ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³                                                                             ³
³                <<<  THE FUTURE CREW INFORMATION PACKAGE  >>>                ³
³                                                                             ³
³                                Version 1.6                                  ³
³                                                                             ³
³                                03-JUL-1994                                  ³
³                                                                             ³
³                                                                             ³
³            This file contains general information about the Future          ³
³            Crew and our demos. It also includes frequently asked            ³
³            questions we often receive by mail and instructions on           ³
³            how to contact us best.                                          ³
³                                                                             ³
³            We will update this file as things change, and if the            ³
³            above date is rather old, you can get the most recent            ³
³            version of this file either by E-Mail from Internet or           ³
³            from our distribution sites.                                     ³
³                                                                             ³
³                                                                             ³
³                                                                             ³
³                                                                             ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ


ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³                                 CONTENTS                                    ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

         1: Opening words
         2: Demos for Commercial Purposes
         3: The Distribution and Use of Our Demos
         4: The Current Memberstatus
         5: List of all Future Crew releases
         6: International Demo Competitions
         7: How to Contact Future Crew
         8: Frequently Asked Questions
         9: The Brief History of The Future Crew
        10: Sonic Dreams is NOT a Future Crew demo
        11: Final Words

        The following info is in FCSITE16.TXT:
         1: Official Distribution Site BBS List
         2: How to Become a Distribution Site


ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 1:                            OPENING WORDS                                 ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

        Welcome to the FCINFO file version 1.6 !

        This textfile is a new revision of FCINFO15.TXT (version 1.50),
        which was originally spread with the Scream Tracker 3.01 Beta.

        This textfile was written to tell you about Future Crew, to
        give you answers to most of the things you would probably like
        to ask us, and to tell you how to get more demos.

        If you are interested in us making a demo for you, please,
        start reading from the next paragraph in this file.

        The things discussed in this textfile are mainly aimed to
        those people who have not seen much demos before, but are very
        interested in learning more about them and about the whole
        demo scene (=demo world) in general and to people who are
        interested in the Future Crew. In the future versions
        there will be changes and additions taking into account what
        has happened since the last information package.

        Following parts has been changed since FCINFO15.TXT:
           - Releases List
           - FAQ section
           - How to contact Future Crew

ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 2:                     DEMOS FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES                        ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

        If you find our demos interesting and would like us to make
        you one for commercial purposes, do not hesitate to contact us.

        When contacting us, please, include a short explanation of
        what kind of a demo you are interested in. That would greatly
        help us in evaluating the size of the project.

        Kindly include, for example, the following information:

        - What kinds of demo effects would you be interested in
        - Should there be any colorful still-pictures (logos, etc.)
        - If the demo should have sound, which sound cards would you like
          to be supported, what type of music should be played, etc.
        - How big the demo could be in kilobytes and for how long
          should the demo run in minutes approximately.
        - Where would the demo be used and how soon would you like the
          demo to be finished.
        - Approximately how much would you be willing to pay for the demo

        We would like you to understand that our demos are not animations.
        This means that nearly everything you see on the screen is being
        real-time calculated. The speed of the movement is usually
        dependant to the speed of the VGA card and the speed of the
        processor.

        When contacting us, you should realise that we are all rather
        young and thus still studying in various schools. This is why
        our time is usually quite limited. And it is very likely that
        we might already be involved in another project(s).

        You should also know that we do not make demos for Microsoft
        Windows due to its limitations from an assembly language
        programming point of view.

        Since normal mail is quite a slow way to communicate, we would
        prefer the communication be made through e-mail (or if e-mail
        is not a possible way of communication for you, you can always
        try to send a fax).

        You can find our contact information from this file.


ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 3:                THE DISTRIBUTION AND USE OF OUR DEMOS                     ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

        All our demos, except the ones which we have created for different
        companies, are freeware.

        This means that you can copy and distribute them freely as long
        as you make no modifications to them. Also, no money can be 
        charged for copying/spreading them.
        
        If you are a PD/shareware/freeware distributor, please contact us
        before including our products in your collection. If you do not
        hear from us in two weeks after sending us a fax or a letter,
        it will automatically mean that you can include our freeware
        demos in your collection.

        In general, all commercial utilization of our demos without our
        permission is strictly forbidden. This includes selling disks
        (or any other electronic media) containing our demos.


ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 4:                         THE CURRENT MEMBERSTATUS                         ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

        Alias:          Real name:        Born:   Main responsibility:
        --------------------------------------------------------------
        GORE            Samuli Syvahuoko  1973    Organizer/PR/E-mail
        Psi             Sami Tammilehto   1973    Coder
        Trug            Mika Tuomi        1972    Coder
        Wildfire        Arto Vuori        1975    Coder
        Purple Motion   Jonne Valtonen    1976    Musician
        Skaven          Peter Hajba       1975    Musician
        Marvel          Aki Maatta        1975    Graphics Artist
        Pixel           Mikko Iho         1975    Graphics Artist
        Abyss           Jussi Laakkonen   1975    BBS Coordinator

        FC Internet Division:

        Henchman        Markus Maki       1974    E-mail/PR/betatesting
        Jake            Jarkko Heinonen   1973    E-mail/PR/betatesting


ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 5:                    LIST OF ALL FUTURE CREW RELEASES                      ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

   Filename        Size   Released   A Short Description
   ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
   YO!.ZIP         32 kb   2-24-89   YO! intro, VGA textmode/PC-speaker
   GR8.ZIP         31 kb   7-12-89   GR8 intro, EGA/No sound
   FC-SLIDE.ZIP   350 kb   7-23-90   Slideshow I, a graphics collection, SB
   ST224.ZIP      130 kb   2-22-91   Scream Tracker 2.24 shareware version, SB
   MENTAL.ZIP      90 kb   7-02-91   Mental Surgery demo, SB/Covox/PC-speaker
   STMIK020.ZIP   170 kb   8-10-91   Scream Tracker Music Interface Kit 0.20
   FISHTRO.ZIP    230 kb   4-08-92   Assembly'92 invitation intro, SB
   STMIKFIX.ZIP    10 kb   7-14-92   A Bugfix to STMIK
   UNREAL.ZIP    1350 kb   8-06-92   Unreal megademo, SB/SBp
   STARPRT2.EXE     6 kb   9-13-92   StarPort BBS intro, VGA/AdLib
   THEPARTY.ZIP   165 kb  10-02-92   The Party II invitation intro, SB/SBp
   PANIC.ZIP      950 kb   2-04-93   Panic trackdemo, SB/SBp
   ASM-93.ZIP     400 kb   6-15-93   Assembly'93 invitation intro, SB/SBp/GUS
   WCHARTS.ZIP    680 kb   6-26-93   Worldcharts magazine issue #1, SB/SBp/GUS
   SOULOMAT.ZIP   100 kb   7-10-93   A song by Purple Motion (.MOD)
   ICEKNGDM.LBM    65 kb   8-01-93   Winner of PC graphics compo at Asm'93
   ICEFRONT.ZIP   180 kb   8-01-93   The winner of PC multichnl compo at Asm'93
   CAN'T.ZIP      125 kb   8-01-93   The second in PC multichnl compo at Asm'93
   STRSHINE.ZIP   225 kb   8-01-93   The third in PC multichnl compo at Asm'93
   TROLL.LBM       85 kb   8-01-93   The fourth in PC graphics compo at Asm'93
   SUNDANCE.ZIP   235 kb   8-10-93   The winner of PC 4chnl compo at Asm'93
   2NDREAL1.ZIP  1250 kb  10-07-93   Second Reality, Asm'93 winner, SB/SBp/GUS
   2NDREAL2.ZIP   790 kb  10-07-93   Second part of the Second Reality demo
   2NDR_MS.ZIP    280 kb  11-01-93   Skaven's songs from Second Reality
   SYMPHONY.ZIP   260 kb  11-01-93   Symphony by Skaven (.S3M file)
   PMFRACT.ZIP    210 kb  11-05-93   The winner of Megaleif ST/PC music compo
   BUSMATKA.ZIP    75 kb  11-09-93   Finnish invitation to Party3 bussymatka
   STARPORT.ZIP     5 kb  11-21-93   StarPort BBS intro II, VGA/Adlib
   SP2SRC.ZIP      30 kb  12-02-93   StarPort BBS intro II sources
   UNREAL11.ZIP  1335 kb  12-28-93   Unreal version 1.1 for Gravis UltraSound
   JOURNEY1.ZIP   867 kb  12-28-93   First Musicdisk by Purple Motion
   JOURNEY2.ZIP  1015 kb  12-28-93   Second Musicdisk by Purple Motion
   CHMIND.ZIP    1420 kb  02-20-94   Chaotic Mind - Music collection by Skaven
   2NDPATCH.ZIP    36 kb  02-20-94   Slowdown bugfix patch for 2nd Reality
   ASM-94.ZIP     221 kb  04-08-94   Assembly'94 Pre-Invitation Intro
   SCRMT301.ZIP   291 kb  04-18-94   Scream Tracker 3.01 BETA
   ASM-94_2.ZIP   567 kb  07-03-94   The Assembly '94 Invitation Dentro

   You SHOULD be able to find all of the above from our Distribution Sites.


ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 6:                     INTERNATIONAL DEMO COMPETITIONS                      ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

        For those who have no idea what the above are, I will explain.
        Demo competitions (= parties) are international events where
        the demo scene people go to meet each other and to compete in
        the many competitions that are being held. These competitions
        (= compos) are the demo, intro (= a demo sized under 64kb),
        music and graphics. There are often different compos for different 
        machines (PC, Amiga, Atari ST and C-64). There are also prizes in
        each compo (cash or computer hardware & software). The cash prizes
        are usually the money people pay as the entrance fee (usually 
        about $20 US/person) and the possible computer hardware & software
        has usually been sponsored by various computer companies. All
        contributions are being experienced on a big screen (many meters
        wide) and with the aid of a powerful audio system. After this all
        the people or a selected jury vote and decide which contributions
        are the best. After this the prizes are being given out and the 
        party is over. In the process people of course get to know each
        other better and exchange a lot of new ideas.

        All contributions are usually being released at the party itself,
        but sometimes the PC demos are not. This is very unfortunate,
        and will probably change in the future. The reason why this is
        allowed to happen is because most demos haven't been beta-tested
        well enough before the party and might not work on most machines.
        So, the groups are being allowed to finish their demos after the
        party and then release them when they so see fit. But if they do
        not release their demos after a certain period of time (like
        1-2 months), the party organizers will release the version which
        was contributed to the competition.

        Parties usually last for three days (a weekend) and are usually
        organized by bigger demo groups.

        There are a few big demo parties being held annually in Europe.
        These include the following: The Party in Denmark at Christmas-
        time, The Gathering in Norway around Easter, The Computer
        Crossroad in Sweden before the summer and Assembly in Finland
        in the end of Summer.
        The Computer Crossroads'94, though, has been cancelled.

        A few months before the party, the organizing demo groups usually
        release special invitation intros to advertise their parties.

        At Assembly'93 there were a total of 1500 attenders from which
        550 were PC people. About half of them had come from outside
        Finland (Germany, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Norway, USA, Israel,
        Canada, Denmark, Switzerland, Spain, etc...). Only PC people were
        allowed to vote on PC compos.

        The overall quality of the contributions exceeded all expectations.
        It was very cool to see how much the PC scene had developed since
        last year. The party itself went quite smoothly, except for a
        few bumps, but what would a demo party be without them... :-)
        Also the prizes were very good in all PC compos. The total value
        of all the prizes on the PC was about $7800 US.

        At The Party 3 there were around 2800 people. Most PC groups
        were able to come and meet one another, and we even had
        a cool snowball fight! But somehow the co-operation between
        the Amiga and PC organizing groups wasn't successful and thus
        there were some problems in the PC competitions. Read more about
        this in the FC History section in this file.

        And to all you people out there:

        Don't forget to attend Assembly '94 !!!


ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 7:                 HOW TO CONTACT THE FUTURE CREW                           ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

        Our snail-mail address is:           Our home BBS is:

        Abyss / Future Crew                  StarPort - FC WHQ BBS
        c/o Jussi Laakkonen                  +358-0-455 4801
        Sepetlahdentie 2 E 36                       455 4805
        02230  Espoo                                455 4807
        FINLAND                                     455 4810
                                                    455 4812
        GORE's cellular phone (GSM):                455 4827
        +358-40-502 3025                            455 4829

        StarPort is also available thru telnet/rlogin. Telnet MPOLI.FI
	user-id: PCBOARD. There is also an anonymous FTP-service, 
        MPOLI.FI. These services are accessible only within Finland.
        We are working on international access.

        You can also e-mail us or send a fax:

        Please direct general questions, requests for information etc.
	ONLY to FC@MPOLI.FI. Other addresses are only for contacting
	purposes.

                        Alias           Address
			-----		-------
                        Abyss           abyss@mpoli.fi
                        GORE            gore@mpoli.fi
                                        or jtheinon@cc.helsinki.fi
                        Marvel          marvel@mpoli.fi
                        Pixel           pixel@mpoli.fi
                        Purple Motion   purple.motion@mpoli.fi
                        Skaven          skaven@mkoski.otol.fi
                                        skaven@mpoli.fi
                        Wildfire        wildfire@mpoli.fi
                        Jake            jtheinon@cc.helsinki.fi
                        Henchman        mmaki@cc.helsinki.fi

        "Finger" jtheinon@cc.helsinki.fi for the latest FC-news!!!


        Fax:            +358-0-420 8620  (at GORE's place)

        We receive a lot of mail and simply can't answer all of it.
        Comments and opinions are always appreciated, but if you
        also have questions, consider first if you might find the
        answers elsewhere, for example from the Frequently Asked
        Questions section inside this file. However, if you include
        questions in your mail, please enclose a return envelope ready
        with your address and an international mail coupon. We simply
        can NOT afford to pay hundreds of dollars a year just to answer
        mail. This means: no mailing coupon = NO reply.

        The best and the fastest way to contact us is through e-mail.
        So, if you really want to chat with us alot, you should find
        a way to use e-mail. From internet you can also find lots of
        demos and be able to e-mail other demo groups as well.
        We get a LOT of e-mail so you may have to wait for our reply
        for a while. We TRY to answer every e-mail we get and please,
        write your e-mail address into your message.
        And PLEASE, be very brief and only ask FC-related questions!
        We are NOT some all-around info forum or internet users help center!
        The reason for this is that we receive around 30-40 long email
        messages per day and simply don't always have enough time to
        answer them.

        Good Internet Demo Sites:
        
        A few very good anonymous ftp sites where you can find lots of
        demos are ftp.uwp.edu and ftp.eng.ufl.edu. Our demos can be found
        in the directory: /pub/msdos/demos/groups/future.crew.
        There are also mirrors for these sites in Europe, for example
        ftp.luth.se.

        And since many people don't know how to login to an anonymous
        ftp site, here's some info: as the login name put "anonymous"
        and as the password, put your own internet e-mail address.

        You can also call our many BBSes around the world. You can
        find the list of these BBSes in the FCSITE textfile.


ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 8:            FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE FUTURE CREW              ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

        Here we have compiled a list of questions along with the
        answers (in random order) which are being asked in about
        95% of all the letters we receive. Hopefully you will find
        the answers to your questions from here and save us and
        yourself from some unnecessary paperwork.


Q: Where can I get your and other groups' demos?
A: There are several ways to get demos.
   The best way (if you have a modem) is to call an FC distribution site
   near you. They have all of our productions online and you can download
   them freely. Also many normal BBSes carry our productions and other
   groups' demos. If you don't have a modem, then getting our demos is a
   lot harder. We don't have a mailswapping system. So, if you have a friend
   who has a modem, why not try to get him to call one of our distribution
   sites. Another VERY good way to get demos is from the INTERNET. Good
   anonymous ftp demo sites are for example ftp.uwp.edu and ftp.eng.ufl.edu.
   Our demos can be located in the /pub/msdos/demos/groups/future.crew
   directory.

Q: When is the musicdisk coming out?
A: We released Purple Motion's musicdisk called Journey at The Party 3.
   Skaven's musicdisk - Chaotic Mind - has also been released.

Q: When will you release a MOD/S3M player?
A: It has already been released along with Skaven's and PM's musicdisks.
   It's called the MusicDiskPlayer (MDP) and it plays 4-8 channel ProTracker
   MOD files and all S3M files. It support SB, SBPro and GUS. The most recent
   version (v1.1) was released with Skaven's Chaotic Mind musicdisk.

Q: When is Scream Tracker 3.0 going to be out?
A: It was released some time ago. You can find it from the releases list.
   A new version is not planned.

Q: When is Worldcharts issue #2 coming out?
A: Since there are a lot of other groups publishing all kinds of magazines
   today and our main directive is to make demos, and that Worldcharts #1
   wasn't as good a success as we wanted it to be, we see no real sense in
   continuing to publish it anymore. Also as you might have guessed our
   time has become too limited for these kinds of projects. In a nutshell,
   at this time there is no real reason for you to send in your votes or
   articles. If we change our mind about this, you can be sure that we'll
   let you know. Thanks to everyone who supported us by sending us votes
   and articles.

Q: What programming books would you recommend to learn assembler and VGA?
A: This is a hard question, and a general answer is, that any book will do.
   You can get the basics from a book and books are a great reference,
   but when it comes to creating something new, you can't just read it
   from a book. We have all learnt to code the hard way (a lot of
   miscellaneous books and a lot of experimenting). Anyway, here are 
   some of the books we often find handy (there are undoubtably newer
   prints, so check them out):

        Mastering Turbo Assembler, Tom Swan
                Hayden Books 1989, ISBN 0-672-48435-8
        PC System Programming, Michael Tischer
                Abacus 1990, ISBN 1-55755-036-0
        The Programmers PC Sourcebook, Thom Hogan
                Microsoft Press 1988, ISBN 1-55615-118-7
        Programming the 80386, John H. Crawford and Patrick P. Gelsinger
                Sybex 1987, ISBN 0-89588-381-3
        Programmers guide to EGA and VGA cards, Richard F. Ferraro
                Addison Wesley 1989, ISBN 0-201-12692-3

   Also, most up to date are many software 'books', such as interrupt 
   lists from bbs'es and such. We have also found a lot of valuable
   information in articles and such. In short, there is no magic
   way of learning to code, it really does take hard work.

Q: Are you going to make games in the future?
A: Why not. It all depends if we have the time. We have a few game
   projects cooking, but they are far from being finished. But we will
   let you all know when we have a game coming, don't you worry!

Q: What do the members of Future Crew do besides computers?
A: Most of us study in various schools; universities, high schools and
   colleges. In real life most of us are quite normal(?) human beings.
   Our hobbies are for example, sci-fi, movies, weight-lifting, techno,
   hi-fi, etc, etc. And most of us have or has had a girlfriend.

Q: What soundcards will you support?
A: At the moment our productions support the following sound cards:

        Gravis UltraSound   - for it's programming advantages and for
                              being the new standard on the demo scene
        Sound Blaster Pro   - for being the old standard on the demo scene
        Sound Blaster       - for being the basic sound card

   Support to other sound cards is always possible, but right now we
   don't see enough demand to support any other sound cards.

   The first precondition that needs to be fulfilled before we add support
   to a new sound card is that we get at least 10 of these sound cards with
   developer's kits for free. And even if we got 10 cards, it will not
   certify that we will support the card, but it will make it more possible.

   If you have some "supposed to be 100% SB compatible"-soundcard and still
   can't get any sound, or the sound isn't working correctly, DO NOT bother
   us about it!! It's not our fault, but the fault of the manufacturer of
   the soundcard.

Q: Why aren't we supporting General MIDI?
A: Simply because our musicians don't like the idea of using a preselected
   patch of samples over and over again in all their songs. They want there
   to be the so called artistic freedom of using any kinds of sounds they
   like. General MIDI and other such things are not a good thing from our
   point of view - they are a limitation.

Q: Why do your demos require a 386 or higher to run?
A: There are several reasons for the requirement; For example, 386 has many
   new assembler commands, 32bit registers, and of course more processing
   power. There isn't simply enough processing power in 286 to run a full
   ledged demo. And besides, 286-based machines are a rapidly dying breed.
   Anyway, if you are going to purchase a new computer, we strongly suggest
   you get a fast 486.
   
Q: How did you learn to code?
A: Learning to code demos is a long and very very difficult process. It takes
   years to learn to code demos very well. A good way to start is some high
   level language like Pascal or C and then started to experiment with 
   assembler. It takes a lot of time and experimenting to get better, and
   there are no shortcuts (for book recommendations, see a question before
   this). The main thing is trying to understand what you do, then trying
   to change the program to see what you get, and gain wisdom in what's
   the best way of doing things. Learning to code well requires a lot of
   patience, a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of time. It is not easy.

Q: What programs do you use to do your demos?
A: We use the following programs to do our demos; For code we use 
   Borland C++, Microsoft C, Borland Pascal and of course TASM (Turbo
   Assembler). For graphics we use Deluxe Paint 2 Enhanced (and 3D Studio
   3.0). For making the music we use Scream Tracker 3.0 beta, and for
   digitizing the samples for our songs we use Advanced DigiPlayer 3.5
   beta. Scream Tracker 3.01 and Advanced DigiPlayer are our own programs
   made by Psi. In addition to all these, we of course have a big
   collection of utilities we have crafted to our need during the years.
   
Q: I'm a beginner programmer. I wonder if you could help me learn demo coding?
A: To help beginners learn the secrets of demo coding we have released the
   full source of our Mental Surgery demo. This source code is spread along
   with our STMIK (Scream Tracker Music Interface Kit), which is a 4 channel
   music player, which you can link into your own programs. You can find these
   from our distribution sites, under the name STMIK020.ZIP (be sure to grab
   STMIKFIX.ZIP too, which fixes one nasty bug). Do not try to ask us to send
   you some of our unreleased source code.
   We have also released a new source code pack which includes the full,
   documented ASM source code of our StarPort intro II.
   There's always the possibility that we will release some other source code
   in the future as well, but at this time there are no immediate plans for
   such an event.

Q: Exactly where do FC members study and what?
A: Many of us study in high school or in university. Here is the complete list:

        Psi             - Turku university, major informatics
	Trug    	- finished his studies
        Wildfire        - finished high school, starting at an institute
	Purple Motion	- second year in high school
	Skaven		- not studying at the moment
        Pixel           - not studying at the moment
        Marvel          - finished high school
        Abyss           - finished high school, starting at a university
        GORE            - studying in a business school/commercial college
        Henchman        - Institute of Technology, studying computer eng.
        Jake            - Helsinki university, computer science

Q: How long does it take to make a demo like Second Reality?	
A: The complete time that it takes to make such demo can't really be counted.
   Most of our knowledge is based on years of hard work and on our previous
   works. All of us do little experiments on their freetime and when a 
   "critical mass" is achieved the making of a demo begins more seriously.
   From this point to a final demo (in the case of a major production like
   Second Reality) it takes around three to six months.

   
ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ 9:               THE BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FUTURE CREW                       ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
		 

 - 1986-1987 -
  Future Crew (FC) was founded in the year 1986 on the C-64. And only one
 member has been in the group for the whole time - Psi. FC did two
 demos on the C-64 before moving into the PC scene in the year 1988.

 - 1988 -
  FC's first PC demo was a EGA sinus -scroller called GR8. At that time
 the members were HAL, JPM, SS (Psi) and SIDDER. And DARK POWER
 was FC's BBS.

 - 1989 -
  Then there came YO! which was quite popular for a while. It used one of
 the VGA's textmodes and included 'nice' PC-speaker music. It had
 many scrollers, a sinusing YO!-logo, a little bouncing ball and
 a 2D-starfield. At this time ICE joined and so FC
 had another BBS - SILICON DRAGON.

 - 1990 -
  In the year 1990 there was only one demo release from us, the Slideshow I.
 It was the first PC demo which included 4 voice SoundBlaster music.
 It didn't include any other special code for it was a VGA picture
 slideshow. And at this time there were a lot of members in FC:
 Psi, ICE, HAL, JPM, SID, BIG, DAC, MAC and SEBU.

  And only shortly after Slideshow I, Psi released his Scream Tracker 2.0
 - a 4 voice music editing program inspired by the Amiga SoundTracker.
 ST 2.0 was a real success. But of course, it didn't take much time
 when a pirated version was on the move.

 - 1991 -
  In summer 1991, FC released a demo called Mental Surgery. It had
 a big scroller on the top of the screen, 3D-starfield, a nice writer,
 music scopes and of course 4 voice SoundBlaster music.
 This was the last FC demo that worked on a 286 machine. At this
 time the members were: Psi, ICE, Dr.Venkman and Purple
 Motion. And only a while after this I (GORE) joined FC and ICE lost
 the interest to demos and left FC along with his BBS.

 - 1992 -
  So, FC lived quietly for about half a year. But when the year
 1992 came Trug, Pixel, Skaven and Abyss joined FC. And as Abyss
 joined, FC had a BBS again, called StarPort. So, in the
 beginning of the year 1992 FC had the following members:

 Psi            - Code
 Trug           - Code
 GORE           - Organizing
 Pixel          - GFX
 Abyss          - BBS Support
 Skaven         - Music & GFX
 Purple Motion  - Music

  It was at this time that we had begun making UNREAL. Our first
 plan was to release it at MEGA-Leif Convention - An Atari ST/PC party held
 in Uppsala, Sweden. But about a month before MEGA-Leif, MeeGosh/Rebels
 (Amiga) called me and told me about ASSEMBLY'92 and that it would be cool
 to have also the PC scene there. So, he asked us to do an invitation intro
 for the PC scene about this mega-event. We agreed and so, UNREAL was put to
 rest as Psi got the idea of making something different - namely the Fishtro.
 It took us about two weeks to create Fishtro from nothing, but when we went
 to MEGA-Leif Convention, we still had a few little bugs in it and therefore
 we couldn't release it until a week after MEGA-Leif.

  After we came back from MEGA-Leif, we started on making Unreal again in
 order to get it finished for Assembly'92.

  In July'92 came Assembly'92, and we won the demo competition with Unreal.
 Around 1000 people attended this party, which wasn't so bad as it was being
 held for the first time. The total amount of PC people was 300.

  After this we were contacted by the organizers of a big Amiga/C64/PC party,
 called The Party 1992. They asked us to organize the PC demo compo there and
 to make an Invitation Intro for it's PC side.

  At that time we had the following members:
 
 Psi            - Code
 Trug		- Code
 WildFire	- Code
 Pixel		- GFX
 Purple Motion	- Music
 Skaven		- Music & GFX
 GORE           - Organizing
 Abyss		- BBS support
 
  The Party 1992 Invitation Intro was mostly coded by Psi and WildFire.
 WildFire was our new coder who joined us in autumn 1992. He had before been
 active on the Atari ST scene.
 
  Then it was the time for another big demo. The making of Panic began.
 It was the normal process of making demos with blood and sweat and annoying
 deadlines. Wildfire was the one to assemble the demo together, but lots of
 code was also done by Psi and Trug.
 
  Then it was the time for The Party 1992. As we thought that it would be
 really nice to get as many people as possible to The Party as cheaply as
 possible, we decided to organize a bustrip there with the Amiga people.
 So we managed to load two buses full of computer freaks and start our trip
 to The Party.

  At that time The Party 1992 was the biggest demo party ever. There were
 about 2500 computer freaks of which around 300 were PC dudes.
 
  There we entered the demo compo with Panic, and to our surprise we came
 second. Witan's Facts of Life had won the demo compo. We were quite
 disappointed by this, because there was absolutely no voting. The voting 
 system on Amiga just didn't work. And then some Amiga organizer just asked
 the last remaining PC organizer (A member of Danish Elite) "What do you
 think were the best PC demos?" without telling him that these were going
 to be the official results. And without thinking the PC organizer just
 said "Witan's, FC's and Sonic's".
 
  However, The Party 1992 was a nice party.
 
 - 1993 -
   After The Party 1992 we lived quietly for awhile. The only big change was
 that Marvel (formerly in Sonic Amiga) joined us. So we now had two GFX
 artists. Then we began thinking of making a diskmag (Worldcharts). At first
 nobody really wanted to code it, so we thought that we would make it as a
 co-operation with Stone (a finnish demogroup). But after some co-operation
 trouble we began making it 100% by ourselves. Only the first issue was
 released. Then we decided to stop making it, for we had other more important
 projects to attend to.

   Then it was the time for Assembly'93. Once again we were the PC organizers
 and we made an invitation intro about it.
 
  Assembly'93 was the biggest summer demo party ever. There were about 1500
 people on the party place of which around 550 were PC demo freaks. Asm'93
 was also a big advancement on the PC side. For the first time we also had
 an intro, a music (4 channel and multichannel) and a graphics competition.

  Next was The Party 1993 (also known as The Party 3), and all we can say is
 that it wasn't such a good party as it could have been. This was NOT the
 fault of the PC organizing group Access Denied, but instead it seemed that
 the Amiga organizers had underestimated the PC side and thus treated the PC
 side somewhat unfairly. Already there is some talk about organizing a
 PC-only party for X-mas'94.

  Anyway, we released the GUS version of our old Assembly'92 winner demo
 Unreal, and Purple Motion's musicdisk called Journey (which also includes
 the MDP - our MOD/S3M player for GUS/SB/SBPro).

 - 1994 -
   A new year has started and Future Crew is now almost 8 years old.
 We have big plans for this year, both in the demo scene and in the commer-
 cial market. We, along with Sonic PC, Accession, The Movement and
 Virtual Dreams will organize Assembly '94 this year. According to what
 we know by now, Asm '94 will be held from the 5th of August to the 7th of
 August in the center of Helsinki (the capital city of Finland).
 We have released the Assembly'94 Pre-Invitation Intro and the second
 Assembly'94 Invitation Intro (which will include the final info).
   We have also released the long-awaited Scream Tracker 3.01 BETA - A
 project which has been in the making for over 2 years.
 

ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³10:                          SONIC DREAMS                                    ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

	
	Two files which have claimed to be a demo from us under the
	name of Sonic Dreams have been circulating boards around 
	Europe.
	
	  These files: FCSONIC1.ZIP and FCSONIC2.ZIP
	  
                        A R E   F A K E S  !!!
			
	We don't know the maker of these files nor the purpose of them.
        Under our tests we have not found any viruses nor troijans in these
        files. These files are composed of PCX pictures with some simple
	C source code. Please delete the files when encountered. We 
        (the Future Crew) are not the makers of these files.

        If you encounter these files on any commercial/shareware CD-ROM disk
        or such, please, report to us immediately!


ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³11:                          FINAL WORDS                                     ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

	Thank you for reading this file.
	
	
        Signed,         GORE, Henchman & Abyss / FC
