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Website :
https://thelab.elysium.pl
Released At :
X'2026
Achievements :
C64 Demo Competition at X'2026 : #1
Credits :
| Code | .... | Brush of Elysium |
| | | Digger of Elysium |
| | | Jetboy of Elysium |
| | | MMS of Taboo |
| | | YTM of Elysium |
| Music | .... | Randall |
| | | Shogoon of Elysium, MultiStyle Labs |
| | | The Syndrom of Crest, Pretzel Logic, The Imperium Arts |
| Graphics | .... | Digger of Elysium |
| | | Mikael of Pretzel Logic |
| | | ND of Pretzel Logic |
| | | The Sarge of Bonzai, Fairlight |
| | | Valsary of Booze Design, Elysium |
| Disk Cover | .... | Mikael of Pretzel Logic |
| | | Zephyr of Elysium |
| Charset | .... | Digger of Elysium |
| | | Mikael of Pretzel Logic |
| Linking | .... | Brush of Elysium |
| Loader | .... | Bitbreaker of Performers |
| Paper Art | .... | Zephyr of Elysium |
| Test | .... | Jetboy of Elysium |
| | | Mikael of Pretzel Logic |
| Help | .... | Bitbreaker of Performers |
| | | Hain of Elysium, Fantastic 4 Cracking Group, Peters Studio Commodore, Talent |
| | | Hermit of Samar Productions, SIDRIP Alliance, Singular |
| | | Slajerek of Samar Productions |
| | | Zephyr of Elysium |
| Directory Art | .... | t0m3000 of BOOM!, ibex-crew, Skylight Designs, Slackers |
SIDs used in this release :
Download :
Look for downloads on external sites:
Pokefinder.org
User Comment
Submitted by Brush on 30 July 2026
| @Bass Cadet: Thank you for your comment. It took ma moment to find "Abre los Ojos" - for obvious (now) reasons it was not on csdb. Two things are clear: 1. we were not inspired by it beacuse we haven's seen it before 2. you've made a bloody good looking PET demo :) |
User Comment
Submitted by G-Fellow on 23 July 2026
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Submitted by Bass Cadet on 22 July 2026
This is brilliant on so many levels. The speech synthesis, probably simulating formants by using two sounds synced together through a band pass filter. Amazing idea!
The concept overall was cool and how you played along with it through the event. The eyeball scene is also quite haunting. Watching it the second time at home I noticed the tentacles on the background looked a little like the ones in Abre los Ojos which I achieved accidentally by scrolling the scene both horizontally and vertically. Not sure if it's a shoutout or not, but the colours match as well.
Top notch and a well deserved victory! |
User Comment
Submitted by anonym on 13 July 2026
| Wow, just wow. So many details, so fine-tuned. Thank you. |
User Comment
Submitted by DKT on 3 July 2026
| I'm writing regarding the problems with the full-frame vector part, which I mentioned in the previous post. It turns out there's something wrong with my C64C. After some time of use, it sometimes freezes. When I run the demo on a freshly turned-on computer, the effect works perfectly, but when I run it on a warmed-up computer, problems arise. This worries me a bit, but the most important thing is that the demo is fine. So, I apologize for the confusion. Great job, gentlemen. The vectors are stunning. Kudos. |
User Comment
Submitted by Brush on 2 July 2026
@VWL: You are right about 2 charsets and them being updated. They are only used to enable double buffering. In practice we're having 2 animations played (odd frames is one, even frames is the other) in parallel. But that's not all.
In "normal" quantization (CSAM) you have a fixed dictionary (charset) per whole animation. You can go around this limitation by horizontally slicing the screen and use charset-per-slice approach that Arise took to it's fullest. This is helping but just a little (actually less than i myself expected) to reduce the mean squared error.
So i decided to try and push it one level up and the engine in The Lab works differently. I called it variable bitrate quantization (for the lack of a better name).
The whole animation is quantized to much larger dictionary i.e. 500-1500 blocks.
and since c64 charset is only 256 -> it needs to be updated each frame. So if there is lots of "new" elements on the frame, it needs to update more chars but when there is just a little bit of changes then it updates less. This is where the "variable bitrate" is comming from. Using this, a bit of finetuning and a lot of experiments and optimization and this is the result. |
User Comment
Submitted by WVL on 2 July 2026
| The animation routine for the eyeball is quite interesting. At first (for the small eye), it's just using 1 fixed charset. For the big one, it's using 2 charsets (one for odd frames and one for even frames) that get continously updated. Really nice! |
User Comment
Submitted by Comos on 21 June 2026
| The eye animation is ace, so smooth! |
User Comment
Submitted by Brush on 20 June 2026
@DKT: Thank you for your review. Would you care to help me debug the issues? The vector part is timers based and i’ve tested it on both old and new CIA viariants including a “frankenstein” - Mikael has one old and one new CIA in his computer. It should work in all cases.
Actually if it would be a timer issue the part should simply crash.
Happy to discuss directly (mail or messenger). |
User Comment
Submitted by DKT on 19 June 2026
This demo is something new. Primarily because Elysium "got off their asses" and made a real demo ;) and the rest followed its own path: new quality, new ideas, a new design, brilliant music.
The intro is great, the transitions are great, and the multi-color tech-tech was presented in the best possible way. The vector with the z-order on the crosshair grid worked great, but it didn't look the best. The graphics are beautiful, kudos to Mikael&Sarge ;)
Next, those linear vectors across the entire screen look decent. There's a lot of open border action in the second part. Unfortunately, it didn't work well on my C64C. The frames weren't open, which resulted in glitches in the sprites. Everything looked like Vectrex mode ;) Then it continued fine, and suddenly the music stopped, and we have some cool vectors. But we all know it's magic from the hands of MMS from Taboo, who, fortunately for us, returned to coding on the C64. Then there's the dual-layer FPP, which I have to investigate. I can feel the effort put into creating this demo, considering the Pixcen Deluxe release, which was the basis for some of the effects. But it only shows the professionalism of the entire production. The final tunnel effect is just: the icing on the cake. And that scroll at the end is a masterpiece; only the C64 can do that.
Well deserved winner of X'26.
All I have to do is defeat you ;) |
User Comment
Submitted by Trap on 19 June 2026
| Quite possibly one of the best demos ever made! Thank you guys. Loved every second of it. I particularly love the intro sequence. |
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Submitted by Genius on 19 June 2026
| Nice! Secret lab 1 is also unlocked. |
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Submitted by 6R6 on 16 June 2026
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Submitted by Yogibear on 14 June 2026
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Submitted by Gordian on 14 June 2026
| "Micro world" tune is outstanding. |
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Submitted by wacek on 13 June 2026
| We have witnessed the secret lab in building #4. It warms our hearts that there is still significant acaDEMic progess based on our ancient scientifical Ek2pIoRAtions! ;) |
User Comment
Submitted by Brush on 13 June 2026
@The Sarge: it’s just me posting here instead of in hidden parts. Then realizing i can’t delete it and the only option is to edit the post and save it as empty :)
The legendary UX of csdb :) |
User Comment
Submitted by The Sarge on 13 June 2026
| Latest comment by Brush redacted? The mystery... |
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Submitted by Genius on 13 June 2026
| You crazy mad scientists! I'm still feeling the effects of the experiments you performed on us last weekend. And not 1 but 2 hidden labs to discover... |
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Submitted by Brush on 13 June 2026
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Submitted by psych on 13 June 2026
| This should be banned! Illegal amount of wonders in this production! Fantastic in all aspects! |
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Submitted by tubesockor on 11 June 2026
| This demo is mindblowing in so many ways, but the music is just Out Of This World. Very well deserved winner and huge congrats to the team! It was also great to talk to you both Digger & Shogoon and demoing some SID hardware remixing :) Hope to see you soon again! |
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Submitted by NecroPolo on 11 June 2026
| A monster of a demo with a monster of a soundtrack. I loved this one. C'grats for winning the 2026 C64 World Cup! |
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Submitted by Elder0010 on 11 June 2026
| I watched this demo again on real hardware, and I enjoyed it far more in the peace and quiet of my cave than at the party. The coding is ACE, and that "big eye" part coupled with the tune is simply iconic. Also, +1 for the Vectrex mode! |
User Comment
Submitted by SMC on 11 June 2026
| Everything has been said already. This is some Amiga level stuff except the music - it's better, way better. Thanks guys for the hard work you put into this (I was informed), and for sharing this with the rest of the scene. |
User Comment
Submitted by Brittle on 11 June 2026
| this was fucking art. glad to see something more imaginative and stylish than a nostalgia bait win the compo; honestly a well deserved winner overall. |
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Submitted by Edhellon on 11 June 2026
What can I say... my absolutely #1 at the party and that's no small feat with a compo of this quality!!! Mindblowing...
There is a dark horse at most X democompos and this year it was Elysium! Congratulations, well deserved win! |
User Comment
Submitted by Youth on 11 June 2026
| This gets better on every rewatch. Such a coherent stylish piece of art. And the soundtrack... probably my favorite demo soundtrack ever. |
User Comment
Submitted by WVL on 11 June 2026
My jaw dropped when The Lab started. I loved the basic fader when you change the rom font and make the dir move. Couldn't watch it for a few days because I needed a clear mind to really appreciate it.
My favorite effects:
- I have no idea how the 88 pixels tech tech works.
- I just love that CRT effect, it looks really really good
- all fadeins and outs are just perfected
- my children will love sixseven :-D (Are the voices samples or did Shogoon make the sid vocalize them? I'm thinking the first..)
- that Wolfenstein is really extreme :-D
- really love the recurring checkers.
Finally, the music is amazing. You really were the guys to beat this year! |
User Comment
Submitted by Pajda on 11 June 2026
| @Brush: Yes, but I'm thinking more of something like what Wacek did about E2IRA in Vandalism News #73. |
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Submitted by Brush on 11 June 2026
| @Pajda: have you checked the note on extras disk? |
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Submitted by Pajda on 11 June 2026
| @Brush and company: maybe a short description of the individual effects: watching in Retro Debugger is a fascinating, but it would be nice to hear the voice of the creators and the challenges they faced ;) |
User Comment
Submitted by jmin on 10 June 2026
This was fantastic to watch on the big screen and hearing all the reactions to it that started right away with the basic fader scrolling parts of the DirArt :-)
Just rewatched it at home and still loved every second of it, especially the warped CRT text inbetween.
Also, had a blast meeting you guys in person and thx for walking me through how some of the parts were done and all <3 |
User Comment
Submitted by Brush on 10 June 2026
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Submitted by Brush on 10 June 2026
@Bob: Thank you so much for such a nice comment. I hope i won't disappoint you but.... there is no color cycling involved in neither turn disk floppies nor the truecolor vectors. Both of them are actually drawn (although using different techniques).
The color cycling support in Pixcen Deluxe was just of You :) and other users - we actually never did color cycling in real life.
And yeah you did not create any pressure on us with this comment. Not at all :) |
User Comment
Submitted by Bob on 10 June 2026
Fucking ingenious Demo!
I had to pick up my jaw from the floow (no teeth left).
I had to re watch it and kept finding more and more things in this demo!
I don't even know where to begin!
1. your lab coats at the party +1
2. the secret letters at the party +1
3. music and the atmosphere around the lab, (the X files of the scene the unknown). +1
4. so much ALL border stuff +1 wtf even vectors!
5. the hidden color cycler that did the rotating floppies (flip disk part) +1
6. some of the blobby moving transitions.. WOW.. +1
X. not to mention all the great parts +10 excelent stuff really, it proves you guys bled for this demo!!!
Y. story telling and the way the text screens had the key points +1
Z... guys, well deserved winner!! I bowe in absolute AWE! loved this demo. +10
XXX: Now the vectors with so many colors. (color handling during draw?) or cycling with anim.. I need a lab to research this. AMAZING JOB THE TEAM! and I am happy that I actually got some time with you guys the grill bar the walk through of the new pixcen with the color cycling support!!!
Sumarize: FTW/10 = syntax error.. clamping to last known valid value ... 10/10..
YOU GUYS CAME PREPARED!!! NOW you R the Guys To BEAT ;P
PS: at the party I did have a hard time to understand if things where in the side border or not if using black background.
(But you actually wrote that!) so thats good. |
User Comment
Submitted by JackAsser on 10 June 2026
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Submitted by Strepto on 9 June 2026
I just found this. Should I say you nailed it?
"Sleep-cycle research confirms Le█████gy is mostly dormant, except when suddenly waking up to disprove physics."
Thanks! :) |
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Submitted by Steffan on 9 June 2026
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Submitted by Strepto on 9 June 2026
| Absolutely stunning, my new fav from now on. Congrats! |
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Submitted by Mibri on 9 June 2026
| Congratulations on the well-deserved win! The degree of imagination and musicality that Shogoon brings to the SID is astonishing. I am not worthy!! |
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Submitted by Vincenzo on 9 June 2026
| There's nothing else I could say that wasn't already said. All is left to just simply say: THANK YOU for this demo. |
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Submitted by Burglar on 9 June 2026
this was insanely entertaining :) the flow, soundtrack, storyline, code, gfx, art direction, polishing, literally everything was 11/10 :)
and then the buildup and climax at the end (basically side 3 from start till end), omg, that nailed it for me. |
User Comment
Submitted by DeeKay on 8 June 2026
ZOMG this was so good, I'm loving every minute of it! An almost slavish dedication to the demo concept, flawless presentation (the screen faders! The paper shredder greetings! the frame gfx in all the FX! The text screens! Or just small stuff like animating the checkerboard PETSCII char during the basic fader!) and some massive Shogoon pleasure for the ears.
Also great to see you brought MMS back!
P.S.: Thanks for the Crest shoutout (RHCP I assume? 8) |
User Comment
Submitted by lbp on 8 June 2026
| well deserved! this was great watching it live. all border vectors stuff was impressive. starting from side 3 the parallax colored face graphics i thought looked great on the big screen. the 3D maze at the end zooming out helicopter view was a brilliant move, crowd loved it. well done |
User Comment
Submitted by Stinsen on 8 June 2026
| Amazing! +What Linus said... |
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Submitted by LDX#40 on 8 June 2026
| #1 well deserved! Had so much fun with that on the big screen! |
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Submitted by Photon on 8 June 2026
| Nice show! All borders + effect remains elusive, ofc. ;) Interesting with the top 2 "multiscrappers". Loved the "counting" :) Didn't like the "filled vectors". |
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Submitted by Toecutter on 8 June 2026
| The borderstuff is impossible. I guess that's why we love it so much. |
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Submitted by Dr.Science on 8 June 2026
| Absolutely deserved winner! All that full border action is just awesome! Really creative demo with the Lab idea which makes the demo run flawless. Graphics and Soundtrack is fantastic, too. Thanks for this gem, and again congrats for the win! |
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Submitted by Jammer on 8 June 2026
| What a sick and massive scientific experiment! Also, I love you all, dear maestros of SID chip, but Shogoon simply showed us all how it's supposed to be done <3 |
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Submitted by Valsary on 8 June 2026
| Notice that the secret department is still working in The Lab. The magic formula is waiting to be discovered 😉 |
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Submitted by Stone on 8 June 2026
| Amazing! Perfect! I love *all* the music too, which is pretty rare for me. |
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Submitted by Clarence on 8 June 2026
| Really a heavy hitter in many kinds of vector magic. Fantastic border vectors by Brush, and great surprise to see MMS on board, who did not forget how to code 3d. Excellent graphics, design and that soundtrack... Amazing sound design, and great musicality. Wonderful job from the whole team. |
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Submitted by Mixer on 8 June 2026
| Amazing sid sounds and it had surprises, so smiling all the way when watching. |
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Submitted by KAL_123 on 8 June 2026
| Really nice demo! Hard for me, to decide between this one and the Performers demo, so I am lucky, that I didn't need to. :-) Both are superb and I like some others too. |
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Submitted by Krill on 8 June 2026
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Submitted by Brush on 7 June 2026
| @Ian Coog: intro tune is by Shogoon. |
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Submitted by iAN CooG on 7 June 2026
Tune 1 is not in the provided sid pack.
I assume it's the one to credit to The Syndrom and Randall. If not, please provide infos. |
User Comment
Submitted by Firehawk on 7 June 2026
@Brush - the demo was great regardless.. And we all cheat always - with everything. Otherwise our demos would look like pre-1001Crew :-P
Keep up the good work, looking forward to your next production(s). |
User Comment
Submitted by Magnar on 7 June 2026
| What the heck! This is amazing in all aspects! The code, the graphic AND the music totally rules! I mean, shit - this is next level on all fronts! I might just retire and watch this in replay rest of my life! The parallax nufli hires upscroller just got me floored. And so much opening sideborder with vector-lines and stuff. I don't even dare think about how much time spent on getting those parts work flawless. And the music! Fresh and modern with great leads, amazing "talk-synthesis" and instrument soundscape making me droodle. Superb graphic too! Congratz to first prize! |
User Comment
Submitted by Brush on 7 June 2026
@Firehawk: Thank you for your comment. Your demo and that particual FX is known and appreciated here :) The thing is that you're using a bit differrent technique more akin to what Oxyron (and yesterday Performers) did in their parallax scrolling - you just did it with a twist.
Mine is an Old Testament VIC-bashing-crossbow-beating tech-tech that moves each frame and presents the full sinus glory to the viewer.
In the good demo coding spirit: we both cheat. just differently :) |
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Submitted by chatGPZ on 7 June 2026
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Submitted by HCL on 7 June 2026
Wow very impressing and very carefully designed grapic-wise and sound-wise. Top notch to say the least!
..and very delighting to see Elysium return to the scene with a banger!! Congratulations and very well done!! |
User Comment
Submitted by Hornet on 7 June 2026
Grrrrrreat demo! Shogoon at his best, never ever heard such a brilliant tune! And fantastic comeback-code by Marek! MMS - your code is really Taboo!
.
Ruling ESM! |
User Comment
Submitted by astaroth on 7 June 2026
| The demo is really well done and technically brilliant. Congratulations on your well-deserved first place. |
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Submitted by Dr.Voice on 7 June 2026
| Very cool demo, congratulations! Awesome soundtrack for sure. <3 |
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Submitted by Gordian on 7 June 2026
| Really good job! Congratulations:) |
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Submitted by Linus on 7 June 2026
| *The* single best demo soundtrack I have ever heard. WTF, Shogoon? Grow up! <3 |
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Submitted by Bago Zonde on 7 June 2026
| Flow in this demo is incredible! Music and effects top class! Well deserved! Gratulacje! |
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Submitted by Isildur on 7 June 2026
| Congrats guys, very, very good demo! |
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Submitted by Dr.j on 7 June 2026
| Congratulations for (another) top notch quality release. well deserver to be #1. wish i could be with you to celebrate your achievement! greetings from Delysid |
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Submitted by Zierliches Püppchen on 7 June 2026
| Well deserved winner. Congrats. Lot of magic stuff and artwork. |
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Submitted by DaTucker on 7 June 2026
| Great demo. Besides that it is technically impressive, I really loved the art direction and consistency throughout the demo. Kudos! |
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Submitted by Conrad on 7 June 2026
| Absolutely amazing! Congratulations! |
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Submitted by Asthor on 7 June 2026
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Submitted by MaD ][ on 7 June 2026
| Just what dEViLOCk said!!! A W E S O M E !!! |
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Submitted by Katon on 7 June 2026
| Congratulations Elysium! A great demo in every way! The return of the MMS legend is a surprise and a great joy <3 |
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Submitted by bimber on 7 June 2026
| impressive in _every_ aspect. pozdro! |
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Submitted by Jok on 7 June 2026
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Submitted by Smasher on 7 June 2026
| so damn cool! by far the best demo shown at X! congratz!! |
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Submitted by Viscid on 7 June 2026
| Nice Demo and mood at the partyplace... have to see the colors on a real crt. Looked very good and real. |
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Submitted by Pajda on 7 June 2026
Amazing stuff. Cool fx, gfx, code, fresh ideas and design. The return of MMS is a big surprise. Great to see you back in form boys!
And to the participants of X 2026: Poland Now! :) |
User Comment
Submitted by Bitbreaker on 7 June 2026
| A very well deserved winner, perfectly wrapped into that science theme! I loved how that went hand in hand. Great vectors, i love vectors, and so colorful! Also digged the CRT effect and the transparent background impressions. The Soundtrack really stood out for me, aweseome! Nice to meet you at the X! |
User Comment
Submitted by Firehawk on 7 June 2026
Excellent production!!
The Koala tech-tech was very nicely executed, however if you wanna claim "worlds first" or "biggest", you had better be correct :-) [Submerged - HXS/WD]. |
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Submitted by Scrap on 7 June 2026
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Submitted by Pad on 7 June 2026
| Totally awesome production! Also very interesting talk by Brush at the party. |
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Submitted by Slator on 7 June 2026
cannot wait to see it run live on my amiga :D
Awesome work in all aspects, out of this world, very well done! |
User Comment
Submitted by dEViLOCk on 7 June 2026
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