New Xmas Demo Released

[redbox]

I've finally finished my second demo: Xmas 2010 Demo.  You can download it from the wiki page for the demo.

It's Plus only and I've tested it with WinAPE and my 6128 Plus...  I stayed up late last night to get it finished so there's a few slack routines in there but hopefully there's no bugs in it!!

It's only a little production made for a bit of fun at Xmas, but I hope you all enjoy it and would of course welcome feedback. 

[mahlemiut]

Runs well in MESS, also.

[Devilmarkus]

Nice demo!
Thankyou for sharing!

Now also a demo for old CPC's? 

[fano]

Checked it quickly on Winape and like this nice little demo , i'll check it more on my + this evening (with snow outside and tangerine inside  )

[Devilmarkus]

Btw.: Fano: Nice Avatar
Is it your little sister? 

(reverse imagesearch for this: link
(May contain nudity!)

[redbox]

i'll check it more on my + this evening

When you check it out, can you let me know if when it starts the first few characters (which should be blank before the scroll text properly starts) have random artifacts in them please?

They do on my Plus for some reason, but not in any emulators I've tried.  I think the problem is actually with my Plus (I've seen this bug elsewhere on other stuff), but want to be sure.

[arnoldemu]

When you check it out, can you let me know if when it starts the first few characters (which should be blank before the scroll text properly starts) have random artifacts in them please?

They do on my Plus for some reason, but not in any emulators I've tried.  I think the problem is actually with my Plus (I've seen this bug elsewhere on other stuff), but want to be sure.

do you clear the sprite ram?
it may just be that the emulators don't initialise the sprite ram to random data which perhaps they should.

[Devilmarkus]

Just tested it on my 6128+
Indeed: The scrolltext makes problems here:
First start - "Welcome to the" is shown in artifacted , empty sprites.
Then the part of this text repeats and can be read.

Then, after switching the CPC off and on, i ran it again.
There the "Welcome..." was better readable but still with artifacts (I think, the sprite buffer was not cleared fully)
So, the first 13-14 letters are shown bad, then they repeat and the scroller is readable.

Funny bug....

[Devilmarkus]

More fun:
I started the game "Burning Rubber" then I caused a soft-reset and ran the demo again...
The first sprites still contain Burning Rubber data!!!!

[redbox]

do you clear the sprite ram?
it may just be that the emulators don't initialise the sprite ram to random data which perhaps they should.

No, I didn't clear them 

Thanks for testing guys, I will patch it now and upload an update.

[redbox]

Okay, I've uploaded a patched version to the wiki page - I would be grateful if anyone who can would test it again...

It's working okay on my real 6128 Plus      And at least I've found something out about the Plus I didn't know (and it means that part of my 6128 isn't knackered!) 

[Devilmarkus]

Now it works fine!

[norecess]

Merry Xmas to everyone ! 

[fano]

When you check it out, can you let me know if when it starts the first few characters (which should be blank before the scroll text properly starts) have random artifacts in them please?

Confirmed , you did not initialise sprites but you fixed it for the second version.

It's only a little production made for a bit of fun at Xmas, but I hope you all enjoy it and would of course welcome feedback.

I live at 150kms from Paris but you're welcome , R-Type released or not 
Just a little thing , that seems some snow pixels take the electron beam during the first 1/3 of the screen so some shake a bit , how do you synchronise pixel rendering ?
Another thing i am thinking , how do you check machine type as program resets when Winape is on CPC type but on my 'real' CPC type 1 , it crashes with severals pixies drawed on the screen and musics started and blocked.

Btw.: Fano: Nice Avatar
Is it your little sister?

No , my little sisters are more beautifull than that.I wanted to use Santas Claus but it is too classic so i wanted use his wife but the result is not good (here but you've been warned) so i used his daughter 

[TFM]

Yes, nice, but the scroller is wrong. Octoate and Nilquader emulated the ACID for hours successfully, not Nocash.

[redbox]

I live at 150kms from Paris but you're welcome , R-Type released or not 

I mean I nearly came to the Retro Gaming Convention in Crégy-lès-Meaux to see the R-Type preview, but couldn't remember this place name and know it's near Paris so said this instead! 

Just a little thing , that seems some snow pixels take the electron beam during the first 1/3 of the screen so some shake a bit , how do you synchronise pixel rendering ?

Yes, the snow routine takes up the first third of the frame and it's not double buffered so it flickers a little.  The snow is only synced to the frame refresh and runs at 50hz (thanks to Axelay helping optimise it using the stack).  I didn't worry too much about this because I was out of time (as I had to finish the demo this week) and it only affected the snow.  Originally the snow routine was later in the frame and you couldn't see it so much, but for some weird reason this meant there was a bit of tearing in the hardware sprites so I moved it at the last minute.

Another thing i am thinking , how do you check machine type as program resets when Winape is on CPC type but on my 'real' CPC type 1 , it crashes with severals pixies drawed on the screen and musics started and blocked.

I don't try and detect the machine type     I did have a small routine but read on Grim's website that my method (which Longshot talked about in one of his articles!) was lame and unreliable and I didn't have time to write anything better this time.

The reason it gets this far on a real CPC is due to the order I initialise the routines.  The normal CPC will just ignore the ASIC page-ins until this the point where it tries to copy some hardware sprite data to the ASIC RAM, and this copied data will overwrite the music (located at &4000) and it is probably here that it is crashing.

[redbox]

Yes, nice, but the scroller is wrong. Octoate and Nilquader emulated the ACID for hours successfully, not Nocash.

Nocash cracked the ACID and released the code - and that's what I said in the scroller...?

[TFM]

That's not a crack. Using an Oscilloscope and to rebuildt the ACID are very different things. But Redbox, you are right and I have my peace 

[redbox]

That's not a crack

'Cracked' as in 'decoded'.  Doesn't matter if he was the first or not - I do not proclaim this anyway, I simply congratulate him for doing so.  Why don't you actually read the text?

Thanks for changing the wiki page to make your little statement.  Totally pointless.

[TFM]

Thanks for changing the wiki page to make your little statement.  Totally pointless.

No problem mate, we all do our best to make things better and to provide deeper informations.

[redbox]

No problem mate, we all do our best to make things better and to provide deeper informations.

Except you mis-read the scroll.  Maybe your English isn't as good as you think?

Maybe you should update the wiki article again to "make things better", i.e. remove what you wrote?  But thanks for sharing anyway, mate.

[arnoldemu]

In 2011 there will be peace and harmony in the CPC world.... and I think lots of great cpc games and demos from almost all the "CPC countries" (I read about productions which will be ready in 2011 from France, Germany, Spain, Denmark and UK)......

[fano]

A bit short , Nocash made a bit more than using an oscilloscope , he was the first to reverse it.
Octoate and Nilquader made a great job too as they made an implementation of the ACID.
After , you can give the definition for "hack" you want (yes , doing some reverse engineering could be said as hack and creating a chip from scratch (nearly) can be seen as a hack).
The fact are theses three guys made a great work to help us to progress in Amstrad+ future prods.
To be honnest , i do not understand well the modifications you made to the wiki.

[redbox]

In 2011 there will be peace and harmony in the CPC world.... and I think lots of great cpc games and demos from almost all the "CPC countries" (I read about productions which will be ready in 2011 from France, Germany, Spain, Denmark and UK)......

This was the whole point of me making the demo, to celebrate the great year we've had and looking forward to next year 

Oh well, silliness aside, I'm glad that people enjoyed the demo.

[fano]

Yes, the snow routine takes up the first third of the frame and it's not double buffered so it flickers a little.  The snow is only synced to the frame refresh and runs at 50hz (thanks to Axelay helping optimise it using the stack).  I didn't worry too much about this because I was out of time (as I had to finish the demo this week) and it only affected the snow.  Originally the snow routine was later in the frame and you couldn't see it so much, but for some weird reason this meant there was a bit of tearing in the hardware sprites so I moved it at the last minute.

I understand , PRI offers a great solution for synchronising rendering on + and to avoid theses types of artefact.

I don't try and detect the machine type     I did have a small routine but read on Grim's website that my method (which Longshot talked about in one of his articles!) was lame and unreliable and I didn't have time to write anything better this time.

lol i understand well now.I am using the PPI detection bug and afaik it is a correct method (what method did you use ? (IM2 or some awfull floating bus))