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t e x t m o d e d e m o c o m p e t i t i o n
TMDC Infofile version 0.9
(c) 1996 Sol/DEE and the The Joker/Crusaders
What?
The demos today seem to move in the same direction as
the PC market; more processor power, more resolution,
more memory, more colors, more sound..
At the same time new demo competitions are introduced.
Hornet introduced 8086 demo competition (with three or
four contributions!), Assembly org introduced 4k intro
competitions, Imphobia has it's coding competition, etc.
All these have rules that limit the task somehow. Code
size, speed, processor type.
So we introduce new competition with a new limit: the
video mode. We have seen some demos in text mode (and
some demos with few parts in text mode). And we like them.
Why? They are sort of C64ish: they push the limits of
a resource you didn't think as possible. On the other
hand, textmode gives you very low resolution and very
many colors.
Do you think textmode is childish? Do you realize that
everything done in higher resolutions can be also done
in textmode? Simply by using IBM-charset characters
176,177,178 and 219 plus fore and background colors, you
can easily get more than 500 colors on-screen at the
same time (and you are NOT limited to those characters)!
Converting any routine to textmode could be simple filler
recode or a generic framebuffer copy function.
When?
The deadline is 12th of October, 1996. The results should
be available by end of October. We will email the results
textfile to all contributors, and post it to the usenet PC
demo newsgroup.
Where?
The competition is held in the Internet, although you don't
have to have internet access to contribute a demo.
You may send your contributions to:
email: joker@crusaders.no
IRC: _TJ_ (#CODERS)
BBS: TRK +358-0-874-2789 28.8k (Dubius, DEE and Hysteria HQ)
Snailmail:
Sol/DEE The Joker
Laurintie 116 Stationsveien 56
Vantaa 01400 2010 STROMMEN
Finland,Europe Norway, Europe
(Please include Self Addressed Envelope and International
Reply Coupons if you want to have your disk(s) back).
Rules?
- The organizers reserve the right to disqualify any demo,
and the right to change the rules at any time.
- ONLY CONTRIBUTE FINAL VERSIONS! (You may give us 'more final'
versions before the deadline though).
- The organizers will release the demos when the judging is
done.
- The demos must be previosly unpublished.
- 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 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. (This limit is to make them easier to distribute
on disks - the size is under one HD disk since we will add
info file about the compo in every ZIP). 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).
If you want to use nonstandard text modes with these
resolutions (for instace Liket's 60hz or 50hz modes) please
make them optional.
- 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).
- User must be able to quit the demo at any moment by pressing
ESC.
- Sound support: At least GUS (either native, MEGAEM (midi) or
SBOS (SB/adlib)).
- 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 and P133 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).
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.
Prizes?
[Under discussion - see tmdc10.txt that
will be released with invitation intro!]
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 we don't receive any good demos, we will cancel this
competition.
If you have any questions, send them to either
joker@crusaders.no or solar@venture.fipnet.fi, or use
the other contribution addresses mentioned above.
Signed,
Sol/DEE and The Joker/Crusaders
15 August 1996
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