Retroporting on the demoscene

Demo’s are – of course – a way to show the 1337 skillz of the creators to show that they are able to stretch the limited hardware to extremes and show you things you thought weren’t possible on your homecomputer.

Sometimes demo’s are like battleraps; they dis other demogroups and their creations by taking an effect from another demo and improving on it, rendering the original effect obsolete or second-rate.

The ultimate blow in these friendly battles comes in the form of retroporting demo’s to a platform that is older and less powerful, for example porting an amiga demo to a c64 version. Take a classic amiga or pc demo – a demo that has stunned people by the way it stretched thecomputer’s capabilities – and simply make a c64 version of it, disregarding the breadbox’s inferiority regarding memory, processor speed and graphic capabilities, and you will be legend. Check out the examples below:

The legendary PC demo “Second Reality” by Future Crew:
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=8G_aUxbbqWU[/youtube]

… and the c64 remake bu Smash Designs:
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=zVPW40ygds4[/youtube]

The classic Amiga demo “Desert Dream” by Kefrens:
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=GH2GyQQIBNo]

… and the c64 remake by Chorus & Resource [youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=g9TT55hrz90]

Be an instant legend by Retroporting

Demo’s are – of course – a way to show the 1337 skillz of the creators to show that they are able to stretch the limited hardware to extremes and show you things you thought weren’t possible on your homecomputer.

Sometimes demo’s are like battleraps; they dis other demogroups and their creations by taking an effect from another demo and improving on it, rendering the original effect obsolete or second-rate.

The ultimate blow in these friendly battles comes in the form of retroporting demo’s to a platform that is older and less powerful, for example porting an amiga demo to a c64 version. Take a classic amiga or pc demo – a demo that has stunned people by the way it stretched thecomputer’s capabilities – and simply make a c64 version of it, disregarding the breadbox’s inferiority regarding memory, processor speed and graphic capabilities, and you will be legend. Check out the examples below:

The legendary PC demo “Second Reality” by Future Crew:

… and the c64 remake bu Smash Designs:

The classic Amiga demo “Desert Dream” by Kefrens:

… and the c64 remake by Chorus & Resource

Blast from the past: Before you go

I posted another old chiptune to 8bitcollective called “Before you go“. I made it for my demopart “Split Personality” in the Commodore 64 demo “Before you go“, which you can see below. The MP3 was recorded from a real c64 by Stone OakValley.

The demo is from 1990, thats more then 15 years ago! How time flies…

The tune, recorded from a real c64:
http://www.8bitcollective.com/items/music/Before_You_Go_T01-8580.sid.mp3

The demopart “Split Personality”, recorded from an emulator:

Putting myself on the Berlin map

Two of my photos on Flickr have been included in Schmap! Berlin, an online city guide to Berlin.

You can find them here and here, credited and all

c64dtv demo’s

A while ago I bought a c64dtv. That’s a commodore 64 re-designed to fit into a joystick. It comes with about 30 games and plugs directly into your tv set.

Lots of people are hacking this little toy, connecting old commodore diskdrives and keyboards to it, using it as a pimped commodore 64.

I say “pimped” because the c64dtv seems to be capable of bigger and better things than the old breadbox was, and it seems the demoscene has discovered the joystick as a platform. Check out this video from YouTube

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ESzkETdtuQ[/youtube]

c64dtv demo’s

A while ago I bought a c64dtv. That’s a commodore 64 re-designed to fit into a joystick. It comes with about 30 games and plugs directly into your tv set.

Lots of people are hacking this little toy, connecting old commodore diskdrives and keyboards to it, using it as a pimped commodore 64.

I say “pimped” because the c64dtv seems to be capable of bigger and better things than the old breadbox was, and it seems the demoscene has discovered the joystick as a platform. Check out this video from YouTube

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ESzkETdtuQ[/youtube]

Fresh meat wanted

We at E-id! are looking for some fresh computer science talent that wants to do their graduation assignment with us. Besides the excellent atmosphere and stimulating environment, there’s a nice perk; you get your own car straight away. Check out this video (in dutch):

Mick Rippon

Mick Rippon comes from Australia and creates nice synthie and guitar tunes. My favorite is “The Balance” which I think is a good example of his style; warm, personal sounds with a melody that is uplifting but with a touch of melancholy. Check him out on last.fm or mickrippon.com.

[audio:mickrippon_balance.mp3]

Computer animation avant la lettre

How to do computer animation when your machine just isn’t fast enough? You create a really slow animation, film the screen and then speed it up, as this video from 1985 demonstrates.

Of course there’s nothing old-fashioned about the technique itself; animation movies like Shrek, Happy Feet, Ice Age etc. are not real-time animations either. It takes a lot of time and computers working at the same time to render each frame in such a movie. And it will stay like this for quite some time into the future, because as computers are becoming faster, the images will become better looking, demanding more processing power.

Orbital & Hardcastle goosebumps

These two videos have something in common; they are both iconic synthie tunes, and in these live versions they have been fitted with buildups that give me goosebumps. See what you think and oh, if anybody has the complete Hardcastle recording, I want it!

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=u7RlIZywxNQ[/youtube]
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=AHVdAfujzH0[/youtube]