Sillyventure 2011 - ST stuff in closer view

Aka, Six of the best, to banish the Baltic blues! (Plus one..)

Ladies and random gentlemen, it is apparent that those gobsmacking Atari ST demos released at the Sillyventure 2011 party deserve more than a couple of sentences to record their brilliant arrivals to a jaded and seen-it-all-before scene. So that's what I'm going to do now.

At this point in the article, I'm not quite sure how these mini-reviews will turn out, but hopefully something worthwhile will follow. Anyway, deep breath and proceed.

'Job Rotation' - Checkpoint - Atari ST - 4ktro.

'Job Rotation', what a strange title for a demo. It sounds a bit like "crop rotation", so a demo about pre-modern agricultural practices, as taught by senile history teachers droolingly dedicated to making their subject dry and dull?

Not at all, the 'job rotation' refers to the fact that 505 and Defjam have swapped roles, 505 handling the numbers and hexadecimals, whilst Defjam gets close to notes, octaves and things that go bleep! I suppose this could come in handy in some group-related emergency at a party where the musician can step in, if the coder has had too much beer overnight and temporarily forgets how his fingers work?

The actual intro is just a little filler, a horizontal coloured chequerboard scroller with a brief smoky hoarseness of a tune. An amusing filler and a nice warm up for the main events to come.

Rating:- 60% - Nice novelty value for the change of personnel.

'4z' - Checkpoint - Atari ST - 4ktro.

Checkpoint definitely owned this category with this second 'real' entry. The creative order of things had been 'rotated' back to something more natural, and this is reflected in the end result.

Within the tight confines, we are treated to several rapidly evolving screens of the following. Bump mapping some of it with multiple light sources, wobbly acid circles and smeary plasma-like waves smear around the screen in rapid succession. For the benefit of our ears, 505 is giving it his best efforts on the tune with greasy thumbprints of ST-SID sound throughout.

As some anonymous commentator on a comments thread somewhere said. "Time was, when the bump-map on its own, without music, was considered to be the 4k state of the art."

We've come a long long way since then...

Rating:- 80% - Excellence in 4k!

'Antiques' - Dune, Sector One and friends - Atari STE - Full Demo.

I've hopefully got this part in the running order as they were shown at the party. Antiques was definitely first out of the blocks there. This was one of the demos which was expected before the party and eagerly awaited as a potential blockbuster.

Did it match up to the pre-release expectations? Out of all the big demos, this one came closest to the current 'conventional wisdom' of the Atari demo scene. That is, high quantities of professionalism, good effects subordinated to overall design, and sheer quantities of hard work put in over a very long period being showcased to universal acclaim.

The demo had some lovely effects and music. There is some cool technical stuff included, such as a mixed YM Soundchip/STE DMA soundtrack, but this is not emphasised. We get a lot of slideshows, including some stunning STE high colour pictures. We are treated to a guest scroller from Daryl of The Exceptions during this slideshow who comes across as the demo ghost of an appreciative coding past.

This demo had a bittersweet taste to it. I was strongly reminded of the 1993 attempt at closure for the Atari ST demoscene, 'Froggies over the Fence', which was portrayed as an 'end of an era' production, a feeling which also came across in conversations at the party with some of the creators.

Still, as I so often tediously say, "Never say never again!"

Rating:- 92% - Powerhouse production, but surely not a bowing out demo?

'Electroilluminations' - Mystic Bytes - Atari ST - Full demo.

Next up, probably the most divisive of all the demo's shown that night, is Electroilluminations, by Atari STE veterans Klocek and Yerzmyey. Hmm, I seem to remember a Bumblebee Flying Higher?

This demo is edgier, messier and noisier than the rest, there are some nice effects in there as well, but the thematic 'electro' design is probably the best part. It could be described as an 'Electro-Punk' production. It works very well on a big screen and can be considered to be a successful 'party demo'. Tends to look a bit less imposing when you get it back home though.

We are promised a steam-punk demo next time, so hopes are very high here!

Rating:- 75% - A manic light-show with some real attitude!

'Base Case' - Live! - Atari ST - Full demo.

This seemed to pick up at the start from where 'Electroilluminations' left off. It was also presented as the Sommerhack 2012 invite, which caused some initial confusion on the part of this reviewer assuming that the Dead Hackers had cunningly placed a remote entry without warning to the Sillyventure. Certainly, parts of this demo would be totally at home in any Dead Hackers production.

The effects manage to be fast, fluid and spectacular, offering enough freshness to lift the jaded spirit. They are also combined with a near- perfect level of design and finishing from people who clearly know what they are doing.

A more objective look back, overcoming the initial "Holy sh*t!" factor from party viewing reveals this to have been made with a lot of care and attention taken on both coding and design. This would be one of my subsequent favourites, to be shown with pride to non-Atari people asking what this party was all about, and played a strong part in making the Sillyventure a very special party indeed.

Rating: - 88% - I hope that Live! are not dead!

'STreet Art' - Blabla - Atari ST - Full demo.

What further words can be said about this production? This demo already has its own separate review. This was the crowning moment of awesomeness, brain melting down and head coming off, from all the competitions.

I really thought that someone had finally succeeded in creating a software emulation of an Amiga A1200 for an ST, and were teasing the rest of us by running one of the native demos for that machine on it!

This was incomplete and run as a couple of parts in-party. I wanted this to be finished and released as soon as possible!

Looking back, there has been some very clever coding involved, some of it apparently discussed in plain sight on at least one Atari forum, if you cared to look more closely and read properly between the lines. In spite of the undoubted shock and awe effect from getting so many colours on an Atari ST screen in non-traditional ways, some people were less keen that the design still felt a little rough edged. This reviewer considers that the street art theme worked closely with the rough edges and was cleverly chosen.

Still, we have seen more of this technique, and await with interest the new places the the authors are promising to take us to with it!

Rating:- 97% - Is definitely in my all-time top ten for "Wow!" moments from demos on any platform!

'SV2011' - Paradox - Atari STE - Full demo.

And valiantly bringing up the rear, there was this in-party production for the Atari STE by Paradox. They seem to make a speciality of throwing together something from scratch ingredients at a party and producing something quite satisfying from that process. (Actually started about a couple of weeks beforehand, but otherwise correct in this case.) I'd like to eat at their place sometime, I bet the food is fantastic!

The advantages include material directly relevant and forming a tribute to the party, with graphics of the Gdansk waterfront and the party location included with the demo. There are some nice effects and media in there for a quick demo, not taking itself too seriously.

Unfortunately, as so often has happened in the past, this was overshadowed a bit by the avalanche that came before it. But on looking back, a worthy summing-up of the phenomena that was Sillyventure 2011.

Rating:- 80% - Looking forward to that STE smasher someday, I know you can do it!

CiH - For 'Mag' - Nov 2012.

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