Backlash (BLH) -------------- ???> Marky (doorcode, 04/95), Skybird (05/92). Backlash was a cracking group, that also released some trainers and doors, and remained active at least in 1994 and 1995. They are more than likely identical to the Backlash that later cracked and released games on the pc scene. Backstage --------- This group became a part of Ram Jam, maybe late 92. Among the people who made the jump were Posdnuos, probably M.A.S.E + others. Bacteria (-1992) ---------------- Bacteria was an exclusively danish demo group. Badcat (BCT) ------------ Badcat were apparently a french demo group. Bad Company (BC) ---------------- Bad Company at least did a few toolcracks. Bad Karma (BK) -------------- BEL> Colonel (John, 04/96), Crisp (Tim, doorcode sysop2 DOXOLOGY, 02- 04/96), Dracs (Daniel, 04/96), Franky (Peter Smets, doorcode sysop1 DOXOLOGY, 04/96), Phantom (Chris, 04/96), TCB (Danny, sysop METAL IMPACT WHQ, 02-04/96), Zynix (Tony, 04/96). DEN> Enzo (Mike, sysop SKY TOWER EHQ, 04/96). GER> 2Fast (Jens, sysop SEAQUEST DSV, 02-04/96). FIN> Traitor (sysop ZILLION HOURS, 04/96). SCO> Candyman (Steve, 04/96). ???> Eric The Red (doorcode, 06/96). Boards; CYBER GARDEN (bel, 02-04/96). PREVIOUS MEMBERS (pre 04/96) - Bad Karma was a largely illegal, board-based group run from Belgium, but with distsites and a few members in other countries. The group was at one time in (illegal) cooperation with Crux, using the acronym CBK (Crux Bad Karma). 2Fast's board SEAQUEST DSV was listed as +49-HD-CRASH in an info file dated february 1996. In a similar listing dated april the same year, another board called BROOKLYN ZOO had the exact same listing... Same board, new name? Balance (BLC, 1991-, http://hem.passagen.se/excelblc/) ------------------------------------------------------ DEN> Scope (code, 08/94), Subject (music swap, 08/94). NOR> Chagall (gfx, 12/93), Coca (Thore Bjerklund Karlsen, code, 12/93), Cola (ascii swap, also in Wild^Style, 12/93-02/95), Terminal Silence (music ascii, 12/93). SWE> Excel (Jani Oinonen, toolcode, 10/95). Balance was formed in Denmark by Wolfman, TNT, Split, Eddie and Spib in june of 1991. Some musicpacks were the first releases from the group. The next members to join were graphicians Connor and Idefix. Eventually yet another graphician joined, Trade (later handle Motion). The group still lacked a coder though, and their search ended after they recruited Wreko from Divine. Their first real productions were the "Necessary Drugs" packs. Wreko helped recruit another musician, Mazzachre, and soon after also a second coder joined - Scope. Spib then left because of lazyness, and coder IC3 joined. They got their first board (SUFFOCATION) when Ramirez joined. Now it was time for their first bigger project, the trackmo "Software Failure" [91]. Their next release was a bbs intro, and then IC3 got kicked again due to lameness. Their second trackmo was "Deepcore" [07/92]. The turning point in BLC's career came with the release of the first issue of their diskmag "Magbox" [07/92]. This mag announced both new musician Chyle as well as Mazzachre's leaving for Focus Design. The group was still 100% danish. 1994 - Danish coder Wreko (Jesper, 07/92-) left for the PC scene early this year - more specifically for Diffusion PC. Bamiga Sector One (BS1, 1986-1990) ---------------------------------- Bamiga Sector One was formed in Belgium in june of 1986 by Ermida and two others. Their members later found their way into such groups as Kefrens (S.L.L). They were also in several cooperations, with a.o. Cybertech. Necromancer and The Visitor are father and son. Banal Projects (1992-) ---------------------- Banal Projects were an exclusively finnish demo group, born in 1992 (the exact date is uncertain, but they existed in august). Banana Dezign (BDZ) ------------------- Boards; CONTACT ZERO (09/94). Band, The (1988-) ----------------- The Band was formed in february 1988 by two people; one in Belgium and one in France, who left 8 months later. They were an illegal cracker group, based in Belgium but with sections in France, England and the USA. The group was fairly active in 1989. Basement (1995-) ---------------- Basement was a swedish group formed by TBM, Phase and Reverend D from Freezers in late 1995. However, Phase soon left for Insane, where he was kicked within a week. B.A.S.F. (1994-) ---------------- B.A.S.F. was a german-based group, formed by previous members of Scoopex in 1994. Bastards -------- Bastards were a danish-based demo group. Beatless (BTL, -1995) --------------------- Beatless was a swedish demo group. Beta Team (BT) -------------- Beta Team were a polish group. Roberts made the soundtrack for Mystic's demo "Vital" [94]. Beton Design (-1996) -------------------- Beton Design was a polish demo group, under the leadership of Dr.Pacient. After leaving the scene in april of 1996, Dr.Pacient changed his handle to Stealth and moved to New York City, where he formed the company Stealth Studios Interactive, Corp. to design video games for the playstation, pc and xbox. The group also became the first 'commercial' demo group in history, after hiring TOM/TPDL^Katharsis to code their first demo "Roumble Rubble". This and the subsequent "Goldfinger" were the only two demos made by the group. Human, Kain and Muad'dib never actively made anything for the group. Thanks to Dr.Pacient for information! Beyond Force (BF) ----------------- Beyond Force was a finnish demo group, originally starting life on the c64. When eventually this amiga section was established, several members coexisted on both platforms (f.i. Hazor, GMN, Zardax). Biosynthetic Design (BSD) ------------------------- BSD was probably an all-Italian demo group. After musician, graphician and main organizer Parsec left for Elven 11, the group died. Birdhouse Projects (BP) ----------------------- GER> Slime (sysop HOMELESS EHQ, also in Brilliance, 08/94-08/95). ???> Primus (sysop ORGANIZED CRIME PROJECTS, 08/94-01/95). More Members Intro (1994, 09.10, Demo). Contribution for the Dooms Day 94 party demo competition. Megademo! (1997, 30.03, Demo). 8th in the Mekka Symposium 97 demo competition. Bizarre Arts (BZR) ------------------ Bizarre Arts was a purely german demo group, with wellknown talent like Azure, JMS and Axis retaining double memberships. Black Lotus, The (TBL, 1989-, http://www.tbl.org) ------------------------------------------------- SWE> Azazel (Magnus Alakangas, music, ex DCS, new late95-03/97), Dig-It (Patrque Haggblad, code, 08/96-12/99), E-Moon, Gizmo (code, 04/96), Im- Pose (gfx), Kalms (Mikael Kalms, code, ex Artwork, old handle Scout, 98-04/01), Ken (code), Louie (Kenny Magnusson, gfx, ex Insane, also in CNCD, 04/96-04/01), Rodney (Per-Anders Gustavsson, gfx, ex Axis, new late95, 12/95-03/97), Rubberduck (Johan Dohl, founder code, 89-04/01), TBM (code), Tudor (Henrik Andersson, gfx raytrace modeller, old handle Snorpax Tudor, 08/94-04/01). HOL> Danny (Danny Geurtsen, gfx, also in Nah-Kolor, 04/96-03/97), Facet (Martijn van Meel, gfx, ex Virtual Dreams, also in Lemon. new, 04- 06/96), I-GO (Thies Edeling, orgamiga code html edit 'R.A.W'), Lowlife (Angelo Bod, gfx, ex Axis), SuperNao (Michiel Krop, music, ex Virtual Dreams, also in Lemon. new, 05/96), Tim (code, ex Spaceballs). NOR> Magnar (Magnar Harestad, music sysop NOISELESS, ex Spaceballs, old handle Lizard, 06/96). PREVIOUS MEMBERS - SWE> Cypher (gfx, 02/96), Dickhead (founder code), Exon (code, 08/94), Fishbone (gfx), Hitman (sysop BLACKBOARD, 08/94), Hokke (code, 94), Igloo (gfx, 02/96). NOR> Jeek Elemental (code). ???> Axm (gfx, 95), Eddieboy (music, 94), Hook (code), Kajiu (music), Overload (ascii trade sysop, 04-06/96), Sag (code music), Shark (sysop), Skyhigh (code), Vfcon, Wolf (music, 08/94). The Black Lotus was formed in sweden in 1989, when Atari coder Dickhead and his companion Rubberduck decided to build their own group on the Amiga. Who could have known, back then, that TBL would once rule the Amiga demo scene? From their very humble beginnings they've managed to build a group of truly epic proportions. After their breakthrough production "Tint" [04/96] at The Gathering 96, they went on to rule the amiga demo scene for a number years - and even still come back to release the odd production today. They were the first group to win at The Gathering two years in a row; Spaceballs have since taken over their record. Find video versions of their recent demos at: ftp://mirror.support.nl/pub/tbl/download/movies/ Most members of TBL are today employed in the games industry. Dutch members Danny, Tim and Lowlife work at Eidos Interactive (http://www.edios.co.uk), in the UK; Kalms, Offa, Eq, Rubberduck och Louie all work at Digital Illusions Computer Entertainment (http://www.dice.se) in Sweden. Rodney also works/worked on games. Thanks to Kalms for some information and corrections. 1995 - The demo "Cybernetic" [04/95] reached the 3rd position in The Gathering demo competition, and was probably the group's biggest success thus far. The intro "Mind The Carrot" [06/95] was the group's sole release at Icing this year, reaching a disapointing 9th position in the competition. At Assembly in august came the release of the demo "Misery" [08/95] - finishing 12th in the competition. The steady flow of releases would continue out the year, with the demos "Que?" [10/95] - 2nd at Remedy - and "Mindprobe" [12/95] - 15th at The Party. 1996 - This was the year of TBL's big breakthrough. The year started gently with the release of the demo "Spectral" [02/96] at the small swedish party Creutz in february. It was at The Gathering in april their name would be known, though. Through the release of the two 4k intros "Gizmo" [04/96] and "EQ-4k" [04/96] - 1st and 2nd in the competition - and the landmark demo "Tint" [04/96] they made sure they would be a name to remember. Needless to say, "Tint" was the clear winner of the demo competition. They did not rest however, and already the next month they released the intro "Mind The Carrot 2" [05/96] (1st) and the demo "Glow" [05/96] (2nd) at the Icing party in sweden. As if this was not enough, june brought the Remedy party to sweden, and once again TBL were triumphant in both intro and demo categories, with "Tractorbeam" [06/96] and "Darkside" [06/96] respectively. Their final release of the year was the demo "Goa" [08/96] at Assembly, which finished 3rd in the competition. Apart from the jokey "The Money Tribe" [09/96], it would be until late march next year that they released anything. 1997 - "Captured Dreams" [03/97] is the name of one of the best amiga demos ever released, and a true landmark in the amiga demo scene. With it, TBL became the first ever group to win twice at The Gathering. Sadly, the truly great demo would be their only release on the amiga this year. Swedish coder Noy (02/96-) left this year to help form the new group Dole. Swedish coders Offa (Mattias Gruvman, 08/94-03/97) and Equalizer (Daniel Hansen, 08/94-03/97) both left the Amiga scene for professional game programming careers. For the sake of order, they have been removed from the member roster. 1998 - The Gathering, an event where they had been successful in the past, became the venue of their 'comeback' of sorts, with the winning intro "Imitation None" [04/98]. This would become another year with only a single amiga release from the group. 1999 - Nothing was heard until december, and The Party. There, TBL shocked the scene with the release of their new demo "Rain" [12/99], a full two and a half years after their last full demo. The demo finished only third in the competition, but was a sign that TBL was still a force to reckoned with. It was certainly one of the year's top demos. 2000 - In march, at the TRSAC party in denmark, TBL released another demo. "Senseless" [03/00] won the demo competition! 2001 - Another year, another demo - "Perfect Circle" [04/01] won the demo competition at the prestigious Mekka Symposium party! Purgatory (Disk). Total Brain Collapse - TBC (ECS File). code: Hook, RBD, Offa, gfx: Monza, music: "Shadow" by Wolf. review: Oooooh my god, boring! This is a horror example of how *NOT* to make a demo. It's got a few, ugly effects, a soundtrack that I won't even mention and 'effects' like a hidden-line vector! Jeeeesus, filled vectors was the norm in fucking 1990, people! Unadvanced, unexciting, unworthy. Avoid! [glenn] GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 4mb fast/3.0. -- Note: KillAGA. Nugget (1993, 03.03, ECS Disk). code: Hokke, Ken, Hook, Dickhead, Rubberduck, Offa, gfx: Extreme, Watchman, Tango, music: Wolf.  Twisted Minds (1994, AGA File). code: Rubberduck, Hokke, Offa, gfx: Snorpax Tudor, music: Eddieboy. Released at Dreamhack 94. GLE tested A1200/020-14/2mb chip/3.0. Phucker (1994, .08, ECS File). code: Offa, Exon, Equalizer, gfx: Snorpax Tudor, Equalizer, music: Wolf. Winner of 'the Borlänge party'. review: Thorougly unexciting - as usual for the early TBL demos. The more of these I watch, the more astonished I am that these guys actually made "Glow" and "Captured Dreams" later! The version reviewed is the release version, the compo version had several bugs. [glenn] GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 4mb fast/3.0. Cybernetic (1995, 14.04, Demo). 3rd in The Gathering 95 demo competition. Sverigetoppen #12 - april (1995, .05, OCS/AGA Diskmag). code: Offa, Equalizer, gfx: Cypher/independent (ocs title), Louie/Insane (aga title), Eracore/Rebels (menu design), Disc/Rebels (menu design), music: Sine/Triad (Tracker Packer 3 format). Released in cooperation with Triad. Mind the Carrot (1995, 17.06, AGA 64k Intro). code: Offa, Equalizer, Rubberduck, gfx: Axm, Snorpax Tudor, music: Rubberduck. 9th in the Icing 95 64k intro competition. GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 4mb fast/3.0. Misery (1995, 12.08, Demo). 12th in the Assembly 95 demo competition. Que? (1995, 08.10, AGA HD Multifile Demo). code: Equalizer, Offa, gfx: Snorpax Tudor, Axm, music: Lizardking/Razor 1911 & Mantronix/Phenomena. 2nd in the Remedy 95 demo competition. review: This is actually rather good, much thanks to the two dynamic cooperation tunes from two old favorites. Very very OK. Will run on unexpanded A1200's, but fastmem and accelerators are useful. [glenn] GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 4mb fast/3.0. Mindprobe fixed (1995, 27.12, AGA ?MB HD Multifile, 3 disks). code: Offa, Equalizer, Rubberduck, gfx: Rodney, Tudor, music: Azazel (main), Hollywood/Axis (The Player 6.1A format). 15th in The Party 5 demo competition. review: Another not-too-cool older TBL release. This one hints at what "Tint" will be, but does not quite make it. The whole demo is presented in that annoying 'every-other-pixel-is-black' mode, and if you ask me, that is a major drawback. It just doesn't look as good as solid effects! The most innovative effect here is a little hard to describe, but I'll try. It's a magnified picture by Rodney in the background, and on top of that there's two vectorcubes, spinning and space-cutting each other. One is an RGB-vector, and the other is texturemapped with a small portion of the mentioned picture. As the picture is magnified, it's larger than the screen, and the whole thing moves as the vectorcubes travel around on it. Very very nice. The picture is "Climber" by Rodney, which came 2nd in the graphics competition at The Party. Too bad the rest of the demo is not equally exciting. Azazel's module was made in two hours, during The Party! This is also very likely his first released module for TBL; he was in DCS two months earlier. Though it'll work fine on an 020-14, at least an 030-28 with 2mb fast is recommended. [glenn] GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 4mb fast/3.0. Spectral (1996, .02, AGA HD Multifile, 2 disks). code: Offa, Equalizer, Noy, Rubberduck, gfx: Cypher, Igloo, Tudor, music: Azazel. Released at Creutz #1 96. review: This is not half bad! Though it has some mysterious palette choices, and the design is sometimes...well, enough about that...this is one of TBL's better productions. There's the usual shading and stuff - and the usual Azazel music :( Not much to say, really - an above-average release from TBL. [glenn] GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 4mb fast/3.0. Gizmo (1996, 05.04, 4k Intro). code: Gizmo. Winner of The Gathering 96 4k intro competition! review: Seems to disagree with my machine, once just showed the opening logo and froze on a black screen, another time it got as far as popping a nicely-coloured torus on the screen before freezing. [glenn] GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 4mb fast/3.0 -- Note: See review. EQ-4k (1996, 05.04, 4k Intro). code: Equalizer. 2nd in The Gathering 96 4k intro competition. review: This nice 4k'er opens with some red-on-black quasi-plasma stuff, which then turns into a tunnel of sorts. We travel into the tunnel, which has 'The Black Lotus' written on the walls, before coming to the coolest effect in the intro, a 'sea' of sorts of gradient blue-on-black. Then the tunnel routine is repeated with the same blue-on-black palette and it's over. Be advised that the version reviewed is v1.1, and the file-id.diz file claims it's 'fixed', without specifying further. [glenn] GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 4mb fast/3.0. Tint (1996, 05.04, AGA 4MB HD Multifile). code: Equalizer, Offa, gfx: Danny, Facet, Louie, Rodney, Tudor (objects), music: "Khan-Be-Phonk", "Definitive Era" and "Fractured" by Azazel. Winner of The Gathering 96 demo competition! review: A little slow to get started this, but when the second piece of music kicks in, it takes off in a big way. Ah yes, the music. I can't help thinking that with some other musician, this could have been a well and truly GREAT production. As it stands, the first tune stinks big-time, and the second ranges from lousy to great in what is a truly bizarre mixture. It seems Azazel can't decide between techno and more traditional demo music, and as a result he tries to mix the two with varied results. The code here smells more of good ideas than truly advanced routines, but is overall quite acceptable. So to sum up: The first part sucks, the rest is quite good. Worth noting is that the compopictures from the artists above are all included. Danny's '18bit truecolor' picture seems to be an elaboration on Lemon.thoughts, which won a clipart competition in EuroChart (I think) some time ago. An OK production with GREAT graphics. Recommended 030-28 or above. [glenn] GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 4mb fast/3.0. Mind The Carrot 2 (1996, 26.05, 64k Intro). code: Offa, gfx: Louie, SuperNao (hand object), music: SuperNao. Winner of the Icing 96 64k intro competition! review: This is one of the nicer intros I've seen! It all opens with a cool logo-picture by Louie, which is followed by several objects and effects, the first of which is a shaded carrot! Placed in demo/aga on AmiNet, but the system tester says 'no hardware requirement'. [glenn] GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 4mb fast/3.0. Glow (1996, 26.05, AGA 4MB HD Multifile, 3 disks). code: Equalizer, Offa, gfx: Rodney, Louie, Facet, Tudor, music: SuperNao, Azazel. 2nd in the Icing 96 demo competition. review: Oh yes. This is the first truly outstanding TBL production I have witnessed, and what a demo it is! Since last time they've obviously gotten some design help from their newest members. While some of their earlier productions have looked a little weird, this one looks just smashing! The demo opens with an animation of a spaceship leaving a space station, to great accompanying strings music. After that, we're treated to the usual rendered objects and stuff, with one very important difference: These are cool, advanced routines that look GOOD. Even their rather untraditional palette choices now look smashing! What can I say? TINT only HINTed at things to come! Recommended! Runs on standard A1200's with enough mem, but recommends 030-28 or above. [glenn] GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 4mb fast/3.0. Darkside (1996, 16.06, AGA ?MB File). code: Rubberduck, Noy, Offa, gfx: Facet, Danny, Tudor, music: Lizard. Winner of the Remedy 96 demo competition! review: Darkside signalled a drastic departure for TBL. Gone was the flashy techno, to be replaced with a tune by Lizard that's closer to a film soundtrack than anything else. A lot of people were skeptical when Darkside was released, but in my eyes this is one of their better demos. It opens with some dots morphing to form the names of the producers. This could have been done a lot better, the routine now looks downright ugly! The titlepicture by Facet is one of his most surrealistic pictures ever! The next picture is a raytraced one by Tudor, of a hand stretching out of a monitor to touch the A1200 beyond...very good! Another good routine here is the travel down spinning tunnel with the white light in the centre... This looks like a precursor to the tunnel at the end of the zoomer in the later TBL demo "Captured Dreams" [03/97]! I like "Darkside". It's an unusual demo, in that it manages to create a gothic atmosphere and still throw in a few good effects. The music deserves a special mention; it's a highly original tune. The release version apparently had some bugs, but a fixed version was later to be put up on the TBL website. On my 4mb fast system, I couldn't run this demo because I didn't have enough memory. This may have been due to the fact that I map my Kickstart to fast ram, but I can't be sure... It DOES require some fast, I'm just not sure how much :) [glenn] GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 4mb fast/3.0 -- Note: See review! A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 16mb fast/3.0. Tractorbeam (1996, 16.06, AGA 40k Intro). code: Offa, gfx: Facet, SuperNao, Tudor (objects), music: SuperNao. Winner of the Remedy 96 40k intro competition! review: WOW! I've just been blown away by an amazing piece of 40k intro. This small file oozes professionalism from every pore. The effects are good and plentiful, much more than I'd expect to see in a 40k intro these days. There are so many '1-effect-intros' out there. This one opens with some envmapped objects, which isn't all that unusual these days :) Next we travel down a rather cool yellow/green tunnel...which suddenly has the objects from before in the middle! It's like Offa's saying 'maybe you can do that too...and this...but can you do them TOGETHER!?'. Next there's a tecturemapped sube spaceut with some envampped objects, before it ends with what can only be described as motionblurred fireflies. Not bad at all, TBL... [glenn] GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 4mb fast/3.0. Goa (1996, 18.08, AGA ?MB HD Multifile). code: Offa, Dig-It, Equalizer, gfx: Rodney, Louie, Tudor (objects), music: Azazel. 3rd in The Assembly 96 demo competition. info: Azazel's music from the demo also competed in the music competition, and came 3rd. The timing was made on a 030-28. [glenn] GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 4mb fast/3.0 -- Note: See review. Note: Not enough memory to run! The Monkey Tribe (1996, .09, File). 2nd in the Creutz #2 96 demo competition. review: Intended as a parody on 3LE demos. Captured Dreams (1997, 29.03, AGA HD Multifile). code: Dig-It, Equalizer, Offa, gfx: Danny, Louie, Rodney, Tudor, music: Fndr/? (intro), Radix (main). Winner of The Gathering 97 demo competition! review: The show opens with a texturemapped tunnel, with credits texture- mapped onto squares flying around. A 'CD' logo is next, then we zoom into the middle of the picture. At first it looks like a normal zoomer, but it quickly becomes evident that there's layers and layers of fantastic gfx before we hit the bottom! There, it smoothly integrates into some lights flashing out at us in time with the music before the entire zoom process is reversed. Only this time, we zoom back a little more than where we started, and it becomes evident that we're in a room with several different 'tv-boxes' hovering in the air. They all have changing pictures on them, and we travel around until we settle on a picture of the side of a skyscraper. This is now the main focal point, and soon a beautiful dolphin comes swimming/flying by, reflected onto the windows of the skyscraper. It's all very 'Beyond the Mind's Eye'. We see the dolphin from three different angles before we move on. Next is an amazing, big dinosaur object (T-Rex?), sneering at us. This object is made up of MANY polygons! Next we're treated to Danny and Louie's coop picture "Angelic Particles" (also winner of the TG97 graphics competition) before we move on to another showstopping effect... We're suddenly underwater, with calm music and a soothing atmosphere. Next is another texturemapped tunnel, this time with a moving lighstource. It goes on with some butterflies flying around ancient architecture, before the show is rounded off with not-too-good picture by Rodney. CD has to be one of the best demos ever released, period. It seems TBL has got most of their design problems out of the way, and this demo sure kicks ass! One thing I especially noticed and liked, was the way the music changed to the MOOD of the demo. For the faster, frantic parts there was techno-style stuff, while underwater we were treated to a beautiful pan- pipe mood tune. Great! Swedish musician FNDR (Jonas Hedeback) was not a fulltime member. The demo requires at least 4mb fast, and a 030-50 processor. However, the system checker searches for 020+, so in theory it is possible to run on inferior hardware... [glenn] GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 4mb fast/3.0. Imitation None (1998, 11.04, AGA 40k Intro). code: Rubberduck, Spite/?, Digit, Scout, gfx: Louie, music: Fndr/?. Winner of Gathering 98 64k intro competition! review: Who would have guessed - TBL are back with a small 40k sign of life! Unfortunately, this one's a no-starter due to one very important factor: Speed. You're obviously gonna need a FAST machine to get this baby to roll acceptably. So the keyword would be: Beautiful but agonizingly slow. If you've got a fast machine, please do. Otherwise, don't bother. Nice to look at, tho' ;) FNDR (Jonas Hedeback) and Spite (Erique Hemming) were not fulltime members. [glenn] GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 4mb fast/3.0. Rain (1999, 28.12, AGA File). code: Rubberduck, Dig-It, Kalms (additional), Spite (additional), gfx: Louie, Tudor (additional), FTHR (additional), FNDR (additional), music: Carebear. 3rd in The Party 99 demo competition. review: Just one word: "WOW". This demo is testament to the demopower of TBL, a group of almost unheard of talent. "Rain" was their first demo in a while, with only the intro "Imitation None" [04/98] released at TG98 since their amazing "Captured Dreams" [04/97] - demo of the year in 1997. Even if I stay by my claim that "CD" is the best amiga demo ever, "Rain" comes close to topping it. The only reason why Haujobb's "Mnemonics" [04/99] is demo of the year this year and not this one, is that Haujobb made a demo I could actually run on my machine =) The demo is fluent, with great art direction (credited to Louie) and design elements. Every single screen is well thought out, with a great sense of the overall design, and the music fits perfectly to the cyberpunk-y feel of the demo. There are effects in this demo that have never even been done on the amiga, and effects that I simply do not have words to describe. There is the most amazing phong shading, some voxels towards the end, and... well, just lots and lots of greatness! =D "Rain" is an almost perfect demo, with all the elements coming together seamlessly. This is the kind of demo you show to your friends to get them interested in the demoscene. Just amazing. This review was only made possible by our contributor SoLO, who generously sent me a cd with the demo as an mpg file. The mpg was grabbed from an a1200 equipped with a 50mhz 68060 processor. The demo itself is not runnable at all on my machine, 50mhz 030 =( Probably requires a shitload of memory, too. A rough guess would be 16mb. Carebear (Erik Lyden) is probably NOT a fulltime member of the group. He is, in case you didn't know, a musician with top finnish pc demo group Orange. Neither FNDR (Jonas Hedeback), FTHR (Antti Jaderholm) or Spite (Erique Hemming) are fulltime members. The final screen in the demo, before the end credits, features a picture and the text "yeah, that's the downside". The picture is grabbed from Luc Besson's fabulous film "Leon". We wholeheartedly recommend it =) [glenn] Senseless (2000, 18.03, AGA 060 Demo). code: Rubberduck, Kalms (additional), gfx: n/a, music: n/a. Winner of the TRSAC 2000 demo competition! info: Apparently requires an 060 processor in order to run fast enough. Received a favourable review in Nah-Kolor's "Devotion #1" [00]. Perfect Circle (2001, 15.04, Demo). code: Kalms, Rubberduck, gfx: Louie, Tudor, music: TraumaChildGenesis (FastTracker II XM format). Winner of the Mekka Symposium 2001 demo competition! info: Requires an 060 processor and about 20 megs of fastram. Can anyone review this for me? Pleeeeeease? 'TraumaChildGenesis' are the two finnish musicians !Cube/Armada and Teque/Aggression. Developed with TBL's new demosystem, NewAge. Little Nell (2002, 30.03, Demo). production: Kalms, Rubber, Louie, TCG, Emoon, Tudor. Winner of the Mekka Symposium 2002 demo competition! Black Jack (-1995) ------------------ Black Jack was a finland-based demo group. Black Monks [old] (1989-) ------------------------- ???> Jackal (code, 03/90), Jive Bunny (new 03/90), Ivanhoe (crack, 89). Black Monks was an illegal cracking group, born when Black Division and Mad Monks joined forces under the new name Black Monks in the beginning of 1989. They were were fairly active in 1989 and 1990. Black Monks [new] (-1992) ------------------------- Black Monks were reborn, likely late 1991, with a mixture of old and new members - in total 11. The first ones to join the reborn group were Kamikaze, Pete, Moses, Rain, Claw and Willow. A text file was spread in november if 1992, proclaiming the group was dead again. Blitz (1990-1992) ----------------- SWE> Celebrimor (Henrik Palmér, gfx), Patball (01/91). ???> T.M.D. (ex Firecrackers, new 12/90). Blitz was a swedish demo group. After the group died, Celebrimor and former member Ilas formed a project called IC Productions, which created a few small intros, and two larger unfinished projects; a demo (1993) and a game called Mindphaser (1994). Thanks to Celebrimor for information! :) 1990 - T.M.D joined from Firecrackers in december. 1991 - Ilas (code gfx) and Misty (music) joined Shining in december (and later continued on to Dual Crew Shining, when the two groups merged), Ilas changing his handle to Tizzy in the process. This meant the departure of the main creative force behind the group, which died slowly in the beginning of the following year. Their last 'big project' was a demo called "Complexity", which was never completed. BBS (1991, ECS File). code: Ilas, gfx: n/a, music: n/a. Harmonic (1991, .01, ECS File). code: Ilas, gfx: Ilas, music: Misty (NoisePacker 2 format). Just A Dream (1991, 30.03, ECS File). code: Ilas, gfx: Ilas, music: Ilas. Released for the Anarchy Easter Party 91, unplaced. Real Time Raytracing (1991, 23.12, ECS File). code: Ilas, gfx: Celebrimor, music: Ilas (NoisePacker 3 format). info: This intro announced Ilas and Misty leaving the group. This is listed in some places as a cooperation production with Digital Design, but that is not accurate; Digital Design was just another name for the group. Bloodsuckers (BS) ----------------- Bloodsuckers was a finnish-based demo group, quite legendary in their circles. They also had sections in germany and sweden. Bodyworks (1995-1995) --------------------- SWE> Axy (org ascii sysop), Blade (org music), Delery (code sysop), Schizzo (music), Tekburn (music), Visitor (trade, later Subspace), Zcandaler (sysop). Bodyworks was formed by Axy and Blade after the death of Deadline Design, as an ascii and trading group. They dominated the trading scene of west sweden, had a lot of members, and released several ascii collys. In addition the swedish members, there were also a few in germany and the uk. Sometime late in the year, Axy and Blade decided they'd had their fun, and declared the group dead. Blade (who had now learned to code) was in Inhumans with Visitor for a while, before helping form Subspace. Axy later surfaced as Phase in Spaceballs and later in Essence. Bomb Software (1994-1996) ------------------------- FRA> Ben (code, 12/96), Clawz (Mathieu Berthaud, music, also in Impact Studios [pc], 09/94-12/95), Gengis (Frederic Heintz, code, 09/94- 07/95), Hof (gfx, 12/94), Made (Carlos Pardo, gfx, ex Scoopex, new late95-04/98), Suny (gfx, ex Movement, new late94-12/94), Titan (Sebire Laurent, gfx, 04-12/96), Trajan (gfx, ex Dreamdealers, 12/94), Zebig (gfx, 12/94). DEN> Roscoe (Steen Hillestroem, swap, ex Razor 1911, new 94). GER> Trasher (Oliver Plink, swap, triplememb Sanity and Artwork, new 95). After releasing their last demo for Complex, "Real" [04/94], Bomb! was formed by frenchmen Clawz and Gengis in august of 1994. Soon after, they recruited French graphicians Trajan and Suny, and Danish swapper Roscoe. In september of the same year, they then won the intro competition at the 3S Party with their first release; the 64k intro "Casual" [09/94]. They then worked hard for a few months, and could present to the public at The Party 4 the demo "Motion: Origin 2" [12/94]. The original "Origin" [12/93] (made for Complex) had secured Gengis the winner at last year's The Party, but "Motion" - in the face of some stiff competition - didn't come in better than 3rd. 1995 - Next they recruited top french graphician Made and spent most of 1995 working on their commercial game Fears, which was previewed at the end of "Motion" and released in September. The game was done by Gengis (code), Hof (gfx), Titan (gfx), Suny (gfx) and Clawz (music). 1996 - Following the completion of the game, Gengis and Clawz released their last Amiga production in the "Saturne 3 Invitation" [07/96], and left for the PC scene - where in addition to scene activities they started working on an adventure game. Made now seems to be the only remaining active Amiga member, contributing graphics to productions left, right and center - though mostly for his old group Scoopex. He also begun doing more and more 24bit pictures in high resolution around this time, and shifting his focus to the pc scene. Gengis and Clawz first joined Impact Studios on the pc, before moving on to Oxygene, and finally settling down in a pc incarnation of this very group - Bomb! December and The Party brought the group's amiga swansong; new coder Ben produced the awesome "Shaft 7" [12/96] - his only production for the group, and a winner at The Party. Since this was the group's final release on the amiga, we have put 1996 as the year the group ceased to actively exist. Casual (1994, 03.09, AGA 64k Intro). code: Gengis, gfx: Hof/?, Walt/? (car person), music: "Blache Bleuche" by Clawz. Winner of the 3S Party 64k intro competition! review: A cute and nice first production from Bomb. Nice font! The music is kinda unusual for Clawz, but still good. [glenn]  GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 4mb fast/3.0. Motion: Origin 2 (1994, 28.12, AGA Trackmo, 2 disks). code: Gengis, gfx: Suny, Trajan, Zebig, Hof, music: "Overtaking" (main) and "Intermediate" (end) by Clawz (The Player 6.0A format). 3rd in The Party 4 demo competition. review: Gengis and Clawz followed up the original "Origin" (released for Complex), who won at The Party the previous year, with this great demo. The strongest point of Motion has certainly got to be its design. It opens with a great loading picture by Suny (I believe it also competed in the gfx competition), which looks like it was inspired from the scene in the introduction to the movie 'Cliffhanger'. Then, an eye suddenly looks at us. We zoom into the eye, and the demo begins. We're treated to a variety of good effects, including fast voxel landscapes and various vector environments. The real showstopper however, appears at the end of the demo, when Gengis revealed the first real Doom routine - with walls, floor and ceiling. For more of that routine, buy the game 'Fears', which was developed by much the same team as this demo. The demo is timed to one of Clawz' techno tunes, which sounds great. Then again, few people on the Amiga do techno as well as Clawz... The endpart requires some fast mem, a fact that made it guru when it was originally shown at The Party. However, the whole demo runs perfectly on unexpanded A1200's except the endpart. It supports external drives. Whole-heartedly recommended. [glenn] GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 4mb fast/3.0. Saturne Party 3 (1995, .07, AGA File). code: Gengis, gfx: Made, music: "Kuulitte Oikein" by Clawz (ProTracker MOD format). review: This is certainly one of the smoothest invitation intros I've ever seen, and the one with the best graphics! It opens with a fullscreen picture by Made, of a small green gnome, before showing a Saturne Party logo with a vectorbased '3' zooming back in place. Then we're taken to the text selector, which is a set of tecturemapped cubes. The great thing is that the cubes have two sides, one French and one English, so you can actually select the language you wish to read the text in! The music is also great, so what more can I say? This is one of the best invitations ever - never mind that the party was cancelled at the date mentioned in the intro, and wasn't held until april of 1996! For further irony, it was at that very party that Gengis released his first production for the pc, Impact Studios' "Bomb", cooperating with - yes, you've guessed it - among others Made and Clawz :-) This was almost certainly Gengis' last Amiga production. He was next in Impact Studios (as mentioned) on the pc, before moving on to Oxygene and finally back to Bomb. As for the release date, I found it on a pack where all the other productions were from early .07, so it's a pretty probable date. [glenn]  GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 16mb fast/3.0. Cyberia - ISO Opus 2 (1996, 18.08, AGA 4mb HD Multifile). info: Made contributed graphics to this Scoopex demo, making it a coproduction. See Scoopex' entry for details.  Shaft 7 (1996, 28.12, AGA 4MB HD Multifile Demo) code: Ben, gfx: Titan (logo, gfx), Made (title), Axel (objects), music: "Temple of Sun Remix" by Legend and Yolk (8ch XM format). Winner of The Party 96 demo competition! review: Bomb!'s amiga swansong containted what was perhaps the (upto then) most advanced 3d scenes ever realised on the machine... Beautiful design coupled with fast, great-looking env and bumpmapped objetcs and 3d scenes made this one of the VERY best demos of 1996. Mercifully short, but nevertheless a real powerdemonstration, "S7" is - in my book - the second best demo of 96. What was so special about the demo was perhaps that coder Ben was a total unknown, and to our knowledge never released anything ever again... Made's title picture is a special version of his "Eden 377" (which he came 2nd with in the graphics competition at the same party) with the title of the demo overlaid. Please note that the version reviewed is tagged Revision 2.0, with a few bugs fixed from the competition version. [glenn]  GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 16mb fast/3.0. Bomb Squad ---------- Bomb Squad was a finnish demo group. Bonzai (BNZ, 1994-1994) ----------------------- GER> MDB (sysop LOVE LIKE BLOOD, also in Rebels, 08-12/94). Bonzai was a german demo group, formed by Sting/ex Proline, who shortly after they were formed left to join Alcatraz instead! The news of BOTH the birth and death of Bonzai were in "Propaganda #4" :) In addition to the 'Gimme Alcohol' demo, they also contributed the only game in the game competition at the Dooms Day 94 party. Mr.Vain was briefly a member (he was also in both Sunflex Inc and ArtCore at the time), in august at least. Bounty ------ Bounty was a a danish demo group. Brainstorm (BRS, 1989-1993) --------------------------- SWI> Axel (music, new 09-10/90), Bird (code, 10/90), Chester (gfx swap, 08-10/90), Com (code, 10/90), E.S.A (code, 10/90), Luke (code, 10/90), Majestic (code, 08-10/90), Oli (gfx, 10/90), Orlando (Orlando Budelacci, code, 10/90), Peace (gfx swap, new 09-10/90), The Accused (code editor, 10/90), The Fly (code swap, new 09-10/90), Truxton (gfx swap, 08-10/90). GER> Shadow (swap, 10/90). PREVIOUS MEMBERS (pre 10/90) - SWI> Odie (swap, 10/90), Scattergold (swap, 10/90). Brainstorm was formed a short while before may 1989 by Chester (gfx) and Majestic (code), and their first release was "Lazer Roll" [05/89]. During the summer they recruited more members (like Orlando), and at the end of the summer vacation they were joined by the entire group Axxis. This group had both a Swiss and German section, but the German section was found to be substandard and was forced to leave after a while. Another member, swapper Joker, left the scene soon after. They had by now started planning what would become a legendary diskmag, "Zine". It was originally conceptuated as a cooperation between Brainstorm and another big Swiss group at the time, Setrox, but the latter eventually decided against being part of the project. Due to this, their coder The Accused, who DID believe in the project, left them to join Brainstorm. The first issue was released in october. They were now a totally Swiss group again, except from two members (Shadow, Yankee) in Germany. 1990 - Late october saw the release of "Zine #7" [10/90], announcing the departure of Mr.Frost and Sixpack from the group, as well as the arrival of The Fly, Axel (who also made the music for the mag's intro) and Peace from the newly dead swiss demo group The Perfects. Grubi and Spirit's farewell to the scene in favor of professional music careers was also mentioned in the Brainstorm Members article. 1991 - Late this year, the group recruited a danish section, led by The Pride/ex Flash Productions. Beauty of Bobs (OCS Demo). code: Majestic, gfx: n/a, music: n/a. info: Released pre 10/90. Big-Ball (OCS Demo). code: Majestic, gfx: n/a, music: n/a. info: Released pre 10/90. Brain 3D (OCS Demo). code: Luke, gfx: n/a, music: n/a. info: Released pre 10/90. Deja Vu (OCS Demo). code: Majestic, gfx: n/a, music: n/a. info: Released pre 10/90. Feedback Demo (OCS Demo). code: Majestic, gfx: n/a, music: n/a. info: Released pre 10/90. Giga Scroll (OCS Demo). code: Majestic, gfx: n/a, music: n/a. info: Released pre 10/90. Happy Jump (OCS Demo). code: Com, gfx: n/a, music: n/a. info: Released pre 10/90. Lazer Roll (OCS Demo). code: Majestic, gfx: n/a, music: n/a. info: Released pre 10/90. Little Vector Demo (OCS Demo). code: Luke, gfx: n/a, music: n/a. info: Released pre 10/90. Megademo (OCS Demo). code: Com, E.S.A, Majestic, gfx: n/a, music: n/a. info: Released pre 10/90. Metal Demo (OCS Demo). code: Majestic, gfx: n/a, music: n/a. info: Released pre 10/90. No More Mr. Nice Guy (OCS Demo). code: Orlando, gfx: n/a, music: n/a. info: Released pre 10/90. Solid Communication (OCS Demo). code: Bird, gfx: n/a, music: n/a. info: Released pre 10/90. Technological Threat (OCS Demo). code: E.S.A, Majestic, gfx: n/a, music: n/a. info: Released pre 10/90. The Sphere (OCS Demo). code: Bird, gfx: n/a, music: n/a. info: Released pre 10/90. Water-Demo (OCS Demo). code: Bird, gfx: n/a, music: n/a. info: Released pre 10/90. Whirlwind (OCS Demo). code: Luke, gfx: n/a, music: n/a. info: Released pre 10/90. Another Dream (1990, 11.08, OCS File Demo). code: Majestic, gfx: gfx: Chester, music: "Free Space" by Grubi (ProTracker MOD format). 2nd in the Prime 90 demo competition. Zine #7 (1990, 28.10, Diskmag). INT - code: Orlando, gfx: Chester, music: Axel. MAG - code: The Accused, gfx: Chester, music: Omega/Dual Crew, editors: Chester (main), The Accused (main), Orlando (main), Truxion. review: A simple but effective intro opens this edition, outlining the headlines for the issue we are about to read. A quick click, a little loading, and the mag itself shows up. The outfit was among the better in its time; if nothing else it was at least unorthodox in its choice of colours and design, and the two-paragraph sideways scrolling approach was both innovative and made the mag a better read. The reading material itself, then. The mag itself presents good overall quality, without any standout articles, though a lot of the material presented here could easily have been left out without me minding much - for example the articles on music. Scene-wise, the editorial content is pretty straightforward, with party reports and demo reviews - pretty safe stuff. The much more critical journalism of R.A.W and its generation was not far away, though... The actual release date was based on file dates on the disk. I want to close this review by quoting something The Accused writes in his Prologue; "In twenty years, when the Amiga is an ancient old-fashioned machine, and the whole Amiga scene will be dead, the history of this subculture will be forgotten." - Not if I can help it. :] Tested using WinUAE 0.9.91 using both 1.3 and 2.04 roms. Brain Wave (1989-) ------------------ FRA> Arrakis (swap, 10/90-07/92). GER> Drum Master (swap, 09/90). NOR> Shinox (swap, new 09/90). Brain Wave was a french-based demo group, formed by previous members of Overgrowth [no entry] and Phoenix in november 1989. 1990 - Shinox joined from Armada around september. Brilliance (BCE) ---------------- GER> 2Fast (also in ArtCore, 07/94), Mogue (ascii, aka Mo!, also in ArtCore, 07/94), Slime (sysop HOMELESS EHQ, also in Birdhouse Project, 12/94). ???> Horny-Soft (07/94), Index (07/94), MCM (07/94), Slime (07/94), Timelord (07/94). Brilliance appear to have been active on the boardscene as well as with some cracking activities. 1994 - German ascii artist Crazy was active in Brilliance in july, but by august he had left and was in Mystic. No record of his board BAGDAD CAFE while in Brilliance, that I could detect... Bronx (BNX, 1991-) ------------------ TUR> Turbo (05/93). Bronx was born in Turkiye in january of 1991, when the group Zombie Boys changed their name to Bronx. Vigo was among the founders. They are probably best known for their oddly named diskmag "Cemetery News" and their controversial packmag "Auschwitz". Browbeat (BBT) -------------- FIN> Alien (swap, 01/90), Triax (swap, 01/90). Browbeat was a Finnish demo group, a section of the originally c64 group. Finnish coder Infinity is the author of JNet, a transfer program between the Amiga and the Commodore 64. They were accused of spreading the BGS-9 file virus for the amiga. Bucket ------ Bucket was likely a polish demo group. Inside (1996, 30.08, 64k Intro). code/gfx: X-Man, music: Raze. Released for the Intel Outside 3 64k intro competition. review: Errr.... well, the chiptune is AMAZINGLY annoying and squeaky, but despite that and the lack in design talent this actually contains some halfway decent code. There is phong objects, mostly, and not the most advanced ones, but there's also a phong space-cut routine that, correct me if I'm wrong, is probably actually a first. Original size 27444 bytes, compressed with CrunchMania. [glenn] GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 16mb fast/3.1. Budbrain Productions -------------------- DEN> Diablo (Rene Bidstrup, music), Psycho (code). Budbrain was the brainchild of the two Danish madmen Diablo and Psycho. Their unique style of demos changed the face of scenery forever when they unleased their first Megademo onto an unsuspecting public in 1990...and the second one was also a big success. 1992 - Sonet left to join Vixen in september. Megademo (1990, 29.06, ECS Megademo, 2 disks). Winner of demo competition at the Amiga Conference 90. Megademo II (1990, 26.12, ECS Trackmo). code: n/a, gfx: n/a, music: Diablo. 2nd in the Dexion party demo competition. Byterapers Inc. (http://byterapers.scene.org) --------------------------------------------- FIN> Turtle (music, 90). DEN> Radish (trade, old handle Rogue, 05/92). Byterapers is a finnish-based demo group, originally coming from the c64 scene, and in later years also with a pc section. Members fluctuated between platforms.