The MATRIX: "Digital Rain" effect.... possible on Atari?

[Faicuai]

Gotta say I always loved that fictional "stand-by" effect shown on the movie's terminal screens... and thought it would be a WONDERFUL screen-attract or micro-demo if could be implemented compact and polished enough...

 

...but then discovered THIS... and for ZX-SPECTRUM (!!!):

 

http://www.retroprogramming.com/2015/10/the-matrix-digital-rain-for-zx-spectrum.html#comment-form

 

Has this been done before on Atari? Could Atari HW and ANTIC/GTIA feature-set could handle this elegantly?

 

I wonder what the host of talented experts on this place think about it...

[Gunstar]

There's already a small "screen saver" type demo out there that does it pretty damn good. In a larger font. I have it tucked away somewhere, I'll see if I can find it. It came with the 16MB ATOS ATR image as a screen saver for it, but it's just an exacutable.

Edited May 27, 2018 by Gunstar

[+MrFish]

Matrix (1K).xex

 

[+CharlieChaplin]

And let's not forget the "Basix" fundemo by Raster, where the beginning has a similar effect (but looks like, errm, Atari Basic, with white-blue screen, which is intentional)...

 

http://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=122

[Gunstar]

Matrix (1K).xex

 

This one is very good, NOT the one I have though, will post it soon. No extremely annoying sound in the one I'll post...I have to extract it from the ATR though...

Edited May 27, 2018 by Gunstar

[Gunstar]

OK, here is the one I am referring too. This is a .com file I renamed to .xex to upload here, it's extracted from a 16MB SpartaDOS ATR file. I can't get it to load with APE loader under either extension, but it loads fine for me with SpartaDOS. I just copied from my SpartaDOS partition D5: on MyIDE 2, to D1: APE mirror.

MATRIX.XEX

Edited May 27, 2018 by Gunstar

[+DrVenkman]

OK, here is the one I am referring too. This is a .com file I renamed to .xex to upload here, it's extracted from a 16MB SpartaDOS ATR file. I can't get it to load with APE loader under either extension, but it loads fine for me with SpartaDOS. I just copied from my SpartaDOS partition D5: on MyIDE 2, to D1: APE mirror.

 

I just tried to load it with SDX 4.49. It fails with an error "Not a binary file."

[+CharlieChaplin]

Well, under Atari 800 WIN the Matrix file from the ATOS image also gave endless boot errors. Loaded it into Super Packer and could see, that the file has dozens of redundant data segments at the start with nice start + end adresses: $0000-0000. So I removed all of them and kept only the last data segment $2000-23xx and added a RUN adress $2000 (and a Basic off routine). When executed with Atari 800 Win, I could see a simple screentext saying "ATOS rules" (3 times printed on the screen), but then the program crashed. Maybe it absolutely requires SpartaDOS or even ATOS to work correctly ?!? Not sure, so I give up here...

 

 

MATRIX_Sparta.XEX

[Fox-1 / mnx]

Just did exactly the same, with the same tools too :-)

 

Same result. Doesn't work with SpartaDos either. Appears to start at $2000 with a JMP $20A9 at where the DL is created to display the "ATOS RULES!!" text, but upside-down. Then the fun starts with some self modifying code

[Faicuai]

Matrix (1K).xex

 

 

You guys are SICK!!! Seem to have every single trick under your sleeve... :-)))

The screen-play is AWESOME, and quite realistic... seems like a custom character-set, as I see luma differences not a per-scan-line basis, but on per-character / row, instead...

(below is direct pic. from my Viewsonic 950b-Pro monitor):

...Boy, it even boots on OS/B with Incognito!:

 

 

I would certainly love to see the source code (if exists beyond a straight-out disassembly)... THANKS!!!!!!!

[Faicuai]

OK, here is the one I am referring too. This is a .com file I renamed to .xex to upload here, it's extracted from a 16MB SpartaDOS ATR file. I can't get it to load with APE loader under either extension, but it loads fine for me with SpartaDOS. I just copied from my SpartaDOS partition D5: on MyIDE 2, to D1: APE mirror.

 

I would love to check this one out... but does not start... if you load it with Altirra, and debugger enabled, check the "break on EXE load" option, wait it to stop, and hit F8 multiple times, so you can see step by step what happens, and where it crashes... Funny, you end up on Self-Test section of ROM code... but with all letters on screen INVERTED !!! :-))

[Gunstar]

 

I would love to check this one out... but does not start... if you load it with Altirra, and debugger enabled, check the "break on EXE load" option, wait it to stop, and hit F8 multiple times, so you can see step by step what happens, and where it crashes... Funny, you end up on Self-Test section of ROM code... but with all letters on screen INVERTED !!! :-))

I will see if I can sort it out tomorrow and get a DOS 2 format. I know it will work without ATOS as I can load the file copy I uploaded here with SpartaDOS 4.47 I used to copy to the mirror.