͸
                      NOVICE-LEVEL Demo FINAL version                        
                                                                             
                       1st place at Llum Party 1998                          
                                                                             
                               by:   MCD                                   
                                                                             
                         Released on 16 March 1998                           
;

This file accompanies N-LEVEL by MCD 1998.

MCD accepts no responsibility whatsoever  for  any  form of loss or damage that
may  occur  directly or indirectly as a result of  this  program  existing. The
user executes it at his/her own risk.

͸
 0.- INDEX                                                                   
;

  1.- What is N-LEVEL?
  2.- Hardware Requirements
  3.- Problem Solving
  4.- Group greets
  5.- Personal greets
  6.- MCD Member list
  7.- Contacting MCD

͸
 1.- What is N-LEVEL?                                                        
;

Novice-Level  is  a  demo,  and  doesn't  do  anything  but  what  you see/hear
when you run it. It is called a demo because it is a kind of  demonstration  of
our skills at programming, and of the power of your computer.

Periodically, hundreds of demo coders gather in an event  called  Party.  There
are various competitions, which anyone may enter, whereby the entries are shown
on  a big  screen, and everyone present vote on which they consider  to  be the
best in each category.

The graphics you see when you run a demo are  being  calculated  in  real-time,
they  are  not a  pre-stored animation. Similarly, the music is being  mixed in
real-time,  it  is  not  just  one  long pre-recorded sample.  Because  of this
"real-time"  nature  of  such  programs, there is a limit to the effects we can
achieve, and if you are used to watching computer-generated special effects  in
films, then you may not be so impressed by any demo because it does not look as
good in comparison.

Only when you have tried to write real-time graphics code yourself do you begin
to realise just what demos are all about.

The first attempt with this stuff was at Euskal Party III, the first  Party  we
went. There was only the actual greetings part, and some stuff not  included in
this (last) version. We gone to the EP3 with a lot of  computers  thinking that
we could finish an intro or a mini-demo at time,  with  that stuff. Because the
first intention was to do an intro, we started to code it in assembler, and the
fail was possibly due to our inexperience in coding. The next year, we had lots 
of  graphics,  anims,  effects and music,  (nearly all  the  stuff used in  the
actual version) and the most important, we had  some  free weeks  to finish the 
demo. We failed to present anything again. We were  frustrated  about all this, 
and we didn't want to hear anything about the demo for a long.  We  assisted at 
EP5 and once again didn't present any demo.  But one day  we decided to release 
the demo,  because we'd made a lot of work and we didn't want to waste it..  So 
we started to recode some parts,  using  the  actual  MCD engine,  keeping  the 
original  flavor  (not very good indeed)  of  the  initial  project. We finally
decided to show it at Llum Party'98.

As in many other demos, there is a hidden part you can  see if  you  type  some
word (guess it, it's not difficult) in the older part of the demo.

͸
 2.- Hardware Requirements:                                                  
;

  A Pentium processor. (P166+ recommended)
  A VESA video card featuring LFB (Linear Frame Buffer).
   The demo uses the VGA standard mode (320x200x256) and 640x480x256 mode.
   In the True-color part, if your card doesn't support this modes, we  emulate
   it through the 640x480x256 mode.
  8MB RAM

͸
 3.- Problem Solving:                                                        
;

    If you have problems getting the demo to run,  then you  could  try  taking
the following steps:

  Run the demo under real DOS environment (not under Windows95).

  Remove all memory-resident software (e.g. Keyboard buffer  extensions, Mouse
   drivers) from your CONFIG.SYS and  AUTOEXEC.BAT  files,  and  then reset the
   system (a cold boot).  Note:  With some  Soundblaster  cards,  if you  don't
   load its drivers,  you won't  hear any music. Neither is necessary to remove
   the SET commands from AUTOEXEC.BAT, because it musn't  cause  problems,  and
   some of them give information about  the  different  parameters of the sound
   card, and avoid the need  of  manual configuration at the start of the demo.

  Remove any  EMM/QEMM  type  memory  managers  and  HIMEM.SYS,  and do a cold
   boot. (The demo does NOT require HIMEM.SYS to run)

If you want to configure the sound system,  start the  demo  with  any  command
line parameter.

͸
 4.- Group greets:                                                           
;

Alien, Anaconda,  Crystal Shade, mcd, Difteria,  Dosis, Electra, Exobit, Gen-X,
Iguana,  McD,   Incognita,  Ispania,   Miracle,  Movedata,   Polygon,  Requiem,
The Banner,  Tlotb,  Reset-Tvc,  MCd, Unknown,  Vangelis Team,  VP-Team,  Waht,
Wild Bits,  Zoran, Mcd, Zoran,  Wild Bits,  mcD, Waht, VP-Team,  Vangelis Team,
Unknown,  Reset-Tvc,  Tlotb,  The Banner,  Requiem,   Polygon,  mCD,  Movedata,
Miracle,  Ispania,  Incognita,  Iguana,  mCd, Gen-X,  Exobit,  Electra,  Dosis,
Difteria, Crystal Shade, Anaconda, Alien and MCD.

͸
 5.- Personal greets:                                                        
;

  Dr.Kami greets:

   First  of  all,  I want  to  dedicate  all  my  work  at  this  demo  to  my
   girlfriend Ivette! I_love_U();

   Yann,  Wally,  Naif,  all  the  MCD  group,  and  the  rest  of the  Spanish
   DemoScene...

  Saeba greets:

   Asier Hernez, Day Dream, Jerk, Render, Sigfrid, Skyman & Toons...

  Firelord greets:

   Hmmmmm... Any volunteer to be my girlfriend?
   (Add your name here if you want greets: ---------)

͸
 6.- MCD Member list:                                                        
;

 ͻ
       Real Name             AKA                    Job           Age   
 Ķ
   Tony Cabello          Dr.Kami          Coordinator/Coder        20   
   Xavier Poy            Sentai           Graphician               20   
   Ramon Canals          Marathon-Man     Coder/Musician           23   
   Pau Estalella         Firelord         Coder                    20   
   Rafa Gutirrez        Psyche           Musician                 20   
   Ricardo Cabello       Saeba            Graphician               15   
   Joffre Heredia        Gvy-t            Sysop                    21   
   Jorge Cabezas         Chc              Coder                    23   
 ͼ

͸
 7.- Contacting MCD:                                                         
;

   Dr.Kami      -> is05678@salleurl.edu
   Sentai       -> xp095118@fletxa.iqs.url.es
  Marathon-Man -> e46696819@est.ct.upc.es
   Firelord     -> e7614718@est.fib.upc.es
   Chc          -> chc@redestb.es
   Saeba        -> saeba@la-mano.com

Check out our Web HomePage:

        http://www.salleurl.edu/~is05678/mcd.html

͸
                                 THE END...                                  
;