Atari 2600 demo competition

[Sdw]

The Sillyventure Atari demo party in Poland last weekend had a dedicated compo for 2600 demos.

Four entries competed, but I've only been able to find three of them released online.

 

1st place: ISO by JAC!

http://pouet.net/prod.php?which=58044

 

2nd place (my entry): Sphaera Stellarum by Noice

http://pouet.net/prod.php?which=58034

 

3rd place: Minute and a Bit by Tjoppen

http://pouet.net/prod.php?which=58038

 

Links contains both download to the ROMs and video recordings ready for viewing!

[+GroovyBee]

Good stuff!

[+Nathan Strum]

I love stuff like that! Very cool. The "Fullscreen Plotsphere" is amazing.

Edited November 15, 2011 by Nathan Strum

[+Gemintronic]

I think one of the requirements should be "works on real hardware". Also, I'm quite jealous of those coders that seem to allow multiple colors on the same playfield row

[Thomas Jentzsch]

The "Fullscreen Plotsphere" is amazing.

 

/signed

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I think one of the requirements should be "works on real hardware". Also, I'm quite jealous of those coders that seem to allow multiple colors on the same playfield row

Allow tracing in z26 (-tt) and enable it when the code you want to analyze what is currently displayed. Or use Stella's debugger. Or play with ALT+ZXCVBN while the demo is displayed.

 

Together that should give you a pretty good idea how everything is displayed. How the display is setup outside the kernel is another story...

[Sdw]

I think one of the requirements should be "works on real hardware". Also, I'm quite jealous of those coders that seem to allow multiple colors on the same playfield row

 

All demos work perfectly fine on real hardware, I've run them personally using my Harmony cart.

[Tjoppen]

Sadly, we're still missing an upload of "xSqueeker" (see http://pouet.net/res...ich=438&when=11 ). Perhaps we should pester the guy (Szuwarek) or Grey/MSB.

And yeah, the demos do work on the real thing (mine at least). I remember clearly because I had to fix a VBLANK mistake to stop the screen scrolling (oops).

Here's a short summary of how my effects work, in the hope of more/better future prods:

 

Text scroller: Just a frame buffer drawn using an asymmetric playfield

Twister: Mostly tables and clever use of the priority flag in CTRLPF. HMxx values are computed on the fly

Rotozoomer: A one-line buffer (two bytes, GRP0/GRP1) computed on the fly, x and y coords accumulate dx and dy respectively and are compared to form each pixel. Optimization could have allowed 24 horizontal pixels I think

Plasma: In each line, look up leftmost pixel in table and stick in COLUBK, then do 10x ADC #Imm + STA COLUBK, where the #Imms are modified during VBLANK (self-modifying code). Stagger and interlace for 22 horizontal samples

Pinwheel: 768 bytes of bitmap data form eight frames of one quadrant of the shape, mirrored horizontally and vertically (sort of). The few cycles left over were enough for the greet graphics

Edited November 15, 2011 by Tjoppen

[ls650]

I've just run all three demos with jStella without any problems - I will probably look at them tonight on my 2600/Harmony.

 

Very impressive work - though I can't help but think that this ability is being wasted on what are essentially pretty pictures when you guys could be making new games instead....

[Ben_Larson]

I love these demos. Makes me want to try one myself... not that I would be able to match this type of quality though.

 

The plot sphere is especially impressive. I found myself saying "no way!" out loud on that part.

[Tjoppen]

xSqueeker is up: http://pouet.net/prod.php?which=58051

[Amstari]

I love these demos. Well done to everyone!

 

It's great to see the 2600 doing things I never thought would be possible.

 

I've got a folder on my Harmony Cart just for Demos now. Now I need to download some more from Pouet.

[+RevEng]

Agreed that these all were fantastic - well done guys!

 

While watching them I was torn between trying to analyze how each effect was done, and just sitting back and enjoying the visuals and music... mission accomplished!

[ZylonBane]

Can a 2600 port of Second Reality be far behind?

[cruzer]

Seeing these got me motivated to restart some Atari 2600 hacking, which I first tried out about a year ago. Damn, it's fun to try coming up with ideas for effects on a machine that is this limited. So with a little luck, expect a Camelot demo soon. I need to find someone who can make a tune btw.

[+JAC!]

I need to find someone who can make a tune btw.

 

Welcome cruzer and you immediately found out what is the REAL limitation of the VCS :-)

[cruzer]

Welcome cruzer and you immediately found out what is the REAL limitation of the VCS :-)

Thanx, and I guess it's time to start playing around with random noises then

[Ben_Larson]

Thanx, and I guess it's time to start playing around with random noises then

 

It's dangerous to go alone. Take this:

 

http://www.qotile.ne...music_guide.txt

http://home.arcor.de...ts/freqform.txt

[R. Jones]

. . .

 

The plot sphere is only GRP0 . . .

 

I feel impressed . . .

[ZylonBane]

Surprised there doesn't seem to be any mention around here of the Chiphead demo released at Silly Venture 2016 by Altair. It's a demake of Fairlight's Ziphead. Definitely one of the most impressive 2600 scene demos I've seen yet.

 

 

And here it is live with audience reactions.

 

 

[Army Of 2600]

This is absolutely awesome.

[Kiwi]

Surprised there doesn't seem to be any mention around here of the Chiphead demo released at Silly Venture 2016 by Altair. It's a demake of Fairlight's Ziphead. Definitely one of the most impressive 2600 scene demos I've seen yet.

 

 

And here it is live with audience reactions.

 

 

The music in the Chiphead is really outstanding. Wow.