Demoscene on ZX Spectrum: thoughts after DiHalt Lite 2016
by Alone Coder
Unfortunately, this DiHalt Lite did not become the "united main"
Spectrum demoparty, what could one hope for in the end
the year before last. Chaos Constructions, with whom we teamed up
a year ago and which had its own circle of authors, this winter
took place. And due to the huge number of demo parties in 2015
The authors never accumulated material for serious work. In the end
the first places instead of Spectrum works were taken by demos on BK-0011
and a picture on the C-64.
From somewhere the idea “so that the cow eats less and
gave more milk, she needs to be fed less and milked more.” B
As a result, demo parties multiply, and the average level of work falls
below the last place on some Enlight'96.
Apparently, until the number of democratic parties returns to normal, leapfrog
weak works discrediting the ZX Spectrum will not stop.
Strong works will appear rarely, without competing on one
party.
Now the parties are simply duplicating each other, even voting
made on the same "filter". And they don’t want to close.
In this situation, the best compromise for Spectrum would be
turning one of the parties into "Spectrum only, any Spectrum, demo
only, realtime only", maybe replacing the show format with the format
seminar.
First point -"Spectrum only" - will increase the targeting of the party
(something like the Commodore party X, where they exhibit
strongest works). Mixing all 8-bit hardware can
look fashionable, but there are a variety of such parties, including
largest European ones.
And attempts to dilute Spectrum competitions with emulators
they didn’t give Spectrum anything with the crafts, although it’s psychologically understandable
the desire of some organizers to grab themselves (one party from
dozens available) more works of any quality and make friends
for the sake of this with the devil himself.
The second point - "any Spectrum" - will increase the originality of the work. Not
historically meaningful limitation "128K or Pentagon
128+AY", boosted in recent years at some parties,
only made the situation worse in this regard.
Due to the absurdity of this limitation (it did not happen by itself -
those who promoted it and those who promoted it in the past are known
by name) it is enough to note that:
- between these configurations there are 6 years and a change in the generation of the carrier
information, and the second configuration is homemade with
random packing, including an additional device;
- none of these configurations were top-end (Timex Sinclair
2068 and a disk controller for it with CP/M support appeared
before the decidedly entertaining Spectrum 128K - optional
whose memory, by the way, was initially virtual
disk; they spread each in their own countries; whatconcerns the connection diagram of AY to Pentagon 128, there is no information about it
information before the appearance of Profi);
- the circulation of all 128K models in total was a small share of all
Spectrums (an order of magnitude less than 48K, and in a number of countries generally
null);
- even in parties where 48K were excluded (ZX-Net nodes), the share
128K models according to surveys never exceeded 74% even locally and
even ignoring additional devices - with a maximum of 1997
year and a rapid decline in favor of >=256K by 1999:
Moscow (ZX-Net), April 1996 - 79 pcs. (61%) 128K, 39 pcs. (30%)
256K or more
http://www.zxpress.ru/article.php?id=2073
mainly Moscow (ZX-Net), May 1997 - 49 pcs. (74%) 128K, 17 pcs.
(26%) 256K or more
http://www.zxpress.ru/article.php?id=1322
St. Petersburg (ZX-Format buyers), July 1997 - 31% 128K,
49% 256K or more
http://www.zxpress.ru/article.php?id=9885
ZX.SPECTRUM, July 1997 - 9 pcs. (25%) 128K, 24 pcs. (67%) 256K and
more
http://www.zxpress.ru/article.php?id=4745
Gomel, December 1997 - 21 pcs. (70%) 128K, 6 pcs. (20%) 256K and
more
http://www.zxpress.ru/article.php?id=3258
Krasnodar, June 1998 - 9 pcs. (64%) 128K, 2 pcs.(14%) 256K and
more
http://www.zxpress.ru/article.php?id=9119
ZX-Net, January 1999 - 42% 128K, 48% 256K and more
http://www.zxpress.ru/article.php?id=7181
Omsk, January 1999 - 3 pcs. (25%) 128K, 6 pcs. (50%) 512K or more
http://www.zxpress.ru/article.php?id=11366
CIS or former USSR, July 2000 - 9 pcs. (15%) 128K, 52 pcs. (85%)
256K or more
http://www.zxpress.ru/article.php?id=4417
Rostov-on-Don, July 2001 - 50% 128K, the rest 256K or more
(the sum does not add up)
http://www.zxpress.ru/article.php?id=7322
Izhevsk, July 2001 - 100% 512K and more
http://www.zxpress.ru/article.php?id=9429
- the share of 128K only software is generally small, but as for demos,
128K demos began to prevail only in August 1998 (this
clearly tracked in the Chip ZX collection, where the software is located in
order of arrival and the hardware requirements are marked in the catalog).
Moreover, already from Demobit'1996, Doxycon 1998, ArtComp'98, Paradox'99,
Cafe'999 and CC'999 compo machines had additional
devices, unfortunately, are different;
- despite problems with compatibility and distribution,
by different authorsabout a thousand programs have been written for various
expansions beyond this limit (that’s how 128K is still in our
years was considered "extended memory"). Including about 200 demos
and int.
In this regard, the beginning return of interest in
Timexand Profi, and the long-running movement in terms of Pentagon 1024 and
ATM Turbois far from exhausted. Now, unlike the 90s,
there is no problem starting any work.
All this hardware is known and understandable, so the audience will
it is not difficult to judge how effectively it is used.
For example, everyone understands that the demo for the original Speccy
has 3 times less RAM than for 128K, and
only one screen area is available (that is, the good old
fighting the beam and limiting the types of multicolors). If you take
class higher and compare with Pentagon 128+AY, then it is taken into account
lack of whites (acceleration and tempting simplicity
synchronization), high resolution border and floppy drive, with
which can be loaded against the background and almost instantly. It is clear that
demos like Eye Ache 2, Refresh and Stellar Contour simply can't
work from tape - with a load size three times larger than in 48K
demah, where it is already long. Demos with support for turbo mode give
somewhat smoother 3D (from craftsmen who soldered on
Profi 20 MHz, maybequite smooth, and it can be
and not the limit), but are limited in the use of some techniques
code, multicolor, digital sounds and border. But demos for
Timex, Pentagon with well-known upgrades, ATM, Profi, etc.
They can forget about multicolor due to hardware video modes.
General Sound brings back digital audio for dems with support
turbo, and in general saves RAM and beats for music, giving
this has a rich sound. And so on. The only question here is
should we accept SAM Coupe', whose users have been hanging out for a long time
in your circle. From the old sceners "for", in particular, Y... From
possible arguments other than the current decoding of SAM as
"Spectrum Advanced Machine" can be seen loosely covered
continuity with Timex (due to which non-standard frequencies are not
surprising, especially since they are also on Pentagon 48/128
non-standard and also no AY), and memory switching circuit
brings back memories of ancient, pre-ancient expansion
branded 48K to 80K in two banks of 32K.
The third point - "demo only"- will concentrate the efforts of the authors.
Especially artists and composers, who always have no time for dem,
because you have to show up solo at all the parties :)
The fourth point - "realtime only"- is intended to return the past
dem quality (based on the definition of "Realtime demo" onEuropean pssh parties or the wording "clean is prohibited
animation" in the rules of old Russian parties), especially since grain
the return of the code in the demos has already been sown - after many years of them
degradation.
Interestingly, degradation is glorified as a form of art by the same
circles that support the reproduction of demopathies, castration
ZX Spectrum and hooliganism on stage. Maybe they're not that bad
they want harm to the platform (they may not even care that
will happen to her), but simply defend their lifestyle. But
the consequences are visible - Russian-language IRC channels have turned into
flows of slop, forum zx.pk.ru after massive raids and stuffing
depopulated, some people are embarrassed to release already written software
(S...), and some are even planning to leave the Spectrum
scenes with wording like “I became uninterested” (N...)
and “it became unpleasant for me to communicate” (S...). However, the heart of the scene
historically it was not among Internet screamers, but more
measured personal correspondence and information press.
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