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- »PIC:barclip2.ilbm»
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- »CL9: HIRED DEMOSCENING?
- »PIC:barclip2.ilbm»
-
- »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
- »PIC:op1»
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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.
-
- »PIC:op1»
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