³¼WHO WAS THE BEST¼³ ³¼IN 1992¼³ ¹ One more year have passed by in life and in the scene. A quite succesful year for the scene, I would say. Eventhough a lot of demos included the vectorbullshit (?), we reached a higher level. Especially the design was improved dramatically...Andromeda and Melon Dezign showed two different ways of doing great designs. But not only the demos developed. I think that the diskmag scene was the place where the biggest improvement took place. In my opinion the scene has about 6 or 7 mags of a pretty high standard at the moment. In this article, we will look at some of the leading groups passed year and we will give The Top Secret Awards to the 3 best Groups of the year and to the Newcomer of the year. We have not looked on former years production or their reputation, but only on what they have been doing for the passed year. Please notice that the Top Secret Awards are not any kind of prize (We are just poor diskmag makers), but just some kind of honour. We hope that is enough. And please also notice that only productions on the demo scene has been noticed. Not any cracks, trainers, games has counted nor the quality of the group on the modem or swapping scene. ³ABSOLUTE¹ - This group is from Hungary and is formed by the ex.Soc.Brigade members, so we have decided that productions released in the beginning of the year, released under the name of Soc.Brigade also should benefit Absolute. They have released a good demo called Aabsolute, some nice introes and lately the first issue of Sledge Hammer in english. This group is really on it's way to become something big, if the keep up their productive way, because of their talented members. (Just be careful telling lies about who has joined and not !) ³ALCATRAZ¹ - Unfortunately they haven't been very productive this year, but atleast they have released their diskmag McDisk, which is really good. Hopefully we will soon see a demo from them again. ³ANARCHY¹ - Yet another impressive year by Anarchy. Some rather good demo's, some cool musicdisks and some great graohicians, who draws a lot. Not to forget their diskmag, Stolen Data. Nevertheless I feel like something is missing, like a total stunning demo, to get Anarchy at the very top. But 1992 was a good year for Anarchy and almost every group in the scene will very much like to have a year equal to this, I bet. And because of that, their talent and their productivity they reached the 3rd place in our Top Secret Awards. Congratulations !! ³ANDROMEDA¹ - Before 1992 they were not that known. We had seen a couple of productions and they were nice, but in 1992 they really smashed our monitors with cool productions like D.O.S - Multica - Point Blank - Mirror and nice introes. They sat a new dimension for the standard of design a gave everybody a lot of pleasure, and we had no doubt deciding that this was the group of 1992. Congratulations to Andromeda for the first prize in the Top Secret Awards from the TS Staff !!! ³COMPLEX¹ - Yeah, this finnish-german group developed a lot through 1992. Ecspecially in the last half of the year the became very productive and their productions always had a quality label on them. Unfortunately we missed just the last 'it' from them to give them an Award, but they gave us a lot of pleasure and is a great group. ³DIGITAL¹ - A new group who really showed the way for all newcomers. They released some really cool demos, reaching their climax with their last demo called 'Day Of Reckoning'. A good year for Digital and almost enough to get the best newcomers reward. ³KEFRENS¹ - The forces of the pyramids had a good year. They improved the quality of their productions dramatically and with productions like Guardian Dragon II, Masterpieces, Multimegamix II+III they gave us alot of pleasure. Keep it up !! ³MAJIC 12¹ - A quiet year from our own group. Some introes were released and of course Top Secret, which hopefully developed in a positive direction. ³MELON DEZIGN¹ - A really cool year for Melon Dezign with some cool demos, original introes, a great slideshow, all with a certain style, which have been copied by some, admired by others and hated by a few (?). Their productivity combinated with the always high standard of their productions are the reasons for giving the Top Secret Award for the second best group of the year. ³PHENOMENA¹ - Unfortunately a very unproductive year for this group, who gave us so much pleasure in 1991. This year they gave us Crystal Symphonies II and that's about it. ³PURE METAL CODERS¹ - This group gave the scene a lot of enjoyment with their diskmag which became the leading mag through 1992. The released only one demo, Alpha Omega II, which weren't that smashing (Unless your love the vectors), and not enough for PMC to get a award. ³REBELS¹ - It seems like Rebels have some trouble reaching the level they once had. Some nice introes, a demo from the swedish division were released. In the end of the year the released a promising diskmagazine called 'Eternal' ,but all in all, Rebels won't be remembered for 1992. ³REFLECT¹ - A new group that gave us one demo, but that was also a good one. It won at the Complex - Rebels party in Finland, but as that was their only 'known' productions it's not enough. But surely a nice start for Reflect. ³SANITY¹ - A very good group, which always make productions of a high standard. But sometimes they fail the design, and in a year that we will call the 'design-year' that became the reason why Sanity didn't get an award. But with the capacity they have, it can only be a matter of time before that matter should be solved. ³SCOOPEX¹ - Once again they took a nap for about a year. Some issues of the World Charts were released and some one file demos from S!P were also released. ³SHINING¹ - In the end of the year this group started to move again with the release of an one-file demo and a good musicdisk. But still they were not very productive. ³SILENTS¹ - Well, it was tough for Silents to do as well as in 1991 and in our opinion they didn't manage it. Some demos were released, but the quality was certainly not as Kyd/Balle (Except for Static Chaos) and with Kyd/Balle being pretty unproductive (The Cat demo was not released under the label of TSL) they didn't reach the standard of the year before. ³SPACEBALLS¹ - The newcomer of the year ! We can just as well revial it now. They were not known that much before 1992. Eventhough they had released one good demo before, 1992 became their break through with two stunning demos and the intro of the year, in lots of people's opinion. With the very high standard of their productions and an acceptable productivity, we think they were they best newcomers. Congratulations !!! ³STATIC BYTES¹ - Not many outside Denmark knew this group before the took over the eurochart. We haven't seen that many other productions, but they have with no doubt done a very good job with the eurochart. ³TRSI¹ - The return of the year ! With two cool demos in the end of 1992 they returned to the active part of the scene and that's for sure one of the best things that happened this year. Hopefully this comeback will show the way for other legends that have been taking a nap for the past years. Ok, that was all. We know it's easy to critize this kind of report by saying that some of the groups mentioned shouldn't have been included while others should ! But we hope you can accept the chosen groups and if you can't....too bad. To sum up let's take a look on the charts: The Top Secret Awards for ²Best Groups¹ in 1992 goes to: ³¢1. A N D R O M E D A¢³ ¹ 2. M E L O N D E Z I G N 3. A N A R C H Y The Top Secret Award for ²Best Newcomer Group¹ in 1992 goes to: ³¢1. S P A C E B A L L S¢³ ¹ Please read the awarded groups comments in the following article.