Renaissance (demogroup)
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Renaissance was an American PC demo group started in 1991-1992 by founding members Mosaic, C.C. Catch, Daredevil, and Tran.
History and contributions
The group made several noteworthy contributions throughout its existence, not only to its own subculture, but the entire computing world as well. Most notable was the creation of PMODE by Charles Scheffold (a.k.a. Daredevil) and Thomas Pytel (a.k.a. Tran) in 1993. PMODE was a replacement for the popular DOS/4G extender. A special version named PMODE/W was designed for the Watcom compiler.
Renaissance was also on the forefront of PC digital music software, having written the first PC-based 8-channel tracker, Composer 669, and the first combined FM+digital music tracker, CDFM. The first 32-channel tracker, MultiTracker, followed in late 1993.
Renaissance had intentions from the start to create games as well. The only well-released game to their credit was Zone 66, a shareware top-down shooter game, published by Epic MegaGames in early 1993. C.C. Catch also composed music for Epic's 1994 robot fighting game, .
There was much mystery as to Tran's participation in the group. Rumors surfaced at Assembly '93, as he and other members were in attendance to enter a demo but never completed it. Months later, the rumors were confirmed as Tran released his first independent demo, Hell, and announced his departure from Renaissance. He continued releasing PMODE and other demos independently.
Renaissance members
Founding members
- C.C. CatchNot to be confused with C.C.Catch, a.k.a. Caroline Müller, the German pop musician. Kenny lifted his handle from one of her album covers with the thought that Americans wouldn't recognize the singer's name. (Kenny Chow aka Chou) — musician [link]
- Daredevil (Charles Scheffold) — coder/sysop/organizer
- Mosaic (Ray Lee) — musician
- Tran (Thomas Pytel) — coder [link]
Other members
- CyberStrike (Josh Jensen) — coder
- Dark Avenger (Tony Proios)
- Digital Sculptor
- El Diablo
- Leviathan (Andy Carlson) — musician
- Nemesis (Andy Wise) — musician
- Mr. Happy
- Oman (John Hood) — graphics
- Radioisotope
- Ryan Cramer — musician
- StarScream (Dan Goldstein) — coder
- Untouchable
- Whitefiend — graphics
- White Shadow (Dave Cooper) — coder
- Zeek (Rich Geldreich)
Significant releases
- Black Glass 2 — demo (1992)
- Amnesia — demo (1992)
- Composer 669 — tracker (1992)
- Zone 66 — game (1993), published by Epic Games
- MultiTracker — tracker (1993)
- Nothing On — musicdisk (1994)
- Renaissance Music Player (1994)
- Epidemic — musicdisk (1994), co-op with iCE
- PMODE
- PMODE/W (for Watcom C/C++)
External links
- [Renaissance demoscene releases] indexed on Pouet.
- [Demonews Issue 75, December 1994] — Features an article by Ryan Cramer meeting fellow Renaissance members.
- [Renaissance modules] at AMP
Notes
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