Outline 2013 Demo releases Round-up..

The Outline demoparties, especially in recent years, has been more focused on the 'party' side of things rather than on the 'demo' aspects. This is not such a bad thing, taking a broader view with more release-focused parties such as Sommerhack and Sillyventure also in the picture to satisfy that hunger. Why, we even infiltrated something into the mighty Revision party at Easter earlier this year!

That being said, Outline usually manages to unveil at least one or two unexpected gems to the Atari demo scene. This year proving to be no exception.

Sillyventure 2013 invite - Checkpoint - Atari Jaguar - Invitro

This is the first of these. Whilst we are still waiting for their next 'nearly finished apart from the music' ST demo, Checkpoint threw together a quick Jaguar code with their newly acquired Jaguar devkit. This is probably an intentional tribute to Sanity's 1993-tastic 'Termfin' demo on the Atari Falcon. The music is the same mod-file! There is much richness of movement, mostly in a zooming and rotating fashion very reminiscent of that early work. There are also some other touches, of distortion and a lens magnifying of the graphics whilst the zoom and rotate goes on. Over the top of this, is a textual welcome to the forthcoming delights of Sillyventure 2012, which feels a lot like it's been written by Grey.

A quick refreshing breeze of an invite, now where's that big demo?

Rating:- 80% - A decent first and fast code by Checkpoint for the Jag.

Sommerhack 2013 invite - DHS / Excellence in Art - Atari ST - Invitro

Self-described as a 'compo filler in it's truest meaning', this invite is a combined production between the forces of Dead Hackers Society and Excellence in Art, both of whom were adopting an easy going and laid back approach to this task, This intro probably features some of the least threatening code, music and design ever to grace an Atari platform, apart from a little bit of a twist at the end!

Finally, we are promised a 'Swedish special' from Xia and Acca. Is this a new blockbuster demo? Or more of that fermented tinned fish that has to be opened by specially trained ordnance technicians underwater? I guess we'll know by now!

Rating:- 60% - Mellow fellows produce an easygoing intro.

Hello - Paradize - Atari STE - 96ktro

"Hello, we're still here!" Says Simon Sunnyboy and company in this quick GFA basic coded intro. Not so many coding fireworks but lots of greetings and good wishes. Due to the low tech nature, it can apparently run on just about anything, but the Atari STE is the target machine.

Rating:- 50% - They're alive!

Bits0055 - Bits - Atari ST - Demo?

Into every life, a little Bits must fall. Actually, in spite of the coder colours and coder music, there seems to be a hint of something else?

This is a multipart demo with a front-end menu. There are several screens of simplistic but reasonably competent old school effects. The best of these, and probably the newest element being a zooming text-scroller. Now if Mr Samso could be tempted to be a bit more ambitious, maybe find a decent artist and musician? But then that wouldn't be Bits anymore!

Rating:- 60% - They're alive too!

Debut - SPKR - Atari ST - 64ktro

This is a luminous, nay fluorescent dollop of old school demo making, and first timer old school demo making as well. That said, the result is not too shabby at all, and there seems to be lots of potential with this one to go further.

Rating:- 58% - Fresh talent is always welcome!

'Arka-Nooit' - PHF and Co - Atari ST - Bootsector

A breakout game in an Atari ST floppy disk boot sector? you all cry! Well that was the original plan. As we all know, the very best intentions get derailed by party related stuff ups, such as acute deadline miscalculation! So in the limited time left, our heroes cranked out something which looked a awful lot like a breakout game, and even managed a limited degree of user interaction,

But you're never gonna reach that ball, ever!

Still, as we chatted with the PHF team, the morning after, they may yet manage to turn this into a fully fledged game in a boot sector. Let's hope so, eh!

Rating:- 70% - A great size-limited joke!

'Kioea' - Mad Wizards - CT60 Falcon - Demo

Here's a quick account of the other thing that gleamed brightly at this edition of Outline. We had previously heard murmurings that Britelite was 'up to something' on the higher end Atari. Indeed we sort of dropped a hint in the previous issue of Mag! in the 'scene news' column. We finally saw the fruits of this at Outline, when after several delays, this complete demo was shown at the end of the Outline competitions.

'Kioea' was no less the winner of the Revision 2012 Amiga demo competitions. A full separate review will be following, but this demo faithfully follows the Black Lotus legacy, with all the artistry and sophistication you would expect from such a demo. It also proved very amenable to porting on to the CT60 and runs very nicely indeed, as I've personally verified!

More on this one later.

Rating:- 95% - Pushing the metal very noticeably, but very nicely at the same time.

CiH for Mag! - June 2013

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