::::[.tHE sIRIUS cYBERNETICS cORP.]::::
::: __ (c)2002-2005:::
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::::::: [ beams ] :::::::ltk
A cyberpunk romance in digital song and media!
With the majority of demos on Atari, ST and Falcon alike, you tend to know
what you are getting even before you watch to some extent.The normal
parameters recognise coding, especially some kind of hardware limit-
breaking, over story telling or 'design' (THAT word!) The more derivative
releases (on any scene) tend to fall into a "me too!" trap following the
last time that someone had an original idea, so you get string of fairly
similar releases for a time.
But now and then, a rare production manages to breach the stale consensus,
bringing a blast of freshness into an enclosed scene. 'Beams' is just such
a demo. We consider why.
Several people were involved in the making of this demo. Apart from the
great and good of tSCc, one of the people involved in the conception and
design stage was that reclusive Dead Hacker, Gizmo, who we never see, but
whose name often turns up in some of the best demos ever made for the
Falcon.
cxt: Sorry CiH, i think its gizmo/Farbrausch who was involved with beams, not
the DHS guy. :)
So what do those big-brained people at CERN do, when they're not smashing the
wotsits out of tiny molecules to gain the inner secrets of the universe? Well
here's a partial answer!
Beams is not a small demo, it downloads to around three and a half meg. A
large part of this is down to the two .mp2 soundtracks. Yes, there is at
least one 'new' technique being used here, and that is probably favoured
because of the unique nature of the soundtrack.
It can run on a broad swathe of Falcon hardware, and it is especially proud
of advertising its compatibility with a 4mb baseline Falcon. As the
infoscreen at the beginning of the demo confidently states "No 14mb, No
CT60, no Coldfire, no FPU," and a whole list of other things that Beams
doesn't need in order to run. I get the feeling that a lot of the
protracted development time went into making this part happen properly.
To cut a lot of dancing around the facts short, Beams is a tribute to the
William Gibson 'Neuromancer' novels. The demo takes you into the immersive
cyberspace experience depicted in his books. tSCc have pulled off something
of a master-stroke here. The abstractness of normal demo objects, the
cubes, pyramids, and more complex twisty blobs, has a natural affinity for
a cyberpunk themed demo. You really don't have to make your design ultra
realistic, or ultra natural, for that gets away from the point of the
exercise. You might even say that 'Beams' is "computer art" at its purest.
It's been a long time since I last read the Neuromancer books, but I've
always imagined it as an almost silent place. Lotek upsets expectations
once more, and comes up with this fantastic soundtrack for the demo. With
the additional flexibility of the .MP2 format, we have lyrics in the song,
no thumpy drum and bass mods for this demo! There are places in the demo
which almost encourage the viewer to sing along, so this could be a Karaoke
demo in the wrong hands!
So we click and run, we start by seeing the defiantly pround infoscreen at
first glance, "1 VBL, no panic, no 14mb, no CT60, no FPU..." Ok, I'm not
panicking...
| I am riding on a beam |
| a digital clean data stream |
| travelling with bits & bytes along |
| binary encoding zero one |
It starts gently, with a tunnel which you are running back from, overlaid
with flickering strands, like an old celluloid film reel playing. Then a
status panel with a non-random IP address on it scrolls up on the left part
of the screen. The opening lyrics "I am riding on a beam" quiver on the
screen in a bold white futuristic textual form, at the same moment that
they are sung on the soundtrack!
This alternates with a classic zoom and rotate background, you could call
it a 'datazoomer' as it is made up of the lovely zeros and ones which do
all the heavy work in our digital world.
Anyway, back to the song..
| the beams are gonna blind me |
| the data streams behind me |
| the beams are gonna blind me |
| the lights are gonna guide me |
We get to a title screen next, a fairly static part of the demo, apart from
the blue 'Beams' shining back from the middle part of each line of the
chorus. There is a neat background picture in there two, but that is kept
strictly under control!
Ray hits us with the first of his 3D treats. This is a rapid transit along
a maze of angular polygon tunnels, all done in a glorious green gouraud
mood, we get the benefit of this freescape world for the 21st century for a
little time, before it fades out gently.
In the distance, a tubular tunnel spins around, with glowing blobs
pulsating through it, in corpuscle fashion, the life blood of this demo
flows on.
A swift pixellator leads to another tranquil still graphic moment. This
shows the 'pyramids of IBM', which we will see some more of shortly, and
also the obligatory namecheck for the people who brought you this lovely
demo.
| much more clusters passing by |
| Fujijamatari signs |
| and in the distant digiland |
| the pyramids of IBM |
The next part is filled with some of those great abstract 3D objects, in a
metallic cold enviromapped way. Of course, you get their version of the
fuji logo, just as the song comes to "fujiamatari" signs and in the distant
digilands, there are the pyramids of IBM!
Metallic Lotek sings the blues!
The next part of the chorus is taken over by one of the demo masterstrokes.
This is the metallic lipsynched singing robotic replica of Lotek's head!
The lips and eyes really seem to move in time to the sung words. It could
be argued that this sequence, when first seen in 2003, may have influenced
certain later productions? The 'Elvis is still Dead' demo shuffles guiltily
forward at this point!
| the beams are gonna blind me |
| the data streams behind me |
| the beams are gonna blind me |
| the lights are gonna guide me |
Another major set piece? Yup, Ray virtually tours a cityscape rendered in
green, against a green shaded sky, and the black mountains or pyramids
lurking in the distance. It is really this bit that benefits from any extra
power you can throw at it, but still, a great effort!
In case the viewer is still in doubt about the identity of the demo, a 3D
enviromapped 'Beams' logo darts onto the screen for a short time, then
discreetly nips off down the bottom and is gone.
A final still moment before we start in on the end, with a tentacled alien
head leering out of the screen.
| a database, my journey ends |
| all panther moderns are my friends |
| we break the ice with no problems |
| we gonna steal the whole contents |
There is a final run of bluey enviromapped objects to fit the lyrics, but
we ask, just how friendly are the Panther Moderns? And shouldn't they have
been updated to "Jaguar Moderns"?
(You're fired! - Weak humour editor) (You're reinstated! - Pendantry editor)
(Surely it should be Tiger Moderns? - Obscure jokes about AppleMac OS
versions editor!)
Of course, the final chorus is taken up by metallic Lotek once more!
| the beams are gonna blind me |
| the data streams behind me |
| the beams are gonna blind me |
| the lights are gonna guide me |
And thus, the main part of the demo ends. But it is quiet only for a
moment. A harsh metallic voice grates "DSP activated", and we are into the
endpart.
There is a change of music, which much more mellow and slower paced, in
contrast to the liveliness of the demo soundtrack. Then a 3D metallic blob
appears, then one, and another divide from it, and they playfully merge and
diverge across the screen.
Like naughty children, they dart off to the left and disappear, then the
endpart proper begins.
A leftward running scroller with a huge picture shows many of the demo
themes on it. Various crew names fade up, are spoken by the soundtrack in a
deep electronic voice, then fade down again. This goes on for the best part
of a couple of minutes, ending on the final text onscreen 'tSCc.atari.org'.
Thus the demo is totally concluded. We have just been a witness to one of
the all-time great moments of Falcon demo-dom.
We can't avoid mentioning the very long development time. Many of you will
have first seen Beams at Error in Line 3, back in 2003. It has only been
released now, some two years later. The story of being trapped in
development hell is typical of the Atari scene at large. There are grand
plans, some half-realised, and then insufficient time and changing
circumstances get in the way to halt completion.
We seem to have lost many of the promised Outline '05 demos that way?
Between EIL 3 and now, we've had the loss of one of the main coders, Remo,
and a period of military service for Ray. Then there are all the normal
motivation sapping things like persistent bugs and the sheer fatigue with a
project stuck for this long. Keeping fresh and interested must have been
one of the hardest jobs for Ray. Still, he stuck at it, and got there in
the end.
Beams is a real rarity among Atari demos, where you get high quality
effects, but the temptation to showcase these on their own has been firmly
resisted. For once, they have been subordinated to the storyline. This type
of demo is more typical of the current Amiga or PeeCee scene. I'd imagine
we will see more of this kind of demo on the CT60 in the future, but for a
base level Falcon, this is a considerable achievement.
Beams is defiantly oldschool. A basic 4mb Falcon is enough. I'd almost go
as far to say it is indifferent to the likes of CT60. A dedicated '030
booster like the CT2 does make the 3D parts move more slickly, and if
you've got a booster of any capacity, then this demo will love you for it.
At the same time, the overall design is so strong that it still looks great
on the standard machine.
There is one small technical issue, which takes the form of some monitor
weirdness. Beams has across the board compatibility on different screen
types, but on some VGA's, major screen adjusting may be needed. My
flatpanel LCD showed the demo on the top 2/3 of the screen, which looked
strange. It did behave normally on an RGB screen, so score one for having
two Falcons then! A subsequent check running my CT60 machine as a standard
Falcon, revealed that this was only a problem on the accelerated mode, so
not such a big deal then.
In our view, Beams has definitely got a place in the all-time hall of fame
for Atari demos. It does transform our expectations of how demos can be
made on the Falcon, and even two years after the release date it should
have had, it still looks and sounds fantastic! But is this is the last of
the great demos for the unexpanded Falcon? I'd like to think not, but the
4mb requirement (or straitjacket?) has been quietly dropped by most people
now, and more releases are happier with some kind of acceleration. And that
is even before I even mention the CT60 word!
Still, I'm blinded by this excellence, so I won't worry anymore today!
Pro's..
A great storyline!
Cool effects.
Perfect blending of the first two above.
Polished until it squeaks!
The music rules, a demo you can sing along to!
It all runs on a '93 era unexpanded machine!
It also runs on accelerators nicely.
Lovely slow contrasting endpart.
A definite all-time classic!
Con's..
Behaves strangely with some monitors on CT60.
Possibly a little sluggish in a couple of the larger 3D set pieces.
CiH, for Alive Mag. April '05.
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