Tension by Digital Dynamite [web] & Aenima [web]
Tension by Digital Dynamite x Aenima A 64k intro released at Revision 2025 A faithful recreation of Tension by Aenima in 64 kbytes, running in real - time. Original release: https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=6958 Side-by-side comparison: https://youtu.be/DBqs-7Rt2m8 [ 64k Credits (Rescue Rangers) ] BoyC - Code, Graphics Virgill - Music kb - Music -pOWL! - Instruments gopher - 64klang synth [ Aenima Credits ] Danee - Original Visuals Troops of Doom - Original Tension track [ Notes ] Sorry about the separate 1080p version, the setup box just wouldn't fit this time. [ Graphics ] Created with Archon. Cloud shader used with permission from iq. Tension by Aenima is a milestone wild demo released at Flag 2002. It inspired many of us with its brutal soundtrack and awesome visuals. In fact the Aenima logo in Tension (missing from this release due to size constraints) is what inspired the very first scene in the very first Conspiracy release, Project Genesis. This intro was only made possible with the help of the creator of the original wild: Danee of Aenima enthusiastically dug up and handed over all the perfectly archived Max files for almost all of the original release. A couple textures were missing here and there, and one of the models (the original water base) was lost, only present as billboards. Recreating Tension in real-time, let alone in 64k has been an aspiration of mine for almost a decade. To be able to have a crack at it with the blessing and enthusiasm of the original creators is nothing short of awesome. It is however a task fundamentally different from the way I normally create demos. I'm used to working in a group with very talented people and we almost never have an exact goal in mind. We use the techniques we have available to create the coolest thing we can. This project is a benchmark for Archon. Being able to recreate Tension in the tool means Archon has matured enough to do some really novel stuff. I took on this task on my own because this way I was forced to use the tool I've written, meet its bugs head on, expand on it where needed (mostly the goal was to expand the modeling tools), and to have a very specific goal for all of it to avoid copouts. In the end the modeler was expanded with 6 new nodes and a bunch of other updates, and the engine itself got a similar treatment to what we did for Clean Slate (just without an ever looming deadline). The engine code in this intro ended up just at the 16k dream benchmark that always seemed to be just out of reach before. [ Music ] I'd like to express my gratitude to the people who helped me with the music without whom this release would not have been possible: * Troops of Doom (Attila Molnár), who dug up individual wav renders of the original track for us. Sadly the source file was lost due to some interesting patterns in copy protection, but the individual tracks were invaluable for getting the original samples. * Gopher, for jumping in with both feet and getting Virgill on board. * -pOWL!, for the instrument setup. * Virgill, for the core of the music. * kb, for going into the nitty gritty details of the track. And the people who helped me along the journey with the music and other stuff: * Teo, for giving it the very first shot. * H0ffman, for the tech support for Teo * Vincenzo, for his enthusiasm and the cut samples even though he had to drop out * Gargaj, for considering the music <3 * Zoom, for giving me his notes when I thought "it is good enough". (It wasn't.) * TrX, for coming along with me on this journey as moral support and someone I could discuss this whole thing with. * ferris, for Squishy that gave me the last missing 881 bytes. BoyC, signing off on 2025 April 3. Yeah there's like 2.5 weeks to the party. WTF. [PS] So... Gopher found another 600ish bytes in the synth. Took a whole weekend to fill it. In the end I had to hunt for stuff that could benefit from some additional detail. I ended up rebuilding the aliens to not go randomly but be guided to have similar paths as in the original and on top of that I could also squeeze in the recreation of the second most complex texture in the wild. At this point if I had another 700 bytes the setup box would be going back in as right now I don't know anything I'd add that would fit in 64k at all. 16 bytes left. BoyC, signing off again, 2025 April 13. Still WTF.
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