Ladys and Gents

[the_leander]

I give you, the winner of the 2006 Assembly demo party:

Starstruck by TBL.

Now, before you watch this, I should point out a couple of things to you. First, the hardware this was produced on was built in 1992. Finally, that this is all done in realtime. It isn't simply the machine playing a video, it is actually generating this on the fly.

The demoscene is to me one of the most pure artforms of the modern age, and one that is hardly ever heard of.

[the_leander]

I should try to put this into a better context in terms of what you're looking at...

They used an amiga A1200, first built in 1992, with production finishing with Commodore's bankrupcy in 1994. Even with later upgrades, in terms of raw processing power an original Playstation, or a Nintendo DS would outmatch it, and heres the real kicker - the Amiga has absolutely no 3d hardware, everything done in 3d on this demo had to be hard coded to the processor itself, rather then a dedicated chip, which means you have to work 10 times as hard for 1 10th the return.

In short, on paper, this machine should not be capable of doing anything nearly this clever.

[Louis P. Burns aka Lugh]

Hi Alan,

The Starstruck hyperlink opens, downloads but doesn't display anything mate. Both the TBL & Assembly links work fine. My Java is up to date, so don't know what's causing it to stall...

Cheers...

[the_leander]

Hi Alan,

The Starstruck hyperlink opens, downloads but doesn't display anything mate. Both the TBL & Assembly links work fine. My Java is up to date, so don't know what's causing it to stall...

Cheers...

Try right click save as... its a 150Mb video file.

[Louis P. Burns aka Lugh]

Yes Alan, that worked mate

Thanks...

I am completely gobsmacked by what the designers have done here. Truly amazing. At first I thought they had layered images like a decopage picture, but then as the piece progressed it became clear that everything in this show was designed from the base up. Absolutely awesome. Loved the shark most of all and how they even focused on creating a shadow for it that ran in synchronicity - no easy task in itself.

I've got some people here right now man. Am gonna watch this again tomorrow and will feedback further on it then.

One final point. I saw the name rubberduck attached to the TBL link. I hope to feck that wasn't the 'RubberDuck' I booted outta here the other day. If it was and they're a pal of yours, can you please explain to them that it wasn't personal and if they re-apply to join, I will acknowledge them? Thanks Alan...

[the_leander]

I don't know anyone from the TBL team - I just have had an interest in the demoscene since using the Amigas, I do know that there is a member of that name, but I'm fairly certain it wouldn't be the same guy.

And to think, all done on hardware that makes Nintendo's latest handheld look state of the art

[Louis P. Burns aka Lugh]

I don't know anyone from the TBL team - I just have had an interest in the demoscene since using the Amigas, I do know that there is a member of that name, but I'm fairly certain it wouldn't be the same guy.

Cheers Alan

And to think, all done on hardware that makes Nintendo's latest handheld look state of the art

Very impressive indeed mate. They deserved any and every award they got for it all...