"What's that on my Moby?"

Demos and stuff on my Nokia talking thing...

2012 Note:- Out of all the back catalogue material, this article has probably aged the worst of any of them! We're looking out of historical curiosity at a time where the iPhone had still to smash everything before it. With Android phones scooping up the rest! Here is a scene where, more than others, time does not stand still. Anyway, this article is lobbed in for historical interest, so read on!

Hello again, it's time to look at another left-of-field area where demos and traces of the entity called 'Demoscene' might lurk. This time around, we look at the possibility of running some of these things on a typical mobile talking telephonic device. The first results are in, and the signs are encouraging.

To set up the story and give a bit of background, I changed my faithful Nokia 6820 last year. It did well enough and was nowhere near breaking down or wearing out, but I needed an 'America compatible' handset for the wedding of Felice. The 6820 was duly replaced by a slim black Nokia 6120 Classic. Apart from losing the flip-out keyboard, and gaining a bigger screen. The new phone also had the ability to run the S60 (3rd edition) environment which opened up extra possibilities, as well as the Java (J2ME) platform common to most phones.

I had dabbled with trying some j2me stuff on my previous phone, but with little success. It was time to re-examine the Pouet archives. People have been making mobile phone demos, with varying success, since the early 2000's. What I'm looking at now is a more or less random selection of what I've grabbed for my moby, and this does not pretend to be a comprehensive record of the whole moby demoscene as such.

So here we go now.

Project LCD (Java) by Noice..

We start with this demo. It is a j2me demo which should be able to run on just about any mobile phone that has more than a single line text display. It chose not to run on my 6820, back in the day. However, patience rewards the eventual upgrader and it installed and ran nicely on the new phone.

When it runs, you are taken through a tasteful and silent grey-shaded world. We are treated to a series of common new or midschool effects, including a twisty column, a series of 3-D cubes on a film strip, which is a neat twist on a common effect, and even a fully 3-D spinning cityscape. This little demo is smooth and runs nicely throughout, it does not need the full screen of my phone, but in common with other j2me demos, it needs prodding from time to time to wake up the screen backlight as this will go dark if left to itself. This is a minor point, this demo is a good introduction to the world of moby demos, and stands up well across different and more powerful phones, considering it was released in 2005.

Forekay (Java) by RNO..

Britelight and company take us on a trip to 4k swirly things central in this Icons 2007 combined 4k release, which managed to get to 2nd place. There is sound with this one too, which punishes the speaker quite effectively. The effects are variations on a plasma theme, but also including a watery ripple effect on one of the screens. As it is java, you have to keep watching carefully to make sure it does not fade and go screensaver dark on you. All in all, another solid release worth keeping around.

Toaster (Java) by amuQ Creations..

The first full demo as people would understand it in a newschool sense is considered next. This goes back to the Function 2005 party and considerably pushes the state of the possible on the j2me platform quite a long way in a good direction at that time.

Upon running it, a number of things are apparent. There are a lot of nicely drawn graphics, there has been some care taken with the design, and my phone is really too powerful for it, which is apparent in certain parts. More of in a minute.

We kick off with a nice chippy sounding tune. A dark title screen rapidly gives way to the first effect, which consists of a transparent distorting bar rippling up and down the screen. The second part shows a picture of a dalmatian with some old fashioned 3-D bobs swirling above its head. At this point, we find that we can move forwards or backwards through the demo, using the phone navigator button. This feature was very useful for me to get the bare bones text down for this mini-review. It is also possible to adjust the sound volume from the top and bottom parts of the navigator button. The third part shows how overpowered my phone is for this demo, as we are treated to a 3-D voxel landscape, rushing past as if I tried to run it on a 300 mhz ZX Spectrum, or some other less disturbing metaphor for over- performance if you prefer.

The forth part is a very rapidly twisting column, this goes into some rgb raster colours. The fifth and final part of the 'main' demo consists of some greets in the form of fancy crew logos reflected in rippling water. A class effect, but really still over too quickly. In an attempt to pick up any possible paedophile votes at the Function party, a sexily posed schoolgirl is pictured at the side of the screen. This didn't really work, as they only got to 5th place. But it is not the end, as there is a bit more to come. This is the cunningly evocative Pokemon Mini Me Beautiful tribute showing a miniature Pokemon Mini 'emulator', playing its own effects in a tiny LCD- alike screen and new tune. This attempt to raise the demo as a whole to the level of a minor classic at least seems to work. Then it is the end.

Wasted (Java) by Resident..

Here's a nice demo from Turkish demosceners 'Resident'. This venture into j2me was first seen at the Nightshift 2006 party in the wild compo. This one is unapologetically oldschool in inspiration. There is a variety of picture distorting screens, also some acid squiggly things onscreen. For me, the nicest and best realised part were the fractal trees. A scrolly text thing ends matters. There is a higher proportion of hand-drawn graphics in this one than most. There is also a suspicion that it is running a little bit quickly than it should on my handset as some of the effects seem keen to leave before I'm ready for them to do so. The usual j2me caveat of remembering to refresh the backlight is applicable here. Overall, a good effort.

java_util demo (Java) by K2..

Prolific C64 sceners K2 ventured into a new platform at the Breakpoint 2008 party, with probably the most ambitious attempt to do something demolike with the j2me platform yet seen. This was that most interesting of creatures, a 'party-demo' actually made in the party itself. Comments in the scroller at the top refer to the poor Easter weather forcing a productive mindset due to the lack of a party bonfire.

This features a foreboding soundtrack by Skyrunner, and starts with a dark and moody double torus doing its thing onscreen. One thing which is immediately noticeable, is that the whole screen of my moby is fully used for this demo. Indeed, there might be a little bit of clipping at the sides of it. The double torus gives way to an infinite number of pyramid shaded polys, (well dozens of them anyway.) The double torus returns, with shooting stars (ever so slightly imperfectly done!) whizzing past. There is a small infoscroller running constantly near the top of the screen which mainly gives information about the demo, and the fact that it was a purely in-party effort.

The inevitable 3-D tunnel gets in there, and a spiny cube glides down it effortlessly. With the main effects all established, the rest of the demo rapidly switches between them. Someone commented on this being very mid-nineties in look and feel, and so this is the case. To end it, a huge and elaborate 3-D 'END' logo spins around the screen, surely a major test of any moby's poly processing power, and a list of greets rolls up the screen.

One major difference from the Demoscene TV video, and my moby, is that the soundtrack runs out a lot more quickly on the moby, so synchronisation issues there? But of course it is a party production. There has been a promise made of a tidied-up version, but whether this sees the light of day, who knows?

Beertime X (S60) by Dekadence..

And now we move onward to the possibilities of the Symbian platform. In the case of this demo, and the follow-up 'Form', you see that we are looking at a production much more closely tailored to the smartphone, with better use of the screen, and the fact that the screen refresh code is built into the demo so you don't have to constantly keep prodding the phone awake.

In some ways, Beertime for me is still the definitive S60 3rd edition demo. I first saw it running on Felice's Nokia N95, and he had the extra nice feature of a TV-out port on that phone so we could also see it on a big screen as well. In terms of look and feel, and things like the video resolution used, this demo closely resembles something that might be done on a CT60 class of machine, which is not a bad comparison at all.

It starts off very dark with a very indistinct 3-D star burst or edges of a dark tunnel looming into the screen. A dekadence logo is followed with a title sequence in a dim but shiny font. The soundtrack builds, and a glassy shiny irregular boulder poly appears, as if hurtling through the sky. This is clearly taking moby demos to the 'next level' with this impressive screen.

The mood is maintained, even as it switches to a slightly more conventional effect, as a beer can spins around with light rays shining from it. An evening shaded voxel landscape is flown over afterwards. A very technical looking section, with hundreds of lines and patterns spinning on a 3-D axis is up next. There is a fairly abstract screen, with a couple of 'claws' spinning, but these seem to be reflecting light in a deliberately distorted way.

Misty clouds form onscreen, and a series of crew names, stacked on top of each other, glide across from right to left. Another abstract effect follows, as a deliberately chunky series of 3-D blobs and boulders is up next. The camera moves away slightly to reveal this is forming a bigger set piece, sort of abstract sculptures contained within a barrier reef in space.

A purely technical part follows, where the coders decide to see how much graphic data can be pumped through the phone's display as quickly as possible, as a torrent of random images burst through the screen (taken from previous demos as we later find out.) And that is the end, as a long and nicely done end credit scroller follows in a rounding things up fashion.

So, Beertime X (10th Anniversary), as I said, still the demo by which other S60 efforts will be judged!

Yellow Rose of Texas (S60) by Fit and Bandwagon..

Another way to get more demoware for the smartphone might be to convert some existing releases from other platforms, preferably the minority of demos that were intended for multi-platform portability to start with, and don't make too many demands for specific hardware. The name 'Fit' springs to mind for a group which has taken this approach, with some success. Now it is the S60's turn, with a port of their Assembly 2003 4ktro 'Yellow Rose of Texas', which rocked that party.

I ran the demo alongside the Youtube video, and the words 'needing severe optimisation' sprang to mind, as it worked on the phone, and even kept in sync with the video, but the frame rate was a slideshow in places which really spoilt the point of the demo. I then re-read the notes from Marq which included the words 'requires S60 3rd edition with 3D hardware'. So one out of two for me then (Doh!)

Form (S60) by Dekadence..

The follow-up to Beertime X was a tad over a year coming, but arrive it eventually did, and it got 3rd place at the Assembly 2008 wild compo.

It superficially resembles the earlier production, being S60 compliant, and flipping the display to run in a 320 x 240 landscape mode like its older brother. On the other hand, it can be said that 'Form' is more consciously 'arty' and relaxed in its overall look and feel than its precedessor.

It starts with a series of credits as the music builds up. A big bold 'Form' title appears while behind it, a twisty metallic swirling thing does its stuff. This is the only part of the demo to really take any part of its design from Beertime X. The bold and sparse presentation style, rapidly to become the norm here, resumes with a fast single coloured dancing fractal pattern overlaid with a 'Function' logo. The vector graphic look is continued with metablobs merging in this fashion whilst an appeal to 'Reason' is made onscreen. A 'Structure' is up next, as we get to see a vectorised version of an environment mapped complex blob, normally shown in as many of the sixteen million available colours by the proud coder, but reduced to three or four in keeping with the overall look of the demo.

A cunning twist on the greets section is next. Thanks to 'corporate partners' follows. There is a rather large hint for this in the readme file, which is written in the style of a company end of year shareholders report. For the next minute, you can have fun spotting which well known corporate logos have been subtly "adapted" to which democrew names! The music builds once more, a raucous squiggly percussive soundtrack, and we are greeted with the next proper effect, headlined 'Order', it is a kind of landscape made up of hundreds of tiny blocks forming valleys and peaks.

We're getting near the end, as a vectorised star-shaped polygon described as 'Dedication' rotates onto the screen. A flowing progression of up and down arrows takes over the right hand side of the screen, whilst we are informed that this is 'History' on the left. And that is indeed the end.

Scenetone modplayer (S60) by Pygmy Projects..

Lastly, this strictly isn't a demo, but it can be classed as 'scene' due to the nature of what it does. Very simply, Scenetone is a modfile player for S60 phones. Modfile players for mobiles aren't that common, well this is the first one I've found. To run, it is a very bare and stripped-down app, just showing a list of module files from the directory where you put them in the first place. More impressively, it can play a number of different formats.

As well as the common and garden modfile, it can play .xm and .s3m and even SID tunes, albeit some of the latter imperfectly. The best results from my so far limited sample indicate that Martin Galway tunes come up quite well. On the other hand, I can happily confirm that it can play the first three music types more than adequately. The volume on my handset is on the quiet side, but better through headphones. So not one to throw back at the "Yo da shit, get a life and stop ripping off black American streetsceen stoopid white kids!" when travelling on the bus. So a 'loud' option needed for the next update please!

Conclusion..

The mobile phone demo scene is never really going to threaten the dominance of the mainstream scene. Releases are irregular, and fall into the novelty category ever since the early days, where they were tailored to run on a specific handset, and you were very lucky if they ran on anything else. Now, there are common platforms like j2me, and Symbian, but not too many people are willing to tackle them. The releases we have had tend to be one-offs from crews which usually code for other platforms. Interestingly, a couple of the reviewed demos were made by crews with a Commodore 64 history.

I'm keeping an eye on Dekadence, as they seem to have established a regular presence on the S60 platform, and I'm sure someone else will surprise us with a wild compo entry or two for the mobile phone, at a future large demo party somewhere.

CiH, for Alive Mag, Sept '09.

August 2011 Updating!

Hi there, ho there people!

This is CiH making a belated return to this textfile.Things have happened in a fashion over the previous two years. The general activity rate remains low, with a handful of releases over a year, generally at the major parties. There has been a shifting of platforms, with Nokia fumbling Symbian and the rise of the Android and iOS platforms as the coder's choice, with a touch of Windows Mobile and Nokia N90 stuff as well.

A move to a Nokia E71 last year has resulted in no new releases for it, apart from a brave effort which harks back to good old J2ME which appeared earlier this year.

Berry Nice! (Java) by Luis..

Luis Gonzales, aka 'Luis' based this harking-back to classic Amiga demos on the Blackberry handset. To say that he threw a kitchen-sink's worth of effects into this demo downplays the effectiveness of kitchen sinks!

A brash and proud sound track kicks off with something very modfile sounding. As if the spirit of Amiga 500 has reached from the grave. Sure enough, checking out the credits reveals the involvement of Dr Vector of the Megahawks Inc. This track turns out to be a perfect mood-music for the rest of the demo.

After a stylised loading logo, the demo title, in reassuring cheerful letters is slowly plunging into a spinning vector line tunnel.

A grey 3 D cube spins around against a zooming and rotating background, where the loading screen has been cunningly reused.

Something Dead-Hackerish next, with an appealing solid gold star plunging into a five petal distorted tunnel. There is a continuation with a chunky red torus fronting a coder-coloured plasma effect.

In case people weren't sure, the Amiga-ness of this demo is reinforced non too subtly by the classic Amiga chequered bouncing ball, which is followed by a closely cousined lava lamp with a chessboard moving floor going on.

The ever-versatile loading screen reappears as the centre piece of a distorting lens effect. But it is off to space for the next screen where the coder tries to impress.

Here is a star field, with a light-shaded teapot made of many polygons rotating furiously.

Another classic tribute to another classic effect, not, thankfully, shade bobs, but give it up for fractals!

The next screen is called (by me) Cheese please, Luis! and that is what we get. the 3 D engine being used to create a reasonable illusion of holey cheese out of polygons, and there is some blue plasma as well.

The cheese factor rises even more if that is possible, with a visit from some 3 D bobs, recalling Lost Boys past. The commonly occurring '@' logo shimmers in the centre of the screen whilst a shimmering blue background scrolls frantically past.

There is a final spasm from the 3 D engine, with two interlocking coils thrown into space. The penultimate effect is an old old favourite, as the screen is set ablaze.

Did anyone yell "Fire!"?

The last part runs on a 'forever loop', at least until you've had enough. This is a TV noise, so you can simulate a loss of service through your mobile screen!

And that would be the end. As much cheese as you can eat in a single demo. Of course it comes with the old J2ME bugbear of having to wake up the screen throughout, and I lost the soundtrack after the first minute. (I got a flawless performance through the YouTube recording.)

CiH - Originally for Alive but revived for Mag 2012..

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