Mind Present
Mind Present (and its readme) is a N64 homebrew demo by Dynamix released on 28 Feb 1998. It’s a collection of various N64 demos featuring different abilities that the console offers. It was made to compete in the Presence of Mind ’98 competition and won 3rd place.
To get the ROM for both the main demo and the readme, visit the download page for it and use the password 3dscenerumble.
The demo comes in two part: a Readme and the proper contest entry.
Readme
Mind Present is a unique demo in the sense that it ‘s the only one I know of that comes in two parts. The Readme portion is in a marquee/bitmap style. It’s a single screen with the Dynamix logo waving around up top, the marquee text in the middle and a bouncing copyright notice at the bottom.
‘Dynamix’ ‘Presence of Mind 98’ entry. Date: 28 Feb 1998.
Size: 16 Mbits. Format: V64 / Z64. Country: Europe. Drink: Coca Cola. Sleep: Not enough
We included 3 hidden parts, try to find them all.
Credits for this demo: Coding + 3D models: Immortal & widget. Modplayer: LaC. Intro Background: Newt. Testing: Twindianapolis Inc. Additional help: Locke.
www.dextrose.com
Mind Present demo
The proper demo itself has three sections and three Easter eggs.
The ROM boots up to show a 3D model of the Nintendo 64 logo like most games do. However, it is a little bit different. It has textured sides and rotates about all axes rather than just the y-axis. There’s also a small Japanese “Rumble Pak compatible” logo at the bottom.
The menu that appears afterwards is a trippy mess of rotating hollow letters (spelling ‘DNX’?), wavy fonts for the different options, and a marquee at the bottom.
The first two options take you to the other parts of the demo, but the 3rd just resets you back to the initial logo. The secret on this screen is that you have to press the L & R buttons while hovering over ‘restart’; all it does is deselect the item and give you a different “whoo-hoo!” sound effect.
The second secret is in the rotating logo screen. If you rock the D-pad around, the logo eventually stops rotating around the X and Z axis (still around the Y-axis though) and gets fixed around the N in the dynamix logo.
Hiya and welcome to the ‘DYNAMIX’ entry for the ‘Presence of Mind 98’ compo!!
You’re currently in the mainmenu. Use the ‘D’ buttons to select a stage and confirm with the ‘A’ button. You can use the ‘Z’ button in any stage to return to this menu. Oh a little hint, we’ve included several hidden parts. So try out all possible keycombo’s and hidden controller plugin combo’s. Trust us, it’s worth the effort.
This is the second DYNAMIX/n64 release, the first one (DNXINTRO.ZIP) was released on 7th December 1997. Soon after that we started our POM project. The demo you’re watching right now is actually the 3rd attempt for POM. The first two beta’s (a Descent-like world and a Puzzle game) were dropped due to several reasons.
Let’s do greetings now: Actraiser, Hartec, Nagra, Locke, Twinsen, LaC, Stan, Mushroom, Fusion, Twk, NaN, Nil, TheSim, Fractal, Silo, Stumble, Datawiz, Ste, Newt, Jovis, SuperDoc, Matzer, KS, Rene, Count0, Sispeo, KidRIP, Trilili, Con-Mango, Sy’, Steve, JL-Picard, Presten, Rider, Breakpoint, McBain, Shroomz, Nop, Titanik, WildFire, Rainman, MrEndo, Jihad, TazDevil, Wizard, Speedy-G, Stingray, CurtMac. Sue us if we have forgotten you. As if!
Credits for this demo, Coding + 3d models: Immortal & Widget. Modplayer: LaC. Music track: ‘Question of Guilt’ by Thomas Mogenensen (aka Drax). Intro background: Newt. Testing: Twindianapolis Inc. Additional help: Locke.
Extra hint: move to ‘Restart’ option, wait for the ‘N’ to rotate and press a combo.
Well, that’s it for this txt-writer. You can reach us at irc/efnet n64dev.
3D environment (Three-Dee)
The main star of this demo is a 3D environment where you can move and look around in the 1st person. It has some trees, flower beds, a rainbow and a waterfall pouring into a pond. There’s even a cloudy background with a bubble bobble cloud floating by. I particularly enjoyed the animated butterflies and fish moving around in their respective areas.
If you rotate the C buttons in a clockwise manner, you’ll unlock the 3rd secret. The demo plays a fake virus activation screen that softlocks the game and forces you to reset.
This is our little 3D world experiment. Use the ‘D’ buttons to move around, use the stick to change camera angle. Press the Z button to return to menu.
As you can see we’re been messing around with translucency in 3D & sprites and texture scrolling. Hint to a secret area: try making circles.
Rumble (Motortest)
The last demo in this demo is a simple Rumble Pak tester. Press A and B to start and stop the Rumble Pak respectively, and tilt the joystick to increase the vibration intensity. That’s all there is to it. Just be sure to insert the Pak before you boot the game, or it won’t be detected.
There is no secret Easter egg in this section of the demo.
Well we only hope you got one or more Rumblepacks, otherwise this will be a boring part. You’ll be able to use a rumblepack on all four controllers. If you have a pack attached use the ‘A’ button to start the motor. Use the stick to make it rock harder. To stop the motor press the ‘B’ button.
Conclusion
This is quite a fun little demo. Most of the time they’re fairly one-dimensional in the sense that they serve to demonstrate only one aspect of the N64, or they just show everything all up front. Dynamix goes the extra mile with Mind Present by having three demos for the price of one plus three hidden Easter eggs to keep you looking at them for just a little bit longer.
I generally don’t really like Easter eggs since they’re usually hidden so well that only the creators know how to find them, but the creators give just enough clues to make them fun to find. I also love the pun in the title based on the name of the “Presence of Mind” competition.
Overall, it’s one of the more fun demos that have been made for the Nintendo 64 that just happens to stand firmly on the fine line between an advanced demo and a primitive game.
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