tomaswoj

No randomness. Part of the optimizing challenge was to keep the reasonably looking (semi randomly looking but still pixel 'perfect') location of the trees (on the layers and between the layers, so no 'empty' spaces, no major overlaps, compositionally looks 'natural'), so the trees location themselves require 40b of raw data, therefore not a lot of code left for drawing itself, gradient, and the comet (and setting up all the PMG stuff). And the inspiration was the demoparty that just finished in St.Petersburg today (Demodulation 2020). More prods (also for Atari XL/XE) here (and coming): https://www.pouet.net/party.php?which=1931&when=2020 As a group (Agenda) we tend to swarm parties recently with our 256b intros in 2020 Side-effect of COVID, isolation, not so many in-person parties. Typically one of us starts coding something, that inspires (or drags :)) the others to join the compo. And here we are, with 5-6 prods, DDoSing parties I must emphasize the high quality of the overall Demodulation organization. Very professional (streaming, web page, voting, etc.). Stream available here: (so far in Russian, but it will be transcripted to English soon). Link is positioned just before the programming compos starting (with combined 256b intro one having 5 Atari XL/XE intros, few ZX ones, and few BK-011 ones (16bit Russian computer from that era).

Hi All, just a lil intro/procedural gfx in 256b. Source code attached for curious. The rendering process: tunguska256.zip

Note guys, that while I like this book, it is focused on the polish side of the matters. Not a lot of stuff about wide european part of the scene. Also, I would say the [polish] scene related content is probably no more than 10-15% of the overall book content.

Economy Plus helps (if you can get that reimbursed ). And the motivation and focus (and good headphones) and that thought at the back of your head, that if not now then never (hard for me to find comparable amount of spare time at home for me). So I try to use every free slot possible for that hobby. I'm 40 (dunno if it helps here or the opposite :)).

Hi fox, what I typically do is record uncompressed from Altirra, then vdub (and there video->filters->add->resize, 200%, nearest neighbourgh scaling), video compression to x264vfw, just passthrough audio (do not modify). Then upload the resulting file to YT. Worked smooth for me so far Cheers svoy

The thing you start to wonder after a while, is that the designers of the machine were pure geniuses in the way they have designed it, the interactions between different components, etc. Of course there are some limitations, but still, looking at how much of new stuff one may still invent 30+ years later you wonder - it was a pure genius back then. It's still a stock original 6502+POKEY+ANTIC+GTIA after all, just blessed with some memory expansion.

For the curious planet lovers above, a bit behind the scenes - how it developed. The core of it was implemented during a business trip (these help in demomaking!, especially long distance flights, PL <->US this time, with 2x9h time for uninterrupted coding), when waking up on a jetlag early mornings in Chicago downtown hotel.... And then significantly enhanced... It's pretty simple effect, leveraging DLI (and changing GTIA colors every 2nd line), PMGs (as 'curtains' giving this nice pixel perfect round shape, again changing hpos and colors every 2nd line). Below the PMG is a 'bare bones' LMS on display list combined with a hscroll (so the central, equator parts are moving faster, but still smoothly, than the others). No rocket science, I'm afraid, but looks good. Smoke and mirrors in A8 style, but leveraging to the most the capabilities of these chips. On the contrary - the jetpack fx coded by Gorgh is a fully fledged engine. No shortcuts, no smoke and mirrors. And that is why it is 'enabled' for expanding into a game.

kudos from the authors! We are happy you like it Cheers svoy/agenda

Btw. Poison, can you also share TOP7-10.xex files? I believe we saw the reference to these parts in the credits part. I understand they may have not been shown during the compo, but hey, if they exist, please link them here. Thanks in advance! svoy/agenda

Just copying my answer to Poison's post on atarionline.pl. +1 to Xeen's comments. No need to apologize. Poison - my personal take is, that it SHOULD NOT BE YOUR LAST PROD FOR ATARI. I think the Megademo actually contains some interesting effects. The challenge in appreciating them is the fact that they are scattered across an extraordinary length of time. If some of these effects (cherrypicking) would be put together, maybe a bit shortened, aligned the color scheme, align the placing on the screen, better/more interesting fonts, etc. it could and up as a pretty good quality demo. Maybe not technically groundbreaking, but hey, we don't have to break the limits in each and every production. So Poison, please do not give up. Maybe just work a bit more on the design aspect the next time. I think most of us would really appreciate another proper Atari demo, if its closer to 3-5 minutes in length and has a couple of interesting effects. On another note - while I was a bit frustrated during the compo, it's already became a legend It will be remembered, and after a while when emotions go down, I think most of us will actually start to smile, and feel the pleasure (despite all the odds) of being a part of it. And this legend, this memory will add to the growing 'folklore' of Forever party. So Poison, cheer up, you have not offended anyone, you have not harmed anyone, you've made some of us smile after all. Work on design, and give as a next demo some time in a future.

Just a stupid question. Lack of Atari 8bit computer demos is by design in the nominee list (it looks its VCS/2600 only)? Or because lack of good productions for 8-bit computers this year? If the latter - I would argue a bit... EDIT: never mind, just read small letters 2600 Homebrew. So perfectly fine with me, crawling back to my cave

Hi Bob, I've purchased the first 5 issues in PDF (for 5 pounds is a great deal btw.! ) and I LOVE IT. It reminds me in a good way the classic Polish Atari magazines (like Swiat Atari: https://atarionline.pl/biblioteka/czasopisma/Swiat_Atari/Swiat_Atari_1992_01.djvu). It ticks all the right points for me. Browsed just the first issue so far, but X-Mas is going to be great with the rest . Thanks for your work on these. It's so vivid that a whole lot of work, love and passion went into designing and publishing it. As soon as #6 is available - I will make the purchase. Have a great X-Mas season and all the best in 2019! Cheers svoy/agenda

Yes, that was DMA, disabling it gives 'pure' sin wave with no frequency squeezes. Thanks!

Hi All, I tried to find some information but failed. What I'm playing with recently is generation of digital/volume-only music (to be more precises - basic sound as of now ). Just few days ago I found this nice Altirra Audio Monitor feature, that saved me already a ton of time, trying to debug my sample playback So first big KUDOS for that to the author! But where I'm getting confused is the following view (attached). What makes me wonder is why the [otherwise perfect] sin 'sample' on the first channel shows the lower frequency in the center of the view, and slightly higher frequencies (see how squeezed they become) on the edges, left and right, of the view. Is it just a presentation mode? Or it is really generated like that? Note that my generation/playback code is pretty simple. Just goes as fast as it can through the 'sample', and then repeats, and then repeats,... And nothing else is done in the main loop. Also - NMI is set to simple 'rti'. And I know that even with some NMI code I just get some short 'flatline' on that chart (so I don't think it is contributing to squeezing at all). I tried to make a comparison to a regular POKEY generated sound (channel 2), to see if it also follows the 'squeeze' presentation pattern, but apparently it is not. In the channel 2 case the sound frequency is perfectly equal in the whole audio monitor window. Also - this is just a static screenshot. But when it runs - the squeeze areas are staying at the edges of the view. They are not moving to the center, etc. So am I doing something wrong in the code? And it's because of that I see the occasional squeezes in the frequency? Or it is just the presentation matter (e.g. a fisheye view? to help with some better audio debugging)? The reason I'm digging it is the sound this perfect sine generates is not so perfect, still a bit noisy. But I'm not yet that experience to tell, whether it is because of the limited nature of POKEY digital sound capabilities (e.g. 4-bits only resolution for that) and so I will just have to live with it , or because of my poor code. Cheers svoy

No worries Lets focus on the bright side. We are here, future is bright, life is good.