Andromeda Software Development
Encyclopedia
Andromeda Software Development (or simply ASD) is a Greek
demogroup
that was formed in 1992. They produced a number of small intros and demos in the mid 1990s for the PC
, most notably CounterFactual (winner of the first Greek demo party ever, The Gardening 1995) and Beyond (Placed 4th in The Gardening 1996). ASD was quiet for the following years until 2001, when they presented Cadence & Cascade - their first accelerated demo - and won the Digital Nexus demoparty, held in Athens
, Greece.
From 2002 onwards, ASD started participating in major demoscene competitions, eventually winning the Assembly 2005 demo competition with Iconoclast.
ASD is not associated with the Norwegian demo group Andromeda, however, ASD collaborated with Archmage of Andromeda for the production of their 2007 Assembly demo competition winner [ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2007/assembly07/demo/lifeforce_by_andromeda_software_development.zip LifeForce].
The two musicians of the group (aMUSiC and Leviathan, from Dreamchild) venture into the territory of progressive metal
, akin to commercial bands such as Dream Theater
or Liquid Tension Experiment
. Their songs often feature live instruments, variating tempo and time signature
s, constantly changing musical textures and a showcase of remarkable proficiency by the two composers. This, again, was a subject of debate among demoscene circles; as with the aforementioned bands, this musical genre was often found pompous and overwrought.
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
demogroup
Demogroup
Demogroups are teams of demosceners, who make computer based audio-visual works of art known as demos. Demogroups form a subculture collectively known as the demoscene....
that was formed in 1992. They produced a number of small intros and demos in the mid 1990s for the PC
IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
, most notably CounterFactual (winner of the first Greek demo party ever, The Gardening 1995) and Beyond (Placed 4th in The Gardening 1996). ASD was quiet for the following years until 2001, when they presented Cadence & Cascade - their first accelerated demo - and won the Digital Nexus demoparty, held in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, Greece.
From 2002 onwards, ASD started participating in major demoscene competitions, eventually winning the Assembly 2005 demo competition with Iconoclast.
ASD is not associated with the Norwegian demo group Andromeda, however, ASD collaborated with Archmage of Andromeda for the production of their 2007 Assembly demo competition winner [ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2007/assembly07/demo/lifeforce_by_andromeda_software_development.zip LifeForce].
Style
In the accelerated era, ASD established themselves as a demogroup with an extremely distinctive style. Visually, their demos featured dynamic coherent flows of abstract visual elements subtly blending into each other in various unexpected ways, often to the point where the viewer wouldn't be able to distinguish the start- and endpoints of an effect. This led to many debates considering the demos, some viewers praise this type of design, while others consider this an unnecessary amalgam of otherwise unrelated visual effects.The two musicians of the group (aMUSiC and Leviathan, from Dreamchild) venture into the territory of progressive metal
Progressive metal
Progressive metal is a subgenre of heavy metal originating in the United Kingdom and North America in the late 1980s...
, akin to commercial bands such as Dream Theater
Dream Theater
Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Petrucci, John Myung, and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts. They subsequently dropped out of their studies to further concentrate on the band that would...
or Liquid Tension Experiment
Liquid Tension Experiment
Liquid Tension Experiment is an instrumental progressive rock/metal supergroup, founded by Dream Theater's former drummer Mike Portnoy in 1997. The band has released two albums through Magna Carta Records...
. Their songs often feature live instruments, variating tempo and time signature
Time signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
s, constantly changing musical textures and a showcase of remarkable proficiency by the two composers. This, again, was a subject of debate among demoscene circles; as with the aforementioned bands, this musical genre was often found pompous and overwrought.
Active members
- Navis (Kostas Pataridis) - code
- Amoivikos (Nikos Batalas) - 2D graphics
- iM (Stathis Sideris) - 2D graphics
- Ch3 (George Cherouvim) - 3D graphics
- aMUSiC (Sotiris Varotsis) - music
- Leviathan (Fotis Panetsos) - music
Former / Inactive / Guest members
- Incus - Code
- Nina - Code and PR
- Odette - Modelling
- Matilda - Vocals
- Liska - Vocals and Modelling
- Roscoe - Vocals
- Ars Nova - 2D Graphics
- Pindaros - Music
MS-DOS era
- Demo5 - (1992)
- Cosmos BBS demos series 1-7 - A series of demos released between 1993–1995
- Vertex megademo - (1993)
- Digital dreams - (1993)
- Counter Factual - Finished 1st at The Gardening 1995
- Beyond - Finished 4th at The Gardening 1996
Windows era
- Cadence and Cascade - Finished 1st at Digital Nexus 2001
- Edge of Forever - Finished 1st at ReAct 2002
- Blue Wire - Finished 2nd at ReAct 2002
- Dreamchild - Finished 4th at Assembly 2003
- EON - Finished 2nd at ReAct 2004
- Planet Risk - Finished 2nd at Assembly 2004
- PixelShow Invitation - (2005)
- Ambience for the masses - Finished 5th at The Gathering 2005
- Aphorism for the masses - Finished 13th at Breakpoint 2005
- Antidote for the masses - Finished 1st at PixelShow 2005
- Iconoclast - Finished 1st at Assembly 2005
- PixelShow 2 Invitation - (2006)
- Animal Attraction - Finished 1st at The Gathering 2006
- Captive : the game - Finished 2nd at The Gathering 2006 gamedev compo
- Captive - Finished 3rd at Breakpoint 2006
- The Evolution of Vision - Finished 1st at Sundown 2006
- Lithography - Finished 2nd at the Intel demo trailer compo 2006
- Beyond the walls of Eryx - Finished 3rd at the second Intel demo competition 2007
- [ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2007/assembly07/demo/lifeforce_by_andromeda_software_development.zip LifeForce] - Finished 1st at Assembly 2007
- Zine #13 Headlines - (2008)
- Metamorphosis - Finished 2nd at Breakpoint 2008
- Realtime Generation (made with Fairlight and Alcatraz) - Finished 3rd at Outline 2008
- [ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2008/euskal16/demo/asd-size_antimatters.zip Size Antimatters] - Finished 1st at Euskal encounter 2008
- [ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2008/nvscene08/demo/asd-midnight_run.zip Midnight Run] - Finished 3rd at NVSceneNvisionNvision, stylized as NVISION, is a stand alone event organized by NVIDIA to promote visual computing amongst enthusiasts and journalists....
2008 - Rupture - Finished 1st at The Gathering 2009
- Chameleon - Finished 1st at Evoke 2009
- The wind under my wings - Finished 1st at Euskal encounter 2010
- Happiness is around the bend - Finished 1st at Assembly 2010
- Anoxia Redux - Finished 7th at Main demo party 2010
- Electric Bullet - Finished 1st at TRSAC 2010
- The Butterfly Effect - Finished 1st at Euskal encounter 2011
- Spin - Finished 1st at Assembly 2011
Awards
- Scene.org Awards 2003 - Best Soundtrack nomination (Dreamchild)
- Scene.org Awards 2003 - Public's Choice nomination (Dreamchild)
- Scene.org Awards 2004 - Best Demo award (Planet Risk)
- Scene.org Awards 2004 - Best Soundtrack nomination (Planet Risk)
- Scene.org Awards 2004 - Best Effects nomination (Planet Risk)
- Scene.org Awards 2004 - Public's Choice award (Planet Risk)
- Scene.org Awards 2005 - Best Demo nomination (Iconoclast)
- Scene.org Awards 2005 - Best Effects nomination (Iconoclast)
- Scene.org Awards 2005 - Best Soundtrack nomination (Iconoclast)
- Scene.org Awards 2005 - Best Direction nomination (Iconoclast)
- Scene.org Awards 2005 - Public's Choice award (Iconoclast)
- Scene.org Awards 2006 - Best Soundtrack nomination (Animal Attraction)
- Scene.org Awards 2006 - Best Effects award (The Evolution of Vision)
- Scene.org Awards 2006 - Most Original Concept nomination (The Evolution of Vision)
- Scene.org Awards 2006 - Most Original Concept nomination (Captive)
- Scene.org Awards 2006 - Public's Choice nomination (Animal Attraction)
- Scene.org Awards 2007 - Best Demo award (Lifeforce)
- Scene.org Awards 2007 - Best Effects award (Lifeforce)
- Scene.org Awards 2007 - Public's Choice award (Lifeforce)
- Scene.org Awards 2007 - Best Direction nomination (Lifeforce)
- Scene.org Awards 2007 - Best Direction nomination (Beyond the walls of Eryx)
- Scene.org Awards 2007 - Most original concept nomination (Beyond the walls of Eryx)
- Scene.org Awards 2007 - Best graphics nomination (Lifeforce)
- Scene.org Awards 2007 - Best Soundtrack nomination (Lifeforce)
- Scene.org Awards 2008 - Best Soundtrack award (Midnight Run)
- Scene.org Awards 2008 - Best Direction nomination (Midnight Run)
- Scene.org Awards 2008 - Most Original Concept nomination (Metamorphosis)
- Scene.org Awards 2008 - Best Demo nomination (Metamorphosis)
- Scene.org Awards 2008 - Best Effects nomination (Size Antimatters)
- Scene.org Awards 2008 - Best Graphics nomination (Size Antimatters)
- Scene.org Awards 2008 - Best Effects nomination (Realtime Generation)
- Scene.org Awards 2009 - Public's Choice award (Rupture)
- Scene.org Awards 2009 - Best Demo award (Rupture)
- Scene.org Awards 2009 - Best Direction award (Rupture)
- Scene.org Awards 2009 - Best Direction nomination (Chameleon)
- Scene.org Awards 2009 - Best Effects nomination (Rupture)
- Scene.org Awards 2009 - Best Graphics nomination (Rupture)
- Scene.org Awards 2009 - Best Soundtrack nomination (Rupture)
- Scene.org Awards 2009 - Best Soundtrack nomination (Chameleon)
- Scene.org Awards 2010 - Best Demo nomination (Happiness is Around the Bend)
- Scene.org Awards 2010 - Best Effects nomination (Happiness is Around the Bend)
- Scene.org Awards 2010 - Best Graphics nomination (Happiness is Around the Bend)
- Scene.org Awards 2010 - Best Direction nomination (Happiness is Around the Bend)
- Scene.org Awards 2010 - Public's Choice nomination (Happiness is Around the Bend)
- FMX 2006 - Best Realtime Demo nomination (Iconoclast)
- Bitfilm Festival 2008 - Winner in realtime category (Lifeforce)
- Animatu 2009 - Winner in Demoscene competition