Author: 8GB

  • Da Jormas – Hätä (2002/2003)

    Here’s a peculiar demo by Finn demogroup Da Jormas (funnily represented by their penis logotype :P) which was made for various platforms. The original 2002 demo ran happily in Windows and Linux. It is one of the, then few, “multiplatform demos”, something very weird knowing that the demoscene usually took one particular platform and squeezed the most out of it, a task that usually required assembly programming language an therefore would turn demos not easily (or impossibly) portable.

    The demo has a nice design and concept, but otherwise is pretty simple and standard. What makes it stand out? One year later, Da Jormas “ported” (rather, re-built from scratch) this demo to the Amiga 500, no less. Graphics properly color-reduced, music aptly converted, effects transcribed, and you have the demo with its essence almost intact in a low-spec computer.

    I already talked too long so let’s see Hätä in both its original and Amiga 500 incarnations:

    Windows version:

    Amiga 500 version:

  • Artcity: new website by Bitfellas

    This is  weekly demo special edition! Since I am behind two weeks, I decided to post this related news item.

    Once upon a time I used to go all the time to a site called GFX ZONE which was a repository of demoscene pixel artists, both old and new. Those fanatic of digital graphics and the demoscene probably remember it (you can still watch it, in its zombi state, clicking here)
    Long defunct, I now found this site, recently re-launched, with a huge archive of pixel art to dive on. Run by the awesome Bitfellas crew, the site is pretty amazing, and a -necessary- stop for every pixel art aficionado.

    Ah, the good old days when we actually DID antialiasing, and by hand.

    Most recommended visit: Artcity

    Illustrating this post: one of my favourite pieces by one of my favourite artists, “Too much clubbing”  by Cyclone, from Germany. Check out his gallery.

  • Booze Design & Instinct – Andropolis (2009)

    Another fine BD production from 2009, my favourite thing about BD demos is that they work as if the C64 border doesn’t exist. For years one of the biggest limits on C64 hardware, these guys completely ignore it and bring fine effects that surpass the usual C64 screen.

    Excellent music by Dane and also graphics! Archmage pixels some nice shit too and HCL puts it all together.

    I noticed I have skipped at least two weeks of demo posting so I’ll try to make up for that!

  • Fairlight & Virtual Dreams – 242 (1993)

    The year was 1993 and full screen video on computers was pretty much not a common thing, what with MPEG probably just being in the works.

    The Virtual Dreams guys (Fairlight’s demo division) made this lofi-looking video compression algorithm to create this classic demo.
    I really love the effect, someone should write an After Effects or similar effect plugin to achieve this :D

    The great thing it’s that there’s actually a story in this. Where is this guy going?

    Did I say it’s running on a stock Amiga 500? That’s 7 Mhz and 1MB of power for you.

  • dARKAGE – My House (2000)

    dARKAGE was a very prolific and talented italian group that in my opinion had everything a good demogroup needed:  good coding and nice art direction.

    Putting these two skills together to good use, they have developed some very cool Amiga productions on the late 90s.

    “My House” might not be their finest hour, but it’s a demo that I find really appealing.  Being in the famous category of 64KB and with a Muffler-inspired soundtrack by Corrosion, it runs smoothly even in my 030 A1200, and that’s a good thing.

    Enjoy this little demo