Recession Maxidemo

Credits

• Code — NoRecess
• Graphics — Mat
• Music — YoYo

Credits as given by the production itself.

A demo for the PlayStation Portable, written in about three weeks of evenings after work and finished in the summer of 2007. The opening screen says what it is for: demoscene motivated many guys like me during 1990–1995. At this time, common machines were called Atari, Amiga, Amstrad CPC. This is my present to this important part of my life.

Five parts, and the scrolltexts say which came first. The big scroller was written before anything else — the biggest scroller ever made on PSP, over a background that nods at the Amiga’s State of the Art, though as the text admits, without the dancing girl. Then a Shadow of the Beast screen, twelve differential scrollers deep, with a sinus scroller across it. Then a slideshow of pixel art. Then a part that puts tons and tons of scrollers on screen at once, an oldschool dream in the writer’s own words. Then the ending, a wall of text columns and one last bouncing scroller.

There is a joke in the font. It is the one from The Demo, made by Logon System in 1990 — converted from Atari ST to Amstrad CPC at the time — and the scrolltext lets it run for a full sentence before admitting the gag: was just a private joke for old Amstrad CPC users.

The logo is YoYo’s, and one part is nothing but the making of it: the fifty frames of the drawing, played back in order, while the scroller insists that pixel art is not easy, hours and hours spent drawing, no use of Photoshop effects here. Mat contributed graphics as well. The rest of the picture set is borrowed from the Amiga and Atari scene, and so is the music — YM chip tunes including BSC’s Space Debris, isomac’s there aren’t any sheeps remix, scavenger’s synergy credits screen. That is why it was never posted to Pouet by its author, and why he said so plainly when somebody else posted it: I used some well-known demoscene resources to make it. Just made for fun, but I knew this production would not be appreciated on Pouet because of its assets.

Technically it stands on OSLib, the oldschool library for the PSP, with libpng for the artwork and Leonard/Oxygene’s StSound engine for the YM tunes. The readme is one line long and says it was tested on firmware 3.40-OE.

The first scrolltext is signed and dated — No Recess signing off. Monday, July 2, 2007 — and the last one is the goodbye: this is my last demoscene production. It’s funny to note how oldschool demoscene will always get a special place inside me. I completely grew up with it. Legends will never die. Then, before the end, a word to the people holding the console: piracy hurts every platform, and if you love your PSP, buy games.

Screenshots

The thirty-one screenshots below were taken by Tyranid and shipped in the release archive.

Watch it

Recorded and published on my YouTube channel.

Comments from Pouet

The comments below were left on Pouet.net about Recession Maxidemo. They are quoted as they were written. Copied from that page on 17 August 2026.

Nice revival tribute to the 80’s demos on the PSP, nice to see you back NoRecess !

— Shazz^TRSi, 2007-08-10 · rulez

From NoRecess : Quote:Hi there, Some of you probably remember these awesome machines called Amstrad CPC, Atari ST or Amiga.. At this time (1990-1995), a common activity for programmers was to accomplish impressive visual effects demonstrating how powerful their machine was. “Recession Maxidemo” is a revival of this wonderful period. It’s also a present for my own experience - I started my first programming steps writing my own scroller in Asm/Z80 - a part of my life I will never forget. It’s made of 5 different parts, powered by some awesome musics and original graphics made by Yoyo and Mat. Hope you are going to enjoy this prod guys!

— Shazz^TRSi, 2007-08-10

Some of the pics in the slideshow-part were funked up, so that’s a big no-no. But otherwise the demo was quite nice, even if a bit boring. Still, one of the better “oldskool”-demos on a modern platform.

— britelite, 2007-08-10

kewl

— am-fm, 2007-08-10 · rulez

Oh, damn ! :) I’m the author of this demo. I intentionaly did not release it on Pouet as I used some well-known demoscene resources to make it (ST musics, Amiga graphics from various artists). Just made for fun, but I knew this production would not be appreciated on Pouet.net because of its assets.. Anyway, hope you like it! Here is more screenshots of the demo here : http://www.yopland.com/Yopland/Computer-related/C8218F79-6B7E-4A62-8600-11A41547D27F.html And BTW, I released an other homebrew for PSP platform, which is also largely inspired by demoscene.. http://www.yopland.com/Yopland/Computer-related/0D073681-9EFA-46DF-A622-25C05E1E6948.html

— norecess, 2007-08-10

and ah, I’m absolutely not back :) hehe but what I realize is that people who grew with demoscene will die with demoscene.. it s in our earth, can’t live without

— norecess, 2007-08-10

Use this link instead : http://www.yopland.com/Yopland/Computer-related/Computer-related.html

— norecess, 2007-08-10

video please.

— decipher, 2007-08-11

this fucking rulez

— elkmoose, 2007-08-11 · rulez

NoRecess : Nippy and I will get you back ! :D Sorry, I did not know that you did not want it to be on pouet.... but every demo should be there ! :D

— Shazz^TRSi, 2007-08-12