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PPCDemoReviews.txt
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2002-03-12
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»CL6:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
»CL0: PPC Demo Reviews
»CL6:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Written by »CL5:Frequent »CL6:of »CL5:Ephidrena
»CL1:Hello everybody and welcome to an
article about something that way to
few sceners have written about. (No, I
am not talking about Magic/Nah-Kolor.
Since 1998, when the PPC-cards from
Phace5/Dce where introduced,
productions have been written for
those nice, but expensive turbo cards.
Personally, I became a happy PPC owner
in May 98 when the first ones arrived.
From time to time, I have been
watching the productions using my
monster Amiga. Still, the quality of
the productions has not been
discussed. The main reason is obvious,
since only a minority of the Amiga
sceners own such cards and those who
do have not written too much about
them either.
I have therefore written my opinion
about all the PPC releases that have
come out this past year. The test
machine were my own 603-200/060-50
with Bvision, running AOS 3.9 with the
newest versions of WarpOS, Warp3D, and
AHI. Some of the reviewed productions
requires faster CPU, and were perhaps
not shown as impressive as they should
have been. Still, I have gotten the
right impression of what the
intentions behind the productions
were, so it should not be any problem.
Here we go:
»CL8: Flow/Kangaroo (64K)
»CL1:Code: »CL7:Chip
»CL1:Gfx: »CL7:Beast
»CL1:Msx: »CL7:Teo
»CL1:It features a quite slow real-time ray
tracer and it is obvious that this is
more a test release then a first class
masterpiece. »CL6:Still, it has quite soft
music and graphics that works nice
together. »CL1:So let us hope a real PPC
production from them will show up in
the future.
»CL8: Amsterdam Blessings PPC/Mawi (Demo)
»CL1:Code: »CL7: Kierownik
»CL1:Gfx: »CL7:Azarro, Fame, Ubik
»CL1:Msx: »CL7:Tzx
»CL1:Other sceners have reviewed this one,
so I will concentrate on the speed
improvement from the 68k version.
There is no doubt that the 60x gives
the demo a major improvement in
benchmarking. »CL6:All the heavy routines
are running so much faster that the
expression sometimes changes totally.»CL1:
I would not have been surprised if the
demo had gotten even more points at
Mekka/Symposium if this version had
been shown at the big screen.
»CL8: Mocap/Floppy (Demo)
»CL1:Code: »CL7:Zig
»CL1:3d: »CL7:Def
»CL1:Msx: »CL7:Revisq
»CL1:This one is not a PPC demo but a 68k
demo that requires a 3D-accelerator.
It was meant to be a PPC demo
featuring much more effects and
3D-scenes. Due to a HD-crash one week
before Mekka/Symposium, the entire
source-code of the demo was lost.
»CL6:Therefore, it impresses me what Zig
managed to rewrite from scratch in
such a short time.»CL1: Overall, it ends up
with being a quite short demo with a
rotating 3D logo and some scenes with
a female and an alien dancing
together.
»CL8: Option/Potion (64K)
»CL1:Code: »CL7: Mavey, Diamond
»CL1:Gfx: »CL7:Rem, Rork
»CL1:Msx: »CL7:Skip
»CL1:After releasing their first PPC-intro
at Satelite 2k, my expectations for
this one were very high. Partly, I got
my expectations satisfied. Running the
whole 64k in 640x480 with heavy
real-time retraced 3D-scenes, great
music, and some other stuff, it was a
deserved winner in the 64k compo at
MS2k1. »CL6:Still, it is far from the
genius design extravaganza in Gift.»CL1:
It is more like those productions
without any kind of "takeoff". The
soundtrack builds itself and tries to
break lose when the last scene shows
up, but the visuals do not seem to
respond in the right places. Anyway,
Potion demonstrates with "Option" that
they have produced the most impressive
PPC-64k ever done so far, and that
they have the potential to produce a
PPC-64k that could beat "Gift" as
well.
»PIC:4.iff» »PIC:4.iff» »PIC:4.iff»
»CL8: Serial Interference/Encore (Demo)
»CL1:Code: »CL7: MDW
»CL1:Gfx: »CL7:Caro
»CL1:Msx: »CL7:Substance
»CL1:The brothers in Encore, MDW and Caro
strikes us with their second demo for
PPC. Many good 3D-scenes with great
textures, and a nice tune make the
demo very good. However, because it
does not have any typical "killer
effects", or any kind of artificially
expressions, »CL6:it ends up being a more
typical demo that does not really
separate itself from the masses.»CL1: It
remains technically good, but way to
anonymous for what it could have been.
Overall, a nice demo worth downloading
if you got the right hardware.
»CL8: Plus/Encore & Nah Kolor (Demo)
»CL1:Code: »CL7:MDW
»CL1:Gfx: »CL7:Caro, Performer, Spark
»CL1:Msx: »CL7:Zayka
»CL1:Encore continues their PPC adventures
with "Plus", this time with a helping
hand from Nah-Kolor. What I first
noticed about "Plus" was that when
compared to "Serial Interference", it
has much more varied routines, nice
and fast ones as well. »CL6:The timing with
the nice soundtrack has been improved,
which makes "Plus" a much more
attractive production.»CL1: Encore has
simply managed to get rid of some of
their "problems" from their previous
demo. Rock on!
»CL8: Power Up/Universe (Demo)
»CL1:Code: »CL7: Crisot
»CL1:Gfx: »CL7:Lord
»CL1:Msx: »CL7:Rafo
»CL1:If there is something that I notice
with this demo, it is the speed. It
simply runs so %^$$#$% FAST! Although
it does not feature the most advanced
kind of effects, or the most massive
screen resolution compared to the
other productions in this review, it
equalizes it with the speed. »CL6:Graphics
are ok, but the music is not.»CL1: It
sounds so commercial so my ears, and I
would have appreciated a much more
alternative soundtrack. Still, this
demo claims to be a party version,
since you have to disable some stuff
in the CGX setup. I hope a fixed
version will appear. (With better
music :)
»CL8: Cull Bazar/Mawi (Demo, fixed)
»CL1:Code: »CL7:Kierownik, Kalms
»CL1:Gfx: »CL7:Azarro, Ubik, Critikill
»CL1:Msx: »CL7:Distance
»CL1:The Madwizards are the ones who want
to impress people not only
technically, but also in the artistic
area. This makes Mawi-demos very
complex and demands a lot from the
viewer. »CL6:Cull Bazar reveals much of the
potential these guys got.»CL1: Perfect
colour combinations, a well-performed
soundtrack, and heavy 3D-scenes make
this a beautiful experience for those
who got the right hardware, »CL6:because
this one DEMANDS a 604!»CL1: Although you
are able to turn off the MP3 tune, the
frame-rate does not increase
dramatically. Still, the massive
effects can be defended as very CPU
hungry, and a 603-200 is not that
awesome when it comes to the end. To
sum it up, Cull Bazar is one of the
best PPC productions that have been
released this year.
»CL8: Cruel Karma Kids/Mawi (Demo)
»CL1:Code: »CL7: Kierownik
»CL1:Gfx: »CL7:Azarro, Ubik, Fame, Critikill
»CL1:Msx: »CL7:Substance, Loke, Revisq
»CL1:Mawi continue their expressions with
this one. If Cull Bazar took my breath
away, »CL6:this one choked me! By including
three excellent MP3 tunes, dark
coloured textures, and deep thoughts
from Azzaro, the demo attacks you
without mercy.»CL1: Kierownik serves you a
huge number of monster effects that
even a PC-coder must admit are of the
more heavy kind. "Cruel Karma Kids"
goes on for almost 10 minutes before
reaching the end part, and I cannot
see any reason why this should not be
"The PPC-demo of the Year". Any PPC
owner with graphic cards and respect
for himself should have this demo on
his hard-drive!!!!
»CL8: 212/Mawi (Demo)
»CL1:Code: »CL7:Kiewronik
»CL1:Gfx: »CL7:Azarro, Ubik, Prevent
»CL1:Music: »CL7:Trevor Rabin
»CL1:The latest demo from Mawi is a "rushed
together in a hurry, to win a local
party" production. When the last
routine shows up it is also stated in
the demo that it is a preview.
Although the routines are nice, »CL6:the
whole thing seems rather chaotic and
does not work so very well with the
rather bad movie-track.»CL1: As a release,
it is not exactly impressive.
»CL8: Volta 10000/Mankind (64K)
»CL1:Code: »CL7: Krabob
»CL1:Msx: »CL7:Unison
»CL1:A little, fast intro released at
Spoletium 2001. »CL6:It features a neat
chip tune, weird textures, and quite
simple 3D-objects in a 3D-room.»CL1: It is
nothing special, but not bad either.
That was it. 2001 was the year with
the best PPC-demos seen on Amiga so
far. I hope there will be more of them
in the future. Most of all I hope more
will come from the "Western European"
scene, since I know there are coders
with PPC out there.
»PIC:3.iff»