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c4l:articles/andromedaCONTINUED FROM ARTICLE ABOVE!le

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c3BY ZEROX/GODS
as
c6THE RESULT

c2The Point Of No Return c5is a special demo in many ways. It's the last demo
ever from c2Andromeda c5as only a few members still have an Amiga, it got A LOT
of great routines, it lasts 11 minutes, it got great part-links, great design/style
and it even got a big animation which is c2brilliant. c5A apart from that the
demo is HUGE. It's 11 MB and probably only works on amigas with 060 processors, PPC card 
and at least 32 MB RAM. It's really hard to say as it's
not tested on any other machine than Mr.Hydes' (he brought it with him to
the party in Kristiansand and it got used by the organizers which by the
way did a great job). The demo works both from disk and harddisk, but it's alot of
work to run it from disk.

c1Now I'll try to describe the demo...

c5The demo starts off with an c2amazing routine c5never seen before along with some
almost c2religious notes of music c5- all in wellknown Andromeda style. The
effect can best be described as a c2morphed landscape. c5You see this detailed landscape
(in light colours) that is constantly changing while the credits are being
showed. Then the music changes a bit and a melody occurs and we're starting
to move in this weird landscape (looks the same as in an old Enya video). We
get to see a c2beautiful waterfall c5(and can hear it too)... we zoom and get
closer, cross the water and enter a cage. In this dark cage we move on
and see pictures on the walls. Those are from other famous Andromeda productions.
Suddenly we move faster and faster towards the end of this c2cage c5and start
seeing the wall which is a picture. It gets bigger and bigger and there it
is over the whole screen... a picture from Archmage with the title The Point
Of No Return. The amazing journey into Andromeda land has started!
The picture turns over and the music speeds up. We get to see all kind of
animals going in all directions... towards us, away from
us, sideways, from above, fast, slow, elefant, tiger, rabit, dolphin, dinosaur,
etc. This is a fantastic vector world... all these filled texturemapped vectors in all
shades and colours in a c23d landscape.
c5Then suddenly a flow of water take all these creatures
away and a cool c2robot machine c5enters. We follow him (we're behind him) as
he's walking and climbing a mountain. Very impressive as it fits perfect
to the music.

At the top of the mountain we get to see the first and the only big c2raytraced
animation c5in The Point Of No Return.
Usually Andromeda only have one very small animation in their production,
but not this time. From the top of the mountain we get to see in all directions,
north,south, west and east... then we suddenly experience this c2faboulous
dive c5over the edge and down an abrupt side of the mountain. It goes very fast,
we're falling and falling, at some point we hit a c2water.

c5We follow this robot while swimming among fishes under water and going up
on the surface. There he enters a c2motorboat c5and drives out of the screen.
The screen slowly turns black and a picture from Fairfax is kind of growing
out of nowhere until
we can look at it. It's really great! We see a man sitting at a bench
with nicely drawn mountains, clouds and a sun in the background. Then we're
zooming the sun and we experince this strong light.
A new world is in front of our eyes... we're in c2outer space. c5A new quiet
melody are being played. We watch a cool spaceship flying beside of planets
and other spaceships passing by. Then we're approaching this funny looking
c2planet - c5it got all kind of weird colours. We're zooming and zooming and
then the c2spaceship c5is landing. Two men are coming out of the ship, walking
and jumping at the ground. Then there's a bubble coming out
of one of the men saying:'It's a small step for Andromeda, but a big step
for the scene'. The ground is moving all the time, it's some
kind of plasma effect... many colours. The men is entering the spaceship
again and flies away. The spaceship goes towards a big black hole, and
at last enters. We enter a c2dark tunnel... c5the walls are moving slowly,
like in a blurring effect. At the end the whole tunnel is drawn towards
a point and is disappearing. It's very hard to describe. Another picture
by Archmage hits the screen. It's a picture of a evil face.

The c2eye is felling a tear...  c5as it's falling it's getting bigger and
becomes a vector cube which multiplies. The vectors are texture mapped
with pictures of the Andromeda members. The vectors are
moving in all directions while the mappings are being zoomed and rotated.
Out of the mouth on the face a sinus scroller appears...   a lot of crap
rolls out. Most of it is not understandable... much internal stuff etc.
Check it out yourself... weird.

The c2vectors explodes c5and the scrolltext ends... the face is starting to
move... it's like a twister effect. Then the whole screen is cut to
pieces.

Andromeda is written in big letters over the screen... we go inside the
letters in a fast trip with this small animation by View. The walls are
amazingly detailed. After some seconds we're out again and get to see
a c2hand from above press down the Andromeda letters.

c5A fast flash and an old newspaper appears. We see pictures of some
Andromeda members below the headline c2'The Point Of No Return'.
c5Below the pictures there's written c2'An Era Is Over - We Retire In Glory',
'The Universe Is Infinite - And So Is The Realms Of Andromeda'.
c5Then a sad module made by none other than Headx (known as the coder
behind Sequential) is being played. The c2newspaper is set on fire c5and
after a while nothing is left. The Andromeda sign appears with a
writing below c5'Andromeda 1989-2001'.

c6THE END

c5Andromeda have had moments of silence before, but not as long as this
time. And now it's finally over... c2Andromeda is dead! c5It's official.
The only reason why this great demo got released is because of Mr.Hyde's
will to code. As he said 'I want to realize my ideas concerning coding.
It is great to watch a program run after having thought about it for a
long time'. Now just let Andromeda die peacefully and remember all the
great productions they've provided during the last 12 years. I guess none
will ever come up with a better demo than this, try to copy it if you
dare. If you haven't seen The Point Of No Return already,
download it from a board near you or from internet. If you got the right
equipment, this surely is a demo worth watching and having in your
collection.



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