Future Crew

Future Crew is a now-defunct group of Finnish computer coders and artists who created PC demos and software, active mostly between 1992 and 1994.

History

The group was founded in 1986 by PSI as a Commodore 64 group, before moving to the PC demoscene in 1988; other members included, over time, Trug, Wildfire, Pixel, ICE, GORE, Abyss, Purple Motion, and Skaven, as well as several others not listed here.

Noteworthy demos by Future Crew include "Unreal" (released at Assembly 1992), "Panic" (released at The Party 1992) and "Second Reality" (released at Assembly 1993). Second Reality may be considered one of the most influential PC demos ever made cite web
url=http://slashdot.org/features/99/12/13/0943241.shtml
title=Slashdot's "Top 10 Hacks of All Time" ] . Future Crew was also responsible for the popular MOD editor "Scream Tracker", which was fashioned after the Amiga Soundtracker, as well as the "Advanced DigiPlayer" sound editor.

Future Crew was co-organizer of the first Assembly demo party in 1992, and continued organizing the annual party until 1995, when the organization set up the Finnish company ASSEMBLY Organizing in order to "provide a solid financial basis for the events and a reliable partner for our sponsors." [http://www.assembly.org/summer07/asm/asmorg] Long time Future Crew member Abyss is one of the party's main organizers.

Future Crew did not release anything as a group after Scream Tracker 3 (December 1994). While it was never officially dissolved, its members parted ways in the second half of the 1990s. Companies like Futuremark (3DMark), Remedy (Death Rally, Max Payne) and Bitboys (a graphics hardware company) were all started in whole or in part by members of Future Crew.

Members

These are the members of the group at the time it released Second Reality :

* Gore (Samuli Syvähuoko): organizer
* Psi (Sami Tammilehto): coder
* Trug (Mika Tuomi): coder
* Wildfire (Arto Vuori): coder
* Purple Motion (Jonne Valtonen): music [http://www.purplemotion.net/]
* Skaven (Peter Hajba): music & graphics [http://www.futurecrew.com/skaven/]
* Marvel (Aki Määttä): graphic artist
* Pixel (Mikko Iho) : graphic artist
* Abyss (Jussi Laakkonen): BBS coordinator / public relations
* Henchman (Markus Mäki): BBS operator
* Jake (Jarkko Heinonen): Internet PR

Releases

Future Crew released the following productions on the PC demoscene :
* GR8 (1988, demo)
* YO! (1989, demo)
* Slideshow I (1990, slideshow)
* Scream Tracker 2 (1990, tool)
* Mental Surgery (1991, demo)
* Assembly '92 Invitation, aka. Fishtro (1992, invitation)
* Unreal (1992, demo, 1^st at Assembly 92)
* Starport BBStro (1992, BBStro)
* The Party 92 Invite (1992, invite)
* Panic (1992, demo, 2^nd at The Party 92)
* Assembly '93 Invitation (1993, invitation)
* Worldcharts #01 (1993, diskmag)
* Second Reality (1993, 1^st at Assembly 93)
* Bussimatkaintro (1993, intro)
* Journey 1 (1993, musicdisk)
* Journey 2 (1993, musicdisk)
* Starport BBS Add 2 (1993, BBStro)
* Chaotic Mind (1994, musicdisk)
* Assembly '94 Pre-invitation (1994, invitation)
* Assembly '94 Invitation (1994, invitation)
* Soppa (1994, 64k demo)
* Scream Tracker 3 (1994, tool)

Tributes

Tributes to Future Crew include a 3D graphics benchmark called "Final Reality" by Remedy Entertainment (shown at Assembly 1997), and a remake of Second Reality for the Commodore 64 by Smash Designs called "Second Reality 64" (released at The Party 1997).

References

Slashdot voted the Future Crew Demo Second Reality as one of the "Top 10 Hacks of All Time". cite web
url=http://slashdot.org/features/99/12/13/0943241.shtml
title=Slashdot's "Top 10 Hacks of All Time" ]

External links

* [http://www.pouet.net/groups.php?which=51 Future Crew] at Pouët
* [http://www.scene.org/dir.php?dir=/demos/groups/future_crew Future Crew] at scene.org
* [http://www.defacto2.net/apollo-x/fc.htm The History of the Future Crew]
* [http://www.bitboys.fi/ Bitboys]
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