Nordic Scene Review 02
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[edit] NSR #02 - A Midsummer Night's Dream
NSR #02 - A Midsummer Night's Dream
[Twoflower]
You thought we'd fuck up this issue
didn't you? Noone should be able to
make enough decent reviews with the
puny amount of releases surfacing since
the last issue, right? Dear audience,
you're not mistaken. Looking back on
the second quarter of this godforsaken
year have left us shallow, empty and
easy to mislead. As a consequence of
this, we have decided to add some
traditional C64-mag bloattext like
demodiscussions and interviews (yes,
we decided to skip the Formula One
section right before deadline) and
to hang out with women as cheap and
easily mislead as ourselves. Fact is
that we even considered to fill out
the mag with cut'n paste text from
CSDb and C64.sk, but after some heavy
consideration we dropped that idea since
that really would be ripping the concept
from the rest of the C64 magazines out
there. Just being a blatant copy of Game
Over(view) is enough for the moment.
In the real world much things have
happened during these months though,
and I guess noone of you has missed
that Turkiye was elected (with one
vote in the council tipping over to
Turkiyes advantage!) into the nordic
community during a recent meeting
with the primeministers of Denmark,
Finland, Sweden and Norway. Thus,
the nordic countries are now Sweden,
Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Finland and
Turkiye - and as a consequence we have
decided to add a turkish editor to our
staff. With these words, we like to
welcome Nightlord to the crew. Welcome
to NSR, Nightlord! Welcome to the nordic
community, Turkiye!
Since we recieved a lot of criticism,
both positive and negative, on our
first issue we decided to overlook them,
hoping that they will equal eachother
out. If you still are in doubt about
how this magazine works, we'd like to
clarify one or two things. First of
all, you should all be aware that we
are equipped with a complete set of
rules which render us fault-proof,
much in the fashion of the swedish
unemployment offices or the swedish
social security. So, before you decide
to criticise this issue, take a note
in your mind about this. Every piece of
criticism will be carefully considered
and bounced towards this brilliant set
of rules, and answers to your queries
will be overlooked for ages until our
negative reply finally will reach you.
[Puterman]
Okay, so here's the second issue, a
bit later than I had hoped, but I guess
we'll figure out how to do this properly
sooner or later. The people who whined
about the font will have to live with
it this time too. The people who
whined about other stuff... Wait, the
font was apparently the only negative
thing about the first issue. Okay,
so we'll just keep trying to deliver
the same thing over and over, and
everyone will be happy. Including us,
as we'll probably turn into robots by
doing that, then we'll probably turn
evil and try to destroy mankind, which
will make the rest of the creatures on
this planet really happy... Until we
destroy them too!
Right, now that you know what to expect
from upcoming issues, I'll move on to
the next topic: Demo of the Year 2004.
Or well, I was planning to comment on
that, but then I found that I just
wasn't interested in it at all, and
when I tried to write about it anyway,
everything I wrote turned out to be
speculations about the IQ level of the
guy who organized it. So we'll just
leave it as it is, those of you who are
interested should check the discussion
at CSDb, it's long, but it's filled with
involuntary humour.
And as I really don't have anything more
to say, let's hear what mr. Nightlord
has to say...
[Nightlord]
Hi everyone. We all know how boring
it gets to read the hello messages of
new staff members in diskmags. Poor
guy starts telling in great detail
how and why he joined the mag, what he
will be writing about in this issue or
the next. Like anybody cares... The
catch is that people will see your
articles in this and the next issues
anyway and there is not much point in
trying to provide an introduction and
contents information. So I will talk
about something else but related.
Yes the demoscene coverage of today's
diskmags just sucks. I believe there
are two really critical points. First
of all, most mags are not dependably
periodical and second of all those few
mags that do review demos tend to review
the same set of releases, usually from
the popular brand crews and a few fake
ones from their friends. The spectrum of
releases today range from a number of
fake and pointless releases to serious
but not popular demos and to the big
winner demos from the brand teams.
We are going through very strange times
with respect to demo making. There seems
to be ever less criticism and feedback
to the demo creators, usually limited to
a few one-liners in Pouet or CSDB. This
very much reflects the patterns of
the very fast consuming audience of
today. The ease of downloading and
watching a demo in an emulator in
the warp mode, has the side effects
of ignorance and isolation between
the audience and the authors. Less
people vote and even less people seem
to care. This is a loop that needs to
be broken somewhere.
Therefore I wanted to start a diskmag
for demo reviews a few months ago,
around the time the first issue of NSR
hit the market. In a few days Puterman
contacted me and I was instantly
convinced that I could contribute more
to the scene by being a part of NSR than
starting my mag on my own. So here I am.
When I am choosing demos to review
I will try to favor the serious
but unpopular demos in my choice of
reviewing. The reason behind this is
that I believe the lack of recognition
these demo attempts get is one of
the main problems of the C64 scene
today. The spectrum of the demos has
gone to the extremes, leaving this mid
part empty. That means there are very
few mid demos, which in turn means
there is a big gap in the quality of
winner demos and the fake or beginner
releases. No one can easily overcome
this kind of a gap.
This situation resembles the economic
health of societies. The healthiest
societies are those with most of their
population in the mid income range.
There will be a few poor and a few
rich. When a society loses the mid range
population, what usually happens is that
the number of poor greatly increase and
the rich get richer and fewer. This goes
on until the society collapses one way
or the other.
So using the same analogy, having less
and less mid range demos is causing
an increase in the amount of fake
or beginner releases and fewer high
quality releases whose quality keeps
increasing. Take a look at the party
compos. You will see a few quality
releases and an increasing number of
fake releases. Usually the quality
difference between the top one or two
spots and the rest of the positions is
so high. You get my point.
Always keep in mind that anything I
write is strictly subjective and you
are more than welcome to disagree and
discuss with me. Go ahead and write to
me in these cases and correct me.
Credits for this issue:
- Magsys by Iopop.
- Text by Nightlord, Puterman and
Twoflower.
- Music by Maktone.
[edit] Demos
Demos
[Puterman]
The Maximum Overdose party was arranged
in Lubeck, Germany towards the end of
April. It's a small party, so I didn't
exactly expect any great releases, so
I was positively surprised that four
small demos were released.
Stuttgart from Judas (famous for their
"Dansa med Achmed" demo) got the fourth
place. I guess the most positive thing
about it is that it's evidence that some
Swedes bothered to go to a small German
party. This definitely shows some
scene spirit. Petscii isn't exactly my
cup of tea, but the main screen looks
quite okay, at least for a fake demo.
I will not mention the music, but I
will mention the great English in the
(jerky) scroller.
The third place was taken by the
first release by someone called Engine
of Gnumpf-Posse (great name there!).
A scroller and an (ugly) logo might not
make anyone very excited, but it's a
first release, so we'll just wish them
good luck with their next release,
instead of wasting too much text on
this one.
The second place was taken by the small
Habemos demo from K2. This one is
quite nice, although K2 give you exactly
what you've come to expect from them.
The picture looks good enough, and the
fact that it was originally done on
an Archimedes for the GBA appeals to
my sense of humour. For some reason
they decided to release a fixed version
after the party, where they've added
some colour changes to the main effect,
with the net result that the whole demo
looks more ugly.
B0rje's tune is in his usual style.
I don't really know what he's trying to
accomplish with his composing efforts,
but he seems to have set up his own
set of dogma rules. This one seems
to consist of a drum beat, using only
one of the three available channels.
I wouldn't call it minimalism at its
best, but rather minimalism at its most
minimal, and leave it at that.
[Nightlord]
I was worried "Am I missing a hidden
part or something?". I had to check
through pouet and CSDB and saw that it
really was this short. I do not want
to sound too harsh, but I absolutely
see nothing in this demo that I find
remotely interesting other than the
picture. And you can hardly see it. The
fading upscroller in the final version
is nice but instead of increasing my
appreciation of the demo, it simply
further bothers me by making this
production more disproportionate. It is
hard to explain but I find this demo
very unbalanced and possibly stripped
to meet a deadline.
[Puterman]
The surprise winner of the compo was
Streetuff's "Mini" demo, featuring
something as amazing as another one
of those really exciting 8x8 plasmas.
I don't know what's up with the C-64
and 8x8 plasmas, but it seems you can't
arrange a demo compo without getting at
least one demo using this very, very,
very outdated effect. The minimal
tune in this demo actually works for
me, though.
Summing it up, it seems the votes were
cast more or less at random. The only
demo which shows some quality is K2's
one. They must be really impopular
or something, I have no other way of
explaining why it didn't win this compo.
Now let's move on to some other demos...
The HVSC-intros
[Twoflower]
These two intros, for update #41 and
#42 of the High Voltage Sid Collection
respectivly, was something of a surprise
to me. Eventhough they're kind of nice
in their own way, they're equipped with
exclusive soundtracks - by Agemixer in
the #41 and a quadraspeeder by Jeff in
the #42 - two tunes extraordinaire which
qualitywise are way above the rest of
the intros. In a way I find it a waste -
two very good tunes used in intros most
won't even will bother to check? These
two dittys would easily have been
the perfect soundtracks of any new
demoproduction. But on the other hand -
sidmusic isn't really what the scene
currently is short of, so why not? For
you who are starved of scrollers, these
two won't let you down (Tip from the
editors: for better reviews, use more
scrolls. For optimal reviews - DYCP. For
a perfect 10? DXYCP!). Curiously enough,
the most interesting thing about the
releases isn't what they consist of,
but rather the fact that the intros
emits a vibe of sub-scene. You clearly
get the feeling that sidcollecting is a
sub-scene of it's own, and that these
releases are aimed towards the people
involved in it. You can't even find
intro #42 on CSDb when this is written.
Security Camera by Falcon Soft
This is a quite interesting
concept. Again an animation in three
colors, in the style which Falcon Soft
are known to favor. Before starting a
Falcon Soft demo up, you can more or
less guess the colors (blueish?) and
the concept (animation?) before
you even look at the name of the
file. Surprisingly, this demo has quite
an interesting concept which could
have been developed into something
far nicer. Now it consists mainly
of noise (which Upstars made better
this time) and an animation of a room
in perspective. This combo wakes no
further interest at all. Adding some
details and events wouldn't have hurt
a bit, and would have pushed this demo
from 'pointless' to 'nice'. Too much
Bayliss-factor. I'm out of here.
Scamster by The New Dimension
Talking about the Bayliss-factor,
here's a production from the man
himself. To make the story short:
Richard got scammed by the ringtone
company called Jamster (they stole his
credits!) and he sets together a devious
revengeplan - he uses his demomaker to
get even! Very interesting concept. Why
he positions the crazy frog in a 90
degree position beats me? I can cope
with the black bulletholes in the frog,
but a 90 degrees angled frog rendered
in three colors (blueish?) + background
is too much at this point, even for me.
[Nightlord]
Now this is something we could call
a concept demo for sure. Richard has
a clear motive and a message to give
with this production. I am sure we,
the target audiance, will appreciate
the message with our heads tilted to
the side trying to figure out what the
creature in the background is and unable
to read whatever is there in the middle
rotating with mind blowing speed.
Songs for Summer by Civitas
[Puterman]
Richard managed to make another release
just in time for this issue of NSR.
Songs for Summer is a very typical
Bayliss release: sloppy coding, ugly 1x1
font, colour-cycling and an uninspired
logo by JSL. But this is a music
collection, so I'm willing to ignore
those things. Unfortunately the tunes
are also very typical of his style.
It's not like they're bad or anything,
but a bit more variation would be nice.
What I like the most about this demo
is that he actually bothers to put
together another music collection,
instead of doing what everybody else
seem to be doing these days: release
.sid files instead. So while the
latest Goattracker compo might result
in tunes with more variation and higher
quality, Songs for Summer is still way
more interesting to me, as it's a real
C-64 release.
Petscii ate my Tinysid by Chrome
And while we're on the subject of
online music compos, the Tinysid tunes
were wrapped up and released in this
excellent little piece of data soul.
I don't know what to write about it,
except that it makes me feel good and
that it makes me think of robots.
15 Years After by Wanderer
[Nightlord]
This 4K intro is quite nice. It has
an appropriate level of old skool
feel to it. It is interesting to see
Wanderer productive. After many forum
fights involving lots of classic scene
discussion ground coverage and yet
another revelation of the much repeated
"old scener finding today's scene in the
internet" behavioral patterns, Wanderer
seems to be on the productive track now,
with a nice intro which always says more
than a million forum posts. Apart from
this fact I do not have much to comment
about the intro itself.
Something Fishy by Wanderer
[Puterman]
Wanderer also managed to release a demo,
consisting of a couple of odd looking
parts. It's certainly not going to
become a classic, but it has a fresh
feel to it. It's obvious that Wanderer
has done exactly what I want coders
to do: trying to create something that
they think might look cool, instead of
re-using the same old ideas over and
over. My favorite part is the hidden
one, which is typical for this demo:
a cool idea, a decent implementation and
horrible graphics. I sure hope Wanderer
will keep up his coding, because this
is really promising.
Dungeon Horror by Jumalauta
[Nightlord]
Another nice surprise though a bit
short. It has got a nice textureless
dungeon engine and another OK
effect. Definitely worth looking at. I
can not tell whether the dungeon is
real-time but it is smooth enough for
my taste. Ruuvari is definitely able
to code and productive coders are what
this scene needs most dearly now. I
must say I really liked was the music
as well. I did not see the credits of
the music anywhere though. What I do not
understand is why ruuvari would release
something under Jumalauta label. I would
probably overlook this just because of
that label, had I not been desperately
looking for stuff to review.
Corto Maltese Side 2 by Tukka
[Puterman]
This is pretty much what I've come
to expect from Tukka: basically crap,
but with a pretty good tune. This is
just another one of those releases that
seem like a lot of fun at the party,
but which loses its point when the
party visitors are starting to get sober
again. Or maybe it doesn't, if they're
heavy drinkers who never sober up.
(I'm really glad I thought of that
exception, because we're trying to make
everyone happy here, and quite a lot of
people have alcohol problems, you know.)
Crazed 2 by Retro64
[Nightlord]
A small NTSC demo which once again
carries more value with the hope of some
activity in North America than it does
in its own being. Nevertheless, this is
a simple little oldskooler with nice
fonts and logos, and some promising
first time coding performance. Also
in the note two new demos rebirth
and arcana are bing mentioned by the
crew. I am going to be eagerly waiting
for those.
Chessboard Zoomer 256b by Noname
This was a real surprise to me. I find
it truly impressive and delicious.
Although it is hard to write a review
to a 256 byter in a diskmag, I could
not help but voice my appreciation of
this piece of code by Cyberbrain.
Vertical Smiley by Asymptote
[Puterman]
Very oldschool, very much standard
stuff. It seems my expectations
have reached a new low recently, as
I actually thought it was a bit cool
that they managed to code a sideborder
scroller.
Resident Evil etc. by JSL
I really don't feel like saying much
about this one, as I'm really not
interested in either BASIC demos or
petscii. I guess a bit of work goes
into making these animations, but I
really don't understand who's supposed
to appreciate this stuff. I guess at
least JSL himself does... He also
released some other similar things,
like a few collections with "jokes".
I could rant and rave a bit about how
stupid those jokes are, but I'm just
not in the mood. Just avoid that stuff.
The same goes for the Grand Theft Auto
"demo" by someone called Finchy.
Honolulu by Hujowa
Best demoe in year: 10/10.. Yees I
know these guys real good from before
with verry good demoe like demoe
return of the iceman or maby demoe
plottkiform their latest masters peace..
This groundbraking rlz have intiresting
concept some sort of gay demoe..
But also bannanna is alive!!!!! Hes
even dances to greate tune Honolulu..
Hes happy bannanna!!! Old dirty badger
verry good musicman but now also greate
ass coder.. Keep coding keep fucking!
The "forgotten and resurfaced" stuff
Emulated by Upstars
[Twoflower]
At first I thought this to be a
fake demo until I recalled the demo
"Risperdal Dreams" from the same group,
released at ASM-02. Gladly facing my
mistake, I transferred it and checked
it out. To begin with, this demo got a
very finnish vibe reminding me of other
oldschool demos made by the finns, like
"Roots" by PU239 and Upstars earlier
demo "Risperdal Dreams". Looking at the
details, most of this demo is pretty
standard - LDA#$00, STA$D020/D021,
add effect, logo, loader, etc. The
first part which is something out of
the ordinary is the one in the middle,
a part which whips around effects in
a way which reminds me of some old
Bonzai stuff. The second gem in this
demo is the brilliant final part -
I don't understand why chareffects
haven't been used with noise in this
fashion before. Ok, so Dekadense might
have been kind of into it, and ok,
perhaps WD and ourselves have aswell -
but still. This refreshing bit of code,
suprisingly released at ASM'04, was
completely unspread until now, save
for the videoversion which Hollowman
introduced me to last year.
[Puterman]
I just have to chime in and praise
this sexy chunk of data. The last
part is the one that really stands out,
but most of the stuff has its' points,
and I appreciate the dirtiness of it.
The Sun by Shape
[Twoflower]
The last officially released work of
Kjell Nordbo remains something of an
enigma to me. This demo, ment to be
released on (or some short time after)
last LCP, wasn't spread by reasons
unknown. The only two which got copies
of this demo were me and Zyron (which
was asleep when it happened). As it
turns out, Zyron can't find his finished
version, and thus - my version is the
only one left. It feels kind of strange
to be the only one beeing in possession
of a demo which I haven't even been part
of. With this review, i've decided to
change that.
Without spilling too much beans on what
this demo is about, I can tell you that
it is on the serene kind which you see
too few of on this scene. It's the kind
of a demo which demands your direct
attention for a couple of minutes.
The only demo which I feel is somewhat
related to it is the final part of the
Panoramic Design masterpiece "That's
The Wave It Is". Slowly correlating
with Zyrons music, the demo builds up
a crescendo and leave you somewhere
else. Try it. You'll like it.
The demo gets it's official release
together with this magazine and will
be found on this disk along with the
magazine you are reading and Kjells last
official note, "Silvergate".
[edit] More Demos
More Demos
Death or Glory by Covenant
[Nightlord]
Another demo I nearly overlooked
because of the label. But this time it
is no basic slideshow story with bad
humor. This is a serious two sided
demo with a few nice parts. Above
all I sincerely congratulate the
Covenant crew for undertaking such an
ambitious project and finishing it. It
is something one rarely witnesses these
days. Anyway let us try to break this
down to its components
Throughout the demo, I liked the
soundtrack in general. Especially the
part with the Pirate ship picture and
the unlinked last part are my soundtrack
favorites.
[Puterman]
I have to agree here, I often find
Richard's compo tunes a bit boring and
predictable these days, but his style
fits perfectly in this kind of demo.
[Nightlord]
I think graphics were also nice. The
highlight being the full screen
pirateship, the logos were decent
as well.
Codewise the demo had a few interesting
effects and some ugly ones. My favorites
were the chessboard zoomer and the 3D
rotating dots pyramid. The lighted cubes
were nice codewise but I think cube
is a bad choice when you are not using
perspective projection. Any shape with
parallel edges look annoying without
the perspective. But I must say I liked
the general attitude I sensed from
Honesty. I felt he thought like "OK here
are a few effects that I have done. Yes
they have been done before but this is
the first time I am doing that so I will
release them". Also I know it is not
wise to try to put words into someone
else's mouth but I am trying to make a
point here. I think people sometimes act
overcritical towards coders that release
effects that were done before. I feel it
is correct that one should search for
originality, but also some routines
are nice to practice when you are
growing to be a better coder. And only
after working with the fundamentals a
bit one can come to an optimum point
where he/she can start to think about
the never before undone stuff. For
this reason I would like to voice my
appreciation to Honesty with regard to
his diving into fundamental effects.
[Puterman]
The fact that Honesty is quite obviously
getting better at coding is what
makes me most happy. I have a feeling
that most people are just too lazy to
actually try to reach new levels, but
Honesty is working hard to improve his
abilities. Besides that I also see some
development of his tendencies to make
original looking parts, despite the fact
that he's working within the confines
of a quite dogmatic oldskoolism. If he
keeps developing in this way, upcoming
Covenant demos could be really nice.
[Nightlord]
Overall I think this is absolutely the
best thing that Covenant ever did and I
hope they will keep on this track. If
they can not live without bad humor
(killing birds with farts and shooting
cannons out of pirate buts) I will need
to keep ignoring those parts in the hope
that they will release serious stuff
like this every now and then.
[Twoflower]
Let's get this straight, shall we. Know
that I - to be able to give the
reviews as fair judgement as possible -
refused to prematurly watch the reviewed
releases in Vice. Know that I, for this
issue, wanted the firsthand experience
of viewing the fresh demos on my
standard C64 setting since I found my
last reviews a little uninspiring. The
single event which almost made
me give up the entire plan was the
transferring and watching this double
diskside demo using kernal-routines
and a MMC-64. God knows this takes
time, but I felt dedicated and had no
other option at that time. I really
looked forward to a somewhat polished
doublesided demo. To get the ideas of
what the demo is all about, you can
read Nightlords notes on it, but I still
like to add some details. First of all,
it's really oldskool in a way, but not
entirely. This demo circles around the
concept of "The Hungarian Gambit",
which Iopop introduced me to. The
Hungarian Gambit is the technique used
by scrollerwise describing the different
changes of the screen (...it's little
empty on screen, but now... LOGO!) and
since that isn't something i've seen in
a long time, i'm quite amused. Another
thing which you will find plenty of
is the "Holy Trinity of Oxyron" (logo,
effect, scroller + swap internal order
of these three now and then) aswell as
the classic black background. Still,
this can't really be stated true
oldskool - there are far too many
separate parts outside of the loader,
it sort of got a concept (an anal pirate
concept, but ok) and most important of
all, the music uses introductions. I
agree that I kind of enjoyed seeing it
in some strange way - but to be frank,
I wouldn't have bother to transfer it
if I had seen it forehand.
Axis of Evil by Fairlight
[Twoflower]
I was expecting very little from this
demo, judging from the sneak comments
i've got from Puterman and Hollowman. As
I got the impression that this was to be
an invitro, I expected even less. Well,
surprise, surprise - this was far more
than expected. Black and white colored
graphics and effects (very nice) and
unnecessary loaderscreens (less nice)
makes this demo a nice, although classic
one. Much of the hires-fx really rocks,
the pinnen-effect in the middle is
very good looking and the circles
are downright outstanding. The hires
graphics, especially the pic on the
glassed guy with glasses, serves its
purpose and adds a nice vibe to the
overall impression. Even the blippy
tune in this demo serves its purpose
nicely, eventhough it isn't really my
kind of music.
What doesn't serve its purpose, on
the other hand, is the fucking loader.
This isn't the first time a Fairlight
demo fucked up completely for me after
transferring (and don't blame my drive -
i've got seven of them!). I'm not really
sure who to blame, Hollowman for using
an old experimental revision of Krills
loader, or Krill for providing it to
Hollowman - perhaps they aren't even
using Krills loader, but fact still
remains. This demo freezes. It freezes
over like a friggin' scandinavian
lake in december. It might have to
do with my ways of transferring it
(MMC64 and 1581-copy), but I doubt it.
Three separete downloads and three
different transfers using different
techniques and disks later, i'm kind of
sick of seeing it crash.
[Puterman]
It's the same loader as in Loaded and
Postcards from Stockholm, and I don't
know if anyone's complained about those.
[Twoflower]
I can't really understand why they are
throwing some marvelously looking stuff
into an invitro, it's completly beyond
my understanding, but I can agree that
it's a funny and nice idea? After all,
why should all the nice stuff be saved
for large productions which already are
overloaded with eyecandy? To sum it all
up; this is a nice little demo with a
loader that sucks. If you've been able
to watch this all the way through on the
real thing, you are probably a happier
guy than me, and you probably don't have
a 1541-II either. Or atleast you might
have a better way of transferring.
[Nightlord]
This probably is the best invitro
ever. I got a weird feeling about
putting lots of effects in an invitro
like Twoflower says. I mean the effects
were nice, new or improved. The linking
was obviously thrown together quickly
like the oxyron demos from the mid
nineties. But every negative thing that
comes to my mind quickly vanishes as
soon as I remember that this is only
an invitro.
[Puterman]
Right, so we'll call all our demos
invitros from now on, just to get
positive reviews in our favorite mag.
[Nightlord]
I liked the rotating sphere effect
really much. It probably reuses some
code from the multicolor version from
the rotating planet 1000000 miles
away. My other favorite effect is
the rotating arcs. It does not look
incredible, but it feels so fresh
and original to me. I do not like the
rotating around y-axis effects in the
middle and at the end so much. They are
very clean implementations but I do not
think they look too good in hires.
The graphics are nice and no
surprise. It is hard to express my
impression about them though. They sure
are nice and artsy and very Fairlight,
but I think I am yearning for a
different graphical style in Fairlight
demos for about a year now. It started
to feel a little predictable to me.
The music is completely unattractive to
me. The lead sound and the melody kind
of annoys me. The drum and baseline
feels so unoriginal. I simply hope
they had used something else for the
music. But than, I can picture Puterman
dancing to this tune in my head, and
suddenly the music does not feel so out
of place.
All in all, it is a production
containing nice elements and in the last
few months unfortunately it is one of
the few better things that was worth the
electricity and internet bills you paid
while downloading and watching. And
that says more about the demoscene
gap I talked about in the editorial.
Something that Fairlighters do with
about 2% of their potential is more
eyecandy than loads of fake crap in the
scene. I probably will not transfer it
to a disk though and therefore never
get hit by the problems about loader
that Twoflower told about.
[edit] Tsunami (100%) by Booze Design
Tsunami (100%) by Booze Design
[Twoflower]
Asian styles are very much in
fashion right now, so why shouldn't
an asian-styled demo surface on the
C-64? Well, at Floppy'05 "Tsunami"
hit us, and we who watched it on the
big-screen eagerly awaited its final
release. Comparing with the earlier
prodcuctions from Booze Designs, this
demo isn't as code-dependant as "Cycle",
and not as heavily relying on graphics
as "Royal Arte". Both well performed,
well balanced and consistant in style;
this demo is in a way the perfect blend
of both.
Eventhough you cannot argue much about
the technical aspects, save for the
vectorpart which feels both quite
unnecessary and unnecessary long,
you might or might not like the style
and theme of the demo. Personally,
I experience the cold and laidback
expressions of Vogue-style models
and the zombiefied Sneaker Pimps as
quite unpersonal, the same vibe I got
from Dane's "Phases" some years ago. I
would request a more personal choice of
motives and that HCL and Dane relaxed a
little in their perfect democreations -
they're obviously capable as I have seen
wonderful evidences of such earlier
on. Good looking and well timed, this
demo got it all, save that it doesn't
transmit anything to me, it just leaves
me empty in the long run. It might
be the lack of text, it might be the
minimalistic graphics and the asian
symbols - I can't really spot it.
[Puterman]
Yeah, I can relate to that, the visuals
feel pretty empty. The Chinese (or
whatever) characters don't exactly make
me excited, and the same goes for the
faces. This is compensated for by the
excellent music and the original ways
in which some standard demo components
are used.
[Twoflower]
What I really like with this demo
is the overall style, painted as a
laidback drama in red and white, and
the fact that every single part of it
feels worked through. Everything from
the note, Dane's competition-entries to
the demo itself feels like it got equal
attention from the creators. As a demo,
it's worth to view several times as it
got fantastic graphical effects (like
the wave-effect!) aswell as very nice
graphics from Dane, graphics which are
well welded into eachother with asian
pictograms and the white and red colors.
[Puterman]
I actually don't care much at all for
the design elements. It's all very well
implemented and smooth, but if it wasn't
for the actual effects and the music I
wouldn't be very enthusiastic about this
demo at all. And that's exactly what
I think about Cycle as well. The glue
between the effects is too well made
and coherent. I guess both these demos
represent what most C-64 demo coders
wish they could achieve, but never have
the energy or the skills to realize.
So even if I'm not 100% happy about
it, I suspect that most people don't
understand what I'm ranting about.
[Twoflower]
Viewing this demo is a little like
taking a boattrip down a river of your
choice; somewhat expected but very
beautiful and enjoyable. The grand
finale of this trip, complete with
a japanese war-flag sunset and the
wellknown wave from Hokusais "39 views
of Fuji", is the final destination on
this journey through a red and white
asian landscape. I'll leave you there.
[Puterman]
I have to add that I just don't like
HCL's loader. Or, well, my drives
don't. This demo is the second one
ever that doesn't work on my Oceanic.
The first one was the first version of
Royal Arte...
[Nightlord]
It was really impressive to watch this
on the big screen like the other two
marvels at floppy party making top
three. I think it was the color scheme
that made me really like the demo. It
is a very consistent demo in certain
aspects, although I agree with Twoflower
about some of the graphics feeling out
of place. Effectwise, I found this demo
very subtle and interesting. The wave
effect got better in the 100% version
and the xy scrolling xfli pictures
is quite harder to do than it catches
the eye. The japanese transparent text
upscroll was also very nice.
On the graphics front, I must also
add my appreciation for the piece
with three blended girl faces in 3
directions. Somehow it touched me and I
think it is very original for C64 demo
making. Obviously the overall looks of
the demo, the consistency in colors,
the design of several effect scenes,
the use of transparency are all very
well implemented.
I have an awkward feeling about
the music. Alone in itself, it is a
nice piece for sure with cool sounds
and flow. In synchronisation with
the effects it is quite nice. But
overall, in this demo it feels a
little weird. Maybe it is the same
reason that the fashion mag cover boys
and girls seem cold and unpersonal as
Twoflower puts it. For a demo being
named Tsunami in the year 2005, I can
not help but feel those graphics and
this music feels too much "clubbers
partying in beer commercial". If you can
just forget about the name of the demo
and the disaster that name refers to,
you will be fine probably. I did not
realize I felt like this until I saw
the notefile. There is a slower, more
sensitive incarnation of the tune in
there with the wave effect in blue. And
when I saw that I instantly felt like
"this is really the way this demo should
have felt like".
[edit] Mags
Mags
Driven #30
[Nightlord]
Sometimes you load a production. Be
it a demo or a diskmag you instantly
get the sense of a certain quality
to it. That is what I felt when I
loaded this issue. The logo, the text
immediately put me in the mood for some
serious mag reading which is something
I used to get out of Domination and
something I can not get out of VN
anymore. Although this mag is clearly
more American in its content and feels
a bit more disconnected from the rest
of the scene, it still covers quite an
interesting ground.
Driven also means more to me since I am
about to move to the U.S. I am trying
to get an idea about the feel of the
scene over there. Especially the text
they provide about the expos over there
is kind of interesting to me.
In this issue the one of the focal
points, the DTV discussions and
information presents a nice overall
picture. I think the hardware scene
is going to be one of the areas
where driven will continue to have the
strongest coverage. Being close to a lot
of garage hackers and big legacy names
like Jim Butterfield, hw scene seems to
be also one of the biggest focuses of
gatherings in U.S.
One of the most interesting texts for
me was the H.O. interview. It is nice
to read how one can never really get
his hands off the breadbox.
There also is text covering the tiny
SID stuff and the Crazed 2 demo by
Retro64. The interesting thing is
that it is more like an HBO making-of
documentary with comments from makers
and narrative by the editors.
If you still haven't read this mag,
you are loosing time. Go read it.
[Twoflower]
Eventually, the legend returned. One
day, it suddenly surfaced and soon
thereafter the 30:th issue reached
us. The legend was back on its feet and
ready to fight. Unfortunatly, like with
most returns (like, f.ex Mike Tyson's)
it wasn't too well equipped to handle
todays scene. Driven is back in the same
style it left us, although a bit weaker
and a bit older. Perhaps even with a
little less spark than before. Don't
get me wrong here. It's obvious that
Coolhand and Dokken put down quite some
energy on both of the last two issues of
this magazine, and the return of Driven
in 2005 was surely more than I had hoped
for. But some more time is needed before
the editors are back in their old shape.
The first issue simply didn't have
enough content. No PAL-report and
some quite well-known rumours was
the overall impression. Ok, that i'm
not really fair here. Driven was a
load better than most of the existing
C-64 magazines out there, it's just
that I remember the old, fantastic
issues from the last years of the
nineties. What I feel need some change
is not only the content, but also the
approach. First of all, i'd love the
magazine a little more relaxed. Ok,
not Game Over(view)-relaxed, but
still. The americans got their sort of
dry, technical style, and that's ok
for most of the content, but not for
coverage of the european scene. The
american scene is surprisingly small,
consisting of scattered retrosceners,
conventions, hardware fanatics, old
crackers and so on. But the european
scene is a completely different story,
and need a different approach. Need
I say I stopped reading the european
"party"-article when I reached the word
"Web-IT"?
Vandalism News #44
[Puterman]
Vandalism News #44 was released, two
and a half months after issue #43, so
it seems they almost managed to keep
their release schedule. This might
not be altogether positive, though,
as this issue feels a bit rushed.
The absence of charts was a let-down
for me, but it's still kind of nice
that the decision to not publish them
because of too few votes was taken.
This shows some serious ambition.
However, if Vandalism aren't able to
draw enough votes, despite Jazzcat's
valiant efforts, which mag is?
[Nightlord]
Allright... VN needs to be carefully
analyzed. There are positive things from
my perspective that really needs to go
on. Like the two month schedule thing,
and a very nice disk maggy approach
to the news chapter. And there are my
complaints. But let us go one by one.
Right the schedule. Apperantly the 2
month release schedule is too much I
feel. Much like Duke's analogy of VN
to a TV network, VN needs to be big in
scale. I believe it can not and should
not decrease content in favor of a tight
release schedule. It could be increased
to 3 or 4 months maybe. Of course that
is my suggestion.
[Twoflower]
Quite opposite to Nightlord's views on
this mag, I don't find it too small,
having too little content. In my
opinion, a magazine of today should
consist of the bare necessities. With
the current flow of information from
the net, with the mindnumbing forums
and the silence of a bot-ridden #C-64,
magazines need a slightly different
approach. Intelligent, moderated
discussion; in-depth articles;
topics which need more to be stated
than discussed is what I foresee will
dominate the few magazines left. In a
way Vandalism News already got this.
[Nightlord]
Second point... VN can not and should
not have any copy and paste chapters
whatever its motive. The reason is
same. VN is just too big a legacy. The
disappointment that I felt with seing
the demos chapter was huge. I hope that
never ever happens again.
[Puterman]
The same goes for the reactions: they're
also ripped from the web, and to add
insult to injury, the stuff taken from
pouet isn't even correctly credited.
[Nightlord]
For example the news chapter is a famous
discussion. If the newspapers and
monthly magazines have news chapters
even in this day and age of TV and
internet, why can't diskmags. The trick
is on providing oppinions and insights
on the news. Just like VN has achieved
here. So a big thumb up to that.
[Puterman]
The news chapter is better than in other
mags, not only because some of the stuff
reported was actually news to me, but
also because it's commented, both by
the editor and by the people involved.
Some of the stuff, like member status
of groups and who's idling the most on
#c-64, just isn't interesting though.
Bringing up the age old "is the
scene dead?" topic again doesn't
exactly excite me. Should this just
be considered a filler, or was it
seriously meant?
[Nightlord]
And all the effort trying to keep the
cracking scene alive... All the coverage
the related stuff gets in VN. It just
makes me wonder "why". Respecting the
cracking scene, the very roots of this
entire subculture, is something. Not
objectively realizing the input output
relations of the environment that
nurtures that scene and not reallocating
resources and coverage to other areas
in need is something else. I am not
,repeat, not disrespecting crackers
here. But a sack of demos do not even
get proper review coverage and people
spend chapters and forums of text space
discussing how to revive the cracking
scene.
[Puterman]
And to end the complaints section,
Duke's advertising his own articles at
the end of each one he's written doesn't
exactly add to the reading experience.
It makes me wonder if he feels that his
articles are more worth reading than
the rest of the mag.
[Nightlord]
Another thing I really did not enjoy
in VN is the Scene Show chapter.
Offcourse this like every other thing
I said is highly subjective. However
I really think humor is a natural
gift. You either have it or not. All of
us sometimes end up in funny situations,
but being able to unleash humor at
will is a gift. You can not learn it
or push it. And does VN really need a
humor chapter.
[Puterman]
I've always found that kind of stupid
jokes completely pointless too, but I
actually found the part about myself
pretty funny, so maybe it has a point
after all.
[Nightlord]
On the positive side the Floppy report
by macx was fun. I hope to read more
from him in the later issues.
[Puterman]
Yep, Macx' Floppy report, where he
speculated about the infamous mystery
man Jejk, was the highlight of this
issue. Of course, this stuff might not
appeal to people who haven't actually
seen him in action (or should I say
"out of action"?), but he's the stuff
of legends, take my word for it!
As always, the magsys is pretty slick
(although I still don't find navigating
it very enjoyable) and there's a set of
tunes by famous C-64 musicians included.
Unfortunately no intro this time,
but the last one was nice enough for
two issues.
All in all, this is one of the weaker
issues of Vandalism News that I've read,
but I'm sure the next issue will be
better if they get the new demo reviews
section going and learn to cope with
the stress of releasing more frequently.
[Nightlord]
I am waiting for the next issue with a
little doubt and worry at the moment.
Game Over(view), about 15 new issues
[Puterman]
Well, you guessed it, a bunch of
new issues of Game Over(view) were
released while we were doing our best
to complete just one. They're exactly
what you'd expect them to be: excellent.
Reading a new issue of Game Over(view)
is pretty much like good sex: it only
lasts for a couple of minutes, but it's
a load of fun. No need to say more.
Just read it and laugh, or, if you're
a mag editor, read it and weep.
[edit] The Loss
The Loss
[Twoflower]
It's very hard to know how to start an
article about someone who has recently
passed away, whoever that person might
be. Whatever the first lines will tell
you, they are bound to feel wrong,
lacking and somewhat missing the point
entirely. This one is dedicated to one
of the most unique artists we've had the
privilegie to have on this scene. Kjell.
Kjell Nordbo has passed away. He left
us by his own choice, by his own hand,
at the place he liked the most and
resided in - his little cabin in the
woods, located 15 minutes away from
the bus-stop, but only 10 minutes away
from the sea. The exact reasons why
are unknown, but ridden with a bad
back and sore neck which led to him
beeing hospitalized at times, diabetes,
depressions and a general discontent of
the world around him, I can understand
the fundaments of his descision. A
descision which probably rose over time,
a decision which was planned and set
to action on the last day of April,
2005. It's a small comfort to me that
this decision probably wasn't caused
by a sudden depression and that he had
arranged his passing to be as easy as
possible to his closest relatives. He
was laid to rest in Sandnes, next to his
grandfather, and during the ceremony one
of his own compositions was performed
by the organist.
Many of you might think that this kind
of text is unnecessary, and in a way, it
kind of is. In his last musiccollection,
''Ghost Escapes Body'', he spent quite
some pages on describing his view of
life, death and the soul. For each part
of the puzzle which Kjell gave us, we
were given more and more insight into
his mind and his thinking. We who once
and then had the pleasure to talk to
him recieved some crucial pieces to the
jigsaw, but the main motive was always
something of a mystery. He was a unique
person, a unique artist and one of the
most brilliant musicians i've ever had
the chance to get aquainted to. We at
NSR like to bring you one piece of this
jigzaw, the piece which transmits his
views on life, death and this world. The
text is called ''Silvergate'' and was
a part of the GEB compilation. You can
find it accompying this issue of NSR
along with his last demo, ''The Sun'',
made by him and Zyron.
When I last spoke to him, we discussed
the fact that he probably was the last
active scener who made his art in the
quite unique norwegian style, a style
where the details and the work mattered
a lot, a style which you could recall
in both his music and his demos. He
was always quite critical of his own
work, and I'll never forget the fuzz he
started when he discovered that there
was a bug in his demo, "Handicraft"
at LCP 2002. He promised me that he
would chop the C-64 into little pieces
with his hatchet and bury it in his
backyard. At the last time we met,
I luckily got the chance to copy every
single release he ever did release, and
I also got the chance to see unreleased
stuff meant to be released after his
next demopart. When the news of his
death first reached me, I was afraid
that he had done what he threatened to
do - burning his C64 together with all
his stuff and burying it in the backyard
of his cabin, letting it meet the same
destiny as his Amiga 1200. Something did
stop him, though. Perhaps the love of
his creations, finished and unfinished?
Kjell wouldn't have wanted us to feel
sorry for him. He himself described
this place to be a rather harsh one,
hard to get by in. A place where he
was as misplaced as Jalla the Spider or
Spacebeing Dollin. Now Kjell has left,
Jalla is nowhere to be found, and Dollin
is back at Pangaea, the green planet,
never to be seen again. Farewell.
