______ ______ ______ .::::: .:: .:: :::::.
/ /_____ / /____ / \ .::.. .:: .:: ...:::
___ / // _ \ / / /__<_ -- >.:: .:: .:: .::
/ /_____/< ____>___/_____/ / /______/.::::::.:: .:::::: :::::'
< - / \_/ / /_____/ / ___ ___ ____ /_/___ ______ ____
\_____/ /_______/ /_____/ / _// __>/ / // // __>/ / / /< /
/_/ \___/\__//_/ \___/\____//___>
-- -- -< Demo Reviews from the Error In Line #3 >- -- --
Grimey by Reservoir Gods (Atari STE and Falcon030)
Brits are famous for their very specific kind of humour. Who else but a Brit
would actually call a demo "grimey" ? Nevertheless, this demo _is_ named
Grimey, even though it doesn't contain anything really grimey. Instead, it
contains a soundtrack consisting of drum-samples and YM2149 tones which add
up to a drum'n'bass-like mixture. It also contains a very slick moving, grey
or pink 1-bitplane plasma, covering the whole screen and moving, halting and
flashing according to the music.
Now this style is held all through the demo. The music, or rather every beat
of music, can trigger the movement and effects on the screen. So the plasma
keeps moving, halting,
wobbling and re-starting as some introductory words are
being displays, like for example the makers of this demo,
which would be the Reservoir Gods, and that life might
be ugly, cruel, merciless and sometimes even Grimey.
Once you got the message, the plasma gets really grimey
by adding a few more patterns of movement or by suddenly
displayed a ceiling mapper with some barbed wire. Again,
the beat triggers movement of the barbed wire, the plasma
appearing again, a little Grimey-logo being displayed
and all that.
Then we learn that SH3 made the graphics, but this is
quickly removed to display a tunnel made of barbed wire
with, again, the plasma appearing/disappearing moving/
halting to the beat of the music.
More credits are being displayed in a very similar fashion,
by displaying a cartoon-like figure on the left with the
nickname and the function fulfilled in this demo on the
right. Obviously, Damo did basically everything else
with Mr.Pink supplying some extra code.
Now something totally new is being presented: A Wolfenstein
3D engine with some additional illumination effect. Can't
really tell whether this effect is being extra-calculated
or whether it origins from the nature of the texture applied
to the walls, or from the fact that only every second line
of the screen is being used of a moderately sized window,
but there's no doubt that walls brighten up as they get
closer. The viewer is being moved around for a while,
then the plasma appears again, moving according to the
music, the Wolfenstein engine shows up again and the
demo displays the plasma once again, telling us that it
was made with love for the scene, before we here the
"Grimey"-sample again and the demo finishes.
Why Grimey ? I can't tell.
What i can tell that this demo is very very original. The
1-bitplane plasma looks very cool already and the way the
music triggers the behaviour of the effects is excellently
used in every possible aspect. Also, the drum'n'bass like
soundtrack is a very clever combination of samples replayed
via the DMA and the YM2149. The barbed wire effects add up
and the Wolfenstein engine is fluent, even though the map
has been made up in a way that there's no really large
distances to cover.
I learned from Mr.Pink that Damo supplied his very own
demo-engine that is more or less organized like a module-
tracker replayer: Several effects can be run at once with
their own parameters like a tracker can play several samples
at once with their own parameters, and the demo itself can
be organized in patterns like in a module.
This, naturally, shines through this demo all the time.
Also, it should be noted, that all effects run very fluently
and without any visible hick-ups.
And it makes it special. This un-orthodox approach together
with the rather unconventional overall design and the rather
untypical music make this demo an eye-catcher for sure.
Even though the effects displayed are neither really new nor
really topping every former version of these effects, the
demo is very very well done and really makes you ask for
more.
So, Damo, give us more grimey stuff.
The Paranoid
Paranoia
Click here to get back to menu !
|
