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286/386/486 Demoscene

category: general [glöplog]
yzi: Well, when people were using IT on a 386, they sure as hell didn't use NNAs...

Regarding other module libraries for these systems, BWSB by Zilym Limms / OTM might also be worth looking into. Somehow, the SB16 driver always sounded detuned on my AWE64 when playing in high quality mode, though...
Sources here? http://ftp.kameli.net/pub/fit/pdplay/pdplay16.zip

Most 286-era modplayers use MUL or something else in the inner mixing loop (as does the above). If you want to play a MOD on 808x, that won't fly. Galaxy Player's technique is pretty much the only way to do it on 808x which is why I posted the disassembly, in case others want to give it a shot.

A fairly interesting effort that I only learned about a few years ago was Dr. Track. This works on 808x and has full source. Pretty amazing for 1991; shame it never really got out of Italy.
added on the 2014-03-02 01:26:31 by trixter trixter
That's a different one - we made plenty back in the day :)
added on the 2014-03-02 08:56:43 by Marq Marq
Crud -- that should have been Dr. Track
added on the 2014-03-02 21:52:49 by trixter trixter
"First tracker" on PC... the ScreamTracker 2 manual is dated 1990, so that would be even older, I guess? :) Though I have no idea when Psi actually started spreading the tracker itself.
I brought up Dr. Track because it can actually work on a 4.77MHz 8088, whereas ST required a 10MHz system or higher (because it didn't support Sound Blaster DMA).

ST was indeed first. (First modplayer was probably trakblaster but I could be wrong.)
added on the 2014-03-03 03:49:35 by trixter trixter
Whacker Tracker was the first PC tracker I came across. Pretty horrible it was.
added on the 2014-03-03 08:58:37 by Marq Marq
PDPlay works excellent on my 286! This is best alternative to the glx-player.
modplay (mp.com) does not sound very good. First choice for me is vlx, second is pdplay.
sorry GLX not VLX.
This might work better for you: Private Player 1.45. Has a UI, file selector, DMA support on SB and lots of other stuff.
added on the 2014-03-19 21:00:39 by Marq Marq
just a question: are there ega 320x200 16c compos that people might want to participate in this as well? http://www.bitfellas.org/news.php?extend.4555.7
My friend coded a mod player, straight outta GF1. 0% CPU usage. But after that, famous DMP player did basically the the same on SoundBlaster. Dual Module Player or somethin like that.
added on the 2014-03-29 05:22:41 by moredhel moredhel
"I also have some disks with EGA-demos that I haven't found on the internet yet, will probably upload them somewhere at some point :)"

- Happy Birthday, Rebel Fun and Space Fun are also in EGA.
- Yebo also features some EGA-magic.
- Oh, and Future Crew also did some EGA-stuff, like Gr8 :)

...is this what you mentioned above or do You have other stuff?

Thx! Doc
I have some other stuff too. May not be the greatest stuff ever, but still EGA :)
added on the 2015-01-27 07:28:04 by britelite britelite
Not sure if someone already mentioned it, but this intro also works with EGA.
added on the 2015-01-27 07:30:54 by britelite britelite
cool... today I found some interesting stuff about "smooth scrolling" with EGA. "carmack" wrote about "adaptive tile refresh" and how to get Keen scrolling smooth with EGA, but is this really true ????

I NEVER saw Keen scrolling smooth, I have lots of hardware here and I haven't seen Keen scrolling smooth, it stutters everytime. If I want to see real smooth scrolling, then I had to go for Atari/Amiga/C64 Stuff.

On the PC there is mostly no smooth scrolling. The Colduct-Demo has smooth Texsttrolling with EGA and three different Speeds at the same time. THIS is cool, but Keen blah...

I will test it, thx, I go for really old machines. My favorite ones are my Tandy 1000 (TGA 16 Color Gfx) and my Schneider TowerAT 286/10 with EGA 256K. Beside that I also own a Schneider TowerAT 286/12,5 VGA (ATI-512K) and a 386/16sx with the same ATI but only 256K. In the 386x I use a VGA 1MB Card because of the Performance.

But the best ones are the really old and limited ones :)
Every PC graphics standard, from MDA and CGA upwards, supports horizontal and vertical scrolling to some degree. How smooth it is depends on the capabilities of the card, the skill of the programmer, and what the use case is.

The original Commander Keen does indeed have very smooth scrolling. If you aren't seeing it, you are probably running Keen 4/5/6 which have a different engine.
added on the 2015-01-29 06:17:47 by trixter trixter
No, I am running Keen1 to 3 and there is nothing smooth.
Please tell me the exact specification of the hardware you used to get smooth scrolling. (e.g. smooth scrolling exapmles: Goldrunner (AtariST).

@britelite:
Yes intro works even with 286/10/EGA/SB :)

Doc
I can vouch that Keen 1-3 had smooth scrolling, definitely. Let's see if I can remember what hardware I had around that time (late '90/early '91):

PC XT with Intel Inboard 386 (an add-on card that magically turned your 8088 into a 386-16, sort of)
EGA card, probably. I didn't get a VGA card/monitor until late '91, so I don't remember if it was still smooth with that.
Magnavox RGB monitor (well, that was just the name, I don't think it had separate RGB inputs or anything that fancy)
added on the 2015-01-29 17:34:36 by phoenix phoenix
Doesn't keen 4-6 have some option to fix scrolling on certain cards. Has to do with the timing of when certain scroll related vga registerers are latched for the new frame.
added on the 2015-01-29 18:42:00 by Harekiet Harekiet
Thx, but the Patches (/COMP) are for VGA only not for EGA.
I only habe EGA with a Multiscan-Monitor.
Perhaps the 286/10 is not fast enough, or the gemini-vc001 ega onboard controller is the Problem.
What tracker can be used if i have a 286/10/EGA with CT1350b?
You're going against the odds there :)
added on the 2015-02-25 16:38:53 by Marq Marq
Whacker Tracker might work.
Perhaps even the original Fast Tracker
Or the old Scream Tracker

Just make sure you keep the mixing rate low :)
added on the 2015-02-25 16:56:16 by Scali Scali

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