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[In the latest of an occasional series of demoscene-related posts on GameSetWatch, AteBit's Paul 'EvilPaul' Grenfell discusses the last ever installment of a seminal demo party.]

It's sad news for anyone who has ever visited it, but the German demoscene party Breakpoint is to come to an end this year. Breakpoint is the world's biggest "demoscene only" demoparty in existance.

This means that the party is aimed squarely at demosceners, and the programme of events includes only demoscene related activities, competitions and seminars. This is in contrast to the biggest combined demoparty, Assembly, which also opens it's doors each year to thousands of gamers.

The party has a reputation for producing incredibly high quality demos from its competitions, many of which go on to become nominees and winners of the prestigious Scene.org awards. Oh, did I mention that the Scene.org awards ceremony is also held annually at Breakpoint? There will certainly be a gap in the demoscene calendar next year!

Amongst a fresh wave of accusations that the demoscene is dying (don't worry, the demoscene has apparently been dying for years - it's a bit of a meme), it is perhaps unsurprising that the theme for this year's party is "Like there's no tomorrow".

Farbrausch have taken these ideas to heart and produced the invitation demo by re-hashing assets from several older demos together into one. Without looking too hard you'll find references to Farbrausch's own The Popular Demo (which won the PC demo competition at the first ever Breakpoint back in 2003) and Debris (another PC demo winner at Breakpoint 2007). Look closer and you might be able to see (and hear) a few more!

The last ever Breakpoint party will take place from the 2nd to the 5th of April in Bingen Am Rhein, Germany. More information, including some news on why there will be no more Breakpoints, can be found over at the official demo party website.

A couple months after we first mentioned the "nearly complete" project here, Ernie 76 and the Vampyre Games Team have released a PC demo for their unauthorized 3D remake of LucasArts's classic adventure game Maniac Mansion.

To avoid licensing issues, the German group named their project Meteor Mess 3D (or MM3D) -- it kind of makes sense, what with a meteor playing a key role in the original game's story, but that title makes the game sound like some sort of Asteroids-type shooter. Also, I doubt that simple title change is enough to get the team out of any legal troubles.

Anyway, as the name suggests, the demo transforms the original 2D game's characters and mansion rooms into 3D. The graphics are a little rough and certainly not up to the standards of more professional productions, but one should keep in mind that the group started work on this project as a way to learn Gamestudio, the 3D authoring system tool used to create the game.

You can download Vampyre Games's Meteor Mess 3D demo, which includes both English (default) and German language support, from the team's Gamestudio forum thread. The game's final release is scheduled for this summer. I've included a recently uploaded video showing some gameplay portions (in German) after the break:

[Via Ernie]

Colt: 3 I never got into the RPGMaker niche. While the games look neat in the vintage sense, gameplay is ancient. I think the biggest progression is the automatic battle, which is broken in this case. No map, no autosave, confusing level design with all sorts of bushes and plants and rocks to hinder exploration. Millennium [...] Continue reading

Spanish indie developer Locomalito (8bit Killer) released a PC demo for Hydorah, his upcoming horizontal-scrolling shoot'em up inspired by classic shmups, not just in its 16-bit style graphics but also in its design. This preview build only includes the game's second level (one of 17 stages), but the absence of a checkpoint system should give you enough challenge to make this last a bit.

Locomalito says the final release will feature "short and intense levels, fantasy spacial landscapes, unlockable weapons, secrets, and a large library of enemies and bosses." Though Hydorah was obviously influenced by similar titles like Gradius and R-Type, the developer says he also took some design cues from non-shmups like Castlevania and Turrican.

You can download Hydorah's free demo from Locomalito's site, where you'll also find a dozen screenshots for the title.

[Via IndieGames.com]

Zak: 8/10 New Star Games’ Super Laser Racer is a racing game if you couldn’t tell by the name. In addition to using your tricked out racing skills, the player also uses missiles, lasers, bombs, et al to achieve racing dominance. The demo offers a few race tracks to choose from and a few different ship [...] Continue reading

Colt: 3 Enlightenus is a game of compromise: at its heart an staggeringly facile I SPY, the graphics are wonderful, the dialogue snappy, and the puzzle environments initially varied and fresh (they’re recycled a few times). Your quest starts with a letter from your friend asking to help him sort out his disordered stories, promising a [...] Continue reading

Czech studio Amanita Design (Samorost) has posted playable demos for upcoming PC/Mac game Machinarium, releasing on October 16th. In the IGF-winning puzzle/adventure title, you play as "a little robot who’s been thrown out to the scrap yard behind the city [that] must return and confront the Black Cap Brotherhood and save his robot-girl friend."

You can download the free PC demo from Big Download and the Mac demo from GamersGate. Amanita also put up a preview of Machinarium's soundtrack composed by Tomas Dvorak, allowing you to steam six excellent songs from the game.

Don't forget that you can get $3 off the release's $20 price if you preorder Machinarium!

[Via IndieGames]