The Mindbomb Demo (1990)

When The Lost Boys (TLB) started piecing together The Mindbomb Demo, the Atari ST demoscene was still feeling the aftershocks of The Union's eponymous megademo. Indeed, the importance and influence of The Union Demo is hard to overstate. For some, like the British The Lost Boys, the demo provided a challenge they simply could not resist.

“It is not easy to impress the scene ever since the Union Demo was released a year ago”, wrote TLB's coder Tim Moss, aka Manikin of The Lost Boys, in one of Mindbomb's scrollers. But impress they did. 

Many still consider The Mindbomb one of the greatest Atari ST megademos of all time. This would have probably surprised the TLB members back in the day, especially considering what they wrote in a message located at the beginning of the demo disk:

“This disk was completed on the 18 April 1990 and for a very short time it will be the best demo on the ST.”

The Mindbomb Demo and other TLB demos were also an impressive calling card when the group's members began showing interest in game development. For Tim Moss, the demoscene provided the starting point for a decades-long career in the industry. The man once known as Manikin has worked in major positions in big studios, and has a stunning list of titles under his belt, like the modern classics God of War and Journey.