NeXT (demogroup)
Encyclopedia
NeXT was a demo crew active on the Atari
ST
from 1989 to 1992, mostly known for having created The Charts and The Phaleon Giga Demo.
The individuals who joined the group in historical order are:
Like many other in demoscene
, some NeXT members later joined the video game industry and successfully applied their skills on a number of games: Little Big Adventure
, Time Commando
, Hexplore
, The Smurfs, Asterix & Obelix, V-Rally, Arabian Nights, Road Rash
, Need for Speed, The Suffering, Iron Storm, Kya
, Fifa, Bet on Soldier
, Test Drive
, Age of Conan
. (See MobyGames
links above for the respective personnel.)
Six charts were produced in total, but they can hardly be linked to individual issues of Maggie: Production delays were extremely fluctuant on NeXT side, due first to the fact that the group was spread all around France, exchanging data using floppies sent my mail, and second because NeXT had to communicate with The Lost Boys over the channel also using postal mail.
In 1991 a demo called The Official 1990 Charts Compilation was released, containing an entirely repackaged version of all Charts demo screens and additional material, including a teaser screen of the Phaleon Giga Demo.
. Unfortunately for various reasons they failed to finish it, and decided to abandon the project in 1990. NeXT decided to give a try, and collected all the assets that had been produced so far. This included logos, demo screens, and a half finished main menu. Considering the state of the project, it was decided to keep only the name, some graphics, and the finished demo screens: Everything else was written from scratch.
After two additional years of work, and despite the drawbacks (some groups decided not to wait and released their intros earlier) the demo was finally finished and released, even managing to get some attention from the media.
Even though the quality of the whole demo suffered from the fact, that some of its content was nearly three years old, the Phaleon Giga Demo managed to remain in the collections of classic Atari ST demos, because it managed to somewhat push the envelope:
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
from 1989 to 1992, mostly known for having created The Charts and The Phaleon Giga Demo.
Members
All members of NeXT were French, with one notable exception, Lem, who came from Belgium.The individuals who joined the group in historical order are:
- Zae (Said Hadjiat) - founding member, public relationsPublic relationsPublic relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
specialist and diskmag editor - Stwars (Alexis Roos) - coder
- Pulsar (Jean François Nebbia) - graphic artist
- PCP - graphic artist
- Mit (Olivier Lhermite) - coder (MobyGames)
- Dbug (Mickaël Pointier) - coder, graphic artist (MobyGames)
- FFT (Richard Perdriau) - musicianMusicianA musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, coder - Chromix (Emmanuel Courossé) - graphic artist, musician, coder (MobyGames)
- LAP (Emmanuel Lary) - musician
- Lem (Thomas Gonzales) - coder
- Lonewolf (Xavier Dugast) - coder
Like many other in demoscene
Demoscene
The demoscene is a computer art subculture that specializes in producing demos, which are non-interactive audio-visual presentations that run in real-time on a computer...
, some NeXT members later joined the video game industry and successfully applied their skills on a number of games: Little Big Adventure
Little Big Adventure
Little Big Adventure is an action-adventure game developed by Adeline Software International and first released at the end of 1994. It was published in Europe by Electronic Arts and in North America, Asia and Oceania under the name Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure by Activision. Over 400,000 copies...
, Time Commando
Time Commando
Time Commando is an action-adventure computer and video game developed by Adeline Software and published by Electronic Arts in Europe, Activision in America , and Virgin Interactive and Acclaim Entertainment in Japan.It was originally released for the PC on July 31, 1996 in Europe, United States...
, Hexplore
Hexplore
Hexplore is a 1998 role playing computer game from Infogrames and Doki Denki Studio.- Premise :Set in 1000 AD, the player explores the world as MacBride, the adventurer. Early in the game you are joined by three party members, an archer, a warrior and a sorcerer...
, The Smurfs, Asterix & Obelix, V-Rally, Arabian Nights, Road Rash
Road Rash
Road Rash is the name of a motorcycle-racing video game series by Electronic Arts, in which the player participates in violent illegal street races. The game was originally released for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, but was ported to several other systems. Six different games were released from...
, Need for Speed, The Suffering, Iron Storm, Kya
Kya: Dark Lineage
Kya: Dark Lineage is a third-person action-adventure game for the PlayStation 2, developed by Eden Games and published by Atari...
, Fifa, Bet on Soldier
Bet On Soldier: Blood Sport
Bet On Soldier: Blood Sport is a first-person shooter developed by French video game developer Kylotonn, and published in the North American and UK market by Digital Jesters. The story revolves around an unknown World War, where elite soldiers meet each other in a battle to the death in one-on-one...
, Test Drive
Test Drive (video game)
Test Drive is a series of racing video games. Originally published by Accolade, which was later bought by Infogrames, the first game was released in 1987 and has since been followed by several sequels...
, Age of Conan
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is a fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by a Norwegian computer video game developer company, Funcom, and is published by Eidos Interactive for the PC platform...
. (See MobyGames
MobyGames
-Platforms not yet included:- Further reading :* Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson, High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games, McGraw-Hill/Osborne Media; 2 edition , ISBN 0-07-223172-6...
links above for the respective personnel.)
Production history
NeXT created a large number of productions: some demo screens were guest entries in other groups demos, the well known 'Charts' were released in the Floppy Disc Magazine Maggie, and some productions were real independent demos.The Charts
The whole concept of The Charts was an idea of Zae who wanted the group to become well-known very fast. His idea was simple: The English group The Lost Boys was in the process of creating the first issue of what will become one of the most successful disk magazines on Atari: Maggie. Considering that The Lost Boys were one of the most talented active groups, it was probably a good idea to "jump the bandwagon", and participate in the creation of this disk magazine; doing the charts was a simple way to achieve this goal.Six charts were produced in total, but they can hardly be linked to individual issues of Maggie: Production delays were extremely fluctuant on NeXT side, due first to the fact that the group was spread all around France, exchanging data using floppies sent my mail, and second because NeXT had to communicate with The Lost Boys over the channel also using postal mail.
In 1991 a demo called The Official 1990 Charts Compilation was released, containing an entirely repackaged version of all Charts demo screens and additional material, including a teaser screen of the Phaleon Giga Demo.
The Phaleon Giga Demo
The Phaleon Giga Demo was probably one of the demos with the longest development process in the Atari ST demo history. It was originally started by The Replicants in 1989, and was supposed to include many demoscreens by their friends of The UnionThe Union
-Political Unions:* The Union states of the United States during the American Civil War* The partnership of the German political parties the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union* The European Union...
. Unfortunately for various reasons they failed to finish it, and decided to abandon the project in 1990. NeXT decided to give a try, and collected all the assets that had been produced so far. This included logos, demo screens, and a half finished main menu. Considering the state of the project, it was decided to keep only the name, some graphics, and the finished demo screens: Everything else was written from scratch.
After two additional years of work, and despite the drawbacks (some groups decided not to wait and released their intros earlier) the demo was finally finished and released, even managing to get some attention from the media.
Even though the quality of the whole demo suffered from the fact, that some of its content was nearly three years old, the Phaleon Giga Demo managed to remain in the collections of classic Atari ST demos, because it managed to somewhat push the envelope:
- It was the first demo on the Atari ST to require four floppy discs (hence the Giga in the name instead of more common Mega, which was used to distinguish the two floppy disc demos from single disc ones).
- It contained four different selection menus (an AmigaAmigaThe Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
-like trackloader, a simple list selector, a Dungeon MasterDungeon MasterIn the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, the Dungeon Master is the game organizer and participant in charge of creating the details and challenges of a given adventure, while maintaining a realistic continuity of events...
-clone and a Shadow of the BeastShadow of the BeastShadow of the Beast is a side-scrolling platform computer game produced by Reflections Interactive and published by Psygnosis in 1989. The original version was released for the Commodore Amiga, but the game has been ported to many other systems...
-clone). - It was one of the first demos that tried to exploit the Atari STE, (all palettes are compatible with the enhanced color palette, all soundtracks are enhanced on the STE), including the Illusion STE screen (still considered today as a landmark in the STE intro history).
Guest entries
In addition to The Charts and the Phaleon Giga Demo, a number of single demo screens have been made as guest participation to some other group mega-demos:- Syntax Terror by Delta Force, 1990
- NTM Mega demo by Zuul, 1991
- European Demos by The Overlanders, 1991