256k GFX Demo
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Text By Adam Trionfo
September 1, 2011

The "256k GFX Demo .01" by Michael Garber is for the Bally/Astrocade.  It 
requires the 256K Maxflash Cart to run.  It will not run under an emulator.

This demo isn't complete and polished, but it is a fantastic example of what 
can be done with extra ROM space and the graphic conversion  tools that Michael 
has been working on

Here is a brief email exchange between Adam Trionfo and Michael Garber to give 
details about the demo:


Michael says:

Had to slow it down quite a lot.. it's waiting 5 vblanks between frame changes.

The odd pixels at the bottom are just an artifact of converting the original 
images down to 4 colors. I could go and clean them up (did it for one frame but 
was too lazy to do the others)


Adam replies:

Tried it and...

WOW!!!  That actually looks WAY better than I thought four colors could look.

Since the binary says "final," I guess that you mean the binary is ready to be 
uploaded.  I'd like to definitely add a comments text to it.  Could you please 
write something up?  For instance, could you mention the number of frames that 
the animation plays at, and anything else technical that you want to add.  
Also, I'd like to rename the file to "256K GFX Demo 01.bin."  Is that okay?

I presume that the source code isn't ready for prime time yet, so that won't be 
included.

Cartoons convert really well to low-res animations, but I still feel bad for 
little Pikachu.  Why are you letting him get beat up like that?

Great job!


Michael replies:

=D =D

I named it final cause when I was doing the copy commands as part of the batch 
I couldn't get more creative. (i.e. it was the final of all those parts put 
together)

I'd like to fix up the stray pixels at the bottom and prob put some gradient 
for the black color if it looks good..or something as the interrupt routines 
are in there. [I probably] won't get to that until later.  Go ahead and upload 
it if Steve or Michael have the ability to see it run but I'll most likely be 
making a revision on it soon.

I was surprised at how well it looks also.  It was just an animated .gif I had 
sitting around forever.  I think we got lucky on the number of colors working 
out for that exact video.

Thanks for the help.. some good things are to come I believe.