Amiga milestone demos - 30 years ago

[Subzero]

Originally Posted by dissident

Here are some productions from 1988 which impressed me very much those days and still do:

OKS Import Division – Intro disk http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=18042

my first step into the scene, followed by vision factory, world of wonders, paranomia, dnx, crc, ministry, and forever ever skidrow

btw: the Twins (who coded the oks demo) joined Factor 5 some yrs later, and they did bc kid for amiga, and turrican for sega i.e. nowadays, both are out of computer business as far as i know

[Apollo]

Originally Posted by StingRay

Hehe, the classic "Fuxxorings to Lord Helmet" scroller.

Not from 1988 but 1987 instead. And definitely deserves to be mentioned here: Tech Tech by Sodan and Magician 42. Incredibly well coded for its time and the first ever demo I remember on Amiga which was trackloaded. One of the early milestones when it comes to Amiga demos.

Talking about 'early trackloaded' demos: I remember a demo from a group (I believe) called 'Level 42'. Its not a technical wonder but was fun to watch (for me as much as everything else back then...). Now I hardly find any evidence of it. Must search for it ....

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by Apollo

Talking about 'early trackloaded' demos: I remember a demo from a group (I believe) called 'Level 42'. Its not a technical wonder but was fun to watch (for me as much as everything else back then...). Now I hardly find any evidence of it. Must search for it ....

Can't remember that one at all, try to find it, I'd like to have a look.

Another early, also trackloaded, classic is the Megademo by Antitrax 2010. I know one of the coders personally, he re-appeared out of nowhere some years ago and unfortunately spread a lot of wrong info regarding early productions and tried to bend history, if that was done intentionally is something I won't discuss here but I do have my opinion...

Anyway, great early demo with really clean code, nice parts and humour too.

[Apollo]

Originally Posted by StingRay

Another early, also trackloaded, classic is the Megademo by Antitrax 2010.
Anyway, great early demo with really clean code, nice parts and humour too.

Reminds me a bit on the old 'Thrust' Demos, same 'Ottifanten' style
Same graphician maybe?

Meanwhile I remembered the real name of the track loader I was walking 'bout:
'Vortex 42 Megademo' (1988)
[ Show youtube player ]

[chip]

Yep, megademos rulez

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by Apollo

Reminds me a bit on the old 'Thrust' Demos, same 'Ottifanten' style
Same graphician maybe?

Different one but they were friends with Thrust.

Originally Posted by Apollo

Meanwhile I remembered the real name of the track loader I was walking 'bout:
'Vortex 42 Megademo' (1988)
[ Show youtube player ]

Haha, when I read Level 42 I actually immediately thought of Vortex 42. Great classic and I still watch it nowadays from time to time.

[Seiya]

For the fan of Megademo you cannot resist to watch this big numbers of "megademo"
Sorry, in this moment audio problems in broadcast

let's see:
[ Show youtube player ]

[dissident]

Originally Posted by Apollo

Thats how meanings differ. Personally, I like what we called the RGB colors ($f00,$0f0,$00f) and the scrolltexts. Sure, from from a technically point of view many demos/intros which came later where better.

But this were the time when the guys were exploring the machine in assembler. I am pretty sure many of them did not have a copy of the hardware reference manual and only a copy of Kuma Seka assembler from some tool collection. I personally like this era very much. Years later the question for the coders was not HOW to operate the line mode of the blitter but how FAST you could achieve it.
I often smile when I watch some intros from '87/'88 when they just used a looped audio sample. Or when you see that the font used is topaz. Or color cycling intros (only one static picture), remember the Headbanger Intro? Once I saw an intro which was basicly a graphics.lib screen and then banging the hardware over it. Its that technically imperfection which I like, because they didn't knew better.

Hi Apollo, a good summary of the early demo history on the Amiga. If you are interested in history, you judge the early production different to a person who just wants to be entertained. I personally tend to the first kind of persons.

[dissident]

Originally Posted by Foebane

I love the Amiga Demoscene, but not really for these old proto-demos that the groups were cutting their teeth on: most of them were about one-upmanship back then, and the constant use of scrollers, copper bars, bobs, sprites and logos (sometimes garish) and (because the tracker format was new) endless use of the same stock samples in tunes - basically, they showed lack of variety and imagination, and dare I say it, humour and design. All of that came later.

This kind of limitation in everything makes the style of these early productions. You can say it's boring from a today's point of view but I still love the old ST-01 samples used in so many nice catchy modules.

Originally Posted by Foebane

Then again, Scroll on HAM is a wonderful demo of the famous Amiga image format, and the two pics used are lovely, detailed and colourful.

Yes, for that time these pics are very good.

[dissident]

Originally Posted by StingRay

[ Show youtube player ].

Yes, this one is extraordinary cool and shows that in 1989 productions became much more complex. I didn't know this demo back then, but I got aware of it some months ago. Thanks to pouet.net.

[dissident]

Originally Posted by Foebane

I had an Atari ST before my A500, but I never saw anything or even knew about the Demoscene then...

Yep, I can imagine the pounding beat of "Follow Me", not to mention the beckoning skeleton, enticing the ST owners!

Yes, the music is great and fits perfect to the rest of the production. I don't know how many times I just started this demo because of the cool beginning.

Originally Posted by Foebane

I liked Cebit 90 a lot, and I have both Budbrain demos, too. I like the imagination of the first one, and whilst Kaos is great, I prefer Africa.

Yes, the Cebit 90 demo and the Budbrain demos are nice productions which impressed me a lot.

Originally Posted by Foebane

I really must have a look at that Spreadpoint demo.

Do it Foebane, you won't regret it.

[dissident]

Originally Posted by SyX

One of my favourites of that era is Xenomorphs by Scoopex.
[ Show youtube player ]
I got it in a floppy with another nice intros, but I remember to have a lot of fun reading in the scroll text the story about how this intro was made, even now reading a few lines brings an smile for the old times, pure nostalgia...

Hey SyX, these are the coolest BOBs I've ever seen. Great and a very nice hint.

[dissident]

Originally Posted by LuMan

Hahaha. Hey, dissident! I thought I was the only person sad enough to enjoy an evening reading scrollers! Looks like I wasn't alone!!

No, you weren't LuMan. There were also others who "wasted" their time reading scrollers until the text restarted.

Originally Posted by LuMan

There used to be some great messages hidden in them, like those outing other coders as being plagiarists, or lamers, or worse! I might even load a few up tonight and have a good read...

Yes, sometimes more entertaining than a book or films on TV.

[mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by dissident

Yes, this one is extraordinary cool and shows that in 1989 productions became much more complex. I didn't know this demo back then, but I got aware of it some months ago. Thanks to pouet.net.

And as usual the Atari ST lacked all originality so they copied everything from the Amiga.

[ Show youtube player ]

[dissident]

Originally Posted by jizmo

Probably not everyone's cup of tea, but to me Magic Circle's Big Font demo is what Amiga was all about in the eighties: Huge scrollers, pixel perfect graphics and tons of colors that no other computer could come even near to.

[ Show youtube player ]

Oh, yes, showing off with big scrollers so that everyone knows which power the blitter has. A very good example, jizmo. I like it.

Originally Posted by jizmo

Also, any 1988 intro with Banana's superb 'Echoing' takes me instantly back to the good ole days.

[ Show youtube player ]

This awesome catchy tune. On the Revision this year, I heard it again and I find myself humming this tune in different situations.
The tune was used also by World of Wonders in this intro, which I saw at Revision: [ Show youtube player ]

[dissident]

Originally Posted by Foebane

Have a look at this scroller: It's not from a 1980s demo, but it is probably the most elaborate, smooth and fullscreen 3D scroller I've ever seen, and they painstakingly wrote the code for this just to INSULT someone! I find that sort of thing really funny.

[ Show youtube player ] (Click to 5:16 for scroller)

Yes, you are right. This one is a good example and a classic solid AGA production. I've never seen such a scroller used before or after that demo. I already loved Andromeda's productions on OCS but this one is really awesome.

[dissident]

Originally Posted by StingRay

Hehe, the classic "Fuxxorings to Lord Helmet" scroller.

Not from 1988 but 1987 instead. And definitely deserves to be mentioned here: Tech Tech by Sodan and Magician 42. Incredibly well coded for its time and the first ever demo I remember on Amiga which was trackloaded. One of the early milestones when it comes to Amiga demos.

Yes, I would also call this demo a milestone for 1987. A good choice, StingRay.

[SyX]

Originally Posted by dissident

This awesome catchy tune. On the Revision this year, I heard it again and I find myself humming this tune in different situations.
The tune was used also by World of Wonders in this intro, which I saw at Revision: [ Show youtube player ]

Well, i always remember Doctor Who when i hear that tune, hehehe.

Originally Posted by dissident

Hey SyX, these are the coolest BOBs I've ever seen. Great and a very nice hint.

You are welcome dissident... and i promise that the scroll message is superfunny, hehehe.

I can think in another nice early intro/demo, maybe you already know because is from Kefrens, but in case that you don't know, give a try to Den Gik Sku' Ned!.

It is only from august of 1990, but i am practically sure that a big part was developed during X-Mass 89 and the last work was during summer holidays 90. And for me, it is the missing link between pre-90 and 90s amiga demo style (the triangle FX looks so andromedish, hehehe).

[dissident]

Originally Posted by Subzero

my first step into the scene, followed by vision factory, world of wonders, paranomia, dnx, crc, ministry, and forever ever skidrow

Hi Subzero, dnx? crc? Are these abbreviations or were these the group's names?
Yes, Skid Row became a legend with their huge amount of cracks and cool intros.

Originally Posted by Subzero

btw: the Twins (who coded the oks demo) joined Factor 5 some yrs later, and they did bc kid for amiga, and turrican for sega i.e. nowadays, both are out of computer business as far as i know

This is a very interesting information and shows how close the early demoscene and games companies were or better that they could recruit talented scene members for creating nice games.

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by dissident

Hi Subzero, dnx? crc?

Dynamix, Crack,Inc.