Amiga Plus Leser 15/Amiga Plus Leser CD 15.iso/Scene/Eurochart44/Articles/TRSAC2001ProductionReview.txt

Text File | 2002-03-12 | 12KB | 349 lines

»CL6:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
»CL0:                          TRSAC 2001 Production Review
»CL6:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                          Written by »CL5:Darkhawk»CL6: of»CL5: IRIS

»CL1:Since the last production review  (the
MS production review)  was such a huge
success  (we  got  feedback  from  2-3
people,   it   left   us    absolutely
paralysed), we  decided to do  one for
this issue as well. »CL8:This time, we will
review the productions released at the
TRSAC  party  last  year  in  Denmark.»CL1:
Yeah,  we   might   have  done  a   TP
production  review,  but    there   is
nothing to review, and besides, it  is
no scene-party anymore.








The reviewers  are  Dr. Doom,  Ransom,
and I, Darkhawk. Bear in mind that  we
are highly  subjective,  juvenile  and
consciously  provoking,  just  to drag
you through  the  review,  so  do  not
complain about  the style  afterwards,
mwahah.

Also, before we  begin,  a  few  lines
about the  review  strategy  is in its
place.  »CL7:We   do   not   review   these
productions  with  the  aim of telling
you how they  look, »CL1:whether you should
see  them  yourselves,  or   with  the
intent of  giving  you  a  pre-viewing
review of the production. Many or most
reviews do that,  but that is actually
rather pointless. »CL8:Nowadays, the  scene
is so small that all sceners should be
able to get and watch all productions.»CL1:
Furthermore, these productions are for
free, and easy to get. Therefore,  you
do  not read reviews to decide whether
to get and  watch  a  production,  you
read reviews because you  want to know
what   others     think    about   the
production,  you  want to compare your
own  impression  with  that of others.
»CL7:This is especially true if you are the
developer of the production. Therefore
we aim to tell you our own impressions
about the demo, we  do not  talk  much
about  colours,»CL1:  what  effect  follows
what effect, etc., that is  simply too
boring,  when you might  as well check
that yourself.  Instead,  you  get  to
know what we  think of the production,
and there will not be much irrelevant,
objective facts about the productions,
like number of effects,  pictures, who
did what, etc. »CL6:Go read our articles in
this issue about  precisely this topic
(how  useless  'objectivity'  is  in a
scene review), if you have not done so
already.»CL1:

Ok, we start with  the  insanely  huge
amount  of  intros,  released   there.

 »CL0:   Kukablargh (I thiiink) by IRIS

»CL1:Wow!   Insanely   cool!   This   intro
deserved  to  win (but  of  course did
not, due to Psycho's vote faking.. Not
surprising,  given  his past deeds..).
»CL8:The sheep pictured  here  is  a symbol
for something rather  deep,  a  hidden
meaning   inside  the   mundane,  what
amazingly brilliant design  and subtle
hints.»CL1:  It   leaves   us   practically
speechless  with  the  sheer ingenuity
the designers of  this  intro show us.
The  font  is  so  nicely coloured and
reminds me of good  old  copper-colour
times..  Sigh,  a  masterpiece!  As  a
bonus, I have heard  that  there  is a
hidden part if  you  watch through the
intro for some time.. »CL7:We will leave it
up to you  to  discover this. »CL1:And ohh.
Do not go looking at  our  homepage in
order to  get this  production, it was
just a 10 minute quickie.. The tune is
sweet though.

»CL0:           Faark by Loonies

»CL1:Tsk, tsk.. See how far vote faking can
get you.. This  intro  won  the  intro
competition,   although    it   barely
deserves  the  term  'intro'.  Here we
have a single 3d sheep, along  with  a
'mæææh'  sample  and  that is it. »CL8:Such
shallowness and lack of  ideas  leaves
us shaking our  heads in  disgust, but
that  is  just   Loonies    for   you.»CL1:

And now,  onto  the  demos,  and  onto
more..  Let  us say, discrete  ways of
voicing  our subjective  opinions.  We
start with the lowest placed, and work
our way up to the top.



»CL0:          Brakke 2 by Hotdog

»CL1:This demo actually  is  not THAT  bad,
really..  It  has  this  techno  tune,
coupled  with 95'  effects,   childish
drawings as  well  as porno pictures..
Heh, sounds good, eh? Or as one of our
reviewers  put  it,  when  he  had  to
comment the demo: 'It  has  impressive
pictures,  that    work    with   your
subconsciousness'.  »CL8:Well, the  overall
effect is rather cool, because  it has
its own style, and does not try  to be
more  than  it is,  it does not try to
fit in with relative demo-standards of
today. »CL1:On top  of that, there is  some
skill beneath it all, and the style is
quite  funny (for  seriously  deranged
persons like ourselves). It  certainly
does not  deserve the last place,  but
that is how it is.

»CL0:          The Switch by Tulou

»CL1:No, everyone  on  the  reviewing  team
agree (even  those  of us,   who   are
normally not  that  judgemental)  that
the last place  should have been given
to this production.  »CL7:Tulou  has, in my
(Darkhawk's) opinion made one quite ok
production, Mortality, but since then.»CL1:
Well,  since  then,   we    have   had
productions like this from  them. Good
things  about  this  production. Well,
the module  is  only somewhat bad, but
the rest. There is  not much either, a
scroller,  colour-cycling and then the
mod. So, a very fast production indeed
(ehr,   nothing    wrong    with  fast
productions btw.. Upps..)

»CL0:       Live Kebab by Team Karbis

»CL1:This  one  is  cute,  and    done   by
Blueberry under  a pseudonym  I  would
guess, since:

»CL7:1) »CL1:It is AMOS
»CL8:2) »CL1:There are many sheep!

This  is  a  poorly  veiled attempt at
subconsciously manipulating the viewer
into believing  that  sheep  rule  the
world,  we  think.. »CL8:Apart  from  that,
there is  one  effect and  one sample,
a lot of  sheep in a  closure,  moving
and bouncing  off  the  fence,  so  to
speak.  »CL1:Not  that  bad  actually,  but
naturally nothing  spectacular either.
Seems like  both Loonies  and IRIS had
trouble releasing  a bigger production
here. Of  course,  the  money-grubbing
scum of »CL7:Loonies had  already  finished
their  Impossible II intro,  but since
they could not win as  much  money  on
TRSAC as on the MS,  they  decided  to
release the intro there instead.. Tsk,
tsk.»CL1:

»CL0:          Megademo $D by GFB

»CL1:Yes, another (mega)demo from GFB, held
in the usual GFB style, so  you should
know what  to  expect, namely  melodic
music,  ripped  gfx,  cute   gfx   and
typically  one  effect  shown  as  the
centerpiece of each part of the  demo.
It features some  nice metaballs, some
ugly colours, very catchy  music  (for
us   oldsk00l  lovers   anyway),  and
oldskool effects restyled, like ahhh..
Glenz  and..  Oh  joy.  The  good  old
box-in-a-box effect.. Aww, is that not
sweet? »CL8:Here in IRIS, we  hope GFB will
not stop making  megademos  when  they
reach $F, hehe. »CL1:

Now for the two clear competitors  for
the first  price. As usual, nobody can
stand against TBL  in  pure  corporate
branding,  so they won.. Ehrr no, they
might also have won because theirs and
UpRough's  demo  was  the  best one of
course, that IS a possibility, but let
us have a look.





»CL0:    Bizare Love Triangle by Haujobb

»CL1:This is a quality demo, and  it  has a
lot of nice things  worth mentioning..
First  off,  there  is    this   sweet
oldskool   horizontal    logoscroller,
featuring a logo by IB. Of course only
done  to  impress Darkhawk,  who loves
these things,  and  remembers the good
old PMC intro from 90', where they did
the same..»CL7: Ehrr!  Anyway, it is sweet,
as is the scroller  in that part. Then
there  is  the Polka-like  linetunnel,
and naturally,   these   tunnels   are
always  an  eye-pleaser  amongst  this
crowd of reviewers at least, »CL1:but we do
feel that if you have to copy effects,
they might as well be a  little  older
than that.. I  mean..  Come  on, Polka
did  this  tunnel  in  94'!   That  is
practically  yesterday..   Uhm,  apart
from that, we  know this is in chunky,
as opposed to  planar, and we did like
it,  we  just  want to be provocative,
ok?  Do  not  hurt   us   Mr. Optima..
Please? »CL8:However, the demo does feature
some  more  recent  code  reuse,  from
Optima's own, earlier productions, and
it is  not  the  first time either, he
especially likes  reusing a particular
tunnel time and time again, heh. »CL1:Apart
from that, the demo has a nice length,
is pretty varied,  features very  good
music  and   pleasing  gfx,   and   is
structured in  the  usual  Optima way,
effect  on   effect,   though   better
designed than his TP winner. Overall..
Absolutely a  good demo, and  although
we  were  not  in  complete  agreement
here, I think this would have been our
winner, had only we voted.

»CL7:On a sidenote, Optima naturally had no
qualms about  vote faking, but  he was
so  downcast  by  having   to  compete
against  TBL,  that  he  did  not work
himself too  hard,  I  only   saw  him
'convincing'  2-3  PC  people  that "I
will vote for your  stuff, »CL1:if you vote
for  mine", he   likely   thought  the
matter decided in  advance, vote  fake
or no vote fake, hehe.

On yet another sidenote,  it is  quite
funny   seeing    how    many   people
approached  us  and  told  us that "we
will vote for  your stuff,  because we
do   not    care   about    the  Amiga
productions, if you will  vote for our
PC stuff, which you do not care about.
Deal?"..  Hehe,  had long  discussions
with many people about the morality of
this,  but  of course I  think this is
utterly lame.  So, I only  PROMISED  I
would  vote on the PC lamer stuff, but
when I saw  they  had voted  for us, I
only   pretended    to   record  their
irrelevant   productions     on     my
votesheet.. Hah! That will teach those
fakers...

»CL0:          GBG by TBL/UpRough

»CL8:Yes, and here we have  the winner. The
opinions we hold about TBL are varied,
if not heated,  but I will try to  sum
up our overall impressions, as well as
some more  direct remarks.»CL1: So, this is
a 'design' demo,  if  there  ever  was
one,  there  are  no  standard effects
designed to  be eyecatching,  »CL7:and  the
effects   they    have,   are    quite
primitive,   and   quite    slow  too,
thinking  of  how  simple   they  are.»CL1:
Actually, we thought  that the effects
would have no trouble running on A500,
and if that is the  case, it is not as
bad as we make it  out to be, heh. The
opinions on the music is diverse.. One
thinks  the  music   good    and  well
fitting,  one thinks it so-so, good in
the start, not so good later,  and the
last  reviewer  thinks  the  music  is
simply boring (what? You want names on
those opinions? Hah, as if we dare..).
Uhh, looking at  our  notes, »CL6:I can see
that  one  thinks  the  demo is nicely
designed, reminded  him   a bit  about
smokebomb, »CL1:and  it has a wonderful end
as well as very  fitting  music. There
is   however,    this     'tough  guy'
mentality and design in  the demo, and
we  are  all  of  a like mind, when we
think   that   this   is   simply  too
'wannabe'  to  really  catch  on.  The
style  is  alternative   however,  and
worth a look. »CL8:Lastly, let us have some
comments from our anonymous reviewers:
'too  wannabe, bad  framerate,  design
demo, but  not  as consistent  as e.g.»CL1:
Ephidrena's,   toilet  colours'.  And:
'Fakes madly,  the  cool  design  that
seems to say "I wish  I  was a  badass
motherfucker,    and    not   a  small
antisocial nerd"'.  Hehe, I  like this
comment!  Ehr, truth  be told,  it  is
also an ok demo  though, and different
enough to be remembered a bit for that
fact alone.
And that is it! There  was a nice A500
demo by  Spaceballs too, but we forgot
to review that,  and it was  the  only
entry in  the A500 wildcompo too, so..
Let  us  just  say it deserved to win,
hehe.

        »PIC:3.iff»