_//\\________________________________________________________________________ _\\__T_A_T_I_C___L_I_N_E__________________________________________ May, 2001 __\\_________________________________________________________________________ \\//__ Monthly Scene E-Zine ________________________________ 209 Subscribers _____________________________________________________________________________ --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Table Of Contents ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- Opening: Message From the Editor Letters From Our Readers Features: Party Review -- Mekka/Symposium 2001 The Root -- How they Got Involved (This Month: Xenoc) Columns: Music: In Tune -- Music from T-Tracker and Nightflowers The Listener -- Music by Keith303, Esem and Willbe Retro Tunage -- "Remember" by Beek Demo: Screen Lit Vertigo -- Le Petit Prince by Kolor (party-version) General: Editorial -- The Ever-Evolving Scene Link List -- Get Somewhere in the Scene Closing: Credits --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Message From the Editor ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- Welcome to our 33rd issue of Static Line. We have a good issue for you, packed full of all the stuff you love: song reviews, demo reviews, and our two most popular features. In addition to all the typical stuff this month, you'll also find yourself with a wonderful "The Root" written by Xenoc. Most of you will probably know Xenoc for his participation in the demoscene, and now you can hear his story. Then, Seven has visted yet another demoparty. This time, he reports on the Mekka / Symposium, 2001. Again, I must remind you all that Static Line is always looking for new writers. If you think you have anything to contribute to Static Line, be it a regular column, or a feature writer, please send me an e-mail: coplan@scenespot.org. And if you havn't checked out SceneSpot lately, you might want to do so. After all, we've added many new features, and we're growing more and more every day. You can help us grow. Come visit us: http://www.scenespot.org --Coplan --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Party Review Mekka/Symposium 2001 By: Seven ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- -=- Friday 13 -=- It's spring, and the scene is slowly gathering speed again. The long-awaited Mekka/Symposium 2001 starts today in Fallingbostel, a good 600 Km from my appartment in Belgium, so I took a day off to get there on time. Hey, it's Friday 13, it brings bad luck if you work today :) Baxter arrives at 11 o'clock, and we load my junk in the car in record time. Next we drive to Antwerp to pick up Djefke and his equipment. He takes two monitors and two keyboards with him, because he promised these to a British scener on #pixel who could only bring the case of his PC. With a lot of effort we manages to fit everything in the car. It reminds me of Block-Out, that old 3D tetris game :) The rest of the 7-hour trip from Belgium over the Netherlands to Germany goes without troubles. We didn't get lost and had no significant accidents, only Baxter grumbled a bit that he had get up sooner than usual, and thus couldn't eat a decent meal before he left. At the Dutch-German border, we were a bit nervous because Baxter had seen on the news yesterday that the Dutch custom officers were confiscating all products of animal origin, due to the foot and mouth disease. They even went so far to confiscate chocolate easter eggs (dunno why, milk or eggs don't transmit it IIRC but maybe the custom officers just like to eat them themselves), and guess what I had hidden in my backpack to celebrate Easter on sunday :/ Luckily the custom officers were lunching and we didn't even had to stop. We talked about the demo that we planned to make at the party. It's been since LTP4 that we wanted to release something, but things always got delayed :( So, now we'll release something just for the heck of it, no matter how unfinished it is. We aim for a ranking in the middle :) When we arrived at the partyplace, the parking was already quite filled. We parked temporary next to the entrance, to facilitate unloading. Walking through the entrance hall, I saw scene-posters from Pain, Buenzli, Haujobb and other groups/mags/parties sticked to the doors and the walls. The main hall was largely filled already, so we quickly paid the entrance fee (70 DM, about 35 Euro) and scanned the hall for three consecutive empty seats. Alas, the few such places were already reserved :/ Since there was plenty of empty space near the entrance, we asked the organisers for a table to set up there. They had one left, a wobbling, sqeaky one, but it didn't break under the weight of our monitors so we were well pleased. We put it next to the info desk, far away from the *large* speakers on the podium. During our installation I already ran into Diver, PS/Calodox and Skyrunner, and the whole place has a really great athmosphere. The main partyplace is a single sporthall, very large, with a ceiling that looks like the bottom of a wooden ship. On one end, there's a podium with a large big screen. Over a hundred chairs are put in front of the podium, and after each compo this part of the floor will become more and more covered with bottles, cups and cans. It was almost dangerous to walk there the last day :) Only after a day I noticed there's a balcony behind the bigscreen which can be reached via two stairs to the left and the right of the bigscreen. A lot of C64 sceners are sitting there, as wel as in the right corner next to the bigscreen. There are numerous banners on the walls, an Amiga scener has brought his own beamer with which he projects stuff on the ceiling, some people have brought christmas lights to decorate their machines... And then there are the fashion statements: the guys from Centric all wear something like a white body-covering desinfection suit with a big orange C on the back, and dust masks. I notice a few really weird hats, and someone (from the group Sundancers Inc. IIRC) wears a T-shirt with the message "Save the scroller!" In the back of the hall everyone could write his groupname/logo/whatever on a large paper banner. By the end of the party, it was completely filled. 18:46: Baxter is cursing at C++, since he's using Java at work and now considers that a much better language. I try to install VC++, which crashes of course, but for the sake of our demo I do not give up in disgust. A bit later my old projects compile again, so I try to convert them to that DemoGL framework Baxter wants to use. On the bigscreen, the timetable is shown, plus useful info like the prices of the cables, CD's and the rest you can buy at the info desk. Another screen is added later: a request for everyone in the hall to sit a bit closer to each other, in order to make room for the other sceners that are still arriving. 21:00 The opening ceremony starts, inspired on the olympic games: Steeler runs to the podium with a self-made Olympic torch (a flashlight with red plastic strips), and "lights" the bigscreen with a fullscreen oldskool fire-effect. The entire crew presents itself on the podium, and then the intro of the C64 game Summer Games is shown. 22:41 Welle Erdball is giving a live performance, loud but very good. It's a German music group which plays rock music with synthesizers, they've made commercial music for the nintendo/gameboy. Avoozl is helping Baxter and me on how we can draw a lot of dots quickly in openGL. Warp, who is sitting next to Avoozl, shows me his entry for the 32K game compo: a strange 2-player mutation of Pacman, based on an ancient C64 game. -=- Saturday 14 -=- 1.25 Crest's demoshow is over. For over two hours, he's been showing a selection of the very best PC demos and intros. I especially liked to see those GUS-only intros like Paper or Clone meets clone, it's been a long time since I've seen them *with* sound (never had a GUS...) Djefke, who is responsible for the public relations in Access Denied, is using his secret weapon: beer. More precisely: Belgian beer. Need we say more? Hoardes of sceners suddenly want to talk with him (Of course, I don't want to imply you're any bit less interesting without beer, Djefke :)) One of them is Phoenix/Hornet from America, nowadays using the handle Feen, who decided to visit MS2k1 just a few days before. Wow, I never expected to meet a Hornet member in real life. My second scene-CD was the Hornet Underground CD, and I've read all issues of Demojournal, so this brings back some memories. 2:54 In the row in front of us, some guys are working on a *very* impressive animated model of a scorpion. It's clearly for a demo, and it's depressing to watch if you still got to figure out the basics of openGL :/ Baxter goes to sleep in his car, since the sleeping area is completely filled. A few minutes later, a guy from the scorpion-demo asks if I've a copy of Visual Studio. I hand him over Baxters CDs, and it turns out they're from Federation Against Nature, the group who made the best raytrace-demo so far: Nature Suxx. In fact, the scorpion is part of the sequel they are making now: Nature Still Suxx! I really like raytracing demos, so I'm more than happy to hear this. 4:18 Night in Fallingbostel, everything is very quiet. I'm trying to get a mandelbrot zoom working. Yeah, I know fractal zoomers were fashionable maybe five years ago, but it's just for in the background of another effect. In the row next to us, Mat!/Ozone is sleeping with his head on his keyboard. His screensaver shows Beavis and Butt-head peering out the monitor, saying "Look! The sucker is asleep!" A self-made paper piggy bank is attached to his Amiga, with a notice "If you have 5000 DM and you don't need them, I accept it... :-) Give me your money and feel better! Mat!/Ozone: I'm REALLY very poor". Now I understand why the party website said about the entrance fee: free for girls and Mat!/Ozone :) 9:00 PS is using Baxters PC to debug a demo he made with someone else, but unfortunately the coder is not at the partyplace. Dake & Fred/Calodox are helping him. I'm typing over some code from a Graphic Gems book, on how to do fast delaunay triangulation. This should somehow help me to do a fast voronoi effect, but unfortunately the book doesn't tell how to convert between them :/ The rest of the hall is *still* very quiet. 10:05 Oh oh, after he woke up, Feen can't find his jacket anymore, and his plane ticket is in it! The orgos ask over the PA if someone has seen it, but no-one reacts :( Since Djefke is now awake, he can keep an eye on the hardware and it's my turn to catch some sleep. 12:22 I'm back awake again (my average sleeping time on a concrete floor seems to be 2 hours), and after eating a bit I talk with Pampy, another american scener, about voronoi cells. The first compo is alternative graphics, meaning raytracing and photoshopped pics, should start at 13.00. Let's hope there are no delays... 14:34 The first compo was one hour delayed, but it was of very high quality. There were 57 entries, out of which 36 entries were preselected. It's hard to choose from 36 pictures when you see them only once for maybe 20 seconds each, but they will be shown a second time tomorrow. During the compo, they played more Welle Erdball music, which is really a fitting soundtrack for a demoparty. 16:12 The Second Reality show has passed; in order following versions of that classic demo were shown: the C64 clone by Smash Design, the wild version Real Reality by Never, the original PC version by Future Crew, and as a bonus Future Crew's Unreal demo, on which Second Reality was the sequel. After this we all go outside to watch the harddisk-throwing compo. There's some discrimination in this compo: the girls who compete can throw with small, modern harddisks, while the guys have to throw big, ancient harddrives that are at least four times as large. Is that fair? An exception is made for Mat!, who is allowed to throw with the girl's harddisk (OK, because there were no more girls who wanted to compete, and maybe because Mat isn't exactly very large). 16:59 Oh boy! There's a TV-crew walking around, and they were interviewing an organizer in the row in front of us. When they were finished, the interviewer asked if he could interview me, and I didn't immediately found an excuse to say no :) So five minutes later I was looking at the camera, rather nervous I might add, with my back to my screen ("Can you show something on your screen? Something impressive please?"), answering questions like "Where are you from?", "Why are you in the scene?", "Are you looking for a job here?", "Do you think the newest hardware makes it easier to make a demo?" etc. At least it seems they're genuinly interested in the scene, and don't try to make it look like a freakshow. (Hmm, on second thought, then why did they interview *me*? ). Since I don't have TV at home, let alone cable, I'll ask Skyrunner if he can tape it (program Nano on 3Sat, tuesday) and watch if I'm shown on it. 20:45 Since even coders can't live on bread and orange juice alone, we hop in the car and go on a food hunt. I could really go for some pizza, but the McDonalds are closer, so french fries and hamburgers it is... Unfortunately we missed the 64K amiga intros in the meantime, but someone recorded them on a digital camera and put the avi on the LAN, so I can watch them in thumbnail format. A tad later, the PC 4K intro compo starts. One word: magnificent! After all the parties with none or only a few low-quality entries, it's great to see a compo with 10 entries, several of which are simply groundbraking. My favourite is Juggler, featuring a realtime raytraced juggler, with reflections etc plus music. Then there's Varus, with streams of lights traveling through accelerated 3D environments, also with music, and there are 4K versions of Heaven 7 and Kasparov (with music that's even more boring than the original :))... Wow, wow, wow. Next a virtual newsreader announces several fake demo-related newsitems, quite funny but I don't remember them anymore. Sorry. 21:54 More entertainment from the organizers: a scene-version of the TV-show "Who wants to be a millionaire?" It has the bombastic soundeffects, the three types of jokers (of which the ask-the-public and phone-a-friend jokers are a tiny bit manipulated by the orgos), and questions ranging from "how many channels has a 4-channel module" to "how do you set the border color on a C64 to black ?" (Answer D: poke 54296, 0). It's much better than the real thing. 23:07 Finally it's time for the hand-pixeled graphics! Again a preselection is necessary, but still over 40 high-quality pictures are shown. Voting will be very, very difficult. It's a pity they're not (yet?) available on the website, because I won't be able to remember exactly which name on the voting site matches which picture :/ -=- Sunday 15 -=- 2:28 Djefke's favourite 3D package refuses to install, and hence he can't supply us with the 3D models we wanted to put in our demo. Since the progress on the rest of the demo is very slow, we once again decide to delay it to the next party :( Oh well, at least I have the openGL documentation, so I keep learning at home :/ Baxter, Phoenix and Pampy are watching some pixar movies plus all the Hybris/NEMESIS wild demos from The Party'99 to 2K1. They get better each year, Back To Basics is really hilarious. The C64 music compo is happening now, and people are dancing on the podium. I feel much too tired to do that, so I pull my sleeping bag over my ears and take another nap. 6:08 Awake again. Boy, this feels strange: normally, a demoparty is almost over on sunday morning, but now it's only halfway :) I discuss some things I can't remember anymore with Djefke and Feen, who unfortunately still hasn't got his jacket back. I've a bad feeling it might be stolen, but Feen looks depressed enough already so I keep quiet :/ 8:54 Breakfast time: the organizers are selling fresh sandwiches, and while I'm eating I download the full version of Real Reality (including the "making of" part that was missing on my current copy). Another info-screen has popped up on the bigscreen since some time, it reads: "FEELING DIRTY? The showers are open for (boys/girls) from XX to YY". For a 4-day party, showers are indeed more than just a detail. 11:16 I went outside to catch some fresh air, and was surprised to see everything covered with snow. That's what happens if you spend too much time inside, you lose track of what happens to the world outside :) Some sceners are standing around a fire, keeping it burning despite the snow. PS informs me that Yes and Chandra from Orange Juice are not sure if LTP5 will happen this year. I really, really hope it will, as LTP4 was the best party I visited last year. After a while the cold forces me back inside, cause I'm not wearing a coat. The Amiga 4K compo starts, with some nice productions but nothing as spectacular as the best PC 4K intros. I guess the limited CPU power makes the biggest difference. One entry has no visual effects, but generates 8 (yes, eight) different chiptunes! Unfortunately this takes a good 20 minutes, so my opinion about it balances between awe and boredom. 13:37 After reading the Halloween documents (www.opensource.org/halloween) some time ago, I had decided to give Linux a try, but being the cautious type I preferred to have a Linux guru around in case I screwed up. Since Djefke is a hardcore Linux evangelist, now seems to be a good time to take the risk. While I struggle with the Suse installer, LILO and loadlin, the C64 graphics are shown. Feen tells me they have only 16 colors, and the resolution is probably very limited too, but from the back of the hall they look almost as sharp and colorful as the PC graphics :) 16:07 Linux works, to the extend that I can type this in the Midnight Commander, yipee! (This turns out to be a bad idea, as I have to convert the line-endings of the new paragraph when I continue in Notepad). After the C64 graphics compo followed the console demos compo: stuff for the Gameboy Advanced and the Dreamcast etc, about 5 entries in all. All chairs (and other horizontal surfaces in the first part of the hall) are occupied, so I've to watch them from a distance. To fill the gap till the next compo, those wicked orgos have thrown in ChillZone, a live jam-session with synthesizers, guitars and (brace yourselves) digeridoos! For the ignorant: a didgeridoo is an Australian wood-wind instrument that looks like a 2-meter long cigar and sounds like a blowfly with a cold. In addition, everyone who had an instrument was invited to join in. Vickey, Tomcat/Greenroom's girlfriend started to dance on the podium, more people followed her example and by the time the delayed PC 64K intro compo was ready to begin, it had to be delayed even longer because the dancers (and the audience) didn't want to stop :) The 64K intro compo wasn't as spectacular as the 4K intro compo, most of the 17 intros used the same accelerated effects. Art by Farbrausch & Scoopex was something special, it used 3D in child-drawing style (like cartoon-style rendering but with disconnected lines and almost flat colors that cross the lines). Further honorable mentions to Rise for the original progress cube and the impressive cityscape, and for The Milkyway Experience for the nice spacecut effect. As I had trouble to keep concentrated during the compo, I'll sleep during the MP3 compo in order to be fully awake during the demo compos. 18:06 The C64 4K intro compo has started. One features realtime raytracing in textmode, albeit so slow that you can see the individual frames being drawn. Most intros have music too, but what impresses me the most is the large number of entries: over 20! That's twice as much as in the PC compo, for a machine that has only a fraction of the PC's active scene! Of course, there isn't *that* much you can do on a C64 besides programming on it :) 21:57 The demo compos are being delayed due to the large nr of entries. In the meantime, another round of "Who whants to be a scenionaire" is played with Mat!/Ozone as contestant, and later everyone can bring stuff to the orgos to be shown on the bigscreen (such as the inevitable All Your Base animation). 23:10 Still no democompos, but there's an improvized real-time coding compo for the C64: coders have 1 minute the time to program live on the bigscreen simple effects like making the border of the screen flash. Just before the democompos, the classic game Bomberman is played on the bigscreen. Steeler dedicates this game to a friend of him who was a famous hardware designer but died a few weeks ago. For the challenge, the players have to use very big and clumsy control pads. As a result, most levels are won by the player who does *not* blows up himself. And after the Bomberman game, the demo compos start! -=- Monday 16 -=- 3:31 Wow! First 22 amiga demos, then 15 minutes pause, and then 27 PC demos. Man, I'm feeling dizzy! The Amiga demos were almost all very well designed, but the effects are of course not up to par with the PC demos. The Black Lotus made IMHO the best one, Perfect Circle, with a very impressive Mandelbrot rotozoom effect. The PC demos were on average of a lower quality than the amiga ones, and I wouldn't have mind a preselection. Still there were many excellent ones. Propaganda/INF is my favourite one, lots of great effects changing rapidly, perfectly synced to the music (a japanese rock MP3, as usual). Nature Still Sucks also looks really great, although the framerate is on the low side at some parts. Kolor has also made a very nice demo in a cute cartoon-style, Le Petit Prince, which will no doubt end up high in the results. The C64 demos follow, but I can hardly concentrate anymore. I randomly try the URL ftp.party in the explorer, and guess what? The majority of the entries is already available online. I keep one eye on the bigscreen while I start downloading them, and after the C64 demo compo ends the bigscreen shows several URLs where you can download the entries :) Now you can also exchange your wristband for a voting key, which is necessary to submit the voting form. The orgos take no risks that someone fakes a votekey: mine was "8JHkdW5Qw]A3aPY-w2c-<-Ayhcz>88D", that a full 31 mixed-case characters. Try to type that correctly when you've had less then 10 hours sleep in 3 days! 7:21 Voting is over, already from 6 o'clock. That made a rather small timeframe for people to submit their votes, and since many sceners went to sleep after the compos, they missed the deadline. It was also impossible, in the time given, to relisten/rewatch all the entries for more accurate voting :( Feen and I talk about Hornet and the American demoscene, and I buy a NAIDorabilia CD from him to add to my scene CD collection. Nowadays everyone has a CD burner and broadband internet access, so "official" scene CD's become a rarity... 11:46 The fast intro compo entries are shown, which had to feature an olympic flame, donuts, an advertisement, and some more compulsory subjects. Finally the prize ceremony starts. Instead of the usual third-second-first place announcing, all entries of a compo are shown together. After each name is a growing bar, and the entry whose bar grows the largest has the most results and wins. The tension in the audience rises as one bar after another stops growing :) In the 4K intro compo, the raytraced Juggler wins, followed by Varus. In the 64K compo Art takes the first place, which I personally didn't like that much. The second and third places go to Haujobb's intro and the Rise intro. Le Petit Prince/Kolor wins the democompo, followed by Mozaik/Haujobb and Propaganda/INF. I'm disappointed that Nature Still Suxx reaches only the fifth place, IMHO they deserved a higher ranking. A lot of sceners have started packing and are leaving the place, even before the prize ceremony. When the rows before us are half-empty, Feen and I go take a look at the location where he has last seen his jacket, and lo and behold: we find it under a table tucked behind a cardboard box! Even better, the plane ticket is still in it. So Phoenix isn't stuck here in Fallingbostel, I'm sure that's a load off his shoulders :) 1:30 We start to pack our stuff and swap email addresses with Pampy and Feen. Skyrunner, who has made the music for the winning Juggler 4K, gives me one of the several identical issues of the Go64! magazine he has won. I know the 4K compo doesn't have big money prizes, but that must be one of the most useless prizes ever, especially because last year, he also won several copies of exactly the same issue! After we say goodbye to our friends, we drive off to Belgium. The trip home doesn't go as smooth, we spend two hours in traffic jams. I try to sleep, and later I read that Go64! mag. It's hard to believe they still made papermags for the C64 in 1999! The articles are interesting though: reports from demoscene parties, articles on how to etch your own printed circuits (hint: wear sunscreen to protect against sunburns from the UV lamp, and be careful with those hazardeous chemicals), and how to mask non-maskable interrupts. There's one gem of a quote I just have to share with you, about how the C64 sceners see the PC sceners: (Go64! september 1999, p 12): "Nobody seems to have any artistic skill anymore - graphics are scanned or raytraced, samples are mixed together in the fast tracker to mindless 'Mod' music without any hint of imagination or devotion." There you have it, stop the Mod vs MP3 debate, let's all go back to SID chiptunes :) -=- Back home -=- The next day, someone had converted the Nano program to .avi and had put it on the net already. It was only a 5-minutes item, but they managed to give a decent explanation what the demoscene is, and they showed screenshots from demos and 4Ks and stuff. My interview was cut out, probably for aesthetical reasons :) All in all, Ms2K1 was definately the best party I've visited yet. At first I was a bit dissapointed that we didn't finish our demo, but after the compo it was clear that there were already enough demos, and ours would only have lowered the average quality. Lots of kudos to the organizing, for speaking English, properly announcing delays, providing entertainment inbetween the compos, and much much more. The amount of entries in all compos was very good, more often too high than too low, and the general atmosphere was great. The only improvement I can see is in the voting. The (IMHO) perfect system would be: after each compo, all entries are made available for download, people can vote whenever they want, and votes can be submitted for each compo separately, instead of all at once. Implement that and next year's edition will be really the perfect party. --Seven --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- The Root How They Got Involved Sponsored By: Tryhuk By: Aaron Zafran (Xenoc) ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- When I sit down and listen to old tunes from the scene, I get depressed. Yes, depressed. Perhaps this isn't the reaction that one would expect from a guy who will emphatically tell you that the days of #trax, music contests (remember? MC1-6?), and envy of Five Musicians were some of the best of his life. It's hard to explain what it was about the scene that has kept these memories so dear to me. Yet, it's also hard to explain the feeling I get when a total stranger recognizes my name on a mailing list and sends me an email that essentially is comprised of "Xenoc! Your music kicked ass! Why don't you track any more?" I think somewhere near the root of my depression lies the fact that if I had to explain why I stopped tracking, I'd have to say that I'm not entirely sure. Anyway, maybe this will all make more sense if I start at the beginning. I'm going to venture an educated guess and say that I started tracking around November of 1994. I was 13 years old. A guy by the handle of The Kamikaze Gerbil (lol) ran a BBS that I frequented, and one day he sent me a MOD that he had written. It wasn't so much that I was inspired by the song, but more that in the true spirit of adolescence, I was determined to write a better one. So, I downloaded Scream Tracker 3.x and proceeded to churn out a horrendously repetitive and dissonant piece that I still hide in a secret directory on my hard drive so nobody finds it. I discovered at that point that writing music is not easy. And for those of you that seem to think tracking makes it easier-you couldn't be more incorrect. Nonetheless, I continued to pursue tracking, and I improved slowly but surely, learning from the masters: Purple Motion, Skaven, Elwood, Necros, etc... It wasn't long that my obsessive (and socially inhibiting) use of BBSes led me to discover demo/tracking groups, and the desire to be a part of one of these prestigious foundations immediately consumed me. Of course, I ended up being accepted to an art/ANSi group as their only musician, but hey, you've got to start somewhere, right? The group went by the name Rulerz of Chaos, or RoC, and I wouldn't be surprised if not a single person reading this has any recollection of RoC's existence. But it was the insignificant publicity that RoC provided that sent me on my path to becoming part of the real demoscene. One day, I received an email from a guy by the handle of Nova. He lived in Canada, and wanted me to join a group by the name of COaR! Yes, I know you haven't heard of that group either. We never released a goddamned thing. But it was Nova who introduced me to #trax. Before I entered #trax, tracking was merely a hobby. The big names of tracking that I had grown to idolize seemed so far away, so inaccessible. And then, that first day I logged onto IRC and joined #trax, my jaw dropped. Necros was in the same chat room that I was in. NECROS! Holy crap! Of course, I was far too intimidated to say anything to anyone in there, but I grinned stupidly in awe as the chat rolled by. In time, that intimidation dissolved, and the relationships I formed in #trax led me to apply to pHluid, which was the tracking division of ACiD. I became one of the more active members that pHluid had at the time, and for some reason my music stood out (according to many) among the releases that followed. But, I was somewhat disappointed with pHluid throughout my time as part of it, and if I recall correctly, my departure from the group was not only messy but also very embarrassing. I believe a portion of an email from a very angry and immature 15-year-old Xenoc was published in Demonews, a widely read scenemag. At that point, I became a senior member of Analogue Music, which was a group run by a guy by the handle of Mind Bender, who did not track. I believe this single fact was probably the reason that Analogue didn't live up to the potential it had. Nonetheless, we had some pretty decent and well-known musicians under our belt, and our releases were generally approved of. Things were good, I was writing music, getting good feedback, and felt like I was moving up in the world of tracking. It was this era of my tracking history that holds the fondest memories for me. And suddenly, everything started to fall apart. Administrative nonsense tore Analogue apart. Every time I logged onto IRC there were issues to be addressed, people to be lured in or kicked out. There was talk of for-profit endeavors, which was against everything the tracking scene stood for. The scene had decidedly begun to lose its edge, not just for me, but for many others as well. Anyone who was involved at the time would likely agree with me when I say that you could feel the overall morale of trackers dropping. Slowly, I faded out of the scene, observing tragedies that followed from a distance. Hornet Archive was suddenly no more, and soon it was announced that there was a good chance there would be no MC7. My social life began to pick up and I didn't really care about any of this scene stuff at the time, but looking back, it makes me sadder now than it ever did then. I never stopped writing music. I have a recording studio in my apartment and despite the fact that I rarely produce anything I'm pleased with, I've never thought to give up. It is undeniable that to this day, writing music has never felt as exciting to me as it did when I was a tracker. Even now when I'm programming riffs into my Roland MC-303 or recording a riff with my Kurzweil, my brain instinctively starts to figure out how to reproduce them in tracked form. I guess old habits die hard. My name is Aaron Zafran, better known to many as Xenoc. I am a student. I am a musician, and I will always be a tracker. --Aaron Zafran, a.k.a Xenoc. (azafran@vt.edu) --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- In Tune Music from T-Tracker and Nightflowers By: Coplan ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- -=- Introduction -=- So I hopped on Trax-in-Space to see what the latest tunage was from some other trackers, and I decided to visit the top charts. I grabbed some of the tunes listed there, and I decided I'd give them a review. As of this writing, the songs are ranked as follows: 1: Be What U Wanna Be (t-tracker) 2: GDream - We Are Not Alone: Space Invasion Remix (Nightflowers) 3: Firestorm (t-tracker) All songs are available from Trax In Space: http://www.traxinspace.com -=- Be What U Wanna Be / T-Tracker -=- The top ranked song from Trax-in-Space is sort of a trancy tune that reminds me of some early 90's video game music. Trust me, that is not a cut on the quality of the song. Some of my favorite music is game music (Legend of Zelda's music, Metroid, and so on). I recently got a new subwoofer, so I can fully appreciate this song. If you aren't fortunate enough to have one though, it probably won't bother you to hear it without a subwoofer, as T-Tracker has done a wonderful mixing job. The tune is very complex, and of a quality that I could not duplicate. The base riff alone could be raised a few octaves and passed off as a lead, as it has incredible depth to its performance. I find the percussion quite interesting as well. Aside from the standard drum kit, there are a few other percussive instruments in there that definately add to the song. I would say that this is one of those songs that you should grab if you happen to like trance or dance. It wouldn't be the greatest song I ever download, but it is very entertaining, and fun to listen to. My girlfriend just likes to dance to it (she approves!). =) -=- GDream - We Are Not Alone: Space Invasion Remix / Nightflowers -=- All you serious Trance freaks out there will love this tune. This fits the definition of Trance to the T, as you got every element in this tune. I wish I had the original, as I'd like to see how much has been innovated by Nightflowers. Unlike many trance tunes, "GDream" isn't all that repetative. The tune seems to evolve through different stages, each stage a bit more complex (and more interesting) than the previous. All the while, the tune continues to move and pull you through to the end. The song contains some sounds I've never heard anywhere else, and for that I am quite relieved. After all, I was beginning to believe that ever trance artist was using the same sample set. The ending is what did it for me, as the opening seemed a bit unoriginal for me. That's not to say that the ending was entirely original, but at least it was away from the norm. My girlfriend continues to dance, and so I guess she approves of this song as well. All I need is some pretty colored lights and some strobes, perhaps even some foam -- and we can have ourselves a little party. Another tune definately worth a download. -=- Firestorm / T-Tracker -=- Well, it seems as though T-Tracker is a pretty popular tracker. Two songs in the top three is impressive. "Firestorm" isn't nearly as good as T-Tracker's number one song at this time. When I listen to this tune, I can't help but to question its placement on the charts. Mind you, the tune is better than the average tune out there, but I don't believe that it's entirely anything special. Though, I've listened to the song many times now, and it is very relaxing. Now I can't entirely tear this song apart, as it has some very good contributing elements. The strings in the background are very tight and well done. The chord progression is also well chosen. This is, however, probably an experiment for T-Tracker, as he usually has much higher quality music. I must stress that, as the other music from T-Tracker that I have heard is wonderful. But my girlfriend has stopped dancing, and I think that says it all. --Coplan "In Tune" is a regular column dedicated to the review of original and singular works by fellow trackers. It is to be used as a tool to expand your listening and writing horizons, but should not be used as a general rating system. Coplan's opinions are not the opinions of the Static Line Staff. If you have heard a song you would like to recommend (either your own, or another person's), We can be contacted through e-mail useing the addresses found in the closing notes. Please do not send files attached to e-mail without first contacting us. Thank you! --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- The Listener Music by Keith303, Esem and Willbe By: Tryhuk ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- --== LoveSexDestuction / keith303 =- My big passion is traveling by trains and one of major reasons why I like this track is that it evokes in me that feeling. Trees are running behind windows, track claps in a regular rhythm and wheels whistle on the switches. There are many ways to express our feelings about trains. Smash did it in his "last train" where you can hear the breath of steam. Necros did it in "Point of departure" where you could hear trains flying. Keith303 didn't stay behind and he made a definitely original electronic track with all aspects of modern music, not only in the use of original samples or complex drum lines, but also with massive filtering and manipulation of the sound spectrum. And because Keith303 left the scene, this song can easily be a last one that you'll ever hear from him. Song name: LoveSexDestuction Artist: keith303 File Size: 5.2mb Location: http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/91/_keith303_.html --== 2sided/esem =- "2sided" seems to be an mp3.com only release, because I didn't see it mentioned on any of the scene labels. Anyway it is a very nice song. It follows the line of his earlier works that were built on decent ambient and soft percussion, repetitive sine melodies and frequent secondary sounds that push the track forward a make out of it a trip instead of a boring loop. Although this track might not seem too special, I always liked this kind of music and I wasn't disappointed by this download. Song name: 2sided Artist: esem File Size: 3.6mb Location: http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/165/george_marinov.html --== greed (hungry mix) / willbe =- Last track I want to mention today is willbe's contribution to compo of Laurent Garnier (if I remember it correctly). Unfortunately I didn't hear the original track that was remixed so I can't judge how the remix turned out compared to original. All I can say that I like it and once again it is a track that is worth downloading. If you haven't heard it yet, you still have time to get it. Song name: greed (hungry remix) Artist: willbe Location: http://mp3.com/willbe --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Retro Tunage "Remember" by Beek By: Tryhuk ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- It seems to me that I didn't write about a MOD for quite a long time and that's a scandal for this kind of column. So here you have it. It is a song by Beek and it appeared on the musicdisk "Mango". Its name is "remember", a name that man would give to some sweet sad dreamy song. IMHO it fulfills this expectation, but it still stays decent, no real shitty sweetness. People that have heard it may ask me what is so special about this song, why it deserved it to be mentioned here while there are many other superb songs. Reason is simple: I wanted to mention a song that isn't special at all, it is just a well made tune. That's all I wanted to say, sorry for the shortness of the review, but I'm once again too tired to review. So if you want to have something special here, next time sit down to your computer for a while and write about your favorite song. Thank you for your attention. Song Information: Title: Remember Author: Beek Release date: 1998 Length: 3m05s Filename (unzipped/zipped): remember.mod / mango.zip File Size (unzipped/zipped): 470kb / 2mb Source: some functional hornet mirror --Tryhuk --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Screen Lit Vertigo Le Petit Prince by Kolor (party-version) By: Seven ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- Found at the party network, but you can try www.scene.org 1st place at the Mekka/Symposium 2001 PC democompo. System requirements: Windows9x or higher, an openGL supporting 3D card, a soundcard. Recommended: Windows2K, a Geforce2 and a Pentium III processor. Test Machine: PIII 900 192MB, SB128, GeForce 2MX 32MB, Win98 The Credits: Code: shiva Meshes, textures, gfx: noize Music, gfx: raytrayza The Demo: For those who've never heard about Le Petit Prince (the little prince), it is a very good and well-known children's tale written by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. It's about a little boy from the stars that leaves his home planet, visiting several very small planets that are each inhabited by one stereotypical person (a king, a businessman, a drunk etc), and eventually lands on Earth. It's an excellent book, simple yet thought-provoking, and recommended reading for both children and adults. The only theme of the book that Kolor kept in the demo is that of a little boy visiting tiny planets. Each planet has a theme: a park, snow, the beach, the desert, and technology. Everything on the planets is rendered in a cartoon-style, with black lines on all edges of 3D objects. The objects are colored in soft tints that go well together, and clouds and seas use transparency. There's a certain amount of parallelism between the worlds: the birds in the snow world become little flying robots in the techno world, the balloon in the park become a sattelite in the beach world and giant halogen bulbs in the desert world. Between the different worlds, a scrolling image is shown of the fuzzy rendered planet you're leaving, and/or the one you're visiting next. Each planet has icons associated with it: fish for the beach, cogwheels for the tech-planet etc. Camera switches on a planet are sometimes made with circular or star-formed "holes" filled with the second scene, that appear in the current scene and quickly grow till they cover it completely. The music is very relaxed, with an ambient background and idm instruments on the foreground: beeps, sweeps etc. There's little hard syncing, except when we switch to a new planet. There are also a few soundeffects, like the sweeping sound of the waving antena on the snow planet, or a swoosch when a big spaceship flies over the tech-planet. Overall: Le Petit Prince is mainly a design/3D demo. There are no "real" demo-effects, and while the cartoon rendering looks great, it's not extremely hard to do (especially with 3D cards, 3 Little Goats/M0ppi productions did it in software in '97). There isn't much of a story either, on most planets the boy simply explores the world. It's simply a collection of very detailed, well-designed and beautiful worlds. Everything fits together in harmony. The only inperfection I could see was that on a few places (the overviews of the park and desert planet, and the beach when the boy surfs and dives) you can see two copies of the boy at the same time if you look carefully. Overall, it's a great demo to watch and relax with. Go get it if you haven't yet. --Seven --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Editorial The Ever-Evolving Scene By: Coplan ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- As I finished reading Xenoc's article, I had to admit, I often look back at the scene with depression. Call me one of those grumpy old men, but I must admit, things were better then. Technology had yet to come to the point that it is now. Truth be told, graphics and audio are starting to get so close to realism these days that any improvement is almost a mute point. What made the scene wonderful back then? The scene was cutting edge. If you wanted to see cool effects and cool music, the scene was the place to be. Most games took advantage of some of the products of the scene: mod music, pixel art, and so on. And that's only when I jumped in the scene...about 7 years ago. As far as the history of computers is concerned, at least the history of personal computers, the demoscene is in fact very old. Prior to my existance in the scene, the scene was the cutting edge. When I jumped in, it was still on the edge, but the edge was much more broad, and the game industry wasn't far behind. Now? There's no competition anymore. The Demoscene consists of people exploring a dying artform (be it demos, music, pixel, whatever). So is the scene dead? No. I've said this many times before, especially since I've started this magazine. I come back every so many months and remind everyone that the scene is not dead. But questions arise, and I'm left to answer them myself, even if I am the one who asked. I have to constantly reassure myself that the scene is still alive and I am in fact a part of something. And there are still some that think I wear rose colored glasses and look out unto the world without a clue of what the demoscene is truly about. And that might be true, but that depends on who's asking. Though I might be considered oldskool, there are many oldskoolers before me, and they would disagree with my thoughts about the scene. What I embrace and what they embraced are two different things. They embraced a demoscene that lead the computer scene market. Today, those oldskoolers are computer programmers, hardware designers, musicians, producers and basically the forefront of modern technology. And they started with the demoscene, ever used to the fact that they were revolutionaries in the world of modern computers. I, however, embrace an artform of old times. I embrace a technique called tracking, which is still very functional and easy to find in todays world. But it might very well be on it's way off the popularity charts. I don't think that tracking will ever officially die, however. Contrary to what some software developers might think, there isn't much one can do to improve the quality of the standard tracking programs. But there are people out there to keep things up to date with the modern computer. While IT does not run in Windows 2000, there might be a program that does the same things as IT and does run in Windows 2000. But the concept is still there, and the art form is still as it always was. My point is that the demoscene as a whole has to be divided down into its components: Philosophy, Art, Meaning. The art will not change. Conceptually, the art has never changed. The means in achieving the art, however, has change, but the product will not. The meaning is a very personal thing, and it is the basis for any one person's involvement in the art. This is what causes each and every product to be unique in such that it is an expression of that one person. Meaning is ever evolving and has very little effect, if any, on the evolution of the demoscene. However, the philosophy is the overall collective purpose in the scene. Yes, you will find groups who believe they have a different philosophy from the rest of the scene, but combine everyone's philosophy and you get one common denominator. In the early years of the scene, the philosophy was to be the cutting edge of the computer world. Today, the philosophy of the demoscene is simply to promote a long standing art-form that is under-celebrated. The cutting edge is no longer reachable by one or a few people on their little computers at home. No, as sad as it is to admit it, the future of computing lies in the hands of big corporations and large scale movements such as the open source scene. The Demoscene isn't the movement it used to be. But it is still a society, and it is a society that many choose to be in. I'm proud of all of you who are still here. --Coplan --=--=-- --=--=------=--=------=--=---- Link List ----=--=------=--=------=--=-- Portals: Orange Juice.............................http://www.ojuice.net Scene.org.................................http://www.scene.org SceneSpot.............................http://www.scenespot.org CFXweb.......................................http://cfxweb.net Pouet.net.................................http://www.pouet.net Demoscene.org.........................http://www.demoscene.org Scenet....................................http://www.scenet.de Demo.org...................................http://www.demo.org Czech Scene................................http://www.scene.cz Hungarian Scene........................http://www.scene-hu.com Italian Scene...........................http://run.to/la_scena ModPlug Central Resources..........http://www.castlex.com/mods Norvegian Scene............http://www.neutralzone.org/scene.no Polish Scene...........................http://www.demoscena.pl Russian Scene..........................http://www.demoscene.ru Spanish Scene............................http://www.escena.org Swiss Scene..............................http://www.chscene.ch Archives: Acid2.....................................ftp://acid2.stack.nl Amber.......................................ftp://amber.bti.pl Cyberbox.....................................ftp://cyberbox.de Hornet (1992-1996)........................ftp://ftp.hornet.org Scene.org..................................ftp://ftp.scene.org Scene.org Austra........................ftp://ftp.au.scene.org Scene.org Netherlands...................ftp://ftp.nl.scene.org Swiss Scene FTP...........................ftp://ftp.chscene.ch Demo Groups: 3g Design..............................http://3gdesign.cjb.net 3State...................................http://threestate.com 7 Gods.........................................http://7gods.sk Aardbei.....................................http://aardbei.com Acid Rain..............................http://surf.to/acidrain Addict..................................http://addict.scene.pl Agravedict........................http://www.agravedict.art.pl Alien Prophets...................http://alienprophets.ninja.dk Anakata..............................http://www.anakata.art.pl Astral..............................http://astral.scene-hu.com Astroidea........................http://astroidea.scene-hu.com BlaBla..............................http://blabla.planet-d.net Blasphemy..............................http://www.blasphemy.dk Bomb..................................http://bomb.planet-d.net Broncs..................................http://broncs.scene.cz Byterapers.....................http://www.byterapers.scene.org Bypass.................................http://bypass.scene.org Calodox.................................http://www.calodox.org Cocoon..............................http://cocoon.planet-d.net Confine.................................http://www.confine.org Damage...................................http://come.to/damage <*> Delirium..............................http://delirium.scene.pl Eclipse............................http://www.eclipse-game.com Elitegroup..........................http://elitegroup.demo.org Exceed...........................http://www.inf.bme.hu/~exceed Fairlight.............................http://www.fairlight.com Fobia Design...........................http://www.fd.scene.org Freestyle............................http://www.freestylas.org Fresh! Mindworks...................http://kac.poliod.hu/~fresh Future Crew..........................http://www.futurecrew.org Fuzzion.................................http://www.fuzzion.org GODS...................................http://www.idf.net/gods Halcyon...........................http://www.halcyon.scene.org Haujobb..................................http://www.haujobb.de Hellcore............................http://www.hellcore.art.pl Infuse...................................http://www.infuse.org Kilobite...............................http://kilobite.cjb.net Kolor................................http://www.kaoz.org/kolor Komplex.................................http://www.komplex.org Kooma.....................................http://www.kooma.com Mandula.........................http://www.inf.bme.hu/~mandula Maturefurk...........................http://www.maturefurk.com Monar................ftp://amber.bti.pl/pub/scene/distro/monar MOVSD....................................http://movsd.scene.cz Nextempire...........................http://www.nextempire.com Noice.....................................http://www.noice.org Orange.................................http://orange.scene.org Orion................................http://orion.planet-d.net Popsy Team............................http://popsyteam.rtel.fr Prone................................http://www.prone.ninja.dk Purple....................................http://www.purple.dk Rage........................................http://www.rage.nu Replay.......................http://www.shine.scene.org/replay Retro A.C...........................http://www.retroac.cjb.net Sista Vip..........................http://www.sistavip.exit.de Skytech team............................http://www.skytech.org <*> Spinning Kids......................http://www.spinningkids.org Sunflower.......................http://sunflower.opengl.org.pl Talent.............................http://talent.eurochart.org The Black Lotus.............................http://www.tbl.org The Digital Artists Wired Nation.http://digitalartists.cjb.net The Lost Souls...............................http://www.tls.no TPOLM.....................................http://www.tpolm.com Trauma.................................http://sauna.net/trauma T-Rex.....................................http://www.t-rex.org Unik........................................http://www.unik.de Universe..........................http://universe.planet-d.net Vantage..................................http://www.vantage.ch Wipe....................................http://www.wipe-fr.org Music Labels, Music Sites: Aisth.....................................http://www.aisth.com Aural Planet........................http://www.auralplanet.com Azure...................................http://azure-music.com Blacktron Music Production...........http://www.d-zign.com/bmp BrothomStates.............http://www.katastro.fi/brothomstates Chill..........................http://www.bentdesign.com/chill Chippendales......................http://www.sunpoint.net/~cnd Chiptune...............................http://www.chiptune.com Da Jormas................................http://www.jormas.com Fabtrax......http://www.cyberverse.com/~boris/fabtrax/home.htm Five Musicians.........................http://www.fm.scene.org Fusion Music Crew.................http://members.home.nl/cyrex Goodstuff..........................http://artloop.de/goodstuff Ignorance.............................http://www.ignorance.org Immortal Coil.............................http://www.ic.l7.net Intense...........................http://intense.ignorance.org Jecoute.................................http://jecoute.cjb.net Kosmic Free Music Foundation.............http://www.kosmic.org Lackluster.....................http://www.m3rck.net/lackluster Level-D.................................http://www.level-d.com Miasmah.............................http://www.miasmah.cjb.net Milk.......................................http://milk.sgic.fi Mah Music.............................http://come.to/mah.music Maniacs of noise...............http://home.worldonline.nl/~mon MAZ's sound homepage..................http://www.maz-sound.com Med.......................................http://www.med.fr.fm Mo'playaz..........................http://ssmedion.de/moplayaz Mono211.................................http://www.mono211.com Morbid Minds..............http://www.raveordie.com/morbidminds Noise................................http://www.noisemusic.org Noerror.......................http://www.error-404.com/noerror One Touch Records......................http://otr.planet-d.net Park..................................http://park.planet-d.net pHluid..................................http://phluid.acid.org Radical Rhythms.....http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/merrelli/rr RBi Music.............................http://www.rbi-music.com Ruff Engine................http://members.xoom.com/ruff_engine SHR8M......................................http://1st.to/shr8m Sound Devotion................http://sugarbomb.x2o.net/soundev Soundstate.........................http://listen.to/soundstate Sunlikamelo-D...........http://www.error-404.com/sunlikamelo-d Suspect Records........................http://www.tande.com/sr Tequila........................http://www.defacto2.net/tequila Tempo................................http://tempomusic.cjb.net Tetris....................................http://msg.sk/tetris Theralite...........................http://theralite.avalon.hr Tokyo Dawn Records........................http://tokyodawn.org Triad's C64 music archive.............http://www.triad.c64.org UltraBeat.........................http://www.innerverse.com/ub Vibrants................................http://www.vibrants.dk Wiremaniacs.........................http://www.wiremaniacs.com Zen of Tracking.........................http://surf.to/the-imm Programming: Programming portal......................http://www.gamedev.net Programming portal.....................http://www.flipcode.com Game programming portal...............http://www.gamasutra.com 3D programming portal.................http://www.3dgamedev.com Programming portal......................http://www.exaflop.org Programming portal............http://www.programmersheaven.com Programming portal.....................http://www.freecode.com NASM (free Assembly compiler)......http://www.cryogen.com/nasm LCC (free C compiler).........http://www.remcomp.com/lcc-win32 PTC video engine.........................http://www.gaffer.org 3D engines..........http://cg.cs.tu-berlin.de/~ki/engines.html Documents...............http://www.neutralzone.org/home/faqsys File format collection...................http://www.wotsit.org Magazines: Amber...............................http://amber.bti.pl/di_mag Amnesia...............http://amnesia-dist.future.easyspace.com Demojournal....................http://demojournal.planet-d.net Eurochart.............................http://www.eurochart.org Heroin...................................http://www.heroin.net Hugi........................................http://www.hugi.de Music Massage......................http://www.scene.cz/massage Pain..................................http://pain.planet-d.net Scenial...........................http://www.scenial.scene.org Shine...............................http://www.shine.scene.org Static Line................http://www.scenespot.org/staticline Sunray..............................http://sunray.planet-d.net TUHB.......................................http://www.tuhb.org WildMag...............................http://wildmag.notrix.de Parties: Assembly (Finland).....................http://www.assembly.org Ambience (The Netherlands)..............http://www.ambience.nl Dreamhack (Sweden)....................http://www.dreamhack.org Buenzli (Switzerland)......................http://www.buenz.li Gravity (Poland)............http://www.demoscena.cp.pl/gravity Mekka-Symposium (Germany)...................http://ms.demo.org Takeover (The Netherlands).............,http://www.takeover.nl The Party (Denmark).....................http://www.theparty.dk Others: Demo secret parts....http://www.inf.bme.hu/~mandula/secret.txt Textmode Demo Archive.................http://tmda.planet-d.net Arf!Studios..........................http://www.arfstudios.org #coders..................................http://coderz.cjb.net Demonews Express.........http://www.teeselink.demon.nl/express Demo fanclub........................http://jerware.org/fanclub Digital Undergrounds.....................http://dug.iscool.net Doose charts...............................http://www.doose.dk Freax................................http://freax.scene-hu.com GfxZone............................http://gfxzone.planet-d.net PC-demos explained.....http://www.oldskool.org/demos/explained Pixel...................................http://pixel.scene.org <*> Underground Mine.............http://www.spinningkids.org/umine IRC Channels: Scene.........................................ircnet #thescene Programming.....................................ircnet #coders Programming....................................efnet #flipcode Graphics.........................................ircnet #pixel Music.............................................ircnet #trax Scene (French)..................................ircnet #demofr Programming (French)............................ircnet #codefr Graphics (French)..............................ircnet #pixelfr Scene (Hungarian)............................ircnet #demoscene Programming (Hungarian)......................ircnet #coders.hu Programming (German)........................ircnet #coders.ger --=--=-- ----=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------ Editor: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@scenespot.org Writers: Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@scenespot.org Dilvish / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@yahoo.com Psitron / Tim Soderstrom / tigerhawk@stic.net Setec / Jesper Pederson / jesped@post.tele.dk Seven / Stefaan VanNieuwenhuyze/ seven7@writeme.com Tryhuk / Tryhuk Vojtech / vojtech.tryhuk@worldonline.cz Technical Consult: Ranger Rick / Ben Reed / ranger@scenespot.org Static Line on the Web: http://www.scenespot.org/staticline Static Line Subscription Management: http://www.scenespot.org/mailman/listinfo/static_line If you would like to contribute an article to Static Line, be aware that we will format your article with two spaces at the beginning and one space at the end of each line. Please avoid foul language and high ascii characters. Contributions should be mailed to Coplan (coplan@scenespot.org). See you next month! -eof---=------=--=------=--=--