
                   *** PREPARE FOR THE EASTERN PARTIES! ***

  By Zerox/Gods

  For some years the highlight of the  scene  year  was  The  Party  in
  Denmark just after Christmas, but of course there  were also released
  many great productions at the Gathering  party  in  the  eastern  and
  the Assembly party during the summer. In addition  to  several  great
  productions  at  other parties.  The  latest years  however, the best
  productions  have  been  released  at the Mekka & Symposium  party. A
  party, which  by  the  way, got  declared  dead in late November last
  year.

  Now we set our hopes to the Breakpoint party in Germany,  which could
  be looked upon  as  the  successor  of  the  Mekka & Symposium party.
  We also have some expectations towards the Gathering party this year,
  as we're told much more have been done to please the sceners.

  In  any  case, lets' have a look at some of the great demos  released
  last year at  the  Mekka  &  Symposium  party.   Then we know what we
  might expect to be released at this years Breakpoint party.

  The  definitive  highlight  of  all  Amiga scene parties, is when the
  demos  in  the  demo  competition are  being shown at the big screen.
  Seeing  the  demos  was  also  the  highlight  of  last  years Mekka-
  Symposium  party  in Fallingbostel,  a party known  for  hosting  the
  best  demo-groups  and  thereby also giving us many memorable  demos.
  Last  year  there  were  less demos than the previous year, (only  11
  compared  to  20  last  year)  but almost all demos were of very high
  quality.  I've  chosen  to  review  a  fine  selection  of  the demos
  presented in the demo-competition of the last Mekka & Symposium party.


  Little Nell by The Black Lotus

  Just  as  in  2001  the  famous  forces  of  TBL  managed  to win the
  prestigious demo-competition, last year with Little Nell.

  The  demo starts off by a 2d effect, which is nice grey clouds.  Then
  flare or blurred  bobs  if  you wish,  looking like small white balls
  are flying through the  air.   Before we know it,  we get to see a 3d
  object  which  is  a  kyscraper and these flares are passing it.  The
  camera view let us follow the skyscraper from the bottom and upwards.
  Next scene is a tree with flares, and we see a swing formed by a tire
  and  some  ropes,   going  back  and  forward  many  times,  with the
  skyscrapers in the background.

  Afterwards we get to see a very detailed  3d  landscape consisting of
  grass and some  stones, before another tree appears.  The camera view
  let us watch the tree  from the top till the bottom,  and then we see
  the swing again.   Now  from  the  left a girl with a TBL sign on her
  dress enters the screen.  We follow the girl  which  is moving in the
  landscape, while the camera view is changing all the  time.  Suddenly
  we get to see a big tree,   and then  the  front of the girl.   She's
  getting  closer  and  closer  as  the screen is being zoomed and then
  faded out.

  At this  stage,  the  music  is  getting  faster,  and  we get to see
  lots of ball-alike  objects rotating in  all  directions covering the
  entire screen. Next up is some landscape zooming and rotating.  After
  that the best scene in  the  entire  demo  appears.   We get to see a
  nice landscape consisiting of an ocean  and  a sky with a nice sun in
  the background... and the best part of all,  we  see the girl sitting
  on a very nice flying eagle. They fly in this landscape and we get to
  see it in all camera views.   The  textures  on  the eagle are really
  great,  and  as  the music  is  more  quiet  the atmosphere is really
  fantastic.

  The  nice  scenes  continue,  we get to see a face in a mountain-like
  environment with some shading.  The  next  routine  is looking like a
  maze, while the shading is  drawn  into  the  textures.   Then we get
  to see a picture of another girl holding  her  hands  out.  There are
  flares around her  hands.  This girl  is  infront  of  a  nice moving
  landscape.  In the next scene, we see some pillars  (colonnade?)  and
  the sun is shining in between  these.   Again  the  shading  (sun) is
  painted  into  the  textures  and  not coded it seems.  Then the demo
  goes towards  the  end, we see a spinning TBL-sign,  Little  Nell and
  the credits for the demo in the last screen.

  All  in  all  Little  Nell  lasts  around  6  minutes  and  is  quite
  atmospheric.  The music  fits  perfectly  to  the  various  routines.
  While the demo doesnt really contain any fantastic 2d effects, it had
  more than enough good 3d scenes to win  the  competition.  Especially
  the natural motion of the eagle impressed many at the Mekka&Symposium
  party.  It's  definately  a  great  demo  worth  watching,   and  was
  definately the best 68k demo of 2002.

 
  Tribute by Scarab

  Scarab is the group which won the 4k intro competition with Nano, but
  also had time to make a big demo...   and  it came second in the demo
  competition!

  In  the  first  screen we get to see a small picture and a message to
  the sceners that we should keep scening! Then the demo really starts.
  We get to see some 3d  scenes.   A cowboy  is riding on his horse, he
  enters a village and steps down  from  his horse  to enter a pub/bar.
  We follow this cowboy while the bardoors  are  opened and closed, and
  suddenly two cowboys are outside the pub  to  have  a  dual.   We get
  to  see  a  picture  of  the  face of one of the cowboys with special
  effects in his eyes. Then we hear a shot, and one of the cowboys fall
  dead on the ground. The fall is also shown in another view afterwards.
  The  cowboy  goes back to his horse and rides away.   Now  the entire
  credits of the  demo  are  being  shown.    Quite  a  cool i dea, but
  the textures in the 3d scenes  were  made  in  a hurry and  therefore
  not of good quality.  But it was interesting nevertheless because  of
  the cool soundeffects.

  After this, the second part of the demo begins.  Scarab have realized
  the idea which  many  other groups  wanted to do, but never did. They
  re-made several scenes  from  famous demos  of  other  groups.  First
  we  see  a scene from Ephidrena, with lots of massive balls rotating.
  Then we see moments from a TBL  demo,  and the natural  motions of  a
  whale. Next up is Loonies with their typical  sheep, only followed by
  a Potion inspired scene.  Suddenly we see an old  cracktro from Eagle
  Software, which alot of oldskool sceners appreciate,  and  at the end
  some parts of an old & famous Kefrens demo.

  As  the  TV-shots  from the other groups are over, we get to see some
  special Scarab  TV.  First off  is  a picture of a girl with a Scarab
  logo on the right,  and  then  follows  another  picture  of  a  girl
  with the Tribute logo included.  Some wise words come up with a small
  object at the bottom of the screen.   Next  is  a picture of the sky,
  some landscape effect and a text passing over it. In the next  scene,
  the speed is getting faster.  We see a ball-object with searchlights,
  lighting  up the background.  The  object  is falling into pieces and
  changing into a twist/candy, it's forming a pattern and its rotating.
  Out of the candy/twist, the "amiga-ball" appears.   Next  out is more
  text and a new picture. We see a small picture  and  the  traditional
  greetings  in  a circle-scroller.

  The  next scene is some buildings and a tree in front,  and  a sun is
  arising in the background making sunbeams hitting the buildings,  and
  we read another text at  the  bottom of the screen. The routines keep
  coming, and we get to see a mountain-like environment with a river in
  the middle.  We move forward in this landscape,  and  suddenly  we go
  under the water.  There we see some fishes which later on melts  into
  the Scarab sign.  At  the  end  of  the demo we see a clock which  is
  ticking...   and  a  text  saying  defenders of the scene forever and
  forever.   Then  everything  fades  out  and we see a screen with the
  end-signal of Scarab TV.

  All  in  all,  its  definately  a  good demo created by many talented
  coders.  Even  though  there  are  lots  of  good ideas in this demo,
  its  all  a  bit of a mess beacause of all this diversity and various
  parts put together.  In any case, I think the demo really appealed to
  many oldskoolers and had many great parts.


  Demoskope by Creative Minds

  This is a PPC demo which lasts 5-6 minutes all in all, and it managed
  to come third in the demo competition.

  It starts off with showing some bad TV signals - like a snowball war.
  Then  after  the  flimmering,  we get to see the Creative Minds sign,
  which is zooming and rotating.

  The first real effect appears, it's really cool and could be described
  as a particle storm of very strong  light  in  various colours.  Then
  a scanned landscape of an ocean and mountains appear.   Over it a big
  silver  3d  object  is  flying  around.   The  next screen is an old-
  fashioned 3d world. We see some pillars. This reminds me of a similar
  scene in an old Gods demo from 1996.  Except that the scene here also
  includes 4 lightning stars.

  Finally  the  name  of  the  demo, Demoskope, appears. We also get to
  see the credits  for the demo, along with some wise words. Afterwards
  a small picture of a head follows.  We then see a background  picture
  of a naked woman, with an effect running over it.  It's a  red  heart
  which is jumping around.

  One  of  the  best  effects  of the entire demo  appears  next.  It's
  some great dolphins  swimming  around.  All in  natural  motions.  Of
  course we've all seen this  before,  like in Captured Dreams in 1997,
  but nevertheless  it's really  a  great  scene.  Next up is some more
  silver 3d objects over a desert background. A few seconds  later  the
  dolpins reappear.

  Then a big twister appear, with particles  streaming  through.   It's
  being mixed with  a  background  consisting  of two eyes of  a  woman.
  Then a text pops  up, saying  choose  life,  choose  the  scene  etc.
  It's  written  over  another background picture of a woman.  Over  it
  all, there's a blurred 3d object.

  Then  another  cool effect turns up. We see some twisting and turning
  of very colourful textures.  Suddenly it transforms into a cube, with
  the text:  Wanna see  more?   Out of this cube a cool tunnel appears.
  The speed has increased alot.  Next  up  is a  demoshopping  routine.
  We see melting and separating objects.   Quite  nice.   Then  more 3d
  objects follow, some bumpmapping and a star effect.

  Next  up is perhaps the highlight of the entire demo. We see a big 3d
  object. It's  a  woman  holding  the  world in her hands. It's really
  great, and it creates a fantastic atmosphere.

  At the end we get to see a review of all effects shown in  the  demo,
  and an end scroller.

  It's a cool demo.


  Heavy Traffic by Mad Wizards

  This is yet another great PPC demo done by the  Mawi  gang,   but  it
  didn't manage to  do  very well in the competition because of several
  incidents.  However,  it's  as  always  the  genious  Kierownik which
  has done the code.  The  theme  of the  demo  is obvious:  it's heavy
  traffic.  We get to see lots of examples of various forms of traffic.
  The  demo  offers some real fast and massive 3d vector  worlds, where
  it's  hard  to  just  come  up  with  one highlight. But if I have to
  mention  just  one innvative and impressive effect, it got to be  the
  bridge.   In  this scene we get to see a  HUGE  bridge  with  traffic
  lights going in various direction in the road. It's simply brilliant.
  I think this was an underrated demo at the Mekka-Symposium party,  as
  it only got ranked 4th there. But  I  believe the reason for that was
  that the demo wasn't shown correctly. Mawi  also  did  a second demo,
  also done by Kierownik.  But I won't review it this time.


  Kheshkhash by Encore & Scenic

  This  demo,  which  got  ranked  5th,  is a cooperation  between  the
  small group Encore  and the graphics group Scenic. If you want to see
  a  demo  with  lots  of impressive  code effects, then you should see
  Heavy Traffic by Mawi.  But if you  want to see a demo with something
  so rare as an overall theme and lots of good  graphics, then  this is
  the demo for you.  The theme is drug addiction, and Kheshkhash is the
  name of an opiumplant.

  The  demo  starts  with  some  switching  back  and  forward  between
  the logo Kheshkhash  and  a typical chinese house. We get to see this
  building in many views.   Next  up  is  some  kind of a tunnel, which
  ends with a strong light. Then  we see  a tree, or actually a chinese
  wave.  We get inside the chinese building, and get to see the credits
  for  the demo.   Every  person got a chinese picture beside his name.
  Then I guess we see an opiumsplant,   and  afterwards  a  massive  3d
  object.  Then we see the opiumplant,  and then a very good picture of
  the  face of a man  in  the  background.  Then follows some switching
  between the face of a woman and a man.

  We  travel  in time, and see the face of a man in front, while seeing
  trees, a hill  etc.   in  the background.   Then  there's  this light
  effect over the face with black background.  Then  we  get  to see  a
  whreck of a drug addict.  Now the slow but massive 3d effect returns.
  Then another picture of opium appears and  the  greetings  are  being
  showed in chinese style.  Afterwards another  chinese  drugaddict  is
  being shown in a tunnel,  and  the  light  is  getting  stronger  and
  stonger.  At the end we get to see another good picture and some text
  with the credits etc.

  This  is  a very good demo after my opinion. It got exellent music in
  chinese style which fits perfectly to the routines.  The demo  got an
  overall theme and lots  of  great  graphics,  which  creates  a  good
  atmosphere.  The more negative aspects of  this demo is that the only
  real effect in this demo is dead slow even  though  PPC  is needed to
  run it. It has also come to my attention that the order of the scenes
  got a bit mixed up and some parts  are  really  missing.  Therefore a
  final version will come later on.  I also have to  mention  that  all
  scenes are in "fake" 3d.. as everything is actually in 2d! Everything
  is drawn  into  the  textures, and not coded, just like some parts in
  the winning demo Little Nell.


  Electroluxus by RNO

  The  demo  begins with some clouds passing, and fitting soundeffects.
  Then we see the logo Electroluxus and lots of vectorcubes are  coming
  towards us.  Next up is a scanned picture of two men  with  gasmasks.
  Then a small picture in the middle  of  the  screen is  entering  and
  getting  divided  into  two.   An transforming big object which looks
  like linevectors with flares appear.

  After  that  another  scanned  picture  is being shown. It's a man, a
  woman and a child. In the background some clouds are moving.  Then we
  see some greetings flying  around  in a circle with a picture in  the
  background.  Another picture of a woman and a fridge, with a RNO logo
  at the top is faded in and out.  Then the screen is being split, with
  a top border with the electroluxus logo and a bottom  border.  In the
  middle of the screen there's some zooming and rotating  of  something
  which looks like a picture of computer components or something.  Then
  the credits appear with some wave-effect. Yet another picture appears
  with   electroluxus   at   the  bottom,  and  a  screen   with   some
  expanding plasma-lookalike  effect  over  it.  At the end pictures of
  all scenes in this demo with the credits are being shown, in addition
  to the greetings again.

  The  demo doesn't really include many good effects nor good graphics,
  but the music is quite fitting. Not much more to say about it really.
  It's just an average demo which  I  personally  find  a  bit  boring.
  Nevertheless, it came 6th in the compo.


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