=> alt.sys.amiga.demos frequently asked questions (FAQ) <=
=> V1.05, November 1995. <=
Written by h0llyw00d/ax!$ (s.m.carless@dur.ac.uk)
WWW-section researched by I-GO/TBL (blahh@xs4all.nl)
(N.B. - there are regular monthly changes in the WWW section of this
FAQ, so keep watching out for info on new Amiga-demo homepages
regards, h0l - 10.11.1995!)
1 What are demos?
2 Why are they made?
3 Who makes them?
4 What are the different kinds of demos?
5 What are the different functions of scene guys?
6 How can I learn how to do music/gfx/code?
7 What software/hardware is used to create demos, and where can I get this
software from?
8 Where can I get demos from? (including ftp sites)
9 What Amiga demo-scene WWW pages are there?
10 How can I get started in the scene?
11 What are the best demos on the Amiga?
12 When did the scene begin?
13 Who are the best groups on the scene?
14 What countries have people involved in the scene?
15 What kind of questions can I post here?
16 Are there any questions should I not post here?
17 Where is this FAQ available?
18 Who made this FAQ?
1. What are demos?
Demos, (short for 'demonstrations'), are executable programs created (in the
case of this FAQ, on the Commodore Amiga computer), purely for art's sake,
featuring impressive or spectacular audiovisuals. Demos are not actually
functional or interactive, in the main, but then nor are portraits, or CDs.
Perhaps you can think of a demo as a music video on a computer, but with equal
emphasis on the visuals, the music, and the code. It's something to watch,
enjoy, and marvel at the creativity of. Demos can be beautiful. :)
2. Why are they made?
Demos are made because people want to construct something that looks good.
There's no financial reward (except the prize if your demo wins at a demo
party), so the profit motive isn't really an issue. People make demos
because they want to make something that will be spread worldwide, seen
by a lot of people, and appreciated by them for being skilfully designed.
Demos are made for art's sake, and for prestige.
3. Who makes them?
Demos are made by various Amiga users, generally organised into groups.
These groups have names, such as Virtual Dreams, Spaceballs, Complex,
etc, and these groups comprise a number of (more or less) talented members.
Please note that almost all demo-makers credit themselves under a pseudonym,
rather than their real name, e.g. Chaos, Fairfax, Moby, ...
4. What are the different kinds of demos?
The word 'demo' is the general term for a demonstration. Demos can look very
much like a dance-music-video (Spaceballs "State Of The Art" and "9 Fingers"),
very much like a collection of computerised effects sequenced together
(Andromeda "Nexus7"), or very much like nothing on this Earth (Melon Design!)
Otherwise, there are various other words for demos:
'Intros', (short for 'introduction(s)'), are small demos..
'Trackmos' are demos which don't use Amiga-DOS to load, and therefore aren't
hard-disc installable (they're trackloading, which is the derivation of this
word.)
'Dentros' are half-way between demos and intros. :)
'Music-discs' are selectable collections of tunes by musicians.
'Slideshows' are collections of pictures by graphics artists.
'Discmags' are electronic disc magazines.
'Charts' are disc-based charts programs, which use voting sheets to poll
the scene on which demos/coders/musicians/etc. they think are the best.
5. What are the different functions of scene guys?
Generally made up of the following:
a) Coders - program the effects in the demos.
b) Graphics artists - Draws the pictures/logos/fonts, or whatever is needed.
c) Musicians - produces the soundtracks.
(Design is also important in demos. It's often handled by the graphics
artist and/or coder.)
d) Mail-Trader - Swaps with other demo-fans and members of other groups,
in order to get new demos and spread his own group's.
e) Modem-Trader - Trades demos on bulletin boards, functions much
as mail-trader.
f) Sysop - 'System Operator' of bulletin board (BBS) where new demos can
be uploaded/downloaded.
(With the advent of the Internet and FTP sites, the three previous functions
may be getting less important, but it's important to note that the Internet
is still significantly slower at getting new demos than many BBSes.)
Thus groups not only have the creative members, but means to spread their
productions.
6. How can I learn how to do music/gfx/code?
Practise a lot. :) For musicians and graphics artists, there really aren't
that many ways to 'learn`, except to keep trying, look at other people's
work for inspiration, and to learn your trade slowly and carefully. For
coders, the "HowToCode" tutorial series, and also articles in disc
magazines, and so forth, may help aspiring Dr.Skulls. :)
7. What software/hardware is used to create demos, and where can I get it
from?
a) Coders use assemblers such as ASM-One, or Devpac, both commercial packages.
(go to your local computer store and ask!)
b) Graphics artists use commercial paint programs, often Deluxe Paint, but
also Brilliance. (ditto!)
c) Musicians use a `tracker` program, almost always Protracker (a PD program,
see the alt.binaries.sounds.mods FAQ for more information... one of the
best trackers for the Amiga is available at Aminet and all its mirrors in
mus/edit/pt23a.lha...)
8. Where can I get demos from? (including ftp sites)
(Demos are available from PD (public domain) companies, and their adverts
are displayed prominently in all Amiga papermagazines. You will be paying
more for someone to copy demos for you, though, so, as you seem to have
access to the Internet, why not use it to get demos?)
[CD-ROMs are becoming increasingly good value if you want to pick up large
amounts of demos (although the quality will be variable, obviously..)
The Aminet CDs are especially well-known, and now number 1-8, with Aminet 6
being specifically targeted towards demos.
However, probably the best demo-scene orientated CD series is the
"Euroscene" series by Almathera. Volume 1 contains about 540meg of demos,
mods, graphics and the like.. music modules and graphics are listed by
authors, too.
"Euroscene2", to be released very shortly, is even better, containing
a whole CD worth of well-ordered mods and demos..
In addition, there are the CDs compiled by LSD, called "Compendium Deluxe"
volumes one and two. Very much demo-based, and with stuff unavailable
elsewhere.
Finally, there are sometimes official CDs containing all the releases from
parties: for example, the one from Assembly 94. This kind of thing is very
useful if you want to check out _all_ the pictures from a certain party.
The Assembly 95 CD should be out pretty shortly, too.]
Using ftp sites is the most sensible way to get Amiga demos through the
Internet. The following are the best (only?) Amiga demo sites:
(log on as 'anonymous', give your email address as your password!)
a) Papa - i41s20.ira.uka.de
(in pub/ : was the ftp mirror of the IRC `bot` Papa, now Papa isn't on
IRC anymore, is simply a ftp site. And easily the best demo ftp
site, too, although access can sometime be slow from some areas of
the globe. It has a very good selection of demos, and is generally
the first to get new demos. Was actually faster than a lot of BBSes
with the Assembly releases.. thanks to Milano for this invaluable
resource!)
b) Aminet - src.doc.ic.ac.uk, ftp.luth.se, ftp.wustl.edu, ftp.netnet.net,
ftp.uni-paderborn.de, and many more.. see the readme file
in the root aminet directory.
(in the pub/aminet/demo/ directory, also check pub/aminet generally for
related files such as modules, graphics, utilities..)
This is the massive, infamous resource, which doesn't actually get that
many new demos nowadays (Papa gets a lot more), but is at least
universally accessable and fast.
You can also ftp by email through Aminet.. check it out by sending a
message with HELP in the body to ftpmail@doc.ic.ac.uk or
ftpmail@ftp.luth.se, or ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com, or others..
Always use your local Aminet site, to save time!
c) Funet - ftp.funet.fi
(in the pub/amiga/demos/ directory, demos arranged according to group
names. Not the newest stuff, but useful..)
d) ftp.ee.pdx.edu
(pub/amiga/demo/ :has a good selection from some big demoparties (mainly
contained elsewhere, tho.))
(Also houses a very good Amiga graphics archive, with a lot of excellent
pictures, logos, etc. from various demos and competitions, in
pub/amiga/gfx. An under-rated resource.)
Some major demo-parties have claimed or are claiming to feature ftp sites
with new demos available `live` from the party, as they're released. Watch
out for information about this on the newsgroup. The Gathering 95 ftp
site was hijacked by hackers, though, so the organisers obviously have
to be careful.
(please note, if you live in Asia/the Far East, that the Japanese WWW site
mentioned in the next section has quite a large number of demos on it, so it
might be worth grabbing demos from that instead of ftp-ing to the States or
Europe. But there are many more demos available on Aminet/Papa.)
[If you also have a PC, then try grabbing some of the increasingly good
PC demos at ftp.cdrom.com, or a related archive at ftp.luth.se.]
If you're on IRC, try joining channel #amigascne, which is the channel
with all the demo-freaks on it, and join us for a chat about the demo
scene and various other suspect subjects. Sadly, Papa is no longer
available to dcc demos from. :(
But, Aminet is accessible on IRC through Mama. (/dcc chat Mama, etc..)
(http://www.ludd.luth.se/~pjotr/mama.cgi is Mama's homepage!)
9. What Amiga demo-scene WWW pages are there?
An html version of this FAQ, with direct links to all these listed
WWW pages, is available at:
http://www.dur.ac.uk/~d3fbcw/FAQ.html (Hollywood's homepage!)
http://www.xs4all.nl/~blahh/ (R.A.W. ON-LINE.)
= Groups =
http://www.dur.ac.uk/~d3fbcw/Axis.html (Axis [Planet Axis!])
http://fly.cc.fer.hr/~ld/blt.html (BlackOut)
http://www.jyu.fi/complex/ (Complex)
http://www.ifi.uio.no/~uwek/Crusaders/index.html (Crusaders) -DOWN-
http://linux.univ-compiegne.fr/~levesque/Darkness/Darkness.html (Darkness)
http://www.lut.fi/~mkolsi/dcs.html (Dual Crew & Shining)
http://www.nexus.net/~cygnus (Cygnus's Solo)
http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~idr (The Epsilon coderpage)
http://uno.canit.se/~qen/honey (Honey)
http://www.abc.se/~m9182/_led/index.html (Limited Edition)
http://www.cs.tu-berlin.de/~stone/matrix.html (Matrix)
http://wwwedu.cs.utwente.nl/~pullens/index.html (Mirage)
http://phoque.info.uqam.ca/stargate (Myth)
http://www.ts.umu.se:80/~gnilk/ (Noice)
http://arctique.int-evry.fr/~puel/nova-eng.html (Nova)
http://gandalf.iuk.tu-harburg.de/~frank/PHN/phn.html (Phantasm)
http://www.ping.be/~ping2045/ptl.html (Purple Turtle)
http://ing.univaq.it/~max (RamJam)
http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/~d3dick/rage.html (Rage)
http://www.abc.se/~m9182/_rbs/index.html (Rebels)
http://www.diku.dk/students/cdcurry (Scoopex)
http://frodo.hiof.no/~toma/ (Spaceballs)
http://www.pvv.unit.no/~pallo/talent (Talent)
http://www.xs4all.nl/~blahh/TBL/TBL_Main.html (The Black Lotus)
http://direktor.voima.jkl.fi/~vesuri/jormas.html (The Jormas)
http://f_utbserv.cse.hks.se:80/~sy5che/ (Three Little Elks)
http://www.ifi.uio.no/~oyvindfa/Triumph (Triumph)
http://www.diku.dk/students/martin/index.html (Vanity)
= OTHER =
http://metro.turnpike.net/L/logo/pete Aerosoul
http://www.evitech.fi/~henrijl/ Artifex / Complex
http://www.hivolda.no/~fe/cesium/cesium.html Cesium / Session
http://www.ifi.uio.no/~nilsco Darkman / Triumph
http://www.oden.se/~perw Dreamweaver / Aurora
http://stekt.oulu.fi/~dozig Dozig / Damage (waste of bandwidth)
http://http://www.evitech.fi/~marks Dweezil / Complex^CNCD
http://www.dur.ac.uk/~d3fbcw/ Hollywood/Axis
http://www.ostrabo.uddevalla.se/dis/d94jenan Jesse / TBL
http://kaarna.cc.jyu.fi/~japehe JMagic/ Complex PC
http://www.lut.fi/~jkarhula Joge
http://www.math.jyu.fi/~jusaka Jugi / Complex
http://www.nvg.unit.no/~sk Nimrod
http://www.lut.fi/users/mkolsi Obligator / DCS
http://www.hfb.se/~d94mgr Offa / TBL
http://www.xs4all.nl/~perseus Otis / Dream4
http://www.ifi.uio.no/~larshau Perplex / Offence
http://info.ox.ac.uk/~kebl0364/ Pot-Noodle /Anthrox
http://gandalf.iuk.tu-harburg.de/~frank/rst/index.html RawStyle / Lego
http://www.hut.fi:81/~savanhat Reward / Complex
http://www.algonet.se/~deen Rodney / Axis
http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/~esuiz/index.html Silk / ex.Digital
http://www.clinet.fi/~mint Strobo / Stellar
http://direktor.voima.jkl.fi/~vesuri Vesuri / The Jormas
http://www.iut-orsay.fr/~e4068 Vodka (it's in French !)
http://www.oslonett.no/home/tbk/ Wowbagger / Alpha flight^Session
http://www.cti.ecp.fr/~caillaf7 Zaltor / NGC (in French as well !)
http://www.clinet.fi/~zappy Zappy / MW
= PARTIES =
http://www.cybernet.dk/theparty/ The Party 5
http://www.ifi.uio.no/~uwek/Crusaders/TG96.html The Gathering 96
http://gandalf.iuk.tu-harburg.de/~frank/bbx-sym96/bbx96.html
BBx Symposium party
http://huizen.dds.nl/~sih SIH95 party-info
http://www.icon.fi/assembly95 Assembly '95 homepage
Also:
http://ftp.wustl.edu/~aminet/ (or)
http://ftp.eunet.ch/~aminet/ for WWW access to Aminet. :)
10 How can I get started in the scene?
Just find some like-minded friends and start making demos. There's no limit
to who can make demos and who can't. Contact some scene-groups through
the addresses you see on demos. Turn up to demo-parties. Start trading demos
by mail/modem. Post to this newsgroup. Tune in, turn on, get wired. :)
11 What are the best demos on the Amiga?
The controversy begins here, since there's always argument about this kind
of subject, but (using "The Charts" and "The Eurocharts" as some kind of
basis for the most popular demos.. this list will be updated as new charts
come out and new demos enter the charts..)
Please note:
OCS denotes the original chip-set Amigas (A500/1000/1500)
ECS means the demo will run on the A500+/A600/A3000. (+some new 2000s)
AGA means the demo will only run on the A1200/4000. (+CD32?!)
Please help me with compatibility questions by telling me which machines
certain demos will/won't run on! The `meg` figure is the minimum number of
megabytes required to run the demo, and is pretty inaccurate right now.
If you find a certain demo won't run straight away, especially on
high-end machines, a sensible thing to do is to run some kind of degrader:
an excellent allround one is located at Aminet,pub/aminet/util/music/TUDE.lha
It's also a good idea to try some of the options in the bootselector you get
when you push both mouse buttons down after resetting on ECS/AGA
machines. Putting original chipset on or turning off CPU cache can work well.
Also listed is the place on the Internet this demo can be found, with
Am = Aminet (pub/aminet/demo/ directory already presumed!)
Fu = Funet, (pub/amiga/demos/ directory!)
Pa = Papa. (pub/ directory!)
Since Aminet is the biggest demo archive, with the most mirrors, I've
selected the Aminet source for the demo, where possible, but many demos are
probably available elsewhere.
I've been unable to locate some demos on the Net. Could someone post them
up, if they still have a copy, and inform me?
Also T for trackloading, and H for hard disc installable (for all you hard
disc freaks!)
Finally, if there's a message in square brackets regarding a file, eg if
it's listed as ThePrey1[+2].lha, that means there are two files there,
ThePrey1.lha, and ThePrey2.lha. :)
The _very_ best demos:
Anarchy "3D Demo 2" (OCS, 1meg) - (Am) (T) (fix?) (Fu)
Anarchy/Anarchy.3D_DemoII.dms
Andromeda "Nexus7" - (AGA, 2meg) - (Am) tp94/nexus7.lha (T)
Complex - "Origin" - (AGA, 2meg) - (Am) Party93/Complex.Origin-1[+2].dms (T)
(not A4000..)
Juliet+Case - "C42" - (AGA, 2meg) - (Am) demo/ta95/C42fixed.lha (H)
Kefrens-"Desert Dream"(OCS/ECS/AGA,1meg)-(Fu) Kefrens/DesertDreams-1[+2].dms
Melon Dezign -"Planet M" - (AGA, 2meg) - (Pa) - SiH95/mln-pm.dms (T)
Parallax/CNCD - "Deep" (AGA, 4meg) - (Am) tg95/Deep.lha (H)
Polka Brothers "The Prey"(AGA, 2meg)-(Am) tp94/ThePrey1[+2].lha (H)
Pygmy Projects "Extension" (OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg) (Fu)
misc/PygmyProjects.Extension.dms(T)
Rebels - "Switchback" - (AGA, 2meg) - (Am) aga/dd-rbs1.dms,dd-rbs2.dms (T)
Sanity "Arte" (OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg) - (Am) demo/mega/Sanity.Arte-a[+b].dms, (T)
Silents + Crionics "Hardwired" (OCS, 0.5meg) - (Fu) Silents/
Silents+Crion.Hardwired-1[+2].dms (T)
Spaceballs "9 Fingers" (OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg)-(Fu) Party93/
Spaceballs.9Fingers-1[+2].dms (T)
Spaceballs "State Of The Art" (OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg)* (Am) mega/sr_sball.dms (T)
Virtual Dreams-"242"(OCS/ECS/AGA, 0.5meg)-(Fu) Fairlight/Fairlight.242.dms(T)
Virtual Dreams - "Full Moon" (AGA, 2meg) - (Am) aga/vdreams_fullmoon.lha (H)
* - There are 2 versions. The original release worked the A500 with 1meg
RAM _only_. The Skid Row fix works on the majority of machines.
The version listed here is the Skid Row fix.
Other all-time greats:
Absolute - "Clairvoyance" - (OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg) - (H) (Can't find!)
Andromeda - "Mind Riot" - (OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg) - (Fu) demos/Andromeda/
Andromeda.Mindriot.lha (H)
Axis - "Big Time Sensuality"-(AGA, 2meg)-(Am)
mega/BIGTIME1[+2].dms(T) (not A4000!)
Bomb - "Motion" (AGA, 2meg)-(Am)tp94/MotionDisk1[+2].dms(T)(not A4000. fix?)
Complex - "Real" - (AGA, 2meg) (Am) aga/clx-real.dms (H)
Lemon. - "Announce" - (OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg) - (Am) mega/lem-ann.dms (H)
Lemon. - "Groovy" - (OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg) - (Am) mega/Lemon.Groovy (T)
LSD -"Jesus On E's"-(OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg) - (Am) mega/lsd_joe1fixed.dms,
lsd_joe2.dms (T)
Mad Elks - "Technological Death"-(OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg)-(Am) mega/t-death.dms (T)
Melon Dezign - "Baygon" - (AGA, 2meg) - (Pa) - SiH95/mln-bayg.dms (T)
Melon Dezign-"Booo"+"Booo2"-(OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg) -(Pa) demos/mln-boo2.lha -(H)
-(Am) euro/booo.lzh -(H)
Melon Dezign-"How To Skin A Cat"-(OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg)-(Am) mega/htsac_md.dms(T)
Movement - "Mina Omistan"-(AGA, 2meg)-(Am) aga/minomis1[+2].dms(T)(not A4000)
Parallax - "Drool This" - (AGA, 6meg, HD!) - (Am) euro/drool_this.lha
Polka Brothers - "Friday At Eight" - (AGA, 2meg) - (Am) aga/friday.lha (H)
Polka Brothers - "Gevalia" - (AGA, 2meg) - (Pa) demos/Gevalia.lha (H)
Razor 1911 - "We Shave Ass" - (OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg) - (Am) (can't find it!) (H)
Quartex-"Substance"-(OCS/ECS/AGA,0.5meg)-(Fu) Quartex/Quartex.Substance.lha(H)
Sanity "Interference" (OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg) - (Am) mega/sanity.dms (H)
Sanity "Roots 2" (AGA, 2meg) - (Am) aga/Roots_Final.dms (T)
Sanity - "World Of Commodore" - (OCS/ECS/AGA, 1meg) - (Fu) Sanity/
Sanity.WorldOfCommodore.dms (T)
Silents - "Fruitkitchen" - (AGA, 2meg) - (Am) ta95/a95-tsl.lha (H)
Stellar - "Mindflow" (AGA, 4meg) - (Am) aga/mindflow.lha (H)
Virtual Dreams - "Love" (AGA, 2meg) - (Am) aga/vd_love.lha (T)
Virtual Dreams - "Psychedelic", (AGA, 2meg, HD only!)
- (Am) tp94/Psychedelic1[+2+3].lha(H)
If you've missed any of these demos, I grieve for you. :)
The very best 40k-intros (all HD-installable, obviously!):
Lego - "The Real 40k" - (OCS/ECS/AGA, 0.5meg), (Fu)
Party93/intros/Lego.TheReal40k.lha
Melon - "Tetris Intro" - (OCS/ECS/AGA, 0.5meg), (Fu) MelonDezign/
MelonDezign.Tetris.lha
Pygmy Projects - "G-Force", (OCS/ECS/AGA, 6meg!),(Am)intro/Gforce-final.lha,
gforce-ocsfix.lha
Stellar - "Darkroom" - (AGA, 2meg), (Am) intro/intr1.lha OR intr2.lha :)
Virtual Dreams - "Chaosland", (OCS, 1meg, mainly works ECS/AGA),
(Fu) Party93/intros/VirtualDreams.Chaosland.lha
The very best musicdiscs:
(all OCS/ECS/AGA, and trackloading, unless specifically mentioned)
Alcatraz - "Memorial Songs 1+2" - (Am) sound/Memorial1[+2].dms, msongs2.lha
Anarchy -"Legalise It 1+2"(OCS only)-(Am) sound/li21[+22,a+b].dms
Andromeda - "Mirror" - (Fu) Andromeda/Andromeda.MirrorMusic-1[+2,a+b].dms
Complex - "Book Of Songs" - (Fu) Complex/Complex.BookofSongs1[+2,a+b].dms
Complex - "Seduction" - (can't find it online!)
DCS - "Chromagic" - (can't find it!)
Digital - "Extemporized" - (Fu) Digital/Digital.Extemporized.dms
Grooving Brothers - "Surfing on a Jazz Wave"- (Am) sound/Surfing1[+2].dms
Noiseless+TSL - "Dizzy Tunes 1+2" - (can't find them!)
Phenomena-"Crystal Symphonies 1+2"-(Fu) Phenomena/PhenomenaCrystalSymphI
[+II,-a+-b].dms
Sanity "Jesterday" - (Am) sound/SanityJstrdayA[+B].dms
TRSI - "Viktoria" - (Pa) demos/trsi-vk1[+2+3].dms
The very best slideshows:
(all OCS/ECS/AGA, and trackloading, unless specifically mentioned)
Abyss - "Pixelstorm" - (Pa) - Assembly95/a95-pixe.lha
Andromeda - "Seven Seas"-(Am) slide/A0A.SevenSeas1a[+b].dms,AOA.SevenSeas.dms
Cryptoburners - "Revelations" - (Am) tg93/revelations.dms
Lego - "Never Liked Uno" - (Am) slide/Lego.NLU.dms
Melon - "Prism" - (Fu) - MelonDezign/MelonDezign.Prism.dms
Scoopex - "Artcore" - (Am) -
And finally, leading disc-magazines:
"RAW" (independent!) - (Am) demo/mag/RAW9.dms
"ROM" (Essence) - (Am) - demo/mag/rom5.dms (AGA only)
and. :)
"Grapevine" (LSD) - (Am) mag/LSDGV21A.dms, LSDGV21B.dms
(the two main charts/news/info productions are Static
Bytes "Eurocharts", and RamJam "The Charts", available
on Papa, dirs diskmags/eurocharts and diskmags/thecharts
respectively. "The Charts" is also available from
RamJam's WWW site.)
12 When did the scene begin?
The 'scene' began in the mid-1980s on the Amiga, when the computer was
first produced. People moved across from the Commodore 64 scene, and
started making 'intros' to fit on the front of discs, and it evolved from
there. It would be unfair not to mention some of the groundbreaking demos
which led to the scene evolving to where it is now. We honour: Wild
Copper, Subway, Demons "DOC", Level42, the Red Sector Megademo, Rebels
"Coma", RSI "Cebit '90", Phenomena "Enigma", the "Trip To Mars" demo,
Mahoney and Kaktus music-discs, and many, many more.. comments?
13 Who are the best groups on the scene?
No doubt there will be controversy about this, also, but, taking all the
names voted for in the recent issue of the major chart magazines, the `best`
groups are:
Sanity, Virtual Dreams/Fairlight, Complex, Andromeda, Polka Brothers,
Spaceballs, Kefrens, Rebels, Melon Dezign, Movement, Stellar, Essence,
Pygmy Projects, Lego, TRSI, Razor 1911, The Silents, Scoopex, Parallax,
CNCD... and many more.
14 What countries have people involved in the scene?
The scene is worldwide, but based in Europe. Scandinavia is one of the
biggest sources of demos, but Germany. France, and Holland also produce a lot
of demos. Eastern Europe (Hungary, and especially Poland) are an increasing
source of demos, and other European countries such as Austria, Switzerland,
Englnd, Italy, Spain, Belgium.. also have a demo-'scene'. Outside Europe,
countries like Australia and Turkey have some kind of scene, and America
has knowledge of the scene, but, tho traditionally the BBS-base of groups,
is not really involved in the scene(there are no major American demo-crews.)
15 What kind of questions can I post here?
Questions regarding the compatibility of demos, the whereabouts of demos
(if you've looked briefly and can't locate them on the Net.) Opinions
on demos, information about forthcoming releases, scene-news, information or
queries regarding parties and conferences..
Generally, all manner of discussion regarding all aspects of Amiga demos.
16 Are there anything I should not post here?
Any questions covered in the FAQ. Also, binaries should NOT be posted here,
because many people have to grab newsgroups by modem, and binaries would
add megabytes to their download, and megabucks to their phonebill. :)
Please note the existence of other newsgroups, such as alt.sys.amiga.audio
or alt.sys.amiga.games, if your question/comment has a greater relevance to
those newsgroups.
17 Where is this FAQ available?
a) This FAQ is an (almost) monthly posting to the alt.sys.amiga.demos and
alt.amiga.demos newsgroup.
b) It's available via ftp from Aminet and all mirrors, directory
pub/aminet/text/misc/demoV105faq, and from i41s20.ira.uka.de,
directory pub/text/demoV105faq .
c) It is also viewable from the WWW at:
http://www.dur.ac.uk/~d3fbcw/FAQ.html (Hollywood's homepage!)
http://www.xs4all.nl/~blahh (R.A.W. ON-LINE)
18 Who made this FAQ?
h0llyw00d (Simon Carless, [s.m.carless@dur.ac.uk]), made this FAQ, with
invaluable help regarding WWW sites from I-GO/TBL.
Thanks to: Rik, Urban Mueller, Sumaleth, Jack, Intruder,
SuperNao, Yolk, Astro, Mub, Maxime, and everyone on the scene....
$VER: alt.sys.amiga.demos FAQ V1.05 (01.11.95)
Changes V1.02 => V1.03: more WWW pages located..
Changes V1.03 => V1.04: best-demos + WWW pages changed.
Changes V1.04 => V1.05: lots more WWW pages, ftp site+CDinfo changed,
updates to best demos, favoured WWW sites changed.
V1.00 released 1st June 1995, V1.04 October 1st 1995,
V1.05 November 10th 1995.