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|                 «   i R R E G U L A r   r E V I E W   »                 |
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|             Your favourite irreverent rapscallions are back.              |
|              Demo reviews, music reviews, game reviews (!)                |
|                  and for once... some 3rd party input.                    |
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|                    IRREGULAR REVIEW #4 - HÄCKEN FULL!                     |
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|                       Text by Slummy, Menace & H0ffman                    |
|                 Soundtrack by Juice                                       |
|             Splash screens by Jok & Prowler                               |
|              Original font by Adam                                        |
|           Code + font hack by Slummy                                      |
|             Ascii artistry by H7 & Yop                                    |
|           Keyboard handler by Stingray                                    |
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:            __\__    //  _/___/ ¯¬\___ _\__/_/  _/___/ ¬\   _____          :
|        _  /   _/   /  ___/  /    /  /_\    / ___/  /    \_/    / _        |
|      \ \//    \    \  \/   /    /   \/    /  \/    \    / \    \\/ /      |
|_________/    _/    /       \        /    /         /     /     / _________|
|/«»\__  \__  /\____   /\     _/___  \\____   /\___ /\__  /,«\|
·¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯  ¯¯¯  ¯¯¯     ¯¯¯¯  \___/H7/dS!¯¯    ¯¯¯¯    ¯¯   ¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯:



Use _arrow keys_ and _space_ / _enter_.
                                   _ESC_ to exit.



_Editoria_l
Irreverent Rapscallions
      _Bestness Evaluation_
 The most bestest charts
_RetroKom_p / _Load Erro_r
 A seriously busy party!
       _All the other prods_
   Not _everything_ was released at RK/LE
     _COMPO TRACKS_
    Good readin' for your ears
                 _Coders' Opinions_
              Not just pretty faces!






#_Menace_#

Issue 4 of Irregular Review has been my most irregular one yet. Long story short, it's been a real stressful time personally, and time to poke around with projects has been super-scarce. Like, non-existant. Extinct. Don't go into middle management, kids. Stay in school, keep your heads down, and avoid responsibility at all costs.

Thanks to my awesome co-editors who have been super cool about it, and allowed me to totally slack off for this edition, contributing very sparingly. 
Don't worry (or worry?), I'll be back in full force with a lot of that dry wit and those spot-on observations that you have come to love, oh so much. Being a part of the scene has given me so much in my life, has led to me meeting so many amazing people, has led to so much laughter, enjoyment, so many great moments, and has informed so many situations in my life outside the scene. I love to be able to give something back, whether that is by making sure everyone gets their files out there over at scene.org, through the multitude of things we do over at demozoo.org (stop by for the weekend of screenshots, december 15-17th!), helping organize demoparties like Solskogen, or occasionally put out the odd production like Irregular Review.

Hope everyone enjoys this edition. If you do, it's mostly due to Slummy and H0ffmann.

##- Menace##
<#_Hoffman_#

Back again for another issue and it feels a bit more comfortable this time round. This has been massively helped by some absolute gems which have been released since last time. We're digging into tracker compos from Solskogen, Evoke, Datastorm Summer, Riverwash, Deadline, Retro Komp / Load Error, TRSAC and Capacitor. There is even a tune from arguably the most famous Amiga musician of all time!.

No bonus tune this round but instead I'd simply suggest to take a look at the fantastic soundtrack supplied by Juice for this issue which _should_ be on the disk. It is written in the weirdest way I've ever seen to provide one of the laziest and loosest shuffle beats I've ever heard from a tracker. Not forgetting also that it's slick as f**k.

If you wanna get in touch, you can use that archaic mechanism called email, ianhoffmanuk@gmail.com, which at least can still be done on an Amiga.  See you next time!

##- Hoffman##

<#_Slummy_#

After the _huge_ amount of reviews in issue 3 I wanted to make sure we got this one out a bit faster.  Considering that we've reviewed ##more than 40 prods## that have cropped up since the beginning of September it seems that was a good idea. 
RetroKomp / LoadError was a particularly busy party so I think they'll get their very own section this time. (It was also fun to receive "We're making something you can write about"-messages from several groups prior to that event.)

Also, a big Thank You to everyone who contributed to the brand new and _very_ _exclusive_ Coder's Comments section! 

Why so exclusive? Well, while it was really nice to get in touch with everyone and the result was (imho) really good, the hustling for quotes felt a bit too much like work for us to do it every issue. I also think it's good to switch stuff around a bit to keep the process interesting for us (and hopefully for you as well).

On that note, I'll stop even _considering_ to review every game project we come across. Setting it up and actually getting a feel for the gameplay takes too much time and I'm not qualified nor interested enough to do it diligently. 
I've been really impressed by the number of games & previews that have appeared in the last year or so. The gamedev scene is a lot more active than I expected and some of the things they're working on are of high quality as well!

And the #demo# scene doesn't seem to be doing too badly either. While there's still some same-same'y prods being released I get the impression that we're overall seeing more character and willingness to experiment a bit. 
I'm willing to state that _at_ _least_ half of the releases reviewed this time are worth checking out for yourselves!

And finally, I'd like to thank #Juice# for the smooth Barry White Xmas'y magtune, #Jok# for the beautiful scrolling winter landscape, and #Prowler# for the use of his great RK/LE compo pic.



Now then, while I've enjoyed working on this issue I'm _really_ looking forward to doing something else for a while!

#See you next time!#  ##- Slummy##
<



                        _Credits_

                      Text #Slummy, Menace & H0ffman#
             Soundtrack #Juice#
         Splash screens #Jok & Prowler#
              Original font #Adam#
          Code + font hack #Slummy#
                Ascii artistry #H7 & Yop#
            Keyboard handler #Stingray#


#_The Glitch_# and #_The Wave_# by #_Broken Cube_# 
(AGA / 040+)

With these two intros (released at Riverwash and RK/LE) Broken Cube are responsible for 100% of the AGA 4ks this year (at least as far as I've been able to gather). That's quite an accomplishment in itself!

Quality-wise it's quite far from the best in class though. The tech amounts to some 3D (cubes and a distorted grid respectively) but I do like the glitchyness and slight variations (a hell of a lot better than static rotations that become boring after 10 seconds). 

The audio might not be all that complex either but I do enjoy the raw quality of the sound.
The main drawback in both releases are the color schemes which channel the muddiest coder colors from early 2000's 3d intros.  
##- Slummy##




#_Impsbru_# by #_Proxy_#

My first reaction was that this was unfinished crap and that I didn't get the concept at all.
Three minutes (and a visit to github to check the game controls) later I was really into it.

This is a puzzle game, or perhaps an editor for creating puzzles for a game? 

You build isometric "impossible shapes" which function as roads for a small red cube which you then try to maneuver between two different points. 
Depending on who you are this might not sound all that exciting but at least for me it turned out to be quite fascinating for the short while I tested it.

Implementation-wise the ##Demented Freeway Construction Kit## also seems quite good. Granted, the lack of in-game instructions (as far as I could see) is a major letdown when trying to work out the numerous keyboard controls, but otherwise the game is nicely designed and presented in consistent simplicity (so simple that it has no sound). There are some screen glitches from time to time but I had no real issues playing it on A500.

There's one thing though. Having played around for a little bit I really started to miss some sort of actual game element here. Perhaps a challenge to complete levels within a limited amount of time - or some other factor for measuring your skills & adding stress.

Other than that it's all cool and I can understand why this came 2nd in the densely populated gamedev compo at RK/LE (highest of all the Amiga entries). Recommended if you like puzzles or just some basic isometric doodling, although we hope there'll be a final with more game in the game.  ##- Slummy##




#_Amibox_# by #_Leon_# and #_Phibrizzo_#

Supposedly another puzzle game but I couldn't get it running at all.  ##- Slummy##



<#_The Test_# by #_Dreamweb_# (A1200)

This hasn't been released so the impressions are only from the compo live capture. 

For once it's an ever so slightly larger production from the guys who usually entertain us with their neat exe-graphics entries. I suspect some of the same vector tech is used here and it's nice to see it in motion as well.

The content amounts to an increasing amount of scrolling buildings and a fat thundering sound signalling the imminent arrival of a large reptile from the Asia-Pacific region. We hope to see more of it some day.  ##- Slummy##
#_Applejack Pack 2_# by #_Void_# (1MB chip)

So, while the first Applejack was an intro- pack, the second one is a music collection (or single-file music disk). 
I like this turn of events as it gives us more new content instead of just a menu slapped on top of intros we've already seen (the one in AJP 1 wasn't all that exciting either).

Content-wise it's pretty much straight out of 91 / early-92 with regard to both visual content and music style. It's quite minimalistic with a static menu and a bouncing scroller, as well as a simple scope that pops up when you hit F9.

The tunes from Maze aren't necessarily something I'll remember for a very long time but it's a nice & varied collection spanning from a novelty Gummi Bears track & accordions to several more classic-sounding pieces that could easily have appeared in intros and pack menus back in the days.
It's packed with charm and that's what carries this release, from the non-ironic oldschool logo fade to the candy-on-black main screen. It's made with proper enthusiasm and that shows.

It's a shame that it requires 1MB chip and has a bit of scroll stutter and scope flicker on a regular 68000, but that's no dealbreaker for something as friendly as this.  ##- Slummy##
#_Coffee_# by #_Y-Crew_#

What do we have here then? Well, it's your typical laidback tribute to coffee featuring... lots of scrolling clip-art'ish pictures of kettles!

Style-wise this is a cousin of some of the stuff groups like Melon & Movement have done in the past, but #Coffee# is perhaps a bit less playful and tongue-in-cheek (or plain random) than what those guys were up to.

Transitions are nicely composed but sometimes feel like they're advancing too slowly. At least once I caught myself thinking "Yes, I see where you're scrolling, just bloody get there will you?" That said, there's no bad content here, just a pacing that doesn't always agree with me.

There's also no "real effects" this time around, but that doesn't matter. The stylized vector coffee pouring, smoke rising from cups and falling coffee beans, together with a small stop-motion animation of a spinning keetle, are all really charming! 
The same goes for the typography, the mellow tune from Optic and the overall consistency of the whole thing.

So, while it's in no way mindblowing, if you're up for a bit of laidback nonsense on the old A500 then you could do a lot worse than this one. Y-Crew always delivers consistent & well-crafted little packages and this is no exception.  ##- Slummy##




#_CrapTro 4: Don't let craptro win the compo_# by #_CrapTeam_#

##And the people did not let craptro win the compo (it got 4th) and everything was good.##

That said, this craptro is actually more enjoyable than one would expect. 
It's definitely a step up from #Craptro 3# which felt like a bad rehash of #Craptro 2#.
It's simple effects done in Amos Pro but even though it's minimalistic it's not badly presented. Things progress at a reasonable pace, the sync ain't bad and it has none of that "Intentionally Crap Handdrawn Lamergraphics" I always fear when starting up an ##SPSP (self-proclaimed shitty-prod)##.
The soundtrack is also quite entertaining.

To conclude: it's crap, but less crappy than a lot of other crap.  ##- Slummy##

<#_Crazy Priest Extra_# by #_Sordan_#, #_Aszu_# & #_JMD_# (2MB CHIP / 020+)

Crazy Priests make for great characters! 

Take for instance that guy in Braindead, the zombie-splatter comedy Peter Jackson did before he got into Hobbit travelogues. He was throwing kung fu punches and tearing the heads off of zombies while spouting awesome lines like ##"I kick ass for the lord !"##
Now, imagine someone like that who's also a distant cousin of Bomber Man and hangs out in oldschool labyrinths filled with tiny monsters, traps and treasure. 

Yeah, that's who this game is about!
Just as with some other Amos productions this one also forced me to hunt down esoteric libs that weren't bundled in the package. 

I did eventually get past that hurdle and got to play it a bit, so let's break it down:

#-# It feels quite complete and "finished". Nothing seems missing and it doesn't have any smell of Eau De Preview.

#-# Simplistic but consistent in-game graphics. Full-screen graphics are a bit coarse but do the job.

#-# Fun sound effects!

#-# I'm not sure if it's due to his robe or his tiny-tiny feet, but Crazy Bomberpriest is annoyingly slow. 
Perhaps there's some sort of turbo-boots to be found somewhere but I didn't manage to for the short time I played it. 

#-# Some decent (if not terribly innovative) level design.

I suspect the multi-player experience might be a lot more fun, but I'll also admit to not having had the patience to give single-player a proper try-out so my opinion there might not be something you should care about.

<All-in-all it seems well-built and I'm once again pleasantly surprised by the variation & productivity provided by the Amiga game dev scene (which I had no idea existed). Give it a go, it might sit better with you than it did with me.  ##- Slummy##




#_Richie on the moon_# by #_Ghostown_#

Hi there little guy, who are you then? 
Oh, so you're the winning intro from RK/LE, arriving just in time to be the last review written for this issue of IR? 
Well, I think we're gonna get along just fine. You see, even though you might not be super-duper-technical and most of your effects _could_ have been done at higher framerates, I do like me an intro with a bit of character and style.

So, what do you have to offer then?

Yeah, I see that you're 40k, that's a good size for you which provides instant oldschool credibility and it's a lot more charming than those 64k guys who just end up trying to do too much stuff. 
Instead it seems like you spent a decent amount of time polishing your parts and making sure they fit nicely together.

Your wobbly 2D vector images are quite neat as well. 
With simple concepts like that execution is crucial and your colorful & charming shapes tell us that you understand. That sphere is a bit generic though, so good thing you blew it up. Also, you did flat vector explosions that don't look horrible. Good for you! There's a lot of bigger demos who get that bit wrong.

The vector tunnel works well as a greetings part and I'm glad you didn't try to play tough by moving it around to much. I'm not sure you were the fastest kid in geometry class but who cares? You still made a lot of friends!


And you knew I liked x-rotators, didn't you? Your motion patterns might be a bit predictable, but the mix of different objects is a nice touch. I just wish you'd mixed it up a bit more with different colors as well! 
And the glitch thing you got up to a bit later? I'm sorry but I wasn't quite sure if that was a bug or filler material.

No no, don't be sad, I'm not really upset with you! How could I be after seeing that scrolling cylinder you put inside a tunnel? 
Yeah, we both know it's not fast enough, but it looks really pretty! 

You've got a way with colors, that's for sure. That yellowy orange you've covered yourself in is like warm honey from happy free-range bees that have played in the sun all summer.

Hmm, come to think of it, maybe you're one of those right-brained artistic kids? It's easy to hear you have some musical skills as well. Those guitar sounds you're getting out of #Blueberry's Cinter-synth# are really cool for such a little intro as you. 

So yeah, to me you seem like a good little guy with some nice ideas. Sure, you're not "radical" or "hardcore" or anything like that, and you might be a little bit slow as well, but you're definitely not stupid and I don't think many people would be able to hold a grudge against you. 
Actually, I think you're one of the nicer A500 intros I've seen in a while! 

Now, run along you - I'm sure we'll see eachother again. And don't eat any of your crayons!  ##- Slummy##




#_7 ate 9_# by #_Void_#

Void kick things off with a star field and matching run of the mill chip tune. They fairly quickly slide into a speedy moving line vector "thing" which is later filled and copper coloured. 
The last section proclaims #mirror# while some Topaz asterix chars swing left and right then finishing with a fairly old school looking logo.

It's not very exciting but at least everything was tidy and ran a 50hz.  ##- Hoffman##




#_Alien Apparat 80%_# by #_Carrion_# & #_AceMan_#

This is something you don't see that often: ##an Amiga demo with lots of consistent pixel graphics.## And it's really nice pixels as well.
While Carrion is mostly known for his C64 graphics this is the 2nd Amiga demo he has coded (the first one being the much simpler but still attractive #Teapot Genie# from last years RK/LE party).

This time around we get a much larger demo and there's even some real effects here. While most of it is really simple it all looks nice and it's definitely an admirable amount of stuff to pull off for a relatively fresh coder. Good work!

Carrion's take on the classic #"Stardust tunnel"# looks less impressive than the original but is definitely the Main Effect in this demo (and as a bonus it has a little modulo strech trick to add some variation). 

The low point of the coded visuals is obviously the plain bitplane pattern scrolling which screams "filler material", but that's just a single complaint amongst a bunch of stuff that work well. For instance, the color-cycling things behind a few of the alien pictures are examples of probably-filler- material that looks much cooler.

That said, the real star of the show is the graphics and how it's integrated with the rest of the demo. 
Sure, there are a few glitches and lack of polish here and there (which can probably be attributed to the 80% completeness), but there's no doubt that this is a very good- looking prod with far above the average amount & quality of pixelled graphics.

Carrion has a distinctive drawing style and a taste for vibrant colors which helps make the demo bright and pretty without turning it into something cute or cartoonish.

The music by AceMan is a fat techy demosoundtrack which is great in itself and feels pretty much perfect for this production. There's also a liberal amount of flashing synced to the beat which (for the most part) feels like it belongs and doesn't get too automatic.

The scene progression might be just a tad slow (at least the twister stays around a bit long) but the prettiest parts, like that great screen with the DYCP'ish scroller greetings, are really quite welcome to stay on screen for a long time.

Right now the demo requires 1MB chip ram and will also glitch a bit on slower CPUs but the final is promised to run on standard 512k+512k OCS machines. Needless to say, I'm eagerly awaiting that final.  ##- Slummy##


<#_Future Balls_# by #_Resistance_#

Resistance opens Future Balls - that's the future as we saw it from the 80s, by the way - with a huge-ass scroller that filles nearly the entire screen, presenting the group and the leading in to the title screen. The demo appears to employs a sort-of loose storyline, with spaceships travelling towards a target, and an overall theme of a space adventure. The effects are decidedly early AGA era, 1994 or thereabouts, and while none of them look bad in any sense, it does lend an air of nostalgia or retro to the proceedings. While that is definitely some people's cup of tea, it's been done to death at this point, so while this may be just what the doctor ordered for some, it's not quite doing it for me. If I have to nitpick on something else, there's a distinct lack of pace in the production, I would've liked to see things moving forward a little more swiftly. Especially the opening scroller and the multiple glenz objects stood out to me as sequence that outstayed their welcome a little bit. On the plus side, there is welcome amount of actual graphics employed, some very effective even - the background for the bob part comes to mind. That lifted that scene a lot, with an almost perfect offset to the red-on-grey scroller and the other objects. It may have been even more effective if it was not static, but that's something to work on for the next one. The stretchy cube is nice I guess, and the ham8 splitscreen thingy was probably interesting from a code standpoint, but suffered in my opinion from not being very visually interesting.

This demo is for AGA Amigas, which in most cases means 060 with bucketloads of ram, but no - in this case that actually means a vanilla, 2mb chip A1200. From what we can find, Dissident has in the past just produced solo productions, so this is his first production for Resistance. Keep at it, and work on the details - the visuals, the pacing, the ##direction## for want of a better word, and we're all looking forward to what's next.  ##- Menace##

<#_Inspirited_# by #_The Electronic Knights_#

Bifat continues his hyperactive release race with another demo, this time releasing at RK/LE where TEK got 8th in the "Larger Amiga Executable" compo.

However, it seems like the busy schedule might be starting to take its toll as #Inspirited# feels a bit unfinished and perhaps like a rehash (or slight evolution) of previously used effects.

Both the additive bobs and the rotozoomer with overlay are, by all means, good stuff (##the torus is an absolute monster effect##) but I'm not convinced that they justify the not-so-pretty presentation and a somewhat disconnected soundtrack.

If this had been the *first* sign of comeback from TEK I would have been a lot more positive, but all their recent releases have spoiled us. 
Of course, this does in _no_ _way_ _whatsoever_ imply that the audience demands (or is entitled to) huge megademos that have been polished for years. TEK are fully capable of wowing us with their cleverness without going into mastodont mode, it's just that this prod wasn't it for me.  ##- Slummy##



#_Beam Riders_# by #_Ghostown_# & #_Haujobb_# 
(AGA / 060)

So, where to start on the 2nd place from RK/LE... Well, what about ##Production Value!!## Beam Riders is very much a demo-style demo, it's just that everything in here simply ##looks, sounds & feels incredibly professional and slick.## 
No wonder, really, when the contributor list reads like a who's who of quality demomaking (for all you fanboys: they even brought back Muffler). 
Lucky then that there's none of the self- indulgent wankery that's often associated with super groups in the world of music. 
There's good progression throughout the whole experience and you never feel like they're too much in love with their own cleverness.

Visual fidelity is through the roof with ##anti-aliased everything##. I've been known as someone who appreciates a bit of raw noise and sharp edges and sure, this much AA _does_ come with the risk of making everything look a bit chubby and bland, but the tech's so well executed (and the screens composited with lots of additional detail) that it's impossible for me to complain about that here.

As can be expected from the Ghostown guys there's no skimping on the quality graphics either. And while some of their other AGA demos may have felt like they were trying to squeeze in effects _around_ the pretty graphics everything here feels very well integrated as a whole.

When it comes to the effects themselves one can argue that they're not really novel in a "never seen that before"-kind of way. 
However, they're all top notch tech (the term "German Engineering" springs to mind) and they're definitely "never seen it done like that"-fresh. 
There's a bunch of guys out there who can do "particles, zoomers, wavy planes and wire- frames" but very few who could pull it off like this. (Oh, and imagine for a second that there is an #OCS version# of this in the works, and imagine that I said "that one looks damn impressive as well!"... wouldn't that have been really something? )

Both parts of the demo are scored with awesome soundtracks: heavy & pumping for the main part and a cinematic piano for the end-scroll-and-zoom. 
With less polished visuals the end-part music _could_ have stumbled over into the pit of never-ending cheese, but there's no risk of that here - it's just beautiful.

##"So, Mr. Overly-Positive-Reviewer, nothing to complain about then? Have you become soft in the head?"##

Well, sure we can find something here as well, no matter how petty it might be:

#I miss a real Shocker effect.# 
I'm reminded of this at that one point in the music where it sounds like something serious should happen ... and then the particles just carry on. (They're good-looking particles with really sweet shading and blending though.)

While it's nice to remember the demo as a whole it might get a tad too smoth and I _do_ like those single smashers that really stand out. I know these guys are capable of pulling that off if they just get the right idea. 

##Perhaps it's just a tad _too_ controlled for me?##

The jumps back and forth between the (somewhat simple-looking) line-twist-thing and the meta-wireframes also feels a bit uninspired. And the framerate of the radial blur on my 50mhz 060 is a bit low for the fast movement (but the filtering looks great and the effect has a certain laser strobe look). I'll recheck it on a faster accelerator for sure. The hard edges at the center of the blur is also a slight blemish on the effect.

Beyond that this is simply one of the best high-end Amiga demos in a very long time.

Had I watched the compo at RK/LE I might have voted for #Zener Drive# for its rawness and "holy hell it's A500"-factor just like the majority of the party visitors, but back in the comfort of my retro-office I know that Beam Riders is a more substantial release.  
##- Slummy##



#_Blask_# by #_Groovebox_#, #_Koyot1222_# and #_Mastaszek_#

The 4th place from the RK/LE gamedev compo is a nicely packaged, although not all that playable, first person shooter.

Tech-wise this isn't bad at all and in the heydays of Wolfenstein 3D all us Amiga zealots might have been raving about this one due to its speed (not super-fast but almost really playable!) on standard A500.

The rendering is done by plotting pre-scaled enemy sprites and wide strips of pre-scaled and shaded wall graphics. It's not terribly pretty but since we've all seen the games it strives to emulate our brains fill in some blanks and help maintain the illusion that this is "like almost totally the same as on PC, man!".

Visually it ends up as a somewhat muddy cross between Wolf3D and all those RPG dungeon crawlers taking place in underground labyrinths. The actual content is however quite limited with just one type of walls and monsters respectively (unless there are some I didn't come across). The loading bar is quite sexy though!

The real weak spot in all of this is the gameplay. Granted, it's more complete here than in a lot of similar techdemos from the past (there were released a ton of them for low-to-mid-range A1200 setups for a while), but moving around & killing monsters ends up being more frustrating than fun. 

I really hope the development continues and that they fix the fighting mechanics and add (much) more variation to the levels (although that might be difficulting given the memory requirements for the pre-rendered graphics).
For now it's a cool proof of concept. Check it out for the novelty factor but don't expect a great gaming experience.  ##- Slummy##



#_International Super-Best_# by #_Zymosis_#

It's nice to see Slummy's fascination with skulls is still present as the International Super-Best crew serve to invite you to Solskogen. As the skull glides off screen you're greeted with a tasty Zymosis logo from B and not one, not two, but three twisters. However, these aren't ordinary twisters, they are twisted twisters which twist around each other! While this is a classic old school effect, this intro really feels like it's given it a new lease of life. The colouring is spot on with the trade mark interlaced palette and each bars twists have been well parametrised but what really makes it stand out is the way each of the bars twists in front and behind of each other. Reckon it would have been proper next level if the bars width was linked to the depth too but, maybe that's the subject of another production.

The music from Yelm, while short and loops pretty quickly, is pretty damn tasty and helps to cement the mood and pace of the visuals. I do wish it would have lasted a bit longer to accompany the length of the rather boisterous and entertaining scroll text. I literally can't wait to hear this new Amiga synth with world beating waveshaping oscillators!

All in all a tidy package with a twist of innovation. Also.. Fuckings to all lamers worldwide!  ##- Hoffman##




#_OpenFire_# by #_KaIN_#, #_Selur_# & #_Softiron_#

Another game from RK/LE, this one came 5th in the compo and while it is unfinished (like most of them) you can see that a lot of effort has gone into it so far.
It's a top-down 2D tank shooter, supposedly inspired by #Fire Power# and #Return Fire#, both of which I've never even heard about before I started on this review.

The goal is apparently to add multiplayer to this thing and when that happens I'm convinced that #OpenFire# can become quite a fun little party game! 
For now we're limited to cruising a sparsely decorated map and dealing with some automated gun towers. That is however more than enough to convince me that the underlying tech works well and (much more importantly) that KaIN and the guys should be able to complete it.

For now it's a small but solid preview (albeit a little boring and flat-looking), but with the potential to become much more.  ##- Slummy##




#_Zener Drive_# by #_Altair_#

Two years ago #DMA#'s #Wildcat# showed us KK's technical chops and willingness to work outside the "this is how OCS demo should look"-box, so when one of our spies at RK/LE told me ##"I think you're gonna like Altair's demo"## I got really curious. And it turns out I was not let down.

The winner of RK/LE (ahead of the gorgeous #Beam Riders#) is a dirty little newschool trickster demo for the good old A500. 

Using the age-old "unlimited bobs" approach of incrementally rendering more and more content into a looping buffer of frames it creates a series of scenes with wireframe 3D that looks "too complex" for the hardware it runs on. 

Of course, simply stating that "it's done like unlimited bobs" would be an understatement as the same technique could (and has on many occasions) been used with much more mundane results. 

The excellence in #Zener Drive# is partially due to good use of multiple bitplane layers, subtle background images and decent glitching, but above all it comes from the evolution and variation of the scenes. 
It progresses quickly through a number of different 3D scenes (most of them considerably more interesting than what you'd find in wireframe prods on accelerated 1200s in the past), letting each one build up and then moving on to the next before it becomes boring or repetitive. 
The surging Amiga demotechno soundtrack drives it onwards and is suitably dark to let you know this demo means business.

If there's anything to complain about it would be the small (short? low?) framebuffer (obviously a result of the RAM requirements for holding a sufficient amount of frames) and the overlay text graphics which are a bit too primitive & coarse. 
One notable exception is the line-drawn text at the end - a cool Vectrex'y touch that fits perfectly with the overall look of the demo.

The complaints are only minor though. In addition to being a near-perfect example of ##how to ride that one-trick pony## it's also an enjoyable newschool A500 demo which I'm likely to come back to. I had been thinking about doing some line-based contemporary-looking stuff on A500 myself but I'm not sure I could do much better than this.  ##- Slummy##
#_Nullae_# by #_Wanted Team_#

Sachy & McCnex (MccNex? MCcnex?) released this OCS 40k intro in the "large executable" compo at RK/LE (where it came in 5th), quite possibly as a friendly gesture towards us "small executable"-guys, as they could very well have ended up amongst the top three there.

Now then, this isn't a monster with lots of parts and huge-looking effects, the real strengths of the intro are audio & style. We've got a chill drum'n'bass soundtrack which sounds really good for its size, complemented with a consistent and minimalistic look.
The main effects, #noisy-looking pseudo-dot- line-things# and some twisting vector shapes, look a tad unfinished and broken in a "this wasn't really what I planned to do but it still looks like an effect... right?"-kinda way. 
That said, with a bit of sync these curious experiments accompany the cool soundtrack reasonably well. 

My favourites here are the first appearance of the dotty planes (the music sync was oddly satisfying) and the small plant-or-tentacle thing (I just wish it was larger).

On the other hand, the text screens are beautiful in all their simplicity and if you'd said "static text and a copper-split" to me I would never have expected anything as slick as the greetings part (the tiny hint of colour in that part also helps to break up the overall colour scheme that might otherwise be a bit *too* cold).

#Black Light# from 2 years ago is still my favourite from these guys but #Nullae# shows they're willing & able to hack away on new interesting ideas.  ##- Slummy##




#_Chiperia 8_# by #_The Chiperia Project_#

10 issues in (8 regular, 2 special), Slash knows exactly what he's doing at this point. Every Chiperia has improved on the last, and this one is just plain and simple elegance. It doesn't need to be flashy, it's just good design, functionality over bling, and some great tunes. Code and graphics is all new once again, with Skurk and MRK replacing the Bonefish/Prowler/Facet effort on the last one. I like the logo and background on this one, so no complaints really - great job! So, that's it really. Chiperia is Chiperia, and is just great as usual. Can't wait for 9.


The chiptunes on offer are a mixed bag naturally, with some sounding more pleasing to my ears than others. I'd like to single out the tunes by Cutcreator, Tempest, Jerry and Juice as my personal favourites this time around.
##- Menace##



#_Rusty (Rust 2.0)_# by #_Dreamweb_#

Another 4k executable graphics piece in hand-drawn vector from Jok (art) and Blackwine (code). We reviewed the first #Rust# fairly favourably in an earlier issue but this is a massive step up from that one! 
The increased detail (which feels a bit strange to say for something as pared down as this) really adds to the depth and vividness of the picture. As with their earlier releases this isn't a display of hardcore graphics code or compression, instead it looks like it was drawn in exactly the style the graphician wanted, without any technical limitations.

The only real drawback here, and this goes for most executable graphics without music or moving parts, is that I'm more likely to rewatch it online than starting it up on real hardware again. (It _does_ look even better on a 1084 though :)  ## -Slummy##<#_Boot me up before you go go_# by #_Booze Design_#

After he entered the Amiga scene with the very competently coded (but somewhat traditional) #Baby Steps# JackAsser returned at Datastorm Summer with not one but TWO bootblock intros! This is the less interesting one, which came 2nd out of 3 in the compo, but it has the benefit of running on a plain A500.

It's got a rotating Booze Design vector logo with a bit of bitplane afterburn, accompanied by the grinding saw-noise often associated with feeding the screen buffer bitplane data into the sample channels (see: #Babenoise# and #Hippie Machinery# for other examples).
It's not bad as 2nd tier bootblocks go but purists will be annoyed by the lack of an exit / boot option.  ##- Slummy##



#_Silverman Intro_# by #_Amigawave_# & #_Goblins_#
#_The Cult_# by #_Batman Group_#
#_The Cube_# by #_Tolkien & friends_#

Three small prods that arrived right before we wrapped up the reviews for this issue.

None of them are terribly exciting on their own but they're all very welcome signs of life from a Spanish Amiga scene that seems to be more alive than in many years (the Capacitor party had an impressive amount of entries in the different compos!)

#Silverman Intro#, which we assume is linked with a game released at the same event, comes out on top with its jolly pirate theme.  
##- Slummy##




#_Checkerboard Challenge_# by #_Loonies_#

This 4k intro features a cute little ditty from Response (made using Blueberry's #Cinter# softsynth), a neat text plotter, and the best checkerboard zoomer so far on A500! 
I say "so far" since we will hopefully see an onslaught of new interesting zoomers as a response to the challenge set up here.
But for now this one is the best one and that'll do just fine thankyouverymuch. There's plenty of variation and showing off, orchestrated with Loonies' trademark family-friendly silliness.

Watch it now, while the effect is still the best of its kind! (If nothing else I'd expect Blueberry to have a serious upgrade in store for the real showdown.)  ##- Slummy##


<#_Gerp 2018 Invitro_# by #_Nature and Traktor_#

It's small, it's short, it's got a turbo happy sound track, it's got a bloody huge QR code and a side order of bad dithering (in a hurry?). But, does what it says on the tin.  
##- Hoffman##



#_Space Hippies_# by #_Wanted Team_#

I freaking love cracktros. The compact single-screen format (intro and outro optional, but appreciated) seems to provide a clear focus for the creators, letting them make the best they can out of one single idea and a small set of content.
Of course, there's a _lot_ of them out there and the majority probably aren't all that great, but there's also lots of hidden bite-sized treasures. 

#Space Hippies# is on the traditional side of the spectrum with a distinctly mid-90s borders-and-textplotters look. While it doesn't deliver any quirky new ideas or unique visual points (you know, that one thing you'll remember really well and use to describe the intro to a friend), it pulls of its chosen style very well. There's a vertical logo, scroller _and_ text plotter, background dot tunnel and a number of small details which shows some real craftmanship.
The graphics are nice (although the whole intro looks a bit bland in its brown-beige-grey colorscheme) and while the scroller font might not be the most readable it looks good (love that #i# !!). The soundtrack is a bit of classic small-size chippiness and sounds a bit shrill to me, but it's in no way worse than most cracktro chiptunes I've across.

So, while I could have wished for a bit more craziness and excitement (or at least some fresher colors) this is definitely competent stuff, nicely polished and a good example of this particular style of cracktro. 
(On a side-note: Man, I *really* wish the Amiga would get a vibrant re-crack scene like the C64 so that I'd get a chance to do some cracktros of my own! Do WHDLoad fixes even have cracktros? They should!)  ##- Slummy##



#_Amos Tribute_# by #_Universe_#

This one-man-show was released by Crisot at Alchimie 2017 as a tribute to Francois Lionet, the creator of Amos, who was present at the event. A nice gesture and also a relatively competent demo!

It's all done in Amos Professional, contains a number of classic effects, and while you definitely need an 020 (or even faster CPU) to watch it at full speed it does at least _run_ on A500 (as long as you have the required libs available).

The effects are all seen-before (with-better-performance) but they're still not trivial (although I suspect they're implemented a bit more naively here) and the demo is delightfully free of the simple dots, lines and trivial scrollers that plague a lot of oldschoolstyle prods. 
While it _does_ have the feeling of an A1200 trying to brute-force a 1992-style OCS demo it's still competent and involved stuff for sure!  ##- Slummy##

<#_Let's twist again_# by #_Booze Design_# (OCS, 020+)

This is JackAsser's second bootblock from Datastorm Summer and the winner of the compo.

The subject matter isn't exactly novel or exciting (spoiler: it's a twister) but the execution definitely is. The raytraced & dithered twister looks deliciously smooth and better than 90% of the standard twisters you'll find in demos old & new.
In addition to that there's a copper gradient background, a bit of harmony (repetitive but not annoying) and an itsy-bitsy little logo.


A500 purists might balk a bit at the requirement for 68020 or better, but they can shut up (and at least enjoy that it's OCS compatible.. and plain _good_).

In short: a really good medium-spec bootblock intro. (But we wish someone would show up and teach them how to boot)  ##- Slummy##



<#_Mankind's Big Sprite Demo 100%_# by #_Mankind_# (Vanilla A1200)

If you've watched some of the older Mankind demos there's a couple of things you probably know about Krabob by now: he knows how to code and he likes to bring some psychedelic craziness to the table. 
Good for us then, that he decided to evolve on the wild copper-code from #Cocoon's Catabasis# (at least that's what I suspect it is) and release a proper techdemo to show it off!

There's loads of stuff going on in brightly colored Krabob-O-Vision, the music is suitably wacky, and there's even a tiny bit of progression and scene changes (something not all tech demonstrations care about). 
I especially enjoy the chaos zoomer and 3D logo being mixed up with the more static chickens, trolls and game consoles.

It's not very polished (except for the code of course) but it's a unique little single-idea technical showcase with an undeniably french feel.  ##- Slummy##

<#_Back to basics 6_# by #_Insane_#

A simple cutesy cracktro-style party intro. Text-plotter, low-res heart, a somewhat anonymous-looking logo, some copperbars and a chiptune which might be a cover of "Alla vill till himmelen".

While it's nothing groundbreaking we hope that Vedder won't _really_ stop his coding efforts as the results have been thoroughly friendly & happy.  ##- Slummy##

<#_Golden Wing_# by #_CopperSky_#

Ok, so this arrived after I decided not to review every damn game but seeing this it was obvious that I had to make an exception already.

The winner of the game compo at (the surprisingly busy) Capacitor party is an enjoyable & properly polished #Asteroids# clone. 
The look of some of the graphics makes it impossible to escape a "poor mans Stardust"-label but don't let that bring you down because this could still easily have been a decent commercial release back in the day!
It looks nice, has a cool soundtrack true to the genre (and good sound effects), power-ups (the instant deceleration that annoyed me at first turned out to be part of the game mechanics), boss fights, and good old fun game play. Oh, and it works on A500!

Great work, I'm looking forward to seeing what the final version will bring.  ##- Slummy##



<#_Rise and shine_# by #_Elude_# (060/AGA)

Elude are back with another massive Elude-demo (you know, one where you take a brief look and immediately know who's responsible).

Like most of their other prods this is a big, hard-hitting thing with quality music, code and visuals which they seem to be able to pull off with less effort than most other groups. It pretty much screams "We are here for the first prize!" and that's what they got in the mixed democompo at Riverwash. 
Or rather, the Windows PC build of the demo entered & won that compo, as they didn't quite get the Amiga version finished in time. No worries though, I don't think the results would've been any different even if the framerate had been lower (if nothing else then the AMIGAAAAH-factor would have compensated nicely).

With that said, this one also suffers from some of the weaknesses associated with their previous demos, specifically: performance & polish.

##Performance#
It's not an uncommon thing for high-end chunky-buffer Amiga demos to be a bit slow (the term "Amiga speed" means 16-FPS-or- slower in my book) because people tend to squeeze in PC-like (or "PC wannabe") effects that are a bit too heavy for the underlying hardware. 
I've definitely been guilty of this myself many times and so are most other people who've done high-end Amiga demos at some point in the last twenty years. 
However, for Elude this has almost become a trademark. While their results are absolutely top-level (stuff that looks really cool & impressive) you're often left wondering whether it couldn't have been just little bit faster and less brute-force?

#Rise and shine# is definitely not the worst example of this though. Only a few of the parts feel obnoxiously slow while most of them look good enough to make you accept that frame rate alone is not everything. 
The pacing of the demo also helps of course - there's rarely any need for tight sync tricks or fast motion that would expose the low framerate. 

It has to be said, though, that I watched the demo on what's probably the minimum required HW specs, a 50Mhz 060. I'm sure that a chunky-bonanza like would benefit greatly from the 66, 75 and 80Mhz monsters some lucky individuals have in their machines. 
##I'm definitely going to rewatch this demo## when my 66Mhz Apollo is resuscitated by the hardware shaman who currently watches over it deep in the Finnish forests.

##Polish##
First of all: No, the fact that the guys are Polish is not a problem, it's a stamp of quality. What I'm talking about is the lack of finishing touches & attention to detail. 
Or, in all fairness (as these guys have shown they _can_ do that stuff right), a lack of time. 

Here it's most evident in the unattractive credits overlays, some sloppy glare-buffer overruns along screen borders, and the rather empty ending.


##Ok, so that's a lot of trash-talk Mr.Slummy. Are you saying this is a crap demo?##

No, definitely not. In fact it's one of the best high-end demos I've seen in quite a while and one of my favourites amongst Elude's productions. 

Once you accept the above mentioned niggles (which are quite common for lots of groups) you have a powerful beast of demo with good ideas, nice-to-great visuals and an _absolutely_ _beautiful_ _soundtrack_. 

The pink-purple-black color scheme and majestic space synth music works perfectly with the effects to create a retrofuturistic lazer vibe that's not just another bland vaporwave photocopy.

Parts like the edge-filtered objects with particles, the vector landscape with spheres, and the glowing grass all ##look great## (although the latter one is a bit slow and has some rough edges). 
Even the less attractively brown-colored fish-eye cityscape looks cool with its scanline-filtering. (Elude's tendency for slightly-over-the-top post-processing is something I've always enjoyed.)

It also progresses nicely and, except for when it gets a bit stretched out towards the end, no part stays on screen for too long (in fact, a few of them made me want to rewatch the demo immediately).

In short: This is a ##BIG FAT DEMO## that very few active groups could pull together and it would have won 9 out of 10 high-end Amiga compos nowadays.  ##- Slummy##



#_JD-00: HACK-IN-BOX_# by #_Wine Design_#

I'm still not entirely convinced this - the last of four competitors in the Amiga demo competition at Datastorm this summer - is not the product of some demomaker software. It does feel a lot like it, since what's here is pretty generic. This is apparently the first production from the group, and they quote Photon and Jackasser as "helping" out. 
So, can we we guess they lifted one routine from each, drew a logo, made a chiptune and called it a day?

So yeah, as you can probably tell - nothing you need to see here. Best bit: scrollerfont is not that bad.  ##- Menace##



<#_Naughty_# by #_Nature_# (AGA/060)

I've realized that I often refer to the concept of "big demos" when I'm writing reviews and now seems to be a good time to elaborate a bit on that.

I'm obviously not talking about the filesize of the prod (although many big demos also take up a lot of bytes), but rather the feeling of bombasticity (if that's a word), power and weight. 

Big prods say "Yeah, I'm a proper demo. Witness me tear up the competition!" (they're pretty much always compo releases). 

What makes them big can vary - it can be a massive number of parts, effects that feel huge, powerful soundtracks, or just being the most complete demo in the competition ("Relative Bigness", if you will).

And that last bit is why I bring this up now, in relation to #Naughty#. 
The otherwise awesome 2nd instalment of Datastorm this year had a not-so-exciting demo compo, but when Naughty showed up on the large outdoors screen (and, I presume, all the indoors ones) I was relieved that there was at least one reasonably major release showing up. 
It only took a few seconds of music and visuals to realize that this was a serious contender, and when there were no more demos afterwards it was obvious who would win.

So, is this a Big Demo then? Well, in that compo it definitely was, but compared to other BIG things, such as the Elude and Haujobb/Ghostown demos reviewed in this issue, it's more of a sheep in wolf's clothing (possibly a studded leather jacket and steampunk glasses). 
This doesn't mean that Naughty is a bad demo (it isn't and it'd get to top 1-2 in many smaller compos), but it's a good example of the difference between a really well executed tier-2 release and the top-level of demos on the same platform.
##So, what _is_ it then?##
It's a new substantial demo from graphician-who's-now-also-a-coder Malmix, accompanied by a heavy, dark demostyle soundtrack from Mygg. 
The music reminds me a little of some older Ephidrena soundtracks. Quite fitting, as the visuals have a certain "Ephidrena & Spaceballs in the early 2000's"-thing going on (see for instance #Pluss# and #Hypnopolis#). 
That doesn't mean #Naughty# is a copy though. It definitely has some style of its own, exemplified by the well-done pixel graphics and the nice visual layering work (##just a fancy-pants way of saying there's plenty of details and that Nature is good at hiding the simplicity of some of the effects##).
The overall cold and dark theme is somewhat softened by the hand-drawn graphics and the high amount of polish and blur. I'm not sure if it's intended or not, but in my opinion it makes the demo less threatening and a tiny bit cartoonish.

The performance on a 50Mhz 060 is for the most part really good. That's of course to some extent due to the simplicity of the effects, but considering the details & moving layers a lesser coder than Malmix (who's getting the hang of this now) could definitely have screwed it up. 

Yes, the brown-and-yellow color schemes are a bit dubious at times and some of the effects are so blurred that they almost disappear, but it's mostly really well executed and shows how you can make a Big Demo without hardcore code. 
My favourite effects were two twisters: first a deliciously blended & post-processed horizontal one, then a somewhat coarser (but two-layered) greebled one.

Great work (and progress) from Malmix. Quality sounds from Mygg. Big Demo.  ##- Slummy##

<#_Irregular Review 3_# by #_Spaceballs_#

They did it again! And this time with more reviews than ever before, another great magtune (I first thought it might be a bit to uptempo for a reading soundtrack but it turned out to work really well), and they even brought in H0ffman to do a new section on music compo tracks.

Good work guys, really appreciated!  ##- Slummy##

<#_The Prophecy Returns 2.0_# by #_Nah-Kolor_# 
(AGA / 060)

##It's returned... again!## After a lukewarm review in our last issue Nah-Kolor have made significant improvements to the remake of their own 1997 original, with additional help from a bunch of their friends.

It's definitely a much better experience now and the bump mapping which was the high-light last time is even better this time around (although it spins too quickly). 

The additional graphics also makes a huge difference - even though it doesn't benefit from the water drops. The rest of the code is also competent although not terribly inventive.

At this point The Propechy has become an above-average 2017 64k intro whose main weakness is that it tries to be 20 years old. However, if you're longing for those faraway years when AGA intros were still recovering from #TBL's Tint# then this should be ideal (and a hell of a lot better than many of its back-then-contemporaries). It's also by far the most consistent Nah prod in quite a while!  ##- Slummy##

<#_Yet Another Sin_# by #_Planet Jazz_#

Yet another bootblock from these guys and definitely more fun than its predecessor ##It's a Sin## from earlier this year.
It's nothing revolutionary but we're served some sine-waving plots and a rumbly-grumbly background noise that's not unpleasant. Oh, and it changes color from time to time.
Olle has shown us what he can do in larger prods (mostly under his secret identity as Super-Hans of BooZombies) and I'm really looking forward to seeing more (and more advanced) bootblocks from him.  ##- Slummy##

<#_Invitro to Amiparty XII_# and #_Speccy2017.1_# by #_DRRM_#

Two for the price of one - two invitations, written in AMOS, with downsampled graphics. While the one for Speccy is little more than a single picture that moves from side to side a little bit, at least the Amiparty one has a few effects and tries a teeny bit harder. Having said that, neither of these are required viewing or listening, to say the least.
##- Menace##

Yeah, I like the text-overlays-with-star in the Amiparty invtro but the rest is kinda sloppy.  ##- Slummy##
<#_Mirror_# by #_Gus Entertainment_# (020 + fastmem)

Yet another game which showed up in the last minute from the Capacitor party in Spain. At this rate I think I'll have to stop reviewing games soon because there's simply too many of them - and the overall quality is so high that I can't just coast through it by writing nonsense bullshit reviews either ...

I'm happy I got to try this one out though. It's a polished and professional looking platform puzzler where you control two small robots at the same time. Robot death hilarity ensues!

It's made with the #RedPill Game Creator# (apparently made by Gus themselves) which, while I had never heard about it before, seems like a really cool project.

If there's anything to complain about it would have to be the loading between levels when playing from floppy but perhaps that's left in as a challenge to single-file-producing crackers (as we all know, pirates are quite particular about stowing their cargo right).

Anyway, I'm impressed both by the existence of a new tool like this and by the nice little game it was used to produce.  ##- Slummy##

<#_Serenity_# by #_Dreamweb_#

The executable graphics category on the Amiga platform has been a mixed bag in recent years. My first thought when I laid eyes on Serenity was that it looked like a scene from a movie. It felt like there was a story here. It owes something to Jok's previous effort from Amiparty earlier this year, Cityscape, but has somewhat more ... soul. I quite like this. It's got a certain X factor that I can't quite put my finger on, but which gives it some extra life. Hope there is more entries in this category going forward, it'll be interesting to see what the right talent can come up with.  ##- Menace##

#_Plastic Toys Are Forever_# (AGA / 060)
by #_God_#, #_Skynet_#, #_Neuroflip_# & #_Sandman_#

Oh yeah! The winner from Capacitor party was a _really_ fresh surprise. 

It's an excellent example of ##Spanish numedia style## as defined by Ozone's classic #Smoke Bomb# and intros like #Fetish#, which makes sense given God's involvement here (the less etheral one). 

It's super-busy and hard-synced, chock-full of rapidly changing overlay graphics & typography in an appealingly messy & colorful tornado of references to plastic toys. 

The heavy use of digitized cut'n'paste graphics gives it a print-like feel that sets it apart from most other contemporary high-end Amiga demos.

Last years #Robot Gang# showed us that Skynet has solid control of chunky-buffer AGA effects and we're not let down here either. It's not _all_ best-in-class stuff, but it's competently executed and there are several things that stand out nicely.

The cube clusters from Robot Gang are back, but in this nice wrapping it doesn't matter that some of the news value is gone - it's still cool! 

There's also a multi-layered free-directional tunnel and some depth of field 3D! 
The latter doesn't quite work on the colorful background but it's a rare enough thing to make me nod approvingly at the effort (and I think the 2x2 effect resolution is justified by the performance and camouflaged decently by the higher resolution overlays and glitch).

There's more decent stuff in there as well and none of it feels like pure filler-material (something they _could_ probably have gotten away with if they wanted, given all the rapid cuts). The 3D models with a mix of flat-shaded and black triangles aren't exactly pretty though, but the particle-based edge glow and fast scene changes helps it along. 
My only real complaint is that the opening texturemapped tunnel is far too low-precision and jittery. 
I'm not saying that my own polyfillers are any better, but I would probably have tried to hide the jumpiness with faster movements, more color tricks, or simply by tesselating the planes a bit.

Bundle it up with a couple of cool soundtracks and an end-part that's much more worked through than most other up-scrollers and you're left with a really potent package which places Spain back in the big demo leagues again.  ##- Slummy##

<#_Tetris Expansion_# by #_Unity_#

Unity naturally start proceedings with a Gameboy tinged Tetris game, in play. Quickly it switches screens using TV noise to a group logo and back again with the classic theme tune being covered in the back ground. It keep switching back and forth to a title screen, albeit just Topaz font and a single raster line, and a scrolling Russian style city scape. One last switch back to the game and now you can see the game is properly going tits up just before a pretty badly drawn logo concludes the first half of the demo.

The second half see the soundtrack flip into a totally different theme while you are entertained with a spinning 3D Tetromino 3 ways (lines, filled and dots). It's accompanied with a couple of background colour cycling effects and some scrolling graphics and greets.

A quick read of the _nFO_ files says that it was made in 5 days and sadly the overall presentation looks rushed as a result. There are a lot of bitplane glitches, which kinda work in the first half which made me think they were on purpose, but they get worse later on. The scrolling city scape, which is drawn pretty well and true to the games style, clicks up a pixel every rotation. I was also finding it hard to see where _1.5_ meg of RAM usage had gone.

However, even with these faults it really does have a little charm about. That might be me being a huge Tetris fan but the pacing was done well which kept things moving. None of the effects we're knock out but the variation in what you see does keep it interesting. Sadly the soundtrack isn't really much to write home about but does help push the demo along fairly well.  ##- Hoffman##


##Mushroom Baby!## 
by ##Mygg / Insane##

#Party:# Solskogen 2017 (2nd)
#Size:# 397kb
#Download:# http://bit.ly/2yZZjk8

Psy-trance is the order of the day as Mygg dives into his inner Chakra with Mushroom Baby!. Now I'm not the biggest fan of this style of music but Mygg has done a great job of bringing it into ProTracker.

The classic hallmarks of the genre have been re-created very well from the popping kick drums to the ethereal vocal chants. 
<
My only niggle is the lead chip sound seems a bit out of place compared the to rest of the really well crafted sounds. However it does still sound somewhat authentic.

There is some serious craft in the patterns and you can see a lot of tracking has taken place as bass and synth channels are crammed full to the brim with notes and effects. The mix is also really well balanced.

<##Boltzmann Brain## 
by ##Radiant / Panda Design##

#Party:# Solskogen 2017 (1st)
#Size:# 42kb
#Download:# http://bit.ly/2h0lE6A

Radiant kicks things off this issue with a chip tune which, at face value, seems fairly run of the mill. However the composition is good with the melody and chord progressions taking little jaunts here and there to keep you on your toes.
<
There is some trickery afoot here as Radiant has side-chained the bass and arp channels to the drums which works well. The technique he's used is bit crunchy as it's only the C command but you hardly notice it on these chip waves. 

However what really works is the lack of that side-chain when the tune passes into the classic arp section as it really helps to give each it some distinction.

<##Song Nr6## 
by ##Bitch / AttentionWhore##

#Party:# Evoke 2017 (3rd)
#Size:# 65kb
#Download:# http://bit.ly/2zpGkA7

So here we are at the Evoke 2017 ST-01 compo. It's safe to say that the ST-01 sample pack is like kryptonite to my ears but I'll take one for the team and try and look past that!

Bitch has created something of a throwback tune in terms of composition and sounds like it could have easily been accompanied by some raster bars and an ugly scroller. 
<
There are some cool details to watch as the patterns move and little trill edits here and there which keep it interesting. 

I do however have an issue with the arp'd chords as they sound like are written for an entirely different tune.

<##Mad Scientist## 
by ##LMan / MultiStyle Labs##

#Party:# Evoke 2017 (2nd)
#Size:# 171kb
#Download:# http://bit.ly/2AZSYlG

OK, now we're talking! LMan has managed to make a tune which doesn't sound like ST-01 at all which is a seriously mean feat. Musically it's a dub infused stepper which skanks along nicely while DnB edits scattered through out keep you guessing.

There is a serious amount of effects and channel work on display, so much so that I found it hard to keep up.<
Drums are transformed from their original tired sounding state into something much more pleasing using some serious pitch bending.

The bass has been given some good movement with the offset command too. This is well worth a viewing and a listen, easily my favourite from this compo. Top work and should have won.
<##Tripping Over## 
by ##Bacter and Saga Musix and xTr1m##

#Party:# Evoke 2017 (1st)
#Size:# 213kb
#Download:# http://bit.ly/2zVv1za

The tracking trio of Bacter, Saga and xTr1m shuffle their way to the top with this funky little number. In contrast to LMans entry, you obviously hear the ST-01 sample set in use but the melody and composition more than make up for that. 
There is a key change which happens half way through that seems a little out of place with the rest of the tune and could probably been cut.<
This one is really showing off, speed changing pattern edits, reverse playback and jumping all over the place which makes for great viewing. 

I wish they'd spent a bit of time levelling these samples though as the mix is all over the place. For example, the classic "Pizza" sample is way too loud and jumps straight out at you.
<##Pattern Recognition## 
by ##Qwan##

#Party:# Datastorm Summer 2017 (3rd)
#Size:# 245kb
#Download:# http://bit.ly/2iBN2Zo

Rolling into Datastorm and Qwan serves us up a classically trained Electro piece. It sounds like it's been taken straight from Dave Clarkes Electro Boogie X-Mix collection and that is a very good thing indeed. This one has that electronic soul you come to expect from the heart of Detroit.
Nothing too adept in the pattern data here but another case of good honest tracking. I just wish he'd write more tunes.<##Petit Space## 
by ##Notorious##

#Party:# Datastorm Summer 2017 (2nd)
#Size:# 254kb
#Download:# http://bit.ly/2hJWsBq

If you can't get enough of that Amiga 90's trackmo vibe then look no further, Notorious will have you covered in sine scrollers and 3D cubes before the day is done.

Simply put, this kind of style doesn't get on well with me. It's all a bit too retro for my tastes but if you love this kinda thing then get on the link and eat it up.
<##Rise of the Machine Jungle## 
by ##Chris Huelsbeck##

#Party:# Datastorm Summer 2017 (1st)
#Size:# 119kb
#Download:# http://bit.ly/2zoEtf2

WTF! The legendary Huelsbeck entering an amiga music compo at a demo party in 2017!! Well this was something of a surprise when I saw it and as you can probably guess it's been written in TFMX (4 channels apparently). 

You cannot argue with the composition genius a man like Chris and this entry does demonstrate his musical skill rather well.
<
Suitably cinematic and rather catchy in places as I got stuck humming it for a couple hours after the first play. However it does sound like it was written for a failed game of that generation and the samples sound incredibly low quality.

Obviously I can't comment on his tracking abilities here as the song data is locked away in a TFMX file, but you can hear some of the hallmarks of this using music editor. What I'd really love to know is what game this may have been written for. 
<##Dirty Tricks## 
by ##AceMan / Agenda + Dreamweb + Eclectique##

#Party:# Riverwash 2017 (3rd)
#Size:# 296kb
#Download:# http://bit.ly/2jd0K5x

The ever diverse AceMan passes us a phat joint of smoked out trip-hop with Dirty Tricks. This sounds like it could have come straight out of the mono back catalogue along side the mighty Mortimer Twang, only the sample quality is much higher here. Everything just fits perfectly together, well rounded sound, off-kilter jazzy chords and vibraphone melodies while the krunky beat slaps it along nicely.<
Hard pattern shuffle is in effect here but which is the best way to get the super swinging funk rhythm.

He's also done a good job on the drum loop offset points to make sure they are tight and all line up really well.
<##Lost## 
by ##X-Ceed / Altair + Floppy##

#Party:# Riverwash 2017 (2nd)
#Size:# 608kb
#Download:# http://bit.ly/2AobzLq

X-Ceed sends us on a journey to the industrial world with his tune Lost. Dirty IDM drums are backed up with metallic hits and smashes while the Arabian flavoured melody rides over the top giving it an overall style not too dissimilar to the Desert Dream soundtrack.
The samples have been pushed well over the limit which actually helps it with its crunchy aesthetic but also makes it really loud.<##Invasion from Mars## 
by ##Voicer / Nah-Kolor##

#Party:# Riverwash 2017 (1st)
#Size:# 980kb
#Download:# http://bit.ly/2ATUcD8

Voicer is rinsin' out the DnB flavours while the attack ships from Mars begin their attack formation. Super chunky beats roll out with the lazer fire backed with some disgusting bass and twisted space noises. Musically it does feel a little bit one dimensional as the bass never leaves it's single note but it kinda makes up for that in other areas.<
It's been written at a very weird tempo as the BPM registers at 145 but a tune speed of 5 actually makes it much faster than that. This might explain why the drums have noticeable clicking around the offset points which sadly makes this sound a little sloppy.
<##Jelly## 
by ##Creonix / Brain Wave + Mistigris##

#Party:# Deadline 2017 (5th)
#Size:# 102kb
#Download:# http://bit.ly/2npwKrs

It seems Creonix may not have any internet access and the only sample disk he has is ST-01, at least that what it seems like with his tune Jelly. It's about as throwback as you can get, so much so I almost thought it was from Gigademo II by Triangle.

As for the finetune being set to -2 on the Hallbrass sound, Ouch!
<##Electrobusted## 
by ##AceMan / Agenda + Dreamweb + Eclectique##

#Party:# Deadline 2017 (2nd)
#Size:# 720kb
#Download:# http://bit.ly/2nnjrYI

Electrobusted is a vocoded synth-pop fest and sadly the weakest tune of his this issue. The chord progressions are good, the bass in nice and squelchy and the drums, while a little flat fit the mood well. The use of the vocoder samples are really clever but they hit a the odd off key note, which is a real shame.
I hold AceMan in pretty high regard as a tracker but I think I just didn't gel with this one.<##Gabor Pribek## 
by ##Dascon / Desire + Haujobb + The Deadliners##

#Party:# Deadline 2017 (1st)
#Size:# 55kb
#Download:# http://bit.ly/2Aswn2a

Dascon smahes up chip waves with a tasty over-ridden Amen break in Gabor Pribek. There is something about the melody of this one I really liked, probably it's menacing and dark tone. I could really imagine what this would sound like with some full-on synth sounds.
<
This one is definitely worth a viewing in ProTracker. He's used a pattern reverse trick using a single D command rather than the combination B and D method, presumably because a chip tune requires a more effects. It comes at the cost of song positions, 32 to be precise. 

There are also some other nice musically reactive tricks on display for your viewing pleasure.
<##Moonflower## 
by ##AceMan / Agenda + Dreamweb + Eclectique##

#Party:# RetroKomp / Load Error 2017 (4th)
#Size:# 832kb
#Download:# http://bit.ly/2BvP6t9

AceMan settles in for his third outing this issue and hot dam, is it good, really good. Moonflower is stunning on so many levels. The soft drums mixed with foley percussion and dirty vinyl crackles are the perfect combination to the uber blissed out tone created throughout this piece.<
The well placed vocal snippets add an amazing dimension to this tune and really got the hairs up on the back of my neck.

There is so much detail in this this tune. Little perfectly made edits pop-up like nice surprises while the patterns follow suit to emphasis them perfectly. 

Simply put, tune of the issue! Stunning, should have won.
<##Guess Who## 
by ##XTD / Lamers##

#Party:# RetroKomp / Load Error 2017 (2nd)
#Size:# 727kb
#Download:# http://bit.ly/2AsrdDa

Introducing the Lamers house band, on drums XTD, on bass XTD..  OK you get the picture. Guess Who is a funk fuelled monster that knows exactly what it wants to be and does it very well. Bass is slapping and squelching along to the crazy synth solos while the drums dynamically roll around perfectly.
<
In fact, the drum programming is really really good, although the offsets are a little sloppy.

While the tune itself isn't really to my taste, it still makes for good listening.

Large sections of the synth solos are actually huge samples, obviously custom made, but effortlessly blend with on pattern sections. My only real issue is the drums needed some serious processing and mixing before being bounced down to ProTracker.
<##Fire In My Pants## 
by ##JazzCat / Ghostown##

#Party:# RetroKomp / Load Error 2017 (1st)
#Size:# 858kb
#Download:# http://bit.ly/2iHVnxS

More rock and rolling now with legendary Jazzcat and the fire in his Pants. Crunchy electric guitars and bass provide the emo-rock theme on this one accompanied by acoustic drums.

The melody of this tune really hits me sideways, just love it. So much so I  think I might have to have a little remix session when I next get some free time.<
Underneath it all, it does seem a bit tracking by numbers, huge samples and not much pattern work, so it's not much to look at, but I really don't care about that, tune rocks.
<##Hell Well Hidden## 
by ##Curt Cool / Depth + Hoaxers + Nah-Kolor##

#Party:# TRSAC 2017 (4th)
#Size:# 584kb
#Download:# http://bit.ly/2BHMTvp

Curt Cool is hiding hell, in fact it's so well hidden there is no sign of it at all. That said it's actually pretty accomplished melodically, effortlessly switching between multiple chord progressions to keep things interesting. You could have almost written three separate tunes with what is inside this mod.
<
It's not usually keen on this kind of music but some of parts of it do strike with me. Sadly the drums we're in need of some levelling inside the loops and also against all the other sounds. Also the leads sound are a little tired.
<##The Wee Ride## 
by ##Notorious##

#Party:# TRSAC 2017 (2nd)
#Size:# 104kb
#Download:# http://bit.ly/2zXMiIR

Chip waves shuffling into view as Notorious gives us a Wee Ride. Oh that sounds a bit ermm..  anyway. The tune is pretty good, opting for a kinda jolly yet melancholic atmosphere and there is plenty of detail which keeps it interesting. Not something I'd usually go for but it's nice listen all the same.
Sadly Notorious falls into the classic chip tune trap of screaming waveforms drowning out all the other samples.<##Abbreviation Nation## 
by ##wasp / PACiF!C + Powerline##

#Party:# TRSAC 2017 (1st)
#Size:# 214kb
#Download:# http://bit.ly/2zJw3ec

A cube, a cube, my kingdom for a cube! Serial throwback tracker Wasp lays down another of his trademark retro Amiga tunes. It's written well enough but it's really not my bag. 

It also feels a little confused as the two themes don't seem to belong together. To be honest I prefer the chord sequence from the intro than that main part. 
<
Everything thing seems pretty well balanced apart from the super weak snare drum which should have been replaced.

My toes did curl at the sound of the 80's orchestral hit sample though.
<##Embrujo Gitano## 
by ##Zoltar##

#Party:# Capacitor 2017 (3rd)
#Size:# 1090kb
#Download:# http://bit.ly/2zKxKZ2

Break out the Castanets and dance the Flamenco as Zoltar strums his way to your heart. This is authentically Spanish, while coming from a Spanish demo party was still is a nice surprise. It's really well put together, cleverly opting for just some nice clap sample for percussion, leaving all the channels for the guitar.
<
Little touches like the shouting and dog bark samples really help it along. The pacing and speed changes are also really well done.

There appeared to be a broken sample in the download I had but it didn't spoil the sheer joy this tune brings. It's written in Octamed so to give it justice, so try to watch it in that if you can.
<##Calipso## 
by ##Batman Group##

#Party:# Capacitor 2017 (2nd)
#Size:# 44kb
#Download:# http://bit.ly/2BuQNaj

I have a feeling that the Amiga Music compo from Capacitor was actually a cover tune compo but as I can't read the Spanish website I am just guessing. What we have here is a fairly short cover of Calypso by Jarre. 

The main lead is pretty on point to the original, however the chords are in dire need of fine tuning and clash pretty badly. I tuned them down by -2 to make it bearable.<##Amiga is life## 
by ##Fireboy##

#Party:# Capacitor 2017 (1st)
#Size:# 393kb
#Download:# http://bit.ly/2ARQXfq

Onto the winning entrty from Capacitor and it is also a cover, this time of Live is Life by Opus (thanks Saga clearing that up for me). The tune has a really funny start with Amiga disk drive samples clicking and shuffling along, then jumping into a crack intro tune which promptly gets clicked through. The click of the drive continues as a theme throughout while samples of the original overlay on top.
<
There is even a guru meditation in the middle, yes that's right, it fakes a crash and flicks the sound filter on and off! While it won't win any awards for composure or production, it does get a smile out of me.







#Imagine a place where the only people providing feedback on demos are those who are active releasing good stuff themselves.#
 
<





#Like a utopic comments section where the foaming-at-the-mouth unabomber who screams abuse actually knows what he's talking about.#

<
This was our vision (and we also fondly remembered similar concepts from old issues of RAW) so we decided to ask a bunch of fairly well known demo coders to help us out a bit. 

They were told to pick one (or more) prods reviewed in this issue and provide their own opinions on it, preferrably focusing on the code but otherwise without too much of a mission statement.

The feedback was far better than we expected and thus we're happy to present some ##Coders' Opinions## for you. Enjoy!
<#Let's twist again / Booze Design#
"Smooth as fuck" springs to my mind when watching this little gem by Jackasser/Booze Design. He only took his Baby Steps on Amiga two months earlier this year at Gubbdata. Now he won the bootsector compo at Data Storm, referring his own compo-filler Boot me up before you go go and Olle's Yet another sin to the places. The intro requires OCS, 68020+ (but does not work on 68060), and takes a few seconds to precalc. It then presents a nicely rounded and dithered twister in perfect motion that puts most twisters - even in full AGA demos - to shame. All seasoned with a tasty copper background and some yummy music. Nice!  ##- Noname##
<




#Zener Drive / Altair#
A simple effect codewise used for maximum effect. The kind of stuff that makes me go "why didn't I think of that", and a perfect example of how a great idea usually is more entertaining than hardcore code with average presentation.  ##- Britelite##
<




#Applejack Pack 2 / Void#
The menu is somewhat simple but does its job perfectly fine. The graphics are not really my cup of tea but could be worse. Most of the tunes by Maze however are, as expected, quite nice and catchy!  ##- StingRay##
<

#HACK-IN-BOX / Wine Design#
What I dislike about this production is that it is apparently just a cheap rip-off. My hinge is that Hack in a Box is a straight copy of a tutorial by Photon that did not look particularly inspiring in the first place. They basically just changed the colours from blue-ish to red-ish, added an intro screen and called it Wine Design. And they did not seem to have had the guts to be reflective about it. How lame is that? Even compo-fillers should be better.  ##- Noname##
<



#Future Balls / Resistance#
So Dissident has now joined one of my old groups and coded another demo and it's quite obvious which demos from the "good old days" (TM) he likes most and took inspiration from. The demo is quite polished but should and could be made for OCS but is still nice to watch, I especially like the glenz vector part as it features not too common objects.  
##- StingRay##


<
#Inspirited / The Electronic Knights#
What can you do with shade bobs if you don't have the 50 fps requirement? This demo shows some really nifty stuff possible. The torus at the start looks awesome and you get that cool transparent glow feeling. The second part with the four swinging arms is just an ordinary single bit plane bob routine with the other planes lagging behind a frame each with the usual palette setup, shown for too long imo. Now the third part with meta shade balls with distortion(?), that looks really cool and I have honestly no clue on how it's made. Forth part features the same kind of shade bobs as in the first part and looks exceptionally nice. Good job on that one! The roto zoomer in the fifth part features some chunky mode, don't know which, and looks smooth big and nice, impressive stuff for me at least.
Technically this demo is imo really awesome and I do love the music. Esthetically I think the whole demo is too washed out and could use some more intense colors, but that's of course just a matter of taste.
Well done!  ##- JackAsser##
<



#Checkerboard Challenge / Loonies#
A rather simplistic 4 bitplane checkerbored effect accompanied by a plucky tune, wrapped up in a 4k package.  Not a lot going on here, but it serves its purpose as a call to make something better.  It's certainly got me thinking about it... ..   ##- Paradroid##
<
#The Prophecy Returns 2.0 / Nah-Kolor#
No, just no! One of the recent releases that I really fail to understand.
Precalc is way too long for what the intro has to offer, the code screams 1996 all the way and corrupts memory and isn't anything to write home about anyway. There might be a "completely new framework" under the hood but it feels pretty wasted for such a release. Why recycle (effect) code that is more than 2 decades old instead of creating something new? Yes, there is one new "effect" but it feels so out of place it is not even funny anymore. Feels like "We need to have some new content, lets spend 10 minutes on a "glitch" effect, no one will notice it looks like a bug anyway." One of the most pointless releases in the last time for me! I'm all for new Amiga releases but this is one of the cases I can very well do without as there is nothing interesting for me, neither in the code nor effect department!  ##- StingRay##

<



#Zener Drive / Altair#
A fresh take on utilizing the special capabilities of the Amiga: cycling between frames in memory, showing independent frames for each bitplane, and spicing it up with shift and modulo distortions. An elegant way to turbo-charge a simple line vector into somthing interesting.  ##- Blueberry##
<


#Beam Riders / Ghostown & Haujobb#
I'm curious about how the antialiasing works here (it looks like the whole demo is antialiased). Bruteforce supersampling or is there something else going on? I've not watched it on real hardware though, so it might be that it's just slow and bruteforce. Using Teo as a middleman I've tried to get it out of Noname but without success.  
##- Loaderror##


<

#Inspirited / The Electronic Knights#
I really dig the dithered balls-overlay effect with the torus at the start. bifat's sure got his minterms figured out...
I like how the blitter is being maxed out with a clean and clever blitter IRQ chain, and how the overall effect offers enough eye-candy that I didn't realize it updated every third frame until I stepped through it.
Also, I was surprised to see that the vertical screen size is doubled, which I didn't notice at first, either. Nicely done!  ##- Losso##

<


#Boot me up before you go go / Booze Design#
I like this one as I have a soft spot for vector routines in bootblock intros. There is some nifty code here and I'm especially fond of the color scheme (which is generated using a neat piece of code). Only negative point is the fact that it is not possible to continue booting which is one of my pet peeves when it comes to bootblock intros.  ##- StingRay##

<#International Super-Best / Zymosis#
As a twister enthusiast, I feel obliged to comment on this one. It sure is a new fresh take on triple twisters but I wish it used 256 raster lines instead of 200ish(?). Also I have no clue how the copper lists are constructed but I have some inputs how to possibly stretch it to 256 raster lines - have a second copperlist holding the spritedata for the sprite twister, using SPRXPOS per rasterline and skip the last bit in SPRXCTL for horizontal movement, fiddle with horizontal window size to make the window width smaller.. Well, maybe these hints are already considered and are trade offs. And as I said before, Super-Best has the best twister effect to this date.  ##- Deadguy##





#Beam Riders / Ghostown & Haujobb#
What really makes this demo stand out for me is the antialiasing. It makes the already beautiful and nicely colored visuals become smooth and pleasant, even in the low Amiga resolution. I wish more Amiga productions had antialising like this!  ##- Blueberry##
<



#Craptro 4 / CrapTeam#
I didn't expect much as anything with "Crap" in its name can't be good, right? Wrong! :) I was pleasantly surprised, the effects are somewhat old-fashioned but not bad and I really like the "Thank You" part, the design ideas there are right up my alley!  ##- StingRay##

<




#Coffee / Y-Crew#
Features a colourful background overlayed with imagery relating to a certain beverage.  I never expect to see wizzbang cutting edge effects in a Y-Crew release, but what I always get is a warm feeling inside as I'm taken on a journey back to the best of early 90s style.
##- Paradroid##

<



#Alien Apparat 80% / Carrion & AceMan#
This demo is proof-positive that you can make a decent demo with little code IF you can handle the rest. And Carrion and Aceman surely succeeded in this respect. Catchy music and superb graphics put into motion by mostly bitplane moves, animations and colour cycling altogether provide a high rewatch value.
##- Noname##

<

#Zener Drive / Altair#
This one hit me right in the heart. It was such a well executed demo, perfectly tailored for the target hardware.
At first I was amazed by it, but ofcourse quickly understood how it was done. There are basically two kind of effects that blows me away, those who look easy but are insanely hard to code, and those who look hard but are actually quite simple to code. This demo belongs in the latter category. To pull that off requires ingenious skills when it comes to execution and general look. This demo perfectly uses the Amiga HW to present line vectors in a smooth modern and cool way. Even the glitches are cool, and I really hate glitches in the first place.
Well done guys, well done!  ##- JackAsser##


<
#International Super-Best / Zymosis#
So, is the ultimate cure for creeping middle age crisis to transfer some fresh OCS stuff to the Amiga or would it just make it worse? Let's find out!

I've wanted to check out International Super-Best for a long time - some of best people in the demoscene created this thing! I downloaded the demo and ZMODEM'd it to my A500 since I'm a hardware purist and don't give in to the temptations of Youtube or emulators with damn framerate issues - also CRT rocks! 
The demo begins with a skull effect, but sadly it's not the best skull effect ever. More like "my first skull effect" with a party invitation scroller. Slummy is a guy who knows his ways around skulls so I'll interpret this as an "ironic" skull effect. Anyway, this very basic looking part makes a good contrast to the things that follow. It might even be used for precalcing something (but probably not needed here). 

Next up there's a Zymosis logo (painted by B) with some animated blood dripping from a skull, cool detail! The intro's layout is a classic one, there's the logo, a scroller and the main area for the twister effect. And the main effect is a great one! Three twisters twisting like no one has twisted before! 

First I enjoyed the colours and gradient used for the twister stripes, looked fresh! But the actual show starts when they start to bend all over the screen - that made me WHOA. I really liked how they intertwined between eachother, changing their order in the depth axis. At times it gets pretty complicated and even messy but most of the patterns look fascinating. The colours are nice and change smoothly considering the limits of 12 bit RGB. It looks modern, very nice to see a new kind of twist to this classic effect. 

Music is a kind of melancholic track by Yelm. Maybe not the perfect mood for these visuals and gets a little repetitive but it works in this retro atmosphere. 

So, it's a nice intro! Pretty looking effect (that you've never seen before) presented in classic Amiga style. Well done guys!  ##- El Visio##

<#Inspirited / The Electronic Knights#
As the name suggests, TEK demos always have a technological component, and Inspirited is no exception to this rule. In this demo, Bifat employs a combination of interesting techniques to achieve a high Blitter throughput for his shadebob-like additive effects such as the torus at the very beginning. 
To start with, the demo uses a memory layout with fixed addresses that keeps the zero page free for fast access in the short addressing range of the CPU. Second, it reserves the level 6 interrupt for the Blitter by moving VBI-related maintenance code to a softint triggered every frame by the copperlist. This allows for very fast Blitter setup as no further distinction between VBI and Blitter is needed when the level 6 interrupt occurs (and also no Blitter wait is required). Lastly, Bifat exploits these techniques to implement cascades of about 200 blits to draw objects like the torus on screen. The demo is not only inspirited, but also inspirational!  ##- Noname##



<





#Checkerboard Challenge / Loonies#
A cute little invitation for the checkerboard challenge. And good to see the trivial version out of the way. :)  ##- Britelite##


<
#Rise and Shine / Elude#
What sets this demo apart is its unusual video layout: Half of the scan lines have a horizontal blur which gives an interesting analogue feeling. The other half seem to be mostly unprocessed but use a different color scheme. This keeps the image sharp but also results in a fancy CRT look and increases the perceived amount of colors. 

But what's really outstanding is that all the effects actually use this mode to their advantage and create a coherent visual style with popping colors. The only drop of bitterness: The separated scan lines also emphasize the aliasing notably. So this demo was one of the main reason why we started to think more about anti-aliasing for our own demos ;-)   ##- Hellfire##


#_Final releases_#

Nah, this is starting to feel more like bookkeeping and less like fun, so I think we'll drop the who-hasn't-delivered-yet chart now.

_Let's end it with_:
~##Fuckings to Drd / Bomb / Sanity## for never finishing #e255#.

##Yeay for Moods Plateau## who delivered their promised final of #Neon Carrier#.

And ##yeay again for all the RK/LE competitors## who came through before the deadline of this issue!~
<#_Regular-sized chart for teeny-weeny prods_#

~##1. Let's twist again## by Booze Design
##2. Rusty (Rust2.0)## by Dreamweb
##3. Checkerboard Challenge## by Loonies
~

A really tight race here. The boot-twister inched ahead due to tech & size and Rusty snuck into 2nd place simply because we spent so much time watching a static image.

<#_Not terribly technical but sure makes us happy - chart_#

~##1. Applejack Pack 2## by Void
##2. Gerp 2018 invitation## by Traktor & Nature
##3. Back to Basics 6## by Insane
 ~

#Void# were easily the best purveyors of good vibes & fun this time around. Clear winner! 

In 2nd spot the #Swedish hillbillies# just did some upscrolling but man - dat silly tune!

Lots of you other guys were just too techy to be considered here, but we're not going to drop _this_ chart for a while.
#_Aces high_#

~##1. Beam Riders## / Ghostown & Haujobb
##2. Rise and shine## / Elude
##3. Zener Drive## / Altair
##    Plastic toys are forever## / GSNS
##5. Naughty## / Nature
##    Alien Apparat 80%## / Carrion & AceMan~

Some heavy hitters here and the race was _really_ close for the lower positions. #Altair#'s OCS banger holds up well against much larger prods but there was no doubt about the top two: #Elude#'s huge package may be a bit sloppy but it leaves a massive impression.
And #Beam Riders# simply blasts everyone else away with pure production value.








              ##Next time it might be## #you!#



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