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- Falcon <link=g34.scr>DivX Compil</l>
- demo compilation by Strider/Supremamcy
- review by Spiny / Torment
- ---------------------------------- --- -- --
-
- A few weeks ago I was browsing the DHS board, as I do, and i happened to notice
- that Supremacy had a post about a Falcon demo compilation. As I don't have a
- falcon, I didn't really take that much notice (too busy playing chu chu rocket)
- heh.... Anyway, on the next day I was also checking out Orange Juice, a pretty
- good demo round-up site for the predominantly PC demo scene - www.ojuice.com,
- when again I noticed more info on the Falcon demo compilation. This time I
- decided to have a good read and find out more....
- It turns out that Strider / Supremacy has taken it upon himself to provide all
- us non-falcon owning guys with a fat load of DivX demos showing us what we are
- missing! I cranked up my FTP client and sped off to ftp.no.scene.org (always
- seems faster that ftp.scene.org, even for a UKer like me...) to grab a copy.
- Luckily I chose to download the files while I was at work, rather than at home
- on a modem, as the two CD's weigh in at an impressive 615 MEGs each. Over a GIG
- of Falcon AVI fun.
- Thankfully, the happy people who employ me provide our office with a pretty
- quick T2 line, so after about 5 hours I had managed to leech both CD's - just a
- bit quicker than a modem ...... 15 minutes later and i had two still warm CDR's
- to file next to my MC Laser compilations.
-
- Rather than just a collection of AVI files in the root of the CD, they are
- organised with HTML docs too, making it a lot easier to use. After starting
- Netscape and loading the index.html file (no autorun?) I was presented with a
- nice and simple clean layout. Obviously the first thing I did was try and go
- striaght to the demos :)
- so I went for the 'Falcon demo list' link which brought up another page with
- loads of demos listed that I'd never heard of before :) On closer inspection I
- saw a link to lost blubb by lazer - a demo I had been really impressed by when
- I saw it as PMP back in '99 for the first time. I clicked the GO link, and the
- demo popped up in a new window.
- The quality is - really - good, both the video and the audio. the actual video
- is encoded at 380x260 which is perfectly adequate considering the quality
- itself - no jerks or jumps in these videos! Also, the soundtrack has been given
- the same amount of attention - no clicks or buzzes, almost as good as sitting
- in front of a real Falcon.
-
- The demo list itself is sorted by demo name, which is good I guess if you know
- which are good and which are worth repeat viewing, but for me, it would have
- been better if they had ben listed in chronological order, that way I could see
- how the falcon scene had progressed from '93 to 2001 and beyond. Perhaps this
- could be added to future releases as an extra HTML doc, sorted by date or group
- name etc?
-
- If you have a fast connection at work or at home, I can reccomend getting a
- copy of both these CD's, they are just as much a part of the Atari scene as the
- mod compilations by MC Laser. OK, some of you may be saying 'but I need a PC to
- view the prods, what is the point of that?' Well, if like me, you don't have a
- Falcon, then it's an excellent chance to see what the machine is capable of.
- Also, it gives a chance for the PC/Amiga demo scene to see what they are up
- against - the coverage on Orange Juice and Scene.Org will definatly show people
- that Atari still has a place in the compter scene. All in all, this is a good
- thing, it shows th world that the Falcon can still hold it's own in the PC
- dominated 'scene' and with demos like 'alive' by FUN better than recent prods
- from the hardware upgrade scene, it also shows we are here to stay.
-
- overall - 9/10
-
- only one thing lets it down - where's the cover pic?!?
-
- spiny / torment
- comments to the mag, address below.
-
- - ----- -- ---- ---- ----------------------------------------------------------
- CHOSNECK team contact us:
- people faithful 2 da roots! atarimsb@wp.pl
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