 *** 01: Entry by Mad Max
/1995/r/rt_az.zip 34 *** 02: Entry by Andrew Zabolotny
Movement 1995 Demos (MOV95:demo:)
/1995/e/estm-eup.zip 1898 ***+ 01: Euphoria by Esteem
/1995/c/creation.zip 1082 *** 02: Creation by Falcor
/1995/c/cenflash.zip 712 *** 04: Flashback by Centari
/1995/c/climax.zip 232 ** 05: Climax by Y.O.E.
The Party 1995 64k Intros (TP95:in64:)
/1996/c/ctslrbfn.zip 179 **** 01: Lasse Reinbong (final) by CT
/1996/g/grd-arwf.zip 54 *** 07: Arrow (final) by Grid
/1995/t/tml.zip 72 *** 10: The Missing Link by Evolution
/1995/e/elf-oops.zip 50 **+ 15: Elfsong by Oops
/1995/r/reality.zip 65 ***+ 16: Reality by Funk
/1995/x/x-file.zip 28 **** 18: X-File by Rebels and Diffusion
/1995/h/homer.zip 15 * XX: Intro by Homer
Wired 1995 Demos (WIR95:demo:)
/1995/p/phenofix.zip 609 ***+ 03: Phenotype (fix) by Purge
General Probe 1996 Demos (GP96:demo:)
/1996/c/cma_dgst.zip 798 **** 01: Disgust by Camorra
General Probe 1996 64k Intros (GP96:in64:)
/1996/w/wons.zip 66 [n/a] 04: Wons by Ax'Hell
Juhla 1996 Demos (JUH96A:demo:)
/1996/c/cmapaifx.zip 329 **** 02: Paimen (english fix) by Coma
Juhla 1996 64k Intros (JUH96A:in64:)
/1996/d/demulamu.zip 37 * XX: Demu Lamu by PWP
/1996/h/hypertv.zip 40 *+ XX: Hyper TV by P!
/1996/i/imuri.zip 48 *+ XX: Immuri by Captor
/1996/p/pacman.zip 42 * XX: Pacman by Poro
/1996/r/rectile.zip 62 * XX: Rectile by ???
/1996/w/wktp.zip 52 *** XX: We Kill. Parasites by Gender 8
Oz 1996 Demos (OZ96:demo:)
/1996/h/htc-gunk.zip 437 ***+ 01: Gunk by Heretics
/1996/t/twisted.zip 503 ***+ 02: Twisted by Intricate Designs
/1996/m/mmdonuts.zip 394 *** 03: Mmm Donuts by Priests of Power
/1996/s/steeldaw.zip 192 **+ 05: Concept by Steel Dawn
Oz 1996 4k Intros (OZ96:in4k:)
/1996/0-9/4kquark.zip 4 **** 01: 4k by Quark
/1996/f/ffa6000e.zip 6 *** 02: Ffa6000e by Bore
/1996/p/pyro.zip 5 *** 03: Pyro by Gaffer
/1996/b/box.zip 3 **+ 04: Box by Sleepy
/1996/m/mblock.zip 3 **+ 05: ??? by Mental Block
/1996/w/woople2.zip 4 *+ 05: ??? by ???
/1996/0-9/1day_4k.zip 1 *+ 07: 1 Day by Myopic Fish
/1996/g/gob4k.zip 1 [n/a] XX: ??? by Goblin
=-------------------------------------------------------------[Music:General]-=
Location /demos/music Size Rated Description
=-------------------------------- ---- ----- ---------------------------------=
The Party 1995 Multi-Channel Music (TP95:mmul:)
/songs/1995/xm/m/morning.zip 408 ****+ 01: Morning by FBY
/songs/1995/xm/k/k_morn.zip 397 **** 02: Morning Light by Vivid
/songs/1995/xm/f/fr-loye.zip 262 **** 03: Love Opens Eyes by Nabo + Teo
/songs/1995/xm/t/toohigh.zip 299 ***+ 04: Too High by Libertine
/songs/1995/s3m/s/sxtn.zip 249 **** 05: Space-Expedition by Hilander
/songs/1996/xm/k/k303comp.zip 421 **** 06: Wisdom & Euphoria by Keith303
/songs/1995/s3m/r/revelatn.zip 524 ****+ 07: Revelation by Necros
/songs/1995/xm/r/rushing.zip 271 ***+ 08: Rushing to Nowhere by Reptile
/songs/1995/s3m/t/thoughts.zip 87 **** 09: Thoughts by Mefithian
/songs/1995/xm/z/z-mooh.zip 347 **** 10: Status Mooh by Zodiak
/songs/1995/xm/j/jz-tp5.zip 366 **** 12: Tp5 v2.3 by Jazz
/songs/1995/s3m/a/astroidb.zip 210 **** 13: Highland Willows by Velvet
/songs/1995/xm/i/introve_.zip 291 **** 14: Introversion by Falcon + Akira
/songs/1995/xm/r/rainsymp.zip 610 **** 15: Rain Symphony by KB + Reflex
/songs/1995/xm/m/moose.zip 378 ****+ 16: Mooserun! by Tito
/songs/1995/xm/t/teleport.zip 315 ***+ 17: Teleportation by Gizmo
/songs/1995/xm/c/comeguil.zip 374 **** 18: Come Guilt by Mellow-D
/songs/1995/xm/f/fumble.zip 531 **** 19: Fumble by Scorpik + Absolute
/songs/1995/xm/u/ufopidt.zip 194 ***+ 20: Ufopidtic by Chronic
/songs/1995/s3m/l/latin2.zip 351 ***+ 24: Technologies by Silverstance
/songs/1995/xm/s/sw-bfaw.zip 205 ***+ 26: Butterfly by Damac + Swallow
/songs/1995/s3m/w/wosarace.zip 395 ***+ 27: World of Saracens by Dune
/songs/1995/xm/s/snacks.zip 400 ***+ 28: Snacks E Gott by Mellow
/songs/1995/xm/r/rose.zip 205 ***+ 29: My Black Rose by Heretic
/songs/1995/s3m/a/afrohead.zip 214 *** XX: Afro Head by Sulphur, Lemming
/songs/1995/xm/a/allnight.zip 419 ***+ XX: Eurro All Night by Gust
/songs/1995/xm/a/amb_hghw.zip 289 *+ XX: Amiga Sux by Joko
/songs/1995/xm/a/amiga.zip 511 ***+ XX: Astroid Belt Zb68-a by Mig
/songs/1995/xm/b/back-up.zip 690 *+ XX: Backed Up by Drive
/songs/1995/s3m/b/ballad3.zip 369 **** XX: The Last Ballad by Siren
/songs/1995/mod/b/baobab.zip 239 **+ XX: Baobab by Dr. Eren
/songs/1995/xm/b/brave.zip 219 *** XX: Brave by Interlaced,Kjetil T.
/songs/1995/s3m/c/clandest.zip 136 ** XX: Clandestine by Post Mortem
/songs/1995/other/compi.zip 509 * XX: Compi by ???
/songs/1995/s3m/c/corinno.zip 244 *** XX: Corinnology by Toar Nkor
/songs/1995/s3m/c/cr-heo.zip 214 **+ XX: Heo Spann Den Wagen An by Iso
/songs/1995/s3m/c/cr-redb.zip 186 **+ XX: Red Buster by DJ Ice M Steel
/songs/1995/xm/c/crazii.zip 141 *+ XX: Crazii by Pman
/songs/1995/xm/c/cyborg.zip 210 ***+ XX: Cyborgmania by Pozor
/songs/1995/xm/d/demands.zip 380 ** XX: Demands to My Sweet by Dildo
/songs/1995/s3m/d/dope.zip 161 * XX: Love and Unity by ???
/songs/1995/xm/d/drz-hide.zip 289 ** XX: Hide in Shadow by Drizzt
/songs/1995/s3m/d/dts.zip 108 *+ XX: Dedicated to Someone by Rdf
/songs/1995/s3m/d/duck.zip 101 ***+ XX: Ducks 'n Cookies by Marc
/songs/1995/mod/d/duress.zip 41 [rip] XX: Duress by d-Pep
/songs/1995/xm/e/endless.zip 218 *+ XX: Endless Love by DJ Opal
/songs/1995/s3m/e/essentia.zip 208 *** XX: Essential 95 by Qwart
/songs/1995/other/flyacr12.zip 343 *** XX: Fly Across the Sky by Xylon
/songs/1995/xm/f/fn-tp5.zip 228 **+ XX: Liquid R. by Fading Numbus
/songs/1995/xm/g/goonat.zip 104 *+ XX: Go On At by Improve
/songs/1995/xm/g/grey.zip 279 ***+ XX: Grey by Mefis
/songs/1995/s3m/h/haloo.zip 289 ***+ XX: Halooo! Kuuluuko? by Croaker
/songs/1995/xm/h/heit.zip 335 ***+ XX: Hei Tappa by Sami Kiviniemi
/songs/1995/xm/h/hexagram.zip 287 ***+ XX: Hexagram by HyperUnknown
/songs/1995/xm/i/influenc.zip 279 **+ XX: Positive Influences by Cell
/songs/1995/xm/i/innocent.zip 145 **+ XX: Ino. Politican? by Trubadix
/songs/1995/xm/i/inspired.zip 306 **+ XX: Second Inspiration by DJ4753
/songs/1995/xm/i/interpol.zip 475 ** XX: Interpol. by Trenedy + Gloom
/songs/1995/xm/i/intoxic.zip 392 *** XX: Intox Chords by Sikamikanico
/songs/1995/xm/j/justme.zip 94 **** XX: Just Me by Balrog + Omen
/songs/1995/xm/k/keziah2.zip 416 **** XX: Keziah Two by Alpha
/songs/1995/xm/l/lightdre.zip 304 *** XX: Light Dreams by Relief
/songs/1995/xm/l/liquid.zip 133 *** XX: Liquid by Circle
/songs/1995/xm/l/lk_xfile.zip 321 * XX: X-Files by LovKraft
/songs/1995/xm/m/mas_acco.zip 82 ** XX: Acid Connection by Masterbeat
/songs/1995/xm/m/memoriam.zip 309 *** XX: In Memoriam by Dark
/songs/1995/xm/m/metro.zip 99 *+ XX: Metro by Phabian
/songs/1995/xm/m/mf_creti.zip 185 **+ XX: Los Cretinus by Magic Fred
/songs/1995/xm/m/miser.zip 158 * XX: Miser by Budda-X
/songs/1995/xm/m/mols-ton.zip 132 *+ XX: A Touch of Nature by Protest
/songs/1995/xm/m/mw-kmarg.zip 131 *** XX: Ride t Kamarg by Mayweek + TNO
/songs/1995/s3m/n/ntr-late.zip 390 ***+ XX: Late Noon Scene by S.Roger
/songs/1995/xm/o/offer2.zip 136 ** XX: Special Offer by Sonic
/songs/1995/xm/o/omg-angl.zip 249 *** XX: Angel by Omega
/songs/1995/xm/o/outofph.zip 238 *+ XX: Out of Phase by Vemund T. Ally
/songs/1995/xm/p/pandemon.zip 314 ***+ XX: Pandemonia by Organic + Taste
/songs/1995/s3m/p/party.zip 148 *** XX: Party '95 by DJ Horst + CDK
/songs/1995/s3m/p/plasmat.zip 343 **** XX: Plasmatique by Mystical
/songs/1995/xm/p/plus.zip 440 *** XX: Plus by Anarky
/songs/1995/xm/p/proudmr.zip 461 ***+ XX: Proud Mr. Me by Sami Kiviniemi
/songs/1995/s3m/p/psn-vom.zip 259 *** XX: Vomenoes by Poison
/songs/1995/xm/p/puzzled.zip 324 *** XX: Puz. Mind by Tivurr + Polka B
/songs/1995/xm/r/rawvibes.zip 297 *** XX: Raw Vibes by Boney + Skytech
/songs/1995/xm/r/remember.zip 150 *** XX: I Remember by Ratzi
/songs/1995/xm/r/return.zip 310 ***+ XX: Return of the King by The REW
/songs/1995/mod/s/sara.zip 322 *** XX: Sara by Shad + Pulse + Live
/songs/1995/s3m/s/sardin.zip 316 **+ XX: Sardin Kuk by Gurkle + Nys
/songs/1995/xm/s/schub.zip 318 ** XX: Jetze Wird Geschubt by Romeo
/songs/1995/xm/s/screem.zip 173 **** XX: Screem 4 Thirst by Psycho
/songs/1995/xm/s/shades.zip 616 ***+ XX: Shades of Blue by Azure
/songs/1995/xm/s/sleepnow.zip 366 ** XX: Sleep Now by PCVF
/songs/1995/xm/s/spacemax.zip 480 **** XX: Spaceman by Vic
/songs/1995/xm/s/startrek.zip 305 *+ XX: Unity by Beagle + Glurff + CJ
/songs/1995/xm/s/state.zip 520 *** XX: State of Mind by Kaiowa
/songs/1995/xm/s/subhell.zip 177 ** XX: Subway to Hell by Cordey
/songs/1995/mod/s/sw-opus1.zip 391 ***+ XX: Space Warz (Opus 1) by Rez
/songs/1995/xm/t/t2-md.zip 249 **** XX: T2 (Mellow Dance) by ???
/songs/1995/xm/t/thetrip.zip 526 ***+ XX: The Trip by Stryper
/songs/1995/xm/t/trickypi.zip 359 ***+ XX: Tricky Picnic by Prick
/songs/1995/s3m/t/trnamash.zip 151 ***+ XX: Train Amash by Mirror
/songs/1995/s3m/t/tryit.zip 163 **+ XX: Try It Again by Michael Hansen
/songs/1995/xm/u/universe.zip 342 *** XX: Join Universe by Stax,Front 6
/songs/1995/other/virus.zip 139 [n/a] XX: Virus by Unknown
/songs/1995/xm/w/walking.zip 292 ***+ XX: Walking Down My Back by Bom
/songs/1995/mod/w/war5.zip 67 *+ XX: War5 by Allan Noe
/songs/1995/xm/w/warhead.zip 373 **+ XX: Warhead by Nitro,DEE,Dubius
/songs/1995/s3m/w/way.zip 264 *** XX: Way by BMan
/songs/1995/xm/w/whenrise.zip 366 ***+ XX: Wne We Rise 3:00 by Quazar
/songs/1995/xm/w/would.zip 264 **+ XX: Would You by Sha33,Gryzor
/songs/1995/xm/w/www2.zip 294 * XX: WWW2 by Xlllm Misstres D.
/songs/1995/s3m/x/xray.zip 125 **+ XX: X-Ray by Fairnight,Guen
/songs/1995/s3m/y/yammah5.zip 226 ***+ XX: Yammah Reincarnation by Liam
/songs/1995/xm/z/z.zip 365 ***+ XX: Z by Trap
/songs/1995/xm/z/zest-tp5.zip 358 ** XX: Ancient Spirit by R.Schultz
=----------------------------------------------------------[Graphics:General]-=
Location /demos/graphics Size Rated Description
=-------------------------------- ---- ----- ---------------------------------=
/disks/1994/ajtjpg.zip 2366 ***+ Surreal renderings by AJT
/images/1994/e/evasion.zip 103 *+ Evasion by Idaho
/images/1995/h/hncraft.zip 1152 ***+ HyperNova by Salterello
/images/1996/s/stp_harm.zip 159 **+ Harm BBS ad by Lowrider
/images/1996/s/stp_jenn.zip 140 ** Jennie by Lowrider
/images/1996/s/stp_logo.zip 75 *+ STP Logo by Lowrider
/images/1996/s/stp_relx.zip 32 ** Reliks by Lowrider
Abduction 1995 Graphics (ABD95:grfx:)
/images/1995/j/jmagic.zip 34 **** 01: Jmagician by Der Piipo
Summer Encounter 1995 Graphics (SE95:grfx:)
/images/1995/f/fudged.zip 18 ** ??: A Fudged Demo Session by Seth
/images/1995/i/ironman.zip 217 * ??: Crime, Inc. by IronMan
/images/1995/j/jesper.zip 38 + ??: 3d Studio Beginner Project
X95 Graphics (X95:grfx:)
/images/1995/g/genie.zip 12 ** 05: Genie's Revenge by Comik
/images/1995/g/ganjaman.zip 25 *+ 07: Ganjaman by Balex-T
Juhla 1996 Graphics (JUH96A:grfx:)
/images/1996/s/scarlet.zip 70 **** 01: Scarlet by Frankie
/images/1996/w/windy-w.zip 132 ***+ 02: Windy World by Slimy Devil
/images/1996/f/four.zip 28 **+ 03: Four Faces by Mazor
/images/1996/s/swallow.zip 26 ** 04: Swallow by Damac
/images/1996/b/bedtime.zip 31 **+ 05: Bedtime by Criman
/images/1996/d/derpiipo.zip 32 *** 06: Untitled by Der Piipo
/images/1996/k/koeputk5.zip 17 ** 07: Koeputkilapset by Primon
/images/1996/h/harpman.zip 32 *** 08: Harpman by ?
/images/1996/t/techdevl.zip 66 *+ 09: Tech. Devil by Mitchy Mit
/images/1996/l/lyydia.zip 44 **+ 10: The Kuva by Prayer
Oz 1996 Graphics (OZ96:grfx:)
/images/1996/v/vamp10.zip 10 **** 01: Vampire by Black Artist
/images/1996/a/airwar.zip 25 ***+ 02: Air war by Grape
/images/1996/o/oz21.zip 121 ***+ 03: Oz by Visigoth
/images/1996/m/mw-blup.zip 30 **+ 04: Blup by Maeve Wolf
/images/1996/t/tvndr.zip 60 *+ 05: Tvndr? by Mr. Schizophrenia
/images/1996/f/final.zip 81 ** 06: Final by Manladas Zarich
/images/1996/s/seduct.zip 57 ** 07: Seduct by Grape
/images/1996/g/girl3.zip 1 + 08: Girl 3 by Goblin
/images/1996/n/night.zip 35 ** 09: Night by Grape
=-----------------------------------------------------[Graphics:Non-Reviewed]-=
Location /demos/graphics Size Description
=-------------------------------- ---- ---------------------------------------=
/party/1996/o/oz96imgs.zip 2989 Various photos from OZ96 in Australia
/party/1996/t/tp5-pics.zip 1322 Various photos from TP95 in Denmark
/programs/editors/anm8_113.zip 174 ANIM8 v1.13 sprite editor by Majestick
=----------------------------------------------------[Miscellaneous:Reviewed]-=
Location /demos Size Rated Description
=-------------------------------- ---- ----- ---------------------------------=
/mags/1995/fsn_spl2.zip 520 ** Fascination Issue #2
/mags/1995/what1.zip 896 *** What #1
/mags/1996/caustic1.zip 695 **+ Caustic Verses #1
/mags/1996/nwo8.zip 896 ***+ New World Order #8
=------------------------------------------------[Miscellaneous:Non-Reviewed]-=
Location /demos Size Description
=-------------------------------- ---- ---------------------------------------=
/hornet/demonews/demonews.113 62 DemoNews 113
/hornet/freedom/fredom_c.zip 17 Comments on the Freedom CD by Dan Wright
/info/misc/del03.zip 6 DemoGroup E-mail #3 by Scout, SD, Sam
/info/traxw/traxweek.042 45 TraxWeekly #42
/info/traxw/traxweek.043 50 TraxWeekly #43
/info/traxw/traxweek.044 68 TraxWeekly #44
=-[Articles]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
=---------------------------------------------------[Introduction]--[Snowman]-=
Hello all, and welcome to DemoNews issue 115.
This issue was set to go last Sunday. I was asked to delay it a day which
unfortunately pushed me past the weekend (the time I can most easily work
on these things). Now you are going to get two issues of DemoNews within 3
days of each other.
Kiwidog's second article on 3D graphics programming would not fit in this
issue but will be back in DemoNews.116.
If anyone wants to help out with the /pub/games archive, just mail
mikel@cdrom.com. He is one of my coworkers and doesn't seem to have a
widely read newsletter of his own to make the advertisement. :)
The reviewed demo with the most groovy music this week is definitely
"Twisted" from the OZ 96 demo party. Check it out.
We are now in the process of organizing a demo CD. This will contain as
many productions as we can get permissions for and will be sold for the
first time at NAID. Note that at over 2 gigs, our site would require 4 CD's
to make a copy. As such, we will be focusing on a more limited area (the
demos) as an early project. Here's the deal simply put: if you give us
permission to put your demo on the CD, we'll give you a free one. We sell
the CD's, I gain nothing extra over my normal paycheck, the scene is happy
and we can all live on a big happy storage device. Look for a more
in-depth article from me in the future about this.
Our /incoming directory has been under attack! :) I personally have
reviewed and moved 60 of the 300 megs in there this past week. Our whole
team is working to bring the size under 50 megs. Yes folks, the day of
telling others that your song is in /incoming/music/songs/xm are over. My
goal is to (by April) have things efficient enough so no files remain in
/incoming longer than 2 weeks.
Take care.
Snowman / Hornet - r3cgm@cdrom.com
=--------------------------[Editorial: The "Tonbal Tes" Threshold]--[Snowman]-=
_____Introduction
3520 music downloads are made on a normal ftp.cdrom.com day, 36 gigs
grabbed in a normal month. I've seen directories go from /music, to
/music/mod, to /music/mod/a, to /music/1996/mod/a. More than likely we'll
have something like /music/1997/jan/mod/a if previous growth is any
indicator. It's pretty difficult finding resources to maintain and manage
such a volatile archive, but somehow we get by.
_____Yesterday
When the directory was just /music, the year was 1992 and our archive was
very small. It was a happy little archive that just chugged along a day at
a time, growing bit by bit. Sometime around 1994 the demo scene really
discovered the net as a means of communication and file-sharing. The happy
little archive was about ready to bust its pants, being capped by a 400meg
imposed barrier.
_____Today
Boom! In March of 1995 the archive moves from ftp.eng.ufl.edu to
ftp.cdrom.com. Growth is unrestricted. The site is upgraded to a P6-150
with 256megs of RAM and 72gigs of storage. Many people (including myself)
start ordering faster ISDN 128k lines to their homes to increase access
speed. The number of people actively maintaining the site jumps from 2 to
12. Meanwhile, the happy hungry archive devours file after file,
increasing from 400meg to 2000meg in about 10 months.
_____Tomorrow
Now I want to scare you a little bit.
Let's look at August of '97, about 20 months from now. Based on current
growth, our archive will probably be running a P7-400 with a gig or two of
RAM. Don't worry, by 1997 that won't sound sound quite as fast. There
will probably be around 300 people actively maintaining our site (a very
small percentage of the demo scene at that time). Our site would weigh in
at about 50gigs. But don't worry, by 1997 that too won't sound quite as
impressive. 616000 music files will be downloaded and 1500 uploaded each
and every week. Unlike the other statistics mentioned, that last one is
non-trivial.
_____Inspiration and Definition
I don't usually write editorials anymore. Not much inspires me. A week or
so ago, Trixter told me that there had been some article in TraxWeekly #43
about our ratings. He wanted to write a response. Sounded good to me.
Jim's very good at that sort of thing.
Then TraxWeekly #44 rolls around a couple of days ago. I note that about
half of the articles deal in some way with ratings. <sigh> Tonight I
finally sat down with a big cup of coffee to read over the newsletter. A
short while later, I was inspired.
Q: Why is music rated?
A: To save some of the scene a lot of time.
How does reviewing songs save the scene time? Well, with 60 songs uploaded
a week very few people have the time to download and listen to them all
(though it is still possible to do). By 1997, you will have to listen to
36 new songs every hour of every day if you want to be completely fair to
everyone. Unless the average length of a song drops to about 1 minute and
42 seconds, this will be completely and utterly impossible. Though these
statistics are only based on current growth and may be significantly off,
the "Threshold Of Not Being Able To Listen to Every Song" (Tonbal Tes) will
come, and it will come soon.
The "Tonbal Tes Threshold" is very important! I can't stress that enough.
When it is reached, everyone must be selective in what they download.
Let's say that of all songs out there, you only like about 5% of them. By
August of 1997, that means you would like about 11 songs uploaded to our
site each day. But what about the other 200 that you don't like? By the
Tonbal Tes Threshold, you already know you can't download all of them and
find just the ones you like. Even trying to "quick preview" all songs will
soon be out of the question.
_____Options
Fortunately, you have several options open.
Option 1: Random Downloading
Cons - You are downloading a lot of poorly-written music.
Pros - You can get a warm fuzzy, knowing that you are politically correct
and being completely fair to all musicians out there.
Option 2: Downloading by Author
Cons - You are being unfair to other musicians. Difficult to find new
authors you like without doing a lot of extra unpleasant listening.
Pros - You can consistently get music that you like.
Option 3: Word of Mouth
Cons - Other people are not you and won't always guess the type of music
you like. There are still about 80 songs a week to get. How much
"word of mouth" time are you willing to allocate?
Pros - A group of people are out there looking for the type of music that
interests you most. You can get a fair amount of it.
Option 4: Reviews
Cons - Ratings are subjective, and only reflect the opinion of the reviewer
or reviewers. Not very accurate at times.
Pros - Very quick to read and use (capability for automation).
These four options are not mutually exclusive. What I mean to say is that
you can use any combination of the four you like. In fact, I would
encourage using the last three. That would probably yield the highest
like-to-dislike download ratio.
I believe however that in the coming years, the last option listed will be
the most effective and efficient way for people to get the songs they want
most.
_____So Who Does the Rating?
We do, and for several reasons. First, we have a ready supply of incoming
files. Second, we have people dedicated enough to do it. Third, we have a
method of cataloging and distributing reviews. Fourth, all of us view
ratings as a good thing and are willing to put up with negative response
from a significant portion of the scene. And last, we have been reviewing
for the past three years and have already established a process that has
the ability to grow, change, and improve.
_____Improving Ratings
One of the easiest ways to increase the accuracy of ratings is simply to
have multiple reviewers for every song. The accuracy of ratings is
directly proportional to the number of reviewers. Trust me, I'd love to
have all songs on our site judged the way songs were in Music Contest 3.
Lack of manpower and resources prevents that.
Suggestions have been made by the scene on how to improve our ratings. We
once tried to categorize music so that people could download the type of
music that interested them most. Unfortunately, this system proved too
difficult to implement correctly, consistently. After many a complaint,
categorizing music stopped.
Automating the reviewing process allows the reviewers to rate more songs in
less time. Much work has been done in this area recently, though there is
still more room for improvement. Automation has lessened the time it takes
for a reviewer to figure out: which songs he/she must review, get the
songs, record the reviews, send them to Diablo, and post them in DemoNews.
Think of this as trying to increase the throughput of all reviewers.
There is a trend that distresses me a little bit. I call it the impossible
question. "Why don't you just have five reviewers for each song?" "Why
don't you categorize songs based on style of music?" "Why don't you write
big paragraph descriptions about each song?" The bottom line, the stopping
block for almost all suggestions people make, is lack of workers. We have
finite resources and most suggestions that have been made are beyond our
ability to implement.
On one point I would like to clear something up. There seems to be a
misconception that a rating of ***** is given out frequently. This is not
so. Furthermore, it is doubly hard to get a 5 star because the rating must
be agreed upon by all members of Hornet. There are currently 8 productions
online with a 5-star rating: 4 demos and 4 songs. We have files on our
archive dating back to 1987, and so slightly less than 1 file per year is
given *****. I do not consider that to be excessive.
As the Tonbal Tes Threshold approaches, we may actually be able to find
enough people allocate more than one reviewer per song. But try telling
that to Diablo with over 200megs of unreviewed music sitting in /incoming
and you might be inclined to think otherwise. :)
_____The Life of a Reviewer
Reviewing music is difficult, time-consuming, and often tedious. As a
reviewer, you get to give up a night or two a week listening to often
poorly-written songs. Why not take a break and relax in #trax? Oh no...
you'll get into an argument with someone about reviews. Maybe work on a
song? So how would you rate it? Doh! As a reviewer I'll bet that gets
annoying.
It isn't all bad though. Each week you get to give Diablo a list of
reviews. You see them magically appear in DemoNews, and you know that a
lot of people look at and rely on those reviews. You are anonymous; no one
knows which specific songs you reviewed.
Something happens frequently that disturbs me: arguments in #trax. An
ineffective stress reliever for a music reviewer is going to #trax and
having everyone argue about how unfair ratings are. So please don't yell
at the reviewers. They didn't design the system. They only implement it.
Yell at Diablo and I. We're the ones who maintain it. Actually don't yell
at Diablo (he has enough stress already).
These reviewers aren't in the "Holy Order of Music Reviewers." They don't
sing chants and dance around floor carvings and candles. They aren't Mr.
Newbie who just discovered a .MOD file three months ago. They are normal
people who care enough about the future of the demo scene to do work that
isn't always fun. They are all part of a team working toward a tangible
and realistic goal; to save some of the scene a lot of time.
I respect and admire each one of them for their dedication.
_____The Beauty of It All
I encourage you to complain about our rating system. How else are we going
to find ways to improve it? We can't very well carry off a project of this
magnitude without some system of checks and balances. We aren't very
likely to stop rating, but we're more than willing to change if the change
is reasonable and we have enough people to do it.
For the past two weeks, TraxWeekly has provided an excellent ground on
which to debate the music rating issue. I would like to see more of it.
_____Closing
The Tonbal Tes Threshold is fast approaching. Barring a plague, world
cataclysmic event, or dramatic loss of interest in the demo scene, it will
come in the next year. I can only hope that this editorial has influenced
the scene in some way. Maybe someone out there now thinks "Well, I still
don't like the ratings but I sort of see his point." Maybe someone else
is thinking "Hey, I think I'd like to be a reviewer."
I'll be there is some nasty dude out there thinking "I'm going to quote
parts of this editorial in TraxWeekly and respond to them publicly with
my less thought-out comments, faulty logic, and incorrect facts. Then
everyone will love and respect me because they don't like ratings either.
Also, I will have stood up to DemoNews and Hornet, meaning that I'll never
get a good job when I grow up and my cat will hate me and the girl I like
will talk to her friend about my acne." Oh well, that's life I guess.
Maybe Gene (the editor) won't like that guy.
In his book (The Road Ahead), Bill Gates talked about a "positive feedback
cycle." Applied to ratings, it goes something like:
1. More people like our ratings.
3. More people become reviewers.
4. Our ratings get better.
5. Go back to step 1.
Step 2 would of course be to contact us at the address below.
Snowman / Hornet - r3cgm@ftp.cdrom.com
=--------------------------------[OS Candy and the Future of Demos]--[Finrod]-=
_____Introduction
There was a time when a computer was a computer, and a demo coder could
rely on any computer of the same brand and model to behave exactly the
same. Those were the happy days of the Commodore 64, the Atari ST and the
Amiga 500, when sound boards, SCSI disks, graphic accelerators and
protected mode belonged in science fiction movies if anywhere at all.
In those days you would stuff a tape in your reliable Datasette - the lucky
ones would insert a floppy into their VIC 1541 or 1543 - load the demo and
SYS it. Or you would insert a disk into your Atari or Amiga, turn on the
power, and watch it load and run. But even the Commodore 64 had extension
capabilities, under the cryptic name of IEEE/488 cartridges, and it was not
unusual for a program to require one of these cartridges to run.
Then came the era of the IBM compatible. The original IBM PC had already
been on the market for a year when the Commodore 64 came out, and to tell
the truth, on a short term the Commodore was preferable: sixteen text-mode
colors, high-resolution (320x200) graphics in black and white, multi-color
bitmapped graphics in 160x200, three programmable FM synthesizers with nine
full octaves of sound and four different wave types.
But the IBM PC's power was its upgradability. Not counting the processor,
how many of you have a hardware configuration which is 100%
programmatically identical to that of the original PC as shipped in summer
1981? Most of you have serial ports with 16500 UARTs as opposed to 8250,
3.5" floppy drives instead of 5.25" ones, IDE, EIDE or SCSI controllers and
multi-gigabyte disks where even the luckiest PC owners only had 20 MB MFM
disks, accelerated SVGA cards instead of the MDA and CGA standards which
prevailed at that time.
Not to mention hardware which nobody had even heard of back then, such as
100 Mbps Fast Ethernet adapters, mice, digital sound cards, MPEG hardware
CODECs, Hauppage WinTVs, or VR helmets. Even the keyboards no longer
behave the same (if your keyboard has an XT/AT selector, try switching it
to XT mode and see if your AT compatible understands a shit) not to mention
the 20 to 24 additional keys.
Though a blessing for the demanding user, and a boost to manufacturers'
inventivity, this upgradability soon became a curse for programmers. The
first symptom of that problem appeared with the coming of faster machines,
such as 8 MHz XTs or 14 MHz ATs. Games written for PCs (anyone remember
Lunar Lander, Space Invaders, Snake, Hardhat Mac?) no longer worked on XTs
or ATs simply because they were too fast. So programmers had to find ways
to make games independent of processor type and clock rate.
Next they had to find ways to make games work on different graphics
adapters (although IBM did their best to make new adapters backward
compatible), in different memory configurations and from different drive
configurations: single floppy, twin floppies, single floppy and Winchester
- sorry, harddisk - or twin floppies and harddisk. When the PC hit the
scene three or four years ago there was no way you could boot from a demo
disk. You had to rely on DOS, and if DOS was inadequate, then too bad.
This soon became a real problem, because most of the time DOS *was*
inadequate. With all due respect to Microsoft, DOS may have been a good
idea back in 1981 but it is not what I would call the OS of the future.
DOS' major problem is its pathetic clutch on compatibility. DOS wishes to
remain compatible with hardware that is not even worthy to be used in PC
throwing competitions at demo parties.
DOS wishes to remain compatible with earlier versions which were written
for hardware of which not a single chip remains in a modern computer. DOS
is the reason why we struggle with XMS, EMS and DOS extenders,
eight-point-three, and paths which may not exceed 80 characters (yes, check
your programming references buddies, DOS does not allow the complete drive,
path and file name to exceed 80 characters). DOS, my friends, is the OS of
the past.
Although many sceners will not agree with me, I believe that Microsoft has
made a step in the right direction with Windows '95. Long file names,
32-bit applications and preemptive multitasking all speak in its favor. But
Win95 still clutches to older DOS and Windows versions like a drowning ant
to a straw. Not that I do not appreciate still being able to run my 16-bit
programs, but DOS 7.0 is still but the seventh version of DOS 1.0.
And what are the alternatives? Linux? Yes, Linux is an excellent
operating system, but it requires of its user an inacceptable level of
technical insight. UNIX has never been nor claimed to be an adequate
operating system for independent computers. Linux will remain at best a
curiosity, widely used amongst specialists and freaks, but unknown to most
users.
And Linux has features which consolidate its position as an operting
system, but reduces its usefulness for the scene: it is safe, crash-proof,
higly virtualized and compartimented, and therefore unusable for demos.
Demos require direct, low-level, unrivaled access to the computer's
hardware. Direct? you must ask the kernel for permission to access the I/O
ports you need. Low-level? Linux, like any other UNIX, virtualizes most of
the hardware. Unrivaled? try to prevent the user from switching to another
virtual console while the demo is running.
What about OS/2? OS/2 is an excellent operating system, faster and more
reliable than WinNT or Win95, which even allows applications such as games
or demos to monopolize resources such as the screen or the sound hardware.
And OS/2 has been around longer... But OS/2 is ugly, hard to administrate
and not widely accepted. The graphical user interface looks like something
the dog left on your doormat, and is hard to configure. OS/2 is slow too
boot, poorly documented, awkward of use, and more than a little buggy.
Last but not least, there is practically no software for it. No wonder
unopened OS/2 Warp CDs are $20-$30 apiece on the second-hand market.
There are a few other alternatives which I will mention only shortly.
386BSD, FreeBSD, AIX and other *NIX have the same disadvantages as Linux,
and are even less widely used and known. FreeDOS, DOS/NT (no relation with
WinNT) and other attempts at creating freeware or PD versions of DOS
obviously cannot be any better than the original which they are emulating.
The same thing goes for PC-DOS, DR-DOS, and other commercial DOS clones,
including network-specific operating systems.
However, not all sceners and gamers are sitting passively and letting
things happen. There are at least three projects for better operating
systems currently going on: EOS, Grail and DemOS. EOS and Grail are game-
oriented, whereas DemOS is scene-oriented.
EOS, or the Entertainment Operating System, is being developed by a large
and highly hierarchized team of coders, most of them rec.games.programmer
subscribers, with the assistance of Scitech Software which provides them
with an FTP site.
From what information is available on the net (see the EOS homepage at
http://205.162.182.160/cleo/eos, maintained by Cleo Saulnier), it seems to
be a cross-breed of DOS and OS/2. It is single-user like DOS and
multi-threaded like OS/2, can work on top of a DOS partition, and has the
capability of allocating all system resources to a single program. It has
some features which belong to neither DOS nor OS/2 however: 32-character
file names, an I-node-based file system inspired by *NIX, several privilege
levels not only for the OS kernel but also for applications, high
modularity, and that nice little freeware stamp.
At the time of this writing no preview or alphas have been released, though
some source was by mistake made public some time ago. However it seems that
since this incident the EOS team is twice as protective as before, so there
is little hope of getting a glimpse of EOS in the near future.
To the best of my knowledge there is no single person directing the EOS
development effort. Grail however is more of a one-man venture: it is being
developed by Lewis A. Sellers (lsellers@1stresource.com), who is also a
member of the EOS team. Information about Grail is available on the Grail
homepage, http://www.1stresource.com/l/lsellers/grail.htm, but the site
seems to be heavily bogged down and I have not been able to read any of
this information in time for this article. Even DemoNews has a deadline,
you know...
Like EOS, Grail is highly modular, and also highly object-oriented, which
explains its modularity. Lewis aims at a totally object-oriented OS where
all programs, device drivers etc. are implemented as methods belonging to
their respective data and devices. Grail is also a multi-user system, or
rather, as Lewis himself expresses it, "Grail provides for... multiple user
profiles", a feature which allows you to "Restrict the kiddies from your
porn subdirectories or your little brother from your asm source code"
(sic).
Also like EOS, no source or binaries have been released, though Lewis seems
to be somewhat less paranoid than the EOS team, and has released some
technical specifications, such as the Intel Structure Reference which
details Grail's memory organization, and reveals amongst other things a
scheme to access the file system with simple memory reads and writes, a
trick achieved through paging. Grail uses a flat memory model with - as far
as I can see from the specs - no separate address space for applications.
The purpose of Grail is not so much to provide a fast OS for games and
demos as to provide a robust and efficient API for multi-media
applications, and easy access to all kinds of hardware.
The DemOS project is the most recent of the three. It saw the world when,
after a discussion about OSes on comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos last december, Beren
of Ewox (beren@infolink.no) gathered the names of the most active
participants in the debate and, with some assistance from yours truly,
contacted those people and build up a group of coders interested in the
concept of a demo OS.
Currently, about 15-20 people are registered as having joined the project
in one capacity or another, although at this point less than half a dozen
are actively involved in coding or planning. Information about the project
is available through a monthly newsletter posted on csipd and distributed
on ftp.cdrom.com and all Hornet mirrors. The DemOS homepage is
http://www.ifi.uio.no/~dag-erli/demos.
DemOS (pronounce dem-oss, not demoze) is not UNIX, but it certainly is
inspired by UNIX. The file system is UNIX-like, with 255-character file
names, soft links, index nodes and the works. The OS itself is based on a
microkernel architecture. It boots through an LILO-like loader, OSLO,
which in the shipping vesrion may, besides loading the kernel, provide a
multi-boot capability. The kernel itself does not load modules, but simply
runs a program, typically a command interpreter.
Module loading is done following a dynamic request/release scheme which
allows unused modules to be released from memory. Applications dynamically
request or release modules which they do or do not require. Thus an
intelligent shell can be configured to request a certain set of modules
which the kernel will load, after which all applications requiring these
modules will load much faster.
The DemOS team also plans to define a standard API for graphics adapters
(including GUI and 3D accelerators), sound boards (including wavetable
boards such as the GUS series or the AWE32), and a wide range of other
devices. Module specifications will be released with the first alphas to
allow independent coders to program drivers which the DemOS team itself
does not have resources to develop.
However firmly their developers believe in them, EOS, Grail and DemOS are
yet but dreams - dreams in the process of being realized, but dreams still.
However, the people behind all three projects are experienced and
resourceful programmers, and I believe that all three projects will go far
beyond the beta stage. Who knows - maybe in five or ten years a majority of
PC users will be running EOS, Grail or DemOS and not WinXX, OS/2 or Linux.
A man can dream, can't he?
Finrod / Ewox - dagsm@infolink.no
=-------------------------------------[Proba Generalna ][ Mini-Report]--[Maf]-=
This party, also known as General Probe ][ was held on 28/29th of January
1996 in Ostrowiec Sw., Poland. It was a PC only party but some amiga
sceners were also present. Adrar Design were the organizers of this
meeting. Around 200 people attended it (there would be more but it was
cold at that time in Poland)... There were some girls too. The party place
was a school.
Party started in the morning but since I wasn't there at the beginning I
don't know what was going on. I heard some fun compos took place but later
looking at mousepad-throwing (or something) fun-compo I wouldn't call it
'funny'. Maybe I didn't get it properly. (?!) The coolest party attraction
were cakes looking like toruses shaded with castor-sugar for only $0.20.
Mostly coders liked it... (oponki ruled! :)
In the evening some compos started. The first was 4 channel music compo.
There were pretty good modules but unfortunately most of them were techno
and additionally it was played loudly as hell so it was hard to survive.
The same thing goes for multichannel modules. It sounded pretty bad and
noisy (too loud). I'm still having a headache.
Later on some other compos took place. Because of the the big screen which
was pretty lame (were there a party with good bigscreen?) most of gfx
looked bad. Raytracing and 4kb intro compo also took place but I won't
write anything about it cause I was sleeping then. After some time intro
compo started. There were around 6 or 7 entries. Most of them had some
standard stuff like phong/texture mapping and the like. An intro by
Amnesty ruled the compo (see it!). Pulse's intro was also good.
Then the demo compo started. Around 12 demos were shown. Most of them
presented some standard fx like phong and the like. There was no fancy
one... A demo by a non-Polish group (Slovakian) - Mist, was also presented
but unfortunately it halted in the middle (the beginning was nice). The
compo machine was 486dx4-100mhz with GUS and SB. Nobody complained...
Yet before the demo and intro compo some other demos and intros were shown.
In demos Reanimator ruled... in intros : JTX Lame 2 was the most liked.
In general this party was a good one... Much better than a year ago (PG1).
Most of people had fun (or at least I hope so). There were also rumors
about PG3. Party releases should be available soon on internet. Check them
out and have fun...
That's all...
Sorry for the shortness (for full results and bigger report have a look at
Bad News #4 - to be releases pretty soon).
MAF / Camorra - maf@aquila.ichp.waw.pl
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=-[Closing]-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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...........................................................End.of.DemoNews.115.