Future Crew was a Finnish

demogroup Demogroups are teams of demosceners, who make computer based audio-visual works of art known as demos. Demogroups form a subculture collectively known as the demoscene. Groups frequently consist of students, young computer enthusiasts who spen ...

that created PC demos and

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

, active mostly between 1987 and 1994.

History

The group was founded in 1986 by PSI (Sami Tammilehto) and JPM (Jussi Markula) as a Commodore 64 group, before moving to the PC

demoscene The demoscene () is an international computer art subculture focused on producing demos: self-contained, sometimes extremely small, computer programs that produce audiovisual presentations. The purpose of a demo is to show off computer programmi ...

in 1988; other members included, over time, Trug, Wildfire,

Pixel In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a Raster graphics, raster image, or the smallest addressable element in a dot matrix display device. In most digital display devices, p ...

, ICE, GORE, Abyss, Purple Motion, and Skaven, as well as several others. 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. 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, and later became itself inspiration for other trackers like Impulse Tracker. Future Crew was co-organizer of the first Assembly demo party in 1992. They 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". 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 (July 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'', '' Alan Wake''), Bugbear Entertainment ('' FlatOut'', ''Glimmerati'', ''Rally Trophy''), Bitboys (a graphics hardware company) and Recoil Games ('' Rochard'') were all started in whole or in part by members of Future Crew. Prior to their dissolution, they also contributed graphics to the game '' Ken's Labyrinth'' published by Epic MegaGames.The official Ken's Labyrinth page - Ken Silverman's website
/ref> Skaven contributed music to Unreal Tournament 1999.

Reception and impact

Future Crew was an influential pioneer of the PC demoscene and the PC as multimedia device in general, and achieved wide public recognition.

Awards and tributes

Slashdot voted the Future Crew demo Second Reality as one of the "Top 10 Hacks of All Time". 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). Nectarine Records has released a free-to-download album titled "Metropolis" containing the most known songs of Future Crew in 24-bit remastered as a tribute.extras
/ref>

Members

These are the members of the group at the time it released Second Reality: * Gore (Samuli Syvähuoko): organizer * Psi (Sami Tammilehto): programmer * Trug (Mika Tuomi): programmer * Wildfire (Arto Vuori): programmer * Purple Motion ( Jonne Valtonen): music * Skaven ( Peter Hajba): music and graphics * Marvel (Aki Raula, formerly Aki Määttä): graphic artist * Pixel ( Misko 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, 1st at Assembly 92) * Starport BBStro (1992, BBStro) * The Party 92 Invite (1992, invite) * Panic (1992, demo, 2nd at The Party 92) * Assembly '93 Invitation (1993, invitation) * Worldcharts #01 (1993, diskmag) * Second Reality (1993, 1st at Assembly 93) * Bussimatkaintro (1993, invitation) * 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) * Metropolis (2011, music compilation)

References

External links

Future Crew
at Pouët
Future Crew
at scene.org
The History of the Future Crew
*
The Demoscene Documentary: (Future Crew) episode.

{{Authority control 1986 establishments in Finland Demogroups Finnish artist groups and collectives