file_id.diz
Welcome to Silicon Logic! This text file will attempt to explain the meaning
of life, the universe, and computer demos!
Silicon Logic - Who or what are we?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yeah, that's right, you've probably never heard of it. So your sitting there
reading this text file, wondering what I am going on about. Well, put simply,
Silicon Logic is a demo/coding group. At the moment we do absolutely nothing,
except swap code and ideas, and work on routines for demos (like 3d stuff,
and modplayers).
Now that you have seen our first production (if you haven't, stop reading
and run that EXE file! If you haven't got the SLDEMO.ARJ demo, then stop
reading and get that!) you should get the idea of what we are about. The
music in the demo is courtesy of JAM MODifiers, and the routines are coded
by the founding members of Silicon Logic.
Since we live in Western Australia, and there are currently no real groups
in WA, we would like to claim to be the first demo group in WA for the IBM
machine. We have a 'mission' to establish demo programming in WA, and also
the rest of Australia. To further this mission, we will accept any Western
Australians into our group, even if they can't code, as long as they are
willing to learn to code.
We want you!
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Since our group currently consists of coders only, we can't really do much
in the way of writing a demo. I mean, our code is pretty good and we can do
some fancy vector objects, text scrollers e.t.c., but we haven't got any
decent graphics or music for our demos.
So we are trying to find some people who can join our group, to seek fame
without fortune!
How you can help
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CODERS - Even though we are pretty good ourselves, we are also
looking for some more coders to help out. Qualifications
are a good understanding of VGA programming (with Mode-X)
and a bit of familiarity with assembler. We will probably
be either coding in pure assembly, or using TP6.0's built
in assembler. However, if you don't meet any of the above
qualifications, we will still accept you if you live in
Western Australia.
IDEA PEOPLE - Couldn't think of a decent name for this catagory!
Basically this job is, arguably, the most fun. What you do
is sit around on your buts all day, trying to come up with
brilliant, spectacular and imaginative things we can do for
our demo. So basically, your an ideas man (or woman!). We
can code stuff, but most of us spend so much time coding
that we can't think of much to do in a demo aside from
boring old text scrollies and 3d routines. Basically if
you can come up with original ideas, then we want you!
ARTISTS - This should be obvious. Basically, anyone who can draw
good stuff in 256 colours. Heck, we would even accept an
amiga artist for our fonts and stuff (most of our fonts
should never need more than 64 colours). We have no set
graphics mode for our demos, but 320x200 or 320x240 seem
most likely. However, for still frames and stuff, we can
go all the way up to 1024x768x256.
RAY TRACERS - This is something I was never any good at. It seems that
a popular thing to show off in ones demo is a few ray
traced scenes. Well, we haven't written our own ray tracer
(yet! - we _may_ one day) but we would like some people to
donate their ray traced picies to us for use in demos. This
would be a good way for you to advertise your skills also.
MUSICIANS - Okay, so far we haven't any decent music. We have been
using other peoples MOD files for what little pathetic
demos we have released. What we want is some people who have
worked with the .MOD format to make music for us. We have
a .S3M module player also (8 channel version) which we are
planning to use in our demos.
SYSOP - We could do with a few support sites, for distribution,
etc. We also have a FidoNet echo here in Perth, which is
called Demo_programming. We would like to see this echo
go national, even international.
OTHER - If you think you can convince me that you can play an
important role in our group, then by all means, go for it!
EMPLOYERS - Once we get established as a good group of coders,
and we start producing decent stuff, we would like to
expand. It seems to be the popular thing these days for
a demo group to start writing games. We would be interested
to hear any offers from companies/people willing to employ
us to write games for them.
History
~~~~~~~
Silicon Logic was officially founded in June 1993. The founding members
(listed below) are Mark Dixon, Graham Elliott, Chris Barrett and Darren
Lyon. Basically we are just a few coders who have been sharing ideas & code
over an echo called Demo_Programming (moderated by Darren Lyon,
3:690/678@fidonet) which is a Western Australian only echo. If there are any
sysops who want this over east, I would love to see it get over there, but
you will have to talk it over with Darren, since it is his echo. I program
mainly in Pascal, and Assembler. However, I tend to cheat a lot, and use
TP6.0's BASM facility for my coding. Graham, as well as providing some code
and ideas, has kindly <grin> offered to let us use his BBS as our HQ. Chris
is our main Assembly programmer, who prefers to code in pure assembler, and
has provided most of the low level routines for us. Chris is currently working
on a Modplayer,that will (hopefully!) play .S3M's on the SBPro e.t.c., using
DMA. Then we can stop using GOLDPLAY!
Future
~~~~~~
Once we get established in the demo world (ie, we start getting Greeting
messages in demos from groups such as Future Crew and Triton), we plan
to expand our horizons. Silicon Logic wishes to write games and other software
products in the future. Currently we are totally non profit, however, if
we get some offers from companies to pay for our games, or we manage to
start writing shareware games ourselves, that will change.
ALL ABOUT US
~~~~~~~~~~~~
(A list of members)
Founding Members :
=================
Name : Mark J. Dixon
Position : Coder, Ideas Man.
Occupation : Student.
Address : 12 Finchley St
: Lynwood
: Western Australia, 6147
Phone Number : (09) 458 - 7050
FidoNet : Mark Dixon at 3:690/660.14
InterNet : SDIXONMJ@CC.CURTIN.EDU.AU
------------------------------------
Name : Graham Elliott
Position : Coder, Ideas Man, Sysop.
BBS Name : Spectrum BBS
BBS No# : (09) 417 - 5838
Occupation : Student.
Address : Lot 14 Oxley Road
: Banjup
: Western Australia, 6164
FidoNet : 3:690/746
InterNet : SELLIOTT@CC.CURTIN.EDU.AU
------------------------------------
Name : Darren Lyon
Position : Coder, Ideas Man, Sysop.
BBS Name : InfoCom BBS
BBS No# : (09) 321 - 1759
Occupation : Entreprenuer
Address : Unit 1, 148 Peninsula Rd
: Maylands
: Western Australia, 6051
Phone Number : (09) 370 - 4059
FidoNet : 3:690/678
InterNet : darren@nicky.DIALix.oz.au
------------------------------------
Name : Chris Barrett
Position : Assembly Coder.
Occupation : Student
FidoNet : 3:690/660.25
------------------------------------
Support Site / HQ
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Silicon Logic is proud to announce that Spectrum BBS, in Perth
Western Australia, is the official SL Support site. All demos will be
offically released via this BBS in Perth before anywhere else. The demos
will also be released onto the FTP site FTP.UWP.EDU a few days after the
official release.
Spectrum BBS is also the support site for JAM MODifiers (a local MOD
making group) and DualModule Player (DMP). If you live in Western Australia,
we strongly urge you to join Spectrum, or at least ring it a few times
(which should be enough to make you want to join!).
We would like to see other BBS's around the world become support sites
for SL. However, we have yet to sort out the problem of getting the demos
to overseas support sites. It would be too expensive to upload them directly,
so we may consider snailmailing the demos to a few exclusive support sites.
(Please netmail us if you are interested in being a support site).
Spectrum BBS :
Sysop : Graham Elliott
Number : (09) 417 - 5838
So you want to join?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Great! Another member! Okay, all you have to do is to fill out the form
below, and get it to one of the founding members ASAP! You can use FidoNet,
InterNet or snailmail if you like. Please note, however, that we currently
only have read access on internet, so don't expect a quick reply on internet,
we will have to send your reply via the UUCP gateway...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION FORM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Most the information you state below will be available in the .NFO file
on all of our productions, so that people can get in contact with you.
If you wish a part of your info to remain personal, then please tick
(or put a cross in) the box before the info.
REAL Name : [ ] ____________________________________________________
Handle : [ ] ____________________________________________________
Occupation : [ ] ____________________________________________________
Address : [ ] ____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
FidoNet : [ ] ____________________________________________________
InterNet : [ ] ____________________________________________________
Handle : ____________________________________________________
(The handle is optional, but it is prefered if you can think of one. If
you can't think of one, but want one, then say so, and we will try to
come up with one for you). If you have 'x'ed the box for your real name
then you must supply us with a handle, which we use to refer to you in
the demos.
The below information is kept confidential :
What you think you can do for us :
(Just a general case for why you think you should be accepted as
a member. Don't exagerate, we will accept most people who are
willing to learn, it doesn't matter how good you are).
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
Ideas, comments, complaints :
(Here's your chance to have a bitch at us, or to get us really interested
in you!)
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
* - Please send us any of your works (if you have any) that may improve
your image! By that I mean, if you have written a demo, please send
it to us, or at least, tell us about it. If you have drawn picutres,
or made MOD's or something, do likewise.
DISCLAMER
~~~~~~~~~
Note : All references to the term code, also include Music (in the form
of music MODules) and graphics.
I understand that Silicon Logic is a non-profit coding group, and that I
shall not expect any payment for my contributions to this group. I also
understand that the group is in no way related to anything illegal, does not
swap software, hack games or anything of the kind. If I am only interested
in pirating software or hacking, I shall not join!
My membership can be terminated at any time I so desire. Please note,
however, that that does not prevent Silicon Logic from using my code
(with credit still going to me, of course). Any code I write for the use
in a Silicon Logic production cannot be copyrighted for use, and is available
for observation by any other member of Silicon Logic. However, you may
restrict rights to using/modifying the code that you have written, to
prevent other members from ripping your code and starting their own coding
group.
I understand that all code I write will still remain my property, and
I can do with it what I like.
Signed :
___________________________
(Please note that for legal purposes, stating your name in the above line
is equivalent to a signature on a document. If you are sending this
as a printout via snailmail, then please sign properly.)