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_\\__T_A_T_I_C___L_I_N_E__________________________________________ May, 2001
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\\//__ Monthly Scene E-Zine ________________________________ 209 Subscribers
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  Table Of Contents
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     Opening:
           Message From the Editor
           Letters From Our Readers
     Features:
        Party Review -- Mekka/Symposium 2001
        The Root -- How they Got Involved (This Month: Xenoc)
     Columns:
        Music:
           In Tune -- Music from T-Tracker and Nightflowers
           The Listener -- Music by Keith303, Esem and Willbe
           Retro Tunage -- "Remember" by Beek
        Demo:
           Screen Lit Vertigo -- Le Petit Prince by Kolor (party-version)
        General:
           Editorial -- The Ever-Evolving Scene
           Link List -- Get Somewhere in the Scene
        Closing:
           Credits

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  Message From the Editor
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
     Welcome to our 33rd issue of Static Line.  We have a good issue for
  you, packed full of all the stuff you love:  song reviews, demo
  reviews, and our two most popular features.  In addition to all the
  typical stuff this month, you'll also find yourself with a wonderful
  "The Root" written by Xenoc.  Most of you will probably know Xenoc for
  his participation in the demoscene, and now you can hear his story.
  Then, Seven has visted yet another demoparty.  This time, he reports on
  the Mekka / Symposium, 2001.

     Again, I must remind you all that Static Line is always looking for
  new writers.  If you think you have anything to contribute to Static
  Line, be it a regular column, or a feature writer, please send me an
  e-mail:  coplan@scenespot.org.

  And if you havn't checked out SceneSpot lately, you might want to do so.
  After all, we've added many new features, and we're growing more and
  more every day.  You can help us grow.  Come visit us:
  http://www.scenespot.org

                --Coplan


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  Party Review
     Mekka/Symposium 2001
  By: Seven
----=--=------=--=------=--=--

  -=- Friday 13 -=-

     It's spring, and the scene is slowly gathering speed again. The
  long-awaited Mekka/Symposium 2001 starts today in Fallingbostel, a good
  600 Km from my appartment in Belgium, so I took a day off to get there
  on time. Hey, it's Friday 13, it brings bad luck if you work today :)

     Baxter arrives at 11 o'clock, and we load my junk in the car in
  record time. Next we drive to Antwerp to pick up Djefke and his
  equipment. He takes two monitors and two keyboards with him, because he
  promised these to a British scener on #pixel who could only bring the
  case of his PC. With a lot of effort we manages to fit everything in the
  car. It reminds me of Block-Out, that old 3D tetris game :)

     The rest of the 7-hour trip from Belgium over the Netherlands to
  Germany goes without troubles. We didn't get lost and had no significant
  accidents, only Baxter grumbled a bit that he had get up sooner than
  usual, and thus couldn't eat a decent meal before he left. At the
  Dutch-German border, we were a bit nervous because Baxter had seen on
  the news yesterday that the Dutch custom officers were confiscating all
  products of animal origin, due to the foot and mouth disease. They even
  went so far to confiscate chocolate easter eggs  (dunno why, milk or
  eggs don't transmit it IIRC but maybe the custom officers just like to
  eat them themselves), and guess what I had hidden in my backpack to
  celebrate Easter on sunday :/ Luckily the custom officers were lunching
  and we didn't even had to stop.

     We talked about the demo that we planned to make at the party. It's
  been since LTP4 that we wanted to release something, but things always
  got delayed :( So, now we'll release something just for the heck of it,
  no matter how unfinished it is. We aim for a ranking in the middle :)

     When we arrived at the partyplace, the parking was already quite
  filled. We parked temporary next to the entrance, to facilitate
  unloading. Walking through the entrance hall, I saw scene-posters from
  Pain, Buenzli, Haujobb and other groups/mags/parties sticked to the
  doors and the walls. The main hall was largely filled already, so we
  quickly paid the entrance fee (70 DM, about 35 Euro) and scanned the
  hall for three consecutive empty seats. Alas, the few such places were
  already reserved :/ Since there was plenty of empty space near the
  entrance, we asked the organisers for a table to set up there. They had
  one left, a wobbling, sqeaky one, but it didn't break under the weight
  of our monitors so we were well pleased. We put it next to the info
  desk, far away from the *large* speakers on the podium. During our
  installation I already ran into Diver, PS/Calodox and Skyrunner, and the
  whole place has a really great athmosphere.

     The main partyplace is a single sporthall, very large, with a ceiling
  that looks like the bottom of a wooden ship. On one end, there's a
  podium with a large big screen. Over a hundred chairs are put in front
  of the podium, and after each compo this part of the floor will become
  more and more covered with bottles, cups and cans. It was almost
  dangerous to walk there the last day :) Only after a day I noticed
  there's a balcony behind the bigscreen which can be reached via two
  stairs to the left and the right of the bigscreen. A lot of C64 sceners
  are sitting there, as wel as in the right corner next to the bigscreen.
  There are numerous banners on the walls, an Amiga scener has brought his
  own beamer with which he projects stuff on the ceiling, some people have
  brought christmas lights to decorate their machines... And then there
  are the fashion statements: the guys from Centric all wear something
  like a white body-covering desinfection suit with a big orange C on the
  back, and dust masks. I notice a few really weird hats, and someone
  (from the group Sundancers Inc. IIRC) wears a T-shirt with the message
  "Save the scroller!" In the back of the hall everyone could write his
  groupname/logo/whatever on a large paper banner. By the end of the
  party, it was completely filled.

  18:46:
     Baxter is cursing at C++, since he's using Java at work and now
  considers that a much better language. I try to install VC++, which
  crashes of course, but for the sake of our demo I do not give up in
  disgust. A bit later my old projects compile again, so I try to convert
  them to that DemoGL framework Baxter wants to use.

     On the bigscreen, the timetable is shown, plus useful info like the
  prices of the cables, CD's and the rest you can buy at the info desk.
  Another screen is added later: a request for everyone in the hall to sit
  a bit closer to each other, in order to make room for the other sceners
  that are still arriving.

  21:00
     The opening ceremony starts, inspired on the olympic games:
  Steeler runs to the podium with a self-made Olympic torch (a flashlight
  with red plastic strips), and "lights" the bigscreen with a fullscreen
  oldskool  fire-effect. The entire crew presents itself on the podium,
  and then the intro of the C64 game Summer Games is shown.

  22:41
     Welle Erdball is giving a live performance, loud but very good.
  It's a German music group which plays rock music with synthesizers,
  they've made  commercial music for the nintendo/gameboy. Avoozl is
  helping Baxter and me on how we can draw a lot of dots quickly in
  openGL. Warp, who is sitting next to Avoozl, shows me his entry for the
  32K game compo: a strange 2-player mutation of Pacman, based on an
  ancient C64 game.


  -=- Saturday 14 -=-

  1.25
     Crest's demoshow is over. For over two hours, he's been showing a
  selection of the very best PC demos and intros. I especially liked to
  see those GUS-only intros like Paper or Clone meets clone, it's been a
  long time since I've seen them *with* sound (never had a GUS...)

     Djefke, who is responsible for the public relations in Access Denied,
  is using his secret weapon: beer. More precisely: Belgian beer. Need we
  say more? Hoardes of sceners suddenly want to talk with him (Of course,
  I don't want to imply you're any bit less interesting without beer,
  Djefke :)) One of them is Phoenix/Hornet from America, nowadays using
  the handle Feen, who decided to visit MS2k1 just a few days before. Wow,
  I never expected to meet a Hornet member in real life. My second
  scene-CD was the Hornet Underground CD, and I've read all issues of
  Demojournal, so this brings back some memories.

  2:54
     In the row in front of us, some guys are working on a *very*
  impressive animated model of a scorpion. It's clearly for a demo, and
  it's depressing to watch if you still got to figure out the basics of
  openGL :/ Baxter goes to sleep in his car, since the sleeping area is
  completely filled. A few minutes later, a guy from the scorpion-demo
  asks if I've a copy of Visual Studio. I hand him over Baxters CDs, and
  it turns out they're from Federation Against Nature, the group who made
  the best raytrace-demo so far: Nature Suxx. In fact, the scorpion is
  part of the sequel they are making now: Nature Still Suxx! I really like
  raytracing demos, so I'm more than happy to hear this.

  4:18
     Night in Fallingbostel, everything is very quiet. I'm trying to get a
  mandelbrot zoom working. Yeah, I know fractal zoomers were fashionable
  maybe five years ago, but it's just for in the background of another
  effect.

     In the row next to us, Mat!/Ozone is sleeping with his head on his
  keyboard. His screensaver shows Beavis and Butt-head peering out the
  monitor, saying "Look! The sucker is asleep!" A self-made paper piggy
  bank is attached to his Amiga, with a notice "If you have 5000 DM and
  you don't need them, I accept it... :-) Give me your money and feel
  better! Mat!/Ozone: I'm REALLY very poor". Now I understand why the
  party website said about the entrance fee: free for girls and Mat!/Ozone
  :)

  9:00
     PS is using Baxters PC to debug a demo he made with someone else, but
  unfortunately the coder is not at the partyplace. Dake & Fred/Calodox
  are helping him. I'm typing over some code from a Graphic Gems book, on
  how to do fast delaunay triangulation. This should somehow help me to do
  a fast voronoi effect, but unfortunately the book doesn't tell how to
  convert between them :/ The rest of the hall is *still* very quiet.

  10:05
     Oh oh, after he woke up, Feen can't find his jacket anymore, and his
  plane ticket is in it! The orgos ask over the PA if someone has seen it,
  but no-one reacts :(

     Since Djefke is now awake, he can keep an eye on the hardware and
  it's my turn to catch some sleep.

  12:22
     I'm back awake again (my average sleeping time on a concrete floor
  seems to be 2 hours), and after eating a bit I talk with Pampy, another
  american scener, about voronoi cells. The first compo is alternative
  graphics, meaning raytracing and photoshopped pics, should start at
  13.00. Let's hope there are no delays...

  14:34
     The first compo was one hour delayed, but it was of very high quality.
  There were 57 entries, out of which 36 entries were preselected. It's
  hard to choose from 36 pictures when you see them only once for maybe 20
  seconds each, but they will be shown a second time tomorrow. During the
  compo, they played more Welle Erdball music, which is really a fitting
  soundtrack for a demoparty.

  16:12
     The Second Reality show has passed; in order following versions of
  that classic demo were shown: the C64 clone by Smash Design, the wild
  version Real Reality by Never, the original PC version by Future Crew,
  and as a bonus  Future Crew's Unreal demo, on which Second Reality was
  the sequel.

     After this we all go outside to watch the harddisk-throwing compo.
  There's some discrimination in this compo: the girls who compete can
  throw with small, modern harddisks, while the guys have to throw big,
  ancient harddrives that are at least four times as large. Is that fair?
  An exception is made for Mat!, who is allowed to throw with the girl's
  harddisk (OK, because there were no more girls who wanted to compete,
  and maybe because Mat isn't exactly very large).

  16:59
     Oh boy! There's a TV-crew walking around, and they were interviewing
  an organizer in the row in front of us. When they were finished, the
  interviewer asked if he could interview me, and I didn't immediately
  found an excuse to say no :) So five minutes later I was looking at the
  camera, rather nervous I might add, with my back to my screen ("Can you
  show something on your screen? Something impressive please?"), answering
  questions like "Where are you from?", "Why are you in the scene?", "Are
  you looking for a job here?", "Do you think the newest hardware makes it
  easier to make a demo?" etc. At least it seems they're genuinly
  interested in the scene, and don't try to make it look like a freakshow.
  (Hmm, on second thought, then why did they interview *me*? <huge grin>).

     Since I don't have TV at home, let alone cable, I'll ask Skyrunner if
  he can tape it (program Nano on 3Sat, tuesday) and watch if I'm shown on
  it.

  20:45
     Since even coders can't live on bread and orange juice alone, we hop
  in the car and go on a food hunt. I could really go for some pizza, but
  the McDonalds are closer, so french fries and hamburgers it is...
  Unfortunately we missed the 64K amiga intros in the meantime, but
  someone recorded them on a digital camera and put the avi on the LAN, so
  I can watch them in thumbnail format.

     A tad later, the PC 4K intro compo starts. One word: magnificent!
  After all the parties with none or only a few low-quality entries, it's
  great to see a compo with 10 entries, several of which are simply
  groundbraking. My favourite is Juggler, featuring a realtime raytraced
  juggler, with reflections etc plus music. Then there's Varus, with
  streams of lights traveling through accelerated 3D environments, also
  with music, and there are 4K versions of Heaven 7 and Kasparov (with
  music that's even more boring than the original :))... Wow, wow, wow.

     Next a virtual newsreader announces several fake demo-related
  newsitems, quite funny but I don't remember them anymore. Sorry.

  21:54
     More entertainment from the organizers: a scene-version of the TV-show
  "Who wants to be a millionaire?" It has the bombastic soundeffects, the
  three types of jokers (of which the ask-the-public and phone-a-friend
  jokers are a tiny bit manipulated by the orgos), and questions ranging
  from "how many channels has a 4-channel module" to "how do you set the
  border color on a C64 to black ?" (Answer D: poke 54296, 0). It's much
  better than the real thing.

  23:07
     Finally it's time for the hand-pixeled graphics! Again a preselection
  is necessary, but still over 40 high-quality pictures are shown. Voting
  will be very, very difficult. It's a pity they're not (yet?) available
  on the website, because I won't be able to remember exactly which name
  on the voting site matches which picture :/

  -=- Sunday 15 -=-

  2:28
     Djefke's favourite 3D package refuses to install, and hence he can't
  supply us with the 3D models we wanted to put in our demo. Since the
  progress on the rest of the demo is very slow, we once again decide to
  delay it to the next party :( Oh well, at least I have the openGL
  documentation, so I keep learning at home :/

     Baxter, Phoenix and Pampy are watching some pixar movies plus all the
  Hybris/NEMESIS wild demos from The Party'99 to 2K1. They get better each
  year, Back To Basics is really hilarious.

     The C64 music compo is happening now, and people are dancing on the
  podium. I feel much too tired to do that, so I pull my sleeping bag over
  my ears and take another nap.

  6:08
     Awake again. Boy, this feels strange: normally, a demoparty is almost
  over on sunday morning, but now it's only halfway :) I discuss some
  things I can't remember anymore with Djefke and Feen, who unfortunately
  still hasn't got his jacket back. I've a bad feeling it might be stolen,
  but Feen looks depressed enough already so I keep quiet :/

  8:54
     Breakfast time: the organizers are selling fresh sandwiches, and
  while I'm eating I download the full version of Real Reality (including
  the "making of" part that was missing on my current copy).

     Another info-screen has popped up on the bigscreen since some time,
  it reads: "FEELING DIRTY? The showers are open for (boys/girls) from XX
  to YY". For a 4-day party, showers are indeed more than just a detail.

  11:16
     I went outside to catch some fresh air, and was surprised to see
  everything covered with snow. That's what happens if you spend too much
  time inside, you lose track of what happens to the world outside :) Some
  sceners are standing around a fire, keeping it burning despite the snow.
  PS informs me that Yes and Chandra from Orange Juice are not sure if
  LTP5 will happen this year. I really, really hope it will, as LTP4 was
  the best party I visited last year. After a while the cold forces me
  back inside, cause I'm not wearing a coat.

     The Amiga 4K compo starts, with some nice productions but nothing as
  spectacular as the best PC 4K intros. I guess the limited CPU power
  makes the biggest difference. One entry has no visual effects, but
  generates 8 (yes, eight) different chiptunes! Unfortunately this takes a
  good 20 minutes, so my opinion about it balances between awe and
  boredom.

  13:37
     After reading the Halloween documents (www.opensource.org/halloween)
  some time ago, I had decided to give Linux a try, but being the cautious
  type I preferred to have a Linux guru around in case I screwed up. Since
  Djefke is a hardcore Linux evangelist, now seems to be a good time to
  take the risk. While I struggle with the Suse installer, LILO and
  loadlin, the C64 graphics are shown. Feen tells me they have only 16
  colors, and the resolution is probably very limited too, but from the
  back of the hall they look almost as sharp and colorful as the PC
  graphics :)

  16:07
     Linux works, to the extend that I can type this in the Midnight
  Commander, yipee! (This turns out to be a bad idea, as I have to convert
  the line-endings of the new paragraph when I continue in Notepad). After
  the C64 graphics compo followed the console demos compo: stuff for the
  Gameboy Advanced and the Dreamcast etc, about 5 entries in all. All
  chairs (and other horizontal surfaces in the first part of the hall) are
  occupied, so I've to watch them from a distance.

     To fill the gap till the next compo, those wicked orgos have thrown
  in ChillZone, a live jam-session with synthesizers, guitars and (brace
  yourselves) digeridoos! For the ignorant: a didgeridoo is an Australian
  wood-wind instrument that looks like a 2-meter long cigar and sounds
  like a blowfly with a cold. In addition, everyone who had an instrument
  was invited to join in. Vickey, Tomcat/Greenroom's girlfriend started to
  dance on the podium, more people followed her example and by the time
  the delayed PC 64K intro compo was ready to begin, it had to be delayed
  even longer because the dancers (and the audience) didn't want to stop
  :)

     The 64K intro compo wasn't as spectacular as the 4K intro compo, most
  of the 17 intros used the same accelerated effects. Art by Farbrausch &
  Scoopex was something special, it used 3D in child-drawing style (like
  cartoon-style rendering but with disconnected lines and almost flat
  colors that cross the lines). Further honorable mentions to Rise for the
  original progress cube and the impressive cityscape, and for The
  Milkyway Experience for the nice spacecut effect. As I had trouble to
  keep concentrated during the compo, I'll sleep during the MP3 compo in
  order to be fully awake during the demo compos.

  18:06
     The C64 4K intro compo has started. One features realtime raytracing
  in textmode, albeit so slow that you can see the individual frames being
  drawn. Most intros have music too, but what impresses me the most is the
  large number of entries: over 20! That's twice as much as in the PC
  compo, for a machine that has only a fraction of the PC's active scene!
  Of course, there isn't *that* much you can do on a C64 besides
  programming on it :)

  21:57
     The demo compos are being delayed due to the large nr of entries. In
  the meantime, another round of "Who whants to be a scenionaire" is
  played with Mat!/Ozone as contestant, and later everyone can bring stuff
  to the orgos to be shown on the bigscreen (such as the inevitable All
  Your Base animation).

  23:10
     Still no democompos, but there's an improvized real-time coding compo
  for the C64: coders have 1 minute the time to program live on the
  bigscreen simple effects like making the border of the screen flash.

     Just before the democompos, the classic game Bomberman is played on
  the bigscreen. Steeler dedicates this game to a friend of him who was a
  famous hardware designer but died a few weeks ago. For the challenge,
  the players have to use very big and clumsy control pads. As a result,
  most levels are won by the player who does *not* blows up himself.

     And after the Bomberman game, the demo compos start!


  -=- Monday 16 -=-

  3:31
     Wow! First 22 amiga demos, then 15 minutes pause, and then 27 PC
  demos. Man, I'm feeling dizzy! The Amiga demos were almost all very well
  designed, but the effects are of course not up to par with the PC demos.
  The Black Lotus made IMHO the best one, Perfect Circle, with a very
  impressive Mandelbrot rotozoom effect. The PC demos were on average of a
  lower quality than the amiga ones, and I wouldn't have mind a
  preselection. Still there were many excellent ones. Propaganda/INF is my
  favourite one, lots of great effects changing rapidly, perfectly synced
  to the music (a japanese rock MP3, as usual). Nature Still Sucks also
  looks really great, although the framerate is on the low side at some
  parts. Kolor has also made a very nice demo in a cute cartoon-style, Le
  Petit Prince, which will no doubt end up high in the results.

     The C64 demos follow, but I can hardly concentrate anymore. I
  randomly try the URL ftp.party in the explorer, and guess what? The
  majority of the entries is already available online. I keep one eye on
  the bigscreen while I start downloading them, and after the C64 demo
  compo ends the bigscreen shows several URLs where you can download the
  entries :) Now you can also exchange your wristband for a voting key,
  which is necessary to submit the voting form. The orgos take no risks
  that someone fakes a votekey: mine was
  "8JHkdW5Qw]A3aPY-w2c-<-Ayhcz>88D", that a full 31 mixed-case characters.
  Try to type that correctly when you've had less then 10 hours sleep in 3
  days!

  7:21
     Voting is over, already from 6 o'clock. That made a rather small
  timeframe for people to submit their votes, and since many sceners went
  to sleep after the compos, they missed the deadline. It was also
  impossible, in the time given, to relisten/rewatch all the entries for
  more accurate voting :(

     Feen and I talk about Hornet and the American demoscene, and I buy a
  NAIDorabilia CD from him to add to my scene CD collection. Nowadays
  everyone has a CD burner and broadband internet access, so "official"
  scene CD's become a rarity...

  11:46
     The fast intro compo entries are shown, which had to feature an
  olympic flame, donuts, an advertisement, and some more compulsory
  subjects. Finally the prize ceremony starts. Instead of the usual
  third-second-first place announcing, all entries of a compo are shown
  together. After each name is a growing bar, and the entry whose bar
  grows the largest has the most results and wins. The tension in the
  audience rises as one bar after another stops growing :)

     In the 4K intro compo, the raytraced Juggler wins, followed by Varus.
  In the 64K compo Art takes the first place, which I personally didn't
  like that much. The second and third places go to Haujobb's intro and
  the Rise intro. Le Petit Prince/Kolor wins the democompo, followed by
  Mozaik/Haujobb and Propaganda/INF. I'm disappointed that Nature Still
  Suxx reaches only the fifth place, IMHO they deserved a higher ranking.

     A lot of sceners have started packing and are leaving the place, even
  before the prize ceremony. When the rows before us are half-empty, Feen
  and I go take a look at the location where he has last seen his jacket,
  and lo and behold: we find it under a table tucked behind a cardboard
  box! Even better, the plane ticket is still in it. So Phoenix isn't
  stuck here in Fallingbostel, I'm sure that's a load off his shoulders :)

  1:30
     We start to pack our stuff and swap email addresses with Pampy and
  Feen. Skyrunner, who has made the music for the winning Juggler 4K,
  gives me one of the several identical issues of the Go64! magazine he
  has won. I know the 4K compo doesn't have big money prizes, but that
  must be one of the most useless prizes ever, especially because last
  year, he also won several copies of exactly the same issue!

     After we say goodbye to our friends, we drive off to Belgium. The
  trip home doesn't go as smooth, we spend two hours in traffic jams. I
  try to sleep,  and later I read that Go64! mag. It's hard to believe
  they still made papermags for the C64 in 1999! The articles are
  interesting though: reports from demoscene parties, articles on how to
  etch your own printed circuits (hint: wear sunscreen to protect against
  sunburns from the UV lamp, and be careful with those hazardeous
  chemicals), and how to mask non-maskable interrupts. There's one gem of
  a quote I just have to share with you, about how the C64 sceners see the
  PC sceners: (Go64! september 1999, p 12):

     "Nobody seems to have any artistic skill anymore - graphics are
  scanned or raytraced, samples are mixed together in the fast tracker to
  mindless 'Mod' music without any hint of imagination or devotion."

     There you have it, stop the Mod vs MP3 debate, let's all go back to
  SID chiptunes :)


  -=- Back home -=-

     The next day, someone had converted the Nano program to .avi and had
  put it on the net already. It was only a 5-minutes item, but they
  managed to give a decent explanation what the demoscene is, and they
  showed screenshots from demos and 4Ks and stuff. My interview was cut
  out, probably for aesthetical reasons :)

     All in all, Ms2K1 was definately the best party I've visited yet. At
  first I was a bit dissapointed that we didn't finish our demo, but after
  the compo it was clear that there were already enough demos, and ours
  would only have lowered the average quality. Lots of kudos to the
  organizing, for speaking English, properly announcing delays, providing
  entertainment inbetween the compos, and much much more. The amount of
  entries in all compos was very good, more often too high than too low,
  and the general atmosphere was great. The only improvement I can see is
  in the voting. The (IMHO) perfect system would be: after each compo, all
  entries are made available for download, people can vote whenever they
  want, and votes can be submitted for each compo separately, instead of
  all at once. Implement that and next year's edition will be really the
  perfect party.

                --Seven


--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  The Root
     How They Got Involved
  Sponsored By:  Tryhuk
  By: Aaron Zafran (Xenoc)
----=--=------=--=------=--=--

     When I sit down and listen to old tunes from the scene, I get
  depressed.  Yes, depressed.  Perhaps this isn't the reaction that one
  would expect from a guy who will emphatically tell you that the days of
  #trax, music contests (remember? MC1-6?), and envy of Five Musicians
  were some of the best of his life.  It's hard to explain what it was
  about the scene that has kept these memories so dear to me.  Yet, it's
  also hard to explain the feeling I get when a total stranger recognizes
  my name on a mailing list and sends me an email that essentially is
  comprised of "Xenoc!  Your music kicked ass!  Why don't you track any
  more?"  I think somewhere near the root of my depression lies the fact
  that if I had to explain why I stopped tracking, I'd have to say that
  I'm not entirely sure.

     Anyway, maybe this will all make more sense if I start at the
  beginning.  I'm going to venture an educated guess and say that I
  started tracking around November of 1994.  I was 13 years old.  A guy by
  the handle of The Kamikaze Gerbil (lol) ran a BBS that I frequented, and
  one day he sent me a MOD that he had written.  It wasn't so much that I
  was inspired by the song, but more that in the true spirit of
  adolescence, I was determined to write a better one.  So, I downloaded
  Scream Tracker 3.x and proceeded to churn out a horrendously repetitive
  and dissonant piece that I still hide in a secret directory on my hard
  drive so nobody finds it.

     I discovered at that point that writing music is not easy.  And for
  those of you that seem to think tracking makes it easier-you couldn't be
  more incorrect.  Nonetheless, I continued to pursue tracking, and I
  improved slowly but surely, learning from the masters: Purple Motion,
  Skaven, Elwood, Necros, etc...  It wasn't long that my obsessive (and
  socially inhibiting) use of BBSes led me to discover demo/tracking
  groups, and the desire to be a part of one of these prestigious
  foundations immediately consumed me.

     Of course, I ended up being accepted to an art/ANSi group as their
  only musician, but hey, you've got to start somewhere, right?  The group
  went by the name Rulerz of Chaos, or RoC, and I wouldn't be surprised if
  not a single person reading this has any recollection of RoC's
  existence.  But it was the insignificant publicity that RoC provided
  that sent me on my path to becoming part of the real demoscene.  One
  day, I received an email from a guy by the handle of Nova.  He lived in
  Canada, and wanted me to join a group by the name of COaR!  Yes, I know
  you haven't heard of that group either.  We never released a goddamned
  thing.  But it was Nova who introduced me to #trax.

     Before I entered #trax, tracking was merely a hobby.  The big names
  of tracking that I had grown to idolize seemed so far away, so
  inaccessible.  And then, that first day I logged onto IRC and joined
  #trax, my jaw dropped.  Necros was in the same chat room that I was in.
  NECROS!  Holy crap!  Of course, I was far too intimidated to say
  anything to anyone in there, but I grinned stupidly in awe as the chat
  rolled by.

     In time, that intimidation dissolved, and the relationships I formed
  in #trax led me to apply to pHluid, which was the tracking division of
  ACiD.  I became one of the more active members that pHluid had at the
  time, and for some reason my music stood out (according to many) among
  the releases that followed.  But, I was somewhat disappointed with
  pHluid throughout my time as part of it, and if I recall correctly, my
  departure from the group was not only messy but also very embarrassing.
  I believe a portion of an email from a very angry and immature
  15-year-old Xenoc was published in Demonews, a widely read scenemag.

     At that point, I became a senior member of Analogue Music, which was
  a group run by a guy by the handle of Mind Bender, who did not track.  I
  believe this single fact was probably the reason that Analogue didn't
  live up to the potential it had.  Nonetheless, we had some pretty decent
  and well-known musicians under our belt, and our releases were generally
  approved of.  Things were good, I was writing music, getting good
  feedback, and felt like I was moving up in the world of tracking.  It
  was this era of my tracking history that holds the fondest memories for
  me.

     And suddenly, everything started to fall apart.  Administrative
  nonsense tore Analogue apart.  Every time I logged onto IRC there were
  issues to be addressed, people to be lured in or kicked out.  There was
  talk of for-profit endeavors, which was against everything the tracking
  scene stood for.  The scene had decidedly begun to lose its edge, not
  just for me, but for many others as well.  Anyone who was involved at
  the time would likely agree with me when I say that you could feel the
  overall morale of trackers dropping.

     Slowly, I faded out of the scene, observing tragedies that followed
  from a distance.  Hornet Archive was suddenly no more, and soon it was
  announced that there was a good chance there would be no MC7.  My social
  life began to pick up and I didn't really care about any of this scene
  stuff at the time, but looking back, it makes me sadder now than it ever
  did then.

     I never stopped writing music.  I have a recording studio in my
  apartment and despite the fact that I rarely produce anything I'm
  pleased with, I've never thought to give up.  It is undeniable that to
  this day, writing music has never felt as exciting to me as it did when
  I was a tracker.  Even now when I'm programming riffs into my Roland
  MC-303 or recording a riff with my Kurzweil, my brain instinctively
  starts to figure out how to reproduce them in tracked form.  I guess old
  habits die hard.  My name is Aaron Zafran, better known to many as
  Xenoc. I am a student.  I am a musician, and I will always be a tracker.

                --Aaron Zafran, a.k.a Xenoc.
                  (azafran@vt.edu)


--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  In Tune
     Music from T-Tracker and Nightflowers
  By:  Coplan
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
  -=- Introduction -=-

     So I hopped on Trax-in-Space to see what the latest tunage was from
  some other trackers, and I decided to visit the top charts.  I grabbed
  some of the tunes listed there, and I decided I'd give them a review.
  As of this writing, the songs are ranked as follows:

     1: Be What U Wanna Be (t-tracker)
     2: GDream - We Are Not Alone: Space Invasion Remix (Nightflowers)
     3: Firestorm (t-tracker)

  All songs are available from Trax In Space: http://www.traxinspace.com


  -=- Be What U Wanna Be / T-Tracker -=-

     The top ranked song from Trax-in-Space is sort of a trancy tune that
  reminds me of some early 90's video game music.  Trust me, that is not a
  cut on the quality of the song.  Some of my favorite music is game music
  (Legend of Zelda's music, Metroid, and so on).  I recently got a new
  subwoofer, so I can fully appreciate this song.  If you aren't fortunate
  enough to have one though, it probably won't bother you to hear it
  without a subwoofer, as T-Tracker has done a wonderful mixing job.

     The tune is very complex, and of a quality that I could not duplicate.
  The base riff alone could be raised a few octaves and passed off as a
  lead, as it has incredible depth to its performance.  I find the
  percussion quite interesting as well.  Aside from the standard drum kit,
  there are a few other percussive instruments in there that definately
  add to the song.

     I would say that this is one of those songs that you should grab if
  you happen to like trance or dance.  It wouldn't be the greatest song I
  ever download, but it is very entertaining, and fun to listen to.  My
  girlfriend just likes to dance to it (she approves!).  =)


  -=- GDream - We Are Not Alone: Space Invasion Remix / Nightflowers -=-

     All you serious Trance freaks out there will love this tune.  This
  fits the definition of Trance to the T, as you got every element in
  this tune.  I wish I had the original, as I'd like to see how much has
  been innovated by Nightflowers.  Unlike many trance tunes, "GDream"
  isn't all that repetative.  The tune seems to evolve through different
  stages, each stage a bit more complex (and more interesting) than the
  previous.  All the while, the tune continues to move and pull you
  through to the end.

     The song contains some sounds I've never heard anywhere else, and for
  that I am quite relieved.  After all, I was beginning to believe that
  ever trance artist was using the same sample set.  The ending is what
  did it for me, as the opening seemed a bit unoriginal for me.  That's
  not to say that the ending was entirely original, but at least it was
  away from the norm.  My girlfriend continues to dance, and so I guess
  she approves of this song as well.  All I need is some pretty colored
  lights and some strobes, perhaps even some foam -- and we can have
  ourselves a little party.  Another tune definately worth a download.


  -=- Firestorm / T-Tracker -=-

     Well, it seems as though T-Tracker is a pretty popular tracker.  Two
  songs in the top three is impressive.  "Firestorm" isn't nearly as good
  as T-Tracker's number one song at this time.  When I listen to this
  tune, I can't help but to question its placement on the charts.  Mind
  you, the tune is better than the average tune out there, but I don't
  believe that it's entirely anything special.  Though, I've listened to
  the song many times now, and it is very relaxing.

     Now I can't entirely tear this song apart, as it has some very good
  contributing elements.  The strings in the background are very tight and
  well done.  The chord progression is also well chosen.  This is,
  however, probably an experiment for T-Tracker, as he usually has much
  higher quality music.  I must stress that, as the other music from
  T-Tracker that I have heard is wonderful.  But my girlfriend has stopped
  dancing, and I think that says it all.

                --Coplan

     "In Tune" is a regular column dedicated to the review of original and
  singular works by fellow trackers.  It is to be used as a tool to expand
  your listening and writing horizons, but should not be used as a general
  rating system.  Coplan's opinions are not the opinions of the Static
  Line Staff.

     If you have heard a song you would like to recommend (either your own,
  or another person's), We can be contacted through e-mail useing the
  addresses found in the closing notes.  Please do not send files attached
  to e-mail without first contacting us.  Thank you!


--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  The Listener
     Music by Keith303, Esem and Willbe
  By:  Tryhuk
----=--=------=--=------=--=--

  --== LoveSexDestuction / keith303 =-

     My big passion is traveling by trains and one of major reasons why I
  like this track is that it evokes in me that feeling. Trees are running
  behind windows, track claps in a regular rhythm and wheels whistle on
  the switches. There are many ways to express our feelings about trains.
  Smash did it in his "last train" where you can hear the breath of steam.
  Necros did it in "Point of departure" where you could hear trains
  flying. Keith303 didn't stay behind and he made a definitely original
  electronic track with all aspects of modern music, not only in the use
  of original samples or complex drum lines, but also with massive
  filtering and manipulation of the sound spectrum. And because Keith303
  left the scene, this song can easily be a last one that you'll ever hear
  from him.

  Song name:  LoveSexDestuction
  Artist:  keith303
  File Size:  5.2mb
  Location:  http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/91/_keith303_.html


  --== 2sided/esem =-

     "2sided" seems to be an mp3.com only release, because I didn't see it
  mentioned on any of the scene labels. Anyway it is a very nice song. It
  follows the line of his earlier works that were built on decent ambient
  and soft percussion, repetitive sine melodies and frequent secondary
  sounds that push the track forward a make out of it a trip instead of a
  boring loop. Although this track might not seem too special, I always
  liked this kind of music and I wasn't disappointed by this download.

  Song name:  2sided
  Artist:  esem
  File Size:  3.6mb
  Location:  http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/165/george_marinov.html


  --== greed (hungry mix) / willbe =-

     Last track I want to mention today is willbe's contribution to compo
  of Laurent Garnier (if I remember it correctly). Unfortunately I didn't
  hear the original track that was remixed so I can't judge how the remix
  turned out compared to original. All I can say that I like it and once
  again it is a track that is worth downloading. If you haven't heard it
  yet, you still have time to get it.

  Song name:  greed (hungry remix)
  Artist:  willbe
  Location:  http://mp3.com/willbe


--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  Retro Tunage
    "Remember" by Beek
  By:  Tryhuk
----=--=------=--=------=--=--

     It seems to me that I didn't write about a MOD for quite a long time
  and that's a scandal for this kind of column. So here you have it. It
  is a song by Beek and it appeared on the musicdisk "Mango". Its name  is
  "remember", a name that man would give to some sweet sad dreamy song.
  IMHO it fulfills this expectation, but it still stays decent, no real
  shitty sweetness. People that have heard it may ask me what is so
  special about this song, why it deserved it to be mentioned here while
  there are many other superb songs. Reason is simple: I wanted to mention
  a song that isn't special at all, it is just a well made tune.
  That's all I wanted to say, sorry for the shortness of the review, but
  I'm once again too tired to review. So if you want to have something
  special here, next time sit down to your computer for a while and write
  about your favorite song. Thank you for your attention.

  Song Information:
    Title:  Remember
    Author:  Beek
    Release date:  1998
    Length:  3m05s
    Filename (unzipped/zipped):  remember.mod / mango.zip
    File Size (unzipped/zipped):  470kb / 2mb
    Source:  some functional hornet mirror

                --Tryhuk


--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  Screen Lit Vertigo
     Le Petit Prince by Kolor (party-version)
  By:  Seven
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
  Found at the party network, but you can try www.scene.org
  1st place at the Mekka/Symposium 2001 PC democompo.

  System requirements:
     Windows9x or higher, an openGL supporting 3D card, a soundcard.
     Recommended: Windows2K, a Geforce2 and a Pentium III processor.

  Test Machine: PIII 900 192MB, SB128, GeForce 2MX 32MB, Win98

  The Credits:
     Code: shiva
     Meshes, textures, gfx: noize
     Music, gfx: raytrayza

  The Demo:
     For those who've never heard about Le Petit Prince (the little
  prince), it is a very good and well-known children's tale written by
  Antoine de Saint-Exupery. It's about a little boy from the stars that
  leaves his home planet, visiting several very small planets that are
  each inhabited by one stereotypical person (a king, a businessman, a
  drunk etc), and eventually lands on Earth. It's an excellent book,
  simple yet thought-provoking, and recommended reading for both children
  and adults.

     The only theme of the book that Kolor kept in the demo is that of a
  little boy visiting tiny planets. Each planet has a theme: a park, snow,
  the beach, the desert, and technology. Everything on the planets is
  rendered in a cartoon-style, with black lines on all edges of 3D
  objects. The objects are colored in soft tints that go well together,
  and clouds and seas use transparency. There's a certain amount of
  parallelism between the worlds: the birds in the snow world become
  little flying robots in the techno world, the balloon in the park become
  a sattelite in the beach world and giant halogen bulbs in the desert
  world. Between the different worlds, a scrolling image is shown of the
  fuzzy rendered planet you're leaving, and/or the one you're visiting
  next. Each planet has icons associated with it: fish for the beach,
  cogwheels for the tech-planet etc. Camera switches on a planet are
  sometimes made with circular or star-formed "holes" filled with the
  second scene, that appear in the current scene and quickly grow till
  they cover it completely.

     The music is very relaxed, with an ambient background and idm
  instruments on the foreground: beeps, sweeps etc. There's little hard
  syncing, except when we switch to a new planet. There are also a few
  soundeffects, like the sweeping sound of the waving antena on the snow
  planet, or a swoosch when a big spaceship flies over the tech-planet.

  Overall:
     Le Petit Prince is mainly a design/3D demo. There are no "real"
  demo-effects, and while the cartoon rendering looks great, it's not
  extremely hard to do (especially with 3D cards, 3 Little Goats/M0ppi
  productions did it in software in '97). There isn't much of a story
  either, on most planets the boy simply explores the world. It's simply a
  collection of very detailed, well-designed and beautiful worlds.
  Everything fits together in harmony. The only inperfection I could see
  was that on a few places (the overviews of the park and desert planet,
  and the beach when the boy surfs and dives) you can see two copies of
  the boy at the same time if you look carefully. Overall, it's a great
  demo to watch and relax with. Go get it if you haven't yet.

                --Seven


--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  Editorial
    The Ever-Evolving Scene
  By: Coplan
----=--=------=--=------=--=--

     As I finished reading Xenoc's article, I had to admit, I often look
  back at the scene with depression.  Call me one of those grumpy old
  men, but I must admit, things were better then.

     Technology had yet to come to the point that it is now.  Truth be
  told, graphics and audio are starting to get so close to realism these
  days that any improvement is almost a mute point.  What made the scene
  wonderful back then?  The scene was cutting edge.  If you wanted to see
  cool effects and cool music, the scene was the place to be.  Most games
  took advantage of some of the products of the scene: mod music, pixel
  art, and so on.  And that's only when I jumped in the scene...about 7
  years ago.

     As far as the history of computers is concerned, at least the history
  of personal computers, the demoscene is in fact very old.  Prior to my
  existance in the scene, the scene was the cutting edge.  When I jumped
  in, it was still on the edge, but the edge was much more broad, and the
  game industry wasn't far behind.  Now?  There's no competition anymore.
  The Demoscene consists of people exploring a dying artform (be it demos,
  music, pixel, whatever).

     So is the scene dead?  No.  I've said this many times before,
  especially since I've started this magazine.  I come back every so many
  months and remind everyone that the scene is not dead.  But questions
  arise, and I'm left to answer them myself, even if I am the one who
  asked.  I have to constantly reassure myself that the scene is still
  alive and I am in fact a part of something.  And there are still some
  that think I wear rose colored glasses and look out unto the world
  without a clue of what the demoscene is truly about.  And that might be
  true, but that  depends on who's asking.

     Though I might be considered oldskool, there are many oldskoolers
  before me, and they would disagree with my thoughts about the scene.
  What I embrace and what they embraced are two different things.  They
  embraced a demoscene that lead the computer scene market.  Today, those
  oldskoolers are computer programmers, hardware designers, musicians,
  producers and basically the forefront of modern technology.  And they
  started with the demoscene, ever used to the fact that they were
  revolutionaries in the world of modern computers.  I, however, embrace
  an artform of old times.  I embrace a technique called tracking, which
  is still very functional and easy to find in todays world.  But it might
  very well be on it's way off the popularity charts.  I don't think that
  tracking will ever officially die, however.  Contrary to what some
  software developers might think, there isn't much one can do to improve
  the quality of the standard tracking programs.  But there are people out
  there to keep things up to date with the modern computer.  While IT does
  not run in Windows 2000, there might be a program that does the same
  things as IT and does run in Windows 2000.  But the concept is still
  there, and the art form is still as it always was.

     My point is that the demoscene as a whole has to be divided down into
  its components: Philosophy, Art, Meaning.  The art will not change.
  Conceptually, the art has never changed.  The means in achieving the
  art, however, has change, but the product will not.  The meaning is a
  very personal thing, and it is the basis for any one person's
  involvement in the art.  This is what causes each and every product to
  be unique in such that it is an expression of that one person.  Meaning
  is ever evolving and has very little effect, if any, on the evolution of
  the demoscene.  However, the philosophy is the overall collective
  purpose in the scene.  Yes, you will find groups who believe they have a
  different philosophy from the rest of the scene, but combine everyone's
  philosophy and you get one common denominator.  In the early years of
  the scene, the philosophy was to be the cutting edge of the computer
  world.  Today, the philosophy of the demoscene is simply to promote a
  long standing art-form that is under-celebrated.

     The cutting edge is no longer reachable by one or a few people on
  their little computers at home.  No, as sad as it is to admit it, the
  future of computing lies in the hands of big corporations and large
  scale movements such as the open source scene.  The Demoscene isn't the
  movement it used to be.  But it is still a society, and it is a society
  that many choose to be in.  I'm proud of all of you who are still here.

                --Coplan


--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  Link List
----=--=------=--=------=--=--

  Portals:

      Orange Juice.............................http://www.ojuice.net
      Scene.org.................................http://www.scene.org
      SceneSpot.............................http://www.scenespot.org
      CFXweb.......................................http://cfxweb.net
      Pouet.net.................................http://www.pouet.net
      Demoscene.org.........................http://www.demoscene.org
      Scenet....................................http://www.scenet.de
      Demo.org...................................http://www.demo.org
      Czech Scene................................http://www.scene.cz
      Hungarian Scene........................http://www.scene-hu.com
      Italian Scene...........................http://run.to/la_scena
      ModPlug Central Resources..........http://www.castlex.com/mods
      Norvegian Scene............http://www.neutralzone.org/scene.no
      Polish Scene...........................http://www.demoscena.pl
      Russian Scene..........................http://www.demoscene.ru
      Spanish Scene............................http://www.escena.org
      Swiss Scene..............................http://www.chscene.ch

  Archives:

      Acid2.....................................ftp://acid2.stack.nl
      Amber.......................................ftp://amber.bti.pl
      Cyberbox.....................................ftp://cyberbox.de
      Hornet (1992-1996)........................ftp://ftp.hornet.org
      Scene.org..................................ftp://ftp.scene.org
      Scene.org Austra........................ftp://ftp.au.scene.org
      Scene.org Netherlands...................ftp://ftp.nl.scene.org
      Swiss Scene FTP...........................ftp://ftp.chscene.ch

  Demo Groups:

      3g Design..............................http://3gdesign.cjb.net
      3State...................................http://threestate.com
      7 Gods.........................................http://7gods.sk
      Aardbei.....................................http://aardbei.com
      Acid Rain..............................http://surf.to/acidrain
      Addict..................................http://addict.scene.pl
      Agravedict........................http://www.agravedict.art.pl
      Alien Prophets...................http://alienprophets.ninja.dk
      Anakata..............................http://www.anakata.art.pl
      Astral..............................http://astral.scene-hu.com
      Astroidea........................http://astroidea.scene-hu.com
      BlaBla..............................http://blabla.planet-d.net
      Blasphemy..............................http://www.blasphemy.dk
      Bomb..................................http://bomb.planet-d.net
      Broncs..................................http://broncs.scene.cz
      Byterapers.....................http://www.byterapers.scene.org
      Bypass.................................http://bypass.scene.org
      Calodox.................................http://www.calodox.org
      Cocoon..............................http://cocoon.planet-d.net
      Confine.................................http://www.confine.org
      Damage...................................http://come.to/damage
  <*> Delirium..............................http://delirium.scene.pl
      Eclipse............................http://www.eclipse-game.com
      Elitegroup..........................http://elitegroup.demo.org
      Exceed...........................http://www.inf.bme.hu/~exceed
      Fairlight.............................http://www.fairlight.com
      Fobia Design...........................http://www.fd.scene.org
      Freestyle............................http://www.freestylas.org
      Fresh! Mindworks...................http://kac.poliod.hu/~fresh
      Future Crew..........................http://www.futurecrew.org
      Fuzzion.................................http://www.fuzzion.org
      GODS...................................http://www.idf.net/gods
      Halcyon...........................http://www.halcyon.scene.org
      Haujobb..................................http://www.haujobb.de
      Hellcore............................http://www.hellcore.art.pl
      Infuse...................................http://www.infuse.org
      Kilobite...............................http://kilobite.cjb.net
      Kolor................................http://www.kaoz.org/kolor
      Komplex.................................http://www.komplex.org
      Kooma.....................................http://www.kooma.com
      Mandula.........................http://www.inf.bme.hu/~mandula
      Maturefurk...........................http://www.maturefurk.com
      Monar................ftp://amber.bti.pl/pub/scene/distro/monar
      MOVSD....................................http://movsd.scene.cz
      Nextempire...........................http://www.nextempire.com
      Noice.....................................http://www.noice.org
      Orange.................................http://orange.scene.org
      Orion................................http://orion.planet-d.net
      Popsy Team............................http://popsyteam.rtel.fr
      Prone................................http://www.prone.ninja.dk
      Purple....................................http://www.purple.dk
      Rage........................................http://www.rage.nu
      Replay.......................http://www.shine.scene.org/replay
      Retro A.C...........................http://www.retroac.cjb.net
      Sista Vip..........................http://www.sistavip.exit.de
      Skytech team............................http://www.skytech.org
  <*> Spinning Kids......................http://www.spinningkids.org
      Sunflower.......................http://sunflower.opengl.org.pl
      Talent.............................http://talent.eurochart.org
      The Black Lotus.............................http://www.tbl.org
      The Digital Artists Wired Nation.http://digitalartists.cjb.net
      The Lost Souls...............................http://www.tls.no
      TPOLM.....................................http://www.tpolm.com
      Trauma.................................http://sauna.net/trauma
      T-Rex.....................................http://www.t-rex.org
      Unik........................................http://www.unik.de
      Universe..........................http://universe.planet-d.net
      Vantage..................................http://www.vantage.ch
      Wipe....................................http://www.wipe-fr.org

  Music Labels, Music Sites:

      Aisth.....................................http://www.aisth.com
      Aural Planet........................http://www.auralplanet.com
      Azure...................................http://azure-music.com
      Blacktron Music Production...........http://www.d-zign.com/bmp
      BrothomStates.............http://www.katastro.fi/brothomstates
      Chill..........................http://www.bentdesign.com/chill
      Chippendales......................http://www.sunpoint.net/~cnd
      Chiptune...............................http://www.chiptune.com
      Da Jormas................................http://www.jormas.com
      Fabtrax......http://www.cyberverse.com/~boris/fabtrax/home.htm
      Five Musicians.........................http://www.fm.scene.org
      Fusion Music Crew.................http://members.home.nl/cyrex
      Goodstuff..........................http://artloop.de/goodstuff
      Ignorance.............................http://www.ignorance.org
      Immortal Coil.............................http://www.ic.l7.net
      Intense...........................http://intense.ignorance.org
      Jecoute.................................http://jecoute.cjb.net
      Kosmic Free Music Foundation.............http://www.kosmic.org
      Lackluster.....................http://www.m3rck.net/lackluster
      Level-D.................................http://www.level-d.com
      Miasmah.............................http://www.miasmah.cjb.net
      Milk.......................................http://milk.sgic.fi
      Mah Music.............................http://come.to/mah.music
      Maniacs of noise...............http://home.worldonline.nl/~mon
      MAZ's sound homepage..................http://www.maz-sound.com
      Med.......................................http://www.med.fr.fm
      Mo'playaz..........................http://ssmedion.de/moplayaz
      Mono211.................................http://www.mono211.com
      Morbid Minds..............http://www.raveordie.com/morbidminds
      Noise................................http://www.noisemusic.org
      Noerror.......................http://www.error-404.com/noerror
      One Touch Records......................http://otr.planet-d.net
      Park..................................http://park.planet-d.net
      pHluid..................................http://phluid.acid.org
      Radical Rhythms.....http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/merrelli/rr
      RBi Music.............................http://www.rbi-music.com
      Ruff Engine................http://members.xoom.com/ruff_engine
      SHR8M......................................http://1st.to/shr8m
      Sound Devotion................http://sugarbomb.x2o.net/soundev
      Soundstate.........................http://listen.to/soundstate
      Sunlikamelo-D...........http://www.error-404.com/sunlikamelo-d
      Suspect Records........................http://www.tande.com/sr
      Tequila........................http://www.defacto2.net/tequila
      Tempo................................http://tempomusic.cjb.net
      Tetris....................................http://msg.sk/tetris
      Theralite...........................http://theralite.avalon.hr
      Tokyo Dawn Records........................http://tokyodawn.org
      Triad's C64 music archive.............http://www.triad.c64.org
      UltraBeat.........................http://www.innerverse.com/ub
      Vibrants................................http://www.vibrants.dk
      Wiremaniacs.........................http://www.wiremaniacs.com
      Zen of Tracking.........................http://surf.to/the-imm

  Programming:

      Programming portal......................http://www.gamedev.net
      Programming portal.....................http://www.flipcode.com
      Game programming portal...............http://www.gamasutra.com
      3D programming portal.................http://www.3dgamedev.com
      Programming portal......................http://www.exaflop.org
      Programming portal............http://www.programmersheaven.com
      Programming portal.....................http://www.freecode.com
      NASM (free Assembly compiler)......http://www.cryogen.com/nasm
      LCC (free C compiler).........http://www.remcomp.com/lcc-win32
      PTC video engine.........................http://www.gaffer.org
      3D engines..........http://cg.cs.tu-berlin.de/~ki/engines.html
      Documents...............http://www.neutralzone.org/home/faqsys
      File format collection...................http://www.wotsit.org

  Magazines:

      Amber...............................http://amber.bti.pl/di_mag
      Amnesia...............http://amnesia-dist.future.easyspace.com
      Demojournal....................http://demojournal.planet-d.net
      Eurochart.............................http://www.eurochart.org
      Heroin...................................http://www.heroin.net
      Hugi........................................http://www.hugi.de
      Music Massage......................http://www.scene.cz/massage
      Pain..................................http://pain.planet-d.net
      Scenial...........................http://www.scenial.scene.org
      Shine...............................http://www.shine.scene.org
      Static Line................http://www.scenespot.org/staticline
      Sunray..............................http://sunray.planet-d.net
      TUHB.......................................http://www.tuhb.org
      WildMag...............................http://wildmag.notrix.de

  Parties:

      Assembly (Finland).....................http://www.assembly.org
      Ambience (The Netherlands)..............http://www.ambience.nl
      Dreamhack (Sweden)....................http://www.dreamhack.org
      Buenzli (Switzerland)......................http://www.buenz.li
      Gravity (Poland)............http://www.demoscena.cp.pl/gravity
      Mekka-Symposium (Germany)...................http://ms.demo.org
      Takeover (The Netherlands).............,http://www.takeover.nl
      The Party (Denmark).....................http://www.theparty.dk

  Others:

      Demo secret parts....http://www.inf.bme.hu/~mandula/secret.txt
      Textmode Demo Archive.................http://tmda.planet-d.net
      Arf!Studios..........................http://www.arfstudios.org
      #coders..................................http://coderz.cjb.net
      Demonews Express.........http://www.teeselink.demon.nl/express
      Demo fanclub........................http://jerware.org/fanclub
      Digital Undergrounds.....................http://dug.iscool.net
      Doose charts...............................http://www.doose.dk
      Freax................................http://freax.scene-hu.com
      GfxZone............................http://gfxzone.planet-d.net
      PC-demos explained.....http://www.oldskool.org/demos/explained
      Pixel...................................http://pixel.scene.org
  <*> Underground Mine.............http://www.spinningkids.org/umine

  IRC Channels:

      Scene.........................................ircnet #thescene
      Programming.....................................ircnet #coders
      Programming....................................efnet #flipcode
      Graphics.........................................ircnet #pixel
      Music.............................................ircnet #trax
      Scene (French)..................................ircnet #demofr
      Programming (French)............................ircnet #codefr
      Graphics (French)..............................ircnet #pixelfr
      Scene (Hungarian)............................ircnet #demoscene
      Programming (Hungarian)......................ircnet #coders.hu
      Programming (German)........................ircnet #coders.ger


--=--=--
----=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------
  Editor:          Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@scenespot.org
  Writers:         Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@scenespot.org
                    Dilvish / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@yahoo.com
                    Psitron / Tim Soderstrom / tigerhawk@stic.net
                    Setec / Jesper Pederson / jesped@post.tele.dk
                    Seven / Stefaan VanNieuwenhuyze/ seven7@writeme.com
                    Tryhuk / Tryhuk Vojtech / vojtech.tryhuk@worldonline.cz
  Technical Consult: Ranger Rick / Ben Reed / ranger@scenespot.org

  Static Line on the Web:  http://www.scenespot.org/staticline

  Static Line Subscription Management:
     http://www.scenespot.org/mailman/listinfo/static_line


     If you would like to contribute an article to Static Line, be aware
  that we will format your article with two spaces at the beginning and one
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     See you next month!

-eof---=------=--=------=--=--
