Best of Demoscene 2015 - Looking back at the
best demos of the year
"Are we doing the right things and are we
doing them right?" is a guideline of many companies that operate according
to the EFQM
guidelines. This unassuming sentence tells the
truth. Only those who comply with these standards can accomplish the highest
standards, can guarantee highest quality and deliver a thoroughly excellent
product. With this principle in mind, we look back at the past twelve, exciting
months, in which the computer demoscene produced many highlights and which has given us some unforgettable,
spectacular moments. In a total of 26 categories, which have been expanded this
year to a few unusual Awards, we honor the crème de la crème of audiovisual
scene art and show where and how the demoscene has done the right things. So
who are the follow ups to Intrinsic Gravity, Black and White lies
or The
Timeless who were the measure of
all things in 2014?
Best PC Demo:
01. Coronoid / STILL (Download / YouTube)
02. Monolith / Andromeda Software Development (Download / YouTube)
03. Hold-and-Modify / CNCD & Fairlight (Download / YouTube)
04. We stand divided / Cocoon (Download / YouTube)
05. Ziphead / CNCD & Fairlight (Download / YouTube)
06. Winter One (Release version) / Jugz (Download / YouTube)
07. Rock'n'Roll Deathspheres / Hackers (Download / YouTube)
08. Parnassum / STILL (Download / YouTube)
09. pb06: Cubed Adventure / Poo-Brain (Download / YouTube)
10. Rainbow Clash: Way / United Force & DD (Download / YouTube)
Many groups have
done the right things right in 2015. Above all of them are STILL. The boys
from Berlin defended their first place in the most important category for
the best PC demo of the year. "Coronoid" is the successor of
"Intrinsic Gravity", the winner of 2015. This
incredible production fully deserves to stand on top. Designer Alexander
Lehmann has experimented, tweaked, combined and executed in a perfect way
and put in all of his creative power. The result is a work of perfection
and variety which you don't see too often, which features world-class
effects, visuals and provides an extraordinary soundscape. So perfect,
artistically valuable and monumental a "Monolith" from the
legendary group Andromeda Software Developement is, so creative, stylish
and modern "Hold and Modify" from the AAA design teams CNCD &
Fairlight is, "Coronoid" raised the bar just too high for those
wonderful pieces of real-time art.
The group STILL was
able to place a second demo in our Top 10 list with "Parnassum"
(8th place), as CNCD and Fairlight with "Ziphead" (rank 5).
Likewise Cocoon are here again. Their "We stand divided" is also
one of the really big titles of the year and ended ultimately at fourth
place. This year we've also seen surprisingly strong demos that have been
created using the Unity engine. Examples include "Winter One" by
Jugi Kaartinen, occupying the sixth place, and our number nine "Cubed
Adventures" by Poo-Brain. The cult 1980s styled "Rock'n'Roll
Deathspheres", and the even more colorful and weird "Rainbow
Clash: Way" are filling the remaining two places on this list.
Really close but unable to open the door to
the ten best demos at last werea couple of other great prods. For example
"Function over Fame" by Excess, Mankind's "Interstase",
"Low", the demo with the perfect sync by Ümlaüt Design, Fairlight
with their amazing designed rooms called "Photon" or Eksperts
"DEMO2", which was made with the mighty Unreal engine.
Best PC 64k Intro:
01. Offscreen Colonies / Conspiracy (Download / YouTube)
02. XX / Onslaught (Download / YouTube)
03. A+ / Inque (Download / YouTube)
04. On / Mercury (Download / YouTube)
05. Delight / Mercury (Download / YouTube)
06. Backscatter / Logicoma (Download / YouTube)
07. Scarcity / Inque (Download / YouTube)
08. Diztrt / Bon^2 (Download / YouTube)
09. fr-097: Digital Doomsday / Farbrausch (Download / YouTube)
10. Supervenience / Z Brothers (Download / YouTube)
Fascinating
futuristic architecture, merged into just 64 kilobytes, that's what the
demo group Conspiracy has created with "Offscreen Colonies".
Monumental buildings, impressive planetary surfaces - people who love Star
Trek, Star Wars and Captain Future feel good in the worlds of this
masterpiece. Although this intro doesn't show the most impressive effects,
the overall picture of visuals, design and music made it for us the most
impressive and most beautiful 64k intro experience in 2015. On their way to
get a place in the demo olymp are the Australians from Onslaught In the
past months they have presented many wonderful titles. The most impressive
of these was undoubtedly the 32 kilobytes intro "XX". The water
shader alone ensures an incredible amazement, but this is by far not everything
what is shown here and why "XX" was able to earn the silver
medal.
What more can we say about the group Inque.
The guys around Glow and Izard have ascended extremely heavy and impressive
effect guns on the 64k sector again. They have mainly proved with "A
+", which we see at the third place of the best 64k intros, that they learned
a lot when it comes to the overall design. But also their
"Scarcity" (7th place), or "Void" which didn't reach the Top 10, they
have proved skillful at the highest level. That can also be said for
Mercury. The 64k intro "The Timeless" from 2014 is still
unforgotten and was responsible for open mouths in a row because of its
amazing visuals. Unfortunately it lacked design, so Mercury came up with
"On" which features perfect style and is so much filled with
fresh ideas. It reminds on the works from the visionary film maker Oskar Fischinger. They continued this way with
"Delight", which was released shortly before the end of the year.
Also here they found a good mixture between bombastic optics and well
designed scenes. "Backscatter" and "Diztrt" are the
special guests on this list, thanks to cool design (backscatter) and
refreshing ideas (Diztrt). In addition also BeRo of Farbrausch is still getting
better and showed us pretty impressive and audible thumping riot as seen in
his "Digital Doomsday". "Supervenience"by the Z Brothers
is also a visual grenade, with some astonishing visuals.
Best PC 4k Intro:
01. Optical Circuit / 0x4015 (Download / YouTube)
02. Hydrokinetics / Prismbeings (Download / YouTube)
03. BLCK4777 / p01 & Ribbon (Download / YouTube)
04. Prism Break / Alcatraz (Download / YouTube)
05. Ghosts of Mars / Faemiyah (Download / YouTube)
06. Hardcore Vibes / T.R.S.I. (Download / YouTube)
07. Tracking / Onslaught (Download / YouTube)
08. Pegasus / Frankenburgh & Virgill (Download / YouTube)
09. Metallic / BluFlame (Download / YouTube)
10. vierKA / Nuance (Download / YouTube)
It was some kind of
head to head race when choosing the best 4k intro of the year 2015.
"Optical Circuit" shows spectacular raymarching scenes in the
style of the legendary "cdak".
"Hydrokinetics" takes us into a world of transforming pyramids
and metaballs. Eventually "Optical Circuit" won the race with
gossamer majority which brings Japan for the first time a gold medal in the
history of our best-of-lists. Also the just 1024 bytes small intro "BLCK4777"
left us totally excited because of its stunning visuals. It even runs in a
browser! The following ranks have been acquired by other gems such as
Virgill's "Prism Break" or "Ghosts of Mars", made by
Faemiyah, a team specialized in tiny codeworks. The other intros listed
here also entertain well and are even more impressive when considering the
filesize we are talking about in this category.
Best PC 8k Intro:
01. q(n)=2k15 / T.R.S.I. (Download / YouTube)
02. Evoke our Function / T.R.S.I. (Download / YouTube)
03. Manifold / Alcatraz (Download / YouTube)
04. Volumiscope / DMA (Download / YouTube)
05. The Evolution in Motion / Alcatraz (Download / YouTube)
King Hardy swings
the scepter masterfully in the genre of 8k intros, which were released more
frequently in the past 12 months. Hardy was already one of the elite coders
when it comes to 4k stuff, but it's even more impressive to see what he can
do with a couple of more bytes. His unspeakable "q (n) = 2K15"
offered the most beautiful and diverse motion effects as "Evoke our
Function" definitely can claim the coolest greetings part of the year
for themselves. With "Manifold" the leading trio is completed.
The latter one comes from grandmaster Virgill, who's getting a better and
better programmer with every new release. He seamlessly enqueues in the
elite list of scene musicians who suddenly start to impress with their coding
skills appear (for example: Smash / Fairlight). "Volumiscope" of
DMA and Alcatraz '"The Evolution in Motion" complete our list of
the best 8k intros of 2015.
Best Oldschool Demo:
01. Synchronization / Consciousness (ZX Spectrum enhanced) (Download / YouTube)
02. 8088 mph / Hornet & Crtc & Desire (MS-DOS) (Download / YouTube)
03. We were @ / Oxygene (Atari STe) (Download / YouTube)
04. It came from Planet Zilog / Phantasy (GameBoy Color) (Download / YouTube)
05. Kpacku Deluxe / Kpacku (ZX Spectrum) (Download / YouTube)
Some may speak of a
sham, others simply do not care and enjoy a thoroughly great demo.
"Synchronization" splits minds, because this wonderful show runs
only on a modified Speccy. That's nothing we care about, because effects,
graphics and design can only be described as spectacular. Also the magic
delivered through effects is accompanied by incredibly good music which
rushes your soul from one high point to the next. The optically no less
impressive "8088 mph", which runs only on stone old MS-DOS systems,
is on the same level as "Synchronization" effectwise, but clearly
falls back in design and music. The Atari ST is again represented with a
great production this year. Code magician Leonard shows in "We were
@" impressive technique tricks in fullscreen format again and
reactivated with Clawz and Mon two of his old comrades. Also, we shouldn't
forget the GBC demo "It Came from Planet Zilog" and "Kpacku
Deluxe", another work for the ZX Spectrum. The C64 Demo
"GoatLight" barely failed to make it under the best-of-five.
Best Amiga Demo:
01. Gagrakacka Mind Zones / Disaster Area (Download / YouTube)
02. Sushi Boyz / Ghostown (Download / YouTube)
03. Be Kool Fool / Focus Design (Download / YouTube)
04. Carbon Based / Dekadence (Download / YouTube)
05. Last Train to Danzig / Ghostown & Haujobb (Download / YouTube)
In 2015, the Amiga
celebrated not only its 30th birthday, the Amiga demo scene bestowed the
Amigans with a flood of releases they had not seen for quite a while.
Perhaps that's one reason why this year wasn't such a blast for the
otherwise so strong C64 scene which presented us two mindblasting demos with
"Comaland"
and "Uncensored"
in 2014. That doesn't matter, because the tongue breaker "Gagrakacka
Mind Zones", a colorful effect spectacle on the Amiga 500, conquered
immediately the heart of most demo fans. Ours too, and this time a little bit
more than that once again perfectly designed demo from Ghostown. Eventually
their "Sushi Boyz" placed
second. The perfect groove has been found by Corial in his demo "Be
Kool Fool", which he produced together with his brother, scene legend
Optima, and his group Focus Design. Third place for this lovely prod! The
3D heavyweight 'Carbon Based' made it to place number 4, while the
"Last Train to Gdansk" entered the train station one place behind.
The demo by Haujobb and Ghostown probably shows you the best effects in the
field, has perfect design and terrific music, but lost the overall victory due
to its brevity.
Best Browser Demo:
01. D159 / Simppafi (Download / YouTube)
02. Luxe / Holon (Download / YouTube)
03. Everything is Fashion / Ninjadev (Download / YouTube)
04. BLCK4777 / p01 & Ribbon (Download / YouTube)
05. My god, it's full of sinus / AWSM (Download / YouTube)
The choice for the
best browser demo was a difficult one, too. "D159" and
"Luxe" here fought a duel in effect quality vs. art of design.
Simppafi, author of the brilliant online audio visualizer ApexVJ, showed impressive 3D effects
in "D159", probably among the best since the legendary WebGL demo
"70s"
by Alcatraz. That impressed us a tick more than the innovative design in
"Luxe". A good mix of the top two demos is "Everything is
Fashion" from NinjaDev which could grab the bronze medal. Only 1024 bytes
weights the fascinating "BLCK4777" that we see on the third place
in the list of the best intros with a size of four kilobytes, but which
crosses the finish line in the genre of browser demos one place behind.
Number 5 in our list is "My god, it's full of sinus", which lets
beat the hearts of the C64-generation higher with tons of effects and
scrollers.
Best Invitation Demo:
01. The Return / Bitlove (Download / YouTube)
02. The Best Deserve a Statue (Download / YouTube)
03. ION15 / Rebels (Download / YouTube)
04. Peacock / Fairlight (Download / YouTube)
05. Simon Ritter von Stampfer / Stroboholics (Download / YouTube)
We would have
almost canceled the nominees for the best invitation demo in 2015. Less and
often uninspired didn't make it easy for us to find enough competitors.
It's not enough to show a few text messages here or attach a few lines of
text to normal intros, because the soul of such a product is missing. We already
gave up hope to see such a masterful demonstration of art and style as seen
in "Megalactic"
or the "V.I.P. 2"
-Invitation until Christmas was just around the corner. First there was a
classic, but pretty looking and splendid sounding real time invitation
released called "The Best Deserve a Statue", made for the upcoming
scene oscars. Then, at Under Construction 2015, the brilliant and funny "The
Return"^which invites to the Easter party Revision 2016 was released. This
picture book with the ultra cool Evil bot in the lead role is an unusual
production, creative, funny and surprisingly designed. Cheers for the winner!
Other nice invitations have been "ION15" by Rebels, Pantaloons
first PC demo for a long time ( "Peacock"), and the riot making
"Simon Ritter von Stampfer" who told us to come to Under
Construction 2015.
Best newcomer demo:
01. Hydrokinetics / Prismbeings (Download / YouTube)
02. Backscatter / Logicoma (Download / YouTube)
03. Ajar / Placid (Download)
04. My god, it's full of sinus / AWSM (Download / YouTube)
05. Solitude / MrVux (Download)
Is it important
that a newcomer is a real greenhorn in the scene or is it sufficient to
release something under a completely new name? That's an issue that we
discussed extensively. The result was to award the group Prismbeings with
the first place and Logicoma with the second. Both groups were completely
unknown to the scene and have drawn attention to themselves with
outstanding first productions. The people behind these two name are famous and
already earned fame in the demoscene. The fantastic "Hydrokinetics"
comes from Noby, who is also active in Epoch and The Royal Elite Ninjas
Inc.. Ferris, however, is known for his great dubstep tracks in demos by
Youth Uprising. He programmed the 64k intro Backscatter. Both persons have
plenty of experience, which is the reason why we could have better called
this traditional award "Best demo by a new group". Due to the
fact that both works are of such high quality, we have left everything as
it is, because demos are our passion and we consider it our duty to point
out such gems!
Then, the third palce was reached by a true-freshman. Programmed by someone
who's calling himself Tags the demo "Ajar" is an example of how
to create great atmosphere with simple stuff. It takes some time until it is
made clear that inner values are the things that count here. Also AWSM
created a hit demo with "My god, it's full of sinus", which was
made for running in browsers. Although he milks the last drop out of the retro
machinery with its C64-effects, AWSM put here a lot of variety and it never
gets bored. Also "Solitude" by MrVux surprised us with good
scenes that however lacked some finishing touches.
Best Design:
01. Hold-and-Modify / CNCD & Fairlight (Download / YouTube)
02. Coronoid / STILL (Download / YouTube)
03. On / Mercury (Download / YouTube)
04. Monolith / Andromeda Software Development (Download / YouTube)
05. We stand divided / Cocoon (Download / YouTube)
06. Luxe / Holon (Download / YouTube)
07. Ziphead / CNCD & Fairlight (Download / YouTube)
08. Diztrt / Bon^2 (Download / YouTube)
09. Parnassum / STILL (Download / YouTube)
10. Eden(d) / Hoodlum (Download / YouTube)
Although that our
demo of the year ("Coronoid") provides many unusual effects and
unique moments, scores the highest sound quality with noises and sounds
that are perfectly placed, we gave the design award of the year 2015 to
CNCD and Fairlight. Their "Hold-and-Modify" is like a perfectly
planned dissertation where all details have been considered to make up a
perfect scene demo: An unusual, but very stylish look; the connection of
modern visuals with a pinch of retro charm; a perfect soundtrack that
ignites both without image guidance, as well as reflecting the spirit of
today's times; and a noble technology framework that is riddled with all
sorts of subtleties and provides in combination with the things mentioned
above an incomparable experience. Yes, it's true! "Coronoid" was
beaten! Even if only by a small margin.
Well deserved is also the third place for the 64k intro "On".
Mercury have surprised us with their light and color spectacle so much and
a smile was conjured up in our faces while watching this masterpiece, that
we had to think about this gem all the year long. Of course, a "Monolith"
by Andromeda Software Development offers an outstanding spectacle too, but
the nearly perfect design formula is a bit too similar to the earlier works
by the Greeks, which is why a higher ranking would not have been justified.
The same also applies to Cocoon who again have created a technical
heavyweight prod with "We stand divided", but couldn't blow us
away in the same way as the productions placed higher.
Best Effects:
01. Coronoid / STILL (Download / YouTube)
02. Monolith / Andromeda Software Development (Download / YouTube)
03. We stand divided / Cocoon (Download / YouTube)
04. Ziphead / CNCD & Fairlight (Download / YouTube)
05. DEMO2 / Ekspert (Download / YouTube)
Black holes that
suck up entire planets. Rugged rock formations that most impressively manifest
on screen. These are only two scenes of many seen in "Coronoid"
by STILL which could have picked up the prize for the best demo effects in
2015. Unique is the magic word for what the Berlin boys have created here.
"Coronoid" is peppered with bright spots that you have not seen
in this form and preparation so far. As nice as the particles scenes in the
ASD-Demo "Monolith" are,as beautiful the impressive character
outlines look, what can be seen in the winner demo just looks more fresh,
fantastic, yes, sensational is the word to fit in here best!
"We stand divided" is the demo
showing the most impressive light and shadow effects and also brought back
an old acquaintance in a marvelous look: The Twister! The flashbulbs in "Ziphead"
grabbed rank 4. The Finnish / British co-production by CNCD and Fairlight
offered many fantastic moments, too. Hopefully just a first taste of the
power plugged into the Unreal engine is Eksperts "DEMO2". Some
highly polished stuff was included there. A nice proof that this graphics
engine can also do "demoscene" which perhaps will bring us even
more graphics bombast shortly.
Best Soundtrack:
01. Coronoid / STILL (Download / YouTube)
02. We stand divided / Cocoon (Download / YouTube)
03. Synchronization / Consciousness (ZX Spectrum enhanced) (Download / YouTube)
04. Hold-and-Modify / CNCD & Fairlight (Download / YouTube)
05. Winter One Release / Jugz (Download / YouTube)
Oh well, the choice
of the best demo soundtracks was really a difficult undertaking which was kindled
into a controversial discussion again. The question we have to answer here
was if it's necessary that a demo track provides a memorable melody? Melodies
that you are able to whistle extemporaneously also at night, like it was
the case with the cult demo "1995",
for example? Or is just a technically masterful arrangement the thing that
counts? Powerful sounds that at every millisecond perfectly accompany every
scene, that add the last percent of a killer atmosphere to a visually
stunning monster, although if sound effects, noises and strange sound
constructs urge the melodic aspect clearly in the background? What JCO has
created with its aural accompaniment to "Coronoid" is unique,
that's a fact. It's so utterly amazing that it was clear for us that this
unusual soundtrack must win this category. For the quiet but
menacing-sounding and deep mood creating soundtrack of "We stand
divided" remained only the second place.
In the footsteps of last year's winner
"Uncensored",
the C64 demo with one of the most beautiful SID soundtracks ever, occurs
"Synchronization" for the ZX Spectrum. Again, the beautiful
chiptune sounds nestle catchy into your ears. The sheet medal won the super
modern "Hold-and-Modify". With this track Yolk definitely does
not cater to mass tastes but accompanied a perfect visualization of stylish
scenes and thus exudes an incredible new media feeling. Sound veteran Jugi
could please the audience with his music project Aisth and reached place
number five in our list. His "Winter One" has become one of the
best demo experiences of the year due to its beautiful sound.
Best Visuals:
01. Photon / Fairlight (Download / YouTube)
02. Offscreen Colonies / Conspiracy (Download / YouTube)
03. We stand divided / Cocoon (Download / YouTube)
04. Coronoid / STILL (Download / YouTube)
05. Monolith / Andromeda Software Development (Download / YouTube)
Nope, the usual
suspected prods "Coronoid", "We stand divided" or
"Monolith" didn't play the leading role for the best graphics in
a demo award. They reached only the third, fourth and fifth place here. The
victory fetched a demo that has not been found in any of our top lists yet,
"Photon" by Fairlight. This architectural wonder shows not only a
highly impressive, beautifully golden playground for photons, rather these
spherical objects are travelling through living rooms later. These are so
beautifully designed that you could almost think of a technology demo by
Epic Games. It's a spectacle that even left the AAA productions this year behind.
On the second place we see the beautiful 64k intro "Offscreen
Colonies". Graphic artist Zoom simply understands to build impressive
futuristic constructs and paint them with the perfect color selection. The
result are scenes that work perfectly as wallpapers for your desktop.
Best
Wild Demo:
01. Demos - Die neue Bedrohung der Menschheit / Schädelproductions (Download / YouTube)
02. Second Reality / SIDrip Alliance (Download / YouTube)
03. Oh Lord / Moods (Download / YouTube)
04. Variation 18 / LFT (Download / YouTube)
05. Cubes / Gaspode (Download / YouTube)
Some really funny things
could be discovered at the wild demos in the past twelve months. "Demos
- A new threat to mankind" by Schädelproductions directly shot to the
top of the stage. The not entirely serious film documentary not only
reveals the machinations of the demo scene, here more deeply shocking discoveries
are brought into light. That's really great fun - especially for
connoisseurs of the demoscene. Less serious, but stocked with plenty of
SID-chip power and whining electric guitar sounds is the video for the
remix of "Second Reality" by the band SIDrip Alliance. The
Hungarian Kombo mixed beautiful visuals with excellent music in this music
video. Focused on things like that is also "Oh Lord", while funny
texts exaggerate the booze factor into the altitude here. The filigree
piano play in "Variation 18", which is acoustically accompanied
by several C64 computers supplies your arms with a ton of goosebumps, as
does the effect horny cobblestones in Gaspode's "Cubes" video.
Best Music Disk:
01. Northern Star / Booze Design (C64) (Download / Soundcloud)
02. mmdm / Mandarine (Browser / Windows / Mac OS X) (Download)
03. Chip-Box / Hemoroids (Browser) (Online)
04. Chiperia (complete) / The Chiperia Project (Amiga) (Download / YouTube)
05. Relive / SIDrip Alliance (C64) (Download / YouTube)
Meds music disk
"mmdm" had already packed its suitcase to travel to the top of
the podium, but then, two days before the year would end, Stellan
"Dane" Andersson of Booze Design sent a late Christmas gift. It's
called" Northern Star", runs (of course) on the Commodore 64, and
includes eleven beautiful pieces of music composed by the SID God from
Sweden. The presentation does not really count to the strong points of
"Northern Star", but that's immediately forgotten because of the
great melodies packed in here that only Dane is able to compose. That was a
start like a lightning bolt from zero
to number # 1 in this year charts!
But back to "mmdm". This amazing package from author Med fits
seamlessly into the ranks of the scene musicians like Smash or Virgill who
have discovered their programming talent. In his music disk "Med Music
Disk Mandarine" he packed many of his (chip) tunes, along with a few
shaders as a gimmick which visually accompanies these sounds. This turns
into a really nice, great sounding specimen of music disc with optical extras.
The extensive Atari song archive "Chip Box", that only runs in
the browser, also gave us many hours of pure listening joy. The same can be
said about "Chiperia", the Amiga music disk series which
meanwhile consists of six issues. The conclusion of our top five formation
builds another musicdisk for the C64, this time filled with great remixes by
SIDrip Alliance in their production "Relive".
Best Scene / Netlabel
album:
01. Ember / Kubbi (Link)
02. Symbiosis / Sundial Aeon (Link)
03. Chronicles of the Wasteland & Turbo Kid OST / Le Matos (Link)
04. Return to Synth City / Nightstop (Link)
05. Stone Cold / Muffler (Link)
To
no other album Bobic has listened up and down as many times as to
"Ember" by chiptune- and Gameboy musician Kubbi. No matter where
and with what he travelled around, Kubbi's music was always with him. In
his music players, in his ears and in his brain. We all really enjoyed
"Ember", an album which has given us hours of listening pleasure.
With its fantastic melodies, this inimitable treatment of each song which
gets more and more atmospheric and epochal by every minute of its runtime,
the sound artist from Norway has created an absolute masterpiece. We
quickly realized this was by far the best music album that we would hear during
the last 365 days. Fascinating sounds are also included in the new album
"Symbiosis", which comes out of the studio by the polish ambient/industrial
formation of Sundial Aeon. Thus the scene veterans don't reinvent themselves,
but they just do what they do best: Creating refined ambient sounds and
connecting them with melodic constructions which build a close-meshed
network of fascination and atmosphere around the listener.
You'll find 80's synthpop in perfection,
with melodies to fall in love for and to dance the night away in the
soundtrack to the iconic trash movie Turbo Kid. The Canadian lineup Le
Matos delivers here probably the best film soundtrack of the year, which
was not recorded with an orchestra. And thanks to Bandcamp we may all
eavesdrop! Even more synth-pop sophistication brought up NightStop's
"Return to Synth City" which everyone must have heard also. Then
scene veteran and drum'n'bass god Muffler (from Scoopex & Haujobb) played
around at his mixing deck again. On his new album "Stone Cold" he
puts the deep bass back into the background and presents often rather quiet
but melodic pieces and still spoils all those ears thirsty for breakbeats.
Best Scene Image:
01. High Octane Rampage / Darkki (Link)
02. The Cigarette Break / Slayer (Link)
03. 25 Years of Data Voodoo / M.A.D. Newline (Link)
04. Experiment / Unreal (Link)
05. Maaseudum Tulevaisuus / Mazor (Link)
06. Norsk / Xenusion (Link)
07. Robota Uxo / Made (Link)
08. Spellcaster / Anathematixs (Link)
09. Autoportret znaleziony w wannie / Darklight (Link)
10. A chat with the death god / Vablo (Link)
The new Mad Max movie
was one of the most impressive spectacles seen on the big screen in cinemas
in the year 2015. That, of course, inspired also scene artists to create
stuff which reminds on the visual look and the settings of this movie.
Darkki from Finland created probably the most impressive image which
features upgraded desert buggies, heavily armed soldiers and a fullsize robosaur
leading to incredulity. Details, color composition and coolness factor are
simply incredible in this image and stood above everything seen in a still
image this year.So Darkki has successfully defended his title from last year
with his "High Octane Rampage". Already in 2014 we elected him onto
the first place with "Bells & Whistles".
Runner-up in the images category is pixel mage Slayer. His soft spot for trains he has often proved. With "The Cigarette Break" he set these monsters on rails a fascinating monument again. Stylistically entirely different with retro and modern styles simultaneously shown, is "25 Years of Data Voodoo", a graphic memorial to the worlds of wonder the group T.R.S.I. has created of the decades. Every single pixel in this image breathes magic here. With Unreal, Mazor, Made, Xenusion, Vablo or Darklight well known and popular guests have entered this category with splendid images, creative motives and their brushes of magic. Especially the works from Mazor and Xenusion must be mentioned separately, because they do not show the typical fantasy or science fiction motifs, but scenes that you do not see so beautifully drawn every day. From Anathematixs, who made his first appearance in the demoscene, we will hopefully get to see much more in the future. He definitely has a great future.
Best Scene Game:
01. Caren and the Tangled Tentacles (v1.1) / PriorArt (C64) (Download / YouTube)
02. The Wizard / Retroage (NES) (Download / YouTube)
03. BeGEMeD / Falcon Users Netherlands (Atari STe) (Download / YouTube)
04. Safety First! / JCO (Windows) (Download)
05. Majesty of Sprites (Final) / Bauknecht (Plus/4) (Download / YouTube)
When adventure
legend Ron Gilbert himself stops by a GamesCom booth to talk about a new
adventure game for the Commodore 64, it must be a real treat. This happened
for "Caren and the Tangled Tentacles" by Veto and Enthusi. The
game in the style of Maniac Mansion is really a proof of love to the
classic games from LucasArts, plays excellently and includes a great story
and puzzles, as well as to entertain with charming pixel graphics. A good
taste of gameplay has also been seen in "The Wizard", a cute jump
and run for the iconic Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Match 3 games
are meanwhile available in a number like pixels in Deluxe Paint, but such a
good-looking and hugely playable clone as "BeGEMeD" for the Atari
STe cannot be missed. We still hope to see ports for other platforms soon.
The most unusual scene Game of the Year comes from JCO who seems never to
run out of fresh ideas. "Safety First!" turns out to be a mixture
of Stickman Fight and Sumotori Dreams, with the difference here to carefully
use your skills to pee out broken electrified cables. Really impetuous fun!
Finally there's again a nice jump and run game, this time with
"Majesty of Sprites" for the Commodore Plus / 4. Damn pretty
graphics and a well-balanced level of difficulty provides plenty of fun.
Most experimental Demo:
01. Quadtrip Planet Reconfigurator / Quadtrip (Download / YouTube)
02. Interstase / Mankind (Download / YouTube)
03. Connections / Brainstorm & Vaahtera (Download / YouTube)
04. Payback / Jugz (Download / YouTube)
05. Engine / Epoch (Download / YouTube)
Welcome to the
slanted corner! Here you can find demos which are different to the powers
of the mainstream. Which are breaking the standards, which are some kind of
experiments and which temper minds. Demos such as "Quad trip Planet
Reconfigurator", which provides a visual spectacle in a style which
has not yet seen in other demos. Some will find that pretty, others too
confusing. Or "Interstase", which is another candidate. One part
of this production offers delicious effects and graphics, but the style
changes more often than granny their underpants. These fractures can hurt!
"Connections", however, is full of abstract symbols that migrate
across maps, over roads, subways and through entire cities. This is
optically produced unusual and musically as well. What is unusual in
"Payback" are the names of drugs that are constantly spoken and
displayed here. This idea works in conjunction with the pounding music, but
creates also plenty of distraction. Finally there was "Engine".
The Epoch production shows for over three minutes some kind of camshaft
that is both visually and acoustically merged through the glitch machine
together with shaders and sounds. Really nerve wrenching, but cool!
Best 80's style demo:
01. Computer Graphics Demonstration Tape / Hackers (Download / YouTube)
02. Oniria / Brainstorm (Download / YouTube)
03. Rainbow Clash: Way / United Force & DD (Download / YouTube)
A group such as
Hacker has really been missing in the demo scene. These specialists in
retro style homage to the style of the 1980s, which actually means that
there are garish colors, filters and images that represent a declaration of
love for art beads as VHS tapes and tube screens. They managed this the
best in their demo "Computer Graphics Demonstration Tape". So
stick on your old shoulder pads to the edges of your screen and start this
demo! The quiet "Oniria" offers so many colorful particles in the
brightest colors that you imagine to fly to the Neverland of the good old
times immediately. Furthermore also "Rainbow Clash: Way" breathes
much of the air filled with 80's style. The fast paced production from
Slyspy, which is filled with sparkling candy visuals, could show a bit too
much for some people, but looks fascinating on the other hand.
Most funny concept:
01. Gaspode - Sofa so good (Download / YouTube)
02. pb-05: Ziphorse / Poo-Brain (Download / YouTube)
03. Genesis / Zomgtronics (Download / YouTube)
Fun Demos are part
of the demoscene since the beginning. Yes, we laughed a lot because of the
pig gang in the browser demo "Genesis", and Poo-Brains
"Ziphead" parody made us to knock even more on the horse jaws.
However, the three cute potato heads in "Sofa so good" were the
culmination of this year's scene fun fair. Thank you Gaspode for this
cheerful clip!
Most scary concept:
- Elégtelen / The Adjective (Download / YouTube)
Usually you don't
have to be afraid by stuff created by the demoscene unless they come from BITS or ISO. However in 2015 a demo came
from Hungary that made everything different from their intro sisters and
demo brothers: This one taught us truly how to creep! Concept and execution
are in "Elégtelen" fascinating and frightening at the same time.
Firstly, there is the sound design, which consists predominantly of
disturbing noises, while the human eye spots a
creature consisting of metal claws, a horrible grimace and a piano!
Something you would expect seeing in a Resident Evil game and not in a
demo. Thus this morbid "Elégtelen" is now known as "The
Grudge" in the book of demoscene history.
Special: Unity-Greatness
- pb06: Cubed Adventure / Poo-Brain (Download / YouTube)
Why laboriously
write lines of code, when there are such great tools like the 3D graphics
engine Unity? More and more digital artists seem to show their creativity
with such a powerful tool which is available for free. In the meantime Unity
has become a part of the demoscene and has already proven its suitability
for the scene. A game like "Safety First!" was created with it and also
scene legends like Jugi Kaartinen (aka JUGZ) brought us marvels such as
"Winter One"
or "Payback".
However, the most impressive usage of Unity was made by the group
Poo-brain. Within just two years, the fun hobbyists have gained an
excellent reputation in the demoscene with their witty, entertaining but
also artful - even though they only use the freely available graphics
engine to visualize their ideas. Their talent and amount of work can be
seen especially in "pb-06: Cubed Adventure". The wonderful art
style, the exquisite levels of detail make it to a wonderful scene
experience. Respect gentlemen what you are able to create. Give us some
more examples of your creativity, please!
Special:
.werkkzeug-Greatness
- Diztrt / Bon^2 (Download / YouTube)
TomoAlien and
ZanaGB deserve an extra award, too! When Poo-brain stands for Unity, Bon^2
is the group for the good old demo tool .werkkzeug. Developed by the scene
gods from Farbrausch this powerful toy is currently not better used by any
other group. The two gentlemen show us extremely fresh scenes that are full
of variety and creativity, many of them we thought aren't possible with
.werkkzeug. We won't have a problem if it goes on like that, because
Farbrausch themselves who actually know their tool best, unfortunately
don't release anything new for quite some time now (except for BeRo).
Special: Best Slideshow
- The Lost Pixellers Vol. 2 / Ghostown (Amiga) (Download / YouTube)
Dear townspeople,
you already earned a special place in our Hall of Fame anno 2011. Four
years later we want to say "thank you" again. Thanks for keeping
slideshows alive. Thank you for the wonderful pixel art you put in your
"The Lost Pixellers Vol. 2" where you set this art style another
monument. And thank you that you find the time and inclination to make not
another simple slideshow, but one with cool design, a great interface and
music. That's what we call a special viewing pleasure. Vive la pixels!
Special: Stunning Visuals
- Our Fractal Brains / Julius Horsthuis (YouTube)
Oh my God, this is
just beautiful! The fractal worlds that the Dutchman Julius Horsthuis has
created using Mandelbulb3D, cannot be described with words. They make us
utterly speechless. Above all, his video "Our Fractal Brains" let
us forget everything around us. One reason why we here want to specially
mention his work, that exceptionally wasn't produced in the plants of the
demoscene. Don't miss this marvelous piece of visual computer art!