inspiration by Reality [web]
▀▀▀▀\ ▀▀▀▀▀\ ▀▀▀\ ▀\ ▀▀▀▀▀\ ▀▀▀▀▀\ ▀\ ▀\ ▀\ ▀\ ▀\ ▀\ ▀\ ▀\ ▀\ ▀\ ▀\ ▀\ ┌──────── ─ - ▀▀▀▀\ ▀▀▀\ ▀▀▀▀▀\ ▀\ ▀\ ▀\ ▀▀▀▀\ - ─ ─────────┐ │ ▀\ ▀\ ▀\ ▀\ ▀\ ▀\ ▀\ ▀\ ▀\ │ │ ▀\ ▀\ ▀▀▀▀▀\ ▀\ ▀\ ▀▀▀▀▀\ ▀▀▀▀▀\ ▀\ ▀▀▀▀\ │ │ │ │ │ │ PRESENTS │ │ │ │ I N S P I R A T I O N │ │ │ │ -*- │ │ │ │ Produced by: Directed by: │ │ REALITY PRODUCTIONS ROGUE & SHAYDE │ │ │ │ Special Effects: Cinematography: │ │ SHAYDE ROGUE │ │ │ │ Musical Composition: Visuals │ │ VOID & RANDOM VOICE ROGUE │ │ │ │ Locations: │ │ NEW ZEALAND & AUSTRALIA │ │ │ │ Subtitles: Inspired by: │ │ ROGUE & SHAYDE JACK DANIELS! :-D │ │ │ │ Casting: │ │ ROGUE & SHAYDE │ │ │ │ Grip: Colour by: │ │ GETTA SuperVGA Ltd. │ │ │ │ │ │ The soundtrack is available at a ripper's BBS near you! │ │ │ │ │ │ -*- │ │ │ │ │ │ THIS IS OUR ENTRY INTO AUSCOMP '94!!! │ │ │ │ │ │ -*- │ │ │ │ │ │ Requirements: │ │ │ │ * 486 or better - will NOT work on 386 or less! │ │ │ │ * 530K free conventional memory │ │ │ │ * VLB or fast ISA VGA-compatible graphics card │ │ │ │ -*- │ │ │ │ Required for music: │ │ │ │ * SoundBlaster or compatible │ │ │ │ * 128K of free EMS, XMS or "raw" extended memory │ │ │ │ │ │ -*- │ │ │ │ │ │ Execution instructions: │ │ │ │ Use a sharp axe! Heh heh! Er, simply run the executable. INSPIR- │ │ ATION uses a SoundBlaster auto-detection routine but in case my lame │ │ code cannot detect your particular SB then you can force INSPIRATION │ │ to use, for example, Port 240h, interrupt 5, DMA 3 by running the │ │ intro with the following parameters: │ │ │ │ INSPIRAT 453 │ │ │ │ ie. use the second digit of the port no. for the first character, and │ │ the interrupt and DMA numbers following. Note: this will cause │ │ INSPIRATION to use these values REGARDLESS of whether there is a │ │ valid SB there or not - if you use erroneous command line parameters │ │ then the intro will almost certainly crash or hang-up on you. Hey │ │ sure, I know this is a lame command line interface but why does an │ │ intro need one? You will rarely need to use the above parameters as │ │ it is. As for GUS owners - well, sorry guys. I know it's lame not │ │ to support this nice card these days but I have absolutely NO access │ │ to a GUS so there is no easy way for me to test the intro with GUS. │ │ I suspect you won't be able to use your SB emulations either as the │ │ intro runs in a tightly controlled protected-mode environment. │ │ Note: the SB autodetect assumes the DMA port is 1 so use the above │ │ command line override if your DMA port is not 1. │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ Implementation notes: │ │ │ │ As already mentioned, INSPIRATION runs in a 486 protected mode │ │ environment. The intro uses TRAN/RENAISSANCE's excellent PMODE │ │ and so can be run under raw, XMS and EMS/VCPI environments. It does │ │ NOT run under DPMI - intros need SPEED!!! │ │ │ │ INSPIRATION has also been written specifically for 486 machines. │ │ Why? Well the 386 does support the same modes and instruction set as │ │ the 486 (or maybe that should be the other way around! :-) but the │ │ 486 is a lot more efficient and a lot of the routines used in this │ │ intro require a lot of calculation time. All my mates own 486s and │ │ you'd be lucky if you can buy brand-new 386s these days so all our │ │ productions will be 486 only. This means that we can use a base-line │ │ system to implement our productions against and know that if the │ │ routine looks smooth on our machines, it'll look smooth on most other │ │ 486s around. Can you tell we are ex-Amiga dudes?! :-) Although I │ │ do run most of the paths in this intro using machine-independent │ │ interrupt handlers, on a 386 everything will judder so badly it won't │ │ be worth watching. Most 486s also have fast VLB SVGA cards these │ │ days too so I assume that a fast card is being used. It doesn't have │ │ to be VLB - I only have an ISA card but it seems to run at almost VLB │ │ speeds (Trident 8900D TrueColour). │ │ │ │ This intro was developed on three different machine configurations │ │ (mainly 'cos my machine is being fixed! PCs have gotta be one of the │ │ most UNRELIABLE machines around, man!). They were: │ │ │ │ * 486SX33, fast ISA VGA, 2 Meg RAM, ThunderBoard │ │ * 486SX33, SLOW ISA VGA, 4 Meg RAM, no soundcard │ │ * 486DX25, fast ISA VGA, 2 Meg RAM, ThunderBoard │ │ │ │ It has also been run on Rogue's 486DX2/66, 4 Meg RAM, Fast VLB-VGA, │ │ SB16 and works perfectly. Lemme know if you have problems with your │ │ configuration; I may not be able to fix it but I'll know for future │ │ productions, ta! │ │ │ │ INSPIRATION also uses TinyPlay written by Pelusa/Psychic Monks. This │ │ is a 32-bit p-mode 4 & 8 channel MOD player originally written for │ │ use under DOS4GW. This is an awesome piece of source-code and does │ │ SB DMA exactly how I was trying (unsuccessfully) to do it; use the │ │ DMA interrupt to run the MOD player as well as updating the DMA │ │ buffer - no more having your timer interrupt stolen from you to play │ │ the MOD, or having to worry about polling. If you have a Vertical │ │ Blanking Interrupt on your timer then you can start the MOD player │ │ going and never have to worry about it again. Ahhh, the good ol' │ │ days on Amiga, eh?! :-) │ │ │ │ INSPIRATION was written in 100% assembler and assembled under │ │ TASM 3.1 and linked under TLINK 5.something. It was not debugged │ │ with anything cos there aren't any p-mode debuggers around!!! :-( I │ │ have started one (it debugs real-mode at present) but I ran out of │ │ time to do any more on it. This is also our first production on the │ │ PC (we're a former Amiga demo group) so there is bound to be an │ │ occasional glitchy - an inevitable outcome of trying to manhandle PC │ │ into doing Amiga techniques. I definitely learnt that PC archi- │ │ tecture is lame as but oh what speed! Hey, I'm converted! :-) And │ │ where would the world be without DOOM?! :-D (I still think Amiga AGA │ │ can do it though). I also learnt that TASM is a CRAP development │ │ environment!! Why do most coding tools on PC have to operate from │ │ the DOS prompt?! Why hasn't anyone released a decent integrated │ │ assembler p-mode development system? There are heaps of 'em on │ │ Amiga! But hey, Amiga is boring these days. That's why I use PC! │ │ │ │ │ │ On Reality: │ │ │ │ Whoa! Metaphysical topic ahoy! :-) Reality is a PC demo group and │ │ we currently have four members: │ │ │ │ * ROGUE: artist, cool dude (Australia) │ │ │ │ * SHAYDE: coder, cool dude (New Zealand) │ │ │ │ * MYTH: artist, cool dude (New Zealand) │ │ │ │ NEW: * VOID: musician, cool dude (Australia) │ │ │ │ NEW: * CASPYR: coder, cool dude (New Zealand) │ │ │ │ Anyone who remembers us from our Amiga days, we are the original │ │ members. You may remember Rogue as Bad Grafix - I also used to put │ │ down that I was also a musician but I've given up on finding the time │ │ to develop on it! :-( But strangely, we seem to have an abundance of │ │ cool dudes! Tis a popular occupation in Reality! We could say we've │ │ been going for four years now, but we were only active for two of │ │ 'em! │ │ │ │ Here is a list of our productions (that I can remember! :-): │ │ │ │ Amiga: │ │ │ │ NAME DATE (approx.) SHORT DESCRIPTION │ │ CLI-Scroller 5/5/91 sinus scroller for CLI screen │ │ KiwiCrap ?/6/91 our first full length demo │ │ Pack Intro ?/7/91 with customiser for putting on pax │ │ Non-DOS menu ?/8/91 for loading demos without OS │ │ LCP demo ?/9/91 * never finished │ │ C64 game disk ?/9/91 * never finished - binary compiler │ │ DirtCheap ?/10/91 * never finished - demo (bad time!) │ │ Party Invite ?/1/92 piss-up intro, produced in a day! │ │ Non-DOS viewer ?/2/92 * not finished - for our OZ guyz │ │ Tiny Intro ?/3/92 for putting on non-DOS disks │ │ Intro writer ?/3/92 writes intros to non-DOS disks │ │ Pack Intro ?/4/92 with customiser for putting on pax │ │ Contravention ?/5/92 Demo - 1st 144 face glenz on Amiga! │ │ │ │ │ │ PC: │ │ │ │ NAME DATE (approx.) SHORT DESCRIPTION │ │ ORGASM Nov 93 ORiGinal ASseMbler! Basic 8086 asm │ │ DOOM extractor April 94 Extracts items from .WAD files │ │ Asm data maker May 94 Converts raw files to DD/DB cmds │ │ PCX to RAW June 94 Converts PCX/PCC to raw images │ │ Squasher June 94 Forces aspect 1:1 on gfx progs │ │ INSPIRATION July 94 I forget! ;-) │ │ ############### working on it Commercial development │ │ ????????? 4th quarter 94 Our first full-length PC demo! │ │ │ │ │ │ Greetz: │ │ │ │ All of youse guyz! :-) Well, read the scroller in the intro for │ │ group greets. Otherwise, a big YO to all the dewdz we are in regular │ │ contact with on the boards. │ │ │ │ │ │ Contact: │ │ │ │ 'ERE! Get away from me! Doncha know there's an AIDS epidemic?! ;-) │ │ Hey, wot would a text file be without a laaaame joke?! :-( │ │ │ │ Okay, contact addresses are on the tag end of the intro. Internet │ │ addresses are: │ │ │ │ YeahRight@As.if.we.could.afford.it!! │ │ │ │ Dunno 'bout Oz but here in NZ, boards charge so much for Internet │ │ access it's cheaper just to grab an offline mailer and call a free │ │ board in the states! I can't afford THAT either!!! │ │ │ │ │ │ Bye-bye! │ │ │ │ Time to go! Stay refridgerated, freakz! Till our next kick-ass │ │ production! │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ Shayde 3/8/94 (That's 3rd August for you Yanks! ;-) │ │ for Reality, Australasia's finest! │ │ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
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