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                                    Issue #5
                                  June 25, 1995
                HNews is a weekly newsletter for the demo scene.
          It is produced by the group Hornet at the site ftp.cdrom.com.

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Subscribers:  701  | Last Issue:  652  | Change: +49 | Size: 41,865
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CONTENTS

    --[Article Name]-------------------------[Author]--------------------

      Hornet News Introduction               Snowman and GD
      MC3 Updates                            Floss
      This is your History                   Rimbo
      Sites                                  Razorback
      Linux Rules                            Maverick
      Interview: Trixter and Edge            Dreamwalker
      Rules at Assembly '95                  Contributers to c.s.i.p.d.
      Subscribing
      Closing


---[Hornet News Introduction]--[Snowman, GraveDigger, and Trixter]-------------

 GD: Hello and welcome to issue five of Hornet News.
 SM: This week, I'm not doing anything.
 GD: Snowman is on vacation in Bermuda, surrounded by topless women and cold
     drinks. :) Back on this side of reality, Floss starts off our newsletter
     this week with probably the final update on MC3.
 SM: I just finished checking all the entries. We have 136 tunes, totalling 28
     Megs. I wonder how many entries ASM94 and TP94 had.. hmm.
 GD: Good question.. Well, our next article is called "This is Your History"
     and is from Rimbo. Snowman, how did you find Rimbo?
 SM: Actually, Trixter started forwarding his posts to c.s.i.p.d. to me. I
     really liked his style so I contacted him. Hopefully he'll be a regular
     contributer around here for awhile. What's this "Sites" article?
 GD: The sites article is a reply to a post on c.s.i.p.d about demo-related
     FTP sites.
 SM: For those readers out there who don't know much about newsgroups,
     c.s.i.p.d. is an acronym for comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos; one of the most
     active demo-related newsgroups out there.
 GD: ...A good way to get in touch with demo fanatics around the world. Oh
     hey, be sure to check out Maverick's "Linux Rules" article! It's very
     interesting.
 SM: Maverick had to deal with some corrections from your buddy and mine,
     Trixter! Looks like we have a couple of very knowledgeable people on our
     Hornet team.
 GD: How true. Trixter has also been a big help with helping to manage our
     FTP site. And to put Trixter in the spotlight again, he and Edge/EMF are
     interviewed regarding the musicdisk, Chromatiks II. This interview was
     done by Dreamwalker.
 SM: Also, Trixter was interviewed for the July issue of "Wired" magazine. I
     hope he doesn't get so popular that he wants to run off, leave Hornet,
     and join iCE.
 GD: Yikes! Watch out for the hate-mail from that one. Anyways, we wrap up
     with some opinions of the ASM'95 rules, as posted on (again) c.s.i.p.d.
 SM: Yes, Assembly 95 is just around the corner.  I wonder if FC will attempt
     a comeback.
 GD: I'm anxious to find out as well! Anyways, we must be moving along...
 SM: Yes, I have more System 370 Assembler and Calculus to do... ahh, the
     wonders of university. Well dude, thanks for putting this issue together.
 GD: Not a problem; glad to help out when I can... This has been GD...
 SM: ...and the warm and cuddly Snowman...
 <>: ...And we are outta here!


---[MC3 Update]--[Floss]-------------------------------------------------------

 This is kind of a pre-wrap up to the big thing that we like to call "Music
 Contest 3." Since I don't have the papers on me handy and I'm using a
 Telemate window to write this all down, why don't I just give out a few
 general numbers that should give you an idea of what things are like down
 here.

 We have a total of 46 judges (give or take a few, depending on how off my
 count is and if anyone decided to drop out), we HAD over 170 applied
 entries, and the last count I was able to make of the total uploaded and
 verified entries is up over 130. Something to be feared, yes. Something to
 party about, hell yes.

 However, the hardest part is to come at this moment. The waiting. I know
 how the waiting feels. In MC2 I entered the second uploaded song into the
 directory and had to wait months for the results to come out. You know the
 deal; pulling your hair out, biting fingernails, shredding paper, pulling
 Floss's hair out, pulling other people's hair out, hurling large objects
 out the front window, that kind of thing. The waiting is the hardest part
 of the whole thing.

 Before the deadline, you were trying your best to track your best, and now
 you're stuck waiting for another 2 weeks until you find out how you did.
 The results will be out sooner than you think, so don't worry. And fear
 not, the judges will not be idle (at least they better not be or i'm gonna
 rip some kiwis off). They'll be hard at work doing their best to rate your
 music.

 There are a few people that contributed to this contest that made all
 things possible, and I think its time to recognize them.

 First off and foremost, there was this young cigar smoking, long haired,
 ant eating, bat watching Ohio dood who sat as far back behind the scene (no
 pun intended) as possible and helped out in ways that I couldn't have lived
 without. From coding to scanning each file to letting me know who needed to
 send in new versions because of corrupt files, and making sure each and
 every one of those 130-something entries were in working order.

 Christopher G. Mann, aliased as Snowman, deserves a pat on the back. Well,
 he deserves a lot more than a pat on the back. Though a round of applause
 would be kind of hard to do on the net. I'll buy him a doughnut at the next
 NAID. You all can hold me to the bargain too.

 Others of note are Dan Wright, who made sure I was alive even when I wasn't
 so sure I was. He forwarded email to me when people didn't read the file
 that said 'Floss get email. Leave us alone.', and even took care of some
 file problems I was having on my system. Of course, there is GraveDigger,
 who was just plain cool throughout the whole thing (even though he went
 over my helmet a couple times (: ).

 Finally, big many smewchies to everyone who ENTERED the contest. More
 smewchies to the judges who are gonna have all the fun. (:

 Music Contest 3 had a few tough battles that had to be fought. The deadline
 was moved beacuse everyone panicked when I had to work two open-to-close
 days at my job (8am to midnight, fear) and I wasn't able to get to my email
 fast enough. Lots of corrupt entries happened here and there and we had
 troubles trying to get a hold of the composers to let them know that they
 needed to send new versions. Some people objected the GUS only rule, some
 people objected lil 'ol me, and some people just had bad hair days and
 flamed me to my face on IRC. At least you had the courage to tell it to my
 screen. (:

 All in all, the whole thing is the single most successful music contest in
 the history of the music scene. It's slammin, it's jammin, it's big, no,
 it's not big, it's huge. It's your worst nightmare, it's the best thing
 since sliced bread, and best of all, it's all yours.

 I'll cut this a little short because I have to leave for school. Yes, I'm
 the crazy one who's going to school during the summer. For three years
 straight. Muahahahaha. In any case, the results will be in your hands as
 soon as the judging gets finished and Floss gets a day off to handle all
 this stuff. (:

 Take care.

 -George Nowik
  Floss [KFMF / MC3]


---[This is Your History]--[Rimbo]---------------------------------------------

 [taken from comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos]

 > This is your history, ladies and gentlemen.
 > It used to be a much smaller world.
 > -FT/iCE

 It's very important that you said "history." Certainly, even the PC demo
 scene at one time may have had minor warez affiliations. But those days are
 long gone and ill-remembered. This part of the scene has detached itself
 from that history. Let me give you another example.

 I am a Southerner and a Texan, not just a member of the USA. The history of
 the South in the USA is brutally tarnished with the shadow of black slavery
 and racism. But today, in the South of the 1990s, racism is rare and
 slavery is totally nonexistent. Assuming that I'm a racist, or that anyone
 in the South is racist, is wholly unjustified.

 In fact, of the ten most segregated states, only two were once members of
 the old Confederate States of America. [People not-well versed in US
 History: The CSA was, 130 years ago, 13 states in the Southeastern section
 of the USA which separated from it in an attempt to retain their "right" to
 own slaves.] The point is, the area which once was the embodiment of racial
 tensions is now less racist than the rest of the country.

 The analogy is obvious. Just because the PC demo scene has some roots in
 piracy doesn't mean that today it's a haven for pirates and warez. That's
 not why most of us got involved with it. We got involved with it because of
 DEMOS, and demos alone. Not warez, but demos. Demos are cool.

 History? History is bunk. History is the class everyone sleeps in. In the
 words of Sting, "I once asked my History teacher how we were to learn
 anything useful from his subject, when it seemed to me to be nothing more
 than a rotten and sordid succession of robber baron scumbags devoid of any
 admirable human qualities." (He failed History.)

 If nothing else, it is that History which makes it even more imperative
 that we are wary of how others judge us. So you see...we HAVE changed.

 -Rimbo


---[Sites]--[Razorback]--------------------------------------------------------

 [taken from comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos]

 > QUESTION! : WHY IS IT 'DAT EVERY TIME SOMEONE GIVES ME SOME SITEZ, I END
 > UP GETTING EITHER NO CONNECTION, OR SOME REALLY CHEAP PIECE OF JUNK WITH
 > 1 DEMO CALLED "UPCHUCK" OR SOMETHING? COME ON MAN! FUNK DAT!
 > no really, could someone post 5-10 sites for me?

 I THINK IT IZ ALZO K00L TO WRITE LIKE THIZ, BECOZ IT GIVEZ MY EG0 A BIG
 BOOZT. ALZO MY FRiENDZ LIKE IT A L0T.

 stop whining and try ftp.cdrom.com.

 -Razorback


---[Linux Rules]--[Maverick]---------------------------------------------------

 "Linux rules - if you have the time to recompile"

 "Windows is not an answer;
 Windows is a question,
 and the answer is NO!"
      - anon Net signature.

 Unix is not a friendly environment.  Weird filenames, the lack of an
 undelete command and tools that have names like awk, sed and emacs can send
 chills through the average DOS user. Which was what I was just over a year
 ago. Then co-worker Clayton (bless his heart) said: "You must get into Unix
 sometime. You will like it a lot. Try Linux - here are the disks." Bingo.
 My outlook on computing philosophy changed. Linux, despite some short
 absences from my HD is now firmly here to stay.

 Linux is a fully-featured, industrial-strength 32-bit operating system.
 Sheesh, I sound like an IBM press release! What it means in english is that
 it's very fast, never crashes, and has thousands of applications with which
 to test it out. Not that there isn't a lot of mileage to be gained by just
 fooling around with the operating system utilities. The philosophy of Unix
 is to have a small, tightly-integrated kernel with plenty of small, fast,
 and configurable utilities that sit on top of that kernel.

 Does this remind anyone of the C language? Well, Unix and Linux are written
 in C and leverage the portability, compactness, and general all-around
 wonderfulness of the C language. (Please note objective coverage of *all*
 demo tools in this article ;-p)

 Linux has a complete implementation of the X-Windows system and when and
 running it looks pretty much like a workstation's desktop. Since it's Unix,
 it comes with native IP network support. None of these PC add-on packages
 that run on Windows sockets - we're talking about *the* ftp, ncftp, irc,
 telnet, gopher, Netscape and other Internet goodies.

 Because its fully multitasking, I can write this article using and X-Windows
 text editor, spell check it with the spell tool, run Netscape in a window,
 telnet to somewhere else, monitor a friend telneting to my machine, and keep
 an eye out on rcramer's comments on #trax. My 4x CD-ROM works perfectly, both
 for data and playing audio disks. It's the first OS I've seen to make use of
 all of the 2Mb of RAM in my graphics card.

 The Gravis MAX responds sweetly to anything sent to it. MIDIs, MODs, S3Ms and
 the sounds made by DOOM - DOOM? Oh yes, I forgot. Doom I and II run fine
 under Linux - no MIDI soundtrack but full bzzzzzzzzrrrnnnaaaargh sound
 support when your trusty motorised tree-feller bites into a bad guy. It's an
 eye-popper when you first see it - either in full-screen (aka DOS) mode or in
 a window (tm) on your X desktop.

 You can also play over the Internet against anyone else with a connection.
 T1 not needed, 28,8 modem works fine. There are paint programs, graphical
 debuggers, games, visual editors and enough man (for manual) pages to get
 anybody started. The most dangerous part of all - setting up your video
 card and monitor frequencies - has been greatly simplified with a utility
 to do it for you. So there's no need to blow that 17" monitor into
 thousands of little fragments.

 "Bother", said Pooh as Windows swapped to disk for the tenth time.

 Now the Windows pundits (and that dangerous subset, the Windows with Internet
 tools pundits) may be saying that Windows can do all of this and more. My
 answer to that is NO IT CAN'T.

 1. Linux is free. Free. You pay nothing. It's not even shareware. No
    registration fee needed. No difficult dealings with those teams of
    registration card experts. Nothing to pay - now or later.

 2. Linux comes with free and comprehensive technical support -ie. the
    Internet news groups comps.sys.os.linux.questions, alt.os.linux and
    alt.linux.advocacy.

 3. Linux works and it works all the time. It's also been shipping for a
    while.

 4. Linux shows off the power of your machine rather than forcing you to buy
    a new machine to show off the power of Linux.

 5. Finally, because this is a demo zine and I need to talk about demos a bit
    if I want to continue writing for it and because I believe it may be true,
    Linux is a viable demo platform if enough coders get cracking. Windows
    will never be.

 O say can you C?

 I would love to see some demos for Linux. But there are a number of
 problems. The first is Pascal and pure ASM programmers need not apply - C
 is your only viable option. There are some Pascal to C translators out
 there and inline ASM is possible in C, though.  Secondly writing your own
 graphics and sound libraries is going to be tricky as both require a
 thorough knowledge of the underlying operating system. The C and C++
 compilers are great though, and have X graphical debuggers and interfaces
 for the patient types who want to configure them.

 But perhaps the greatest barrier is the unfriendliness of Unix. It's a very
 different terrain to navigate. Once you get into it, its cool to work with
 but it will probably never be as familiar as DOS is to the masses of PC
 users.

 The mindset is quite different too - when you get a game, there's no
 executable. No, there's just a whole lot of source (and a makefile). You
 must type "make" to get your game working. Looking at the source of a lot
 of Linux games I have now is very interesting, especially to see how they
 handle the screen and the sound. Maybe here is the place to start...

 The mindset when working with Linux is also one of cheerful optimism. You
 will probably trash your entire installation a couple of times and have to
 reinstall it again. Most of the README files contain bug lists and known
 problems but nothing that's too life-threatening.

 "A vain hope"

 Everyone I know has heard the "if Operating Systems were Airlines" joke but
 it bears repeating here (plus my additions):

 DOS Airways: Everyone pushes the plane, jumps on, glides to a halt, pushes it
 again, glides.....etc.

 Windows Airways: The plane, airport and attendants are smart and helpful
 but a bit slow. The plane takes off, but at 40,000 feet blows up without
 warning.

 OS/2 Airways: The attendants apologetically ask you to disregard the other
 sleek jets in the airport and say that their one will be ready anytime
 soon.

 MacAir: All planes, attendants, stewardesses and ground crew look the same,
 talk the same and act the same. If you ask a question they say that you
 don't want to know, don't need to know and will you please return to your
 seat and watch the movie.

 Linux Air: A complete *free* Concorde kit is waiting at your arrival. Since
 very few people are familiar with how the Concorde works or how to put it
 together, few persevere. Those who do have access to the manuals and trade
 secrets and about 150,000 experts standing around waiting to give free
 advice. When built it flies faster and more efficiently than any other
 aircraft but many airports will not let it land.

 Check out Linux if you have some free drive space. Also make sure you have
 quite a bit of time to recompile the system to configure your options. I
 seriously doubt there will be a massive move to Linux worldwide. But now
 you know that it's there and that it has more advantages than
 disadvantages.

 This was brought to you by:

 * Linus Torvalds - a bloody genius of a computer science student who wrote
   the original kernel from scratch. Although there are now thousands of
   contributors you can still give the man a hand!

 * cloud9.mod by basehead played by xgmod - the best Linux mod player.

 * Linux version 2.1.2 kernel 1.2.9 recompiled for CD-ROM support and Gravis
   support.

 * Trixter - who very politely pointed out to me a number of errors in the
   first draft of this article.

 -Maverick/Serenity


---[Interview: Trixter and Edge]--[Dreamwalker]-------------------------------

 Chromatiks II: The Story Continues...
 An Interview with Trixter / Hornet and Edge / EMF
 by Dreamwalker / Overlook & Poison
 Interview date: May - June, 1994. Released in May, 1995.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 This interview was started nearly a year ago, when the first volume of
 Chromatiks was released. The disk was very unusual at the time, since it
 featured music from several composers. New possibilities (i.e.,
 integration) in development of the demo scene were exciting -- and I
 started a rather fruitful conversation with Trixter and Edge, the people
 behind the project.

 Unfortunately, the second volume was delayed, and I wanted to make a story
 about an ongoing project. Time passed... The trend toward integration came
 to stay -- now we have Epidemic, a huge three-disk project packed with
 great pieces from many scene musicians. We also have other great multigroup
 music disks. Now -- as Chromatiks Volume II is finally released -- it's
 time to make the whole story available to the public... ;-)

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 DW:  Dreamwalker   [e-mail]
 TX:  Trixter       [e-mail]
 ED:  Edge          [e-mail]
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 DK: The demo scene was (and mostly is) oriented at technical aspects of the
     creative process. However, the main thing behind demo making is
     *creating a brand new art*, that is not found in the real world, that is
     not Windows multimedia, etc. Until now, it virtually wasn't noticed.

     Chromatiks is one of the first examples of turning this endless coding/
     PC power boast into something different. It doesn't pursue "standard"
     demo scene goals, like "My group is cooler than all others!" (True
     nearly for any cyberspace group, regardless of its orientation.)
     Chromatiks is the first project that integrates creative artistic work
     from different people.

 TX: :-)  Thank you... You're the first person to notice that that was what I
     originally wanted to  accomplish with the Chromatiks project.

 DK: As for Chromatiks -- you did a very good job with its code. And it has a
     certain amount of good design. Another thing: it's the first demo scene
     project that is released not only for "demo dudes," but for ordinary
     people as well. We'll wait and see if multigroup projects will become a
     trend. This can change the situation with the lack of design and artwork
     in even recent demos.

 TX: Yes!! Again, you are quite observant -- I *did* release Chromatiks for
     *normal* people as well as scene people. That's probably the one thing
     I'm most proud of; I would like more people to get into the scene, like
     contemporary musicians and artists. I worked fairly hard to get it to
     appeal to everyone, as well as holding a certain interest for scene
     members. For instance, how many music disks come with a "typeset" manual
     -- with a "problems and solutions" chapter? :-)

 DK: The thing that you're doing is absolutely right -- bringing real world
     musicians and artists into the scene is a great idea. We need some new
     ideas and a different vision of the scene. The manual makes a big
     difference for *normal* people. Next question: How can you relate the
     idea of music disks to the real world, and what makes computer music
     different?

 TX: It's interesting: The ideas behind both are quite similar, but the end
     results are very different. Both music disks and contemporary albums
     are collections of music; they both have themes; they are distributed
     widely and listened to by fans. There is a big difference between
     albums and musicdisks, however: Since scene musicians aren't out to
     make money, they can compose and distribute practically anything they
     want. With nothing to prove, musicdisks can portray any vision, idea,
     or theme they want to.

 DK: And we have charts for both. ;-) Well, it's a good remark that there are
     fans of scene musicians.

 TX: Of course, music disks are more fun, because there's usually something
     to see as well as listen to. While small, this difference can lead to a
     little more appreciation for the music.

 DK: Yes, that's true. Another thing: Musicdisks can create a better visual
     representation of the conceptual part of the music. As album artwork
     adds a lot to the music (if used properly). Computer musicdisks can
     create a much, much better visual sequence for the tune. (And avoid
     becoming a demo.) They can combine music and (for example) poetry.

 TX: You'll probably be happy to know that we're asking Skaven to write the
     title tune *and* do the beginning animation/graphics for C3. It should
     be great!

 DK: Yes, and that's what we need -- it's more like expressing artistic
     ideas, not just technical quality.

     All this brings about another point: The scene projects are nonprofit,
     though all demo writers add some words about commercial demos/games.
     Still, this sub-culuture exists without definite profit goals. And it's
     good -- the scene projects have a greater impact and a wider
     distribution then, for example, albums from some independent groups.

     Also, the scene is open to amateur artists, musicians. It's not a
     record company that either promotes or turns down artists based on
     their demo- tapes. The demo scene means real freedom for composers, and
     everyone.

     BTW, did you read the other side of Chromatiks? The messages in
     modules? ;-) Like "doing it for a musicdisk... What is it called?...
     Heck, I dunno what it's called..."

 TX: :-)  Some of the music was composed in November or December, when the
     disk was tentatively titled "Chromatiks." Luckily, the name stuck.

 DK: Next question: why was the name "Chromatiks" chosen?

 TX: I get a rush out of music that climbs upward chromatically. (I'll bet
     Kalle doesn't know that--I'll have to tell him.) Also, a musical-term-
     warped-into-a-title seemed better than something stupid, like
     "devastation" or something.

 DK: Did you ever treat your project as a form of collecting and displaying
     ART, not just MODs? And what do you think about demos being a new form of
     art?

 TX: I agree completely, that coding demos is an art form, but on two levels:

     - It's an art form in ideas. Previously, demos were a way to show off
       the coder's programming skill; for instance, (as you well know) to
       make the C64 jump through hoops to display full-screen 3d with only
       64K of memory. With the advent of faster computers and better
       display/sound hardware, a demo can now show off the idea, or vision
       of the programmer.

     Let's take this example: A cube, rotated and shaded on the screen, is
     easy to do. But a gelatineous cube that wiggles/bounces around is only
     slightly harder to code, yet much more fun to look at. (As in S!P's The
     Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.) Demos are starting to take the direction
     that Amiga demos have been pursuing for over 3 years now--good design.

     In other words, it's not how fast you can display and rotate that
     cube--it's what you can do with it. Even now, subdivisions of this art
     form are appearing: Screen layout, Object design, Music choice (techno
     is not necessarily the best music for a demo anymore), and so on.

     - It's an art form in technical perfection. Demos must be perfectly
       speed-optimized, or they won't achieve some of the effects they
       desire (or, even worse, not run as desired on slower computers, which
       makes them look bad). Also, finding new ways to do things with the
       hardware that the hardware can't normally do is an art. Copper bars
       in text mode, more than 256 colors on the screen, etc. are all
       examples of this.

 DK: This question is based on your comment in comp.ibm.pc.sys.demos about
     watching the scene for three years: How, when, and why did you decide
     to produce a multi-group musicdisk?

 TX: After two years, I finally had some working music routines, and I
     really wanted to put them to good use. I had viewed the scene for about
     3 years, and I wanted to give something back to the main thing that's
     sparked my interest in programming again. It takes a lot of work, a
     different kind of work, to track a song that sounds great; and since I
     was a great fan of scene musicians, I decided to go that route.

 DK: What was behind this idea?

 TX: I wanted to give good musicians an outlet to release their work and get
     recognition for it. U4IA and Maruku Barunu, for example, are respected
     musicians that had to rely on the normal distribution of their music to
     join a group; I wanted to do the same thing. Also, I wanted to do
     something that hadn't been done before (don't we all? :-), so I got the
     idea for a musicdisk that didn't have music from just one person or
     just one group.

     Everybody talked about a multigroup disk, but no one did it. Kalle and
     I worked very hard, because coordinating all the musicians (Kalle's
     job) and integrating the ideas with the code (my job, and a first for
     me) was tough. Heck -- all of the coding was tough.

 DK: Was it a quest for glory, or something different?

 TX: Not really, but it's nice to be recognized by an industry that you
     admire. While the glory wasn't the main reason, it is a nice side
     effect. :-)

 DK: :-) I think that at this point I'll turn to Kalle too. It's about time.

 TX: Since he lives in the *heart* of the scene and is friends with many of
     the "good" scene people, he will prove to be a valuable resource, I'm
     sure.

 DK: The progress of the PC scene is notable, it also becomes professional
     these days. The companies that are supporting the scene are not just
     wasting their money. The scene now is not a small closed space of
     initiated people. It becomes broader and affects more and more people
     from the outer world.

 ED: As can be seen in the growth of demoparties. Assembly '92 had a PC-
     section of perhaps 200 people, and the party was held in a school.
     Assembly '93 was already bigger, some 500 -- 1000 PC-people attending.
     The partyplace, though, was still a school, not even a very big one.
     This year, we expect some 1500 PC-freaks coming.

     I just got a call from Italy, they are organizing a bus trip of 60
     people. Can you imagine that, 60 people coming all the way through
     Europe just to get to a three-day demoparty? Amazing, isn't it? Not to
     mention the hundreds of people from Scandinavia!

     And the partyplace is Helsinki Ice-Hall, which houses some 9000 ice-
     hockey enthusiasts during the Finnish League matches. Definitely not an
     inside party anymore.

 DK: My first questions are: How and why did you decide to participate in
     the Chromatiks project? What was especially attractive in this idea?

 ED: The reason I decided to answer Trixter's post in comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos
     was that I didn't like the quality of the musicdisks at that time. Most
     lacked variety, the songs were always made with the same instruments,
     same style, or the same theme. Since I knew many musicians in the scene
     personally, it seemed logical that I contact them and ask if they would
     be also interested.

     First I turned to Cybelius, who liked the idea and promised to make a
     tune. I also knew Purple Motion, so I gave him a call, too. He was the
     first one to finish his song. After I got these two musicians to help
     me out, it was no big job finding others. Prism is a friend of mine, so
     he started working on a song, and I contacted JayJay and Tonedeaf
     through BBS's. In the process, I got many songs that will be put to use
     in future Chromatiks disks.

     That is also one of the best sides of Chromatiks: its continuity. When
     most music disks are just single, independent pieces of work,
     Chromatiks is an ongoing project. If there were more musicdisks like
     this one (which I hope there will be), you could choose your favorite
     musicdisk, much the same way you read a diskmag. It is also some sort
     of a quality assurance - if you don't like the style of a musicdisk
     series, you can just not download it the next time.

 DK: QA a good point -- the best QA comes from the public, and some healthy
     competition will help to extend the borders of the demo scene.

     Chromatiks 1 features mostly music from Finnish musicians. Why it is so
     and will we hear composers from other countries? Will we see new names,
     independent, even professional musicians in your future volumes?

 ED: The reason the composers are Finnish is that I only knew Finnish
     musicians. Because no-one knew of Chromatiks, I had to gather the
     musicians myself. Now that there is a full contact-info in the end of
     Chromatiks, I hope musicians from all around the world will join us in
     this project. There will still be many Finnish musicians in coming
     Chromatiks disks like Skaven/FC, Cube/Hysteria and Dune/Sonic, but
     other musicians are submitting tunes, too.

     As for new musicians, we are sure to have them in following disks, this
     could be a way for YOU to make a name, so give me a call!

     About professionals, I'm not sure. In the first Chromatiks disk, only
     Purple Motion has done commercial music (his band has made a CD), and I
     don't know if the situation will change in the future. I believe this
     should be kept to an amateur level, like the whole demo-scene.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Closing words: Maybe Chromatiks 2 is not what it was meant to be, however,
 it's really good to see a sequel to one of the most original projects of
 1994. Lets just hope for more integration in the scene, more creativity, more
 real art in demo productions. It is interesting to read this interview one
 year later: some things that were mentioned became a reality, some things are
 on the way... I just hope that the interview will not seem obsolete to
 anyone, I believe that this was the true time to release it. Peace and love
 to everyone.


---[Rules at Assembly '95]--[Contributers to comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos]------------

 _____By Feather:

 This is a long, but important one...

 Assembly '95 rules suck. So what. I've read many messages where people have
 said they're not coming to assembly, because it will suck because of the
 rules. Now, my question is, why are the rules ruining it?

 When IMO two best groups in the scene at the moment, Complex and Orange,
 are making a demo, probably some other big groups as well, the compos just
 can not suck. Think about ASM'94 and TP'94: ASM'94, only one decent demo, a
 few not-so-bad ones. TP'94, 2 good demos, a few not-so-bad ones. So ASM'95
 will surely have better compoquality than these 2 parties.

 And if you can't make a demo that works by the rules, just don't. Just go
 to ASM'95 and enjoy other peoples work. You don't have to stay up all
 August making demos, just go to Assembly and enjoy the show. It's much less
 stressing that way. So there is absolutely no reason to miss ASM'95 because
 of the rules. And the compos shouldn't be the only reason to come to
 parties. You'll also meet a lot of people, make contacts, have fun, enjoy
 the summer, etc... (like you didn't already know that...)

 Also, people say that coming to Assembly is far too expensive. SO WHAT! Do
 you seriously think those pieces of paper (=$) are more important than
 having fun? I think not. Get a job, whine to your parents, sell your
 computer, whatever, it can't be THAT hard to get some money.

 Right now, people in Europe should stop complaining and start organizing
 big bustrips to Finland. With lots of people and buses, it just can't be
 too expensive. And if it seems no one is organizing one, *YOU* do that. It
 shouldn't be hard to fill up some two buses or so. So get up, make a few
 phonecalls, gather up some people, and there you go. And, uh, afterall, the
 bustrip organizers can always take a few bucks extra from people and travel
 to the party for free...

 I can understand people from America that can not come because of money,
 but in Europe... Hey, Finland isn't THAT far. If you can't think of
 anything else, walk! (ok, I know, it's easy for me to say...)

 Since Assembly and The Party are the two main events of the scene, I think
 no one in the scene can afford to miss them. They're both commercialized,
 too bad, but you should always look on the bright side. Ignore the bad
 things and enjoy the good things of commercialism twice as much.

 I'm writing this message because I'm starting to get very mad at these
 whining people. Stop it. Demos and the scene are supposed to be fun, don't
 take 'em too seriously.

 Why let the organization and commercialism ruin this great event for us?
 It's *OUR* party, not theirs. If something's ruining it, it's people's
 stupid attitude that it just can't be any fun because of the party CD,
 compo rules, or commercialism. Thank god there's still time to change this
 stupid attitude. Just ignore the bad things, come to Assembly and have the
 time of your life.

 -Feather/Glueteam

 See? Not a single smiley in this message. (it's a very serious matter,
 since I already bought my tickets to asm 95...)

 _____By Nomikos Zografakis: (reply to Feather)

 > Also, people say that coming to Assembly is far too expensive. SO WHAT!
 > Do you seriously think those pieces of paper (=$) are more important
 > than having fun? I think not. Get a job, whine to your parents, sell
 > your computer, whatever, it can't be THAT hard to get some money.

 Hahah... if money is only a piece of paper, would you be kind enough to
 give me some of your paper? I happen to be missing quite a lot of paper to
 go to ASM... perhaps you could spare a few thousands of those little
 worthless pieces of paper? :)

 By the way, the more expensive it gets, less people will go, and less
 people in a party means less fun! Prices must be kept at a minimum or it
 isn't no fun anymore! Only people who can afford it will be able to go.
 (and people who can afford it aren't necessarly people you want at a
 demoparty...) :(

 Well anyways... my $0.02

 -Nomikos Zografakis

 _____By Dev:

 > And since so many Finnish people won't show up,

 Please, get real. Only a force majeure like the army or such will prevent a
 Finnish scene freak from attending ASM'95. When it comes right down to it,
 the competition rules don't matter the least bit. Hell, a vast majority of
 attendants won't even take part in any compos!

 > there will be almost none from middle Europe, according to what I've
 > heard from them.

 We'll just see. Should I archive this message and throw it back at you in
 August when we've witnessed the biggest ever amount of foreign demosceners
 attending a Finnish party? :)

 > Yes, but Assembly is the worst of all the bigger compos, in organizing

 Cut the crap. At TP'94 there was, what, a six (6) hour delay in the PC demo
 compo? And the demo numbers were screwed up so that no public voting ever
 happened, isn't that so? And how about the most recent, Gathering94 - the
 organizing group made a "recount" of the votes *after* the party, resulting
 in their own demos and members magically jumping from fourth and fifth
 places to 2nd and 3rd...

 > for voting, can you imagine it? That sure leaves space for some
 > manipulation, remember Future Crew, the organizers winning by a small
 > margin? :)

 This was discussed to death two years ago.

 -Dev/EMF


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