Odyssey 2 Demo Scene?

[Caleb Garner]

Hi everyone, I'm learning (thanks to fine folks on this forum) how to make games on the odyssey 2.  That said one of my goals is actually to not make games, but also visualization for music videos and such.  I was wondering if anyone has done this before?  Are there examples maybe that folks could share?  My aspirations are pretty modest as I'm not a great programmer, but I know folks with the right knowhow probably could do some really cool tricks. 

Thanks,
Caleb

[TomBeck]

Hi Caleb,

I found this some time ago at youtube. Maybe this something you are looking for:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9EFqBBK1Vw

[Caleb Garner]

That is fantastic and yes exactly the kind of stuff I'm curious about.  i thought it would be fun to for example do star fields.. maybe moving some lines around.. etc..  stuff that basically games could do but just be random visuals.. etc..  just wasn't sure if there were people who might do more stuff like this vs. games. 

[manopac]

Hi Caleb,

I found this some time ago at youtube. Maybe this something you are looking for:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9EFqBBK1Vw

while this looks nice, it's actually not possible on real hardware ... O2/VP has a lot of limitations that prevent cool tricks that are possible on other systems:
- processor speed and speed of the raster beam do not correlate in one frame, so it's not possible to do "mid-line-changes" always at the same pixel (something that on the Atari 2600 is frequently done ("Racing the Beam"))
- characters can not overlap (the result is unpredictable - the  demo above would result in distorted characters and wouldn't look like in the video)

that being said - if you really dig into the hardware of the O2, there are still things that you can do - and lots of homebrew games show what is possible (e.g. the games of Revival Studios for example make good use of the hardware, as of course Rafael's game do - and just take a look at what Ted did with polyphonic music in Puzzle Piece Panic! - another thing nobody ever thought would be possible ;-)  )

[Caleb Garner]

yea my level of capable programming skill (or rather lack of) really just meant I was wondering if anyone did much of this.  if there was ever a scene as it were..  past or present..  but yes totally understood given it's graphical limitations it probably doesn't inspire the kind of people that really get into demos because of the excessive limitations. 

I think really when I say demo it' would just be moving things around on the screen (nothing more than what games can do) and they just be random / not interactive.  Like making star fields..   or having lines dance around..  nothing that we all haven't seen before in one game or another.. 

My intent would be to make these then capture the video and work it into music videos incorporating other sources, etc..  having the O2 be a kind of effects generator / background that could be recorded and mixed with other stuff.