Re:Secret Colours of the Commodore 64
by evaneykelen on Sunday March 12, 2023 @03:10AM
(#35117591)
Answering my own question by disabling [1] "CRT emulation" in Vice. My demos were using "CRT bleed".
Re:Secret Colours of the Commodore 64
by _the_inflator on Sunday March 12, 2023 @03:52AM
(#35117814)
Cool, Hacktec from legendary 1001. :)
Sodan vs 1001 - of course veterans will remember. Also the story about how Cardcruncher got stolen and then released.
ESCOS is still highly regarded today as it should be.
Re:Secret Colours of the Commodore 64
by evaneykelen on Sunday March 12, 2023 @04:15AM
(#35117931)
Indeed, that’s me! Were you active in the demo scene too?
Re:Secret Colours of the Commodore 64
by _the_inflator on Sunday March 12, 2023 @04:51AM
(#35118107)
Yes, on C64 I've been with Beastie Boys, X-Rated and again with Remember later on.
Now working on a contribution to the Amiga competition for Revision 2023.
ESCOS blew my mind back then.
1001 Crew sparked the whole C64 demoscene, IMO.
I stand in awe.
Indeed the most insane effects were always created by the dutch :)
Re:Secret Colours of the Commodore 64
by _the_inflator on Sunday March 12, 2023 @07:33AM
(#35118927)
Same here. I will never forget my "first contact" with it. I saw ESCOS at a friend's house (Brandis/Success). At first I thought he manipulated the monitor, which was able to zoom in so that it shows only the text/graphics area. :D
Those were the times :) I remember Sodan releasing his borderscroll back then. I guess 1001 released their demo first. 1001 was always held in the highest regard by us scandinavians :)
Re:Secret Colours of the Commodore 64
by OnlyMortal on Sunday March 12, 2023 @06:49AM
(#35118618)
Top and bottom border sprites were trivial. A single poke turned off those borders.
Side border sprites were trickier as you had to catch the raster and, to prevent flickering, time your code with a few “nop” instructions.
Then there’s the full screen scrolling trick. Not the 8 pixel shift. I mean full screen scrolling. It used a “bug” in the VIC.
Mayhem In Monsterland been an actual real world use: https://youtu.be/ldo2ewLBt3Y
Yeah VSP. Although you could scroll the entire screen with $d016 by splitting up the fullscreen byte shift in the 7 frames before the shift :)
Doesn't it support scrolling officially?
I created two demos in 1986 that also show additional colors to the basic palette of the C64. I don't recall whether these demos used a pattern of pixels that caused "CRT bleed" [1] or whether colors were quickly alternated in the way described by the article.
I just ran the demos in Vice and took screenshots [2]. As an aside, notice that the sprites extend outside the regular border which was long considered impossible on the C64. A whole arms race started between demo groups to beat each other by taking border sprites to the next level. I contributed to a number of those demos too [3].
[1] Of course, I just ran the emulator on a non-CRT display on MBP but I don't know how well the C64 emulator also emulates the bad video quality of 80s TVs/monitors. I seem to notice some bleed artifacts in the screenshots.
[2] https://twitter.com/hackteck/status/1634807467056963585
[3] https://csdb.dk/group/?id=81