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(formerly known as the newscorner)
.:( Outreach ):.
Digitale Kultur e.V. is an officially recognized organization ("eingetragener Verein") dedicated to "raising attention for the many facets of digitalle created productions of arts and culture". As its name suggests, it's German-based. Its founder is Stefan Keßeler aka Poti of Black Maiden. Poti is best known for being the main organizer of the Evoke parties, which have taken place in various towns and cities in Western Germany from 1997 up to 2004 (and probably the tradition will still continue for some years). One of his mates is Tobi aka XXX of Haujobb. (Even though both of them are German sceners, he's not the very "XxX" who used to be a member of the Hugi Staff many years ago; the latter one goes by the nickname DataSUN these days). Another person involved in Digitale Kultur e.V. is the famous Ekkehard Brüggemann aka "Wer hat dicke Eier?": Steeler.
The people of Digitale Kultur e.V. have already participated in the organization of some events. Among other things, they have managed to introduce a new category in the "Bitfilm Festival for neo-digital film culture": 64k demos. This festival is going to take place in Hamburg (Northern Germany) at 03 to 07 November 2004. The submission deadline was 15 July 2004.
On 18 March 2004, the day when the CeBIT fair took place, Digitale Kultur e.V. launched the portal Demoscene.info. According to their press release, "the page aims to show demoscene-interested people and newbies an adequate overview of the demoscene and guide them to interesting sites and demos the fastest way possible."
Seems like an interesting initiative that may bring the demoscene some recognition from the big world outside.
Internet Links:
(Adok)
.:( Demoscene Books ):.
Lassi Tasajärvi aka Rawer reports that the "First Book ever about the Demoscene" has been released. Its title is: "Demoscene: The Art of Real-Time". 72 pages, full colour, "professional quality", various writers, lots of visuals/design. The book is published by Even Lake Studios and katastro.fi. It was released at the Sonar festival in Barcelona, which took place on 17 to 19 June 2004. "This 'art style' book is for everyone, not just for demosceners. It has a longer in-depth history article, case articles and 100% demoscene designs." More information can be obtained from an Internet page.
As you may already know, Tamas Polgar aka Tomcat has also written a book about the demoscene: FREAX. The work on Freax supposedly started eight years ago. Now the first volume is ready. It deals with the history of the C64 and Amiga scenes and will be available this summer (2004). Also regarding this matter, more information can be grabbed from the Internet.
Internet Links:
(Adok)
.:( Werkkzeug ):.
Farbrausch have now released their tool with which they created the legendary 64k demo fr-08: .the .product to the public. Werkkzeug1 can now be downloaded for free from the website of The Produkkt, a company recently founded by Farbrausch members. We from the Hugi Staff are of the opinion that this has been a major release and it is most likely to be going to influence the development of the demoscene in some way as it enables to create high-quality 64k demos without knowledge of a standard programming language such as C++ or Assembler. (Nevertheless, as iliks pointed out, it's not a piece of cake to create something as fantastic as fr-08: .the .product or fr-019: poem to a horse even if you have such a tool!) As we are very interested in your opinion on this matter, we have included two questions about werkkzeug1 and its impact in the survey sheet for Hugi 30.
"To help support knowledge, research, and teaching around the new Werkkzeug tool created by Farbrausch", Jason Scott has created an additional website called Workthings. "It includes the support files for download, and a Wiki to let people collaborate with their work. Everyone is welcome!" In case you don't know Jason Scott: He is the founder and maintainer of textfiles.com, a site that also includes a diskmag archive.
By the way, here's Jason's opinion about werkkzeug1: "Just as the MOD programs of the late 1980's and 1990's fostered an entire cottage industry of musicians and people who didn't know they were musicians, I believe this program has the potential to do the same."
Internet Links:
www.bitchtothecurb.com/workthings
(Adok)
.:( Sceners - The Next Generation? ):.
On 12 March 2004 (a Friday), Sandra and Tim got married in a legal service; a religious service is to follow. Tim is also known as Guybrush of Northern Dragons. Canadian by birth, he planned to move to the United States to work in Microsoft soon after his marriage.
May we expect to see Next Generation Sceners in a couple of months?
(Polaris, Adok)
.:( Happy Birthday 2 U! ):.
Notherns Dragons recently decided to release a production that was internal only - to the public. Polaris: "It was my 28th Birthday on May 14th; and my demo coding group created a 'birthtro'. It might be neat to have this listed in the news page - as birthtros aren't all that common?"
You can download it from pouet and also post your comments there.
Internet Links:
www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=12466
(Polaris, Adok)
.:( New Diskmags ):.
In March 2004, planet scene was hit by "PAiN issue 03/04 - the 10-year celebration issue with a lot of interesting contents and a heavily extended engine, exclusive graphics and music and a lot of pain for your eyes."
And the first two issues of a new mag have also seen the light of the planet: Grapevine.net, the sequel to the old and legendary Amiga diskmag Grapevine by a group called "LSD". The new publisher group goes by the name "ESD" and has its website located at www.ellesdee.org. The two issues can be read online. They are embedded in a simple yet nice custom interface with background graphics and music. As for the contents, some people commented that it's "even worse than Hugi" because it contains even more articles of general interest. In other words, I warmly recommend it to you!
What's also worth mentioning is that the first demoscene magazine for Adobe Acrobat (PDF) has started issuing. However, Becanne is in Spanish language only.
Internet Links:
(Adok)
.:( New Websites ):.
Outstanding musician Milan Kolarovic aka Acumen has finished two new websites: his company's one and his personal one. "All feedback is more than welcome :)".
Internet Links:
(Acumen, Adok)
.:( New Coding Tools ):.
Version 2.0 of the BassMOD library has been released for PC, Mac OS X and Pocket PC. BassMOD is supposed to be "the most accurate lib for playing tracker modules". The BASS sound system (which is also used by Hugi) and XMPlay are based on BassMOD.
Internet Links:
(Adok)
.:( Game Music ):.
Music from old computer and video games currently seems to be in great demand. There are two interesting projects that suit this movement. The one is the Videogame Orchestra project, in short: Vgo. The Vgo "are a group of people who intend to create a video-game music archive, based on remakes or original compositions. The main concept of the Vgo sound is to emulate the video-game music enviroment, using various authentic sources and tools. In this first archive you will find remakes of tracks like 'Commando', 'Golden Axe', 'Airwolf', 'Star Wars', etc." I especially recommend that you check out the "Turrican II" tune - it's fantastic. Hope to see more of this kind soon! (How about "Sonic the Hedgehog" and its sequels, the "Shining Force" saga, the "Legend of Zelda" series and "Super Mario Kart"?)
The other is the so-called Mario Paint Competition. Quoting Slammy of Qutpost at Orange Juice: "Courtesy of obScene, there is now a Mario Paint music competition running. Object [sic] is to create the best tune you can using only Mario Paint. Furthermore! Create a cover for your tune, also using Mario Paint, and if you win, you'll receive a Mario Paint competition T-Shirt, complete with your very own artwork from the compo on the back!" The deadline is 31 August 2004, so hurry up!
Internet Links:
(Adok)