First some hints on how to run it in case you don't succeed.
The system requirements for the version that was spread at the party are kind of strange. You need at least 5Mb of RAM (I read somewhere that you can change something in a .exe and that it runs with 3Mb, but I can't remember where I read it nore what to change), but the final version will normally run with 'standard' 4Mb. Next you need about 11Mb of free diskspace, if you want to know why just unzip the file angel.dat and you'll notice. Now you are that far clean up your config and autoexec and boot with only himem.sys loaded. It doesn't run ? Jeez... try on your 486 not on your 8088 ! Anyway another majore requirement is a GUS but I think that you already knew that one. You can also try out to run it with the GUSBOS but i don't think that will help you out..
I thought this was a right time to give my opinion about party releases also. As you might see PA is not really finished at least not at the moment I'm writing this article, that's because everything had to be released at the party. I think this sucs, it's good for the sysops, then can get everything there and save some money on ld calls but it's not good for the groups. I think its should be obliged to spread gfx, music and maybe also intros at the party place but no demos. When you spread your gfx,msx then the organisation has to make sure everybody also includes file_id.diz and docfiles in the file (which makes things easier for sysops ;-)) But demos are things that people work on months and months they normally test on a couple of systems but not on all systems, so it's normal that there are som bugs in it. Not al the things are linked and so on. Thats the main reason why the version spread isn't running on all systems. To all party organisers, please consider these ideas (partly by Rene Christensen). You should try to set up a party network on which you put all the entries for the gfx, music compos in their final release form, then the people can copy these things and watch them, and view them. (Can you judge 50 pictures coming to you at a rate of 3 pics a minute ?? I can't) Yes I Know it is a difficult task to set up such a network but hey, if we can't who can ? Next you should have 2 deadlines for demos, 1 the showtime deadline, 2 the release deadline (about 2-3 weeks later) this way releases as PA won't appear in the future.
Hmm... so you haven't seen PA before then read this.. (if you have feel free to skip it.) We start in the beginning ... a rotating sphere coming down on our screen. Then we get the first animation, this thing construction comes back 3 times. The animation is a nice rendered spaceship take off, it was really obvious at the party that this was an animation people that didn't notice were tired, drunk or stoned. Now the Impact Studios Logo comes up. A really good object is coming On a nice background you see a vector desert coming up (some 'pyramids') and there we have our plane back , this time it's real time and the quality is much lower than the animation (what did you think ?) The plane files trough some holes (maybe you remember the landing training scene from FS 4.0 .., this time better of course..) The last hole the plane flies through is the 'A' from Project Angel. (Nice Idea..) Then we go back to the future , a space field with lot's of different spaceships sflying through eachother. Then you see a kind of tunnel constructed of small pieces of wood... nothing really good. Next part. the plane passing by 2 planets. We get a landschape flythrough. Not that good, I have seen some better ones before (e.g. Iguana) So far I haven't seen any textures, nore good shading just some plane vectors, but good objects. Now we come to the best part the Fight of the Night, 2 human beings fighting eachother.. the winner points out to the sky and there you see the plane back... this time somebody jumps out of it, with a parachute... This is a nice story and the parts are linked quit good together. Actually this demo is a bunch of rather 3D routines put together in a good story with nothing really whowwing me (exept the end picture..), a part that looks really familiar to me shows up. I really can't remember where I saw it before, but I have seen it before for sure, its somebody walking around in field with some buildings, no textures nothing just some plane vectore cubes.. we go down the elevator and we end in a Doom part, actually it's better than Doom.. some objects are moving and there's also a wiggling effect in it. Althoug it's a bit slow on my system (might also be my VGA card that screws up..) this is the first part where I see some textures on the walls (and also the last) The end is near, a great idea for the greetings, the names of the groups on blocks on the ground, and flying through them. I really can't explain why but every time i run it the music starts to annoy me at this same point. It's to housie for me.. As I said the end was near and it's a great picture... you just have to watch it.
This 'little' description brings me to my next subject. Animations in
Demos !
Should we allow it or not ? In my opinion NO! (BTW i found that was the
best production from last year ;-))
Demos are being considered as programs that show what a coder
can do real time with the power of a machine. An animation is also
made with a machine but it isn't real time, in a couple of
months/years we will have difficulties to see if it's realtime or
an animation but at this moment it's still obvious. We should
separate those things. Put the animations in an Animation compo or
a Wild Compo (but then you also have powerfull machines that can do
things realtime...) Animations are phun but it are NOT demos, they
have nothing to do with the power of a coder/machine.
Though I don't think we should completely ban animations, it's ok
for me (and possibly for lots of other people) if you have e.g. a room
where you walk around and you see a tv playing an animation while you
pass it. At that moment you show of some power of the machine.
Remember the Wild Compo at The Party. A nice girl walking over the screen
full screen on an Amiga 4000, impossible with a PC the demo said,
well here's my reply to that statement, it was also impossible with
an Amiga 4000 without MPEG just fit a MPEG card in your PC and it's
also possible. But it doesn't show off the power of your machine/coder
its, why don't we just connect a VCR to our PC and show the movies
on our PC screen ?? Is that the future of Demos, while it should be
possible to speed up our routines so that we can render real time ?
I hope not, if I were in that jury at The Party, i would have asked
if we couldn't disqualify Project Angel not because their demo wasn't
good enough because the other parts are good but because of those
3 silly small good animations. I hope you coders out there
think about it before you put a FLI in your demo !
Sleeping Dog