Mystic

Mystic (MST, -1999)
FIN> Quartz (mainorg webmaster sysop 'BERMUDA TRIANGLE', 03/98-11/99).

demo.section:

FIN> SHD (Heikki Orsila, code, ex Fanatic, new 08/95-11/99). SWE> Czar (gfx, ex Vector, 08/97-11/99), Geezer (code music, ex Vector,    08/97-11/99, Jamsam (gfx music, ex Vector, 03/98-11/99). POL> XTD (Piotr Bendyk, music, also in Union, 04/94-11/99).

modem.section:

FIN> Mamba (os/code ascii, 12/96-11/99). SWE> Amon (os/code, old handle Aron, 01/95-11/99), Bobo (sysop 'THE EAST',    01/95-11/99), Zed (os/code, 11/99). NOR> Arcane (Øystein Sættem, sysop, doublememb Royal [details], 97-11/99). HOL> Muad'dib (bbscode sysop, 03/98-11/99). POL> Ufok (trade, 08/95-11/99).

The persons listed below are no longer members; their entries have been separated from the rest for now for an increased overview. They WILL be combined again when I can find sufficient information to place most of them. The split has been done at a memberlist dated 11/99:

demosection

FIN> Brainlock (Mikko Vauhkonen, raytrace, ex Fanatic, new 08/95-08/99), Doc (Mika Porspakka, gfx, ex Fanatic, new 08/95-08/98), Mike (Mikko Kaila,    org trade gfx, ex Defiance, new 01/95-08/99), Mistral (gfx, ex     Parallax, new 96-03/98), Stezotehic (ascii, 03/98), Zeus (ascii,     12/96-03/98). SWE> Claw (3d, 03/98), Daiz'l (Kenneth Jonsson, music, 03/98), Faust (gfx,    03/98), Kermit (code, 03/98), Merko (code, 03/98). DEN> Hexagon (code, doublememb Puzzle [details], new ROM9-03/98), Phonetic (gfx raytrace, ex Puzzle, new 96-08/99). POL> Madd (org gfx, new 03/98), Mustafa (gfx, new 03/98), P242 (3d, new    03/98), Sixtus (music, 03/98). HUN> Rendall (gfx, ex Impulse, 03/98).

modemsection

SWE> Reactor (trade, 03/98). GER> Andi (sysop 'DIABOLOS', 04/95), Red Alert (sysop 'ADDICTION', 04/95). POL> Fjurer (trade, 03/98), Lolo (trade, 03/98), Mehow (trade, 03/98), Prefix (trade, 03/98), Trash Head (swap trade sysop, ex TRSI, 95-    03/98), Walek (trade, 08/95-03/98). SLO> Skate Bob (trade, 03/98). USA> Don Dog (code sysop 'BOGUS EXCEPTION', 04/95-03/98).

mixed

POL> CBM80 (Paul Hernik, code, ex Beta Team, 08/94), DPJ (08/95), Easy Rider (org sysop 'MAMBA', 93-02/96), Gunman (Adam Bakalarz, gfx swap, ex Mad    Elks, 08/94-03/95), Jezo (gfx, 03/95), Larsen (Tomasz Oszczepalski,     code, ex Beta Team, 08/94), Mars (Andrzej Marcjasz, swap, 05/94-03/95), Melon (Marcin Banasiak, doublememb Flying Cows Inc., late 96), MSS (Zenon Depta, code, 03/95), Reset (gfx raytrace, ex TRSI, 03/95), Yasiu (code, 02/96). FIN> Speck (Mika Aho, music, ex Fanatic, new 08/95-08/96), [StN] (trade,    doublememb Alpha Flight, 03/94). SWE> Axy (trade), Hotshot (crack train trade). NOR> Superted (gfx music, ex Grotesticle, new 96). ???> Axe (founder), Bartesek (music, ex Casyopea, new late95), Billy (ex    Depth, new 06/96), Charon (code, 05/94), Jackal (gfx), Ninja (swap), Peja (pol? 02/96), Sagrael (swap, ex SAF), Tedy (code), The Knight (swap), Zed (doublememb Digital Corruption [details], 11/96).

Mystic was formed in the early 1990s by Axe, and was a mainly illegal/modem based crew until the establishment of their demo section in Poland, organized by XTD. Since then the demo section has been reinforced with talented members from Finland, Norway and Denmark. When Axe decided to stop, the dutch Killraven took over, and today Mystic is organized by Finn Quartz. Easy Rider, the original Polish organizer, has now started a Mystic on the PC too, which has nothing to do with the rest of the group. Their recruitment of the french division of Essence, producers of the two excellent demos "Makaveli" and "Thug Life", was a brief experience since they decided to leave again, to reform their old group Skarla! Their DayDream door division consisted of Peja, Easyrider and Yasiu. 1995 - Polish graphician CIA (03/95) joined Freezers early in the year. Finnish musician Slice (new between 05 and 08/95) joined Nerve Axis late in the year, and has since risen to fame in that group under the name Ganja. 1996 - Seb McKein joined Asphyx in june. 1997 - Visual (gfx) left for Freezers. 1999 - With the release of their 3rd placed "Megademo" [08/99] at Assembly 99, they announced that this was their very last ever production on the amiga. They are therefore declared dead as an amiga group. Their homepage, http://amigascne.org/mystic, is now also gone from the web.

Sysops Steve (ger, 'THE CRYING FIELDS'), and Borre (swe, 'OUT OF SPACE', 12/93) were both kicked. Jeremy (doublememb from Mad Elks) left the scene. Polish graphician Yoga joined Freezers. English musician Hydlide joined Defekt.

Vital (1994, .05, Trackmo). code: Charon, gfx: Cia, Charon (fonts), music: Roberts/Beta Team, XTD. Contribution for Primavera 94 demo competition. review: Seeing Vital, I can't help but think Charon got a few ideas from some of 1993's better demos and intros - like Kefrens' "Desert Dream" and Virtual Dreams' "Chaosland". Still, that doesn't necessarily make for a bad demo - just a boring one. Technically, I suppose there's nothing really wrong, it's just a little identity-less. It's got no SOUL. My conclusion would have to be: Competent coding, but unoriginal and a little boring. Try again, though. :) [glenn] GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 4mb fast/3.0.

Starlight (1994, .08 or pre, Musicdisk). code: n/a, gfx: n/a, music: XTD.

Ilex (1994, 12.08, AGA Disk). code: Charon, gfx: CIA, music: XTD. Winner of the Intel Outside 94 demo competiton!

Dirt (1994, 12.08, ECS Trackmo). code: MSS, gfx: CIA, Gunman, music: XTD. Released for the Intel Outside 94 demo competition, unplaced. review: This is an obscure little demo, which contain no release date whatsoever! What it does contain is lots and lots of linebased vector, a single filled vector cube and (the best thing here) a fullscreen rot- zoomer, which should give us some indication of its age... XTD can do a lot better music than this! Please note that this review caters for a version prepared for HD install, released to Aminet by a third person. It is therefore not give an impression of the compatibility of the original trackmo. [glenn] GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 4mb fast/3.0.

Atom (1994, 12.08, AGA 40k Intro). code: CBM80, gfx: Gunman, music: XTD (ProPacker 2.1 format). 4th in the Intel Outside 94 40k intro competition. review: Early AGA intro shows coders exploring possibilities of the new architecture. It opens with an opening logo by Gunman, before we're treated to a good raytraced animation...with a twist! In fact the animation is blown up, while a 1x1 rendition bounces around all over it. Next we're shown a 256 color greyscale highres keftales effect (plasma- like). Then we're given the credits, which is the last part. It consists of just a text writer and some globes bouncing around. Overall not a bad intro, though it's a little short. XTD's music is kind of squeaky. They say it's the first production from ex-Beta Team members after they joined Mystic. Since Gunman joined from Mad Elks, does this only refer to CBM80 and XTD? Please note that this review refers to the fixed version, not the party version. As far as I know, the only difference between the two are in the music replay routine. If you have the fixed version, the text-writer at the end says so. [glenn] GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 4mb fast/3.0.

Vision of Art (1994, 12.08, Slideshow). Released at Intel Outside 94.

The Mask (1994, 13.11, AGA 64k Intro). code: Dark Angel, gfx: Jackal, Jezo (endlogo), music: XTD (2 x The Player 6.0A format). 5th in the Gelloween 94 64k intro competition. review: An amazingly enerving assault of fuzzy guitars is the one thing you'll remember about "The Mask" - long after the memory of block rotzoomers, bad 'wolfenstein' routines (walls only) and actually rather nice dots have faded. Quite fun that 'insert disk 2' joke, though.... It all ends with an upscroller with an ok, blue mystic logo gracing the top of the screen. The original 'metal' tune is replaced with a similarly irritating chiptune. For some reason there is NO exit for this intro. Works on unexpanded A1200s. [glenn] GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 16mb fast/3.1.

Realtime Animation Concept (1994, 28.12, Wild). 4th in The Party 4 wild demo competiton. information: Presented on an A4000.

Impossible Possibility (1995, 12.03, AGA Multifile Demo, 2 disks). code: MSS, gfx: CIA, Gunman, Jezo, Reset (raytraced tunnel), Yoga, music: "Survive" and "Ecstasy" by XTD (Tracker Packer 3 format). Winner of the Primavera 95 demo competition! review: "IP" is a demo that throws stuff at you constantly, keeping a high pace throughout the demo. Having said that, this is an uneven production, with lots of - but no real amazing - graphics. The raytraced, colorful tunnel (done by Reset) looks cool, and there are lots of variations on the rotzoom principle here - including a real impressive fullscreen one that also waves sideways! Well, it's hard to describe, download the demo and see for yourselves ;) Above average, but lacks a little freshness.   Originally intended for distribution on two disks, but easily  installable on  harddisk with a few short assigns. Will work fine on  unexpanded A1200's. [glenn]  GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 16mb fast/3.1.

Fear (1995, 30.08, AGA HD, 2 disks). code: MSS, gfx: Gunman, Jezo, Yoga, music: XTD, Bartesek. Released at Intel Outside 95.

The Demo (1995, 28.12, AGA Demo). code: SHD, Eracore, gfx: Mistral, Doc, music: Speck. 11th in The Party 95 demo competition. information: Runs on unexpanded A1200's, and according to Generation 23, it contained a very powerful 1x1 envmap routine in 256 colors.

Determination (1996, 23.06). Released at the Polish Summer Party 96.

Traffic (1996, 18.08, AGA ?MB HD Multifile). code: SHD, gfx: Mistral/Parallax, Phonetic, Lazur/Anadune (2 pictures), music: Archangel/TRSI, Speck (both The Player 6.1A format). 4th in The Assembly 96 demo competition. review: This was to be reviewed soon anyway, as I was working my way through the Assembly '96 CD-ROM, when an article in ROM8 caught my eye. In this article, lots of people were singing the praise of this demo, complaining it didn't do better in the competition. My curiosity was sparked, and thus I had to transfer it to my Amiga and take a peek...and I can but join the chorus. This _IS_ a great demo, and deserving of any praise it gets! The star of the show here is undoubtedly SHD. This is certainly a coder for the future, no doubt about that! There are some amazing effects here, like the money bills dropping from the top of the screen, to the water effects and those calculated whatchercallems full screen thingies that look like something being poured into water and slowly dissolving... Some criticism was directed at the music in ROM's article, but I only halfway agree. I think the first tune (by Archangel?) is a good, functional demo tune combining the beat popularized by latter-day demos with some of the groove of earlier demo tunes... The second tune, however, never really came alive for me. Still, taste varies... Here's some additional 'technical' information, again from the ROM article: All routines run in 256 color in 256x256 resolution, except the texture tunnel and room, which is actually a 'scene' from the raytracing program Lightwave. The demo REQUIRES a 030-50, and was made with the 060 owner in mind. Also requires some fastmem. Lazur's two pictures can also be seen in his "Wild" (1996) slideshow for Anadune. [glenn] GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 4mb fast/3.0.

4k Intro (1996, 10.11, 4k Intro). 9th in the Gravity 96 4k intro competition. review: A rather uninspired affair, this intro just features a spinning sphere with the full mandelbrot fractal set texturemapped on each tile. A small text says '4K Intro by Mystic' in the top left corner, and that's all there is. Disappointing. No credits appear in the intro or the file. [glenn] GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 16mb fast/3.0.

Fat (1997, 09.08, 64k Intro). code: Geezer, gfx: Czar, music: Dune. 3rd in the Assembly 97 64k intro competition. review: This intro opens with blue/white blurred linevectors spinning around arranged into somekind of a shape, and after a little while a white MYSTIC logo with blurred blue edges appear at the bottom of the screen. Next comes a travel through a fastmoving, flashing tunnel - an effect the intro holds onto for much too long long! Then a screen with the names of the three makers appear, before we return to the tunnel which is now cube- shaped. Then we see the word FAT with a flashing object moving behind it, before the show ends with the opening effect recycled with a new palette. To make a long story short, this is an intro that I'm having problems getting excited over; the pace is too slow and the effects are not impressive. One thing I do wonder about is the musician for this project; was legendary finnish musician Dune a member of Mystic at this time? [glenn] GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 16mb fast/3.1.

Azuli (1997, 01.11, 64k Intro). code: Geezer, gfx: Czar, music: "El4" by Jamsam (Tracker Packer 3 format). 2nd in the Dreamhack 97 64k intro competition. review: This minimalistic, grey intro opens with some "tvnoise" in the background and a Mystic logo. It moves on into a 3d scene/tunnel (in grey) which is blocky but fast, then some credits (over tvnoise). Next is something that's probably supposed to be a scene (in grey), but looks more like a rotzoomer before we flash onto a - grey - tunnel scene with a blinding light at both ends. Then it all ends with an Azuli logo over - you guessed it - some grey tvnoise. I'm depressed now. [glenn] GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 16mb fast/3.1.

The Larch (1998, Demo). code: n/a, gfx: n/a, music: "Duskland" by Daiz'l. Winner of the ACG Hack VII demo competition!

Beetle (1998, 08.08, AGA 030 881 64k Intro). code: Gluten, gfx: Mustafa, Madd, Kafel/independent (additional textures), music: Mobby. 2nd in the Quast 98 64k intro competition. info: This requires an FPU and so cannot be executed. GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 16mb fast/3.1.

Megademo (1999, 07.08, AGA HD Multifile Demo). code: SHD, gfx: Mistral/Parallax, Phonetic, Lazur, Brainlock, Mike, music: Alien/Virtual Dreams (The Player 6.1A format). 3rd in the Assembly 99 demo competition. review: Mystic's final ever amiga demos opens with Lazur's picture "Pegazus" (done in 1995), of a girl riding on a blindfolded unicorn. Then the credits, and next is a picture of a cybered-up Bill Gates, with the words "resistance is futile" overlaid on the soundtrack...then the demo starts proper with another picture of Gates - derived from a german wartime poster of Adolf Hitler leading his troops but with Gates' face superimposed and the windows logo standing in for the swastika - over which texturemapped money drops realisticially from the top of the screen. This demo uses more than a few effects recycled from their classic "Traffic" [08/96], as you will soon understand :). Next is a nice but blovcky envmap routine overlaid on a tunnel with 3d stars travelling  towards you - just slightly sad that they use the classic duck.3ds object,  which has only been used about a thousand times before...    Next up is an "afterburned particle" (well, that's the best name I could think of, OK? =D) routine, which is also (if memory serves me right) recycled from "Traffic". Onto a cool ripple effect as we fly around a  blown-up version of Lazur's "Whirl" picture (of a 'boat' on a stormy sea, also from 1995) and finally the full picture. Next we get one more envmap object, this time in 1x1 resolution without the tunnel and with  shinepoints, before the demo ends with an upscroll...a sad one. It  announces that this will be Mystic's last ever amiga demo, and the  background picture signals the shape of platforms to come. SHD even  manages to deliver the final insult; saying 'AMIGA IS DEAD'. I like your  demo SHD; but not your attitude :( Was Lazur really a member here? No information on the memory or machine limitations either in the demo or the accompanying text files. Surely needs some fast. [glenn] GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 16mb fast/3.1.