Jim Leonard
Gu-Star by Camorra
updated
This footage was recorded from an IBM PC (8088 CPU running at 4.77MHz) with a ("new-style") CGA card. The audio was tapped from the PC speaker and the video was recorded from the CGA composite output. The result was post-processed from 30i to 60p; all source frames are intact.
To see what this demo looks like as captured from real hardware, check out our official capture video: youtu.be/fWDxdoRTZPc
To see the demo as it looks on Viler's actual system (real IBM PC with IBM 5153 CGA monitor): youtu.be/BdM5j96tEpE
Download the party version here: pouet.net/prod.php?which=91938
----
This is my personal, informal channel. Do you like the demoscene, vintage computing, video archival, or other stuff I'm known for? Check out my professional channel: The Oldskool PC: youtube.com/c/TheOldskoolPC
----
This is my personal, informal channel. Do you like the demoscene, vintage computing, video archival, or other stuff I'm known for? Check out my professional channel: The Oldskool PC: youtube.com/c/TheOldskoolPC
This is my personal, informal channel. Do you like the demoscene, vintage computing, or other stuff I'm known for? Check out my professional channel: The Oldskool PC: youtube.com/c/TheOldskoolPC
Oh, and I cleaned up the audio's 8-bit quantization noise in izotope as best I could.
This footage was recorded from an IBM PC (8088 CPU running at 4.77MHz) with a ("new-style") CGA card. The audio was tapped from the PC speaker and the video was recorded from the CGA composite output. The result was post-processed from 30i to 60p; all source frames are intact.
The graphics in this particular game were designed primarily for RGB displays, so the composite output colors seen here are not strictly as the developer intended.
This footage was recorded from an IBM PC (8088 CPU running at 4.77MHz) with a ("new-style") CGA card. The audio was tapped from the PC speaker and the video was recorded from the CGA composite output. The result was post-processed from 30i to 60p; all source frames are intact.
Personal notes: This game, coupled with Dunzhin, is one of the first two games to produce speech on the IBM PC. They predate Castle Wolfenstein on the PC by at least a year.
If the game seems like it aligns to an 80x25 grid in graphics mode, you're correct -- the exact same game is playable on a monochrome screen using 80x25 text characters. If you boot it on a dual-monitor system, it asks you which version you want to play.
Daphne may seem lower to the ground than other black labs; that is because she is a British Black Labrador. Her coat is also much thicker, and slightly wavy on top (also traits of British Labs).
This footage was recorded from an IBM PC (8088 CPU running at 4.77MHz) with a ("new-style") CGA card. The audio was tapped from the PC speaker and the video was recorded from the CGA composite output. The result was post-processed from 30i to 60p; all source frames are intact.
The graphics in this particular game were designed primarily for RGB displays, so the composite output colors seen here are not strictly as the developer intended.
Personal notes: Examination of the binaries shows this game was created in compiled BASIC.
This is a bit of an experiment mostly to see how YouTube Premiere handles live and offline comments. (And to see if there's any interest in doing something like this regularly on my main vintage computing channel.)
This footage was recorded from an IBM PC (8088 CPU running at 4.77MHz) with a ("new-style") CGA card. The audio was tapped from the PC speaker and the video was recorded from the CGA composite output. The result was post-processed from 30i to 60p; all source frames are intact.
Personal notes: This game cleverly uses the 6845's start address register to scroll the entire screen downward two lines, allowing for full-screen animation in 30fps using minimal CPU resources.
Spy Hunter takes full advantage of an analog joystick (variable speed is honored), which is a good thing because the keyboard controls are quite terrible. The joystick routine is very sensitive, unfortunately, so "gamepads" can't be used (the center drifts in the program). An analog stick with trims is necessary, for fine adjustment even after the calibration is finished.
Camera gear: Panasonic GX85, Olympus 60mm 1:2.8 macro lens. Aperture was wide open the entire time which was a beginner's mistake.
Equipment: Panasonic GX85, Olympus 60mm 1:2.8 Macro
I wasn't aware this even existed until about a year ago (!), so when I found a classmate willing to lend it to me, I just had to try to remaster it. Details of the remaster:
- Timebase corrector used during transfer
- 150+ shots were color-corrected or adjusted from the original
- Frequency-domain noise reduction
- No elements were removed or censored
- No elements were added except for an end credit (mine, as I don't appear in the video)
- Motion-adaptive deinterlacing, edge-adaptive scaling
I'm not a professional colorist, but I think the end result is much more watchable than the original VHS tape. At least there aren't any green or purple faces any more :-)
All of the music in the video was performed by 8-bit Weapon, who performed live in the main hall throughout the event.
Visit MobyGames: http://www.mobygames.com
More about 8-bit-weapon: 8bitweapon.com
These commercials were commissioned by Ron Haskell, general manager of the mall in the mid-1970s. Ron presented in many of the commercials himself, having previous theater and radio experience.
The video footage was rescued from a u-matic tape, denoised, and deinterlaced by myself using Premiere, Neat Video, and qtgmc.
This footage was recorded from an IBM PC (8088 CPU running at 4.77MHz) with a ("new-style") CGA card. The audio was tapped from the PC speaker and the video was recorded from the CGA composite output. The result was post-processed from 30i to 60p; all source frames are intact.
Personal notes: While the on-screen animation is a little sloppy and there is slowdown at times, the gameplay is fairly authentic to the arcade original.
I was very pleasantly surprised to see my very first "night lapse" photography/video turned out really well: Despite severe light pollution from a suburban area, you can definitely see hundreds of stars, and even the occasional Perseid meteor.
Viewing Hints for this video: Any light streak lasting longer than a single frame (1/24th of a second) is a plane. Any light streak moving very slowly is a satellite. But if the light streak is very faint and lasts only a single frame, it's a meteor :-)
Camera used: Panasonic Lumix DMC-G7
Lens: Rokinon (Samyang) 12mm f2.0 (wide-angle, manual focus)
Because of the light pollution, I had to use drastically less-sensitive settings than typical night photography. The photos captured here were with my lens wide open at f2.0 (normal), but the camera was set to ISO 200 and a shutter of only 6 seconds (both not typical for astrophotography). Any attempts at increasing the ISO, or lengthening the shutter duration, caused a near complete white-out of the sky.
The source of this video was a myopia-inducing resolution of 308x167 playing back at 10fps, and what was synthesized and uploaded to YouTube was 720p60. Avisynth was used for the conversion, with Interframe() and nnedi3_rpow2() used for processing.
Finally: What is up with that typewriter carriage? It's nearly 3x the width of the paper in the typewriter!
Remastered version of youtube.com/watch?v=im4sl05IyGY from the original tapes (mine).
This is a remastered version of youtube.com/watch?v=A1iW6Z_Jc4k from the original source tapes (mine).
This footage was recorded from an IBM PC (8088 CPU running at 4.77MHz) with a ("new-style") CGA card. The audio was tapped from the PC speaker and the video was recorded from the CGA composite output. The result was post-processed from 30i to 60p; all source frames are intact.
Personal notes: This is a very faithful port of the arcade game Root Beer Tapper. One of the better arcade ports at the time; very nice composite color graphics.
Even on Novice level, this game is really hard! (That, or my game strategies were terrible.)
The source of this video was 640x360 at 10fps, and was synthesized and uploaded to YouTube as 720p60. Avisynth was used for the conversion, with Interframe() and nnedi3_rpow2() used for the bulk of the processing.
A commenter tried to leave a comment on the MCE2VGA. Don't buy or build that, it's garbage. It has fixed scaling, fixed framerates, it doesn't capture overscan, and costs too much.
Old description remains:
I think I finally have a working CGA RGB TTL video capture process. There are some quirks to work out, such as scaler issues producing moire patterns, but the moire is very subtle and is just about acceptable. Some of the colors are not quite what my 5153 produces, but they are extremely close and acceptable.
The various screens displayed are me walking through some test plates I added to The CGA Compatibiliy Tester specifically for calibrating capture equipment. More info on The CGA Compatibility Tester: http://www.oldskool.org/pc/cgacomp
The gglabs CGA2RGB converts TTL to analog RGB out, nothing more. You still need a line doubler, scaler, or capture device to make sense of the VGA output, unless you have a VERY old monitor that can handle 15.7 KHz horizontal input. More info about the gglabs device: http://gglabs.us/node/1619
For the curious, the workflow is a combination of hardware and software. VCR + TBC feeds to calibrated capture device, then a mixture of NeatVideo for noise removal (radius of 5, manual tuning), Premiere Pro for color correction, and avisynth for motion-directed deinterlacing and NN-directed resizing. The process is manual because 1. I like to oversee every step, and 2. the parts that can be automated are on opposite ends of the part that can't be automated (color correction). The slowest parts are the noise removal and deinterlacting. It takes about 1 hour to process one minute of footage.
I remastered a section of the original video because I loved the idea, but their lack of knowledge surrounding video deinterlacing took away from the effect. Also, some of the original sync wasn't perfect. I've timed it as perfectly as I can (down to each beat when necessary) and I think it looks/works a little better. The original video has more content in it, which you can view here: youtube.com/watch?v=4GO9-gB1H-Y
Video taken from the public-domain film The Dance Jubilee Troupe "Dance Jubilee (1956)", available on archive.org
The source of this video was 288x144 at 10fps, and was synthesized and uploaded to YouTube as 720p60. Avisynth was used for the conversion, with Interframe() and nnedi3_rpow2() used for the bulk of the processing.
I had ideas on how to improve my previous effort, and based on the look of this result, I think I succeeded. There is a lot more motion with a lot less image breakups. It's not HD, but it's definitely better than a 10fps postage stamp.
The source of this video was 288x144 at 10fps, and what was synthesized and uploaded to YouTube was 720p60. Avisynth was used for the conversion, with Interframe() and nnedi3_rpow2() used for processing.
Update: The second attempt at youtu.be/FLiw88itC9A is much better.
Music: Corncob - Country by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100565
Artist: http://incompetech.com
More info on the acts and installations at this event: facebook.com/events/1623534164579997
This video was edited in-camera, and I wasn't there for the entire event, so not every performer is shown, sorry. Notably missing is my own presentation of 8088 MPH and the short Q&A that followed.
My personal thoughts on the documentary: http://trixter.oldskool.org/2014/10/05/cyberpunx
From the original distributor's description:
"Since the 1982 publication of William Gibson's Neuromancer, the first in a groundbreaking series of science fiction novels, many of his fictional concepts have been realized. Moreover, a segment of Western youth has dedicated itself to living in Gibson's fictional world made fact.
The cyberpunk movement embraces artificial reality, bionic medicine, "smart" weapons and drugs, and industrial music. But most notably, cyberpunks are associated with computer hacking, piracy and crimes. These are young people who fight fire with fire, pitching their ethos, "Information wants to be free," against those who would control, restrict, or direct high technology. Their agenda is similar to that of the Sixties counterculture, yet their means are very different, and to some, terrifying. Cyberpunk tells how this phenomenon began and explores its implications.
Included are interviews with Gibson, Jaron Lanier, Timothy Leary and Michael Synergy. Cyberpunk is futuristic "edutainment," whose production values mirror its content. It features animation as well as live-action, and "guerilla image processing" techniques that were once available only to large production companies that could afford expensive generators. The filmmakers' declared intent was somewhat subversive: To create such density of audio-visual stimulation that even the itinerant viewer would be engaged and entertained, hardly suspecting that the results would be education and thinking."
While this video is already on YouTube in various forms, this particular version was run through my videotape restoration process which is of a fairly high quality. While no conversion process can add detail where none exists, I am confident my process retains the detail present in the original, and that this version is (as of 2015) the very best version available on YouTube.
If you'd like me to convert one of your videotapes, DVDs, or other 30i interlaced video footage with results similar to this video, contact me. If your conversion material is of interest to me or my hobbies, I'll do it for free.
This footage was recorded from an IBM PC (8088 CPU running at 4.77MHz) with a ("new-style") CGA card. The audio was tapped from the PC speaker and the video was recorded from the CGA composite output. The result was post-processed from 30i to 60p; all source frames are intact.
Crossfire was also published for the IBM PCjr in cartridge form.
Personal notes: This is a very difficult game to play; ambidextrous control of both hands on two 4-way keyboard clusters is required to maneuver and shoot simultaneously.
Also, the video is edited; my first two attempts were cut out of the video as they showed me fumbling around re-learning the controls. That is why the game appears to start with a non-zero high score. In reality, the game does not save and restore high scores.
This footage was recorded from an IBM PC (8088 CPU running at 4.77MHz) with a ("new-style") CGA card. The audio was tapped from the PC speaker and the video was recorded from the CGA composite output. The result was post-processed from 30i to 60p; all source frames are intact.
This footage was recorded from an IBM PC (8088 CPU running at 4.77MHz) with a ("new-style") CGA card. The audio was tapped from the PC speaker and the video was recorded from the CGA composite output. The result was post-processed from 30i to 60p; all source frames are intact. This video can be considered a reference for how this game performs on this platform.
Personal notes: This game, as well as Czorian Siege, is one of the first two games to produce speech on the IBM PC. They predate Castle Wolfenstein on the PC by at least a year.
This footage was recorded from an IBM PC (8088 CPU running at 4.77MHz) with a ("new-style") CGA card. The audio was tapped from the PC speaker and the video was recorded from the CGA composite output. The result was post-processed from 30i to 60p; all source frames are intact. This video can be considered a reference for how this game performs on this platform.
Personal Notes: At one point, the "return to base" pathfinding gets confused and wanders around for half a minute. This is a bug in the algorithm and occurs at least once every game in the later mazes.
This footage was recorded from an IBM PC (8088 CPU running at 4.77MHz) with a ("new-style") CGA card. The audio was tapped from the PC speaker and the video was recorded from the CGA composite output. The result was post-processed from 30i to 60p; all source frames are intact. This video can be considered a reference for how this game performs on this platform.
Personal notes: The human player's gameplay is on the top half of the screen.
This footage was recorded from an IBM PC (8088 CPU running at 4.77MHz) with a ("new-style") CGA card. The audio was tapped from the PC speaker and the video was recorded from the CGA composite output. The result was post-processed from 30i to 60p; all source frames are intact. This video can be considered a reference for how this game performs on this platform.
Personal notes: I thought the sequence where paratroopers blow up the gun was funny, so I intentionally let that happen it in the latter third of the video.
This footage was recorded from an IBM PC (8088 CPU running at 4.77MHz) with a ("new-style") CGA card. The audio was tapped from the PC speaker and the video was recorded from the CGA composite output. The result was post-processed from 30i to 60p; all source frames are intact. This video can be considered a reference for how this game performs on this platform.
This footage was recorded from an IBM PC (8088 CPU running at 4.77MHz) with a ("new-style") CGA card. The audio was tapped from the PC speaker and the video was recorded from the CGA composite output. The result was post-processed from 30i to 60p; all source frames are intact. This video can be considered a reference for how this game performs on this platform. The original game has no sound, so this video is also silent.
Personal notes: This game defined its own video mode by altering the 6845 registers to shorten the number of word columns from 40 (320 pixels across) to 32 (256 pixels across). A screen 256 pixels wide makes programming easier, as your x coordinates fit into a byte. As a result, this game has issues running in some emulators and non-CGA cards.
This footage was recorded from an IBM PC (8088 CPU running at 4.77MHz) with a ("new-style") CGA card. The audio was tapped from the PC speaker and the video was recorded from the CGA composite output. The result was post-processed from 30i to 60p; all source frames are intact. This video can be considered a reference for how this game performs on this platform.