made it inevitable that the users of these kinds of computers THE HUNGARIAN DEMOSCENE would run into intros sooner or later.

HISTORY The first Hungarian cracks and home-made games date back BY MURPHY OF EXCEED, MD1 AND SCENE.HU STAFF to 1986, on the C64 and the plus/4. In 1987 there were simple intros, some semi-professional games and tools, and the first, very simple demos appeared. As evidence of the popularity The Hungarian demoscene followed a very different path com- ucts appeared suddenly including Gorenje fridges, VHS video of demoscene, it’s very important to note that public thinking pared to the demoscene that existed in Western countries. This recorders, and the Commodore 64. Since officially obtainable was slightly different back then, and it was almost regarded was mostly because of the socialist state that existed in Hun- and expendable money was quite limited, most C64’s were as entirely normal/cool to program at home. Almost the entire gary until the late ‘80s. Wherein the western world’s popular smuggled into the country, hidden in the trunk or under a seat content of Commodore newspapers like “Commodore Újság” computer systems were quite difficult or very expensive for the of the car. It was very funny to see the row of Trabants (a cheap was composed of sources of home-made programs, and Hungarian people to obtain. and popular car produced in the former GDR (East Germany)) there was even a TV-programm, wherein the best program of at the Austrian-Hungarian border. Especially if you consider the month that was sent in was played back in a format which that at this time, a C64 computer with a 1541 drive, was more could be recorded to tape from your TV! THE BEGINNING (1986-1989) expensive than some cars! Besides the locally produced Videoton TVC, Primo or HT 1080Z, The prominent groups of 1988 and 1989 were on plus/4: H.C.S., the systems that ruled the Hungarian market (which failed in THE FIRST HUNGARIAN CRACKS Pigmy who worked solo, and 23 Celsius Team. On the C64 it was the Western countries), were the Commodore plus/4 and lat- AND HOME-MADE GAMES DATE Quality and FBI Crew. The variety of plus/4 games was much er the Enterprise 128. Moreover, the Commodore plus/4 sys- smaller than C64 games, so besides cracking and demo-de- tem enjoyed the role of being an official computer used in BACK TO 1986 velopment the creation and conversion of home-made games schools for years after it had been abandoned elsewhere in reached a very high level. Abroad, new games were not be- the west. As the strictness of the socialism eased, the borders Obtaining programs required some skill. There weren’t any ing developed on the plus/4, but the Hungarian games scene were opened slightly, and then not only could other “friendly companies that specialized in importing software. Officially flourished. It was funny to see the same names in the credits socialist” countries be visited, but people were finally allowed only games produced in Hungary could be purchased, though of Hungarian games, as they could be seen in the intros of im- to go to neighbouring Austria as well. some special shops sold programs that were from Western ported western games. countries, in exchange for hard currency. So it was not a ques- Hungarian customer-tourism started, and the popular prod- tion really whether the games could be bought or copied. This Things were slightly different with the Videoton TVC. exclusively to Hungary at this time and EVS was deemed the os; moreover articles were published about demo-effect pro- Since there were no foreign systems, the users (who best demo team, but the most popular ones at this time were gramming, too. For example Jean of Chromance wrote long were bored of the games) started to develop their TCFS and Muffbusters (which switched articles about the demoscene for the own. The formation of the community was really easy over to Amiga in the middle of 1991) Commodore Világ gamer newspa- because Videoton maintained a club in the capital for because of their games. Generally per. The scene became stronger and the fans of the computer. Some demo-like products speaking, scene-life in 1991 was quite stronger until 1994. There were already were born, but the scene for this platform didn’t reach active: members came and went, around 6-7 smaller and larger parties a very large size. teams formed and vanished. The 23 in existence in Hungary, and the first Celsius Crew, who were formerly ac- regularly recurring party series called The demoscene in general grew slowly, the first par- tive on plus/4, by this time, changed Cache (renamed from Bash and In ties taking place at the weekly club of Csokonai com- to Amiga and started a party series Bloom) also came to existence at this

THE HUNGARIAN DEMOSCENE HISTORYmunity centre and “Computer Christmases” became called Bash. For the first time in - Hun time. The diskmag scene was flourish-

an important meeting point for sceners. The number gary more than 500 visitors showed up “Show” by Majic 12, winner of the Hammering 1994 pc demo ing too, with at least 5 magazines that of the teams increased, and around 1989 and 1990, at a demoscene event! The group was competition were published for each platform with the Amiga fans became active as well. Teams were formed or active until 1993, when some of them solid regularity. Diskmags at this time shifted from the 8-bit platforms to 16-bit computers. joined the Norwegian team Frogs, and were full of heated discussions and, of later represented the Hungarian sec- course, flame wars. tion of Balance for a short time. They GATHERING MOMENTUM (1990-1995) were also responsible for the first - and On PC, besides many smaller demos, Even though the Hungarian scene didn’t pertain at this time to later legendary - Amiga camp on Majic 12 published “The Show”, which the “real elite”, there were well-known teams on all platforms. Parád. strengthened their position amongst On Amiga: Majic 12, Cerberos, and Soc Brigade and on C64: the international elite, while gRiF (in co- Chromance, Graffity, and Faces, were the biggest names of The demoscene was generally be- operation with Catchup) made one of this era. In 1991 the PC-scene also started to come to life – Soc coming well known at this time in Hun- the best designed demos of the era.

Brigade gave the platform a shot, as well as Majic 12, Twin Sec- gary and computer magazines regu- “Revolution” by Chorus, winner of the Fun Factory 1994 c64 On the C64, the former great names tor Inc. gRiF appeared a little later, which had the plus/4 system larly wrote one or two pages about it demo competition didn’t make any new demos, but a as its roots in the scene. The latter scene was limited almost monthly, where they usually introduced the recent best dem- new crew - Chorus, published their legendary first demo Revo- lution, while coders from EVS (who originally worked on minute were another big obstacle. of several teams) called Shock!, introduced itself to the scene plus/4) started to publish their routines for C64 under with a 4k intro and an animation; and it is also notable for Unit- the name Exile. This team later changed its name to It’s also worth noting that Hungarian scene-life was already ed Force’s presence, as they finally made the shift from plus/4 Resource, and they continued to release their demos busy and eventful at this time, so most people didn’t miss out to the PC. Most people also took note of a new C64 team at under that label to this day. on anything, because they could be in touch with many others the party: Profik, which was originally a “just for fun” group. For- locally as well. tunately this was not a real nadir for the demoscene, but the On Amiga the top team was Absolute, only Faculty beginning of a generation change: certainly this was the first could keep up with them. The Hungarian scene, as demoparty of the later determinant faces of the scene. There usual, was quite incestuous. Only a few people from THE BOOM (1995-1998) was another big change at this party. The organizers made the elite were in touch with sceners of foreign coun- In the beginning of 1995, an up to that time unknown team a separate category for the previously emerging and popu- tries. Overseas teams rarely came to Hungarian par- called Astroidea announced Scenest 95, which was intended lar fake demos (mostly parody demos created for fun), called

THE HUNGARIAN DEMOSCENE HISTORYties, and before Assembly 94 only 1 or 2 people visited to be the biggest Hungarian party ever. Melan, the main or- “Lamer Demo”. That year nothing overly interesting happened foreign parties at most. Hungarian entries didn’t rank ganizer, wanted to make in this competition, but one highly, except for Petroff/Absolute who came in on 2nd sure that the party would year later it became one place in the 4-channel music competition. Despite the Hungar- become a serious suc- of the most important, and ian demoscene having appeared on many communication cess, so he announced most interesting, categories channels, there were still people in Hungary who didn’t know it the party not only in at Hungarian parties. even existed; e.g. the members of Mandula, who left for Assem- scene communities, but bly where they met several Hungarians to their great surprise. also in some computer They didn’t succeed in getting any of the first three places at magazines. The event Melan’s other great innova- Assembly, but they managed to do so at Vár Party, since both was very successful with tion was that he provided gRiF and Phantom Design republished their previous demos more than 600 people the actual party’s material – which weren’t received very well. The reason for the lack of showing up, but unfor- to the most popular IT-mag- “Scenest 95 Invitation” by Astroidea visibility of the Hungarian scene at this time was two-fold. First tunately the former big azine’s cover mount CD’s, so of all, there was the language barrier, since Russian was the names were missing from the list of attendees. Only Faculty and many outsiders could get to see the demos! A few people vis- officially taught language only until a few years earlier. Sec- gRiF brought a demo. However, a new megagroup (consist- ited Assembly that year too, but most of them came with emp- ondly, the poor phone equipment and the expensive costs per ing of about two dozen members, and created as the merger ty hands. Only Abaddon brought a raytraced 4k intro, which earned them the 4th place. In other countries, 1995 tion. The productions not only competed against each other the big screen. Capanna parodied the demoscene and oth- was a very lively year, but it could hardly be felt in Hun- at the party, but they also fought for the title of “Best Hungarian er IT-related topics, while Renegades made the parody of gary before the Exe 95 par- demo”. One week after Easter the Terminator in which Bill Gates went back in time, instead of ty took place. Only young second Scenest party took place, Schwarzenegger, to complete Windows 95. After the success in and talented groups par- where the real breakthrough could their home country, the Renegades made an English version ticipated there, such as be witnessed. 900 visitors and the which they submitted to The Party’s wild demo category. The Astroidea, the Exhumers, sheer quantity of releases, made format became such a huge success that the Lamer Demo the Urinate, the Syndicate, the party very special indeed. Eight competition developed into the chief attraction at Hungar- and Shock! which took the PC demos, 11 PC 4k intros, 14 CG ian parties. Several groups specialized in this style, and there opportunity to publish its pictures, 14 pixel graphics pictures, were other demo groups that created lamer demos first, then first demo there. Another and more than a hundred mul- switched to more serious categories. With lamer demos a new

THE HUNGARIAN DEMOSCENE HISTORYinteresting thing was that tichannel tunes in the music compo concept became generally known: the FiRG. This was a fake Shock! participated in PC-X surpassed everyone’s expectations team originally, which was founded by Shock!’s members, and “2 Complex” by Shock!, winner of the Exe 1995 demo competition magazine’s demo compe- by far. During the music compo, which was teasing the famous groups in its first demos. Do you tition with the winner of the Exe 1995 party, 2 Complex, and heckling occurred, resulting in the notice the similarity between fIRG they won first place. While it’s not too stylish, it’s worth noting it organizers disqualifying all entries. and gRiF? The original demos were also didn’t break any compo rules. To the great surprise of all Hungar- hardly known. Instead, the rather ian groups, the PC demo competi- primitive, but sometimes really fun- 900 VISITORS AND THE SHEER tion was won by the Austrian group ny, animations were accompanied QUANTITY OF RELEASES MADE THE Neutron which made their debut at by hardcore music which deter- the party. mined the later style. The bittersweet PARTY VERY SPECIAL irony of the story is that the original The Lamer Demo category was al- members never made these kinds What could already be felt seeing the Exe-results was further ready the most entertaining com- of demos, so everyone used alias- manifested at the Cache 96 party. The new generation of the petition of the party at this time, “Dive” by Neutron, winner of the Scenest 1996 demo competition es instead. The popularity of these demoscene had arrived. Shock! (which lost half of its mem- and two groups made funny ani- demos was demonstrated by the bers by then) and Astroidea, both entered the demo competi- mations instead of the buggy routines that usually “graced” example that at one party, three FiRG demos were released. The same year, a small group went to Assembly again, The Amiga scene was further weakened as two famous groups Of course, the two sides did not always find common ground, and achieved good results in the 4k intro category. switched to the PC: Faculty and Promise. So without a doubt, and this sometimes led to conflicts. All three of them ranked amongst the top five, and Byteam, which was normally quite active, scored 2nd place. By the end of that year, the plus/4 disappeared from the parties, and there were much less C64 and Amiga productions. PC demonstrations began to play the main role. Typically, almost every game-magazine maintained a demoscene page. Some reviewed dem- os, whilst others reported about Hungarian events. On the accompanying cover mounted CDs, all magazines

THE HUNGARIAN DEMOSCENE HISTORYreleased examples of demos from recent parties. The PC democompos mostly became a competition be- tween Astroidea and Shock!. Astroidea published three “Muscles” by Impulse, winner of both Intel Outside 1996 and Antiq 1996 “Fear” by Tyrant/Resource, winner of the c64 graphics competition at demos in a year, while Shock! pumped out twice as many, but The Party 1996 if both groups collided in the same competitions, always the Impulse then became the best Amiga group, and they pub- latter lost. Surprisingly, at this time, Majic 12 made a comeback lished “Muscles” in a morally questionable way, simultaneous- In the same year another great event took place, again thanks at the Flag party, with quite a weak demo compared to their ly at two different parties - at both Intel Outside and Antiq. It’s to Melan. The Hungarian scene booked a 30-seat bus and vis- reputation. The guys promised improvements, but unfortunate- typical for the liveliness of 1996, that there were about 10 minor ited The Party 1996. There were many sceners known from the ly, we’re still waiting to this very day. and major parties. internet and demos at the party, but most of the Hungarians only partied with other Hungarians, because of language The former favorite party, Cache, was held both in Spring and problems or the lack of knowledge about foreign sceners. The THE HUNGARIAN SCENE BOOKED Autumn, as well as other parties such as Rage, Antiq and Flag. Hungarian scene’s first big international success was achieved A 30-SEAT BUS AND VISITED THE The latter was reminiscent of Scenest with about a thousand here though: Tyrant/Resource won the C64 graphics competi- visitors. It is important to note that a larger part of the visitors of tion. Besides this, Resource won 3rd place with its demo called PARTY 1996 these parties were really not sceners, but gamers, who visited Daze. It’s also of interest that Graffity returned for one demo, the LAN-games organized within the framework of the party. although the code wasn’t made by the old members, but by Clarence, who had previously created demos for Cho- intros. They had opportunities, because it was one party after pened. One could always count on one thing at those parties: rus. another. The two biggest successes of 1997 were that Rendall/ that PCs were killed in the most sophisticated ways throughout Astroidea won the graphics competition at Assembly and that the years! In 1997 the most enthusiastic individuals of the Hun- Life was vivid also outside the parties. Tongues started Breeze gained first place at The Party in the PC 4k category. The garian Scene visited The Party in Denmark again by bus, where to wag inside the scene. The funniest rumour was, that diskmag Terror News, which started out on the plus/4 before Breeze won with a 4k intro, while Resource could stand on the DAS, who is a Finnish graphic artist at Shock! was in fact later switching to the PC, ceased to exist with its 79th edition. It podium together with Coma. the grandfather of ATX; the group’s organizer. In this has to be said that even though the magazine was only partly year the predecessor of www.demoscene.hu named to do with scene related topics, and some articles were not al- During this year another interesting group appeared, called scene-hu.com launched what was only a scener’s stat- ways produced to a very high standard, the halt of its produc- Tömbselejtezo. This mysterious team published really funny ic “phone book” at that time, but it served as a news tion was a serious loss because it delivered important news and witty text files with such classics as the Scenest 2057 par- portal the following year. At the same time Coder-I about parties and the ty report. Most people

THE HUNGARIAN DEMOSCENE HISTORYstarted a mailing list about programming, where the community to outsiders. thought that Tomcat was demoscene and democoding were the active top- behind it, but the public ics. Both Scenest and Rage attracted more than 1000 At this time, there were still doesn’t know who was visitors, and there were few categories with less than ten en- rarely more than two behind this group name tries. Among wild demos, a new curiosity popped up. Funny entries in Amiga com- to this very day. There re-dubbing of movies. For the first time, the relatively Hungar- petitions, but the sink- were also many parties ian centric 256 byte intro compo was introduced. Scenest was ing Amiga party scene in 1998, but many former the first Hungarian party visited by an internationally famous became louder and active groups slowed group, the Polish section of Pulse, and they entered competi- louder because of the down. Contract, Exceed, tions with graphics, music, and an intro, but only composer respective disappoint- Rhyme, and Mandula be- Scorpik ranked highly. ments. The Amiganica came the biggest names party-series started with besides Euthanasia, During this year the coders of Shock! joined Astroidea for per- only one important rule: which placed well too. “Void” by Coma and Resource, 3rd in The Party 1997 c64 demo competition sonal reasons, and many new teams showed up, like Chrome “Entering the party place The formerly known Black or Euthanasia. The beginners from the previous years now re- with a PC is forbidden!” Music and graphics competitions were Rainbow, Fresh (nowadays Fresh!Mindworkz), and Dilemma all turned with a vengeance and presented serious demos and the most common ones, while demo competitions rarely hap- maintained their activity. It’s nice to note that these two last groups are still active. DC-1 started ftp.scene.hu, which was at the party, while the other half was working on the demo scene. Some talented people attracted the attention of for- became one of the busiest demoscene FTP sites. But somewhere else in the country. RipRap was shown after all the eign teams, so such groups integrated Hungarian members, Coder-I ceased to exist after two years. compos, and while the demo was downloaded from their team such as Haujobb, Ramjam and Scoopex. In 1998 The Party also brought a significant success: Breeze gained 2nd place in the With Flag 98, the demoparties took a new direction. C64 demo competition with its demo called “Quark preview” This was the first event where it was strictly forbidden to however the final version of that demo was never finished. play games. With this step, the parties became “lamer- free”, but the scene lost an important channel for re- cruiting new talent. At Scenest vs Rage (the organizers THE DECAY (1999-2002) of the two series cooperated to organize a better par- In 1999, Astroidea entered two competitions: in January with ty), which had the effect that there was a huge com- Contest, and in September with the Last Rage. Astral and Con-

THE HUNGARIAN DEMOSCENE HISTORYpetition. The clash of Spirit and Dis caused real excite- tract were the most successful ones. They regularly gained 1st ment, while Exhumers gained 3rd place with its demo. place at Hungarian competitions. Moreover Astral was well In the 64k category, Contract won with its raytrace intro placed in The Party’s Hardware Accelerated demo category. called Supermarket. The Cache party in Spring took place with Archee, who was fifteen years old back then, published Future almost no demo releases, so some Astroidea members cre- Colors, one of the first D3D demos. At parties, a lack of releases “Riprap” by Exceed, winner of the Antiq 1998 demo competition ated a demo at the party place with the help of Exact. Since became very common. For example at Rage 99 there were neither group wanted to release the production under their mates who stayed at home through a 56K modem, their faces only three entries in the two demo categories. To avoid these own name, a new group named Power Rangers was born. This were shown on the big screen, and they greeted the party au- idea worked well, and many others used the anonymity of the dience that way. In the final results, Exceed won really, really IN 2000 THE HUNGARIAN SCENE team name later on. closely – of course it’s not known whether this intermezzo in- ACHIEVED A SUCCESS NEVER fluenced the audience or not. There was also an international BEFORE SEEN After half a year of silence, Astroidea again presented a new success that year: Rhyme won the 4k intro category at Assem- demo - the continuation of the Cache 97-winner Mutha – and bly, while Exceed gained the first place in Evoke’s wild compo. awkward situations, the organizers opened up to accept re- it featured a lot of quality graphics by Antiq. Their main op- The active members of Impulse left the group, and they estab- mote entries. Astroidea published its last demo at Antiq. The ponent was Exceed, who were working on their demo until the lished Kangooroo. Since Frame 18 ceased activity in the mean- bigger part of the group had been inactive at that time, so very last moment like they always did. One half of the group time, there remained only one capable group in the Amiga the only Astroidea member among the creators was Reptile, who made the code. The winner was Kangooroo with seen. Exceed contributed a lot to that as they won the two top- The Hungarian mentality is legendarily pessimistic. At this time, a 700KB dentro in the 64k intro category. They prom- ranked parties in the worldwide scene. At Mekka-Symposium the people seemed to be mentally burying the demoscene, ised that the final version will fit in 64k, but this has never they gained 1st place with Heaven 7 in the 64k intro category, but they had their reasons. New groups rarely showed up, al- been proven. A similar case occurred with the winning and they won Assembly’s demo competition with Spot. though a young team got special attention at the Flag party. Remal intro at Scenest 96, but they correctly published The guys were enthusiastic, but in their first demo the effects the fixed version some days after the party. The most This was achieved in one of the strongest competitions of As- were 5-6 years old, with poor graphics and music. The scene exciting competition of the year was Rage’s 64k intro, sembly ever. Only a few people know that Spot was original- was crying about what will happen in 2-3 years, if this is an where Pathos clashed with Chrysalis. The interesting ly intended to be a co-production by Exceed and Mandula, example of reinforcement. Their name was Digital Dynamite thing in the award-winning intro of Pathos was that this but because of continuing delays, only Exceed members re- which later would become one half of today’s Conspiracy! included the most advanced raytracer of the era. Be- mained amongst the creators. There was another remarkable Astral won another demo competition with their demo Hau- sides the usual Amiga scene meeting, the fuCk-Ya, this production that finally was finished in addition to Spot. Man- gyjobb, which was the parody of Haujobb’s style, mostly of

THE HUNGARIAN DEMOSCENE HISTORYstarted a new party-series focused only on 8-bit ma- dula finished its massively delayed demo called Liveevil. Even their demo called Mikrostrange. This was the last demo of the chines, called the Árok party. though they only gained 10th place, it grew to become one of group. Some members continued in other teams, while Arpi the best demos of the year, and it was listed amongst pouet. started to develop the popular media player named mplay- In 2000 the Hungarian scene achieved a success never before net’s ten most popular productions for many years. er. Power Rangers (actually Picard) won the 64k category with an intro assembled from the omitted scenes of Heaven 7. The logo used in the intro was created for Spot, but it turned out to be so universal, that everybody could read the text Dast. An- other strange fact about this party is that it took place at the Csokonai community centre, from where – about twelve years ago – the whole Hungarian demoscene took off.

At the end of the year, at The Party to be precise, two Hun- garians (that noone knew) got 3rd place that. The members of Aenima placed well at their first party, both with rendered graphics and a wild demo. Continuing through until the end “Heaven 7” by Exceed, winner of the Mekka Symposium 2000 64k intro “Live Evil” by Mandula, 11th in the Assembly 2000 demo competition of the year, the Hungarian C64 scene had almost totally died competition with only two active groups remaining: Resource and intro compo, while Resource won the Dutch X 2001, which had the ranks of the leading groups in the Hungarian scene. Mole- Singular. Other C64 fans did not really go to parties, been growing to be the highest-ranking event series of the C64 coola is also worth mentioning, because they threw out high but participated on almost all events from home, and scene. Soiled Legacy was recorded among the best 10 C64 standard 256 byte intros throughout the years. The last of Flag’s abroad. The Overdoze demoshow, which was origi- demos. most spectacular entries surfaced in the wild competition. In nally meant to be a demo screening at a university, spite of their appearance at The Party, nobody knew about grew, and sceners arrived from all parts of the country Aenima, but they brought an exceptional animation, which to these demo-watching nights, which usually wouldn’t was originally the video clip of Troops of Doom drum and bass end before dawn. formation. It was the same with the second-placed Immortal Rat video, which was made as a video clip for the Hungarian In 2001, at Flag, the previous years’ main names were Rémember music group. Immortal Rat originally started with the usual suspects. These people can still be found to- lamer demos, and then he published more and more serious

THE HUNGARIAN DEMOSCENE HISTORYday. The Hungarian scene in general began to shrink animations. Later he played an important role in the products drastically, fewer and fewer newcomers appeared, but of other teams, mostly of Astral’s. Since then, both of them cre- luckily the migration slowed down. The best ones were ated a dozen video clips. Immortal Rat has now directed his Fresh!Mindworkz, Dilemma, Inquisition, and Digital Dynamite. first high budget-movie, while Aenima created its first long ani- The latter optimized its second demo for 3D glasses. The guys mation movie (Egon és Dönci). wanted to make sure everyone got the same experience, so they brought 3d glasses for everyone! The enthusiasm of the The Mekka Symposium party, during that same year, also had “Soiled Legacy” by Resource, winner of the X 2001 c64 demo group fascinated everybody, so they managed to precede competition some successes for the Hungarian scene. Breeze won with the the technically advanced F!M demo. Another newbie team, C64 adaptation of one episode of the series La Linea. It was not the Invisibles, presented a surprisingly well-done 64k intro. Years The Resource demoshow (a new demo-screening series) a common demo, and many people criticized them, because later it turned out that they were actually not rookies, because first took place this year too, but it was not organized by the animation was not their own idea. Capanna made some Picard/Exceed and Reptile/Astroidea were behind this group. the C64 group (as one would think from the name), but by similar stuff some years ago, as they vectorized an episode of Nice successes occurred at parties abroad as well, at Mek- Fresh!Mindworkz. Gusztáv (a classic Hungarian cartoon) to PC. Kangooroo en- ka Symposium, the not too low-keyed Amiga group, Crimson tered with an Amiga 64k intro, and scored 3rd place. This was Jihad, won the wild compo of the party, with its PC-crashing, 2002 brought no big scene changes. Hardread, Ümlaüt De- their final release. The previous winner of the wild compo, Crim- anti-Windows video. Kangooroo gained 3rd place at Euskal’s sign, and License, (which were specialized in 4k intros) joined son Jihad shot over the mark, and the audience disqualified their video, which sympathized with terrorism. This was tion, Ümlaüt Design, and Digital Dynamite, who were working portal) forum thread, and due mostly to the outstanding Hun- the last year of the Antiq party series as well. The results on Project Genesis in total secrecy. Digital Dynamite finished garian- developed plus/4 emulator (Yape), their enthusiasm were very similar to the ones of Flag. The only produc- in 17th place of the previous year’s Mekka Symposium. Con- grew, and after a 7-9 years break a 15-person plus/4 section tion that should be mentioned is Best of Us by United spiracy is a major member of both the Hungarian and the in- visited the party. The guys brought a demo to the 8-bit com- Force, which remembers the demoscene generation ternational demoscene since that time. petition, but in this case it had its own new direction. It was a of the second part of the ‘90s. It was at this time when trend to convert directly from C64, instead of developing origi- the oldest and steadiest members of this generation The former parties died, but others were established. Scene- nal content on plus/4, and this sometimes occurred also with were beginning to drift away from demoparties. CON was organized together with a sci-fi meeting; to enable demoparts, which is not a really honourable thing to do. So it THE HUNGARIAN DEMOSCENE HISTORY

“Best of Us” by United Force, 2nd in the Antiq 2002 combined demo “Project Genesis” by Conspiracy, winner of the Breakpoint 2003 64k “Beyond” by Conspiracy, winner of the State of the Art 2004 64k intro competition intro competition competition

them to have a “star guest” that was none other than Darth happened that one of the effects was created by the author THE PRESENT (2003-) Vader himself! There were quite few entries, some of which of this article, an effect which was intended to be in Resource’s Breakpoint 2003 brought a lot of surprises. Farbrausch, which were of high-standard. The best were A Place Called Universe demo “Daze”, back in 1997. The enthusiasm of the fans of plus/4 was evidently the biggest name of the international scene, by Conspiracy, and BNS’ animation called Limited Edition. Still, got to the point that they eventually organized their own party, was beaten by an up until then unknown team called Con- the most interesting event of the party was the reappearance where the number of the entries was beyond belief. 30 128 byte spiracy - in Farbrausch’s favourite category, on their home turf. of the plus/4 scene. The fans of this Commodore computer intros and 13 demos were produced for this event, and many This group was established by the active members of Inquisi- found each other in an index.hu (the leading Hungarian news teams, which weren’t previously in plus/4 scene, entered the competition - like the winner Cosine. where they won in several categories. We can only hope that they won it - as usual - with their Assembly-invitation. Chorus this was not the reason for of the lack of demoparties in the came second in C64 4k intro category, and a Hungarian guy The Hungarian scene was also represented at Evoke Czech Republic since then. Even though parties got more rare, worked on the wild competition winner Pokemon Mini demo. during this year, and Aenima gained 1st place in the the observant TV-viewers could see demos and intros on the Hungarians got a Scene.org Award. Besides the usual CNS win- wild category with Egon és Dönci. The field of the Hun- ning, Aenima also won with the video clip of Hiperkarma (a garian parties was not outstanding, in fact the only in- IN 2003 THERE WERE A TOTAL OF popular Hungarian underground music group). The most signif- teresting thing maybe is the return of Archee (ex-Con- 6 PARTIES (THREE OF THEM WERE icant event of this year is the publication of Freax, the first part tract member). In 2003 there were a total of 6 parties of the book, which had been planned by Tomcat for years, (three of them were multi-platform), in 2004 there was MULTIPLATFORM), IN 2004 THERE and which is about the history of the demoscene. only one: Function. The big productions were published WAS ONLY ONE: FUNCTION at parties abroad. For example, this was the best year The next year the MD1 (Magyar demoscene Egyesület – hun-

THE HUNGARIAN DEMOSCENE HISTORYfor Conspiracy. They won the 64k compo at State of Hungarian TV-channel, Filmmúzeum every two weeks. Some garian demoscene association) was established. The organi- the Art, at Breakpoint, and at Assembly, and they were old faces returned in 2005, and this could be easily seen in the zation’s aim is to make the demoscene popular in Hungary, the first Hungarians sceners to be given a Scene.org entries of Function, where twelve demos and thirteen 256 byte and to develop relationships with the companies or associa- Award. intros competed. Exceed, Mortal Compact, Pathos, Chrysalis, tions, which can be potential supporters of the demoscene. Power Rangers, and even Firg had been entering, but most of Hungarians performed extremely well at Breakpoint that year. Byteam gained 2nd place in the 4k category at Breakpoint, them only with 1-1 smaller productions. Here it became appar- All three C64-teams created a demo, and they gained three Aenima had the best wild demo at Evoke, while Rimo (who was ent, that a Hungarian section of Rebels had already been ex- places from the first four places. Conspiracy earned 2nd place a coder of the already dead Euthanasia) gained 2nd place in isting for some weeks, which in practice meant a more active in the 64k intro category, Aenima placed well with a new epi- Assembly’s mobile demo category with the PDA conversion of part of Fresh!Mindworkz. Ümlaüt Design won the demo compo, sode of Egon és Dönci, while Ümlaüt Design gained 3rd place Spirit. But the biggest surprise occurred at X 200. Chorus was res- and before that, they gained 2nd place on the Danish Scene in the 4k intro category. And we did not even mention Leon’s urrected and they finished second with their new demo, while Event in the 64k intro category. At Árok party a real demo- winning C64 graphics entry, or Gargaj’s executable music Resource gained 3rd place. The size of the home C64 scene ac- competition evolved for the first time. Chorus clashed with the compo second place winner. The same year another Hun- tually didn’t change, because only Clarence returned from the united plus/4 scene, and the latter brought a 35 minutes long garian group got a Scene.org Award: Exceed won in the best old company joined with Leon, Singular’s hyperactive graphic megademo. direction category. Those who visited Assembly did also not artist. Because of the poor number of Hungarian parties, the come back with empty hands. Chaos Theory by Conspiracy real fans sent some releases to the Czech Marast 2004 party, Conspiracy entered Breakpoint’s 64k intro category again, and gained 2nd place among the intros. At situation at the Árok party was comparable to previ- did rather well. Ümlaüt Design gained 2nd place in the 4k the wild category as well. Another new group with unique style ous year. The winner was a co-production, which set compo, Rebels and F!M gained 3rd and 4th place in the 64k appeared: the “A Moiré Misszió Bemutatja” was born from the in motion the whole plus/4 scene. At Function, Rebels category, while Leon was the best in graphics. The two greatest remains of the former Byteam. Hungarian 8-bit compos contin- won with a demo, Archee with a 64k intro, Dilemma successes were evidently Archee’s game and the C64 remake ued to include the plus/4. The attempts to popularize the scene with a 4k intro, and Exceed with a wild compo entry. of Desert Dream by Resource & Chorus. The Resource guys led to results - even if in quite moderate form. The number of It’s also worth mentioning the second placed demo had a wide grin twice, because they also won the Scene.org visitors grew, but mostly with retro-sceners that felt attracted to of Function. It has a strange concept, but its credits Award for best oldskool demo. Conspiracy wasn’t nominated, getting back to partying. After a break of a few years, there was are unique, because almost all details of the demo but they also could celebrate, as the jury chose Chaos Theory a Hungarian demo at Assembly. Conspiracy entered the com- were created by one person: the ex-Fresh!Mindworkz as the best 64k intro, but this was only the beginning. The intro petition with an Xbox360-production. The demo only scored member, Maxie, who happens to be female. This same was entered at many festivals later, including Siggraph, where 5th place, but Microsoft gave it the title of best Xbox360 demo. year the Hardread podcast series started, which can it faced some stiff competition in the form of movies like Spi- At the end of the year, Vincenzo and Pohar started the BitJam

THE HUNGARIAN DEMOSCENE HISTORYbe seen as a spiritual ancestor of the BitJam podcast, der-Man 3 and 300. Podcast, as members of the BitFellas team. since Vincenzo and Pohar are the team behind both. In October, Scene.hu started, which resolutely presents news 2008 shaped up as best as could be expected. Rebels placed every day and sometimes longer articles too. There were many well at two parties abroad, and the Hungarians put up a good attempts to get a wide range of people interested in the dem- show at Breakpoint. Resource – together with Exceed and oscene. Besides TV, radio, and newspaper appearances and The Dreams – scored 1st place, while in 4k and 64k catego- the active use of blogs and community sites, demos started to ries Archee and Conspiracy (together with Still) ranked 2nd. appear regularly between the films on AXN sci-fi TV-channel. The Scene.org Awards honoured Archee’s work for Sumotori To offer something in addition to the few parties, the Scene.hu Dreams. Let’s see what the future will bring. Demoshow series started, and there were demoscene stands at other events, too. To compensate for the lack of Freax 2, Special thanks to those, who helped in the creation of this Grass, and Tomcat, created an art album from the classics of “Sumotori Dreams” by Archee, winner of the Breakpoint 2007 96k game article with their memories and ideas: Bery of United Force, competition demoscene graphics. Clarence of Chorus, D-Lee of Exceed, Edhellon of Resource, At Hungarian parties (SceneCON returned in addition to Func- Ern0 of Absolute!, Gargaj of Conspiracy and Ümlaut Design, The usual silence at the beginning of 2007 was broken by tion) United Force was the most successful. They won both Puby of Triumwyrat, SlySpy of United Force and AMMB, and Breakpoint. About 30 Hungarian people attended, and they multi-platform events in demo category and at SceneCON in Tomcat of Madwizards.