Flash Inc
From ExoticA
Flash Inc (FHI, 1989-, http://www.flashinc.c64.org/)
SWE> Blaster (code, new 09-11/90), Epsilon (code, 11/90), Jordan (sysop 'SUBWAY', also in Antic, 02/93), Macho (new 04/91), Moon (Anders Elmen, code music swap, 08/90-09/91), Morpheus (Andreas Wallström, gfx swap editor, 08-11/90), Nova (Björn Olsson, code, ex Science 451, new 07-11/90), Sharp (gfx, 08-11/90), Wisch (code, 11/90), Zodiac (Fredrik Karlsson, code swap, 08/90-93). NOR> Crept (gfx swap, ex Network, new 07/90-93), Dexion (Truls Norrman, gfx editor swap, 08-11/90). GER> Aslive (swap, early93), Public Enemy (gfx swap, ex Accu/Action, new 07-11/90). DEN> Metal (early93). ITA> Zoris (early93), Zagor (Italy). ???> Orb (ex TGD/Royalty, new 07/90). Flash Inc. is a demo group based in Sweden, and formed in 1989. The group released several issues of the diskmag "Hotshot" with Dexion and Morpheus as editors. Fairlight's "Reformation #2" told us that rumours about Creeper, Moon and Zodiac joining Antic were false, and spread by members of Gothic Design (for some reason). 1990 - TGD joined from Royalty around july, and changed his handle to Orb. "Hotshot #3" [08/90] was released in early august, and announced the joining of Public Enemy (ex Accu/Action), Crept/Network and Nova/Science 451. "Hotshot #4" [09/90], released at the end of september, announced the joining of swedish coders Unifier/ex Censor and Blaster, and danish graphician Kwon's leaving for Bonzai. In the first weekend of november, the Censor Party was held in Gothenburg, Sweden. Chorus, Epsilon, Morpheus, Nova, Wisch and Zodiac attended the event, and released the demo "Channel 64" [11/90] which came up trumps and won the demo competition! 1991 - Early in the year, Flash was reinforced with the entire group Level 11! Swedish graphician Chorus (11/90) left for Triad, also in the first few months. Swedes Macho and Sodapop (sysop 'PARADIZE') joined in april. 1992 - Swedish sysop Sodapop (PARADIZE, new 04/91) left for Fairlight around february. 1993 - The early part of the year saw another sad event; Zodiac will only code games from now on. Swedish coder Unifier (ex Censor, new 09/90-) joined Spirit early 93. He released two versions of his "Unipacker" while in Flash Inc. Swedish musician and graphician Shade (Kenneth Jonsson) left for the amiga scene early. Swedish top graphician Creeper left for Antic in may. Summer Code (1989, 06.06, Demo). Summer Code II (1989, 10.07, Demo). Summer Code III (1989, 23.08, Demo). Quartz (1989, 04.10, Demo). Attraction (1989, .11, Demo). Fatal Attraction (1990, 15.01, Demo). Novation (1990, .02, Demo). Attraction III (1990, .02, Demo). Hotshot #1 (1990, 28.03, Diskmag). info: Interview with Kjer/Horizon. Party Attraction (1990, .04, Demo). Hotshot #2 (1990, mid.05, Diskmag). info: Interview with Flamingo/Light. Return of the Mega-Dildo (1990, 25.06, Demo). Summer Code IV (1990, 01.07, Demo). No IQ (1990, Demo). Uxorious (1990, Demo). Hotshot #3 (1990, early.08, filemag). int - code: Zodiac, gfx: Morpheus (logo, fonts), Zodiac (stars), music: Moon. mag - code: Zodiac, gfx: Sharp, music: Metal/Bonzai, editors: Dexion, Morpheus. review: When reading through old diskmags from start to finish, as I often do, you sometimes just give up on the least interesting ones. With something like Sex'n'Crime, which is just bare-bones news, and lots of it, the process of reading, taking notes and then feeding it all into scenery is a tedious one, and something like that often takes the fun out of the creative process with scenery. It's at times like those, that a mag like Hotshot comes along, and makes it all just worth it for a little while longer =] Hotshot is wellwritten, wellresearched and written in plain correct english. The editors manage to make their words interesting to read, and they even have taken the time to include the results of the demo competitions at the parties they have reports from (not necessarily included in these older mags, you see...)! Hotshot was a wholly interesting and involving read, and for that I thank you Dexion and Morpheus! This issues features, apart from the essential news and charts, an interview with Jesper Olsen/ex Amok, reports from the Bergen (extensive) and Daniax (brief) parties and reviews of the games "Vendetta", "F16 Combat Pilot", "Turricane" (sic), "Ski or Die" and "Topcross". The supposed demo reviews are just % ratings, and no descriptive text unfortunately =[ The article selection method is straightforward but effective, as is the reading method. The whole 'text moving' thing, though, quickly induces motion sickness... You see, while you read the entire article moves from left to right to left to right... Something like this would make me immediately butcher any other mag, just let that be said ;) Hotshot is several notches above most other mags of the period, and I can't wait to read the rest of the issues! Recommended! This issue announces the joining of Public Enemy (ex Accu/Action), Crept/Network and Nova/Science 451. [glenn] Hotshot #4 (1990, end.09, Diskmag). INT - code: Epsilon, gfx: Dexion (picture), Sharp (small font), Morpheus (sprites), music: Metal/Bonzai. MAG - code: Zodiac, gfx: Morpheus, music: J.Jøhrndahl/T.E.C.H., Moon/Flash Inc., editors: Dexion, Morpheus, Zodiac, Public Enemy. review: HS is back in 'new clothes', now a multifile-diskmag, and still an enjoyable read. This issue features interviews with Olav Mørkrid/Panoramic Designs, Curlin/Vision and Metal/Bonzai (who also provided the excellent, exclusive intro music). This issue was apparently delayed for three weeks, and should have come out earlier this month. Once again, excellent music, graphics, design and overall good language and readable, interesting text. The text still annoyingly waves from side to side, though ;) This issue announces Accu/Action joining - for the second issue in a row :) - as well as news of the joining of swedish coders Unifier/ex Censor and Blaster, and Kwon's leaving for Bonzai. Some news items need addressing, like AMJ/Motion joining 'FF' (he in fact joined Vision), and Pyle joining Crazy from Success (he was in Legend for a month first). But these are minor issues, and shouldn't detract from what is an otherwise interesting mag. [glenn] Hotshot #5 (1990, .11, Diskmag). INT - code: Epsilon, gfx: Chorus (picture), Zodiac (additional), music: Metal/Bonzai. MAG - code: Zodiac, gfx: Morpheus, music: J.Thørndahl/T.E.C.H, Moon, editors: Morpheus, Chorus. review: Issue 5 of Hotshot opens with an... ahem... slightly risque little intro ;) Graphics are excellent in this, slightly overcrowded intro that could perhaps have done without the scantily clad ladies, but still leaves us with an overall positive feeling. The mag page is again a little overcrowded for my taste, with too much moving around going on, Interview with Redstar/Logic. [glenn] Channel 64 (1990, 05.11, Multifile Demo) code: Zodiac, Nova, Unifier, gfx: various, music: Moon, Henning Rokling/Panoramic Design. Winner of the Censor Party demo competition! review: This demo opens with an intropart, which is really nothing special. code by Zodiac, gfx by Morpheus (logo+font) and Dexion (pic), with music by Moon. We press space and are shown a part with a nicely drawn tv in the middle of the screen. The screen of the tv shows only static, but with a joystick in port 2 you can choose the channels... There are 6 different channels, each representing a part of the demo. You choose your part and then press space to load it, and after each part you return to this selector part. part 1 is dubbed the "rotating filled vector-logo", which is a pretty good description of it. A single-plane (flat) FLASH logo is rotated, and that's about it. code Zodiac, gfx Sharp, music Moon. part 2 is the "smooth all-border plots" part, which is essentially just a border-plotter. A FLASH dot-logo is rotated around the screen, and in all borders. code/gfx Zodiac, music Moon. part 3 contains a "4-color shadow-plotter", which means a sine-plotter with 'afterburned' dots. We've seen lots of these on the amiga. code Zodiac, gfx Sharp (font), Trax/TRC (logo), music Moon. part 4 is a little impressive for its time; an 11 char high FLI scroller. As they mention themselves in the scroller, the font could have been better, but let's not complain =] code Zodiac, gfx Morpheus, Sharp (logo), music Moon. part 5 is dubbed the "ordinary part" =] It's not really bad, though, nicely designed. Dots'n'sprites. code Nova, gfx Zodiac (chars sprites), Morpheus (logo), music Moon. part 6 is the last part, and the only one without music by Moon. It's actually also the most impressive to me, on a technical front. It's a very smooth realtime textzoomer...did I mention it's very smooth? =D Nice logo too. code by Unifier, gfx Crept (logo), music by Henning Rokling/Panoramic Design. The demo's directory structure means the size of the demo is not possible to discover =[ It comes with a note-file with greetings, addresses and so on. The noter (probably selfcoded) is simplisticly nice, no frills but does a good job. Overall a demo that leaves a nicely professional impression. News that Dogfriend/Dominators had left the c64 scene must have been a mistake... at least he didn't =) [glenn] Weird Bytes (1990, Demo). Hotshot #6 (1990, early.12, Diskmag). info: Interviews with BHF/Hoaxers and Zagor/The Force. Hotshot #7 (1990, end.12, Diskmag). info: Interview with Daw/Censor Design. Hotshot #8 (1991, early.02, Diskmag). info: No interview. Ucorious II (1991, Demo). Hotshot #9 (1991, early.03, Diskmag). info: Interview with Ano/Padua. Hotshot #10 (1991, .04, Diskmag). info: Interview with Clf and Destino/Origo. The Legacy (1991, .04, Demo). Hotshot #11 (1991, .05, Diskmag). info: Interviews with Scorp/Hitmen, Xentrix/Beyond Force and Zoris/The Force. Hotshot #12 (1991, .06, Diskmag). info: Interviews with Antichrist, Scrap & Kampftrinker/G*P. Hotshot #13 (1991, .07, Diskmag). info: New outfit. Interview with Ses & Jack Daniels/G*P. Avenza Demo (1991, .08, Demo). Tour De Europe (1991, .08, Demo). Hotshot #14 (1991, .09, Diskmag). info: Interview with Attraction/Pandora. Hotshot #15 (1991, .10, Diskmag). info: No interview. The Legacy Party II (1991, .10, Demo). Sumpan Kixx (1991, Demo). Hotshot #16 (1991, .11, Diskmag). info: Interview with Deff/Enigma. We Love Olav (1991, .12, Demo). Hotshot #17 (1992, late.02, Diskmag). info: Interview with Alfatech/Triad. Hotshot #18 (1992, .04, Diskmag). info: Released at easter time. Interview with Maduplec/Crest. Hotshot #19 (1992, 28.06, Diskmag). Released at the Hurricane and Brutal Summer Party 92. info: Final issue. Interviews with Tron/Fairlight and Dense/Hysteric. Shade Music Collection 2 (1992, .08, Musicfile). code: Unifier, Zodiac (music routine), gfx/music: Shade. review: A very simply coded, but nicely done music collection, gathering 8 of Shade's latest tunes. These are both single and doublespeed tunes, all made in version 4.0 and 4.1 of Zodiac's "Flash-Composer". The main screen has a cd-like control deck at the top of the screen, a text plotter with information on the current tune in the middle, and a musical keyboard-like graphic at the bottom. No actual release date appears inside, but I base the above on the mentioning of tune here that was entered in the music competition at the Brutal Party [06/92] and some talk about an august release... So august is the most probable release date. It mentions that it will be released together with Moon's Collection and their new demo, so reviews of these productions will perhaps give more answers. The eight tunes featured here are Turbulent, Deadline, Independent Tune, Miserable, The Chaser, The Techno (from Brutal Party music competition), The Last Sob and Radiodunk. A real nice function is the 'S' icon, with which you can save the current piece of music to disk. [glenn] Promoteus Unbound (1992, .10, Demo). FHI Classics (1992, .12, Musiccollection). Creep-Show (1993, 15.03, Demo). Still Cruisin' (1995, .06, Demo).