Category: Chipmusic

Toons from various consoles.

  • Best Demo Production IV

    Even though this category has been devised with the milking of stock vintage hardware in mind, we had to put an Amiga demo in there.

    What do I mean with this? The expansions available for the Amiga computers, in many cases, have by far exceeded what we would consider an oldschool platform, and many of the demos being released today for the Amiga use fast accelerators and other stuff unavailable on stock hardware years ago. This puts the Amiga demoscene in a different spot to the C64 or Spectrum one. Unfortunately, the Amiga demoscene is not as blooming as other scenes nowadays. There are very few demogroups that are still releasing for it, and most just don’t cover old hardware like A500, or even a stock 1A200. Fortunately the combined output of these few groups is of high quality (Uprough being my favourite group) and every year we can count on some good productions.

    Getting a second place this year at Breakpoint’s Amiga competition and with some nice tech skills to wit coupled with a style which reminds us of “survival horror” games like Silent Hill, we present you our fourth nomination in the demo category:

    Soliloquy by Elude
    [Amiga]

    [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/K57fEGPptdo " width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

  • Best Software

    A truly great software tool is often an transparent gateway that facilitates easy to use, and powerful control of all that  a chip has to offer.  A great developer needs to combine community input,  in depth knowledge of his platform, and the ability to separate feature glut from usability all in  a tool that makes the creative process easy even for the most basic user. Here are the nominees  for Best Software of 2008

    LittleGpTracker – The little LSDJ clone that could kicked it up a notch with tons of usability fixes and more sound design options. With the handheld worlds arguably owned by LSDJ and Nanoloop, more options for different types of sound synthesis and song design are always welcome, and few are as feature rich and usable as LGPT.

    maxYMiser – Developer gwEm is one of the Atari ST’s most outspoken advocates and he has produced an extremely well featured and usable sequencer that takes fine advantage of the built in hardware features such as midi and the advanced abilities of the newer ST machines.  Of all the chip platforms, maxYMizer has perhaps the lowest barrier of entry to running your sounds on true hardware, and gwEm is doing his best to let everyone know about it.

    Famitracker – Probably the number one entry platform for NES music is turning the corner with experimental support for many expansion chips and advanced midi controls to integrate with an existing studio setup.  With its use in many demo productions, game releases and scene tracks, NSF composition is on a decided upswing, and Famitracker deserves a good portion of the credit.

    Hively Tracker – This ambitious new tracker, with cross-platform aspirations shows that the innovation is not limited to retro sound chips alone. With various player support across many devices, 2009 is poised to be a big year for this feature rich and community friendly synth tracker.

    Loopy tools for PowerPak – Loopy has given Nesdev and the PowerPak a real shot in the arm with various mapper support, expansion chip additions, and a NSF player that has made it easier than ever to play whatever esoteric NES sound file on true hardware. Its usually a collection of smaller less glamorous tools that really give certain segments of the scene a kick in the teeth, and Loopy has really gone the extra distance for everyones benefit.

  • Best Demo Production II

    After the brilliant Atari 2600 demo by Trilobit, we bring you a production for the Atari ST that got the 2nd place at the Alternative Party ’08 which took place in Helsinki, Finland, from the 24th to the 26th of October 2008.

    A warm welcome to our second nominee:

    More Or Less Zero by Dead Hackers Society

    [Atari ST]

    [kml_flashembed movie="http://uk.youtube.com/v/P2oiGAOp40Y " width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

  • Best Demo Production I

    The demoscene, largely unknown to a lot of chip-people (specially those of the young/neophyte type), is in my regard, one of the biggest nurturers of today’s chipmusic. A lot of your nowadays inventions for “contemporary chipmusic” have come out of the minds and style of these (mostly) european whizzes, who hack at their keyboards marvelous code routines that try to get the most out of their hardware of choice.

    Of all the demoscene of today, the branch most related to us and, to me, the most interesting one, is the “oldschool demoscene”, where old computers are milked way, way past their original limitations, putting the old saying “teaching an old dog new tricks” to very good use.

    With no further to add, I present you to the first nomination in these series.

    Doctor, by Trilobit
    [Atari 2600]

    [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/63_nw-z2inQ" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

  • Best Live Performer V

    Our final nominee is: Animal Style