Insight - "ELEKTROBOY"
- THE DEMO -

__The demo reviewed here ranked third at TP, an adequate position when
drawing a comparison with the pile of other Amiga releases at this event.
It requires 8 Megabytes of Fast RAM to run and the obligatoric 030
processor - standard config nowadays.
__"Elektroboy" is a multiload demo which consists of several separated files.
You have to run a script called "runme.bat" from CLI or Workbench with the
"Execute"-command to start the demo.
__The code was done by Devotion, Fender was responsible for design and music,
whereas the graphics were pixelled by Thor.
__The demo starts with a texture-gouraudmapped star turning round it's axis,
in the top right corner of the screen some text wipes in and out.
Then some 2D effects catch the eye (lookup-table blurred, then shaded).
At this early stage of the demo the well-performed harmony between colors
and music already becomes visible. Fender's style of music should be known
to most sceners by now; his electronic, trembling vibes fit very well to the
moody, dimmed pastel colors ranging from grey over to violet. This
connection gets underlined through synchronization between effects and music
later on in the demo. In front of the blurring background the Elektroboy-logo
finally appears and then fades away. A similarity to the "Killer" demo by CNCD
becomes obvious here, not only concerning the graphical style, but also the
design of the whole demo.
__What follows next is a radial blur on a gouraud-shaded object, the colors
are kept in yellow tones here. Another lookup-table effect comes next. And
again the parallel to the CNCD-"Killer" demo stands out - the observer sees
transparent maps scrolling down the screen (showing a typewriter, for
example), with a morphing shape changing textures in the foreground.
Another picture showing a woman and a smoke logo fades in and out later on.
A rather new trend of fading is to be noticed here (already used in other
demos as well): The colors are faded down and up fast, so the picture itself
becomes darker and lighter before, instead of vanishing immediately.
__The second-least effect consists of a turning wireframe with a flatshaded,
blurring background (Devotion likes lookup tables, doesn't he?). Finally,
in front of a background consisting of zeroes and ones an env-mapped object
appears in the middle while on the left side of the screen a tube rotates
(lowpass-filtered animation). On the lower right corner of the screen the
credits come up, the demo ends with another picture of a woman (wearing a
Smoke-T-Shirt and armed with a gun this time).
__After having seen "Elektroboy", "Killer", and some other releases of DCS
lately, I have the feeling a new demo style has established itself. No,
unfortunately I don't mean what you might think now: No new effects or
ideas, but a new design, consisting of ambient/electronic music, moody,
dimmed colors and digitized graphics.
__"Elektroboy" is a good demo, the design is done very well, the code is
definately high above scene average, but not innovative or outstanding.
The music suits the style of the demo perfectly, but it might not be
everyone's taste. As for me I like it. The graphics look quite nice and
make the good overall impression of the demo complete.


by Bytebreaker (c) Insomnia'98