_//\\________________________________________________________________________
_\\__T_A_T_I_C___L_I_N_E_____________________________________  October, 2000
__\\_________________________________________________________________________
\\//__ Monthly Scene E-Zine ________________________________ 161 Subscribers
_____________________________________________________________________________


--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  Table Of Contents
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
     Opening:
           Message From the Editor
           Letters From Our Readers
     Features:
           Bizarre 2000 Party Report
           Official results Bizarre 2000 demoparty
     Columns:
        Music:
           In Tune -- Nightbeat's "The Approach"
           Retro Tunage -- "Shattered Skye" by Catspaw
        Demo:
           Screen Lit Vertigo -- "Spot" by Exceed (party-version)
           Intro Watch -- "Sink" by Pulse
        General:
           Editorial -- Time to Move On?
           Scene Sense -- Where the heck did our values go?
           Scene Dirt -- News & Rumors
           Link List -- Get Somewhere in the Scene
        Closing:
           Credits

--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  Message From the Editor
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
     Well, Static Line is averaging about 8 new subscribers a month now.
  Not bad, but I think we can do better.  When Demo News and Trax Weekly
  finally died, they each had thousands of readers -- and that was a long
  time ago when the scene was much smaller.  Spread the word people.  If
  nothing else, maybe you'll help us discover the next great columnist
  that will write high content magazine articles.  We all want that.

     Now, down to business.  We got a few special things going on this
  month.  First things first, Seven is back with another party review of
  Bizarre 2000.  Seven truly does create the feeling of being there.  I
  have also provided the top three finishing results in each category for
  Bizzare.

     We have a new columnist this month.  Last week, PsiTron wrote a
  pretty blunt article about being a tracker.  Not everyone liked it, but
  the guy has a thing about saying what's on his mind -- no bull-shit.  I
  like  that, so I adopted him as a staff member.  He now writes the
  editorial  column titled "Scene Sense."

     We also got a pretty important rebut from Mysterium, the founder of
  Trax-In-Space.  He has some things to clear up, and some information
  from the other side of the fence.  He also is defending TIS from some
  things related to PsiTron's last column/letter.  Contrary to popular
  belief, I did not recruit PsiTron because of this feedback.

     Well...Ben wants to go to bed soon, and we gotta get this issue
  parsed out for the web database.  So, I think I'll wrap up now.

     Until next month.

             --Coplan


--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  Letters From Our Readers
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
  -=- Letter from Mysterium -=-
  Dear Editor,

     I am writing in response to a letter you posted from PsiTron
  concerning Trax In Space (TiS). I am the founder of Trax In Space, and I
  would like to clear up some misinformation given in PsiTron's letter.
  Unfortunately there are several rumors spreading around the Web
  regarding our mission, and most notably, our VIP memberships.  PsiTron
  pointed out that the "commercialization of the scene is bad, and sites
  like TiS seem to lead the scene toward this end."  While it is true that
  TiS does offer extended services for a small fee, the term
  "commercialization" is a rather general word that does not begin to
  depict the true nature of TiS's mission.  In my recent post, "Myths and
  Truths about Trax In Space," I explain the situation and the necessity
  for our actions.
  (http://www.traxinspace.com/ArtistsCorner/ArtistsCorner-Myths.asp)

     Someone once told me, "Trax In Space stands for the Free Music
  Revolution. Keep it free."  He was absolutely right! Trax In Space does
  stand for the Free Music Revolution. Though the term includes free
  music, it rather stands for the freedom for the artist. The artist has
  the control; our site thrives from the artists and the community that
  consists of these artists. We want to give artists the chance that the
  commercial world masks with gimmicks and master marketing schemes. We
  want artists to be able to make their music and do what they want with
  it, and not have to make forced choices based on what big corporate
  execs think the artists should make. Trax In Space stands for the Free
  Music Revolution, as it applies to the musician, not just the listener.
  We stand up for the musician and are creating a community that supports
  itself and recognizes the hard work of musicians. Of course the site
  still has free music downloads and free artist registration (not to
  mention all of the features included within our Artist's Corner).

     Another person had begun to tell others, out of ignorance, that the
  VIP memberships create a caste system, in which artists that pay receive
  unfair recognition. This bold statement is a total contradiction of our
  mission and the point of the VIP Memberships.  The VIP Memberships are
  designed to help take the creation of music to a higher level through
  tools and features that help the artist save time, receive feedback on
  their music, and understand their fans better. The following are the
  features that are included in VIP Memberships so far:

  --Trax Traders: Trax Traders does get the artist more people to listen
     to their music, but the downloads from Trax Traders do not count
     toward the Top Charts, and do not affect the ratings of the artist.
     Trax Traders will have its own charts, but the overall charts are not
     tainted. We will not make the playing field unfair - the VIP
     memberships are tools to help musicians focus on music, not to
     separate artists from each other.

  --VIP Reviews: Artists get reviewed by a few handpicked reviewers. It's
     a great way for them to get better feedback on their music. Did you
     know that *100%* of the money for VIP Reviews goes to the reviewer?

  --Personal Pages: If the artist puts the pages in the search engines, I
     guess they will get more downloads. But many artists already have
     their own personal pages, should we ask them to take their sites
     down because it is unfair to others? Pretty unrealistic, wouldn't
     you say so?  It is another tool that allows the artist to promote
     him/herself, and a place within the scene to do something that they
     may have done outside of the scene at places like Geocities or Xoom.

  --Samples In Space: The artist now has a gigantic sample library for
     their next song.  It saves time as opposed to searching around the
     web, or through their own music collection for samples to use.

     Considering these features, how do VIP Memberships make it unfair to
  other artists? The VIP Memberships are extended, optional services for
  serious musicians, who see value in our site and the centralization of
  these features.

     PsiTron also correctly points out that artists on TiS can sell their
  music. If I understand PsiTron's position, scene artists should not sell
  their music.  Of course, they can use their alter egos and sell through
  MP3.com or the other commercial sites.  Most artists would jump at an
  opportunity to sell their music if someone would buy it, and many fans
  would buy their favorite artist's CD were it available.  So if this is
  just the natural state of things, I find it ludicrous that we should not
  try to facilitate this interaction through our site.  Our artists wanted
  this feature, and again its optional-you do not have to sell a CD if you
  do not want to.  But if you want to, TiS has the facilities set up to
  allow artists to sell their CDs to people all around the world at no
  cost to the artist.  Of course we also work with tracker files, not just
  MP3s.  We are simply trying to "keep it within the scene".

     PsiTron did correctly identify another issue concerning the
  maintenance of a large site such as TiS: time.  In addition to fixed
  costs of running the site, there is an enormous amount of time spent to
  keep the site working and up to date.  Anyone who has ever managed a
  site with over 100,000 registered users, 60 gigs of files, and traffic
  that runs in the hundreds of thousands per month will know that this is
  not an easy task.  Of course, most people who spread these rumors have
  not had this experience.

     Lastly, I would like to point out one generally false statement that
  PsiTron made when he narrowed down the commercialization of the scene to
  Trax In Space.  The demoscene remains a large and important part of the
  "scene."  As TiS and the demoscene both know, it requires money to make
  it all happen. Demoparties accomplish this by accepting sponsorships
  from companies like Cisco, AMD, and Sun Microsystems.  Scene.org
  recently asked its visitors to sponsor the site with monetary donations,
  promising advertising space and the attention of "young, talented and
  motivated people in the computer and design business" to corporate
  sponsors. As far as TiS is concerned, we are doing this by offering
  enhanced tools for artists, banner advertisements and the like, and
  artist CDs.  We offer great services in return for this support, all to
  help keep the site running.  For those readers out there who may think
  that deleting files would help our situation, I must inform you that
  bandwidth and file space are not a major concern for TiS, but there are
  other costs associated with the maintenance and administration of a
  large archive that we look to offset through these programs.  It can't
  be done for nothing, and why not give something back to the artists who
  support us?

     I am always available at saurin@traxinspace.com.  For those of you
  interested in learning more about Trax In Space, please visit our
  website at http://www.traxinspace.com.

     Thank you.

     Sincerely,

     Saurin Shah (aka Mysterium)
     Founder, Trax In Space


  -=> Reply from Coplan:

  I think this is an issue that is overwelming the demoscene these days.
  The scene is torn between oldskool thinking and those of the next
  generation sceners.  Many people worry about where the scene will end up
  in the next few years -- but one thing is true at this moment in time.
  The scene is not nearly as cutting edge as it used to be.  The awe and
  pure admiration for the scene is no longer what it used to be.  I think
  a lot of people miss that.  Others, who never knew the feeling of seeing
  fancy demos and music played on an Amiga, might not understand what the
  demoscene is about.  It has always been an underground movement, but it
  seems to be fading in strength as such anymore.

  While it is good to hear both sides of the story, someone is always
  going to have a biased opinion.  Sometimes it may be justified, other
  times, it may not.  Being a person who doesn't find need to muffle such
  opinions, I will most likely post such articles as PsiTron's.  That
  doesn't mean I agree with his views -- nor does it mean it's an image
  that Static Line wants to carry.  However, it does mean that I respect
  his views.  Since I like to give everyone a chance, it is only fair that
  you all now get to hear the other side of the story.  Thank you,
  Mysterium, for sending in your message.  I am sure there are still a lot
  of people out there that are still sitting on the fence about the issue,
  but at least they got more information about your case.

                --Coplan



  -=- Letter from Eino Keskitalo -=-

     Seven does great party reviews. Of course they're great parties, but
  he simply writes about them catching the feeling, so you start to wish
  you were there too.

  Anyway, great latest three issues.

                --Eino


--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  Bizarre 2000 Party Report
  By:  Seven
----=--=------=--=------=--=--

  -=- Friday 29 October -=-

     Another month, another party :) I'm gonna have serious craving
  problems during the winter. OK, the Static Line deadline is actually
  today. I bribed Coplan to allow me to send this article a few days later
  for obvious reasons, but I won't have much time for after-party editing.
  So, a significant amount of effort is put in this report *at the
  partyplace itself*, unlike my last few reports. That should be an
  improvement (cheers!).

     If you're one of the few who wondered what happened to the demo that
  Green wanted to make at LTP4: it got postponed till Bizarre, and now
  it's postponed till 2Thousand, a new party in Belgium. One of the
  reasons is that a few people couldn't visit Bizarre: Quasar is going to
  some other event in the Netherlands, and Baxter is on a vacation to some
  tropical destination, and his plane will land in Belgium on Sunday
  night. Driving all the way to Bizarre just to see the prize ceremony
  isn't worth the effort for Baxter, and though I pointed out an obvious
  shortcut involving a gun, a parachute and the words "This is a hijack",
  he preferred not to use it. So that left A0a, Corona, DJefke, Eggbird
  and myself (aside from the inactive members).

     I was the first to arrive, around 20:00. The doors had opened at
  19:00, so the usual waiting queue had already disappeared. The Bizarre
  party still takes place at the same location, the Nobelaer center, and
  we have access to a large (max 500 ppl) and a small hall (max 120 ppl),
  a movie theater, a cafeteria and a sleeping room. The large hall is
  always very noisy, very crowded, and suffers from LTP4-like
  temperatures. The small hall was Linux-only last year, but now it's
  scene-only: no gamers, no big speakers. Needless to say which hall I
  chose :) Five minutes later Eggbird joined me, together with Bemmel.
  They form a joke-group Ijskast (refrigerator). The others arrived a few
  hours later.

     I've seen already some nice releases: the wild demo by RBI is really
  good, and Okkie/De brasserie has made a crazy Dutch cover of Eminem's
  "The real slim shady", in which he disses the whole Dutch scene. No
  doubt this will end up high in the MP3 compo :)

     In the meantime, there is absolutely no information about
  compos/deadlines/ whatever. The website says "web services currently
  offline, work in progress". The opening ceremony is delayed too. Let's
  hope things get fixed soon.


  -=- Saturday 30 October -=-

     The crew finally got the projector working correctly, so they showed
  the first movie, Romper Stomper. Never heard of it? Me neither, and when
  they said it was a cult-movie and very violent, I didn't bother to watch
  and got back to the small hall (which is now warmer and more filled with
  cigarette-smoke than the large hall :/). There, A0a was struggling with
  my VC++ project settings to get the demo framework to compile. Remember,
  when you code, change settings or install new programs at a demoparty,
  your PC is ten times as vulnerable to problems then it is at home :( But
  in the end, human endurance and intelligence won over machine
  incompatibility and stuff. Happy end!

     Corona, A0a and I sat down together talk about the messy details of
  our demo-under-construction. Due to the sensitive nature of the
  information, I can't disclose the entire talk <grin>, but "fast voronoi
  != fast delaunay", "how to clip a 3D fractal" and "and why should *that*
  be a problem?" were some of the subjects discussed. Typical coders
  chitchat, yes.

     The only way to get info about the schedule is via IRC on the
  #bizarre channel, but since there are 80 people on it talking full-time
  about nothing at all, we decide to ignore it to protect our mental
  health. A tad later, the website got up, but it uses flash-animations so
  I'll have to find the right plugins <sigh>

     Oh boy, some sceners are setting new records in childish behavior :)
  There's a lot of porn on the ftp servers, among them a particular
  obscene (and for some people very funny) mpeg, and they are playing the
  "soundtrack" over and over again very loud and with all kinds of filters
  over it. They only ended because it was waking up certain people and
  these people complained to the orgos.

     The "no big speakers in the small hall" rule isn't followed 100%, but
  it's still much more quiet in here. Eggbird is now asking other sceners
  if they have music of Krezip or Britney Spears, he wants to make a tune
  with samples from it. Someone threatens to shoot him :) Someone from The
  Solar Group (who placed second in the democompo last year) tells me
  they've a new demo ready, and another Belgian scener, Infinite
  Reboot/Fuel just arrives and has a demo to submit too. Nice to hear from
  Fuel again, it's been two years since they released Gaz at Wired98.

     It's now 8:45, and I think it's time to follow A0a's & Corona's
  example and take a nap.

     Back again. The sleeping room was very crowded, and all hallways were
  filled with sleeping sceners, but I managed to find some empty
  floorspace. When I got back, DJefke wondered if he would watch the
  compos or not, because we couldn't vote anyway. Excuse me? To my
  surprise, voting would be 100% jury voting, as we could read on the
  website. Hmm, I should have checked the website a bit earlier. Let's
  hope it will turn out positive. The Nobelaer center also houses the
  local library, which is open on Saturday, and its entrance is right at
  the big party hall. The people who bring their books back look a bit
  strange at us. Are they afraid of us, or do we just smell funny?

  -=> Editors Note:  A bit of Both, probably...=P  --Coplan

     The RBI animation had some parts added, and looks even better now.
  The RBI guys tried to convince someone who had just woken up that it was
  Sunday now and that he had missed all the compos, but their victim
  wasn't as credulous as they expected :) While Infinite Reboot attempts
  in vain to keep a rational discussion with DJefke about the advantages
  of Win2000 vs Linux, I'm browsing the net and even eating a bit.

     It's 14:24 and the graphic compos have passed. There were only 4
  hand-drawn graphics, one was a joke-entry, two were girl faces and one
  weirdo face. The raytrace compo had nine entries, but only a few of them
  were really raytraced. The others were what I call website-backgrounds,
  with photoshopped pictures and faded anti-aliased lines. While it may
  take talent to create such a picture, I don't think they belong to the
  raytrace compo, and I won't vote for them. Oops. Forgot that we can't
  vote :(

     The flash compo had three entries, with low to average-complexity
  objects which were shown very crisp, but also very slow, say 5 to 10
  fps.  Flash is definitely a compo for designers, not for coders. I can't
  say much about the MP3 and the house compo, although I've done a feeble
  attempt to listen to some tunes. But happy hardcore and similar Dutch
  interpretations of "music" are not really my taste, especially when
  played *way* too loud through a professional soundsystem. A good point
  was that the orgos showed some kind of techno-style animation during the
  compo, so the audience had something to watch when the music starts to
  bore them.

     I'm running out of HD space, and I've no CD burner, so I want to
  transfer my wild demos to Bemmels HD who has one. But as usual, there's
  something wrong with either his or my settings, cause he sucks and I
  don't.

     Maar je hebt ook lui die gaat zitten messen met me partyreports,
     en dat willen we al helemaal niet!

     Hum :-)

     doe coplan de groeten,

     eggbird. :P

  < Translation: But there are also people who will mess up my
  partyreports, and that is something we do no want at all! Hum :-) Greet
  Coplan from me, Eggbird :P >

     Thank you, Eggbird, for pointing out in such a friendly way that I
  can't leave my report safely alone for 5 minutes when you're in the
  vicinity. Next time when A0a needs me to fix a bug in my code, I'll
  finish my sentence, close the file, encrypt it and carry it along with
  me on a diskette.

  -=> Editors Note: What?  And me miss a greet?  --Coplan

     What I wanted to say: to minimize the risk of interrupted uploads, I
  didn't run any other program simultaneous with FTP, so I had plenty of
  time to walk through the halls and see what people were doing. The RBI
  guys, having finished their productions, have started another crazy
  project: a fake phone-sex advertisement, using censored jpgs from the
  LAN plus some videos from their own members they made at a previous
  demoparty. People ask Infinite Reboot if they can see the Fuel demo,
  even though it's not completely polished. It's a dark 3D demo, but not
  in the blood/lightning style a la Shad. I wonder how well it will do in
  the compo. Some Amiga sceners are here too, some are constantly playing
  classic Amiga demos: Desert dreams, State of the art, Nine fingers...
  Technically we just laugh at those today ("coming up next: a sphere wit
  48 polys!"), but they have tons of attitude, design and beautiful
  pixeled fonts.

     Even though the small hall is "scene-only", there are also people
  playing games. Still it's cozier than the big hall, where I haven't seen
  any people coding, drawing or modeling (composing is out of question due
  to the noise). And I don't know whether I just overlooked them last year
  or if they are "new" at Bizarre, but there are some 10-12 year old kids
  gaming too, 'till early in the morning :/ I don't think this is a healthy
  situation, not for the kids nor for the party.

     Around 22:30, Corona and A0a decided to search a pizzeria in
  Etten-Leur. Since I didn't like the French fries in the cafeteria, I
  joined them and so did DJefke (hint to the cafeteria people: cutting a
  potato in 4 is *not* enough to call it fries) Luckily the place was
  still open, and we had some deep discussions while eating a big Pizza
  Hawaii/Marguerita. It was already 23:45 when we came back, and it seems
  we missed the music compo :/


  -=- Sunday 1 October -=-

     A0a and I interrupted our debugging activities to watch the 4K and
  64K intros at 1 o'clock. Since the schedule has become widely available
  (on the bigscreen, on paper and on the website), it has been followed
  without major delays. Unfortunately there were "no 4K's of acceptable
  quality" at all :(  It's a pity to see your favorite demo-category lose
  it's popularity to the point that there are zero productions at a major
  demoparty. Flex had intended to make a windows-4K, but apparently he
  didn't finish it in time.

     The 64K compo contained 4 entries: 1 was a joke-entry with only one
  effect (a rotozoom), another intro had OK effects on the left and middle
  of the screen, and oldskool game screens on the right. Since you can't
  watch everything at once, you immediately feel the urge to see it again.
  The last two were both made by Ile and No_sx from Aardbei and were of a
  high quality, but they didn't had enough time to finish the last one
  (which was shown first).

     Most people either went to sleep or watched the movies in the theater
  after the intro compo. Corona & A0a just have watched American Psycho,
  not exactly a feel-good movie, and looked a bit scared when they came
  back. Mental note: don't watch movies about serial killers right before
  you go to sleep if you don't have your pet toy with you. The next compo
  (animation) starts at 10:30, so we can sleep without missing too much.
  Strange fact: no matter how crowded the sleeping room is, there is
  always place for one more scener.

     I woke up in time to see the animation compo, which was slightly
  delayed. There was quite some variation in the anims: joke-entries of
  high or low quality, one of those "Destroy a PC" videos (made by Amiga
  sceners of course), heavy-duty 3D rendered demos... I'm almost sure that
  Create and destroy/RBI will win, due to its length and high quality.

     12:50 and the democompo is over. Seven demos were show, only two of
  high quality: Untamed/Fuel and We ain't real/The Solar Group.  They are
  very different: Untamed is a camera flight in a Quake-like environment,
  and We ain't real is a typical Danish design demo. rECTUM cAUDA made a
  low-fi porn demo as usual, Kontvlokken Posse made a jokedemo "Mekker
  ende Blaet", which shows a picture of a goat and a sheep, plus a
  sinus-scroller with a big rant (in Dutch). The title is hard to
  translate, but "mekker" is the sound a goat makes, "blaat" is the sound
  a sheep makes, and using "ae" iso "aa" and "ende" iso "en (and)" is
  medieval spelling. Ijskast released a half-finished flash-like demo,
  LifLaf, which was entirely "coded" at the partyplace. Two more serious
  demos were Noronium, which showed a bowling ball/face travelling through
  a 3D world, and Vpitrod, about which I can only remember that it was
  quite good (where has my memory gone?).

     At the end, the orgos showed a message that the jury should come to
  the control room, and that they could still use some more jury-members.
  We thought about volunteering, but in the end we decided that we were a
  little bit too biased to vote objectively :)

     Now all we could do was waiting for the prize ceremony, and for the
  entries to be put on the ftp servers. Everyone I spoke to agreed that We
  ain't real and Untamed are a match for each other. Since Coplan has
  still the Spot review, I'll give some quick info about Untamed here:
  it's a camera flight through an impressive, dark 3D world, without a
  really story. Technically there are some hard-to-code effects, like
  volumetric shadows: there's a hole in the ground with volumetric light
  shining out, and you can see that a part of the light is blocked by an
  object even before you see the object itself. Some effects use textures
  that change every frame, for example the fountain with waves in which
  particles are reflected. Unfortunately, uploading textures is a very
  slow action on some 3D cards, and of course the compo machine had such a
  card. The music is a self-made rock/metal MP3 with real guitars. I don't
  know if that is an advantage, as the Dutch scene seems to favor
  house/hardcore tunes.

     The doors to the theater room opened a bit later than announced, but
  we had to wait even longer due to technical problems. In the meantime,
  the orgos showed some TV-program about BMX stunt competitions, which
  seems to be a dangerous sport judging the accidents that they showed. I
  don't know the name of the organizer who presented the ceremony, but he
  was very funny. It's one of the few times I've seen someone thank the
  sponsors in a way which was not boring, and they during the show they
  showed animations by Arcturus, the same that were shown during the music
  compos and just before each entry in the other compos, to announce their
  name/group/category. Because another event would start at the partyplace
  right after Bizarre, they had little time left and announced the winners
  without much delays. RBI was the absolute winner of Bizarre: they had
  one or two places in the top 3 of every compo they competed in:
  animation, handdrawn and raytraced pictures, several music compos...
  When the presenting orgo said that Jay/RBI must have too much time on
  his hands, someone in the crowd jelled "Get a job, man!" Must have been
  slightly jealous :) In the demo compo, Vpitrod finished third, We ain't
  real came second and Untamed ended up first. It had been a difficult
  decision, as 45% of the jury preferred The Solar Group's demo and 55%
  that of Fuel. I felt glad for Fuel, because Infinite Reboot said it
  might very well be Fuel's last demo, but it's of course a bit sad for
  The Solar Group who missed the first place for two years in a row.

     After the prize ceremony, everyone started to pack, said goodbye to
  his/her friends and traveled home. I think Bizarre was a good party, it
  had a few bad points but the organizers fixed them quickly. The
  scene-only room is definitely a good idea, as the atmosphere was very
  friendly there. You know that when you talk to a random person there,
  he'll be a scener. The jury voting was accurate as far as I can judge
  from the compos I've seen, but not being able to vote takes away some of
  the feeling. Maybe using 50% jury and 50% public would be the best of
  both worlds ? The only bad point is the low number of entries for a
  party with 500 people. If I compare it with LTP, which had less visitors
  and more entries in every compo, I can only think of one reason: a low
  sceners vs gamers ratio. Another point that proves this is the fact that
  there were almost no foreign people. At the start of the prize ceremony,
  the orgos asked if anyone preferred English over Dutch, but no one
  wanted that :/ Anyway, I enjoyed Bizarre, thanks to the crew, and see
  you again next year.

                --Seven

--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  Official results Bizarre 2000 demoparty
  By:  Coplan
----=--=------=--=------=--=--

  Only showing first, second and third place.
     http://www.bizarre.nl

  -=- Animation -=-
  Create and Destroy
     RBI Video
  Neen, dit is niet hopjesvla 2
     rECTUM cAUDA nL
  Oryx sux!
     Oryx AVD


  -=- Demo -=-
  Untamed
     Fuel
  We ain't real
     The Solar Group
  VPITROD
     Paranoid Productions


  -=- 64 KB -=-
  Loc
     no-XS / Ile
  Ivlx
     Kaleido
  8bit
     Bliss


  -=- Mp3 -=-
  See the sun
     Jay / RBI
  Solid
     RBI
  Obsession
     E-sense


  -=- House -=-
  Headzone
     Jay / RBI
  Tipsy Gipsies
     De Brasserie
  Bud! - Don't do that
     RBI - Guest


  -=- Music -=-
  Chill 'n green
     Jay / RBI
  Funtex
     Total Eclipse
  F*cking bird hill choir
     -


  -=- Flash -=-
  Possibilities with Flash
     Active Interactive
  Flash Compo ?
     UT clan LEGO
  Widescreen
     RBI


  -=- Website -=-
  Smooth
     -
  Coredump
     -
  Quo Usque Tandem
     Third Foundation


  -=- Raytraced Graphics -=-
  Sonar
     MagicBoy / RBI Video
  Backdroppel
     RBI
  Lost and Found
     Kaleido


  -=- Handdrawn Graphics -=-
  Angelina Croft
     Mirage
  Silkyway
     RBI
  Girlie
     Fuel


  -=- Ansi -=-
  Strangers in the Dark
     Insane
  Now show them tities
     Expose


--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  In Tune
    Nightbeat's "The Approach"
  By:  Coplan
----=--=------=--=------=--=--

  -=- Introduction -=-

     Where's Setec?  Well, fear not, he is still around and still alive.
  Unfortunatley, time has gotten the best of him.  He has been busy with
  school, of course.  He has also been working on a major project with
  Dilvish, and I hope to share that with you in a few months.  For now,
  I'm solo.  I don't know how much longer that will last.

     This month, I am in a rather eclectic mood, so I chose a song that
  has a lot of Celtic influence.  I'll be honest, I know very little
  about Celtic culture, but it seems to have a lot of Modern influences
  as well.  Whatever, it is definately a song worth a review.

     The song is from an artist known as Nightbeat.  I am not familiar
  with the artist, and this is the first time I have ever heard anything
  from him.  I am told that there is an oldskool artist that used to use
  the same name -- I cannot deny or confirm that this might be the same
  person.

     Now, a review of "The Approach" by Nightbeat


  -=- Coplan -=-

     There are two key elements to this song that I truly love.  First is
  the flute, and second is the percussion.  These two elements combined
  form a general characteristic of Celtic music that most people would
  agree upon (except maybe the experts, of which I am not one).

     First, the percussion.  I am quite fond of properly executed
  percussion.  In order for percussion of any form to sound refined and
  accurate, it must contain volume variation.  That is the key to any
  instrument that is monotone in nature.  Percussion isn't just a series
  of fancy riffs, it's soul is rooted deeply in volume.  Nightbeat has
  hit this nail on the head.  Not only has he made an exceptional example
  of good percussion, but he has also created a mood.  He has brought
  back a style that is centuries old and he has done it well.  I can
  almost picture the guy sitting there with his primative calf skin drum,
  and another guy with hand made tamborine.

     Then there is the flute.  I have heard this flute sample floating
  around some tracked tunes before, but I never thought much of it.  Then
  I heard what Nightbeat can do with it.  I think a lot of his tracking
  style definately has an influence on the effective use of this flute
  sample.  You'll notice that he stacks several notes together in a
  relatively fast moveing song.  That gives the flute it's realism, as if
  you can hear the player sliding his fingers off the holes in the flute.
  This flute player is very fast at what he does -- but isn't that
  characteristic of the style?  Needless to say, Nightbeat has also
  provided this ancient orchestra with a bunch of well written music, so
  the flute player has no trouble breathing life into this song.

     There is a very fast part towards the end of the song when the flute
  drops out.  This is just a fun section of the song, and I am glad
  Nightbeat put it in.  I don't have much to say about this part of the
  song other than the fact that it is enjoyable, and the percussion is
  still very tight.

  "The Approach" is a short song, a mere 3 minutes.  But don't let that
  dictate it's quality.  I assure you, it is a quality song, and you'll
  like it.  Download it, then listen to it.  Then go read the Retro Tunage
  column where I review more middle-age music (Sorry, had to get that
  plug in).

                --Coplan

  Song Information:
     Title:  The Approach
     Author:  Nightbeat
     Filename (zipped/unzipped):  Nb_appr.zip / Nb_appr.it (IT 2.14)
     File Size (zipped/unzipped):  765 kb / 851 kb
     Source:  http://www.traxinspace.com
     Alternate:
        ftp://ftp.scenespot.org/static_line/suppliment/Nb_appr.zip

     "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!


--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  Retro Tunage
    "Shattered Skye" by Catspaw
  By:  Coplan
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
     Occasionally, Tryhuk asks me for recommendations for this column.
  This month, I recommended a tune that we decided I should review, as it
  has such an influence on my tracking development.  The song is
  "Shattered Skye" by Catspaw (at the time, a member of RAT -- and yes,
  Skye is  spelled that way in the song).

     I will first start out by saying Shattered Skye is not considered a
  great opus by most people.  The samples are mediocre, the tune is good,
  but nothing truly exceptional...but the song has a lot of character.
  For one, it was one of the few songs tracked in the mid 1990's that
  wasn't of electronic influence.  Sure, there were others, but not like
  this.  "Shattered Skye" has an heir of medieval music.  It is a style
  that I love, favor and attempt to do almost every day.  My admiration
  for admiration for the style started long before I discovered the scene,
  but it is carried through today with such works that I keep stored in a
  special section of my hard drive.  Just a warning though, the song
  doesn't always play well in players other than Impulse Tracker.  If you
  want to catch the true feeling, you gotta use Impules Tracker.

     The song starts out with a characteristic riff that you'll see
  throughout the song.  It is most noticeable at this point in channel 5,
  where you have the percussion.  The kettle drum (one of the best samples
  in this song) and the shaker play back and forth in a relatively
  repetative nature.  This gets carried throughout most of the instruments
  in the first part of the song:  The violins, the cellos and so on.  The
  primary acoustic work in this part of the song is left up to the lead
  violins, the cymbol crashes and brass instruments.  You'll also notice
  that Catspaw takes advantage of the ever popular song speed rock method,
  but in a unique way.  He rocks from a speed of 4, to a speed of 6 (to
  get a very quick and realistic shaker) down to an average speed of 5 to
  finish out each section of a pattern (Catspaw takes full advantage of
  the fact that IT supports patterns longer than 64 lines).

     My favorite part of the song starts at about order 7.  Catspaw
  returns back to the original key (he changed, earlier. Did you
  notice?), and introduces a larger part for the brass.  The brass is
  rather impressive, considering the samples he used.  Brass is such a
  touchy instrument in tracking, instruments difficult to replicate
  realistically in tracking.  But, if you got enough going on, and lots
  of brass playing different notes in a song like this, it sounds good --
  even though it is simple.

     At this point, we take a short little slow interlude, then things
  pick up again.  That doesn't last too long, though, because things
  start to die down at order 20.  We transfer into a very low key part of
  the song in what I would consider a less-than-satisfactory transition.
  Again, this short little bit doesn't last long.  Then we close out with
  another energetic interpretation of the first section.

     The song will always be one of my favorites, but even my favorite
  tunes  have faults.  This is one tune that could've benefited from a
  little  snip of the unecessary slow parts.  I don't think they add
  anything to  the song.  But, it is a great song, and definately worth a
  download.   Especially for those of you who are trying to get into more
  orchestral  work.


  Song Information:
    Title:  Shattered Skye
    Author:  Catspaw
    Release date:  1996?
    Length:  4m
    Filename (zipped/unzipped):  rat_skye.zip / rat_skye.it
    File Size (zipped/unzipped):  290kb / 420kb
    Source:  ftp://ftp.scenespot.org/static_line/suppliment/Rat_skye.zip

                --Coplan
                  (Tryhuk returns next time)


--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  Screen Lit Vertigo
     "Spot" by Exceed (party-version)
  By:  Seven
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
  Found at www.scene.org
  1st place at the Assembly 2K demo compo

  System requirements:
     Win98, 9,5 MB HD. I think a heavy CPU (pIII) and/or a lot of memory
     are necessary to run the demo smoothly.

  Test Machine:
     Baxter's machine, a PIII 500 with some fast 3D card and lots of
     memory.

  The credits:
     code: nns, picard, robson
     visuals: warpig, der piipo
     music: generic

  The demo:
     Exceeds latest demo uses 100% software rendering in medium resolution
  (512*318), which unfortunately makes a fast CPU a must. I've experienced
  a lot of stutter with my PII 350 64MB, but now I'm at LTP4 and I can
  abuse Baxter/Green's machine for reviews :)

     Desktop Adventures starts with a ceiling lamp rocking back and
  forth, illuminating the 3D title and casting shadows on the wall. Hmm,
  they must have adapted the code from Heaven 7 (hi Picard). An infinite
  zoom a la Contour follows, when the camera dives into the title. A solar
  system with planets appear when higher levels of detail are generated,
  and we fly through the cloudy sky of the blue planet. The destination is
  a rustic farm with sheep, lying between grassy hills. This landscape
  looks really good, although it's actually done with a clever 2D trick.

     The main part of the demo is an animated sequence of several objects
  on a desktop: a clock, a jar of yogurt, cubes, pencils and a big desktop
  lamp. All these objects are asleep at the start, snoring and breathing
  slowly, until the clock starts to ring and everyone jumps into action.
  All the movements are fluently and realistic, for as far as you can say
  that about (normally) inanimate things. IMHO the best thing is the water
  floating out a flask and soaking a little cube. A small clipping bug is
  visible when the lamp jumps on a ball, you can see the ball moving
  through the foot of the lamp for a second. There are shadows all over
  the demo, to show of that this is software rendering, although the edges
  of the shadows are coarser than the edges of the normal polys.

     The music isn't a single tune, but more a soundtrack for the movements
  on the screen. It starts like a song to lull children asleep, there are
  symphonic parts, fast-paced classical music, sudden silences with voices
  singing a capella, ... Plus it has separate sound-effects like snoring,
  whistling, bangs etc. The intro, outro and main tune are all MP3s,
  probably to limit the filesize.

  Overall:
     Spot is an almost pure 3D demo, but one of the best animated I've
  seen, and the music fit like a glove. It doesn't have a real story, but
  it does suffer a bit from deja vu after having it seen a few times. And
  the fact that it's software-only is bad news for those with a slow CPUs
  :(  Well, if you can't watch it now, put it on your "demos to check out
  when I've bought a new PC"-list, cause it's worth seeing at least once.

                --Seven


--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  Intro Watch
    "Sink" by Pulse
  By:  Gekko
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
  64k intro at The Party 1997

  Authors: Camel, Thor, Falcon, Lazur, Unreal


  Notes:
     This intro requires DOS and GUS; both of them are quite hard to find
  today. It starts under Windows but freezes in the middle. There are
  hidden options: 'sink.exe /save' will create a big data file on the
  disk, but later on the intro will load much faster if started as
  'sink.exe /load'.

     I would have liked to review a new intro, but I haven't found any
  that was good enough. That is why I went back in time so much.

     'Sink' is a realtime raytracing intro. It was very famous in its day
  for its fast code. Since then the speed of an average PC has increased
  radically and there have been more complex intros of this kind (eg.
  'Rubicon', 'Heaven 7'). Despite this 'Sink' have not lost its value.

     The code has still remained impressing in 2000, even if one notices
  that the objects are too blocky. Apart from a light spot effect there is
  nothing else but raytracing. There are several scenes, ranging from
  abstract ones (flying spheres, waving walls) to ones which resemble
  reality (underwater scene, meadow with trees). The latter type does not
  mean photorealistic 3d worlds either, naturally. Instead, all the scenes
  together guide the watcher to an abstract and very simplified virtual
  world. The psychedelic waving of the screen also contributes towards the
  abstract feeling. The mood of the music fits this most well.

     The music is a 'demo style' song. One can notice that the instruments
  had to be seriously downsampled to fit in less than 64 kilobytes. This
  is unfortunately quite annoying most of the time; it is a pity because
  the tune itself is very good.

     There is a very fine pixelised 'Sink' logo and a 'Pulse' logo screen
  (but the quality of the latter is ruined by the lossy compression, again
  due to the need to fit in 64k). The textures are computer generated.
  They are fine, though the colors are not the best.

     The graphics, effects and the music together express a strange mood.
  This mood makes this intro interesting to be watched many times.

                --Gekko


--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  Editorial
    Time to Move On?
  By: Coplan
----=--=------=--=------=--=--

     A lot of influential people have left the scene while I still cannot
  fathom myself ever leaving.  People "retire" from the scene every day.
  Many weren't very well recognized while they were here.  Some didn't
  contribute very much.  Others are well known and their departure is
  widely recognized.  But it doesn't affect everyone, and it affects
  everyone differently.

     When Necros stopped being active in the scene, I'll be honest, I have
  yet to truly miss him.  He released a lot of music, and aside from his
  music, I didn't have much contact with him.  Besides, I still have
  several songs of his that I have yet to hear (especially at
  alphaconspiracy.com).

     But when someone close to you decides to throw in the towel, it
  strikes you down...breathless.  When I came to the scene, I jumped from
  group to group until I finally found a group that I felt at home.  I
  have called myself a member of Immortal Coil for many years (well, not
  iC is dead, but nevermind that).  At the time I joined, Shaithis and
  Rhythm Greene were the guys in charge.  They were good friends, they
  were my inspiration, and they were a joy to hang around on #immortal
  with.  Unfortunately, the time came when life piled it on too thick for
  them, and they no longer had interest in dealing with scene polotics.
  They  pulled me aside one day and told me that the group was mine to
  lead,  because they were both retiring from the scene.

     Uh...now what?

     Okay, so I wasn't left out on my own.  I did have friends in the
  scene,  and I had plenty of contact with the scene.  But I was a bit
  emotional for the next few days (occasionally, I still am when I think
  about old skool iC).  It is a concept that I don't understand.  What is
  life  without the scene?  I truly don't know.

     I'm sure that one day I'll get to that point.  After all, no one
  wants to hang out with a 70 year old tracker anyhow, writing all that
  antique  music, and still useing my DOS version of Impulse Tracker.  But
  to me, the scene is not about that old tracker that I've been useing for
  X number of years.  It's not about the award winning tunes that I may
  have one.  I have memories:  of music, of people, of ideas, of
  competitions.

     Seriously though, when is the proper time to move on?  When should
  one leave the scene?  The truth is, you may leave, but you'll never
  forget the scene.  If you've lost your passion, take a break.  It'll
  come back one day.  If not, then you should ask yourself if you had an
  enjoyable time while you were here.

                --Coplan


--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  Scene Sense
     Where the heck did our values go?
  By:  PsiTron
----=--=------=--=------=--=--

     I have tried to figure out exactly what I was going to say for my
  first 'official' article for Static Line. I went through a lot of drafts
  of ideas and such and realized I was trying to dig too deep for a topic,
  when the topic had always been in front of me. So here goes.

     First I must say that I am an anti-Windows person that really does
  not care for mp3's in the scene, that is true. I cannot deny it, but
  because of that my opinions may differ from yours, but hear me out, at
  the very least. For I would like to explore the reason, at least the
  original one, why Demoscener's do what they do.

     Well, they write demos and create modules, duh, obviously. That is
  not in question here. The real question is WHY do people write demos or
  mods. What the heck purpose do they have? Well, originally demos seemed
  to be designed as a challenge to make the most of your hardware. At the
  time that this idea originally surfaced, C64's were still popular.
  Granted, if one takes a look at the 'old-skewl' demos on the C64, they
  look like complete crap, at least in comparison to today's demos. That,
  however, is circumstantial - the true fantatic still watches the demos,
  I am sure, just as true Zelda fanatics still play the game (even though
  they can beat it in under an hour, usually with their eyes closed). Just
  as a chip-fan still listens to chips, at least for their nostalgic
  value. One mustn't forget the original .MODs where one was forced to do
  a very similar thing - make the best with what you have (in that case 4
  channels, 1 effects column, no NNAs, no rez and 8-bit samples). That is
  still true for today's modules, though many people find seem it limiting
  instead of inspiring. And, of course, whether it be for inspiration of
  just from shear addiction, people still watch demos like (yes, here I
  have to mention it) Second Reality.

     What possess people to listen to the piercing sounds of chiptunes?
  Because we (talking as a chip-fanatic) appreciate the special style
  involved in producing such a piece of music. Some people cringe at the
  bleeps and sinewave basses. Others delight in the artistic beauty of
  them. MODs are and were the same way. It is a trade of sorts. Demos are
  part of that trade.

     But to re-establish my point, what do demos, and tracks alike say
  today? Some of them, fortunately, are saying the same ideas that the by
  now ancient demos said: "Look at what we can do with our hardware!" and
  "I bet you're wondering how I did that mad-phat effect without using a
  riff and only 4 channels!" It is true that I, myself, being one who
  tries to stick to the original set values of the scene enjoy the
  ambience and messages of the more modern demos. Of course I do - it
  gives the artists behind the demos an incredible power and hightens the
  emotions expressed within demos, but I think that the fundamental idea
  of why demos are made, and even why chiptunes and MODs are made have
  escaped some people. If one wants to present a profound message without
  giving full regard to the fundamental idea of demos, why not simply make
  an AVI? That way one does not have to worry about the limits of memory
  or processing speed, etc. Why not make an MP3 instead of being forced to
  fine-tune a module? To be more specific, why cut corners by using
  pre-written libraries that one knows to be less efficient, or use
  multitudes of easy-to-make riffs when one can have the enjoyment of at
  least attempting it in a module?

     Has the scene gotten lazy? Lost it's way? Confused? Truthfully, I do
  know what caused it, though there are many theories. I could care less
  what caused it. My job, as a real and true scener is to find a way to
  fix it. Some of you may think insane to like DOS or chiptunes (yes, I
  know I keep mentioning that). Well, that is your opinion, but I hope one
  day you can experience the joy of finally, after countless hours, making
  a little piece of near-perfection in such an imperfect world...


     This has been the first time I have delved into writing articles for
  an e-mag (or for any thing, really), so I welcome suggestions, but take
  note that I tend to be an opinionated individual, and my opinions may
  not be the best out there, but the purpose of this article is to inspire
  thinking, and yes, sometimes argument. Because in doing so more can be
  learned about the scene, which way it is going, what should be done,
  etc. Again, I welcome comments (could use help with making a better
  title =), and thanks for reading!

                --PsiTron


--=--=--
--=--=------=--=------=--=----
  Scene Dirt
    News & Rumors
  By:  Coplan
----=--=------=--=------=--=--
  -=- Upcoming Alpha Conspiracy CD -=-
     There is a tidbit of information about an upcoming alpha conspiracy
  CD at the following link.  This will be updated over time.  For now, you
  can get an MP3 preview of a song to be released on this CD.  Frequent
  visitors to the site will find a secret directory of his music.

     http://www.alphaconspiracy.com/audio_cd.html


  -=- Oldskool Artist Pages on mp3.com -=-
     Fans of Siren/Sandman, Teque and Stereoman should check out pages of
  interest on mp3.com  They are as follows:

     Alexander Brandon (Siren/Sandman)
        http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/135/ospf.html
     Teque
        http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/83/teque.html
     Stereoman
        http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/165/george_marinov.html


  -=- DJ in a Box -=-
     Some of you out there have been interested in broadcasting your
  music.  Well, DJ in a Box makes this easy over an IceCast or ShoutCast
  server.  For more information, check out this side project of our
  technical consultant, Ranger Rick.

     http://www.djiab.org


  -=- Scene.org moves to Netherlands -=-
     The Scene.org servers are not dead.  In fact, they are moveing the
  services to the Netherland's server.  The move is inconvenient, but the
  servers should be faster, and have much more diskspace.  The entire
  process should take another week.

                --Coplan


  Scene Dirt is a semi-regular column offering the latest tidbits of
  information to its readers.  If you have any bits of information that
  you think should be here, contact coplan (coplan.ic@rcn.com) and offer
  as much information as possible.


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

  Demo Groups:

      3g Design..............................http://3gdesign.cjb.net
      Aardbei.....................................http://aardbei.com
      Acid Rain..............................http://surf.to/acidrain
      Agravedict........................http://www.agravedict.art.pl
      Anakata..............................http://www.anakata.art.pl
      ANDESA Soft International..................http://andesa.da.ru
      Astral..............................http://astral.scene-hu.com
      Astroidea........................http://astroidea.scene-hu.com
      AtomiK....................................http://atomik.ini.hu
      Bomb..................................http://bomb.planet-d.net
      BlaBla..............................http://blabla.planet-d.net
      Blasphemy..............................http://www.blasphemy.dk
      Byterapers.....................http://www.byterapers.scene.org
      Calodox.................................http://www.calodox.org
      Chrome..............................http://chrome.scene-hu.com
      CoPro.....................................http://www.copro.org
      Damage...................................http://come.to/damage
      Dance...................................http://dance.flipp.net
      Defacto 2..............................http://www.defacto2.net
      Dolops......................... ........http://dolOps.scene.hu
      Exceed...........................http://www.inf.bme.hu/~exceed
      Fobia Design...........................http://www.fd.scene.org
      GODS...................................http://www.idf.net/gods
      Green.....................................http://green.dyns.cx
      Grif........................http://arrabonet.gyor.hu/~rattgrif
      Haujobb......................................http://haujobb.de
      Hellcore............................http://www.hellcore.art.pl
      IJSKAST.............................http://www.ijskast.cjb.net
      Immortals..............................http://imrt.home.ml.org
      Infuse...................................http://www.infuse.org
      Just For Fun...........................http://jff.planet-d.net
      Kilobite...............................http://kilobite.cjb.net
      Kolor................................http://www.kaoz.org/kolor
      Kooma.....................................http://www.kooma.com
      Label zero.........................http://labelzero.pganet.com
      Mandula.........................http://www.inf.bme.hu/~mandula
      Monar................ftp://amber.bti.pl/pub/scene/distro/monar
      Nextempire..................http://members.xoom.com/NEXTEMPIRE
      Ninja Gefilus.........http://www.angelfire.com/or/ninjagefilus
      Noice.....................................http://www.noice.org
      Orion..............................http://orion.arfstudios.org
      Popsy Team............................http://popsyteam.rtel.fr
      Quad........................................http://www.quad.nl
      Rage........................................http://www.rage.nu
      Replay.......................http://www.shine.scene.org/replay
      Retro A.C...........................http://www.retroac.cjb.net
      Rhyme................................http://rhyme.scene-hu.com
      Sista Vip..........................http://www.sistavip.exit.de
      Skytech team............................http://www.skytech.org
      Sunflower.......................http://sunflower.opengl.org.pl
      Suspend......................http://www.optimus.wroc.pl/rappid
      Tehdas...................................http://come.to/tehdas
      Tesko..........................http://www.scentral.demon.co.uk
      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.ca.tc
      Universe..........................http://universe.planet-d.net
      Vantage..................................http://www.vantage.ch

  Music Groups:

      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
      Fridge...........................http://www.ssmedion.de/fridge
      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.th-zwickau.de/~maz
      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
      Radical Rhythms.....http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/merrelli/rr
      RBi Music.............................htpp://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://tdr.scene.org
      UltraBeat.........................http://www.innerverse.com/ub
      Vibrants................................http://www.vibrants.dk
      Wiremaniacs.........................http://www.wiremaniacs.com

  Others:

      Arf!Studios..........................http://www.arfstudios.org
      Calodox demolinks exchange.....http://calodox.planet-d.net/cde
      #coders..................................http://coderz.cjb.net
      Comic Pirates.........................http://scene-central.com
      Demonews Express.........http://www.teeselink.demon.nl/express
      Demo fanclub........................http://jerware.org/fanclub
      Demoscene.org news forum..............http://www.demoscene.org
      Digital Undergrounds.....................http://dug.iscool.net
      Doose charts...............................http://www.doose.dk
      Dreams2 CD.........................http://nl.scene.org/dreams2
      Freax...................http://freax.scene-hu.com/mainmenu.htm
      GfxZone............................http://gfxzone.planet-d.net
      Hugi size-compo...............http://home.pages.de/~hugi-compo
      Orange Juice.........................http://ojuice.citeweb.net
      PC-demos explained.....http://www.oldskool.org/demos/explained
      Pixel...................................http://pixel.scene.org
      Scenet....................................http://www.scenet.de
      Sunray..............................http://sunray.planet-d.net
      Swiss List.................http://www.profzone.ch/vantage/list
      Swiss Scene Server.......................http://www.chscene.ch
      TakeOver................................http://www.takeover.nl
      Textmode Demo Archive.................http://tmda.planet-d.net
      Hungarian scene page...................http://www.scene-hu.com
      Trebel...................................http://www.trebel.org
      Zen of Tracking.........................http://surf.to/the-imm

  DiskMags / SceneMags:

      Amber...............................http://amber.bti.pl/di_mag
      Amnesia...............http://amnesia-dist.future.easyspace.com
      Demojournal....................http://demojournal.planet-d.net
      Dragon......................http://www.wasp.w3.pl/pages/dragon
      Fleur................................http://fleur.scene-hu.com
      Heroin...................................http://www.heroin.net
      Hugi........................http://home.pages.de/~hugidownload
      Music Massage......................http://www.scene.cz/massage
      Planet Chartmag...........http://www.agravedict.art.pl/planet/
      Pain..................................http://pain.planet-d.net
      Scenial...........................http://www.scenial.scene.org
      Static Line......................http://www.ic.l7.net/statline
                                 http://www.scenespot.org/staticline
      Total Disaster...................http://www.totaldisaster.w.pl
      TUHB.......................................http://www.tuhb.org
      WildMag...........................http://www.wildmag.notrix.de

  FTPs:

      Amber.......................................ftp://amber.bti.pl
      Cyberbox.....................................ftp://cyberbox.de
      Flerp.....................................ftp://flerp.scene.hu
      Scene.org..................................ftp://ftp.scene.org
      Skynet archive.................ftp://acid2.stack.nl/pub/skynet
      ACiD2 Archive.............................ftp://acid2.stack.nl

--=--=--
----=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------=--=------
  Editor:            Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@scenespot.org
  Columnists:        Coplan / D. Travis North / coplan@scenespot.org
                      Dilvish / Eric Hamilton / dilvie@yahoo.com
                      Gekko / Gergely Kutenich / mont@tar.hu
                      Louis Gorenfeld / gorenfeld@vrone.net
                      Psitron / Tim Soderstrom / TigerHawk@stic.net
                      Setec / Jesper Pederson / jesped@post.tele.dk
                      Seven / Stefaan / Stefaan.VanNieuwenhuyze@rug.ac.be
                      SiN / Ian Haskin / sin@netcom.ca
                      Subliminal / Matt Friedly / sub@plazma.net
                      Tryhuk / Tryhuk Vojtech / xtryhu00@stud.fee.vutbr.cz
                      Virt / virt@bellsouth.net
  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
  space at the end of each line.  Please avoid foul language and high ascii
  characters.  Contributions should be mailed to Coplan
  (coplan@scenespot.org).

     See you next month!

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