Revision 2016 Amiga Demo Competition

DemosceneAmiga, Demo, Party, Review22 June 2016

There is no Revision without Amiga demo compo. This year, 9 groups delivered their prods. That’s actually more than in the previous years (with 6 entries on average) but it’s a result of transferring OCS/ECS Amiga demos from the oldskool compo. Let’s see if the quantity makes up for the quality.

#1 – Dolor Sit Amet by Lorem Ipsum

This time, the first place went to a new group called Lorem Ipsum. But are they really newcomers? Well, if you remember Amiga releases from the previous Revision editions, the style of this demo may look a bit familiar. Let’s take a look.

After mirrored 3D terrain effect the music kicks in and we see the demo’s title. A few flying cubes later, a familiar guy from The Popular Demo is going to his next disco party. Suddenly, the music slows down. Is this already the end of the demo and we are about to see the end part scroller? Not exactly, it’s just a change of pace, so we can see some scrolled background blended with a 3D object, followed by Evilbot’s head and a mirrored cityscape. The music speeds up once again to accompany the greetings part and a rotating spotlights effect. Then comes the credits part, and everything is revealed: the well-known guys from Elude are back under a new group name.

The soundtrack made by Chaser is really nice, even if it feels like a mix of two different tracks. I like the slower part better. You can download it from Chaser’s SoundCloud.

To be honest, I’ve seen better demos made by this new-old group. This one lacks action and some parts are unnecessarily stretched in time. It leaves a feeling of placeholder, just like the “Lorem Ipsum” phrase. On the other hand, Kiero always delivers top quality effects, and with usual pro music and graphics by Chaser and Ubik, they can make placeholders, recycle old stuff or do a party coding and still produce a winning demo.

Also, it is worth noting that as Elude they were the masters of the 2^nd place. Who knows, maybe this demo is just the beginning of a new, luckier streak? Let’s hope so!

Credits:
Kiero – code
Ubik – graphics
Chaser – music
Dolor Sit Amet by Lorem Ipsum on Pouet

#2 – Subside by Unique

This demo is densely packed with effects. It features tunnels, clouds, an object with environment mapping, landscape with water, particles, lights, fog, deformed grid, chromatic aberration, glow / blur / depth of field post-processing …and a fish.

What’s interesting, Dodke renders everything in 640×160 HAM8 screen mode, a rarely used option. All the visuals fit nicely to a classic demo-style music by Duo. For me, they managed to create that nice atmosphere of classic Amiga demos from the late 90s. Certainly a good production in Unique’s collection.

Credits:
Dodke – code, graphics
Chemic – 3D graphics
Duo – soundtrack
Subside by Unique on Pouet

#3 – Thanktro by Ghostown c/o Blueberry

A demo with a story. During Revision 2015, the guys from Ghostown were robbed and lost their money, documents, phones, credit cards and even the car keys. With no spare set, they had to organize a tow truck. Fortunately, some good sceners raised the money for them, so they could return from Germany to Poland. Thanks to people at the party, this story had a happy ending.

This demo runs on Amiga 500 with 1 MB of RAM and is a very nice way to say “Thank you” to everyone who supported the group. Enjoy a nice chippy tune by Jazzcat!

Credits:
Sachy / Wanted Team – code
Slayer – graphics
Darklight – graphics
Codi – graphics
Jazzcat – music
Blueberry / Loonies – support
Thanktro by Ghostown c/o Blueberry on Pouet

#4 – Serotonin by AttentionWhore

This one can attract your attention by pretty hardcore music (all right, I know this is not really a hardcore, let’s just say it’s “specific”) and some Amiga OCS effects. Tunnels, bump mapping, naked chick – everything a good demo should have :). There’s also a nice greetings part and a 2D picture. And if you think the screen pixels looks weird, well, that’s the copper chunky mode.

Unfortunately, there is a big chance that it won’t be your favorite Amiga demo, and quite possibly you will forget it after a while. I think that with a different music this could be a really enjoyable production, though.

Credits:
Losso – code
Bitch – music
Ragnarok – graphics
Green – graphics
FeN – graphics
Serotonin by AttentionWhore on Pouet

#5 – 120 Hours by Lemon

Speaking of good and bad music. This demo has an awesome tune composed by Virgill and Dascon. Actually, I though that I already heard it somewhere before, or maybe it’s a remix of some old tune. So, it’s an instant classic for me, I guess.

The demo is very short, it’s not even 2 minutes long. In the first minute, we see the opening credits, and the rest of the time goes for the closing greetings.

However, it has been coded in 5 days (hence “120 Hours” name) by Dan / Lemon, who returned to the scene after 20 years. Even if it’s just a compo filler, such comebacks of scene veterans are always welcomed!

Oh, and the soundtrack is actually longer than the demo, you can listen to a Starchild (Comeback Tracker Remix) on Virgill’s SoundCloud.

Credits:
Dan – code, design
Facet – graphics
Virgill – music
Dascon – music
Magic / Nah-Kolor – support and testing
120 Hours by Lemon on Pouet

#6 – Vote for Evilbot! Amiga Edition by CZHULHU

The Evilbot propaganda reaches Amiga demo compo. This one utilizes 68060 processor with AGA/RTG graphics and is a result of 5 hours of party coding (and, I’m not sure why, 10 years of frustration).

Credits:
Charlie – code, music, graphics
Vote for Evilbot! Amiga Edition by CZHULHU on Pouet

Summary

These are the top 6 Amiga demos from Revision 2016. There were 3 more entries in the compo, though. “CHiP TuNeR” by Unity is a decent ECS demo with some well-made 2D graphics and simple effects. “Evil starter” by ArtWaY was another message from Evilbot. “Disk Space” by LazerBase for OCS/060 features a few simple effects nicely wrapped in 2D graphics.

Anyway, for some reason, nobody has prepared a video capture or cared to add them to the party page on Pouet (as for now). However, thanks to the organizers, you can watch them on the Revision 2016 Amiga demo compo live stream capture.

This year we had more Amiga demos, but at the same time, many of them were quite short. Still, even if some of them were placeholders, the effort to support the platform is worthy of appreciation.

What’s next? Will Lorem Ipsum (a.k.a. Elude) keep their winning streak? Or maybe some other group will release an exceptional demo? Will there be even more Amiga demos in the compo next year? To find out, we have to wait until Revision 2017. And for now, respect to all demosceners who keeps Amiga spirit alive!

Official Amiga demo compo results