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. :)
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.
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, Fairfax, Moby...
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!)
'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.
Graphics artists - Draws the pictures/logos/fonts, or whatever is needed.
Musicians - produces the soundtracks.
(Design is also important in demos. It's often handled by the graphics artist
and/or coder.)
Mail-Trader - Swaps with other demo-fans and members of other groups, in
order to get new demos and spread his own group's.
Modem-Trader - Trades demos on bulletin boards, functions much as
mail-trader.
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.
Practise a lot. :) For musicians and graphics artists, there really aren't
that many ways to 'learn`, except to keep trying, look at other people's work
for inspiration, and to learn your trade slowly and carefully. For coders,
the "HowToCode" tutorial series, available at the Papa ftp site, directory
/pub/useful/howtocode7.lha could be useful. Also articles in disc magazines
and so forth, may help aspiring Dr.Skulls. :)
Coders use assemblers such as ASM-One, or Devpac, both commercial
packages. (go to your local computer store and ask!)
Graphics artists use commercial paint programs, often Deluxe Paint, but
also Brilliance. (ditto!)
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...)
(Demos are available from PD (public domain) companies, and their adverts are
displayed prominently in all Amiga papermagazines. 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..)
The Aminet CDs are especially well-known, and now number 1-9, with Aminet 6
being specifically targeted towards demos.
However, probably the best demo-scene orientated CD series is the "Euroscene"
series by Almathera. Volume 1 contains about 540meg of demos, mods, graphics
and the like.. music modules and graphics are listed by authors, too.
"Euroscene2", released very recently, is even better, containing a whole CD
worth of well-ordered mods, graphics and demos..
(please note, if you see the CDs "Demo1" and "Demo2" for sale, they are much
older versions of Almathera compilations, and anything decent from them is
allegedly on "Euroscene".)
There's also a CD coming out real soon now called "Scene Storm", which I
believe has a lot of recent demo stuff on it, and is compiled from the files
on the DCS bulletin board in the UK, Digital Candy. It _should_ be very good,
so watch out for it.. they seem to be linking it to Spaceballs, although I'm
not sure why.
In addition, there are the CDs compiled by LSD, called "Compendium Deluxe"
volumes one and two. Very much demo-based, and with stuff unavailable
elsewhere.
Finally, there are sometimes official CDs containing all the releases from
parties: for example, the one from Assembly 94. This kind of thing is very
useful if you want to check out _all_ the pictures from a certain party. Can
anyone else give me any info on other CDs available?]
Using ftp sites is the most sensible way to get Amiga demos through the
Internet. The following are the best (only?) Amiga demo sites:
(log on as 'anonymous', give your email address as your password!)
Papa - i41s20.ira.uka.de
(in pub/ : was the ftp mirror of the IRC `bot` Papa, now Papa isn't on IRC
anymore, is simply a ftp site. And easily the best demo ftp site, too,
although access can sometime be slow from some areas of the globe. It has a
very good selection of demos, and is generally the first to get new demos. It
got almost all of the Party 5 demos when Aminet had none of them. Thanks to
Milano for this invaluable resource!)
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..)
This is the massive, infamous resource, which doesn't actually get that many
new demos nowadays (Papa gets a lot more), but is at least universally
accessable and fast.
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!
Funet - ftp.funet.fi
(in the pub/amiga/demos/ directory, demos arranged according to group names.
Not the newest stuff, but useful, tho a lot of it is mirrored on Aminet
nowadays.) ftp.ee.pdx.edu
(pub/amiga/demo/ :has a good selection from some big, older 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, but getting out of date nowadays. a lot of classic
older stuff, though.)
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. The Gathering 95 ftp site
was hijacked by hackers, though, so the organisers obviously have to be
careful.
[If you also have a PC, then try grabbing some of the increasingly good PC
demos at ftp.cdrom.com, or another decent archive at ftp.arosnet.se]
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. Sadly, Papa is no longer available to dcc
demos from. :(
But, Aminet is accessible on IRC through Mama. (/dcc chat Mama, etc..)
(http://www.ludd.luth.se/~pjotr/mama.cgi is Mama's homepage!)
[Please note, I (Hollywood) have attempted to rate the homepages, so people
don't have to spend ages wading through all the boring ones to get to the
cool ones.These ratings are as fair as possible, and based on the design,
information, and pure entertainment value of the pages. (*) means it's pretty
bad, (*****) means you need to look at it 24 hours a day for the next 100
years. Anything (***) or more is definitely worth checking out for people
interested in the scene. complaints about ratings should be addressed to
s.m.carless@dur.ac.uk. :) ]
The Black Lotus(**** - well-designed, informative, cool.)
The Jormas(**** - all-round excellent page.)
Three Little Elks(*** - nice, good)
Triumph(not too scene-orientated, but nice progs to download.)
Virtual Dreams(****+ - wicked! Netcape 2.0+ only)
= SCENE-PEOPLE =
[It's difficult to know what to include, since there's a lot of people who
are in the scene but don't have much relevant scene-stuff on their pages.
Here's a selection of the very best personal pages, and the ones which have
resources unavailable elsewhere.]
Artifex / Complex(****, wicked GFX!)
Diesel8 / Razor 1911(***+ - under construction, but COOL!)
Dr.Awesome(**** - amazing musician!)
Hollywood/Axis(***+ - pretty cool, but then I'm biased!)
Iso/Axis(**+ - Iso's MODs online.)
JMagic(**** - wicked page by honorary #amigascne d00d, pc really!)
Strobo / Stellar(****+ - absolutely astounding, not entirely demo-orientated, tho.)
Soul / Movement(**+ - some nice tunes!)
U4ia(***+ - smart page, plenty of nice MODs!)
Vesuri / The Jormas(***+ - pretty nice, some goodies.)
Zaltor / NGC(***+ - brilliant graphics, great homepage.)
= ZINES =
The Jungle(* - nothing there yet!)
Oepir Risti (*+ - latest issue available as Amiga archive.) (*NEW*!)
R.A.W. (***** - the best demo-site on the Internet!)
= PARTY INFORMATION =
Abduction '96
Assembly '95 homepage
BBx Symposium party
CompuSphere 5
The Gathering 96
The Party 5
SIH95 party-info
= MISCELLANEOUS =
Ken-stories - Remember them ? From the OLD Eurocharts'n'Crusaders demos ???
Eric Schwartz
Scene Online
The Amiga WEB directory - Very big Amiga WWW-index, the Amiga Net index!.
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. :)
The controversy begins here, since there's always argument about this kind of
subject, especially as the two main charts programs, "The Charts" and the
"Eurocharts" seem to be dead, but here we go..
Please note:
OCS denotes the original chip-set Amigas (A500/1000/1500)
ECS means the demo will run on the A500+/A600/A3000. (+some new 2000s)
AGA means the demo will only run on the A1200/4000. (+CD32?!)
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/misc/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. :)
Virtual Dreams - "Full Moon" (AGA, 2meg) - (Am) aga/vdreams_fullmoon.lha (H)
There are 2 versions. The original release worked the A500 with 1megRAM _only_. The Skid Row fix works on the
majority of machines. The version listed here is the Skid Row fix.
(the two main charts/news/info productions are Static
Bytes "Eurocharts", and RamJam "The Charts", available
on Papa, dirs diskmags/eurocharts and diskmags/thecharts
respectively. "The Charts" is also available from
RamJam's WWW site. But both are dormant/dead at the moment.)
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?
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 Dezign, Movement, Stellar, Essence, Pygmy
Projects, Lego, TRSI, Razor 1911, The Silents, Scoopex, Parallax, CNCD... and
many more.
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,
England, 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.)
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.
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.
