Report
Written by Toms for Push'n'Pop
Every year, Saarbrücken becomes the demoscene's capital during the Easter week-end, hosting the Revision party. Now being an important meeting for the CPC scene, a small part of it from all over Europe was of course there to support our beloved platform! Dive into an out of time event!
Last year, I was regretting the lack of chiptune artists on the main stage that's why I felt very happy when I discovered this year's music events: Gasman on Friday and TDK on Saturday! Unfortunately, as I arrived on the second day, I missed Gasman's liveact. According to Hicks, it was an amazing performance full of square waves!
Saturday, hearing=100%
As soon as I got into the party hall, I faced the french CPC crew which was going to eat a free icecream offered by the sponsor which already provides coffee, tea and cookies every year. Maybe that's why a 5k run was organized on Saturday morning, to eliminate all those calories! Yes, the Revision staff really takes care of its visitors' health!
There were two CPC corners in the hall. One on the left side with OffseT, Zik, Hicks, Beb and me. And one on the right side with Octoate, Kangaroo, Nilquader, Doz, MaV and Bonefish. Some mysterious things happened in the first one: on Friday while Hicks and Beb were chatting, one of their CPC monitors blew up without any reason! Then the remaining monitors' screens were distorted for some time... Despite the danger, I installed my stuff next to Zik who abandonned the idea of finishing the music of the Futurs' part for the 30 Years MegaDemo because of the loud sound system in the hall. As Beb was in front of me, I could ask him to rework some graphics which I needed to make an intro for my part planned for the same MegaDemo. Beb ran OCP Art Studio all the week-end using his freshly received X-MEM, a new expansion board created by TotO embedding up to 512K RAM, 512K of flash ROM and allowing to replace the lower ROM to use different firmwares and BASIC.
Moqui and Okkie
One of the new features of Revision was the new Okkie's companion on stage: Moqui. Of course, he did the job well! Then the first batch of competitions began. Zik and I closely listened to the Executable Music Oldskool compo and discussed about the entries. Amongst some nice ones, I especially enjoyed Muhinae-II composed by NebulaH on Sega Megadrive. The following interesting compo was the Games one. Dynablaster Revenge by Titan&Haujobb on PC and Immensity on C64 deserved their first and second places on the podium. As there are many CPC game developers, I guess that Revision would be a nice opportunity for them to present their work to a large audience. Think about it next year!
Another epic moment was TDK's concert. He was active in the 90's as the musician of the famous Amiga group Melon Dezign. Playing electric violin with chiptune is terribly amazing! His performance was really appreciated by the people! Thanks to Revision organisers for having invited him!
TDK's performance
The concert was followed by the second batch of competitions. One week before the party, Doz told us that he planned to submit a demo in the Oldskool Demo compo, therefore the CPC crew felt very excited to discover his work on the big screen. Its main feature was a tape loader while playing music and displaying graphics. A demo running exclusively on CPC464 at Revision 2014... My mind was divided between nostalgia (it was my first computer) and scepticism. But as soon as Breaking Baud began, I was totally reassured! The show was nicely directed and well appreciated by the audience. Two Atari VCS demos got a lot of success too. Finally, the PC 64K intro compo started: The Timeless by Mercury ignited the hall!
Then we came back to our CPCs with strong coffees to brave a long night. As Hicks worked on a new effect, OffseT finished a new version of ACE (the best CPC emulator) and I continued to code my intro. Finally, the coders using Maxam got to the hotel to sleep while the ones using DAMS tried to sleep under a table listening to the second stage DJs. When you don't need any comfort while coding, you don't need any comfort anywhere!
Sunday, hearing=60%
After having my breakfast while chatting with OffseT, I borrowed his laptop to cast my votes. I also met Doz who I congratulated for Breaking Baud then he gave me some details about his demo and the people involved. I told him my surprise about releasing some stuff on CPC464 but as he explained to me, this model was more popular than the CPC6128 in England at the time, and still is. Right after the Modern Graphics competition which was won by Made with a splendid picture, we went to eat outside with MaV who tried to organize a Norman cider traffic.
Left to right: OffseT, Zik, MaV, Hicks and Beb
We just came back into the hall for the beginning of the next compos. The one I was waiting for the most was the Oldskool Graphics. My favorite entries were Outland by Jok on Amiga and Lost In The Forest of Owls by Bigfoot and Leon on C64. Made's entry was a C64 transfert of the picture he submitted in the Modern Graphics compo. Beautiful but easy entry I found. Once again, no CPC graphics. Hey CPC artists, what are you doing?!
A part of the Breaking Baud team: Doz and MaV
The evening began with the Oldskool 4K Intros: Cubescapes by Dekadence on Amiga was the highlight of the compo. I was also pleasantly surprised by Rez's promising first try on C64 (Back in the saddle). One rumour was running about a possible TBL comeback this year (their last demo was Starstruck released at Assembly 2006). That's why I was expecting a lot from the Amiga Demo compo! I felt very excited when I read Rift by The Black Lotus on the big screen! I was a little afraid too because comebacks are usually not easy to manage as there are a lot of expectations. Then the show began and I have to say that I really enjoyed it especially some impressive scenes! Maybe not the best of TBL but still a solid prod. In my opinion, the main weak spot is the lack of direction. As I liked their previous work, I was also expecting a lot of the Elude demo but I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed...
Once again, I missed an improvized Gasman liveact outside during the Sunday night. Damn! Before going to sleep, I talked to a guy who brought a 3D printer at the party and funny fact, he knows Shap/ Overlanders! Meanwhile, after an inspiring pepper pizza, Beb started to work on a balloon effect. Very impressive!
Hicks, Bonefish and me
Monday, hearing=... can you repeat please?
Just before the prizegiving, I greeted Octoate, Bonefish and Kangaroo who composed a lot of great tunes on CPC in the past. Then the ceremony started and for the third year in line, a CPC demo was present on the podium: Breaking Baud reached a well deserved 2nd place behind a great Atari VCS demo (Bang! by Xayax)! Thereupon, the Atari VCS related seminars seem to have been very efficient as there were a lot of submitted prods running on this platform! No surprises in the other competitions, all the winners deserved their first place. After a final speech of the main organisers, everybody left the party hall. As usual, it was a pure success (a bit too loud however)! Thank you so much for having organized such a demoparty!
You can watch a lot of videos and photos on the Revision's website (compos, concerts, seminars, reports, etc.) to taste the unique atmosphere. Hopefully it will motivate you to come in 2015!
Toms
