Commodore 64 Demo Reel

[Gingerbread Demon]

I am not totally sure if they ran this on an emulator or a straight C64 machine but this 8 bit demo is kind of impressive.

I really wonder if this kind of stuff is possible on a Commodore 64 without extensive modding.

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Still it's a pretty sweet demo.

 

[Maurice]

I think it's a stock C64. The whole point of the demo scene is to show how far you can push the actual hardware. This guy coded a new graphic mode.

 

[Amaris]

Oh my, yes. This was quite possible. I loved watching the results from the Demo scenes (such as The Assembly). My favorite team was Future Crew, who made this demo back in 1993:

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Another one of theirs from 1992:

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Keep in mind that all of these demos ran real-time. They were not pre-recorded or pre-rendered. Of course, other demos have been made for much lower memory requirements, like this 64k demo from Chaos Theory:

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TL;DR: People are fucking nuts at this shit. You should check it out.

Edited to add: Here's 2nd Reality on the C64, just so you know how good these guys were:

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The C64 SID chip was just badass. Bad. ASS.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

OMFG........... I can't believe that. I wish I'd kept my machine now. "cries"

Just think the fun you could have showing off these demos to people on a C64. That is indeed badass.

Wasn't the SID chip responsible for most of the sound? Did it also handle graphics? That one I posted just drove me nuts with what they did.

Yeah and I love watching demo videos.

 

[Nebusj]

Wasn't the SID chip responsible for most of the sound? Did it also handle graphics? That one I posted just drove me nuts with what they did.

My recollection is that the SID just handled sound effects. The graphics were a VIC-II chip. And the software controlling it all was done by shoving whatever bits they had in the junk drawer right before release and hoping for the best.

(I love you, Commodore, but boy it's amazing you lasted as long as you did.)

 

[Amaris]

My recollection is that the SID just handled sound effects. The graphics were a VIC-II chip. And the software controlling it all was done by shoving whatever bits they had in the junk drawer right before release and hoping for the best.

(I love you, Commodore, but boy it's amazing you lasted as long as you did.)

Yep yep. The SID chip was for music/sound, while the VIC-II handled all of the video requirements. I loved my C64. I had it up until about 1994, at which point I got my Zenith 286 (I had to paint a house to get it, too!).

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Hey everyone in this thread check this out..

http://www.pcworld.com/article/224722/new_commodore_64_is_finally_here_for_real.html

However the disappointing thing is that this is just a bloody PC in a C64 case. It's not an actual C64. I feel disappointment after reading this.

 

[Amaris]

Hey everyone in this thread check this out..

http://www.pcworld.com/article/224722/new_commodore_64_is_finally_here_for_real.html

However the disappointing thing is that this is just a bloody PC in a C64 case. It's not an actual C64. I feel disappointment after reading this.

That article is from 5 years ago, though, and the end result was lackluster at best, to the point where the new Commodore USA went defunct in the U.S.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

That article is from 5 years ago, though, and the end result was lackluster at best, to the point where the new Commodore USA went defunct in the U.S.

Oh........ I did not see the date. oops

 

[publiusr]

Heck I remember the TIMEX Sinclair. It looked cooler at least.

 

[Amaris]

Oh........ I did not see the date. oops

It's okay, I've done it before, too. Plus, a lot of tech websites like to run old stories as recent.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Heck I remember the TIMEX Sinclair. It looked cooler at least.

I built one. They were sold as kits

 

[lpetrich]

Has anyone ever written a software version of the C64 SID chip? I think that present-day computers could run such software without consuming a lot of CPU time.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Has anyone ever written a software version of the C64 SID chip? I think that present-day computers could run such software without consuming a lot of CPU time.

Is this what you are thinking of?

http://www.hypersynth.com/sidizer.html

 

[lpetrich]

Is this what you are thinking of?

http://www.hypersynth.com/sidizer.html

Yes indeed, that sort of thing. A lot of analog and early-digital synthesizers have now been implemented in software form like VST modules.