XiTEC Presentation Disks by Omega
Hi Bill! Here are the disks at last. Sorry for the long wait but we wanted a good presentation instead of a rushed one. The people that are going to work for XiTEC are mainly the people from the demo group Omega, which are: Micael Hildenborg (TFE) - Coder Mattias Karlgren (Haq) - Coder Martin Liesen (Liesen) - Coder Mats Olsson (Cugel) - Coder Johannes Soderqvist (Red) - Graphist There is one exception: Lars Hildenborg - Coder, he works currently on a modem program and a disassembler. This demo that we could do for you would not be any hacker demo with some scrolls that moves in some strange way. It would be a demo with lots of effort put into design, but will include some very nice effects codewise. A demo that my mother would say: What a nice program! A demo that will appeal to and impress on a lot of people. We like to think that we make quite original demos. We have been first inventing many coding techniques. For example something called raster scroll, I made that one 4 years ago. Another very special routine that Micael invented 3.5 years ago is the so called hardware scroller, some call it sync scroller. It is a scrolling technique where you can specify which even address you want to be the screen base address on a normal ST! Although we were first to invent it we were only second to code it. When we made ours we included something we call 4-pixel displacements, which means we can scroll the screen to any 4-pixel location! It took other people 2 years to make such a routine. That is: they made their routine 2 years after we did ours. We have only made one demo ourselves that we have released, we have also participated in a couple of multi group demos. We released this demo on the first convention we went to. Because of shortage of time it became very buggy. It is also quite old, the very end of 1988, so it isnt any good anymore, that is why I decided not to send it. Anyway this demo was when it was released: The biggest reset demo so far, practically the hole demo was a reset demo. Had the most screens in a demo so far. Had the biggest scrolls so far. Was the first demo with full overscan, that is: graphics in all borders. This one didnt work very good at all, but we were first! Was the first demo with a game in it. Was the first demo with a spectrum picture in it, etc. One point where we used to be weak was vector grafichs. Not any more! About 5 months ago Micael finished the first version of our new polygon routine, he had then worked on it for about 5 months. The last months he has improved and optimized the routine quite much. We are using a different technique from what is normal. I am pretty sure that we are the only ones that have made this kind of routine. I also pretty sure that it is fastest routine on STE, TT and Falcon030. I have made a pretty good 3D routine. I can make a better one, the fastest one I know of, another group has already done such a routine. I have not been really motivated to do this routine because the DSP in the falcon would make it much better anyway. Besides winning a TT we have won many other competitions. I remember one convention where we won all competitions excpet one, that was the music competition. There were five or six competitions on that convention. On the other disk are a couple of pictures made by our graphist, Johannes. Also he has won a lot of competitions, must be over five or something like that. Be sure to use a STE or a TT when watching these pictures for the sake of the palette. As you can see we are only weak in one point, music. However we are very good friends with another demo group that has a very good musician. He won the biggest competition so far, the same convention we won the TT on. I know he will gladly make music for us. Also my father and Johannes father are professional musicians. There have been talks about Johannes father making music for a demo of ours. Apart from all this demo stuff we are making games. You can see the preview of the game Eutanasia on this disk. I myself have just started on two games and Micael has come pretty far on his game, not a very good visual result yet though. I am also very serious about making a synthprogram for the falcon. I happen to know one of the most famous synth experts in Sweden. He plays in the same group as Johannes father. I hope this will convince you to contract with us. I can only speak for myself and I know that this could really be a positive change in my life. I would really appriciate it! Now some practical details. On this disk there is a STE folder and a TT folder. The programs in these folders should be run on STE respectively TT. On the other disk are some ST demos. These demos work on both ST and STE and probably also on TT. You can exit most of the demos by pressing space, some exits by themselves and some doesnt exit at all, you will have to reset from these. Although some of the demos will work in 60Hz some will definately not do it. Better run all demos in 50Hz. We dont like to get these demos spread! All the demos on these two disks are copyrighted to XiTEC. If you want to use them in some way please contact me first. When you have decided what to do, or if you have some questions or troubles just mail me. My email address is: d1matte@dtek.chalmers.se on internet. Below are a discussion on all demos included on those two disks. Maybe you could now look at the demos and then read this, so that you know what I am talking about. Hope you were able to come through my not so perfect english. Mattias Karlgren, XiTEC HB Nordhemsgatan 65c 413 09 Gothenburg Sweden Email: d1matte@dtek.chalmers.se Tel: Sweden-31-241648 Disk 1 (this disk) VIDEO.PRG - This is a preview of the shoot'em'up game Eutanasia. This version is over a year old. During the last year there have been problems with the company that should distribute the game. We had a picture professionally made on an IRIS computer, the person that made this picture didnt get the money he was promised. Also we never got a harddisk we were promised. All this has had a bad effect on the developing of this game. Actually it has been quite much development anyway but they have been mostly restructional. So the current version is not very much visual better. It also is more of a test version at this point. That is: quite buggy. Thats why we decided to go with this version. Besides what can be seen in this version the game will include huge end-of-level monsters, animating background and off course lots of different weapons and enemies, etc. Although this is a very promising product I am sorry to say that you cannot contract us with this product. The author, Martin Liesen, is working on other projects. He also wants to concentrate more on school so he doesent want to tie himself up with some contract. Anyway I think this a pretty good example of what we are capable of doing. And I think that the falcon version can be very nice. SHOW.PRG - This is the demo I showed to you at the fair. I think this demo shows that we are quite concerned about design. When the graphics moves in rythm with the music it gives a very nice audio-visual effect. This demo was coded in a week so we had not time for really nice design, but for being put together in a week I think this is good enough. I mentioned several times that we won a TT with this demo in the biggest contest so far. I also like to stress that almost every good demo group in Europe were attending to this convention and that nearly all of them participated in the competition. Micael coded this demo, Johannes sampled the samples and made some design and I made the 3D routine. BENDIST.PRG - Bending and disting the hole screen in four bitplanes. I made this scroll 2.5 years ago to use a STE specific feature. It became a really crazy effect. Although this demo is old I havent seen anything similar. You can change the disting by pressing F3-F10 and the arrow keys. Also try SHIFT in comination with the above mentioned keys. The key 0 will zero all parameters. VECTOR.PRG - 3D wireframe demo on an oscilloscope. This is a very odd demo, in fact you need an oscilloscope to watch it. Just connect the stereo output to two channels on the oscilloscope and use the X-Y mode on the scope. We had an idea about hooking up a laser and make a really neat laser show. Would certainly be a spectacular event on a fair or show. We could also make a program that let people could design their own laser shows. Interesting? This demo won a competition for the most original demo 1.5 or so years ago. It is coded by Micael Hildenborg. If you are having any trouble watching this demo drop me a mail and hopefully we can work it out. VINJETT.PRG - XiTEC intro with vector transformation. This is an intro in the early stages that we are going to use. Programmed by Micael Hildenborg this weekend. This should work on ST and STE too, but the best result is on a TT. XITKUL.PRG - Lightsourced vector with shadow. Another example using our polygon routine and some other nice effects. Written by Micael Hildenborg. SWING.PRG - Controllable sinus modulated dots. You can control these dots with keys F3-F10 and arrowkeys with or without SHIFT pressed down. Keys 1 to 0 have some predefined dotwaves. Original code 2.5 years old. Disk 2 (the other disk) 3D_STARS.PRG - Three dimensional starfield. This is nothing special, just a pretty nice effect. This is the last demo I have made. I made it this Easter. PARADIST.PRG - Parallax disting scroll. Both blocks, the one in the font and the one in the background, are four bitplanes and can be different, altough it doesnt really show in this demo. This demo is the most advanced I have ever coded. There is a coding technique called selfcreating code which means that you have a program that creates a program that makes a special effect as optimized as possible. There is also a technique called selfmodifying code which means you have a program that modifies the code it executes in realtime. But this demo takes this further, it generates and executes code in realtime! Original code 1.5 years old. SCROLL.PRG - Bending and disting scroll. This scroll has a random startup that chooses between two different scrolls. A normal dist-bending scroll and a norge scroller. Norge is Norway in swedish. The reason for this name is that I invented and coded it on a convention in Norway 2 years ago. I used to be proud of this scroll but it is getting pretty old. Original code is 3 years old. It has been much improved since then but the last 2.5 years it hasent happened too much with it except better clearing routine. This scroll uses a technique that I call rotating buffers which saves lot of memory compared to double buffers. Have a nice day!
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