MindCandy Volume 1: PC Demos

about the dvd

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Sit back and prepare for enlightenment. Free your mind and let us take you on a journey of colorful visual expressions, eclectic music and animated objects from a different world. A world of “demos,” originating from the European computer underground and created by talented programmers, artists and musicians. The MindCandy DVD contains forty-two (42) of these brief animated music videos, providing a modern day look and historical perspective all created using a PC.

This disc is the result of over two years of planning and hard work by Fusecon, Hornet, and many other people.

special features

Two sided disc, totalling nearly four (4) hours of video footage!
Audio commentary on all demos
Digitally remastered soundtracks
12-page full color booklet
Animated chapter menus
Original menu music from demoscene artists
Hidden demos and other "easter eggs"

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the featurette

DEMOGRAPHICS: BEHIND THE SCENE

A 16-minute documentary film, created exclusively for MindCandy Volume 1: PC Demos by Blue 7 Media

The demo scene is a subculture so obscure that their creative hijinks go completely over the head of most people. Assembly code? Real-time? Non-commercial? What? Demographics briefly lifts the veil of this mysterious community, offering a glimpse at the people who make demos and the scene's pioneering almost 20-year history.

Featurette - Trixter
Trixter explains it all - our production man guides you through the history and details of demos and the scene Featurette - Code
The code that changed the PC demo scene forever Featurette - Statix
Interviews with some of the best-known PC coders, artists, and musicians Featurette - Screens
Demo parties - What happens when you stuff 4000 young computer enthusiasts in a building for a weekend?

You can now watch the entire featurette online, or download the video from archive.org.

compatibility

MindCandy Volume 1: PC Demos was tested on several set-top DVD players (and also the PlayStation 2 and XBox game consoles) without any problems. It was mastered in the NTSC video standard, which is compatible with 95% of the world's DVD players. MindCandy is also region-free. In short, you should not have any problems playing MindCandy.

All that being said, we have unfortunately received reports that some DVD players, mostly in Europe, have some trouble with MindCandy. The following is a list of players reported to us that have issues:

Player	Problem
(PAL) Thomson TV/DVD integrated unit (NTSC) RCA (Thompson) DVD, model 5220P	Doesn't stop on slideshow elements (production notes, credits, etc.) and instead plays them quickly through
(PAL) XBox	Poor NTSC-to-PAL conversion; the end result is jerky motion
(PAL) Philips DVD 711	Isn't able to change the NTSC signal properly into a PAL signal for TV; the result is a black and white picture
(NTSC) Samsung DVD-S320	Easter eggs unplayable; finding one and pressing "enter" behaves like the "enter" is immediately followed by a "previous" button press.

While MindCandy is also viewable on computer DVD-ROM drives with DVD player software, it was mastered for NTSC's color and framerate, and is intended to be viewed that way. Furthermore, most software players deinterlace the video, which halves motion quality. So far the only computer-based DVD players we have tested that correctly reproduce MindCandy are:

Software

PowerDVD XP 4.0 with an nVidia GeForce video card and Hardware Acceleration enabled.

Hardware

Sigma Designs REALmagic® Hollywood Plus
Sigma Designs REALmagic Xcard™