Nebula Dual Crew and Shining                         #2 at The Gathering'98
                                                                     
Interesting  demo!  Good idea to show the intro part as titles of a 50's SF TV
series!  But after this funny intro, the other effects are little variation to
some  common ideas.  There's a good use of textures (by Adam and Illusion) and
lights,  but  the  code  of  Shape  is  not perfect.  I had some problems with
fragmented  memory  running  this demo and I would be very happy to be advised
about  this  bug  in the readme text, if someone did remember to write a note!
Of   course,  this  is  not  such  a  big  problem:   A  simple  boot  without
startup-sequence is the right solution.  The real problem is the a bit lacking
design.  When you see such a great intro with a so interesting name, don't you
expect  something else on the same theme?  Well, I don't think that the flying
plants 3D anbient and the flower with a bunch of stars exiting from petals are
linked  to  SF  themes!   With  the right background it could be considered as
alien  plants,  but  there's no background!  Maybe the tunnel with bump mapped
texture, with an extreme enlighted and the other extreme in darkness, and with
some  pulsing  stars  moving in helix path could be considered as effects more
matching  the  purpuse.   Instead  is  very cool the b/w picture of a man with
eyeglasses  on  which  into  the  lens are moving two tunnels!!!  And also the
"teletransport"  scene  of  a transparent object from a side to the other one,
with  many  little  lights is an effect very "Star Trek like".  This effect is
nothing  screaming,  but is an interesting idea!  Very well coded and original
is  the  greetings  part:   A texture twisted in a lens deformed mode on which
fade  names of greeted groups.  Instead the twisting bump mapped tunnel voyage
with  a  textured  object  flying  into, is the classic common effect with 2x2
resolution,  but  is  very fast.  Final effect:  another plants ambient with a
star  object  with  some  lights into the core rotating on its axis and with a
reflex  on the bottom such as a water surface.  When lights exploding out from
the core of the object start the final scolltext to concludes this demo.  Some
notes about music:  Very cool the intro tune part by Tweak also if it's only a
simple digitizing of a 50's TV series tune, but this music enphasize very much
the 50's atmosphere of the intro; instead the demo tune and the final tune are
a  bit  under the Muffler's usual standard, but fit the demo very much because
they are well synchroniced with effects changes.            
                                                                     
Coding      : Good      - some minor annoyance, but a very fast 3D engine
2D Graphics : Good      - functional digitized pictures and good textures
3D Graphics : Good      - no torus, but also nothing really new!
Music       : Good      - a Muffler under average however is good enough!
Design      : Good      - a bit lacking, but not too bad
                                                                     
Overall vote: Good      - A very good intro part, and a demo with a good
                          style: To give a look!