Aminet 48/Aminet 48 (2002)(GTI - Schatztruhe)[!][Apr 2002].iso/Aminet/demo/mag/gods-disc12.lha/D.I.S.C.12/text/thescene-ephidrenaexperience

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«c2»«ac»THE EPHIDRENA EXPERIENCE«»
«»
«c1»By Zerox/Gods«»
«»
«as»«c7»You have all experienced it...«»
the new demo style created by some sceners
far up north. Now it's time to tell the tale of the group «c6»Ephidrena...«»
«»
«c5»THE BEGINNING«»
«»
«c7»It was in the beginning of July 1995, when the Norwegian scene was in
severe trouble after the software companies, and especially «c6»Funcom, «c7»had
tricked our best sceners to work for them, that a new group got borned.
It was much later known as «c6»Ephidrena. «c7»In Norway at that time, «c6»Andromeda «c7»had just
passed away silently, «c6»Spaceballs «c7»was in crisis, «c6»Talent «c7»went PC and there
really weren't that many of the leading groups left anymore. There were a
few new groups though which later on should prove to be very good, and
Ephidrena is one of them.«»
«»
At a small party called «c6»Odyssey, «c7»a few new sceners came in touch and wanted
to create a demogroup. These persons were «c6»Zixaq «c7»(Xiphias at that time) and
«c6»Cyberstarr «c7»(Emx). At the same party also «c6»LoadError and Frequent «c7»joined. The
group now consisted of Cyberstarr (Amos-Coder), LoadError (Graphician & Amos-Coder),
Frequent (Musician) and Zixaq (Musician). And only a few weeks later on,
the graphicians, «c6»Stoney (Wad) and Cheetah «c7»were allowed to join as well.«»
«»
At the autumn the same year the group had its first internal meeting, and
the start of Ephidrena was a fact. However, the next year the group more or
less consisted of 3 members due to Zixaq being away in France first and
then serving his military service. The graphicians Cheetah and Stoney
didn't participate in the activities either. Nevertheless, Cyberstarr,
Frequent and Loaderror were quite active for a «c6»newborn group.«»
«»
«c5»THE FIRST RELEASES«»
«»
«c7»The first release from Ephidrena was a production named «c6»Jallaj0de. «c7»The code
was done by Cyberstarr in amos, and the graphics were done by Loaderror and
Cyberstarr. Frequent did the music of course. Jallaj0de is according to the
group in the category intro/dentro, and it consists of some slow dot
effects, a chiptune and some below average graphics. It's unknown when this
production got released, but perhaps it was at the Distortion'96 party held
in February 1996? As Ephidrena is too embarrased to spread this production,
we'll never know for certain.«»
«»
The next productions are easier to get however, as they were released at
the Gathering party. For the first time Loaderror coded for Ephidrena in
his «c6»Kugalskap demo, «c7»gfx was done by Loaderror and music by Frequent.
Cyberstarr did the code for the «c6»Recycled demo. «c7»The
gfx was done by Loaderror, Stoney and Cheetah, and music by Frequent and
Goahead. The "Kugalskap" demo is
perhaps inspired by old F.C.I. demos? Cows are flying everywhere. The
Recycled demo effects are quite fast, but all routines were
dead old at the time.
Both demos are not very memorable, and they probably only got the votes from the
Ephidrena members. I guess the rest of the sceners voted for the Tint demo
by TBL!«»
Just a bit later that year, the luck changed for Ephidrena. They won the
80k intro competition at the Bush Party III with «c6»Balls. «c7»The amos intro contains some
very slow routines; like shade cluster and bobs. As before,
Loaderror did the code and gfx, and Frequent the music.«»
«»
The next release was the demo «c6»Mnemonic «c7»which got released at the
Kindergarden party, and became second. This was Loaderrors first assembler
production, and it was done together with Cyberstarr. The gfx was done by
Loaderror and Cheetah, and music by Frequent as usual. It got a few nice
effects and very nice logos. This could perhaps be described as the first
real demo from Ephidrena? At least the norwegian scene started to get aware
of this new group. Ephidrena also released an intro called
«c6»Rekord «c7»at the same party I think.«»
The last production from Ephidrena in 1996, was the demo «c6»Puppets «c7»released
at the Party. Some changes had happened as now both coders were a bit
more used to assembler, and Cheetah and Stoney were more involved in the project.
This demo still didn't have the standard of other demos at that time, but
it has its moments as for design work. The demo is quite short however.
In any case, Puppets was the first demo from Ephidrena released in a
foreign country.«»
«»
The first release from Ephidrena in 1997, was at the Scenus Party.
Loaderror and Frequent released a small dentro there called «c6»Pieces. «c7»As they write
themselves: It's «c6»"small pieces on a digitial road". «c7»The dentro only
includes a few routines, and it's nothing special at all. Some will
probably also reconize that some of the routines are taken from the
Mnemonic and Puppets demos. As most
Ephidrena productions so far (except Balls and Mnemonic), it didn't get ranked very
high in the competition.«»
«»
In April it was time for the Gathering party, and Ephidrena managed to make
a demo for this party as well. The demo is called «c6»Abiotic, «c7»and was coded by
Cyberstarr and Loaderror, the graphics were done by Cheetah, Loaderror and
Stoney, and last, Zixaq did the module for the first time in a demo for
Ephidrena. The gfx is nice, and the module is quite fast... but perhaps the
routines weren't as fast as the music? The demo features at least some nice
effects, and I especially like the tunnel routine. The demo ended as nr.7
in this hard competiton which is not bad considering TBL and Artwork made
two smashing demos. Also more groups made some very good demos there, like
Limited Edition. Two other norwegian groups did also make some quality
demos, like Triumph and Gods. But Ephidrena beat other known norwegian
crews like Spaceballs, Contraz, Massive, Donut Fetish and Apathy.«»
«»
The next demo from Ephidrena, is called «c6»Photons «c7»and was released at the
Kindergarden party less than 3 months after the last demo. It was once
again coded by Cyberstarr and Loaderror, and again gfx by Cheetah,
Loaderror and Stoney. But for the first time Frequent and Zixaq did the
music together. The demo also contains some interesting effects, and came
third in the competition after the cool demo Toltek 9 and the Smurph demo.«»
«»
Ephidrena didn't rest long before they released the 80k intro called «c6»Eph vs
Cpu. «c7»It was coded by Loaderror, gfx by Cheetah and music by Frequent. It
was the best amiga intro in the joint Amiga/PC compo, but two PC intros
beat it. It got a few good effects, which most sceners later on would
experience in Ephidrena's 4k intros.«»
«»
The last productions from Ephidrena in 1997 were presented at The Party.
They released a remix of their Photons demo released during the summer at
KG. This time the demo was called «c6»Photons-Dodraugremix. «c7»The demo got
actually quite many routines, good music, design and is enjoyable. However, as so many times
before, the Ephidrena demo got a bad ranking. It was placed as nr.14 only
ahead of a few bad productions. The group was obviously disappointed as
they had never worked so much on any production so far. The other
production released at TP, was the 4k intro «c6»Beer. «c7»It got a much better
position as it got ranked 2nd. The intro is very very good after my
opinion, and mainly consists of the same routines as in the 80k intro
released at the Distance party! Beer was created by Loaderror. Quite impressive.«»
«»
Looking back at the demos «c6»Mnemonic, Puppets, Abiotic, Photons and the remix
«c7»of it, we can't say they got very good rankings. But nevertheless, they all
offered some interesting stuff and especially I like this kind of demo
style.«»
«»
1997 was a very productive year for Ephidrena and they also tasted
sweet success with their great Beer intro! For the first time the group got
some international attention!«»
«»
«c5»THE MINOR SETBACK«»
«»
«c7»After the Party 7 and the disappointment with the demo there, Cyberstarr
lost motivation and has actually never coded anything for Ephidrena again!
Ephidrena entered 1998 a bit reduced, and the activity level dropped.«»
«»
In any case, at the Gathering party they arrived to release a few
productions. They released the demo called «c6»DRIIDIRIJIA «c7»coded by Loaderror,
graphics by Cheetah and Stoney, and the music by Frequent. The demo
presented at the gathering wasn't good at all. And it only got ranked 7th
in a quite bad demo competition (except from Rise by Mellow Chips).
However, a fixed version was spread later on.«»
«»
Ephidrena also released some other productions at the gathering, and they
were much better. They released a 64k intro called «c6»Fusion is my energy
«c7»which ended up third in the compo. It got some flare bobs and a nice idea
overall. The intro was coded by Loaderror, gfx by Cheetah and music by
Frequent.«»
«»
Last, Ephidrena competed in the 4k intro with «c6»Byte. «c7»It's a short, but very
good intro which of course reminds me of Beer. It came third in the compo
also and was done by Loaderror.«»
«»
These results were the best ever for Ephidrena at the Gathering party.«»
«»
Next time we heard from Ephidrena was at the Kindergarden party were they
released a dentro to promote a norwegian mag called «c6»Norsktoppen. «c7»The
production was called «c6»Norsktoppen 3 intro, «c7»and shows various norwegian
sceners. It was made by Loaderror for the code and gfx, and music by
Frequent. The dentro came third in the compo.«»
«»
«c5»THE BREAKTHROUGH«»
«»
«c7»Even though Loaderror had been in the army for many many months, Ephidrena
managed to come up with another demo for The Party. It was created in the
house of Zixaq right before Christmas and finished at The Party. The demo
is named «c6»Substral. «c7»It got many effects, some animations, aggressive
music and nice graphics. The code was done by Loaderror, gfx by Cheetah and
animations by Stoney, and music by Zixaq. And it got ranked as nr.5! This
demo can be described as the international breakthrough demo of Ephidrena.
It also indicicated the future direction of this group, and the Ephidrena
members themselves are quite satisfied with this demo.«»
«»
Even though Ephidrena weren't as productive as the previous year, the group
started to get noticed by more and more sceners also outside of Norway. And
1998 ended quite good for Ephidrena.«»
«»
«c5»THE RISE«»
«»
«c7»At the Gathering party 99 Ephidrena once more showed up with a demo, as so
many times before. This time they presented a demo called «c6»Flux «c7»which was
made during a few days at Cheetahs' place and the days at the party place.
The demo got various routines, bright coloured textures, good music, some
more animations etc. However, the version released at Gathering was more or
less half-finished. Some months after tg, a fixed version got released.
In any case, Flux got ranked second in the weakest demo competition in the
history of The Gathering parties. Nevertheless, it's the best result for
Ephidrena ever in the demo compo at TG. The demo was created by Loaderror
for the code, Cheetah for the gfx, Stoney for anim, and Zixaq did the
main-tune and Frequent the end tune.«»
«»
«c5»WHEN WINNING IS ALL...«»
«»
«c7»Only a month after the Gathering party, Ephidrena went to the Distance'99
party to compete with a 4k intro called «c6»Big! «c7»It's really a great 4k which
would do good in any 4k competition. However, there was only one other
competitor at that party... and of course Ephidrena won!«»
«»
After this Ephidrena became silent for a while, and another production from
them didn't get released before The Party 1999! Ephidrena presented a
smashing demo named «c6»Concrete «c7»which went all the way to the top! It
certainly got to have been a great moment for the Ephidrena members present
at The Party to experience this. As Ephidrena themselves tell about
Concrete: «c6»"It was a great production.". «c7»What more to add? «»
«»
Ephidrena didn't release that much in 1999, but all productions did very
well in the competitions. And by now the name Ephidrena was on every
sceners lips...«»
«»
«c5»KEEPING UP APPEARANCES«»
«»
«c7»In the year 2000 Ephidrena became very active again with many releases.«»
«»
They made a short demo for the TRSAC 2K party on request, and came third in
the competition. It was called «c6»Turn up the hype «c7»and mainly done by Loaderror
and Frequent.«»
«»
At the Gathering party Ephidrena released an intro called «c6»Swaptro, «c7»which
doesn't consist of many effects. It's ok. The intro actually came third in
the demo competition, after Spaceballs and Contraz. Swaptro was made by
Loaderror.«»
«»
At the same time, another party was taking place. It was the Mekka
Symposium party. Ephidrena participated both in the 64k intro and 4k intro
competitions. The 64k intro called «c6»Omnicrom «c7»was the first real intro from
Ephidrena since the Gathering 98 party, and it came third as well. The
intro was coded by Loaderror (who else?), gfx by Loaderror and Zixaq and
music by Frequent and Zixaq. It's quite a good intro which even could have
advanced a place.«»
Their 4k intro «c6»Bier «c7»smashed the competitors and Ephidrena won! Again it's
another very good 4k intro from Loaderror with some assistance of Frequent.«»
«»
The Ephidrena guys got to have been happy about the results in competitions
as they managed to prove that they definately were one of the best amiga
groups with several good rankings the latest months.«»
«»
And the releases kept coming... they released another 4k intro called «c6»Kina
«c7»at the Flag or was it the Fakklya party in Hungary? In any case, the intro
looks exactly the same as Bier, but the music is different and only done by
Loaderror. It won the compo too.«»
«»
In the summertime Ephidrena decided to visit the Assembly party to release
a demo. Actually only Loaderror and Cheetah were involved in this
production as it was kept a secret from the other members. Loaderror did
the code, Cheetah the gfx and both did the music. I guess the other members
were quite surprised seeing «c6»Janne Ahonen «c7»at the big screen, and all pretty
surprised when the demo only got ranked as nr.14 out of 15 demos in the
joint Amiga/PC competition.«»
«»
Every year Ephidrena also participate at the Kindergarden party. This year
they presented the small demo «c6»Pluss, «c7»which came second in competition. The
demo was done by Loaderror for the code, Cheetah/Loaderror for the gfx and
cheetah/frequent/loadderror for the music. I guess this demo and the Janne
Ahonen demo haven't been seen by that many sceners. So check it out if you
haven't seen it already.«»
«»
At the same party Ephidrena also released the 4k intro called «c6»B0rst. «c7»Of
course it smashed the competitiors and won the compo. It was done by
Loaderror and Zixaq.«»
«»
«c5»DEMO OR DIE«»
«»
«c7»Even with all these releases, the productions didn't stop coming. At the
Party Ephidrena released the demo called a symbol I'm unable to express.
So lets just call the demo «c6»J! «c7»It was coded by Loaderror with the help of
Cyborg/Industry, gfx was done by Cheetah and some photos by Loaderror and
Pippin. The modules were done by Frequent and Zixaq as so many times
before. This demo is something I would describe as the ultimate Ephidrena
experience! It's a prime example of their very special demo style. The demo
has a new demosystem which makes it possible to make quite many interesting
effects. I guess most sceners have seen variations of the effects in this
demo before, but never in this special context. It's the way Ephidrena uses
the effects into their design which is so special. It certainly creates a
very unique atmosphere. This demo also got a great soundtrack with the acoustic
guitar samples from Zixaq. Most effects are shown over photos as
backgrounds. I would of course prefered old pixel art, but I can't get all
that I want either. The only irritating part of this demo, is really the
boring precalculations... at least the one between the first routine and
the second one. Nevertheless, a great demo which only managed to come
second in the competition. It was beaten by a typical oldskool demo by
Haujobb. Even though I'm a typical oldskool scener which love hard coding,
I have to admit that the times are changing and the total atmosphere of the
demo is much more important. J should have won The Party!«»
«»
In any case, the year 2000 was a very productive year for Ephidrena as they
established themselves among the very best demo groups.«»
«»
«»
«c6»LAST YEAR«»
«»
«c7»Ephidrena has released a few production in the year of 2001 as well.«»
«»
At the Gathering party they released a promotion «c6»dentro for the Showtime 16
diskmag. «c7»The production was finished by Loaderror and Zixaq in the first
week of January, but not released before in the demo competition at TG. And
later on, it was re-released with the ShowTime 16 archieve. In any case,
it's a small, but yet quite a typical Ephidrena production. Most of the
routines have been used in other Ephidrena productions before. But the
newspaper design and falling newspapers are quite nice. I also like the
background guitarsamples of this dentro. In any case, it came second in the
demo competition.«»
«»
At the same time at the Mekka-Symposium party, Ephidrena released their
«c6»Adam Malysz vs. Wienerwurst demo. «c7»It's described as the sequal to Janne
Ahonen. Perhaps the last effect really hits the theme of the demo
perfectly? Skijumping that is. The code was done by Loaderror, gfx by
Cheetah and music by Frequent, Cheetah, Loaderror and Zixaq. This Adam
Malysz demo didn't get the same success as previous Ephidrena demos though
as it came 4th in the competition.«»
«»
Ephidrena also released something never done before, a 4k musicdisk! It got
amazingly 8 tunes which last around 20 minutes all in all! This is quite
impressive really. But the the small musicdisk called «c6»Brus «c7»shouldn't have
been put in the 4k intro competition after my opinion. They should perhaps added
some more effects, design and instruments and released it outside the
competition. And then they could make a new intro and really competed in
the 4k competition. In any case, Brus came second in the compo. It was
created by Loaderror (code) and music by Frequent, Cheetah, Loaderror and
Zixaq.«»
«»
At the Kindergarden party Ephidrena released the small demo called «c6»Sfumato.
«c7»It was done by the usual people; code by Loaderror and music by Frequent
and Zixaq. This is also the last production in 2001 from Ephidrena. They
came second in the competition at KG, after TBL which kinda made a demo in
Ephidrena style.«»
«»
«c5»STATUS«»
«»
«c7»The current status of Ephidrena is that the group still consists of the
same 6 members as 6 and a half years ago; «c6»Cheetah, Cyberstarr, Frequent, Loaderror,
Stoney and Zixaq. «c7»But the work balance of the group has changed much.
Cyberstarr can be considered to be totally inactive as he hasn't done a
production since the Photons remix demo. Stoney has stopped pixelling, but
instead done animations in the Ephidrena releases. At the moment it seems
like also he has turned inactive. This means that Cheetah is the main
graphician, but he's not making that much pixel art nowadays. Cheetah
is infact more and more into music. Loaderror is the only coder nowadays,
and is not doing as much gfx as in the past. However, he's making much of
the music in the smaller productions. Frequent who did all the music in the
start, is now mainly doing the end tunes. Zixaq is now the main-musician of
Ephidrena.«»
«»
«c5»THE FUTURE«»
«»
«c7»Despite of the changes within Ephidrena, I'm sure we'll get to see alot
more productions from them very soon. Even though they got some inspiration
from productions as Deep remix and Smokebomb, Ephidrena has certainly
managed to create a very special demo style. The design is completed by
some effects, and not the other way around. The coder Loaderror has
improved very much, and has even been ranked as the best coder.«»
What to expect in the future? Ephidrena is now using different ways of
creating their graphics and music, like using other artforms.
And it seems like they want to make demonstrations more like musicvideos for
a broader public.«»
«»
Very soon you should be able to see some more new demos from this group, and at
least one of them will be out at the «c6»Mekka-Symposium party. «c7»More
suprisingly are the rumours indicating that Ephidrena will not only be a
pure demo group in the future, as a certain other production is on its
way.«»
«»
As a curiousity, I have to mention that Ephidrena also have made a few other
things which are not mentioned among their productionlist. They have also
released a few productions under other names, like at the
TRSAC 3 party in the middle of October 2001. And as for all
sceners that aren't capable to watch the latest scene productions because
of lack of good amiga equipment, I can assure you that the majority of
Ephidrena productions can be enjoyed on a 020 with only 4mb of fast memory! I guess
even the Ephidrena guys are unaware of this. Most intros and even the
majority of demos can be viewed on this configuration. Even more recent
prods like the demo J, the dentro ShowTime 16, the intros Omnicrom and Brus to
mention some. But you'll get more out of them with better configuations
though.«»
«»
In any case, «c6»the Ephidrena experience «c7»will continue... and I'm sure that
the group ranked as nr.1 will be able to supply many more quality
productions in the future!«»
«»
«e»