Amiga Plus 2004 #2/Amiga Plus CD - 2004 - No. 02.iso/AmigaPlus/Scene/Eurochart47/Articles/pikansjos

Text File | 2004-01-31 | 10.2 KB | 307 lines

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»CL9:          HIRED DEMOSCENING?
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»CL4:           By Darkhawk/IRIS

»CL1:Some  time ago, a bit under a year ago
to be precise, the head of Genesi, who
make  the  Pegasos  PPC computer, Bill
Buick, decided to do something for the
Amiga  scene, which he by all accounts
has  always  liked.  At the same time,
the  thing he would do would be a good
promotion  for  the  Pegasos computer.
He  decided  to approach the scene and
ask for people willing to do demos for
MorphOS,  in a special democompetition
for  PPC  demos.   The Hooligan of DCS
was  especially  crucial in convincing
Mr.   Buick that this was a good idea,
and  he  has  acted  as the go-between
between Genesi and the Amiga community
in  this  effort.   You might remember
THG  writing  an article about this in
the last Eurochart.  As always, things
change  before they get finalized, but
now  I can present to you, exclusively
I  hope,  what has become of this very
interesting project.

»CL0:10  groups  have been selected amongst
many from both the PC, Linux and Amiga
scenes to be the ones participating in
the  democompetition.  Why only 10, if
many  others  were interested?  That's
simple.   Genesi  sponsors 10 brandnew
Pegasos2   computers   themselves,  in
order  for  the  groups  to be able to
actually  produce the demo (only a few
of  these  already had a Pegasos), and
the  groups  might  keep  the Pegasos2
computer  they got if they just manage
to  deliver  the demo.  In addition to
that, the prizemoney for the 1st place
will  be  around 3000$, with 1500$ for
second  place, and 500-1000$ for third
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(to  be  sure, the amount of money has
probably not been decided upon finally
yet).   If  the competition goes well,
it   is   possible  that  Genesi  will
continue   to   further  sponsor  such
democompetitions.

»CL1:So,  that is the newest, revised plan.
You  might  note  that THG wrote about
this  10  months  ago, and stated that
The  Assembly  2003  might  be  a good
place    to   physically   hold   this
competition,  if  the  organizers were
interested.   What  happened?   Delays
naturally,  as  is  so  common  in the
history  of the Amiga.  First, all the
groups needed to come aboard, and then
the Pegasos1, which the groups were to
get, was to be replaced by an upgraded
Pegasos2 system instead.  Of course it
would  be  better  to  wait  for  that
system  to  come  out, and so everyone
waited,  and  waited quite a long time
too.    Now  however,  2004  seems  to
become  THE year, as many things point
that way.  More about that later.

»CL0:Who  are  the  groups  who  wanted  to
produce a demo and were selected?  The
best  of the best actually, all around
the  board.   But  you needn't take my
word for it.  I can now lift the veil,
and present the names to you:

»CL7:Creative Minds
DCS
Floppy
Ephidrena
Haujobb
IRIS
Loonies
MFX
Potion
TBL

»CL1:As you see, the list contains 9 of the
best  Amiga  groups,  aswell  as  MFX,
which  I  guess is some PC/Linux group
that I know nothing at all about.  The
others  however, need no introduction,
and I would very much hope that seeing
this  list  make  you  look forward to
seeing    what    these   groups   can
accomplish.   If  this works out, 9 of
the most known Amiga groups will own a
Pegasos2  and  will  probably continue
doing PPC demos, although one can hope
that  they  will  not  forget the 68k.
This  alone  makes  for big changes to
the Amiga scene.

»CL0:I must admit that at times I was close
to   making  IRIS  drop  out  of  this
project.   Waiting for almost one year
before something happened, delay after
delay,   and  months  of  silence,  it
didn't  exactly  bode  well.  It was a
promising  project  to be sure, but it
wouldn't  have  been the first time an
Amiga  firm  had  gone  back  on their
words   and  plans.   Infact  this  is
rather  much  the rule.  In September,
Bill  Buick told me and others that we
would   get  our  Pegasos2  system  in
October.   When  it  didn't  come, the
reason was that IBM had ordered all of
the  first  batch  produced that month
(2500  units).   It  didn't  look like
Genesi  was willing to do much for the
scene  around then, when they couldn't
even spare 10 units for it.

»CL1:Then,  just around christmas, I got an
email from THG telling me that I could
look   forward  to  a  late  christmas
present  in my mailbox.  However, only
3  Pegasos2's were shipped to sceners,
I  do  not  know the reason why Genesi
couldn't  spare  7 more this time, but
it hardly seems fair to let only three
groups  get  first dibs and thus get a
headstart  over the others.  Naturally
this  might not be a big issue, if the
remaining   7   groups  do  get  their
systems  soon.   However,  again it is
not  very  positive  that Genesi could
spare  3  units in the next production
batch  for  the  scene,  but  not  10,
although  I  suppose it is better than
nothing.  The 3 groups who were to get
the  Pegasos2  shipped  to them by UPS
were  Ephidrena, IRIS and TBL, I later
got  to know.  Then I forgot about the
Pegasos2 again, and resumed working on
the  EC  and  preparing for boozing at
new  year.   I  was somewhat surprised
when  I actually saw the black UPS car
outside  the  28th  December,  but  it
looked   like   things   were  finally
beginning  to  happen around then.  As
of  now,  writing this article the 8th
of  January,  the  7 other groups have
still not received their Pegasos2, but
they   needn't  fear  IRIS  getting  a
headstart on them at least, as we lack
much  of  the  hardware needed to make
the  damn  thing  run,  hehe.   Yes, a
complete   Pegasos2  system  seems  to
consist  of  a MicroATX motherboard, a
G4  1ghz  processorcard,  aswell  as a
MorphOS   1.4   cd,  although  it  was
discussed   that   we  would  get  our
systems  with  RAm,  gfxcard and hd at
least..   Not  only  that,  but  it is
terrible  picky about what hardware it
wants to run with, so we will probably
not  get  ours  up  and running before
February.   More  about  all  that  in
another  article  for the hardware and
OS  interested  people,  where  I have
written more about this computer.

»CL0:Now, you might say that the 10 scenish
groups  who have agreed to participate
in  this have been lured into doing it
for  the  money/hw,  and you might say
that  Genesi  is  only  thinking about
themselves, getting a lot of promotion
out  of  buying  sceners  to advertize
their machine.  That would be somewhat
true,  and  naturally  Genesi,  likely
chiefly,  do  this for their own sake,
it  IS  a company after all.  And yes,
at  the  very least, it does give some
extra  incitement  to  produce a demo,
when  you  get  some  sort of monetary
reward  for  it.   This  is ok and can
actually  be  for the best, as long as
that reason is not the main reason for
participating in this.  As for Genesi,
well   if   they  can  get  themselves
promoted  on this it is fine for all I
care,  just  as long as we can promote
the  demoscene  and produce art at the
same  time,  because  that is the real
reason  for  this,  and  this  is  the
important   thing.   Here  we  have  a
sponsored  democompetition  with  very
solid  prizes  featuring the very best
Amiga  groups  (and  one  PC  group it
seems)  showing  off their skills on a
PPC  'Amiga'.   We  for  one will make
sure  that  our demo can be run on all
PPC  equipped  Amigas, to increase the
spread  and  enjoyment.  So, this is a
high-profile,       probably       THE
high-profile  opportunity  to kick off
the  PPC scene and the new Amigas to a
good  start.   A chance like this will
probably  never  come  again, at least
not  if  we  fail to take it.  Imagine
the  impact it would have if we got 10
high-quality  PPC  demos in a separate
competition   at   The   Assembly  for
instance.   That would make a case for
the  establishment of a PPC scene more
than anything else has done until now.
It  might  also  lure  PPC owners into
becoming  sceners, and frankly we need
new  sceners more than anything, if we
are  going  to  survive.   This  is  a
golden opportunity, and I hope all the
groups  who  have  been  selected  are
willing  to  give  it  their  all  and
participate,  also  I surely hope that
Genesi   won't  fuck  up  anything  by
breaking   promises  or  delaying  too
much.   2004  is the year were we have
to  move  the  Amiga scene towards the
PPC  once  and  for  all, to stimulate
growth  and  new motivation.  Infact I
think  that  if we fail in this, or if
this  competition is not held, then it
is  over  for  the  Amiga  scene.  Not
right   away  naturally,  but  we  are
already fading fast as it is, and only
something  like this can save us if we
want to be anything else than a museum
exhibit.

»CL1:This  is  why  the  importance of this
event can't really be stressed enough,
and  this is also why it is great that
Bill  Buick of Genesi decided to start
this  project.   Yes,  of course he is
very  clever  for  marketing  reasons,
probably  getting  the  best talent on
the  Amiga  in and out of the scene to
promote  his  firm  and OS, but we can
ourselves  use  this for a lot, so let
Genesi  have their benefits, if we can
just  get  ours,  which  won't  be the
hardware  and  money we might get, but
which  will be the opportunity to save
the  Amiga scene and bring it forward.
Nothing  could  be as important or big
as   this,   scenewise,  and  this  is
exactly  what  this  is  all  about  I
think.

»CL0:Details  such  as deadlines, the place
where   the  competition  is  to  take
place, prizemoney and so on, are to be
finalized  when  all  10  groups  have
finally   gotten  their  machines.   I
think   this   might  happen  in  late
January.   If  so,  then I think it is
entirely  possible that there might be
a  separate PPC democompetition at The
Assembly, or at least an overall Amiga
democompetition,   with  the  Pegasos2
releases  getting  ranked  internally.
All  this  is to be decided and talked
about  though, so nothing is for sure.
If  it  happens,  I daresay it will be
the  most important event in the newer
history  of the Amiga scene, maybe THE
most  important event, because so much
depends on it.  I believe that if this
falls  flat  on  the  floor  for  some
reason or another, and if nothing else
similar  to  it happens, the future of
the     Amiga    scene    is    simply
non-existant.

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