WAITING FOR THE
APOCALYPSE !
[>----------------------------------------------------------------------------<]
The Loud! crew, which consists of the GFA-killer (but also hardcore-DJ ;) Thyrex
and the mega-mighty gfx-artist ST Survivor, released a new demo out of Thyrex
hideout ... Prepare for the trip !
This demo isn't auto-boot, u got to launch it from the desktop by loading the
"blast_me.prg" file.
The demo begins with an OS boot, this one is named N.L.S DOS (what is that N.L.S
company ? :) and it's loading a kind of "Windows" interface. After checking the
memory (Mhh, is that progress bar relative to the real ram-size of the ST ? ;)
all seems to be OK. But while the loading, a "system failure" appears. Argh, it
has been hacked ! Then the system seems to bug, displaying loads of messy
characters... But some of these aren't so messy as u can read sentences there,
releaving things like : "Thyrex is a pussy !" or "ST Survivor is a bitch !" ...
mhhh, ok now things are clear ! ;)
After that delirium, a Loud! logo appears, in typical ST Survivor style.
Then it's time for a message, with a creature head on the left. There are lots
of messages in this demo. Most of them are kind of devilish stuff (oh, i hope
i'm using the right word for description ! :) and quoted from metal bands. By
the way, this one seems unfinished ...
Next screen is a tunnel effect, made of wireframe stars rotating and zooming,
these aren't linked to eachothers. It looks nice, the colors are great according
to the black background.
And the title appears, completing the previous unfinished message. This gfx
doesn't looks the same style than other ones in the demo ... but it's nice.
Behind the title there's a lens flare coming from an eclipse (all apocalypses
are planed during an eclipse ?! Paco rulez ! Eheh ... ;).
A pic of a girl in a bloody bath fades in, this picture is well known. It's
surely based on a death metal album cover of ST Survivor collection ! :)
Effect coming up, this one is probably one of the oldest in the ST. It's the
"unlimited sprites" ! But probably no one before thought of using it to
illustrate a message ... That's what they did ! Here the sprites are skulls and
the message says : "A thousand ways to live ... unlimited ways to die.". In the
background, u can see a distorting gfx ... but what is it ?
After that, another message ! this time it's quoted from the metal band Fear
Factory. The font reminds me the game "The Trace". In the background there's the
same text but distorted (it's not an effect, it's part of the gfx).
Then comes another effect. There are 8 3D cubes with Atari signs rotating and
jumping on vertical axes. A kind of theater design on this screen.
It's time for the credits part. There's a pic of a sword with an animal skull
impaled on it on the left. Low border wiped out of course ! ;)
Want another message ? Take the one coming, it's the most stylish of the demo !
It's quoted from the band Amorphis and it features a kind of dragon amulet in
the background. I really like this one !
A blue and "ST Survivor styled" Fuji sign fades in ... It's nice but a little
bit discentered. Then a tunnel fades in background of the logo. Oh ok, the
tunnel comes a little bit from the right that's why the logo was out of centre.
:) This tunnel is red and black, but there's only one red color so the dithering
is not really great. By the way it's really noticable that this one is
precalculated (i mean ... more than the other effects. Eheh, Thyrex ! ;) as it
comes from the game stardust (from the last level i think).
The best part of the demo is probably the next one ! It's the greetings text.
The nice effect is the way it disappears. The text is white on black background
and it fades out with a fire effect, this comes from the bottom and isn't
linear. It's really smooth and realistic ! The colors are the best ones that
could be chosen. And expecting the quite lousy font it's a great job !
Time for another message, this one is quoted from the band Odborg (the beginning
name is quite difficult to read so i hope i'm right :). In the back u can see a
distorted head gfx.
Then a scanned gfx is scrolling up and down (it's too big to fit in the screen)
with a text on the left. This gfx is a really ugly beast and it looks like a
handmade painting.
Then the last effect appears, it's the same kind than the one with the Atari
cubes. But this times are 12 dots balls rotating and jumping on the upper part
screen with no left or right borders. A "the end" logo is displayed on lower
part of the screen, the 2 "e" on this logo seems been swallowed by a kind of
magic whirlwind.
On that effect the demo seems finished, the balls could be jumping for the rest
of your life but ... if u press the space bar ...
... Last message quoted from a metal band appears, it's from Judas Priest.
And to finish this demo, a message is displayed with the same font than the one
in the beginning part (the OS boot like), it tells that thousand of bodies are
lying on the battlefield and that it's only the beginning ... Wow, terrific ! :)
Then it goes back to the desktop, with the right colors restored.
The demo is rythmed by a MC Laser tune. It is a cool music but this is not one
of the best i heard from him. And personnaly, i don't think it feats well with
the mood of the demo ... I mean, this music is quite "happy" (it features mcl
hi-octaves solos) and the demo is mostly "dark".
The gfx are okay in general but ST Survivor did really better stuff before, i
think that he wanted to tell several messages and the gfx are just "design" for
these. Same thing for the code in fact.
This demo is nice to view, even if i'm not a dark mood addict. But it features a
lot less effects and design than their previous production "Beyond Imagination"
(wow allready 2 years passed since that prod was released !) which was really
great for GFA code, in my opinion ... I'm waiting for more from Loud! ;)
[>------------------------------------------------------) Review by Dma-Sc (--<]
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