pouët.net

Finally an event strictly for DOS machines!

All compos will be held online on Twitch, and we'll also have a smaller get-together in Helsinki, Finland.

Check out the party website for more info!

Compo infos will be updated in upcoming weeks.

:), but seriously this seems awesome! I wish there was a longer notice and not a week after Demosplash so me and my friends could make an entry, still will check it out and try to watch the stream with them.
Good luck and much love from SoCal! <3 :D

Wow!

I just want to clarify one thing. If the compo machine is a PII-233 running DOS 6.22, as stated on the website, does that apply to the 256-byte compo as well?

So DOSBox is not an option? No General MIDI sound through the 330h port, as is normally done nowadays?

And what about intros that need a 2-3 GHz PC and FreeDOS to get a decent framerate? Are they out?

No, not that I have a problem with that... I'm actually perfectly happy with it :)

The idea is to target period-appropriate hardware so DOSBox is not an option. Both demos and 256 byte intros have to work on the compo machine unless specifically targetting a less powerful machine, and even then it has to work on one of our optional machines (Turbo XT, 386sx/40 or 486dx2/66).

sounds interesting, looking forward for it!
would be also cool to also have a chiptune music compo (for chips like OPL2/3, or maybe even 2xSAA used in CMS/Game Blaster), as i already know a number of people might be interested in that :)
...maybe even Wild compo because why not :D

This is a really cool party concept!

How about an executable music compo with a (32 KB?) size limit? And allow any sound output methods available on the compo-machine, including the PC Speaker.

The only thing to decide is how MIDI emulation (EMU8000, MegaEm, etc.) should be handled. It would be good to clearly state whether this will be set up on the compo machine or not. This applies to the 256-byte intro compo as well.

yea that's even better - although i'd perhaps bump the size limit a little bit more - something like 64-128kb should be more than enough ;)

Since this is the first edition of this party, we're keeping things as simple as possible and will not add any new compos at this point. And at the same time, this is something of a test run for our clubhouse as a party venue.

I do have a wavetable-addon that could be used for the 256 byte intros, could you recommend any prods to test it with?

Actually, it's not clear what to use as a reference and what to compare against. There was a reason demosceners in the 90s didn't like MIDI ;)

Among older prods with MIDI-based sound, I can think of:

Omiscent (there are some recommendations in the NFO file).

Blastersound BBS also supports MPU, but it supports AdLib too. According to the BLASTER2.NFO, if both a GUS (with MegaEM) and an AdLib-compatible card are installed, it will play through both :)

Sure, many modern intros have MIDI sound. But they're usually adapted to DOSBox and its specific configuration. At best, they're compatible with Windows 2000/XP (NTVDM), where writing to the GM port at 330h is supported and there's a more or less standardized synthesizer.

I can shamelessly mention my own 4K intro, because I'm pretty sure it will run on a PII-233. And if there's a MIDI device on port 330h, something should play :)

Anyway... I don't know. Probably the easiest thing is to state in the rules that no MIDI sound setup will be provided on the compo machine.