   |
Some of SurgeSpace's research and development work is introduced below.
| What's a Megademo? Most people will know that "demo" is short for a "demonstration" version of a program. With "mega" added, you might presume that a "Megademo" is therefore simply an "amazing demo" or a "huge demo". However, a Megademo is quite different from a regular promotional demo for a piece of software, and the "mega" does not just refer to it being "amazing" or "huge". The purpose of Megademos were to break down conceptions about what could be achieved using the limited computer specs of the time, and only one megabyte. Programmers had to display great creativity, resourcefulness, and skill when building these demos with such limited space. SurgeSpace (at the time "Golden Weeds Project Japan") developed the first such megademo in Japan, and planned and wrote the book "Let's make a Megademo" (Soft Bank Publishing). Together with the evolution of today's computers, it seems as if the exphrasis is no longer on making demos that push boundaries, but simply once that are well produced and look good. In other words, the importance of engineering skill has faded away. In this age where high speed CPUs and video cards can be purchased reasonably cheaply, and faster ones are constantly being released, perhaps this is only natural. |
 |
|
| Published | March 12, 1995 |
| Screen Shot |  |
| Language | Assembly |
| Comment | The first Megademo in Japan. |
 |
|
| Published | November 27, 1995 |
| Screenshot | 
|
| Language | Assembly |
| Comments | First intro in Japan. * And Intro is a megademo with a very small program size. |
 |
|
| Published | April 20, 1996 |
| Screenshot |  |
| Language | Assembly |
| Comments | An Intro requested by Rune Hansen from Norway, for his BBS (computer network). |
 |
|
| Published | January 10, 1993 C Magazine (March 1993 issue) |
| Screenshot |  |
| Language | WatcomC |
| Comments | This simple demo program was created in Windows for an article in C Magazine (Softbank Publishing). |
 |
|
| Published | January 10, 1998 C Magazine (March 1993 issue) |
| Screenshot |  |
| Language | Assembly + WatcomC |
| Comments | Small trailer for SuperReality2 produced for an article in C Magazine (Softbank publishing). |
 |
|
| Published | Unreleased |
| Language | Assembly + WatcomC |
| Comments | The second part of SuperReality, produced to work with VooDoo (video card). Development was suspended due to time constraints. |
| There was only PCM tone and score...
Although a MIDI file is a file containing only a musical score, a MOD file contains both tone and score in PCM format. A MIDI file is played by hardware, but in the case of a MOD file the program works hard to convert the PCM data into a waveform, synthesize each channel, and produce the sound. As there is basically only one tone recorded for one musical instrument, if the score is to play C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C, in order to edit the PCM waveform, a new waveform must be created for each change in pitch. The score contains not only rising and falling pitch, but changes in vibrato and volume, as well as panpots and so forth, and a program that does calculates all this in real time whilst playing is called a module player. |
 |
|
| Published | March 1, 1998 |
| Screenshot |  |
| Language | Assembly + WatcomC |
| Comments | SuperReality was developed for MS-DOS, but this was developed as a player to run in Windows. |
| In order to process slightly faster... This engine was developed for use when developing products at SurgeSpace, in order to be able to process at a high speed whilst being simple to use. |
 |
|
| Published | Unreleased (exclusively for in-house development) |
| Language | Assembly + Visual C |
| Comments | Engine for calculating and rendering 3D at a high speed. |
 |
|
| Published | Unreleased (exclusively for in-house development) |
| Language | Assembly + Visual C |
| Comments | Combined engine needed for processing the playback of both music and SFX. |
