Review of Lech by Freezers for the Amiga 1200/4000
Introduction
Today we’re going to have a look at a demo from a Polish group called Freezers. It is called Lech and was released at the Eastern Conference Party in Bialystok (Poland) in 1995. The demo won the competition at the event, beating productions like Moments by Old Bulls and Boom Boom by Flying Cows Inc.
For those of you who are interested in beer, it is worth noting that the demo is named after Lech Premium, a Polish beer.
Freezers used to be quite active on the Amiga demo scene back in the middle of the 1990’s. With productions like Dreamwalker (music disk) and Wit Premium (demo), they built up a solid reputation among Amiga enthusiasts.
Let’s have a quick look at the credits before we move on:
- Sputnik (programming)
- Freeman (graphics)
- Grid (graphics)
- Bethoven (music)
Requirements
The minimum requirements for Lech is a vanilla Amiga 1200. No need for extra memory or a more powerful CPU than the 68020. The demo takes up under 600 KB’s of space and will therefore fit on one floppy disk. I’d like to point out that the demo works well with beefier configurations as well. I haven’t experienced any compatibility problems so far.
The World of Lech
The first seconds of the demo is quite calm and relaxing, but you can sense that it won’t last long. After the logos have been presented, the music picks up in speed and a nice cityscape appears on the screen. You are literally taken for a ride among the buildings, back and forth and sideways. Displayed at the top and bottom of the screen is the credits. The effect features a sunrise-themed background.
After the cityscape, you’ll get to see a few rotating 3D objects. One of these features gourad shading and looks very nice. There is also a texture-mapped object with a light source floating around it. The effects look good on my 68030 configuration.
Suddenly the music changes its tone and becomes a bit more mysterious.. You are then presented with a smooth Doom-like maze with full texture-mapping. The camera moves around the maze until it decides to try one of the exits. A bouncing ball appears in perfect synchronization with the music. It looks very cool. Speaking of synchronization.. this demo might not contain the most technical advanced effects, but the design is nicely done. The way what is happening on the screen is synced to the music makes it enjoyable and thrilling to watch.
Anyway, after the ball-effect is done you find yourself back in the maze. This time the camera leaves through another exit and a pixled image of a woman appears on the screen. I must say that the picture looks good and it must have taken the artist quite some time to draw it. The image is followed by two effects, were the latter is a rotating object with a plasma-effect covering the different sides. Brilliant! This is something I’d like to see in more demos.
Once again the music changes and you enter a new cityscape, but this time it’s foggy. The effect looks OK enough, but it’s the music that does it for me. Bethoven manages to calm you a bit down with this music, until it takes off again. A gigantic torus fills the screen, rotating around, and suddenly you find yourself inside it. Not the coolest effects in the demo, but serves its purpose. The demo then ends and some people might say “too soon!”, since they want to see more. 😉
Verdict
I really like this demo. It contains a wide variation of effects; two cityscapes, a Doom-like maze, rotating 3D objects and a lot more. The rotating plasma-object is my personal favourite. The best thing about Lech, however, is the combination of music and eye candy. Freezers have synchronized everything that’s happening on the screen with the tune in the background and the result is very, very good. Since the music is speedy, the demo is speedy. It is safe to say that you won’t fall asleep over your keyboard, since the effects and pictures are changing at a rapid pace. 😉
My verdict? Awesome demo, a must see on your Amiga (or through emulation). I think it has some bugs when viewed with WinUAE, so a real Amiga is your best bet.
Thanks for reading!
Downloads
You can download the demo by clicking on the following link: http://aminet.net/demo/aga/Lech.lha
Video
For those of you who don’t have access to an Amiga or an emulator, here’s a link to a video of the demo. Hope you’ll enjoy it.
Old School Game Blog 
That was pretty cool. I dig the two Lech images quite a bit.
LikeLike
Hi mate,
Thanks for commenting. 🙂 Grid of Freezers was a “pixel-magician” back in the days. He created a lot of cool artwork.
Please have a look here to see some of his creations: http://artcity.bitfellas.org/index.php?a=artist&id=187&p=0
LikeLike
Awesome! I will definitely check it out.
LikeLike
Some of my favourites include Tenshu, Lazur, Dzordan, Mustafa, Bridgeclaw and Typhoon. 🙂 Be sure to check them out.
LikeLike
I am going to give it a try later this afternoon on my A1200.
LikeLike
Please let me know how you liked the demo. 🙂 How’s it going with your 1084 monitor? Have you managed to repair it or have you replaced it?
LikeLike
For the time being I will use a tv. I had some issues with the A1200 so I will try it later this week.
LikeLike
The TV you are using looks fine. What kind of issues do you have with your Amiga 1200? Mine has been a bit unstable the last days, but don’t know why. Have you heard about the 1500 NOS Amiga 1200’s Petro has managed to get hold of? Rumours are floating on Amiga.org..
LikeLike
It’s the memory upgrade. It won’t turn on anymore when inserted. So I put the other (that crashes also after a while) one in so I got memory to move files over the network.
Petro indeed got those 1200’s. 🙂
LikeLike
Man, that sucks. 😦 If I had a spare card, you could have it, but only have the 68030 now. If I decide to go FPGA some time in the future, I’ll keep you in mind. 🙂
It’s incredible if those Amiga 1200’s hits the market. Are you considering getting one? It would be cool with a brand new Amiga 1200.
I’ve been thinking a bit about the FPGA Replay Board. Would make a damn fine Amiga, especially with the 060 accelerator (+ ethernet etc) that will be available. Should fit in a mini-ITX case, which I have in the basement.
LikeLike
For now I can manage. With the standard 2MB memory I cannot move files over the network. I can load the TCP/IP stack but that leaves not enough memory left to start AmiFTP for the file transfer.
My 1200 is still in good condition and I rather put the money in my OS4.x netbook funds. 🙂
LikeLike
Been there. When I only had 2MB of RAM, it was not much I could do Online or with network. Still lot’s of other stuff one can do though. 😉
Oh yes, the netbook. I think Hyperion should make an announcement about that soon. People are getting a tad restless waiting for news.
LikeLike
I can’t believe I never watched this before! I’ve heard the music a thousand times, but the demo must have passed me by. It’s quite nice but also typical of its time. The foggy cityscape (especially the music) seems very inspired by Second Reality. I must say that my favourite parts are the music and graphics. I enjoyed the demo, and will surely watch it again. Thank you for these nice demo reviews. Please keep them coming!
LikeLike
Hi Mads,
Thanks for commenting. 🙂
Cool that you haven’t seen Lech before. It is quite a nice demo. 🙂 As you, I really enjoy the graphics and the music. Bethoven was a skilled musician, but do you know if he did much after Freezers? Did he join a new group?
Interesting to hear about similarities with Second Reality. I must check that old PC demo again. Future Crew made some good stuff back then. Always enjoyed the music from Purple Motion.
Great to hear that you like my demo reviews. I’m in the process of making a new one now, but I won’t reveal the name of the demo yet.. 😉 If you have some wishes for demos you’d like to see reviewed, please feel free to drop me a line.
Have a nice evening!
LikeLike
Holy cow. I remember how amazed I was when saw “the city” the very first time. Ass-kicker. However I was not a big fan of Bethoven mods. I couldn’t understand why a long-hair-metal-looking guy (like I was 🙂 does music like this… 😉
P.S. I don’t know if you are aware of this, but Lech is a Polish beer brand. I don’t know if it was a product placement, but it looks so…
LikeLike
Hi Backtothecode,
Many thanks for commenting. 🙂 The demo is definitely an ass-kicker. Hehe.. I’ve never seen any photos I can remember of Bethoven. Have you met him in person back in the days? 😀
LikeLike
Yes, I met him in person couple times at Amiga copy-parties back in 90s.
LikeLike
Nice. 🙂 Have you visited many such parties? I’ve been to quite a few myself in the 90’s. Maybe we’ve met before. 😀 hehe..
LikeLike
Just finished a can of Lech. 🙂
LikeLike
Awesome! 😀 Cheers mate!
LikeLike