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That Thing I Hate About Myself   [2023]

That Thing I Hate About Myself Released by :
Fairlight [web]

Release Date :
1 July 2023

Type :
C64 Demo

AKA :
VIC Gray Dot Bug

Released At :
Pågadata 2023

Achievements :
C64 Demo Competition at P氓gadata 2023 :  #1

User rating:*********_  9.4/10 (25 votes)   See votestatistics
**********  9.9/10 (10 votes) - Public votes only.

Credits :
Code .... Trident of Fairlight
Music .... Fegolhuzz of Fairlight
Charset .... tNG of Fairlight
Directory Art .... tNG of Fairlight


SIDs used in this release :
Ostinato Grey(/MUSICIANS/F/Fegolhuzz/Ostinato_Grey.sid)

Download :

Look for downloads on external sites:
 Pokefinder.org


User Comment
Submitted by Higgie on 17 July 2023
it's not a bug! it's a feature! ... proven by this demo in an entertaining way. :)
User Comment
Submitted by Jammer on 3 July 2023
Horizontal lines are obviously not a grey dot but I guess they're still done with $d021 splits as that's the main routine here.
User Comment
Submitted by Oswald on 3 July 2023
not only the last part is cheating we have many horizontal linees too obviously not made out of grey bug :)
User Comment
Submitted by Jammer on 3 July 2023
@Wile Coyote: if you're using any old Vice, run x64sc exec.
User Comment
Submitted by Wile Coyote on 3 July 2023
First all, i would like to say, what an amazing tune! ..one of the best new .sid's in recent times ^_^
10/10 for the unique idea with regards to the use of the new Vic chip 'grey' weirdness.
Admittedly i watched the demo on YouTube, the reason being, VICE was not showing much of the action.
User Comment
Submitted by Yogibear on 3 July 2023
Fantastic! Also great zax!
User Comment
Submitted by HCL on 2 July 2023
@Jetboy: I also didn't believe you could do a "tech-tech" effect with it like in the final part, but was too tired when i checked out the code yesterday night i just gave it up. Hope that @Trident will confirm the cheat some day, it was very nicely done building up alot of confidence and then just slap us in the face like that ;)

This demo is awesome btw. That's what i should write in here!
User Comment
Submitted by The Syndrom on 2 July 2023
beautiful concept, hard work on the code and a lovely tune makes this a perfect demo.
User Comment
Submitted by hedning on 2 July 2023
Awesome! Me and Mibri have been nagging people about this for years.
User Comment
Submitted by Dymo on 2 July 2023
Cool!
User Comment
Submitted by Mibri on 2 July 2023
Very cool demo - feels like we had been waiting for something like this! :D
User Comment
Submitted by Raistlin on 2 July 2023
Very cool little demo! Nice to see this realises! Mibri and Hedning, you have your wolfdots!
User Comment
Submitted by katon on 2 July 2023
Beautiful demo with wonderful music!
User Comment
Submitted by Jetboy on 2 July 2023
Nice demo. I like it too.
I hope you guys all realize that in last part it is not the bug dot, just hires sprite overlaid on other sprites.

Clever setup, i would have fallen for that on the party too, and would have been amazed.

Then i would realize you cannot move the gray dot bug with scrolling :)

Anyway i'm impressed :)
User Comment
Submitted by Viscid on 2 July 2023
Wonderful. The grey dots always annoyed me on some codings but yes, every new bug is the effect of tomorrow. Maybe LFT can teach us how they work ;) Nice work! (on my cold C64 with new chip the vertical lines didnt work, but hey... I try again after he run for a few hours)
User Comment
Submitted by Conrad on 2 July 2023
Fantastic demo ... finally showing off this particular VIC bug as useful! Well done, Trident!
User Comment
Submitted by trident on 2 July 2023
there have been a bunch of demos that have made explicit use of this effect in the past. the first i know of is Risen from Oblivion which does two effects using this: a splitscroll, where the outline of the scroll is made up of the gray dot bug, and a starfield made up of vic gray dot bugs. but that starfield uses only a single pixel per star, unlike the starfield here, which uses 2 + 1 pixels per star (the first pixel is two pixels high and there is a lagging single pixel 8 pixels behind the first one - this needs some immoral opcodes to work). and then Emusuxx0r+ uses it in an attempt to thwart emulators. at the time, it worked, but today that demo - ironically - works better in emulators than on a real machine.

the most recent demo i know of that uses this effect is 7 Byte Stormy Night which by far takes the first place in competition for the most number of vic bugs per byte. it uses the vic gray dot bug to draw snow on the screen in only 7 bytes of code (check out the code, you won't be able to figure it out at first, it is insane!). unfortunately this didn't work well on the projector at Fjälldata 2023 so only a few people there were able to appreciate it in full. this is why the starfields in this demo have stars that are two pixels high - but from what i've heard, this still wasn't enough to make the pixels work on the projector screen at the party.

the vic gray dot bug is very flaky. first, it is only available on the new vic chip. but not on all machines. on some machines with the new vic chip, it is visible all the time. on other machines with the new vic chip, its visibility depends on the temperature of the vic chip. sometimes a warm chip makes it work. sometimes a cold chip works better. recent versions of the vice emulator display it perfectly, however - almost too perfectly. on real hardware it usually won't be as stable or as bright as it is in vice.

in the compo at pågadata, the vic bug didn't show up at the first attempt at showing the demo, despite the same machine was able to display the bug just a few minutes earlier. so the organizers had to show the demo at the end of the competition instead, possibly in an attempt warm up the vic chip. when shown, the vic bug showed up at the beginning of the demo, only to fade away towards the end. might have something to do with temperature. or just because the demo exercised the bug more than usual. who knows?

but this is all part of the demo. you won't know if it works until you actually run it.
User Comment
Submitted by 饾榿饾棥饾棜 on 2 July 2023
At the party they had to test the demo out a few times before getting a machine that would show it.

I myself tested it on several machines at home, it worked somewhat on all machines that are with the Newer VIC chip in them, but there was some hit and miss with the inital test. But I had most succes and got it working well on my machines. Some it worked perfectly directly and some it did not show the vertical lines on. but leaving the machine on for a while ~15min and it worked like a charm. Seems like the VIC needs to get hot.

The Ultimate64 and the TurboChameleon64 V1 i got had issues, not displaying the vertical lines at all. Would be fun to hear from users with Mister or Mega65 if they get it working.

Also using Vice make sure you set the models right and newer model of VIC chip in your settings to be able to see this.
User Comment
Submitted by anonym on 2 July 2023
Paging Mibri, just so he can call them wolfdots.

Gorgeous. Love it. It feels just like a few days ago we were joking someone should make a demo with this 'effect'.
User Comment
Submitted by Jammer on 1 July 2023
I refuse to believe grey dot can move per pixel like that! Sickness! <3

Ok, I forgot about scrolling ;)
User Comment
Submitted by chatGPZ on 1 July 2023
Enthusi did something similar (but not quite as elaborate) before, so not a first :)

Cool stuff though!
User Comment
Submitted by Skate on 1 July 2023
you were supposed to hide that bug!!! :) probably a world first considering being deliberate on the subject. Cheers.
User Comment
Submitted by Oswald on 1 July 2023
brilliant on all levels, codepron, design, scene poetry, music, rasters, wow.
User Comment
Submitted by iAN CooG on 1 July 2023
hardcore codepron
User Comment
Submitted by Mixer on 1 July 2023
Brilliant!
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