=============================================================================== =============================================================================== === i""""i === /""""/ == /"""""""""""""/ = /""""""""""""""""/ ========= /"""/ = === | | == / / == / ____ / = /_____ ______/ ========= / / == === | | = / / == / / = / / ======= / / =============== / / === === | | / / == / / = / / ======= / / ======= /"""""""" / ==== === | | / / == / / = / / ======= / / ======= / ____ / ===== === | "" / == / / = / / ======= / / ======= / / = / / ====== === | / == / """" / = /"""""" """""/ = / """" / ======= === |________/ == /_____________/ = /________________/ = /___________/ ======== =============================================================================== =============================================================================== ISSUE 8 Editor Phil Bird Submissions, comments and everything else to : se1pb@dmu.ac.uk Subscribers : 570 =============================================================================== ____ _ _ / ___|___ _ __ | |_ ___ _ __ | |_ ___ | | / _ \| '_ \| __/ _ \ '_ \| __/ __| | |__| (_) | | | | || __/ | | | |_\__ \ \____\___/|_| |_|\__\___|_| |_|\__|___/ 1.....................................................................Editorial 2..................................................................Demo Section 3...............................................How I learned to cheat in games 4...........................................................The Shareware Shope 5...................................................................MUSH to do? 6..................................................................Letters page 7.............................................................ASCII art gallery 8...................................................................Short Story 9.................................................................Parting words ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _____ _ _ _ _ _ | ____|__| (_) |_ ___ _ __(_) __ _| | | _| / _` | | __/ _ \| '__| |/ _` | | | |__| (_| | | || (_) | | | | (_| | | |_____\__,_|_|\__\___/|_| |_|\__,_|_| Welcome to another issue of VOId, although a somewhat late one. Opps. :) The reason for this lazyness on my behalf? Work of the most horrible kind.. big blobs of huge, sticky, heavy duty work.. bleah makes the stomache churn at the very thought. *grin*. My thanks go, once again, to everyone who gave up some of there free time to send in there submissions, every little helps as they say. Anyways I must also apologies for the lack of sections in the super ish, mainly due again, to me having lots of work to keep me busy. Promise the next issue will have even more fun filled sections with better everything and all that.. :) Feedback, please send it to me, or indeed to the letters page, any pointers as to what sort of articles you'd like to see, what you think to the layout, presentation.. and dare I say it spelling and grama?! On the subject of spelling next issue should be lovely, as a kind chap has offered his services as a human spell and grama checker. Well done that man. Well once again I hope you enjoy this ish, and stick around for the next couple eh? Oh and don't forget to sign all your friends up for a subscription.. it's the ideal gift. :) Cheers Phil ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ____ ____ _ _ | _ \ ___ _ __ ___ ___ / ___| ___ ___| |_(_) ___ _ __ | | | |/ _ \ '_ ` _ \ / _ \ \___ \ / _ \/ __| __| |/ _ \| '_ \ | |_| | __/ | | | | | (_) | ___) | __/ (__| |_| | (_) | | | | |____/ \___|_| |_| |_|\___/ |____/ \___|\___|\__|_|\___/|_| |_| Greets to all! I am attempting to fill the position of Demo Reviewer here at VOID with this first article, submission, or whatever we're going to call it. Instead of starting with a "What's a Demo?" or a "Synopsis of a Demo", I'm going to jump right in and review one of my personal favorites -- Second Reality by Future Crew I'll save explanations and histories for the *next* article (assuming there is one :-> ) DemoInfo: Machine: IBM MS-DOS Compatibles ArchiveName: 2NDREAL1.ZIP - ~1273493 2NDREAL2.ZIP - ~ 790384 ArchiveSite: ftp.funet.fi /pub/msdos/games/demos cs.uwp.edu /pub/msdos/demo/groups/future.crew ReleaseDate: October 7th, 1993 DemoRequirements: 80386, 570 000b RAM, SoundBlaster/SBPro 1MB EMS, or Gravis Ultrasound. Recommended: Fast 486(33MHz+), Local-Bus VGA, >>4MB RAM, QEMM, GUS or SBPro, Dolby Surround Sound decoder/amplifier. First off, this demo won First Place at Assembly '93 (ASM93), a demo convention, so that should say something. Future Crew has consistently been the fore-runners of the PC demo scene, and this demo really shows a polished effort. (BTW, UNREAL, from the last issue of VOID, was written by Future Crew as well.) This demo, as many others, is divided into several 'scenes.' Each scene has a particular routine that combines graphics, sound, and more than likely, a custom algorithm routine that does some really neat effect. The demo, divided into scenes, is as follows: 1: Panning scene of a lunar (martian?) landscape. It's like the beginning of a movie.... good soundtrack, slow panning, and a couple of credits fade in and out. The panning could be a little smoother, though. The highlight of this scene is when a ship comes from *behind* you and goes over you, complete with surround-sound effects. After it diminishes into the distance, an explosion with equally good surround-sound starts us off into the demo. 2: Still picture of a demon monster. 3: Now, the trademark music of demos starts: techno. Heavy beat to go along with the nice shaded rotating polygons. Smooth. 4: Next is the wormhole effect. It gives you the impression you are flying in a twisty tunnel. Again, smooth enough to make your head steer. :) 5: This is my favorite scene. This has, as best I can describe it, a morphing picture of a circular color pattern. Okay, so I can't describe it. It moves to the beat and gets faster and faster until it's almost a blue, still pulsating to the beat... absolutely incredible. Could give you a headache! 6: Still picture of a gorilla guy. 7: Now, the trademark of all demos: a scroll. The coders write a few words and remarks and scroll them across the screen in the most creative fashion. This scroll is by far the best I've seen purely because it's so artistic (words on water underneath tree branches.... nice) and the scroll is short. Some groups go overboard and make the demo revolve around a constant ten-page scroll about how cool their demo is. Not the Future Crew. 8: Still pic of an evil-looking head. This has a nice see-through sphere bouncing around over it, working as a lens to magnify and distort the pic behind it. Nice effect again. 9: The same pic starts to rotate here and zoom in and out. Looks like incredible real-time bitmap manipulation. Very smooth for the amount of work they're doing... 10: The calmest part of the demo is this 'plasma/water' effect. Very cool, very cool. 'Nuff said. Music is calmer too. 11: 3D rotation of a cube with plasma surface. Unsurprising. 12: Vectorballs! Yep, another demo trademark. These balls are small spheres that are thrown about the screen. The Future Crew handles dozens of 'em at once, making them jump, dance, rotate, and make neat patterns. Very very smooth and impressive. Another fav part of the demo. 13: Still pic of two spheres with a sword coming out of them. A little 'yawn' here. After everything else, this seems mundane. 14: We're flying over a changing 'morphing' landscape. Choppy and generally unimpressive. Poorest part of the demo IMHO. 15: Pic of lady on steed.... 'bounced in'. 16: 3D VR scene. A ship flys around a city complete with buildings trees and streets. Smooth -- looks like a GOOD game. Realtime shading. 17: Future Crew Pic. 18: Credits. This, as you can see, is classified into the 'megademo' category. With almost twenty (!) sections, each as impressive as the other, Future Crew really outdid themselves this time. The music is GREAT throughout this demo. They really are more artistic than most other groups. Their coding is pretty flawless. I only ran into problems when I didn't boot terribly clean. Otherwise, it ran without a hitch. (Note: I couldn't get it to work well on a Cyrix 486DLC, but that computer had other problems.) You can't say that about most hacked-up demos from other groups. Heck, even the Credits are impressive! The one thing that's definitive about this demo is the fact that it uses (or emulates, I can't tell) Surround Sound. They even have the 'In Dolby Surround Sound where available' logo in the startup scenes. :-> Nice touch, Future Crew. FYI, ripped from the FCINFO10.TXT included with the demo: Alias: Real name: Age: Main responsibility: -------------------------------------------------------------- GORE Samuli Syvahuoko 20 Organizer Psi Sami Tammilehto 20 Coder Trug Mika Tuomi 21 Coder Wildfire Arto Vuori 18 Coder Purple Motion Jonne Valtonen 17 Musician Skaven Peter Hajba 18 Musician Marvel Aki Maatta 18 Graphics Artist Pixel Mikko Iho 18 Graphics Artist Abyss Jussi Laakkonen 18 BBS Coordinator Again, from FCINFO10.TXT: The new one is: Our home BBS is: Abyss / Future Crew StarPort - FC WHQ BBS (c/o Jussi Laakkonen) +358-0-804 4626, 14.4k Sepetlahdentie 2 E 36 +358-0-804 4113, 14.4k 02230 Espoo SysOp: Abyss FINLAND You can also e-mail us or send a fax: Internet: jtheinon@kruuna.helsinki.fi (GORE & Jake) Fax: +358-0-420 8620 (at GORE's place) Overall, like I've preached before, this is the definitive demo out there. If you've never experienced a demo, get this one if you have the power to run it. One warning: you'll never be satisfied with another game or application again! (Especially ones that run in MS Windoze!) I look forward to reviewing more demos in the future, especially the new Party '93 entries. Next, I will try to do a synopsis of what a demo is, it's history, and who these people really are. (Look for an interview possibly in the next few issues!) So until then, keep your eyes glued to this demo, keep wishing you had a faster machine and more memory, and check out the demo scene at your nearest anonymous ftp site. Ratings: 1 10 Graphics * * * * * * * * * - 9/10 - good stuff, but never perfect. ;> Sound * * * * * * * * * * 10/10 - absolutely great music... dolby surround, too! incredible Effects * * * * * * * * * - 9/10 - great great great... except #14 was choppy IMHO. check #5, #10, and #12 though! Coding * * * * * * * * * - 9/10 - again, stellar. No glitches except a few and the 486DLC possible problem. Overall * * * * * * * * * = 9.5/10 - I give it 9.5 because it deserves it. I've never seen a better demo, or a more entertaining one. I like the fact the scroll was kept to a minimum. Makes me feel good about PCs (especially fast ones!) Well, that wraps it up for this demo review. I hope you've enjoyed your read! If you have any questions, or comments, please direct them to the address at the bottom of this article. Look forward to the next review! Mark L. Chang - mchang@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "HAH HAH, YOU CAN'T KILL ME" or "How I learned to cheat in games" If you were one of the lucky individuals who owned a Commodore 64, you may be familiar with devices like the Action Replay cartridge. These little beasties, among other things, allowed you to stop your game at any point, and with a few deft keypresses give you infinite lives/time/health etc etc. It had seemed that there was no equivalent in the PC world, but do not despair, for there is! Before you start mumbling about free expansion slots and dma conflicts let me tell you that this little beastie is a piece of software, no need to add chunks of hardware to your PC. Throught the wonderful(!) world of TSR's, comes GAMETOOLS. GAMETOOLS is an extremely nifty little TSR, designed mainly for the cheating and cracking of games, though it is certainly not limited to that field. With some assembly knowledge it is possible to crack games, removing password screens and the like (because your dog ate the manual of course), remove registration screens and cheat in games. Its program-altering abilities are limited only by your knowledge of assembly language. But for the unenlightened in assembly among us, it is still useful. Games can be hacked to give unlimited lives and such with no assembly knowledge. Simply run GAMETOOLS (uses about 70K of conventional memory), run your game, and press the printscreen button. Up pops GAMETOOLS. Select the analysis option, return to your game, lose a life, press printscreen again and continue the analysis. Hopefully after a few of these GAMETOOLS will find the address which contains your lives/health/time/whatever. Tell it to watch over it, return to your game, next time the game tries to alter your lives/health/.... GAMETOOLS will pop up and ask you if you want to convert the game to unlimited lives/he.... (you get the idea by now) and Bob is your proverbial uncle. Look Mom, no assembly! With a little more knowledge, you can write down the addresses that have to be changed, and what to change them to, and with a hexeditor you can change the game so it will always have unlimited whatever. Many programs are compressed with pklite or lzexe or similar, thus defeating the hexedit procedure above. No problem, cos GAMETOOLS comes with a little utility called UP.EXE which decompresses such programs to a normal chunky style .exe file, which can then be hexedited to your hearts content. Even with a very limited amount of assembly knowledge a lot of interesting and perhaps morally irresponsible things can be done, like the removing of registration delays and such (Of course, just so you can fully test what the program would be like if you did register :) GAMETOOLS has an internal debugger, which lets you step through the program instruction by instruction, haphazardly changing bits if you want. Of course if you don't know what you are doing this is probably not a good idea :) You can set up break points, very useful for the more experienced, you can let GAMETOOLS watch for a certain interrupt, and GAMETOOLS will pop up when it is called. A 386 cpu is required, plus about 70K of memory. This may not leave enough room for your game to run. There is also a version which uses extended memory, this uses about 60K. If you register you receive a version which uses expanded memory, and a mere 10K of conventional memory. Registration is US $40, with a student discount of 10%. If I had one complaint, it would be the documentation, it is sparse at best, and the english is rather bad. However most of it is fairly easy to use, with a bit of practice. So now I can hear you all asking, 'where do I get it?'. The filename is GTT-???.*, ??? is the version number, * is arj or zip. Latest version is GTT-322.ARJ/ZIP I beleive. It is available for ftp from these places: ftp.uwp.edu : /pub/msdos/romulus/cracks wuarchive.wustl.edu : /pub/MSDOS_UPLOADS/utilities (^the file can be kept there for a very short time) Or you can even finger the author to get the latest copy, if on a UNIX box: finger cs_wwkin@uststu.ust.hk | uudecode So no excuses, start cheating today! If you have any questions about GAMETOOLS, my review, or just life in general, feel free to mail me. I love mail! Can't get enough! :) - Tardis (jhawkins@tardis.apana.org.au) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Shareware Shope Morphing: Part Three Sorry to have delayed this final and most crucial element of the morphing process, but I'm sure you will find it worth the wait. Here it is at last, a review of the perfect FREEWARE animation viewer: Autodesk Animation Player for Windows Version 1.00. I simply can't say enough good things about this product. It offers simple operation, but still manages to provide an abundance of control and depth. Installing AAplay is as simple as unzipping the files into a directory and dragging the program from the file manager to a program manager group. You can open animation files from within the program, but I would recommend associating your .fli files with aaplay for convenience. Then you will be able to double click on any of the animation files you create and have them pop right up, ready to be viewed. If viewing your new morph is all you care about, AAplay makes it as easy as playing a CD. Along the menu bar is the series: < Stop > >> This corresponds to: One frame back, Stop a running animation, One frame forward, and play. Chances are you won't ever need to see another function of this program to enjoy your new morphs. However, if you want to fine tune your creation further, AAplay provides you with plenty of gadgets. First, selecting "Animation settings" from the file menu will give you complete control over your animation's speed and duration. In addition, by pushing the "Transitions" button, you can then add special fades and cuts to the end and beginning of your morph. For example, you could make your favorite morph fade to black over over four loops as it ends. Also worth noting is that the "Animation settings" box provides a "test" button. This means you can do all kinds of damage to your animation, test it with the new parameters, and then if you don't like it, hit cancel without fear of losing your original set of parameters. It's perfect for getting that last nit-picky detail just right. Second, AAplay allows you to play a sound file while you view your morph. You can choose either a wav or a midi file and specify timing, looping, and delays from the "Animation settings" box. Who could resist playing a wav file of a dog barking at the end of a morph from a cat to a dog, or putting on a midi sound file from Rockey while a frail, old man morphs into Sylvester Stalone. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to save a animation with its sound file permanently. To do this, AAplay provides a powerful scripting utility. This lets you create scripts that string together your morphs in your favorite order and specify music to be played as they are viewed. I won't get into the details of the process, but it provides a nice intuitive method to mesh several of your creations into a full fledged graphics presentation complete with sound. AAPlay can convert your fli's into other standard formats, specifically: flc, rle, dib. It will also optimize your animation for the Windows environment if you wish, eliminating extraneous palette colors. As files are converted, slide bars trace your progress so that you know how much longer you must wait. The conversions I attempted were speedy and straight forward. I am not that big of a fan of Windows, but its multitasking ability does add here to the usefulness of AAplay. If you have the memory and your video driver supports more than 256 colors, one fun thing you can do is open up and run several different morphs at once. It is an impressive sight to watch four animations morph in and out together. More practically, you can open up two copies of the same animation and compare changes side by side. Once you have multiple copies running there is an appreciable slowdown, but it is not so great as to render the animations unwatchable. To get the most out of the program, AAplay comes with a complete Windows help file as a reference. There also exists an older DOS version of AAplay that only allows one to view FLIs and GIFs and alter the animation speeds. It does, however, still support a mouse. Although primitive compared to the Windows version, it is still well implemented and a good way to quickly view a new animation if you don't have or don't want to use Windows. The DOS version also runs flawlessly under the Windows environment while being only a third of the size as it's sister program. The version I reviewed included no documentation whatsoever, which, intuitive interface or no intuitive interface, is never a good idea. Otherwise, its only other appreciable flaw is a somewhat awkward file system. This concludes my three part series on morphing. I'll be back next issue with a something completely different. In the meantime, happy morphing! Program Name: Autodesk Animator Player for Windows, Ver. 1.00 Synopsis: View, convert, and alter animations. Also allows scripting and sound. Author: Autodesk, Inc. Cost: FREE FTP Location: cica.cica.indiana.edu /pub/pc/win3/desktop/waaplay.zip System reqs: Windows Program Name: AutoDesk Animator Public Domain Player, Ver. 1.0 Synopsis: View and alter speed for Fli animations. Author: VOST Group, Inc (for Autodesk, Inc) Cost: FREE FTP Location: ftp.germany.eu.net /pub/comp/msdos/mirror.garbo/animation/aaplay.lzh System reqs: ??? (Definitely minimal) Reviewed by, Perfectly Normal 96jmr@williams.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MUSH to do by babbage Attempt 2! (after accidently deleting this file earlier) Mush article time again! Only small this week, as, like d.a. (thats me-ed), works been getting a bit heavy. RIGHT! Where was I... lets add a couple of useful bits of information to our who list shall we :) What would we like? How about how long old fred bloggs has been on for, and how long his idle time is. first, change the %rName%r information bit to %rPlayer Name[space(5)]On For[space(5)]Idle%r which will be a title for the name, time logged on and idle times, each seperated by 5 spaces. Were not actually going to put the player information commands in the &who attribute. But why I hear you cry! It helps to keep things shorter and more readable, making it easier to change and more modularized, and were going to split it up into another attribute. Call it whoinfo, and we 'execute' it with the u() command. ie. u(me/whoinfo,##) will do it nicely. The ,## passes the person you want to find the info about from the iter list into the u() function. You want to insert into your who command after the title and before the bottom of your who list. Go on, you can do it! Right, number of connected players... Thats easy :) conn(player) returns how long a player is on for (in seconds) We take this value, divide it down a bit to get minutes and seconds and you have a minutes:seconds value for time connected! [rjust(div(conn(%0),3600),2,0)]:[rjust(mod(div(conn(%0),60),60),2,0)] will do the job with a little justification in it as well. Ops, hurring along here.... (Deadline for this article is in 10 minutes, thats why its a bit hurried!!!!!) Idle time now :) This is just like the connect time, idle(player) will return the idle time of someone.... [rjust(switch(lt(idle(%0),60),1,[idle(%0)]s,[div(idle(%0),60)]m),4)] should give you a display of minutes and seconds idle. You can always change these to include hour times as well if you want! Its simply dividing the seconds down by 60 to give minutes, and then working out the seconds left and displaying them seperated by a : symbol. adding them together along with displaying the persons name and you should get something like... &whoinfo test=[ljust(name(%0),17)][rjust(div(conn(%0),3600),2,0)]: [rjust(mod(div(conn(%0),60),60),2,0)] %b%b%b%b%b [rjust(switch(lt(idle(%0),60),1,[idle(%0)]s, [div(idle(%0),60)]m),4)])] (I think, dont have time to check it im affraid! You can join the lines together as well). It should also be justified in some way making it look nice :) Name connect:time idle:time See if you can get it working!! dont forget your u(me/whoinfo,##) in your &who command! Thats all from me this week! What a mess eh! Comes from trying to start typing this 20 mins before its got to be in! Babbage! :] (All spelling errors, mistakes, bad code (C) 1994 Babbage (tm), I didnt have time to read through or even check it :P ) Oh, before I go, the ascii art d.a. put in last week and took credit for, guess who gave it him? Muggins here! And lets not forget it! So ^^^oo^^^ to him :) (Yeah.. thanks for the ASCII art babbage.. love ya. *grin*) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- __ __ __ / / ___ / /_/ /____ _______ / /__/ -_) __/ __/ -_) __(_-< /____/\__/\__/\__/\__/_/ /___/ Hi people, Welcome to a new (and possibly one off?) section in VOId.. this is the letters page. I received a mail about the last issue that I thought would be worth printing for your opnions.. please feel free to respond and tell me what you think. Mark any mail for publication with LETTERS PAGE at the top of the message so I know you want it published. Come on lets get some discussion going on in this section! NIMBUS the way of the sneak. By Babbage Phil, This story is totally out of place. People are being religiously offensive about this kind of stuff. What you have published here might be material illegal to posess in many countries. It may be common among your friends to discuss computer crimes (yes, REALLY) but out in the real world (I am 39!) you have better watch yourself, or you'll find yourself in deep trouble. Just friendly advice. Tony Mansson (BTW I hope you don't mind me publishing this letter Tony) -What the editor says: Thanks for the hint, I'll leave this one open for the readers to decide (after all the mag is published for you the readers!).. All I will say is that as an editor I generally publish anything that is sent (well most things).. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ___ ____ ____ ___ ___ _ / _ \/ ___| / ___|_ _|_ _| __ _ _ __| |_ | |_| \___ \| | | | | | / _` | '__| __| | _ |___) | |___ | | | | | (_| | | | |_ |_| |_|____/ \____|___|___| \__,_|_| \__| GALLERY An ASCII Sig submission.. Phew.. Thanks to ZDAP391@BAY.CC.KCL.AC.UK for:- PastMaster - --- "KNOW THYSELF" :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: From the Temple of Apollo at Delphi - c6th Century BC) [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] /====================/ \=====================\ /====================/ \=====================\ ------------------------/ \------------------------ ____ _ / __/___ __ _ ___ __ ____ __ __ __ __|/___ _\ \/ __/ _ `/ __/ -_) __/ __/ _ \ |/|/ / (_-< /___/\__/\_,_/_/ \__/\__/_/ \___/__,__/ /___/ ___ _________________ ___ __ / _ \/ __/ ___/ _/ _/ / _ \____/ /_ / _ /\ \/ /___/ /_/ / / _ / __/ __/ /_//_/___/\___/___/___/ /_//_/_/ \__/ Scarecrow (boba@gagme.wwa.com) here. I keep a collection of ascii pics called The Scarecrow's ASCII Art Archive. Here's a sampling. In the actual 350 K archive, there's information on who sent or posted the pics, plus special sections on sigs, bbs art, color, animations, etc. And I make clever, witty comments on everything. If you'd like a copy of it, you can FTP it from Jorn Barger's FTP site. Just ftp genesis.mcs.com and cd mcsnet.users/jorn/ascii-art and look for: -rw-r--r-- 1 jorn contr 348595 Jan 4 13:02 Scarecrows.aa [Bob's archive] Here are some of the goodies. Enjoy. |>>> |>>> | | _ _|_ _ _ _|_ _ | |_| |_| | | |_| |_| | \ . / \ . . / \ , / \ . / | . |_ _ _ _ _ _| , | | .| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| | . | | , | . . . . | .| | . | . . . . , |. | ___----_____| . |. , _______ . | , |---~_____ _---~ | | . /+++++++\ . | . | ~---_ |. | . |+++++++| . | . | ~-_ __ | . | , |+++++++|. . _|__ | ~-_ ____--`~ '--~~__ . |++++ __|----~ ~`---, ___^~-__ -~--~ ~---__|,--~' ~~----_____-~' `~----~ ART BY T.L.G. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx __ xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx// \ xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx((_ )x xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_xxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx(o)xxxxxxx rrxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxo rrrxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/|\xx/ rrrrxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx__/x| \ rrr xwxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx rrr wwwxxxxxxxxx .. xwwww... rrr wwwxxxxxxx . www .. rrr wwwww ..... ====... rrr ========= rrr 'rr._ ''rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr **** **** ********) ***** * ***************) * ** ***** *********************) * * (********************************) * (*********************************) * (************************************** (** (O) ****************************** (***********************************) (*************************************) (****** ***************************) (** *** ** *** * ****** (** *** *** *** * ***** (** *** * * * * * (* *** * * * * *** *** ** * * * ** ***** ** ** ** **** b, JPQ, .dP'd|._,=====\__ xdP #P"' _,d##b_ .d/" ' `?#:;"""""' ,pP' `#_ ,d" .,-qx_, `QL d/' ,/"' "\: 3L_ ,/" ./' ./" `\_ dP :/ .,,===-x_ ` Q| .d' ` .,/" `\L .x--__|# ./' /" `#" "Q# .d' ," `b ]_ d' ./' !L ]| JP J ] b #' j' || ]| |P | | || || |' # || d| # # || #| || P |! || || :| # `b_xdp====bdb, |' :| .,p/"" ``b_ jd##: d##L db`"`"#: .x/"' `?L, |####b |#### d' #| jP' ``\d####P ,/?Q##.d[,----``'=\_ Q: ._,x,--q_, "?##P' _x-" ;:""' Qb `#b_, `""""""`"`=_ """""""" :-" _,-r-'.,dP ``?=x__ `b, _dd,===##P"" """?=\xx___ `q_, ,/"' `"""""""""""?Qpq, .,/' ?b""=qx_ .,,`" !#_ ][ 3#q, ]b ._x#P\,"\_ `?\_, .,x######p#P""' \ `'\, ?##' /b d""' `| `-=___Jbx+, J!`\| :| ""' !| |P `?b,__,, d d! _d' ``"?=Q[""""'p- ./' .d[ |PQ QL ]=,=" ./" !b `]b ./' QL `\x, :P `#, . `?\_ |' `Q: `\_ `?qx_, | `QL |P\_, ``""==bxxx__# "\,|| ``=\x__ ,#P"`"" `Qb ]#" ._x#/" #: ##==##=P""']| ]| #| `Q: ?L b, #| Q_ ]b, ]L Q| ]L `\_ `Q, !# `\, `b------------qxxxxx___ Jb Q ]= `""""`"-=-x_, .,dP" `\_ `b_ ``"=\x_, .,#P" `bx, ``bb__ `"\_ ,d#" `?b_ ``"?qb_ "\ ,d#"' ``\_, ""=x_ ._______xd# .x/" `?b, "'=_, :r"""""""""' dP' `?_ "`=q_________,==" | .____#' """""""" `"==P"""""\_ _x=/""""`"' ``=x______,--"" Thanks Bob (Phil).. look out for more of Bob's samples in the next thrilling issue of Void.. at a new stand near you.. two weeks from now. :) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ____ _ _ ____ _ / ___|| |__ ___ _ __| |_ / ___|| |_ ___ _ __ _ _ \___ \| '_ \ / _ \| '__| __| \___ \| __/ _ \| '__| | | | ___) | | | | (_) | | | |_ ___) | || (_) | | | |_| | |____/|_| |_|\___/|_| \__| |____/ \__\___/|_| \__, | |___/ T H E I S L A N D I N T H E M I S T Korjev the hunter was nervous. He slowly staked his small boat into the ominous mist covering the water. He strained his eyes to get a glimpse of the island behind this shroud of cold moisture, but failed to see anything but the darkish grey fog. Suddenly he saw a glimpse of - of what? There was nothing there now. Nothing but this hellish grey fog! He cursed it! Twice! But still it did not lift, and unveil its treasure - the island. The fog was thickening, and soon Korjev could only glimpse the bow of his boat. Suddenly there was something in front of him! Korjev the hunter was about to slow the boat down, when it suddenly ceased moving with a deep grinding sound. Korjev lost his balance, and fell into the water. The water was only knee deep, but cold - as the smell of polar ice. Quickly Korjev climbed out of the water, and looked about. He was on the island! THE island! - If he hadn't been freezing so badly, he might have jumped into the air with glee, but now he only was shivering. Korjev smiled in spite of the chill, he would find the sword! A few short steps away from the shore he could suddenly hear a strange sound. A rising and falling of strange notes - now he understood! - It was singing. Or better, a sort of choral chant, without any distinguishable words. Korjev stealthily stumbled closer to the source of the chanting, every fibre in his body set for action, and his hand on the hilt of his short- sword. Singers or no singers, he would get the sword. Korjev grinned, while caressing the hilt of his blade. He would get the sword. Right ahead, previously obscured by the fog, Korjev the hunter spotted a number of shadowy pillars which rose - towering - out of the mist. And there! - Between the pillars he could see a group of figures, moving with the music in the pale light from the torches they carried. Korjev crept closer. His plan was clear. He would wait until they were all asleep, and then he would strike! He would take one of them hostage, and force his captive to give him the location of the sword. And once he had the sword.... Korjev grinned silently, his lips parting, and showing all five of his incisors, and the three rotted stumps still left in his mouth. Well, first thing's first, he whispered to himself. He crept a bit closer to the chanting group. He could see there were eight people, all dressed in long robes, and all wailing the same, wordless song. The people were unarmed! Before he had time to change his mind, he acted! A great leap brought him into the chanting group, and even before they had time to gasp in fear, he had plunged his sword into one of them, and through the neck of another. Then they ran. Before he could escape with the others, Korjev gave the closest robed man a solid kick at the shin, and the man fell to the ground like a rag doll, screaming like a girl! Korjev had to change his view - the man wasn't a man, she was a GIRL. He bent down to have a better look at her, she was quite nice- looking, and quite young, no more than 19 years, maybe? And, she was quite terrified. He smiled broadly at her, exposing his rotting teeth, and said soothingly, "Come now, my sweety - I ain't gonna hurt ya, coz ya'll tell'me 'ere the swoad is - raight?" The girl just looked at him, sobbing. Then she stammered, "Th-those who see th-the sword will die, so the legends say, and right it is." Korjev smiled broader. He liked the way the girl's chest moved when she was breathing those quick, scared gasps. But he reminded himself of his reason for being here - the sword. The girl must have realized his lust, and said "Please sir, take me if you must, but forget the sword, for if you see it then you will die, so the legends say, and right it is." "Come now, my dearnest," he replied, "Ya keep that att'ude, and we'll get along very naicely indeed. But now I wanna get me hands on that swoad - legen's or no legen's" And with a yank he pulled her to her feet. "Mov'it.", he ordered, and the girl started sobbingly to lead the way, still with Korjev's strong hand firmly clamped around her elbow. Korjev the hunter grabbed a torch, lying on the ground, and followed the girl towards a dark well in the middle of the field. "Down here." the girl sobbed. Korjev the hunter cast a quick glance down the well. A spiralling stairway was imbedded firmly into the side of the well, each of the steps a foot-and-a-half wide. With the point of his short-sword he encouraged the girl to descend into the dark well, and followed her down. After five minutes of descending the stairwell ended in a small cavern. On the far side of the cavern, a small niche was covered with a piece of cloth. Korjev grinned. Broadly. The sword was within reach. Two small steps, and he would have it in his hands. Korjev strode across the chamber, and tore the cloth aside. There! Almost two yards of purest steel, a hilt adorned with gems and pearls. It was the most fantastic sight he had seen in his long life. He was at the end of his quest. "Please, don't look at it," the girl said, "if you see it then you will die." Korjev ignored her, his eyes hungrily eating the sight of the great blade. At first he also ignored the sharp pain, emitting from the girl's hidden dagger. Hidden no more, but open on display for all to see, it stood imbedded deeply into Korjevs back, quite close to the heart. Deadly close. "So the legends say, and right it is..." Korjev felt the pain ebb away, and a woolly darkness entomb him. Then he died. By :Simentt@dhhalden.no -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PARTING WORDS Well here ends another issue of VOId, better late than never. I know there's still alot to do to this zine before it is a real corker.. but we're getting there.. more time allowing next issue should be a whole block better. Only time will tell I guess.. so crack out the easter eggs and bag out a few submisions for VOId! :) It was nice to see a few new faces in the articles department for this issue and thanks to mark for his wonderful demo section. Look forward to seeing the next one. As I said much earlier on.. please feel free to send any feed back and thanks for sticking with us through broken deadlines. ahem. Cheers Phil Parting thanks go out to the following: Anyone who contributed to VOId. Babbage and everyone else that I possibly know. =============================================================================== =============================================================================== === i""""i === /""""/ == /"""""""""""""/ = /""""""""""""""""/ ========= /"""/ = === | | == / / == / ____ / = /_____ ______/ ========= / / == === | | = / / == / / = / / ======= / / =============== / / === === | | / / == / / = / / ======= / / ======= /"""""""" / ==== === | | / / == / / = / / ======= / / ======= / ____ / ===== === | "" / == / / = / / ======= / / ======= / / = / / ====== === | / == / """" / = /"""""" """""/ = / """" / ======= === |________/ == /_____________/ = /________________/ = /___________/ ======== =============================================================================== =============================================================================== -4/3/94- VOId is a FREE magazine, please feel free to upload it, print it and do whatever takes your fancy with it.. well apart from defacing it. *grin*