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                     "WAITING FOR THE APOCALYPSE" by LOUD!
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system... STE! only, 1MB RAM, RGB only, runs from harddisk

released. o9/2ooo - first place at UNCONVENTIONAL DEMO COMPETITION

size..... 472 KB on harddisk

code..... THYREX
grafix... STSURVIVOR
musix.... MC LASER of .tSCc.^iCEBiRD

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Here it is, after a long  wait, the second  big GFA demo by  the guys of LOUD! I
was very anxious  to see it, because STS told me it will be the  darkest demo on
the ST so far... Darkest demo? Filled with dark thoughts and so on, you know.

MC LASER instead told me that he isn't able to do a dark  chip sound, all he was
composing just  sounds happy and demo'ish instead of  dark and gloomy... so what
will it be? A nice demo, no question... after I  saw it in the  demo competition
at the UNCONVENTIONAL PARTY I liked it, it wasn't the blast and I still like the
first LOUD! demo more, but anyway it is a nice ST demo...

ST demo? Not  at all... Just because it  doesn't run right  on my STFM... Just a
very few parts of the demo I could watch on my STFM, the most times I watched on
dark or single coloured screens and finally the demo fucked up before its end.

Because STS wrote  in the readme that it wouldn't run  on Falcon at all I didn't
tried it out, but what do you think about emulators?! Some strange feelings were
popping up  in me as I saw it run  a bit better  on "STEW" and "STEEM". Yes, the
demo runs better on a PENTIUM with emulation as on my original STFM with TOS1.4!
Huuuuuuh...

So what next? I stepped down into our cellars, digged  out my STE  and installed
the 4th machine on  my 1,5om desk... I booted the  machine and  happily it still
runs after laying for a half year not touched  in a carton. I copied  a disk and
booted  the machine, finally  I runned  the file "BLAST_ME.PRG"... and  the demo
runs!!! Kewl...

The demo starts with  a black screen and green writing  in the way  of a typical
DOS boot  sequence. Yes, it's  some kind of  a DOS boot  sequence, but fucked up
with some red lines, telling you that you have  to suffer now... some crap comes
up with sayings like "STS is a bitch"... hehe.

The whole thing scrolls up  and a pixeled LOUD! logo  appears on  the screen, in
the typical  style of STS. At the same time the chip music by MC LASER starts to
play, its a typical demo sound(chip)track, nothing special in my ears...

At next a  evil face comes up, together with some writings in a nice font on the
right side of the screen. The screen turns to a dark brown now and a line tunnel
comes up, built of line-vector stars. A nice effect.

This thing is followed by the title picture  that looks like  crumbled paper and
gives the title of the demo together with the picture of a sun or something.

After that a picture inspired by a album cover of the vampyre gothic band CRADLE
OF FILTH popps up, showing a girl sitting in a bathtub overflooded with blood...
Eeeks ;) and the screen turns into red... hui...
The coming  colours are  friendlier, dark blue. The  screen splits  up into  two
parts, giving place in the  middle for  some oldschool effex, unlimited  sprites
and a moving background, surrounded by some pixel work. Ofcourse the sprites are
skulls again ;) and  the mentioned  pixelwork  are the saying "thousand  ways to
life and unlimited ways to die"... really?

The whole screen blinks to black then and some lyrics of  a song by FEAR FACTORY
are displayed with  a nice font  on the screen. There is some artwork behind the
writings as well.

The next effect comes up, some turning and jumping vectors with 1-plane-mapping,
surrounded by some one-plane-artwork. The vectors are mapped with Atari logos. A
nice effect too, but it lacks some style, even  the design'ish  bringing in with
some rasterpart below, don't makes the screen looking  great, I have the feeling
to watch a screen with just 4 colours... huuuh...

This small part is followed by the credits part, bringing some pixel work on the
left  side, a orcish skull with a sword  sticking in it, and the  credits on the
right side, again with a nice font... Finally the  screen ended  with the saying
"Atari rulez the world"... eh... don't you think this sounds a bit outdated? ;)

Some lyrics  coming up again, this  time by the  band AMORPHIS, and  to feed the
dark hype  of the whole demo words like  PAIN and DEVIL are written  with bigger
letters, just to jump into your eyes.

After that the best effect in my eyes comes up, in  the middle of the  screen an
old and  wellknown  picture  appears, STS's Atari logo  with the  flowered heart
around it. And blammm... a one plane tunnel appears! That effect is kewl!

The screen turns  blue then and  is giving the credits to you. Those are removed
from the screen with a fire-looking effect. And another  lyrics screen comes up,
this time by the band GODGORY and with a screaming face in the background...
Huuu... eeeeevil ... ;)

After that a screen, showing the fury inside  of STSurvivor is coming up, with a
big picture, painted on paper and scanned  then. It scrolls up  and down because
of it's extents. The picture shows some devil or something, is painted with very
excessive use of red and grey colours. Hmmm... not the style of art I would find
nice or so... it depends on your taste.

Finally  the last  effect comes up, in  the upper part of the screen  12 spheres
made of dots in 3 different colours  are jumping up  and down and  below them an
end logo is displayed. The really last things coming up after pressing the SPACE
button.

Lyrics again, this time by JUDAS PRIEST, and the  demo ends with  the DOS prompt
then. It tells  something of thousands of dead men lying on  the battlefield and
that this is just the beginning...

Hmmm... the beginning of what? Easy! Of the last words...

After the  demo turned  back to the desk my STE fucked  up completely... He even
didn't  started again! Is  it the curse of the demo? Dunno, I  just know that it
NEVER runned again... strange, eh? Hmmm... as I already wrote in  the beginning,
I liked their older production much more, it featured more effex at the one hand
and at the other "W.F.T.A." leaves the feeling to be just a remix from "B.I.F.".
The pixelwork is good, no question, but I miss the promised dark atmosphere.
Maybe because the music is too funny? And to say the truth, it isn't my taste at
all, esp. the high beeps and kweeks are going onto my nerves.
A good demo, no question, kicks away some other releases of the last time, but I
was a bit disturbed too... sorry, but  I don't like  the concept of  the demo or
better the way it was realised.

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originality...  6o % - The concept is some kind of original, but the rest...
effex.........  55 % - Not revolutionary, just the one-plane tunnel rocks!
grafix........  8o % - STS did a lot of good work
musix.........  65 % - A typical demo chip, but with high nerves factor!
design........  6o % - Oldschool, too much breaks instead of real transitions...
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all in one....  64 % - Not a bad demo, but I missed something...
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I know, some people will not  like what I wrote here, I'm well aware of the work
stuffed in such a demo, but I still  think I should write  what I think, instead
of some shit that isn't my real meaning, just to please some people and to avoid
some new quarrels.

Finally my STE runs again, maybe  I killed the  demon the demo  has put into its
chips and platines... grin...

                                                                moondog / .tSCc.
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