»CL8:»SML:-------------------------------------- »CL9:»BIG: Trackmos - A Blast of the Past? »CL8:»SML:-------------------------------------- »CL4: By Zerox/Gods »CL0:In the last issue of the »CL9:EuroChart» I read a really well-written and interesting article concerning the absence of trackmos these days. It was written by Alvin/Nah-Kolor. I and some others had been discussing trackmos just a few weeks before I saw that article, so it was nice to see others that also were interested in that topic. Instead of repeating the things Alvin wrote about, I'll rather add some information. When the first known demo called »CL9:Vectorcube» hit the scene in August 1986 it wasn't anything like a demo of today. It didn't include any graphics nor any music. It was just a simple cube, and nothing more. The real demos as we know them didn't appear before in the beginning of 1989. Well, there were many "demos" before that time also, but none deserving to be called real demos anyway. But in late 1988 and in 1989 many megademos began to get released. Anyway, it wasn't before the year after the scene got to know »CL9:trackloaders.» The first ever trackmo released was the legendary »CL9:Mental Hangover demo» back in 1990! It was the most important demo released that year because it introduced trackmos to the scene, but also because it had a long introduction part. After the release of this demo, the period of megademos were over as everybody tried to copy this new trend. The creators of this demo were true scene legends; Slayer, Reward and Uncle Tom. And in 1991, everything were trackloaded! The scene got to see some really great demos; like »CL9:Hardwired» by TSL & Crionics, »CL9:D.O.S.» by Andromeda, »CL9:Odyssey» by Alcatraz and »CL9:Yoyage» by Razor 1911 which are still considered to be among the best ones. But also ALOT of the other top demos the next years were trackloaded (infact most of them), like the ones Alvin wrote about and many others; Sequential by Andromeda, Extension by Pygmy Projects and 9 Fingers by Spaceballs just to mention a few. Of course not only demos used trackloaders, but also musicdisks and slideshows, and even a few diskmags. It's true that Stolen Data was trackloaded. But I can't say that RAW used a trackloader. Not even the secret "RAW" mag called Bull & Bear. But a mag I know did, was the one from Manitou called The Almighty. And good musicdisks like the first ones ever from Phenomena back in 1990, called Music Dream I and II used trackloaders. The same with the first musicdisk from IRIS the same year called Music Disk #1. This trend continued in full strenght until late 1993 I guess. When the A1200 got launched in 1992, and most sceners had it in late 1993/beginning of 1994 or other Amigas with harddisk, the trackmos started to loose ground. But the next years there were still many trackmos, but now the majority of demos were executable files and harddisk installable. The last good trackmos I remember were Sanity's »CL9:Roots demo» at The Party 4 or the version 2.0 released in 1995. And of course I remember the »CL9:last trackmo» from Gods called »CL9:Future» which won the competition at Party Zone III at the summer the same year. That was probably the last trackmo I've seen - at least as I can remember. So during the 14 years or so the scene has existed, trackloaders have only played an important role 5 of these. I think trackloaders were really facinating when they arrived 10 years ago. Instead of loading everything in advance as the previous demos/intros, the data was being read as the demo went on. The success of trackloaders can probably have something to do with the fact that the first trackmos ever released were so good. The rest of the scene just had to copy them. Most of the top groups back then mostly did trackmos, like Crusaders, Cryptoburners, Sanity, Animators, Quartex, Spaceballs, Razor 1911, Silents, Kefrens, Phenomena, PMC, Andromeda, and later Anarchy, Complex, TRSI, Melon Dezign, Virtual Dreams, Lemon and more. First the A500 was the machine everyone had to get, and most sceners either got the one with kickstart 1.2 or 1.3 and 0,5 or 1mb ram. It didn't have a harddrive as standard. But the A2000 which also got launched the same year (1987), did have harddrive as standard. Unfortunately it was far too expensive for most sceners as it costed around 2000 pounds back then, while the A500 "only" costed around 600 pounds. But with the AGA age, the most common amiga was the A1200. And most sceners got a harddrive too. This opened »CL9:new opportunities» in demo making, combined with the growth in modems, boards and rise of internet. The demos didn't have the same limitations as before. It was possible to make REAL big demos in the past also, like the famous Odyssey demo from Alcatraz back in 1991. But it was hard to spread a demo on 5 disks. Odyssey was more like an exception, as it was so good... and gave us half an hour of entertainment or so. But most demos were on one disk and sometimes two, that was it! So it was impossible to include all the modules you wanted, all the graphics and more. I remember that Mr.Man of Andromeda had to make different versions of his module in Sequential just to make it all fit on one disk for instance. When everyone had »CL9:harddisks» this was no longer a problem. A demo archive can be real big these days, a demo on 10mb is not impossible to spread at all. With easy access to internet and modems, it's not a problem as in the past. But did the trackloaders have to fade away completely? Are they a phenomenon of the past as Alvin wrote? Is it true that todays coders can't even code a trackloader? No, I don't think so. It's not very hard to create a trackloader so that's not the answer. The answer is probably that it's impossible to compete with trackloaders these days. And everyone want »CL9:harddisk installable» productions. Well, you can just dms pack them and store them at your hardrive, and unpack if you want to watch it again. It's not that hard. And as for the spreading, that's no longer a problem when we got internet. Yes, I do remember the trackmos and it would be great to see one again. I hope that some coders that are more interested in making something cool and special, rather than to release his demo to win a prize at the biggest parties, soon will take the challenge and make a trackmo. And please send me a copy, will you? ;) Another thing which is becoming more rare these days is of course the old pixel art, as Alvin wrote about in another article. The PC and photoshop got a strong influence on todays sceners. A 32 coloured low-res picture can't compete with the "photos", but they sure reveal if a graphician is good or not. Gods made an attempt to release an old style pixel-art slideshow, and some months ago we actually did release the slideshow »CL9:Divine». So it's not entirely hopeless Alvin. Other trends are also changing the scene, but it's called development... evolusion if you will. It will probably only create better amiga productions. But of course we also remember the productions and persons of the past which deserve to be remembered... »CL9:KEEP THE SCENE ALIVE AND KICKING!»