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It may look a bit strange to see a page of the ROLE-homepage that is about a Chromance-project, but I think the project is not really a Chromance-project it's more a scene project so the more people know about it the better it is. It's about a special cd that will contain info, games, demo etc of a decade of c64. But let's see what Jean has to say about it!
Postal address: PO Box 701/103 - 1399 Budapest - Hungary Street address: Jan Csernoch - Szent Laszlo u.26. - 1135 Budapest - Hungary E-mail address: jean@labor.obuda.kando.hu E-mail address2: jean@winnie.obuda.kando.hu Gangsta's Paradise: FTP.INF.BME.HU/pub/c64 Phone/Fax number: + 36 11 20 07 72
More Than a Decade C64 Scene 10.01.1997 Complete Guide and Ecyclopedia Budapest/Hungary/Europe
Basic Idea
Most forms of art are stored in anthologies and albums, while most scientific and technical fields are being eternized in encyclopedias. Despite the fact that a demonstration is a technical form of art, the c64 demos scene has none of the above. A collection of c64 productions organised in chronological and alphabetical order by corresponding release dates and authors completed with textual and pictorial information would fulfil both goals. By such a compilation it would become possible to save and immortalise the reminiscence of the pioneer computer culture. This work could be available to everyone who has taken part in creating the scene, or just experienced the dawn of this subculture. On the other hand this product would be useful to make today's young computer enthusiasts acquainted with the past of their evolved and so different scene. It is difficult to find the right track, if you do not know where do you come from. The CD Project
For these reasons I would like to make a collection released on CD covering most of the demos, intros, slideshows, musicdisks, magazines, related utilities ever released on the c64 scene. Programs and all kinds of material would be included disregarding their quality, age and importance. This fact will not have a negative effect on the global image of the compilation as it is meant to be a complete scene anthology, a guide, which beside executables is going to contain interviews, stories, party reports, party results, pictures, musics and the history of most of the teams, thus forming the story of the whole scene. Structure of Information and Contents of the Collection
Demos, musicdisks, slideshows, intros, utilities, notes and scene related games are going to be organised in alphabetical order by corresponding group names (the same method is used on today's sites), while magazines will be sorted by their titles. For each crew there is going to be a list over its releases including magazines as well. Thus separating the diskmags will not cause any confusion in comprehending a particular team's past activity. Besides, the lists contain the full name of the production, the exact release date (if possible), the size of the program (number of blocks, number of disksides or both), a comment about the release place (parties) and its rank in the particular competition (if any), just as a short description of the program. Most image files will indicate the name of the publisher group and the year of release in their header (there are some disk headers that can not be changed though). Furthermore there is going to be a database engine which will make possible to search through all the productions stored on the CD by title, name of the author, release date and will include all the subjects detailed above. Moreover it will give links to textual and pictorial information, which I plan to realise in hypertext mode (all information will be available in TXT format as well). There is only one disadvantage, that this program expects a certain graphical operating system, which I do not really like. No plans for MS-DOS, Amiga or X-Window System versions, unless I find someone to program it instead of me. Party directories are going to contain their official invitations, results in textual format and competition releases excluding demos. Demos can be found in corresponding group folders. The SID directory is going to contain each tune under its authors name. A Picture folder will include scanned photos. The order is not decided yet. I would appreciate your suggestions. Hopefully these methods are going to provide an adequate view of the development on the scene. Productions and complementary information will be kept up to date and all possible new stuff will be included until the the release of the CD. It is likely that subsequent editions will contain bug fixes and productions released since the previous one. Those who bought previous editions will get a discount on succeeding ones (see price). Format of the Stored Files
Although I know that Miha Peternel's D64 is disliked among certain milieu, I chose this format to be used to store disk image files on the CD. One has to face the fact that the PC and MS-DOS has become a de-facto standard in the past years (it is not very fortunate, but that is another question). Many people have an IBM compatible at home. A lot of utilities are also available to handle D64's in a very comfortable way. Similar tools for UNIX, which takes a great amount of users as well, could also be in the pipeline. Without using the emulator and its file format this kind of compilation of this quality wouldn't be possible. The 1541 floppy drive can be easily connected to the PC, this way making image file transfer quick and comfortable. Many platforms such as the Amiga can handle MS-DOS format D64's. As far as I know there are already utilities for the C64 itself to unpack D64 images to 5.25" disks. Using "zip" and "lynx" would make file transfer much more complicated, so why not use D64? If you have an other point of view, I would be pleased to read about it. As mentioned above D64 is used to store multipart productions. For single files I choose T64, as it is easy to convert and does not occupy much disk space. To handle image files, the CD will come out with the latest official version of Star Commander. Pictures are converted to JPG, or GIF. HTML and TXT will appear as textual information, furthermore DAT for playing SID tunes by SIDPlay or PlaySID. Most of the files will not be compressed to make direct execution, viewing, playing or reading possible. What Has Been Done So Far?
I started making this compilation in dec. 1995. Ever since then I have used much of my spare time on collecting wares, contacting prominent persons, writing lists and so on. So far I have sorted out 350 megabytes, which makes more than 700 diskmagagazines, 4000 demos and other kind of productions, all in proper corresponding directories. There is still 150 megabytes on my hardrive waiting for classification. You can have a look at the preview of the CD by visiting Gangsta's Paradise, Chromance's official site. From time to time Lion/Chromance and I convert a selected part of the collection to UNIX format, so that it becomes available to all. Estimated Release Date
This one is hard to predict. As I have been working on this project for at least 1 year, I wouldn't dare to say that the CD will be out before the second half of 1998. There is a lot to do and to collect. I would like to release this compilation with as few bugs as possible and containing as much stuff as possible, to make it something that is complete (99%) and can be considered as the basic work for all c64 sceners. A good work needs time. Sources
The sources of the encyclopedia are as follows: - Chromance's home collection - Clarence/Graffity's demo collection - Wix/Pride's demo collection - Bod of Talents CD titled 'The complete Commodore C64 collection' also known as High Voltage. - The stuff downloaded from: = caramba.cs.tu-berlin.de = The Digital Dungeon: utopia.hacktic.nl = Funet: ftp.funet.fi = eris.giga.or.at = bbs.cc.uniud.it = Triad: marvin.df.lth.se - The reminiscence site of Zike/x-Fairlight In Medias Res: http://www.kuai.se/~zike/index.html - The SID collection of Shark/INC called High Voltage If you know any other source of information, that could be used to complete the collection, then let me know about it please. What Can You Do?
It is quite obvious that I can not succeed in completing this task without your help. For this reason I ask prominent members or ex-members of the scene - just like you are - to give me a helping hand in this project. I am looking for the person: - who has a documented collection of legal c64 productions, and who is willing to send/upload a number of files - who has his group's releases in stock or possesses a remarkable encyclopedical knowledge about his own or other productions - who is willing to extract cracking intros from games and send them - who would write the history of his team - who would write the history of the scene of his country - who would participate in writing/sending any stories or information in relation to the scene - who has a homepage/FTP site containing programs or any material pertaining to this subject and would give permission to use these materials freely - who knows such a person described above From time to time I am going to send you lists of so far collected material and good examples of groups stories (e.g. Horizon). It is our common interest to include your productions and as much information about your group as possible. While making a list please consider: - marking the full name, size (number of blocks, number of disksides or both), release date, event (on which a production was released), rank in the competition and giving a small description for all productions as accurate as possible - indicating the release date in day.month.year format (Canada and US too!) - Paying attention to the right spelling and writing full titles including subtitles - Mentioning all kinds of releases including notes, party invitations, reports, magazines, antidemos, scene games and if possible previously not released or half developed production as well. - that all releases are worth including, in 10 years a simple note can bring back good feelings and reminiscence! - letting me know if it is not allowed to change a particular productions diskname or ID!! Price
The price is not decided yet. If I manage to get the CD pressed in sufficiently big series (1.000 pieces at least), it is going to cost you $10-$20 including shipping. If pressing is not possible, which would be a quite unfortunate case, it would cost you more due to the expense of writing CD-s. Nevertheless I try to avoid this solution, as the quality and outlook of properly written compact disks with nice designed cases is much better if compared with written ones. Thus your interest and financial contribution (i.e. sending the price in time when ordering the CD) will lower the price, which by all means I try to make the lowest possible. Although I expect to earn on this product, this is basically not a financial venture. The money I am going to gain (if any) will be no match to the amount of work I've done and will contimue to do. I do it for the c64 and for you with my full heart. Not only for material purposes, but for the enjoyment of creation. About the Author
My name is Jan Csernoch (Jean). I was born on 21.05.71 and I study computer science in Budapest. I am a member of Chromance, and the reason why you can not find my name on the list of active members is that I left the c64 scene in around 1991. Until then I have been strongly involved in producing demos, coding intros and swapping. I started my c64 career in 1985 and joined FBI Crew (former name of Chromance) one of the first Hungarian c64 groups in 1987. Since then I have been addicted to demos, and I have collected them. In 1989 I became enthusiastic for the Amiga and joined TRSI, Scoopex and later Absolute. On this platform my interest focused almost exclusively on demos. I published articles covering the scene and its productions in several official Hungarian computer magazines. I have the largest Amiga demo collection in Hungary, and today I am the owner of more than 5000 c64 scene productions. Although I practically left our beloved c64 early, my interest of its faith didn't fade. I kept on watching demos, reading mags and going to parties. I attended about 30 copy-parties and demo conferences in my life including many major Scandinavian meetings. Between 1993 and 1994 I spent almost 1 year in Denmark and Sweden living at Silents/Crionics place. This residence gave me a remarkable experience about Scandinavia (which plays an important role) and its culture, and got me physically closer to the heart of the scene. I believe that I have a considerably great knowledge of the scene, its development and cross-references, and I feel myself to be able to participate in writing its history. Contacting the Author
You can get in touch with me by several ways, however I prefer e-mail or IRC if it comes to long distances. Personal Address: Jan Csernoch Szent Laszlo u.26. 1135 Budapest Hungary Postal Address: PO Box 701/103 1399 Budapest Hungary Phone/Fax number: + 36 11 20 07 72 E-mail1 address: jean@labor.obuda.kando.hu E-mail2 address: jean@winnie.obuda.kando.hu URL: Gangsta's Paradise: FTP.INF.BME.HU/pub/c64 IRC: #c-64
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