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- => alt.sys.amiga.demos FAQ V1.00, June 1995. <=
- Written by h0llyw00d/ax!$+vaLhaLLa (s.m.carless@dur.ac.uk)
-
- 1 What are demos?
- 2 Why are they made?
- 3 Who makes them?
- 4 What are the different kinds of demos?
- 5 What are the different functions of scene guys?
- 6 How can I learn how to do music/gfx/code?
- 7 What software/hardware is used to create demos, and where can I get this
- software from?
- 8 Where can I get demos from? (including ftp sites)
- 9 What Amiga demo-scene WWW pages are there?
- 10 How can I get started in the scene?
- 11 What are the best demos on the Amiga?
- 12 When did the scene begin?
- 13 Who are the best groups on the scene?
- 14 What countries have people involved in the scene?
- 15 What kind of questions can I post here?
- 16 Are there any questions should I not post here?
- 17 Where is this FAQ available?
- 18 Who made this FAQ?
-
-
- 1. What are demos?
-
- Demos, (short for 'demonstrations'), are executable programs created (in the
- case of this FAQ, on the Commodore Amiga computer), purely for art's sake,
- featuring impressive or spectacular audiovisuals. Demos are not actually
- functional or interactive, in the main, but then nor are portraits, or CDs.
- Perhaps you can think of a demo as a music video on a computer, but with equal
- emphasis on the visuals, the music, and the code. It's something to watch,
- enjoy, and marvel at the creativity of. Demos can be beautiful. :)
-
- 2. Why are they made?
-
- Demos are made because people want to construct something that looks good.
- There's no financial reward (except the prize if your demo wins at a demo
- party), so the profit motive isn't really an issue. People make demos
- because they want to make something that will be spread worldwide, seen
- by a lot of people, and appreciated by them for being skilfully designed.
- Demos are made for art's sake, and for prestige.
-
- 3. Who makes them?
-
- Demos are made by various Amiga users, generally organised into groups.
- These groups have names, such as Virtual Dreams, Spaceballs, Complex,
- etc, and these groups comprise a number of (more or less) talented members.
- Please note that almost all demo-makers credit themselves under a pseudonym,
- rather than their real name, e.g. Chaos, Cthulhu, Dr.Skull, Milkshake...
-
- 4. What are the different kinds of demos?
-
- The word 'demo' is the general term for a demonstration. Demos can look very
- much like a dance-music-video (Spaceballs "State Of The Art" and "9 Fingers"),
- very much like a collection of computerised effects sequenced together
- (Andromeda "Nexus7"), or very much like nothing on this Earth (Melon Design!)
-
- Otherwise, there are various other words for demos:
- 'Intros', (short for 'introduction(s)'), are small demos..
- 'Trackmos' are demos which don't use Amiga-DOS to load, and therefore aren't
- hard-disc installable (they're trackloading, which is the derivation of this
- word.)
- 'Dentros' are half-way between demos and intros. :)
- 'Music-discs' are selectable collections of tunes by musicians.
- 'Slideshows' are collections of pictures by graphics artists.
- 'Discmags' are electronic disc magazines.
- 'Charts' are disc-based charts programs, which use voting sheets to poll
- the scene on which demos/coders/musicians/etc. they think are the best.
-
- 5. What are the different functions of scene guys?
-
- Generally made up of the following:
- a) Coders - program the effects in the demos.
- b) Graphics artists - Draws the pictures/logos/fonts, or whatever is needed.
- c) Musicians - produces the soundtracks.
-
- (Design is also important in demos. It's often handled by the graphics
- artist and/or coder.)
-
- d) Mail-Trader - Swaps with other demo-fans and members of other groups,
- in order to get new demos and spread his own group's.
- e) Modem-Trader - Trades demos on bulletin boards, functions much
- as mail-trader.
- f) Sysop - 'System Operator' of bulletin board (BBS) where new demos can
- be uploaded/downloaded.
-
- (With the advent of the Internet and FTP sites, the three previous functions
- may be getting less important, but it's important to note that the Internet
- is still significantly slower at getting new demos than many BBSes.)
-
- Thus groups not only have the creative members, but means to spread their
- productions.
-
-
- 6. How can I learn how to do music/gfx/code?
-
- Practise a lot. :)
-
- 7. What software/hardware is used to create demos, and where can I get it
- from?
-
- a) Coders use assemblers such as ASM-One, or Devpac, both commercial packages.
- (go to your local computer store and ask!)
- b) Graphics artists use commercial paint programs, often Deluxe Paint, but
- also Brilliance. (ditto!)
- c) Musicians use a `tracker` program, almost always Protracker (a PD program,
- see the alt.binaries.sounds.mods FAQ for more information... one of the
- best trackers for the Amiga is available at Aminet and all its mirrors in
- mus/edit/pt23a.lha...)
-
- 8. Where can I get demos from? (including ftp sites)
-
- (Demos are available from PD (public domain) companies, and their adverts
- are displayed prominently in all Amiga magazines. You will be paying more
- for someone to copy demos for you, though, so, as you seem to have access
- to the Internet, why not use it to get demos?)
-
- [CD-ROMs are becoming increasingly good value if you want to pick up large
- amounts of demos (although the quality will be variable, obviously..)
- There are CD-ROMs made of the Aminet archive... Aminet CD 6 concentrates
- on demos, and will be out shortly.. there are 1800 demos on the CD, plus
- 1800 miscellaneous other files. Demos are presented by author through the
- Amiga Demo Lists, and a best-of section is listed separately.
- Also, the "Euroscene1" CD-ROM by Almathera contains about 540meg of demos,
- mods, graphics and the like.. mods and graphics are listed by authors, too.
- "Euroscene2" is also planned.]
-
- Using ftp sites is the most sensible way to get Amiga demos through the
- Internet. The following are the best (only?) Amiga demo sites:
-
-
- a) Aminet - src.doc.ic.ac.uk, ftp.luth.se, ftp.wustl.edu, ftp.netnet.net,
- ftp.uni-paderborn.de, and many more.. see the readme file
- in the root aminet directory.
-
- (in the pub/aminet/demo/ directory, also check pub/aminet generally for
- related files such as modules, graphics, utilities..)
-
- You can also ftp by email through Aminet.. check it out by sending a
- message with HELP in the body to ftpmail@doc.ic.ac.uk or
- ftpmail@ftp.luth.se, or ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com, or others..
-
- Always use your local Aminet site, to save time!
-
- b) Funet - ftp.funet.fi
-
- (in the pub/amiga/demos/ directory, demos arranged according to group
- names. Not the newest stuff, but useful..)
-
- c) Papa - i41s20.ira.uka.de
-
- (in pub/ :the ftp mirror of the IRC `bot` Papa, this has a very good
- selection of demos, and is generally the first to get new demos. Only
- very recently opened, thanks Milano!)
-
- d) ftp.ee.pdx.edu
-
- (pub/amiga/demo/ :has a good selection from recent demoparties (mainly
- contained elsewhere, tho.))
-
- (Also houses a very good Amiga graphics archive, with a lot of excellent
- pictures, logos, etc. from various demos and competitions, in
- pub/amiga/gfx. An under-rated resource.)
-
- Some major demo-parties have claimed or are claiming to feature ftp sites
- with new demos available `live` from the party, as they're released. Watch
- out for information about this on the newsgroup.
-
- (please note, if you live in Asia/the Far East, that the Japanese WWW site
- mentioned in the next section has quite a large number of demos on it, so it
- might be worth grabbing demos from that instead of ftp-ing to the States or
- Europe. But there are many more demos available on Aminet/Papa.)
-
- If you're on IRC, try joining channel #amigascne, which is the channel
- with all the demo-freaks on it, and join us for a chat about the demo
- scene and various other suspect subjects. If you want to get demos too, try
- typing /dcc chat Papa, then /msg Papa help. He's our tame fileserver. :)
- Also, Aminet is accessible on IRC through Mama. (/dcc chat Mama, etc..)
-
- 9. What Amiga demo-scene WWW pages are there?
-
- Quite a few WWW pages are available to do with demos, now. The following
- four sites, besides being Amiga demo related in their own right, have
- links to _ALL_ the WWW pages mentioned in this section, so you needn't type
- in all the addresses yourself. :)
-
- Official FAQ link-sites:
-
- http://www.xs4all.nl/~blahh/index.html (I-Go's RAW homepage!)
- http://wwwedu.cs.utwente.nl/~pullens (Jack's Mirage/Chit-Chat homepage!)
- http://phoque.info.uqam.ca/stargate (Intruder's Myth homepage!)
- http://www.gl.umbc.edu/~jbaumg2 (JJImby's homepage!)
-
- And, here are the URLs to _all_ the Amiga demo WWW pages we know of: :)
-
- http://www.icon.fi/assembly95/ (Assembly 95 homepage!)
- http://huizen.dds.nl/~sih/ (Somewhere in Holland party homepage!)
- http://matserver.math.jyu.fi/complex/complex.html (Complex homepage!)
- http://www.math.jyu.fi/~jusaka (Jugi/Complex's homepage)
- http://www.xs4all.nl/~blahh/index.html (RAW homepage!)
- http://wwwedu.cs.utwente.nl/~pullens (Mirage homepage)
- http://phoque.info.uqam.ca/stargate (Myth homepage)
- http://www.ts.umu.se:80/~gnilk/ (Noice homepage)
- http://www.clark.net/pub/samk (Cygnus/Solo's homepage)
- ftp://smaq20.univaq.it/pub/amiga/www/Welcome.html (Ramjam homepage)
- http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/~d3dick/rage.html (Rage homepage)
- http://193.199.33.16/temp!/marks.html (Dweezil/CNCD+Complex's homepage)
- http://uno.canit.se/~qen/honey/ (Honey homepage, ASCII 'n stuff!)
- http://www.abc.se:80/~m9182/ (Amiga "Scene Online" LED page!)
- http://ww.int-evry.fr/~puel/nova.html (Nova homepage, in French!)
- http://ncdesign.kyushu-id.ac.jp/amiga.html (Japanese Amiga demo fans!)
- http://www.rhi.hi.is/~aaj (Nemesis1's homepage. w/MODs and SIDs)
-
- Also:
-
- http://ftp.wustl.edu/~aminet/ (or)
- http://ftp.eunet.ch/~aminet/ for WWW access to Aminet. :)
-
- 10 How can I get started in the scene?
-
- Just find some like-minded friends and start making demos. There's no limit
- to who can make demos and who can't. Contact some scene-groups through
- the addresses you see on demos. Turn up to demo-parties. Start trading demos
- by mail/modem. Post to this newsgroup. Tune in, turn on, get wired. :)
-
-
- 11 What are the best demos on the Amiga?
-
- The controversy begins here, since there's always argument about this kind
- of subject, but (using "The Charts" and "The Eurocharts" as some kind of
- basis for the most popular demos.. this list will be updated as new charts
- come out and new demos enter the charts..)
-
- Please note:
- OCS denotes the original chip-set Amigas (A500/1000/1500)
- ECS means the demo will run on the A500+/A600/A3000.
- AGA means the demo will only run on the A1200/4000.
-
- Please help me with compatibility questions by telling me which machines
- certain demos will/won't run on! The `meg` figure is the minimum number of
- megabytes required to run the demo, and is pretty inaccurate right now.
-
- If you find a certain demo won't run straight away, especially on
- high-end machines, a sensible thing to do is to run some kind of degrader:
- an excellent allround one is located at Aminet,pub/aminet/util/music/TUDE.lha
-
- It's also a good idea to try some of the options in the bootselector you get
- when you push both mouse buttons down after resetting on ECS/AGA
- machines. Putting original chipset on or turning off CPU cache can work well.
-
- Also listed is the place on the Internet this demo can be found, with
- Am = Aminet (pub/aminet/demo/ directory already presumed!)
- Fu = Funet, (pub/amiga/demos/ directory!)
- Pa = Papa. (pub/ directory!)
-
- Since Aminet is the biggest demo archive, with the most mirrors, I've
- selected the Aminet source for the demo, where possible, but many demos are
- probably available elsewhere.
-
- I've been unable to locate some demos on the Net. Could someone post them
- up, if they still have a copy, and inform me?
-
- Also T for trackloading, and H for hard disc installable (for all you hard
- disc freaks!)
-
- Finally, if there's a message in square brackets regarding a file, eg if
- it's listed as ThePrey1[+2].lha, that means there are two files there,
- ThePrey1.lha, and ThePrey2.lha. :)
-
-
- The _very_ best demos:
-
- Anarchy "3D Demo 2" (OCS, 1meg) - (Am) (T) (fix?) (can't find on the Net!)
- Andromeda "Nexus7" - (AGA, 2meg) - (Am) tp94/nexus7.lha (T)
- Complex - "Origin" - (AGA, 2meg) - (Am) Party93/Complex.Origin-1[+2].dms (T)
- Kefrens-"Desert Dream"(OCS/ECS/AGA,1meg)-(Fu) Kefrens/DesertDreams-1[+2].dms
- Parallax/CNCD - "Deep" (AGA, 4meg) - (Am) tg95/Deep.lha (H)
- Polka Brothers "The Prey"(AGA, 2meg)-(Am) tp94/ThePrey1[+2].lha (H)
- Pygmy Projects "Extension" (OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg) (where is it!?) (T)
- Rebels - "Switchback" - (AGA, 2meg) - (Am) aga/dd-rbs1.dms,dd-rbs2.dms (T)
- Sanity "Arte" (OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg) - (Am) demo/mega/Sanity.Arte-a[+b].dms, (T)
- Sanity "Roots 2" (OCS/ECS/AGA, 2meg) - (Am) aga/Roots_Final.dms (T)
- Silents + Crionics "Hardwired" (OCS, 0.5meg) - (Fu) Silents/
- Silents+Crion.Hardwired-1[+2].dms (T)
- Spaceballs "9 Fingers" (OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg)-(Fu) Party93/
- Spaceballs.9Fingers-1[+2].dms (T)
- Spaceballs "State Of The Art" (OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg)* (Am) mega/sr_sball.dms (T)
- Virtual Dreams-"242"(OCS/ECS/AGA, 0.5meg)-(Fu) Fairlight/Fairlight.242.dms(T)
- Virtual Dreams - "Full Moon" (AGA, 2meg) - (Am) aga/vdreams_fullmoon.lha (H)
-
- * - There are 2 versions. The original release worked the A500 with 1meg
- RAM _only_. The Skid Row fix works on the majority of machines.
- The version listed here is the Skid Row fix.
-
- Other all-time greats:
-
- Absolute - "Clairvoyance" - (OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg) - (H) (Can't find!)
- Andromeda - "Mind Riot" - (OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg) - (Fu) demos/Andromeda/
- Andromeda.Mindriot.lha (H)
- Andromeda -"Sequential"-(OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg)-(Fu) Gathering94/
- Andromeda.Sequential-a[+b].dms(T)
- Axis - "Big Time Sensuality"-(AGA, 2meg)-(Am)
- mega/BIGTIME1[+2].dms(T) (not A4000!)
- Bomb - "Motion" (AGA, 2meg) - (Am) tp94/MotionDisk1[+2].dms(T)
- Complex - "Real" - (AGA, 2meg) (Am) aga/clx-real.dms (H)
- Lemon. - "Announce" - (OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg) - (Am) mega/lem-ann.dms (H)
- Lemon. - "Groovy" - (OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg) - (Am) mega/Lemon.Groovy (T)
- LSD -"Jesus On E's"-(OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg) - (Am) mega/lsd_joe1fixed.dms,
- lsd_joe2.dms (T)
- Mad Elks - "Technological Death"-(OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg)-(Am) mega/t-death.dms (T)
- Melon Design-"Booo" +"Booo2"-(OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg) -(Pa) demos/mln-boo2.lha -(H)
- -(Am) euro/booo.lzh -(H)
- Melon Dezign-"How To Skin A Cat"-(OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg)-(Am) mega/htsac_md.dms(T)
- Melon Dezign-"HumanTarget" - (OCS, 1meg) - (Am) - mega/HumanTarget.dms
- Movement - "Mina Omistan"-(AGA, 2meg)-(Am) aga/minomis1[+2].dms (T)
- Parallax - "Drool This" - (AGA, 6meg, HD!) - (Am) euro/drool_this.lha
- Polka Brothers - "Friday At Eight" - (AGA, 2meg) - (Am) aga/friday.lha (H)
- Polka Brothers - "Gevalia" - (AGA, 2meg) - (Pa) demos/Gevalia.lha (H)
- Razor 1911 - "We Shave Ass" - (OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg) - (Am) (can't find it!) (H)
- Quartex-"Substance"-(OCS/ECS/AGA,0.5meg)-(Fu) Quartex/Quartex.Substance.lha(H)
- Sanity "Interference" (OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg) - (Am) mega/sanity.dms (H)
- Sanity - "World Of Commodore" - (OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg) - (Fu) Sanity/
- Sanity.WorldOfCommodore.dms (T)
- Stellar - "Mindflow" (AGA, 2meg) - (Am) aga/mindflow.lha (H)
- Virtual Dreams - "Love" (AGA, 2meg) - (Am) aga/vd_love.lha (T)
- Virtual Dreams - "Psychedelic", (AGA, 2meg, HD only!)
- - (Am) tp94/Psychedelic1[+2+3].lha(H)
-
-
- If you've missed any of these demos, I grieve for you. :)
-
- The very best 40k-intros (all HD-installable, obviously!):
-
- Lego - "The Real 40k" - (OCS/ECS/AGA, 0.5meg), (Am) (can't find it!)
- Melon - "Tetris Intro" - (OCS/ECS/AGA, 0.5meg), (Fu) MelonDezign/
- MelonDezign.Tetris.lha
- Pygmy Projects - "G-Force", (OCS/ECS/AGA, 6meg!),(Am)intro/Gforce-final.lha,
- gforce-ocsfix.lha
- Stellar - "Darkroom" - (AGA, 2meg), (Am) intro/intr1.lha OR intr2.lha :)
- Virtual Dreams - "Chaosland", (OCS, 1meg, partly works ECS/AGA),(can't find!)
-
-
- The very best musicdiscs:
- (all OCS/ECS/AGA, and trackloading, unless specifically mentioned)
-
- Alcatraz - "Memorial Songs 1+2" - (Am) sound/Memorial1[+2].dms, msongs2.lha
- Anarchy -"Legalise It 1+2"(OCS only)-(Am) sound/li21[+22,a+b].dms
- Andromeda - "Mirror" - (Fu) Andromeda/Andromeda.MirrorMusic-1[+2,a+b].dms
- Complex - "Book Of Songs" - (Fu) Complex/Complex.BookofSongs1[+2,a+b].dms
- Complex - "Seduction" - (can't find it online!)
- DCS - "Chromagic" - (can't find it!)
- DCS - "Sonic Attack" - (can't find it!)
- Digital - "Extemporized" - (Fu) Digital/Digital.Extemporized.dms
- Noiseless+TSL - "Dizzy Tunes 1+2" - (can't find them!)
- Phenomena-"Crystal Symphonies 1+2"-(Fu) Phenomena/PhenomenaCrystalSymphI
- [+II,-a+-b].dms
- Sanity "Jesterday" - (Am) sound/SanityJstrdayA[+B].dms
- TRSI - "Viktoria" - (Pa) demos/trsi-vk1[+2+3].dms
-
- The very best slideshows:
- (all OCS/ECS/AGA, and trackloading, unless specifically mentioned)
-
- Andromeda - "Seven Seas"-(Am) slide/A0A.SevenSeas1a[+b].dms,AOA.SevenSeas.dms
- Cryptoburners - "Revelations" - (Am) tg93/revelations.dms
- Lego - "Never Liked Uno" - (Am) slide/Lego.NLU.dms
- Melon - "Prism" - (Fu) - MelonDezign/MelonDezign.Prism.dms
-
- And finally, leading disc-magazines:
-
- "RAW" (independent!) - (Pa) diskmags/RAW/RAW8-A[+B].DMS
- "ROM" (Essence) - (Am) - (Am) - mag/ess-rom3.dms (AGA only)
- "Upstream" (Balance) - (Pa) - diskmags/blc-up10.dms
-
- and. :)
-
- "Grapevine" (LSD) - (Am) mag/LSDGV21A.dms, LSDGV21B.dms
-
-
- 12 When did the scene begin?
-
- The 'scene' began in the mid-1980s on the Amiga, when the computer was
- first produced. People moved across from the Commodore 64 scene, and
- started making 'intros' to fit on the front of discs, and it evolved from
- there. It would be unfair not to mention some of the groundbreaking demos
- which led to the scene evolving to where it is now. We honour: Wild
- Copper, Subway, Demons "DOC", Level42, the Red Sector Megademo, Rebels
- "Coma", RSI "Cebit '90", Phenomena "Enigma", the "Trip To Mars" demo,
- Mahoney and Kaktus music-discs, and many, many more.. comments?
-
- 13 Who are the best groups on the scene?
-
- No doubt there will be controversy about this, also, but, taking all the
- names voted for in the recent issue of the major chart magazines, the `best`
- groups are:
-
- Sanity, Virtual Dreams/Fairlight, Complex, Andromeda, Polka Brothers,
- Spaceballs, Kefrens, Rebels, Melon Design, Movement, Stellar, Essence,
- Pygmy Projects, Lego, TRSI, Razor 1911, The Silents... and many more.
-
-
- 14 What countries have people involved in the scene?
-
- The scene is worldwide, but based in Europe. Scandinavia is one of the
- biggest sources of demos, but Germany. France, and Holland also produce a lot
- of demos. Eastern Europe (Hungary, and especially Poland) are an increasing
- source of demos, and other European countries such as Austria, Switzerland,
- Englnd, Italy, Spain, Belgium.. also have a demo-'scene'. Outside Europe,
- countries like Australia and Turkey have some kind of scene, and America
- has knowledge of the scene, but, tho traditionally the BBS-base of groups,
- is not really involved in the scene(there are no major American demo-crews.)
-
- 15 What kind of questions can I post here?
-
- Questions regarding the compatibility of demos, the whereabouts of demos
- (if you've looked briefly and can't locate them on the Net.) Opinions
- on demos, information about forthcoming releases, scene-news, information or
- queries regarding parties and conferences..
- Generally, all manner of discussion regarding all aspects of Amiga demos.
-
- 16 Are there anything I should not post here?
-
- Any questions covered in the FAQ. Also, binaries should NOT be posted here,
- because many people have to grab newsgroups by modem, and binaries would
- add megabytes to their download, and megabucks to their phonebill. :)
- Please note the existence of other newsgroups, such as alt.sys.amiga.audio
- or alt.sys.amiga.games, if your question/comment has a greater relevance to
- those newsgroups.
-
- 17 Where is this FAQ available?
-
- a) This FAQ is a monthly posting to the alt.sys.amiga.demos and
- alt.amiga.demos newsgroup.
-
- b) It's available via ftp from Aminet and all mirrors, directory
- pub/aminet/text/misc/demoV1faq, and from u41s20.ira.uka.de,
- directory pub/text/demoV1faq .
-
- c) It is also viewable from the WWW at...
-
- http://www.xs4all.nl/~blahh/index.html (I-Go's RAW homepage!)
- http://wwwedu.cs.utwente.nl/~pullens (Jack's Mirage/Chit-Chat homepage!)
- http://phoque.info.uqam.ca/stargate (Intruder's Myth homepage!)
- http://www.gl.umbc.edu/~jbaumg2 (JJImby's homepage!)
-
- 18 Who made this FAQ?
-
- h0llyw00d (Simon Carless, [s.m.carless@dur.ac.uk]), made this FAQ.
- Thanks to: Rik (for indispensible question help), Urban Mueller, Sumaleth,
- I-Go, Jack, Intruder, Goldeneye, SuperNao.. and everyone on the scene.
-
- V1.00 released 1st June 1995. Peace. :P
-
-