--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"MJJ PLAYER" by MJJ PRODUCTIONS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
system... Atari STe, Falcon, RGB, VGA
credits.. code - zorro2
gfx - c-rem
wilfried
msx - various
release.. o9/2oo2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It doesn't took very long and after the very dull first "resurrection" release
of MJJ PROD on the ST another release popped up, right after the MJJ PROD team
was growing up while allowing several other french Atarians to join their
forces...
And while FEL'X, the so-called big boss of the band is throwing around big
words and sentences, the band itself is going to catapult itself much more back
into meaninglessness as it did with their "MJJ SLIDESHOW" (read more in this
UCM...). But later more for this...
"MJJ PLAYER" is nothing special, it's a music demo, or better a module colly,
using an own coded menu to replay all of them. It is done for the Atari STe
mainly but runs on Falcon too, but here with the drawback that it will run only
from the root of the harddisk, the demo isn't satisfied with the fact to be
copied to a special folder.
It starts with a small intro that is playing a chip music, showing a very nice
logo by their grafist C-REM (who is called to be a former member of MAD VISION,
hu? Since MAD VISION died about 9 years back to form EKO I need a bit to re-
assemble my mind...). This logo is as said well done and even if the style is
not new it is some original pixel work... Take a look at it here...
Ignore the crap in the lower part of the screen... The 2oo2 is a vu meter :)
Yes, the intro doesn't features more stunning stuff, just a scroller that runs
like a drunken cow and nobody is able to read, at least on the Falcon. Beneath
the logo there is a "mirrored" distorter of the logo itself, at least it wobbles
and seems to be thought as dister...
Ok, after pressing space, the intro fades out badly and we enter the music menu
that is completely controlled by keyboard. Above there is a small MJJ logo by
WILFRIED and below the music titles are listed. You can chose the single tracks
with the keys from 1 to 8 and change the pages with F1 and F2. While the track
is played you can blend in some info page at the place of the logo by pressing
space... Now you can see some info and a quite ugly dancing animation in two
layers... Arg... This guy (the the girl...) seems to be drunken or suffering
under spongomalie, weird, weird. This little gimmick surely doesn't burns any
pants off but is at least a little idea to brighten up the dull scenery...
The musix itself seems to be a brainless collection of old modules, some of them
surely have 1o years on their back, names like 4-MAT and DR.AWESOME (Crusaders)
surely are known to anyone. The tracks are mainly using chipmod samples since
they're all quite small and so it wasn't that challenging to bring 16 modules
onto one disk. Overall they're sounding very old fashioned mostly and I wonder
if there are some people who listened all of them... This kind of music disx, in
times of homebrewn stuff or collections that featuring exclusive tracks, is so
damn outdated that I wonder if the guys behind are really living in the year
2oo2...
Not much words to loose here anymore, by pressing ESC you see a last picture,
showing a quite ok logo in green/yellow colours on white background and the
"actual" memberlist (that already changed in the readme file on disk again).
Then the demo ends and turns back to desk.
I really wanted to take another screenshot from the spongo dancers in the menu
but unfortunately the XGRABBER was bombed out after the intro... :)
final words... What to say? MJJ PROD are back, sure, they're turning out to be
one of the most active bands in 2oo2, still growing and growing
and promising more and more releases... But, at first, while some
parts of this music colly are nice done, like the grafix, alone
the idea to mix various modules of foreign composers is so damn
outdated that I wonder that some people are still doing such
demos... At second, the putting together isn't the burner as well
even if this release is a bit better as that damn slideshow...
So if you like old fashioned music collies you should risk a look
onto the "MJJ PLAYER"... but don't wait for too much, if you do
not want to see a band ruining its selfmade hype then don't get
your hands on this thing... It would force you to cry...
___ratings______________________________________________________________________
visuals....... 75 % - nice and parts original pixeled logos
audio......... 5o % - nice chip music in the intro, bunch of old modules
effects....... 1o % - ugly scroller and wobbler, dancing people... fading?
design........ 4o % - quite old school, but matches together in parts
originality... 1o % - for the original logos only...
___overall______37_%____________________________________________________________
This demo is no world beater and even if it's announced to be done by one of the
"most famous french Atari demo groups" (as on the PACIDEMO page) this doesn't
helps to make it better. MJJ PROD, or that what is left of it or new created now
is walking on damn thin ice atm since over the past 8 years the label MJJ PROD
was bound onto names like STEPH, JOKER and NIKO, who created some very nice demo
stuff on the Falcon that was really rocking. Their demo "Mostly Harmless" was
some kind of a monument of the early Falcon demo scene and helped to build the
hype around the label MJJ PROD... This hype is going to be destroyed by such
releases as the "MJJ SLIDESHOW" and "MJJ PLAYER" together with such amusing
announcements and full mouth spoken words...
Don't get me wrong here, I'm happy to see MJJ PROD back on the Atari scene but
I would like to see more mature releases, over all of better quality and without
smashing on the shit since those two releases aren't signs of the "most famous"
french demo group...
_.tSCc.__________________________________________________________moondog_1o/2k2_
|
UCM23
