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         UNFINISHED COMPETITION DEMOS - A NEW TREND IN THE ATARI SCENE?
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moondog is on the run again... nope... today I wont kick some  people or piss on
someones leg. This  article is just inspired by the  strange competitions on the
last Atari parties. This article is not thought as offense, just thought to make
you think a bit about this theme.

You surely remember the rule of former  Atari parties, that  the demos that were
given into  the competitions have to  be released  in that  way, don't you? This
means  that the  band, who did a demo, still  can create updates  and a debugged
version as well later, but the party  version has to be  released too, mostly on
the party it was coded for.

I know, even  on older Atari parties  again and again  appeared demos  that were
given into the competitions but never released then, just for  example the 3disk
smasher "Illusions" by DUNE. That was 1995 and a seldom move.

Since then the release politics changed a  lot... but due to some freax even the
one or other party version that wasn't tought for release  saw the light of day,
what a luck, because there never appeared updated versions. But in the last year
that strange idea reached its climax and  to force this a  bit more, the most of
those demos weren't reworked much (or better nothing at all) as  they were final
released... examples?

WILDFIRE's "TUT" - SILLYVENTURE PARTY APRIL - released in August!
MIND DESIGN's "HARDCORE" - SILLYVENTURE PARTY APRIL - released in August!

Both demos appeared in the competition versions, 4 months after the party itself
and I wonder why? Both bands  said because of the  missing motivation  to rework
them... so what? In a time as demos are released more or less for and on parties
only they really  thought to find the time to do something  without the pressure
of a deadline? I wont  kick them for this, but some bugs were  always the reason
for the dying of many demo projects...

In that  case I like  the politics of  CHECKPOINT. DEFJAM created  the so called
49% version of "SURETRIP", the demo was far away to be finished, but he released
that party version and as you can see, there was no  final version... but he had
impressed the crowed a lot and I  think the least  of all are  still waiting for
the final version, just because the party version was ass kicking enough!

But that wasn't all. Happily (at least for a few  people) MYSTIC BYTES' released
the party version of the  winning demo called "UPSIDE DOWN". But here an updated
version was planned as well and in my eyes it would have been  needed a lot just
because right after the release a lot of people mourned  about the fact that the
demo didn't run on their machines, due to some unknown reasons.
This time the destiny of the demo wasn't ruled by  the motivation  of the coder,
at least  that info was spreaded, but  by his harddisk that burned away with all
the demo sources...

Ok... that was the SILLYVENTURE harvest... the  final kick was  reached with the
STNICCC party  in December last year. Yes, that  party or better  the "releases"
of that party, were the biggest motivation for me to write this article...

As you remember 7 Atari demos  were done for the competitions and just ONE (!!!)
was finished and released! I wont talk about demos that  were announced for that
party, but about demos that were given  into the different  competitions. And in
my eyes it is more than fair that only the finished stuff has won.
The reason  for going mad  is growing much more, just  because one month already
passed by and NO other demo was released so far!

Here you have to check two sides... At one hand it is great that so many people,
and over all, people  who didn't announced it  before, have taken  part into the
competitions. If they would haven't done that we would have  nothing to wait for
and nothing to be happy about.

But on the  other side I must send my respects to CHECKPOINT again, who  decided
to hold back  their demo because of the included bugs, even if  some people, who
have seen  the preview screens told me that it would have  ruled the competition
for sure. Just  think, as I wrote above, a demo that  was shown on a competition
is no reason to see it finally on the own machine.

I know, it is some kind of encourage to give an unfinished demo into a compo and
as I can  remember you can  harvest a lot  of laugh  with it as  well, just as I
remember our old .tnb. dentro back in 1994, that fucked up on the party machine,
I can  remember our  feelings, sitting there  and seeing the garbages  and bombs
that  our demo produced on the  big screen and I wont  stuck in the  body of our
coder DRIZZT in these days. But, this demo  finally never  saw the  light of day
but we also didn't won anything with it, because it made the very last place.

And as I remember  right DRIZZT got tired to finish that demo. And so why should
all the  demos of the  STNICCC be finished sometimes? Or  furthermore, with this
strange release politics also another possibility is opened to  the makers, just
to release their demos on ANOTHER party again. I've seen enough of them...

I wont  put under the charge of the  STNICCC demo makers that they  will do that
sometimes, but  as the history shows, several  people did  it, just the  guys of
NEW TREND who  released their "STRANGE CIRCUMSTANCES" on two  parties, one early
version on the DCC 2 1994 (and it has won...) and the final version on the FRIED
BITS 2 party just two months later where it took just the 4th place (hehe).

Another bad  example was coming from the megamighty  (...) INDEPENDENT, who have
released the  so called  FRIED BITS invitation dentro for the  FRIED BITS 2 demo
competition  under the NEWLINE label... And 2 years later (!) the parts  of that
demo were  included into the ABSENCE/INDY demo "JOINT VENTURE".
This  demo alone was a hype itself, just because it has won the GIGAFUN party in
summer  1996. Yes... but strangely it  appeared  again on the  INTERCON party in
autumn 1996as official release.

Another demo, that  was released  two times (in a bit changed versions) was  the
MYSTIC BYTES 4K intro "SURPRISE", that  was released  in 1997 the  first time as
the first production of the band after their split from the SHADOWS and a second
time for the INTERJAM'98 party...

I still have  more examples (one from France, where MJJ PROD did  something like
this as well) but want to stop here. I don't want  to say that  I think that the
makers of the STNICCC demos  want to do something like  that, I don't think that
they are  so simple minded. But as  written somewhere  above, I just wonder what
happened in the scene.

And I wonder  much more because I think if I have  the encourage to  give a demo
into a competition that isn't finished, it must be good anyway, don't you think?
I for myself wont give something into competition that doesn't reached the state
I want it to have. I wont show something to others I wouldn't be proud of!

After all, they have given their demos to the compo, they have reached the known
ranks, so what? Where  is the need to  develop the demos much more? There  is no
single bit  to change! Why showing  the people  some polished  stuff many months
later so that they wonder why it made just the second or third place for example
and not the real party versions THAT have reached those ranks?

Or were those  party versions as  bad that they don't got the ass in their pants
to spread them for free and to have time for other projects?
This I  have to  ask my group mates  as well. They didn't  finished  it, then it
should be ready before XMAS, now we have the end of January and nothing happened
and I  start to wonder  again... Sure, I have to shut up, just  because I didn't
nothing for the demo itself, I even never saw a bit of it...

Anyway, the thing I want to write and ask, just to end those phrases, is...

What the hell is so damn wrong with "party" versions of  demos that they weren't
released for public anymore? What is  the reason that some  demos are even dying
silently  on some  disx and harddisx  because of the  dying motivation  of their
makers to bring them to the end? Wouldn't it be better to postpone a release AND
a public show instead of making the  people hungry at first to let them starving
to death on the out stretched arm? Please think about it...

A final word... I wont  kick anyone  with this article, I  just wanted  to write
down my  thoughts after  the last  year's demo  "releases". I know  that several
people, esp. the  makers of the those  preview-demos aren't very  satisfied with
the state  of their demos as well... I just wonder why they don't go  the way of
other bands  who postpone their stuff before showing some  unfinished stuff that
would finally damage  their reputation in the scene  as well, just as CHECKPOINT
or CREAM for example.

If you show  a preview and  you hold it back untill  it's finished  some day the
people will wait for a lot more and surely will be disturbed  when they will get
just the "party version" then...

And finally one last question... why do the party organizers  not point out that
the demos that were given into the competitions have to be released on the party
or they will be disqualified? Do they are in  fear to see no one  releasing some
demo or that their competitions will be a flop? I really want to know that...

Just think about it...

.tSCc.                                                             moondog - 2k1
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