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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