Hornet Archive

The Hornet Archive was a file repository for releases and resources from the worldwide PC demoscene. It was the first major demo archive on the Internet, as opposed to the popular BBS archives of the time. The archive hosted over 16 thousand files totalling over 7GB. Files were split into various categories: demos, tracker music, graphics, code, info, diskmags, and demoparty releases. The files dated as early as 1987 and as recent as 1998, meaning most were intended for the DOS platform.
The archive opened on September 4, 1992, as the "Internet Demo Site", at ftp.uwp.edu, located at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in the United States. In 1994, it moved to the University of Florida, on the FTP server hornet.eng.ufl.edu, which gave the archive its name. Soon the archive outgrew its second home and moved to ftp.cdrom.com, the largest FTP server of the time, hosted by Walnut Creek CDROM. A web site with search capability was added in 1996. The Hornet Archive officially closed on September 22, 1998, as its founders lost interest in maintaining the site. The Scene.org site took over as the primary file archive of the PC demoscene. In 2002, the Hornet Archive files and main web page were permanently moved to scene.org.
The Hornet Archive was maintained by a demo group also named Hornet, which still exists and has included Andy "Phoenix" Voss, Dan Wright, Jim "Trixter" Leonard, Brett "GD" Neely, Pim van Mun (aka "Stony"), and Christopher "r3cgm" (aka "Snowman") Mann. The group is known better for their general support of the demoscene than for their releases.
DemoNews
Since its inception, the Hornet Archive had its own text file newsletter, called DemoNews. A total of 150 issues were made, from September 24, 1992 to February 4, 1998. At its peak, DemoNews had over 2500 subscribers on its email list. At first, it was primarily a listing of new files on the archive, and the status of the FTP site. By late 1994, it expanded into a full e-zine on the demo scene, with interviews, demo/music reviews, and party reports. In 1995, DemoNews introduced a rating system for every release uploaded to the Hornet Archive, ranging from 1 to 5 stars with half-steps (e.g., "***" = 3/5, "****+" = 4.5/5). These ratings were taken seriously by the scene as a guide of what was or was not worth getting. The growing tracker music scene spun off its own e-zine, TraxWeekly, as a companion to DemoNews in 1995.
Music Contest
Hornet held an annual tracker music competition every year from 1994 to 1998, simply called Music Contest. Only MOD, S3M, XM, and IT module files were accepted. Snowman started the competition in 1993 on a BBS, before he joined Hornet, for those in the scene who could not attend the scarce number of demo parties at the time. By Music Contest 3 in 1995, the competition had become fully Internet-based and fully supported by Hornet, with an invitation intro and results pack. MC2 split the contest into rookie and veteran divisions, and introduced a third intermediate division. The contest's popularity grew from its reputation as a fair, complete competition, with scores broken down by originality, form, technicality, and samples. Experienced tracker musicians were recruited as judges, and gave written feedback on every entry. Modest prizes were given to the top winners. had 385 entries, from all over the world, nearly evenly split among the three skill divisions.
CD-ROM and DVD compilations
Hornet CD-ROMs
Two of the earliest CD-ROM compilations for the PC demo scene came from the Hornet Archive, specifically, Dan Wright, who compiled the Escape CD-ROM in 1994. Five hundred copies of Escape were pressed in six months and two runs. The first edition, released in November, sold for $9 and came in a jewel case with artwork done by various scene artists. The final edition sold for $5 and came in a plastic viewpak with new art. The CD was mixed mode, combining files from Hornet and BBSes with scene music, mostly from Music Contest 2.
With Snowman aboard, Dan had help producing the followup double CD compilation, entitled Freedom. It was released in October 1995, and all 800 copies sold out within three months. The $12 compilation put data on one disc and audio (mostly from Music Contest 3 this time) on the other. Again, Pim "Stony" van Mun and various other scene artists were recruited for disk art, as well as vinyl stickers.
When Walnut Creek CDROM hosted the Hornet Archive and employed Snowman, it was only natural that they publish the next CD compilation. Hornet Underground, released in June 1996, was strictly a compilation of demos from the archive. It lost its scene flair, with artwork done in-house, but received much better distribution through Walnut Creek. Hornet Underground Volume 2 followed in August 1997, with new art matching other Walnut Creek products, and a new interface.
Demand for scene tracker music was high enough that Hornet convinced Walnut Creek to release a music compilation from the archive as well. Hornet MODs Volume 1 was released in July 1997, followed by Volume 2 in October. Each contained well over 1000 music files. Volume 2 also included an audio disc, featuring tracks from Music Contests 4 and 5, thus continuing the tradition of Escape and Freedom.
After the archive closed in 1998, several Hornet members contributed to an independent compilation of releases and media from the NAID demo party, entitled NAIDorabilia and released in early 1999. Only 100 discs were produced before the disc files went public domain in 2004.
MindCandy
After compiling files on disc, Hornet became more interested in recording demos to video on disc. In 2000, plans were drafted for a "Demo VideoCD", quickly changing into the "DemoDVD Project", announced in 2001. The group compiled 42 PC demos in all, dating from 1990-2001, on a double-sided DVD entitled MindCandy Volume 1: PC Demos, released in December 2002. The DVD's appeal was enhanced by audio commentary on each demo, production notes, and a featurette about the demoscene in general. MindCandy became Hornet's most successful disc project, with 6000 copies of Volume 1 sold by 2006. MindCandy Volume 2: Amiga Demos, covering the Amiga demo scene from 1989-2004, was released in December 2006.

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