Review: The Gathering '99 Demos

Written by mSW

The Gathering '99 releases judgement by mSW. This is my personal view of the files released over there, not caring about the final results at all. The test configuration is as follows:

PII-350Mhz - 64MB
Gravis Ultrasound 1MB - SB64
Diamond Viper 330
UniVBE 6.53

III (Live Tomorrow) By The Lost Souls - Operating System: DOS

This demonstration starts off with some high pitched noises with a scoop moving line. Looks funny, but perhaps it's all too grey. Then we are sucked into a nice sine and warped into a tunnel. The next part is in my eyes the best one of this demonstration. It's a tunnel with a waterfall in the centre. The thingy changes into a line vector tunnel from time to time. Very nicely done. It is followed by some fish. In my opinion fish are really out, but nevertheless they included them. Then we get to see a room filled with a kind of aquarium and the whole thing ends with some nice colour effects which seem to move in some sort of twister. Looks nice indeed.

[Rating 62%]

In The Mix By Replay - Operating System: DOS

I really enjoyed this one. It uses the good old funky tune called 'In The Mix' from a couple a years ago. The demo itself isn't that complicated to watch, it is just filled with atmosphere. And some kewl fade-in and fade-out effects. When this baby starts you get a nice ball made line, followed by a bouncing and morphing one. Further on, we get a vector object with some tiny lights moving from one box to the other. Then big dots moving from right to left through circle moving three arrows are displayed. Very nicely done, this part. At last we see a whole lot more line thingies and vectors. Well, I can only recommend this demo.

[Rating 80%]

Happy Hardcore By Rectum Cauda - Operating System: DOS

This production really sucks. First of all it asks if you want to watch the normal version or the censored one. Well, because I am such an anti-censor guy, I chose the uncensored version. Then we get a girl who touches herself. And that is in textmode. Really anoying. Furthermore, we have to see some lame vector objects and even more scanned stuff. Just one big waste of time and money. At the end they mention that it is a two-day production. Well guys... that was obvious!

[Rating 20%]

Okiedokie By Soopa Doopa - Operating System: DOS

Whooow this one just drips with design. Too bad it is really short. The demo was over before I realized it. But in the meantime we got a very nice opening. Dotty particles, a mondrean vector tube, follwed by a colourful weird tunnel, some slime vectors, and it ends with some kind of laser light effect. A really nice one!

[Rating 75%]

Encode/Decode By Digital Artists - Operating System: Win98

This one makes a sorry attempt to look like an MTV clip. But it reminds me more of a WinAmp plug-in. The music is the sort you listen to before you go to sleep. And the effects that are presented are way too simple. Who needs four-colour vector cubes. Or an inside of the cube that is based on photos. All in all it's not a really bad demo, but it's certainly not the best either.

[Rating 55%]

Syv-Seks By Phrenetics - Operating System: Win98

This one is just packed with weirdness; it is almost too weird to explain. But I'll try to do so nevertheless. The demonstration starts off with a loading screen featuring a party pic. This pic will reappear later on in a floating scene. Then we get to see a scene with a city in the background, and there's a metro moving towards it. Next comes a bobbling effect followed by some lights that move in sine paths and emit colours. Then we find ourselves inside a kind of space ship for the greetings. Moreover, we get some more blurred stuff on a 3d dude in front of a gate. This effect is really kewl. Too bad the colors are too blurred in my opinion. But a very nice demonstration this is.

[Rating 70%]

Yume 2000 (Future World Mix) By Inf - Operating System: Win98

Well, this piece is simply a winner. The guys from Inf chose to use Japanese music again. It fits the whole production like a glove because it all has that Asian theme. At the beginning we see a girl in way too tight shorts singing or karaoking at a microphone. The scene is followed by some vectors and colours. Meanwhile we are treated by several solid and morphing pictures by the hand of tmk. Then we fly through a typical East Asian city, filled with neon boards. The girl dancing to the music appears again, and even later we get yet another 3d scene rendered by 3d Addict of Digital Nerds. This one you just can't miss if you are a demo nerd just like me.

[Rating 88%]

- mSW^jLY^sOS