Robotic Liberation by PWP (VIC-20)

Are machines going to take over the world? A "music video" completely performed by an unexpanded Commodore VIC-20 and a 1541 disk drive. Note that there are only 5120 bytes and 1024 nybbles of RAM available, and the total disk size of the demo is a mere 16 KB. No one had ever pushed VIC-20 programming this far before the new millennium.

And don't forget: even the original Terminator was based on the 6502 microprocessor!

More: http://www.pelulamu.net/viznut/demos/rli/

Category:

Music

Tags:

• commodore
• vic
• 20
• vic-20
• demoscene
• 8bit
• retro
• realtime
• hacking
• pwp
• robots

[InvisibleSandwichTM]

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.

[viznut]

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.

[spearm64]

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)

[viznut]

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.

[RossJams]

WOW ... seriously

WOW - on an unexpanded vic 20 that is unbelieveable

that was very cool

[tiberianfiend]

I was halfway through before I realized there was voice synth.

[fastmoneyphil]

Cool Vid

[SuperSmashDolls]

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

[nasedo1]

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

[P55CxE9]

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

[boondoggle28]

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

[KubaPSP]

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

[ImIndoPeople]

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

[jci10]

@ImIndoPeople Only one's pure and simple imagination.

[ImIndoPeople]

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