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the cracktro dilemma

category: general [glöplog]
Btw I hate that typography effect in Fringe. I feel it kills the atmosphere.
added on the 2008-10-17 15:41:54 by Optimus Optimus
nah optimus it's quite subtle and smart imho, it emphasizes both the clinical and falsely supernatural aspect of the show.

have you noticed also the recurrent blue lights appearing in action scenes ? :)
added on the 2008-10-17 15:49:00 by Zest Zest
also it's a winking way to remind you that it's just a fake tv show, specially when it deals with laughable pseudo-scientific theories :D
added on the 2008-10-17 15:51:40 by Zest Zest
zest: nobody would complain about an amiga cracktro with a scroller that could be done on a c64, sure. But they would complain like hell if it could be done on a c64 and on the amiga it runs at 15fps.

I've no complaints about cracktros being simple, or not fitting in 4kb or whatever, it's just basic quality that lets some of them down. Jerky sin scrollers, bad logos, design that makes a 1989 cracktro actually look fresh. That kind of thing.

If it runs well, it's a reasonable size (it doesn't have to be small, but it shouldn't be massive), and it looks and sounds good, then fine. Some do, but a lot don't.

Also, cracktros were to some extent a 'gateway to the scene' back in the day, and they could be now. But the kids of today aren't going to be impressed by a star field and a jerky scroller and want to see more ;)
added on the 2008-10-17 15:54:13 by psonice psonice
Quote:
i havent seen the intro, but i can imagine how it looks.

while discussing the why's that go into the making of a cracktro like this, please consider the following: When looking at the screenshot, you see the classical elements of an early amiga intro: the sine scroller, the starfield, the wireframe 3d. Notice that all these things were shaped by the hardware requirements of the amiga (or similar).

So every time I see such a production on a PC, I can't help but asking "WHHYYYYyyyy!???". The difference between introcoders now and then is among other things that now they seem to be lost in a jungle of design choices and they go back and copy design that were dictated more or less by the need to show off hardware from the 80s. And I say "design choices" because it is obvious that they are not trying to show off technical capabilities anymore.

If you think of it this way, it all seems very unnatural.
by Hyde
added on the 2008-10-17 15:58:17 by Zest Zest
A lot of people seem to mention hitchhikr's cracktros (the ones for hoodlum I guess) as examples of good ones.

While I think they are nice as demos I don't think they work very well as cracktros. I like those to be something short that you'll wanna watch each time you play the game.

The best cracktro I know is this one: http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=21062. It's short, has an awesome logo and awesome music, a cool effect and just really looks good, yet it delivers all the necessary info. :)
added on the 2008-10-17 16:07:37 by Sverker Sverker
likes and dislikes are also very subjective to nostalgia and cracked software...

btw, what about a cracktro that would display the different steps and techniques involved in the cracking, but in a more glamourous way than usual tutorials :p
added on the 2008-10-17 16:28:08 by Zest Zest
and what about a cracktro that would use speech synthesis :D
added on the 2008-10-17 16:31:05 by Zest Zest
Nobody does scrolling today the way it used to be. Is there something wrong with windows or modern libraries? If I try to do it in SDL I can see I have failed to make it smooth. And I don't know where the Vsync is.\

I haven't noticed the blue lights. I will notice them next time.
added on the 2008-10-17 16:31:15 by Optimus Optimus
actually those are more like blue illuminations...
added on the 2008-10-17 16:34:13 by Zest Zest
Anyways nice show, yet it doesn't have the feeling, characters and atmosphere of x-files but at least it's an interesting alternative to feel the missing gap.
added on the 2008-10-17 16:37:30 by Optimus Optimus
the son-father couple is interesting, and the female character, come on, she's the best tough female character for a long time (and cute into the bargain) !
added on the 2008-10-17 16:40:18 by Zest Zest
Minnie the Minx, this one (lovely) is much traditional http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=15027 but I'm also very fan of how he managed to give this style a new lease of life.
my worthless point of view on this...

i loved them. yes, i did. back in the old days on my c64...
... and i even loved them on my friends amiga, altough he didn't really
get the idea of why i loved watching them...

it wasn't about the effects... there were few...
rasterbars... flying balls, cubes, you know it...

but... what i *really* liked was the message.

somebody had to tell something... he told it to others... flamewars,
greetings, storys...

i really loved it (:

should start watching modern cracktros now... (:

but, actually... where's the point?

i admit, i've downloaded games, yes... but i never found ONE with
a cracktro in front... :(

greetz and thx for letting me steal you a minute of your time (:
added on the 2008-10-17 22:50:02 by doc^21o6 doc^21o6
shouldnt they be appetizers for the actual game you warezed? if they look like jerky retro crap, i rather pass
of course not, because a lots of games are actually uninteresting ('crappy') for most people, i used to leech (and still do) many releases just to catch and watch the installtros or cracktros...

of course the 'bigger' is the game, the prouder is the tagger! cracktros are so similar to street/subway graffitis.
added on the 2008-10-17 23:46:38 by Zest Zest
btw this is not the current discussed issue but i do buy the games i actually play & enjoy (the whole bf2 series, frontlines, oblivion, bioshock, portal, tf2, gta4 to say the ones that really got me :)
added on the 2008-10-17 23:52:09 by Zest Zest
Quote:
however they are somewhat right, intro design could be way improved and show some massive innovation and quality, hitch proved it a few years ago

Well, didn't the crackscene evolve inte the demoscene?
added on the 2008-10-18 00:35:15 by Frost Frost
this thread blows. you're faggot zest
added on the 2008-10-18 08:48:38 by uns3en_ uns3en_
I actually like the Astrid chick quite much in Fringe :)
added on the 2008-10-18 09:20:11 by Optimus Optimus
BB Image
added on the 2008-10-18 09:58:44 by Zest Zest
BB Image
added on the 2008-10-18 10:15:29 by Zest Zest
The massive dynamics woman (the one with the cyborg arm) reminds me very much of the final villain in Max Payne 1.
added on the 2008-10-18 10:19:34 by Optimus Optimus
Quote:
Well, didn't the crackscene evolve inte the demoscene?


That's just an old myth, demoscene evolved from Commodore 64 Christmas Demo and
Piccolo Mouso
added on the 2008-10-18 11:55:00 by hollowman hollowman
I love how cyclic pouet bss topics are:

- "omg noize demos" / aka "art discussion" (5 x year)
- "crack intros are teh suck" (2 x year)
- the "outreach / $ellout / newbie" discussion (2 x year)
- "xyz stole the plasma effect from the scene..." (50 x year)
- pouet should or shouldn't have feature xyz (10 x year)

Repeat in an infinte loop, with some "random xyz" threads thrown in for good measure. :)
added on the 2008-10-18 12:16:22 by tomaes tomaes

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