VICUAL MMIX - new unexpanded VIC20 demo

[a1bert]

After a long wait, after 7 years in the making (and most of it in hibernation), Pu-239 is proud to present a new visual and aural demonstration using an unexpanded VIC20 assisted with a disk drive.

Get your copy now from http://www.iki.fi/a1bert/Pu-239/vicual-mmix/ and enjoy the sound and colors of the great VIC20 machine.

Thanks go to Anders Carlsson for catering for the auditory senses.

[Boray]

Thanks! But why are you using gzip???

[carlsson]

a1bert probaly mostly lives in the Unix/Linux land, where tar + gzip and more recently bzip2 are the common compression methods. As far as I know, the traditional Zip algorithm has been under patent which means many people avoid using it alltogether.

[nbla000]

After a long wait, after 7 years in the making (and most of it in hibernation), Pu-239 is proud to present a new visual and aural demonstration using an unexpanded VIC20 assisted with a disk drive.

Very impressive demo, I envy your ability in vic graphichs management

Have you never tried to use your talent for a big 16/24k vic-20 game ?

Thanks go to Anders Carlsson for catering for the auditory senses.

I've recognized the Carlsson's Tetris+ all-of-fame song using a the new player with additional effects...

I like the song of "GIVE NEW WAVE PLEASE"... very good implementation of new player effects

[a1bert]

Thanks! But why are you using gzip???

It saves space. Why not?

At least vice seems to decompress it automatically.

[nbla000]

After a long wait, after 7 years in the making (and most of it in hibernation), Pu-239 is proud to present a new visual and aural demonstration using an unexpanded VIC20 assisted with a disk drive.

Very impressive demo, I envy your ability in vic graphichs management

Have you never tried to use your talent for a big 16/24k vic-20 game ?

Thanks go to Anders Carlsson for catering for the auditory senses.

I've recognized the Carlsson's Tetris+ all-of-fame song using a the new player with additional effects...

I like the song of "GIVE NEW WAVE PLEASE"... very good implementation of new player effects

Thanks! But why are you using gzip???

Yes linux land likes this format btw you may easily open it under windows using winrar.

[a1bert]

Have you never tried to use your talent for a big 16/24k vic-20 game ?

The thought of a game has come to my mind, but it takes much more than just tricking the VIC-I. And I don't want to make a remake of an existing game, it should have some originality as well.

[carlsson]

My next VIC-20 game will be a mix of two concepts that I doubt have ever been mixed before. I've already begun working on it, but Real Life has delayed me from finishing it yet.

NBLA: Yes, for a long time I wondered whether that song had been used or not, but I decided it could be used again with some new arpeggios. They're a bit on the loud side though.

Anyway, I took the liberty to upload a capture to YouTube. I believe my secondary PC used for capture is a bit too weak (800 MHz Athlon) which shows in the maximum quality one can use for capture. In order to shrink the video to be uploaded, I had to apply some DivX encoding too. I believe YouTube re-encodes videos anyway, so there may be some quality loss in this process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhfuSPg3kXQ

[Boray]

At least vice seems to decompress it automatically.

Aha, so it does! I didn´t know that!

Looks really nice!

[a1bert]

Anyway, I took the liberty to upload a capture to YouTube.

Just three small issues: frame rate, resolution, and quality. :-]

It's so horrible actually that it quickly approaches hilarious.

Edit: the best-quality version does not seem as bad.

[saehn]

Great demo! Please make an NTSC version.

I especially like your fonts. Maybe I should do some VIC-20 graphics and offer them for use in one of your future demos! The only real VIC gfx I've seen have been Ptoing's skeleton and Mermaid's flower girl (both of which are great).

Gratulationes, optime!

[ral-clan]

Amazing! I wonder what the original designers of the VIC chip would have said if you could have shown them a demo like this back in 1980.

[orion70]

It's really stunning, hypnotic, technically impressive...
I agree with ral-clan, plus... with demos like this on display in the shops in 1981, nobody would have been able to resist ... The VIC-20 would easily have sold much more units.

[carlsson]

However remember a great demo that doesn't "bring fruit" in other software could have the opposite effect once the word is out. It means if the people on Commodore made stunning demos but the rest of the games looked like the same old stuff, customers would be somewhat disappointed.

I'm sure some of the VIC tricks can find use in games, but those which rely on very exact timing and no disturbing interaction would be best suited to embellish interludes. It is a challenge though, to try to make something game-like from visual effects without breaking them.

[Ivanhoe76]

A1bert, you're trying to make the world believe that a vic-I chip, well mastered as you're doing, is not far from the SID of the big brother (ooops!!!) C64 .We can say that some of the music created by Zapac reminded me in some way whe one used in creature ... and what about the graphical effects you used.... and we should think that all this is done just by a poor (???) unexpanded vic20... It's amazing....