Majic 12 (PC)

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PC platform

Majic 12 originated on the Commodore Amiga but for me, this story starts on the PC and the year is 1994. I was at Peter’s place one night and he had just received a bunch of new demos and among them: “Show” by Majic 12.

This is one of those demos where the music is second and the demo itself is the reason for this article.

Show
Show, released April 8th, 1994

Majic 12 is “only” considered an average group regarding quality and productivity, even thought whey won several 1st places in various demo competitions – but for me, they will always be a hidden gem in the lot – and this demo in particular is the reason.

Group

As a group, Majic 12 grew to a vast number of members, represented in countries all over the globe, but back when when this demo was released – in my opinion – by the “original” Majic 12 group, with base in Hungary (code and graphics) and Denmark (music).

Wish
Wish, released April 18th, 1993

I was actually surprised to find out, that many of their tracks was written by two members from Denmark (Chorus & Sid).

At the time I saw this demo (Show), Peter had an i486 DX2, with a standard Sound Blaster or a Sound Galaxy sound card and a somewhat okay GFX card, so the demo performed great.

Poor
Poor, released March 13th, 1994

As you go through the demo and read along, you’ll discover that the demo was created on a computer whit an i386 processor and a Tseng4000 GFX card.

I remember me and Peter talking about how we always needed more power (processing power for his computer) and at the same time, someone, somewhere, on planet earth, with far less power but way more skill, was able to do so much more than we could ever do.

GFX

For most of the stuff I’ve seen by Majic 12, Rack was the graphics artist. A quick look and you know that Rack did the graphics. There is a certain feel to the images, but I’m not sure what exactly it is.

Face
Face, released November 5th, 1994

At the end of the demo, the scroller uses a font where each letter/number is unique in design, just as if they we cut out from the newspaper. It’s a bit hard to read as you have to look for the letter in the image, but what a great idea. And the diversity.

Music

A good portion of the music used by Majic 12 was created by a the team: Chorus & Sid. And they have – to say it directly – their own unique style. In the end-scroller, there is a part about the music track used in the demo, and as they put it themselves: “The music is really a bit different”.

Go for the Record II
Go for the Record II, released December, 1994

As Peter didn’t have a Gravis UltraSound sound card, I don’t recall ever hearing this track. And now that I have, I’m not sure that it changed anything. I think I’m more a fan of the regular demo chiptune.

Flash
Flash, released July 20th, 1996

Lately, I’ve seen this demo over and over again and it still amazes me. As “Show” was one of their first PC demos, they still tried to emulate the stuff they did on the Amiga and I think that they succeeded very well.

Source of inspiration and material: Pouet.net, DemoZoo & Defacto2