===============================================================================
 eight shades of black testkit

 degauss^tek
 luca^fire
 
 28.04.2006

 http://javalemmings.com/xeo3/8sob/
===============================================================================

intro
-----

you can use this kit to test if your E.S.O.B. demoparts integrate well into the
demo's framework. first of all: everything is put together in quite a hurry, so
there are no validity-checks or anything like that. if something's wrong, the 
tools might crash or nothing will happen at all. the framework itself is not 
100% alright: some TED-registers aren't set properly and it is not tested for 
NTSC-compatibility. i will fix these things soon...


files
-----

\esobmake.exe		; my little build-utility
\exomizer.exe		; you all know that: the famous cruncher
\makedisk.exe		; a little tool i grabbed from the covert-bitops-toolpackage
\layout.txt			; a demo-disk layoutfile (we'll get to that later on)
\parts\*.*			; some "test-parts" and info-texts for the parts
\out\*.*			; the output of what the tools emit...

how to use:

making a demodisk
-----------------

if you call...

	"esobmake.exe disk <layoutfile> <output_directory>"

... it will build all demoparts listed in <layoutfile>. building means:

- exomize the file
- put the message-text in front of the file
  (message files are named like the demoparts, with a .txt-extension)
- put the correct starting address into the file
  (the starting adress is in the layout-file, after the filename)
- "renumber" the filename
  (files are currently "renumbered" to be: AA.PRG, BA.PRG, CA.PRG, ....)
- copy it to <output_directory>

after that, it prepares the file "boot.prg" so it knows all the parts listed 
in <layoutfile> and then copies it to <output_directory>

as a last step, "makedisk" makes the "esob.d64"-image from all that files.

to build the testkit-demodisk, call

	"esobmake.exe disk layout.txt out"

testing your part
-----------------

1. put your (uncrunched) part into the "parts" directory.
2. create a .txt-file that is named like your demopart
   (the txt-files have to be $78 bytes long and are expected to contain
    PETASCII)
3. insert an entry in the layout.txt-file. (including the start-adress
   of your part)
4. call "esobmake.exe disk layout.txt out"
5. test "esob.d64" in yape.

last words
----------

we don't know if this is really useful for you. anyway you can test your
demoparts with these little tools. we put this thing together to show
you, that were doing something and that we're making some effort to 
prevent the linking of the demo to become a real horror. if there are any
questions left, you can contact us this way:

degauss:
- email: degauss@neoscientists.org
- icq: 147-630-023

luca:
- email: xeo3@libero.it
- icq: 265-697-750

have fun... AND PARTICIPATE WITH A DEMOPART!
	



    




