Reflex (new)
From ExoticA
Reflex [new] (RFX)
GER> Dr.Kaos (Martin Richtarsky, swap, 12/94-09/95), Happymaker (Olaf
Zimmermann, gfx editor swap, 11/94-09/95), Hogan (Enrico Wenzlawe, gfx
writer, also in Acsore, 12/94-07/98), PVCF (Kai Walter, music, 12/94-
04/96), Quiss (Matthias Kramm, code, 93-04/96).
???> Adder (code, 12/96), Amoeba (gfx, 12/96), Condor (gfx, 01-12/95),
Earthquake (gfx, 12/96), Felidae (code gfx, aka FLD, 12/93-12/96),
Guru (code, 12/94-09/95), Jim Jack (gfx, 08-12/96), Johnny Walker
(12/94-09/95), Praiser (music, 08-12/96), Private Soldier (aka Pvt??,
09/95), Pvt (gfx, 12/94-04/96), Roder (gfx, also in Agony Design, new
09/95), Warp8 (code gfx writer, 12/94-12/96), Zorc (code, 12/94-
12/96).
Reflex were a german demo group.
1994 - The year was crowned for the group in december, when they took home
the prestigious first prize at The Party 1994 with their awesome demo
"Access Denied" [12/94]. In addition, PVCF came 2nd in the music
competition, while Pvt won and Felidae came 5th in the graphics competition.
1995 - Roder joined as a doublemember from Agony Design around september.
Warp8 was reported to have left for the reformed Flash Inc., but I do have
him as a member in december of 1996, so that might not be accurate.
1996 - After releasing "Centric Preview" [04/96] - their fourth
consecutive winning demo - they announced in an accompanying note that they
would make no more demos for the C64, since there was no competition any
more. They have now moved much of their activity to the pc scene.
1998 - Hogan contributed a logo and a picture to WOW's second placed demo
"Home Invasion" [07/98] at Wired 98.
Access Denied (1994, 28.12, Demo).
code: Zorc, Felidae, Guru, Quiss, Mistadoubalina/Art Project Studios
(loader), gfx: Felidae, Pvt (objects, endpic), Warp8 (alien picture),
Happymaker (note char), music: "Access Denied" (intro), "Kata Sandom"
(part 1), "Scapelands" (part 2) and "Bladeswede" (note) by PVCF.
Winner of The Party 1994 demo competition!
review: Access Denied was a powerhouse demo when it was released, a total
surprise from the relatively (at the time) unknown group of german
sceners, and winning by just over 200 points over Light at the then-most-
prestigious demo competition in europe! The demo is a multiple-file, irq
loading beast that spans a single diskside. It also contains a great
notefile (well, more an upscroller with a great soundtrack and an animated
background :]) that details each and every part with name and credits. We
will use this information to walk you through the demo.
The demo opens with "cursor mutation" (code zorc), which segues the blue
c64 screen into the demoworld. This was actually the first time I saw such
an effect, but it was frequently used from that point on. Then we are into
the "heavy intro" (code/gfx felidae, player zorc), a part resembling demos
like Rebels' "Coma" [03/90] on the amiga, that flashes lots of primitive
art on the screen to a dunking techno soundtrack. I'm not a terribly big
fan of this part, and in my opinion they could really have dropped it in
favour of something else, but that's a matter of taste I guess. The
soundtrack for this part features a voice sample saying "Access Denied",
not that that makes it any more exciting.
Then the demo starts proper, with a new soundtrack and the "realtime
grid" (code guru), a grid that mutates according to the gravity of some
spriteballs that flies around over it. Seemingly impressive. Noone is
credited for the ball graphics. ;] Next is "morphing vectorbobs" (code
quiss), vectorbobs forming a cube, two squares and a few other formations,
with sizes that differ according to how close or far from the camera they
are. "rotating interlacezoomer" (code quiss, object pvt) is another really
impressive part, a rotzoomer which looks really great and moves smoothly
and swiftly. Next batter up is "complex plasma" (code guru), and the title
doesn't lie here; one of the best plasma implementations I've ever seen on
the c64. "1001 bobchars" (code guru) is really a lot of circlescrolling of
the words ACCESS DENIED, and not too impressive. "Metamorphosis" (code
quiss, objects pvt) is morphing vector objects, largely. "Gravity Dots"
(code quiss, gfx felidae) feature the words ACCESS DENIED in dots, first
elevated and then exploded - showering down in what appears to be pretty
realistic physics. Then, "complex fullscreen vector" (code quiss, gfx
felidae) features big filled vector objects. Again, impressive - all
except the logo in the left hand side of the screen in this part, which is
... let's say substandard, and leave it at that ;) A picture of a "green
alien" (gfx warp8) is shown while loading the next part, a real
showstopper: "textured vector" (code guru, additional by quiss) features a
texturemapped cube, with some plasmalike backgrounds to back it up! Wow!
Another music track starts, to mark a new section of the demo, as we get
Felidae's greyscale picture "Kriegsende" to look at while the demo loads.
The first real effect in this section is "rotating landscape" (code and
gfx felidae); a multicolored rotating dotlandsscape in the top half of the
screen, with a SCAPELANDS logo occupying the lower half. "Exorterestic
plotter" (code and gfx felidae) is a new concept to me, but it features
several grayscale pictures overlapping... hard to explain, see it to
understand :) And that concludes the show, the soundtrack is toned down
and a new one starts as we're shown the endscreen - a really great picture
by PVT of some whales and the text "This is REFLEX 94"... This picture was
also PVT's contribution to the graphics competition at the same party,
where it won the competition. No mention is made of this final music piece
in the note.
The notefile, "raytraced note" (code zorc, guru (ray routine), gfx
happymaker) as it calls itself, also deserves a mention of its own; not
least for its truly great soundtrack ("Bladeswede" by pvcf) and impressive
"raytraced" animated background - apparently done in Guru's own program,
called "Guru's Tracing Studio". Felidae drew the official cover for the
demo. [glenn]
Insider #04 (1995, 13.01, Diskmag).
INT - code: Warp8, gfx: Hogan (logo), music: "Speedway" by Fanta/Plush.
MAG - code: Warp8, gfx: Condor (reflexlogo), Hogan (insiderlogo), music:
Zyron/Antic, KB/TOM, Odysseus/Eastgang, Xayne/Crest, DOS/ADSR,
Syndrom/Crest, Shogoon/Taboo, BIO/Bass, Peace/Noice, editors:
Happymaker (main), Warp8, Hogan.
review: This mag opens with an amazingly boring intro - garish colors, bad
music, lousy gfx... The music in the intro is Fanta's winning tune from
The Party 94, btw :). After pressing space the mag itself loads, and
thankfully looks a lot better than the intro did. I really like the menu,
it's clear, easy to navigate, and looks pretty OK. It's a two-way split
screen, with a passable reflex logo at the top, and the bottom containing
the actual menu. It's easily controllable by cursors or joystick. Pressing
enter (or fire, for that matter) loads a new tune or a new article. The
article reading screen is a little different. Here the logo (for Insider
this time) resides at the bottom of the screen, and the top part is
reserved for the text. I have a serious complaint here; not enough space
is reserved for the text. Nothing much to do about it, but it does leave
you with 40-page long articles... The editorial content is pretty ok, with
a good range of articles, where I guess the party reports were the most
enjoyable to me. The english is pretty good most of the time.
to conclude: Insider is a good mag, that could have been even better
with a larger reading area, perhaps a font that's a little more innovative
(DEFINITIVE deja-vu feelings!) and some better graphicians working for
them... and perhaps by replacing a few of those tunes with more articles?
[glenn]
Radio Napalm (1995, Demo).
Winner of the X'95 demo competition!
Centric Preview (1996, 07.04, Demo).
code: Quiss, gfx: PVT, music: PVCF.
Winner of the Symposium 96 demo competition!
review: Yee-ha! This is a goodie! Ofcourse, anything coming from these
guys should be... It's not the effects in themselves, but the design that
set this one out. They way they've learned from Amiga and PC demos to time
the onscreen action to the music is a great asset for them. The effects
are not half bad either, ofcourse, with an impressive and colorful tunnel
effect being the highlight. Also, the dripping/sliding 'water' routine was
impressive and original. This demo was made more as a preview for their
upcoming game "Centric" than as an actual demo. The official results used
the name Cyance - the name of Reflex' games development part - but we all
know who these guys are :-) [glenn]
Drug Sixtyfour (1996, 16.08, Multifile Demo).
code: Zorc, Felidae, Adder/Siesta, gfx: Felidae, Jim Jack, music: Praiser.
5th in the Assembly 96 demo competition.
Nine (1996, 28.12, Multifile Demo).
code: Zorc, Adder, gfx: Felidae, Jim Jack, Earthquake, Amoeba, music:
Jeff/Camelot, Praiser. Winner of The Party 96 demo competition!
review: A truly impressive demo, Nine (or IX as it says inside) had no
trouble securing Reflex' third consecutive win at The Party demo
competition this year. A lot of shading techniques make this a demo best
viewed from a few feet away, for the full impression. Especially effects
like the "rot + kipping landscape" (looks like a voxel to me! ;]) and the
snowboard animation towards the end suffer at close inspection. This demo
was no doubt made to be enjoyed on a big screen. Other impressive effects
are the metaballs (that Zorc insists on calling 'blob potentials') and the
rotating texturemorpher. It also features a slightly exhaustive mode of
execution; you first load the main executable, then flip the disk before
the demo starts... Then you flip the disk BACK for the last couple of
parts. ;) A great, long demo with a lot of entertainment potential, and
good music - especially Jeff's first tune. No less than four fullscreen
pictures are included in the demo; Earthquake's "Underwaterlight",
Felidae's "Die Schnitte" (3rd in the gfx competition), Amoeba's "Surreal"
(definitely the best pic in the demo!) and Warp 8's "Primal Rage" (5th in
the gfx competition).
There is a short notefile included, detailing the exact credits for each
part and little else. The demo is called "Nine" simply because it is
Reflex' 9th demo. [glenn]
