Home » Wiki » FAC Demo 5
FAC Demo 5
This page was last modified 15:54, 20 January 2021 by Gdx. Based on work by Mars2000you and Poltergeist and others.

Contents

Introduction

The final FAC demo by the Federation Against Commodore was released in September 1991 in cooperation with First Class Software. For some reasons, it's subtitled "Total Confusion".

FAC Demo 5 was the first full Z80 Assembly project for John van Poelgeest and Jeffrey Timmer. As John van Poelgeest was in the military service and Jeffrey Timmer was in school, they had more than enough sparetime in the evenings to create this demo.

John van Poelgeest did all of the music. The Vangelis track (Pulstar) and the Jean-Michel Jarre Track (Oxygene IV) were not specifically made for this demo. Pulstar was already used before in a little FAC Demo. John van Poelgeest was/is a fan of both composers.

FAC Demo 5 supports not only MSX-AUDIO to play the tracked music, but also MIDI if you use the FAC MIDI interface or the Philips NMS 1205 Music Module. You can use the Select key as toggle to enable/disable MIDI.

Graphically this is the best demo they released. Good graphics, vector graphics, spectrum analyzers and VU meters fly over the screen. It's easy to say, they saved the best for last.

None of the 3D effects were calculated realtime. The vectorgraphics and vectorballs were created with some pseudo 3D calculations. The filled vectorgraphics use the same 3D calculations which were used in WARP from FCS. Some of the graphics in the parts with the first song were made on a Commodore Amiga, as was the background in the filled Vector part.

Content

Intro

Facdemo5a.png

From the beginning, it's obvious that this demo is different from all other FAC demos. The harsh language is gone and the music is from a totally different genre.

Total Confusion starts with an impressive graphic screen and a surprizing overture song, with visualisation of the musical channel under the form of a spectrum analyser. Some of the graphics in that part were made on a Commodore Amiga, as was the background in the filled Vector part.

The Phantasmagoria song was originally written by Anarchy for the Commodore Amiga computers. John van Poelgeest had to shorten the intro and had to leave some parts out as it could not fit in the standard 83 patterns available in FAC Soundtracker.

Fast Stars And Moving Polygons

Facdemo5b.png
Facdemo5c.png
Facdemo5d.png

This part includes similar spectrum analysers after a short info screen. Stars are moving fast from left to right and a series of polygons are rotating fast in the sky.

The musical background was inspired somewhat by Zoolook by Jarre. The voices in Little Computer People are actually the voice of John van Poelgeest doing a Kermit the Frog imitation.

Vectorballs Interlude

Facdemo5e.png

Each of the next main parts is preceded by a vectorballs interlude without music. There are some differences between the four interludes, the next obvious difference is the trap in which the balls fall in the interlude just before the end part.

Dancing Geometric Figures

Facdemo5f.png
Facdemo5g.png
Facdemo5h.png

You are now exploring the space as the stars are moving in the vertical direction. Combination of several and alternative geometric figures are dancing a great serenade for your fun.

The song is here an adaptation of Let's Hear It For The Boy from the movie Footloose.

Part 4

(...)

Pulstar uses the same samplekit as some of the tracks in FAC demo IV.

Part 5

(...)

The End

(...)

Tracklist

  • Phantasmgoria - Anarchy.
  • Little Computer People - John van Poelgeest
  • Let's hear it for the boys (from Footloose)
  • Pulstar - Vangelis
  • Tropical Nights - John van Poelgeest
  • Oxygene IV - Jean Michel Jarre

Credits

Retrieved from "https://www.msx.org/wiki/FAC_Demo_5"