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Saxonia Issue 01 Part 015
*** PREPARE FOR THE EASTERN PARTIES! ***
By Zerox/Gods
For some years the highlight of the scene year was The Party in
Denmark just after Christmas, but of course there were also released
many great productions at the Gathering party in the eastern and
the Assembly party during the summer. In addition to several great
productions at other parties. The latest years however, the best
productions have been released at the Mekka & Symposium party. A
party, which by the way, got declared dead in late November last
year.
Now we set our hopes to the Breakpoint party in Germany, which could
be looked upon as the successor of the Mekka & Symposium party.
We also have some expectations towards the Gathering party this year,
as we're told much more have been done to please the sceners.
In any case, lets' have a look at some of the great demos released
last year at the Mekka & Symposium party. Then we know what we
might expect to be released at this years Breakpoint party.
The definitive highlight of all Amiga scene parties, is when the
demos in the demo competition are being shown at the big screen.
Seeing the demos was also the highlight of last years Mekka-
Symposium party in Fallingbostel, a party known for hosting the
best demo-groups and thereby also giving us many memorable demos.
Last year there were less demos than the previous year, (only 11
compared to 20 last year) but almost all demos were of very high
quality. I've chosen to review a fine selection of the demos
presented in the demo-competition of the last Mekka & Symposium party.
Little Nell by The Black Lotus
Just as in 2001 the famous forces of TBL managed to win the
prestigious demo-competition, last year with Little Nell.
The demo starts off by a 2d effect, which is nice grey clouds. Then
flare or blurred bobs if you wish, looking like small white balls
are flying through the air. Before we know it, we get to see a 3d
object which is a kyscraper and these flares are passing it. The
camera view let us follow the skyscraper from the bottom and upwards.
Next scene is a tree with flares, and we see a swing formed by a tire
and some ropes, going back and forward many times, with the
skyscrapers in the background.
Afterwards we get to see a very detailed 3d landscape consisting of
grass and some stones, before another tree appears. The camera view
let us watch the tree from the top till the bottom, and then we see
the swing again. Now from the left a girl with a TBL sign on her
dress enters the screen. We follow the girl which is moving in the
landscape, while the camera view is changing all the time. Suddenly
we get to see a big tree, and then the front of the girl. She's
getting closer and closer as the screen is being zoomed and then
faded out.
At this stage, the music is getting faster, and we get to see
lots of ball-alike objects rotating in all directions covering the
entire screen. Next up is some landscape zooming and rotating. After
that the best scene in the entire demo appears. We get to see a
nice landscape consisiting of an ocean and a sky with a nice sun in
the background... and the best part of all, we see the girl sitting
on a very nice flying eagle. They fly in this landscape and we get to
see it in all camera views. The textures on the eagle are really
great, and as the music is more quiet the atmosphere is really
fantastic.
The nice scenes continue, we get to see a face in a mountain-like
environment with some shading. The next routine is looking like a
maze, while the shading is drawn into the textures. Then we get
to see a picture of another girl holding her hands out. There are
flares around her hands. This girl is infront of a nice moving
landscape. In the next scene, we see some pillars (colonnade?) and
the sun is shining in between these. Again the shading (sun) is
painted into the textures and not coded it seems. Then the demo
goes towards the end, we see a spinning TBL-sign, Little Nell and
the credits for the demo in the last screen.
All in all Little Nell lasts around 6 minutes and is quite
atmospheric. The music fits perfectly to the various routines.
While the demo doesnt really contain any fantastic 2d effects, it had
more than enough good 3d scenes to win the competition. Especially
the natural motion of the eagle impressed many at the Mekka&Symposium
party. It's definately a great demo worth watching, and was
definately the best 68k demo of 2002.
Tribute by Scarab
Scarab is the group which won the 4k intro competition with Nano, but
also had time to make a big demo... and it came second in the demo
competition!
In the first screen we get to see a small picture and a message to
the sceners that we should keep scening! Then the demo really starts.
We get to see some 3d scenes. A cowboy is riding on his horse, he
enters a village and steps down from his horse to enter a pub/bar.
We follow this cowboy while the bardoors are opened and closed, and
suddenly two cowboys are outside the pub to have a dual. We get
to see a picture of the face of one of the cowboys with special
effects in his eyes. Then we hear a shot, and one of the cowboys fall
dead on the ground. The fall is also shown in another view afterwards.
The cowboy goes back to his horse and rides away. Now the entire
credits of the demo are being shown. Quite a cool i dea, but
the textures in the 3d scenes were made in a hurry and therefore
not of good quality. But it was interesting nevertheless because of
the cool soundeffects.
After this, the second part of the demo begins. Scarab have realized
the idea which many other groups wanted to do, but never did. They
re-made several scenes from famous demos of other groups. First
we see a scene from Ephidrena, with lots of massive balls rotating.
Then we see moments from a TBL demo, and the natural motions of a
whale. Next up is Loonies with their typical sheep, only followed by
a Potion inspired scene. Suddenly we see an old cracktro from Eagle
Software, which alot of oldskool sceners appreciate, and at the end
some parts of an old & famous Kefrens demo.
As the TV-shots from the other groups are over, we get to see some
special Scarab TV. First off is a picture of a girl with a Scarab
logo on the right, and then follows another picture of a girl
with the Tribute logo included. Some wise words come up with a small
object at the bottom of the screen. Next is a picture of the sky,
some landscape effect and a text passing over it. In the next scene,
the speed is getting faster. We see a ball-object with searchlights,
lighting up the background. The object is falling into pieces and
changing into a twist/candy, it's forming a pattern and its rotating.
Out of the candy/twist, the "amiga-ball" appears. Next out is more
text and a new picture. We see a small picture and the traditional
greetings in a circle-scroller.
The next scene is some buildings and a tree in front, and a sun is
arising in the background making sunbeams hitting the buildings, and
we read another text at the bottom of the screen. The routines keep
coming, and we get to see a mountain-like environment with a river in
the middle. We move forward in this landscape, and suddenly we go
under the water. There we see some fishes which later on melts into
the Scarab sign. At the end of the demo we see a clock which is
ticking... and a text saying defenders of the scene forever and
forever. Then everything fades out and we see a screen with the
end-signal of Scarab TV.
All in all, its definately a good demo created by many talented
coders. Even though there are lots of good ideas in this demo,
its all a bit of a mess beacause of all this diversity and various
parts put together. In any case, I think the demo really appealed to
many oldskoolers and had many great parts.
Demoskope by Creative Minds
This is a PPC demo which lasts 5-6 minutes all in all, and it managed
to come third in the demo competition.
It starts off with showing some bad TV signals - like a snowball war.
Then after the flimmering, we get to see the Creative Minds sign,
which is zooming and rotating.
The first real effect appears, it's really cool and could be described
as a particle storm of very strong light in various colours. Then
a scanned landscape of an ocean and mountains appear. Over it a big
silver 3d object is flying around. The next screen is an old-
fashioned 3d world. We see some pillars. This reminds me of a similar
scene in an old Gods demo from 1996. Except that the scene here also
includes 4 lightning stars.
Finally the name of the demo, Demoskope, appears. We also get to
see the credits for the demo, along with some wise words. Afterwards
a small picture of a head follows. We then see a background picture
of a naked woman, with an effect running over it. It's a red heart
which is jumping around.
One of the best effects of the entire demo appears next. It's
some great dolphins swimming around. All in natural motions. Of
course we've all seen this before, like in Captured Dreams in 1997,
but nevertheless it's really a great scene. Next up is some more
silver 3d objects over a desert background. A few seconds later the
dolpins reappear.
Then a big twister appear, with particles streaming through. It's
being mixed with a background consisting of two eyes of a woman.
Then a text pops up, saying choose life, choose the scene etc.
It's written over another background picture of a woman. Over it
all, there's a blurred 3d object.
Then another cool effect turns up. We see some twisting and turning
of very colourful textures. Suddenly it transforms into a cube, with
the text: Wanna see more? Out of this cube a cool tunnel appears.
The speed has increased alot. Next up is a demoshopping routine.
We see melting and separating objects. Quite nice. Then more 3d
objects follow, some bumpmapping and a star effect.
Next up is perhaps the highlight of the entire demo. We see a big 3d
object. It's a woman holding the world in her hands. It's really
great, and it creates a fantastic atmosphere.
At the end we get to see a review of all effects shown in the demo,
and an end scroller.
It's a cool demo.
Heavy Traffic by Mad Wizards
This is yet another great PPC demo done by the Mawi gang, but it
didn't manage to do very well in the competition because of several
incidents. However, it's as always the genious Kierownik which
has done the code. The theme of the demo is obvious: it's heavy
traffic. We get to see lots of examples of various forms of traffic.
The demo offers some real fast and massive 3d vector worlds, where
it's hard to just come up with one highlight. But if I have to
mention just one innvative and impressive effect, it got to be the
bridge. In this scene we get to see a HUGE bridge with traffic
lights going in various direction in the road. It's simply brilliant.
I think this was an underrated demo at the Mekka-Symposium party, as
it only got ranked 4th there. But I believe the reason for that was
that the demo wasn't shown correctly. Mawi also did a second demo,
also done by Kierownik. But I won't review it this time.
Kheshkhash by Encore & Scenic
This demo, which got ranked 5th, is a cooperation between the
small group Encore and the graphics group Scenic. If you want to see
a demo with lots of impressive code effects, then you should see
Heavy Traffic by Mawi. But if you want to see a demo with something
so rare as an overall theme and lots of good graphics, then this is
the demo for you. The theme is drug addiction, and Kheshkhash is the
name of an opiumplant.
The demo starts with some switching back and forward between
the logo Kheshkhash and a typical chinese house. We get to see this
building in many views. Next up is some kind of a tunnel, which
ends with a strong light. Then we see a tree, or actually a chinese
wave. We get inside the chinese building, and get to see the credits
for the demo. Every person got a chinese picture beside his name.
Then I guess we see an opiumsplant, and afterwards a massive 3d
object. Then we see the opiumplant, and then a very good picture of
the face of a man in the background. Then follows some switching
between the face of a woman and a man.
We travel in time, and see the face of a man in front, while seeing
trees, a hill etc. in the background. Then there's this light
effect over the face with black background. Then we get to see a
whreck of a drug addict. Now the slow but massive 3d effect returns.
Then another picture of opium appears and the greetings are being
showed in chinese style. Afterwards another chinese drugaddict is
being shown in a tunnel, and the light is getting stronger and
stonger. At the end we get to see another good picture and some text
with the credits etc.
This is a very good demo after my opinion. It got exellent music in
chinese style which fits perfectly to the routines. The demo got an
overall theme and lots of great graphics, which creates a good
atmosphere. The more negative aspects of this demo is that the only
real effect in this demo is dead slow even though PPC is needed to
run it. It has also come to my attention that the order of the scenes
got a bit mixed up and some parts are really missing. Therefore a
final version will come later on. I also have to mention that all
scenes are in "fake" 3d.. as everything is actually in 2d! Everything
is drawn into the textures, and not coded, just like some parts in
the winning demo Little Nell.
Electroluxus by RNO
The demo begins with some clouds passing, and fitting soundeffects.
Then we see the logo Electroluxus and lots of vectorcubes are coming
towards us. Next up is a scanned picture of two men with gasmasks.
Then a small picture in the middle of the screen is entering and
getting divided into two. An transforming big object which looks
like linevectors with flares appear.
After that another scanned picture is being shown. It's a man, a
woman and a child. In the background some clouds are moving. Then we
see some greetings flying around in a circle with a picture in the
background. Another picture of a woman and a fridge, with a RNO logo
at the top is faded in and out. Then the screen is being split, with
a top border with the electroluxus logo and a bottom border. In the
middle of the screen there's some zooming and rotating of something
which looks like a picture of computer components or something. Then
the credits appear with some wave-effect. Yet another picture appears
with electroluxus at the bottom, and a screen with some
expanding plasma-lookalike effect over it. At the end pictures of
all scenes in this demo with the credits are being shown, in addition
to the greetings again.
The demo doesn't really include many good effects nor good graphics,
but the music is quite fitting. Not much more to say about it really.
It's just an average demo which I personally find a bit boring.
Nevertheless, it came 6th in the compo.
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