From trixter@mcs.com Wed Feb 21 20:29:32 1996 Subject: Re: The demobook, and why To: ldorfman@li.net (Len Dorfman) Date: Wed, 21 Feb 1996 19:30:19 -0600 (CST) From: "Trixter / Hornet" In-Reply-To: <1.5.4b11.32.19960221114027.00663740@li.net> from "Len Dorfman" at Feb 21, 96 06:40:27 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] Content-Type: text Content-Length: 14843 > >:-) It's nice to still harbor hope for the book. :) Well, what I > >faxed to you was the proposal for the book as I wanted to write it--some > >coding, but not 30%. (The coding examples were only going to serve > >as to a view of the mind of a democoder: First, a prototype, then > >optimize with math tricks, then optimize with hardware tricks, etc. > >until it's 4000 stars running in one frame.) I will go over the > >proposal again and email it to you. > > > >Thanks for keeping the faith... I'll email it to you tonight. > > Jim, > I'm first a human, then a teacher, then a writer and last and least, > an editor at Manning. The demo book deserves to be in print...whatevva > marketing types think. When I get it I'll forward it with a note to my > friends at MH. You are very kind. Thank you! Here's the proposal: Demo Book Proposal Overview: The 1980's saw the birth of the personal computer, possibly the most significant technological instrument ever created because of its deep potential to change our daily lives. With a computer in your home, life was easier: You were free to balance your budget, play a game, or even connect to other computers to communicate new ideas and large amounts of information as easily as picking up a phone. However, as we all know, this facilitated the emergence of a new type of culture-the culture of "hacking" into a computer system and accessing secret files. The media has always been eager to cover the exploits of "hackers" as they zip through classified files and government locations. People are just as drawn to how they break sophisticated security barriers to their underground secret societies; many books have been written on this subject. But what would people think of a group that is just as talented, secretive, and hidden as hackers, but who use their skills for something productive-even artistic? This is the culture of people who create demos: multimedia works of art that do the impossible on average home computers. The demo culture is also made up of self-proclaimed hackers that share many common traits: They use nicknames or "handles" instead of their real names; they are young, typically from 16 to 22 years old; they collaborate in groups with other demo scene people; and they are extremely talented. These common traits are sure to draw the same kind of people interested in these "secret societies"; however, readers will be pleasantly surprised to learn that the skills of demo coders are used productively, in the name of art and creativity. There is an entire society that the general computer-using world knows nothing about. This is the book I want to write--to capture the nuances of this unique culture and present it to the genera Sources of Information: A wealth of electronic information exists on the subject of demos, albeit sometimes slightly difficult to locate. There are many archives of source code and libraries (such as ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos and ftp://x2ftp.oulu.fi/pub/ msdos/programming), there are a great deal of "diskmags" (electronic magazines and newsletters created for and distributed via floppy disk) available, and you can always ask other demo scene people for information via the Internet with email or Usenet newsgroups. Not only am I the primary manager of one of these archives of information (ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/code), but I've archived the above sources since 1992 and have collected information from before that time to supplement my knowledge base. Other books written about this subject: Only two other books on this subject exist: The first, Walkthroughs and Flybys (Waite Group Press, 1993) only touches on demos enough to acknowledge them as "real-time animations", and only covers them in one chapter amongst several others about general topics of pre-calculated computer animation. The second, PC Underground by Bertelsons, Rasch and Hoffmann (Abacus, 1995), gives a thorough explanation of how to program demos, from extended graphics modes to three-dimensional animation. But the odd thing about this book is that it doesn't cover anything about the culture behind demos, where they come from, or even that they exist! The book is billed as "unconventional programming topics", and doesn't even use the word "demo" anywhere throughout the book. My book will cover the basics of programming demos, but will not try to duplicate PC Underground in any way. Instead, I intend to focus on the existence, culture, nostalgia, and appreciation of the demo scene and its roots. No other book has done this to date. The Main Focus: An entire underground society exists that can create, rotate, and display three-dimensional objects in real time (i.e. they're displayed instantly, not after a long waiting period) on machines that seemingly don't have that capability. These skills, combined with innovative graphics and music, are combined into a new type of art. This subculture of programming enthusiasts has always been ahead of the personal-computer gaming industry, often creating graphic effects years ahead of commercial game companies. Most are between the ages of 16 to 22; many are prodigies that don't have a college education, let alone a high school degree. Intended Readers: There are three intended audiences for this book, all 18-34 year-old male personal computer users. One type of reader is interested in multimedia in some form, whether it be an interest in new art forms or real-time animation techniques. These users usually scan the shelves of book stores looking for new books on multimedia, or anything else "cool" to do with their personal computer. They usually look for books with CD-ROMs so that they can experience the art, examples, and techniques for themselves and use them in other applications. Another reader is interested in any form of "secret computer operations", like the many books written about hackers, crackers, software pirates, etc., like "The Cukoo's Egg", a non-fiction story about a system administrator tracking the clever tricks a hacker uses to break into government computers. Since the underground society of people who create demos (the demo "scene") is mostly unknown to the general populace, this reader will be intrigued by the idea of another group of young people with impressive-and unconventional-computer skills, seemingly achieving the impossible. The third (and supplementary) reader type of this book is any programmer of personal computers. One of the several innovative things that demo coders do is achieve the impossible on inexpensive and slow home computers, such as displaying more colors on-screen than a video card is built for, or displaying three-dimensional graphics in real-time. This book will explain some of those techniques; and while it won't be a comprehensive programming reference, it will demonstrate some of the innovative ways demo coders do what they do. The only prerequisites of any reader would be an interest in computer games or animation and experience with a truly personal computer, such as the Commodore 64, Atari ST, Amiga, or any IBM PC or clone. The required hardware for the programs, music, and art on the accompanying CD-ROM will be any 80386-based PC with VGA graphics and a CD-ROM drive. To understand the programming examples, an intermediate understanding of programming in C, Pascal, or Assembler is required. Organizations: There are approximately 15,000 people involved in the demo scene, convening at major events called "demo competitions", where the top demos, art, and music can fetch cash prizes and computer hardware/software. Some of these "compos" can get so large-one in particular (Assembly) is three days long and logs over 4000 participants-that separate organizations have been formed to coordinate the large events. This book would most likely be mass-ordered for retail at these competitions, where many other computer-related vendors (who sponsor the event) will be selling computer hardware, software, and other related materials. Project Plan: The estimated size of the book is 400 to 500 pages, with approximately 100 illustrations. The illustrations will mostly be screen shots, many with a dark background and a light foreground object. The screen shots will be obtained or generated by myself, and most will be 16 or 256-color .GIF, .PCX, or .TIF files, whichever the publisher prefers. The resolution of the pictures will typically be 320x200 pixels, which roughly translates to 36 DPI, so enlargement of the screen shots will undoubtedly be necessary. The only other type of insert will be example source code or code fragments; approximately 15 to 25 examples are expected. The source code examples will all be in Pascal, with some Assembler in-line code used for speed where appropriate. Some photographs will be used to show examples of demo competitions; approximately 10 to 15 of these will be used. These will be full-color pictures, supplied in the form of 700x500 pixel 24-bit color .TIF, .TGA, or .JPG files, whichever the publisher prefers. The estimated time of writing the book would be about 6 months. I will be attending a demo competition in early June to gather even more facts and interviews; this competition will also provide up-to-date pictures for the book, which is very important in a society that changes from month to month. A CD-ROM will be included with the book that contains the best demos, graphics, and music for the Commodore 64, Amiga, and IBM PC. A shareware version of a Commodore 64 emulator will be provided so that IBM users can experience the amazing demos for this machine, which Commodore stopped manufacturing in the late 1980's. I will program a graphical interface for the CD-ROM that allows the user to review the demos provided, displaying information about the demo and showing example screenshots where applicable. Upon making a selection, the interface will either run the demo correctly, or (if the user's configuration doesn't immediately lend itself to running the demo effectively) install it to the user's hard drive with instructions on how to run it. Any music or graphics selected will be immediately played/displayed. The tentative title of the book is "Visionary Art: The Underground Culture of Computer Demos" My Credentials: I'm Jim Leonard, but I go by the name of "Trixter" when I'm involved with my demo group, "Hornet", and I've been involved with the demo scene since 1990 when I produced some intros for some local bulletin board systems. I've since become well known in the PC demo scene in both North America and in Europe. I maintain the "Frequently Asked Questions" list for comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos, a Usenet newsgroup dedicated to demos, where I am a regular figure. I also created the first series of World Wide Web pages dedicated to the art and appreciation of demos (http://www.cdrom.com/pub/demos/hornet/html/demos.html), which receive over 1000 hits per day. These WWW pages led to an interview for Wired Magazine's article on demos (July 1995 issue, page 142), where I was quoted under my handle, "Trixter". In addition, I maintain the programming and source code section of the world's busiest archive of demos and demo-related information, ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos, and contribute to my demo group's bi-weekly newsletter, "DemoNews" (ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/hornet/demonews). I can be reached at trixter@mcs.com, or at 312-362-5094 (before 5:00pm) or 312-763-6574 (after 7:00pm). Proposed Table of Contents: I. Introduction: An underground hacker art form A. What they are B. Where they come from C. What you need to view them 1. C64 2. Amiga 3. IBM II. Demos 101: A Course on Demo Appreciation A. Why demos are cool 1. Programming 2. Music 3. Art 4. Theme (Design) B. How to use the enclosed CDROM 1. System requirements 2. C64 demos 3. Amiga demos 4. IBM demos 5. Viewing other examples a) Music b) Art C. Some of the best 1. C64 a) More listed later; 2. Amiga a) Mental Hangover / Scoopex b) Desert Dream / Kefrens c) State of the Art / Spaceballs d) Fingers / Spaceballs e) Nexus 7 / Andromeda f) Many More listed later 3. IBM a) Unreal / Future Crew b) Crystal Dream / Triton c) Panic / Future Crew d) Crystal Dream ][ / Triton e) Second Reality / Future Crew f) Show / Majic 12 g) Many More listed later III. The Culture A. An average demo group B. Common Terms and slang C. Demo Parties 1. Socializing 2. Competitions a) Demo b) Intro c) Music (1) 4-channel (2) Multi-channel d) Graphics 3. Fake/fun competitions 4. Afterwards: Party Reports D. Other Scenes 1. Music Scene a) Current Groups b) History c) Tools used 2. Ansi/VGA Scene a) Current Groups b) History c) Tools used IV. Demoscene History A. Apple B. C64 1. From cracktros to demos C. Atari D. Amiga E. IBM PC 1. Rivalry F. The Future? V. Programming Demos on the IBM A. Languages 1. Pascal 2. C 3. Assembler B. Tools 1. Programming tools a) Editors 2. Paint Programs a) Deluxe Paint 3. Trackers a) Protracker 2.3a b) Scream Tracker 3.21 c) Fast Tracker 2.04 C. Basics of demo-coding on the VGA 1. PutPixel 2. waiting for retrace a) Example: horizontal starfield D. Basics of 3D programming 1. Z movement calculations a) Example: 3D starfield E. Optimization 1. Using Assembler a) A better PutPixel 2. Look-up Tables a) An even better PutPixel 3. Fixed-Point Math F. Hardware Tricks 1. Mode X a) Information and Libraries b) Example 2. Copper bars-even in text mode a) Example 3. 18-bit color on an 8-bit device a) Example VI. Sources and Archives A. Bulletin Board Resources B. Disk Magazines C. Internet Resources 1. Demos and Intros a) FTP sites 2. Programming Information and Source Code a) Usenet b) FTP sites 3. Current news and information a) Usenet b) IRC 4. Other sources of information a) WWW pages VII. Interviews A. Zodiak / Cascada B. Jeroen Tel C. Laxity / Vibrants (C64) D. aahz the demon E. Reward / Complex VIII. Glossary of Demo terms > with metta, Len > > _____________________________________________________________ > Leonard Dorfman, Ph.D., Editor > Manning Publications Co., 3 Lewis Street, Greenwich, CT 06830 > 516.331.2915, fax 203.661.9018 > _____________________________________________________________ > > -- Jim Leonard (Trixter / Hornet) Email: trixter@mcs.com *THE* PC Demo WWW page: http://www.cdrom.com/pub/demos/hornet/html/demos.html The 8086 Compo is a reality! URL is http://www.cdrom.com/pub/demos/hornet/8086 Make A Computer easy enough for a fool to use, and only fools will use it!