Code Like It's 198x

Signal Part 3

Mikropol's 1991 Spectrum demo from Poland

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A ZX Spectrum demo released in April 1991 by Mikropol, a coder from Bydgoszcz in Poland, with graphics by Ewa and music by The Spy. It was the third in his Signal series, which began in 1989, and he went on to write Amiga music.

“MIKROPOL PRESENTS SIGNAL PART 3” fills the screen in tall black letters on a green crosshatched panel, while a line of small text moves across the top. Signal Part 3 came from Poland in the spring of 1991, two years after his Signal 1. It was made by a small team: Mikropol wrote the code, Ewa drew the graphics and The Spy wrote the music.

Fast facts

  • By: Mikropol, from Bydgoszcz, Poland.
  • Credits: code by Mikropol; graphics by Ewa; music by The Spy (credits as listed on Demozoo).
  • Platform: ZX Spectrum, on tape.
  • Released: 6 April 1991, according to Demozoo; the loader says 1991.

The Signal series

The demo was released under Mikropol’s own name, not a group’s. Its loader calls it “Signal 3”, and Demozoo lists an earlier Signal 1 from 1989, as well as a Soon Demo from 1991. The whole of Signal Part 3 loads from tape as one block of about 31 KB, then waits on a “PRESS SPACE” screen before the title appears. The Spy’s music for it is also listed separately on Demozoo, as Signal 3-4. Public sources do not describe how the demo’s effects were programmed.

After the Spectrum

Mikropol moved on to the Amiga. Demozoo credits him, as Mikie, with the music for Sigh, a musicdisk by the group Old Bulls, in November 1991, and with music for an Amiga cracktro in 1996. The Spy kept writing for the Spectrum: he wrote the music for Speed 2, a 1995 demo by Technium 220, the group whose member Reb converted Jesus on E’s to the Spectrum the next year.

Sources

See also

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