Byterapers Inc (c64)

Byterapers Inc. (B)
FIN&gt; Dr.Dick (code gfx, 12/94-08/95), Grendel (Jukka O. Kauppinen, mainorg    supply swap, 07/88-03), Mike (gfx, 08/95), Mr.Sex (Tatu Blomberg,     code, 05/94-08/95). ???&gt; CSA (code, 89), Nico (fin? gfx, 11/94), SCS/PCS (code, 07/88).

PREVIOUS MEMBERS -

FIN&gt; Black Belt, Growl, JTP (code, 04/88), Kasper (code), Kokis, MIY-88, Motorsyntax, Mr.Arcade, Mr.Hat, Mr.T, Professor Fate (music, 04/88), Rex (gfx, 04/88), The Boss, TWS.

Byterapers were a Finnish cracking and demo group, active since at least 1988. Actionforce left the group to form Contex late 1988 or early 1989. Finnish musician Flex (ex Action Force) at some point moved on to Contex. 1988 - SCS/PCS made the utility Bytesinus V1.2 (07/88). 1989 - TMB joined from Browbeat around may. Finnish members Servant, Zython and Rockstar (07/88-) all left for Contex in august, while TMB moved on to Alpha Flight 1970 around september. 1995 - The annual Assembly event in august became a real great one for the team this year. Their demo "Extremes" [08/95] won the demo competition, While Mike's (who was in the army at the time, so it had to be delivered by Dr.Dick) picture "Dragon" won the graphics competition.

Rape 1 (1988, 07.04, File). code: JTP, gfx: Rex, music: Professor Fate. Released at The Silents and Stage 3 party. review: This mediocre piece of software failed to excite me enough for me to write a proper review. Sorry. [glenn]

In Action (1988, 13.08, Demo). 4th in the Byterapers Grendelparty 1988 demo competition.

World of Code (1994, .05, Demo). code/gfx: Mr.Sex, music: Zyron, Jeroen Tel/Maniacs of Noise, Deek/ Vibrants. review: WOC is a really strong demo, showcasing some powerhouse coding (and actually ok graphics) from Mr.Sex. There is a certain sense of design to help things along, as well as some well chosen music. We doubt any of these music pieces are exclusive. The best parts of the demo (IMHO) are the fast, smooth dotlandscape and filled/glenz vector parts. These are really a kick in the face of anyone who didn't think we'd ever see these effects performed smoothly on a c64. Their 'fullscreen mandelbrot zoomer' however, is just a rendering of the mandelbrot fractal set that they then zoom and move around on - nothing more than bitmap manipulation. But these are minor quiggles; World of Code is nevertheless a very strong demo from a rising star on the sky. Go, Sexy ;)   The demo is accompanied by a 1-page note, written in Cadgers Noter V4.0  by Deadbeat/Sharks on behalf of Grendel/Byterapers. There is no  indication as to if this was released at a party or not. The directory  structure says just 'May 1994'. [glenn]

World of Code 2 (1994, 06.08, Demo). 2nd in the Assembly 94 demo competition.

World of Code 3 (1994, .11, Demo). code: Mr.Sex, gfx: Nico, music: Rob Hubbard/independent. Winner of the Tribute Party 1994 demo competition! review: The third entry in Mr.Sex's WOC series continues the success of the earlier editions, by winning the competition at the Tribute party. The demo itself is a mixed bag, however. The intro sequence looks a lot like Mr.Sex' other demos, nicely done but also easy (just fading in/out nice fonts). The majority of the demo consists of various kinds of bitmap manipulation (swirls, ripple...) done in 4x4 resolution in a small 'window', taking up around 1/3 of the screen. IMHO this is not the best solution, since the demo easily looks static, but then again these are wellcoded effects. Overall the design of the demo reminded me a lot of the philosophy Sanity got criticized for on the amiga; excellent code, but it's all just smashed up there on the screen one effect after the other with no regard for overall design. Remarkably, they've used an old tune by Rob Hubbard for the soundtrack (I guess they felt they were paying their tribute... :), and the graphics aren't really all that good (except for the ending logo, which is very nice!). Best effect: Zoomrotated pic on vectorcube, which is itself zoomed! The demo takes up one single diskside (files are zero'ed in size), and the disk also includes an amusing note, that's more fun than it's good... [glenn]

Wired Art (1994, 28.12, Slideshow). code: Mr.Sex, gfx: Dr.Dick, music: n/a. Released at The Party 1994. review: Well, Mr.Sex certainly followed "World of Code" [11/94] with a truly mediocre production... This is simply below the standards of a group like Byterapers. This is nothing more than 8 pictures converted from the amiga using Mr.Sex' IFLI converter - and not even looking very good on screen. Picture #1 is the title screen of the Rambo game, #2 is BCR/Stone Arts' "Space Guard" and #7 is Archmage/Andromeda's "In Your  Face" (3rd in The Gathering 94 graphics competition). The others are unknown to me. No credits appear anywhere, just a brief intro sequence which is the best part of the entire show, and a supposed 'note' that is just a basic program typing a few lines onto the screen. Not good. This was likely released outside of any party. The show uses a nonstandard disksystem, making its size impossible to read from the directory. [glenn]

Extremes (1995, 12.08, Multiload Demo). code: Mr.Sex (main), Dr.Dick (additional), gfx: Mike, Jate/Jeskola! (endpic), music: Zardax/Origo Dreamline. Winner of the Assembly 95 demo competition! review: Hardcore code from Mr.Sex coupled with convincing graphics from Mike and a kicking, professional soundtrack from Zardax means this is indeed a remarkable production. Mr.Sex shows a real flair for bitmap manipulation effects (zoom lens, twirl, zoomstretcher) as well as showcasing a real strong gouraud vector routine - even with afterburning effects at one point! It is, however, a little blocky (4x4 I guess). Dr.Dick's contribution consists only of a plasma part and the upscroller in the endpart. Anyway, this is a really, really good demo and a deserving winner of the Assembly competition. Go geddit! :)   The production team behind this demo had a real great assembly this  year, we're guessing. Not only did this demo win the demo competition, but  Mike's picture "Dragon" (also featured in the demo) won the graphics  competition, and Zardax' tune "Martinism" (not featured in the demo) won  the music competition. How's that for a grand slam? ;) Zardax contributes to the demo with two tunes, both of which are exclusives. The upscroller in the endpart can be paused with the space bar. [glenn]

Unsound Minds: Follow The Sign 3 (1996, 17.08, Demo). code: Mr.Sex, gfx: Mike, music: AMJ/Side B. Winner of the Assembly 96 demo competition! review: Oh - my - god. What a fantastic demo this is. It is, in fact, so good that it's now 'demo of the year' for 1996 ;) If memory serves, this  was Mr.Sex final demo on the c64, but WHAT a swansong it was. Mike  supplies some fabulous pieces of graphics in the demo too, nailing his  position as one of the world's best graphics artists once and for all - at  least as far as I am concerned. It's hard to begin to describe this demo  for me right now, I am so... out of breath. It is a wondrous thing, a  demonstration of immense superiority from Mr.Sex, not least reflected in  the results of the demo competiion at Assembly - with nearly twice as many  votes as the next demo on the list. I will write a more descriptive review  of this demo later, I suppose, but for now you'll have to make do with the  fact that it's AWESOME. ;) The party version of this demo is usually dubbed the '75%' version, in that it mentions in the directory structure that it is only 75% complete. Please be advised that this review is of the 100% version, which does not carry this message in the directory. Mike and AMJ's contributions for the graphics and music competitions at the party ("Entwined", 2nd and "Selfmade Executable", 5th respectively) are both included as standalone executables on side 2 of the disk (again, only in the complete version). Mike's  picture is also used in the demo. While Mr.Sex, Mike and AMJ's places in the credits are quite obvious, two more names (Jate and Mysdee) also flash up on the screen during the early moments of the demo. If anyone can help us shed a small bit of light on the contributions of these two, I'd be eternally grateful... :) [glenn]