--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DHS XMAS 15 KB MUSICDEMO COMPO RESULTS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wow, what a topic! But who cares? In fact the latest DHS online compo brought us
some sweet stuff for our Atari machines again and that is the only thing that
counts in the end, esp. since some long lost people came up from their caves,
such as TORMENT and a little late even IDEMLINE, to take part in it.
The rules were quite strange this time, to create a music demo in 15 KB, no
question, as a music demo features always more than just one music, could be a
bit difficult but in the end we got 6 little demos that matched it to stay in
the competition and so here we go to check them out...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st place - "Xmiss" by CHECKPOINT & MJJ PROD
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
credits . code - Defjam (who else?)
gfx - C-Rem (ehem... who else?)
msx - 5o5 (....naaa...)
size .... 15356 bytes
This screen has won the competition and I have to say, with right, as Defjam
matched it again to create some cool looking one and, overall 5o5's musics are
kicking it to the olymp. The screen shows a cool oldschoolish disting sine
scroller, a nice picture of a naked xmas girl, drawn by C-Rem on dark blue
background. Furthermore a little vector star is circling on the place where
the xmas girls titti nipples are located, I hate censoring!
At last the musix, the first is a conversion of "Oh Tannenbaum" (I don't know
the english title... if there is one...), that sounds very strange, the other
two ones are quite cool tunes with some drive and I always wonder how Nils is
matching it to make his tunes sounding that unique...
So what? This screen surely beats out the other contributions, it is quite
stylish, offers not just a usual horizontal scroller, nice pixels and overall
quite outstanding musix. Also in my eyes it deserves the 1st place without a
question, well done mates.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2nd place - "Xmas 2oo3" by TORMENT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
credits . code - GND
gfx - Spiny
msx - Rhino
size .... 14128 bytes
And here we have a band that was away over some years again, after they had
joined the big ST demo revival in 1999, TORMENT, who have their roots in the old
demo scene. They bring us a quite strange screen, a horizontal scroller together
with a line vector on white background. The screen gets an Atari and Torment
logo and is overlayed later with a nice dither effect by another picture with a
guy who has a bloody eye. The strange chosen colors holding back the screen much
more in memory as some previous ones even though the used colors are a pure
question of taste.
The included musix are quite nice and I like the first tune very much, nice old
schoolish demo music, the other tunes aren't bad but don't teasing my ears that
much.
So what? A nice little screen, that colours up the active UK scene a lot as a
team bounced back that was quite silent for years. Nice to see you back, guys.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3rd place - "Quadchip" by DHS, EPHIDRENA & MJJ PROD
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
credits . code - Evl
gfx - C-Rem (again...)
msx - Timbral, Nemo & Frequent
size .... 1446o bytes
This contribution features again the works of several groups and we find some
wellknown name in the credits again. But from the outfit it falls obvious back
behind the winning demo. The pixelscore is, let me say a bit too "minimalistic"
and offers not the known C-Rem quality, showing Santa Claus. As effects we have
a simple horizontal one plane scroller and some snow falling down.
Therefore here we get 4 musix by 3 different composers, but I have to say the
most of them are the usual, but good, sid/chip tunes and only the last one is
a conversion of a known xmas tune. Anyway, my absolut favourite tune is the 3rd
one, called "Deepblue", I don't know why, but this silent tune is so relaxing...
Nice...
Overall, not a bad demo, the musix aren't bad but, except track 3, they miss
some special feeling that make them more remarkable. The rest of the demo, pixel
and styling are no hammers but doing their job in 15 KB...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4th place - "2 days of love and Happiness" by KÜA, EVOLUTION & MJJ PROD
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
credits . code - GGN
gfx - ... what do you think? C-Rem
msx - Baggio
size .... 1536o bytes
This little demo impresses with a nice loading sequence removing the desk to
start the demo, but this one looks again a bit trist, the grafix and whole style
doesn't kick ass really, all we see moving is a small horizontal scroller.
The musix are nice, featuring again a xmas track that is offering a medley of
several traditional xmas tunes and is interestingly named "i hate xmas", hu?
Anyway, I prefer the first 2 tunes, Baggio did a nice job, even though the first
seems to be damn short.
So what? Overall not a bad demo, but it stays on the right place as again, the
outfit doesn't kick the thing a bit forwards. The musix are nice and I prefer
track 2, nice sid stuff.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5th place - "Democompo" by MJJ PROD
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
credits . code - MrNours
gfx - C-Rem
msx - Floopy, Tooseb
size .... 15264 bytes
And now we have the MJJ only (...) entry for the competition. This little demo
offers again 3 chiptunes, two of them were composed by Floopy, a former member
of DUNE (or was the DUNE boy called Floppy? I don't remember right...) and one
was composed by Tooseb (the second one).
The demo is the first coding appearance of the new MJJ PROD member MrNours and
just offers a screen with a little pixeled tormented looking head wearing Santa
Claus' hat and a one plane vertical scroller on the right screen side.
The tunes are ok, blip blopping stuff this time, one Xmas conversion again, but
overall no killersongs.
Overall? Hmm, no killerscreen, not much to see, not much to read, quite short
musix, one of the more mediocre screens of the compo.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6th place - "The Chimney" by THOTHY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
credits . code - Thothy
gfx - Thothy
msx - Thothy?
size .... 14878 bytes
Thothy? Thothy, a lonely coder from Germany and once the head behind the old
STUNE game project, did it again, what? To take part in a competition as this is
his second, let us call it demo release, so far. Maybe you remember the 128 byte
Falcon intro he did over 3 years ago?
Unfortunately he didn't put that much stuff into his little intro, showing a
chimney in quite outdated pixel style and a scroller, telling the story of Santa
Claus who got stuck in the chimney and presents no demo effects but xmas tunes
instead. Those tunes are sounding very outdated as well and remind me a bit to
some old PD game musix, really no ear teasers.
And that's it, 3 musix, a picture and a scroller... and not to forget a little
joke for the ones who try to start it on emulation :) Just for this one I would
give him a few points, the rest didn't impress me that much.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yeps, that's it, at least for the competition stuff, the other stuff that was
released can be found in other articles then, as in the various releases, the
MJJ releases, as stand alone (Troll & Co and Idemline).
As a demo party is set for Easter I doubt to see a new DHS online compo for demo
screens that fast, but I hope to see another one soon as those compos always
match it to brighten up the sparse release scenery of the scene and show that
some people can be teased to leave their caves even if there is nothing to win
than the respect of the others.
_________________________________________________________________moondog_o1/2k4_
|
UCM25
