Apple I Demos - are they possible?

xanthrou · Post by **xanthrou** » Tue Dec 21, 2021 2:19 pm

Stupid question, but is there any way for an Apple I (one, not two) to enter the demoscene? After all, limitations breed creativity.

Ffin72 · Post by **Ffin72** » Tue Dec 21, 2021 3:04 pm

Any computer can enter the demoscene, it really depends on the creativity of the demo crew and your expectations of a demo.

Yazwho · Post by **Yazwho** » Tue Dec 21, 2021 5:23 pm

There isn't a category on Pouet, so I guess not? Then again there isn't a category for the C64's disk drive, so who knows!

kelli217 · Post by **kelli217** » Tue Dec 21, 2021 8:02 pm

I've only seen one.

paulscottrobson · Post by **paulscottrobson** » Tue Dec 21, 2021 9:31 pm

On 12/21/2021 at 2:19 PM, xanthrou said:

Stupid question, but is there any way for an Apple I (one, not two) to enter the demoscene? After all, limitations breed creativity.

No, because the output device is basically a slow serial teletype on screen. All you can do is push things out sequentially.

Scott Robison · Post by **Scott Robison** » Wed Dec 22, 2021 6:26 am

I think you have to ask the question "What is a demo?" We're accustomed to them being sound and video driven creations, but is that really *essential*?

EMwhite · Post by **EMwhite** » Wed Dec 22, 2021 6:08 pm

The Apple program depicted above is still a demo. But no audio. It's entertaining despite being low-res. Take your laptop and put it across the house, then stand back 30 feet and you'll see Woz and the rest. Amazing!!!

The 1541 head-destroyer "bicycle built for two" song is also demo. (no video) If you don't know what that is, you'll need to rewind the clock to the mid-80's and download (from a BBS), a .PRG for the C64 that pushes code into your 1541 and blasts the stepper motor to vibrate the head at given frequencies for a mono rendition of the song. And when it's done, you can't shake that tune from your minds-eye or whatever; also, you no longer have a working 1541 disk drive but hey, you can't have it all !!

Of course, the earliest demos created for commercial computers by manufacturers demonstrated capabilities and many of them were created to be left running, unattended at retailers, not much different than 'attract mode' of a given commercial arcade game. Osborne had a nifty demo that graphed a 3D parabola; Commodore had them (the famous Christmas Demo was a 'late' version of this) but the PET had them also. In 1979, the Apple II shipped with a series of cassettes (but no cassette player) and included demos and other programs. Even the act of printing out Snoopy on 132 column green bar paper was a demo of sorts (the printing part of it). We were spoiled back then and we still are.

Edmond D · Post by **Edmond D** » Thu Dec 23, 2021 2:34 am

On 12/22/2021 at 10:08 AM, EMwhite said:

Even the act of printing out Snoopy on 132 column green bar paper was a demo of sorts (the printing part of it). We were spoiled back then and we still are.

I remember a government facility's open house that had printouts of a calendar done by their "mini computer" and plots of geometric designs too. I think even one free item was an ASCII art type of the Enterprise from Star Trek.

EMwhite · Post by **EMwhite** » Sat Dec 25, 2021 8:33 pm

Speaking of which (Christmas Demo ref'd above)... Robin, from 8-bit-show-and-tell did a Commodore Christmas round-up feature and spends the first 5 mins talking about and, well... demo'ing the demo.

In his monologue, he confirmed my understanding; that this was among the first (if not the first) demo (1982) distributed which of course lead to bigger and better things.

Robin also gets into the code (briefly). In my mind, this demo was a 10,000 line basic program but the combination of SID music, a static character based screen of PETSCII graphics, and a touch of sprite animation, fills a few minutes of this demo from just a screen or two of BASIC and the supporting machine language code. Such a high quality production considering it produced in the early introductory period of the C64 release.

Any way you slice it, it's nostalgic and well produced. I missed being able to buy the Tindie release earlier this year; this guy sold really cool tree shaped carts containing this code on ROM. Have a look, it's worth the click. I'm on the mailing list but probably will continue to wait.

mobluse · Post by **mobluse** » Mon Jan 31, 2022 2:25 am

Demonstrating the Apple One clone with color from:

https://github.com/alangarf/apple-one

Runs on FPGA: iCE40HX8K-EVB with iCE40-IO for VGA screen and PS/2 keyboard.

Tests all fonts, background (paper) colors and foreground (ink) colors. Tests the clear screen button.

The color code in this Apple 1 clone is the same as in GWBASIC/QBASIC/MMBASIC (RGB), but different from Apple II BASIC (GBR), ZX Spectrum BASIC (GRB) and VT100/ANSI/xterm (BGR). There are 6 possible color codes and all mentioned are different. The Apple II colors are more complicated than just GBR. Why could the computer industry not standardize color codes for 3-bit graphics? I think the ANSI color code is the most sensible, because the colors are in spectral order corresponding to the energy of photons, and the same goes for the electronic color code.

Note: The original Apple I didn't have color or different fonts.