Reviews
What’s worth watching
DIGI SYNTH 2
A demo by the DAN, KVM and PROFSOFT partnership. The real strength of this demo is KVM’s music. Is that all? The first part is unfinished, both graphically and in its coding. The aesthetics also fall a little short. The only thing that might appeal is probably the image disappearing.
The second part has a very nice, though somewhat slow, upward scroll. The letters appear and disappear neatly, and there are excellent stars. Unfortunately, the third part is not as good: the scroll is ugly and also speeds up and slows down. The logo’s arrival is out of sync (or poorly synchronized). The volumeters are pretty good, although the same ones appeared in Mikropol’s THE CUBE preview. The final part is a sampletrack with a fairly good screen.
DAN/KVM/PROFSOFT — Czech Republic
COLLAGE
Made by Mr Incognito. The demo is not really worth attention, except for one detail: this is the first time volumeters have been made for a sampletrack. The screen is from an Amiga (that seems to be the rule by now). The song is average, although it gets a little better in the second part. You can also watch your own sampletracks with the volumeters from this demo.
MR INCOGNITO — Czech Republic
GEMINI
Made by the Exodus group. The 48K version has no intro, The End or stereo selection. After loading, the sampletrack starts playing, followed by the intro, which consists only of a picture (interlace), animated circles and a moving background. There is a song, of course. The whole thing is somewhat spoiled by a rather unsuccessful disappearance effect.
In the main part, the screen splits into two. On the left are 100 moving points; on the right is a completely different effect, giving the impression of elastic jelly. Below, a sprite scroll runs, stars blink, and the music plays. The End section features a cross with a scroll moving upwards through its centre. 144 volumeters move in the background. After a while, the logo on the arms of the cross begins to burn. Credits are simply a screen accompanied by fading music. The demo ends by returning to BASIC with the message “1994(C) EXODUS”. Unfortunately, the clear is very low.
Exodus Team — Poland
UNUSED
The demo was written in the Czech Republic. It consists of two parts (the 128K version combines them into a single file). The first is an intro with nothing extraordinary: a large scroll using the ELDW system and a fairly interesting bouncing-ball effect, unfortunately confined to a very small area. The second part is a vertically scrolling screen covering more than 80% of the display. Two balls race around at the edges. The method used to scroll such a large area in so little time is very interesting. The graphics and music are up to standard.
Code & graphics: Omega; music: Qjeta
Czech Republic
LOTUS CHALLENGE 2
A demo made in great haste, as the many errors in the scrolling text show. The graphics were transferred from the Amiga game LOTUS 2. The music was also transferred (sampled). The ST music had already been used in Geography.
The Interceptors — Poland
JUST FOR FUN 2
A rehash of an old demo. The music has been changed, a scroll added, along with a few effects. Unfortunately, the demo is self-running, and to see anything new you have to wait about 20 minutes.
Code: Jacek Michalak
Music: The Spy
Poland
INSANITY
For 128K only. A three-part demo. The first song is very interesting. The first part features interlace and a 64-character scroll. The second, with the same scroll and song, presents recursive spirals and other patterns (static). The third is an upward scroll covering 80% of the screen, with a different song. In the final part, the QWERT key combination activates a hidden section.
Extacy-3 — England
Article compiled by Munchhausen
Share your thoughts about the article