### Triple Threat: by Noice, Agenda and Mystic Bytes This was the second placed entry for the Atari 8-bit competition at SV 2013. It is easy to see why. The 'triple threat' in question is posed by the combination of talents from the three groups named above. It looks good. It sounds great too, as we open with one of the most POKEY-unlike tunes to greet the audio circuitry of an Atari XE/XL series. Somehow, the musician, BeWu, manages to carry off a sound that might be more obviously located in a recent French Atari ST demo, with hints of Scavenger of Synergy. The music is really that good. After a series of opening credits, the first full effect is a delightful 3D spinning textured block, with the demo title. Not at all out of place in an ST demo, even with light shading. I am officially delighted! A chunky and colourful rotator, with a bit of wibbly wobbly flowing around the edges ensues next. Fast, fluid and chunky, but not too much so, Another winning screen that could find a home on its sixteen bit bigger brother. A bold blue leap into a high resolution effect next, with a quasi-tunnel, mathematical generated series of ripples, whirlpools and shades combine perfectly together to make another high end screen squeezed into an 8-bit computer. Quasi-tunnels are all too real! The only mildly 8-bit note comes next, with a spinning square flat plane and alternating pictures. You can't get away from the still graphics being made for the older platform. But of course, it is high quality material, so fits in nicely with the rest of the demo. The last major effect, with a brown studied female on the left, and a complex 3-D spinning column of dots with many many dots to make it. And nice and smooth, and subtle interplay of light and shade too. There is an end part, a simple and pleasing wave effect with a long scrolly text, extremely reminiscent of a lot of French Atari ST end parts. At just shy of three minutes, it's all over. What more can we say? Well it's a well deserved second place. Second, because it was just a tad too short to hit first place greatness. A couple more screens of comparable quality to the sublime standards set here, could have put it in serious contention for first place. But I guess we ran out of the most precious resource and greatest enemy of the demo maker, time. Still, I hope for a similar meeting of minds and talents for another triple threat, maybe this year? Ratings: Graphics:- 80% - A mixture of top notch material for the effects and somewhat more standard fare for the non-moving parts. Sound:- 92% - Really managed to not sound like a typical POKEY tune and cunningly disguised itself as a quality ST chip tune. Gee-Whiz:- 85% -Good, effects tending to be high resolution, or of an equivalent quality to something similar on the ST. No feeling of platform handicap at all. But we all know the XL/XE is brilliant anyway! Overall:- 87% - A very good demo, just a tiny bit short of being great. CiH - 2014 Back to the Index.