Virtual Dreams

From ExoticA

Virtual Dreams (VD, 1992-)

Virtual Dreams is an Amiga demo group.

FIN> Alien (Sami Arola, founder code music, 12/92-08/96), Dr.Death
     (founder), Eternal (sysop1 'CHILD IN TIME'), Groo (founder music,
     doublememb CNCD [details], 12/92-05/93), Jaco (Jarkko Salminen, gfx,
     12/92-08/96), Matti Ja Teppo (trade sysop2 'CHILD IN TIME', 03/94-95),
     Open Eyes (gfx, ex Complex, 95), Papa Smurf (music, ex Complex, 08/93),
     Skull (Juha Lainemo, founder code, 12/92-95), Tsunami (Timo Oskari
     Aila, founder code, doublememb Damones, 08/93-95).
NOR> Jogeir Liljedahl (music, ex Spaceballs, new 12/93-95).
DEN> Devilstar (Jesper Eskildsen, gfx, ex Kefrens new, doublememb Polka
     Brothers, 02/94-95).
???> Cool Shot (sysop, triplememb Clique (04/96) and Hoodlum), KerBeros
     (gfx, 12/93-95), TJY (fin? music, 12/92).

When Black Robes died, Dr.Skull (later just Skull), Tsunami, Alien, Groo
and Dr.Death decided to form a new group; Virtual Dreams. VD was originally
the demo and intro division of cracker group Fairlight, but as their Amiga
activities decreased, VD were more and more left on their own. Their first
demo, "Absolute Inebritation" was released at The Party 92.
  These days, most of VD are inactive on the scene, though most are for a
reason. Star coders Skull and Tsunami are working at Scavenger in the UK,
coding games. BTW, Skull also coded the MPEG animation player for the ASM96
CD-ROM "eRAVE 2", which means he's moved over to coding the PC now.
  Diskmags have been responsible for some erroneous information in the
past; RAW 5, released in mid 93, claimed that Tsunami left the scene, which
anyone who saw him win the intro competition at The Party 3 with
"Chaosland" (12/93) will know is untrue. Then, in RAW6 they claimed he had
joined Damones, which is also untrue. The truth was that he doublejoined.
ROM6 then devoted an entire article to he fact that the entire group was
officially disbanded after The Party 5, which is strange since they managed
to win the demo competition at Assembly 6 eight months later...
  Devilstar's BBS 'BODYCOUNT' was closed when he moved away from Denmark.
These days he's back in Copenhagen, as ROM9 revealed, and working on games
for interactive television! The ROM article revealed he was considering
doing some work for the scene again, and we certainly hope he will! In the
meantime, he has worked on game projects such as Full Throttle (pc), Targa
(snes), Battle Tech (pc), War Inc (pc), Imperium Romanum (pc), Earthworm Jim
1 and 2 (pc) and Hugo (TV and PC).
  The board 'CHILD IN TIME' (fin)'s sysop is Immortal (earlier Eternal), who
later joined Fairlight.
  1995 - Hungarian graphician D-Mage (Ferenc Tompai, ex Headway, 08/93-94)
sold his Amiga in early 1995. Swedish musician Probe has lost contact with
the group sometime around early 1995, and has presumably left the scene.

Nitch (code) joined Artwork.
Dutch swapper Astro (Casper van Schie, ex Movement and CNCD, new ROM4) took
  a big step when he took over the editor job of legendary diskmag "R.A.W".
  He then joined VD, and everything looked hunky-dory... Then, as we all
  know, the diskbased "R.A.W" was terminated in favour of I-GO's "R.A.W
  Online", and Astro left the scene to run his own InterNet company.
The Dutch superteam Facet and SuperNao (new 05/95-12/95) came to VD from
  Spaceballs, because they found them to be inactive...but soon after they
  joined, all production pretty much ceased in VD too! Therefore they
  decided to revive their old group Lemon. right after The Party 5!
Finnish coder Zany (Tero, ex Complex, 08/93-95) sold his Amiga. Zany worked
  on "242" [08/93].

  Absolute Inebriation (1992, 28.12, ECS Trackmo, 2 disks).
  code: Dr. Skull, gfx: Jaco, music: Groo, Alien, Tjy.
  6th in The Party 92 demo competition.

VD released "Absolute Inebriation" [12/92], a two-disk trackmo, at The Party
as their first release. They were rewarded with a mediocre 6th position in
the demo competition.

  Intro (1993, ECS Intro).
  code: Dr. Skull, gfx: n/a, music: Groo.

  Dentro (1993, ECS File).
  Code: Tsunami, Gfx: Jaco, Music: Groo.

  Illusion (1993, 29.05, ECS File).
  code: Alien, Skull, gfx: Jaco, music: Groo.
  2nd in TCC93 demo competition.
  info: An AGA-patch was later released by someone called 'Silk'.

  242 (1993, 10.08, ECS Trackmo).
  code: Dr. Skull, Alien, Zany, gfx: Jaco, Alien, music: Papa Smurf.
  2nd in the Assembly 93 demo competition.
  info: The 'coding' consists mainly of an animation player which compresses
  amazingly well.

  Cyberdance (1993, 10.08, ECS Intro).
  code: Tsunami, gfx: Tsunami, Dean/CNCD, music: Dean/CNCD.
  2nd in the Assembly 93 intro competition.
  info: The intro does not claim to be by VD, instead says "Tsunami et Dean"
  - both of which were VD members at the time...

  40k Intro (1993, 28.08, ECS Intro).
  code: Tsunami, gfx: D-Mage, Jaco, music: Groo/CNCD.
  Released for the Destiny Communion-Party 93 intro competition.

  Full Moon (1993, 28.12, AGA File).
  code: Dr.Skull, gfx: Jaco, Alien, KerBeros, music: Alien (intro),
  Heatbeat, Jogeir. 2nd in The Party 93 demo competition.
  info: Heatbeat's main tune is AWESOME! Jogeir's first production for VD.

  Chaosland (1993, 28.12, ECS Intro).
  code: Tsunami, gfx: n/a, music: Dean/CNCD.
  Winner of the Party 93 intro competition!
  info: AWESOME, perhaps the best 40k'er ever! Review forthcoming...

  Assembly 94 Invitation (1994, AGA Intro).
  code: Alien, gfx: Jaco, music: Groo/CNCD.
  review: This opens with a picture by Jaco of a yellow-tinted female face.
  It's slowly faded onto the screen, and then there's some text overlayed
  onto it. The proportions are way off on the face; perhaps this is
  intended, since the large eyes and the weird nose give her a sort of
  elfquest feel...
    The main part of the intro is a text selector, with a rotation zoomer
  in the background. The graphics tiles of the rotzoomer changes frequently,
  and consists of fruit and weird female pop stars :) The music is Groo.
  Can't be put much more precise than that, I'm afraid... [glenn]
  GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 4mb fast/3.0.

  Love (1994, mid, AGA).

  Breathtaker (1994, 07.08, AGA HD 4MB, 4 disks).
  code: Alien, gfx: Jaco, music: Alien (The Player 5.0A format).
  2nd in the Assembly 94 demo competition.

  Evidence (1994, late, Musicdisk).
  Cooperation with Sonic.

  Doodle-Doo (1994, 28.12, 40k Intro).
  code: Alien, gfx: Jaco, music: Alien (The Player 6.1A format).
  4th in The Party 4 40k intro competition.
  review: A very nicely designed intro with only two real routines, though
  they're both very good. The first is a ripple/bitmap distortion routine
  they let loose on a B&W pic of a cute kitten, and the second is "James
  Gouraud". James is a man-like animated object that swims through a sea,
  among other things. A good intro this, no doubt about that. [glenn]
  GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 4mb fast/3.0.

  Psychedelic (1994, 28.12, AGA File).
  2nd in The Party 94 demo competition.

  Faktory (1995, 28.12, AGA File).
  code: Alien, gfx: n/a, music: Alien (The Player 6.0A format).
  3rd in The Party 5 demo competition.
  review: This more than short demo by a more than famous subgroup starts
  with some small logos and a nice introduction of the music but can not
  satisfy what the name promised... In this release - that is more a dentro
  than a demo - you are introduced by some bubbles in front of the title
  logo. A nice little effect as all the others too. Then appear some shaking
  texts that seem to show a message but don't at the end. Provide your eyes
  some scanned pictures of girls and boys who come right out of a fashion
  catalogue containing fields where you are shown cool water-like plasma
  effects. After a tunnel, parted in four different ones afterwards, a space
  probe with lights as you could only see in the best scoopex demos(!) and a
  flying monitor with a cybernetic arm and an eye on the screen is to be
  seen. All to the rhythm (covered with flashes) of a cool tune. The end
  comes too fast - not awaited or wanted - and the whole thing seems a bit
  too unfinished therefor that is has been released after the party.
    Okay, this one is not boring but without any very good idea for a
  typical Amiga demo. The music could nearly kick the listener's ass but at
  least it fits very well, underlines the general idea of design.
    No credits appear in the demo. At Assembly 96, Alien released a sequel,
  called "Sumea - Faktora 2" [08/96]. The demo works on a vanilla a1200 with
  2mb chip. [zito+glenn]
  ZIT tested A1200/030-42/2mb chip, 8mb fast.

  Sumea - Faktory 2 (1996, 18.08, AGA HD Multifile).
  code/music: Alien, gfx: Jaco.
  Winner of The Assembly 96 demo competition!
  review: This is not a demo. It is a piece of art! In this amazing
  production, Alien has perhaps created what is the first real piece of
  demo art. An amazing achievement is what this is. There are several good
  routines on offer, of course, but what sets this apart from the crowd has
  got to be the way there all FOR something, they're not just another
  component in the demo. From the moment that tunnel explodes onto the
  screen, you know you're in for a ride. The music has a certain groove to
  it, something I sorely miss in most productions these days. A worthy
  winner. Alien calls it 'what Faktory was supposed to be'. Recommended?
  You bet your grandmother! It does not mention at all whether it requires
  any fastmem, but I suspect it does ;) [glenn]
  GLE tested A1200/030-50/2mb chip, 4mb fast/3.0.

Music in the UnExoticA collection

The following demos in the UnExoticA collection were created by Virtual Dreams.