ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» Ⱦ O P T I C R O N : Ô¼ ɸ Tome of the Impossible Õ» ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ (C) Copyright 1995 Craw Productions by Kenji "LakEEE" Toyooka and Mike "PsychoMan" Anttila -1 S T P L A C E W I N N E R- of the 100K+ demo competition at the North American International Democompo (NAID) ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÑÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÑÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ ³ BASIC INFORMATION ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ This is an IBM PC compatible DOS system graphic and digital sound demonstration. It is freeware, and cannot be distributed for any profit whatsoever or may not be altered in any way, unless direct permission by the creators is given. We are also not responsible for any damages directly related to this program. You are using this at your own risk, although one can wonder how this could possibly cause any harm... Here are the specs needed to run this program: -A 386 or higher computer. (486DX+ recommended) -1.5 megabytes of disk space. -Any version of DOS above 2.11. -About 590 K of conventional memory. (If you're using a Sound Blaster compatible, you require about 610K instead) -To hear music, either a: Gravis Ultrasound (512K), or a Sound Blaster / Sound Blaster Pro / SB16 compatible card. -Approximately 6.5 minutes of spare time. Here are also some command line parameters available: -"Sx" Choose a sound card, where x can be: 0 - No sound 1 - Gravis Ultrasound 2 - A Sound Blaster compatible -"Vx" Set volume, and x can be any number between 0 and 64. (32 is the default) -"Mx" Set mixing rate, where x is the rate in Hz. (The default is 22 KHz and this only applies to Sound Blaster sound cards. WARNING: Do set set the mixing rate AFTER setting the card with the "s" command) -"L" With this, the demo will loop indefinitely. -"?" Will list out your command line options. Example: "Opticron s1 v16" -This will run the demo with the Gravis Ultrasound as the chosen sound card and a volume of 16 units (25%). ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÑÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÑÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ ³ SOME COMMENTS ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ All the code, graphics and music in this demo are original; none are rips or stolen fragments from an outside source. This excludes the digital samples used for the background song, Yume, which are indeed "stolen". You may call us what you like, but the lack of any sampling equipment has forced us to take some samples without asking the creators, of which we don't always know who they are. Sorry if you recognize any to be your own! Also, every effect (except for the sparkles when Opticron's pages turn over) are done in real time. There are no pre-calculations, save cosine and sine tables, and there are no animations contained in the demonstration. We would like to give a special thanks to Jon Merkel (ShadowLord) for providing us with a temporary working SB/SBpro/SB16 sound player. ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÑÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÑÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ ³ N A I D ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ "Opticron: Tome of the Impossible" was originally a simple demo not meant to be entered into any democompo or party, but since we started hearing things about NAID (North American International Democontest) we decided to give it a try and submit it to the contest. We also chose to attend NAID, which was only two hours away by car in Montreal, especially because it was the first competition of its kind in North America. To our great excitement, Opticron won 1st in the demo competition and LakEEE brought home a 3rd and a public's choice award in the graphics division for "Stone Tears", an MCGA pcx that is also displayed at the beginning of the Opticron demo. Thanks a million to all the people who supported us! We met many cool guys (and girl :) that were into the demoscene at NAID, and finally I personally (LakEEE) got to match faces and handles to the real person. I'd like to greet a handful of people that were especially prominent in my mind: In no particular order, of course... Andrew M. (Mental Floss) IOR Necros The Veritech Knight Eric (Midnight Sun) Miss Saigon Bryan and Steve (Spud) Epeius Basehead Mosaic All the guys of DCB Fornax Mr. Khan Of course, the guys of Sentience that gave us a most helpful vehicle boost after NAID... :) And any others I missed, please. I can't seem to remember names... ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÑÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÑÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ ³ ABOUT THIS DEMO... ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ As you may or may not have noticed, there is a growing trend in the PC demo scene to make demos with a theme. I personally look at this with good hope, because it is my strong belief that demos should evolve into what would be called "cinematic presentations" with much more movie like characteristics and interesting themes. The thing is, these sort of demos would still need to have real time effects, otherwise people would simply store huge animations with matching music and that would be that. When we first started creating Opticron, I saw this as our biggest challenge: Adhereing the our overall theme while still making non-animated effects that would keeps one's attention. Hopefully you'll believe that we've succeeded in doing this. Our basic theme in Opticron is, as you may know if you've seen the demo, a book of optical illusions. Every page within this magical book contains a moving impossibility, an illusion of reality. Although the routines that make up each effect are rather simple and basic even (i.e. simple 3d system polygons, texture mapping... etc.), we hope you note the 'genuineness' of each effect as a whole, being an optical illusion and all, which hasn't been done too often in demos. I'll just say that thinking of over 10 impossible and not to mention moving abstract figues was quite, quite difficult. But we finally got it done, through lots of painstaking work, and here it is... Signed, Kenji Toyooka - "LakEEE" of Craw Productions. March 21st, 1995 revised on April 22nd, 1995