Since 2002 there’ve been annual scene.org awards. Organised by people from the demoscene and with a changing jury every year, these are the most acknowledged annual awards for insiders – the Grammy’s for the demoscene. Here are the 8bit nominations from their list. Naturally, the nominations are always controversial.
Pimp My Spectrum by Ate Bit
Not 8bit by strict definition, yet this production is creatively taking a walk with the limitations of the ZX Spectrum. Evil Paul says to have hacked a pc based ZX Spectrum emulator, stripped it down and redefined the technical limitations. The result is a charming narrative demo with quite impressive looks. I highly recommend checking out the other work of Ate Bit.
The Next Level by Pers’ Wastaiset Produktiot
PWP in the person of Viznut has made some really great demos, this particular one is perhaps even their best till now. A fest of blocky computer aesthetics, ‘voice’-syncing narrative and charming animations makes this demo never dull. This animation/filmic approach succeeds very well, considering what the VIC-20 has to offer. Read the background information on the website of PWP, here.
Craft by Lft
This is true hardcore demoscene culture stuff. Lft made a demo using a common microchip, like those used in washing machines, toys and elevators. There’s an ongoing exploration of platforms to be used for demos, yet not often do they see daylight. The video starts with Lft giving a proper introduction to the technical side of things, the demo itself starts around 1:00.
Aeon by Triebkraft + 4th Dimension
Good looking demo with great syncing and a nice build up. Taking the coding of the ZX Spectrum to higher grounds wrapped in a delicious package of audio and visuals, none can argue with this nomination.
Natural Wonder 2 by Oxyron
Hardcore programming by Axis dressed in the wonderful graphics of Oys and Yazoo with a great synced soundtrack by Fanta and Kasmo. Done on the Commodore 64.
Edge of Disgrace by Booze Design
The most celebrated demo from the Commodore 64 demoscene last year. We’ve featured this demo before in another article, see it here.
The results will be presented at the award ceremony, which will be held at Breakpoint 2009, at the 11th of April. See all nominations here.
Emulators
ZX Spectrum: MAC&PC
C64 and VIC 20: PC or MAC
Hey, the Scene awards! So exciting! :D
If you let “Pimp My Spectrum” slip by, I think you have to allow the entrance of the Amiga demo “Life on a Grid”, which made it to the Breakthrough Performance Award ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NchqeOyOTKc
some pretty good stuff in here! to abstract a bit, i wonder which of these would appeal most to non-demosceners. that makes me also wonder, if these ones would have more ‘external’ appeal than nominees of previous years. ie, are demos becoming less geeky? (or, of course, the people that do the nominations) i have a feeling that’s been happening for a while, but what do you think?
@Akira: That’s a really cool one indeed. Yet letting that one slip into the list would push the definitions for this article too far i think :) Thanks for the tip though!
@Goto80: Interesting thought. Looking at these releases, the thematics for the productions above are still ‘geeky’ for sure. But all demos have a strong sense of a flow (audio, visual and effect) which could be partly addressed as ‘direction’, imo one of the crucial steps to be appreciated by a larger non-demoscene public. Also, it seems that demos are more often working with themes, making the product a whole. Sounds like common knowlegde, but not for the demoscene ;)
Interesting sidenote; the first 3 demos probably started out from one single idea and the even in the execution, that idea is very visible. I believe the key is there, sticking to a concept. Now if the thematics would become less geeky, maybe – just maybe we might become mainstream ;)
However, now that i gave it some thought, i wonder if it’s not ‘the people’ becoming more geeky?
Thanks for the thoughts! It might turn into an article eventually :)
Pimp My Spectrum is sytretching it!
Since limitations have been removed from the original hardware spec, it makes you question wether the spirit of which most oldschool demo productions are based on, is being true here, which in my opinion, isn’t.
The Amiga demo looks and sounds 8-bit but runs on a 32 bit platform, but worse does Pimp My Spectrum (doesn’t run on original 8-bit hardware either ;))
Just my opinion ;)
Regarding the point raised by Anders, I think there is indeed a “popularization of nerd” or “nerdification of pop” going on. Many signs on popular culture and society are showing this. Probably it has to do with the massification of computer ownership and usage?
@Akira: I see your point. I did feel i had to draw a line. Still i think ‘Pimp my Spectrum’ belongs here since it has such a strong conceptual approach to the ZX spectrum platform. (rumours say it’s not based on a spectrum emulator ;) Your suggestion would’ve been a strong candidate, but i must admit i missed it until you pointed it out.
On the “popularization of the nerd/ nerdification of pop”, i’m happy to comfirm i see the same trend too ;) I agree on the the mass ownership, perhaps it’s worse to be a ‘noob’ than a ‘nerd’ nowadays.
“Pimp My Spectrum” would easily work on ZX Sprinter but authors are simply lazy bastards and they have never made a proper port for it. Hence Akira’s right due to the crapness of the demo’s authors.