[Submitted by dipswitch]
With a massive delay: we present recordings of the Evoke 2025 Seminars. Unfortunately we had a issue with the sound of the seminar by Bodo / Rabenauge. This is why we present only two recordings:
The Art of Coding Lightning talks
GRADE-Panel - Digital Subcultures in Times of Crisis
[Submitted by dipswitch]
[Submitted by psenough]
[ Atariscne.org - News ] GCC for asm Experts (and C/C++ Intermediates) - Part 1
This is a brain dump of what I have learned working with the GCC m68k backend, and maybe an attempt to convince someone else to try. This is the first of an unknown number of posts. No promises for how many there will be; I will continue as long as I have something to say and I find it fun.
I got my start with STOS Basic on an Atari 520STfm around 1990. Me and my classmate Tam formed T.O.Y.S. (Terror on Your ST) and I dubbed myself PeyloW. But in the scene, elite sceners wrote assembly; only lamers used STOS or GFA, every scroll text was clear about this. So we bought DevPac 2 and taught ourselves 68000 assembly, starting with snippets embedded in STOS and eventually graduating to full demo screens. The pattern that would follow me for decades was established early: high-level languages for tooling, assembly for anything that had to be fast. STOS gave way to PurePascal in the late '90s, but assembly remained the language that mattered — right through to the Falcon030 demo "Wait", released at EIL 2001.
My active participation in the scene waned, but I never lost sight of it. For years I stayed as an observer, following releases and discussions from the sidelines. Then around 2021 I had an itch, maybe a mid-life crisis: get back to the simpler machines (the kind a single person can keep entirely in their head) and realize a teenage dream of publishing a completed game. C and C++ had become my main languages through University and work, and modern cross-development tools meant I could use them for Atari too. Not just for tooling, but as the scaffolding of the entire project, dipping into assembly only for the bottlenecks. And as my friend AiO likes to joke: C is just a really powerful macro assembler.
GCC Is (No Longer) Written for UsThe m68k was one of GCC's first backends, present alongside VAX in the 1987 GCC-1.0 release. For a long time it was a first-class citizen. But the world moved on, and the backend fell into disrepair, barely in maintenance mode, with no one actively working on it.
To be fair, the great strides made in modern compiler optimization are what keep the m68k backend limping along. For most codebases the result is on par with yesteryear, even if it completely fails at many of the specifics. Even a 68060 fitted into a Falcon with a CT63 is ancient by modern CPU standards. The optimizations that GCC's middle-end applies (instruction scheduling, loop transformations, register heuristics and reordering) are tuned for modern highly parallel superscalar CPUs, and when they miss on m68k, they miss badly.
Take the inner loop of a simple memory copy (mikro will recognize this one), in C:
*dst++ = *src++;Any experienced m68k programmer would expect (a0)+ and (a1)+, post-increment addressing, the most natural idiom on our architecture. The compiler should be able to generate this just as-is — it is how the code reads. Here is what stock GCC-15.2 produces at -O2:
.L3:The perfectly fine inner loop gets butchered in the name of scheduling for superscalar execution. Instructions get reordered, pointer increments get separated from their memory accesses, and the fourth copy ends up using a negative offset because the lea was hoisted above it. The result is slower and larger than what GCC-2.95 would have produced, and not even close to what an elite scener would have written. For command-line tools and utilities this is tolerable. For realtime demos and games, it is not.
And Yet — GCC Can Work for UsBut there is light at the end of the tunnel.
[ Atariscne.org - News ] Forever 2026 live stream
The live stream of this weekend's FOReVER party in Suchá nad Parnou, Slovakia can be found here. As it might be of relevance to understand what you see, this year's topic is "8bit winter games".
[ Atariscne.org - News ] Cannon Fooder Atari STE version
Apparently, the Polish developer kTz from Retro Blitter Team known from his latest game Rogul is working on a STE enhanced version of Cannon Fodder, to finally catch up with the Am***.
Atarimania also lists a WIP version already.
Once more, Revision is going to be packed with lots of competitions, live acts and seminars - but first we go with the compo plan. Keep an eye out for another update on the concerts, shows and seminars!
https://2026.revision-party.net/events/timetable/
As you can see, we decided to run the last compo block slightly earlier to hopefully still have everyone getting a good (enough) night's rest.
Thank you for all your input and the (mostly) constructive discussions last year. We really appreciate it and hope we'll manage to do justice by the party animals as much as the connoisseurs that like to watch their compos with a keen mind.
We can't wait to see you soon!
[Submitted by Shana]
[ Atariscne.org - News ] gwEm/PHF releases STe sample demo framework
gwEm writes:
In order to encourage people to enter the Buxton Bytes sample demo showcase I am releasing the full source code to my entry way in advance of the event.
https://github.com/gwEm303/sample_demo
[ Atariscne.org - News ] GCC optimizations and 68000 cycle counter
PeyloW of T.O.Y.S. have been busy lately by optimizing the GNU C Compiler (GCC) v15.2 to create faster code for 68000 processor.
The improvements include using proper dbra/dbf loops, auto inc/dec of address registers (you know, the stuff that is nice on 68k!).
PeyloW writes in an Atari-Forum post:
At a very high level there are 7 groups of changes made:
While working on GCC, PeyloW also developed a separate tool to count 68000 cycles out of assembler sourcecode to easily check if the compiler changes actually improve stuff - but can certainly can be very useful for other purposes as well.
Both projects can be found on Github, see links below.
🔗 m68k GCC Build Scripts and Documentation
[ Atariscne.org - News ] Vintage Computing Festival Europe 2026
The annual European Retro Computing Gathering "VCFe" will take place from 1st to 3rd of May 2026, in Munich, Germany. One focus this year are less present machines, the "Beasts of Burden", means more unknown working horses of the retro computer range. If that doesn't attract, keep in mind that may is also beer garden season.
[ Atariscne.org - News ] Writeup of Scatman John
A couple of years ago on Silly venture a music demo was released from a new group; Nutmeg Mine.
The demo may not be the best since sliced bread and we have wondered how the hell Silly Venture could run the demo on an ST as it requires more than 4MB of memory. Maybe they had a zeST?
Anyway, Caulky, the coder of Nutmeg Mine's "Scatman John" demo is now making an attempt to win next year's Meteoriks awards "best writeup". If the category is added as Caulky hopes.
It is an entertaining and detailed description from the start of the demo group to the end of the demo.
🔗 Read the Writeup by Caulky/Nutmeg Mine
💾 Download the demo from Demozoo
💾 Download the demo from Pouet
[ Demozoo ] The Meteoriks 2026
The Meteoriks nominees have been revealed at Mountain Bytes 2026. You can check the full list of nominations at demozoo and there is also a watchlist of other productions that didn't quite make it to a nomination but were highly discussed by the jury and quite worth watching.
The laureates for the different categories will be revealed at Revision.
[ Atariscne.org - News ] Slashhack 2026
Swedish Atari Klubben's traditional "Slashhack" is taking place from 20th o 22nd of March 2026 in Falköping. Currently, about 20 visitors are expected.
As the official announcement indicates, there is room for a cozy culture clash between:
"1. Traditionalists! Unite in the separatist group V.I.N.T.A.G.E. (Vampire Is Not The Atari Genuine Experience). The slogan is "Boo for Gigabyte"! (club chairman).
2. Forward-thinkers! The club chariman probably cried a little when color TV was introduced and called SVT in anger when we got more TV channels."
Sounds like a place to be!
And reminds me of this! ;)
All the latest news, links and releases from the active demoscene community. This week in particular we take a look at the releases from Mountain Bytes in Switzerland and Instanssi in Finland. Watch on youtube.
[Submitted by psenough]
[ Wanted! ] Revision 2026 - Join our Infoteam!
Revision is the biggest pure demoscene event in the world - and roundabout 80 volunteers make it possible. Come join us to have the best Easter weekend for you, us, and the demoscene! We are looking for 4-5 more Infoteam organisers, with the English skill and attitude that make them great working in a multi-national team, and who are as excited as we are to make this party great for everyone. We are the face of Revision, and for some the first impression they get of the demoscene at large....[ Wanted! ] Request for research materials re: music trackers, mod trackers, and demo scene for research project
I'm seeking research material for a project for one of my university classes. The project concerns a selected music technology, how it was received culturally or in the industry and fits into the time and place of its introduction. I'm looking to pursue the topic in relation to the software that preceded and superseded music trackers, the cultural context of the mod and demo scenes, as well as reactions from within the music industry. I've been directed toward Ian Bogost and Nick Montfort's work...The cover for Bootblock Rebels will be created by J.O.E. the legendary Amiga scene artist known from Scoopex, TRSI, WOW and many more classic intros, cracktros, and demo releases.
In recent years J.O.E has returned to the scene, creating new graphics for C64 demo productions - so it’s a truly active scener bringing real scene DNA into the book.
Outside the scene, J.O.E works professionally as a visual effects artist, credited on major productions including Avatar, King Kong, Titanic, Apollo 13, X-Men, and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, among many others.
The Kickstarter
ends March 15, the biggest help is still simple: share the campaign link in a
relevant group or DM it to an Amiga friend.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bitman/bootblock-rebels/
[Submitted by bitmandk]
Latest news, links and releases from the active demoscene community. This week in particular, a look at BCC C64 demoparty in Berlin and the Assembly winter 2026 edition in Helsinki, Finland.
Watch it on youtube.
[Submitted by psenough]
[Submitted by dojoe]
The bacon just got crispier! In the series of technical write-ups, Bacon of Hope, winner Amiga demo at GERP 2026, just got its long tech-tech mini-site written by Platon42 and Gigabates.
Be sure to get a good glass of wine, if you want to dive into it (the text, not the glass). It is... "a bit long", as Antdude would phrase it. Lots of unreleased artwork by Optic and Steffest, too!
[Submitted by platon42]
Highlights of this release:
- Crinkler now supports an arbitrary number of parts, instead of just code and data.
- Revamped reuse system with reuse modes corresponding to reusing vs rerunning the various compression phases.
- Light and dark themes for the compression report.
- Select range of bytes/instructions in the compression report to see their total compressed size.
See the announcement post for more details.
[Submitted by Blueberry]
[ Atariscne.org - News ] Pator just does it! Bitphase - a new Atari (not only) tracker
The overly talented AY-musician Pator active on the published am alpha version of a new AY/YM tracker working in the webrowser. Bitphase has a slick interface and comes with full pattern and instrument editor. This looks like a modern and flexible solution for creating AY/YM tracks.
The slick Bitphase frontend
You will find a few demo tracks in the tracker, e.g. Pator's great Kizuna track he did for the related SMFX/Joker demo.
Also, there are good news in Atari matters. Timer effect support is on the plan, and of course those timer based sounds are made exportable as well. While the track has .psg export, just today spkr/SMFX put a cherry on the cake and implemented .sndh support. So we have a new Atari tracker I would say!
SNDH-export - the most important feature, obviously!
All this raised our interest, so with the help of spkr/smfx we were able to conduct a quick interview with the creator himself!
Hello Pator! You are known as a well known musician in the AY-chip, and this tracker coded by you came quite as a surprise. What's your motivation behind it? Are you unhappy with existing tools and what do you think makes this tracker special?
I'm unhappy with vortex tracker not having good code for further expansions. So i had some ideas like virtual channels and in future sid sound but this delphi code isnt too easy to add improvements. I had to ask wbcbz for some additions, but then figured out its easier if I had my own tool that I could expand.
On top of that , its windows only exe, so on my macbook i have to use wine which makes ayumi (ay engine used in vortex tracker, also in bitphase) very slow. When compiled under WASM and running on the web, its always running good no matter the OS.
Another motivation is that whenever we made a tune for chip compos in Otomata Labs group, like TSFM (2xAY + 2xFM) tune or 2xAY 200hz tune, we had to use furnace (some people in our group are more familiar with it) - and modify its sources every time. now we can have an AY pocket knife that will support whatever we want.
And also as a bonus - i was bored and want to code something cool;)
Well, thats an adequate reason and I guess you managed that! Very nice looking tool and attitude! :) Can you elaborate a bit more on any special features? Anything more that you wanted to improve on trackers from a musicians perspective?
When composing tracks, i often had an idea for some command, some workflow improvement, i wanted to add everything i found while doing tracks but never could (example - env arp command while doing Kizuna track, or dynamic table generation needed for Sinclair QL)
And Virtual channels? What's this?
About virtual channels - the most basic example:
You have virtual channel A, virtual channel B.
virtual channel B plays some bass
virtual channel A plays a kick and snare
Whenever kick or snare plays, bass is interrupted with a kick or snare, if kick/snare ends it brings up bass back. This is tick-precise so you don't need to mix everything manually at single channel like in VT2, you dont need to create instruments that mix both kick and bass at the same time ... etc
Sounds interesting and reminds me a bit to full side chaining and yes, I can imagine scenarios where this comes very handy and saves quite some manual work.
Any further commands and functions you longed for, implemented?
About special features: the most important thing I wanted to have is an ability to run every command in tracker not only on tones, but also on envelopes. think of vibrato, portamento, anything. thats how I did envelope arpeggios in Kizuna. So I included a special envelope column with envelope effects that work directly on envelope values in the register, instead of on the tone. in Vortex Tracker 2, I had to do some work around and calculate envelope register values myself, instead of using some dedicated feature.
For future, I would love to bring other chips into the mix. especially ones that often appear in nature alongside AY. TSFM is a perfect example - its a ZX expansion board board that contains 2xYM2203C chips, and their PSGs contain both internal implementation of our beloved YM chip and also OPN FM. There is currently no tracker that supports this. When doing a tune for it single time in my life with Otomata Labs group, we had to hack furnace a lot to make it happen. That leads to "fork hell" where you cant just share your module to your friends without explaining to them how to install a specific version of the tracker 😃
Well, seems this misery led to something good! Atari browser tracking here we come! Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions and all the best for the project! Oh, and keep up the great music, too!
PS: Thanks to spkr/smfx for the hint, help (and the sndh export)!
[Submitted by dojoe]
[ demoparty.net ] ROMA.EXE 2026: MBR, AROTTENBIT and Gom Jabbar Live Acts announced!
Master Boot Record (MBR), AROTTENBIT and Gom Jabbar will perform live at ROMA.EXE on Saturday, June 20, 2026!