TeX-mas intro
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A fake demo done by a fake crew
Some days before Christmas, a new production hits the Dead Hackers Society's
web site: a demo from Cool Girls. They pretend to be a new female crew from
Slovakia. There are a lot of rumors about this crew, some guys think it's a fake
crew created by Satantronic (it's my opinion too). They have been totally
discredited some months ago because they dared to crack AniPlayer. They just
told that Didier Mequignon stopped the development of AniPlayer for standard
Falcon. With a bit of irony, in the list of the used software, you can see...
AniPlayer 2.21! A nice way to greet the author of an excellent software...
The TeX-mas intro, also known as Incoming, is a huge Falcon demo: its size
is 6 MB once unpacked. I can't believe my eyes when I saw the file size, I
thought it was a big megademo with tons of true colour pictures, stunning
effects, great pieces of music, etc. Well... The big size is mainly due to the
MP2 music! The demo runs on a 14-meg Falcon, with RGB or VGA monitor. A good
point: it uses the DHS demo-system.
According to the info file provided with the demo, Sandra lost her boyfriend
because he prefered another girl, and she went to a techno party where she had
some ideas for the next Cool Girls' intro. Well, why not. I wonder if, in
Slovakia, 16 years-old teenagers are really allowed in techno parties. OK, we
don't really care about this. Let's run the demo!
The demo starts with an dynamic techno music. The zoom effect on the snowman
is synchronized with the music. Another funny snowman appears, he turns to the
left and to the right. Then a snowy "incoming texmas intro" logo is displays on
the screen, and a pink "coolgirls" one too. They move a lot, maybe a new kind of
spongiform encephalopathy? :) The next effect is a zooming gift-wrapped parcel
and the last one is a red-nosed reindeer moving to the left and to the right.
Then, a snowy logo appears on a black background, it says "the end - cool girls
2002". That's all.
I must admit I'm a bit sceptic concerning some pictures such as snowmen or
the gift. Is it original art of ripped graphics coming from one of these
numerous online clipart libraries? Who knows...
Going deeper...
I decided to unpack the executable file because I wondered if the zooming
effects were real or just fake. It weights 54 KB and it is packed with UPX (an
excellent packer, btw). I depacked it and I obtained a big 2.5 MB file. It
seemed very weird: I was almost sure the zooming effects are fake! So, I opened
the file with Adrenaline Ripper (a good Falcon-compatible ripper) and I was
right: the zooms are stored as plain pictures.
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Code ................ Displaying pictures and using DHS demo-system (for MP2
replaying) isn't so hard to do. Zooming effects are
fake.
Design .............. Very few design. A good point : the effects are
synchronized with the drums of the music.
Graphics ............ They look like 16-colour gfx.
Sound ............... As I don't like techno music very much, I can't tell
if this is one is a good one or not. I think it's very
repetitive.
Animation ........... There is no real animation, only fake effects.
Global interest ..... Without interest. Except if you like the music: just
keep the MP2 file and erase the others ones.
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In conclusion, this is a bad fake demo. I honestly think it's not worth the
download. I've spend 2 hours to get it with my 56K modem, so you understand why
I tell you this :)
I don't know if these (not so) Cool Girls will release another fake demo. I
even don't know if they really exist or if they are puppets created by
Satantronic guys. What a shame they didn't come to the Error in Line #3! In the
last issue of Alive, Sandra and Timea told to STS they will attend to this
party. And in the info file of the TeX-mas intro, we can read this sentence :
"we're looking forward to EIL 3 where you can see us and where we will release
one big surprise."
We're still waiting for you, girls!
Strider (strider.mjjprod@free.fr)
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