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https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=7638
With support for multicolor sprites and a custom chip for waveform generation, the C64 could create superior visuals and audio compared to systems without such custom hardware.
The C64 dominated the low-end computer market (except in the UK and Japan, lasting only about six months in Japan[7]) for most of the later years of the 1980s.[8] For a substantial period (1983–1986), the C64 had between 30% and 40% share of the US market and two million units sold per year,
In the UK market, the C64 faced competition from the BBC Micro, the ZX Spectrum, and later the Amstrad CPC 464.[11] but the C64 was still the second most popular computer in the UK after the ZX Spectrum.[12] The Commodore 64 failed to make any impact in Japan. The Japanese market was dominated by Japanese computers, such as the NEC PC-8801, Sharp X1, Fujitsu FM-7, and MSX.[13]
Part of the Commodore 64's success was its sale in regular retail stores instead of only electronics or computer hobbyist specialty stores.
One computer gaming executive stated that the Nintendo Entertainment System's enormous popularity – seven million sold in 1988, almost as many as the number of C64s sold in its first five years – had stopped the C64's growth. Trip Hawkins reinforced that sentiment, stating that Nintendo was "the last hurrah of the 8-bit world".[57]
 
 
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5056
Founded by Metalwar, Helix and PGCS, 1988.
  • MEGA DEMO, October 1988. Code: Metalwar. GFX: PGCS / Ironhawk. Music: Mr. Last / Metalwar
    Founded by Metalwar, Helix and PGCS, 1988.
  • First ALCATRAZ Copy Party, Geneva, Switzerland, December 27 and 29, 1988.
  • MEGA DEMO II
  • MEGA DEMO III
  • ODISSEY, December 1991
  • ILYAD, August 7, 1994
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=7867
Hardware
- C64 consolen basis, erinnert mehr an eine Console als an einen Computer (Sprite, Hardwarescrolling, Music).
- SID wirklich witzig
VisualDisplay
Unmöglich viele Modis: High res. Multicolor > Programmierung schwierig. Positiv: Kombinierbar
- Beschränkte 16 Farben > Schwierig etwa eigenes zu machen. 
- Strahlende Farben fehlen.
Music
- Music Coding
- SID wirklich interessante Stücke. 

Tools
- Damals Paintingprogramme? > Öfter bessere Computer genutzt wie Amiga/PC (Compiling)

Coding
- Schwierig reinzukommen, sogar schwieriger als Atari2600
- Entwicklung über Jahre
- Basic embedded .-(
- Woher kam das Wissen? Die Software? (Magazine?)
- Öfter bessere Computer genutzt wie Amiga/PC (Compiling)
Gamecoding
- Ohne Tricks (Sprite Multplexer 8 Sprites viele Spiele nicht denkbar) ähnlich wie beim Atari 2600. Tricks
Beschränkung
- Beschränkung bei Shootemups am Schwierigsten bei allen anderen Genres eher möglich mit 8 Sprite durchzukommen.

Community
- Identitätsstiftend aber warum? Einfach übers gemeinsame Spielen?
- Bis heute ungebrochen. Aber mehrheitlich Spieler? Demoszener? 

Heute
Gesamte Entwicklung auf einmal da, keine allmähliche Steigerung/Entwicklung über 10 Jahre
Selbst heute, einige Tutorials aber kein Gametemplate. Viel bis heute unterschiedliche Nutzung: Vorallem game und demoscene. 
> Anwendersoftware fast nicht dokumentiert. 
> Neue Games, demos > Anwendersoftware?
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=4554
Aus Wikipedia über Hofstettler: 
Kreml von 1986 (englische Version Kremlin, herausgegeben von Avalon Hill, Träger eines „Origins Award“ 1988) ist eine Parodie der sowjetischen Politik. Dieses Gesellschaftsspiel lässt sich nicht im klassischen Sinn in die gängigen Spielarten einordnen, da ihm sowohl ein Spielbrett wie auch Spielkarten im herkömmlichen Sinn fehlen. Die Spieler spielen die Rolle grauer Eminenzen, welche hinter Kandidaten stehen, die um Ministerposten bis hinauf zum Amt des Staats- und Parteichefs kämpfen. Nimmt ein Spieler dabei mehr als nötig Einfluss auf das Spielgeschehen, so verrät er seine „Beziehungen“ und macht sich dadurch angreifbar. Kreml stellt insofern ein Kuriosum dar, als man durch weitestgehende Passivität und Unauffälligkeit beste Gewinnchancen wahren kann. Der Spielverlauf nimmt dabei immer wieder überraschende Wendungen.
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=1138
First developing on Atari ST (Assembler) but never published something except a demo for a bbs 1993 (First founded by two brothers). First not released ‘product’. A listing game for Happy Computer. 
Than switched to Macintosh (1995 ). Games in C . And than published over the net (website) or in Maganzines Disc-Magazines as Shareware. Paid first with checkes (almost impossible to get the money for 15$ games), so switched to real money and than to KAGI.com a first worldwide payment service.
Inbetween the author worked produced Flash-Games for advertising and ported a lot of games for Java (Applets) 1996 . 
Afterwards switched to Objective-C on MacOSX with a new name: la1n.ch. 
Keyboard C64
2023-04-07 17:32:44
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=8022
The Theory
Limitations
The technical limitation on the C64 Keyboard hardware is that not more than 2 keys may be pressed at the same time if you want to be 100% sure the result is valid. In some cases, three keys will work fine but whenever 3 keys form a right angle in the keyboard scan matrix, a 4th letter will appear. The combination “ABC” will work fine but the combination “ASD” will form such a triangle and the matrix will also report that the “F” key is pressed. Same goes for “ASF” which would incorrectly read a “D” the same way.
In short, the C64 keyboard is not a piano where you can play choords and stuff.
Swiss Game Design
2022-06-25 19:17:32
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=85
The swiss gamedesign was influenced and even founded by the cracker scene coming from the C64 to Amiga and the other tree was the Atari ST. Around 25 own Games and Ports were created and published from 1985-1997. There was even an own publisher Linel. 
Market WAR
2023-03-20 16:48:40
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=7642
The Tandy Color Computer was the runner up. The Apple II was the winner in the category of home computer over $500, which was the category the Commodore 64 was in when it was first released at the price of $595.
n the United States, the greatest competitors were the Atari 8-bit 400, the Atari 800, and the Apple II. The Atari 400 and 800 had been designed to accommodate previously stringent FCC emissions requirements and so were expensive to manufacture. Though similar in specifications, the C64 and Apple II represented differing design philosophies; as an open architecture system, upgrade capability for the Apple II was granted by internal expansion slots, whereas the C64's comparatively closed architecture had only a single external ROM cartridge port for bus expansion.
Aggressive pricing of the C64 is considered to have been a major catalyst in the video game crash of 1983.
The price war with Texas Instruments was seen as a personal battle for Commodore president Jack Tramiel.[25] Commodore dropped the C64's list price by $200 within two months of its release.[6] I
Meanwhile, TI lost money by selling the TI-99/4A for $99.[26] TI's subsequent demise in the home computer industry in October 1983 was seen as revenge for TI's tactics in the electronic calculator market in the mid-1970s, when Commodore was almost bankrupted by TI.[27]
Although many early C64 games were inferior Atari 8-bit ports, by late 1983, the growing installed base caused developers to create new software with better graphics and sound.[34]
 
Listing Cultures
2023-02-10 08:58:30
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=801
The listing culture is a hybrid between gutenberg galaxis and software. Software was often distributed in the mainframe time as source code ( c ). each system had a different set of hardware, processor. c and co were the platform. You could compile it for your system. 

The listing culture brought source code to the magazines and could be published. first with basic and co for homecomputers, later with checksums, than basic with assembler inlines, than only shortcodes. 
of course by typing in you could learn how to code and solve problems.
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5934
Hah, I might not be the best to explain Amiga history, but I’ll do my best :) Fish disks were the main way to distribute public domain, open source, shareware etc. before the internet was wide-spread. People would send Fred Fish software, and he’d compile them into individual disks that people would copy. Magazines would have lots of companies that would allow you to order copies of these disks etc. He ended up creating over a 1000 disks this way. When cd-roms became a thing, you could order the whole collection on those. Those were strange times :)
Aminet was the most famous ftp-archive for amiga software. It was run by the same guy that made Brainfuck, Urban Müller. Rather than chronologically like fish disks, it was organized by topic, with readme’s for every file. You could upload to a staging area, and he’d put them in place. Much like fish disks, companies would print cd-roms with the latest from aminet for those not hooked up to the internets (or on 56k modems, which was most people).
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=7933
'C64 an 8bit console computer on steroids'.
The intellivision was at the same time a real good 16bit system and console and not like the c64 a 8 bit processor with 64k ram. Hell to code for … 
homecomputer 16-bit
2022-07-07 15:44:34
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=1543
this computers came with an operating system, gui-based and mouse. basic was a prg to use (not anymore line based). there were some new styles of basics coming up like gfa-basic, omikron-basic (atari st). 
and the most games were coded in assembler (68000 was a god processor for assembler). so you had to buy assembler, which was not included. 
.
2023-04-16 13:19:38
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=8258

Our President, Paul Schaerer

As Our President since 1993 he tries to keep the club running. He also tries to "fill" the club-MAGA 
He was born at 1st of April 1954 and is an educated radio-tv technician. 1978 he startet working for IBM and acts as a Hardware Level2 supporter since January 1997 in still the same company. 
Even if he works with "real PCs", he loves MSX. He is a hardwareman and You can see it because he developped a lot of Hardwarestuff. 
->Slotexpander, Modeltrain-controlling and some other hardware. 
His e-mail address: schaere@ibm.net

Our Vice-President, Peter Burkhard

This man is the driven force of SUNRISE SWISS and so also the driving force to developp all the excellent projects released by SUNRISE SWISS. In his professional live he is a salesman who sells courtains. 
During his small free time he likes to play games with MSX and Playstation. He is the guy who everytime finds new software like games, demos and sounds in all over the world. He also holds contact with all MSXers all over the world. To do this, a thing not from MSX is very helpfull to him; INTERNET. 
His e-mail address: pburkhard@msx.ch
picture of Vice-President
picture of Cashier

Our Cashier, Hans Juergen Rechsteiner

One of the most important jobs in a club is the cashiers job. This is not only his job for the club, but it is also a big part of his daily business. He is the branch manager in a large chain store with stores all over Switzerland.
As an MSX computer-hobbyist, he mostly tries to make titles for his own movies. He also likes it to developp own sounds with his music-module. Another thing he loves is to make bar-b-queues. How all the other things, he also does this nearly perfect. 
His e-mail address: hjrechi@swissonline.ch

Our Secretary, Hans Langenauer

His job in our club is, to write everything about our monthly meetings. This is not an easy, but a very intresting job. He also writes all the paperstuff for the club. In his professional live he is a government official in a village near St. Gall. If he don't have to write articles for the MAGA, he loves it to make movies. On every ocassion, he is there with his camcorder. All this stuff, he is editing and cutting with his MSX. That's why he is waiting yearning for the announced digitizer which should be released soon from SUNRISE SWISS. 
Sorry, but he don't have an e-mail. Phone: xx41 x71 385 85 72
picture of Aktuar
picture of Beisitzer

Our Assistant, Marcel Truetsch

As Our Assistant, he is mostly responsible for the editing of the club-MAGA. He is an educated postman and he loves not even MSX but also interneting and gameconsoles. He everytime knows the newest news about Internet helps, and games.
He also is a member of the legendary SUNRISE SWISS which developpes the finest stuff for MSX. He knows nearly everything about the news there and he acts as a kind of public relations manager. So, he seems to be the right hand of Peter Burkhard. 
His e-mail address: mtruetsch@msx.ch
Cracking
2023-02-11 14:57:25
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=768
Make games copyable. Some cracker groups where in the tradition of information freedom, others learned from cracking software creating software, others had fun, others were in a sport ‘who is first’ and of course also others gained money. 
Why switzerland? and not us? The rumor is: There was no law in switzerland against cracking. 
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=6714
Hattest du mal einen Plan, daß das zu etwas Größerem wird, daß du in größeren Teams arbeitest oder für Firmen Spiele entwickelst? Eigentlich nicht. Einmal, das war 1987 – da bekam ich einen Anruf aus der Schweiz, Firma Linel … keine Ahnung, ob’s die noch gibt. Die hatten eine Softwarefirma gegründet und hatten mich gefragt, ob ich nicht Lust hätte, mal ein Spiel für sie zu schreiben. Sie würden das vermarkten. Ja, irgendwo will man die Chance nutzen – das habe ich dann auch gemacht, auch auf dem C64. Das war ein bißchen aufwendiger – das Ganze war im Assembler geschrieben, nicht nur in Basic. Bei den anderen Spielen – beim ersten noch nicht, aber danach – waren immer so kleine Assembler-Routinen dabei, damit das Spiel ein bißchen flüssiger lief. Heutzutage programmiert keiner mehr so, weil es viel zu kompliziert wäre für die Maschinen, die es jetzt gibt. Damals war das noch recht übersichtlich – du hast einen Prozessor, und den konnte man schön programmieren. Das war recht einfach und primitiv mit den Maschinen damals. Das habe ich also komplett in Assembler geschrieben, ein Titelbild dazu gemalt – sehr aufwendig, wochenlange Arbeit, und es ist eigentlich nichts dabei herausgekommen. Das war eigentlich das einzige Spiel, das nie veröffentlicht wurde. MAZE PATROL hieß das, kennt kein Mensch … das war sicherlich eines von den aufwendigsten. Das war eine Enttäuschung. Das war auch das einzige, was ich für diese Firma gemacht habe. Nachdem es nie veröffentlicht wurde und ich es auch nie ins Netz gestellt habe, überlege ich mal, wo ich das jetzt finde …
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=9073
Subject:
'Re: VIC-II colors'
From: Robert 'Bob' Yannes
To: Philip
'Pepto' Timmermann
Date: 27.09.1999
I was involved with the development of the VIC-II, however the actual implementation of the design, including the Color
Palette, was done by someone else. I have forwarded your message to him, but it is up to him if he wants to respond.
I can tell you that the design was based on the principle that adding a sine wave of a particular frequency and amplitude
to an inverted version of the same sine wave at a different amplitude produces a phase-shifted sine wave of the same
frequency. The amount of phase shift is directly proportional to the amplitudes of the two sine waves.
The VIC-II used the 14.31818 MHz master clock input (4 times the NTSC color burst frequency of 3.579545 MHz) to produce
quadrature square-wave clocks. These clock signals were then integrated into triangle waves sing analog integrators. The
triangle waves were then integrated again into sine waves (actually rounded triangle waves, but good enough for this
application). This produced a 3.579545 MHz sine wave,
inverse sine wave, cosine wave and inverse cosine wave.
An analog summer was used to create the phase-shifts in the Chroma signal by adding together the appropiate two waveforms
at the appropiate amplitudes. The Color Palette data went to a look-up table that specified the amplitude of the waves by
selecting different resistors in the gain path of the summer. The end result was that we could create any hue we wanted by
looking at the NTSC color wheel to determine the phase-shift and then picking the appropiate resistor values to produce
that phase-shift.
Color Saturation was controlled by scaling the gain of the summer. When we picked the resistor values to determine the
output phase-shift, we also scaled them to produce the desired output amplitude. Luminance was controlled using a simple
voltage divider which switched different pull-down resistors into the open-drain output. We could create any Luminance we
wanted by choosing the desired resistor value.
I'm afraid that not nearly as much effort went into the color selection as you think. Since we had total control over hue,
saturation and luminance, we picked colors that we liked. In order to save space on the chip, though, many of the colors
were simply the opposite side of the color wheel from ones that we picked. This allowed us to reuse the existing resistor
values,
rather than having a completely unique set for each color
I believe that Commodore actually got a patent on this technique. It was certainly superior to the Apple or Atari approach
at the time, as they ended up with whatever colors that came out--ours allowed the designer to freely select Hue,
Saturation and Luminance.
Since all of this was based on selecting different resistor values and resistance varied from chip lot to chip lot, there
was variation from one Commodore 64 to another. It wasn't as bad as it could have been though, since all of the Chrominance
selection was based on resistor ratios, which could be kept constant even if the actual resistor values varied. Luminance
was more of a problem. A trimmer resistor should really have been used to pull up the output. This would have allowed the
Luminance to be adjusted for consistency from unit to unit, however Commodore didn't care enough about consistency to
bother with adjusting each unit
Robert
'Bob'
Yannes
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=9147
The CFA was founded in 1987 in Basel, Switzerland, when 3-letter names were still in fashion. CFA stood for “Computer Freaks Association”. In the first months the CFA was a group of C64 fans and gaming tournaments were held in regular intervals. They organised a gaming room at a local School-Party of the RG in Basel.

The CFA started with pure Demo-Making and Software-Swapping. The first international contact was the Norwegian group The Sinister Realm 2013 Stavanger. One of the early meeting places was the Dial-Club, a local Computer-Center in Basel.
At this time a regular Exchange-Ring of Software between the members was built up.
The first Copy-Party visited by CFA members was Crazy & ZSS Party 1988 in Pratteln/Switzerland. In 1989 Members of the group was busted by police on a German Copy-Party, but thanks to slow Swiss legislation, no CFA member had any troubles at all after returning to Switzerland.
The CFA took part in Demo-Contests of other Swiss copy parties: Crazy & RCS Party 1989, Crazy Stardom Copy-Party 1989 and Fresh Party 1990

In the early days, our strategy was: focus on Switzerland. This changed with the first member expansion outside of Basel: 
German members: Snief and The Cure.
Liechtenstein members: Sandman.

War against another Swiss group Fresh, which led to a funny anti demo Fresh on Top. The war was officially ended at the Swiss Pirates Reunion 2002. (nowadays there are many friendship boundaries between the former 2 opponents).

The CFA has in the meantime started importing and cracking games: access to the major US BBS, latest wares and cards agogo. 

1990-1991 Cooperation with Italian Cracking Service from Italy.

11/1989-07/1993 reknown Disk Mag “Immortal Flash” an e-zine that become quite popular in the scene (later released by Atlantis).

In 02/1991 the CFA died and the remaining members built up Atlantis. More info in Joker Note.
Grotic
2022-07-01 08:46:45
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=1162
Is a clone of the arcade puzzle bobble with other graphics. In development the problem was the hexagonelogic. Another was a not initialized Rectangle, who crashed on some macs and on other not. 
Specials:
- there was even a cracked version out there
- the serial of the game was in the serial number collection
- sold for 15$ > made around 3000 sFR with it. 
Years later a guy in the bus asked me: Are you the guy behind imp89, grotic and co?
.
2023-03-13 16:28:54
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=7355
MOVE.L  #1000,A0       ;bring address in A0          
MOVE    #1,(A0)        ;write 1 into this address

RECORD: 
  DC.W 2                ;number of entries -1                  
  DC.W 1,2,3            ;elements of list

CLR.L   D0            ;erase D0 completely                   
MOVE.L  #RECORD,A0    ;address of list in A0                   
MOVE    (A0),D0       ;number of elements -1 in D0                   
MOVE    1(A0,D0),D1   ;last element in D1                   ...           
RECORD: DC.W 2                ;number of entries -1                   
DC.W 1,2,3            ;elements of list



CMP  #2,D1
CMP   #2,D1      ;comparison,or subtraction
                 BNE   UNEQUAL    ;branch,if not equal(Z flag not set)
                 MOVE  #0,D2      ;otherwise execute D2=0
        
          UNEQUAL:

 T        true,corresponds to BRA
          F        false,never branches
          HI       higher than                   C'* Z'
          LS       lower or same                 C   Z
          CC,HS    carry clear,higher or same    C'
          CS,LO    carry set,lower               C
          NE       not equal                     Z'
          EQ       equal                         Z
          VC       overflow clear                V'
          VS       overflow set                  V
          PL       plus,positive
          MI       minus,negative
          GE       greater or equal              N*V N'*V'
          LT       less than                     N*V' N'*V
          GT       greater than                  N*V*Z' N'*V'*Z'
          LE       less or equal                 Z   N*V'   N'*V

 ---------------------------------------------------
      Bcc     Label         conditional branch,depends on condition
      BRA     Label         unconditional branch(similar to JMP)
      BSR     Label         branch to subprogram.Return address is
                            deposited on stack,RTS causes return to that
                            address.
      CHK     <ea>,Dx       check data register for limits,activate the
                            CHK instruction exception.
      DBcc    Reg,Label     check condition,decrement and branch
      JMP     Label         jump to address(similar to BRA)
      JSR     Label         jump to subroutine.Return address is
                            deposited on stack,RTS causes return to that
                            address.
      NOP                   no operation
      RESET                 reset peripherals(caution!)
      RTE                   return from exception
      RTR                   return with loading of flags
      RTS                   return from subroutine(after BSR and JSR)
      Scc     <ea>          set a byte to -1 when condition is met
      STOP                  stop processing(caution!)
      TRAP #n               jump to an exception
      TRAPV
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5884

 

Facts

  • TTV1 was the first file-based Amiga virus
  • Its creation was a fun experiment. It was inspired by the boot block based SCA virus which had reached dubious fame due to its very successful spreading and the flaw of overwriting the boot block. Would it be possible to create a self spreading file, thus breaking out of the boot block dread?
  • Development took place between spring and fall 1988.
  • The early code name was HOUZ virus.
  • Thinking up the name we tried to find something that would sound mean and at the same time on the verge to ridiculous. The final name was inspired by a rap band called The Terrorists.
  • The virus does not harm the system. In fact, care was taken to avoid any even unintentional damage.
  • Identity of the authors was kept secret for 30 years. It was officially revealed on March 9, 2019 at the Demonights 008 event in Bern Switzerland
  • "The names have been changed to protect the innocent" shown in the message was inspired by the song Beat Dis by Bomb the Bass. They have sampled it from the Dragnet radio series.
  • The "BGS9" was in fact a clone. Its code is almost identical even including the resident name "TTV1". It got more reach and thus was regarded as the origin.

About the life of the beast

  1. TTV1 installs itself as a reset proof resident module (KickTag/ROMTag) named "TTV1"
  2. On reset the resident module (virus) is called
  3. Execution gets delayed in order to gain disk write access. Therefore Intuition's OpenWindow function is redirected.
  4. As soon as the AmigaDOS tries to open the CLI window the OpenWindow gets called the virus looks for the startup-sequence on the booted disk
  5. The virus is looking for the first command (A) in the startup-sequence
  6. File request windows (e.g. "Disk is write protected") are being temporarily disabled
  7. Virus renames A to $a0202020a02020a020a0a0. This is a combination of none breaking spaces and spaces. The idea is that the user will oversee this "invisible" file.
  8. Virus writes itself as an executable command with the name of A to the disk
  9. Eventually A gets loaded and executed with all its parameters by the virus
The next time the user will boot the disk the virus gets loaded into RAM and step 1 takes place. On reset the horizonal beam position gets evaluated. If the beam position is smaller than a certain number the screen turns black and a message in white letters appears.
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=7501
and for the machine to not look like “a pregnant calculator”
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=7881
 
  • most games - you play not act 
  • qix no
  • pac man - somehow but too hard
  • moon lander? no really
  • asteroids no
  • galaxy - some visual aspect - mukokuseki
  • missile command no 
  • atari 2600 porno games no
  • klax arcade - chain
  • frogger
  • most shootenup (space invader - war visuals) 
  • lemmings? dark behind the nice graphics
  • battle chess - reanalog - brutal
  • demoscene? biggest part - yes
  •  
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5484

 

Games waren am Anfang einfach kopierbar. Ein Kopierschutz existierte nicht. Die Games wurden dann auch kopiert, was das Zeug hielt. Die Schweiz war prädestiniert dafür, denn sie kannte kein (digitales) Copyright – die Privatkopie lässt grüssen! Damit war das Feld weit offen für alle. Berüchtigt und bekannt waren die sogenannten Kopier-Parties. Häufig waren sie ein Missbrauch der Treffen in den Computerclubs. Erst mit der Zeit entstanden komplexere Schutzmechanismen wie nicht kopierbare Anleitungen oder Disketten mit Löchern. Diese ließen sich nun nicht mehr so einfach umgehen – und so entstand eine Szene von «Crackers».
Abbildung 11: Rudolf Stramm alias Hcc prüft den Code des Spiels WAR HELI und zeigt, wie gut der Kopierschutz eingebettet wurde. So gut, dass das Spiel nicht kopiert werden konnte, in der Konsequenz aber gerade deswegen auch keine sehr grosse Verbreitung fand. Screenshot aus de SRF Doku (Schlumpf/Trinkler 1989).
Crackers dis-assemblierten den Code und hatten damit den unkommentierten Source-Code vorliegen. Nach und nach entfernten sie die Schutzmassnahmen und gaben die Software frei. Meist handelte es sich dabei um Games.
Das Cracking war für viele selbst eine Art Spiel mit einer Spielmechanik. Rudolf Stramm alias Hcc beschrieb es als ein Duell zwischen dem Entwickler und dem Cracker:
“Man misst sich mit dem, der den Schutz gemacht hat. Es ist im Prinzip ein Wettkampf. Darum strahlt es einen gewissen Reiz aus. Es ist eine Sucht”.
Hcc, Rudolf Stramm, Min 15:09, in: (Schlumpf/Trinkler 1989)
Im besten aller Fälle integrierten die Cracker auch noch einen sogenannten Trainer. Damit konnte man sich eine unendliche Anzahl Leben geben oder sich an bestimmte Orte im Spiel teleportieren. Viele Spiele waren mit ihrem hohen Schwierigkeitsgrad nur so wirklich spielbar – so zum Beispiel das berüchtigte Rick Dangerous.
Der Name der Swiss Cracking Association singt im Namen von dem allem ein Lied. Und sie betätigten sich auch im ‘Schweizerischen GameDesign’. So crackten sie die Summer Games (C64, 1984) und ersetzten eine der Flaggen mit der schweizerischen Flagge und fügten dazu noch eine instrumentale 8 Bit Version der Nationalhymne ein. Wer auf die Schweizer Flagge klickt, hört diese Hymne. Das ist gleichzeitig Schweizer Game Design als auch die inoffizielle Hymne für das Schweizer Game Design.
Abbildung 12: Summer Games für den C64 (1984). Mit der Schweizer Flagge und Hymne gecrackt von der Swiss Crackers Association SCA.
Cracken bedeutete letztlich, eine Software und damit Spiele verstehen zu lernen. Und langsam aber kontinuierlich begannen diese Cracking-Gruppen die Programmierung von Spielen zu verstehen. Angefangen hat das bei der Darstellung von Grafiken und dem Abspielen von Musik, dann ging es weiter zur Integration von Spielmechanik – alles war erkennbar und letztlich auch wiederum einsetzbar. Wurden Grafik und Musik anfangs aus den Games extrahiert, kamen je länger desto öfter eigene Grafiken und eigene Musik hinzu. Unter den Mitgliedern von Cracker Gruppen entdeckt man viele spätere Grafiker und Musiker. Cracken von Spielen und Entwicklung eigener Spiele diente also durchaus auch als Startbrett für eine Karriere im Bereich der sogenannten Kreativwirtschaft sowie der IT.
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=8188

 

It is a sad fact that the 6502 used in the Commodore64 and other home computers of the 80s is widely believed to have a poor code density when it comes to compiled or wider than eight bit code. The C standard requires computations to be made with ints which work best if they have the same size as a pointer.
The 6502 also has a very small stack of 256 bytes which cannot be easily addressed and thus cannot be used for local variables. Therefore a second stack for variables has to be maintained, resulting in costly indexing operations. The 6502 is also pretty poor when it comes to indexed operations, it has no index with constant offset addressing mode, and requires the y register to be used for indexing.
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=9255
OLIVER It all started for me at a Christmas party at Starbyte Software. It was a remarkable event. I never met so many talented people at one place before. The developers showed the games they were developing including the Amiga version of Rolling Ronny. We got the offer for converting the game and if I remember correctly, we agreed almost instantly. Previous projects of Bones Park were economic simulations, which was… how to describe… rather static stuff. I usually call those games Excel-pushers. A jump-and-run is way more interesting and it is action we wanted to create.
MARIO Back then, in the C64 era, most games took only a few weeks or a couple of months to develop. So we had to keep a constant flow of new contacts and projects. One project we did in late 1991, Trans World, for German publisher Starbyte, went pretty smooth and even became our first #1 in German sales charts, so we were invited and offered to work on other titles. One concrete offering was the C64 conversion of Rolling Ronny. Even though most of the first games I programmed were simulations, I still had spent a lot of time on developing action and real-time oriented games. So it was a perfect moment to put all the learnings into a concrete game – and that would have been Rolling Ronny.
Demake Culture
2022-07-27 22:16:15
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=421
Demake is a ‘downsized’ game - a game developed for a ‘better platform’ (techincal) and was than recoded for an older vintage system. 
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=9257
OLIVER Being a pixel guy – the tools were remarkable. We did not have devkit like the Katakis tools or something specified for creating game graphics. I used the editor that came with the Shoot ‘Em Up Construction Kit for sprites, which turned out extremely practical. The Ronny-sprite was created with an C64 editor called Mob-Profi, which provided overlayed hires and multicolour-sprites. The pictures in the intro and end sequence were pixeled in Koala Painter with a joystick, but everything else was more like hacking. I edited the charset with a font editor. The level backgrounds were tile-based maps, so a friend of mine coded one tool for combining 2×2 chars to tiles including the colour – and a second tool for assembling the levelmap like a puzzle game. As setup I had a C128 and Amiga 500 side by side. By the way – there was a TV and a monitor connected to the C128 at the same time, because of the the different video quality and I wanted to be sure that the graphics  looked right on both display types. With our modern mouse or stylus driven tools and those workflow-trimmed programs it is hard to believe that we got things done at all back in the day when we were even lacking fundamentals such as UNDO functionality. However, I have to say that you had full control over the technical specs of the graphics and as a graphic designer you started to think like a coder.
Otherwise, I hardly remember details of the project. At least for the first month, Mario and I were working alongside each other. The intro and the end sequence were finished first. Then it was very intense and determined by crunchtime, the process was sort of first-in-first-out. The progress in code was tied to incoming graphics. Markus composed the new tunes at home far away and we had some issues with the delivery. Nevertheless the whole soundtrack reached us in time and its implementation went smoothly. Still there was no free time at all. In the final weeks weeks it became a kind of competition – like, who needs the least sleep! I also remember that the editing of the levels was pretty chaotic. Three of us worked in shifts and it took much longer than planned.
Oh I almost forgot about the  communication with Virgin. That was the horror for me because I hardly spoke any English back then. David Bishop and I talked English and German mixed, which worked surprisingly well.
la1n.ch
2022-06-24 22:55:17
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=1150
la1n was the direct next step from imp89. New maschines and a new platform macosx. “Therefore i learned objective-c and coded real object orientated” and switched now to 3d games with opengl. The games were now more an more like gameengines and were object-orientated. But still hardcore coded. This change with the upcoming game engine like torque or unity. 
Therefore the last games from la1n.ch till now were again hardcore coded games like axe (atari 2600 vcs), vecZ (vectrex 2016). 
GameDevs
2022-04-13 10:25:54
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=1136
GameDevs are gamedeveloppers. The name tells also a lot about the idea behind. The most important thing was the technical difficulties. 
Website: Imp89
2024-08-04 18:53:05
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=2836
check: was this really every online?
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=1140
The shareware modell was the only that worked in those days. Because to get a publisher for mac was almost impossible.
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=1263
Made by crackers and a lot of anti-protection-mechanics. So a long time this game was not cracked.
Example: all tracks are not starting at the same place like normally - every track starts somewhere else. therfore they 
Floppy discs
2022-04-14 12:42:16
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=1433
Floppy disc or magnetic disc are faster and mor flexible than tapes. you can load and store autonom (no start and stop) and not linear, you can store them here or there. but of course also expensiver (you cant anymore use a (music) tapedrive.
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5100
'I had created maybe around 30 demos and I wanted to create a game on the Amiga because I always like shoot'e 'up. It was a new challenge for me: I gathered a team of a few people, some of them ended up not staying very long: Marc Albinet, the graphic designer, who would work on other games later on, such as Agony, Frédéric Hahn (musician with Ackerlight), Pierre Adane (who worked on the copy-protection system and the endgame animation), and myself Olivier Régis (Metalwar), doing the cosing in terms of programming, there was nothing fancy. I just had to create some specific tools to piece up graphics piece-by-piece and to manage the dynamics of enemy motion. We then called Ubisoft to show them our Ilyad project. Marc Albinet and myself met one of the Guillermot briothers in Paris - they are the founders of Ubisoft. At that time, the firm was very small compared to what it is now, and the licensic fees we received, were really symbolic. They barely covered our travel expenses, but we did not do it for the money."
Demoscene
2023-02-11 14:57:08
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=6764
CODE > Graphics (Effects), Sound, SizeCoding > Effect, Synaesthesy  (Creativity Process)
Community > Concurrency > Metagame > Scene
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=8893
digitalization was after the end of the idea of the replica of man as a robot and thinking being. something that the analog first read largely unchallenged. it was a colonization of a new space, a space that created itself - cyberspace. with this, this space did not come into conflict in a first moment - in the sense of earlier struggles over existing mostly analog territory. this is probably also one of the reasons why digitalization proceeded creepingly and was not perceived or actively fought by parts of the broad population (the nerds etc.). and many waves of digitalization then also emerged in the field of music (synthies) or games, for example, and took hold in everyday life at home. the normal things, however, continued to run until they then also arrived in the working environment.
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=4264

Schweiz

Computerclub STAB, gegr. 1986, ca. 260 Mitlieder. Keine Mitgliedsbeiträge und Aufnahmegebühren. Leistungen: gelegentliche Kurse, Disketten zum Selbstkostenpreis, PD-Software. Kontaktadresse: STAB, J. Giroud, Solothurnstr. 69, CH-3322 Urtenen
 
Atari Computer Club Zürich, gegr. 1987. Mitgl.-Beitrag Azubis und Studenten 100 Franken jährlich, sonstige 150 Franken. Leistungen: Clubmagazin, PD-Software, Kurse. Kontaktadresse: ACC, Hansjürg Bürgler, Schüsselwies 13, CH-8636 Wald
 
DIAL-Computer-Club, gegr. 1984, 300 Mitglieder. Mitgl.-Beitrag Jugendliche 8 Franken monatlich, Erwachsene 11 Franken. Leistungen: Kurse. Kontaktadresse: DIAL-Computer-Club, Iwan Martin, Postfach 231, CH-4003 Basel
 
Aargauischer Computer Club, gegr. 1985, 400 Mitglieder. Mitgl.-Beitrag 80 Franken jährlich, Ermässigungen möglich. Leistungen: PD-Software, Kurse, Clubzeitschrift. Kontaktadresse: ACCB, Aargauischer Computer Club, CH-5200 Brugg
 
Verein Compix, gegr. 1988, 40 Mitglieder. Mitgl.-Beitrag 60 Franken jährlich. Leistungen: PD-Software, eigene Mail box. Kontaktadresse: Verein Compix, Roland Koller, Zähringerstr. 21, CH-6003 Luzern
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=4612

..ich hab'zu Hause selbst 'nen Mac

Im Gegensatz zu GudrunLandgrebe (»Mit Computernkenne ich mich gar nichtaus) sind für Hauptdarsteller Peter Sattmann Computerund Happy-Computer nichts Unbekanntes. 
Er gab uns be-reitwillig auf dem Weg voneinem Drehort zum anderenAuskunft.
Sie spielen bei »Bastard®den Computer-Freak. Sie sehen nicht aus, wie ein typischer Computerfreak. SindSie einer?
P. Sattmann: Nein, sicher binich kein Computer-Freak. Andererseits habe ich zuHause einen Apple Macintosh, auf dem ich überwiegend Musik mache. Ein Computer kann schon ein paartolle Dinge.
Wie sind Sie mit der Rolleund dem »Partner Compu-ter zurechtgekommen?
P. Sattmann: Es war teilwei-se schon etwas ungewöhn-lich, an so einer Kiste zu spielen. 
Aber am Ende ging eshervorragend.
Das Interview mit Peter Sattmann führte unsere Mitarbeiterin Rita Gietl
Happy Computer, Ausgabe 7/Juli 1988
HIstory
2022-08-03 12:18:08
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5064

Alcatraz was formed in 1988 from the ashes of the more strangely named "Motley Crue Team", by Metalwar (Code, Music), Helix (Gfx) and PGCS (Gfx).

Metalwar was the mastermind behind most of the first productions of the group, until the time of Mega Demo 2, when new creative members like Hornet of Avengers joined Alcatraz.

After Mega Demo 3, Metalwar started to work on his dream Amiga game, codenamed "Ilyad". This shoot 'em up was eventually released in 1989 by UbiSoft. One year later, Metalwar and Helix decided to leave both the group and the scene, leaving PGCS heading the group.

https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5474
Den Crackern ging es selbstverständlich auch darum, bekannt zu werden. Sie versuchten symbolisches Kapital anzuhäufen. Man kann ihre Motivation und ihre Aneignungsweise durchaus mit derjenigen der Graffiti-Sprayer jener Jahre vergleichen, die mittels “taggen” ihres Künstler- und Gruppen Namens auf leeren Flächen der Stadt versuchten, Aufmerksamkeit zu erreichen – zum Beispiel GEN im Zürich der 80er Jahre. Getting Fame oder Getting Up war die Losung.
Abbildung 13: GEN gehörte zur ersten Generation der Sprayer in Zürich, die ihren Künstlernamen überall in der Stadt verbreiteten und dafür simple Tags und nach und nach immer komplexere Formen nach dem Vorbild der New Yorker Subway Graffiti nutzten. GEN, auch Gen Atem (aka Genius), hatte sich schon 1984 mit der New York City Graffiti Legende Phase Two getroffen, in der Casablanca Galerie in Zürich. Die beiden Bilder wurden 1986 in Zürich Oerlikon aufgenommen. Fotos: Beat Suter.
Aus den anfänglichen kurzen Bemerkungen als Text wurden immer komplexere eigenständige Vorspänne – die sogenannten Intros. Hier zeigten die Crackers mit der Message ihres Namens, die nicht zuletzt als Botschaften an die Adresse anderer Cracker Gruppen dienten, ihr Ganzes Können. Dabei versuchten sie alles aus diesen Computern herauszuholen. Diese Intros waren eine Art Graffiti auf den blanken Oberflächen der Games jener Zeit. Die Intros unterstanden nicht den Gesetzmäßigkeiten des Game Designs. Die Spielmechaniken spielten keine Rolle und mussten nicht verändert werden. Es ging lediglich um die Titel- und Credit Sequenzen der Spiele. Es ging um einen visuellen Auftritt, der auffallen sollte. Die Intros mussten gut aussehen und einen Wow-Effekt haben. Mit dem Einbezug von Musik und Animation wurde es aber bald auch wichtig, spezielleres Wissen zu erarbeiten. Die Cracker Gruppen begannen Arbeitsteilung einzuführen mit Programmierern, Grafikern und Musikern.
Aus diesen Intros, die in bestehende Spiele eingefügt wurden, entstand später eine ganz eigene Szene, die Demoszene. Und so kommt es, dass sich im Umfeld der meisten Schweizer Cracker und frühen Game Devs auch immer Demos finden. Diese Szene ist noch immer aktiv und dokumentiert sich bis heute selbst. Man findet fast alles aus den letzten 40 Jahren auf der Website POUET (2000) sowie in spezialisierten Datenbanken. Einige der Entwickler updaten ihre virtuellen Echtzeit Welten bis heute aber auch direkt selbst.
Abbildung 14: Cracks und Demos aus den Jahren 1983 – 1988 werden archiviert und öffentlich zugänglich gemacht über die Website der Swiss Cracking Association SCA (2018).Abbildung 15: Aus dem Repertoire des Crackers Hcc: Solomon’s Key Cracktro, Atari ST (1987).
 
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=4809
Almost all computers could be extended by cards from apple II to c64 and co. 
Atlantis
2023-09-15 10:01:32
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=9153
Last active c64 Swiss based group!!!

When the Computer Freaks Association died, most of the remaining active members started a new group called Atlantis. Immortal Flash was then released for Atlantis as well.

Between 09.11.2013 and 24.07.2016 in Co-op with Fantastic 4 Cracking Group.

In 2018-2020 ATL worked on Propaganda First Release List and some cracks together with Genesis Project.
 
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=9245
Die beiden Deutschen Oliver Lindau und Mario Knezevic portierten die Original Amiga Version von Rolling Ronny für C64 (Für Starbyte und Virgin Games)
invention - draw program
2022-06-30 23:24:49
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=4141
Ivan Sutherland’s seminal Sketchpad application was an early inspiration for OOP. It was created between 1961 and 1962 and published in his Sketchpad Thesis in 1963. The objects were data structures representing graphical images displayed on an oscilloscope screen, and featured inheritance via dynamic delegates, which Ivan Sutherland called “masters” in his thesis. Any object could become a “master”, and additional instances of the objects were called “occurrences”.
.
2022-12-19 15:00:31
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=6156
'dropfiles', small binary or text files dropped into known locations in the BBS'
A major use of doors is for door games: computer games played on the BBS.[3] These games included strategy games such as TradeWars 2002, Food Fight!, [4] Solar Realms Elite,[5] Space Dynasty, Usurper,[6] and Barren Realms Elite.[7] There were also role-playing games (RPG), often derived from earlier email-based games. One such game was Seth Robinson's Legend of the Red Dragon,[8] and another popular dystopian RPG: Operation: Overkill,[4] another was Mutants!. BBSes often published high scores, encouraging players to beat others.[9]
InterBBS leagues allowed users of different BBSes to compete against each other in the same game. A modern version of this known as BBSlink exists allowing sysops to offer door games on their BBS which are hosted on a remote server, thereby increasing the user base of the game.
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=997
Games made with old technologies but not old working hardware. 
the exceptions - Tex
2022-07-07 13:29:31
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=3380
not suisse, but people worked with their muscian jochen hippel. 
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=4280
where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and the German-speaking parts of Europe.
Port
2022-08-02 13:41:25
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=4943
A port is game that was ‘ported’ to another system. A lot of arcades were ported for example to less powerfull hardware. 
Therefore the question is: Are not all of games Demakes?
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5966
Areas like the demoscene or electronic games existed only rudimentarily as analog systems (pinball etc) In this sense they were new and updated the system.
Other areas changed or replaced existing areas: 
- Data collection and analysis (punch cards, etc.)
- word processing

> From media running on humans to media running on computers
Not allowed object type!
2023-03-16 15:44:53
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=7407
Use a zip for uploading different files.
Homecomputer dilemma
2023-03-27 20:48:56
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=7863
Only the consoles survived in the memory of the world  and not the homecomputers. 
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=3463
What is next? 16/32-Bit but which one?
(- Macintosh)
- Atari ST? (like C64)
- Amiga (Multimedimaschine) expensive - Amiga 500
- Sinclair 68000
- Archimedes?
(- NEXT very expensive!)
 
.
2022-06-06 11:39:02
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=3743
“4-Which composing programs have you been using? Which one in particular?”
I discovered Linel's SoundFX about a year before I saw Soundtracker (which I 
hated). The important difference between the two is that SoundFX let you use 
CIA timing so you could match breakbeats perfectly, where as Soundtracker had 
no concept of "BPM". I was trying to make house/dance tracks so I found SoundFX 
was better for that purpose. I later used Noisetracker for making more typical
demoscene tracks (Noisetracker's pattern FX were far far superior to SoundFX's).
Of course, when it came to implementing the playroutine into code - SoundFX 
sucked! (See Magnetic Fields Spaced Out 1 music disk to hear how my music 
DOESN'T work with the playroutine hack.) By the time ProTracker was released, 
you could choose CIA timing, so I started using that.
The king of trackers, as far as I'm concerned, was OctaMED for its synth sound 
editor. I spent so many happy hours making C64-sounding tunes using that (some 
are still available at Exotica's Special section.)
 
Ilyad Credits
2022-08-03 12:48:31
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5078
Shoot'em'up game on Amiga. Coded by Metalwar, Music by Fred (fantastic C64 style !!!!), Graphics by Leto2 and Disk routines end demo by P. Adane. I especially love the music of Fred (Fredereic Hahn). 1st music is done by metalwar
Windows (OS)
2023-02-06 08:31:49
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5326
OS from Microsoft with Windows. Came first out in ASCII-Blocks. Well known for 3.1 and of course 95. Which was the first modern Windows (vs 85 Mac with Finder, 85/86 Ataris ST with GEM and Amiga)
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=6529
Two types of tv-games:
  • in the studio
  • played in the studio
  • special interface - the tv screen as display (hugo und co)
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=7905
  • Show colors
  • Show good graphics
  • show a lot of sprites!
  • hast do be somehow 3d
  • not really graphical design … 
(Intro and demoscene)
Motorola 68000
2023-03-17 10:37:06
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=503
Base for a lot of computers (GUI, Mac, Atari, Amiga, Next  etc) arcades and Arcades! Expensive but with a fantastic assembler-language. 
.
2022-11-22 15:55:54
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=1025
Homecomputer were attractive for:
  1. as Computers create staff
  2. as Consoles
  3. you could pirating easily software games included
  4. the 16-bit consoles had mouses and guis. easier to use.
Therefore a lot of console wanted to make out of the console a computer (like intellivision). And a lot of users also thinks that the videogame crash was also because a lot moved away from consoles to computers. 
The other possibility were Personal Computers. The ‘Homecomputer’ was more. It was not only a working station. Personal Computers were mostly monochrome (PC: CGA, EGA)
War Heli (Atari ST)
2022-07-08 11:36:10
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=1258
War Heli is a state of the art shoot em up game with big sprites on a computer with no hardware-scrolling! 
Tapes
2022-04-14 12:44:14
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=1435
Tapes comes from the mainframe tapes and were popularised by music too. so often people used normal tapes-drives and for a zx81-games - there were even description how you had to connect the microphone-cable to the head-phone-jack and reverse. While loadibg a zx-81 game you hear the whole time the data coming in! so meta: sound was for people and maschines.analog digital. So there was no difference between an accoustic coppler and data from the tape. 
Archimedes 32bit RISC
2022-06-24 08:59:14
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=1557
archimedes with its risc-processor was still an exception. you could code in basic games like ! virus. 
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=2968
How we visualize the digitalisation? How we show, what is behind in a time when everything ist now behind and so small , not anymore touchable? A time when the shells and co are not anymore there for the end-user?
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=3757
There is a large base of videogame fans and developers working on emulating old games to ever new platforms. While this guarantees the transfer of knowledge and accessibility for games, there is nothing comparable for electronic literature. The community is too small, does not include many tech-experts, and even browser-based projects of five years are no longer working. A steady in- crease in interactive, collaborative and dynamic elements in new projects of electronic literature is at the core of the problems of archiving. This article discusses the impacts of digital writing on creative works and assesses the situation for German electronic literature and e-poetry in terms of its problems, possibilities and perspectives of archivability. It sorts the projects in easily represent- able works, works that need adapting or emulating and projects that are very difficult to archive in their original form. In doing so it outlines the necessary steps to make electronic literature from past and present accessible for future users. __________________________________
Demos
2022-06-17 14:05:50
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=3902
Several demos are behind the mechanic of the ‘puzzler’
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5500
Playboy: You never lost sight of the reason for the job: to earn money so you could travel. 
Jobs: Atari had shipped a bunch of games to Europe and they had some engineering defects in them, and I figured out how to fix them, but it was necessary for somebody to go over there and actually do the fixing. I volunteered to go and asked to take a leave of absence when I was there. They let me do it. I ended up in Switzerland and moved from Zurich to New Delhi. I spent some time in India. 
Playboy: Where you shaved your head. 
Jobs: That's not quite the way it happened. I was walking around in the Himalayas and I stumbled onto this thing that turned out to be a religious festival. There was a baba, a holy man, who was the holy man of this particular festival, with his large group of followers. I could smell good food. I hadn't been fortunate enough to smell good food for a long time, so I wandered up to pay my respects and eat some lunch. For some reason, this baba, upon seeing me sitting there eating, immediately walked over to me and sat down and burst out laughing. He didn't speak much English and I
.
2022-11-28 14:18:15
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5792
Depeche
Demo coder, known for cool demos and trainers.
Depeche jonied Spreadponit in 1989. He mysteriously left SP in 1990 and broke up alomst all contact. He then went over to DefJam but not very much later stopped his Amiga activity. Depeche was so fond of language games that he once bought a Langenscheid's dictionary of slang-English!
Data 
Born 1972, grown up and living in Switzerland
Todays occupation: finishing studies (comp. sci)
Work
Demos: Wooow, Scrapheap, Empire, Power!, HI5 and more
Trainers: a whole lot...
Sound: some crazy mixes
Tools: a disk copier in a bootblock, TLB-Utilitydisk, more
Hobbies
old days: being creative, being cool, speaking cool, cool places, cool clothes, cool people, arcade games, pinball machines
today: unknown.
Music
DM, Art of Noise, Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, Yello, LL cool J, Derek B, De la soul, ...
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5930
» FALSE influenced early esolangs like brainfuck and Befunge, which went on to inspire more, setting off the esolang movement. Did you have much interaction with esolangers (either during the Amiga era – not that they were called esolangers then – or more recently)?
Back then yes. Me and Chris Pressey would email a lot, with him showing me his latest creations (I mostly went back to “serious” language design after FALSE :). There was also quite a bit of community around FALSE, with people making implementations in other languages/systems, or make dialects etc. There was actually quite a few people that made “useful” programs in FALSE
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5946
Aminet was the most famous ftp-archive for amiga software. It was run by the same guy that made Brainfuck, Urban Müller. Rather than chronologically like fish disks, it was organized by topic, with readme’s for every file. You could upload to a staging area, and he’d put them in place. Much like fish disks, companies would print cd-roms with the latest from aminet for those not hooked up to the internets (or on 56k modems, which was most people).
Ingame-Stereotype-Man
2023-02-06 10:11:30
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=6651
Not so conscious but of course there is also stereotypes and sexism about men. Hereos, looking good. 
But they don't see it.
FILE_ID.DIZ
2023-02-07 10:00:37
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=6685
  1. Program/file name: Ideally, all uppercase and followed by one space. Carriage returns are ignored in this file.
  2. Version number: In the format "v1.123", followed by a space.
  3. ASP number: Only if an actual ASP member, otherwise ignored.
  4. Description separator: A single short hyphen "-".
  5. Description: The description of the file. The first two lines should be the short summary, as older boards cut off the rest. Anything beyond that should be extended description, for up to eight lines, the official cut-off size. Additional text could be included beyond that but might not be included by the board.
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=7061
A rework of the not used pico8-game for lovebyte. Added graphics and effects and sound.
My personal demo-problem: no restrictions for demo. so you could make everything. You would have to go for visual narration like the other prods in this category. 
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=7127
@la1n/imp89 @Shana @dipswitch Sorry, I only just now noticed about this intense discussion going on. Shana has put it 100% correct already. The name eventually was given to the event by Furball/Fake That back in 1996 for Bünzli#1 (taking place near Bern). Was changed to 'Buenzli' (no umlaut) once international visitors started to appear. This then was kind of a 'trademark' for a while. When we changed the location from Winterthur to Olten, we also rebranded the party to Demodays, a name that was a bit generic but worked without the need to explain it all the time. It also allowed for the Demonights pun afterwards. 'Demodays', however, has not really been adopted by the demoscene too much, many people just kept it calling Buenzli (or 'Buenzu' for some). This is also somewhat reflected in inconsistent naming/series ordering on Pouet and possibly Demozoo. I'm happy, Furball &the other teenage guys called the event Bünzli: Without that decision, we wouldn't have interesting discussions like this 😉
.
2023-04-10 19:18:00
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=8104
But when the Commodore 64 was conceived, it was to be primarily a game machine, not a computer.
Restrictions
2023-04-17 10:15:52
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=8298
8bit in everywhere 
- memory
- graphic
- sound
- coding  (branch, length of the code)
> complexity
> seize developping! 
> 8bit damocles sword
>> finding not allover solutions (like gameengines!) - engines for jump and runs, shootemups > special solutions
Computerclubs
2022-06-30 09:42:21
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=99
Computerclubs were a very important institution. 
0. Is a place and a community in the same and also a public in the same
1. Networking people in a non internet time.
2. Bringing KnowhHow to people (Courses)
3. Showing, Selling Hardware (Internally)
4. Own public magazines
5. Part of Creating Groups/interested people
6. Only available in bigger towns 
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=434

The farming simulator is a very successful simulator. 

By the way: There is also a second simulator from switzerland. TransportFever.

.
2022-05-12 09:21:16
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=2574
Nach der ersten Welle der Verachtung dieser PixelGrafik-Homecomputer entstand mit dem Aufkommen der Indiespiele eine Renaissance der Homecomputerszene und zwar auf mehreren Ebenen: Die Demoscene entdeckte - nachdem auf PCs keine Grenzen mehr da waren - die kleinen restriktiven Homecomputer wieder und ist bis heute bestandteil der Demoscene [Recherche erste Amiga-Contests]. Es entstand eine Homebrew Szene für fast alle Consolen/Computer [Übergang, Wann entstanden?] und vermutlich der wichtigste Antrieb die Indiegamescene.
 
 
 
 
[11:44]
Die Indiegamescene um die 2000er Jahre fing nun an explizit sich an die Pixelgrafiken etwa der Konsolen zu orientieren. Sei dies aus Reflexion, Kindheitserinnerungen oder einfach, weil die Pixelgrafiken einfacher herzustellen waren. Dabei spielt natürlich auch eine Rolle, dass zunehmend über Plattformen wie Ebay nun nicht mehr lokal Consolen/Computer gekauft werden mussten. Parallel dazu entstanden auch immer mehr Retromessen bzw. Waren Verkaufsstände für Retro Teil von grossen Conventions und Game-/Spielemessen. Die Gesellschaft entdeckte die Geschichte der Gamekultur. Die Entwickler selber fingen auch zunehmend an ihre Arbeit zu dokumentieren und zu veröffentlichen (siehe sca, siehe roman werner, siehe christian haller). http://www.kingroman.com/ https://www.sca.ch/ https://www.lemonamiga.com/games/list.php?list_people=Christian Haller Durch die verschiedenen Game-Festivals kam auch vermehrt zur erneuten Auseinandersetzung mit dieser ersten Welle von Computergames. Ein Beispiel dafür wäre sicherlich das gameZfestival 2013. Und begannen teilweise auch ihre Spiele auf dem iPhone wieder herauszubringen (insanity wars). Einige sind weiterhin in Communities unterwegs, die die alten Praktiken wieder neu auflegen. [Roman Werner, Listings, C64 Spiele]
Gleb J. Albert
2023-02-03 08:35:17
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=2794
Wissenschaftliche Aufarbeitung
Console-Computer-Hybrids
2022-07-17 00:07:50
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=4778
Console or Computer? 
Could be both:
- Consoles with Keyboards
- Computers with Cartdriges
.
2023-03-25 11:51:38
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=7733
Während ich aus Spaß eini-
aus Versehen Kaffee in die
Amiga-Tastatur.
Die
Tasten
klemmen jetzt alle ein bißchen.
Die Sprites muß ich auf dem
C64 sowieso neu malen.
Vorgehen (German)
2023-04-02 10:28:20
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=7929
- Verstehen der Hardware und Anforderungen
- Tutorials lesen
- einen eigenen funktionierenden Source entwickeln, wo alles drin ist:
  Sound, Graphik und IO. 
- danach Spiele entwickeln
Problems gamedesign
2023-04-08 11:41:10
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=8044
  • 2 modes - text and graphic mode
  • difficult ram organisation for graphic mode
  • difficult to paint text (no routine)
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=8144
Very emblematic use of technical possibilities
Fresh (1989 - 1990)
2023-09-15 12:08:56
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=9173
Fresh was founded April 22, 1989 on the Crazy & RCS Party 1989 by Iceman/ISI Soft, Graphics-Boy, Project B, Shake (subgroup) and Welfare Software Boys (subgroup). 2 months later Krush joined in as main cracker. The first Fresh Intro gained a lot of attaention in the Swiss scene: it was coded Mat and the music was exclusively composed by Tim of Modern Arts, one of the most progressive demo groups back then.

After the Crazy Stardom Copy-Party 1989 (August) in Le Locle the 2 Swiss demogroups Future Vision Switzerland and Trap joined Fresh. 

Mainly in 1990, a war with Computer Freaks Association was ongoing. Both groups were competing for being Switzerland's #1. Computer Freaks Association released a small anti-demo called Fresh on Top. The war was officially ended at the Swiss Pirates Reunion 2002 (nowadays there are many friendship boundaries between the former 2 opponents).

Was in co-op with Century for short while in February/March 90. The co-op was stopped due to a lack of Century cracks.

After the Fresh Party 1990 (April) Krush, Ogygene and Mirage left to built up a new Swiss group together with The Sexton/G*P called Abstract, which later then joined forces with the ashes from the Swiss demogroup Future Concepts and renamed into Crusade.

Also in April 1990 a small but neat Austrian section was built by Awesome & Beast. They have produced some one file demos and due to the good connections to Lotus, Awesome has supplied a couple of hot originals. 

In May 1990 some Fresh members have been working on a project to join forces with The Ancient Temple. Both group got to know eachother at the Fresh Party 1990. Project names were SAPPHIRE or LIFE IS A BEACH. There was no agreement on the name, so the project never was realised. 

In June/July 1990 a German section in Cologne was built around Spy, Trax & Scoundrel. After their lame release Lost in Time , they have been kicked out.

Was in co-op with Holocaust from August 1990 to October 1990. The coop started with Fresh's first release of Back to the Future II 5. The co-op later was stopped due to a lack of Fresh cracks in that period (main cracker Graphics Boy had left the group to join Crazy).

Fresh died in late 1990 when Freestyle and Dave joined Talent.
Mobiles Kino (Basel)
2022-07-04 16:47:56
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=250
A lot of works in the area of electromechanic/optic calculation in games.
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=855
Games made for old hardware or emulators for hardware. Restrictions of yesterday.
next step
2022-04-14 12:47:21
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=1445
Faster, not linear (storing and loadibg) 
Bootsector
2022-07-11 14:26:51
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=1457
The bootsector allowed an automatic startup (vs tapes) of games like in consoles with cartridges (of course a lot of games came also out as cartridge for computers). Put it in and switch on computer and play. Of course the bootsectorviruses were a sideeffect of this innovation. 
mainframe
2022-04-15 10:31:58
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=1553
of course mainframe computing was only possible for universities, students or big companies. creating workstation like lilith or next were a middle thing between mainframe and personal computers. 
Tracker
2023-05-07 09:21:37
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=1856
Tracker were software - used especially on the Amiga. The most of the music was created in this type of music software. And the people behind the swiss games of the 80ies/90ies even created a tracker and the possibility to use the same framework also in games. 
Wholes in the discs
2022-05-12 08:48:46
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=2541
Detection
Software tries to read something from the disc. Could not read it. You can try it several times. Handling errors. It is no 1 or 0 it is an exception.
Copying
A copy makes a 0 out of the whole. And the software can detect this - it is nether 0 or 1. 
 
Dongles
2022-05-12 08:57:33
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=2555
not used so often, expensive to produce. 
Online protection
2022-05-12 08:59:33
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=2557
not known for 1980-1991.
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=2792
most possible reason: you could several discs put into a letter. 
.
2022-05-21 14:24:19
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=3040
Game description
Starbirds is a shoot'em up game in the style of old AMIGA shooters like R-Type, Apidya, Wings of Death and many others. The game play is simple: the player controls a space ship (called the Starbird) and tries to keep alive, which is best ensured by shooting as many enemies as possible.
Starbirds features four horizontally scrolling levels, each packed with a huge amount of enemies and guarded by an extra-large boss enemy with big shields and power. The levels are constructed in a way that there are a lot of turn-off's which allow the player to take another path each time.
A special feature of Starbirds is the weapon system, which was inspired by action games like Wings of Deathand Lethal Xcess. There are two categories of weapons, primary and secondary weapons. Each category consists of 8 different types of weapons, four of each category are selected by the player before entering the first level. The player can decide at every time if the approaching enemies should be attacked using the primary or secondary weapon. By repeated pressing of the fire button the primary weapon is fired, by holding down the button the secondary weapon is fired.
The currently active weapon can be changed by collecting weapon symbols, which are left behind from exploding enemies quite often. Blue symbols represent primary weapons, red symbols secondary weapons. Every weapon has five different powers. If a symbol is collected, which represents one of the currently active weapons, then its power increases by one. Therefore it is advantageous to collect the same symbol several times in order to get a weapon with high power. On the other hand, changing a weapon reduces the power by one, therefore too many changes without intermediate power-up quickly lead to a poorly armed space ship with little chance of survival.
The Starbird space ship does not survive hits with enemies, their shots or with the background. Fortunately the player has six space ships available and he can restart the game three times in the last visited level. The game supports four levels of difficulty, which can be selected in the main screen, before entering the first level. Finally the game can even be played by two players simultaneously.
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=3330
Computer Sciences was this really important for universities? No was the long answer in Switzerland. 
// Calculatings 1/0 is not enough for mathematicians. 
Dev-Bio XYZ 70+
2022-06-06 14:09:19
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=3767
  • No curriculum there for information technology > ETH Mathe/Physik > Pascal (Mathem. Algorithmen) > Speicherung Lochkarten
  • Firma  (Cobol) PDP11
All around the memory
2022-08-02 13:38:15
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5046
Memory is changing all the time. We tend to create memory as a system (perhaps because we can than save space and energy).
/ ()
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=6746
Games working with Products like Cracks, Games, Demos.
Mechanics: Faster, better in the most of the time groups against other groups for symbolic or community capital. 
Like Cracking, Demoscene
Important Notes
2023-03-16 15:45:14
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=7405

Installation

really find the correct channel in tv! 
Sokoban - Sokoban-clone
2024-10-12 11:11:38
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=1212
  • Tilebased
  • Too fast
  • not yet solved - TargetFields constantly