PUBLIC HOUSE

It came as no surprise to the assembled party that the murderer was among their number. Indeed, as the Colonel remarked to Lady Marjorle, it was inevitable given that both the doors and the windows were locked, and the house backed on to a three hundred foot ravine with several poor people at the bottom and not a decent hairdresser in sight. But now, Jonathan Nash delves into the European disk box and muses why the introductory paragraph of a page has little bearing on its contents.

I've a couple of smarties for you this month. The Mad Guys strike (yet) again with Unlimited Spirits, and then it's time to reach in to the shoebox of history and pull out an old but pretty good demo from someone using their proper name. (Actually. I've no idea how old Nanodemo is. but what the heck, eh?)

Unlimited Spirits
By Vision of The Mad Guys
Reviewer: Jonathan Nash

The latest Mad Guys tactic to dominate Public House, Unlimited Spirits (nope, I have no idea either) is basically a salute to techno music (or, to give it its proper title, Tekkno. Apparently). In the accompanying letter Vision complained about Public House reviewing old demos alongside new 'uns. Well, heck, it's all new to us! But anyway, Spirits is a brand-new, bang-up-to-date, November 1992 demo, so there.

Okay, first of all, a public safety announcement. Spirits features loads (and loads) of flashing screen effects. Blinding headaches are just about guaranteed, so watch out. And now, on with the fun. Passing by the parallax starfield, pulsing colour scrolly intro, Part One has a really nice rotary scroll logo thing (yup, more baffling technical terms) that sort of wraps around itself as if on a cylinder. Oh yes, and there's also a rather long and rather good scrolly. Plenty of interesting topics here, folks.

Part Two is the greetings section, and is the usual mix of hellos and hatings (that's the polite term, believe me). You can alter the bounce of the scrolly (to quote Jon North, whoopee-doo) but it's quite a good read, with a few gags thrown in here and there. (A big hello to Dizzy the egg? Dear oh dear.)

Part Three is Serious Flashing City. A large 'tekkno' (or 'tekno' as the second K wouldn't fit) logo whizzes up and down while the screen, erm, flashes a lot. Anyway, the scrolly's another good read, with a tale of woe concerning an amazingly bad party and a laser that shot a hole through Vision's shoe.

So. Overall, no particularly special effects but some fun, fun scrollies. That Vision's got a really good writing style you know, despite occasionally lapsing into ear-tingling phrases. However, let me assure you folks out there that I'm not just applauding Unlimited Spirits because YS gets loads of positive mentions.

No, honestly.