Andromeda, their second coming

Written by Magic of Nah-Kolor

Thanks to Mr. Hyde of Andromeda for answering some questions.

Prologue

For some sceners who remember the glorious Amiga group Andromeda, probably most known for their The Party 1994 winning amiga demo called Nexus 7, their comeback should have come as a big surprise. If you have not heard from them yet, you might have seen their new demo called Noumenon at Breakpoint 2007. Which, if it wasn't for Debris by Farbrausch, would have even won Breakpoint 2007. Or perhaps you are one of the few who already knew about their new demo and comeback - well good for you :) It was 12 years and +/- 8 months ago since Nexus 7 was released, and now Andromeda officially made their comeback to the demoscene by releasing a new demo on PC! Hugi welcomes Andromeda back on the demoscene and hopes they will stay for a long while or perhaps even forever. (To quote an old Commodore 64 game :)

Mr. Hyde of Andromeda speaks

Hugi talked to Mr. Hyde of Andromeda about their comeback. Or as stated in their new demo 'their second coming', Mr. Hyde recently returned as a demo coder after some 13 years of inactivity. Hugi wondered why Andromeda returned. Mr. Hyde explains: "In 2004 I got interested in demos again. I also got news of this marvelous new thing called 'pixelshaders'. The very fact that one could code some kind of assembly code on these devices, made my heart jump. Of course, this turned out not to be an entirely correct understanding of the subject, but anyway, the new capabilities suddenly made the prospect of coding on the PC look tempting. Prior to this, I had no interest at all in the PC scene: demos were ugly (atleast the ones I downloaded) and they all looked the same." Contrary to other old revived groups, Andromeda 100% consists out of sceners who previously also had a membership. "Members of Andromeda are Mr. Andersson, Archmage, Hyde, Hydra, Interphace, Jekyll and Olly," Mr. Hyde explains and continues: "All members are former members of Andromeda. Mr. Andersson was a member from very early on, even before I joined Andromeda myself together with Archmage in 1990. I can't recall his old handle right now, but I am sure he doesn't mind not being reminded of it anyway. Olly was formerly known as Wood in the 90s. The rest of the handles should appear on old member lists from our earlier demos."

The meaning of Noumenon

As written earlier their comeback demo Noumenon finished 2nd at Breakpoint 2007 right after the demo Debris. What does Noumenon exactly mean? But before we asked we congratulated on their 2nd place! Mr. Hyde: "Thank you! According to Merriam-Webster, 'Noumenon' stems from the Greek 'nooumenon' - that which is apprehended by thought. A noumenon could be a 'posited object or event as it appears in itself independent of perception by the senses'. This describes the demo well. We present demo effects which in essence are of independent value to the viewer; they are not trying to illude to realism, a task so many try and most fail miserably." If we remember exactly, Nexus 7, their last demo, on the Amiga was made in about two years. So we of course asked Mr. Hyde if he could us a little about the developement of Noumenon. "From very early on, around 2004-5, Mr. Andersson joined in with his coding skills. Without him, I personally would have gotten nowhere as I was quite lame back then. A year later, Archmage and Interphace got active as well, brushing up on their skills. This demo is our very first production on the PC platform. The development was a little cumbersome since I have been working abroad (in the USA -ed) the last two years. I am looking forward to moving home to Norway soon and be able to discuss demos with my crew mates in realtime," Mr. Hyde comments. For the oldskoolers among us who wondered what the hell happened after the release of Nexus 7, Mr. Hyde told us this: "I guess we were tired and out of ideas. Add to that the fact that we moved to attend university and stuff. Then, later, we often talked about doing another demo again, but for me the obstacle was always to find a suitable platform. I felt the Amiga had outplayed its role and, at the same time, felt that the PC was an utterly boring and uninteresting platform to code on; it had no charm at all."

Debris topped Noumenon

Unfortunately for Andromeda at Breakpoint 2007 there was another demo for the no1 spot! Of course we asked mr. Hyde about his opinion on the Breakpoint 2007 winning demo Debris by Farbrauch! Mr. Hyde: "It's very different from our demo. I was impressed by the effective use of cameras when I first watched it on the live stream from Breakpoint. It is easy to see that TheUnitedStatesofAmerica (also known as Fiver2 -ed) spent more than just a couple of hours tweaking and testing before he got the result he got. Also, FR's tools seem to be rock solid stuff. The one thing I am not looking forward to, is seeing 100 demos trying to imitate FR's Debris. I am not particularly fond of the style in itself, so normally I would have hated this demo. But it was so well done, I just could not help it but being very impressed." In the old Amiga days Andromeda had a war going on with Lord Helmet of Spaceballs. He called the leader of Andromeda, Hydra, The Stalin of the Scene in his Amiga diskmag called RAW. If you remember this, good for you :) Anno domini 2007 this is long gone and forgotten but I could not resist to ask Mr. Hyde if he had anything to say to Lord Helmet (supposing he ever reads this :). Mr. Hyde: "The scene needs a new diskmag!" Well now, would that be something if Lord Helmet released a new diskmag :) Anyway before we get way off-topic here Hugi can reveal there will be more demos in the future by Andromeda as Mr. Hyde told me this. Mr. Hyde also commented: "We are not back for fun and friendship, we are simply back. Watch out for more Andromeda productions in 2007!"

Epilogue

Hugi can't agree more and wishes the whole Andromeda group success in producing new demos with all the fun as in the old Amiga days. For more information about Andromeda you can visit their website at: www.andromeda.no. If you have not seen Noumenon yet click on this link: http://www.pouet.net/...

Magic