"Demoscene Collection 1"
Various DOS/Windows conversions by Jonathan Campbell in his spare time.
NTSC region-free DVD ISO image.
Production notes:
Demos were captured using the DOSBox emulator. In some cases, I
had to modify the source code to DOSBox to make the demo work.
One hack added an option to DOSBox's VGA emulation that forced
the fake "refresh rate" to 59.94Hz no matter what the DOS program
did, which was hit-or-miss depending on whether the programmer
assumed the standard refresh rate. When it works it avoids the
need for framerate conversion. In other cases, I had to resort
to using the Bochs emulator and some backend video capture code
I hacked into it. Actual emulation was done on 1) Windows XP
and 2) a Linux KDE desktop.
In some cases, the DOS demo switched VGA modes or had emulation/timing
problems that required additional editing in Final Cut Pro. Interim
titlecards were made in Final Cut Pro.
Some demos included were written for Windows. These demos were
captured on a WinXP SP2 machine with Kkapture v0.6 and a ATI Radeon
R330 PCI-e graphics card.
In one case where I lacked the hardware or platform to run the demo,
I used the available DivX, WMV, or MP4 files already available on
scene.org.
Video was encoded to DVD format using MPlayer 1.0rc2 + some source
code modifications of mine to add high quality framerate conversion.
DVD was authored using DVDAuthor (http://www.sf.net/projects/dvdauthor)
DVD contents:
2nd Unreal - Future Crew [DOS]
* box blur filter applied to the plasma fake highcolor parts to
avoid flickering on NTSC displays. I couldn't help but notice
this demo is sensitive to the VGA refresh rate.
Byterapers - Sexadelic [DOS]
Dawn 3 - Johnny (Tired of Techno) [DOS]
* are those minor tunnel glitches intentional?
ASD - Iconoclast [Windows]
Conspiracy - Function '07 invite [Xbox 360]
* I don't have an xbox 360 so I converted this from the existing DivX on scene.org
SuccesS - Puker [DOS]
* the 59.94Hz VGA refresh hack mentioned above was used for this demo.
Madness - Gravity [DOS]
* I couldn't help noticing the preprogrammed movements run at
something like 8-12 frames/sec and badly at that. What did they
"record" it with---their keyboard? This means that even on a
fast machine with otherwise full-frame smooth rendering you get
jerky camera movement. Such a demo could have at least used
linear interpolation to smooth that out, right?
VGA 59.94Hz refresh hack was used here
COMA - Paimen [DOS]
* finnish version, I don't know where the English version can be found.
Sound Blaster output is used in one place where DOSBox's GUS emulation
is apparently off-key
ISO - Saamelaisnuoret [DOS]
Byterapers - Hyperventilation [DOS]
Renaissance - Amnesia [DOS]
* speed sensitive. anything faster than a 486/66MHz will prevent the
demo from using the FM synth on your Sound Blaster and the music will
sound incomplete. Crank DOSBox down for better emulation. I noticed
the Mindcandy DVD cut a lot out of this demo.
COMA - Amanaman [DOS]
* speed sensitive. seems to be hardcoded for the typical 486/33MHz system,
otherwise effects are either too fast or too slow. Does not exit back
to DOS cleanly. You must have a GUS, or the demo will just hang on startup.
None of my 486 or Pentium systems were able to even run this demo
(no GUS, right?). Apparently there exists a Bollywood film of the same
name, various Indian/desi sites seem to have embedded my YouTube upload
on their website by mistake.
380 volt [DOS]
* likes running VGA output at funny 50Hz resolutions
COMA - BR W 60 [DOS]
* uses fake highcolor, box filter applied to avoid flicking on NTSC display
VGA sync rate hack mentioned above was used for this demo
Reanim8r [DOS]
* This demo has speed tests and CPU checks at startup. Getting it to run
in DOSBox involved hacking CPUID emulation and altering EFLAGS emulation
(the ID bit) so that DOSBox would act like a Pentium-class system to
satisfy the demo
Megademo [DOS]
* Opening sequence left in. I don't mind movie references. I had to run the
demo a few times because it tends to crash before the final blob effect.
Mundai [DOS]
* Converting this would be a lot easier if it would just sync to vertical
refresh instead of drawing as fast as it can
Elitegroup - Kasparov [Windows]
* The demo's XM music file has an encoding that WinAMP can't play properly
* KKapture doesn't properly loop the buzzing in the end sequence
Upload to: ftp://ftp.de.scene.org/pub/demos/compilations/demoscene_collection/disc1