Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!uunet!munnari.oz.au!uniwa!cc.curtin.edu.au!cutmcvax!peter From: peter@cutmcvax.cs.curtin.edu.au (Peter Wemm) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc Subject: Re: Amiga Demos Message-ID: Date: 26 Apr 91 17:16:12 GMT References: <20668@brahms.udel.edu> <352@glacier.UUCP> Sender: news@cutmcvax.cs.curtin.edu.au (Usenet News System) Organization: Curtin University of Technology, Computing Science Lines: 66 Nntp-Posting-Host: cutmcvax.cs.curtin.edu.au scottb@glacier.UUCP (Scott Barcik) writes: >Well, sorry to disappoint you, but nearly all of the EuroDemos that you see >are coded straight, w/o any help from software tools. That's what makes them >so impressive. >As to getting started programming demos, good luck...you'll need it. I doubt >you will get a response if you tried contacting the coders in any of the groups >you listed, due to their 'elite/lamer' mentality. However, if you do happen to >get ahold of a sympathetic coder out there, either mail me, or post to >alt.sys.amiga.demos, 'cause I'm sure everyone there'll be interested in what >you have found... Well, I did a bit of coding ala EuroDemos a while ago.. I wrote freelance for people, and had a great time.. Half of the fun was looking at other groups demos and analysing them to see how they work -- and telling each other how "easy" it was to do a particular effect. But as you say, everybody who is anybody usually makes it very difficult to get hold of them - occasionally somebody gets busted for piracy and everybody goes "underground" even further. I only coded for the fun of it - and kept well away from the other things that are usually associated with demos... Not many of the coders are pirates, just the groups that they depend on to get their work "spread" usually are - and the coders usually get another member to draw the pretty graphics and write the scrolltexts. The development environment - gad! What development enviromnent? A common environment: 512k amiga, 1 drive, monitor, perhaps printer, and some bizare version of Kuma Seka Assembler... They write their own tools, (Sound|Noise|Pro-trackers, IFF to bitmap converters, assemblers, etc) often work in marathon programming runs, occasionally up to 40 or 50 hours straight (Serious!) or more.. To get yourself known, you will have to get your demo (or MegaDemo if it is not attached to anything) to as many BBS's and groups as possible... Then, maybe, if you are lucky and good enough, it might make it to the centre stage in europe.... The big thing that you need is something original in each program.. or an improved version of somebody else's idea.. If you write another boring sin-scroller (everybody does that it seems...) you wont get very far at all... As well as that, you will probably need a good musician, and graphics artist (if you are not...) who can work on something like soundtracker or clone, so that you can get good music with little CPU overhead. Above all, You have to learn how the hardware works in intricate detail- you can forget the OS if you want to get anywhere... As above: Good Luck, You'll need it! The competition is much tougher now than 2 years ago... >-- >Internet : scottb@glacier.UUCP |"`All things are true...even false things.' >UUCP Mail: ...!uunet!glacier!scottb| `How can this be?' >WWIV-NET : 3@5309 -or- 3@5302 | `Don't blame me, man. I didn't do it!'" >FidoNet : Yech. :-) | ---The Principia Discordia -- Peter Wemm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ peter@cs.curtin.edu.au (Home) +61-9-450-5243 Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia. Amiga... Because life is too short for boring computers. (Dan Zerkle)