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Forums > C64 Coding > Pushing the envelope, Or stay beaten by a 16 YO kid!
2018-09-21 20:50
Nova

Registered: Jun 2012
Posts: 13
Pushing the envelope, Or stay beaten by a 16 YO kid!

I got abit nostalgic tonight and enjoyed some early ninetees
perfection by Flash inc, A little Light, Even Bob got in a few minutes of lalaland,Origo, byterapers, Upfront etc (Mathematica still gives me goosebumps)

It occured to me that todays elitegroups (according to me) like Oxyron,Booze,Plush,Chorus,Camelot started to emerge when us guys from the older school where just about done and our lives got in the way of the scener-life.

Back in those days everything was about squeezing every last cycle through perfecting a routine that many had made before you but if you got that last DXYCP char or those extra 10 (only in a Y sin,horrible) Plots you could reighn supreme for a few hours or even months or years before someone stole your glory and made a faster routine that often could be totaly outside the box and therefore superior.

Today everything seems to be about polished loader screens and perfect transitions between (again my opinion)"demoparts" that probably squeezes every last cycle, but who knows because there are just not 5000 fucking hungry young coders trying to make the same demopart, but just abit better.

I fell inlove with coding on the C64 because the hardware is set and everyone has the same precursors.

So, Here come the "hot potato",
Did "todays elite" choose a different path simply because
the "oldschool" effects just cannot be done faster within the hardware limitations, (sticking my chinn out here, punch it if you want to!)
Or since most of todays elite code for a living on other platforms but still cant write a faster routine then some pimplefaced 16 year old did two decades ago!!

I am not sure where i was going with this but i guess i just miss the old sceenerdays..
But it still seems strange that someone that can code bumpmapping and phongshaders on a C64 still cant write a faster dycproutine then some kid who sold the "moped" and bought a C64 two decades ago.



-WRAP!-
 
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2018-09-25 06:37
chatGPZ

Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11386
it should take 5 minutes at least for a proper cigarette break :)
2018-09-25 07:51
Oswald

Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 5094
Nova apparently doesnt understands the technicalities of todays demos.
2018-09-25 08:57
Krill

Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2980
Quoting Raistlin
It’s funny because it’s true :’) .. non-programmers: because the picture is larger, you need to IRQ load in the background, giving less CPU time to do the scroll. So double the length of picture can mean FOUR TIMES the enjoyment time for the end user ;-)
I believe most of the bitmap crawlers could scroll significantly faster. But i also believe it went down more like this:

<Gfxian> Hey, can you make this 3-screen picture scroll?
<Coder> Yeah, sure. Might not scroll so fast, though, unless i spend a week min to optimise the shit out of it.
<Gfxian> Ah, don't bother. Gives the audience more time to appreciate every single pixel and then some.
<Coder> Alright. Then i have more time for the actual effects.
2018-09-25 09:33
Golara
Account closed

Registered: Jan 2018
Posts: 212
Quote: Trap: “ is a demonstration of great teamwork more than anything else.”
... not forgetting the one-man teams like LFT of course.

For me it doesn’f matter if a demo is oldschool, newschool, 1k, 4K, 1 disk, 3-4 disks, ... a good demo can be any of those - or something else entirely. And it can be made by 1 person, 1 group, 3 groups, whatever.

Teamwork is great - but not every demo can be a 10-person, 3-group trackmo with 3 hours of bitmap scrolls ;-)


It doesn't matter when you watch and listen to a demo, but when evaluating the "score" or... i don't know what to call it, but I guess I respect the demos with less people involved much more. I really like the idea of 3 guys doing a demo, coder, graphician and musician. Like a band.

I'm thinking of moments like in "Unicorn" by chorus where the code/paint/keyboard graphics comes up and it's just 3 names over it, or Cycle by booze and it just says "Demo by HCL and Dane". Somehow I find it much cooler than 3 minutes of credits scroll. (btw, I think I'm involved in the second kind right now, just so you know)
2018-09-25 09:37
chatGPZ

Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11386
i totally agree - thats also why "uncensored" should have won :)
2018-09-25 09:59
Krill

Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2980
I remember their PR wasn't as good as the others. :)
2018-09-25 14:01
Mr.Ammo
Account closed

Registered: Oct 2002
Posts: 228
Quoting Raistlin
[...]

One really annoying thing for a programmer - but annoying in a funny way - is that sometimes you spend AGES on an effect... optimising, trimming down the memory use, hand-tuning timings so that there’re no nasty taster jitters, etc etc etc... then you release the finished product and people say “oh, that’s quite nice”... gaaaaah. You want to scream - “nice? The blood, the tears, my fingernails, my receding hairline... you can’t imagine what went into this”. And that’s even worse when you try to tell someone who doesn’t know C64... “oh, if it wasn’t meant to do stuff like that - why don’t you just do it on PC?” SLAP!

The IKEA effect all over. We invest in something and love it very much and don't see how other people don't see things our way. We all suffer this irrational behaviour ;-)
2018-09-25 14:26
HCL

Registered: Feb 2003
Posts: 728
Quote: I remember their PR wasn't as good as the others. :)

Hmm, what was that all about?! Did Bob give you one of his (free) beers, or what actually did he do to make you all vote for *that* demo!?

As for Time Machine, it really wasn't finished enough when the compo was held.
2018-09-25 15:58
JackAsser

Registered: Jun 2002
Posts: 2014
Quote: Hmm, what was that all about?! Did Bob give you one of his (free) beers, or what actually did he do to make you all vote for *that* demo!?

As for Time Machine, it really wasn't finished enough when the compo was held.


Well we did have a cake when winning with 1991 so we’ve had our share of PR stunts. ;)
2018-09-25 16:56
Raistlin

Registered: Mar 2007
Posts: 680
Does the size of the cake need to be inversely proportional to the size of the demo?
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