X Insight - "MY KINGDOM" - THE DEMO -X__The winning demo from The Party 7 in Denmark, held at the bitter end of December
1997 finally made it onto my hard-disk almost exactly one month after the end of the competition. The reason for the delay, you say? Unknown... There was much talk about it on the IRC during the first weeks after The Party, mainly requests as to its whereabouts...__The version of "My Kingdom" which I have is listed in the file_id as being The Party 7 competition version, so quite why it took a month to make it available is something of a mystery. So... Was it worth waiting for? And did it meet up to the anticipation it had created? Well, obviously the following comments are only my personal opinion...__First of all, the demo comes with a runme file, which is a script to run five different programs. The first and last are a simple coded fadein and fadeout while the middle 3 parts are the actual demo. I'll accept that with this being the version directly from The Party there is no reason why the demo should not be presented in this way. But, on the other hand, one would think that after a month at least one person would have made the effort to put it all into one file (Or at least one .exe and one data file -Ed.)__The three parts when run in sequence together show the demo in its full glory, but as you now know that it is in fact three separate parts it does give the impression that it is three completely separate demos "bolted" together.__Part one is the "dawning of my kingdom" and starts with two 3D objects moving towards you which, after a while, changes to the pixelled Haujobb and Scoopex
logos by Leunam which are quite well drawn though nothing special. You are then taken to a 3-dimentional rotating display with modeled hands holding monitors, which serves as the credits section detailing the coders, musicians, graphicians and 3D modelers. This runs quite smoothly even on a 030/50 and the names are displayed just long enough to catch them all. It then changes into a "my kingdom" logo before fading out and ending. This part runs for 75 seconds, and there is no quit facility making you able to exit. The music in part one is quite dark and bassy, and is synchronized well with the action on screen.The credits are as follows:Main Code: Boogeyman.Additional Code: Fastjack,Kenny and Speedo.Music: Lazz and Muffler.Graphics: Kid Love, Vizualise,Leunam and Bay Tremore.3D: Nomad, Boogeyman.Textures: Dice, Boogeyman andJazz.Direction : Owl.__Part two starts with a background of a planet in the lower left of the screen and a large blue bouncing bump-mapped "jelly" sphere in the foreground. It then flicks to a moving plasma type background overlaid with some text. Next is an excellent picture and finally a very good full screen moving backdrop which moves in perspective very smoothly, rotating in 3D around the center of the screen. The music continues where part one left off, and again synchronizes very good with the effect changes. This part only runs for about 62 seconds and can be skipped by using the escape key...__Part 3 begins with a great picture by Kidlove and moves on to a 3D morphing shape on a color cycling background. Then it's onto several 3D objects moving very smoothly around and through each other on a nice blurred backdrop. This is followed by a quite gaudy plasma effect, seemingly deliberate by the message on screen at the time. Then there is more 3D with some nice transparent 3D lighting effects, as the camera moves through them. On to some more or less gaudy plasma and then some more 3D with four rings falling into the map and then the camera moving through these objects. This section contains the best music by far as it really starts to kick in nicely while demonstrating a very good 3D engine with the camera moving in and out of the display. Then a pixelled end-screen is displayed which fades out and the demo is over. This is the longest section by far, running at a little under 3 minutes, but again there is no way to exit before it ends naturally.__Overall the whole demo when seen in one sequence is good, but the joins between the three parts are evident as quite long pauses and the music does stop and start over again each time. In all the demo comes in at a little over 7 megs, which is a lot for what you are actually getting.__It is certainly worth noting that if this is the version which actually competed at the party then there is no way this demo should have won, as it is well over the 6MB uncompressed limit as stated in the rules. The second placed demo group could feel justifiably aggrieved.__Conclusion; A good demo. Not great, but certainly a worthy addition to the demos released on the Amiga in 1997. When all The Party 7 competition entries are taken into consideration, this is probably the demo which deserved to win, although the file-size is somewhat questionable.X by Crash/Nerve Axis (c) Insomnia'98
