Playing a demo playlist on an Amiga

[PixelsAtDawn]

Feel free to call me dumb. I want to set up an A1200 to play a bunch of demos at an event, but what's the best way to do this? Do I need to find some demos that'll run from WB and sit down and knock up a quick Shell script or is there a better way.

Or alternatively am I going to just run into problems with messy memory issues after demos run?

I know I could just set up a laptop with a YouTube playlist, but that's just not in the spirit of things is it?

[Daedalus]

This is something I've looked into in the past, and found that "it depends". Some (possibly most) demos do leave the system in a somewhat messy state, causing glitches or instability with demos that follow them. Some demos don't quit by themselves and leave the machine in a final loop or even just a single image until the user quits or reboots. So it's a little tricky to stick them in a script, though it's possible if you bear the above in mind. An approach that solves the messy system issue is to use some clever scripting to save the next demo filename to a file before the current one launches, then reboot the machine when it finishes. On reboot, load the current one from the saved file, save the next one and continue. IIRC TerribleFire uses a setup like this on a CF card in a CD32 to great effect.

[PixelsAtDawn]

Sounds like an idea!

[TCD]

Jesus on E's plays for over 30 minutes, so there is that

[4pLaY]

Originally Posted by PixelsAtDawn

Feel free to call me dumb. I want to set up an A1200 to play a bunch of demos at an event, but what's the best way to do this? Do I need to find some demos that'll run from WB and sit down and knock up a quick Shell script or is there a better way.

Or alternatively am I going to just run into problems with messy memory issues after demos run?

I know I could just set up a laptop with a YouTube playlist, but that's just not in the spirit of things is it?

You could try this:

https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=81465

We have been meaning to release an updated version, but so many other things have taken priority.

[DisasterIncarna]

do WHDLoaded demos have extra options to quit a demo rather than loop it or have it stick to a final screen? would be easy enough to just have a scripted list if your using demos that way that conveniently end. If not, perhaps make requests for WHDLoad slaves that do have the option?

[jPV]

I created a demopack with a scripting system playing them automatically about ten years ago and it was successfully used in many events/parties.

It was quite a work to run it over and over to select demos that didn't mess the memory too badly. The reboot approach would have been better indeed, but that would also require modifications to boot scripts or using some other boot media.

I also looked the WHDLoad option, and there is a way to make them quit after a certain time has elapsed, but that would require to time all demos separately etc. Didn't start doing that then...

Here are the demopack and the script mess (Demoshow) I made back then:
https://jpv.amigaaa.com/demopack/

I'd have version 1.3 somewhere too, but seems I haven't put it online ever...

[PixelsAtDawn]

Some great tips here from people who know what they're doing! I might have a go at putting something together myself, but given have little free time I get, the shared stuff here might be a better option!

[jPV]

The reboot method could also be dangerous if a demo has trashed memory badly and you write on HD, the HD could get corrupted with a bad luck. And in any case you should be sure that the HD has finished writing for sure before rebooting... so it could be a bit questionable.

One option would be to use the RAD: drive for scripts and booting, but it should be located in the Fast RAM to not take the precious Chip memory...

[hooverphonique]

Originally Posted by jPV

The reboot method could also be dangerous if a demo has trashed memory badly and you write on HD, the HD could get corrupted with a bad luck. And in any case you should be sure that the HD has finished writing for sure before rebooting... so it could be a bit questionable.

It should be possible (as mentioned above) to write the state of the sequence *before* starting the demo, thus not needing to write anything between demo end and reboot.

[ransom1122]

Does it have to be from an amiga?

There's high end 4k recordings of demos from winuae, you can then simply stream the movie files in whatever order you like with a movie player

[Daedalus]

It's always nicer to have the real hardware running them where possible, but it can be impractical. We've had comments at Amiga Ireland before about running recordings of demos instead of running it on actual hardware, even though it was just background entertainment and not the main focus at the time. We used real hardware when we were showcasing them, but just for running in the background a video loop meant we didn't need to spend all day supervising a machine.