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TMDC5

Posted by michael on from the say-it-five-times-fast dept.

TMDC Organizing writes "There's less than two weeks left to the fifth pseudoannual text mode demo compo submission deadline. The web-submission system is finally online, and you can also chat about TMDC5 on ircnet #tmdc5. Even if you haven't started on an entry yet, there's still time!"

39 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. Examples of text-mode demos by snillfisk · · Score: 5, Informative

    A few references for everyone wishing to see something created earlier or just for inspiration:

    (mostly win32, sorry)
    on pouet.net

    <shameless plug>
    kvasigen.demoscene.no (80x25, Hangover in Halden, Textmode 3)
    </shameless plug>

    --
    mats
    One man's ceiling is another man's floor.
    1. Re: Examples of text-mode demos by Sesse · · Score: 2
      You're missing the perhaps most obvious one, namely bb (`apt-get install bb' on Debian). :-)

      /* Steinar */

      --
      (This comment is of course GPLed.)
    2. Re:Examples of text-mode demos by jafuser · · Score: 2

      I'd love to see some of these turned into a screensaver of sorts... Definitely more my style than the fancy stuff that's out there now...

      --
      Please consider making an automatic monthly recurring donation to the EFF
  2. Not fair. by murat · · Score: 2, Funny

    Third guy gets more prizes than the second.

    ... an extra banana!

  3. Call me stupid but ... by YahoKa · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What on earth is a "text mode demo compo" ? Even after clicking the link i have not much more information than that.

    1. Re:Call me stupid but ... by snillfisk · · Score: 5, Informative

      A text mode demo compo is a competition where people submit oldskool "demos" (ever heard of a thing called the 'demoscene'?) .. These are usually 3d rendered in software, raytracers, plasmas, cool 2d-effects .. simply doing something that looks good and make you think "how did they do that?" (like the first time someone draw something on the borders on the c64)..

      http://www.pouet.net/ and http://www.ojuice.net/ for further reference.

      --
      mats
      One man's ceiling is another man's floor.
  4. AAlib :) by CoolVibe · · Score: 5, Informative

    That's the library you'd want to use. Also, check out "bb", which is a very cool OPEN SOURCE text mode demo, with good music, and playable on any terminal out there.

    1. Re:AAlib :) by snillfisk · · Score: 2, Interesting

      While AAlib is a very nice and cool thing, i'm not quite fond of it being used .. it kinda destroys the point of coding in text-mode (at least thats the way i feel) .. and it makes it (of course) feel aalibbish :) .. theres a whole bunch of neat tricks one can do in standard textmode (i remember someone changing the font to something self-defined (which then were modified like regular graphics) .. kinda took away the charm, however)

      --
      mats
      One man's ceiling is another man's floor.
    2. Re:AAlib :) by Sesse · · Score: 2

      AFAIK at least "B800" (a 4kB intro by neon/nocturnal, Spetsnaz/Proxima at the time) did a lot of split-screen, scrolling and font tricks. They're not allowed on TMDC, though. :-)

      The intro can be downloaded here, although you'll need DOS (or Windows, of course) to be able to view it.

      /* Steinar */

      --
      (This comment is of course GPLed.)
    3. Re:AAlib :) by neonstz · · Score: 2

      The sourcecode was included in some issue of Hugi (can't remember which), but is also online here.

      Please also check out Text from The Gathering 97 by $volkraq/Gollum and me :)

  5. They've lost. by Trusty+Penfold · · Score: 4, Funny

    Maximum file size is 1440000 bytes in a ZIP file
    (approx 1.4 megs), and 3 (THREE) megs uncompressed.


    Their intro demo is a 2.3Mb zip

  6. Back in the day... (for me 1992) by httpamphibio.us · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I remember seeing my first "loader" back in 1992, I had just started drawing ANSI for a local 206 art group called RaT. I remember it quite clearly, it had an ANSI logo that faded in and out and text that scrolled from right to left that faded from dark grey (or more accurately, bright black) to dark white to bright white then back again with really horrible fire effects at the bottom.

    I've always loved textmode demos, they bring me back to a world before the internet was the gargantuan beast it is now, when I called 64 BBS's a day (and would have called more except my modem program only supported 64 entries).

    It's great to see people still doing this.

    --
    sig.
    1. Re:Back in the day... (for me 1992) by jafuser · · Score: 2
      Whatever happened to those C64 demos that were combined with SID music? Anyone know what I'm talking about? What were those called?

      I remember they were like ultra-crude music videos on your computer, as they'd sync the C64 text graphics with the song....

      --
      Please consider making an automatic monthly recurring donation to the EFF
  7. Efficiency. by Trusty+Penfold · · Score: 4, Insightful



    Okay, so I tried a few (the intro from the story and a couple from an earlier poster's link).

    I thought the demo scene was supposed to be about efficiency - doing amazing things in small space and with other limitations. It is depressing to see that decoding an audio stream and bouncing some characters around an 80x50 display can't be done with less than 100% processor.

    A proper MP3 player can decode an MP3 stream with about 1-2% of avaialable cycles (on my 600MHz athlon) - I can't believe it takes the rest to calculate 80x50 at 50-odd fps.

    There should be a catagory for algorithm efficiency - then I might vote.

    1. Re:Efficiency. by snillfisk · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The demoscene is first of all about having fun, then about doing things that are impressing. If you're not having any fun while doing it, then its probably not the right thing to do :)

      Most textmode-intros these days are productions that are made just for that, fun.

      --
      mats
      One man's ceiling is another man's floor.
    2. Re:Efficiency. by bob_dinosaur · · Score: 3, Informative

      The reason your processor is pegged at 100% is that there's all sorts of fancy software raytracing and algorithmic generation going on in the background - the fact that no hardware acceleration can be used means more CPU cycles are consumed.

    3. Re:Efficiency. by toastyman · · Score: 2

      While I can't say I've torn these programs apart, alot of the programs used in "demos"(especially those who are attempting very small sizes (256 byte, 4k, 64k demos, etc) don't use the Windows API at all, and have no way of calling sleep(), and don't block on any input anywhere... So, when they're not drawing the next frame or decompressing music they're spinning in a do-nothing loop that's just burning CPU.

      I wouldn't chalk it up to laziness, it's more an efficiency thing, and a bit of tradition... DOS demos weren't written to be multi-tasking friendly, why should these? :)

      These demos are much bigger than most (1.4MB zipped), but i'm guessing a large amount of that is going to mp3 music or something similar. Every byte still counts, and how much CPU it's using really doesn't matter to anyone running/judging these.

  8. Animated Ascii!! Cool! by Leeji · · Score: 2

    Oh, it's nerdy. Wormholes and stuff. Tell me when they animate ascii porn!

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    It all goes downhill from first post ...
  9. Re Similar to VT100 Animation by dagg · · Score: 2
    I looked at one of the examples, and it looked like a VT100 animation (maybe with sound, but I had sound turned off). Is there more to these than just text bouncing around the screen? I'm sure there is... maybe I looked at the wrong example. Here's a bunch of vt100 animations.
    --
    Efficient Quiz
    --
    Sex - Find It
  10. Wow, they get to reinvent the wheel by Leeji · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Additionally the demo authors will not have any hardware-assisted rendering, forcing them to do their own rasterization methods

    Well, I can certainly imagine the thrill (not) of implementing all the fundamentals from scratch.

    There's certainly the point that this will make people write smart algorithms, but there are certain things that everybody will do anyways. Bresenham line drawing. Cohen-Sutherland Line-Clipping algorithm. Crack open your CG textbook and find many more.

    Doesn't the ascii demo scene have any libraries to put the emphasis on smart implementation of ART, rather than the art coming second to a smart implementation of pixel pushing?

    --
    It all goes downhill from first post ...
    1. Re:Wow, they get to reinvent the wheel by Leeji · · Score: 2

      Errm. Yet the invitation demo uses "TextFX4 and CFL3 libs," "Microsoft DirectX 8.1 SDK d3dx8 lib for math routines," "FMOD for sound." (Oops, I said Microsoft.)

      The rules don't seem to disallow libraries, but the main page makes it sound like that.

      --
      It all goes downhill from first post ...
    2. Re:Wow, they get to reinvent the wheel by jjl · · Score: 2, Informative

      The compo organization gives you the invitation source code to have something to look into and use as a reference. The invitation source uses/includes also the TextFX4 library which is a simple image interpolation and text output library.

      PS. Port of the TextFX4 library for Linux would be nice.. any volunteers?

      --
      --
  11. Very intriguing material by back@slash · · Score: 4, Funny

    Alright I was both interested and bored so I decided to download a couple of these demos and see what they are like.

    I have a couple questions.

    1) What kind of drugs are best when coming up with the ideas for these things. Specifically what were your influences when coming up with the idea to make a scene about a psychotic looking little girl who chases around a bunny rabbit with a meat cleaver and removes it's testicles?
    2) Where can I acquire said drugs.

    Thanks.

    --
    This comment was generated by a Squadron of Ultra Ninjas
    1. Re:Very intriguing material by jjl · · Score: 2, Informative
      For a lot more demos with pretty weird ideas, check out the demos available in the tAAt home page.

      Check out e.g. these: .. not forgetting other funny productions, like Porrasturvat - Stair Dismount which was featured recently here in Slashdot also.
      --
      --
  12. Re:Where did it go? by Sesse · · Score: 3, Informative

    The demoscene is very much alive -- it has changed, yes (some would say to the worse, some claim it has changed so much it's dead), but it's alive.

    Try the viewing tips on scene.org for a taste of what it has to offer nowadays. If you're more interested in Amiga stuff, there are DivX captures of a lot of new and old Amiga stuff on Amidemos (most of it probably won't run on your A600 :-) ). There's a Unix-specific demoscene archive out there, for those who want native Linux/*nix demos -- in any case, pouet has a wide range of demos for almost every platform you can think of. :-) (The "top10" list is slightly debatable, though ;-) )

    /* Steinar */

    --
    (This comment is of course GPLed.)
  13. Re:This is gay. by Sesse · · Score: 2

    You need 100 lines of OpenGL to rotate a cube? Gee. :-)

    /* Steinar */

    --
    (This comment is of course GPLed.)
  14. the tmd by jki · · Score: 2

    is just as twisted as bondage play... imho :) Ok , it's 00:41 saturday night...what do you expect from me :)))

  15. sorcerers by YakumoFuji · · Score: 2

    the sorcerers released the classic definitive text mode demo with pc speaker support... hmm i cant find it anymore! doh! this thing is old, and cool...

    --

    no sig for you
    1. Re:sorcerers by Sesse · · Score: 2

      Do you mean Atom?

      /* Steinar */

      --
      (This comment is of course GPLed.)
    2. Re:sorcerers by DrunkenPenguin · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Sorcerers was the first PC demo group and the first group to create text mode demos ever. Those guys were from my hometown Turku, Finland. They (BCG, Ranger, Luke) formed their group in spring, 1989. BCG and Luke were 16 years old, Ranger had just turned 15.

      Someone probably says that Atom was their first text-mode demo. That wasn't. They had released at least 2 text mode demos before Atom. First one was released on March, 1989.

      BCG - one of the members who formed Sorcerers can be reached through his BBS. You can also find the old Sorcerers demos there on the download section. BCG's box can be reached HERE!

      ----

  16. TMDC4 "Super Killer" is a super annoying XP killer by ortholattice · · Score: 3, Informative

    I tried the TMDC4 "Super Killer" on a Windows XP (Pro) machine. I pressed alt+enter as instructed, and the thing took over in full-screen mode. Well, not exactly my taste. Fine. So, I assumed the following rule (according to the contest site) was implemented: "User must be able to quit the demo at any moment by pressing ESC". I pressed ESC. Nothing, it just kept running. I pressed ALT+F4. Nothing, it just keep running. I pressed CTRL+ALT+DEL and nothing! It just keep running, taking over the entire computer. Finally I just got p.o.'ed and killed it with the power switch. After rebooting, thankfully, it was no longer running. (BTW the CTRL+ALT+DEL problem seems to be common on this XP with other runaway apps too. It seems if an app uses 100% CPU time, the lame multitasking model never lets the Task Manager start, or maybe it will if you wait an hour.)

  17. One-banana problem by TeknoHog · · Score: 3, Informative

    There is a good explanation why the banana could be used as a pejorative when it comes to programming.

    --
    Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
  18. Re:Where did it go? by flippet · · Score: 2, Funny
    (most of it probably won't run on your A600 :-) )

    Ah yes, the frequent cries of "AGA only? Damn!"...

    Phil, just me

    --
    "Cattle Prods solve most of life's little problems."
  19. A way to break MD5 by samrolken · · Score: 2, Funny

    Now here I am, after staying up more than twenty six hours working on a distributed computing project intended to break the MD5 algorithm, and at first glance of this article I think someone has beaten me.

    Blegh.

    --
    samrolken
  20. You can find the demo archive for TMDA here... by p_trinli · · Score: 2, Informative

    ...can be found here:

    http://tmda.planet-d.net/list.html

    (Note: these are nearly 100% DOS/Windows files.)

  21. Re:MPlayer by CoolVibe · · Score: 3, Funny

    Useless? Useless my foot. Being able to play quake on my vt320 serial terminal is what I call usefull. Also, being able to play movies with it (with mplayer) is useful too. VGA cards are way to expensive for me :)

  22. The demoscene by kliment · · Score: 2, Informative

    The demoscene is actually a pretty fascinating thing, and this is not really the way to present it to the slashdot crowd. I'd suggest you people go over to Scene.org and see for yourself what real demos are like. I go to Assembly every year and I have to say some of the stuff is quite impressive. See for yourselves. Text-mode demos are really a small part of the scene.

  23. Wave sound? Not fair! by mike449 · · Score: 3, Funny

    They should limit sound in these demos to carefully timed sequences of 0x07 character only. The demo should be fully playable on a dumb terminal!

  24. Re:TMDC4 "Super Killer" is a super annoying XP kil by dacarr · · Score: 2

    Sounds like a poor implementation of the HCF assembler instruction.

    --
    This sig no verb.