### Ataventure By KK of DMA Just about all the major players in the Atari computer and console family are represented at Sillyventure. It is true we've as yet to see an Atari PC1 demo, or something done on the Lynx, but we do get a healthy interest in the very earliest ancestor, the grandfatherly Atari VCS 2600. The 'DMA' in this case does not refer to our beloved French chip music ace, whose name has been chanted loudly at prize-giving ceremonies at many demo parties. The 'DMA' here refers to a fairly prolific group called 'Digital Mafia'. They are mainly active on the PeeCee, but do have productions on other platforms. There was a very nice and much praised VCS demo at Revision 2014 called 'Tim1t'. It seems that they wish to build success upon success with a fruity follow up at Sillyventure. We get a straightforward old school start, a stabbing urgent soundtrack with a scroll text and a 1988 styled wobbly logo with reflective layer at the top. This top part impressively remains in place through the whole demo, with several very different effects happening beneath. An added star field with sideways parallax motion sneaks in latterly. 'Lets get to the effects' it says, so we do. A hybrid plasma with zoom and rotate elements, which quickly turns into a frantic chessboard. The effect is blocky, but the rotating is extremely fast and smooth. A variation with a little crookedly grinning avatar graphic which animates and is subdivided. The crooked grin turns a little bit queasy when it is subjected to the fast paced rotating though. Almost before we realise things have changed and we're thrust headfirst into a very quick and very chunky tunnel. Then dots chase each other up and over a shaded colour bar. This looks more impressive than my description makes it. There is 'Life' in the VCS demo scene, or a passable simulation of the game called 'life'. The big green coloured bar, seen last time is back, with a tri-dee rotating helix made of dots, which makes new shapes appealingly and a colour changing scroll text heading upwards at the side. Something that could almost be called 'fullscreen', with a distorting wavy effect, going darker for the further back parts. Which switches effortlessly into a fast spinning solid cube, which splits off into several blocks. "Fuck a textured cube' - Which is spelt out letter by letter on a cheerful chunky block which is spinning around at a speed to make your eyes water. This is the climax, we're at the end with a return to the scroller seen at the start, which is saying cheerio, and possibly thanking the crowd for all the fish too. It is notable this was done by one person, the eponymous 'KK', including the graphics and music. The design is very old school inspired possibly a 'tribute' to that ancient seat of demo scene learning. There are effects which would be very hard to achieve on a bare VCS 2600. And lots of ROM space was used, a cavernous 32 kilobytes! This does not detract in any way. I'm not one of those dogmatists who insist on platform purity, especially not on something as 1977 inspired as this. This was the deserved winner of its category and pushed the state of effects ahead of its predecessor, Tim1t. Yet upon re-viewing the earlier demo, I had the feeling it was exceeding its boundaries more than Ataventure, which was tightly bound within its old school wrapper. But that's just me. Ratings: Graphics:- 75% - Chunky but getting the job done. Sound:- 72% - Classic VCS sound chip composition. Gee-Whiz:- 85% - Hard work put into effects, is pushing the state of the art, blocky, fluid and fast. Overall:- 82% - An impressive piece of work. CiH - 2014 Back to the Index.