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*                                                                             *
*   Demo:   Mars Intro         Type:    Amstrad CPC Emulator DSK File         *
*   Author: Odiesoft           Webpage: http://www.odiesoft.de                *
*   Size:   1 * 194816 Bytes   Date:    2. March 2003                         *
*   File:   Odiesoft Demos - Mars Intro (1989).dsk                            *
*                                                                             *
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Title: Mars Intro
Year:  1989


This was one of my first finished demo parts! I think that I wrote the "Iron
Maiden and Samurai" Intro first and while I was working on this Intro I had the
idea for the Mars Intro.

The idea was pretty simple: I wanted to have more animation on the screen
besides a scrolling text. I just had figured out that there are two possible
ways to display a sprite: in front of everything or behind the background. To
accomplish that I just had change a simple comparison; If I wanted to display
something before the background I had to test within the sprite data if a byte
contained points or was empty, to display the sprite behind the background I had
to do the same test on the background instead of the sprite data.

Some time before thinking about creating this intro I've read a science fiction
magazine where the cover showed the view of the Earth from some settlement on
Mars. I did not find this science fiction magazine anymore, but I had the
picture (or maybe a similar picture) vivid enough in my mind so that I painted
the picture from my memory.

The program I used for drawing the picture was very crude. Besides drawing dots
and lines there weren't any other features. So it took a long time to paint it
and at some point I lost the interest in finishing it. Thus I've left the ground
blank without any structure or crags. Also I didn't really care much for the
shadows of the mountains, only the tent and the craters near the lake have
shadows on the ground and the liquid.

The elliptical path of the moon was calculated with a simple BASIC program that
used COS and SIN commands to approximate points on the screen for the path of
the Moon around Earth.

Drawing fonts often is a pain in the butt, so instead of creating a completely
new font for the scroll text I used an enlarged system font and added a border
around it to make it look better. Also I made the font change color to be more
salient.

There is no music in this demo. Composing music is one of those things I
absolutely suck at doing. I also hadn't started ripping music from games I liked
and the Soundtrakker wasn't even conceived yet. So I was left with the option to
create a really bad music with standard system commands or have no music at all.
For apparent reasons I chose the latter option.

Having finished this intro I didn't know what to do with it. I wasn't yet part
of the CPC scene and most of my friends were just interested in trading games. I
kept the demo on a disc thinking I might release it some day, but after my name
started to become familiar to the other sceners due to the rare software effects
I conceived I figured I couldn't release such a medicore intro to this audience
anymore.

So this is the premiere for the Mars Intro, 14 years after it was written...


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*                                                                             *
* This program can be distributed freely and without the need of a written    *
* of a written permission by Odiesoft, as long as it is distributed free of   *
* charge!                                                                     *
*                                                                             *
* If you had to pay for this, you've been ripped off!                         *
*                                                                             *
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