UCM24
.tHE .sIRIUS .cYBERNETICS .cORPORATION
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German Atari Demo Scene Report 2oo3
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The longawaited EIL 3 party obviously has blown new live into the starving
german Atari scene, that much life, that I finally can write a new report about
it, the thing I did so often before and I always liked very much as it mirrors
the todays activities of the Atari scene here in Germany, the part of the scene
I belong too...
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CHECKPOINT
Rumours about unfinished productions are around since several years now and
since DEFJAM started to explore the depths of Gameboy Advance and lately PalmOS
it seemed that the group was dying on Atari. So MODMATE left the active state of
pixels as well and lately 5o5 joined the band CREATORS, but without leaving
CHECKPOINT. But we were wrong, again... At first they recreated their homepage
completely and on Error In Line 3 the whole band came together again, not really
working together at all, but all members showed up, even MODMATE, who always was
speaking about leaving the scene.... ;)
Finally the scene was surprised with two stunning productions on Atari ST, the
longawaited "Posh!" demo and the 4k intro "4ster", that both took the 1st place
in their competitions!
Furthermore the single members took part in several other competitions as well,
with different success.
Anyway, the future of CHECKPOINT on Atari is still very uncertain, as DEFJAM is
very addicted to PalmOS, still. So I think 5o5 will be the only member that will
stay really active...
current state ....... active, but no real cooperation between the single members
latest productions .. "Posh" (Atari), "4ster" (atari), some PalmOS demo
Atari projects ...... unknown
members ............. 5o5, Defjam, Joe Cool, mOdmate
url ................. http://checkpoint.planet-d.net
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CREAM
Unfortunately they were the -only- german band that didn't showed up with even
one single member on the Error In Line. TAO is still active for YM ROCKERS
mainly, but released some new JAM pluggin lately. Therefore ULTRA didn't matched
it to finish their longawaited "Heftig" demo, even if there were some strong new
rumours about it. So lets hope that this demo wont end in some trashcan someday.
At least we heard that A.t. came back into the ring to work together with ULTRA
on "Heftig" again, that could be a good sign.
Apart from this old thingie there seem to be no real plans for coming CREAM
productions, more or less the independent works of the single members, mainly
TAO seems to be their only lifesign in the next time, or should we really
believe the things written in the CREAM diary on their homepage?! ;)
current state ....... not active as group atm, only single members activities
latest productions .. new "JAM" pluggin "sonic arranger" (o2/o3)
Atari projects ...... "Heftig" ST demo, in work since 1999 (!)
members ............. A.t, Abyss, Tao, Ultra
url ................. http://www.creamhq.de
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CRUOR
This is the first real comeback to the german Atari scene since many years! They
vanished from the demo scene already in 1996 after their second 96Ktro on Falcon
and were known for their s hot'em'up game "Painium Disaster" that vanished from
the screen in the late nineties without bigger success. After a split of the
original band and independent works of them on PC (ZWECKFORM took the label
ANVIL SOFT, which was already used for "Painium Disaster" as well, and released
some strange games on PC then, while RAVING MAD founded a team called DRAGONS
BREATH on PC too) they lately joined not only their forces again but tried a
comeback on the Atari scene too with their contribution to the Falcon demo
competition at Error In Line. Furthermore there are still some rumours about an
Atari STE demo or something, as well as some STE online archive. We will see...
current state ....... active as group as well as single activities (Zweckform)
latest productions .. "Falcon Contribution" (o4/o3)
Atari projects ...... some STE demo?
members ............. Raving Mad, Zweckform
url ................. ???
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ESCAPE
Even if they were bound into organizing the Error In Line mainly, they were the
only german band that released demo stuffs in the last months, also before the
Party, such as the stunning intro for "Chosneck # 3" and last but not least
their rocking demo "_" at the Party itself, that took the 1st place, again.
Since CHARON stepped further into demo development, ESCAPE can be counted to the
most promising Falcon bands atm, as it seems to have the only active DSP coders
in the german scene! After the release of "_" there are no new projects in the
pipeline, at least not announced. NO is very strong incorporated into the ACP
project besides his works for ESCAPE.
current state ....... active as group
latest productions .. "_" Falcon demo on EIL 3, "Chosneck # 3" intro
Atari projects ...... unknown
members ............. Charon, No, Shifter, Spex
url ................. http://escape.atari.org
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FOUNDATION TWO
Never really involved in the 16/32 bit demo scene, FOUNDATION TWO, again and
again popped up with some games for ST and mainly Falcon. But the growing 8bit
activities seemed to brake them out step by step on the other systems.
Now drifted nearly completely into the 8bit sector, we still count them here as
MAD BUTSCHER still has something for our beloved Falcons in preperation. At
first he finally released his strange game "DuSau" (for the english speaking
people: "you sow") that seems to be some kind of puzzle game and he was speaking
about since long times. And, quite unexpected, he even announced another game
for Falcon on his page with screenshot, called "Steinbruch", that seems to be
some puzzler as well.
What to say more as they gained some new member, a female one btw, called N!NE,
that will support them as grafician and is, surprise, surprise, their 9th member
and active on ST machines. She appeared on several parties as ANGEL/SPELLBOUND
SOFT (?!) but seemed to be not really involved into the ST/Falcon scene so far.
Last but not least, the UNCONVENTIONAL PARTY 2oo3 was already announced.
current state ....... active as group but except MAD BUTSCHER only 8bit oriented
latest productions .. "DuSau", puzzle game for Falcon o6/o3
Atari projects ...... another Falcon game called "Steinbruch" (quarry)
members ............. Beetle, Mad Butscher, Moaco, Mr.XY, N!ne, RIK, TWH, Yellow
Man and Artie Stolks
url ................. http://www.foundationtwo.de/
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PARANOIA
Unfortunately they didn't matched it to present their mysterious STe demo on the
Error In Line 3, we have some rumours again and again. Therefore they presented
some little screen written on the VMU of the Dreamcast?! Another unfinished
project seems to be their C16/Plus4 emulation for Falcon and TT. As PARANOID
told me lately the view onto many different systems has splitted up the power of
the group too much and that the group isn't big enough to support 3 or 4 systems
and so they want to focuse on Atari stuff mainly in the future. So we just have
to wait...
current state ....... active?
latest productions .. "Paracon 4 Invitro" 11/o2
Atari projects ...... Still the C16/Plus4 emulation and a STE demo?
members ............. Der Komtur, Luebke, Marcstar, Mr Future, Paranoid, Strange
and TNT
url ................. http://www.uni-mainz.de/~heuno000/
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THE SIRIUS CYBERNETICS CORPORATION
To find out more about .tSCc. you have to follow the link below.
>---> PRO.paganda <---< {\PRO042K3.TXT}
I just want to add that after the "BEAMS" demo there is no real group project in
the pipeline as the single members are stuck in several "private" projects.
current state ....... active as group and independent member activities
latest productions .. UCM # 24 o6/o3
projects ............ "BEAMS" demo soon to be finished ?! ...and more
members ............. Creature, Dynacore, Gizmo, Llama, Lotek Style, Moondog,
Ray, Remo, Scy
url ................. http://www.tscc.de/
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WHO ELSE?!
apart from group activities the freelancing actors are getting more and more.
Here I want to count some independent people that support the scene as well as
the last survivors of former demo groups...
CYCLONE/XTROLL
The progress on "LETHAL XCESS 2K2" slowed down a lot but he's still around with
his project. Now it was renamed into "Lethal Xcess XL" but the works seem to be
paused as CYCLONE told us lately, just because we have summer now ;)
Other works were the creation of a second XTROLL webpage apart from the original
group page that was created by NEXUS 6.
CYCLONE's XTROLL site: http://www.edv-rudolf.de/xtroll/
CYCLONE's LETHAL XCESS site: http://www.edv-rudolf.de/lethal-xcess/main.htm
NEXUS 6's XTROLL site: http://xtroll.ubuxe.de/
NEMO
Since he closed down his "Place To Be" webpage, he appears from time to time on
the screen, mainly to support several projects with his nice musix, just as some
demos, the YM ROCKERS project or diskmags. Lately he popped up at Error In Line
where he took part in both music competitions with quite good success.
SAGE
Since he left ESCAPE he seems to close down his former demo activities on the
computer line of Atari. Therefore he presented the first -real- demo on Atari
Lynx including some well known effects from the ST... Furthermore he is still
working on several LYNX game projects where he gets again and again help by
FLASH/TNB.
http://www.uni-giessen.de/~gd1113/
SUNNYBOY/ASM SOFTWARE
He left the CONSTRUCT CREW again and removed all related stuff from his sites,
now he works freelancing again. What happened to his intro project that was
planned for Error In Line isn't known. He lately started to search for people
who could support a possible game project and so we will focuse on him in the
next weeks and months...
http://www.asmsoftware.de/
THE NAUGHTY BYTES
Yes, since this band has lost all coders it's impossible to see them back as
group, but the remaining members still seem to be some kind of active. FLASH has
just won the gfx competitions at EIL # 3 and is preparing grafix for some of
SAGE's Lynx projects as well as he supported ESCAPE with pixels in their latest
demo. FXL is still working on tracked musix as his two contributions on EIL were
able to show us... Lately we got the information that LOT has got some Atari
machines again... so we will see if they set him on fire again... ;)
http://www.homepages.de/jsflash@dialup.nacamar.de/
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Hum... that's it for the people from the more demo oriented german "underground"
and in comparison with older reports the german Atari demo scene seems to work a
bit against the usual trend and was "growing" for the first time since many
years again. Ok, the "growing" hasn't to be seen as real turn-around of the
overall trend as several people were already active in the past and just started
a comeback... but who cares? It was good for the Atari scene, esp. for the
german scene, of course.
Ok, if I missed something, please get in touch for the next report, planned for
the next issue, maybe?
So stay cool - stay Atari.
_.tSCc.__________________________________________________________moondog_o6/2k3_
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