Area 5150 by CRTC & Hornet (Party Version) / IBM PC+CGA Demo, Hardware Capture

AREA 5150: a demo for the original IBM PC (4.77MHz 8088), CGA video (RGBI monitor), PC speaker, 570K+ free RAM.
This is the party version, released by CRTC+Hornet on 6 Aug. at Evoke 2022, voted 1st in the Alternative Demo compo.
Video capture from the real hardware by Jim Leonard (Trixter). For best fidelity, watch @ 60fps at the highest resolution supported by your display.

VileR: code ■ graphics
reenigne: code ■ hardware ■ tools
UtterChaos: code
Trixter: loader ■ decomp ■ wrangler
Shiru1bit: music
cTrix: music
phoenix: additional support

===== Video capture details by Trixter =====

Capture was performed via an RGB2HDMI outputting 1600x1200, with the geometry settings as follows (this is the contents of the Saved_Profiles\6-12_BIT_RGB\PC_CGA-MDA\CGA.txt file):

sampling=0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,6,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,100,256,100,256,100,256,256,256
# hoffset, voffset, min hwidth, minvheight, maxhwidth,
# maxwheight, haspect, vaspect,
# fbsize, fbits/pixel, clockfreq, linelength, clocktolerance,
# linesperframe, synctype, vsynctype, videotype
geometry=108,38,640,204,768,246,2,4,0,1,14318181,912,4500,262,3,0,0
palette=RGBI_(CGA)
palette_control=2
ntsc_phase=3
scanline_level=0

The sampling= line is different for most people after autocalibration, and can be ignored. The key settings of the above for full CGA capture are:

maxhwidth=768 # ensure max of 96 columns
maxwheight=246 # ensure max of 30 rows
linelength=912 # CGA standard
linesperframe=262 # CGA standard
haspect=2 # multiple of 2
vaspect=4 # multiple of 2

The multiples of 2 were chosen to eliminate color sampling (ie. 4:2:0) as a cause of chroma bleed.

The image presents as centered in the 1600x1200 canvas, and was captured directly to UTVIDEO RGB, then cropped and post-processed afterwards.

[dschmenk]

I don't think most people can appreciate just how slow and minimalistic a stock IBM PC is unless they've had to program one. Congratulations to the team on an outstanding achievement.

[theParticleGod]

Holy shit. If someone had figured out how to do this while CGA was still relevant it would've changed the course of history as far as games support on the PC went.

[warlockd]

Honestly why is everyone ignoring the sound? This is the fucking speaker. Only way I can see that working is a straight DMA to the timer chip while another timer controls the DMA just to get all this smooth video.

The 6850 also gives you insane control over the video and was designed with the idea that you could "add on" to it. Not that anyone did. Tech just moved to fast:P

[Locateson]

If you ever had the pleasure of having to produce nice graphics on CGA, you can appreciate this art.
It's a masterpiece.

[wotsac]

This is just magical to a kid who was stuck gaming on CGA 8088 into the 90s.

[dualityk]

Holy god you guys. There's racing the beam, and there's riding it like a rented mule. I was not expecting anything more to be wrung out of the PC after 8088 MPH.

[petrihaikonen]

There's no way you can do this with 8088 and CGA. I kept thinking this through the whole demo. Massive props for making the seemingly impossible actually possible.

[damienbalbriggan]

Imagine what these guys could do with a 486 dx2 66… extremely impressive.

[grn]

I was already floored by 8088mph, this is just on another level.

Good on y'all for pushing every last drop out of this PC.

[Benethen_]

holy shit.. i was a really big fan of 8088mph how am i just seeing this??
more people need to see this. this is insane beyond words

[Ama-hikn]

The ending part is just awesome. Figure you traveled back in time to the early 80s and showed this.

[jogibaerr]

Really well done.... pushing the hardware to it's absolute limit! 👍

[commodork]

I swear these guys are the Booze Design of the IBM PC world.

[Novous]

as i was watching this i said "If this a game had done this while I was a kid, I would have crapped my pants"

[wskinnyodden]

This is freaking unbelievable, as someone who's first PC was an XT at 9, 56Mhz I am mind blown this ran not only at 4.50Mhz but also CGA, not to mention by the end I found myself thinking, wait is this the PC speaker? Oh damn bhoy!
Had heard wave audio from the PC speaker before, even on my own first PC, but the audio quality by end of this demo is like, how the heck did you manage this much sampling rate?

[AnonymousFreakYT]

Wow. It wasn't until watching this version that I realized that the vertical photo scroll is actually scrolling one pixel at a time, with no visible artifacting showing off any of the tricks! Can't wait for the floppy version to be available to try it out on my 5150!

[cromulence]

This demo is so unbelievably awesome. I've already waxed poetic on Jim's video, but I feel I need to say it here too - congratulations on a very well deserved win. Truly the pinnacle of the IBM PC platform.

[DeviantXS-]

I've been watching this over and over for the past few weeks, and somehow I keep coming back. It's one hell of a demo.

[adamklotblixt]

Really great! Can't wait to read the explanations.

[AiOinc]

A good demo looks like magic. When I saw the graphics appear, I thought "no big deal, he's switching modes in the middle of a frame. All that takes is good timing."
And then the text appeared next to the graphics. I gasped out loud.