- - --------------------------------------------------------- - - Text Mode Demo Competition 2 invitation/infofile v1.0.0 by Sol/Trauma - - .mmmm.------.m#-----.-----------.m##m.-----------.#.----- - - .m######## ..mm###: ##. .## .m########. .m###. .mm. .##########'mMM###### :##. .###.###########. .m##":#: .m##### ########"";######":#: .###' .###.#####""#;#### .##"' ##' .###"";# .###;"' .####' :#:m#;#;.####;###" #" '##: .##; ## :##"' :# "##"' .,"#" ##M#".#;####' ""' .# :#: .##' ,#' ##;. .## .## ' .###' m;m"##; m#' '#:.##' .##' .##:..##" ##' .###' .#M###M .#' .#'##: .### m##' m#' M### .###'##' .#; #'###' ####' .###' .## .### ###'.#' .## ##'##' .###' m###' .##' m###' m### ## . ;# m#'### ""' .,.###" M#M .###' .###'.#: .#;.#: .m#'.##: #'##: ..m#. .##: ###' ###' :#'.:#' ###m.m###" :##: m':##:#####: :##' "## ##; :#Mm#' #######"' M##: .## ########' ##' "' "" "##' ""''' :###. .m##" """"'' - -"'-------------------"'----------------"########'--------- - - T e x t M o d e D e m o C o m p e t i t i o n p a r t I I - - --------------------------------------------------------- - - (c) 1997 Jari Komppa aka Sol/Trauma _____What? Demos in textmode? Hold on - this is not a joke. The PC demoscene is different from any other in couple ways. First, there is no hardware to aid you; if some new trick works on your machine, you can be pretty sure it doesn't work on the majority of PCs. Second, nobody cares if you can get 2700 plot record with hand- optimized assembler on 386sx PC - you can always jam in a double- processor pentium-pro 266 MMX motherboard and break that record with, say, qbasic. Today, the demos are more like music videos and less like the good old demos that only tried to show the world that one can do more with that machine than the 'professionals' claim to be possible. This is the old magic that PC demoscene has lost. Last year I organized TMDC to show people that it's possible to make decent demos in textmode as well. Before the competition the people who were against the idea said that textmode is too crappy or something, and after the compo they said why bother, it's just another graphics mode after all. That's right; textmode is just another graphics mode, and it gives you some things 13h or higher resolutions don't. First, with simple table lookup you get real RGB mode with about 300 colors using just the four 'grayscale' characters (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%). With interlace, 4571 colors. Mind me, nobody says you should use just those 176,177,178 and 219 chars, though! Second, you get *lots* of processing power per pixel. How about *real* antialiased trilerp vectors running in every frame? or some realtime raytracing? Many people have complained about the palette and tweaking limits I'm setting. Main reason for those limits is that it makes it possible to see that it's really text mode all the time and not some gfx mode (such as 12h). The other reason is that I *really* don't think that palette changes etc fit into textmode demos. Some people claim that some demo last year broke some of the rules. That's allright with me; one of the main ideas in democoding is to cheat as much as you can as long as you can get away with it. Oh - you don't have to support ONLY one graphics mode in your demo! Last year I received 9 demos, which was a disapointment. (We said we'd give a prize for the 10 best demos we receive, so everyone received something). Of these, two were pretty good demos, two were plain jokes and the rest were.. well, everything from very poor to quite enjoyable. The Gathering'97 -party also had a textmode compo. Not surprisingly, the same names appeared in the top ranks there as in the TMDC. I really believe there are more people capable of making textmode demos - that's why I try again. This year, sending contributions is even easier than last year. Read on! _____When? Deadline is 11.11.97. Submit your entries as soon as possible. Deadline is counted from the timezone CET+12 so as long as there is one country on Earth living in 11.11.97, there's time to contribute. Results should be out before mid-december. _____Where? Any questions can be sent to: IRC: Channels: #CODERS, #TMDC shine_ (Official TMDC IRC Help Person) Sol_HSA (Organizer, rarely on IRC) Email: solar@spider.compart.fi The competition is held in the Internet, but you don't have to have internet access to contribute a demo. You may send your contributions to: FTP: ftp.fishpool.com /pub/tmdc <- write only directory! (This directory should exist from 10.10.97 on) Email: UUEncoded to solar@spider.compart.fi BBS: TRK +358-9-876-4017 28.8k (Trauma HQ) +358-9-876-4018 14.4k (node 2) (For anonymous upload, log on as TMDC, passw TMDC) Snailmail: Sol/Trauma Jari Komppa Kylakaskentie 1A2 Vantaa 01200 Finland,Europe (Please include Self Addressed Envelope and International Reply Coupons if you want to have your disk(s) back). Especially if you use email: make sure we have received your demo! (Do NOT resend it before we ask!!) _____Rules? - The organizers reserve the right to disqualify any demo, and the right to change the rules at any time. - The organizers will spread the last version they've received from you. - The demos must be previosly unpublished. - Direct textmode conversions of existing demos are not allowed. (I don't want to see Textdemo Ankka! :) - The authors will retain copyright to their productions. - You must include .nfo and file_id.diz file in the package. In addition, you may add 'readthis.org' with info for the organizers only (we will delete this file before releasing the package). - Remember to include (snail)mail address info in either .nfo or the readthis.org file! - Maximum file size is 1447424 bytes in a ZIP file, and 10 megs uncompressed. If you use DOS4GW, you don't need to include it in the ZIP. (Everyone has it already). - Maximum demo length (in time) is not limited, but you should remember that too long demos are boring. - The complete demo must run in some textmode (including setup screen if applicable). Valid textmode screen modes are: 40x12, 40x14, 40x21, 40x25, 40x27, 40x43, 40x50, 80x12, 80x14, 80x21, 80x25, 80x27, 80x43, 80x50. You *MAY* support other modes, but we will judge the demos in one of those modes. (All of these modes can be set through use of interrupt calls, so no outs are required). - Font and palette changes are not allowed; neither are other hardware tricks like splitscreen or startaddress. (Changing font means you want higher resolution, and that's not the point of this competition. Changing the palette is also out of the question; you can change colors on screen in other ways). EXCEPTION: Light backgrounds may be enabled (ie. the blink attribute may be disabled). Other 'tweaks' (except refresh rate tweaks) are NOT allowed (partially since it would make the mode control impossible, and partially since it simply is not the point of this competition. Take it as a chiptune compo for coders). - User must be able to quit the demo at any moment by pressing ESC. - Sound support: At least 1024k GUS (either native, MEGAEM (midi) or (IW/MAX)SBOS (SB/adlib)). (We use GUS Classic, GUS MAX and GUS PNP cards). - The demo must run on Pentium 120 with 8 megs of RAM under either QEMM, EMM386, HIMEM or plain boot. (Judging will be done on P120+ class machines with 16+ megs of RAM, tho). - The demo must not write anything on harddrive (neither in current dir nor on C root or anywhere else). - Complete animation demos are not denied, but remember the size limits.. - All file names must be compatible with MS-DOS 6.00. Also suggested, but not madatory: - Autodetects and command-line options are a good idea. - Demos should run through once and quit - or loop if a certain command-line parameter is given. - Nosound and SB support would be nice. - If you use nonstandard text modes with the valid resolutions (for instace Liket's 60hz or 50hz modes) please make them optional. If you don't, you'll risk incompatibility with the compo machines. _____Prizes? 1st place - A.C.E CD #4 - A ticket to The Gathering '98 - Visual Basic Enterprise 4.x 2nd place - A.C.E CD #4 - A ticket to The Gathering '98 - Visual Test 4.x 3rd place - A.C.E CD #4 - A ticket to The Gathering '98 - Corel Print House 4rd place - A.C.E CD #4 - Visual Test 4.x 5th place - A.C.E CD #4 The Gathering is one of the biggest annual demoparties in the world, held in Norway. A.C.E CD #4 includes just about all demos released June 1996 to March 1997, including TMDC1 demos, and additionally huge collection of graphics, source code and music. Visual Test is a windows compatibility check environment, very useful for programmers. Thanks to our sponsors: The Gathering organizing - www.gathering.org A.C.E BBS - christophe.yvon@cnet.francetelecom.fr (Gandalf) Fishpool Creations - fishpool.com _____Jury? Trauma, ie. Sol, Nitro, Teque, Tonic, Excel, void, Assassin, !Cube and Tremor. For voting system we'll use Silly Little Votesystem v1.1 (with free point scale but equal voters - results are displayed in 'acceptance factor' percentage). Sol holds on to his veto-rights. _____Resources? Sol/DEE has released a textmode FLI/FLC player (will full Watcom C32 source). It can currently be found (at least) from: www.hornet.org .. txtfli.zip It should be enough to show that you can do anything in textmode. The Joker(TJ)/Crusaders has released full code to his textmode demo that won the Distortion'96, and the demo consist of 3d-vectors, texture-mapping, goraud shading, zoom/rotate, good music and plasma-routines. It's coded in pascal/asm. Get if from : www.hornet.org .. ringnes.arj Another completely different approach can be seen in 'BB' by AA-project. Check www.ta.jcu.cz/aa Some rather good textmode demos can be leeched from TJ/Crusaders' page - www.crusaders.no/members/thejoker The invitation demo is out! Get TMDC2INV.ZIP. It also has some sources and stuff in it. _____Other? Please note that this is NOT a joke competition! You CAN do all plasmas, whirls, vectors, and stuffs in text mode. And due to the reduced resolution and virtually truecolor palette, you can do much more than what you could imagine doing in 320x200 or even higher graphics modes. If you have any questions, send them to either solar@spider.compart.fi, or use the other contribution addresses mentioned above. Signed, Sol/Trauma 28 September, 1997 - - ------------------------------------------------------ - -