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                           "SLEPLESS" by MIND DESIGN
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system... Falcon, 4 MB RAM, VGA & RGB monitor

size..... 1,2 MB on harddisk

credits.. code - deez
          grfx - viking
          musx - viking

release.. 2 versions released so far, but both very unstable to run

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As "HARDCORE" appeared and  the discussion about the  sense of doing demos  just
for a  core of freaks  that tuned their machines with extra RAM and  accelerator
cards started, also DEEZ of MIND DESIGN was one of  the freaks that announced to
do just demos for the high end posse in the future... Damn... So the great LEMON
dentro should be the last MIND DESIGN production for bog standard Falcon users?!

Nope, wrong. In  the last days  of the last year another MIND DESIGN demo popped
up, called "SLEEPLESS" and this demo brought several sleepless nights to me, but
not because  of the fact  of its brainblasting contents, no, just because of the
fact that I didn't managed to run it on my 4 MB FPU Falcon.

I tried both  monitors and  even an original TV set, tried all resolutions, cold
starts, a cold machine and a hot machine... everything, but I never saw the res-
selection screen, or at least I saw it just for a second. So what? DEEZ later on
told me on IRC that  the demo features a nasty bug that refused the demo  to run
on several Falcons. And he also wanted to release a debugged version.

That debugged version  popped up, but  didn't changed anything on my problems to
run the demo... Last but not  least the things changed since I got 14 MB of RAM,
naaaaah, not what you think! It still refused to run a hundred times, but let me
say it in  this way, at least it  runs one time of ten tries... And so I matched
it to take a look onto DEEZ' latest attempt to impress  the 4 MB Falcon users as
well, since they were left out of his hardcore vibes.

Enuff of this... review is coming up...

After the 4th try (I'm going to be better, hehe), I finally  matched it to reach
the resolution  selector, and since  my RGB monitor  was burned away I was happy
that the demo should run on VGA as well, so I took the 1oo Hz version...

The screen  stays white  for a while, turned  into black, offering  a poem by my
group mate, MC LASER, called "Our Banners" in a white font. That stays on the
screen for longer time and at first I thought the demo was bombed away, but then
I heared some noises  that showing  that the sound system is going to offer some
stuff to my ears. And right, after short  time some music, MP2 music by the way,
starts to  play, not an  overwhelming soundtrack, just mediocre, a bit technoing
with some strange speech samples and bass line.

The visuals are starting with some texture turning and stretching on the screen,
the credits  moving in fast  with some white  font on this  tectured background,
some blue dots exploding and a digitized (?) portrait of a woman is displayed
with a small mind design logo.

That picture  blinks timed to  the bassline and after a while it was removed and
the textured  screen comes up again, this time  overlayed by another transparent
texture and some dots stuff flying around.
Accompanied  with the beat  some dots balls are jumping into the screen and then
suddenly the music breaks and the demo turned back to GEM...

Ugh! That was all?! Damn...

Final words...

I really wonder what's up with the MIND DESIGNers, because all their productions
ending at a  point you think  all will start right now... Ok, I wont say it is a
bad demo and it still beats several other releases, but it's also not as good as
"LEMON" for  example. Since DEEZ has hold back  his latest attempt for  ERROR IN
LINE so far, trying to make a perfect demo (?) we hope for a bit more then, just
with such releases MIND DESIGN wont reach the olymp of Falcon demo makers...
Btw, as it  was with "MODEST", that was released in a version that was  far from
being  finished, "LEMON", that  was stopped  for a bigger project and the  a bit
disturbing "HARDCORE" also "SLEEPLESS" leaves  the  impression  of being a  prod
that was stopped of some unknown reason but released anyway.

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originality...  4o % - old fashioned effex and style
effex.........  55 % - some interesting texture stuff, dots...
grafix........  6o % - not much, some fonts and a digitized (?) portrait...
musix.........  6o % - a question of taste, have heard better demo sound tracks
design........  55 % - some timing and transitions, nice chosen colours...
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all in one....  54 % - too short, too less done in the visuals...
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Still waiting for the first big demo!

.tSCc.                                                                   moondog
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