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                              "Numen" by TAQUART
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system... Atari XL/XE, 32o KB RAM, tested on AtariWin on P233MMX

size..... 2 disksides

release.. o8/o2

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It was a damn long time quiet around TAQUART who belong to the top coding groups
on the 8bit Atari scene and  now "Numen" shows why. Atm I  really don't remember
when their last demo was  released, but I think  it was in the late nineties and
since then only silence. Even if I didn't followed the 8bit demo scene that much
I got the  impression that another  band has left  the lines. But after all, the
year 2oo2 that brought a diet to the  ST/Falcon scene, was a golden year for the
8bit Ataris, not only that there were a lot of coding parties and  meetings, no,
also some major demo releases  have seen  the light, as you  also can see in the
menu of this UCM... and since there wasn't that much to observe on the 16/32 bit
scene, it was time to show what there is going on... and NUMEN made me think...

Enough words around the hot pot... let's go on with the review...

The demo starts with a grey hires picture that offers the menu as well where you
can choose  if you want  to load the  demo, change  the setup  or read some info
about it. And  as I  have seen a lot  of impressive  screenshots on the internet
that are from this demo I stepped straight to the demo ofcourse and a status bar
appears showing how many  percent of the demo  are loaded so far. The picture is
not bad, showing a comic cat and a big clock.

Then the screen turns black for a while and like some rays of light some strange
effect enlightens the screen again, accompanied  by some chip noises. Those rays
that are  swirling on the screen  are building up a TAQUART logo in blue colours
and as the  music really  starts to  play it opens the view onto a  3d landscape
with bitmapped trees and stuff and then you're starting to move.

So you're following  a way, seeing some buildings in the distance, going through
them, moving over a bridge and so on... not bad but I have to admit that it is a
bit slow, but later for this...

As you're reaching a building two persons are staying in front of it, maybe some
kind of  guards? Anyway, you're  going into a  window of the building and a cool
demo logo in interlace featuring a real colour burst comes up!
And as it  disappears you're  starting to  move through the building... here the
engine  runs a bit  faster and  the whole surroundings  are made  out of  vector
grafix, in  some  parts  overlayed  with  another  pixel  grating  to  give  the
surroundings more colour steps, or least the impression, so take this one!



Which door we will use?

So you're moving  through floors and rooms, seeing  doors opening  and as you're
moving  into one a  floor/sky mapper  appears, hold  in  green colours... but it
isn't static  since it starts to turn  around its axis, really cool looking! And
as this runs  the music tops  itself with  drums and  strange beeping noises and
effects.



Yeah! Turn me baby!

Then the screen  turns into  purple colours, changing  from the mapper into some
texture  rotator and aaaargh... slowing  down the whole screen a big environment
mapped torrus comes from above...



This one isn't only slow in the emulation...

After turning into green the stuff was removed from the screen and another hires
interlaced  picture in  monochrome comes up, showing some fantasy women, that is
followed  again by a  real hi-quality bumpmapper in brown colours that kicks out
even some bumpers on ST! Very impressive!

After that you're  back in the  dungeon, moving upstairs, using some switches to
open the doors of an elevetor  and to find yourself back in a red/brown coloured
floor, opening  a door and seeing  even some furniture standing around and while
moving through another  window you find yourself back in a tunnel-a-like screen,
followed  by a cool zoomer that  goes deeper and  deeper, changing the pixels to
create always new letters (the bands' name) to go on...

Then  you're  back in  the room, going  through  another  door onto  some  other
elevator, then  leaving it and  jumping (!) from plattform to plattform. That is
realised  quite well... even in  that low resolutions it is leaving some special
feeling. Then you're  coming to a  room that includes a pool and ofcourse you're
jumping into  it... ;) and this causes another nice overlayed swirling effect in
blue colours that later on is getting some pixeled TQA logo in the background.

And the  next effect  comes up, showing  us some circle distorter in red colours
with the  TQA logo... back  in the  pool an underwater  door opens  and swimming
through  another floor  you're finding  a point  to go up  again and leaving the
water is  realised in  a very stylish effect, followed  by a mind blowing effect
then, another circle distorter accompanied with a interlaced flower! That brings
more colours onto the screen  and looks just marvellous, unfortunately it wasn't
easy to make some  good snapshot  here since  the interlace  mode kicked out any
good possibility to convert the things in a way they were still looking good :(

But still it isn't  enough, after  the screen  turns black  a huge  TAQUART logo
scrolls from right to  left, bringing  again a lot of colours since every letter
got a different palette! Reminds me  a bit to  the SIX SIEVERT logo  in the same
named demo on Falcon by .tSCc. ;)

And  then  we're  reaching  the  outer  world  again, running  to some temple or
something, seeing spiders sitting on the grass besides the way, entering another
room with some  moving thing in the middle, maybe something like a victim table?
Jumping onto it makes the screen black again...

Now some  moving tiles  puzzle game in  grey colours follows, starting to puzzle
untill a wormhole  tunnel is  build together, while  on the right  border of the
screen little  wormholes in  different colours are scrolling up and down... also
very cool stuff! Those are changing the colours, moving very fast and giving way
for another  interlaced  picture, showing a  brain and a numen logo. And then...
What's this?



"Terrorise Your Soul" for 8bit Ataris!

Yes, Rubicks  magic cube comes  onto the screen, starting to assemble its single
sides  and this  in a very good  speed and quite  good resolution, using rasters
in the background to brighten up the whole thing much more... very impressive!
And this goes  on as the  cube mixes  up itself again  and starting  to assemble
again, in highspeed now!

And we still  haven't reached  the end, since  now some green line vector person
appears on the screen, including  its shadow and it jumps around and dances with
very realistic moves! Also a really good one!



Make the breakdance, baby!

The next effect is a big filled vector cube on black background, not bad but not
as impressive  like all the  other effects seen  so far. It is followed by other
objects, that are also light sourced.

Then you find  yourself back in the dungeon, showing a room with people standing
in it, aaah, that's the credits screen and those are the makers... and after you
took a look into  other rooms to  see them all you're finally reaching the exit,
bringing  again  that  great  bumpmapper  in green  colours  now and  showing an
"the end" followed by a black screen showing in the right lower corner saying...

"(c) 1997 - 2oo2 Taquart"...

Jau! What a  great demo  and what  a fuck that  the shell  can't deal  with more
screenshots since I took about  3o screenshots while  running the demo and now I
have to browse through them to show you the best snippets of the demo... And let
me tell you... remapping sucks ;)

final words... "Numen" shows where the  guys of TAQUART were  lost over the last
               years since a development  time of 5 years isn't usual. But after
               all the result of those 5 years of work beats the shit out of any
               demo on the 8bit Ataris and even some later productions on the ST
               are just a shadow in comparison  with this  demo, really! Even if
               some screens are braking  out the whole system and turning the fx
               into slideshows it is just astonishing what the TQA made possible
               on the little Atari. But not  only the  burning effex, and as you
               could read and see there  were a lot of them, also  the design is
               well done and it is a  nice idea to  use the  3d scenery to guide
               through all  the effects, furthemore the grafix are marvellous as
               well, well drawn logos and pictures using always a max of colours
               and  resolution... Last but  not least  the music  is outstanding
               since it accompanies the whole trip very  well without going onto
               the nerves and giving  the demo  some more atmosphere... Just one
               thing to say, if you haven't an 8bit machine, try to check it out
               on emulation then, it's really worth a look!

___ratings______________________________________________________________________

visuals.......  95 % - great pictures, logos, animations, textures...
audio.........  85 % - very good chiptune that goes along the whole demo...
effects.......  95 % - read the review! unfortunately sometimes hardcore slow
design........  9o % - many cool transitions, colours, ideas, 3d scenery!
originality...  9o % - the 3d scenery is a hype itself, a lot of cool effex!

___overall______91_%____________________________________________________________

The 8bit Atari demo scene got a new milestone and I doubt  that there is someone
around who can make a better demo in the next time... maybe in 5 years again? ;)

But now a few last  words as announced. The coder of the 3d engine wanted to use
this engine in  a game project called "Vector" that seems to be some kind of ego
shooter. Because of  some support reason  or something it  is laying on ice, but
over all I  doubt that this engine is fast enough to create a whole 3d game with
it and I think somewhere the  makers should see that somewhen the performance of
ANY machine reaches his end. I don't know if this engine is optimized untill the
final frontier, but several  parts where the  whole environment is  slowing down
are showing that those frontiers are reached now on  the little Atari and I have
to say  that I'm no  fan of "bend and break projects" since  what use has an ego
shooter with  slideshow framerates on  the screen? I think only to show that you
have such a game  shouldn't be the  reason  for this, just  remember to the dull
"Wing Commander" thing on the  Amiga, anybody  wanted the game, it took years to
port it from the PC and then it was crap and the PC arses had a reason to laugh.

Sure, in some parts the  engine runs  quite well but as far as bitmaps appearing
on the screen and the  rooms got a few more colours and vector objects, it slows
down a lot but you need those things to  make a game out  of it. Furthermore the
limits of the grafix output are  reached here, the 8coloured outerworld looks in
this resolution very  blocky but the higher resolution=less colours rule catches
here and  even with 8colours you  need a lot of  imagination and fantasy  to see
what the pixel-things on the screen should be...

Anyway, at least they have thought about it and maybe they have faced the truth,
maybe they will try  to optimize the routines  even more, it doesn't matter what
will happen, we will report the things to come for you!

_.tSCc.__________________________________________________________moondog_o9/2k2_