===============================================================================
===============================================================================
=== i""""i === /""""/ == /"""""""""""""/ = /""""""""""""""""/ ========= /"""/ =
=== | | == / / == / ____ / = /_____ ______/ ========= / / ==
=== | | = / / == / / = / / ======= / / =============== / / ===
=== | | / / == / / = / / ======= / / ======= /"""""""" / ====
=== | | / / == / / = / / ======= / / ======= / ____ / =====
=== | "" / == / / = / / ======= / / ======= / / = / / ======
=== | / == / """" / = /"""""" """""/ = / """" / =======
=== |________/ == /_____________/ = /________________/ = /___________/ ========
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
ISSUE 8
Editor Phil Bird
Submissions, comments and everything else to :
[email protected]
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:
[email protected] (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 -
[email protected]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"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
[email protected] | 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 (
[email protected])
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
[email protected]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
[email protected] for:-
PastMaster
- ---
"KNOW THYSELF"
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
From the Temple of Apollo at Delphi - c6th Century BC)
[] [] [] [] [] [] []
[] [] [] [] [] [] []
[] [] [] [] [] [] []
[] [] [] [] [] [] []
/====================/ \=====================\
/====================/ \=====================\
------------------------/ \------------------------
____ _
/ __/___ __ _ ___ __ ____ __ __ __ __|/___
_\ \/ __/ _ `/ __/ -_) __/ __/ _ \ |/|/ / (_-<
/___/\__/\_,_/_/ \__/\__/_/ \___/__,__/ /___/
___ _________________ ___ __
/ _ \/ __/ ___/ _/ _/ / _ \____/ /_
/ _ /\ \/ /___/ /_/ / / _ / __/ __/
/_//_/___/\___/___/___/ /_//_/_/ \__/
Scarecrow (
[email protected]) 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 :
[email protected]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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*
