Next up in our look at the demo-scene competitions at Assembly 2010, I'll turn my attention to the other main demo competitions - Oldschool, 4k, 64k, and Wild.
Oldschool Demo Competition
We're starting off a look at the standout category winners by examining Oldschool - a competition with just four entries. However, this was a big improvement over last year's tiny two-entry competition.
In fact, there were rumors that this particular sub-contest would be canceled this year, due to lack of entries. So it was a pleasant surprise to see a competition with four good demos.
1st: Grind by Dekadence & Accession
The winner was Dekadence & Accession's chunky Grind demo, running on a 25mhz, 68030 powered Amiga 3000.2nd: Vanility by Byterapers
In second place, and my favourite, was Vanility by Byterapers. This demo was running on a 50mhz 486 DX.
4k Intro Competition
In recent years, the quality bar has been raised so high in the 4k world that it makes it difficult to pick a clear winner. This year's competition was full of great stuff, with the winning demo (Neanderstaller by Pittsburgh Stallers) looking particularly fresh amongst the other entries.
1st: Neanderstaller by Pittsburgh Stallers
64k Intro Competition
The 64k intro competition was strong this year, which is maybe a sign that the 64k scene is really starting to recover from the slump it's been in for a few years now. The top three intros each show a different style of demo:
1st: X Marks The Spot by Portal Process
An excellent demo all round from Portal Process, and it reinforces the theory that dancing robots = win!
2nd: Behind the Curtain by United Force & Digital Dynamite
3rd: Ars Nova by Accept Corp
A serious contender for this year's "most content packed into 64k" award.
5th: The Hungarian Gambit by ate bit
Unfortunately (for me!) my own entry into the 64k competition was beaten well down -- into 5th place.
Wild Competition
Wild competitions are always interesting, because you never know what platform people are going to use. This year we saw demos written for Flash, PHP and the Nokia N900.. and that's just the top three:
1st: Spiral Out by Evoflash
Evoflash continue their excellent run at Assembly (seven top three demos in the past 5 years) with another great Flash demo.
2nd: Derelict by Hedelmae
The N900 demo from Hedelmae.
3rd: Checked = "Checked" by Jypa
A neat little PHP demo from Jypa, using checkboxes to create a 96x54 "pixel" canvas.
That's all for now, but I'll be back soon to take a look at the gamedev, music and graphics competitions -- as well rounding up some of the best seminars from Assembly 2010.
INTERNATIONAL GAME TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES (IBM) INTERDIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS INTEL
