What?! by Priests Of Power
What?! Edition #1
- A purely Australasian Diskmag from PoP -
(nFO by The WALKER & MZ)
DISCLAIMER :
If this program what was coding by POP, fucks wif ya 'puter, then we
not be giving ya any money! (Dis be including, but not limited to :
Deleting Windows 3.1,3.11 or '95 :), Accessing ya Drive A: until it
burning your floppies to crispy, or Playing russian roulette wif yor
file allocation tables, chairs, cupboards and sofa beds :)
In Short :
If this program causes damage, we ain't responsible. ;)
──╒═─══─ ─ ─══─ ───╖──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
──│ INCLUDED FiLES ║──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
──╘═─ ─── ── ─══─ ─╜──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
WHAT.EXE - If you don't know what this is for, then thou art stoopid
WHAT.NFO - Doh! I always forget what this one is for... ;)
WHAT.PW - The all Important PoPWAD File. Without this, the DiSKMÆG is
USELESS. - Don't get any funny ideas!
*.S3M - Music for The Diskmag
(The policy regarding the usage of this music is at the
composer's disgression. If you want to use it for something,
contact the COMPOSER not US!)
DM.LMP - Recording of the final of the Coven '95 1 on 1 Doom Compo.
ALGO96.NFO - nFO file for Algorhythm '96 Music Competition.
ENTRY.TXT - Entry form for Algorhythm '96.
FILE_ID.DIZ - BBS stuff.
If any of these filez are missing, it's just tooo bad! :)
(if you really need them, download it from Our WHQ BBS ; Room 1o1)
──╒═─ ── ── ── ─╖─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
──│ THE ExCUSES ║─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
──╘══── ─══── ──╜─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Well, finally, the fucken thing has been finished.. =)
It's taken 9 months, and for 9 months you may not think it has been, well,
ENTIRELY worth it, but it isn't just a simple story of us working hard for 9
months..
Basically, this mag has been interrupted by 2 sets of university exams, one real
rip-snorting demo party =), various long periods of fuckall motivation and
several SEVERE complications with different music systems.
Also given the over-shadowing of Scoop lurking around in the 'real' .au scene,
and hence lacklustre support from interstate groups (in regards to info files,
oz96 information, music and art [thanks to Random/Gob [xstatic] for actually
submitting some stuff, and rogue for submitting a 'scoop' advert]), we (PoP)
believe that it has been worth 8 months. With yesterday's demise of reality,
this magazine looks to be the only one in .au (and although we are happy that
there is no scoop anymore =), it's a pity that an apparent 'ball buster'
magazine that was to blow ours off of the map did not make it to fruition).
What we hope to do now, is make this mag something of an all-australian
production. Sure, PoP coded it, but it NEEDS everyone's input to make it
worth-while. And while most of the articles/art/music were done by PoP, this is
definately not what we want to be doing all the time, we want to make a demo or
something instead =). To realise this goal, we need people in the .au scene
contributing articles/feedback/music/art/news/etc so that finally everyone in
the .au scene can get a chance to get some REAL information about other groups.
Bloodnet isn't exactly the perfect medium, coz no REAL information re: groups is
passed along, and not everyone can be stuffed reading it.. But with a production
like this, people can kinda 'enjoy' reading about other groups and what they
have done. I can sure verify the feeling of 'loneliness' a lot of 'demo' people
are feeling, I didn't learn about heretics/reality/oxygen/xstatic for a long
time after I thought I was in the '.au scene'.
So Here it is.. Finally.. Edition #1 of PoP's DiSKMÆG 'What?!'
BTW Don't be surprised when we release a bugfix/update for it in a few days
(when everyone starts complaining about how it deleted their hard drive or
some shit) :) It's actually pretty amazing that it runs at all! ;)
Now that I mention it, if you find a HUGE error/bug or something, tell us
so we can make a bug fix! (Contact nFO should be somewhere is this stupid
text file)
──╒═─══─ ─ ─══─ ── ── ──╖─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
──│ SYSTEM REQUiREMENTS ║─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
──╘═─ ─── ── ─══─ ── ─ ─╜─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
∙ 386+ (486 DX²+ recommended coz of slow searching algos. =)
∙ Standard VGA
∙ SB/SBPro/SB16/PAS/PAS+/PAS16/GUS
∙ About a meg of EMS
∙ Mouse
∙ About 2.1mb of HDD space
∙ eyeballs
∙ inner ears
∙ pack of cigarettes
∙ bottle of beam
∙ Banana split with gravy
∙ and some patience =)
We recommend a fast computer, coz it runs better =)
(on TW's 486dx²-80, it runs nice & fast with 44.1Khz, 16Bit Stereo Music)
A big fucker of a disk cache makes things nice as well.
For god's sake DONT run this bastard off of floppy.. jeezus...
Dont hack with the files, else they wont work no more =)
Dont press funny keys looking for a 'secret' part, coz our secret part eats
hdd's for breakfast.
We think that if you consume large amounts of gravy with this production
running, you'll have more potatoes in the farm.
And drumming your fingers to the beat of the music will send your dog crazy.
We are not liable for any deaths this production will cause =)
Nor do we give a shit if it does chew ya hard drive. The disclaimer is in the
name.. Priests of Power.. work it out yaself, I havnt yet.
As a matter of fact, by running this production, you are agreeing to hand over
all you gravy pots, with handles intact.
No gherkins were harmed in the production of What?!
And if you put you milo in AFTER the milk you're not worth the fibrous tissue
your made out of.
The person who reads the most of What?! will receive, upon proof of reading,
several dead teaspoons, complete with photographic histories.
I think you get the point..
──╒═─ ── ── ── ─═─ ──╖────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
──│ HOW YOU CAN HELP ║── [aside from buying us all P5-133's :)] ──────────────
──╘══── ─══── ─ ─── ─╜────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Anyways, bullshit and whinging aside.. The basic point here is that we want YOU
=) to submit stuff and make this mag a progressive thing rather than a one off
crap PoP production (and arent there so many? =)
To be simplistic and userfriendly I've listed what we want =):
.TXT articles on:
- News about groups/releases/parties/etc
- Letters to the diskmag/editor
- Letters to OTHER authors.
- Interviews between people in the scene.
- Group histories and nfo files
- Stories, 'feature' articles.. funny (drunken?) stuff.
- Coding ideas/method/hints
- Music ideas/methods/hints
- ANSi/VGA ideas/etc/etc
.LBM/GIF/PCX pictures, 100x100x100color about:
- Art in general.. Anything at all, just 'art'
- BBS adverts
- Party Adverts
- Group logos and other wicked fontings
- pictures (ie photos) of ppl/things/etc
- diagrams..
.S3M/MTM/MOD/IT music:
- Any style, any length.. but preferably of good quality =)
There may be a chance of a 'What?!' text/picture editor being made. This would
allow people to create their articles with pictures already formatted to THEIR
liking in our diskmag format... Don't count on it, but it'd be a good idea as
it's not fun spending a whole day converting all the articles from 80 column to
55 column, justifying it all and adding appropriate white-space for art =).
Send all 'stuff' to one of these places, where it will be picked up, and used
in the next edition of What?!
email:
mzarich@smug.student.adelaide.edu.au
NetMail:
MZ@34:618/1
MZ@196:888/109
BBS:
RooM 1o1 BBS
24hrs, 14.4k
+61-8-294-2774
Pure Scene board.
(upload area allocated for diskmag articles)
Snail:
105 Moseley St
Glenelg South
5045 SA
We look forward to all 'stuff' sent =)
──╒═─ ── ── ── ─ ╖───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
──│ iNSTRUCTiONS ║───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
──╘══── ─══── ─ ─╜───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
At your DOS prompt, type :
WHAT
and the diskmag will run. (simple eh?)
The menu bar has heapz of knobs and buttons on it, so heres an explanation
of what each of the fuckers does..
EXIT - Obvious eh?
<─┘ - Back one page
BIG MOTHER ARROWS - scroll up and down in article
Arrows next to music symbol and box with bars - Volume control
Arrows next to music title - Song control
Easy eh?
If not, don't worry.. You'll get the hang of it :)
──╒═─ ── ── ── ── ╖───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
──│ CONFiGURATiON ║───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
──╘══── ─══── ─ ──╜───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
What?! uses the MIDAS Sound System, enabling 16Bit Sound cards to playback
at 16 Bit 44.1 KHz Stereo. However, on machines slower than a 486DX²-66, these
options would seriously degrade What?!'s performance. So, you should select
your sampling rate accordingly - or suffer the consequences. :)
The first time you run What?!, a MIDAS Configuration file will be written, to
save your sound settings for next time. If at any time you need to change your
settings, delete the file 'WHAT.CFG' and load the diskmag again.
──╒══─ ─ ── ─═── ───╖─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
──│ iNFO/BACKGROUND ║─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
──╘═─ ─══── ─ ─ ─ ──╜─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
WHAT?! was coded in Borland C++ Version 3.1 with heaps of Inline Assembly.
TECHNICAL SPECS :
╒═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
│ ≈12000 Lines of compiled code (excluding MiDAS) │
│ ≈435 KB of C++/Inline ASM source code. │
│ ≈110 KB of Behind The Scenes Diskmag Utilities │
│ ≈240 KB of article data for 40 Articles │
│ │
│ Coded on TW's 486DX²-80/8MB/SB16 │
│ │
│ TW's Fav. Coding Music is : │
│ Metallica, Nirvana & Offspring │
╘═════════════════════════════════════════════════╛
The Music system is MiDAS <--- An Excellent Mod/s3m player!!!
All other coding was done by The WALKER.
The Kewl Graphics were done by Perception,TAiNT (under protest), Chowderhead,
The WALKER, Old Cheese & MZ.
The xtatic logo was done by Goblin/xtatic
The Music was composed by Pulse, Phorte & Welti. (Thanks Guys)
The _FUCKING HUGE_ Endscreen ANSi done by Chowderhead (Trying to make my job
harder eh?) :)
The graphics were pre-processed by The WALKER using PoP VGA Paint, Image
Process, VPIC, Aldus Photostyler and QUICK BASIC V4.5 (No Joke!!!)
Oh and of course.. the People outside of PoP who submitted articles :
Phorte/FTS
Red Haze/FTS
Pheon/FTS
Random/xtatic (It's great to see some interstate support)
Kelewan
Budweiser
(I hope I didn't miss anyone)
Code Fragments from the DiSKMÆG might be released in Edition #2 on request :
(Just mail me or MZ or Room 1o1) and mention the bit you're interested in) ie
ModeX Routines. If I get enough requests, we'll stick some useful C++/ASM
code in the next Edition in our Coding Segment...
──╒══─ ─ ── ╖─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
──│ THE END ║─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
──╘═─ ─══───╜─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Oh yer.. On SOME computers with strange configurations (especially with
crappy video cards) an extra line appears done the bottom of the screen
where it shouldn't. Since this doesn't happen on MZ's or my computer, I
didn't have the time to get it fixed. It's got something to do with non
standard VGA's that don't set ports correctly (or something) and it
shouldn't adversely affect the diskmag's use. So don't complain to us
about it (unless you know how to fix the problem easily).
Anyway....
Why the name 'What?!' you may ask?
Well, it all stems from TAiNT. He always said 'What?!' in a really hilarious
way (according to MZ anyway). So when we were deciding the name for this dag
nabbit thing, and MZ jokingly suggested 'What?!', It stuck! :)
Oh BTW.. if ya wanna get the doom recording running, load it like this :
doom.exe -playdemo dm.lmp
(or something like that) :)
- MZ & The WALKER / Priests of Power
PS : Don't Forget, we'll stick in any Articles/Pictures you give us...
(And music)
PPS : I'd just like to take this opportunity to say "KEEN" and mention that
no Mooses were killed in the making of this Diskmag. (A few were maimed,
and 1 lost a few legs, but they're all living perfectly happy on life
support)
[ back to the prod ]