Hugi previews a few Revision 2012 events and possible releases. Warning: Spoilers ahead!
Written by Magic of Nah-Kolor
Prologue
While working on our new issue we got some information from different sceners for other articles inside Hugi #37 including some screenshots. Meanwhile on Facebook, when the weeks went by and the Easter weekend came closer and closer, some sceners started publishing some information as well. Thus the idea for this article was born. It's not only about some of the planned releases but also about some of the scheduled Revision 2012 events. We realize this article could be a little out dated when you read it after Easter 2012. Hence, some of the screenshots and information in this article could/will not represent the final outcome or final released product. And keep in mind that some productions might not be finished in time and could be released on another party. If you don't like (possible) spoilers we advice you to not read any further. If you do, we do hope to give a small inside view about what might or not might be as a small warm up for you to Revision 2012!
PC Productions
REZ of Razor 1911 is trying to be back with a new intro. Last year he got a 2nd place in the 64kb intro compo with 'We Have Accidently Borrowed Your Vote Disk'. REZ tells us: "Yeah, I'm doing a new 64k intro for Revision 2012! With new music by dubmood and all the rest by me
It's a totally different prod than everything I did before, different but with my usual style 
I can't say too much to not spoil the surprise but this time I made everything using GPU (except some graphical things like texts or icons). Almost all effects are using the 'à la mode' raymarching technique." The two supplied teaser screenshots give an interesting view on what this intro could be about. Let's wait and see! Pandacube is the democrew that won last year's Revision PC demo competition with their demo called PC-05: Flux. For this issue Pandacube's coder GRX wrote a making of Flux article which you can find a little bit further in the headlines section. However, he was also very kind to send in a work in progress screenshot of their forthcoming Revision 2012 pc demo compo entry PC-06! GRX gives a small comment: "Like a proper teaser, this screenshot is not showing too much of our new Demo. It is taken from the very first scene of PC-06. We are currently crunching (again) to get everything done for Revision 2012."
The group Titan is working on a windows Music Disk for Revision 2012. Alien of Titan gave us a screenshot with the follow information: "It's a co-op music disk from zalza vs a bunch of international chip music heroes."
Revision 2012 - Concerts!
Already announced that there will be 4 performances. According to the current timetable Friday at 23:30 DJ Knoeki will be on stage. On Saturday at 20:30 the Romeo Knight & Friends concert will start. Finally on Sunday at 18:30 the band SIDRIP Alliance will be paying a tribute to the commodore C64 with classic game and demo tunes from this legendary machine. Followed by DJ Hoffman at 20:00.
So Romeo Knight will perform again at Revision 2012. We have learned he will be back on stage again with Bendyk and Xerxes. What can we expect? What preparations are they making for this gig? What will make it different from their Breakpoint 2008 and 2009 concerts? Hugi contacted Xerxes and Romeo Knight for a look ahead on the coming Revision 2012 concert. Xerxes: "It was fantastic that we got invited back to do a gig again, we really had a lot of fun with the previous two. There are a lot of preparing, we have known about this gig for quite some time now. I think Eike (Romeo Knight) has the biggest job of all, since he is doing lead guitar and bass stuff throughout most of the gig. His range and ability to play just about anything amazes me, and it is just an honor being able to do this with him. Bendik is quietly preparing on his own, and I hope we get an hour before we go on to try things out together before we go on stage this year as well
We are not going to do things much differently except, of course, quite a bit of new material and new tunes being performed. And since this is our third gig, we know each other much better in terms of what is expected and who does what etc. Hopefully it will be a good time, and the crowd at Revision last year was great - so we are hoping for the same this year." Romeo Knight adds: "Preparation-wise, everybody prepares and rehearses on his own since there's no possiblity to meet up to jam together because of the physical distance (although we're all physically attracted to each other of course). But IMO that needs to be part of the concept because it leaves some sort of surpise and excitement to the gig, and on top of it some certain room for improvisation. For example, I skipped practicing certain tracks on purpose to let them remain 'new' and fresh on stage when we'll be playing them live. Hell yeah, no risk, no fun!
Just on my side I'm going to be much more versatile with sounds this time, not only using straight electic guitar but also a guitar controlled synth and as a small feature an Akai EWI wind synthesizer. I'll do this even though I know the rock'n'roll element will suffer some bit from this. The general concept is basically the same like when it used to be called 'Xerxes & Friends'. We'll be playing old and new stuff, Xerxes tracks, RK tracks and famous 3rd party composer demoscene music. As I know that Xerxes did his usual chorus of praise on me in his text, I wanna add that I'm sooo excited to play with these two gifted musicians again. I love Xerxes tracks and his distinct sound even more than his body. And I'm serious about that. To the audience: Please come in large numbers and throw teddybears. Or, even better, teddygoats."
After his succesful debut in 2011 DJ Hoffman will return to the stage at this year's Revision as well. Hugi contacted Hofmann about what to expect from his performance this year around. Hofmann tell us: "An enthusiastic DJ performs with big tunes performance. Running through the demoscene archives for tunes that I vibe off. Stuff that will fit into the style I play. Also dipping into the history of UK Breakbeat music. Compared to Revision 2011 I'm dropping the Amiga / C64 remixes. As much as I love them, it was aparent during the set that it's not the kinda music people want to dance too. So I'll be sticking to breaks and BASS!"
Other Platform releases
From Poland Ghostown confirmed to be back again on the Amiga. As the photo tells us they are together with Loonies again.
The from origin Dutch group Desire that released among others an Amiga demo at Breakpoint 2010 and a 4kb PC intro at Revision 2011 are working hard on many releases for Revision 2012 and further on. They are even working on an iPAD demo! Main organizer RamonB5 of Desire tells us the following about the Desire Revision 2012 expectations: "At least you can expect several guys (sorry, not too many women) having fun and enjoying the pants down atmosphere over there. Next to that we hopefully can entertain the audience with some fun releases. But that is all work in progress, so cannot give promises already. The iPad demo is one of our projects where our engineers are quite happy since it makes them feel as if they are working in the 'old' Amiga way (at least that is what they tell me). The general idea is to have something interactive that might be fun for our offspring as well (get the next generation ready for the scene). Think of something Funteractive."
TRSI will go back to their roots. A co-op demo with another old Amiga group, Desire, and Rabenauge. Spotter of TRSI supplied us with an exclusive screenshot and comments: "Originally, I had the idea about doing a certain kind of demo in 2007 at Evoke. I talked to fellow members of TPOLM, TITAN and TRSI at the time, but all shrugged it off. So in Vienna in 2008, at Realtime Generation, I saw something about this topic and thought to myself, this is not cool, there has to be another way to do it. In 2011, when my son was just half a year old, I was taking a walk in the German woods with him in his carriage and got a call from a coder from Germany. He had the idea of a work-around, how to actually get a demo going on that platform in the way sceners would do it. Then I scouted and started in August 2011. Most of the work has been spread between Brookline, Mass. (me) and New York City (code and still graphics). The soundtrack was composed in Germany. Additional help came from France and the Dutch. It is a realtime calculated demo. At any given time, we operate on a 12 MB RAM basis. Resolution is qHD. The strict environment, which falls into the department of TRSI and DSR console, makes us to design all code around the limitations of the platform. We have to simulataniously load and also run effects and graphics, plus sound, with small memory, low fps and not too much processor available in the process. Also, the coding language is rather limited. No fancy stuff. On a certain platform it will be a First Release, at the same time, it also runs on another system, which is very widespread and popular, but since it is a work-around here, it does not really count as another Firstie there, but a fun bonus and closes the circle to my wish from 2007, to make a demo about it!" (Rumours are it's on a playstation vita or ipad. Also see the Forcer interview in the interview section for some gfx used in this demo -ed)
Also DJ Hoffman's whispered in our ears that his music will be in a planned Amiga 64kb co-op intro from Focus Design & Unstable Label (http://unstablelabel.co.uk -ed).
Moreover, Elude is working on their Amiga demo for Revision 2012! Hugi got a screenshot of Elude's forthcoming demo. Ubik of Elude tell us a little about the screenshot. Ubik: "This time we decided to add some 3D scenes to our demo. One of them will be the dragon approaching and landing on a monumental block. The texture of the dragon will change clothes into something like the characters from the movie 'Tron' (Although that's the plan at this moment
." Finally, Moods Plateau are doing some pre-party hyping! Raising some expectation for sure. Hugi wonders which productions they can finish in time for the different Amiga competitions!
Epilogue
The above previewed events and productions are just a very small portion of what is to be expected during Easter weekend 2012. We hope your appetite got bigger and your motivation has grown more to finish your productions on time or shortly after the deadline!
Or to visit Revision 2012. Thanks to the sceners who were so kind to share some information or even a screenshot for this article. Have a nice Easter all of you! For more information about the events (and other important stuff) visit the Revision official website.