text by Ghandy of Nukleus, graphics by Mystic & TRSI, images by Norby/DLG & TRSI.
Since Norby, the organiser and mail swapper, returned around fife years ago, the Polish section of TRSI has proven that it is a force to be reckoned with. They surprisingly won the toughest Amiga demo competition around in 2025, Revision Party, with their AGA production ‘Lupus Reditus‘.
But this is no one-hit wonder: at the BOOM! Party, Mystic and TRSI followed up with the ECS demo ‘DataVerse‘. And that’s not all for sure. You can expect even more from them in the future! But girls and boys: first let’s take a closer look at how ‘Lupus Reditus’, the demo with the wolf, was created.
“Life really likes to surprise us with coincidences!”
Ghandy: You told me that, after all this time, it had been your dream to reactivate the Polish division of TRSI. How did that come about? How did you start collaborating with the Mystic members?
Norby: Life really likes to surprise us with coincidences. After returning to the scene in 2020, my mission was to find as many old friends as possible and bring them back to the scene. I attended lots of parties, had lots of conversations and looked for people who were active and wanted to create new things. But something was still missing. The missing piece of the puzzle was actually a coder. There has always been a shortage of coders, and nothing has changed since the ’90s.
You might remember a Polish coder called Musashi who was the best in Poland, and maybe even the world, in the ’90s. I found him and almost convinced him to return, but, as is often the case in life, nothing came of it. There were others too, but finally, in April 2024 — exactly one year before Revision 2025 — the stars aligned for me.
The godfather of the Mystic & TRSI project, JazzCat from Ghostown, told me to check out the Polish forum website, scena.ppa.pl. There was a post about the reactivation of the group Mystic — a great idea from former Mystic member and legendary Mamba BBS sysop Easy Rider — and I found a small ad from a coder called Tedy, who had just rejoined Mystic and was looking for support to create his Amiga game project. I contacted Tedy and suggested that, rather than making a game, he should create a demo, and that I could help him with that. Tedy agreed, and everything moved forward from that point.
Searching for the right colleagues
Ghandy: How did you convince the others to get involved?
Norby: I started the job by looking for former members of TRSI. I found Lazur, an amazing graphician from the early Amiga era, but he wasn’t interested. Tees was interested, but he was busy with other things, so unfortunately he couldn’t help me right away. I therefore decided to focus on people who have been more active lately.
I had some contacts from my time in DLG (Demoscene Logo Gallery), but I also wanted to work with friends because creating demos at the age of 50 should be enjoyable and adventurous — that’s why we do it! I invited my old friend Vasyl, who returned to the scene around the same time as me and Sir James. They both collaborated with the Mystic group back in the ’90s. They are both responsible for the 2D graphics in our demo. Vasyl is one of the best pixel artists on the scene right now, bringing a whole new dimension to our productions, while Sir James has developed an excellent technique for creating graphic animations. He is also responsible for all the fonts and visual 2D effects in our demos.
3D graphics were something completely new to me. In the old days, the coder created all the 3D effects and objects; today, it’s the graphic designers who do it. That’s how I found Biter and Szudi. I was looking for active 3D artists and found them on the PC scene — they all have Amiga roots, though. It’s funny, but they are like fire and ice; they have completely different personalities, and no one would expect them to work so well together. Szudi created all the beautiful graphics, textures, and skyboxes in the demo. He is a very hard worker with lots of innovative ideas. Biter is a mind-blowing graphic designer with lots of experience and fresh ideas. He is also responsible for the design and effects scenario, as well as all the technical issues in our demos.
At some point during the creation of the ‘Lupus Reditus’ demo, Witja also helped us by providing some important 3D objects for the production. I also considered using ASCII, as it represents the essence of the demoscene from my era, and h7 did a great job. Once the team was assembled, we just needed a musician to complete it.
My first thought was naturally XTD, a legendary Polish musician and probably the first member of both our groups. However, XTD hasn’t created anything for the Amiga for a long time, and we needed an experienced player. The Xenium party was taking place at that time — it was held at the end of August 2024 — and I took the plunge and invited one of the best on the Amiga scene right now. That’s how AceMan joined the team. We first met five years ago and I immediately recognised his musical potential, but I was completely surprised by what happened when he joined the team. His full support and commitment were invaluable in creating the production, and I cannot imagine our team being any other way today. We are very close and great friends, and we’re ready to work on more demos in the future.
“Creating demos in the 1990s was a completely different experience.”
Ghandy: If you compare ‘Lupus Reditus’ with Tedys productions from the ’90s, you’ll see that the coder has made an incredible leap forward. How did that happen?
Norby: These were completely different times with different coding. The productions made for Three Times No (TTN) were only the beginning of his coding adventure. He was learning at the time and, after moving to Mystic, he constantly developed his knowledge. He wrote a lot of interesting procedures and effects, but did not publish them due to commencing studies and, in effect, resigning from all scene activities. At the end of 2023, Tedy created a unique 3D engine for the Amiga 030 that could be used for 3D games or demos, among other things. The engine uses an FPU to speed up the necessary calculations for texturing with perspective correction. As you can see, creating demos in the 1990s was a completely different experience.
In the demo, we didn’t utilise the engine’s full potential, particularly the lighting models we developed, as our focus was on storytelling. However, this is only the beginning; further ideas and new productions are only a matter of time.
Lupus Reditus – The Return of the Wolf
Ghandy: That sounds promising. What’s the story behind ‘Lupus Reditus’?
Norby: In short, it means: We are the wolves and we are back! ‘Lupus Reditus’ is the Latin translation of ‘The Return of the Wolf’ (to be honest, it’s not an entirely accurate translation, but it sounds nice, so we decided to use it). The demo is all about us and our comeback to the Amiga scene!
The Polish divisions of Mystic, Tristar and Red Sector Inc. have been inactive for around 30 years. Now, we are back again, and this is only the beginning. By the time you read these words, it will probably already be clear that ‘Lupus Reditus’ is just the first part of a bigger story that we are preparing for the Amiga community. Further productions featuring our wolf in the lead role are already in the pipeline, and we will do our best to provide everyone with plenty more excitement.
The best is yet to come
Ghandy: I heard that a completely different demo was planned for the Revision party which was supposed to be even better. But it wasn’t finished. Is that true?
Norby: That’s exactly what happened. We had an idea for a completely different story, but personal issues affecting one of our key members caused work on the production to be suspended, so we had to change our concept completely. We can now tell you that, during the work, it turned out that Biter was seriously ill and required immediate surgery. The situation was really serious, but thankfully everything went well and Biter is feeling much better now.
However, the demo project had to be completely changed. This happened in February, three months before Revision we decided to change the entire concept, making a small production to test our collaboration, and we also wanted to complete it for Biter. The result was even better than we expected, and that’s how ‘Lupus Reditus’ was created.
Ghandy: Now that the ‘DataVerse‘ demo has been released by the same team, will more productions be released in the near future? Have you wolves tasted your first blood? Not to forget that your first demo was released for the Amiga 1200/A4000, even though many have gone back to classic Amigas. What are your future plans? Will your next productions be with or without the AGA chipset?
Norby: More productions are the plan, but let’s keep our next productions for the Amiga AGA system under wraps for now. The script created by Biter for our first demo will definitely be used again, but first, we had that new A500 production from BOOM! PARTY in July 2025.
It was the first Amiga OCS demo from Tedy, who had never done an A500 production before. It uses a completely different technique; the limitations of the pure OCS Amiga were very challenging, but Tedy wanted to try a completely different approach. This is probably just the beginning, as some of the demo’s effects could be improved. So, more is definitely coming, but first, another AGA production from us.
Ghandy: Okay, so both chipsets will play a role. After such a long time, what was it like to attend a demo party in Germany again and then win the competition?
Norby: First of all, I would like to thank all my friends at Tristar and Red Sector Inc. for trusting me and allowing me to fulfil my childhood dream. I received full support, and collaborating with the group Mystic and other friends in Poland from different groups was problem-free. I am very grateful for the full support I received. Yes, we are a bit older, but creating demos is supposed to be fun — a respite from the worries of real life. TRSI will always hold a special place in my heart, and I was determined to make my mark on the history of this legendary group. Seeing the joy on the faces of my TRSI friends during the party was the greatest joy for me.
However, I was totally shocked and stressed during the awards ceremony. I couldn’t utter a word from the stage, for which I apologise. I promise to shout “Amiga Rulez” next time! I hope there will be another chance soon!
Speaking of artificial intelligence: “The essence of our art is not its appearance. It lies far beneath that!”
Ghandy: By the way: What’s your view on artificial intelligence in the demo scene? Does it have a place if it’s labelled as such? Or does it not belong there?
Norby: Artificial intelligence isn’t a major focus for us at Mystic and TRSI because we don’t need it. As Biter said, the essence of a work of art lies not in its appearance, but in what lies behind it. What we create may be better or worse, but it’s ours, and that’s important. These are the key differences: the content of human thought in the work. It’s also about the creative process itself, which brings us joy and gives us energy to act through our own creativity. I believe we have such talented individuals in our group who only require a Commodore Amiga computer and a little time. There was a time before AI when great productions were being made; let’s stick with that and do our own thing.
Ghandy: Thank you very much, Norbert, for your detailed answers. I wish you continued success!
By the way: Here’s the link to the brand new website of TRSI! I especially enjoyed Madison’s personal party report from the BOOM! Party, which took place at the end of July!
From left to right: Miklesz/Damage, Frano/Damage, Norby/DLG Crew^TRSI and Vasyl/Joker^Nah-Kolor^TRSI.
Are you interested into the history of the scene? Okay, here we go. Please follow our white rabbit to read an interview with Hamster, the current organiser of TRSI. His career began in the late 80s in Red Sector. And here’s another interview with Norby from 2022.
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