Future Crew was a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

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 spend ...

that created PC demos and

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. ...

, 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 programming, visual ...

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 image, or the smallest point in an all points addressable display device. In most digital display devices, pixels are the ...

, ICE, GORE, Abyss, Purple Motion, and Skaven, as well as several others. Noteworthy demos by Future Crew include ''Unreal'' (released at

Assembly Assembly may refer to: Organisations and meetings * Deliberative assembly, a gathering of members who use parliamentary procedure for making decisions * General assembly, an official meeting of the members of an organization or of their representa ...

1992), ''

Panic Panic is a sudden sensation of fear, which is so strong as to dominate or prevent reason and logical thinking, replacing it with overwhelming feelings of anxiety and frantic agitation consistent with an animalistic fight-or-flight reactio ...

'' (released at The Party 1992) and ''

Second Reality Second Reality (originally titled Unreal ] - The 2nd Reality) is an IBM PC compatible Demo (computer programming)">demo created by Future Crew. It debuted at the Assembly (demo party), Assembly 1993 demoparty on July 30, 1993, where it was entere ...

'' (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 (file format), MOD editor ''

Scream Tracker ''Scream Tracker'' is a tracker (an integrated multi-track step sequencer A music sequencer (or audio sequencer or simply sequencer) is a device or application software that can record, edit, or play back music, by handling note and perform ...

'', 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 Impulse Tracker is a multi-track music tracker ( music sequencer). Originally released in 1995 by Jeffrey Lim as freeware with commercial extensions, it was one of the last tracker programs for the DOS platform. In 2014, on its 20th anniversary, ...

. Future Crew was co-organizer of the first

Assembly demo party The Assembly demoparty is a demoscene and gaming event in Finland. It is the biggest demoscene party. The main organizers of the event are Pekka Aakko (''Pehu'' of Accession) and Jussi Laakkonen (''Abyss'' of Future Crew). The Summer event takes p ...

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". 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 Futuremark Oy was a Finnish software development company that produced computer benchmark applications for home, business, and press use. Futuremark was acquired by UL on 31 October 2014, and was formally merged into the company on 23 April 2 ...

(

3DMark 3DMark is a computer benchmarking tool created and developed by UL, (formerly Futuremark), to determine the performance of a computer's 3D graphic rendering and CPU workload processing capabilities. Running 3DMark produces a 3DMark score, with h ...

), Remedy ('' Death Rally'', '' Max Payne'', ''

Alan Wake ''Alan Wake'' is an action-adventure game developed by Remedy Entertainment. The story follows best-selling thriller novelist Alan Wake as he tries to uncover the mystery behind his wife's disappearance during a vacation in the small fictional ...

''),

Bugbear Entertainment Bugbear Entertainment Oy is a Finnish video game developer based in Helsinki, founded by Janne Alanenpää in 2000. The company is best known for the ''FlatOut'' series and ''Wreckfest''. In November 2018, a majority stake of the company was ...

('' FlatOut'', ''Glimmerati'', ''Rally Trophy''),

Bitboys Bitboys Oy was a hardware development and licensing company based in Finland, founded in 1991 and acquired by ATI Technologies for up to US$44M on May 2, 2006. Until the acquisition, Bitboys had focused on mobile phone gaming, and had developed ...

(a graphics hardware company) and

Recoil Games Recoil (often called knockback, kickback or simply kick) is the rearward thrust generated when a gun is being discharged. In technical terms, the recoil is a result of conservation of momentum, as according to Newton's third law the force req ...

('' 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 Epic Games, Inc. is an American video game and software developer and publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney as Potomac Computer Systems in 1991, originally located in his parents' house in Potomac, Ma ...

.The official Ken's Labyrinth page - Ken Silverman's website
/ref>

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 ''Slashdot'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''/.'') is a social news website that originally advertised itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters". It features news stories concerning science, technology, and politics that are submitted and eval ...

voted the Future Crew Demo

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 Remedy Entertainment Oyj, trading internationally as Remedy Entertainment Plc, is a Finnish video game developer based in Espoo. Notable games the studio has developed include the first two instalments in the '' Max Payne'' franchise, ''Alan ...

(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 an album containing the most known songs of Future Crew in 24-bit

remastered Remaster refers to changing the quality of the sound or of the image, or both, of previously created recordings, either audiophonic, cinematic, or videographic. The terms digital remastering and digitally remastered are also used. Mastering A ...

as a tribute. The album's name is "Metropolis", and it's free to download through internet.extras
/ref> FutureCrewMetropolis

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 Jonne Valtonen is a Finnish composer, arranger and orchestrator. He is renowned for his contributions in the field of demoscene and tracker music, under the name Purple Motion, and with Future Crew. Life and early career Jonne Valtonen was b ...

): musi

* Skaven (

Peter Hajba Peter Hajba (born 15 December 1974), also known by his demoscene nickname Skaven, is a Finnish electronic musician, video game composer and graphic artist. His most recent project is with Remedy Entertainment as an animator, sound designer and gr ...

): music & graphic

* Marvel (Aki Raula, formerly Aki Määttä): graphic artist * Pixel ( Misko Iho) : graphic artist * Abyss (Jussi Laakkonen):

BBS BBS may refer to: Ammunition * BBs, BB gun metal bullets * BBs, airsoft gun plastic pellets Computing and gaming * Bulletin board system, a computer server users dial into via dial-up or telnet; precursor to the Internet * BIOS Boot Specificat ...

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) *

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) *

(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) *

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