pouët.net

Ascend by Cluster & DMA [web]
[nfo]
screenshot added by Kylearan on 2014-12-07 08:05:00
platform :
type :
release date : december 2014
release party : Silly Venture 2014
compo : console demo
ranked : 1st
  • 77
  • 3
  • 0
popularity : 65%
 65%
  • 0.96
alltime top: #1290
added on the 2014-12-07 08:05:00 by Kylearan Kylearan

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Here is our contribution to the SillyVenture Atari VCS 2600 compo. 32k ROM, 128 bytes of RAM, no framebuffer, 7 months of work.

The .nfo file contains a technical write-up of all effects if you are interested, including a puzzle. Enjoy!
added on the 2014-12-07 08:09:56 by Kylearan Kylearan
sound is terrible. I like rotocubes aka X-rotator?

any source?
rulez added on the 2014-12-07 08:25:12 by g0blinish g0blinish
Terrible ! Very nice colors&design, awesome line routine, and the mandatory cube now posssible on VCS :)
rulez added on the 2014-12-07 09:53:39 by Cyg_BLaBla Cyg_BLaBla
Pardon my english, I meant TERRIBLY GOOD
Next level shit. Amazing.
rulez added on the 2014-12-07 10:46:06 by Alopex Alopex
"Some people couldn't believe it was a VCS"
Awesome!
rulez added on the 2014-12-07 10:48:36 by fra fra
Top notch! Interesting new approach to things, and finally the rotating cube on the VCS!
Thanks for the detailed technical info, I love reading such stuff. :)
rulez added on the 2014-12-07 11:50:29 by Sdw Sdw
A new standard for 2600 classic demoscene effects, that's for sure. Would have liked to see something more than an effects show, but at least they are all done well :)
rulez added on the 2014-12-07 13:33:39 by visy visy
Impressive
rulez added on the 2014-12-07 14:05:39 by Buckethead Buckethead
Awesome :D
rulez added on the 2014-12-07 14:26:10 by ferris ferris
GREETS <3! Nice little demo, especially codewise. I always enjoy a bit tighter shows, but a solid presentation anyway.
rulez added on the 2014-12-07 14:34:21 by noby noby
god bless you Kylearan !!!!
rulez added on the 2014-12-07 16:17:54 by p0ke p0ke
I must try this on real hardware... if it runs on PAL VCS...
rulez added on the 2014-12-07 16:26:02 by gilles gilles
BB ImageBB ImageBB Image
.. and what a tune! (makes me think at Ballbreaker CPC <3)
good code
rulez added on the 2014-12-07 16:33:50 by superplek superplek
Solid!
rulez added on the 2014-12-07 16:38:06 by Daniel Daniel
Music is too annoying for me but other than that this sure is cool! Greetings part is lovely, cube part rocks and the fireworks look very nice too.
rulez added on the 2014-12-07 16:38:52 by StingRay StingRay
nice one. liked the fireworks the most :)
rulez added on the 2014-12-07 16:41:23 by sensenstahl sensenstahl
Good show :) But is it really stock VCS if you're doing bankswitching?

I see the raycaster has been improved, and the girl is quite cleverly drawn. And you beat me to the punch with the vector stuff, gah!
rulez added on the 2014-12-07 16:47:47 by Tjoppen Tjoppen
Who can do better?
rulez added on the 2014-12-07 17:41:13 by dex46... dex46...
Super impressed by this demo !!!

Greetings part was nicely designed
rulez added on the 2014-12-07 18:14:37 by norecess norecess
a bit boring music, but greetings part and precalculating cube saved the show :)
rulez added on the 2014-12-07 19:54:39 by diver diver
Mad coding :)
rulez added on the 2014-12-07 20:23:59 by Alone_Coder Alone_Coder
presentation
rulez added on the 2014-12-07 22:32:15 by sm sm
Very cool!
rulez added on the 2014-12-07 23:54:26 by bodo^rab bodo^rab
I even liked the music!
rulez added on the 2014-12-08 00:31:05 by CiH CiH
Cool show and thanks for the greets!
rulez added on the 2014-12-08 04:51:55 by Serpent Serpent
Dope!
rulez added on the 2014-12-08 09:23:45 by The_Grandmother The_Grandmother
OMG, that vector!
rulez added on the 2014-12-08 09:51:45 by axis^oxy axis^oxy
yes =)
rulez added on the 2014-12-08 09:54:23 by HellMood HellMood
A most excellent demo.
rulez added on the 2014-12-08 10:50:28 by Preacher Preacher
Yeeeaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!
rulez added on the 2014-12-08 11:04:00 by elend elend
Impressive stuff!
rulez added on the 2014-12-08 13:41:13 by at0m at0m
this is an excellent production, new boundaries on the 2600. seriously impressive
rulez added on the 2014-12-08 14:21:35 by gwEm gwEm
Wow! Superb show for 2600, entertaining too.
rulez added on the 2014-12-08 15:13:56 by break break
> sound is terrible.
Thank VCS designers for the hardware. They never intended it to be suited to any music.
Still, the music was enough to make whole party clap to the beat for half the demo. :)

> if it runs on PAL VCS...
It does. It was run on the party from stock (except for a composite mod) Atari 2600 PAL sixer and Harmony cart using just 32kB bankswitching.

> precalculating cube saved the show :)
As far as I understand, it was realtime.

> But is it really stock VCS if you're doing bankswitching?
Bankswitching was a common practice at the time of VCS popularity heights and the demo uses bankswitching scheme invented at that time by Atari themselves.
You can refer to F4 "Atari 32k" scheme in this document for details:
http://blog.kevtris.org/blogfiles/Atari%202600%20Mappers.txt

Even with extra TTLs on cart, it's still in lower spectrum of what people did with 2600 at that time (carts with extra 2k RAM, custom gfx/sound chips or even a tape interface).

> And you beat me to the punch with the vector stuff, gah!
Not only you. :)
added on the 2014-12-08 15:53:39 by KK KK
Quite cool demo! Great effects. And wireframe stuff, never seen before on the vcs.
rulez added on the 2014-12-08 16:24:23 by Optimus Optimus
Oh My, it can't be truth...
rulez added on the 2014-12-08 21:57:37 by dhor dhor
When kk showed it an Friday I thought "Wow, very nice!".
Then you sent the Cube and he added it I thought "I hate you" :-)
Honestly this is absolutely outstanding.
Both in terms if designing along and beyond the limits of the hardware
and in terms of the the number of items & ideas I have to remove from my idea list.
Including the one that just yielded my 1 virtual bonus point :-)
I'm really happy to have you and kk in the VCS scene!
rulez added on the 2014-12-09 00:57:54 by JAC! JAC!
Very good demo for VCS.
rulez added on the 2014-12-09 09:15:28 by BeheriT BeheriT
I didn't saw it at the party, maybe it was shown too late (> 4 a.m), but it really push the VCS to its limit !
rulez added on the 2014-12-09 14:29:08 by Orion_ Orion_
hats off, this one is truely amazing
rulez added on the 2014-12-09 18:34:50 by decca decca
Some impressive effects there for that super-FFFUUUU Hardware!
rulez added on the 2014-12-09 18:37:33 by Hoild Hoild
3D cube on VCS. A real one. Not a french realtime one.
Need I say more?
rulez added on the 2014-12-09 18:52:40 by TomoAlien TomoAlien
need more
rulez added on the 2014-12-10 00:14:30 by Blast! Blast!
Live show capture from the party:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trzuD87J4F0&feature=player_detailpage#t=8h16m20s
added on the 2014-12-10 00:23:34 by KK KK
<3 VCS, <3 this prod
rulez added on the 2014-12-11 18:51:45 by utz utz
I am not qualified to assess the complexity of the vector stuff here. However, I like the overall attention to the scene design, especially in some of the earlier scenes. Nice tune too.
rulez added on the 2014-12-11 21:59:22 by introspec introspec
Holy shit this is madness! And music! <3 And cube! <3
What's next, diagonal rasterbars? :O
rulez added on the 2014-12-12 03:20:37 by fgenesis fgenesis
I like the visual, but the music was annoying.
added on the 2014-12-13 19:23:50 by AntDude AntDude
wow!
rulez added on the 2014-12-14 00:13:27 by p01 p01
I missed this at the party place but the effects, graphics and music are very impressive for a VCS!
rulez added on the 2014-12-14 20:11:35 by exocet exocet
Absolutely incredible demo!
Most groundbreaking stuff I've seen in a long time - this shouldn't be possible on a 2600.
rulez added on the 2014-12-18 12:09:23 by sasq sasq
Sweet!
rulez added on the 2014-12-18 18:14:16 by Emod Emod
Sweetness
rulez added on the 2014-12-18 19:39:46 by Harekiet Harekiet
Hola! This is really unreal.
rulez added on the 2014-12-18 20:53:46 by whizart whizart
Okay THAT was impressive. Well done guys. I can't get past how colorful the VCS was compared to later systems!
rulez added on the 2014-12-19 02:00:02 by jmph jmph
Really, really, really solid. It is hardly to believe what dudes may/can do on a such limited and not so-easy-to-code platform.
Music was a little bit to noisy, but still quite nice.
rulez added on the 2014-12-19 14:32:26 by sim sim
insane stuff
rulez added on the 2014-12-20 10:55:49 by toxie toxie
very good
rulez added on the 2014-12-20 20:15:15 by SiR SiR
How the greets work?
Quote:
How the greets work?

What exactly do you want to know? The nfo file contains a high-level technical description, and the debug colors from Stella might give you some more insight. If you have a more specific question, post it here or drop me a mail.
added on the 2014-12-25 19:46:24 by Kylearan Kylearan
Wow. Just plain wow.
rulez added on the 2014-12-31 00:06:12 by Paranoid Paranoid
impressive <3 + nice music for that platform
rulez added on the 2014-12-31 01:21:16 by Triace Triace
\o/

Awesome sauce!
rulez added on the 2014-12-31 23:49:56 by xeron xeron
Best 32k VCS demo yet.
rulez added on the 2015-01-11 23:40:43 by Alpha C Alpha C
Really good, guys! I can't imagine how you did this on a system without a framebuffer and only 128 bytes of RAM. Music is great for a 2600!
rulez added on the 2015-01-31 10:03:05 by PROSM PROSM
Nope. This isn't possible on the VCS.
rulez added on the 2015-02-18 07:57:09 by andr00 andr00
Wow! And the music is really impressive.

Any chance for the source code?
rulez added on the 2015-03-07 17:47:43 by JTZ JTZ
saved to my laptop. debugging and learning will be entertaining on the train going to work and back.

Thx a lot for this! It's definitely taking part in moving the VCS scene forward.
rulez added on the 2015-03-29 20:06:44 by RawBits RawBits
Nice! :)
rulez added on the 2015-04-06 19:11:22 by Antiemes Antiemes
You must have some quite good bresenham line drawing code in your hands.

I briefly tried that cube ~10 years ago. The idea was to rotate only two axis, which allowed steady horizontal lines which could be done by using PF. It seemed possible, but turned out to be a hell lot of fiddling work (at least with my approach). Never got it working. :(

So kudos for making it true now!

I would like to see the missing zoom etc. you mention in your readme in your next demo.

Now someone has try do a colored, filled polygon cube (without framebuffer of course). :)
added on the 2015-04-08 10:55:25 by JTZ JTZ
Best VCS demo I have ever seen. Astounding work!
rulez added on the 2015-04-29 21:56:24 by rixard rixard
coool!
rulez added on the 2015-05-31 19:52:01 by spritus spritus
Wow. What everyone said.
rulez added on the 2015-06-23 22:19:28 by Saga Musix Saga Musix
Great VCS demo!
rulez added on the 2015-11-25 01:26:09 by krupkaj krupkaj
Dope!
rulez added on the 2015-11-25 09:56:35 by ltk_tscc ltk_tscc
Insanely incredible thing!

btw, what is that funny language sources are in?
rulez added on the 2015-12-04 20:48:18 by lvd lvd
@lvd: Thanks! :-)

I used KK's k65 compiler/linker framework to create this demo. It provides a more compact language for the 650x CPU where each opcode has a shorter representation and which allows for some C-style structures for loops, if clauses etc. In addition, it provides a linker framework to relieve the coder from absolute addresses and bank switching code (although it's still possible if needed). KK planned to add support for the C64 as well, but I'm not sure on the status of that.

I had used dasm for my first demo TIM1T, and dasm drove me insane. KK's framework has its own idiosyncrasies and weird little quirks, but overall it makes development a lot faster and easier. It's available at http://devkk.net/K65.

Since I was an alpha tester during development of this demo, the sources might no longer compile with the latest version out of the box, though.
added on the 2015-12-05 21:23:23 by Kylearan Kylearan
Oh, and I might give a presentation on k65 at Revision if interest is high enough.
added on the 2015-12-05 21:24:43 by Kylearan Kylearan
@Kylearan, thanks for the info!
The thing looks very promising, helping with abbreviation of 6502 coding, taking some basic memory allocation problems and seemingly allows to do somewhat simpler precalc and tables pregeneration (i mean [] things).
Hope to see it in more generalized form (i.e. ported to c64, atari 8bit, etc.).
added on the 2015-12-08 17:51:35 by lvd lvd
nice!
rulez added on the 2016-04-21 05:28:42 by frog frog
Very nice!
rulez added on the 2016-06-24 12:00:39 by nollkolltroll nollkolltroll
Not only it's excellent but also works on the Atari Flashback Portable.
rulez added on the 2017-10-27 00:17:58 by YERZMYEY/H-PRG YERZMYEY/H-PRG
i'm happy to give my first coup de coeurs to this awesome production. just a phenomenal job on this platform! a very under appreciated production that runs great on original hardware aside from the technical achievement it also has more design than one could hope for in a VCS demo. Keep up the great work!
rulez added on the 2020-05-01 21:36:45 by superogue superogue
great graphics and effects! the music is not my cup of tea
rulez added on the 2021-03-13 21:09:12 by v3nom v3nom
Really nice Atari 2600 demo
Just saw this for the first time on the Sommarhack 2021 and Lost Party show and really cute greetings part also Cube on a stock Atari VCS
rulez added on the 2021-07-09 14:00:01 by Queen_Luna Queen_Luna
...big time!
rulez added on the 2022-05-30 03:13:55 by sachy sachy
Very cool!
rulez added on the 2022-07-03 13:19:33 by 42Bastian 42Bastian

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