Young, new to the scene, and very ambitious
fLOW & RIeHA
(RIeHA)
I came up with the idea to write an article together with my cousin Flow about how it is to be a newbie in the scene. I know that Hugi has already released an article about this matter, but I think it's good to get in more articles about how newbies really struggle to get good at programming, tracking.... and to get known in the scene.
I chose to send this article to Hugi because I think it's definitely the best MAG in the scene.
I have written this document together with my cousin, and before I begin I think it's a good idea that you know us a bit.
My name is Alexander Sundstrom and in the scene and on the internet I'm better known as Rieha. (Well, not actually known, it's just the handle I'm using. :-)) I'm 14 years old, and I live near Helsinki in Finland.
I'm quite new to the scene. I've known about its existence for about one year, but I got active a little bit before Christmas this year. Flow has been interested in the scene for about five years. I got interested in the scene after Flow had shown me a couple of DEMOS, and I said to myself that this is what I want to do. I'm a member of the demogroup ARRAY (founded together with my cousin). At the moment we're 3 members in the group. (We need more!)
My part in the group is coder and tracker. I do some graphics as well (not much). Flow is also a coder and a tracker (he'll maybe do some design too). Fjay is the graphic-artist (pixeler) of the group. The first parties we'll attend will probably be REMEDY 2K and ASM 2K. Maybe we'll also attend tp10.
All my life I've been playing around with computers. When I was very little I had a "strange" videogame which you could play a few VERY primitive games on. I wasn't very interested in the machine and I almost never used it. The first "real" computer I got was a Commodore 64. I had about 200-300 games for my Commodore and I liked to play around with it all day long. One time I even programmed a little game with my father (though from a example in the reference manual), but I was only about 6 years old so I didn't really understand what me and my father did.
One of my biggest "problems" with computers has been that I haven't really had anyone to help me. I'm the only one in my family who can "really" use a computer, so I've had to learn almost everything myself. My situation has been quite different from Flow's because his father is a programmer and he can get all the help he needs from him.
I think it was in 1994 or 95 when I got my first PC. It was an IBM 286, but I still liked it very much. I'm actually quite happy that I got a 286 instead of a better computer (486s were already in sale). In this way I learned to use DOS quite efficiently. I played around with the 286 until the year 1998. I made some simple programs with the 286 in qbasic (mostly textadventure games), but I never did anything serious. Once I even tried to program something simple in Turbo Pascal. I borrowed a manual from my neighbour, but it was made only for the odd "Finnish" version of Pascal, so I wasn't able to program anything.
In 1998 Flow and his dad (my uncle) visited me and my family right after Christmas. They gave my family a 486 that they had brought along from Sweden. That's the first time I used Windows at home.
I started to use computers more often and soon I realised that I needed to buy a computer of my own. I saved money for a long time and just before school began I bought my own computer. My current platform is an AMD K6-2 300 MHz, which is the same one I bought about a year ago.
When I had my own computer I finally got interested in programming. I started to create simple programs in Pascal, and it didn't take a long time before I saw my first DEMO. When I for the first time saw a DEMO I thought to myself that this is what I want to do someday.
I went to the local library and borrowed a book about TURBO PASCAL programming. That was when I for the first time realised the lack of good manuals for beginners. I managed to get through the book even if it was on university level (at that moment I had just began the 8 grade, i.e. I was 14 years old). When I then told Flow that I had learned to program a little bit, he told me to start studying C/C++ instead, and so I did.
I began with a simple book about C++ programming and realised only in the middle of the book that about 50% of the example programs where full of errors. After about two manuals I finally reached a good one, which I borrowed from my friend. (Thanks to Stefan). Meanwhile my cousin had already been programming in C for a while and he already knew a few things.
Currently I program in C/C++ using Djgpp (with the xemacs IDE) and Visual C++ 4.0. One of the biggest problems I encountered in the beginning was the lack of graphic programming manuals, in fact I didn't find any in one of the biggest libraries in Helsinki. Time went by and I read my dull text programming manuals, until one day I received a phonecall from Flow, who told me that he had found a good programming library for beginners. The library was Allegro, and both of us started to read through a lot of manuals. (Our main goal is to compete with some demos/intros at ASM 2K.) After a while I even managed to make a simple 3D program. (The usual... A couple of cubes bouncing around in the screen.) At the moment I'm reading through all the manuals I have time for.
The big problem in the scene is that there aren't enough manuals for beginners. All the "elite" people should try to understand us and try to help newbies in their struggle to get good some time in the future.
What will happen to the scene if there aren't any good people for the future? All old sceners should realise this and help newbies instead of just turning their back at them.
There are almost no good programming manuals about coding "real" demoeffects (we don't want to do another plasma or rotozoomer) for new people in the scene. I would really appreciate if anyone who reads this were be so kind to send me or Flow some programming tips (not too complicated as tips in HUGI usually are) in C/C++.
Another thing I've been wondering about is that where could I get an Assembler manual for beginners. If you for example want to code a 64K intro you need to know Assembler. You can't make a program as fast in e.g. C as you could in assembler.
I will let you know of our group's progress through this year, our way towards REMEDY and Assembly. Meanwhile I would be really glad if anyone wanted to send any useful information about coding or tracking.
My name is Niklas Nummelin and I'm 15 years old (soon 16 years). First I'm just going to say that I love Hugi. You've got the most serious mag, Shine's good but they haven't got that many coding tutorials and they lack articles. Here you're going to hear the story of my life.
I've been playing around with computers since I was about 5 years old. My first computer was an Atari 800XL (retro huh). Then I got a Sinclair and after that I got the C64. When I got it I was about 6 or 7 years, so I couldn't do that much with it. I made some basic programs, like hello world etc., but I wasn't really interested.
Then when I was about 8 years old my neighbour, and best friend, got an Amiga. We used to play games all days long together. Almost all his games were cracked and one day I asked him why some "strange" thing came up before the games, where one could see "Fairlight" for example. He said that it was called a cracktro and was made to show who had cracked the games. When I went home I said to myself: "I wanna do that thing someday."
That year I also got an Atari STE. At that age you usually just screwed around with the computer.
Then I got my first "real" PC (not an XT, but a 286/386). Later when the first Cdrom players came out (about 1994 I think) I got a demo by FC called "Second Reality" and some demo called "Elements" thru a PC-mag. I got so impressed but I didn't have any interest in programming.
I think it was in 1998 when I said to myself that it was time to make a demo. But school takes up a lot of time and I didn't have any friend that could help me with programming, except my dad, who is a programmer at Ericsson (famous telecom company). Today I don't play games anymore. The only thing I do with my computer is to search through the web for C tuts and new demos. Then I track and program as said above.
The reason why we've made this document is that we want help from the real "elites". I program in C/C++ using Djgpp (with xemacs IDE) and Visual C++ 6.0. I haven't done any trigonometry at school yet and I think that it is very important if you want to make graphics (am I right). But I've got an A+ in maths, so I'm not that bad. :-) The thing is that I don't know where to start. Should I learn some assembler or should I use a graphics library like OpenPTC? I also saw that Ace/Melting-Pot has released a new lib called mLib. Should I use it?
It's also very hard to find good books about graphics programming. So I wonder if you know any good graphics books for rookies. If I'm going to make intros, I wonder if I must use texture generators and sample generators or if I have to use some sort of dos extender like p/modew.
I would appreciate very much if someone could help me and my cousin with Basic programing (graphics) tuts and other stuff, because we're desperate. We want to release something on Remedy 2K and ASM2K, so help us. Please!
I also want to get contacts with the sceners. When I'm on IRC I'm just looking, sometimes I'm afraid that the sceners are going to call me "lame" or that sort of stuff. So tell me, could I just start chatting with MD for example without being called a lamer? Thank you.