Demos?

[Ray]

Hi,

didn't find a lot using the search: Do DEMOs usually work?
What about the tricky stuff, e.g. sync-scrolling, borders, etc.?
Can someone confirm some demos working correctly, e.g. UNION-Demo, TCB-DEMO and so on?

Thx and Cheers,
Ray

[kathleen]

Hi @Ray,

I've already tried several demos under the Mistery core and I was impressed by the results. All the demos that I've tested so far were running as they should. I do not say that all existing demos are working fine but at least what I tried was positive. I've just tested UNION-Demo and it does work like a charm. (This demo is findable in .STX and .MSA as the core works with .ST image only I had to convert the .MSA to .ST) so the only issue was to make the .ST image, not really an issue but this needs to be done. There are plenty of TCB-DEMO, if you give me the name of one you'd like to be sure it works or not, let me know I'll give a try.

[Ray]

Hi Kathleen,

thanks for your reply and for checking out UNION Demo, good to hear it is working!
Of course you are totally right, there are lots of TCB Demos. I meant "The Cuddly Demos" (http://www.atarimania.com/demo-atari-st ... 16231.html)

Thanks,
Ray

[kathleen]

Hi @Ray,
You're welcome, always glad to be of help.
I've just loaded the Cuddly Demos, converted it to .ST and ran it on the Mister.
I entered into all the doors and everything ran fine except one door where the demo behind has a display issue, maybe due tp the LCD, I do not know, see below the pictures, if video crop is visible than the top of the screen is cut, if video crop is FULL than everything is visible but there is a bar at the right side of the screen which shouldn't be there.
I noticed also that the demo freeze after a while if I let it run without doing anything. So not perfect BUT I do not know how this demo behaves on a real ST, as I'm curious, I'll give a try on my real 1040ST and will confirm you if the demo behaves the same or not.

20210917_110630.jpg (433.45 KiB) Viewed 12038 times

20210917_110637.jpg (439.46 KiB) Viewed 12038 times

[kathleen]

Hi again @Ray,
I come back with a non so bad news I've just tried the demo on my real Atari 1040STE and I do confirm that the demo freeze ALSO, and at the same moment that it was freezing on the Mister.
Regarding the issue shown on the above screens, it did not reproduce on the real ST even if it was connected to a LCD screen. So only this minor issue remains. Most of the time when something does not work on the mister it comes from the validity of the disk image or the issue is also met on real hardware. The ST core is not (yet) perfect but for me it replaced my real ST (I just kept it as piece of collection but do not use it anymore except for special cases like today)
Below is the picture of the scene coming out from the real ST.

realST.jpg (406.46 KiB) Viewed 12017 times

[RealLarry]

Below is the picture of the scene coming out from the real ST.

Totally offtopic, but I have to say that this is a very nice cabinet, indeed!

[Ray]

Thanks a lot @katheen for checking this out! This Demo Screen is very sofisticated, so its good to see that it works (sync-scrolling, fullscreen, etc.). Probably you should get an new copy of the Cuddly Demos, this Version seems corrupt. Normally this screen does not crash on a real ST ...

Thanks again,
Ray

[mapf]

The cuddly fullscreen demo works fine on my MiSTer. Downloaded from the link above, used http://msaconverter.free.fr/index-uk.html to convert to a non-zipped ST disk image. Both CRT (analog board) and LCD (hdmi) are connected and show the demo.

Settings are 4MB, TOS 1.62, Viking and Blitter on, original aspect, color screen, visible crop, normal scale, mono audio.

[kathleen]

Hi @mapf
Thank you for your comments.
One question, have you let running the demo for about 10-15 minutes without touching anything ? On both hardware (real ST and Mister) the demo freezes at the same time on my side, should happen also on your side if you used the same demo,

This demo should run on a stock Atari ST with 512K, so the 4Mb is useless (unless AtariMania is wrong)
The Tos 1.62 is the Rev01 of the STE tos so correct, the blitter needs to be on at the OSD. I've tested the demo on a real ST & STE as well and it freezes. So not related to the ST-STE.
The Viking is irrelevant here as this is an add-on card for high res monochrome only.

Edit: just tried with Hatari and it behaves the same, freeze after a while which seems to be a normal behavior.

[mapf]

I let that screen run for several minutes (it is a nice demo after all..) and it did not hang. I will let it run some more today.

[mapf]

I let the demo run in its automatic loop directly after my last post. It did not hang, but is now (after running fine for ~40 minutes) stuck in a loading screen with the scrolling text still scrolling and the sound still playing.

[kathleen]

@mapf,
Good (if I can say that that the demo did hang on your side. Why 40 minutes and less time on my side, I've no clue but same behavior, the music continue but run in loop at the loading screen and that it.
Thanks for having checked this out on your side !.
Anyway, this is not due to the Mistery core, this happens also on real hardware so no need to worry anymore about this.