Preview
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ ³
³ <<< THE FUTURE CREW INFORMATION PACKAGE >>> ³
³ ³
³ Version 1.7 ³
³ ³
³ 06-DEC-1994 ³
³ ³
³ ³
³ This file contains general information about the Future ³
³ Crew and our demos. It also includes frequently asked ³
³ questions we often receive by mail and instructions on ³
³ how to contact us best. Please read this info-file before ³
³ contacting us. ³
³ ³
³ We will update this file as things change, and if the ³
³ above date is rather old, you can get the most recent ³
³ version of this file either by E-Mail from Internet or ³
³ from our distribution sites. ³
³ ³
³ ³
³ ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ CONTENTS ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
1: Opening words
2: Commercial Productions
3: Disclaimer, The Distribution and Use of Our Demos
4: The Current Memberstatus
5: List of all Future Crew releases
6: How to Contact Future Crew
7: Frequently Asked Questions
8: International Demo Competitions
9: The History of The Future Crew
10: Final Words
The following info is in FCSITE17.TXT:
1: Official Distribution Site BBS List
2: How to Become a Distribution Site
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 1: OPENING WORDS ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
Welcome to the FCINFO file version 1.7 !
This textfile is a new revision of FCINFO16.TXT, which was
originally spread with the 2nd Assembly '94 invitation intro.
This textfile was written to tell you about Future Crew, to
give you answers to most of the things you would probably like
to ask us, and to tell you how to get more demos.
If you are interested in us making a demo for you, please,
start reading from the next paragraph in this file.
This file has changed quite much since FCINFO16.TXT, mostly
because we tried to make this a little shorter. The most important
change is the contact information part.
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 2: COMMERCIAL PRODUCTIONS ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
If you find our demos and programs interesting and would like
us to make a presentation for your company, do not hesitate to
contact us.
When contacting us, please include a short explanation what would
you like us to do. That would help us greatly in evaluating the
size of the project.
Our resources are limited and we choose the projects we make with
care, but especially our musicians and graphic artists are always
looking for new projects.
Since normal mail is a slow way to communicate, we would prefer
the communication be made through e-mail (or if e-mail is not a
possible way of communication for you, you can always try to send
a fax).
You can find our contact information from this file.
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 3: DISCLAIMER, THE DISTRIBUTION AND USE OF OUR DEMOS ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
All our demos and programs, except the ones which we have created
for different companies, are freeware.
This means that you can copy and distribute them freely as long
as you make no modifications to them. Also, no money can be charged
for our products. This means that you can not sell these products
without our permission. However a small compensation for copying/
spreading them is acceptable.
Future Crew's freeware software is supplied "as is". The authors
hereby disclaim all warranties relating to all Future Crew freeware,
express or implied, including but not limited to damage to hardware,
software and/or data from use of Future Crew's products. In no event
will the Future Crew be liable to you or any other party for any
damages. Your use of this software indicates that you have read and
agree to these terms.
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 4: THE CURRENT MEMBERSTATUS ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
Alias: Real name: Born: Main responsibility:
--------------------------------------------------------------
GORE Samuli Syvahuoko 1973 Organizer/PR/E-mail
Psi Sami Tammilehto 1973 Coder
Trug Mika Tuomi 1972 Coder
Wildfire Arto Vuori 1975 Coder
Purple Motion Jonne Valtonen 1976 Musician
Skaven Peter Hajba 1975 Musician
Marvel Aki Maatta 1975 Graphics Artist
Pixel Mikko Iho 1975 Graphics Artist
Abyss Jussi Laakkonen 1975 BBS Coordinator/PR
FC Internet Division:
Henchman Markus Maki 1974 E-mail/PR/betatesting
Jake Jarkko Heinonen 1973 E-mail/PR/betatesting
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 5: LIST OF ALL FUTURE CREW RELEASES ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
Filename Size Released A Short Description
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
YO!.ZIP 32 kb 2-24-89 YO! intro, VGA textmode/PC-speaker
GR8.ZIP 31 kb 7-12-89 GR8 intro, EGA/No sound
FC-SLIDE.ZIP 350 kb 7-23-90 Slideshow I, a graphics collection, SB
ST224.ZIP 130 kb 2-22-91 Scream Tracker 2.24 shareware version, SB
MENTAL.ZIP 90 kb 7-02-91 Mental Surgery demo, SB/Covox/PC-speaker
STMIK020.ZIP 170 kb 8-10-91 Scream Tracker Music Interface Kit 0.20
FISHTRO.ZIP 230 kb 4-08-92 Assembly'92 invitation intro, SB
STMIKFIX.ZIP 10 kb 7-14-92 A Bugfix to STMIK
UNREAL.ZIP 1350 kb 8-06-92 Unreal megademo, SB/SBp
STARPRT2.EXE 6 kb 9-13-92 StarPort BBS intro, VGA/AdLib
THEPARTY.ZIP 165 kb 10-02-92 The Party II invitation intro, SB/SBp
PANIC.ZIP 950 kb 2-04-93 Panic trackdemo, SB/SBp
ASM-93.ZIP 400 kb 6-15-93 Assembly'93 invitation intro, SB/SBp/GUS
WCHARTS.ZIP 680 kb 6-26-93 Worldcharts magazine issue #1, SB/SBp/GUS
SOULOMAT.ZIP 100 kb 7-10-93 A song by Purple Motion (.MOD)
ICEKNGDM.LBM 65 kb 8-01-93 Winner of PC graphics compo at Asm'93
ICEFRONT.ZIP 180 kb 8-01-93 The winner of PC multichnl compo at Asm'93
CAN'T.ZIP 125 kb 8-01-93 The second in PC multichnl compo at Asm'93
STRSHINE.ZIP 225 kb 8-01-93 The third in PC multichnl compo at Asm'93
TROLL.LBM 85 kb 8-01-93 The fourth in PC graphics compo at Asm'93
SUNDANCE.ZIP 235 kb 8-10-93 The winner of PC 4chnl compo at Asm'93
2NDREAL1.ZIP 1250 kb 10-07-93 Second Reality, Asm'93 winner, SB/SBp/GUS
2NDREAL2.ZIP 790 kb 10-07-93 Second part of the Second Reality demo
2NDR_MS.ZIP 280 kb 11-01-93 Skaven's songs from Second Reality
SYMPHONY.ZIP 260 kb 11-01-93 Symphony by Skaven (.S3M file)
PMFRACT.ZIP 210 kb 11-05-93 The winner of Megaleif ST/PC music compo
BUSMATKA.ZIP 75 kb 11-09-93 Finnish invitation to Party3 bussymatka
STARPORT.ZIP 5 kb 11-21-93 StarPort BBS intro II, VGA/Adlib
SP2SRC.ZIP 30 kb 12-02-93 StarPort BBS intro II sources
UNREAL11.ZIP 1335 kb 12-28-93 Unreal version 1.1 for Gravis UltraSound
JOURNEY1.ZIP 867 kb 12-28-93 First Musicdisk by Purple Motion
JOURNEY2.ZIP 1015 kb 12-28-93 Second Musicdisk by Purple Motion
CHMIND.ZIP 1420 kb 02-20-94 Chaotic Mind - Music collection by Skaven
2NDPATCH.ZIP 36 kb 02-20-94 Slowdown bugfix patch for 2nd Reality
ASM-94.ZIP 221 kb 04-08-94 Assembly'94 Pre-Invitation Intro
SCRMT301.ZIP 291 kb 04-18-94 Scream Tracker 3.01 BETA
ASM-94_2.ZIP 567 kb 07-03-94 The Assembly '94 Invitation Dentro
SCRMT32.ZIP 176 kb 12-06-94 Scream Tracker 3.2
You SHOULD be able to find all of the above from our Distribution Sites.
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 6: HOW TO CONTACT THE FUTURE CREW ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
NOTE! OUR BBS NUMBER HAS CHANGED! The new number is a 11-node
ringdown. Also, StarPort can now be accessed internationally via
internet.
ALSO, SNAIL-MAIL ADDRESS HAS CHANGED!
Our snail-mail address is: Our home BBS is:
Abyss / Future Crew StarPort - FC WHQ BBS
c/o Jussi Laakkonen +358-0-615 00028
Vhntuvantie 5 C 34
00390 Helsinki
FINLAND
GORE's cellular phone (GSM): +358-40-502 3025
Fax: +358-0-420 8620 (at GORE's place)
StarPort is available also for internet users. You can connect
to StarPort either with "ftp" or "telnet/rlogin".
Try "rlogin mpoli.fi -8e -l pcboard" or "telnet mpoli.fi" and put
pcboard as the username. IP-Address for Staport is 193.210.15.65.
If you want to transfer files, you can login to ftp.mpoli.fi as
anonymous. FC demos can be found in /starport/fc.
You can also e-mail us:
Please direct general questions, requests for information etc.
ONLY to fc@unix.mpoli.fi.
Future Crew fc@unix.mpoli.fi
Abyss abyss@unix.mpoli.fi
GORE gore@unix.mpoli.fi
Marvel marvel@pcb.mpoli.fi
Pixel pixel@unix.mpoli.fi
Purple Motion purple.motion@pcb.mpoli.fi
Skaven skaven@mkoski.otol.fi
or skaven@unix.mpoli.fi
Jake jtheinon@cc.helsinki.fi
or jake@unix.mpoli.fi
Henchman mmaki@cc.helsinki.fi
or markus@unix.mpoli.fi
Comments and opinions are always appreciated, but if you
also have questions, consider first if you might find the
answers elsewhere, for example from the Frequently Asked
Questions section inside this file.
The best and the fastest way to contact us is through e-mail.
We receive a lot of mail and simply can't answer all of it.
We get a LOT of e-mail so you may have to wait for our reply
for a while. We TRY to answer as many e-mails as possible,
but because we get many e-mails every day, we simply don't
have time to answer to all of them. Please, ask only FC-related
questions! We are not some all-around info forum or internet
users help center!
If you use normal mail (snail-mail), please enclose a return
envelope ready with your address and an international mail
coupon. We simply can NOT afford to pay hundreds of dollars
a year just to answer to our mails. This means: no mailing
coupon = NO reply.
To get our demos you can call our many BBSes around the world.
You can find the list of these BBSes in the FCSITE textfile.
Also, very good anonymous ftp demo sites (in addition to
ftp.mpoli.fi) are ftp.uwp.edu and ftp.eng.ufl.edu. Our demos
can be found in the directory /pub/msdos/demos/groups/future.crew.
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 7: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE FUTURE CREW ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
Here we have compiled a list of questions along with the
answers (in random order) which are being asked often in
the letters we receive. Hopefully you will find the answers
to your questions from here and save us and yourself from
unnecessary work.
Q: Where can I get your and other groups' demos?
A: There are several ways to get demos.
The best way (if you have a modem) is to call an FC distribution site
near you. They have all of our productions online and you can download
them freely. Also many normal BBSes carry our productions and other
groups' demos. If you don't have a modem, then getting our demos is a
lot harder. We don't have a mailswapping system. So, if you have a friend
who has a modem, why not try to get him to call one of our distribution
sites. Another VERY good way to get demos is from the INTERNET. Good
anonymous ftp demo site is ftp.eng.ufl.edu. Our demos can be located
in the /pub/msdos/demos/groups/future.crew directory.
Q: When will you release your next demo?
A: We had planned to do a demo for Assembly '94 but we noted that we didn't
have enough time to make a demo good enough that it would have satisfied
us. At the moment, we are planning to make a demo someday, but the
release date is not fixed. You might see a demo from us at Assembly '95.
Q: Have you released any musicdisks?
A: We released Purple Motion's musicdisk called Journey at The Party 3.
Skaven's musicdisk - Chaotic Mind - has also been released. A new music
disk is not in our plans right now, but our musicians contribute songs
to many other groups musicdisks.
Q: When will you release a MOD/S3M player?
A: It has already been released along with Skaven's and PM's musicdisks.
It's called the MusicDiskPlayer (MDP) and it plays 4-8 channel ProTracker
MOD files and all S3M files. It support SB, SBPro and GUS. The most recent
version (v1.1) was released with Skaven's Chaotic Mind musicdisk.
Q: When will you release a new version of Scream Tracker?
A: Currently, the newest version of Scream Tracker is 3.2 and a new version
is not planned. Maybe we will make some bugfixes, maybe not.
Q: What soundcards will you support?
A: At the moment our productions support the following sound cards:
Gravis UltraSound - for it's programming advantages and for
being the new standard on the demo scene
Sound Blaster Pro - for being the old standard on the demo scene
Sound Blaster - for being the basic sound card
Support to other sound cards is always possible, but right now we
don't see enough demand to support any other sound cards.
Q: Why aren't we supporting General MIDI?
A: Simply because our musicians don't like the idea of using a preselected
patch of samples over and over again in all their songs. They want there
to be the so called artistic freedom of using any kinds of sounds they
like. General MIDI and other such things are not a good thing from our
point of view - they are a limitation.
Q: What programming books would you recommend to learn assembler and VGA?
A: This is a hard question, and a general answer is, that any book will do.
You can get the basics from a book and books are a great reference,
but when it comes to creating something new, you can't just read it
from a book. We have all learnt to code the hard way (a lot of
miscellaneous books and a lot of experimenting). Anyway, here are
some of the books we often find handy (there are undoubtably newer
prints, so check them out):
Mastering Turbo Assembler, Tom Swan
Hayden Books 1989, ISBN 0-672-48435-8
PC System Programming, Michael Tischer
Abacus 1990, ISBN 1-55755-036-0
The Programmers PC Sourcebook, Thom Hogan
Microsoft Press 1988, ISBN 1-55615-118-7
Programming the 80386, John H. Crawford and Patrick P. Gelsinger
Sybex 1987, ISBN 0-89588-381-3
Programmers guide to EGA and VGA cards, Richard F. Ferraro
Addison Wesley 1989, ISBN 0-201-12692-3
Also, most up to date are many software 'books', such as interrupt
lists from bbs'es. We have also found a lot of valuable information
in articles and such. In short, there is no magic way of learning to
code, it really takes a lot of work.
Q: How did you learn to code?
A: Learning to code demos is a long and very very difficult process. It takes
years to learn to code demos very well. A good way to start is some high
level language like Pascal or C and then started to experiment with
assembler. It takes a lot of time and experimenting to get better, and
there are no shortcuts (for book recommendations, see a question before
this). The main thing is trying to understand what you do, then trying
to change the program to see what you get, and gain wisdom in what's
the best way of doing things. Learning to code well requires a lot of
patience, a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of time. It is not easy.
Q: I'm a beginner programmer. I wonder if you could help me learn demo coding?
A: Unfortunately our time does not allow that. If we would help others, we
couldn't get anything done. We have released a few source codes of our
productions, look for them in the releases-list.
Q: What programs do you use to do your demos?
A: We use the following programs to do our demos; For code we use Borland
C++, Microsoft C, Watcom C, Stonybrook Pascal and Turbo Assembler. For
graphics we use Deluxe Paint 2 Enhanced and 3D Studio 3.0. For making
the music we use Scream Tracker 3.2, and for digitizing the samples for
our songs we use Advanced DigiPlayer 3.5 beta and Wavelite for Windows.
Scream Tracker 3.2 and Advanced DigiPlayer are our own programs made by
Psi. Then we have all kinds of utilities crafted for our needs.
Q: How long does it take to make a demo like Second Reality?
A: The complete time that it takes to make such demo can't really be counted.
Most of our knowledge is based on years of hard work and on our previous
works. All of us do little experiments on their freetime and when a
"critical mass" is achieved the making of a demo begins more seriously.
From this point to a final demo (in the case of a major production like
Second Reality) it takes around three to six months.
Q: Are you going to make games in the future?
A: Why not. It all depends if we have the time. We have always a few game
projects cooking, but they are far from being finished. But we will
let you all know when we have a game coming, don't you worry!
Q: What do the members of Future Crew do besides computers?
A: Most of us are studying at the moment. In real life most of us are quite
normal(?) human beings. Our hobbies are for example, sci-fi, movies,
weight lifting, techno, hi-fi, etc. And most of us have or have had
a girlfriend.
Q: Exactly where do FC members study and what?
A: Here is the complete list:
Psi - University of Turku, Computer Science
Trug - Working full-time with various projects
Wildfire - Helsinki University of Technology, Computer Science
Purple Motion - last year in high school
Skaven - not studying at the moment
Pixel - not studying at the moment
Marvel - not studying at the moment
Abyss - Helsinki University of Technology, Computer Science
GORE - studying in a business school/commercial college
Henchman - Institute of Technology, Computer Engineering
Jake - University of Helsinki, Computer Science
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 8: INTERNATIONAL DEMO COMPETITIONS ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
For those who have no idea what the above are, I will explain.
Demo competitions (= parties) are international events where
the demo scene people go to meet each other and to compete in
the many competitions that are being held. These competitions
(= compos) are the demo, intro (= a demo sized under 64kb),
music and graphics. There are often different compos for different
machines (PC, Amiga, and C-64). There are also prizes in
each compo (cash or computer hardware & software). The cash prizes
are usually the money people pay as the entrance fee (usually
about $20-30 US/person) and the possible computer hardware & software
has usually been sponsored by various computer companies. All
contributions are being experienced on a big screen (many meters
wide) and with the aid of a powerful audio system. After this all
the people or a selected jury vote and decide which contributions
are the best. After this the prizes are being given out and the
party is over. In the process people of course get to know each
other better and exchange new ideas.
All contributions are usually being released at the party itself,
but sometimes the PC demos are not. This is very unfortunate,
and will probably change in the future. The reason why this is
allowed to happen is because most demos haven't been beta-tested
well enough before the party and might not work on most machines.
So, the groups are being allowed to finish their demos after the
party and then release them when they so see fit. But if they do
not release their demos after a certain period of time (like
1-2 months), the party organizers will release the version which
was contributed to the competition.
Parties usually last for three days (a weekend) and are usually
organized by bigger demo groups.
There are a few big demo parties being held annually in Europe,
The Party in Denmark at Christmas-time and Assembly in Finland
in the end of Summer.
A few months before the party, the organizing demo groups usually
release special invitation intros to advertise their parties.
There were around 3000 visitors at Assembly'94m Most of them were
PC people, and about 800 came outside Finland; from Scandinavia,
Germany, Belgium, USA, Canada, Hungary and Spain and other countries.
At Assembly'94 were 4kb intro, 64kb intro, PC demo, graphics and music
competitions. The quality was good in all competitions, especially
in 4kb intro competition, organized for the first time.
You can obtain a list of ASM'94 CD-ROM retailers from StarPort
when it becomes available. Assembly organizers will not sell any
CD-ROMs. If you are interested in becoming a retailer, please contact
Sound Solutions in Germany.
Assembly '95 will also happen in August 1995 in Helsinki, Finland.
More info will be spread later. Don't forget to attend it!
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 9: THE BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FUTURE CREW ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
- 1986-1987 -
Future Crew (FC) was founded in the year 1986 on the C-64. And only one
member has been in the group for the whole time - Psi. FC did two
demos on the C-64 before moving into the PC scene in the year 1988.
- 1988 -
FC's first PC demo was a EGA sinus -scroller called GR8. At that time
the members were HAL, JPM, SS (Psi) and SIDDER. And DARK POWER
was FC's BBS.
- 1989 -
Then there came YO! which was quite popular for a while. It used one of
the VGA's textmodes and included 'nice' PC-speaker music. It had
many scrollers, a sinusing YO!-logo, a little bouncing ball and
a 2D-starfield. At this time ICE joined and so FC
had another BBS - SILICON DRAGON.
- 1990 -
In the year 1990 there was only one demo release from us, the Slideshow I.
It was the first PC demo which included 4 voice SoundBlaster music. It
didn't include any other special code for it was a VGA picture slideshow.
And at this time there were a lot of members in FC: Psi, ICE, HAL, JPM,
SID, BIG, DAC, MAC and SEBU.
Only shortly after Slideshow I, Psi released his Scream Tracker 2.0
- a 4 voice music editing program inspired by the Amiga SoundTracker.
ST 2.0 was a real success.
- 1991 -
In summer 1991, FC released a demo called Mental Surgery. It had a big
scroller on the top of the screen, 3D-starfield, a nice writer, music
scopes and of course 4 voice SoundBlaster music. This was the last FC
demo that worked on a 286 machine. At this time the members were: Psi,
ICE, Dr.Venkman and Purple Motion. Little after this I (GORE) joined FC
and ICE lost the interest to demos and left FC along with his BBS.
- 1992 -
So, FC lived quietly for about half a year. But when the year 1992
came Trug, Pixel, Skaven and Abyss joined FC. And as Abyss joined, FC
had a BBS again, called StarPort. So, in the beginning of the year
1992 FC had the following members:
Psi - Code
Trug - Code
GORE - Organizing
Pixel - GFX
Abyss - BBS Support
Skaven - Music & GFX
Purple Motion - Music
It was at this time that we had begun making UNREAL. Our first plan was to
release it at MEGA-Leif Convention - An Atari ST/PC party held in Uppsala,
Sweden. But about a month before MEGA-Leif, MeeGosh/Rebels (Amiga) called
me and told me about ASSEMBLY'92 and that it would be cool to have also the
PC scene there. So, he asked us to do an invitation intro for the PC scene
about this mega-event. We agreed and so, UNREAL was put to rest as Psi got
the idea of making something different - namely the Fishtro. It took us
about two weeks to create Fishtro from nothing, but when we went to MEGA-Leif
Convention, we still had a few little bugs in it and therefore we couldn't
release it until a week after MEGA-Leif.
After we came back from MEGA-Leif, we started on making Unreal again in
order to get it finished for Assembly'92.
In July'92 came Assembly'92, and we won the demo competition with Unreal.
Around 1000 people attended this party, which wasn't so bad as it was being
held for the first time. The total amount of PC people was 300.
After this we were contacted by the organizers of a big Amiga/C64/PC party,
called The Party 1992. They asked us to organize the PC demo compo there and
to make an Invitation Intro for it's PC side.
At that time we had the following members: Psi, Trug, Wildfire, Pixel,
Purple Motion, Skaven, Abyss and GORE.
The Party 1992 Invitation Intro was mostly coded by Psi and WildFire.
WildFire was our new coder who joined us in autumn 1992. He had before been
active on the Atari ST scene.
Then it was the time for another big demo. The making of Panic began.
It was the normal process of making demos with blood and sweat and annoying
deadlines. Wildfire was the one to assemble the demo together, but lots of
code was also done by Psi and Trug.
Then it was the time for The Party 1992. As we thought that it would be
really nice to get as many people as possible to The Party as cheaply as
possible, we decided to organize a bustrip there with the Amiga people.
So we managed to load two buses full of computer freaks and start our trip
to The Party.
At that time The Party 1992 was the biggest demo party ever. There were
about 2500 computer freaks of which around 300 were PC dudes.
There we entered the demo compo with Panic, and to our surprise we came
second. Witan's Facts of Life had won the demo compo. We were quite
disappointed by this, because there was absolutely no voting. The voting
system on Amiga just didn't work. And then some Amiga organizer just asked
the last remaining PC organizer (A member of Danish Elite) "What do you
think were the best PC demos?" without telling him that these were going
to be the official results. And without thinking the PC organizer just
said "Witan's, FC's and Sonic's".
However, The Party 1992 was a nice party.
- 1993 -
After The Party 1992 we lived quietly for awhile. The only big change was
that Marvel (formerly in Sonic Amiga) joined us. So we now had two GFX
artists. Then we began thinking of making a diskmag (Worldcharts). At first
nobody really wanted to code it, so we thought that we would make it as a
co-operation with Stone (a finnish demogroup). But after some co-operation
trouble we began making it 100% by ourselves. Only the first issue was
released. Then we decided to stop making it, for we had other more important
projects to attend to.
Then it was the time for Assembly'93. Once again we were the PC organizers
and we made an invitation intro about it.
Assembly'93 was the biggest summer demo party ever. There were about 1500
people on the party place of which around 550 were PC demo freaks. Asm'93
was also a big advancement on the PC side. For the first time we also had
an intro, a music (4 channel and multichannel) and a graphics competition.
Second Reality was also first presented at Assembly'93.
Next was The Party 1993 (also known as The Party 3), and all we can say is
that it wasn't such a good party as it could have been. This was NOT the
fault of the PC organizing group Access Denied, but instead it seemed that
the Amiga organizers had underestimated the PC side and thus treated the PC
side somewhat unfairly. Already there is some talk about organizing a
PC-only party for X-mas'94.
Anyway, we released the GUS version of our old Assembly'92 winner demo
Unreal, and Purple Motion's musicdisk called Journey (which also includes
the MDP - our MOD/S3M player for GUS/SB/SBPro).
- 1994 -
Future Crew is now almost 8 years old. We had big plans for this year,
both in the demo scene and in the commercial market. We organized
Assembly '94 with Accession, Sonic PC, Virtual Dreams and The Movement.
It was a big party, with about 3000 visitors. It was held on August 5th-
7th in the center of Helsinki (the capital city of Finland). Our major
release this year has been the long-awaited Scream Tracker 3, a project
which has been in the making for over 2 years.
Next, FC will go traditionally to The Party '94, held again in Herning,
Denmark, just after Christmas.
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³10: FINAL WORDS ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
Thank you for reading this file.
Signed, GORE, Henchman & Abyss / FC