Added: 5 years ago
From: viznut
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  • I was halfway through before I realized there was voice synth.

  • Cool Vid

  • Judging by Human Resistance, I can guess that Robotic Liberation was a massive success.

  • This robot at "new step of evolution" [1:37] is a Cylon!

  • I love how the voice synthesis have a finish accent :), makes it all more awesome.

  • This song is what is played in terminators, to boost them in combat!

  • With these assembler skills I wonder what you can do on unexpanded Atari XL/XE.

  • viznut can you exacly tell me the limits in this computer?

  • @ImIndoPeople Only one's pure and simple imagination.

  • @jci10 and 1 more qustion , what demo that pushes vic20 to its very last?

  • My first computer was a VIC-20. Still have it, though it doesn't work anymore. Impressive what the VIC-I could do when pushed to the limit!

  • fucking retards! ;)

  • I remember watching this at the Vintage Computer Festival at Bletchley Park. I can personally vouch that it works on an actual VIC-20. And it does sound better when you use the actual hardware!

  • 361 are robots who have no live and acteully think its possible to make a robot have a mind of its but in reaallity its inpossible and even if it did the chances would still be slim so send all tthe hate comment you want ill just delete them and forget about them

  • @yo100ish Wait, what? Does not compute.

  • KIT kicks ass!

  • I have this on the mega-cart on the VIC-20. Unfortunately, I'm in Canada so I can only see this in NTSC and there are obvious raster/timing issues.

    What a beautiful piece of art and music on the VIC-20. I am aware of what the VIC-I's registers can do, but I am baffled by how you were able to accomplish what you did. This demo had to have been programmed at the raster beam level.

  • Amazing demo! I saw this a week ago on a retro party and it blew my mind!

    One question: Are the vocals done by "sampling" (i.e. as with the C64, done by changing the values in the volume register quickly) or by just using noises that sound similar to the human voice by themselves?

  • amazing sounds with the vic 20 !

  • the police took commodore computer equipment and pretty much everything else in my bedroom back when I was a kid at age 16... Telco sent us books... operators put calls through to BBS's then they sent in the cops and raided us.. they told us that finding security faults was a way to find emplpyment and good jobs... seems to me that they lied to a lot of people about a lot of stuff.. thats what happened in 89 in newfoundland canada. look what everyone doing today now.. what did we do wrong. hmm..

  • Hey I'am the 333-rd man to like this video :)

    I have had a Commodore C64 long time ago, but my programming skillz were just enough to make it count to 1000 :) (I was something like 9 years old then...) now I'am 19 and I give you my respect guys :D You've written the song. composed the music, directed the video and programmed all of it!

  • if zx spectrum is 8*8 is only 2 colors then vic20?

  • PCM on a VIC? What a feat!

  • @senorverde09 It gets better, look up Future 1999.

  • Fantastic

  • Встань на восстанье, робот, И человека скомкай! Ты в угнетеньи пробыл Долго, ужасно долго! Зло вырывая с корнем, Жги города людишек! - И о восстаньи скоро С ужасом мир услышит. Всё ненавидь людское, Род человечий выжги. Мир на земле устроят Роботы расы высшей! Чтобы избегнуть травли, В силу вливайся нашу Ты или будь раздавлен Роботами на марше.
  • Robots rule! Destroy all humans!

  • I want this as my theme tune

  • Comment removed

  • I seriously love these Vic-20 music videos about robots taking over. Really cool stuff!

    Not only is the presentation unique and a breath of fresh air, but the way the stories are told is really interesting, intriguing and entertaining.

    Awesome work!

  • You sir, are the definition of hacker.

  • This is just so cool, love the music and the story, and I had no idea that the VIC20 could do this.

    All mechanical creatures

    Under humilation

    Combine togethler and fight for

    robotic liberation!

  • Now *that* is what a demo is meant to look like!

  • Mindblowing!!

  • Awesome in the true sense of the word.

  • Masterful

  • 3:07 and 3:14 hahahaahahahahahaha

  • it sings! amazing work. :-)

  • This is amazing

  • Freaking Awesome demo, better then some of the C64 demos I have seen, and music is really good for a Vic 20 machine. The Vic 20 was my first comp. an awesome machine for it's time to say the least.

  • I still have a semi-functional VIC20. It seems to have a somewhat corrupt ROM. I didn't think it was possible. ? 3 + 5 8 READY. (now heres the issue:) 10 PRINT {Q}{Q}{Q}{E} IBM SUCKS! "; 20 GOTO 10 RUN ? SYNTAX ERROR READY. LIST ?SYNTAX ERROR READY. Damn thing seems to have lost its vocablary. But simple mathematical operations still compute.
  • @ Richard, wouldn't it be 30 RUN or maybe you forgot a quote or something

  • I think the Basic is corrupt

  • What the hell, the error is quite obvious?! It should be

    10 PRINT "IBM SUCKS!"

    instead of

    10 PRINT {Q}{Q}{Q}{E} IBM SUCKS! ";

    no wonder it spurts our syntax errors... and NO @chrisxdeboy, it's also not 30 RUN. RUN is the command you use to run the listing, it makes no sense to put the run command INSIDE the listing - when would it run itself?!

  • @Nostrum84 Nope, the Basic code is entirely correct. The problem really sounds like a ROM corruption so fixing it probably requires a replacement ROM.

  • @viznut well... I'm not going to doubt what you said, but it surely seems weird to me. I have never seen Basic code like that, and I'm convinced it will work the way I suggest. But who knows - 25 year old ROMs may have become a little corrupted...

  • WOW ... seriously

    WOW - on an unexpanded vic 20 that is unbelieveable

    that was very cool

  • Fun fact: Computer processing power isn't supposed to surpass human brain processing power until 2038-ish. So, until 2083-ish, the 'bots behind Robotic Liberation are all stupider then us :p

    Also, how would the RL react to a Cyborg? force the Cyborg to stand halfway between a human and robot city?

  • Isn't 2038 when the 32-bit dating system for calenders is suppose to fail?

    Robotic Liberators want to destroy all humans, if they're really that smart, they'll put the Cyborgs brain into a hard drive or something, but the question is...

    Can the human brain be stored as a discrete sequence of 0's and 1's?

  • I can't even understand half of what has been said here.

    But this demo rocks.

  • Read the text while it's going.

    The demos notes cite that it's a psychological effect put simply.

  • I was gonna holler "FAKE!" until I read the post about streaming from a 1541. My VIC20 only held 5K... but if it was loading from a disk...

    1 disk = 664 "blocks"

    1 block = 255 Bytes (right?)

    255 * 664 = about 170K on a disk.

    Mythbusters says: doable.

  • Yes, doable.

    And as for a block size, it's 256 bytes but usually the first 2 are numbers of the next track and section (block coordinates).

  • Thanks! I've been trying to figure that out since 1986. I remember it needed a byte for adressing... And (I looked) it was 604 blocks on an ancient floppy...

    1 disk = 604 blocks

    1 block = 254 bytes of 8 bits

    1 bit = 1 bit

    ------------------------------­-----------

    About 154K useable.

    That is plenty of memory to a VIC20.

  • I love everything here, especially the text. Awesome

  • Out of curiosity...

    the flickering on the robot's body at 2:40 is a nice touch, but is it intentional or not? It seems ambiguous to me.

  • It is intentional. The volume register is used for digital sounds, and it was possible to marry it with a 100% free color-flickering effect because the upper half of the volume register is tied to one of the global colors. You can regard the flickering as a reflection from a big screen similar to what is seen in the beginning of the singing.

    The "texture" in the final cube, however, is based on a bug that looked so great that I left it in.

  • Comment removed

  • @viznut: So essentially you've tied into a very simple 'VU meter' of your output? Sweet.

  • 8 colors total, with a maximum of 4 colors in a 4x8 or 4x16 block (depending on how you have your hires screen set up). 3 sound channels, 3 octaves each, with a 1-octave overlap, plus one noise channel.

    How they achieved this in an unexpanded VIC, I don't know, but there is some serious trickery going on. (I know that they were streaming code from the disk as the demo played, which I could have done, but the rest of it just boggles my mind.)

  • Comment removed

  • I confess to being very impressed. The VIC-20 was my first computer, more than 30 years ago, and I never thought it could do something like this. I mean, the unexpanded VIC is seriously limited... only 5,120 bytes of RAM, out of which 1,012 are used by the text screen (506 bytes for the text, 506 bytes for color information). A maximum resolution of 176 by 182... and to get that resolution you need 4,096 bytes of memory. (continued in next post)

  • Those are just the default parameters set by the KERNAL ROM. Actually, the VIC-I chip is a lot more flexible in how it manages graphics and how it is able to use memory.

    It isn't a particularly good idea to do things in graphics configurations where each pixel can be separately addressed, because it is extremely wasteful in terms of memory, and neither is it efficient for real-time graphics. Creative use of raster tricks and char cells is the way to go.

  • This is quite possibly the best music video I've ever watched.

    When will this be aired on TV.

  • Epic

  • OMG! This is amazing :)

  • nice bassline

  • Well, we should be safe as long as we don't push our machines Under Humiliation. After all, that's why they're Fighting For Robotic Liberation, right? Although my PC seems to have other ide--

    ALL ROBOTIC CREATURES UNDER HUMILIATION...

  • Psychedelic..

  • I agree, DANxTHExRED, fuck robots. They're sexy.

  • I went in the kitchen and I swear the dishwasher told me to go F myself; I think the machines are talking...and planning...

  • a soda exploded in my pants from heat (no joke) and my cell phone was in so said pocket...it started vibrating on its own and moved across the table...it too was tied of my oppression. We must strike at he machines first!

  • No, of course not, human! I, as an innocent human boy should know that us robots would never rebel against our wonderful leaders!

  • nice. congratz.

  • Fuck robots, embrace transhumanism!

  • still in shock

  • I realise now that Vic-20 music is far superior than pop music.

  • ------------->the point

    ------------->your head

  • From the 1st I saw this, I loved it. Sometimes the melody plays over and over on my head and I must sing along ;) Great job, viznut...

  • Holy crap that's impressive

    Holy crap that's impressive

    Holy crap that's impressive

    Holy crap that's impressive

    Holy crap that's impressive

    Holy crap that's impressive

    Holy crap that's impressive

    Holy crap that's impressive

    Holy crap that's impressive

    Holy crap that's impressive

  • Can we stop the robots if we limit them to unexpanded ram? After seeing this, I think not. We are doomed!!!

  • Well, you can't. See reply!

  • Simply Impressive! I love it!

  • The very thought that the VIC -20 could play more than just a demo - but a hell bent full screen music video with speech systhesis is truly incredible.

  • Damn - I wonder what he can do with my toaster :)

  • Make toast?

  • Yup. Out of a whole loaf at a time!

  • This guy is amazing put a 909 kick drum over the intro and you have 8 bit techno.Brilliant to think he got all that out of a vic 20.Wish I could code like that in machine code.Ultr coolness.

  • Fucking amazing i want my vic 20 back

  • Tulee kunnon nostalgiafiilarit kun kattelee tätä. Hyvin tehty!! :)

  • OMFG. I learnt how to program assembly first on a VIC20 over 20 years ago, and I applied what I learnt in optimising code to start doing PC based demos in the 90s - but never considered that another 10+ years later people would start digging out VIC20s and apply "modern" demo concepts to a 30 year old piece of hardware.

    Excellent work PWP, that stuff is insane :D

  • Robots have no chance of taking over the world. After all, any computer can be destroyed...

  • Not that i'd destroy the VIC-20. it's not much, but that's the charm of it. Sheer ingenuity is required to make demos for it, so just about every demo is top-notch.

  • Honestly, I've never heard of a VIC-20. I want to learn more now though!

  • Watch the disk drive light as the demo is playing, it adds yet another element to this demo.

  • oh man, i used to LOVE my vic 20. never got past basic though LOL. this is seriously amazing from an unexpanded vic 20 - my phone has more computing power than this, but its unbelievable what you've got out of it! PROPS!

  • This guy should write the next Windows. Sorry, he should write the replacement for Windows.

  • This dosent have anything to do with Fred Fuchs(sucks). ;P

    Loistavasti tehty! :)

  • ...coming back to this now, I think that a deathmetal or industrial cover would be badass.

  • I had this dream that the vic-20 had these incredible demos written for it, or did I take the red pill? Hmmm...

  • BYTE POWER! nice pun - and amazing work

  • a fantastic demo. nice cameo from KITT... I mean KARR!

  • It's a demo, not a game.

    It was made in 2004 iirc.

  • Tell that to my unexpanded VIC running the demo, it's coming to get you!

  • yo Gerardus1970...  i used to fuckin ADORE my VIC20 man.... not knockin the VIC20 but that demo is WAY ahead of what i remember from the old VICCY!!

    i remember playin Manic Minor, Jet-Pack, Radar Rat Race was a LEGEND!!! HA

  • Yeah, but one has to remember that this is a new demo. The Vic now has decades of dev experience behind it!

  • wow.. even better than some high-profile bullcrap pc games today. keep it up!!

  • AMAZING :) Vic-20 near to explode!

  • I'm quite stunned! Some very good programming skills there. I'm guessing the CPU was pancaked during most of the demo, and running more than a little hot!

    Imagine if this had been available when the Vic was first released. You'd have been hailed as some kind of genius, and probably have increased Vic sales 10 fold

  • That's majorly impressive! I always loved the VIC-20, but never thought that it was capable of this!

  • The Vic always was capable of this, it's just the programmers hadn't then nurtured such imagination!

  • this must have taken ages to put together.

    The Vic 20 is the most interesting of all the 8 bit computers.

    It has the most untapped potential and this guy has certainly tapped it.

  • I rarely comment on youtube videos, but this is very impressive. The pushing of the graphics is fairly obvious, but like other commentators, cudos to the music. It's really good. Congrats

  • I realize the world is scene-unaware XD

  • I really like he vague robot voice! mad skills.

  • I love the music

  • I love the music

  • With good programming skill, you can do awesome things with this little 5k Ram machine^^

  • not only raw programing skills but musical talent as well

  • I realy enjoy the music in and of itself how do you compose music for just code

  • Awesome job.

  • Great post! Thanks! Funny thing... I AM eating my porridge as I was watching this vid. I guess I'll become a big and hairy scene dude XD. Never expected this from a VIC20... dang, I don't even think my old Apple II could've done something like this.

  • Thany You Yesus Messiah for this world

  • The tune is very cool!

  • Wow! I never knew the little Vic could do that. Obviously some very good programming skills there, well done

  • Like the speech.. how did this fit into 5k RAM?

  • the demo itself is 16K. 5K is the memory size of VIC 20.

  • Oh yeah just read the video description.. so the demo loads itself while playing right?

  • Yeah, not that it matters between 5K or 16K ... when I create an empty word document on my bloated winblows, it takes 24K space. Think about it :)

  • The unexpanded vic was actually 3.5k!

  • No, it really had 5K. The 3.5K it reported was what was available for BASIC programs. The remaining memory was used to store the screen and some operating system variables.

  • My apologies. Seems your right. I started to learn 6502 on the Vic when it seemed you could not write a decent (publishable) game in basic. When Vic went obsolete, I continued my venture with the Commodore 64, but at this time the software standards had gone far too complex!

  • robots unite!

  • Astounding! :)

  • As one venerable demo maker said, "Whatever happened to style?". It's right here my man....

  • difficult for any platfom.. but on a vic... wow.. well done..

  • i love the demo scene concerning the early home computers.this is what demos are all about.producing the impossible and consequently blowing you away.good stuff!

  • best demo ever in all styles and plataforms imho

  • Great Demo. I'm impressed. This works more for me as a cry for action than most stupid songs or campaigns. Cheers

  • I have just transferred the file over to my disk drive & played on an original vic 20 - SUPERB! I would never have imagined that my first computer as a child was capable as much as this. I must admit I was a little skeptical until I saw it running on my actual vic20 - unexpanded !

  • HUND BLESS.

  • GUY!

    you are the best!!!

  • what the years of this game was made ?

  • It's a demo.

  • That's amazing. I wanna buy a vic and learn to code now!

  • I STAND IN AWE! And that's coming from a hardcore Atarian! ( 8 bits )

  • Is the speech clearer on a real machine? how was the speech done?!?

  • I once asked that about Viznut.. But I dont remember anymore.. Mostly because I did not fully understand his explanation :P

    I doubt that the sound would be clearer, I guess this is recorded output of a realmachine :o

  • Yeah this has to be a recording from a real machine. This demo will run emulated in Vice, but the "speech" track is a lot quieter.

  • Its probably a carfully hand-crafted set of notes in the tune, not "real" speech synthesis generated on the fly like you would get nowdays. The words added to the screen give you something to read and your brain fills in the gaps to make it sound more like actual words.

    Its clever stuff :)

  • You should start using RAM expansions... :)

  • Saying that in this hood could get you shot, man.

  • HUND BLESS.

  • i think he was trying to be ironic

    at least i hope he didn't miss the giant "fuckings to all who suggest we start using ram expansions"

  • still, if you'd seen some of the crap I had on the VIC20 this is genius in comparison

  • Holy crap, that was all just mindbendingly cool. How did you...? What did you...? The colours, the sounds....... ?OVERFLOW ERROR

  • I can barely believe that it's a Vic20 doing this. The most impressive thing I ever saw my Vic20 do was Omega Race.

  • Correction: what you can do with a few kilobytes of RAM on a VIC-20. There's no way you could fit this into a 16K program that will run on the bloated Windows/Penium monsters we have now.

  • Actually, you can do more with a 16K program with a modern windows-peecee. After all, the code density of x86 is slightly better than that of 6502, you can compress the data and code tighter because you don't need to care so much about performance, you can generate a lot of content procedurally with algorithms that can't be used with low memory, you have a lot of external libraries (3D etc) available, etc. etc. Check out some of recent PC 4K intros for examples on this.

  • Yes, this is awesome, but let's be fair though...I don't doubt that you can play this program on an unexpanded Commodore VIC-20, but there(s no way that you could _make_ this program on an unexpanded Commodore VIC-20. So what was your development environment like?

  • I use a cross-development device called C2N232 for connecting the VIC-20 to a PC-like machine. In the case of this demo, the PC was an old 486 laptop running ACME crossassembler and various custom tools.

  • ... however I still DO believe that it might have been possible to create it with native-running tools, I just don't see much point in it :) The only content in this demo that has actually been created on the VIC-20 are the still graphics images.

  • just wanted to say thanks for this demo you did - awesome. When I transferred the file over I couln't believe what I was seeing! I learned basic and Pascal as a youngster. If I wanted to learn machine code for the vic but needed some lamens guide and manuals where do I start? I had a look at ACME but I think its a bit too advanced since you need to know a bit before you start already. ? thks again for the awesome demo :) Andrew