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│ COMMODORE b4 ║
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Prologue: =======
Commodore B4 - the car on which all such famous
now concepts like demo/intro/diskmag and all others.
Characteristics: ===============
CPU: ---- b510 - 1MHz, 8 bit, RISC like instruction set (5b
instructions), 13 addressing modes, pipeline, 4-5 times faster
than Z80 at same clock
Memory: -------
bChK RAM, 20K ROM, standard expansion - 2SbK & 512K unitsVideo: ------ Sprites, Raster IRQs, Техт/Graphics modes ат same
time, 320х200х1б colors. With ореп borders - 512х25б
horiz.,vert. scrolling
Sound: ------ 3 Топе Oscillators 4 Waveforms рег Oscillator:
Triangle, Sawtooth, Variable, Pulse, Noise 3 Amplitude
Modulators Random Number/Modulation Generator 3 Envelope
Generators (Attack Rate,Decay Rate,Sustain Level,Release Rate)
Oscillator Synchronization Ring Modulation Programmable Filters
Master Volume Control External Audio Input
Ports: ------ RS232, IEEEЧ88 serial bus, Centronics, Two A/D
inputs Video outputs: Composite video PAL, Monochrome video, RF
Expansion Port
Peripherals: ------------ 2 Joysticks, Mouse, Light Реп 1531
таре datarecorder 1541,71,81 diskdrives (own ROM/RAM, CPU -
б502AD)
CбЧ Сцена
========= intro -----
- several beautiful horizontally scrolling/appearing ones
lines of text + beautifully drawn LOGO between them - logo
or against a black background or against the background of flying stars, for example.
LOGO is separated from lines of text by horizontal raster
stripes. Stripes are also possible behind/in front of the logo -
for example, moving along a sinusoid or iridescent.
Music was present in about 70% of the intros, but could also be absent. B
Unlike the demos, there was nothing reprehensible in
using music torn from, say, a toy, but not in
in some cases from another intra (!)
Intro itself, as a rule, did not exist - they
stuck to freshly released/cracked games and
other software. They were exited using a space, after
what was unpacked (usually with the involvement of a piece of video gam)
and the toy itself started up.The size of the intro varied depending on the sophistication and
the presence of music somewhere from Stu to 2Oti blocks (1.2-Skb). Music
any degree of sophistication never took more than 8-1Skb.
demos =====
A completely independent piece, written either for any party,
or just like that (the ratio was about 70%/30%, in my opinion
look - the further we went, the more we focused on the party).
Size - somewhere no more than 1 standard disk (i.e. about
3bOkb)
The demo consisted of several parts - often loaded. In
loading time (10-25cek) music was playing and some kind of thing was happening
simple but cute action. The main emphasis was on
design, graphics and music. Code quality is usually not a concern
because left-wing people didn’t write demos on SBCH - for this it’s easy
high qualifications were needed. (No sorts or anything else
spread, there were no networks).
Although the effects were repeated, they were quite rare and _far_ from
one to one. As an illustration, I remember a terrible scandal,
when one of the Offence coders told the guy from Crest
some idea (very cool - wild perversion of scrolling :).
So - Crest urgently released a demo in which
this idea was used. there was an absolutely terrible scandal.
Offence released a demo with their own, so to speak, author's
version of this effect, which I personally never stop hearing
trudge :)
There were no prizes at the party, which had a very beneficial effect on
general atmosphere, unlike today's parties, where people
squabbles over $$$.
Notes ======
Small (1-bkb) programs, when launched on black
(usually) something like this would appear on the screen:
?????? NOTER v?.? uh ?????PRESS SPACE THEN SEE ACTUAL NOTE PRESS ANY ELSE THEN EDIT NOTE
if you press any button except the spacebar, it goes to
something like a simple text editor in which you can
type the text (music plays in the background). Moreover, for text you can
change color, highlight words with flickering, etc. animated characters
etc... Some notes had this approach - now you entered
this “editor”, and all further button presses (movements
cursor, backspace, del, symbols) are remembered so that later when
start to play. It turns out very cool -
expanding lines, correcting errors, etc. In short,
after I have edited it, all this is recorded (or rather
the same file is created, which when launched will do everything
the same thing (allow reading/writing), but only with yours
text).
And if you press the spacebar, then you are shown exactly everything
what the previous person wrote (beautifully, with music, etc.).
Noters were used quite widely.For example:
1) When the team released the software, and it required some
explanations, they were formalized in exactly this way. Descriptions
buttons in toys, comments to crack, fix, etc.
2) Some information that the team wanted to convey to
scenes. For example, that they are back, that they have released a new demo,
what party will take place, etc.
3) Warnings about busts - a list of boards that
went on strike, who should not be trusted, etc.
4) If one swapper (see swappers :) sent the disk by mail
to another, I usually wrote there noter with warez’s list on
this disk and friendly wishes.
5) The person was just in a good/bad mood, and he decided
write about it :)
Scene =====In addition to the well-known coders, graphicians, musicians,
crackers were also swappers as an indispensable attribute of any
self-respecting team. They were engaged in correspondence with others
groups/distribution of disks with fresh warez, etc.
same spirit.
There were also fixers - they fixed bugs in
software/game just released by a company.
It is necessary to note an important point - on PC there is
There's a pretty clear line between crackers and demo makers.
Fixers and swappers don’t seem to exist at all :) So here we go
sb scene most of the teams were doing everything at once. It's already
then everyone began to somehow acquire specialization, which led to
to the fact that today a person who has broken the software and
it doesn’t occur to me to code a simple intro for this occasion
Trends and features =======================99.99% of software is written in Asma, although there are C, BASIC, PASCAL,
LOGO, FORTH, LISP, etc.
Standard kernel I/O routines usually do not
used - write their own.
If the toy/demo is multi-file, then often the disk directory
beautifully designed with pseudo-graphics (on sbch files in the directory
are displayed in the order in which they were written)
Copy protections exist, but copiers are usually used for them
appeared the next day :) I only came across one disc,
which I couldn't copy.
99.99% of toys are broken. I don't remember a single game in which I didn't
there would be intros or at least notes that fixed/cracked/trained
??? :)
Music editors are built like trackers, however
the approach is slightly different - more flexible (there is no concept of order, it’s just
patterns byeach channel has links to certain blocks,
containing small portions of notes). Tools are edited in
the tracker itself by changing numbers (ADSR, filters,
modulation, waveform, etc.). In general, such trackers
focused on a person, uh.. let's say, - who knows how
the iron in the car works. For example, for convenience during
writing music, the vertical bar shows which one
in time, part of the full passage of the ray through the raster is spent on
playing music. :)
There is a sea dock (which I personally got the opportunity to read
only after I more or less began to move in :( ;)
Programs are written either using an assembler, which usually has
a simple built-in editor, and/or using a thing called
monitor. It is an assembler/disassembler without
symbolic tags + a bunch of useful features like
transfer/fill/load/save/ascii-hex dump/search. Monitors
There are quite a few, but they all look similar in appearance and
occupy 17 blocks (4.3kb) - this size is due to convenience
placement in memory. There are cartridges with built-inmonitors/debuggers, etc. (type Final Cartridge III,
Programs are written either using an assembler, which usually has
a simple built-in editor, and/or using a thing called
monitor. It is an assembler/disassembler without
symbolic tags + a bunch of useful features like
transfer/fill/load/save/ascii-hex dump/search. Monitors
There are quite a few, but they all look similar in appearance and
occupy 17 blocks (4.3kb) - this size is due to convenience
placement in memory. There are cartridges with built-in
monitors/debuggers, etc. (type Final Cartridge III,
Action Replay, etc.)
(C) The text is taken from the DEMO.DESIGN file. Release 8
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