No Fragments Archive 10: Diskmags/nf_archive_10.iso/MAGS/LEDGERS/LEDG_13.MSA/ARTICLES.MAT/LIGHTNIN.DOC/LIGHTNIN.DOC

Text File | 1985-11-20 | 8KB | 181 lines

                       {}{}{}{ THE LIGHTNING DEMO }{}{}{}
                       {}{}{}{   THE PENDRAGONS   }{}{}{}

                       REVIEW BY DARKMAN OF TOUR DE FORCE



Well, as everybody should know by now, The Pendragons are dead now, having
merged with The Overlanders when OVR joined the Union. So this is, in fact,
The Pendragons farewell demo.



Well, let's start the review. For this demo, every screen has Mad Max zik
(or I think it is) unless it says differently in the description.


Intro - First of all there is a nice muzak and rasters. Then a Triton logo
appears over the top of the rasters. There is a shimmering reflection of
this logo on the rasters. Then a 'Pendragons' logo drops down... pause
...and it flies away. Now there is a 'Presents' logo doing the same thing.
This screen fades out, and another one fades in. After a while, a text
saying 'The Lightning Demo' flashes in. Pause. Quit.

Loader - A Big Alec musix (I think), a big 'Loading and Decompacting' logo
and a man walking across the screen (nicely animated).

Menu - Wow! This is the first of several fullscreens on this demo. I think
that some of the background graphics are reminiscent of the European
Demos, but this is not a criticism. You use the cursor keys to move the
little guy around. Viewed from above, it is like a huge maze with several
levels, and it is very, very confusing!! For this reason, I'm not sure if
I've seen all the screens!! A very nice menu indeed. Oh yeah, there are
some 'Pendragons' sprites flying around.

Boing - Apparently this is the oldest screen of the demo. There is a
flipping Pendragons logo in the top border, some sprites flying around, a
scroller in bottom/left/right overscan and the main feature of this
screen, a huge ball bouncing around a room. Nice, in it's own way, I
suppose, but quite bland.

Megadist - First of all, there is Pendragons logo. Pause. Clear screen.
Now there is the instructions for this screen. Pause. Start screen. There
are blue rasters at the bottom, and the scroller comes out of these and is
reflected in them. This scroller is sort of like a vertical twist scroll,
but it has many different effects and moves from side to side. It's quite
unreadable, but it might get worse!! I thought this screen was rather
empty, because nothing else happens.

Silent - This is what I mean!! There is a very good tracker muzak, a
Pendragons logo at the top of the screen, and there is a scroller made of
dots coming out of the screen. Again, you can change the parameters and
make it even more unreadable or try and make it easier to read. A very
nice screen.

Plasma - This is ..THE.. best screen of the demo and one of the best
screens I have ever, ever seen on ..ANY.. computer!! It is by Dim of OVR
and, you guessed it, is the first Plasma screem on the ST. There is some
really great zik by Doclands, an incredible font by Dim for the text
screens (it is another psygnosis lookalike, but smaller), and a nice fade
effect for the text screens. The screen left to run lasts 74 minutes, but
it can be made shorter. Basically, the plasma is some nice raster dists
and other effects, but I have a feeling it is more complex than that!! I
will not say too much in case you have not already seen this screen.

Noltz - I'm not sure if that's the correct screen name because I couldn't
read it properly. The zix is by Lap of NeXT. It is a fullscreen and has a
big disting Pendragons logo, parallax stars, Triton sprites and lots of
scrollers (all the same text). Sometimes the font colours change. Quite a
nice screen, but not all that original.

Shadow of the Beast - No, it's not the game, merely a screen based on the
game. The graphics are very very nice, being drawn by Megadeth apparently.
The musik is provided by Doclands. It is a fullscreen and the scrolling is
still very smooth. This is a parallax scrolling effect used in Starray and
the Enchanted Lands intro, etc. There is a big logo bouncing over the top
o this (it's about two screens high). That's all, but it's quite nice.

3D Designer - Can you guess what this is? It's the Pendragons 3D Object
Designer. Some features are disabled (ie. Load/Save, Vectorballs,
Animation) but it is still very good. There are no instructions for this,
just muck around and see what you can do. Once you've worked it out,
you'll spend hours playing with this!!

Hidden - I'm not telling you how to find it. I'll describe briefly what's
in it though... Count Zero musik, 3D objects, starfield, in bottom border
there is a starship console. At the top there is a scroller in which you
are told that the Pendragons don't like this screen very much, and they
also tell you that they are working on new 3D routines with Dim from OVR.

Presentation - Basically, this is the 'Pendragons Horror Show'. Yes, you
guessed it, this is the screen where you get to see the faces of the
Pendragons. It is a fullscreen, with a logo at the top, a scroll at the
bottom, and a nice background piccy. There are some sprites as well.

Ads'oh - Can you guess who wrote this screen? Yes, it was Adso from OVR
and it is another fullscreen!! There is a 4voice zak (Complications, I
think). There is a one-plane byte bender, volume rasters (v. nice), a
disting and ghosting OVR logo, some ball sprites and some 3D dot objects.
Another nice screen from the Overlanders.

4D screen - Hmmmmm. Quite a nice screen this, I suppose. There is a
starfield (with blue and red stars) and a 4channel track. The highlight of
this screen though, is the very nice 3D objects (wireframe) which are blue
and red as well. The two colours are used to good effect on the objects
and there is very good object change routine (well, what should I call it?)

Reset - First there is a title screen which I can't read, and then a RESET
logo is drawn bit by bit on the screen. Pause. Now there are some purple
mountains, lotsa rasters, a wire 3D object (with reflection, and it also
disappears below the raster level), a one-plane scroller at the bottom. At
the top, there is a text which says CRYSTAR. If you use the cursor keys up
and down, you will be given the addresses of most Pendragons members.
Quite a good idea this.



Well, let's see how many screens are on this demo... 15 including menu,
reset, loader, intro and hidden. Not bad. This is quite a good demo, and
should definitely have a place in everybody's collection (that's if it
isn't already there).

The Results...

Code = Very Good in most screens
GFX = As in most demos, some are crap, but in this case, the majority are
       very well drawn indeed.
ZIKS = Music and sounds in other words. All are very good again.
Originality = Hmmm. Some screens are quite original, but there is really
       only one ORIGINAL screen, that being the Plasma screen from Dim.
       (Well done to you, guy!)

Overall = About 83%, because a) It deserves it, and b) That's what I'm
giving it


So there you have it. Get The Lightning Demo by The Pendragons. It's Very
Good, and it's recommended by Darkman of The Most Incredibly Forceful
Tourists of Forcefulness (ie. Darkman of Tour de Force).





One other thing, have you ever noticed that my demo reviews use different
marking schemes than the others in Ledgers? Also, have you ever noticed
that my demo reviews use different marking schemes than each other? The
reason for this is that I can never be bothered following convention (or
something like that).











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