I skipped a Wednesday, I know. I am very, very busy with work and trying to set up an Euro tour.
Anyway, not much time for introductions here today.
This is the first Amiga trackmo I saw, ever. It put the final nail in the coffin that sent me to Demoscene-heaven. Enjoy it.
Once upon a time on IRC, a french dude I spoke to in one of the 0-day emulation channels I used to frequent (where we excitedly saw the birth of Neo Geo emulation among other things!) kept babbling about this “Amstrad CPC” computer. I always heralded it as a sub-standard 8-bit platform that didn’t gain much success, but this dude was insistent and eloquent regarding his machine (which apparently was a huge hit n France). He showed me some stuff, progressively: games, demos, music, introduced me to emulation of said platform… To cut a long story short, I was soon on eBay hunting for an Amstrad CPC 6128, which I finally got.
It’s a really great machine which has, in my opinion, one of the best fixed palettes among 8-bit computers, and our beloved AY-8192 PSG which we learned to love on the Spectrum (and the Atari ST’s cousin, the YM-2149).
This is by far one of the best demos to date for this platform, I don’t know how they pushed so many colours on screen, but I am happy they did it.
Enjoy it.
For 2010 and if I don’t forget, I will be posting a new demo every Wednesday. Not necessarily 2010 material, so pay attention before you make next year TCTD Award nominations in this category, I don’t want you to nominate old stuff :P This should sparkle your interest in the oldschool platform demoscene though.
Let’s start up with this amazing production from Sander van den Borne‘s demogroup, Focus
Title: Trans*Form.
Achievement: Ranked second at Big Floppy People 2006.
Platform: Commodore 64
Pouet entry
Time to plan and hurry up if you want to attend the Breakpoint demoparty: The 2010 edition will be the last one. Ever. They’re serious.
Heralded as THE biggest 100% demoscene (no fucking gaming allowed) party, Breakpoint is expecting to leave the gauntlet to a new team that might want to follow, in the same way they took over the gap left by Mekka & Symposium.
The reasons? “We’re getting old”, they said, but they do reflect on the current state of the demoscene, a sad lack of interest from young blood regarding demoscene matters. It’s a shame.
I promised I will post more demoscene material in 2010 so it is sad for me to be making this the very first demoscene-related post of 2010 for TCTD. I hope better news come as the year progresses.
You can continue reading on Breakpoint’s official website.
This is arguably the toughest category to decide upon, for a number of factors, the main one being lack of interest in people to do visuals specifically with low-fi hardware and/or for chipmusic shows. This reduces the options you can choose from and, since I want to keep it fresh every year, my chances to not repeat stuff are slim. Here’s hoping 2010 brings new talents to this activity in relation to chipmusic, and also new bars are set for quality by those who already are in the game.
Being a VJ for 8 years and having done anything from ultra underground events to 100.000+ people megaevents, allowed me to see almost ANYTHING there is to see about live visuals in the context of a music show and I can, with confidence, agree with what most renowned VJs have adopted as a motto: CONTENT IS KING. And when content is the context, I have to say that I haven’t seen much development on this side of things regarding low fi visualists. As discussed last year, a VJ has to have a plethora of skills, all necessary to stand out from the rest, so here’s my advice to you all, neophyte or experienced: try to nurture them all in harmony to reach the next level!
On the other hand what was really great about 2009 is that it has become the VJ+Musician collab explosion. Many artists have teamed up to deliver a solid show once onstage, musically and visually. This is the way to go, fellas, so keep it up.
Enough babbling, let’s get to the nominees. Hate mail goes in the comments section, non-anonymous, please ;):
Dan Winckler:
Dan is a bit underrated among the chip scene. He does some interesting work mixing up old technology with new by means of OPENEMU, a tool he helped develop, where he can open an old platform to the ways of modern technology like Quartz Composer.
ENTTER:
Raúl’s work with Meneo has gone from strength to strength. Personally I can’t enjoy a Meneo show as much when Raul is not present, showing how much he is determinant to the power of the project him and Rigo Pex have created. He also is a king of the performatic presence of the VJ on stage, since he’s not just another nerd hidden behind a pile of hardware. Big ups for that.
Paris doesn’t seem to want to stand still. He has entered into many collaborations this year, among which we can remark the one with OUTPT (specifically doing visuals for Nullsleep, a mighty trio) and the one with NO CARRIER (where he jumps on the mic!). Like NO CARRIER, he also is fundamental to low-fi VJ software development.
Once part of ENTTER, Raquel has finally shown her “true form” since working alone and we love it. Her works are full of attitude and tell a good story. One of the pioneers along with Entter in collaborating with chipmusic artists, her work with Goto80, Bubblyfish, Glomag or Jellica is some of the most referential in the scene, and it perfectly illustrates the chipmusic attitude empowered by collaboration.
Last year’s winner is stalwart of the scene. Celebrating his 10th anniversary of VJing, Julian took it upon himself to re-invent his work: taking 10 years worth of material and repurposing it in a new form while VJing alongside his old team mate and organizing/promoting a party all around this celebration, The C-Men team shows that they didn’t get stuck in time and still can maintain the people (and colleagues) at the edge of their proverbial seats.