pouët.net

just an idea but why not set a "standard" runtime environment for 4k intros? a simple runtime environment (other than "dos") that provides a framebuffer and basic keyboard/sound stuff.

actually I'm not very much into 4k intro coding but I noticed that many 4k's won't run on my machine for obscure reasons. maybe this "intro" launcher would make things a bit easier and more compatible.

the actual 4k could come with an info file that describes the environment being used. lets enumerate sdl,opengl,dx,d3d,... =) could be done since all we'd need was a common subset of these APIs.

You can also push it a bit further and code your tiny things on http://www.menuetos.org/, so you can show them to your friends on a bootable, exhotinc OS :D

any os that lists "3D maze" as a part of it's featureset gets a thumb up from me. :)

this is possibly THE most braindead idea ever.

now now, kusma

you've probably had lots more, think harder

Running downhill from the boozembly cliffs to show his eliteness, that was a great braindead idea.
Of course it was Surfing's.

I don't know what the idea means really, but I think it's kewl 1337, some of the lazy sceners must start doing it ;)))

a 4k os would be pretty elite -> with that you can't show your 4k even to your friends...
why don't go further? forget windows, create demo-os, etc...

hermes: can't see the point.
blala: the 1337-OS would fit in 4kb ;)

loading demo os, build 1337...

USE LUNIX!!!1

yes and maybe you should disappear from the face of public life until you are done making it, amazing all of us with your brilliance :)

gloom: Windows 95 has a 3d maze screensaver.

Ive been into something similair, or well. Not really (exept the Brainfuck world domination prod).

However, ive been thinking about some "general settings" for demos, that could be used if existing, wich would make it possible to have very powerful options for even 64ks (dualhead?, what kindof aa, resolution/aspectratios, bitdepth) a part from what devices to use (gfx card / sound card). This could improve portability alot. Ive also had the idea to make some kindof "standard" to pass info so a demo could dock in a window, that way making it possible to make a demobrowser under for example windows.

dixan: thanks for the link, quite an interesting project!

What I meant was not to create an entire OS but just
a simple intro launcher which e.g. guarantees a certain
register setup at start, provides a pointer to the fb,
allows you to quit with "esc", sound was nice, too.

If I remember right, the tbl demos jizz, stash, astral (and maybe some more) came with a launcher ("ixalance.exe")
which used a similar strategy.

arneweisse: yes that sounds good. Maybe it was an idea to start with a "dos-compatibility" mode that can load existing 1-4096 byte demos. One could even do a kind of code-morpher that translates the actual intro code so e.g. the gfx output can be scaled / run in a window, dock to a 256b browser...a mini 'VM' so to speak

I know that idea is weird but esp. 256b intros have become an art of its own today; maybe someone feels like actually hacking such a launcher tool.

what you're talking about is called TinyPTC :)

tinyptc...yea that came across my mind, too.

the only "disadvantage" is that ppl have to rewrite their
intros resp. change the way they write it.

What I'm thinking of is probably just a "mini DOS emulator" :) tinyptc could be used to setup the framebuffer etc, ofcourse..

maybe it won't work for 4k's very well -- an "effect browser" to run <=256b intros is probably more realistic.

I thought about a thing of that kind, too, and it surely sounds very appealing, but i see 2 big disadvantages:
first, you basically take a part of the technical challenge this way(imagine tube launched with some launcher(x kilobytes), it wouldn't seem as nice, would it?)
second, people outside the scene wouldn't get interested either(it would seem like a strange variation of flash-like stuff or so ;))

lousy soul: It should be technically possible to have the intro run without a launcher but with that launcher it was more compatible and you could have some additional options (scaling/window mode etc)
"good ole" dos and mode 13 seem to be the least common denominator, sb/gus support shouldn't be that hard to emulate, too.

on the amiga there are tools like "killaga" and "runshit" which setup an a runtime environment so you can start older hw-hacking software. the launcher tool *could* also offer e.g. a playlist or an "effect album" :] just an idea, though..

if i recall, ixalance emulated some dos, some GFX, and some Gravis Ultrasound, thus allowing DOS programs using a subset of these to run under it on any x86 environment which it was ported to, including different BeOS, Windows and Linux ports. Or so i was told. So if you have the right hardware, you can watch Ixalance demos without ixalance itself.