Best NTSC demos for Atari 2600

[Minos]

What do you think are the best NTSC demos for Atari 2600 as of March 2022?

 

Context: I want to show off my Harmony Encore using the flashiest, fanciest demo I can find (for both audio and visuals). "Bang!" would be perfect, except that it's PAL, and therefore it's mostly black and white on my NTSC HDTV.

 

What I like about "Bang!" is that you can just sit back and watch it play out, sort of like a short film. So, I'm thinking of stuff that isn't interactive, but is very flashy, and has a long-ish running time.

 

But what about NTSC demos? Or, for that matter, is there an NTSC version of "Bang!"?

[+SvOlli]

These are very kind word, thank you.

 

If you take a look at the 2600 section of Pouet, you find almost any demo ever released for the 2600. Nevertheless, I sent you a shortcut via personal message.

 

Porting "Bang!" to NTSC would be more like coding the demo again for NTSC, as couple of effects require 256 lines of display for a correct loop, just as an example. In some parts is was hard enough to squeeze all calculation required in 312 lines. For more details on how things are done, you can look here.

[Minos]

That's very interesting! Thank you for replying, and thank you for the links. I love the VCS, but I know very little about programming.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I doubt that there are many demos ported to NTSC. The demoscene seems to be focusing on Europe, and here PAL is the standard. The nature of demos is, that they are usually coded pretty much on the edge. So changing the frame rate from 50Hz to 60Hz would require a lot of rework and often not even possible. 

 

Attached are a few small NTSC demos I found on my HD.

Vantange Demo.bin Music_by_Manuel.bin 3D_Copper_by_Smiley_Dude (v2).bin

Edited April 6, 2022 by Thomas Jentzsch

[Minos]

These are great, thanks!

 

Maybe this is Google-able, but I'm going to ask anyway: What are the historical reasons for the 2600 demoscene being so alive in Europe but not so much elsewhere?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

This is a pretty good link. And this one is maybe even better. But the opinions vary.  

 

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by Thomas Jentzsch

[Minos]

Fascinating history, thank you!

[+SvOlli]

There also is a movie about the demoscene, called "Moleman 2". My guess is that in gaming - as the intros for cracked games led to the demoscene - the US shifted more to the consoles like the NES and SEGA Master System, while in Europe home computers like C64 and Spectrum were more popular.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

BTW: This weekend happens the largest demoscene party, the Revision. If you cannot attend physically, you can watch live streaming of all events.

[Minos]

I realize this is an old thread, but I wanted to say thanks to everybody for responding. While I did indeed miss the Revision, that movie about the demoscene looks really cool, and I'll be checking it out.