Alternative Party invitro by Paradox [web]
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- - - P u n i s h Y o u r M a c h i n e - - -
- + Helsinki, Finland, October 24th to 26th, 2008 + -
+ 10th Anniversary +
- + Introduction + -
Paradox is very proud to present to you an AltParty 2008 Invitation
Intro. To provide an Invitation Intro for an event as famous as the
AltParty is an honour and we apologize for the massive delay, causing
the intro to be released rather briefly before the event.
The AltParty, initially organised to offer a demo-related convention
not focussing on mainstream platforms, has evolved into the main
scene event for creative minds refusing to limit themselves to the most
up-to-date, most spread hardware money can buy to boast about gigabyte,
gigahertz and pixel shader hardware revisions. AltParty has always
supported this approach by topic-related, unusual competitions such as
the love-song music competition, and by offering exhibitions, seminars
and famous guest speakers of the past, the present and the future of
the digital media age and by bringing together the makers of non-digital
art with the makers of digital art.
Once again, AltParty offers a program even major main-stream events have
a hard time competing with. This year, AltParty will feature one of the
pioneers of electronic music, Front 242, live on stage along with other
famous groups of modern electronic music. DotCom pioneer Brad Templeton
will host a special session, next to seminars about circuit bending,
biomedical research graphics programming and others. There will be both
a computer as well as an art exhibition next to the usual demoscene
events such as demo competitions and various VIP events.
- + Time, Location and Pricing + -
AltParty is taking place from October 24th to 26th in the Cable Factory
in Helsinki, Finland. The Cable Factory is a former Nokia Cable Manu-
facturing plant where various kinds of cables have been produced. Today,
it is a popular event location, hosting technical fairs, major social
events and various exhibitions. The AltParty is located in the largest
hall, the Merikaapelihalli, where heavy duty industrial cables have
been produced, the most popular hall for large scale fairs and techno
parties. As such, it offers room for about 1000 people, including more
than 150 computer workplaces, LAN and WLAN network connectivity, hotels
and restaurants nearby, social areas with sofas and sleeping areas.
The location is covered well by the Metro, the Tram and various bus
lines.
Additionally, there is a wide range of tickets to cover all the invidual
preferences regarding date, duration and equipment to be used. Ranging
from 26 to 950 Euros, including a discount for early registration, the
tickets can be obtained from either an online ticket shop or at the
door. Please note that all tickets are limited in number.
- + Details about the Invitro + -
This AltParty invitation intro requires an Atari STE, MegaSTE or Falcon
computer with a colour monitor and at least 2MB of free RAM. It has
been successfully tested on
- Atari Falcon030, Nemesis, TOS 4.04, 14MB, NVDI 4.11, VGA, Videlity
- Atari MegaSTE, 16MHz and 8MHz, TOS 2.06, NVDI 4.11
- Atari 1040STE, TOS 2.06
Please note that the invitation intro requires a BLiTTER badly as well
as hardware scrolling so that it does not work at all on Atari ST and
TT computers. Due to the incomplete BLiTTER emulation it also does not
work correctly on the STEEM emulator, it also does not work well on
Falcon computers with an active CT60.
Please also note that the music relies on the National LMC1992 audio
support badly and will not sound correct on either the Falcon or an
emulator.
Unfortunately, it all sums up to quite a serious amount of RAM being
used, mainly for the graphics, the logos and of course the music, so
that this version requires a minimum of 2MB RAM.
Music by 505,
Rendered pictures, Code Support, tool generation by RA,
Logo conversions, interlace-optimized font, Code by The Paranoid.
The 3D object used for rendering is by an unknown artist. The demo-
engine is based on the early one by Evil of DHS. Music editor and
replay routine by gwEm of The P.H.F. The c2p algorithm (see below)
is based on the work of Kalms of TBL, Dynacore and Llama of .tSCc.
and Ultra of Orb.
- + General Information + -
Again we have to apologize for the maximum delay - Making this
invitation intro being a reminder much rather than an invitation.
Apologies must go to Setok who test-ran the invitro a couple of
times, introduced us to the marketing people of the AltParty right from
the start and also accepted various restrictions regarding this little
intro.
Even though the effects (max2p, see below) ran fairly quickly, i failed
in getting the horizontal blanks to work along with the BLiTTER -
thanks to RA for finding the final bug - yet i removed the horizontal
blank routines anyway due to the music replayer. Also, it took me ages
to optimize the font for midres interlaced after having spent quite
some time in converting the little partner logos taken from the Alt-
Party website to the interlaced midres mode. Finally, 505 went on
vacation which added an additional delay regarding the music.
In the end, we had to revise the settings for the main effect(s) a
couple of times in order to get a decent result and thus, we apologize
for the delay but hope you enjoy this little invitation after all.
- + Technical Details + -
First of all, one fundamental note about the music, which has been
made and is being replayed once again by maxYMizer by gwEm of The
P.H.F. As a matter of fact, it doesn't use any timers at all. It
does not rely on any kind of SID- or other high-frequency inter-
rupt based effects to polish up the square waves of the YM2149.
It only relies on the square waves of the YM2149, the simple buzzer,
the two DMA-channels of the STE and the National LMC1992 and, of
course, 505's genius to put them together. This is raw STE power
and will _NOT_ sound correct on the Falcon or an emulator.
So what's so fundamentally new about these intro effects shown in
this invitation intro ? They look like effects already seen in
various other productions, including Pacemaker by Paradox.
We have to admit, the arrangement of the effects is far from perfect,
but we tried to find something that works well with the AltParty
theme chosen like steam engines, sepia colours and cottages.
However, if you look closely, you will find out that the effects
shown in this little intro are not only placed over default resolution
(320 x 200) background graphics in all bitplanes (16 colours) but, in
fact, interact with them properly.
The concept behind this is what we call "max2p" and allows to have
standard resolution bitplane graphics interact with chunky effects in
basically any possible way. At the same time, the concept requires no
additional computing time when converting to planar graphics format,
only a minimum overhead on pixel generation that can, depending on the
effect, often be completely eliminated by intelligent optimisation and
only a small amount of memory for the max2p-tables.
The result is a chunky effect that is neither blocky nor restricted to
2 or 3 bitplanes. The chunky effect can interact in basically any
possible way with the planar background, for example, as shown in this
little intro, as an alpha layer that even interacts correctly with the
background, causing no overhead with regard to traditional c2p alpha
layering. It is also possible to spread fore- and background even
further, so that the chunky effect is between a multi-colour background
and a multi-coloured foreground, disregarding all potential separation
of bitplanes, so that a 16-coloured chunky effect could be displayed
between a 5-coloured background and an 11-coloured foreground - or
vice versa. The planar background is not limited in colour or size
and it doesn't even have to be static, however, moving major parts
of the background will cost quite some CPU time, even when using the
BLiTTER.
Speaking of the BLiTTER. The max2p concept is extremely BLiTTER
friendly, as shown in this intro, in which the BLiTTER performs various
tasks with regard to the effects. While not all operations are
effectively done by the BLiTTER, working over the chunky buffer, if
necessary, can easily be done using the BLiTTER without causing any
additional overhead.
We're very pleased about the results of the max2p concept so far and
hope to present even more max2p based effects to you soon.
The effects in detail:
+ 2D Particle Stream
Consisting of 28 particles moving in 4 individual speeds all over
the screen and interacting with a 4 bitplane standard resolution
background, using max2p technique.
Music: 505
Code and Graphics: The Paranoid
+ Particle Cloud
The main move and blur effect is done using the BLiTTER, thanks
to max2p, the effect overlays correctly over a 4 bitplane standard
resolution background.
Music: 505
Graphics (rendering): RA
Graphics (3D Object): Unknown
Code: The Paranoid
+ Newspaper Simulation
Nothing very special, a 640 x 400 pixel interlaced resolution
in 60Hz using hardware scrolling to spread it over 800 pixel
lines in total.
Music: 505
Pictures and Logos: AltParty website
Code and Font: The Paranoid
- + Frequently asked questions + -
? It sucks because it doesn't run on my emulator correctly.
! The BLiTTER emulation of most emulators is incomplete, but that's
hardly our fault. It's our goal to exploit the STE's features to
the max and if your emulator can't keep up ... There's very little
we can do.
? It sucks because it doesn't run on my Falcon with CT60 on.
! The CT60 doesn't cooperate well with extensive BLiTTER arrangements
but again, there's very little we can do about it. However, it's
easy for you to fix: Switch your CT60 to 030 mode and it will run.
? It sucks because it doesn't sound very hot on my Falcon.
! Unfortunately, Atari didn't give the Falcon a National LMC1992
compatible chip so that the soundtrack, which uses the LMC1992
excessively, sounds rather limited on the Falcon. For the real
experience, please run it on an original STE.
? Atari is dead! Grow up and code PC demos!
! Actually, we think we can code cubes and ribbons on the STE,
which seem to be a fundamental requirement in "modern" demos.
Unfortunately, we're growing bored of cubes and ribbons so
we rather enjoy coding STE.
? I read on Wikipedia that you're irrelevant ...
! Yes, according to a self-proclaimed "expert on this matter", we
obviously are. But we are wondering that if an active group
like us that keeps trying to do new stuff on the STE is
irrelevant, what groups are left to be considered relevant ...
- + Final Words + -
No greetings inside the invitro this time since it has been unusual in
serious newspapers of that time to greet people and groups.
Nevertheless, the Atari community deserves it that we show our respect
for Alive Team, Checkpoint, Creators, D-Bug, DHS, Dune, Escape,
Evolution, LineOut, MJJ Prod, Mystic Bytes, New Beat, Oxygene,
Paradize, Reservoir Gods, Satantronic, Sector One, The P.H.F.,
.tSCc., YMRockerz.
Also, we are deeply impressed by the demos of the following groups
working on other systems, such as Ate Bit, Andromda Software
Development, Bauknecht, Fairlight, Farbrausch, FIT, Loonies, Orb,
PWP, Rebels, Spntz, The Black Lotus, Titan, Triebkraft, Wamma.
- + The Paranoid of Paradox - Paradox 2008 - Alive on a dead machine + -
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