Moleman 3: Journey to the Surface

The story of the birth of the Hungarian home computer scene back in the '80s behind the Iron Curtain. Smuggled in C64s, cracked games, swappers, diskmags, hacked phone lines to American BBS servers, demoscene, copy parties.

It is the year 2546. Corporations rule the world, and an agent is on a secret mission to explore the untold stories of the past. His journey leads him into a secret virtual reality where one corporation has recreated the 1980s, an era that witnessed the birth of video game development, an event in which a politically and economically restricted small European country, Hungary, had a significant role. He discovers a strange but exciting world, where computers were smuggled through the Iron Curtain and serious engineers started developing games. This small country was still under Soviet pressure when a group of people managed to set up one of the first game development studios in the world, and western computer stores started clearing room on their shelves for Hungarian products.

In the 1980's, something changed the world forever. Computer technology, mostly due to the appearance of affordable Commodore 64's, entered households worldwide, providing the opportunity for everyone to create digital art. Moleman 2 is about the demoscene subculture, told by mostly Hungarian sceneres, but it features also some other nationalities.

Moleman is a documentary diary about the independent subcultures of a bustling Central European capital, Budapest. Under the cultural surface of the metropolis lies a flourishing art life, and alternative recreational activities are available. There are many who do not follow the mainstream taste, and do not fall for the temptation of the commercial media. The originators of Budapests subcultures and their audience represent hundreds of thousands of people. These subcultures and artists should not be underrated or disregarded. Moleman chooses five characters from this world, and allows us to peek through their eyes into a culture and lifestyle that lie out of the realm of celebrities, that is other than Pop Idol or the soap opera Between Friends or the pop band Hooligans. But it exists, creates works and is taking shape.