More OSDM Intro Mania

More Intros/Cracktros created with the Oldskool  Demo Maker by Peace/Testaware.

First an Intro for TRSI – Tristar & Red Sector Incorporated. The main logo is based on the probably most recognized and almost legendary TRSI logo design that J.O.E. created on the Commodore Amiga for the group back in the early 1990s. I cannot remember who Thorion/TRSI made this transformation animation out of it, but it was originally created for the Commodore Amiga demo by TRSI called “We will smash you!” “Time Zone”, which was released at the Arise Summer Conference in August 1992.

I also did not create the red vector in the middle, behind the text. That one was created by D.N.S. Design for OSDM in 2007. Too bad that TRSI is not active on the PC anymore. They might could have actually used it for their releases :). Why not?!

Quick Credits

• Code: Peace
• Graphics: J.O.E./TRSI and me, Roy/SAC
• Strips Glenz Cube Vector: D.N.S. Design
• Music:  Bass/The Silents (tune from the Amiga demo “Static Chaos” by No Soul Prod./TSL DE)

• Backup Link to Video on Vimeo.com
• You can as always download the video in AVI format and this time also the Window 32bit Executable in a single ZIP archive at MediaFire.com: Download now

The second intro/cracktro is for the release group RoORS. How do you like my rain effect? I actually got the inspiration for it by looking at the classic “Matrix” effect hehe. Believe it or not, but it is just one static image that is creating this effect, no vector graphics.

The music is a shortened segment of the mod tune by Jugi for the Complex PC demo “Dope” from 1995.  It is only a segment of which I edited out of the module myself.

Quick Credits for this Intro:

• Code: Peace/Testaware
• Graphics and Direction: Roy/SAC
• Music: Jugi/Complex

• Backup link to video on Vimeo.com
• You can download this video in AVI (XVID/MP3) format (68MB) at Mediafire.com here.

Cheers!

Carsten aka Roy/SAC

Cirque du Soleil’s Inside La Nouba and In the Heart of Dralion

Finally, after months of searching and having an instant alert on eBay to find the documentary DVD “Cirque du Soleil: Inside La Nouba - From Conception to Perception”. Just about 1 1/2 weeks ago I got an alert that somebody is selling the DVD on eBay. I jumped on and placed my bid. The auction ended about one week ago and I was outbid. I didn’t watch the item closely at the end, because I was (and are) still working on my new computer (setup, configuration etc.).

I set my maximum bid to $15.00 and was outbid by one cent. I would have bid more and should have set a higher maximum, but well. Anyhow, I was furious when I saw that I lost the auction after all those months, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it. I searched eBay again, but manually and noticed a listing where I did not receive an alert yet. Two offers within one week, unbelievable.

That other seller had the “buy now” option enabled, asking for $13.99 with free shipping and handling within the United States. I couldn’t believe my luck and clicked “buy now” right away, completing the process (including payment) right there and then. Then a few days ago the DVD arrived. YEAH!

There is nothing really that special about the DVD itself, except that it is the last one that I had missing from Cirque du Soleil. I have all other show and documentary DVDs about the Canadian circus troupe already.

I actually thought that the DVD was overpriced when it was sold (I wasn’t a Cirque fan at the time when the DVD was still available for purchase). A 45 minutes long documentary for a full (or almost full) DVD price is not a good deal.

By the way, the same is actually true for the Cirque documentaries “KA Extreme” and “A Thrilling Ride Through Kooza” (latter became in its entirely a bonus feature of the Kooza show DVD, which is nice).

Cirque learned that they can do better than that, their newer documentaries: “Flow”, “Lovesick”, “Mystery of Mystere” and “All Together Now” provide great and a lot of content for your money. 

However, I was not aware of the bonus features of this DVD, which is the 24 minutes long making of documentary of an entirely different Cirque du Soleil show. That increased the value of the DVD of course. :)

Since the DVD is almost impossible to get, I made the decision to make its content available freely that people do not have to spend months of their life and jump through endless hoops in order to be able to access this content. “Sue me!” (See Disclaimer part further down below first :))

Feature: Cirque du Soleil’s La Nouba Making Of Documentary

Cirque du Soleil - Inside La Nouba is a 45 minutes documentary about the creation of the show "La Nouba", which is performed live at Downtown Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida.

You can download the entire 45 documentary in one .AVI video file (XVID/MP3) in 740x480 pixels resolution (508 MB!!) at http://www.mediafire.com/?mwgzmjywjmz

You can watch the whole documentary in 5 parts on YouTube.com at my CirqueDuSoleilGuru Channel:

1. Inside La Nouba – Part 1
2. Inside La Nouba – Part 2
3. Inside La Nouba – Part 3
4. Inside La Nouba – Part 4
5. Inside La Nouba – Part 5

Btw. The show DVD of “La Nouba” comes in a 2 discs set where the second DVD is full of behind the scene footage and artist interviews. A lot of value for your bucks. Unlike the “Inside La Nouba” DVD, the show DVD is readily available for purchase:Buy La Nouba Show the DVD (at Amazon.com)

Note to this Publication/Disclaimer

I set myself the rule to not publish any videos of entire DVDs or sound tracks here at YouTube, because I think that you should go and buy it, if you want to see or hear the whole thing. Getting access to some representative examples, yes, because you should not have to buy the "cat in the bag" as we say in Germany.

I was thinking, if I should put this documentary up, because it is a DVD that used to be sold, but the latter part ("used to be", instead of "IS being") made me decide to do it. My understanding of copyright goes as far as to make sure that a creator of something gets compensated appropriately for his creative or intellectual work without being ripped off by anybody. That is fair and square, because also artists and writers need to make a living, which is tough, if everybody copies their work and nobody pays.

However, in this case the creator did make money, when he released this content first on VHS and then DVD. Then he decided not do so anymore, even after all copies in stores worldwide sold out. It is impossible to buy a new copy of this DVD anywhere. It took me over 9 months to finally being able to snatch up a used copy of it on eBay.

The content owner obviously does not have any interest in selling his content, because he would make it available for purchase, if he would have the intention. This could have been done in digital format as well. The cost and requirements to SELL the content on the Internet are virtually ZERO until an actual sale occurs. That price should cover the typically marginal cost for the content delivery and yield some profit for the owner.

Copyright is in my opinion not a tool to control access to content and information (which is in my eyes "censorship", literally) or it should not be and considered an abuse of the existing laws and to the least be seen as immoral.

Coming from a country that used to be totalitarian and engaging in censorship everywhere, I know the negative implications of it in society. This does not just include censorship of news and events, but censorship of cultural content as well. I hope that this content will not be taken down by the copyright owner or that he at least reads this video description and reconsiders, before he requests a takedown from Google.

I will remove the videos myself, if the content of the DVD happens to become available freely again for people to purchase.

I put up the same disclaimer at the video segments itself at YouTube as well. 

Bonus: Cirque du Soleil’s Dralion Making Of Documentary

Also on the DVD of Inside La Nouba is another “Making of” documentary for an entirely different Cirque du Soleil show. Cirque du Soleil - In the Heart of Dralion is a 24 min long "Making of Dralion" documentary.

Dralion tries to combine the elements of the traditional Chinese circus arts, which dates back for hundreds of years with the elements of the modern plus the theatrical and artistic touch of Cirque du Soleil.

Guy Caron, the director of Dralion talks about the unique challenges that needed to be overcome during the creation process of this Cirque du Soleil touring show. 

You can download the entire 24 minutes long documentary in 740x480 pixels resolution and AVI format (XVID/MP3), total 312 MB in size at http://www.mediafire.com/?dwf1ad1gmgn

I also put the documentary up in 3 parts at YouTube:

1. In the Heart of Dralion - Part 1
2. In the Heart of Dralion - Part 2
3. In the Heart of Dralion - Part 3 

If you liked the videos and its content, you should know that a DVD with the recording of the entire show Dralion is also available for purchase:Buy Dralion Show the DVD (at Amazon.com)

Cheers!

Carsten aka CirqueDuSoleilGuru

Want more Cirque? Visit: http://www.roysac.com/cirque

Script Tool: Process Scene Releases Version 2.1 Update

This is a quick update (and fix) for the Version 2.0 of the script that I released about 1 month ago. I wrote in detail about it here.  It is basically a useful batch script with configuration INI file to RAR and then ZIP your scene releases, add NFO and File_ID.DIZ and optional INTRO to each Release File automatically. See ReadMe.txt, which is included in the Release ZIP of the script, for details and help. Download link can be found a little bit further below.

More Bug Fixes

1. Version 2.0 of the script had a bug, if the release is only one RAR archive. This is fixed now. The script is able to handle single file releases as well as multi-file ones.
2. I did some tweaking and testing that it is not necessary anymore to use the 8.3 DOS short paths neither for the specification of the RAR and ZIP executables locations nor for the path to the data folder where you have the files that go into your release.

I also included a FILE_ID.DIZ template in this version of the release, as reference.

Download   Roy-ProcessReleases21.ZIP (365 KB)

Important Disclaimer!

The author, of this software accepts no responsibility for damages resulting from the use of this product and makes no warranty or representation, either expressed or implied, including but not limited to, any implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

This software is provided "AS IS", and you, its user, assume all risks when using it.

Source Code

ProcRel2.bat

   1:  @ECHO OFF

   2:  CLS

   3:  REM Process Scene Releases V2.1

   4:  REM Batch Script by Roy/SAC (http://www.roysac.com/)

   5:  REM =================================================

   6:  REM Please Change Name and Path for the Following Variables

   7:  REM =================================================

   8:  SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION

   9:  call:READINI SETTINGS ZipExe

  10:  call:READINI SETTINGS RARExe

  11:  call:READINI SETTINGS NFOFile

  12:  call:READINI SETTINGS FILEID

  13:  call:READINI SETTINGS INTROEXE

  14:  call:READINI SETTINGS BASEFILENAME

  15:  call:READINI SETTINGS RAROPT

  16:  call:READINI SETTINGS RARVOLSIZE

  17:  call:READINI SETTINGS RAREXTRA

  18:  call:READINI SETTINGS INPUTDATA

  19:  call:READINI SETTINGS RARFiles

  20:  call:READINI SETTINGS IFFILEEXISTS

  21:  Echo ---------------------------------------------------------

  22:  Echo ProcRel.INI Parameters

  23:  Echo ---------------------------------------------------------

  24:  Echo ZipExe=%ZipExe%

  25:  Echo RARExe=%RARExe%

  26:  Echo NFOFile=%NFOFile%

  27:  Echo FILEID=%FILEID%

  28:  Echo INTROEXE=%INTROEXE%

  29:  Echo BASEFILENAME=%BASEFILENAME%

  30:  Echo RAROPT=%RAROPT%

  31:  Echo RARVOLSIZE=%RARVOLSIZE%

  32:  Echo RAREXTRA=%RAREXTRA%

  33:  Echo INPUTDATA=%INPUTDATA%

  34:  Echo RARFiles=%RARFiles%

  35:  Echo IFFILEEXISTS=%IFFILEEXISTS%

  36:  Echo ---------------------------------------------------------

  37:  IF NOT EXIST %NFOFile% goto NONFO

  38:  IF NOT EXIST %FILEID% goto NODIZ

  39:  set /a zipf=0

  40:  IF "%IFFILEEXISTS%"=="ABORT" (

  41:     FOR %%Z in (%BASEFILENAME%??.ZIP) DO (

  42:       GOTO ZIPSFOUND

  43:     )

  44:  ) ELSE (

  45:     Del /Q "%BASEFILENAME%??.zip"

  46:     Echo Delete "%BASEFILENAME%??.zip"

  47:  )

  48:  Echo Just Double Checking :)

  49:  Echo -----------------------

  50:  Echo Delete "%BASEFILENAME%.part??.rar"

  51:  DEL /Q "%BASEFILENAME%.part??.rar"

  52:  Echo Delete "%BASEFILENAME%.rar" 

  53:  DEL /Q "%BASEFILENAME%.rar"

  54:  REM =================================================

  55:  Echo Create RAR Archives %1.partXX.RAR for Data Selection %2

  56:  "%RARExe%" %RAROPT% -%RARVOLSIZE% %RAREXTRA% "%BASEFILENAME%" "%INPUTDATA%"

  57:  REM =================================================

  58:  IF EXIST %BASEFILENAME%.RAR (

  59:    set /a pos=1

  60:    ren %BASEFILENAME%.rar %BASEFILENAME%.RAR>NUL

  61:    IF NOT EXIST "WORKDIR" MkDir "WORKDIR"

  62:  )

  63:  IF NOT EXIST %BASEFILENAME%.RAR (

  64:    set /a pos=0

  65:    Echo Rename %BASEFILENAME%.partXX.RAR to %BASEFILENAME%xx.RAR

  66:    For /f %%x in ('dir /on /b "%BASEFILENAME%.part*.rar"') do (

  67:      set /a pos+=1

  68:    )

  69:    if !pos!==0 goto NORAR

  70:    IF NOT EXIST "WORKDIR" MkDir "WORKDIR"

  71:    For /L %%n in (1,1,!pos!) do (

  72:      call :RenRAR %BASEFILENAME% %%n

  73:    )

  74:  )

  75:  Echo.

  76:  Echo =================================================

  77:  Echo %pos% RAR volume(s) created!

  78:  Echo =================================================  

  79:  Echo Build List of RAR Archives in Folder...

  80:  dir /B /A:-D *.RAR >!RARFiles.txt

  81:  REM =================================================

  82:  Echo Process RAR Archives...

  83:  Set REP1=TOTALFILES

  84:  IF EXIST "FILE_ID.WRK" DEL /Q "FILE_ID.WRK">NUL

  85:  Call:SandR %FILEID% FILE_ID.WRK %REP1% %pos%

  86:  SET FCNT=0

  87:  Set REP2=CURRENTFILE

  88:  FOR /F "delims=|" %%i IN (!RARFiles.txt) DO (

  89:      Echo Processing %%i

  90:      Set /a FCNT+=1

  91:      IF EXIST "FILE_ID.DIZ" DEL "FILE_ID.DIZ">NUL

  92:      Call:SandR FILE_ID.WRK FILE_ID.DIZ %REP2% !FCNT!

  93:      IF EXIST "%%i.ZIP" del "%%i.ZIP">NUL

  94:      DEL /Q WORKDIR\*.*>NUL

  95:      MOVE "%%i" "WORKDIR\%%i">NUL

  96:      IF EXIST "%NFOFile%" COPY "%NFOFile%" WORKDIR\>NUL

  97:      IF EXIST "FILE_ID.DIZ" COPY "FILE_ID.DIZ" WORKDIR\>NUL

  98:      IF EXIST "%INTROEXE%" COPY "%INTROEXE%" WORKDIR\>NUL

  99:      "%ZipExe%" -a "%%i.ZIP" "WORKDIR\*.*"

 100:      IF "%RARFiles%" == "KEEP" (MOVE WORKDIR\*.RAR>NUL)

 101:      DEL /Q WORKDIR\*.*>NUL

 102:  )

 103:  REM =================================================

 104:  Echo Build List of TEMP ZIP Files...

 105:  Dir /b *.RAR.ZIP>!ZIPfiles.txt

 106:  REM =================================================

 107:  Echo Rename ZIP Files...

 108:  REM =================================================

 109:  FOR /F "delims=." %%i IN (!ZIPfiles.txt) DO (

 110:      Echo Rename %%i.RAR.ZIP to %%i.ZIP

 111:      IF EXIST "%%i.ZIP" del "%%i.ZIP"

 112:      REN "%%i.RAR.ZIP" "%%i.ZIP"

 113:  )

 114:  REM =================================================

 115:  Echo Deleting TEMP Files...

 116:  IF EXIST !ZIPfiles.txt Del /Q !ZIPfiles.txt

 117:  IF EXIST !RARfiles.txt Del /Q !RARfiles.txt

 118:  IF EXIST "FILE_ID.WRK" DEL /Q "FILE_ID.WRK">NUL

 119:  IF EXIST "FILE_ID.DIZ" DEL /Q "FILE_ID.DIZ">NUL

 120:  RmDir WORKDIR>NUL

 121:  ECHO =================================================

 122:  ECHO Done!

 123:  ECHO =================================================

 124:  Echo.

 125:   Pause

 126:  goto END

 127:   

 128:  REM =============================================

 129:  REM PROCESSING FUNCTIONS

 130:  REM =============================================

 131:  :READINI

 132:  Set key=%~2

 133:  call:strLen key len

 134:  Set /a "len+=1"

 135:  set yfs=

 136:  set ymn=

 137:  for /f "tokens=*" %%i in ( ProcRel.ini ) do (

 138:    set ywv=%%i

 139:    if /i "!ywv!"=="[%1]" (

 140:       set yfs=Y

 141:     ) else (

 142:       set ywv=!ywv:~0,%len%!

 143:       if defined yfs (

 144:          if not defined ymn (

 145:            if /i "!ywv!"=="%2=" ( 

 146:              set ymn=%%i

 147:              set ymn=!ymn:~%len%!

 148:            )

 149:          )

 150:       )

 151:     )

 152:  )

 153:  Set %~2=%ymn%

 154:  GOTO :EOF

 155:  REM =============================================

 156:  :strLen -- returns the length of a str, max 1023

 157:  ::      -- %~1: in - varible name of a string variable

 158:  ::      -- %~2: out- string length

 159:  SETLOCAL

 160:  set str=A!%~1!

 161:  set len=0

 162:  set /a n=1024

 163:  set /a n^>^>=1, len+=n

 164:   if !str:~%len%!. == . set /a len-=n

 165:  set /a n^>^>=1, len+=n

 166:   if !str:~%len%!. == . set /a len-=n

 167:  set /a n^>^>=1, len+=n

 168:   if !str:~%len%!. == . set /a len-=n

 169:  set /a n^>^>=1, len+=n

 170:   if !str:~%len%!. == . set /a len-=n

 171:  set /a n^>^>=1, len+=n

 172:   if !str:~%len%!. == . set /a len-=n

 173:  set /a n^>^>=1, len+=n

 174:   if !str:~%len%!. == . set /a len-=n

 175:  set /a n^>^>=1, len+=n

 176:   if !str:~%len%!. == . set /a len-=n

 177:  set /a n^>^>=1, len+=n

 178:   if !str:~%len%!. == . set /a len-=n

 179:  set /a n^>^>=1, len+=n

 180:   if !str:~%len%!. == . set /a len-=n

 181:  set /a n^>^>=1, len+=n

 182:   if !str:~%len%!. == . set /a len-=n

 183:  ( ENDLOCAL & REM RETURN VALUES

 184:      IF "%~2" NEQ "" SET %~2=%len%

 185:  )

 186:  GOTO:EOF  

 187:  REM =============================================

 188:  :SandR

 189:  REM Search And Replace

 190:  SETLOCAL

 191:  for %%i in (%1) do (

 192:    for /f "tokens=1,* delims=]" %%a in ('"type %%i|find /n /v """') do (

 193:      set "line=%%b"

 194:      if defined line (

 195:          call set "line=echo.%%line:%3=%4%%"

 196:          for /f "delims=" %%X in ('"echo."%%line%%""') do %%~X>>%2

 197:      ) ELSE echo.>>%2

 198:    )

 199:  )

 200:  ENDLOCAL

 201:  goto :eof

 202:  REM =================================================

 203:  :RenRAR

 204:  IF EXIST "%1.part%2.rar" ( 

 205:       ren "%1.part%2.rar" "%1%2.RAR"

 206:       echo ren "%1.part%2.rar" "%1%2.RAR"

 207:  ) else (

 208:     IF EXIST "%1.part0%2.rar" ( 

 209:         ren "%1.part0%2.rar" "%10%2.RAR"

 210:         echo ren "%1.part0%2.rar" "%10%2.RAR"

 211:      )

 212:  )  

 213:  GOTO :EOF

 214:   

 215:  REM =================================================

 216:  REM ERROR MESSAGE FUNCTIONS

 217:  REM =================================================

 218:  :NORAR

 219:  echo.

 220:  Echo Error!

 221:  echo Error! No RAR Archives with the file names

 222:  echo %BASEFILENAME%.partXX.RAR

 223:  echo were Created!

 224:  goto END

 225:  REM =================================================

 226:  :NONFO

 227:  echo.

 228:  Echo Error!

 229:  echo NFO-File %NFOFile% not found!

 230:  goto END

 231:  REM =================================================

 232:  :NODIZ

 233:  echo.

 234:  Echo Error!

 235:  echo File_ID.DIZ Template File NOT Found at %FILEID%

 236:  goto END

 237:  REM =================================================

 238:  :ZIPSFOUND

 239:  echo.

 240:  Echo Error! (ABORT Parameter specified)

 241:  Echo Current directory contains already one or more ZIP files 

 242:  Echo with the name: %BASEFILENAME%??.ZIP 

 243:  goto END

 244:  REM =================================================

 245:  :END

 246:  REM Finished!

 247:  Echo.

 248:  Goto :EOF

ProcRel.ini

Sample INF configuration file

   1:  [SETTINGS]

   2:  ;or C:\PROGRAM FILES\WinXXX under XP

   3:  ZipExe=C:\PROGRAM FILES (X86)\WinZip\WZZIP.EXE

   4:  RARExe=C:\PROGRAM FILES (X86)\WinRAR\RAR.EXE

   5:  NFOFile=COOLGROUP.nfo

   6:  FILEID=File_ID.TMP

   7:  INTROEXE=CoolIntro.exe

   8:  BASEFILENAME=TEST

   9:  ;a=add, use rn to move Input Data instead

  10:  RAROPT=a

  11:  ;v98078k (100MB), v4096k (4 MB) etc. 

  12:  RARVOLSIZE=v98078k

  13:  RAREXTRA=-m5 -r

  14:  INPUTDATA=C:\RELEASE FILES\COOL RELEASE\*.*

  15:  ;DEL or KEEP

  16:  RARFiles=DEL

  17:  ;ABORT or OVERWRITE

  18:  IFFILEEXISTS=ABORT

Again, everything is included in the release ZIP archive of the script, which you can download below.

Download   Roy-ProcessReleases21.ZIP (365 KB)

Cheers!

Carsten aka Roy/SAC