Rawhead
From ExoticA
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]
