After the demise of "the Charts" there was going to always be something missing in this magazine. Can there be another system that can capture who is doing what and how good it is? To be fair, the traditional charts system were a good and memorable routine for most magazines, but became redundant due to lack of user participation. THE AWARDS will take the stakes higher, by providing the thoughts of those participating and debating which single person, group, production etc. should receive the token award on behalf of this magazine.

Some may argue that the releases commented on are arbitrary chosen and that it is not up to us to decide what should be awarded. That pinpoints just what separates it from the charts; it is the minds of the hosts that give the awards. Hopefully it can be better in being more up to date than the charts were, meaning that some non-releasing person or group stays in top forever and ever. But it will at the same time be less democratic and if you prefer, arbitrary. We are not insensitive to criticism though, that is however not the same thing as saying that your opinion is better.

DISCUSSION

(Macx)
There has been an onslaught of fresh new graphicians coming seemingly from nowhere recently. A guy named Oyiseer of Fairlight first won the gfx-compo at Backslash with "Gunnel tittar i spakulan" in July and then a week and a half later released "Katt i hatt", an outstanding picture in my opinion. This artist has done some c64 painting before, but this was the first time I took great notice of him to be honest. Katt i hatt, Swedish for Cat in hat, is his best work. I'd say it shows some sort of Siamese, though face painted, on a lawn next to a lake with an eel in it. As the sun sets at the horizon on the lake the sky above is on fire in the right part of the picture. Some weird reflections of this is seen to the left, perhaps the coming darkness of the night. Something the cat, whom obviously has good sight at night, loves. The cat wears a red cap, not a trucker-one, but rather a castor-cap of some sort. A lawn is not a good reflector, which water is, something Oyiseer has been attentive to. Nice stuff!

Next in line is also someone with Scandinavian roots, at least from the real name to tell, though would more accurately be described as a British lad. His handle is Ptoing and he is a member of both Creators and Red Brand (the latter one not being communists). As far as I know he also started his scene career pretty recently, but he has done it in all perfection luster. Last year he continued his advance from the success of "Noseguy" in 2004 with "Elephant", "Plug It!!!" and "Yus Bird". The last one of those came second in Norwegian Kindergarten 2005. Earlier this year this energetic pixel artist released "Fn0kt", which together with Noseguy and Yus Bird would set some kind of awesome standard for his work - one would think. But no! no! in July Ptoing released "Yus Chunk" which is a smaller revolution of my world's c64 graphics. In it he is using the limitations as advantages and he does so in a way that makes me want to dream away into that landscape. I cannot say that I often have seen such consistency of a way to pixel in one single picture before. It is really, really good. What the bird would live of in such poor soil is up to the imagination to find out. After the release of Yus Chunk this way active maniac has released "The Phone", "They plot..." and "Prollcoder". None of them close to what Yus Chunk captures in my opinion, but all sending the clear message of how able this graphician is. He definitely has got a fresh way of seeing things through his brand new (?) c64 glasses and that makes me interested in having him on as a guest host.

Another graphician new to the scene with a more than promising newly-baked outlook upon c64 graphics is the Greek Helm. Last summer he released "Nightanday" and this year in late March he let "Shape of a man" out. The passed summer he has released "Eve", "Koala Island" and "Waiting at Dusk". Eve is built around triangles colouring a face. It is a wholesome fresh delight that is also seen as wild sky in Waiting at Dusk, though this time the non-triangles part of the picture is more predominant. That is a woman leaning towards an old Ent in the forest we have all come accustomed to, and a miniature cottage with smoke emanating from the chimney for small folk, like David and me. In-between these pictures he liberated Koala Island, with which he shows that he is capable of working beyond the triangle theme. I want him to continue exploring just that though, in the same perfection he has done so far. Every bit of it will make me happy.

(Jazzcat)
Not only an onslaught of new graphicians but also a lot of graphics from existing people. Ptoing is with us in this issue and writing some comments after me in this discussion, so I best start with his latest pixelling efforts. I really enjoy his nice use of colours and the fact that he is doing graphics not in modern formats but classic formats (hires compared to MUXIEAIFLI). My favourite picture of his lately was "Yus Chunk". It shines of smart usage of the limitations of the graphics-mode. The picture also tells me that you don't need to be using so much time on dithering and other techniques to have maximum impact of freshness. So by saying this I agree with you Macx. Although I do think "They Plot..." is a close rival to "Yus Chunk". :)

I imagine Ptoing will venture into some of the other formats eventually, but I love the hires standard he has "created" and I hope he continues this. His friend from Greece has the handle Helm. I had to laugh when I read Macx's comments about "small folk", of course he is referring to our size, but funny in the context of this discussion and the picture by Helm called "Waiting at Dusk". And what a picture this is! I especially enjoyed the shadings around the tree trunk and the minimalistic approach to the woman (silhouette) leaning against the tree. I agree with Macx that it is a fresh delight, but I see it most in Helm's "Eve". When I first viewed this picture it blew me away, it was like nothing I had ever seen on the C64 before and made my mouth open in awe. The pixelling skill is not what I'm judging here, it is the execution of idea. This is what I call art. As Sander wrote on CSDB: "Why-oh-why did it take so long before artist like this appear in the scene. Great work!"

Moving on to another of the known graphicians, my Finnish friend Duce of Extend. Normally known for his paper art it is great to see him venturing into the pixel world of 8-bit. His latest work is "Albino", which is another nice picture is this graphics-bonanza we seem to be having lately. The face itself is very nice, I especially enjoy the lack of colour (albino) as in the context of the picture it works in its favour. The knife looks a little odd. Maybe something else could have been used instead? It is the angle of the handle that looks strange.

(Ptoing)
I have to say that I am very honoured to be chosen as guest host. Some corrections there about Macx's assumptions, I am neither Scandinavian, nor British, but German, I just happen to live in London at the moment because of my job. Ok, enough about me and onto more interesting things.

There has indeed been some very interesting art coming up as of late and I especially liked "Beds of Green" by Joe. I'm not a big fan of abstract art normally, but I found this one extremely interesting. The play of colours and the flow of forms is very nicely done and brings up images of spotty cows grassing on lush green hills (which has probably to do with my upbringing in a rather rural area of Germany). Some of his older stuff already pointed in this direction like "The collector" and "Eiffel" which I also quite like. And I am glad he went away from overlaying simple fonts onto his stuff like in "Traffic" and "Clouds" which are nice ideas but are ultimately killed visually by the font as far as I am concerned. I want to see more stuff like Bed's of Green from Joe for sure.

Another image I really liked was "Obstacles" by Sander. It might not be stunning in terms of technique, but it definitely is quite special in terms of emotional impact. I get a strong feeling of despair and helplessness from the picture. For one there are the multiple iterations of a cowering Sander oppressed by the white negative space which feels heavy despite its bright colour.
And then there are the feet sticking out which give the feeling of disorientation on the one hand and that of falling down on the other. It all just goes together very well in my opinion and the music by Deek made the feeling even more intense, but even without the music it's still there and not just a little bit. Personally I think this is a big step up compared to older stuff Sander did from an artistic point of view and I hope he continues in this direction.

I'm also very glad to see Helm becoming kind of active in the scene with some very fresh pictures.
I especially like his 2 hires endeavours "Waiting at Dusk" and "Eve". Funny thing about the house in "Waiting at Dusk" is that at first I too thought it was a tiny house, but I am quite sure now that it's supposed to be in the background :D.
I don't want to write too much about Helm here there is also a double interview with him and me in this Issue where there will be plenty of space to write about our voyage into C64 Graphics :)

(Macx)
Ptoing is German, albeit not in an all neon outfit. As I was able to do all those errors in just one sentence I obviously had to interview the guy. Another fellow I have been trying to interview for some time is Cruzer, but he seems to play hard to get all the time. I would have wanted to get in depth with him about the fine discussion on concept vs. coderpr0n. Just that discussion was recently seen again in the comments on Sander's "Obstacles" where Oswald brings up the debate on artsyness and lack of quality referring to Sander's latest FLI. Sander claims he nowadays has a hard time in finding interest for the handicraft of pixelling in itself and rather wants to see the inspiration emanating from artsyness, something he does not necessarily wants to differ from quality though. I could say that I for some sort of ideological (ok, my laugh) reason would tend to disagree with the coderpr0n-camp of the scene and praise the conceptual-camp, although I more and more see where the first ones come from and I understand many of their arguments, much more now than on the discussion on those Swedish demos some time ago. Concerning this piece, Obstacles, though, I do not get it at all. Where is Oswald aiming? Would an uglier picture, though harder to paint (?) be better? Lies the intrinsic value (only) in the hard work and not (at all) in the aesthetics, or is he perhaps defining aesthetics as hard work (and does that not get him into trouble)? Obstacles is a well done gfx with great screen usage and it inspires thought on many fields of life. It is something of the opposite of the general work of Nick Gaetano, Sander shows man as weak under a heavy burden. I like both the artists' angles, and they are both important. If there is a deeper attitude behind their works I would say that we are not all victims all the time, but we are sometimes. Strength can come out of accepting we are at times weak. The tune by Deek is a snapshot of reality, just like the picture.

If I can come to think of some post rock tune about a sky on fire out of Oyiseer's work I guess the return of Clone would get my mind on listening to ambient by Brian Eno in Malmo or something. We have both been living in Mollevangen (Malmo) for part of our lives and I dunno if he still is around just there, but a more creative spot for exploring different layers of gfx melting into another has at least been hard to find in our part of the world, as far as I would know. And I wouldn't know about how it is nowadays either. Clone has released something that could be the interior of a glass house with the sky reflecting in the background, all from a pretty odd angle. It could be something all different though, and I agree with Groepaz about this being a demo fx without code.

(Jazzcat)
Regarding Sander's "Obstacles", I do prefer this achievement of concept as opposed to old style barbarians and large breasted women. Why? Because it 'takes' thought, because it 'provokes' thought, because art is not just 'limited' to being crafty with pixels only. Obstacles reminds me of a photo taken of a group of people bunched together cowering away from an explosion. It somehow reminds me of the oppressed majority under a ruling minority with the oppressed (group) paying the ultimate price. A great picture which inspires. Thought provocation!

"Beds of Green" by Joe is another example of conceptual art and the recent graphical-movement that is massively inspired the masses. This abstract again provokes thoughts on what it might be and also what inspired the artist to pixel it. When looking at this is see: fish, cows, a cat and possibly more the longer I stare at it! Joe continued with this movement but in a different style in his "Absence-Distance" released in late August. This picture looks like it was done with oil paints and imposes a suggestion of depth with its use of colours and "dirtyness". The picture is somewhat disturbing, reminding me of some horrific sequence out of "Silent Hill" or "Resident Evil", despite the actual art being far from that. Some people questioned how this piece was done as the technique was very unusual for the standards we're used to on C64. Joe originally has done it by hand, using acrylic paint, coloured pencils and inc on paper. Afterwards it was converted using the C64 keyboard with Drazpaint. This disturbingly dark picture appeals to my mind (maybe because I'm a fan of the work of Clive Barker and maybe because I like having to think about something and have it speak to me).

With the conceptual art aside we have Mirage entering the recent movement. He seems to be combining the conceptual stuff together with "realism". To begin with we have "Eve and her multicoloured bubblegum" which is aka "Eve and her not-so-singlecolour-hires bubblegum" (FLI). This work is using the background decoration by Helm (triangles) and mixing in a traditional semi-realistic picture. I love the girl, she provokes dirty 8-bit thoughts and may even cause Ptoing and Macx to have a giggle also. The use of Helm-inspired background works but I do prefer the decoration on the right hand side as opposed to the left. Mirage appears to make a point in saying that the format is irrelevant, which maybe based on the recent hires hype. This is strengthened by his next release "Single Colour Is Ugly" aka "You people give me a headache with your stupid new-age-pictures" which experiments greater than earlier work done by Mirage. Personally, I don't care what format it is in. What matters is the result. You can do crap graphics and have crap ideas, you can have cool ideas and cool graphics - or combinations of all of those. What format this is done in is really of no concern. Hires is nice, as it is closer to the C64 and also forces further restrictions upon the artist. Interlace and other formats are nice also as they have their obvious advantages. In "Single Colour Is Ugly" Mirage has taken "Eve" by Helm and flipped it around a few times. Then copied his own picture on top of it, he even keeps the pink pixel in the top right corner, just like in Helm's picture. The text inside this piece interests me the most.

Probably the most impressive picture by Mirage lately is "Legacy Lost", it appears to be technically superior to his other two pieces and is most pleasing to my eye (particularly like the shadings around the face, hair and flowers, just beautiful). Somehow this reminds me of Dutch Breeze reborn but using Helm's background decorations once more. Mirage recently said he has done these pictures as a "detour", to get rid of some frustrations. In doing this I can see he has combined old and new and created his very own as a result.

(Ptoing)
Mirage's "Single Colour is ugly" had me in stitches when I first saw it. I found it really hilarious, especially with those little comments in the picture and seeing as he was drunk when he made it was even funnier. I have no clue what the reason was that he did it and at first I thought it was solely a piss-take at Helm's Eve, but after seeing that he rated that one high at CSDb I guess it was more a case of inspiration, seemingly with a good portion of self irony.
Gotta respect someone who does not take himself all serious, and on top of that the picture is well done.

His other two follow up images "Eve and her multicoloured bubblegum" and "Legacy Lost" (This time in FLI as opposed to Hires) also play on Helm's Eve picture more or less, as Jazzcat already mentioned. Both are very nicely executed and get a bonus for clever covering of the FLI bug.

Another really great Hires image is "The return of the Boat" by wile e coyote, who has not done much art as of late, so this could be seen as comeback picture (here's hope). I have to say i like everything about this picture, from the atmosphere, the composition, the way he used the colours, everything is just right. I also highly appreciate the fact that he did not try to hide the restrictions and in some place the chunkyness shines through which I find half the charm of Hires images. The use of sprites for the boat and also the colour choices are very clever and make it stand out as a nice focal point. All I can say is wonderful, and more Hires art please.

Jailbird's Yolk is very fresh and I like the fact that he used Multicolour as opposed to IFLI, which seems to be his weapon of choice normally. I like how he abstracted the face, the flow in the shapes he used and the colour combinations are very interesting to look at. I also like how he let the border "leak" into the picture area, a nice diversion from the purely rectangular layouts most images have. I have to say that this one is by far my favorite from Arnold and I hope he will do more stuff like this and more in Multicolour (perhaps Hires even :D).

All in all I have to say i definitely love the small comeback hires is having lately as well as multicolour to some extend. It's nice to see people exploring the roots of the C64's graphic capabilities again and nicer even to see that the results shine.

(Macx)
So many thoughts converted into pixels. Newborn and reborn ideas executed as graphics. Will there be a demo, a film, some sort of presentation of all this for the audience? The creative summer of 2006. Or will it be the autumn and winter as well? Is this the spring of c64 graphics, finally, or has the recent tool mentioned in the last awards awaken something temporary? In any way we continue the scrutinizing of some of the many masterpieces recently released.

Wile Coyote released "Return of the Boat", inspired by Blemish's "The Boat" from Primary Star earlier in August. They are in different formats, and if there is an original picture I do not know (there really could be one, because it seems familiar). It could be the flooding of Prague or some Venecian corner. Blemish's execution is in blue and from a different angle than the one Wile Coyote later presented. The people rowing boats are doing so in different directions and the later picture is more colourful, partly due to the somewhat cheap kitschyness of the whorehouse above the boat in that one.

Wile Coyote returned in September with Siberian Summer. A wonderful cloudy sky behind a waving flag and a communist soldier. The obvious Russian style of the roof of the tower makes sure to set the scene in the correct continent, something I do not get from the (great) tune by Cubehead. The melody is really fitting, but I hear clear connotations aiming at oceans and waves rather than the hard continental climate of Siberia. It is however a really pleasant production, and I really fancy the animated flag (albeit strongly disliking the ideology behind it).

Although the girl in Mirage's mentioned picture is nice, I would not want to be her bubblegum. Though I would really want to know the building up of the idea in one of his more recent works (yes, we are talking weeks here). "Just A Bunch Of Wiggly Lines, Nothing More" definitely seems inspired by graffiti (especially by this European artist doing loads of nice things in 3D-style I cannot figure out the name of at the moment.. Daim?), but I do not find the letters saying anything. As the title says there is nothing more. But isn't there? If I saw this on a wall, instead of a dirty throw-up, I'd be flabbergasted. Many would. Mirage is aiming at new heights all the time. I love the lady in "I've got my eyes on you post-oldskool experimentalists", especially her hair. And I would be glad to be HER bubblegum.

(Jazzcat)
Hahaha. I knew some of Mirage's work would provoke dirty thoughts. Mirage's latest work is indeed very nice, however it may not appeal to those seeking something more different. I especially enjoyed "I've got my eyes on you post-oldskool experimentalists". This picture is beautiful. Mirage should be a hair stylist, I've seen no artist on C64 pixel hair better than he can! The right bottom of the face is the only flaw for me in this picture. Again, I find most interesting the text and the meaning of it. "Angry" and "No Copy".

Ptoing impressed me again with "Prollcoder", another multicolour work done completely in greyscale. It somehow reminded me of the graphics done in the early nineties but with modern touches and of course a classic porn-star moustache. ;) Maybe Ptoing can give us some background on this one. Another multicolour piece released just before this was from Jailbird called "Life, the Fraud". The shading of this is quite nice and I especially enjoyed the faces on the right of the screen. As stated by Jailbird, it is a picture that is now several years old and only found its way to the public recently, it has personal meaning and was releasing during a bad period of the artists life. Maybe a lack of faith? The picture is somewhat symbolic and hides some story.

One of my favourite artists decided join the pixel-fun. Veteran artist Bizzmo released his work called "Son". This multicolour work is very bright and colourful and uses different elements to blend everything together in a perfect harmony. Some of the 'curly' bits that are used to blend the elements together remind me of Mermaid's work a little, but this is only because I haven't seen to many other pictures using the same patterns. The baby reminds me of the one in the Teletubbies "sun". Not that I watch that show ;)

Wrath Designs have been participating in the graphic-venture lately and are keeping to their own style but at the same time trying some new things. A good example of this is in "Absence-Distance" which I discussed earlier. Whilst "Razor" from Clone is typically a nice architectural piece that you can almost step into and feels comfortable, but then you have pieces like "September-Summer" by Joe which is an abstract piece that I didn't enjoy as much as "Autumn", also by Joe. With "Autumn" it reminded me of Phantom of the Opera and in both upper and lower border. I've also seen the original artwork this was inspired by and the C64 rendition is just as thought provoking. Even though I wasn't surprised by Clone's "Razor", he released another picture that really got my attention. "Bild" is very colourful and unusually dithered piece. The blending together of different points to contain a harmony is just as good as Bizzmo's "Son" piece. I especially enjoyed the part blending the architecture and hair. Excellent.

(Ptoing)
"Prollcoder" is a pic I made for the first demo by Trifox, basically he was like, I need some gfx, Ptoing, think you can help? And since I had time I did this caricature based on a photo of Trifox, nothing special, fun to make though just using greyscale.

And yet another awesome hires piece by WEC. His picture "Siberian Summer" is a very nicely themed picture in which he used the hires restrictions very clever again. The composition is very nice and the use of negative space is cool as well and on top of that again a nice touch with some overlayed sprites on the soldier and the animated flag, which together with the ambient music by (?? have to check again) enhances the atmosphere of the piece quite considerably. I now hope even more than before that WEC is going to keep on like this and churn out more high quality pictures like his last two.

And on we go with the hires revolution
:) The new picture by Jailbird, "An Ugly, Single Color Female Face", hit me with surprise, as I'm not used to see hires from him at all. It seems more people are getting curious to try out this, in my opinion awesome, mode. I have to say he really succeeded in terms of technique and it is really polished as far as hires goes. There are no artefacts which are easily spotted on first glace and one can tell that Jailbird put a lot of effort in this. I hope he will do something more original in his next hires picture than a copy of a female face though, I am sure he is capable of more interesting and thought-provoking subject matter.

(Jazzcat)
Yes, I also enjoyed Jailbird's recent effort too. However, whilst technically great other aspects are still quite normal. I think this pic wasn't painted for showing other aspects however, it was a showcase of hires and showing what can be done in a limited mode.

Another picture I HAVE to mention is from Hein Design, "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly". This beautiful picture shows a great usage of colour. Especially the umbrella. Also the upper border is used in a clever way. The title of this picture is interesting for me, being a huge spaghetti-western fan I wonder what the connection is, if there is one, between the Clint Eastwood movie and the four monks? Anyway, an enjoyable photo realistic picture (with no flicker!).

The last few months we have witnessed an amazing amount of graphical releases, some of them even pushing new boundaries or just showing off existing skills, either way it is certainly a major positive for our scene. Anyway I think we should move on from the graphic entries and onto some demos and music chat.

(Macx)
I start up the demo discussion with a small release from Finnish Assembly in August, where Viznut of Pers' Wastaiset Produktiot released "Progress without Progress". It is a demo with a dirty reflex outlook seemingly wanting to tell something, or perhaps rather provoke something out of the minds of people with a free will and choices to make. It could have done so in its very unsubtle way if it was not for some things that tear it down (I just don't get the shit-part to fit in at all). As a demo it is neatly done, with a nice voice scheme on top of big pixels. Nothing new, but not that horrible either.

Continuing with another piece of something with a story to tell, namely the winner from Helltown's Big Floppy People in early August. It is a Hollowman of Fairlight execution, though backed up with audio from Zabutom and additional graphics by the JackAsser himself. It uses choreography and design from the war zones and it is known as "WWIII". Decomposed life gives nutrition for flowers to grow, and the plant in Hollowman's demo is more beautiful than the one Viznut achieved to be honest. This is why we shall not despair. In the end the ship literally floats into the screen and it is extremely well-fitted with the music. Really nice. If space is pressed a well known Swedish tune (hell, they still play it all over here in Denmark) takes over, a harsh contrast, but what is not a harsh contrast for people laggin' on irc? The bot Anna comes to rescue.

Tao of Triad has definitely made it back into the scene, presenting some goodies lately. "Electronaut", also from BFP a while ago, has a genuine Triad atmosphere (where the hell is KingFisher hiding?), thick as butter. For me that is much more liberal oriented, anarchist if you will, than communist. Despite the red star on top of this demo, it tells us about Individuals, Freedom and Privacy and thus it reaches right into the depths of my heart. It is odd to me that it was not ranked higher at the party, but as I was unable to attend I may have missed out on some important factors. I do not believe this is the quest for our own downfall, and I especially hope it is not it for Tao's sake. I want to see more of his style, which is totally different from the other currently active Triad-geezers (from whom I also want to see stuff, of course). We should not seek vengeance, but victory.

If the other three had some common ground on certain things, "Sweet Infection" that came out at North Party v10 has a totally different approach on things. It is on the well known booze-hard-with-cheap-vodka-undiluted-a'la-Poland's-pride-Arise-level of things. It has some neat effects conducted in a more than alcohol poisoned manner by Fenek, Bimber, Jammer and Randall. I have taken the train with PKP and I then believe I saw one of them they showed in the demo, and I also believe I have seen similar things on the sky at night. Only in Poland. When else, but when being beyond drunk can one come to think of pixelling bowling pins? Fantastic! This is the kind of demo I actually could see myself watching when being in-between the high of drunk and the sulky hung over tiredness, with non c64 friends aswell. Arise has the style, and those flowers in the end part are beautiful.

In "TS-row", released at Primary Star, K2 plays with some thoughts I also had in "C64 Love 2". It shows a depth behind the picture. Not me pointing from here, out of the opening of the cave, onto the twinkling star - but the stair in the tunnel where the walking chills come from. I want to see this idea evolved more, because I am positive it can be. Decompracid surely has gotten into her own style of pixelling. It is something I really appreciate.

(Jazzcat)
I enjoyed "WWIII" for the same reasons as Macx however I was left with an impression that so much more could be done with this concept. Politics and religion are subjects very few people dare to experiment with. This demo certainly makes me think about current society. Building things up and knocking them down. After all, isn't it what we have done since the dawn of time? Anyway the music was the main catch for me this time, brilliant and it felt suited to this kind of demo.

I liked "Sweet Infection" more, it had some fresh and interesting parts. Not only was some of the ideas impressive but the graphics and music were also different. The pace could have been a bit different, the demo didn't seem to flow quick enough for me, but this can be forgiven as the other aspects of the demo certainly make up for this shortfall. As with Macx, I enjoyed the final part which consisted of some flowers and a butterfly that moved around over them. The butterfly could have been done better and is somewhat static, but when listening to the music I also found that it too was static, so it feels right anyway. Big salute to Bimber for the nice hires graphics!

(Ptoing)
My two favorite demo releases this year definitely are "Trans*Form" by Focus and "Sweet Infection" by Arise.
Though "Trans*Form" has nothing to give on the effects end of things it is the best designed Demo on the C64 I have seen in ages, probably ever. The pacing, the syncing of the music to the very nicely layed out hires images/text, the music itself, all works perfectly together and on top of that the demo also makes you think about the values of the society we live in today and what your own place is, at least it did this for me.

"Sweet Infection" does deliver in terms of effects AND design, and it has very nice music, the ringwave speech in the beginning is a really nice touch. The graphical style of the demo is very clean and well thought out with nice colours and the effects are well done, very nice vector and 3d objects. I especially liked the broken outline effect it has on several of the 3D objects. The only gripe I have with this one is the pacing, all in the entire demo is just too slow paced and the change of objects could have been linked to the music better to make it more dynamic. I hope there will be more new stuff from Arise in the future.

"WWIII" by Fairlight is also very good, though I think some parts could have used some more refinement in the design area and felt a bit rough around the edges (how hard is it to make a ' for your charset, really?). Overall the theme was nicely presented and the music fits very nice.

"Electronaut" by Triad is visually quite pleasing and had a very nice design, esp. colourwise. The music was also nice, though a cover and I am not familiar with VNV Nation, to which this demo is homage, but I have to say the one thing that annoyed me was the pacing - this one was painfully slow. I have no clue as to how much this has to do with it being a one file demo or the whole VNV thing, but in my opinion it lessened the impression a bit.

(Macx)
The c64 mafia is building up. At least from the music to tell. It could be taken from any name worthy gangster flick on vhs. I am of course talking about the absolutely amazing tune by Rio in the Prollcoder production "Absolutely Amazing" from Evoke. The gfx is OK, but nothing special to be Ptoing to be honest. The same goes for the coding fx. It is however the blend of lo-fi, budget, backyard crook, concrete and sweet sweet music that makes this quite an interesting achievement by these three guys. Prollcoder shootout hope not.

Hein and Mirage of Focus released "Recycle", also known as Under Your Skin, in August. It contains some well executed butterfly pages that are zapped in-between, with to use Jucke's words "dramatic almost psychedelic music in contrast". It is short and beautiful, like most things in life.

Another Focus release of late is one of Ptoing's favourites this year, namely "Trans*Form". I agree with his analysis on the pacing, syncing and music, though I do not get to think of values and society from it. Sander is one hell of a designer and is one of them that goes against the often uniform c64 art form. In this one he plays with associations, slogans and codes. As with the other Focus release I believe it wins on being short. IF it should be lengthened it should be with a scroll text starting at the end screen :-). Luv it.

(Jazzcat)
"Trans*Form" hit the right spot for me. Unlike Macx, I'm with Ptoing in getting an impression of society values when things were flashing up. The slogans and "directives" were almost subliminal in their subtle approach and I really enjoyed the clever syncing of it. This was my favourite demo from the Big Floppy Party. It is very fresh and one of the few demos that truly shows off the power of design as a demo element.

"Recycle", also from Focus is a small graphical/musical package that is indeed beautiful. The graphics are really well executed and the music by Hein is somewhat dreamy. This is a nice package which I see more as a smart way of demonstrating some graphics as opposed to the traditional still-image. Some trivia regarding the animated butterflies: Hein Design is the multi-coloured blue butterfly and Mirage is the single-coloured white one. :)

A friend of ours passed away in May this year. That's right, Dutch musician Edwin van Santen died at the young age of 33. As a tribute to his scene memory, The New Dimension released a tribute demo. The idea behind this was really nice and it is touching to see people take the time and effort to get something like this done. From my own experience I've found the more people involved in a production the more difficult it is to complete. Richard Bayliss does an okay job at putting this together. It does seem a bit rushed but I guess Richard needed to get it released sooner rather than later, so it would be more relevant to the sad moment of Edwin's passing. It also should have contained more messages from sceners, as Edwin was known to many and I'm sure it wouldn't have been hard to get some further memories. Overall "EVS Tribute Demo" is a decent production that EVS would have smiled at.

(Ptoing)
I agree with Jazzcat about "Recycle", it's a very nice little release with neat UFLI graphics and a wonderful little tune as well. Other than that there can not be said much about this release, but I really hope we will see nice little one-filers like this more often.

"Mish Mash" by Cosine is another really nice little one-filer which prods which is neatly designed and it doesn't even need to follow a particular theme, just having a cohesive design is enough. I really like the "big frame, small area of action" thing this prod has going on, it works really well in bringing it together and making it into more than just a slideshow of effects. Shows perfectly how simple ideas can make things so much better.

"EXoff" by EXON is another demo which is quite nice. It feels kinda oldschool in some regards but then again it does not, hard to describe. I can only say I enjoyed watching it and like the effects even though they were not groundbreaking or anything, but definitely nicely done release. The music by Jammer is also very well done, which is to be expected though :)

(Jazzcat)
Cosine have been around for quite a few years now. TMR seems to hit the right spot with his polished work "Mish Mash", which was a fun little demo that is full of style. It has no real mind breaking effects but the melodic tune and calmness of the whole production does the right thing for me. Taking some people outside of their comfort zone and into a new area was "Deep 90%" by Chorus. This demo is a collection of images and words, the comined power of these create an imaginative scenario of past, present and future in my mind. The show is very intimate, enhanced by the colour choice of the pictures (Leon) and the sad and beautiful music (Fanta). Whilst some people may dislike this production I found it fitted perfectly together, a fine example of how to make a slideshow more than just a "slideshow".

Outside of demo-town I have make comment on one of the best cracks of the year. That's right, "Ultima IV GOLD". Which was brutally punished with the whip of love by MagerValp/M&M. This crack is an example of what real quality cracking is all about. Read these lines you PC-wanna-bees who have lost your way and forgotten the teachings of the older generations: extensive trainers, reduction from four disk sides to two, IFFL fastloader included, bug fixing, enhancements added into original game structure (such as save options), supports 1541, 1571, 1581, CMD-FD, CMD-HD, and SuperCPU, full joystick control added (compared to just keyboard). The sheer amount of work for this production is enormous! Congratulations on one of the best cracks seen in many years!

In this edition my mind is straining. Who/What to give the award to? There is quite a lot happening at the moment, which is great!! But it doesn't make our choice any easier here. Hmmm... where to start? Graphics versus demos versus some other bits and pieces standing out (Mr.Marvellous by Jammer comes to mind as do 82 Ditties (SID collection), and several other things)...

What say you?

CONCLUSION

(Macx)
Does the amount of work hours one put into a release count as important when awarding? Would it then be at all interesting to compare a picture to a demo? Or is it the idea that should be awarded, despite it perhaps being sprung out of a lucky second of lucidity, as it is the main weapon on the scene battleground? As neither Timanthes nor it's author Mirage was awarded last time, and it has perhaps been a main reason for the creative graphical burst of late, does this mean me and Jazzcat made a big mistake?

If I would go for a good idea executed as a picture I would go for one of Helm's explorations (partly because his fellow laboratorian cannot receive the award this issue), and give the award to this greek philosopher. He has, at least in my world, presented something radically new in the world of Commodore 64 graphics. What do you think?

Something that also deserves an award in my humble opinion is a demonstration which is more than a picture, namely Tao's Electronaut. It manages to present a whole lot of political philosophy and is at the same time very thought provoking, something I do not find the general political slogan to be. It is most certainly because this time it is presented in a context with which Tao with Ne7 and Decompracid has built up nurtured soil for such a possibility. It must be seen as a whole though, the design and code present nothing new as far as I am to judge. That does not frighten me to award it though.

(Ptoing)
Since there will only be one release that gets the Award I would have to say that my overall favourite certainly is "Trans*Form" by Focus. It is just perfect for what it is and it's 100% fresh and brilliantly executed. Basically I could repeat here what I wrote above but I won't. So, my vote goes to this one.

(Jazzcat)
Hmmm. My choice was touched on by both Macx and Ptoing just now. I would think that the single person deserving the Award for this issue is Mirage. Not only for his tool Timanthes which has spawned a huge amount of activity but also for his own graphics efforts in the various pictures he has released and the demos that he has been apart of. Whilst Helm has certainly explored different areas and stepped outside the little box society loves to put themselves in, I cannot go past the polished works of Mirage, who has also stepped outside the comfort zone on several occassions too. "Electronaut" didn't appeal to me but "Trans*Form" certainly did.

(Macx)
I really like Trans*Form. Designwise it is a masterpiece and it is seemingly a perfect execution of the idea behind. It communicates with slogans and words, not graphics. It does so with subtle irony of some sort. But is there anything deeper? Can it be interpreted by the viewer in different ways? I am sure it can, as both Ptoing and Jazzcat are proposing it to get the award. Why, Ptoing, is it the "freshness" and mindblasting design, that makes it deserve the award? What is it communicating to you, what values in society? Do you have any arguments for it to get the award or is it legible gut feelings (as I myself often trust, no negative values intended)?

The late part of the summer and what we have seen of autumn really has been a fireworks display in the c64 portfolio of Mirage. Just like Joe has talked with him about in the comments forum of Mirages's "The Pianokeys Are Black And White, But They Sound Like A Million Colours", the background is a piece in itself - and is perhaps what has been seen as a done picture from many, for long. Mirage is building new layers on top of the old ones. Like the historical buildings of a city can be seen also in its modern structure is Mirage through his pieces making comments to the history of graphicians on this machine. I can agree upon that he is fully adequate of the award for such an achievement.

(Ptoing)
I like both the design of Trans*Form as well as that it makes me think. In what ways it does that I described quite a few pages back, but again, it makes me think of how society today works and what my place is inside it. I hear you on the Mirage thing, but he is included in doing Trans*Form and his standalone stuff did not make me think or because that much reaction in me. So the guys from Focus who worked on Trans*form should get it, that's what I think at least.

(Jazzcat)
I'm fine with handing an award to Trans*Form but is there any further debate from Macx regarding this? Ptoing has decided firmly. I'm happy with it. Damn, this was much more difficult than last issue, so many things to choose from. Design wins however. Over to Macx for some final words.

(Macx)
It is not that consensus has to be reached, especially not when we are an uneven number of hosts to award. I am not convinced by the arguments from Jazzcat and Ptoing, but I have to trust their gut feelings. And it is not that I do not like Trans*Form, quite the opposite, but a quote from an email from a friend I think pinpoints what I am trying to say:

"[the way everyone is praising it] I feel there is something I have missed". It is in any way a small question as it is a top notch demonstration that I really enjoy anyhow. The main guys behind the release that gets this edition of the Awards are as far as I can see the ones that came up with the concept, played with the words and stood for the design, namely The Dark Judge and Sander. It could however, of course, not have been released without the full crew which also includes Hein, Mirage and WVL.

The Award
in Vandalism News issue 48 goes to

Trans*Form

Released by Focus at Big Floppy People in July 2006. It gets it because of how
it plays with our minds and does so in a very well designed way, which is a fresh and radical approach in the world of C64 demos.

That is where we conclude in the second C64 scene Awards, published to date in this magazine. The next issue will take off from the releases from X2006.

Should someone different get the award? Are we interpreting things wrongly? We expect criticism and hope it will be submitted!