C64 Demo: Next Level by Performers ! 3 June 2023! #1 at X23! csdb.dk/release/?id=232976 Released At : X'2023! X-23 Demo Compo Place #1! f:Commodore 64 (C64) f:Commodore 64 (C64) Demos f:Commodore 64 (C64) Crack/Intros Airwolf/F4CG
Sometimes I thought the demoscene had progressed so far that it couldn't be pushed any further. And then the Performers come along and wipe my eyes clean. This is a total blast, gentlemen...
I loved the cameo of the C= demo balloon most. I guess only real C64-Dudes know where it came from. Ok, watched the whole demo. And I did some back myself in the days. For most demos I instinctively know how they were made. But in this demo I saw several effects which I considered impossible on a 64k/1Mhz system. I bow my head in amazement.
Yeah, I don't have the remotest idea how some of this is done, and the makers of the C64 certainly never imagined anything like this could be done. It's funny how the demo is technologically miles ahead of most of the games depicted, even though it's the same machine.
#TeamBalloon right here. I was at a C64 event earlier this year and I had so much nostalgia browsing through the book and seeing that balloon sourcecode again.
This part blew my mind. Love it! I was wondering if they made some smart kind of screen/audio capture algorithm. For SID audio it would be pretty easy to dump all $d400-$d418 values per frame to a table. And putting the back to $d400-$d418 in the correct order. I am not aware of a normal SID player that could handle this much 'instruments' and soundseffect and still sound good. Although this would mean a lot data since it is 25 bytes per frame, they would need some smart compression there.
@@guidogouweloos moreover : Mahoney had to re-written some of WinVice engine , to save the snapshot , of the game , then to make it to some of custom data for compress and also wrote tables to capture the on-going music sid filters + notes + waveforms data , thermendous work i believe took him more than a year to do it !
This is some proper VICII disrespect. I love it. 4:00 - whoa 5:00 - how? 8:00 - HOW?! 12:00 - disk drive suffers a heart attack from loading that nostalgia sequence non-stop 15:00 - yes I do, thanks for asking. 17:00 - looks simple, but is kind of novel for a lavalamp/plasma effect 17:40 - VICII: "I'm tired now." Performers: "Too bad. Render this 3D scene with lighting, rotation, translation, materials, and make it snappy." There's bending the rules and exploiting the occasional silicon bug, but these guys just combined every last trick into one demo. "Next Level" indeed.
I am absolutely blown away by this experience! It feels like a wonderful trip down memory lane. all the memories flood back as I explore and reminisce. It's amazing how time can seem to stand still in certain moments, while at the same time speeding by in others. This has truly been an incredible journey that I will always cherish! i am speechless ty, ty, ty, i have to watch this again ! next level is on point
The best demo ever on C64 ! The first place is correct ! They made a hard work and very fabulous demo... transitions, graphics and musics are perfect ! Whaouuu
The 100 games segment could not of been done better with video editing for peeks sake? WTH!!!! How!!! Legendary! Blown away!!!!! C64 is the true 8bit KING there is just no argument anymore... Amazing
Have to post another comment! The graphics at 15:00 - If that was on an Amiga it would be impressive - but on a Commodore 64 it's just NUTS! HOW!!!????
2 месяца назад
It is just standard hires bitmap mode, people tend to not use it in favour of having more colours to choose from, but loose resolution. This mode only allows for 2 colors per 8x8 pixel block, but 320x200px on screen. The gfx is extended to the upper open border with some sprites.
Gnarp! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CxkTwJoAzBE.html. Amazing demo, I've been long waiting for it. Seeing that little cameo from a demo I liked in my childhood, 30 years ago, is also amazing. Mahoney still knows his stuff.
Mahoney? What from Mahoney & Kacktus fame? That Mahoney? If so... the noisetracker intro from protracker on amiga still echoes in my brain all these years later...Amazing work...
amazing work, the software engineeringis out of this world, i wonder what could be achieved by these great minds on modern OSes like Windows with GDI Plus.
Yet another person (ZX Speccy nerd) asking how you packed all these game clips into 64K. Did you talk to ChatGPT and say "how can we make it smaller than Farbrausch?" -- anyway -- very cool
Jesus Jiggin’ Christ… I was part of the scene in my teens in the early nineties. This is really some next level sh@t… is it running on a standard C64??? Unbelievably cool!! Scotex/Trias
So, that's a great example of thinking outside the box to create a truly outstanding demo. The old Mac GUI part looks very plausible. The dithered transparency effect is cool and looks really fast, I wonder what hacks they've used to make it work on that hardware. The random pattern resembles Floyd-Steinberg diffusion and seems to be algorithhmically generated.
Absolute insane amount of work. The 100-games part, as said, is completely wild. The sound samples, and music, as well. This deserves all the praise. All of it. So happy this exists. And honestly, the use of samples here are fucking amazing ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CxkTwJoAzBE.html
I'm not sure either. I'm pretty sure they're using everything the VICII can do at once, and that "gutter" between the left and right halves is used to swizzle VIC registers around. But this is just an unreal amount of wizardry on display.
A technical perfect demo and very well overall design, but the most astonishing is the game part - the most craziest thing I have ever seen. How did they compress this all - and how was it coded? This would take years for a horde of game rippers and coders ... with gfx, animation, sound and music? Did they create a realtime automatic ripping machine with compression? This is really the next level! Top!!!
"Did they create a realtime automatic ripping machine with compression?" I think it's that exactly. Consider the "real-time" video concept demos kicking around out there. In this case, you just stream SID code and screen update packets until you're done. All while running the 1541 flat-out. There's ample room for compression, but it would have to be lightweight for speed - probably resembles char data more than raw pixels. The SID data/stream might have been puzzled together manually unless there's an straightforward way to tease that out of an emulator in real time.
Okay... nice effects and everything but the most impressive part for me as a developer: How did they fit all those game graphics one just one disk? These may not look as impressive as the effects before and after it, but to me that's the most impressive part of the entire demo. Even though it's just one screen of every game with a bit of movement, there must be a hell of compression going on behind the scenes to make this possible.
For me, these are modern day puzzles, thinking about possible solutions on how you would be able to create all these effects. So far i've solved about 10% of that puzzle, guess I have to rewatch this a lot more! So great!
wow! was this run on a "standard" c64 or is some kind of memory or cpu extension part of the compo rules? couldn't find any information on the party website
I highly doubt this could be done on the original machine. There are all sorts of modernized hw and sw mods like machines with two sids and this is cool, but the original 80s setup has limits which had been reached decades ago.
@@vetodromstill highly doubt. maybe on an emulator with modernized gizmos. no way on an original 80s machine. too much going on too fast, too many layers, too much code, not doable on retro disks. sorry sir, but no way 🤷🏻♂️
@@vetodrom well I guess I have to take your word for it then. Don't get me wrong I'm astonished by the demo, but the only way I'd be really convinced was I'd run this thing myself on my old stock machine + 1541 I own since the 80s. There's no other way I'd believe you without a doubt left (and don't forget we're all strangers and don't know each other, so things here are always easily said, much harder done, just saying).
2 месяца назад
Grab the .d64 files, write out the two disks and have a try on vanilla hardware and you will notice that in deed it doesn't need more than the original machine. C64 demos have aimed for compatibility a lot, in case of this demo we even forgo on techniques that might crash on some newer c64 models (VSP), just to stay on the safe side. Also no 40 track disks are used, to keep live easy. Loading is improved a lot by uploading loader code to the 1541 to make it load way faster, accompanied by state of the art packing schemes (zx0). It is not only about coding skills, it is also about choosing the right approach and illusion to make things work, undocumented opcodes help a lot too. This is a comment of one of the coders being involved in this demo.
@@jasperd.5734 Also I think the problem for me was I pay 200€ for the same stinking location as years before....but how would they fit 600 people in there? I didn't sign up. Also Top dogs like Arise, Samar, Resource, etc. Don't wanna go there....why? I dunno, ask them? Without these, these compos look kinda bleak because quality over quantity. Innovation over Oldskool. And also exciting music over whatever was in this Demo....
