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Mind in Motion, an Amstrad CPC demo by Ham (Software failure) (http://www.genesis8bit.fr/archives/index.php?news_id=403)
23 March 2013, 5:34 pm

Mind in Motion, an Amstrad CPC demo by Ham (Software failure)

Source: Genesis8 Amstrad Page (http://www.genesis8bit.fr/index.php)

Well, more like an intro, but cute. Nice tune.

I quite like, but the graphics look like being "half" ported from Spectrum.
I guess they have some heavy compressing method, like tiles set (many tiles are plain colours).


I like the horizontal fullscreen.
With more time and memory, I guess it would be possible to add a few rasters : the upper and bottom "dot scrollings, also the text scroller...
But I guess this would take some toll on the CPU (unless done for Plus, and event though...)
On the other hand, a large portion of the screen is not moving, so takes no CPU time (just let the video read the RAM...

The graphism is quite nice, but could have appreciated some extra job(lack a bit in ditherings and details for the humanoids, IMO.


The "Dot screen" is quite elegant.


The heavily dithered backgroud is somewhat... lacklust IMO (looks a bit speccy to me.


Nice little chiptune.


[attachimg=1]
Yeah we can see a lot of "identical tiles" which is good.


The picture is actually 384x160.
61440 mode1 pixels.
a "standard" Mode1  16K screen is 64000 pixels


Had the whole things be more refined and tailored, the graphic datas would have been (I guess) a bit too heavy to enable the thing to be a 15K demo. (dentro? what is it?)


Was the illustration taken from something else or is it an original compo?

QuoteThis is a fast-made little dentro for Forever 14. Around 3 days and a half of work.
Nothing espectacular, just a one-screen prod a bit unfinished. Consider this as a party version.
It should work on every Amstrad CPC. Even on emulators, but looks better on the real thing using a GT-64 green monitor!
You may notice that the background picture is heavily inspired by the work of Franz Steiner. Yes, I love his series of personal robots.
Expect a final version in the next weeks. I will not add too much but a few things could be polished a bit more.

(quote from pouet)
ok, so the guy is Franz Steiner.


(http://www.kitaro10.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/personal-robot-04-by-franz-steiner.jpg) (http://www.kitaro10.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/personal-robot-04-by-franz-steiner.jpg)
got it!
if redimensionned into CPC friendly size, this exact picture would be 384x220 (exact same proportion).


But I guess on a 64K machine, it is not good to utilise 2x16K RAMbanks.


Need place for the code, the chiptune, the character set (letters in native mode1 obviously).


Some may tell if double buffering was used so the letters can have a smooth scrolling and the dots also be smoothly animated.
I talked about "tileset" but not even sure such method was actually used. May just be a compressed picture to begin with.
I mean, for a whole game level, to use tiles is necessary, but for such a fixed screen, not sure a tile management isn't bigger.

Hello! I'm Ham/Software Failure, thanks for your comments!

I released a final version of this little thing a few days ago.

You can find it in pouet (comments and "thumbs up" here are greatly appreciated)-> http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=61136 (http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=61136)

Or, if you like to be spolied by YouTube videos recorded with phone cameras -> Software Failure - Mind in Motion (GT65 Green Monitor) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-gF2SgZZgc#)

The final version is 16Kb long. That was the limit I chose for this small production from the beginning.
Sadly, the party version was made in a hurry and I didn't have the time to include everything before the deadline. But now I'm content with the result.

MacDeath is right in his analysis of this dentro (sort of portmanteau of demo and intro). The background graphics are compressed and so there are lot of zones with the same pixel patterns to make the compression works better.
The speccy-like dithering patterns for the background may look cheap but it's a good compromise considering the alternative of fill it all with a flat color.
A full overscan would have been overkill in terms of size and memory use. Using a 384x160 screen format there is no need to change the normal memory map, cause the screen fits nicely in 16Kb.

Notice that the screen for the sinus-dots effect is 8-pixel aligned. Nothing important for that dot effect but it helps in the animated chess game that appears in the final version, cause pieces and squares fits in 8x8 blocks.

I'm very glad that you liked my music. You can find a remastered (better stereo and equalization) mp3 version here -> Ham - Mind In Motion by Ham of Software Failure on SoundCloud - Hear the (http://soundcloud.com/hectoralarcon/ham-mind-in-motion)

I discovered Arkos Tracker the same day that I started this prod. I have no words to please enough the creators of such a great tool.
Before, I tried other trackers for AY music but no one is as comfortable and convenient as Arkos Tracker is.

Nothing more to say except that there will be, for sure, more Software Failure demos for Amstrad in the future.

Please, check the final version and tell me what you think.

Enhorabuena por la demo  ;)

Thanks for the update, I have it playing in for the past ten minutes as background music and really like it (I'm in the mood...)


Hope you don't mind me attaching it here...