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i love this one SO much.... thank you

Congrats guys!!

This is insane. How long did it take to make this?

What a beautiful and pleasant journey.

That was journey, thank you for this experience. ❤

Sooo looong and boooring :( huge disappointment after VX. I love retro arcade games, but this was just a pointless flyby with crowd pleasing ingredients

nice

Superb, this was such a good trip. thx !

A good demo and a good tribute

brilliant tribute to arcades, tons of wow moments and good nostalgia. well done!

A bit tryhard when it comes to riding the nostalgia wave, but I'm very passionate about arcades (I visit them in every city I visit when I have the time!) so I don't mind it in this case. Besides, I appreciate the amount of work put into picking and incorporating the visuals from games and demos into the demo. The way it seamlessly blends between the setpieces in a single camera take was a stroke of genius, too. The soundtrack is fantastic; Alkama is madly talented and delivers as always.

Other than that I think for the sake of the demo I shouldn't think about it too hard because I'll inevitably start punching holes in it and I kind of don't want it.

Insane! I hope it doesn't get flagged due to copyright violations.

Takes the transition crown out of ASD!

I can't hate on the work, but goddamn am I tired of this cheesy 80's nostalgia pandering.. :/

It's charming in a way but didn't do it for me, I felt it was too long and repetitive without anything in it to really grab me or make it feel special.

This was excellent and all dazzling and daring up until around halfway (the corridor), at which point it got stuck up its own ass and never got out.

Such a damn shame because Alkama's track is getting a hernia trying to carry it all, but it just can't.

Brillant art direction!
deserves a VR version....... :)

hahahaha



Well, I still liked it anyway.

A great trip down memory lane.

Loved it. Brought so many memories!

it was cool, but after VX2 feels a like a step back.

It feels like a less inspired followup to Vertrex2… the amount of work involved is insane, but it just doesn't feel as fun?

I have to agree with okkie - the nostalgia tripping is getting extremely boring. Nevertheless, some great looking and sounding parts.

Very nice, especially the first few minutes. Brilliant soundtrack!

Some nice pieces...indeed. But the corridor part bored me to death plus some scene look extremely empty ( party hall.. movie theater). I bet it must have been a lot of work... so here is my thumb

Sweet, although the walk through the 198x tunnel was a bit too long.

i was so happy to see bubble bobble :) .. great music variations from Alkama too .. respect.. !

Nice track. Loved the city. And what okkie said.

precisely what Starchaser said ;)

Another beautiful sentimental journey. Beautiful music and touched many memories. I enjoyed watching it again after the compo. Good job, congratulations!

Sweet, all those parts feel so alive as VR style, from dreamy landscapes to realistic locations, and are perfectly put together.
Music is of course amazing as well.

I am retro, so this made me happy.

And excellent done too!

Lovely work =]

graphic representation doesn't go above decent honestly but still the story telling, direction, all the transition, and love. congrats for the prod

A colourful celebration of computer joy.

A massive amount of work for sure; collecting all those screenshots alone must've been a huge effort. But then again, it's just "VX2 part two", and it's too long IMHO.
Also, I find it interesting that the arcade cabinet model is much worse than the one in the other guys' 8k intro ;)

This is a absolute joy to watch! As a person that is passionate about arcade and pinball this was an awesome tribute. Totally speechless and blown away.

Really loved the soundtrack, the rest (while mostly nice) overstayed it’s welcome for sure. While a clear thumb, I’m very surprised it won.

Couldn't help but smile and feel waves of nostalgia through the whole demo. Very pleasant experience, very nice production! <3

Awesome to see arcade games getting some love still! - and as the owner of a small arcade, this ride was just awesome (though the shape of the cabinets wasen't the real ones, but that's a minor detail, and would have taken a huge amount of time to get right :) )

Nostalgia <3

Forgot to thumb :)

Really great demo

solid production, the soundtrack is insane!

Well I loved it. <3

The amount of work involved must be absolutely unfathomable. I got exhausted from simply being at the audience.
But no matter how much effort the demo oozes, the creators should have had the courage to kill some of their children and leave them on the cutting room floor.

holy freaking moly. a gem!

:D

Nice hommage to good games!

I usually don't really like PC demo's, but this demo rules big time. The effects are awesome and so are the idea and design. Music rocks too. I love this demo!

meme template: Distracted Boyfriend
text #1: spectral arcade
text #2: people
text #3: atari 2600

Really, the only thing about this that impressed me was fitting all the videos into a 100MB demo. But they're low res and probably short.

As a long, slow fly-through, this felt to me like a late 90's PC demo. Maybe I've just been exposed to more than enough 80s video game nostalgia already, but it's just too much and about 5 years late to the party. It comes off as an overdose of Member Berries, like "hey, 'member this?, or this, 'member this one? How about one of these ONE HUNDRED other arcade games? Or all these demos? You gotta 'member one of these!" in a plea for approval and votes.

I've come to the conclusion I liked VX2 better - a lot better. Oh, and the 8k Alcanoid intro modeled arcade consoles better. :)

This is the most enjoyable demo I've seen in ages!

a clear thumb up. But I equally would have wished that the Still demo won. But I do understand that the whole retro-topic and the crazy amount of work that must have gone into this, deserves equal respect. To me a typical demo that resonates well with the audience, because it appeals to most of them.

That said, when rewatching the demo at the prizegiving, I already treasured it a lot more. All the little details, the characters that have cameos, the tetric pieces that swim in the water.. that arcade that is erupting sparks, the "no bubbles"-sign and then you have the Bubble Bobble character in the seats... the cumulated amount of these lovely details and the absolutely phenomenal soundtrack by Alkama makes this a wonderful demo that will be treasured for many years to come. Lovely work, gentlemen!

Fun idea, nice funky music, but it just keeps going... and going... and not much is happening especially in the second half, so it got a bit boring towards the end.

Longing and nothing really that impressive visually.. normally wouldn't give a piggy, as it wasn't that bad... just this shouldn't have won.

this was a massive mega demo experience.

Well executed guys, thanks for the entertainment, very enjoyable for us oldtimers.

Obviously a huge amount of work went into this, to do it almost entirely in a single flyby was cool, but the subject matter of old arcade games is not something I share the nostalgia for.

Being of a certain age, this hit me right in the feels. No demo has ever done that. I can understand why some people really dislike it. Nostalgia isn't for everyone.

what aricz said!

joyful ride though a lot of content with pleasant and smooth scene transitions

Beautiful music and visuals! I don't mind that it is long, the first half of the demo felt more impressive effect-wise while the following scenes were also beautifully crafted, with lots of nice little touches here and there. Well done!

this is somehow emotional to me, good job guys

The music alone carries it quite far, but overall I think this overstays its welcome by approximately two thirds. The concept doesn't speak to me at all in this form and I don't understand what the Revision logo, arcade games and old demos have in common. It feels like the demo is pandering to me, desperately screaming "please like me because there are references to things that you probably used to like when you were a kid". A lot of work went into it, obviously, but to me this has no soul at all. I'd thumb it down if it wasn't for the music.

I mean I get the whole nostalgia thing, but this one didn't struck a nerve during the compo. It was well produced and decent polished but I figured it was easily forgettable because it draws all it's redeeming quality from old arcade games.

It was like a South Park memberberrie and this whole 'dwell in the past'-thing is just not for me. I'm still utterly suprised that it won. There is nothing wrong with it, but I guess that is exactly the reason why I didn't vote for it. Music helped, but if you remove the dancing computers and the old arcade games, what is it that remains?

Not going to thumb it down because there were some nice reflections. In textures as well as in the theme but I can't thumb this up either.

yeah, too much a collection of clichés

what preacher said, but thumb for the massive track :)

I don't understand why people complain about the nostalgia thing. Even if you don't like the theme, there is so many details in this prod that you can't be bored.

Technically speaking it's hard to say what is raymarched, what is not, how do you fit all these arcade machines and how do you handle these kind of transitions between each scene smoothly. It's brilliant!

In the music department, Alkama did it again and it's fit perfectly with the whole demo.

It reminds me "Wreck it Ralph" sometime :)..

In one world : Rulez!

While it's visually pleasing, from a technical point of view I don't see anything ground breaking here. No in-your-face effect which you'd typically expect from a top tier demo. I'd even argue that it looks dated, rough around the edges, and that overall your first demo looked better.

Similar criticism goes toward the direction. There are some lengthy parts and a lack of dynamism, which is especially noticeable in the way the music tries to carry on from one part to another. I'm sure you are already aware of that and spent time trying to make the best out of it.

But this demo still wins because it feels genuine. And here I disagree with the comments referring to it as "pandering". An retro synthwave and neon visuals with no purpose qualifies as pandering. But this has a very clear purpose, develops a clear idea, and shows quite some research went into it. Obviously a lot of work went into it.

It's a flawed labour of love, and I loved it.

This demo is so loaded with nostalgia that it feels like a cheap trick that serves little purpose besides taking advantage of voters at a time where we're all emotionally worn out due to the pandemic ("revision is cancelled, by the way... remember the good old times?"). And this seems to have worked.

I'm not trying to say that the demo is terrible or anything. There's enough neat stuff in here to warrant a at least a piggie. But as said before, the demo very quickly overstays it's welcome, which is why I'm holding my thumb back.

I think it's us, the audience that's at fault here, not the people making this demo. All is fair in love and demomaking, after all. But sadly, I think the end-result is that much more deserving demos has kinda been robbed of a higher ranking.

I enjoyed it a lot. Completely unexpected nod to the era of arcade games many of us loved. The visuals and music were flawless.

What's not to love in it? Ready Player One lesson learnt. Well balanced between impressive visuals, not too serious content and Alkama doing his thing again. More please!

My favorite demo. Very good concept.

Curved displays in the 80s, LMAO :P
I remember from my childhood, these coin robbers had an almost flat CRT screen behind a flat protecting glass, which took the losing punches.

I saw Killer Instinct on Nintendo 64 featuring a 3D background with textures at 50 FPS, which was impossible on my 80386 40Mhz.
For me the real nostalgy time will come when RTX 3070 will be in the oldschool compo, and deep AI videos in the demos.

A bit lengthy at times, but a great soundtrack and the sheer amount of arcades sell it quite well :)

I enjoyed this a lot but also never expected it to win...

Always a pleasure from Spectrals. It wasn't the wow factor like VFS was but it sure gave me a good feeling watching it live. The build and tempo leading up to the movie theater was excellent. Respect and cannot wait until the next release from Spectrals. One of my favorite new groups. About time the scene had a different flavor. Thank you guys. Respect!

Ready Scener One for better or worse. Great production values.

Nah. Didn't get me excited on any level (other than VX2). Sorry.

Fukkings to all "seen too much arcade" people. You never say THIS! Absolutely amazing demo - super cool camera angles and attention to details. This took so much time - it was so extremely well exeuted. I loved every single second of it!

The soundtrack gets a special mention. Alkama - you absolutely smashed this one! So many different genres and I loved every part equally much. Perhaps the one with the chopped vocal lead a tad more - but AMAZING job mate! :)

I can see how this may come across as pandering to nostalgia but with all the attention to detail I truly believe it's more of a huge and insanely long love letter to the arcade era, executed by people who are old enough to believably reminisce about it rather than just riding a trend. And as others already pointed out, the execution is spectacular from the ridiculous amounts of content down to the loving little details.

The soundtrack is easily one of the most massive and diverse pieces of art I've heard in a few years, several demos' worth of tracks all gelled into one opus magnum. And likewise, the scenes all blend together in one single camera path - I had to watch the video in slow-mo just to catch some of the transitions ("wait, when did the mainhall tables become arcades?!?").

I will remember this demo for years to come, thank you for making it.

very cool

Great demo. Seeing so many Arcade-cabinets gives me a good feeling, same like in real life, when i enter an Arcade-hall. This feeling i have since i was a child and it will probably never change. :)

naaah

sorry, i don't like it. the music is nice so is the opening scene but then it gets very meh, from presentation to content. even though it has a lot of content i don't understand the praise. but maybe it is just not my cup of tea.

re-re-re-re-re-recycling :D what everyone said, with weeeeak thumb for really nice music

my goodness, so much work put in and somehow no atmosphere comes across. i don't understand the connection between arcade games and demoscene. the single scenes somehow don't have any soul either. and also musically i have to say that the orchestra part sounds pretty lame, the "daft punk"-like middle part on the other hand is quite acceptable. piggy for all the effort.

nostalgic

The thing is, aside from the delightful soundtrack, most of what feels good about this demo doesn't originate with the demo itself. It invokes a certain past experience—in this case arcade games and the arcade experience in general—that you as a viewer fondly remember and feel good about, and it does so in the hopes that the strong positive feeling will be projected onto the demo doing the references to it. The fact that the whole demo makes arcade games its subject doesn't contradict the fact that it's a demo and not an arcade game, and the merits of the two are separate.

Also not saying this isn't a valid effective method to engage with the audience, but unless it's done very well it's just as easy to disengage, and that is what you're seeing in the comments.

Good stuff, continues on from last year. I wonder how you can have these unlimited length shots as if the whole demo is one single gigantic scene? I remember making a game in dx8 back in the days and moving out too far caused the camera movement to get wobbly because of float precision. I guess you can just use doubles or whatever, but would be interesting to know how to manage a large scene like this.

Im ok with the concept and the fly-by direction although i cant loose the feel it would have had a way heavier impact if it was maybe half of its length/content and didnt feature as many 2000ish looking models and scenes.
sometimes less is more.
also, wtf is it about with those funny curved screens? im pretty sure thats not oldschool ;)

thumb for the effort and the (really good) soundtrack, still a bit surprised it won the compo though.

meh

nice

An overall nice demo. It shows you put in a lot of sweat and love. Congrats

Nice design although repetitive. The first part when you are in the arcade machine contains to much things at once for my taste, giving it a cluttered impression. Part 2 is nicer and a flirt with oldskool things. Can't stand the synthwave soundtrack, sorry.

Kind of liked the music, but visuals and camera work just didn't do it for me.

Your analysis about the content origin and its strength is interesting, but I interpret the intention differently. To me this demo doesn't feel like it is trying to please the audience, as much as it feels like the authors making something that makes them happy. That's why it feels genuine to me.

A nice show :) Transitions between scenes are very smooth, almost imperceptible. I really liked the Mario Kart style camera tracks and music (it was intended, right?) once we reach the E-Werk. Only then I realized what the nostalgia factor here is about since the arcade games themselves do nothing for me.

Neat. :)

And I miss the rad 80s. :(

good !

so boring flyby... but... pig for efforts

Absolutely not boring, quite entertaining actually, you got me till the end !!!
You probably spent lots of time to compile all those Arcade/Demo screens!!!
Bisous Alkamouche & Made

Nice one!

Love it

The theme sparkles sceners imagination and recogniztion for sure!
Next year you could be the group winning revision pc demo Compo three time in a row! Hattrick time!!
Such a nice demo

that rare case when 120 Mb demo size is acceptable

Once again Spectrals demonstrates it has mastered the sense of rhythm, and how to tell a story. I watched it like I watch a movie except that I’m the hero in this one. I’m the one grabbing the coin and putting it in the arcade. Wonderful execution, amazing design, beautiful transitions, the attention to details is top notch …. everything is an enjoyment in this prod. A tribute to arcades and also to retro computers (Atari, Amiga, old PC). Was so fun to recognize the green desktop (GEM) as well as Dim’s/OVR Big Screen from the European Demos. Excellent.

Brought a tear to my eye. ;)

Started well and then ended up cheesy. Also, it totally missed catching up the typical flickering CRT look & feel.

Skillful and boring.

I like the beginning but then it drags on for far too long.

Effects are so-so, but lots of work in this one and ends on a funky, positive note. Like it!

clearly a lot of effort went into this, but it somehow feels a bit sterile and lifeless and random at times - these halls with no people, what's up with the water in the arcade hall? why is the floor of revision shining like a mirror?
and it's soooo loooong. piggy.

Well, nice and really not so bad.

Never the less, for an arcade FAN, you did make some faux pas, dudes. Perhaps not too important for the rest, since the majority of the ppl out there would never, ever spot it.

But anyway, it would not be too difficult to make it proper and 100% accurate, considering how much effort you have already put into this demo...

So to name a few of them:
1. Sky Wolf on the screen, Airwolf marquee. Not mentionning that SkyWolf is a... bootleg [5:39"],
2. Dragon Ninja (JAP) on the screen, Bad Dudes (US) marquee [5:49"],
3. Forgotten Worlds had a spinner, not a joystick (well, otherwise it was impossible to play),
4. Gauntlet II was released as 4 player game. 2 player game was a cheaper, less popular version,

And a strange one:
5. Flying Shark(EU) on the screen, Sky Shark (US) Marquee based on the PC box cover (WTF?) [5:30"],
6. Good After Burner joy approach, thou ;).

But hey! Is that true? There is no Capcom's Sanjou no Ookami (Ok, it is Commando outside Japan)? Such a classic and missing... =/

And also kinda pity to put that Made-self promotion gfx on the PC screens.
A little bit of humility would not hurt at all.

To sum it up.
Thank you for the effort. Enjoyable demo, but not "pixel perfect". And that self-promo screens... not needed.

OK, so nostalgia isn't for everyone, but this demo nailed me right in the feels. So there are a few inaccuracies as pointed out above.. But given the amount of work that obviously went into this, I will forgive. I'll also forgive my favorite game of the time being left out, Robotron:2084.
I've been in the hobby as a collector for 22 years. After a couple of decades in IT, I now work for the local barcade as a manager and I take care of all of our game operations, among most other things technical. I'm a bit late to the party here, having just downloaded and watched this demo today, but I loved every moment of it. I slightly cringed at the thought of cabinets sitting in shallow water or on wet ground - Some of us know how bad that is.
But in my eyes, demoscene isn't only about bleeding edge technique. It is also about artistic expression and touching emotions. This demo did exactly that for me. Butter smooth transitions, amazing music, colorful visuals and for me, a great big smile.

Flyby of a bunch of old arcade games and demos with soothing music by alkama
Just saw this now for the first time on the Mountainbytes 2023 stream on Twitch