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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). 
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2023-05-01 11:08:48
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=8594
Originally, we wanted to include just a tiny little shoot 'em up game into a graphics demo (we produced quite a few in the early years).
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5850
Brainstorm is a Swiss-based demo group, that has existed in two distinct periods; their formation as an Amiga demo group in the period between 1989 and 1993, and their reformation as a mainly pc demo group in 2006 until present day. They were originally formed a short while before may 1989 by graphician Chester and coder Majestic, and their first release was Lazer Roll. During the summer they recruited more members (like Orlando), and at the end of the summer vacation they were joined by the entire group Axxis (Bird, ...). This group had both a Swiss and German section, but the German section was found to be substandard and was forced to leave after a while. Another member, swapper Joker, left the scene soon after. They had by now started planning what would become the diskmagazine Zine. It was originally conceptuated as a cooperation between Brainstorm and another Swiss group at the time, Setrox, but the latter eventually decided against being part of the project. Due to this, Setrox coder The Accused left to join Brainstorm. Zine 1 was released in october. They were now a totally Swiss group again, except for two German members - Shadow and Yankee.
Advert in Cracker Journal 18 (january 1990), looking for members. Cracker Journal 19 (march 1990) reported, "Angel Dust joined Brainstorm and his name is now Six Pack." Sometime between Zine 3 (february 1990) and Zine 4 (april 1990) they decided to kick their German writer Yankee because he wasn't productive enough. He was a freelance writer for D.I.S.C. for a while before finally joining Addonic. Zine 5 was released at the Alcatraz Pentcost Party 1990 at the beginning of june. It was to be Orlando's last issue as editor, as The Accused had returned from his army service.
Metamorphosis (august 1991) mentioned their bbs Cheese-Line as 'new', and listed Accused, Axel, Bird, Chesney, Chester, Droid, ESA, Fly, Grubi, Luke, Macho, Majestic, Odie, Oli, Orlando, Patsy, Peace, Scattergold and Truxton as active members. Danish megaswapper The Pride joined the group in late september, and was sent a new packmenu for creating a new series of packs (see Superpack 1) - which would become the Obsession packseries, starting in october. All this was also reported in R.A.W 1 (november 1991).
R.A.W 2 (february 1992) reported that The Pride moved on from the group to join Sanity, and that a Finnish section had been opened by Phazer, Extabulator, Hoover, Mac, Top Azz and Voyager.
January 1993 saw the release of Axel's musicdisk Musicland, featuring among other songs his 8th-placed Technology from The Party 1992 the month before.
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=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. 
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2023-05-01 12:01:44
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=8656
Derrick Steel sums up the game succinctly in his entry on MobyGames: "In what has to be considered one of the most "original" games of all time, you are a flying beer in space. And the evil corporations are coming after you, so you must use your "beer power" to fight off wave after wave of corporate beer." To be more precise, your goal is to defend the Eichhof Brewery from the imperium of invading "big beers," with bottle caps and other imaginative weapons that only beer lovers can appreciate ;)
Historical Culture
2022-04-10 20:58:18
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=297
Culture towards technology changed massively in the last 50 years. 
vecZ (Vectrex)
2022-06-25 01:20:29
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=738
at the end the vectors won. everything is now vector based in games (as an opengl or directx scene .-) more about this in the simple demo sinZ on pouet last year. therefore step back, step into the beginning 80ies with assembler and the vector console vectrex. and of course vecZ is a shootemup the most complicated (timing, a lot of action etc.) thing in those times.
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
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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
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.
 
l1neum - freeware
2022-04-13 10:52:39
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=1186
a qix/volfied variant of the game in 3d open gl. done in 3 months for a mac contest 2003 in us. there was even a radio event at 3 o clock than. won the 3rd price and a membership for one year in igda. the problem there was only one chapter in switzerland in berne with 3 members and never a meeting.
ishizume - freeware
2022-04-13 10:52:32
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=1188
the game is a clone of klax (arcade atari games) - an action puzzler also called the ‘tetris of the 90ies’. again all in 3d. webhighscore. specials: a mode for children and a mode for color blinds. 
puls7 - freeware
2022-04-13 10:54:27
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=1194
is a shoot-em-up from top in 3d with a destroyable underground. 
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=268
The arcade was a place to play games, meeting point. In the german part of switzerland there were almost only males (you could also gambel). They were dark in the most of cases.
In the ‘westschweiz’ there were a lot more women in also in the arcades and younger people (for example in Lausanne). 
In the arcades there were always different types of arcades (older and the latest), than ‘table football’, flippers and so on. 
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2022-11-28 14:03:03
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=5762
Spreadpoint is an Amiga demo group, formed in 1986 by Marvin and (D-)Mike.
Amicom and Depeche joined the group in 1989. Swapper advert in Cracker Journal 16 (october 1989), listing an address in Bad Aibling, Germany.
They were coarrangers of the CeBit 1990 demoparty in march. Depeche left the group sometime this year.
With the march 1991 release Innovation Part Two, Psy announced he was rejoining Spreadpoint from Axxis. Grmblwrz (december 1991) mentioned, "We also welcome our new American members - Paninaro and Micro".
The october 1992 cracktro for Pinball Fantasies welcomed Ice Tea and The French Dewd to the group.
Upstream 1 (january 1993) reported that Cocaine joined Addonic from Spreadpoint & Amiga Industries along with his bbs Moria.
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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
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.
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. 
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=276
Where people met, talked about computers, learnt about computers. Played games, designed games.
Yes also pirate software and games was part of this world. 
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=855
Games made for old hardware or emulators for hardware. Restrictions of yesterday.
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2022-04-28 11:39:51
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=2266
**The Cheshire Catalyst** (Richard Cheshire) (@Cheshire2600) was the last editor of the notorious TAP Newsletter of the 1970s and 1980s. (TAP was a predecessor of 2600 Magazine.) In his “share the knowledge” spirit, he has volunteered at every HOPE conference since the first one in 1994. His PHonePHriendly.Com sets up web pages meant to be read on mobile phone web browsers, and allows him to delude himself that he’s still into phones as a phreak.
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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=792
With modems1987  and zterm you could enter to a bbs and download software. You needed the number and of course a computer on the other side. So this bullet boards system where dial in systems. from time to time the mother of a guy took the phone .-) 
You only used this in the ‘phone cheap time’ - >21.00. A game for Amiga or Atari ST was 900kb - the modem was about 3600-12200 bauds. you waited very long from time to time.
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?
Showreel
2024-09-13 09:26:37
https://vintagecomputing.ch/?browseid=9493
Ausgeklügeltes Showreal, was man mit 3D so alles machen könnte.
Produktpräsentationen (ToniYoghurt), ArchitekturVisualisierung, Games etc
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.