Rawhead

Rawhead (1987-1989)
NOR> Atom (code swap, 07/88), Howard (videoswap, 06/88), Jason (org gfx,    06/88), The Archer (swap, 06-07/88).

Rawhead was a purely Norwegian demo and cracker group born on the 14th of august 1987 on the ashes of the group Royal Norwegian Zwappers (RNZ). They were given a great boost after they joined forces with The Shadows in march of 1988, and gained new members like Omega Supreme, Storm Shadow (crack), Moonray, Jab and Wizard. They also had amiga members, but only one coder - the rest were just swappers. 1988 - Rocky (code crack) and Hot Dog joined in january, but left for The Hidden Forces again in june. Lynx/The Sigma Crew (music) moved on to T.H.E. late 88. 1989 - In their demo "Pimplesqueezer 6" [02/89], released at the copyparty they arranged together with Bros and The Suppliers, they announced the group was splitting up. Omega Supreme, Storm Shadow, Moonray, Jab and Wizard returned to their old group The Shadows; The Skyrunner (swap, aka TSR, 06/88), Track 7 (amiga swap) and Fantasy Zone (amiga code swap) were to continue under the Rawhead name, essentially leaving the C64 section dead and buried. After a small time of consideration, the remaining active members - Aztec (code, 03/88), Bit Buster (code music, 03/88), Deadline (code gfx, 03/88) and Newton (code gfx, 03/88) - decided to join Raw Deal Inc.

The Ball Demo (1988, Filedemo). code: Jab, gfx: Wizard (logo), Moonray (chars), music: n/a. review: OK, this is not much of a release. This wouldn't even be much of a demoPART. This demo is just a scrolltext, a logo, and some animated sprites flying around. The only thing I really liked with this was the ones that expand and shrink in size if they're close or far away from the screen, a lot like the effect in the "Crystal Symphonies" musicdisks from Phenomena on the Amiga. Ofcourse, that was released much later. Avoid this, ppl. [glenn]

Another D.Y.S.P. (1988, .03, Filedemo). code: Bit Buster, Deadline, Newton, gfx: n/a, music: Bmx Sim+ (game). review: With this small demo (actually just one intro and one actual part) Rawhead release their DYSP routine. They claim to actually have coded it before anyone else released one, but admit they can't prove it. They were the third to release such a routine, they claim. To the demo itself: There's no actual graphics here, just chars and coding tricks. The Rawhead logo in the main part is just an outline, with some clever raster tricks. There‘s lots of colorful raster bars below the dysp routine, too. This does have some primitive charm, and works fine for me. The music credit is for the intro, noone is credited with the mainpart music. Not bad. [glenn]

Ok! (1988, .06, Demo). code: Aztec, Deadline, Newton, gfx: Newton, Deadline, Jason, music: n/a. review: Three parts to this one, and only one is any good. Deadline's part 2, with that twisting stretching upscroller was original and cool. Other than that, this is nothing you need to search out. The demo is a single file. [glenn]

Pimplesqueezer 3 (1988, 13.06, Demo). code: Omega Supreme, Deadline, Bit Buster, gfx: Storm Shadow, Moonray, Deadline, Newton, Bob/?, music: Rob Hubbard, Draconus (game), Red. review: I always liked this, and much of the 'blame' for that must go to a certain 14-year old and his ever expansive ego... Seriously, this demo represents some pretty great coding, especially for its time. This is a demo full of good routines, and Omega Supreme has a good eye for design. And to top it all of, they end the show by inventing something new: tech-tech on the C64, inspired by Sodan's classic Amiga demo. The effect was invented by Moonray, and coded by Omega Supreme. As you may have already guessed, this demo is much about Omega Supreme. Take my word for it, you can't help but be charmed by the amazing self belief this young man possesses. The thing that makes it so entertaining is that he's not just blowing smoke either: After showing us something that's a little showstopping, he declares to the world that he's as close to a coding god as they'll ever get! Trust me, it's great fun. And a great demo too! They use the same logo here once, that they used twice in "OK!" [06/88] already. Perhaps time to get a good graphician? The demo is a single file, with 5 demoparts. [glenn]

Pimplesqueezer 4 (1988, Demo). code: Deadline, gfx: Deadline, Moonray, music: Bit Buster, "Alloyrun" (game) by Jeroen Tel, Ubik (game). review: This edition of Pimplesqueezer was coded entirely by Deadline, and after the impressive PS3, this was a step down. PS4 has none of the showmanship of the third installment. The only thing that might make you sit up and take notice is the last part, with a scrolling game terrain in the sideborder. Other than that, this is BOORING... The demo is a single file, containing 3 demoparts. [glenn]

Pimplesqueezer 5 (1988, 08.10, Demo). code: Omega Supreme, Deadline, gfx: Moonray, music: Lynx/T.H.E. 2nd in the Razor 1911, Cartel and Abnormal party demo competition! info: I'd love to review this demo, but I'm having having trouble progressing past the introductory note. The demo requires you to press the keys O M E G and A at the same time, and it just doesn't work in CCS64. I'll have to transfer this to native hardware first. The credits are in no way complete. The demo is a single file.

Partysqueezer (1988, 08.10, Demo). code: Omega Supreme, Aztec, Deadline, Bitbuster, gfx: Wizzard, Deadline, music: Fire Eagle, The Last V8 (game). Winner of the Razor 1911, Cartel and Abnormal party demo competition! review: Winner of the democompetition where they also came in second... how's that for a power demonstration? :) At the time, noone on the Norwegian scene could touch these guys. The demo itself isn't really that  outstanding, except for the final part. That one features a picture  STRETCHER by Bit Buster that looks pretty wicked! The only other coding  highlight were the three DYCPS bouncing around over each other. There‘s  not much in the way of graphical excellence; there's mostly some average  chars and a not-too-fabulous logo. I'm sure the picture in the end part  looks OK, if it would just stand still :) The music's probably all ripped - there's no indication of anything else. A fair demo with a wicked stretcher! The demo is a single file, containing 4 demoparts. [glenn]

Pimplesqueezer 6 (1989, 24.02, Demo). code: Omega Supreme, gfx: Moonray, music: Ole Marius/Prosonix. 3rd in the Rawhead, Bros and Suppliers Party demo competition. review: A fair end to the Pimplesqueezer series, and the final one released under the Rawhead label. With this demo, released at the copy party they helped organize, the split up of Rawhead was announced. There's a few things of technical interest here, like a nice DYCP, 25 scrollers and even a sinusscroller - had that ever been done before on the C64? Not bad. The demo is a single file, containing 4 demoparts. [glenn]