Linus Åkesson aka lft has relased a new, native C64 tracker. Blackbird features a very clean and minimal GUI, an efficient playroutine, a live mode, and a unique microtonal fx system. It also comes with a well-written, in-depth manual and plenty of example tunes for further reference.
From the man who brought us such legendary productions as Storebror and Cubase64, here's a new, thoughtful and moody C64 4K intro. Not only is it one of the rare instances of a demo with a message, but it's unique visual style also sets it apart from the usual plasma-scroller-twister stuff. Music-wise, it reminds me of some works by Kjell Nordbø. It won the C64 4K compo at Datastorm, and I'm tempted to give this a CDC on pouet, actually.
Hey, didn't you folks have enough of a chiptune fix yesterday? No? Ok, well then I think it's time for you to download the latest High Voltage SID Collection. While not as massive as the previous, 20 year celebratory update, the traditional Xmas update still adds a whooping 430 new C64 tunes, as well as the usual array of re-rips, fixes, and identifications.
Chiptune pioneer 4mat put up a great talk about the early days of Amiga chip mod tracking, with a focus on the techniques that came to define this format. A highly recommended watch.
Staying on the topic of Commodore for a bit... so what happens if a C64 and an 808 drum machine meet in the hands of one of the most creative chiptuners of all time? Well, this happens:
The vinyl is almost sold out, so you better be quick if you want one.
Another stunning masterpiece from X Party. Due to an organizational screw-up, this ended up ranking 18th. No doubt it should actually have ended up in the top three. It's my favourite from the party, in any case. While lft's Lunatic wins in terms of design, this one just kills the show with it's fresh ideas and unique style. Also, gotta love that skull pic.
Fantastic new C64 demo by the legendary lft, which took the 2nd place at X Party. It's not just that the graphics, music, and effects are all top notch - I have rarely ever seen such a coherently styled production on the C64. And yes, all code, graphics, and music in this double-disk demo are made by a single person.
A new, interactive A/V release by Goto80, with cody by 4mat and pixel art by ilkke. Also includes a load of remixes, appearently. This release comes in a unique format - as a cartridge for the C64, that is. Unfortunately the cart is already sold out two days after it's release, so for the time being your only choice is to enjoy the beautiful, quirky and diverse audio-visual treat on bandcamp. Btw the bc page includes video captures, so head over there rather than simply relying on the embed below.
The High Voltage SID Collection celebrates its 20th anniversary with an exclusive musicdisk, featuring works by celticdesign, Hein, Jellica, Laxity, Linus, psycho8580, and many more. Needless to say, the collection itself has also been updated. With the addition of 1022 new files, it now features over 48000 SIDs.
Yeah I know, I'm massively behind on all the great demoscene releases of the past month. This is partly due to me having been on vacation, but also due to lack of motivation in recent times. But fear not, I have no plans on giving up Ancient Wonderworld for now.
Anyway, time to start clearing the backlog. Mid June saw the release of another installment in the Chiperia musicdisk series for the classic Amiga computer. And once again, it is an absolutely top-notch collection of original Amiga chiptunes (in the original sense of the word), made by some of the best musicians in the scene. I'm simply amazed how these folks can keep up such a consistently high quality.
10 years after their ground-breaking "Orb MegaDemo", the guys from Orb decided to give this legendary VIC-20 classic a little make-over. Well, little make-over is a slight understatement, perhaps. Besides the obvious extra polish, there are also 6 new effects as well several new tunes and screens.
This release comes with no cover art and no online player. And it's still one of the best, if not the best chiptune release of 2015, at least in my opinion. C64 minimal (the real minimal, not the electro stuff) at it's best. Well, unless you hit that download link, you'll never know what you're missing out on, I'm afraid.
A new, ambitious project is on its course to recreate the MOS SID chip in FPGA. The end product is intended to be a pin-compatible drop-in replacement, and the author is aiming for accuracy on par with reSID emulation.
Check out some w.i.p. sound examples, and get the latest updates at the FPGASID website.
This gotta be one of the craziest demos I've seen this year. First of all, the platform: CBM 8032 aka Commodore PET! If that alone isn't crazy enough, the demo itself is rather... different. It starts out with something which sort of resembles a twister, but then takes a rather unexpected turn. I don't want to spoil it too much, so let me just say that I have rarely ever seen something so unique and sinister. An absolute masterpiece in my opinion, and well-deserved first place in the Wild compo at Zoo this weekend.
AY and Amiga chipmusic hero Yerzmyey has a new cassette release! It contains music from his "Retrobeat" and "ZX81" albums. If you want to buy one (they cost just 3 EUR + shipping), get in touch with the man himself via yerzmyey at interia.pl.
As much as I like my own tracker, I can't hide the fact that another awesome music editor was released very recently. Hermit of SIDwizard fame proudly presents you TEDzakker, a tracker for the Commodore 264 series. It features a custom driver to achieve effects previously unheard on the TED chip.
From the release notes:
6 different player-types for different needs and rastertimes/sizes
TED sound emulation on SID for C64 version
HerMIDI MIDI-interface support (notes can be played, instruments can be selected)
short 1ms whitenoise can be enabled for instruments (crisp soundstarts)
SYNC and PHASE between the two channels, possible to create ringmod or PWM-like sounds
bass sounds deeper than A2=108Hz by utilizing 'noiseloop'
note-volume fade-in/out in instrument-tables to create volume-envelopes
different mixing modes to map the virtual volumes of channels to shared volume
normal/incremental vibrato, balanced vibrato/slide-speed strength in lower octaves
Instrument load/save support (each instrument has its own individual table)
Runnable and playable tunes can be exported directly from TEDzakker editor just like workfiles
Built-in cheatsheet and built-in tutorial/example-tune for all player-types
The latest version can be downloaded here.
For further discussion, see the release page on csdb.
The Computer History Museum has started to release historic video recordings from the "Forum on the Future of Personal Computer". This was a monthly panel held by the Boston Computer Society, which brought together some of the biggest players in the computer world of the 80s.
First up is this remarkable gathering from October 1981, which brought together Don Estridge of IBM, Bill Gates of you-know-who, Mike Markkula of Apple, James Finke of Commodore, Jon Shirley of Radio Shack, Peter Rosenthal of Atari, and Nigel Searle of Sinclair.
The video recordings will released in format of a youtube playlist. Read up on background background information on the serie's blog.
Horray, another installment in the Chiperia musicdisk series has appeared. This one was submitted to the oldskool demo compo at Function, where it got 3rd place. As usual, it contains a load of awesome Amiga tunes ranging from demoscenish-classic to utterly crazy. With music by Curt Cool, Tecon, Serpent, h0ffman, triace, zabutom, tempest, and many more.
