Breakpoint 2010 was the last of its series, and for the German demo scene that left a gap at Easter. Since the late 1990s the holiday weekend had meant a party: Mekka & Symposium in Fallingbostel until 2002, then Breakpoint in Bingen am Rhein. A team of experienced organisers decided that “Easter without a proper party wouldn’t be what it’s meant to be”, and in April 2011 they opened Revision in Saarbrücken. They were careful about how they described it: “Revision isn’t just Breakpoint with a different name or a successor. It’s a completely new event.” It has been held every Easter since.
Fast facts
- Held: every Easter since 2011, from Good Friday to Easter Monday; online only in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
- Where: the E Werk, an events venue in Saarbrücken, the capital of the Saarland in south-west Germany.
- Run by: a team whose members had organised or were organising Breakpoint, Mekka & Symposium, the Ultimate Meeting, Rewired and 0a000h.
- Competitions: demos and intros for the PC and the Amiga, “oldskool” competitions for older machines such as the Commodore 64, music, graphics and more.
A new Easter party
The first Revision ran from 22 to 25 April 2011. Its website promised “4 days of pure demoscene fun, competitions & international socializing”, with competitions for the PC, the Amiga and the C64. Quite a few of the former Breakpoint team were involved, the organisers wrote, but “this is a new beginning!”
The PC demo competition was close. PandaCube’s Flux won with 822 points, 22 ahead of Nuance’s Sommerville, with Frozen, by farbrausch and Rebels, third on 758. Ghostown and Loonies’ Human Traffic won the Amiga demo competition, Bauknecht and The Electronic Knights’ States United the C64 one, and Brain Control’s Pandora the PC 64K intro competition. The “wild” competition, for anything that fitted no other category, went to T42 - Tennis For Two 2011.
Winners and old machines
Revision has kept a place for the machines the scene grew up on. The Black Lotus, which had won the Amiga demo competition at Mekka & Symposium and at Breakpoint, won it at Revision too, with Rift in 2014 and Eon, written for the original Amiga chipset, in 2019. In 2014 Red Sector Inc’s 10 Orbyte, a Commodore 64 production that the group says was sent to and run on a tiny satellite, won the wild competition. In 2024 Spaceballs’ Amiga intro Disiplin came second in its competition by 16 points, 1,329 to 1,345.
The PC demo competition has gone to Fairlight and Cloudkicker’s five faces in 2013, Cocoon’s Observatory in 2014 and ziphead, a joint production by CNCD and Fairlight, in 2015, among others.
Online years
During the COVID-19 pandemic Revision moved online. Demozoo lists Revision Online 2020, “Welcome Home”, and Revision Online 2021, “Together”, and the 2022 party, “Satellites”, held online from 15 to 18 April 2022, when Futuris’s Miyagi won the PC demo competition. In 2023 the party’s motto was “Back to the E-Werk”.
Revision 2026
Revision 2026, “The Power Within”, ran from 3 to 6 April 2026 at the E Werk. Its website called it “the world’s biggest pure Demoscene event” and invited people who could not travel to Saarbrücken to host a “satellite” event of their own. The PC demo competition went to Razor 1911’s Razor1911 with 1,621 points to 1,259 for Gaspode’s Golden Egg, and the same demo topped the crowd favourite vote. Desire and The Twitch Elite’s Second Nature won the Amiga demo competition with 1,795 points, and Otomata Labs’ Triplet the oldskool demo competition. Farbrausch’s 8K intro fr-079: Zero Distance came fifth in its competition.
Sources
- Revision 2011, “General information”, organisers’ website (web, secondary): “a brand new demoparty”, Breakpoint 2010 the last of its series, “not just Breakpoint with a different name or a successor”, the organisers’ past events, dates, the E Werk, competitions. https://2011.revision-party.net/about/general.html
- Revision 2011, results (web, secondary copy of the organisers’ file): demo, intro and wild competitions. https://files.scene.org/get/parties/2011/revision11/results.txt
- Demozoo, Revision 2011 (web, secondary): dates and winners. https://demozoo.org/parties/14/
- Revision 2013, 2014 and 2015, results (web, secondary copies of the organisers’ files): PC demo competitions. https://files.scene.org/get/parties/2013/revision13/results.txt, https://files.scene.org/get/parties/2014/revision14/results.txt, https://files.scene.org/get/parties/2015/revision15/results.txt
- Revision 2014 and 2019, results (web, secondary copies of the organisers’ files): Amiga demo competitions. https://files.scene.org/get/parties/2014/revision14/results.txt, https://files.scene.org/get/parties/2019/revision19/results.txt
- Demozoo, 10 Orbyte (web, secondary): first in the wild competition at Revision 2014. https://demozoo.org/productions/109180/
- Revision 2024, results (web, secondary copy of the organisers’ file): Disiplin second with 1,329 points to 1,345. https://files.scene.org/get/parties/2024/revision24/results.txt
- Demozoo, Revision party entries for 2020 to 2023 (web, secondary): Revision Online 2020 and 2021; Revision 2022, online, 15 to 18 April 2022, PC demo winner; Revision 2023 motto. https://demozoo.org/parties/4424/
- Revision 2026, organisers’ website (web, secondary): dates, the E Werk, “the world’s biggest pure Demoscene event”, satellites. https://2026.revision-party.net/
- Revision 2026, results (web, secondary copy of the organisers’ file): PC demo, Amiga demo, oldskool demo, PC 8K intro and crowd favourite. https://files.scene.org/get/parties/2026/revision26/results.txt