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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=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?
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]
 
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=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 … 
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.
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=4494
Tiling was a design pattern often used in the beginning of the gamedesign.
Reason:
  • Tilebase is simple to use. Create the tiles and just say here is TileA, titleB.
  • Tilebase save space (######) - important in the beginning
  • Tilebased could be used for creating games (Labyrinths) with Sprites in front
  • You can create very fast new levels
  • The hardware has often tilebased background support 
  • Seamless tiles create very fast interesting backgrounds and foregrounds … 
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5270
'After this period of demos, we started to work on a Point and Click adventure game, planned for PC, Playstation, and Linux called Immanis for the Cryogen label, a startup created in 1996. It was a superb project which never saw the light of the day due to questions around money and because the timing was wrong: editors and Publishers of the time didn't believe in Point and click adventures anymore.' Demoscene: The AGA years (2020:117)
Fantasy-Computers
2022-04-17 22:36:48
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=638
Fantasy computers are computer that are ‘inspired’ by real computers. Means their name sound like ZX81 > Tic80 but of course they are fast, programmable with lua and in the most of the cases have all integrated: spriteeditor, tile/background-editor, soundeffects editor and music editor. So they are really the dream of an 8bit-coder* with assembler, low memory, low graphics, no tools. 
Fantasy Consoles
2022-05-25 23:45:26
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=650
Consoles inspired by old consoles but 100% new. They are somehow like the dream of this days. All dev. thing in one tool (graphics, sound, tiles, coding, levelediting)
.
2022-06-06 10:58:59
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=3721
Trotzdem war Sound FX eines meiner wichtigsten Programme. Ohne dieses hätten diverse unserer Spiele (> 10 Stück) nicht den tollen Sound von Roman Werner.
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 …
.
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.)
 
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. 
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
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. 
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
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. 
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
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=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.
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! 
Amiga - Multitasking
2022-07-10 01:29:25
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=3723
'Sound FX war ausserdem modular aufgebaut. Die eigentlich Musik-Abspielroutine befand sich in einer externen library (soundfx.library) und konnte dadurch von beliebig anderen Programmen genutzt werden. Natürlich gab es auch eine Library für Christian Webers GameExec welches in vielen Games als 'Betriebssystem' zum Einsatz kam.'
Demos
2022-06-17 14:05:50
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=3902
Several demos are behind the mechanic of the ‘puzzler’
.
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=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.
.
2023-04-10 11:33:12
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=8078
IN JANUARY 1981, a handful of semiconductor engineers at MOS Technology in West Chester, Pa., a subsidiary of Commodore International Ltd., began designing a graphics chip and a sound chip to sell to whoever wanted to make “the world’s best video game.”
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
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=4809
Almost all computers could be extended by cards from apple II to c64 and co. 
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.
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)
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. 
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!)
 
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=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.
Actual Demoscene
2023-02-11 14:57:40
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=119
The demoscene was first a spin-off the crackers and became an own culture with festivals, ‘jams’ and contests. Often there are old computers embeded. 
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=3161
The difference between Homecomputer and Businessmaschines was clear for the homecomputer users. Homecomputers were cheap, colorful, had sound, modern (GUI) and you could play with them. So they were designed for ‘fun’. And they came all in one - as one consumer product. So it was ‘identity’. Clear that the Amiga was first designed as an Console. On the hardware side the homecomputers didn't use the ugly intels like almost no Arcade-Console-Maschine did. The question here why? Perhaps because the most of the Software had to be coded in Assembler? 
One of the big question was: Is the Macintosh a Homecomputer? One answer it was to expensive for beeing a homecomputer. Perhaps the homecomputers were the cheap versions of the macintoshs. 
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=7891
tribute to?
exploting? 
> tribute - take the best … collage
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.
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)
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.