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THE CURE by RETREAM [web]
THE CURE MANUAL -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- END-USER AGREEMENT DEFINITIONS - In this agreement: "Software" refers to any and all files included in the THE CURE distribution archive. RIGHTS AND RESTRICTIONS - You can: make copies of the Software; distribute integral copies of the Software. You cannot: distribute modified copies of the Software; distribute separate parts of the Software; use (any part of) the Software for a profit without written permission. DISCLAIMER - THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS", WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT ALLOWED BY LAW, THE AUTHOR CANNOT BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGE ARISING OUT OF THE (INABILITY OF MAKING) USE OF IT. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. GOVERNING LAW AND JURISDICTION - This agreement shall be governed by the laws of the country of residence of the author at the time of the dispute. The author reserves the right to appoint the venue for the dispute. EPILEPSY WARNING - Some people are susceptible to epileptic seizures when exposed to certain flashing lights or light patterns, and they may even be unaware of it. The Software may cause problems to such people. Who experiences blurred vision, dizziness, disorientation, loss of consciousness, twitches, involuntary movements, convulsions while playing/watching the Software must stop doing so immediately and receive the due medical assistance. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GETTING STARTED THE CURE requires: * Amiga computer * AGA chipset * 68030 @ 50 MHz * ~32 kB of CHIP RAM * ~15 MB of FAST RAM * ~15 MB of storage space * PAL-capable display * stereo loudspeakers To install THE CURE, unpack the LhA archive to any directory of your choice. To start THE CURE, run its executable from either shell or Workbench. To quit THE CURE before it ends, press the right mouse button anytime. THE CURE is designed to run constantly at 50 fps. If the machine it runs on is not powerful enough, music will stutter, the video refresh will slow down and some graphics will look cropped at the top - the frequency and seriousness of these issues will depend on the actual capabilities of the machine. The picture performance_graph-v1.5.png shows the performance on the machines the demo has been tested on and, indirectly, how much power the various demo parts require. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PARTS The demo tries to deliver a message through the audiovisuals, but, given the amount and complexity of the concepts, also by means of texts - a lot of. Given that the graphics are strictly and continuously synchronized with the music and given the large amount of information, often the texts remain visible only for a short time - and in certains places they are simply beyond the human reading capabilities. Despite that, even if some details escape, the overall sense of the message does arrive to the viewer. For who wants to fully appreciate and comprehend the demo, what follows quotes all the texts and illustrates in detail all the parts of the demo. PART 0 - COUNTDOWN § Synopsis This part simply gives monitors time to synchronize with the PAL signal. PART 1 - LANGUAGE/COMMERCIAL § Synopsis This part rephrases the first half of Stephen Hawking's speech in a British Telecom TV commercial from the 90s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH5Q54eIaPk) and later used also by Pink Floyd's in their song Keep Talking (originally the demo featured such speech, but the Estate of Stephen Hawking did not allow me to use it). Basically, it says that language has been fundamental for the progress of humankind. § Texts For a long, LONG, time... ... humans used to live like the ANIMALS, ... until SOMETHING... ... set our IMAGINATION free: ... we started TALKING and LISTENING. Language enabled us to share IDEAS... ... and thus COOPERATE... ... to achieve the IMPOSSIBLE. § Notes As a little tribute to the Amiga, which, as a Commodore stated in their commercials, was in its heyday an incredible tool that, like language, gave power to our imagination, "... until SOMETHING..." is written inside a boing ball. PART 2 - LANGUAGE/CHOMSKY § Synopsis This part shows the flip side of the coin: by quoting Noam Chomsky, it says that humans made/make also wicked use of language. § Texts Unfortunately, language... ... has been / is being used also for evil purposes. [Chomsky quotes start here.] THE KEY ELEMENT OF SOCIAL CONTROL IS [...] [...] FLOODING CONTINUOUS DISTRACTIONS... ... AND INSIGNIFICANT INFORMATION. PROPAGANDA IS TO A DEMOCRACY... ... WHAT THE BLUDGEON IS TO A TOTALITARIAN STATE. § Notes * The "flip side of the coin" concept is visually represented also by a flipping stripes effect and by a picture showing two human faces in yin and yang fashion. * "[...] FLOODING CONTINUOUS DISTRACTIONS..." is surrounded by four famous logos that represent the "distractions" - tweaked in a context-appropriate way. The logos are: junkbook, litter, MasterTrash, Wastagram. PART 3 - LOGOS § Synopsis This part complies, in the least obtrusive way possible, with the demoscene tradition of showing the group and demo logos. PART 4 - PROGRESS § Synopsis This part returns to the concept of humankind progress. To stress how huge it was and how it pertained to every imaginable field of human life, some fields are presented in alphabetical order and by means of the faces of some people who contributed particularly to them. Of course, it was impossible to represent all the fields and to show all the people that would have been equally worth mentioning. § Texts ART [Ludwig van Beethoven] HUMAN RIGHTS [Nelson Mandela] LAW [Quintus Mucius Scaevola] MEDICINE [Alexander Fleming] PHILOSOPHY [Plato] SCIENCE [Galileo Galilei] SPIRITUALITY [Jesus] ALL FIELDS [Leondardo da Vinci] § Notes * Quintus Mucius Scaevola's face is based on a statue that instead might well represent Marcus Tullius Cicero. The page where I found it attributes it to Scaevola, though. Cicero would have been partly a passable choice anyway thanks to his having been also a lawyer. * "ALL FIELDS" is an umbrella entry. Leonardo represents it because his work encompassed several fields, although, of course, not all fields. PART 5 - PAST RULERS § Synopsis This part introduces several concepts that will be developed also by the next parts. It begins by saying that, despite the aforementioned progress, some things never changed. Then, it proceeds by showing, in temporal order, the faces of some past rulers reknown for their evil side. The tags they come with are to be considered the continuation of the introductory text. § Texts Humankind made immense progress... ... yet, wars never ceased and like... PHARAOHS [Tutankhamun] EMPERORS [Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus] KHANS [Genghis Khan] KINGS [Pedro I de Castilla, called "the cruel"] TSARS [Ivan IV Vasilyevich, called "the terrible"] DICTATORS [Adolf Hitler] § Notes * A better choice for the emperor figure would have been Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, AKA Caligula, but that occurred to me after creating the graphics for Nero - which is an appropriate and probably more famous representative anyway. * The faces are shown twice, the second time distorted by an effect based on the shape of a fist representing their brutal rule. PART 6 - MODERN RULERS § Synopsis This part continues the text started by the previous one, completing the concept that modern rulers - listed alphabetically - rule as wickedly as the past ones. § Texts ... BANK EXECUTIVES, BUSINESS TYCOONS, CORPORATE BIG SHOTS, CRIMINALS, FINANCE SHARKS, FREEMASONS, HEADS OF STATE, INDUSTRY BOSSES, LOBBYISTS, OFFICIALS, POLITICIANS RULE WICKEDLY... § Notes * The background gives a partial visualization of the texts by showing, on a bed of USA dollars, a pumpjack, a politician (Silvio Berlusconi) asking for votes, some G7 leaders, a stock exchange graph and Resident Evil's Umbrella Corporation logo. I did not add more elements because the graphics were too crowded already. The colors recall the dollar bills. * Due to the insufficient duration of the music section this part synchronizes with, I had to leave DESPOTS out, but those are practically a subset of the HEADS OF STATE anyway. * If you belong to one of the categories and are an unreprehensible - and maybe even do good - do not be offended: be angry, instead, at the many others in your category who caused it to be included in the list. PART 7 - MASSES § Synopsis This part continues the text started by the previous one, first focusing on what the wicked rule of the powerful means to masses and then asking a question. § Texts ... WHILE THE MASSES STRUGGLE WITH HUNGER AND ILLNESSES :( THE POOR ARE MORE AND MORE, THE RICH ARE RICHER AND MORE POWERFUL THAN EVER! HOW DID THE LATTER ACHIEVE THAT? § Notes The background picture comes from a drawing that appeared on an issue of The Illustrated London News, representing the Great Famine of 1876-1878 in India. PART 8 - DIRTY MEANS § Synopsis This part gives the answer to the previous question. § Texts BRAINWASHING CORRUPTION CULTURE OF: CONSUMERISM, EDONISM, INDIVIDUALISM, SUPERFICIALITY... DRUGS EXTORTION FALSEHOOD FANATICISMS: NATIONALISM, RACISM, RELIGION... MEDIA CONTROL NEOCOLONIALISM SLAVERY VIOLENCE AND WAR § Notes * It is no coincidence that this part is represented by a tunnel that opens in the head of one of the poor in the background - i.e. it is a symbolic way to mean that most of the means mentioned play with people's minds. * It is also no coincidence that the first item in the list is "BRAINWASHING". * The items are listed in alphabetical order. PART 9 - RESULTS § Synopsis This part begins with the previous part's tunnel opening on a view of the Earth to mean that the rulers caused disasters to the whole planet, also from an environmental point of view. Then, a very current example is provided. § Texts AND THEY DESTROYED THE PLANET IN THE PROCESS! EXAMPLE: WHILE THOUSANDS WERE DYING... [Some statements made by Trump relatively to the COVID-19 pandemic start here.] IT WILL DISAPPEAR. THIS IS THEIR NEW HOAX! WE'RE TOTALLY PREPARED. [Trump's statements end here.] CURRENT SCORE 129437 DEATHS [An imaginary sentence by Death - pun intended - starts here.] THANKS F@R HELPING ME GR@W MY BUSINESS! [@ = skull. The sentence ends here.] COVID-19 STANDINGS Xi 525470 Trump 129437 Bolsonaro 61884 Johnson 44216 Macron 29896 Löfven 5420 current figures higher and growing § Notes * To underline the concept expressed by the first text, the Earth explodes when the text disappears. * Afterwards, the ashes transform into a giant SARS-CoV-2 virion, to introduce the example that will follow. * Trump's words come out of his mouth like spirals of poisonous gas, but this is just a lucky coincidence as the effect was conceived purely as a technical gimmick. * The "CURRENT SCORE" writing shows the number of deaths caused by the COVID-19 in the USA. It is attributed to Donald Trump as he is directly responsible for those deaths because of the way he faced the pandemic. * The fact that Death replaces Trump is also to be interpreted as the revealing of the man's true face. * The "COVID-19 STANDINGS" associates the names of the presidents / prime ministers of various countries to the deaths in their respective countries. Like for the "CURRENT SCORE", the deaths are attributed to those people because of the way they faced the pandemic. Since the list, due to screen space reasons, had to be short, it features the people whose choices have been particularly remarkable for their inadequateness and evilness. Xi Jinping is attributed the worldwide deaths because he was the first head of state who had the duty to deal with the virus adequately, so he is virtually co-responsible also for the deaths in countries other than his own. * The figures are relative to the date of the creation of the graphics, i.e. July 4th, 2020, 12:35 CET. PART 10 - LYRICS § Synopsis This part denounces a few aspects of the global disaster and states that drastic measures are necessary. § Texts There's who doesn't have enough to eat and who eats more than their body can take. There's who begs for money on the street and who buys stuff for buying's sake. Lives sacrificed entirely for money, nature destroyed, future turned obscure. If we want days to be again sunny, we urgently need to start a massive CURE! § Notes * The music waveform visualization at the bottom represents graphically the fact that the words become visible as they are spoken. * The voice is mine. I just speak because I cannot sing - I wish I could, though. PART 11 - CURE § Synopsis This part first presents some base principles and then explains what the cure should consist in. There is a lot of (sometimes unreadable) text - and still there would be infinitely more to be said. § Texts The world must change. The powerful must change - and be changed! WE must change. The utopia we should shoot for is... ALL HUMANS ARE EQUAL. EVERYONE HAS THE RIGHT AND THE DUTY TO LIVE IN TRUE FULFILLMENT AND MUST BE GUARANTEED: CLEAN AIR AND WATER, FOOD, CLOTHES, HOUSING, HEALTHCARE, FREEDOM, EDUCATION, PEACE, JUSTICE, A DECENT LIFE, WORK. MACHINE WORK MUST INCREASE AND EVERYBODY MUST BENEFIT FROM THAT. FUNDAMENTAL SERVICES MUST BE PUBLIC AND EXCELLENT. EDUCATION MUST TEACH HIGH VALUES AND ENABLE TO THINK. FINANCE AND ECONOMY MUST BE REWORKED. WEALTH MUST BE GLOBALLY REDISTRIBUTED. INDIVIDUAL WEALTH MUST BE LIMITED. PRODUCTION AND WASTE MUST BE SEVERELY REDUCED. ENVIRONMENT MUST BE URGENTLY TAKEN CARE OF. § Notes * The eclipse represents the darkness that covers our world. However, light overcomes it after the text of the cure has finished passing over the moon, meaning that the cure would bring light to the world. * The Sun's corona is another visualization of the music waveform. PART 12 - FINALE § Synopsis This part states that, despite the complexity of the cure, everything boils down to a very simple thing. § Texts In short... ... love yourself... ... love NATURE like yourself... ... love THE OTHERS like yourself... ... and the world will be HEAVEN for everyone! § Notes * "love yourself" has an additional and deeper meaning beside the obvious one - it means: "look at yourself for who you really are and discover how precious you are, do not waste yourself with a superficial life, do yourself justice, etc.". * The "love" in the other lines does not mean "harbor a feeling a love for" (that is good if it happens, but it cannot be forced, of course), but "respect, care about, help, etc.". * The lines of the animation graphics are stretched according to the music waveform. * The very last section displays a heart that transforms into a drop of blood which falls down and then transforms into my signature - that has several meanings: first of all, the heart represents a connection to the concept of love expressed before; then, the fact that the heart transforms into blood is a symbolic way to say "bleeding heart", which means both that I touched all the subjects with bleeding heart (i.e. with deep sorrow) and that I put all my heart and all my energies (blood) into the making of the demo; finally, the signature, besides strengthening the concept that I gave all I had, is again to comply with a demoscene custom - i.e. showing the credits - and to provide an appropriate ending, a bit like the closing credits of a movie. * Contrary to the demoscene conventions, the demo does not include a greetings part because I do not belong to the demoscene, I have no connection to sceners/groups and, due to the overall design of the demo, it would have been just out of place. (But, of course, this does not mean I do not admire and respect sceners and groups.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BACKSTORY THE CURE is a demo with quite peculiar origins. At the end of 2017 I derived the graphics system at the core of the demo from another system of mine. Since then, I have been occasionally tinkering with it while trying to come up with a game that would make use of it, but I failed: the visuals were too stressful for the eyes and unsuitable for small/medium-sized graphical elements; the system was clearly more suited for a demo (in fact, some people proposed to make a production of such kind with it), but I kept on ruling that out because I prefer making games. Until, one day, what was happening around the world changed my mind: I just had to say something - and that could be rather effectively done with a demo. In the past, I had already tried through a book, but, since I'm Mr. Nobody, my message reached only very few people. With a demo I could reach somebody else - very few people again, but still some more people. Therefore, although part of my motivation was to make use of the system, to have fun doing so and to give the Amigans a production to enjoy, the demo's main purpose is to say something. Side note: the demo was released at the Solskogen 2020 demoparty, where it won the oldskool compo. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CREDITS Concept, design, code, graphics, music, texts: Simone Bevilacqua COVID-19 figures source: dashboard by the Johns Hopkins University https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html Donald Trump quotes sources: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/inside-trump-s-frantic-attempts-to-minimize-the-coronavirus-crisis/ar-BB10zgPE https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-coronavirus-quotes-graph-covid-19-stats-reddit-a9415576.html Noam Chomsky quotes source: https://www.quotetab.com/noam-chomsky-quotes-about-political Some graphics have been derived by means of computer-assisted and manual processing from pictures downloaded from the internet, as listed below (where possible, with the indication of author and/or photographer and/or copyright holder and/or original source). Adolf Hitler: https://www.newnotizie.it/2018/12/05/hitler-e-scappato-con-la-macchina-del-tempo-durante-la-seconda-guerra-mondiale/ https://www.newnotizie.it/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/hitler-415x276.jpg Alexander Fleming: http://tonsoffacts.com/27-fascinating-and-interesting-facts-about-alexander-fleming/ http://tonsoffacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/alexander-fleming-arzt-102__v-gseagaleriexl-1180x664.jpg bed of dollars: https://medium.com/@siraj_raval/make-money-with-machine-learning-f369943e7c7f https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*vYK9vkm9C8ZeJpMv5Yo3AQ.jpeg Donald Trump: Dominick Reuter / Reuters https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/donald-trumps-cruel-streak/501554/ https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/ET0exgN8WCotCb9DV2DCHqlaS4o=/0x250:4806x2953/720x405/media/img/mt/2016/09/RTX1GZCO/original.jpg Famine in India: The Illustrated London News, October 20th, 1877 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Famine_in_India_Natives_Waiting_for_Relief_in_Bangalore.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Famine_in_India_Natives_Waiting_for_Relief_in_Bangalore.jpg G7 group: ANSA https://lafiamma.com.au/news/g7-leaders-unite-in-the-fight-against-terrorism-34605/# https://lafiamma.com.au/media/listing_images/2017/05/29/g7_terr.jpg Galileo Galilei: Justus Sustermans, 1636 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Justus_Sustermans_-_Portrait_of_Galileo_Galilei,_1636.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Justus_Sustermans_-_Portrait_of_Galileo_Galilei%2C_1636.jpg Ivan IV Vasilyevich: Jack Keay Look and Learn, issue 592, June 2nd, 1973 http://www.illustrationartgallery.com/acatalog/info_KeayIvanLL.html http://www.illustrationartgallery.com/acatalog/KeayIvanLL-G.jpg Jesus: https://amicolibero.altervista.org/11-aprile-2015-festa-della-divina-misericordia-una-sola-preghiera-proteggi-tutti-noi/ https://amicolibero.altervista.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ges%C3%B9-divina-misericordia-120411-gesc3b9-misericordioso-2.jpg Genghis Khan: https://www.albawabhnews.com/4034838 https://www.albawabhnews.com/upload/photo/news/403/4/600x338o/838.jpg?q=1 Leonardo da Vinci: Lattanzio Querena De Agostini / Getty Images https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/portrait-of-leonardo-da-vinci-by-lattanzio-querena-padova-news-photo/148277064 https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/portrait-of-leonardo-da-vinci-by-lattanzio-querena-padova-musei-picture-id148277064?s=2048x2048 Ludwig van Beethoven: Joseph Karl Stieler, 1820 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beethoven.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Beethoven.jpg Nelson Mandela: University of Fort Hare https://www.ufh.ac.za/international/notable-alumni.html https://www.ufh.ac.za/international/images/ufh%20alumni%20image%20-%20nelson-mandela.jpg?crc=28466541 Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus: De Agostini / Getty Images https://www.gettyimages.it/detail/fotografie-di-cronaca/roman-civilization-1st-century-a-d-nero-roman-fotografie-di-cronaca/122227072?adppopup=true https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/roman-civilization-1st-century-ad-nero-roman-emperor-from-54-marble-picture-id122227072?s=2048x2048 Noam Chomsky: Reuters / Jorge Dan https://www.rt.com/usa/202223-noam-chomsky-global-terror/ https://cdni.rt.com/files/news/31/5e/f0/00/chom-2.si.jpg Pedro I de Castilla: José María Rodríguez de Losada, 1892 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Pedro_I_de_Castilla#/media/File:Pedro_I_de_Castilla_(Ayuntamiento_de_Le%C3%B3n).jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Pedro_I_de_Castilla_%28Ayuntamiento_de_Le%C3%B3n%29.jpg Plato: Raffaello Sanzio: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plato_by_Raphael.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Plato_by_Raphael.png Quintus Mucius Scaevola (or Marcus Tullius Cicero): https://www.tuodiritto.it/pagina-esempio-quinto-mucio-scevola/ https://www.tuodiritto.it/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/quinto-muzio-scevola.jpg SARS-CoV-2: Alissa Eckert, MS, Dan Higgins, MAMS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention https://phil.cdc.gov/details.aspx?pid=23312 https://phil.cdc.gov//PHIL_Images/23312/23312_lores.jpg Silvio Berlusconi: ANSA/Zeggio https://www.corriere.it/foto-gallery/politica/15_maggio_09/genova-berlusconi-inciampa-cade-il-comizio-0d826362-f646-11e4-a548-cd8c68774c64.shtml stock exchange chart: https://www.newsbreak.com/news/0OfGIsMQ/dow-soars-1600-points-as-growth-rate-of-new-coronavirus-cases-appears-to-slow https://img.particlenews.com/img/id/3PPOFY_0OfGIsMQ00?type=webp_1024x576} Tutankhamun mask: https://earlychurchhistory.org/arts/early-roman-gold-glass/tutankhamun-mask-2/ https://earlychurchhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Tutankhamun-Mask-1.jpg Umbrella Corporation logo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Umbrella_Corporation_logo.svg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Umbrella_Corporation_logo.svg -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- rev. 20250130 www.retream.com/THE_CURE contact@retream.com (c) 2020 RETREAM
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