³½ Andromeda ¼ ¹ When Hydra, Dr.Jekyll and Interphace founded the Pneumatic Sentinels in Spring 1989 they took a big step in the direction of forming Andromeda. Six months later Andromeda was founded. After a while they got more and more members from groups like Absence, Motion, Pure Metal Coders and Offence. Andromeda released numerous demos of high quality and in October 1991 they were asked to join Brainstorm. We know they did the right thing and answered now to the proposal. ³ Now, two and a half year after this international breaktrough of Andromeda, the group is the 6th best according to the Official Eurochart and this was before HeadX took home the big prize at The Gathering'94 with his baby "Sequential" and three artists from Andromeda took the 1st, 3rd and 5th places in the graphicscompetition. ¹ Now what is the reason to Andromeda's success? ³ Stability has much of the honor for Andromedas long and successful career in the scene. Hydra has organized the group well with "rules" everybody has agreed on and these rules seems to function well. Norway is the base of Andromeda and only norwegians may join. Hydra states in our interview with him that he can shock many if he lists up who has wanted to join Andromeda through the years. We're quite sure he can! ¹ Weak points vs. strong points ³ Design and graphics are the things popping into people minds when one mentions the name Andromeda. The glassy, perfectionated design style has gone its successful trip upwards the charts. Design is also a very important part of Andromeda's productions, but sometimes the design-mish-mash can overtake the real production (as I sometimes feel when watching Mirror). ¹ Because of the big press Andromeda's design has got through the years it's easy to forget that there's more to a trackmo, intro or musicdisk than part-links design-effects. ³ Graphics are tightly bound up to design so it's not wrong to say that graphics are Andromeda's strongest point. This was proved by the artists performance at The Gathering'94. Three among the five best is impressive. No other high-ranked group could do this. And consider the fact that another artist sat at home with possibilities high up in the top too. Another proof of Andromeda's brilliance in the graphics-genre is "Seven Seas". Rated as best slideshow. ¹ Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll are both chart-ranked coders. Still, the code is not the best part of Andromeda. HeadX has finally got his breakthrough with Andromeda and "Sequential" This may cause people to reconsider for a second sentences like "They've only got two coders" and "No code. Just design!". Jaz is another coder in Andromeda but he hasn't shown his skills to the public yet. He and Decker works on an AGA-trackmo right now. Andromeda has got good coders but they haven't got coders with a higher- chartpotential than about 7th-10th place. ³ Musically has Andromeda got what they always have had. Lizard was no major loss because he seldom got his music used. Note that I don't slag Lizard off here! Mr. Man and Interphace has done the music to most of the Andromeda productions. They doesn't seem to need any more musicians. But, both Mr.Man and Interphace has a tendency to dig themselves down in their own styles which makes the room for developement very small. Maybe a some reinforcements are appropriate? ¹ What's next for Andromeda? ³ The coming productions from Andromeda will include "Moments" - a one-file slideshow coded by Hydra(!), an AGA-trackmo by Jaz and Decker and a demo by Mr. Hyde. ² The universe is infinite - and so is the realm of Andromeda