Oxyron released Coma Light 12 in 1994. The next one arrived eighteen years later, at X’2012, a Commodore 64 party held from 26 to 28 October 2012 in Someren in the Netherlands. Coma Light 13 won the C64 demo competition there, against demos from Hitmen, Fairlight, Arsenic and Censor Design, and it still ranks among the best-rated demos in the scene’s own database.
Fast facts
- Group: Oxyron, Germany.
- Released: 28 October 2012, at X’2012 in Someren, the Netherlands.
- Result: first in the C64 demo competition, with an average score of 8.967.
- Format: a demo on both sides of a floppy disk, for the Commodore 64.
- Code: Axis, Bitbreaker and Peiselulli. Music: Fanta. Loader: Krill.
The competition
The organisers’ results give Coma Light 13 an average score of 8.967, ahead of Hitmen’s Artphosis on 8.787 and Trick and Treat by Fairlight and Offence on 8.277. Censor Design’s Wonderland XI, the latest in its own long-running Wonderland series, came fifth.
Who made it
The CSDb release database credits the code to three members of Oxyron, Axis, Bitbreaker and Peiselulli, with The Human Code Machine credited for help. Fanta wrote the music and did the sampling. Bitbreaker, Veto and Yazoo made the graphics, and Yazoo also wrote the text and drew the character set. The disk loader, the routine that reads each new part from the floppy disk while the demo runs, was by Krill of the group Plush. The soundtrack was spread over four separate tunes.
What viewers saw
No published source explains how the demo’s routines work. Viewers’ comments on the demo’s CSDb page describe what is on screen. The demo opens with a sampled voice saying “Coma Light” and a part that parodies the style of Booze Design. Commenters singled out a cube that casts a shadow, a parallax-scrolling part, and a greetings part that leads into the prompt to turn the disk over. Several commenters praised how closely Fanta’s music followed the changes on screen. Others criticised the design, saying the parts did not add up to a single look, and one early commenter wrote that it needed “better design and stronger direction”.
Many compared it with Booze Design’s Edge of Disgrace from 2008. In September 2026 CSDb’s users’ chart of the top C64 demos placed Coma Light 13 tenth.
Sources
- X’2012, results (web, secondary copy of the organisers’ file): the C64 demo competition and its scores. https://files.scene.org/get/parties/2012/x12/results.txt
- CSDb, event entry for X’2012 (web, secondary): dates, venue in Someren and organisers. https://csdb.dk/event/?id=1708
- CSDb, release entry for Coma Light 13 (web, secondary): release date, credits, the four tunes, and users’ comments (November 2012 to 2021) describing its parts. https://csdb.dk/release/?id=112378
- CSDb, group entry for Oxyron (web, secondary): Coma Light 12 (1994). https://csdb.dk/group/?id=7