Best Atari ST Demos

[pink^abyss]

Originally Posted by alexh

I like the virtual escape music but I'm a big Jochen Hippel Fan. The end music was remixed in 2009 by Moonove so you can imagine what it might have been like on Amiga.

[ Show youtube player ]

Yeah, Virtual Escape music is really fine, its just not like Amiga demo music. Though i think its time for more proper chip music in amiga demos!

[Xebec]

The Union Demo for sure

Lots of cool little demos in there - parallex scrolling, software sprites, etc

A few of the tunes are really catchy - especially the "Disk copier" demo/part of it.

For fun, load with both 512KB and 1MB of RAM to hear the different tune for the first "Door" (I forget the name of the demo). 1MB = digital audio, 512KB = chip tunes.

[AmiBoy]

I don't think anyone mentioned this demo -sorry if I missed it: [ Show youtube player ]

Really good.

[Solskogen]

My favorite is Systematic Error by Imagina

[AmiBoy]

Originally Posted by Solskogen

My favorite is Systematic Error by Imagina

Really good one, it is STE though.

[Keops/Equinox]

Originally Posted by pink^abyss

Technically i think 'Virtual Escape' ( [ Show youtube player ]) is breathtaking.

When turning off the sound, it feels like an Amiga demo. It makes you believe that no one needs a blitter, or bitplane pointers or a copper when you have a 68000

Thank you for the kind words.

It was indeed what we tried to do back then. We were watching a lot of Amiga demos on my A500 and we said something like "Let's make an Amiga demo on a stock 512k Atari ST", minus the sound.

I have had something even more Amigaish on my mind those past months but my new job is making it hard to get enough spare time for it. It's hard to get rid of that old 68000 code addiction though, so who knows...

[CaptainPlanet]

Originally Posted by Nishicorn

What an insulting, toxic and disrespectful thing to say!

YM2149 is GREAT and it sounds wonderful in good hands! Any chip can sound bad in the hands of an idiot, so don't blame the chip, please.

You obviously haven't seen my thread where I defend this amazing sound chip - maybe in those demos, it might sound odd, but if you listen to what the chip can do in PROPER hands, maybe you'll change your mind.

Here:


http://sndhrecord.atari.org/mp3/Timbral/Junkie2149.mp3
http://sndhrecord.atari.org/mp3/Scavenger/Primus.mp3
http://sndhrecord.atari.org/mp3/Tao/..._Demo_8730.mp3
http://sndhrecord.atari.org/mp3/Cube/Back_To_Basics.mp3

Those are captured from real Atari ST, so no emulation used (could be a contributing factor to how you perceive the songs).

If you can listen to all of these and still not change your opinion about YM2149, then you are a lost cause and have no taste or understanding of sound, music or ability to appreciate something great.

Prepare some time for this, as Tao's masterpiece is pretty long 'medley' type song that goes through various styles and also showcases the YM2149's abilities nicely.

So please do yourself a favor and listen to these songs with open mind.

As both an Amiga and ST fan (both sound chips!) the first tune sounds ACE! What production is it from? I need to go through the painful process of splitting an MSA image into 2, copying onto my Amiga (via PCMCIA network card), then copying onto a PC formatted disk (one half at a time) then loading up MSA writer on the ST to create the disk! ...then listen to it on the actual hardware

[Total Eclipse]

I always thought The CareBears were the best for demos that pushed the technical limits of the hardware, especially up to the 90's. So I'd definitely rate The Cuddly Demos as one of the very best.

As for presentation, The Lost Boys always seemed to have that licked. Perhaps not as technically challenging as the work of TCB, but they always knew how to make a demo disk the very best experience they could. Check out Ooh Crikey Wot A Scorcher for (IMO) their best work.