Contents menuÿÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÿYou move the arrow with [] and []. When you've found aÿcathegory you want to check out, press . You exit Pulseÿwith ALT-X.ÿÿ Index MenuÿÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÿYou move the arrow with [] and []. When you've found a textÿyou want to check out, press . You'll get back to theÿContents menu by pressing .ÿÿ Read ModeÿÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÿYou scroll the text with [] and []. You can also use [PgUp],ÿ[PgDn], [Home] and [End] to get faster to other sections ofÿwhatever text you might be reading. You'll get back to the IndexÿMenu by pressing .ÿFinally the scene has taken a giant leap forward; at Assembly,ÿthe demoparty held in Kerava, Finland at the turn of the month,ÿsome 15 intros and about the same amount of demos were released.ÿOf course, this is the PC-scene, so all intros, but only twoÿdemos, were actually released. Sadly enough I can't bug all theÿgroups that didn't release their contribution, because we didÿjust the same. Still, I hope that in future parties, the demosÿwill be spread if they participate in the competitions.ÿÿAnyway, we have a somewhat complete coverage of the event, butÿunfortunately I ended up coding our demo the first 24 hours soÿI didn't really get any time to do reporter-stuff...ÿÿOnce again this magazine has undergone major changes in itsÿoutlook. Nik is to be credited for the great, new graphics asÿwell as the design. Unfortunately I had to recode it all and asÿit's summer there's not much time over for fiddling around withÿcomputers, so this issue got delayed with two weeks. (it wasÿoriginally supposed to be released at Assembly) As you perhapsÿhave noticed we skipped the July-issue altogether, because weÿsimply didn't have enough material nor enough votes. Thanks toÿEMF (and just before Assembly also Sonic, but not many votesÿthere yet) we got another voting site, from which quite a fewÿvotes came, so even though the number of voters are still prettyÿlimited, the charts give at least a somewhat good picture of theÿscene. (the pre-Assembly scene that is)ÿÿFrom the next issue of Pulse Fear will be the main editor, asÿI'll begin my studies in Mathematics and really don't have timeÿto edit a mag. I'll also change my address, so stop sending anyÿstuff to my old address, please. (it will get to me sooner orÿlater, though) When the next issue appears? That depends quiteÿa lot on what's happened in the scene, like the number ofÿreleases, news and so on, but the voting period ends Septemberÿ26th, so it shouldn't be too long after that, a week or so.ÿÿ Don't Panic, Moleql / ExtremeÿMain Editor ..... MoleqlÿÿGraphics ........ NikÿFont ............ MoleqlÿMusic ........... GibsonÿPlayer .......... BaldricÿProgramming ..... MoleqlÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿFrom this issue on, no more subscriptions will be accepted - itÿis too much work for too few people. Those who already have aÿsubscription will continue to recieve Pulse until issue 6, butÿthat's it then. It is my understanding that Pulse is spread toÿmost boards anyway.ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿIn the endtext of Triton's Crystal Dream II, there was a commentÿabout our preview of their demo. Triton claimed that Fear wouldÿhave written: "everything couldn't possibly have been calculatedÿin realtime". It was I, Moleql, who wrote that. I hadn't seenÿthe demo on a "normal" (ie. SB, no VLB) computer and didn'tÿrealize how fast the computer at TCC really was. Having seen itÿon my 486/33 (SB, no VLB) I now realize how wrong I was. Ofÿcourse, the speed of the routines is still quite impressive, butÿthere's no need for any precalculations. Anyway, my apologies toÿTriton.ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ Rules For Votingÿ ÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÿÿ1. You may not vote on your own group, nor on your demos, introsÿ or members.ÿÿ2. You may not vote on Extreme, nor on our demos, intros orÿ members.ÿÿ3. You must gives us your form before September 27th if you wantÿ it to be included in issue 5 of Pulse.ÿÿÿ The Votingÿ ÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÿÿFirst of all, fill out the voting form that came along with thisÿarchive. Its filename is VOTING.FRM. Remember to follow theÿrules given above. Once you've filled out the voting form, theÿnext step is up to you.ÿÿ Modem VotingÿÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÿEMF's box +358-21-827419 (log in as PULSE VOTER and useÿ +358-21-827183 EXTREME as password)ÿExtreme's box +358-0-5055041 (answer Y when asked about voting)ÿSonic's box +358-0-8043141 (answer Y when asked about voting)ÿÿ Letter VotingÿÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÿSave the voting form on a floppy disk or print it onto paper.ÿThen send the disk or the paper to the follwing address:ÿÿ Fearÿ PL 2ÿ 02701 Grankullaÿ FinlandÿThe points were given as follows:ÿÿ1. 7 pÿ2. 5 pÿ3. 4 pÿ4. 3 pÿ5. 2 pÿ6. 1 pÿÿHere are the names/aliases of all voters in no particular order.ÿÿDilithiumÿLucifer / DatactionÿJani TuominenÿRanxÿSam / ImphobiaÿAlien / VD-FairlightÿSami VirtanenÿShaman/AFL (Antti Laaksonen)ÿSaint/EMF ÿSlash / D29ÿVortex / EMFÿDarkness / ImphobiaÿDevastator / EMFÿDiskeater / ImphobiaÿTonic / EternoÿLemming / IceÿKim SaloÿSaracen / EMFÿVenom /Alpha ForceÿVoid / HysteriaÿÿThank you!ÿÿSeveral more votes were given by Extreme members and by peopleÿwho didn't want their name to be mentioned.ÿÿÿÿÿÿ Demo Group Pointsÿ ÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÿ 1. Crystal Dream 2 Triton 222ÿ 2. Panic Future Crew 143ÿ 3. Unreal Future Crew 124ÿ 4. Wish Majic 12 51ÿ 5. Crystal Dream Triton 34ÿ 6. Amnesia Renaissance 27ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ Intro Group Pointsÿ ÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÿ 1. Do-Whacka-Do Renaissance 69ÿ 2. Fishtro Future Crew 61ÿ 3. The Party 2 Invtro Future Crew 29ÿ 4. TCC Invtro Cascada 31ÿ 5. Assembly'93 Invtro Future Crew 22ÿ 6. Requiem Grif 17ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ Group Pointsÿ ÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÿ 1. Future Crew 105ÿ 2. Triton 100ÿ 3. Renaissance 53ÿ 4. Majic 12 38ÿ 5. Cascada 18ÿ 6. Sonic 16ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ Musician Group Pointsÿ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÿ 1. Purple Motion Future Crew 94ÿ 2. C.C.Catch Renaissance 73ÿ 3. Vogue Triton 41ÿ 4. Lizardking Triton 32ÿ 5. Skaven Future Crew 23ÿ 6. Zodiak Cascada 20ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ Coder Group Pointsÿ ÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÿ 1. PSI Future Crew 94ÿ 2. Vogue Triton 74ÿ 3. Tran Renaissance 53ÿ 4. Mr.H Triton 43ÿ 5. Wildfire Future Crew 24ÿ 6. Trug Future Crew 13ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ Graphician Group Pointsÿ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÿ 1. Marvel Future Crew 94ÿ 2. Pixel Future Crew 75ÿ 3. Sigfrid Impact Studios 39ÿ 4. O'Hara Cascada 31ÿ 5. Delsion Cascada 26ÿ 6. Mirage Cascada 16ÿÿÿÿÿÿYou can send in your ads as plain ASCII-files. Apart from theÿstandard character set, you can also use the characters in theÿextended English character set. (437) These are the sizes:ÿÿ Width Heigthÿ ÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÿ 30 8ÿ 30 17ÿ 64 17ÿÿYou can also send in GFX-ads! Only pictures made in 640x480x16ÿor 320x200x256 will be accepted. All ads are free - apart fromÿthe disk you send it in on, of course.ÿÿ Fearÿ PL 2ÿ 02701 Grankullaÿ FinlandÿÿÿÿÿÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ÿ³EMF is looking for a talented gfx artist,³ W R I T E T O : ³ÿ³who's able to create handsome (naturally³Druid of EMF ³ÿ³mouse-drawn!) works of art for our demos³Rami Koivunen ³ÿ³and other productions. ³M„kipellonkj 1 C 13³ÿ³ ³20740 Turku ³ÿ³ ³Finland ³ÿ³If you think that YOU are the man we are³ C A L L : ³ÿ³looking for, don't hesitate to contact us!³+358-21-2422959 ³ÿÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙÿÿÿÿÿWriting an article is simple enough.ÿÿ1. Pick a subject, not necessarily but preferably related to theÿ demoscene or computers in general.ÿÿ2. Write the article on a paper or on your computer. You mayÿ write in English, Swedish or Finnish, but we will translateÿ everything to English.ÿÿÿ Send the disk or paper to:ÿÿ Fearÿ PL 2ÿ 02701 Grankullaÿ Finlandÿÿÿ- Shortly before Assembly most of the members of Altair joinedÿEMF and now with the result in our hands (EMF won the intro-ÿcompetition at Assembly) it seems everybody benfitted from theÿjoining. Here's EMF's complete memberlist:ÿÿ Devastator - code, PRÿ Saracen - code, additional GFXÿ Skyrider - codeÿ Druid - PRÿ Whalebone - music (ex-Altair)ÿ The Grim Reaper - code (ex-Altair)ÿ Vortex - GFX, PR (ex-Altair)ÿ Dominic - music (ex-Altair)ÿ Saint - code (ex-Altair)ÿ Daemon - code (ex-Altair)ÿÿÿ- Silents, probably the most famous demogroup of all times withÿreleases such as Hardwired and Global Trash II, has begun theirÿcrusade on the PC. At Assembly they came second in the demo-ÿcompetition with Optic Nerve. Starring in the production was theÿfamous duo Kyd/Balle as well as some very talented coders. Someÿnasty rumours say that this demo won't actually be released andÿthat Kyd/Balle will now turn completely to making games.ÿHopefully this is nothing more than rumours. And after all,ÿSilents DID "challenge" Future Crew and Triton at the end ofÿtheir demo; The Party 3 will apparently be a major battlefield,ÿjust like we all want it.ÿÿÿ- Vector Voyager, a 19-year-old Swedish coder (and a good one)ÿjoined us (Extreme) during Assembly'93. Our memberlist now looksÿkinda like this: (in alphabetic order)ÿÿÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ÿ³ SWEDEN ³ÿÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´ÿ³ Baldric.........Coder, Organizer ³ÿ³ Speedy..........SysOp ³ÿ³ Vector Voyager..Coder ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ÿ³ WayWard.........SysOp ³ FINLAND ³ÿ³ Zyric...........Coder ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´ÿÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´ Fear........Organizer, SysOp, Coder ³ÿ ³ Gibson......Musician ³ÿ ³ Moleql......Coder ³ÿ ³ NiK.........Graphician ³ÿ ³ Rubber Duck.Graphician ³ÿ ³ Tonedeaf....Musician ³ÿ ³ Wizard......Coder ³ÿ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙÿÿ Moleql / ExtremeÿI never make it in time anywhere and I didn't break the patternÿfor Assembly. At 14:10 I came to the partyplace after drivingÿaround in Kerava for quite a while. (I didn't see one singleÿsign, but everybody else sure did :-/) At TCC Extreme had a BIGÿbanner hanging on the wall, so I thought it'd be a piece of cakeÿfinding the guys. Yeah, sure. In the cafeteria they had writtenÿE,X,T,R,E,M and E on seven paperplates and below the plates satÿfive guys staring at a tiny 386/40. Not exactly the first placeÿI checked out.. Well, we got up my mean, lean 486-machine prettyÿsoon and the assembly of Exterminate, which was supposed to beÿour contribution to the demo-competition, could finally begin.ÿÿAn infinite number of bugs later (thank God we didn't have toÿrelease the demo at the party, I solved some bugs in a veryÿembarrasing way) my routines for the demo were finally ready.ÿHey, haven't I forgotten something? Yeah, right, I was supposedÿto participate in the intro-competition too. Luckily, mostÿroutines for the intro were ready, but on the other hand, it wasÿalready 12 o'clock on Saturday and the deadline was at 15:00.ÿAnd I had to do all the coding on Fear's 386/40 as my computerÿwould be used for event-mixing the demo. Seven disasters later Iÿrealized I'd never make it and besides, we heard that theÿcompetition in the democompo would be pretty lousy and theÿopposite about the introcompo (if I remember who the fuck saidÿthat I'll tear his head off ;>), so I decided to put the bestÿpart in the intro (a fullscreen interference with a 36 facesÿfilled in front) into the demo. No problems here; we got theÿinterference linked up with the rest of the demo "already" aÿquarter before the deadline.ÿÿBy now I was walking in another world - I didn't sleep at allÿthe first night at the party (and I don't think anyone would'veÿlet me anyway ;>) and the night before I got a massive two and aÿhalf hours' sleep thanks to some unfinished routines that buggedÿme. (as well as the computer) Well, well, who cares aboutÿsleeping when our demo was to be tested on the competitionÿcomputer? Everything went just fine; my interference as well asÿZyric's RGB-circles spinned nicely in one frame. But then cameÿthe chock - Wizard's fullscreen fractal zoomer didn't haveÿenough memory. (demanded a mere 628 Kb ;>) Hmm, well, well, weÿjust had to make a bootdisk for the competition then. Thatÿshouldn't be any problem, now should it? Sure shouldn't, but ofÿcourse dear old Murphy and his damned laws never give it a rest.ÿÿI tried my best to get some energy at a local restaurant (withÿvery cheap and good pizzas - great work organizers!) so that I'dÿstay awake during the competitions, which were about to start.ÿAll we PC-users were quite embarrased at the beginning of the PCÿintro-competition with most intros fucking up at several timesÿbefore they actually got started, but when EMF's intro had beenÿshown we were all smiling again. (the corners of the Amiga-ÿusers' mouths went in the opposite direction) The Amiga introsÿwere really good too, though, but only two of the Amiga demosÿwere worth watching. The rest were more or less crap.ÿÿThen came the event we had all been waiting for, the PC demo-ÿcompetition; the PC-users to see if Future Crew, would regainÿits thrown as the number one PC demoteam (which now belongedÿto Triton - at least they had made the by far best demo) andÿthe Amiga-users to boo at the "poor PC-demos". First the Amiga-ÿusers got their part of the fun when Xography's demo didn't getÿany further than to show "Xography presents Elements". Twentyÿminutes later the very same demo recieved a storm of applauseÿand even the most pessimistic Amiga-users (I had several of themÿright next to me) couldn't help but to join in. The reason forÿthis was Xography's magnificent textured world. Apparently theyÿhad realized this themselves too, because they left the partÿrunning for several minutes, which took down at least my impres-ÿsion of their demo quite a bit.ÿÿAnd hey, now was the big time for us in Extreme - our demo wasÿabout to be shown. My heart stopped already at the ifs-part. Wasÿthis really the same computer that we tested the demo on? Theÿmorphing of the fractals seemed to go on forever. (and it wasÿtoo long even when executed at the right speed) I was surprisedÿno one started booing. (perhaps they did, but luckily I didn'tÿhear anything) Then came disaster after disaster; the routinesÿthat ran nicely in one frame earlier fucked up completelyÿbecause half of the time they ran in one frame and half of theÿtime in two frames. Swell... Well, this sure wasn't enough forÿMurphy. We made sure (ie. tested on the competition computer)ÿthat 635 Kb of memory was free, but sure as hell the fractalÿzoomer didn't work anyway. Instead it skipped to the next partÿwhich was just a boring informative part and then the demoÿended. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I still am notÿsure what caused this, but apparently something was running inÿthe background as there were neither enough memory nor as muchÿspeed as before. Luckily the same people that caused this (Iÿassume - who else had been fiddling with the computer?), ie.ÿFuture Crew, saved my day by giving an excellent show. (althoughÿThe Silents sure wasn't very far behind)ÿÿStill, I was thinking about going out and boozing 'til I'd dropÿdead, but FTJ/Sonic informed me that the clock was almost 3 AMÿso the chances of finding a bar open long enough to make meÿready for the hospital were pretty small. Oh well, this isn'tÿthe end of the world, so instead of getting drunk I got a well-ÿdeserved 6 hours' sleep, which I continued on my way home. Onceÿhome I read the newspapers and then went to sleep for another 18ÿhours. All in all a very tiring "party"; I for one sure thoughtÿit felt more like a concentration camp for coders...ÿÿ Moleql / ExtremeÿFirst off, This is not a report about Assembly'93, this is anÿarticle about all the mistakes and disasters that happened atÿAssembly'93... No thanks to the PC-organizers (Organizers? Moreÿlikely disorganizers).ÿÿMaybe I overreacted in my article about TCC'93 in the last issueÿof Pulse and I pulibly apologize to Triton for my accusationsÿthat had no solid ground to be based on (BTW the thing aboutÿreal-time was Moleql NOT me!), but this time I really have rightÿto be pissed off.ÿÿWhy are you pissed off, you may ask. Well, Assembly'93 was evenÿworse organized than Assembly'92 and Assembly'92 was VERY poorlyÿorganized. Does that give you a good picture? Another thing thatÿmakes me very angry are all the rules that were broken in theÿcompetitions.ÿÿDo you have any proof to backup your accusations on? Oh yes, soÿmany that I don't know from where to start. Let us start withÿthe electricity...ÿÿThe first fuse blew one and a half hours after the party hadÿbegun. It took one and a half hours to get it fixed. Imagine,ÿone and a half hour to switch a fuse! And where were the PC-ÿorganizers during the first night? At home sleeping of course!ÿWhere were they the rest of the time? In their room togetherÿwith Renaissance, Witan, Lord Cyrix, John Smith (Gravis) and theÿrest of the 'VIP' visitors LOCKED in because they didn't wantÿanybody to disturbe them. Great ORGANIZING!ÿÿThe first bottle to get broken was a bottle that was THROWN at aÿneighbour group by a teenager that wasn't too sober.. Whichÿleads us to the party rules.. NO ALCOHOL allowed in the party-ÿplace was written on a big poster at the entrance.. How bigÿpercent were drunk there? 5% NO STEELING ... 2 hard disks wereÿstolen during the first night.. nice going.ÿÿInformation. WHAT information.. When said through the microphoneÿall you could hear was lots of noice. When on the wall, aÿcorrection was due to come in less than one hour, WITH yetÿanother coming one hour after that.ÿÿDeadlines. This is no joke, but the groups were allowed moreÿtime if they had some bug in their demo, so I know 3-4 groupsÿthat worked on their intro/demo at 17:00 when the deadline wasÿat 15:00. What was it FC said in the invitationtext? DEFINITEÿdeadline at 15:00.. BLAH, definite my ass.ÿÿ4 channel module compos. All mods were screwed up EXCEPT FC's.ÿGuess why? They were played with ST3! The reason to the screwingÿup was (according to a friend) that ST3 is the first 4 channelÿstereo tracker and plays them like that too. So all other modsÿexcept FC's were mono which fucked up the channels quite bad.ÿThis doesn't make sense to me.. If it's 4 channel STEREO..ÿdoesn't that mean it's 8 channels in reality?ÿÿIntro compo. The sound were screwed up.. or on the other hand..ÿWHAT SOUND? I got a bad feeling FC's sound- system isn't thatÿgood after all :> Many intros that worked when tested on theÿsame compo didn't work too well now.. Which is quite strange..ÿHow can a intro that worked perfectly on the EXACT same computerÿ5 hours earlier not work in the compo? WEIRD!ÿÿDemo compo. It took always 2 or 3 tries to get a demo working,ÿwhich can be quite disturbing. What made PSI almost denyÿXography a second try? Was he scared that Xography could beatÿthem? Beats me. But what makes me suspicious is that when theyÿwere going to show FC's demo they started adding things to theÿcomputer.. 2 loudspeakers, 1 GUS and according to a friendÿanother card, which he didn't recognize.. Oh well, enough ofÿaccusations.. on to the next point.ÿÿVoting. The fact that 130 of 1400+ visitors voted speaks forÿitself. It proves that the way that the voting took place wasn'tÿso good after all.. Many of my friends didn't even know how theyÿwere supposed to vote..ÿÿAfter this BIG dissapointment I honestly hope that The Party '93ÿwill be MUCH better.. I am quite confident it will be as NOTHINGÿcan be worse than this.. OR can it? I'll have to wait forÿAssembly '94 to find out!ÿ Fear / Extremeÿ Vast improvements have been made on the PC demo scene duringÿthe past year, Crystal Dream II being the top achievement. Moreÿand more demos with good, self-made soundtracks and high qualityÿcoding are released. Even demos with good design appear everyÿnow and then. But there's still something missing: self-drawn,ÿhigh-quality GRAPHICS! Even the top PC groups tend to use mostlyÿraytraced graphics, not to mention the average and below-averageÿteams. If some self-drawn graphics are used, they're mostly ofÿlow quality. When you get a new demo you can be pretty sure thatÿyou'll see yet another bunch of marble-textured logos made withÿ3DStudio.ÿÿ How come PC groups don't use self-drawn graphics? The onlyÿrational explanation is the fact that PC groups *DON'T HAVE* anyÿgood self-drawn graphics! Why's that, then? I'll now analyze theÿmost common explanations:ÿÿE: "There's no decent drawing program for PC!"ÿA: Amiga's DeluxePaint4 is better than PC's DP2e, true, but thatÿ doesn't explain anything; we have to keep in mind that trulyÿ wonderful graphics were drawn on the Amiga even before DP3!ÿÿE: "Amiga's 320x256 is far better than PC's 320x200!"ÿA: The resolution *is* higher and the aspect ratio *is* better,ÿ there's no denying that, but again; that doesn't explain veryÿ much. I have some high-quality pictures made by famous Amigaÿ artists, and they look VERY good even in 320x200 mode.ÿÿE: "Everything looks worse on VGA screen!"ÿA: This is also true; Amiga monitors and especially TV-screensÿ have a way of "smoothing" the picture and blending the pixelsÿ together. That's bad when handling text or hi-res graphics,ÿ but improves the quality of a hand-drawn, lo-res picture aÿ great deal. However, the aforementioned pictures look justÿ marvelous on my PC, despite the lower resolution, incorrectÿ aspect ratio *AND* the VGA monitor! There *still* has to be aÿ better explanation...ÿÿE: "PC users can't draw!"ÿA: Sadly -- this seems to be the case. There are less than fiveÿ artists on the whole PC scene who would fit into *top thirty*ÿ on the Amiga, and to make matters even worse: they are mostlyÿ guys who have past on the Amiga scene anyway...ÿÿ I can't help but wonder HOW is it possible for the Amiga guysÿto draw absolutely terrific graphics with 32 or even 16 colors,ÿwhereas PC dudes keep drawing pathetic block fonts, ugly-lookingÿgradient-filled logos and so on, with 256 colors! Apparently,ÿPC artists are obsessed with using as much colors as possible,ÿwhich is easily achieved by smoothing and gradient-filling!ÿÿ There're only ten or so PC graphics artists worth mentioning,ÿand only two or three really *good* ones. Most PC "artists" areÿonly coders who know how to use DeluxePaint but have no artisticÿtalent whatsoever (just like me), and who HAVE TO draw fonts andÿlogos because NO-ONE ELSE WILL! It's a desperate job to findÿa decent graphics artist - I know that by experience. Our artistÿleft our team for army and since then we've tried to find a newÿone - to no avail. :-( It seems that the only way to get a goodÿgraphics artist to join a PC group is to get contacts from theÿAmiga scene and be ready to grab any artist who's leaving theÿAmiga for PC... [NOTE: This was written before the Altair dudesÿincluding Vortex, their graphician, joined EMF. -Ed]ÿÿ Anyway, I expect the quality of graphics in PC demos to getÿremarkably higher during the following year or so; quite a fewÿpeople from the Amiga are moving over to PC, and "native" PCÿusers will also learn to paint much better pictures. Some recentÿreleases, such as Assembly'93 invitation intro by FC and ImpactÿStudios' "Realtime" demo, show such signs that the era of lameÿ3DStudio logos and gradient-filled fonts is coming to its end...ÿÿ L8r, Devastator / EMFÿSo here we are at the Assembly 93 and I've decided to writeÿsomething for the Pulse 4 Disk-Magazine... so lets tryÿsumething.. I have no idea what I'll write now but maybe theÿinspiration will come by writing..ÿÿPeople are slowly entering the party-place and all rooms areÿfilling heavily, all people are coming to be part of the (hopeÿso) biggest PC computer meeting ever held. Sometimes you meetÿpeople you've been talking with on the phone or on a computerÿnetwork and its really cool to meet them and see their 'realÿhuman face' and sometimes you're very surprised. You really getÿa great time while speaking to other peoples, making newÿcontacts, drinking coke (r) and for exemple writing thisÿ(boring ???) article in front of 400 peoples while looking aÿnice demo on the big screen (Lunatic by Extreme at the moment =)ÿIt is also the first time that people from outside Europe areÿentering the party, not so far from my place are sitting Tranÿand White Shadow of Renaissance, John Smith from Gravis (Canada)ÿand the dude from the Internet demo network in USA.ÿÿPartys are becoming slowly the most important things on the PCÿdemo-scene like it as stands (and always stands) for years inÿthe Amiga and (still alive) C64 Scene. The PC scene is slowlyÿbut surely rising into the REAL scene, things are moving, newÿgroups are coming and little groups are merging together, thisÿis the real Scene, the scene that a real computer has to standÿfor, lets make it better, all together within this big familyÿwhich is the PC Scene, ... lets go .. party on!!ÿÿ LETS MAKE THE SCENE BIGGERÿ LETS MAKE THE SCENE BETTERÿÿWhat I am trying to explain here is the very special atmosphereÿyou can only find in such a meeting. Some atmosphere that youÿwill never have if you're sitting all the day in front of yourÿhome computer. A party is something that every people who canÿcall himself real demo freak should have to attend atleast oneÿtime in his life.ÿ Darkness / ImphobiaÿAs everyone knows, there's not too many good musicians in the PCÿscene. Too many groups don't have a musician of their own. Theyÿjust rip others' modules or use some old Amiga modules or maybeÿask e.g. some amigist to make musax for their demos. What isÿwrong?ÿÿFirst something about myself. I'm a musician in Extreme. I beganÿmaking music about 2-3 years ago. Nowadays I make music withÿFastTracker and Scream Tracker. Samples I make with Digiplayerÿ2.5 and 3.0 and Sound Blaster 2.0 (sigh). I don't own any synt-ÿhesitzer, but I' m trying to get one. Right now I'm onlyÿborrowing my brothers Korg. It's also fun to make music with aÿcool synthesitzer like Korg Music Workstation.ÿÿWell, that's about it... Let's cut the crap! ;) Well, to makeÿmusic with computer you don't have to know how to playÿsomething and maybe you don't even have to know the notes, butÿthen, I think, you have to be a genius of some kind. So, I thinkÿif you don't know anything about music, you have no chances. Iÿdon't know, if someone has succeed to make great music withoutÿany experience, but at least it would be too difficult for me.ÿSo, first if you are interested in making music you should learnÿto play something with a piano or keyboards. Now, when you canÿplay some pieces with keyboards you should load some goodÿtracker and try to find out how it works and read e.g. ScreamÿTracker's user manual. (I have never read it, but it looksÿgood. ;) Then make some simple melodys with your tracker. Likeÿsomething from a songbook. So, after some time you can write anyÿsimple song to the tracker.ÿÿWhen you have made yourself familiar with trackers you are readyÿto start compose your own pieces. There's no instructions forÿthat. Try to make some mix from some record first. Listen atÿmuch (VERY MUCH) *different* music. That's the best way to getÿnew ideas. When making a module listen at your song many timesÿand if something don't satisfy you don't just let it be,ÿ"rewrite" it for example or change samples, they are alsoÿimportant. To make own good samples you must have at least SBÿPro, because e.g. drums sounds like shit if you have sampled 'emÿwith such a low rate as 13khz. 13khz is good enough for someÿbackground chords or so. To make own samples, buy a synthesizer.ÿ(I can't say wether ripping samples is lame or not, becauseÿsomebody says that it is but many good musician rip samples too)ÿÿSo, that's all I can say. But the question is still open. Whatÿis wrong, and why does the PC-scene have so few musicians? Well,ÿin my opinion what comes to music in the PC-scene, what we needÿis a powerful Tracker, that's all.ÿÿSome handshakes to: Purple Motion, C.C.Catch, Lizardking, Vogue,ÿSkaven. GR8 musax !!!ÿ Tonedeaf / ExtremeÿHow old are you? 14ÿÿWhat is your BBS'sÿname? No comments.ÿÿWhere is it runned? In Tuusula.ÿÿTell us the number! 90-3434133 22-05 EVERY DAY!ÿÿWhat equipment doÿYou use? 286/12, VGA, 1 meg ram, 65 meg hd, Astaÿ 2400e.ÿÿWhat software areÿyou using? Superbbs 1.10.ÿÿHow much NPD do youÿhave in your bbs? About 20 megs, I use the rest forÿ Windows and private programs.ÿÿDo you take moneyÿfrom your users? No, good idea btw..!ÿÿAre you in ana nets? Fido and Delight net.ÿÿHow long have you keptÿan npd-bbs. Since April 1993.ÿÿDo you specilize inÿany special sort ofÿwarez? More or less, sex-games.ÿÿHow many users areÿthere in your bbs? If you don't count the 8 co-sysops,ÿ 5 users.ÿÿHow do you check yourÿnew users? What new users?ÿÿWhat kind of users doÿyou accept in yourÿBBS? Only REAL elitesÿÿWho sponsors your bbs? My Father and my motherÿÿDo you think you areÿa criminal? Me? A criminal? Why didn't Sami tell meÿ that it's illegal?!?!ÿÿAre you scared of theÿpolice? Before this interview, no. Now, YES!ÿÿHow long do you intendÿto continue with havingÿa Npd-bbs? Until I get a 9600 modem so I can startÿ trading.ÿÿThank you for the interview.ÿSome breif comments about a few points in Rick's article. On aÿ486 with a non-localbus graphics card a MOVSW is about twice asÿfast as a MOVSB while a MOVSD is about 15-20 % faster than aÿMOVSW, when writing to the VGA-memory. Some doesn't think theÿ15 % is enough to abandon '286, while some do. If that'd be theÿonly difference, however, I guess very few wouldn't support theÿ'286, but it isn't. One point I didn't mention in my article inÿissue 2 (mainly because I didn't know it ;>) is the techniqueÿthat I write about in the article following this one. (I won'tÿrepeat it all here, but do read the article if you haven't yet,ÿotherwise the following won't make much sense to you) Using thatÿtechnique on a '286 gives you quite a few disadvantages, theÿmain one being that you'd have only one address-register, BX...ÿÿOne good point in Rick's article is that too few coders push theÿVGA-cards to their limits. One of the fun sides of coding is toÿsee how far you can push your computer. However, playing aroundÿwith the VGA-card also has one major disadvantage, namelyÿincompatibility. The routines won't work on a lot of cards. Aÿgood example of this is Wish by Majic 12; it was made forÿTrident cards, thus a few part didn't make any sense at all onÿTseng cards, which are pretty common at least here in Finland.ÿÿ Moleql / ExtremeÿYou all know how damn slow the VGA is when writing data to it,ÿor do you? Most coders are of the opinion that for example aÿSTOSD to the VGA-memory takes some 50 cycles. That is wrong;ÿI've made some research and found out that a STOSD to the VGA-ÿmemory isn' t actually any slower than a STOSD to normalÿ(0-9ffffh) memory! What consumes so much time is the next STOSD,ÿbecause the VGA-card is not ready to recieve any more data forÿanother 48 cycles. (on my card; the difference is quite big fromÿcard to card) Thus there's a waste of 48 cycles for each STOSD,ÿduring which the CPU could do something else.ÿÿLet's take an example; suppose you want to clear an area ofÿ320x100 in tweaked mode. That'd mean 320*100/(4*4) = 2000ÿSTOSD:s. If you use the technique described above that'll giveÿyou 2000*48 or almost 100000 "extra" cycles for you to doÿwhatever you want with! That's about one fifth of a frame on aÿ33 Mhz computer.ÿÿIt'll also be easier to time demos for different computers, asÿthe routines will be equally fast on "normal" graphics cards asÿon local bus dittos. (this is not true for all kinds ofÿroutines, especially not filled vectors)ÿÿThe disadvantage with all this is that the code will be quiteÿmessy and bugs will be pretty difficult to find. But consideringÿthe great boost it'll give your demos, it'll definitively beÿworth the trouble!ÿ Moleql / ExtremeÿAssembly'93 party results for PC. Votes were calculated byÿgiving five points for the first place, four for the secondÿplace and so on. Up to five contributions could be voted for. Aÿtotal of 130 votes were cast.ÿÿÿ PC Demos Top Tenÿ ÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÿÿPlace: Votes: #: Group: Demo:ÿ1. 472 10. Future Crew Second Realityÿ2. 403 9. Silents Optic Nerveÿ3. 242 3. Xography Elementsÿ4. 126 2. Dust Sagaÿ5. 78 6. Extreme Exterminateÿ6. 51 5. Virtual Visions Fruits of Indolenceÿ7. 31 7. Paranoids Wasted timeÿ8. 26 4. Alphaforce Phenomenonÿ9. 17 8. Black Rain Obsessionÿÿ PC Intros Top Tenÿ ÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÿÿPlace: Votes: #: Group: Intro:ÿ1. 378 8. EMF Eclipseÿ2. 196 5. Epical Tangleÿ3. 165 9. Darkzone Debuteÿ4. 163 7. Onyx Locomotionÿ5. 125 10. Avalanche Motionÿ6. 115 15. Sonic-PC Plan-Bÿ7. 106 6. Doomsday prod. Vanity & Apathyÿ8. 48 4. Jeskola prod. Dieetti-Introÿ9. 43 3. Surprise! prod. Stardreamÿ10. 12 1. RatCompany Fraustÿÿÿ PC Musics Multichannel Top Tenÿ ÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÿÿPlace: Votes: #: Composer: Tune:ÿ1. 219 7. Skaven / Future Crew Ice Frontierÿ2. 178 4. Marvel / Future Crew Can't remember Uÿ3. 164 1. Purple Motion / Future Crew Starshineÿ4. 153 5. Leinad / Avalanche Atomic IIÿ5. 147 6. Pentagon Infernoÿ6. 86 2. Tonedeaf / Extreme Heartbeatÿ7. 69 10. Prism / Wish Time running outÿ8. 59 3. Mikki / Epical Opossumiÿ9. 56 9. Funk't'ion / Paranoids Deepnessÿ10. 29 8. Bloodsoaker / Wapy Shoutÿÿÿ PC Musics 4-channel Top Tenÿ ÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÿÿPlace: Votes: #: Composer: Tune:ÿ1. 133 19. Purple Motion / Future Crew Sundanceÿ2. 98 13. Leinad / Avalanche Teaspoonÿ3. 90 6. Cybelius / Sonic-PC Schw. the Swingÿ4. 60 9. Tonedeaf / Extreme Sounds of Warÿ5. 59 8. Executioner Pork Chopÿ6. 53 17. Blizzard / Epical Hidden Shadowsÿ7. 51 21. JayJay / Progress Phantomsÿ8. 47 5. Mellow-D / Sonic-PC Fast Changer IIÿ9. 45 10. Gibson / Extreme Blackbirdÿ10. 43 16. Mistake / Darkzone Micheal Jacksonÿ sez hi!ÿÿ PC Graphics Top Tenÿ ÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÿÿPlace: Votes: #: Artist: Picture:ÿ1. 176 8. Marvel / Future Crew Ice Kingdomÿ2. 144 2. Delsion / Cascada Eeviÿ3. 106 9. Zenjuga / Black Mind A3ÿ4. 88 10. Pixel / Future Crew Trollÿ5. 44 11. Giems / Dark Zone Escaping fromÿ the Raytracerÿ6. 42 14. Ranx / Sonic-PC Invintroÿ7. 29 13. PCA / Painkiller W2ÿ8. 22 7. Kapsu / Epical Assyroadÿ 22 15. Mahlzahnx / Pentagon Dungeonÿ10. 19 12. Leinad / Avalanche KorvmackÿWell, in the 2nd issue of Pulse, Moleql wrote an article aboutÿdemos on the 286. I enjoyed reading the article, but I quiteÿdisagree in some points. For those of you, who haven't read theÿarticle, (shame on you!) here are the main ideas of it:ÿCoders should support the 80386 (or better) because of the dwordÿcopy operations to the VRAM, the faster execution of someÿcommands like SHR, PUSH, etc. in combination with a higher Mhz-ÿfrequenzy, and last but not least, because of the 32-bitÿregisters....ÿÿWell. Of course, most of the things stated in the article areÿtrue, but I still think that it would be quite easy to fullyÿsupport the '286 (which I always do in my demos...). But let'sÿget to it. Every coder knows, how sickening slow the VRAM of aÿVGA is. A MOVSB, etc. to the VRAM seems to take ages, comparedÿthe a MOV to 'usual' RAM. So people think: let's use MOVSW orÿeven better: MOVSD for copying data. Well. The idea is good, butÿthere's a mistake in this thought: most VGA's are equipped withÿslow VRAM -> this results in the effect, that the CPU would likeÿto write more data to the VGA in a shorter time. But because theÿVGA can only handle a certain amount of data/ms it 'tells' theÿCPU to slow down. The main point here is, that the VGA can'tÿhandle more data per second, if you're moving it word-wise orÿeven dword-wise. The VGA always slows our CPU down. Ofcourseÿdword-moves are faster than word-moves, but they never even getÿclose to consuming only half of the time...ÿBesides, I've seen many of my routines totally goof-up (in termsÿof speed) on 486's with a noname-ultra-slow-100%-incompatible-ÿvga, while they were still running smoothly on a 286 with aÿhigh-speed VGA...ÿÿNow to the faster execution of many commands. There's no doubtÿabout that. I fully agree with Moleql in that point, but I'dÿlike to say, that it's a bit fishy to fiddle around with everyÿSHL, when your next command is a store to the VRAM. What I meanÿis this: It's natural for a demo to do a lot 'work' with theÿvideo-ram. (You know: clearing the screen each frame, movingÿ'sprites' around, etc., etc. ) But because of the super-slowÿvram, very much time is wasted during this process. So the rightÿthing to do would be to decrease the VRAM-related actions. I'mÿnot sure about it, but I guess that one MOV less to the VRAMÿsaves enough time for at least two to three 'slow' commands onÿthe 286.ÿÿThe third point was the 32-bit regs of the 80386. I know thatÿit's possible to do 32-Bit arithmetics on a 286 or even an XT,ÿbut I honestly must admit that I hate doing it. So I really canÿunderstand if somebody uses 32 bit for calculation. But still,ÿone should always be sure if it's really necessary, since theÿMUL and DIV command uses 32 bits even on a XT!ÿÿNow some final words: Don't get this article wrong. I startedÿcoding on a 286, so I learned it 'the hard way', (not like theseÿ16-year-old-kiddies who never possesed a C64, and started codingÿon a 486) but in the meantime I ofcourse also own a 486 andÿenjoy coding on it. So I'm not the guy to say: 286 or bust! Theÿtechnical advance is very fast, and ofcourse everybody is freeÿto take advantage of it. For example Commanche is a very goodÿgame, which is quite impossible to do on a 286.... And in maybeÿ2 or 3 years, there will hardly be any 286's around to careÿabout. Everybody will own a 686 or an Alpha in these days... ;-)ÿBut I have this feeling, that many so-called-coders use the 386ÿ(or even the 486) to get some performance for theyr lame coding.ÿOn the PC nearly no hardware tricks are used. Everybody justÿtries to fix everything with brute processor force. But I think,ÿthat's the wrong way: Look at the C64 or Amiga scene. Most ofÿthe effects are achieved by tricky coding with a lot ofÿknow-how. But on the PC, some coders believe it's enough to knowÿhow the VRAM is organised so they can start an orgy of MOVSB's.ÿÿSo dudes: Here's what to do: Grab your VGA reference and thinkÿabout some hardware effects. And for god's sake: optimize yourÿcode!!!ÿÿOr just wait for my next demo. Although there'll be some CPU-ÿheavy parts in it, the code will be organized in such a way,ÿthat almost every part will run in 1(!) Frame on an average 286.ÿ(it's a shame that I have to boast you with my routines runningÿin 1 frame, since every demo on e.g. the Amiga runs in a singleÿframe, but on the PC, people don't seem to care much aboutÿsmooth stuff....) And some parts in the demo, like my genuineÿfullscreen plasma or the improved screen wobbler will run on aÿ4.77Mhz-XT....ÿ - Rick Dangerous / Surprise! productionsÿThis month's problems should be a lot more entertaining thanÿlast month's - if for nothing else, not one single problems isÿmarked with a '+'. (which means that you'd need some moreÿadvanced mathematics such as calculus)ÿÿÿ1. An old castle is haunted, though only in such rooms that haveÿ an even number of doors. The castle has only one enterance.ÿ Janet and her big brother Michael want to spend the nightÿ there, but Michael refuses to sleep in a haunted room. Canÿ they find a room in the castle that is NOT haunted. (allÿ places, even pantries and such are to be counted as rooms!)ÿÿ Difficulty: ÿÿÿ2. The three families, Stooge, Jackson and Gates have two sonsÿ and two daughters each. One Saturday night the twelwe youthsÿ go to a disco. The decide to stay there and dance for as longÿ as they don't have to dance with the same distribution ofÿ dancing pairs twice. This means that for each dance at leastÿ one of the pairs must have another composition. Furthermoreÿ the brothers and sisters don't want to dance with eachother.ÿ (there's no good word in English, but substitute "brothersÿ and sisters" with relatives if you don't know what I mean, orÿ check out what "siblings" means in you dictionary) How manyÿ times do they get to dance before it's time to go home?ÿÿ Difficulty: ÿÿÿ3. Think of an infinte row consisting of all the integers from 1ÿ and upwards: 123456789101112131415... What number (0-9) isÿ the 187208:th?ÿ Difficulty: ÿÿÿ4. How many zeros are there at the of the number, which you getÿ by multiplying all numbers from 1 to 100?ÿÿ Difficulty: ÿÿÿ5. Two brothers had gone to the market with a load of woodenÿ horses, which they had made during the winter. The managed toÿ sell them all for a price equal to the number of horses theyÿ had made. The money was split as follows: The older brotherÿ took 10 marks and then gave the younger one 10 marks. Then heÿ continued like this. The last time the older brother took 10ÿ marks there were less than 10 marks left for his brother. Toÿ make it fair he gave his brother a chocolate cake, which heÿ has bought earlier on. How much did the chocolate cake cost?ÿÿ Difficulty: ÿThe answers to last month's problems. These are all my ownÿsolutions and as I'm not in any way a professional mathematicianÿsome of them might be a bit weird. The answers are all correct,ÿthough, so at least you'll get an example of how the problemsÿcould be solved...ÿÿÿ1. +ÿÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÿ yý = (2+x)(2-x)(1-x) surrounds an area in the plane. Whenÿ this area rotates in space a 3D body is formed. What's theÿ volume of this body?ÿÿThe curve f(x) = (2+x)(2-x)(1-x) = 0, when x = -2, 1 or 2. Byÿmaking a small table we can see how the function looks.ÿÿ -2 -1 0 1 2ÿ<ùùù|ùùù|ùùù|ùùù|ùùù|ùùù>ÿ<---0+++++++++++0---0+++>ÿÿAs yý >= 0, the curve is defined only in [-2,1] and [2,oo[.ÿThe curve surrounds an area only between -2 and 1. We nameÿthe function g(x) = û(2+x)(2-x)(1-x) and see that the curveÿis equal to ñg(x) in the defined intervals.ÿÿThe volume is then:ÿ 1 1ÿ ô ôÿV = ã³(g(x)ý)dx = ã³((2+x)(2-x)(1-x))dxÿ õ õÿ -2 -2ÿÿ(2+x)(2-x)(1-x) = (4-xý)(1-x) = 4 - 4x - xý + x^3.ÿÿ 1ÿV = ã* / (4x - 2xý - (x^3)/3 + (x^4)/4)ÿ -2ÿ = ã*(4 - 2 - 1/3 + 1/4 - (-8 - 8 + 8/3 + 4)ÿ = 45ã/4, which is about 35,3 v.u.ÿ ÄÄÄÄÄÿÿÿ2. +ÿÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÿ Two spheres lie next to eachother. In fact, part of them goesÿ into eachother. The first sphere has a radius of 3 meters andÿ the other one of 4 meters. Their respective centers lie at 5ÿ meters' distance from one another. How much less volume doÿ they occupy, compared to if their centers would be 7 metersÿ away from eachother?ÿÿFirst, think of the spheres' projection in the plane. These twoÿcircles have the formulas:ÿ1. xý + yý = 9ÿ2. (x-5)ý + yý = 16ÿÿFor later purposes, let's define:ÿf(x) = û(9 - xý), g(x) = û(16 - xý)ÿÿIf (1) = (2) thenÿ9 - xý = 16 - (x-5)ý --> 7 = xý - (xý - 10x + 25) --> x = 1.8,ÿwhich is the point of interception.ÿÿThe volume that the two spheres share is then:ÿ 3 4ÿ ô ô 3 4ÿV = ã³(f(x)ý)dx + ³(g(x)ý)dx = ã(/(9x-(x^3)/3) + /(16x-(x^3)/3))ÿ õ õ 1.8 3.2ÿ 1.8 3.2ÿ ÷ 19,3 v.u., which is also the same as the difference, as theÿ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ shared volume in the latter case is 0.ÿÿÿ3. ÿÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÿ An airplane that is at the coast, 15 kms over the sea, sendsÿ light signals, which a ship at the sea sees at the horison.ÿ How far must the ship travel to reach the coast? The radiusÿ of earth is 6378 km...ÿÿThe trick with this problem is to realize that the light is inÿ90 deg angle to the radius of earth at the point where the boatÿis. The angle between the plane and the boat from the centre ofÿthe earth's point of view, à, is:ÿÿcos à = 6378/(6378+15) --> à = arccos (6378/6393) degÿd, the distance to the coast for the boat is then:ÿÿd = 2*6378*ã*à/360 ÷ 437,0 km.ÿ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÿÿÿ4. ÿ________ÿ Show that the two last numbers in the square of an integerÿ can't be 46.ÿÿSuppose we have a number abc. The value of this number is thenÿ100a + 10b + c, and the value of the square of this number is:ÿ10000aý + 2000ab + 200ac + 100bý + 20bc + cý. As you can see,ÿa doesn't affect the result until at the third digit, ever! Forÿnumbers with more than 3 digits, those digits to the left of aÿwon't affect digits 1, 2 or 3, because whatever number theirÿmultiplied with the result will be >= 10^e, where e >= 3. Theÿreason to this is that numbers to the left of a have a valueÿof at least 1000.ÿÿSo, all we need to show is that 20bc + cý is never equal toÿ46. If it'd be then 20bc + cý = 46. (b, c î Z+)ÿÿAs cý is the only one that affects the last digit (6) c has toÿbe either 4 or 6, as all other numbers (0-9) have a square whoseÿlast digit is not equal to 6.ÿÿc = 4 --> 80b = 30 --> b = 3/8, but b must be an integer! Ie.ÿc = 4 is not a solution.ÿÿc = 6 --> 120b = 10 --> b = 1/12, not an integer either.ÿÿThus we have proved that the last two numbers if the square ofÿan integer can never be 46.ÿÿÿ5. ÿ________ÿ Prove that 0.999999.... = 1.ÿÿSuppose x = 0.999999.... Then 10x = 9.99999....ÿ10x-x = 9x = 9 -> x = 1.ÿÿThis can also be solved, for example, by using geometric series,ÿbut that's so boring... ;>ÿÿ Moleql / ExtremeÿAs I'll have very little time for writing articles for this magÿin the future, this'll be the last in the series of fractals.ÿThis also means that we've reached realtime fractal zooming.ÿÿIf you've read the eariler issues of Pulse, you know how toÿgenerate Mandelbrot/Julia pictures in assembler. Be that as itÿmay, to get from single pictures to zooming between picturesÿyou need to know how a special form of bitmap zooming works.ÿÿSuppose you have an AxA picture which you want to make into aÿ200x200 picture on the screen, 400 >= A >= 200. To calculateÿwhich pixels you want to write to the screen from each row,ÿsimply do like this:ÿÿ ... ; Remember to set theÿ mov ax, -A ; segment registers!ÿ mov bx, 200ÿ mov dx, Aÿ mov si, OFFSET Pictureÿ mov di, (320-200)/2ÿ mov cx, 200ÿZoomLoop:ÿ add ax, bxÿ jns Dont_Skip_Pixelÿ add ax, bxÿ sub ax, dxÿ movsbÿ inc siÿ loop ZoomLoopÿ jmp XRowDoneÿDont_Skip_Pixel:ÿ sub ax, dxÿ movsbÿ loop ZoomLoopÿRowDone:ÿ ...ÿÿ(Uhm, this source may contain some bugs, 'cos I wrote it fromÿnothing - clipping out this from some of my sources would mostÿlikely be completely unreadable. But I've check it so it shouldÿbe OK, but one never knows...)ÿÿAs you may have guessed, the idea with this is is to change Aÿafter each picture-scale and thus gaining a zoomeffect.ÿIncreasing (or decreasing, as the case was in EMF's Eclipse) Aÿwith 1 is NOT a good idea if you want to zoom into the centre ofÿthe picture, as the picture will start shaking. But 2,4 or 8 areÿall good values. Also, if you want to zoom into the middle ofÿthe picture remember to add SI with ((400-A)*401)/2. From thatÿyou can also see why INC:ing A isn't such a good idea... *ÿÿAnyway, what's this got to do with fractals? Well, if you beginÿby setting A = 400 and then subtract A with 2 after eachÿpicture, soon enough A = 202. So? Well, suppose the picture weÿhave zoomed in is a fractal picture with the cordinatesÿ[1.0,1.0]-[2.0,2.0]. For A = 200, you'll get the very sameÿpicture as for A = 400 with a fractal picture with theÿcordinates [1.25,1.25]-[1.75,1.75]. So, at A = 202 you setÿA = 400 and change to the other picture, which you of courseÿhave precalculated on beforehand. And after that picture isÿcalculated you swap to the following precalculated picture, andÿso on and so on...ÿÿThe most perceptive of you have by now perhaps realized thatÿwe'd run out of memory after a mere three pictures, so theÿzooming wouldn't be very deep. There are of course alternativeÿways. Intelligent packing and protected mode is one way, whileÿanother is to calculate the new pictures in realtime! The firstÿpicture will be scaled in 200 steps, so we'd have to calculateÿ2*400 new dots for the next fractal picture during each scaledÿpicture we show. As you might have guessed there are no homeÿcomputers currently available that could do this fast enough toÿmake the zooming look decent.ÿÿSo, you have to find new ways to defeat this problem. EMF usedÿa screen of 80x50 instead of 200x200 and thus got away a lotÿeasier, but the zoomer still looked nice because it was so fast.ÿWizard / Extreme, whose fractal zoomer never got shown atÿAssembly (due to lack of memory at the competition computer),ÿhas solved this in another way; he uses a variety of tricks toÿspeed up the zooming to its maximum. But, the zooming is stillÿpretty slow. Then again, he's even "worse" than in the exampleÿabove, because he uses 320x200!ÿÿ Moleql / Extremeÿÿ* By SUB:ing A with 2 all the time, the relative zooming willÿbecome larger and larger (the zooming seems to be going fasterÿbecause mathematically the relative increase in the cordinatesÿis become bigger and bigger, although it should be a constant),ÿand then go back to the original when you change pictures. Youÿcan avoid this by making a small table. As said before 1,3,5ÿand all other odd numbers should be avoided, so the table couldÿlook something like this. 4,4,4,4,4,2,4,4,4,2,4,2,2,4,2,4,2,4,2,ÿ4,2,2,4,2,2,2,4,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2. If you understand everythingÿelse in this article I guess you'll understand that too. Butÿremember that the sum of all the number should be 198. (400-202)ÿÿThere's a formula for calculating the numbers, but naturallyÿI've deleted the program that generates them (a simple C-programÿof mine) and I haven't got the time to make a new one, but ifÿyou've got some brains you can surely make one yourself. And ifÿyou can't, the zooming won't look all that strange with 2 allÿthe way... (or a "homemade" table like the one above)ÿ DDG: 24H breakÿ ÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÿÿWhen I started this demo I had quite low expectations... Luckyÿme, because otherwise I would have been REALLY dissapointed asÿthis is one of those waste 100kb of your dl-bytes on - intros.ÿThere were not too many effects and those that they used wereÿquite bad. We see the normal 3d starfield with a writer on, theÿUGLY interference, and a scroller with a shadow. The music wasÿone of those normal adlib-pieces.. except I believe this was modÿnot FM! The Gfx was kind of nice.. but the REAL NICE landscapeÿwas quite surely done with Vista pro (copyrighted softwar) orÿanohter landscape-generator. A waste of bytes I would say.ÿÿÿ Pentagon: Urgentÿ ÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÿÿThis was one of those intros that were made by a group I neverÿheard about before. So I couldn't expect anything.. and to myÿsurprise this demo was rather good.. There were a scroller andÿin the middle 3d veccys with delay... quite good design but theÿmusic was poor and the gfx very nice. I would say a quite goodÿintro from a new group.ÿÿÿ Epical: Tangleÿ ÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÿÿAfter Fcs' departure from Epical I didn't expect much from them,ÿbut they really surprised me this time.. The intro starts withÿsome 'original' lightsourced vectors followed by a writer I callÿa Shadow-writer. The next effect is some raster vectors that areÿquite good but why so damn small? When the vectors rotate out ofÿthe screen we are faced with once again the 'JESKOLA-ball'. Whyÿuse it in both intros? Lack of ideas maybe? Continuing the showÿare some rgb-plates bounching and a transforming delay-dot show,ÿwhich is very nice. The intro ends with a vertical scroller. Theÿmusic was pumping and the little gfx that was in it was nice..ÿÿÿ Epical: Fix-overÿ ÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÿÿOh, why, oh why lord, did they have to do a 2 hour demo?! Thisÿintro suxx even worse than a typhoon. The demo starts with aÿSLOOOW copper effect showing an ugly logo.. continuing withÿsomething I'd call a Jeskola-ball (after the National hero-groupÿJeskola Productions :>), continues with a filled circles thatÿare sticky EVEN on my 486dx/50 vlb.. followed by rgb cirlcesÿthat are quite ugly. The next effect is a bspline glenz vectorÿwhich is quite an achievment if it's done in 2 hours as theyÿsay. The music was poor, but what can you expect from a 2H song,ÿand the gfx was of low quality.. Shame on you epical!ÿÿÿ Doomsday: Vanity and Apathyÿ ÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÿÿThis group is just a temporary group consisting of 2 ex-Hysteriaÿmembers. So let's go on to the review. The demo starts with anÿold-fashioned pixel-scroller.. but this demo was made out of oldÿroutines too :> Followed by a delay pixelflag, which is kind ofÿnice, continued with a field of small rubber pixel balls, quiteÿnice. Why always put those ugly plasmas there? Doomsday puts aÿnew meaning in the word REAL-TIME with their julia-fractals..ÿsure it's realtime but .. oh well. This exceptional part isÿcontinued with an effect I believe is called something likeÿWobble or something.. Don't know. The music was average and theÿlittle gfx that was seen was too average.ÿThe intro was .. AVERAGE :>ÿÿÿ Dataction: The spiralÿ ÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÿÿIf I have to name a intro the LAMEST intro of the competition itÿhas to be this. They obviously tried to impress someone by onlyÿsupporting GUS.. but what do you get with your GUS? A scrollerÿon the top of the screen with a field that they are color-ÿcycling.. Therefore the name The spiral.. and a mod that is ofÿso low quality that my cat started yawning.. HYI!ÿÿÿ Fleet: 1st introÿ ÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÿÿMan, if the coders are so smart that they understand and can useÿthis setup, then all I can say.. THINK OF US normal sapiens too.ÿThis setup SUCKS. Well, after maybe surviving that disgustingÿsetup we can see vectorballs that MUST be the slowest ever done.ÿThey are even slow on my 486 computer. This part is followed byÿa ballshaped vector that isn't anything special which is changedÿto a transforming glenzvector. To our surprise a 2d texture of aÿmember's little sister is floating towards us.. and dissapearsÿagain. Following effect is a transforming multicolored pixels,ÿwhich is kind of usual nowadayz.. nothing special in this part Iÿguess. To my deepest fears the next part is another of theseÿplasmas made using colorcycling.. pyh. The plasma is followed byÿa slow and badly designed vectorbased fractallandscape. Nextÿpart is a World Vector which I have nothing to say about. Theÿending is yet another movie-scroll or which I already am gettingÿtired of.. the last 'the end' scroll is something so shockingÿthat .. I deleted this intro.. The Gfx was VERY poor and theÿmusic naiv.. Don't bother to waste your time on this..ÿÿÿ Jeskola prod: Caloriefree diet introÿ ÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÿÿAnother funny intro from the Finnish national-heros.. These guyzÿgot GUTS..The whole intro is based on their invention .. theÿJeskola-ball. The music is real FINNISH and the gfx is hmmm.ÿwhat gfx? A real entertainer. dl it!ÿÿÿ Onyx: Locomotionÿ ÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÿÿAnother finnish group shows the world what they can do. Theÿintro starts with vector-chessboard zooming in the name Onyx andÿfading out, letting a 'pixel-storm' create the locomotive-logoÿbit by bit.. real nice. The intro continues with a veccyflag..ÿor I think it's a veccyflag.. who knows :> changing to a solidÿvector landscape, with a writer letting us know the vitalÿinformation. The ending was quite messy.. at least on myÿcomputer.. I don't know how it SHOULD be so I can't comment it..ÿIn conclusion the gfx was nice but the music was quite awful..ÿsumma sumarum.. a quite nice demo. DOWNLOAD!ÿÿÿ Surprise! Productions: Star Dreamÿ ÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÿÿThis must be the coolest Australian/Danish group around.. Theyÿmake demos with cool adlib-music. This demo consists of quiteÿfew tricks but this is only a prevtro of their upcoming demo..ÿSome effect included in this are Plasma with a writer ontop,ÿbouncing colorcycle ball, twisting pixeltower with anotherÿsinusscroller on top. The Gfx was ok and the music was moody..ÿI can't wait to get my hands on the demo.ÿÿÿ EMF: Eclipseÿ ÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÿÿEMF has to be one of the top demo-groups in Finland.. They'veÿbeen quiet for quite a while and now storms us with thisÿFABOLOUS intro. This one won the Assembly '93 and consist of soÿmany different effects that I can't imagine how they fitted themÿin 100kb. It starts with one of those T2 - inspired beginningsÿwhich are quite cool. It's followed with ballshaped vectorÿbouncing, fullcolor circles, pixel hyperspace transforming intoÿpixel ball which transforms into a pixel-tunnel that you flyÿthrough.. WHOAH.. real nice. The part following the tunnel is aÿfractal landscape with a writer on. Not so cool but informative.ÿTo exit this part they use a new effect they call Blind-effect,ÿwhich is quite impossible to describe. The intro continues withÿdifferent kinds of vectors and glenzvectors that are damn fast..ÿThe next part I can't understand.. why make so damn large pixelsÿin the fractal ZOOM _OUT_ .. it almost looks like ansi-zoomer :>ÿWell, the next part is the usual delay pixel transformationsÿquite good. The last part in the intro is a screen withÿunlimited bobs with the credit-writer on top.. not too creativeÿbut... The gfx was very good, especially the last emf-logo andÿthe music very rythmic.. the best intro I've seen this far!ÿÿÿ Darkzone: Debuteÿ ÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÿÿDidn't work on ANY of my computers.. so I can't check it out..ÿÿMoleql: It works at least for a while on my computer. The introÿbegins with a well design dot-spaceman and continues with someÿdot-transformations. The rest of the parts are, unfortunately,ÿnot quite as well designed. The demo continues with whatÿprobably is the most hated effect in the whole demoscene, shade-ÿbobs. Three XOR-vectorcubes and XOR-bobs follow, simple but notÿtoo awful. The bob-part seems to go on forever. It gets boringÿpretty fast as the movements repeat themselves very rapidly.ÿ(not that it'd be very interesting anyhow)ÿÿI guess it's due to my VGA-card (a Tseng) that some parts bug aÿbit; the dots flicker rapidly between black and blue and theÿscrolling between the cubes and the bobs looks like shit.ÿAnyway, after the bobs comes yet another flickerpart, with aÿboring - and again - rapidly repeating dot tunnel. Then every-ÿthing goes black. I guess the intro should continue, but on myÿcomputer it doesn't. No music is heard. Don't know if this isÿdue to my SB not being in a good mood or if they simply doesn'tÿhave any sound to the intro, so it's best left unsaid. Still,ÿthis intro isn't all that awful, its standard was well aboveÿaverage at Assembly, which is indicated - if by nothing else -ÿthe fact that the intro got 3rd.ÿÿÿ Sonic: Plan-Bÿ ÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÿÿCan't say anything serious about this cause it froze in theÿSonic-world part.. (sorry, did the same on my too -Moleql), butÿuntil that part it was very promising.. good gfx, very goodÿmusic and average code. (I'd say well above average code -Molle)ÿÿÿ Avalanche : Motionÿ ÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÿÿThe second production from this Swedish group during July. Thisÿtime it starts with a pixel logo coming right at the viewer.ÿNext part is a vectorscroller which is so and so.. continuingÿwith something I believe is a raytraced animation..but you neverÿknow:> Following is a rotating 3d starfield with a writer on topÿof it and the blind-effect they all are using nowadayz. Trans-ÿforming glenz-vectors are apearing next.. with yet anotherÿwriter following it. One thing I have thought about is whyÿAvalanche only supports GUS in their demos? Otherwise the gfxÿwas nice and the music was average. A so-so intro.ÿÿÿ Irrestible Works: Prevtroÿ ÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÿÿThis is another candidate for the LAMEST intro of Asm'93. Thereÿare only 3 parts in this PREVtro of some demo they will release.ÿ(hopefully never :>) First part is shadebobs with colorcycleÿwhich looks quite awful. The Second part is a pixel ball on aÿlogo.. this is almost acceptable IF you could see the pixelball.ÿbad colorchoise.ÿÿThird part is a sinus scroller with a font that is paintedÿbended.. oh well, hopefully they will get better :> Music wasÿawful and the gfx was even worse.. On the other hand.. thisÿintro was over 100kb . how could it be competing in the introÿcompo?ÿÿ Fear / ExtremeÿAnd here we are go again. Another of those 'look at me, I amÿrotating'-demos. Just one difference, this one is made by aÿGerman group called Dust and took them 1 year to make..ÿÿWhere we join the story, we are in the dos prompt. We areÿwriting with a hopefull hand Dust to be met by a nice andÿinteresting flash-writer telling us that it's Dust's new demoÿcalled Saga we are watching. This is continued by a whole newÿscreen with a scroller with a mirror underneath and a Dust-logoÿin the upper side.. in the middle there's the normal emptyÿspace, only that this empty space is filled with someÿ'colorcycling' effect. Vector balls of various forms and sizesÿare passing by the screen with a vectorball-man with a glassballÿas head waking me up once in a while.ÿÿThis is followed by a part with something they call Shitbobs..ÿsurprise surprise! it's those noxious SHADEBOBS again. Boy, theyÿare lethal :> I can't wait for the next part. Another screenÿwith the 'water-effect' only this time we are going to watchÿsolid vectors and textured pics of the members! After yetÿanother wasted 2 minutes, we get woken up by a beavis andÿbutthead-animation. Quite radical, I might say. In the part thatÿfollows it we can notice that these guys have been watchingÿAmiga-demos.. A vertical panning logo with 2 color-effectÿscrollers mixing eachother in the middle, with another scrollerÿin the bottom of the screen. Real neat. Now it's time for theÿreal shocker.. A fractal landscape! It would have been nice ifÿwe would change direction all the time.. Yet another 2-3 minutesÿpass before we can see the normal movie scroller. ending withÿyet another funny animations... Overall the gfx was real niceÿand the music suited the demo well. An average demo that wouldÿcome somewhere in the middle of my top 30 demo list..ÿÿ Fear / ExtremeÿYes! Finally a demo that looks good. 3DS seems to have been inÿpretty much use, but the result is good and the graphician,ÿSigfrid, has done some nice logos himself too. (still, I can'tÿhelp but to wonder if he's stolen those City Hunter logos -ÿthey look SO familiar) The demo is pretty well design, while theÿmusic isn't quite that good; main music theme is pretty awful,ÿbut the end tune is really good, so all in all quite averageÿmusic then, I guess. The code is just below average, but stillÿnot in any way lame. The routines are mainly simple vectorbasedÿstuff, like vectordots, wireframe objects and vectorballs.ÿÿÿ Code ÿ Graphics ÿ Design ÿ Music ÿ ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÿ OVERALL ÿLike Realtime, this in(v)tro looks damn good but the code isn'tÿall that great. Unlike Realtime the music is fabulous, the tuneÿreally got to me, thus it receives the first 10 ever given inÿPulse. So would the graphics have, if the main part justÿwouldn't have been so ugly. (of course, making a big one colorÿfont isn't the most inspiring thing to do and neither is a 50x10ÿ(or whatever the size was) one color Assemb(l)y-logo)ÿÿÿ Code ÿ Graphics ÿ Design ÿ Music ÿ ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÿ OVERALL ÿÿÿÿA lot of rumours were going on about the Gathering '93 demo-ÿcompetition and TZ's defeat over TCB, although TCB's demo wasÿsupposed to be something really special. In this demo, theÿcoder of TCB's Gathering-demo, Zax, releases some leftovers fromÿthe Gathering-demo, which never actually got released. This sameÿcoder also changed group after the Gathering, to Avalanche.ÿÿWell, well, I must say that at least I was a bit disappointed.ÿFirst some pretty normal and not especially fast filled andÿtransparent vectors are shown, followed by, yeah, shadebobsÿand then it's all over. In the endpart some bobs are movingÿaround in the background while the credits, again, are shown.ÿÿI haven't had enough money to by a GUS yet, and as this demoÿsupports only GUS, I don't have too much to say about theÿmusic. Probably good, as Leinad, Avalanche's musician did prettyÿgood in the competitions at Assembly.ÿÿÿ Code ÿ Graphics ÿ Design ÿ Music ?ÿ ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÿ OVERALL ÿOn beforehand I had heard that Eterno was supposed to be aÿREALLY lousy group, so from that point of view this demo was aÿpositive surprise. It contains a variety of vectors; filled,ÿraster, stencil, dots and jelly, but they're soo slow. Further-ÿmore the demo contains an ugly interference (make decent colorsÿor not at all!), which looks more like two circle-bobs and someÿcolorcycling plasmas.ÿÿThe graphician didn't get very much space, but what his done isÿmore than enough for me... The tune is kind of different, butÿstill pretty lousy. But hey, it's their first production soÿlet's not be so negative - I know my first demo wasn't anyÿmasterpiece either...ÿÿ Code ÿ Graphics ÿ Design ÿ Music ÿ ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÿ OVERALL ÿThere's really not much to say about this demo. The routines areÿwithout exception slow. Among the routines, I guess the texturedÿstuff is best. That at least requires some effort. The worstÿroutine is by far their brush-drawing ditto. 4 bobs, I believeÿit was, are drawn in a simple sinuspattern and the old ones areÿnever erased. Even my sister managed to do this with DeluxeÿPaint at the age of 5... The difference is that she did it withÿ12 bobs. ;>ÿÿThe design is pretty OK in the beginning, but from the "technoÿpart" (they are changing between three stupid messages) on itÿsucks. There's no sound support, but, according to a message inÿthe beginning, there will come a version of this demo with SBÿsupport in the "near future". The graphics are actually prettyÿgood, but that doesn't take a demo very far when the rest isÿmore or less absolute crap.ÿÿ Code ÿ Graphics ÿ Design ÿ Music Noneÿ ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÿ OVERALL ÿAs most of you probably have noticed by now, Hungary is startingÿto become demofactory number 1. After quality releases fromÿMajic 12, Grif, Mystic and Organ my expectations were high whenÿI downloaded this new demo by ICSPC, especially considering itÿwas about 900 Kb!ÿÿThe demo starts up with a 3DS-animation, which looks prettyÿnice, but hardly belongs in a demo. Once the actual demo getsÿstarted. It's yet another technodemo with something like 6-7ÿparts, which it changes between forth and back rapidly, makingÿit look sort of like a music video. The "parts" are, well,ÿmediocre. Nothing difficult to code - but not immensly easyÿeither - and the graphics kinda suck. Among the parts you'llÿfind a simple filled cube, a weird interference, a simpleÿbitmap-zoomer... You get the picture. The music is a cover ofÿEsura's "Open Your Mind", or at least it sounds like that. ;-)ÿÿHowever, this is only a first try from the Hungarian group, so Iÿreally shouldn't be critisizing them all that much. They areÿlooking for a good GFX-artist (who isn't these days?), soÿperhaps their next release will improve on that area. Codersÿalways get better and find out new tricks and there's reallyÿnothing to complain about the music, so I expect someÿinteresting releases from these guys in the future.ÿÿ Design ÿ Coding ÿ Graphics ÿ Music ÿ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÿ Overall ÿ