#stos — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #stos, aggregated by home.social.
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Following on from #buxtonbytes2026, I've now put the disc image of my release on my site, appropriately entitled, "The Buxton Bytes 2026 Disc Of Shame".
You can download it at: https://www.dalliard.net/
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Today I finished my second entry for the #BuxtonBytes demo meet this coming weekend. I'm gonna pop both on a floppy together for everyone to download, with a little menu to go with it.
My second entry is truly awful (just like the first). I actually coded 90% of it when I was about 18, 35+ years ago and dug it out from some old discs of source code...It truly fits the Buxton Bytes ethos, with all of its "borrowed" content.
I look at it and think about how different I was at 18. I was mostly an arsehole (like most teenagers are at that age), but it'a fitting memory for the 80s/90s and definitely worth watching for a little while, just for the nostalgia.
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I post so infrequently these days. Back in my Twitter days (15+ years ago), I'd tweet four or five times a day. Now weeks pass.
Just me? Or are we all just starting to disengage from social media?
Anyway, I'm still coding away. I have an #atarist production in the works, which will be presented in a similar way to #FrankenSTOS, but around a very personal subject. As before I'll be using my #STOS extension, which I keep adding to (and seemingly, never releasing).
I'd like it finished for #BuxtonBytes, but I suspect it won't be. I seem to go through creative peaks and troughs.
It's very much a proof of concept production at present and I hope to get another awesome artist involved as I near completion.
Anyway, I'll go back to lurking now.
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François Lionet Interview Revisits the Story Behind AMOS and STOS
#FrancoisLionet #AMOS #STOS #Amiga #AtariST #RobSmithDev #YawningAngelRetro #RetroComputing #AmigaProgramming #GameDevelopment
https://theoasisbbs.com/francois-lionet-interview-revisits-the-story-behind-amos-and-stos/?fsp_sid=4016 -
Well, one idea definitely seems like it can work. Have coded an entirely new #STOS command to handle it and I think it should look quite impressive/nice if it comes off.
Of course, this is just one effect in what’ll probably be another smorgasbord of a screen like FrankenSTOS was, but it’s cool to feel I’ve got some inspiration coming.
Oh, and rather frustratingly, I’ve just managed to shave an absolute shedload of cycles off a routine I used in my last screen. Hey ho. 🙃
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Finally, after 11-ish months of work, my entry for the #SillyVenture Demo Party is complete and I'm going to submit it in the morning (in the 96K category). I'm really happy with how this has turned out. It's snappy and definitely not boring, whilst doing some stuff in #STOS that's never been done before. It won't break new ground in the scene, but it certainly breaks new ground for a programming environment that people sometimes talk about with disdain.
I'm going to keep working on my custom extension, to build more functionality into it that other people can use.
I can't believe that I've spent the best part of a year working on something that people will see in about three minutes, but that's demos for you.
Onto the next project!
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After 11 months of work, my #demo entry is complete. I circulated a "release candidate" around a few friends to evaluate, before I submit as an entry to #sillyventure (which is next month).
Nearly a year's worth of work to produce about 3 minutes of eye-candy. Phew.
I'm really pleased with it. I've made #STOS do stuff that hasn't been done before, as well as having an extension I can now build on and refine further. Some of my commands replace existing ones and are massively faster. Not groundbreaking, I know, but some people will find the extension useful when I release it.
No doubt there will be a few tweaks to make beforehand, but I'm looking forward to taking a break until the New Year, playing around with my #spectrum and finally finishing Elden Ring!
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I've made a few demos in #STOS before, but this next release will be my first hybrid effort where I've coded my own routines in assembly to try and speed up some of the slow original commands.
I've now made this an extension for both the interpreter and compiler. When I'm happy with things I'll release this for others to use.
SillyVenture is in November. My aim is to release the screen for this event.
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I literally coded my first proper #demoscene effect in #AtariST 68000 assembly language last night.
I’ve then made it in to a #stos command you can use.
You have no idea how happy this makes me - only got my head around things about 35 years too late!
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Time for another #demoscene and #atariST update.
I'm still coding away. Majority of my demo is done now with just one final effect I want to get nailed, which also will be an extension command in my #STOS library. Had lots of "life" going on, but still hoping that I can get this completely done for SillyVenture in November.
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Time for another #demo update. Still working on it, just getting close to writing the credits section, which is nicer than the ones I've previously used. I'll bolt it on to the rest of the screen shortly. After which there's just one final part to finish. Hoping to release for Sillyventure's Winter meet.
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Still beavering away on this. I’ve done five different effects/screens and have got one left to do - although I might end up doing more because I’ve got more memory left than I thought, a whole 90K!
My STOS extension has largely behaved itself and I’ll make a few tweaks before I finally release it. Having my own commands to do what I want has saved me a whole pile of memory, plus made things run loads faster.
I wrote the sequencer bit yesterday, the bit that’ll change screen as the music changes and can now flick between all the effects in quick succession.
Unfortunately it won’t be complete for Nova, but hopefully there’ll be something else coming up I can release it for. I’d rather this one just looks good instead of good-enough.
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More #demo nonsense.
I seem to have what looks like a reasonable screen coming together. It's been nice to be able to bounce ideas off some like-minded individuals, who've given me some pointers on things to work in and improve.
It'll still be a "when it's done, it's done" thing, but when it is done, I think I'll be pretty happy with it.
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It occurred to me that since Buxton Bytes, I've not really said much about what I'm up to as far as #demo stuff goes. Soooooo....
I have a screen in progress, which is more like a bunch of effects all in one screen. Yet again, it's all done in #STOS, but using my newly coded FrankenSTOS extension to produce some nice stuff that (so far) is all running at 50fps as it should!
Three or four months of learning how to code 68K assembly has obviously paid off! 🙃
Was considering releasing it for Nova in June, but not entirely sure I'll complete it for then. It'll be released when I'm fully happy with it, whenever that is!
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I’ve started doing some real-world tests of my #STOS extension, taking some of the old demos I’d coded and replacing commands. Two screens has both shown big improvements, with one jumping from 16 to 25fps and the other jumping from 25 to 50.
This has also given me an idea to work with. Ideally I’d like to get it finished for Nova in June, although that might be a bit tight.
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Some source to get you started, if you're feeling in a chunky mood (this is what I used):
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I’ve also got some quicker base graphic routines in there, which work on single bitplanes instead of their predecessors. Makes a big difference.
Feeling quite pleased with myself, given that my 68000 assembler was pretty shocking 12 months ago.
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Hit a bit of a first last night. My ASM coding has finally reached something useful. I’ve managed to code an extension for #STOS that has interpreter/compiler support and I’ve done a starting command to support/display chunky graphics. Gonna build on this now and try to see if I can do some transforms too. Chunky on STOS would be a big leap in terms of output quality. (Big thanks to those who helped along the way)
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So I put my new cracktro creation on a floppy disc this morning and dutifully inserted it in to my ST. All the scrolling was lovely and buttery smooth, so that was nice. I might submit it in the next couple of days, (nearly three weeks before the deadline) and then get back to my steep 68K learning curve.
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Next bit of demo screen progress - I've shrunk the memory footprint down so that it now runs on my 520STFM, which is always the litmus test as to whether I'm near completion and happy to submit.
(If it doesn't run on real hardware, I'm not)
It's been nice to produce something that I'm just doing for the sake of it. No massive expectations or stress behind it.
A few tweaks left to do, plus the obligatory scrolltext and then it's time to submit!
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Looks like my next #demoscene screen is going to be a cracktro. Hopefully I can get something small/nice out in two months?
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My foray into 68000 ASM continues and seems to be producing benefits. One command I've created appears to be 8-9 times faster than the #STOS version it's replacing - and that's just in the interpreter. Haven't tried the compiled version yet or finished optimising it.
This should really open up some new avenues for future screens if all goes to plan.
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Spent the afternoon watching Star Trek The Motion Picture from 1979 with my 20 year old. We both agree it holds up pretty solid.
When the movie came out the Voyager 1 and 2 probes were only a couple years old. Now both are over 20 billion kilometers away. Amazing.
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/where-are-voyager-1-and-voyager-2-now/
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Not given a #demoscene update for a while, but here we are.
I'm releasing my demo on December the 5th. This is to coincide with the SillyVenture demo competition in Gdansk (Poland). You can download it on Sunday 7th December.
It won't win anything, but I thought it would be nice to put the effort in to something that'll be entered in an event. Never done that before.
It's virtually complete, just making minor tweaks.
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Demo progress continues, but my hope of releasing before Sommarhack in July looks iffy. Loader, intro and 2 screens are virtually done, but I’ve got another in progress and two screens I haven’t even started coding yet.
It doesn’t help I’m not exactly a graphical talent. Those bits really slow me down, trying to cobble something together that looks “passable”.
As long as I keep plugging away at it, it’ll be done when it’s done, I guess.
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More demo progress. I've managed to resolve a bug that made everything horribly crash and reboot - and I've made a screen that just plain hurts your eyes. The colour of the scroller changes with the music. It works really well, but the whole thing is a bit of an acid trip.
Still, I've maintained 50fps. Every cloud.
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The last bit of my “3D Bob" demo - applying different matrices to have objects roll on to the screen and roll off.
It's running at 25fps, which I'm totally happy with for #STOS, especially as I'm also doing rasters, scroller and music and keeping that frame rate up. Now for tidying and more objects.
