Phenomena (PHA) was a Swedish Demogroup making Amiga demos that was productive during the formative years of the Amiga Demoscene [1] founded in 1987.
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Phenomena (PHA) was a Swedish Demogroup making Amiga demos that was productive during the formative years of the Amiga Demoscene [1] founded in 1987.
Phenomena was founded by members of Triangle which was a 3 group co-operation between Crack Force Five, Jetspeed, and The Gang. [2] Specifically, the founding members were Avalon and Silmarillion in early 1987, [3] and members from these three groups joined during late 1987 and 1988.
A pure demogroup from the start (as distinct from groups that started out cracking Amiga games), in April 1988 Phenomena released their first demo, The Star Flight, [4] one of the early demos featuring Soundtracker music and the to-be staple effect of demos, the horizontal starfield effect. [5]
In 1989, the member count of Phenomena exploded to where it might grow hard to organize. Among the new members were Megaman, Terminator, and Firefox, who would later work in the Amiga games industry as developer, graphics artist, and musician for major Amiga game developers. But once organized, this also resulted in a high production output [6] with releases climbing the charts such as Phenomena Megademo, which won the Equinox and Horizon Party and was featured on season 1, episode 4 [7] of the Swedish TV program, Bit för Bit.
Throughout 1989 and in the years that followed, Phenomena released many chart-toppers. [8] The growing success in Scandinavia, France, Germany and the UK was due to a high release tempo yet also a consistently high release quality. This Phenomena achieved with its large member count, with an unusually high ratio of coders (demo programmers) for any demogroup, [9] and a fanbase growing around the skilled output of Phenomena's productive [10] musician, Firefox. But it also required swappers that were on the game, to make sure the demos spread across Europe together with the latest cracks and demo collections. This Phenomena had from the outset in the members from the forming groups.
Phenomena also helped organize Demoparties yearly from 1990 to 1993. [11]
List of winning entries in demoparty demo competitions, in chronological order: [12]
Amiga demos are demos created for the Amiga home computer.
A crack intro, also known as a cracktro, loader, or just intro, is a small introduction sequence added to cracked software. It aims to inform the user which "cracking crew" or individual cracker removed the software's copy protection and distributed the crack.
Demogroups are teams of demosceners, who make computer based audio-visual works of art known as demos. Demogroups form a subculture collectively known as the demoscene.
The demoscene is an international computer art subculture focused on producing demos: self-contained, sometimes extremely small, computer programs that produce audiovisual presentations. The purpose of a demo is to show off programming, visual art, and musical skills. Demos and other demoscene productions are shared at festivals known as demoparties, voted on by those who attend and released online.
Future Crew was a Finnish demogroup that created PC demos and software, active mostly between 1987 and 1994.
The Assembly demoparty is a demoscene and gaming event in Finland. It is the biggest demoscene party. The main organizers of the event are Pekka Aakko and Jussi Laakkonen. The Summer event takes place every year between late July and early August, and lasts three to four days, and the Winter event is held in January or February. Edition 2020 was online. The most recent Assembly was held from 1 to 3 April 2022 at Messukeskus in Helsinki.
The Commodore 64 (C64) demos are demonstrations of what can be done to push the limits of the Commodore 64 computer, made by programmers, musicians and artists.
The Gathering is the second largest computer party in the world. It is held annually in Vikingskipet Olympic Arena in Hamar, Norway, and lasts for five consecutive days. Each year, TG attracts more than 5200 people, with attendance increasing every year.
Breakpoint was a German demoscene party. From 2003 to 2010, it took place annually at Easter in Bingen.
Pilgrimage was a demoparty which took place annually in Salt Lake City, Utah each summer between 2003 and 2006. The event was founded by Rich "Legalize" Thompson of the demoscene group Polygony. Pilgrimage was, at the time, the only active demoscene event of its kind in all of North America, while many demoparties take place annually throughout Europe.
Tristar and Red Sector Incorporated (TRSI) is a demogroup which formed in 1990. It came about from the longest-running cooperation in scene history. RSI existed from 1985, before being joined by the "T" later on. Evolving from the Commodore 64 to the Amiga and later to PC and various game console platforms - like the PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo - and set-ups like Arduino, Android or Blu-ray, TRSI released a number of digital productions, dedicated to experimenting in phreaking or network alteration. Its members were spread around the world and still contribute to computer scene art and code after more than 27 years of history.
keWlers is a Finnish demogroup, formed in the early 1990s, originally called Mewlers. After smaller releases such as Tripfish 2 or Another High-Caliber Mechanical Complication, their breakthrough came in 2002 when they released their critically acclaimed demo Variform at Assembly 2002. Despite only achieving third place, the demo became one of the most widely known and top rated demos ever released, winning three Scene.org awards. Further major demos to be released later included Protozoa and A Significant Deformation Near The Cranium, released at Assembly 2003. Kewlers have been nominated for at least one Scene.org Award every year, except for 2004. The group disbanded for a while in 2006 directly after the release of their final demo, 1995. But since 2010 Kewlers have returned from their hiatus, with possibly Variform 2, released at Revision 2012, as their most influential demo since their comeback.
The Humble Guys (THG) were a cracking group for the IBM PC during the late 1980s founded by two friends known by the pseudonyms Candyman and Fabulous Furlough. The group was also noticed in the demoscene for some of their cracktros.
PARADOX (PDX) is a warez–demogroup; an anonymous group of software engineers that devise ways to defeat software and video game licensing protections, a process known as cracking, which is illegal in most jurisdictions. They distribute cracks, keygens, and pre-cracked versions of entire programs. Over the years, distribution methods have changed, starting out with physically transported floppy disks and BBS distribution. Today most of their files reach the public over various peer-to-peer file networks.
Andromeda Software Development is a Greek demogroup that was formed in 1992. They produced a number of small intros and demos in the mid-1990s for the PC, most notably CounterFactual and Beyond. ASD was quiet for the following years until 2001, when they presented Cadence & Cascade - their first accelerated demo - and won the Digital Nexus demoparty, held in Athens, Greece.
Equinox is an Amiga demo group with an active period between the years 1987-1996.
Moppi Productions was a Finnish-based demogroup founded in 1996. It is mainly known for their story-based demos and the demo authoring tool Demopaja. The demo ix, released in 2003, won a total of three awards in the Scene.org Awards gala.
The demo effect is a name for computer-based real-time visual effects found in demos created by the demoscene.
Razor 1911 (RZR) is a warez and demogroup founded in Norway, 1986. It was the first ever such group to be initially founded exclusively as a demogroup, before moving into warez in 1987. According to the US Justice Department, Razor 1911 is the oldest software cracking group that is still active on the internet. Razor 1911 ran the diskmag 'Propaganda' until 1995.
Kindergarden (KG) is an annual demo party first organized in 1994 in Fjellfoten, Norway. During the first few years it was held irregularly, eventually settling into being an annual event. Since 2001 it has been held in Haga, Norway, the location also used for Kindergarden 4 and 5.
