30 Years Megademo released!

[TFM]

So yesterday I eventually had the time to enjoy this best ever CPC demo at home on my trusty CPC6128 and this is the first time in my life I see demo effects and I don't know how it is done! Just awesome amazing!


Congratulations to the whole team!!! This is truly worth to be called 30 years of CPC!!! 

[roudoudou]

Futurs' part is really impressive !!!

Yep! Too bad it ends so fast!

[TomEtJerry]

Now you can wait for "50 years megademo" to see that again :-).

[TFM]

Now you can wait for "50 years megademo" to see that again :-).

Hmm... or 30 years of 6128 Plus ... would be... in just 5 years. 

[TMR]

Hmm... or 30 years of 6128 Plus ... would be... in just 5 years. 

30 years of the CPC6128 would come first...? =-)

(Also, it's a gorgeous piece of work and congratulations to everyone involved for it!)

[TFM]

30 years of the CPC6128 would come first...? =-)

Well in.... - 1 years. So you have to reset the time of the universe and then wait until 1985+30 years.... ehm... forget it. Nope, CPC6128 came out 1985. 

[TotO]

A great team work demo with eclectic content! (saldy, the parts assembling are not polished)
As I love pixels, I mainly enjoy the animated splash screen, main menu and Vanity hidden part.
Shinra, Benediction, Futurs and Vanity parts are pretty good. Thank you for playing the game!!! 

[Overflow]

This massive release deserves more comments, here am I for a few positive dedicated messages, Pouêt is not enough.
Dedicated messages means : see previous comments from others for global message or obvious comments. 


I'd like first to congratulate Krusty: despite time and rising issues (we know some of them), he did keep faith and will to achieve the goal.
Might be what is the most impressive to me in the whole story.


Impressive also: did you notice how much good is the part from Eliot? how much he improved since his last release?
Sounds good for his next release(s).


Futur's part is something very special to me. Hey! it's a one-screener as we used to have in the early years, but what a one-screener!
I do take this as a nice hommage to old one-screeners (... and overpass them btw).


Texts from GPA/T&J are also very nice for such a celebration (mega-)demo, well done!


---


All in one, you guys from 30YMD: thanks! be sure I find motivation in some of your work to go back on cpc code. 

[TMR]

Well in.... - 1 years. So you have to reset the time of the universe and then wait until 1985+30 years.... ehm... forget it. Nope, CPC6128 came out 1985. 

[Takes TFM to one side and whispers] Yeah, i knew that too... but i want 'em to make more demos and was hoping they'd go for it anyway! =-)

[TFM]

[Takes TFM to one side and whispers] Yeah, i knew that too... but i want 'em to make more demos and was hoping they'd go for it anyway! =-)

Whispers back from dark corner: ... just let em do a &20 years of CPC6128 (and maybe 664 too).... whispering ends... tumbling weed run by ... some lost bits and bytes come along ... demos are being made during these days... 

[TotO]

Watching the Futurs' part on a real CPC CRTC1 in loop... Just amazing! 

[Executioner]

Ensure to remove the fast disc emulation on winape ; we have not noticed issues on it (however I have modified some piece of code to hide a bug in winape fdc code)

Perhaps you could let me know what the bug is

(And by the way, there's a bug in the 30YMD FDC code!)

[TotO]

If I'm not wrong, the solution found to work around the problem was to check two times if the floppy disc was inserted.
So... the issue is not exactly known... But all work fine on a real CPC without this "emulator friendly code". (some peoples said to not do it)

[TFM]

Sounds like an issue with head load time. The FDC code in the 30 years CPC deme hopefully will see version 0.1. Because it all would fit on one 3.5" disc without changing discs. Just to provide an idea. 

[CraigsBar]

A great team work demo with eclectic content! (saldy, the parts assembling are not polished)
As I love pixels, I mainly enjoy the animated splash screen, main menu and Vanity hidden part.
Shinra, Benediction, Futurs and Vanity parts are pretty good. Thank you for playing the game!!! 

Vanity hidden part??

[GOB]

Is there others demo or gfx compo/sound from the Reset ?

[krusty_benediction]

Perhaps you could let me know what the bug is

(And by the way, there's a bug in the 30YMD FDC code!)

yes, of course.

In the code where I test if we are with the right disc I call two times the following routine, instead of one.
When called one time on winape, the turndisc part is  systematically shown.


FDC_Scan   
ld a,%01001010     
call PUTFDC     
ld a,(FDCHEAD)     
sla a     
sla a     
ld b,a     
ld a,(FDCDRIVE)     
or b     
call PUTFDC     
call GETFDC     
ld (ST0),a     
call GETFDC     
ld (ST1),a     
call GETFDC     
ld (ST2),a     
;Lis information dans A.     
call GETFDC ;Numero Piste     
ld (.track_nb), a     
call GETFDC ;Tete logique     
ld (.side), a     
call GETFDC ;Nom Secteur     
ld (.sector), a     
call GETFDC ;Taille secteur     
ld (.size), a     
ret
.track_nb db 0
.side db 0
.sector db 0
.size db 0

which use the following routines from Arkos FDC routines probably modified by Syx

FDC_STATUS          EQU $FB7E ;
;Get data from FDC
;Ret = A=FDC data
GETFDC     
LD   BC,FDC_STATUS
GETFD2     
IN   A,(C)     
JP   P,GETFD2     
INC  C     
IN   A,(C)     
RET 



PUTFDC   
  EX   AF,AF'   
  LD   BC,FDC_STATUS PUTFD2     
  IN   A,(C)   
  JP   P,PUTFD2   
  EX   AF,AF' 
  INC  C   
  OUT  (C),A
    RET 

This issue may come illogical things in the FDC code before which is not problematic on a real computer, I have never tried to rad any doc on FDC and have not idea of how it works.

[krusty_benediction]

Is there others demo or gfx compo/sound from the Reset ?

if I remember well, there was
- one cpc old pic
- one amstrac plus pic
- one soundtracker zic of tony
- one digitracker zic  (by brink ?)
- one arkos tracker zic by

I left befor the votes, not idea of the results

[arnoldemu]

FDC_Scan   
ld a,%01001010     ;; read id
call PUTFDC     
ld a,(FDCHEAD)     ;; head and physical drive unit
sla a     
sla a     
ld b,a     
ld a,(FDCDRIVE)     
or b     
call PUTFDC
;; there is a delay here...
     
call GETFDC     ;; status and c,h,r,n from first read sector id.
ld (ST0),a     
call GETFDC     
ld (ST1),a     
call GETFDC     
ld (ST2),a     
;Lis information dans A.     
call GETFDC ;Numero Piste     
ld (.track_nb), a     
call GETFDC ;Tete logique     
ld (.side), a     
call GETFDC ;Nom Secteur     
ld (.sector), a     
call GETFDC ;Taille secteur     
ld (.size), a     
ret
.track_nb db 0
.side db 0
.sector db 0
.size db 0

which use the following routines from Arkos FDC routines probably modified by Syx

FDC_STATUS          EQU $FB7E ;
;Get data from FDC
;Ret = A=FDC data
GETFDC     
LD   BC,FDC_STATUS
GETFD2     
IN   A,(C)     
JP   P,GETFD2     ;; minus (bit 7 set) = data ready, bit 6 is not checked (CPU->FDC OR FDC->CPU).
INC  C     
IN   A,(C)     
RET 



PUTFDC   
  EX   AF,AF'   
  LD   BC,FDC_STATUS PUTFD2     
  IN   A,(C)    ;; again ready for data but not checking direction.
  JP   P,PUTFD2   
  EX   AF,AF' 
  INC  C   
  OUT  (C),A
    RET 

This issue may come illogical things in the FDC code before which is not problematic on a real computer, I have never tried to rad any doc on FDC and have not idea of how it works.

I added comments. Do you check ST0/ST1/ST2 in your code or assume all is ok?

Which Winape did you test with? Is it the newest?


EDIT: Code does a read id on side 1. Internal drive will ignore that because it's single sided. So this code works on both single sided and double sided discs allowing you to insert the disc you want.

So if a the 3" version is written to a double sided disk but only one side then the load will fail to find the part.

Not sure why Winape needs two id reads to make it work??

[krusty_benediction]

I develop on several (Linux...) machines, not sure the tested winape is always the same (high probability that it is version 2 beta 1) ; I cannot verify now.

I do not check ST0/ST1/ST2 at this moment ; only later after a call to load the sectors of a file (in fact it is Targhan's routine which do that by themselves)

And yes the code is voluntarily the same on 3" and 3"5 drives (thus you need the double sided dsk for emulators and to respect the order of the sides on 3"5 drive).

[TFM]

GETFDC and PUTFDC only check bit 7 (highest bit), so this is to check if the FDC is ready for data transfer. But the routines DO NOT check other bit of the main status register. That's bad! They should at least check bit 6 (data direction!). You can easily add that. 


Other issue: Do you check for Drive Ready before you read the ID? Well, maybe in WinApe you "switch on the motor" too late and this way the second "Read ID" only works. This is in case the real 3" drive reports "Ready" a bit before WinApe does it. OR: Your real CPC has a floppy with jumped Ready signal. Here: Read Status 3 before issue "Read ID" command, to be sure the Drive is Ready AND wait enough time to be sure the drives with Jumped-Ready Signal will be "Ready" in reality (and not only report so). 

[Phi2x]

.

[TFM]

My favorite demos always have been: Ecole buissionair, that stuff from Prodatron with the vector balls and Odisofts art (sorry, don't remember names) and a couple others... but this one put's em all to 2 place.


Krusty seems to be responsible for all that. So THANK YOU for at least 30 years more!!! 


Say what you want, but CPC scene is just pure awesomeness. 

[Optimus]

Thank you guys for this, I never expected to see it finished


There is a lot to love about the quality of this megademo. The intro is really good, the scrolling in the menu amazing, the parts are really polished.
I like mostly the Shinra and Benediction parts but the others are cool too (new sprite record, GPA screen with big greet memories of old/new sceners and game companies).
I think the Futurs and Vanity must look amazing, I only checked the youtube for these parts, since I now have only CRTC 0 CPC and these parts should mostly look great and smooth in the real machine and you miss the magic in youtube or emulator. It's a pitty I only have a CRTC0 CPC and CPC+ here, I used to have 3 CRTC1 CPCs back in Greece.



Where there any other releases at ReSeT?

[khaz]

Currently transferring it to discs, can't wait to watch it!

Why three sides (42-tracks) for 3.5 discs though? couldn't you guys pack everything on two sides (80-tracks)?