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Conference hydra::amiga_v1

Title:	AMIGA NOTES
Notice:	Join us in the NEW conference - HYDRA::AMIGA_V2
Moderator:	HYDRA::MOORE

Created:	Sat Apr 26 1986
Last Modified:	Wed Feb 05 1992
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	5378
Total number of notes:	38326

1760.0. "DOC Demo" by LEDS::ACCIARDI (Dukakis should pluck his eyebrows) Sun Oct 09 1988 20:03

    
    I came across a fascinating demo on PLINK called DOC.  It's a little
    hard to describe, but it looks like the introduction to some hot
    game forthcoming from Europe.
    
    I don't know what DOC stands for; perhaps it's the title of a game
    or the author's initials or something...
    
    Anyway, it involves a train of ray-traced balls and their shadows
    dancing at blinding speed in drug-induced patterns on the screen.
    In addition, there's a scrolling checkerboard horizon that meets
    a sky of hundreds of different graduations of blue and yellow. 
    As if that's not enough, theres a techno-funk rock score for
    accompaniment.
    
    Just when you thought you'd seen everything, some demented genius finds
    new ways to push the hardware and make jaws drop.  Really, I can't
    for the life of me imagine how this was done.  I've never seen bits
    move so fast in my life.  If anyone can figure this out, please explain
    it to the rest of us dullards.
    
    Now for the wierdness...
    
    When run on my A2000, there's a band of horizontal video static
    about 1" tall at the top of my screen.  Maybe it has something to
    do with PAL vs NTSC displays, or maybe it's supposed to be there.
    Also, the demo takes complete control of your Amiga's soul; the
    only way out is a reboot.  I suggest making a self running disk
    with the DOC executable and an s/startup-sequence file with DOC
    as it's only entry.
                                                                   
    The ARC file is 251 VMS blocks, and is called, oddly enough, DOC.ARC.
    It's in LEDS3::USER6:[ACCIARDI.AMIGA].  Please download after business
    hours.                                  
    
    I promise you'll flip over this.  Ed.

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
1760.1	...more info...	LEDS::ACCIARDI	Dukakis should pluck his eyebrows	`Sun Oct 09 1988 20:20`	6
	I forgot to mention a critical point... DOC is only 131 kbytes in size, so any of you barbarians with only 512K or 1 meg (you know who you are) can still enjoy this. Ed.
1760.2	Much Nift!!!	RLAV::WEGER	Bruce Weger	`Mon Oct 10 1988 00:53`	15
	Remarkable ! The 'weirdness' or noise band at the top appears to be an additional bonus. The bands are actually a realtime representation of the notes in the musical score. There appear to be eight bands moving in a circular motion. Kinda like looking at a Gatling Gun from the side. The individual bands (or notes) move left to right as they are 'hit' and gradually slide back to the left while being sustained and stay on the left while the note is not in use. Well, that's my interpretation FWIW, are there others? Great piece of code... Thanks for the upload 8'D
1760.3	eh	ANT::JANZEN	Tom LMO2/O23 296-5421	`Mon Oct 10 1988 09:43`	4
	Let's hope it doesn't have a virus in it. it was OK, I guess, but it's as Len said, we expect a great deal from the Amiga now. It would have been dynamite a year ago. Tom
1760.4	Sid Vicious Demo	FOOT::HERBERT	Herbie Goes Bananas!	`Mon Oct 10 1988 10:20`	16
	The DOC demo... If you leave the demo to run for about 10 mins, it allows YOU to define the path for the spheres/wing flapping vampires. Strange, but that demo has been 'floating' around the UK for at least a month or two! Has anybody seen the "Sid Vicious Demo Disk", it forms a compilation of some demo programs around at the moment. One of the demos features the sound effects from Barbarian (Palace Version). There are 6 pairs of Barbarian lookalikes all battling it out, the sound effects are used as the characters fight each other. This is a most amusing demo. Herbie.
1760.5	Upload "Sid Vicious Demo"?	ROMULN::MYEE	Boycott Styrofoam cups, save the ozone.	`Mon Oct 10 1988 12:02`	7
	Sid Vicious Demo... Can we get the "Sid Vicious Demo" uploaded? Sounds neat! -Mike
1760.6	Speed kills!	LEDS::ACCIARDI	Dukakis should pluck his eyebrows	`Mon Oct 17 1988 11:40`	16
	Well, I may have overstated how impressive the DOC demo is... I keep forgetting that I have a CMI 14 MHz 68000 board in my A2000. After giving the DOC demo to a friend with a stock machine, he commented that it didn't run nearly as fast as it did on mine. I got to see DOC running on a stock A500 on Saturday at the Software Shop. It was about 2/3 as fast as mine. We then ran it on Moe's personal CSA 68020 monster. It was easily twice as fast as mine! The soundtrack sounded like a 33 RPM record played at 78. In fact, the '020 powered A2000 was the fastest, most responsive computer I've ever used. It made a Mac II seem 'klunky' by comparison. Ed.
1760.7	Shadows on DOC and PAL?	HPSTEK::MYEE	Crunchy Frog	`Fri Oct 21 1988 11:14`	11
	Has anyone notices the shadows of the balls and demons on the checkerboard pattern? I noticed this at TML when they showed it on their Electrohome (hugh screen TV). Later, I tried adjusting the vertical size on my Sony KV1311, and sure enuf there were shadows on mine also. Question: (obviously this demo was written for the PAL TV standard) How do we over the pond in the US fully enjoy PAL demo/games/etc. ??? _Mike_
1760.8		BAGELS::BRANNON	Dave Brannon	`Fri Oct 21 1988 11:52`	19
	re: .7 how do get to see all of PAL screen Since NTSC has less lines, you either have to increase the number of lines or reduce the need for that many. increase the number of lines: 1. convert your NTSC amiga to a PAL amiga. I believe you can buy the PAL version of the custom chip (not sure which one) reduce the need for that many lines: 1. a hack to shift the start of the screen up so you can see the bottom (Garrison II used that technique) 2. I've seen a program on a ST that switched the clock to 50Hz, the screen flickered but did display the extra lines. Not sure why that worked. 3. Another ST program sliced lines out of the display. Not so hot for text displays. -dave