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2014 - Demos in Brief..
And here's a slew of mini-reviews of those highlights of the Atari demo scene, as they happened in 2014.
You will see one name crop up time and time again in this 2014 series of summaries, namely 'Sillyventure'. It seems that productions for this party at the end of the year took over almost all of the combined effort of those people who were demo-active that year. Many of the productions outside of the party were invitations to that party. It seems there was no getting away from it all.
Other trends included something of a welcome revival for the Falcon 030, both in its traditional 68030 flavour, and also the super duper 68060 accelerated version. As they are not 'new' productions, I didn't include a number of demo ports from original releases by the Finnish crew 'Fit'. But they all add up.
We didn't see so many people from past parties turn up here, or in not such a high profile manner. 'Live!' did not commit themselves to an entry in the main competitions, which would have been a highlight, but they did give us a neat music disk in conjunction with UltraSyd. Paradox almost opted out altogether with a teaser release, but it looks like their next Atari STE demo will really mean business, whenever it is finished.
There was a lot of VCS and Atari XL activity, some of it of the very highest quality, but this column does not cover this. Sorry.
So 2014 ended on a triumphant note. However, this is the last of the Sillyventure parties, at least for now, so we enter 2015 on an uncertain note. Can the momentum be sustained? Watch this story unfold in the scene news article and the 2015 releases in brief column.
Now without any further waffle, let's take a look at some of these goodies.
SV 2014 Invite - Live! and gwEm - Atari STE
Firstly the slickest of the party invites. Live! manage to beat the STE hardware into a quivering wreck with their take on advanced demo effects squeezed into a party invite. These are done in a crazy and hard to describe mosaic block pattern effect. They are subordinate to the invite info text above and need the viewer to be watching really carefully to get the full benefit.
They are lovely and smooth, topped off with a killer STE soundtrack with digi- drums from gwEm. Invites can't get better then this, surely?
Rating:- 85% - An easy high mark for an easy on the eye intro.
DHS - Sommerhack 2014 invitro - Atari ST
The 'Swedishest of Atari parties' gets its invitro too. This one is very oldschool reminiscent, with a fancy logo at the top, effects in the middle and a scroll-text, which is doing the bulk of the work at the bottom.
The effects are short sweet and soon looping, as is the music. However, we are told quite a lot about the party. On a further note of interest, this was the sole Atari demo release at Outline 2014.
Rating:- 70% - High quality version of default invitetro.
SPKR - Cycles - Atari ST - Sommerhack 2014
Wietze/SPKR, on his own, or in conjunction with friends, goes from strength to strength. This latest demo was shown at Sommerhack 2014 and showcases a smarter and more accomplished look. He cleverly riffs on the idea of 'cycles' in the first part and the latter end of this little demo shows off some attractive effects and graphics such as a blocky tunnel and some neat dot based objects.
Nothing really new here, but nicely put together with a very laid back soundtrack to complement it perfectly.
Rating:- 75% - Another step up in the evolution of SPKR.
Chicken Song 4k - XIA - Atari STE - Sommerhack 2014
I remember the satirical puppet show Spitting Image. It was like a current affairs version of the Muppets, but without those characters and with latex versions of the real life people that plagued the eighties instead.
XIA also remembers Spitting Image, as he's been inspired to make a little demo about a song that appeared on there. He's so confident about his littleness skills, it's been squeezed down to 4 kilobytes.
The simplistic presentation showcases the song lyrics as they appear line by line on the screen. The song is a YM sound chip version of the Spitting Image parody of the cheesy upbeat summer hits that were popular at time, specifically 'Agadoo' by Black Lace. We are invited to 'Hold a chicken in the air and stick a deckchair up your nose.'
What seems to be an innocent exercise in size optimisation takes a sinister turn, when you realise the format is ideal for encouraging Karaoke! All you need is a bunch of boozed up guys at a public venue screening this prod, such as a demo par- oh!
Rating:- 60% - I'd mark it down further if people start to publicly perform it!
NoExtra - 'Ooompa' Demo - Atari STE - VIP Party
Turning to another party, the 'Very Important Party' always seems to attract a little bit of oldschool activity and 2014 was no exception.
NoExtra presented this very smart demo and won first place with it. The overall look and feel is very much French newschool, with lots of design elements, muted palettes and some smart graphics. There are some technically interesting bits such as the Gouraud cube in the first half. It all hangs together nicely. Not quite a 'Dune' level of excellence, but a worthy contender for sure.
Rating:- 80% - Great effort all round.
Checkpoint - Morphonic Lab 13 invite - Atari Jaguar
Last year, Defjam/lsl had a new platform to play with, this was the Atari Jaguar. His first effort was well received. This motivated him to do more there, so we have this second release dedicated to the Morphonic Lab and released at the Evoke party.
Unlike the earlier effort, there are 'thematic elements' to this one. Defjam is in 'morphonic mode', so that means dark and brooding effects and music. A lot of what is shown can also be seen on his earlier and some later (!) ST work, but there are some extra touches and nifty transformations made possible by the Jag's more advanced hardware.
Noteworthy are the walking man on the wireframe, some very slick greets and complex 3D objects.
Overall, a good second outing on the Jag.
Rating:- 82% - One of the best demos for the Jaguar.
Dune - SV2014 invite - Atari Falcon
Since Chuck scaled back his Atari activities, it seems that Thadoss has busily filled the gap left ever since on the Falcon. We also have his great works with respect to the gaming side of things, but first of all, here's a summery evocative Falcon 030 invitro for Sillyventure.
We're introduced to a little native guy made out of Minecraft style bricks, who we will meet again later on in this article! He introduces a picture made of the same material, of Atari's new(er) and old(er). We get to the main meat of the intro, with a gorgeous textured cube feeding back and filling the whole screen. There is some lovely relaxed music from DMA-SC, the whole is interspersed with info-screens about the party. It is variations of one effect at heart, but somehow you do not tire of watching it.
Rating:- 80% - An enjoyable trip to the jungle.
Inter and others - SV2014 invite - Atari Lynx
The Sillyventure 2014 invites just don't stop coming now, do they? So we have something made for the Atari Lynx as well, with Sage, Lamers, Inter Development and Resistance all contributing here.
This prod plays to the strengths of the Lynx, with fairly old schoolish effects done super-smoothly, a little bit of 3D and some still graphics that probably look better on a Lynx-sized screen, rather than all the blockiness blown up over-scale on a video recording. The music is a cheery soundchip tune of a fairly advanced nature. There is a big textual infodump about the party at the end, should you choose to scroll down and read it.
Rating:- 75% - A strong Lynx release when there are very few of these.
(Sillyventure 2014)
So we're here, the Godfather of all parties in the 2010's. What is the 2014 edition going to bring. Can you wait? Can you bear the unbearable tension? Well you don't have to, here they are!
Extream - Old Stuff - Atari Falcon 030
We're up and running with something started in 1995 from Emphii of Extream. The aptly named 'Old Stuff' shows its mid-nineties pedigree to great effect, and I am transported back to the days when all of this was still brand new. The completion was delayed by such minor reasons as marriage and children, ho hum!
A fast paced show includes such delights as a 3-D fractal object, which we didn't see enough of. We need more 3D fractal stuffs in demos! A blaze of bobs and tunnels is thrown in too, and even something scrolly that sort of reminds of a Cuddly demo? It's all over too quickly.
Rating:- 70% - Not an all time great, but a nice piece of work nevertheless.
Payback 2015 - Britelite/Dekadence - Falcon 060
In between bouts of alcoholically boosted falling over, Britelite managed to conjure this little gem for our enjoyment.
This was for the Falcon 060 only, and was not actually a port of an earlier Amiga demo. The party invite is smart, with advanced effects that would be difficult to realise anywhere else. There is a very smart black and white intro, then more conventional 3-D work, with some dazzling lighting coming up later on.
This is another one that is over all too quickly, and we learn that the party in question has already sold out!
Rating:- 80% - Still think we have not seen the best from Britelite yet!
Orion - Unexpected Fun - Falcon 060
Well this was unexpected! In my predictions for the Sillyventure 2014, a new CT60 demo from Orion and friends was on the hopeful but not expecting anything list.
This is another one that is fast paced and over all too quickly. Although the music and effects feel about right for this demo. There is quite a decent 3-D space station at the end, a 3D female who could have done with some more design elements, rather than being plonked in there, and plenty of other nice bits as well.
A good second attempt at the higher end Falcon, I hope Orion will come back for more.
Rating:- 78% - Underdone in places, but feels like a proper demo.
Dune - Tere Rai - Falcon 030
Now this was the winning Falcon demo from the Sillyventure party. Mere words can't express how good it was Well I guess I have to try!
Actually, I'm going to give this one an extended write-up of it's own. It's my favourite demo for 2014.
I'll just say at this point, if anyone asks "What's so great about the Atari Falcon?" This is one of the prods that they should watch!
Rating:- 94% - As close to perfection as possible on a standard Falcy?
The Black Lotus - Rift - Falcon 060 port, out of party
This one is unprecedented. A Black Lotus production that's been ported to the Falcon in the same year. Also this port was done by Kalms himself.
Like all the other Black Lotus productions, this defines the absolute possible state of the art for the Amiga 060, and by extension, the same for the Falcon 060. The rendering has been improved to make it run decently on real hardware. This is less of a problem on the quicker Falcon 060's.
There will be more of a write up of the various Falcon 060 productions that arrived in 2014, new and old alike. This one is most categorically at the top of the tree.
Rating:- 96% - See previous comment re closeness to perfection, still, the remaining four percent is there for the taking!
Inter - Oh God - Atari ST 96k
A long anticipated return to activity is shown with this rewarmed code from 1992. It is channelling 1990 demo aesthetics and crams an insane amount of activity on the screen.
The title, 'Oh God' possibly reflects Samurai's state of mind when releasing it.
Rating:- 65% - Very oldschool indeed, but I like cheesy flavours!
Effect - Industrially Safe Demo disk 31/35 - Atari ST
One of the surprise arrivals at Sillyventure 2014, another return from olden times, as Effect resume their never-ending crusade to pack everything ever made into compilation disks.
There is some nice oldschoolish code in the intro's, as Effect has regrouped and recruited new members. So will we get more of these in the future? Time will tell.
Rating:- 65% - Compilation disks but a decent intro.
Masters of Electric City - Unbeatable - Atari ST - 96k
The makers of the challenging but enjoyable medium res ascii art intro last year, Masters of Electric City are back. This time they are taking up the Hi- res mono challenge thrown down by Cerebral Vortex in 2013. This intro is also a 'thank you' to the people who donated funds to purchase a spare ST to develop more ST releases on.
The effects are less smooth than Cerebral Vortex's take on mono, but are more modern, including some nice bump mapping. The effect seems to run in a window on a pretend desktop. The music is nothing quite like what you've heard from an ST soundchip before either. The whole is interesting and doesn't take itself too seriously either.
Rating:- 72% - A little bit rough, but enjoyable to watch.
Acid Team - Lots of Dots - Atari ST 96k
A minor classic here, as 'Lots of Dots' does exactly what it says on the label.
It's effects made of dots, lots of 'midschool' globes and splines and spurges. Some of the objects are pleasingly complex polygons later on. Then there are the superb transformations with solid bitmapped graphics made with lots and lots of dots splurging together. There is also this between effects flowing plasma, made out of very fine dots, which I don't get tired of watching.
A smashing little intro!
Rating:- 80% - A refreshing revamp of the whole concept of 'Dots'.
Checkpoint - Nebenprodukt - Atari ST 4k
There was only one 4k intro this time. Fortunately it was made by Checkpoint.
It's fairly simple, thematically speaking. A series of complex wireframe objects are shown and twirled around onscreen. There is some kind of background fading/misting of the parts furthest away from the screen. We may have seen something similar in the earlier Jaguar Morphonic invite demo.
The music is another thing which bruises the tender parts of the soundchip, and is also by Defjam.
Rating:- 85% - Coding excellence to the fore once more.
Paradox - SaboTage Teaser - Atari STE
Paradox got tired of coming in last place. They also got tired of throwing together hasty releases at the last minute, so have resolved to spend as much time as it takes on their next opus.
So we get a very minimalistic section of screen time, to tell us not to take our eyes off Paradox, as their next proper 'thing' is going to be very very special indeed.
We hope so.
Rating:- Unclassified, as nothing really to show.
Effect - Industrially Safe Demo disk 36 - Atari ST
It's another in the onward march of Effect compilation disks, but this one goes quite a bit further and you end up with a pretty decent demo on its own terms.
There are no really new effects there, but what we get is decently made and a credit to the group. There is a very long scroll-text of an informative nature at the end, so pretty oldschool in the end.
Rating:- 75% - There's potential to do more there.
Paradize - Lovetro - Atari STE
Paradize's French arm makes a welcome comeback with this ultra-cutesy demo. There are not any massive coding feats on display, but more a case of "Alright, I'll do the cutesy graphics if you squish the rabbit under the safe!" ST Survivor. DMA Sc made the music and Cooper provided the code.
This is more of an announcement that ST Survivor has come back to the Atari scene, his 'second family', which is sweet. Seb, are you feeling alright! ;-)
Rating:- 65% - Not breaking any records, but not breaking any hearts either.
Lamers - Takeover - Atari STE
We're getting to the serious meat of the ST demo competitions now, with this second placed entry from C64 veterans, Lamers.
There are more of those 'Strong thematic elements' as a spoof transmission of 'Boobwatch' is interrupted by a rogue signal from the Anonymous pirate TV station. (This first part of the demo is enough to get it classified with an age-inappropriate content warning on Youtube - Really? We're not all Americans!)
Effects are once again subordinated to design, as we are informed of the downsides of the surveillance society, but also the 'Retro is a revolution'. If anything, this demo is the one most closely resembling the better 8-Bit demos, as it tries hard, but not to the point of breaking anything, and putting everything in a smart wrapper. There was a little bit of fun at the end, with a spoof front page casting doubt's on Grey's status as a true- blooded Atarian, amongst other items of pretend scandal.
(Noteworthy - a perfect little bump-map of an anonymous Guy Fawkes mask tucked away in the middle, which may well be missed on a big screen.)
Rating:- 85% - An accomplished and well executed production.
Checkpoint - Thunderdome - Atari ST
But of course, we're girding our loins and breaking our chairs in anticipation of the latest outpourings from the guys at Checkpoint.
It's not just Checkpoint, as there are a lot of other people involved, such as Exocet, Cyg, ST Survivor and UltraSyd to name a few off the top of my head.
It comes on two disks, so a holy limit is not breached, and it is epic in every sense of the word. That said, I can't quite get past the feeling that there are two distinctly different demos conjoined and trying to pull themselves apart from each other.
The first part starts off as a digi-sound techno style celebration of Thunderdome, not out of place as a grandson of the Grotesque demo. But it's not just fast images and dancefloor video clips, as there is some top quality code mangling and screen morphing just a little way in. A nifty Spectrum 512 still picture and some crazy stuff with 3D dots that was last seen in the Falcon 96k, Terrorise your Soul.
The second strand starts to appear midway, with a display of raymarching, or a virtual reality tour of a very holey purple swiss cheese! This is the end of part one, as the digi sound gives way to familiar soundchip melodies and the next part takes up the slack.
The next authentic 'holy crap' moments come when what looks like a bitmap or sprite of the wizard is actually a textured 3D model. Then horrible twisty things are done to a demonic light sourced cube. More complex 3D object madness follows, when a spinning Atari logo zooms out to reveal that it is the label of a record being played on a fully realised vinyl turntable!
Ambition is this demo's name, with 3D light sourced textured metaballs morphing into each other. The motion blur greets text is almost a relief.
Apart from an extended end bit, that's more or less there. An epic, why yes it was!
Rating:- 95% - Defjam/lsl has the other five percent to beat. He must have an incentive to make more demos!
Ultrasyd/Live! - 0913 - Music disk - Atari STE
This is where Live! devoted their 2014 efforts, apart from helping out elsewhere of course.
A fast and furious menu delights us for the first minute or so, then giving way to a menu of Ultrasyd tunes.
If you like soundchip music, and you probably wouldn't be reading this if you don't, then these are some of the best recent ones out there. Recommended.
Rating:- 84% - Superior music disk with a superior composer.
And here endeth the releases round-up for 2014. This omits a whole bunch of games that also appeared, things like Ace Tracker 2.0 and more. This last year was really a great year for the Atari ST family. Will 2015 be able to step out of its shadow? We'll see!
CiH - For Maggie, June 2015.