garageCube

Forgive me if I am asking the obvious as I am relatively new to modul8...but is there a filter/module that can emulate the way the Bit Bopper for Atari Falcon used greyscale "video gobos" to color cycle via blitter. The video gobos were nothing more than creative grey scale images that allowed the color cycling with incredible speed and smooth animation on the fly real time with multi layers ( at least incredible for back in the 90s) Here is a link to a video showing how it worked for those young ones here that never got to use Bit Bopper on Atari Falcon. I would love to figure out a method to emulate the look as closely as possible...mostly for nostalgic reasons from when I used to use it at my club many many years ago. Maybe I should go pull the Ataris out of the closet for old times sake!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=121YXuieutI

Alright, while trying very hard to refrain from making any value judgments about your request I have two things for you. First, I don't know of such a module. The effect you're looking for seems pretty lo-tech and I can't imagine that there would be much of a market for such a thing. That said, I have to ask, is the "realtime" nature of the effect really a big selling point? I mean, you already have a video loop, why not just load that into Modul8 and play it back?

OK, I want to amend my previous post. I went and looked up the Bit Bopper and I have to say that it was quite an interesting read. I often find it fascinating to look back on what the "state of the art" was at a given point in the past. Nevertheless, I think you're going to have a hard time recreating that effect with Modul8 unless you just sample the visuals like I indicated previously.

If you're talking about an install maybe you'd be better off to simply try to find a Sonovista machine somewhere and actually use it. You might spend less time doing that than trying to mimic the effect. Just a thought...

Thanks for replying. I actually do own 2 Atari Falcons and a valid licensed copy for Bit Bopper from when I used to use it in my club back in the 90s. You can actually see my name as one of the people he quotes on the info pages as loving the system! lol Unfortunately I can't get it to run on either Atari (I believe one of them has a hi-res video problem not allowing for blitter function via the external video port...the other Atari..not sure). I really was just looking to see if it can be done relatively easily mostly for nostalgic purposes as I LOVED the effects it could do back then...and at such smooth speeds because of the Atari bit blitter function...it was WAY ahead of its time making a complete Joke of video and graphics on the Mac and even Amiga for many years. I am going to contact the original producer of the software as I heard a while back he was looking to recreate it using Chrome or something similar. The funcionality of the system for its day was AMAZING!! Everyone always loved it in the club.

if you create transparent png's with the separate shapes, you should be able to achieve a similar effect using autoscale. If your images are grayscale or white you can just post colorize it to change the colours or even use autocolor

Sigmasix thank you! I will try these ideas out for sure!

Hi,

This is one of the crew at O'WONDER, we created BiT BOPPER!

Great to see you are still using our retro software!

We have embedded your video in our site here - if you create anything else - perhaps with the glide (press the [G] key) effect, let us know at owonder.com/contact. Hope you're ok with us including your video. We can credit you if you let us know your details.

A few things you and the other forum members may be interested to know:

1. The actual name of the system (IE, BiT BOPPER software + Falcon hardware) was/is Sonovista - the trademark Cyberlight now belongs to another company.
2. BiT BOPPER is what we call the general 'sound to light' video technology and software, with each product based on it often having it's own name. IE, Classic BiT BOPPER, Sonovista etc.
3. We have recently re-published the Sonovista User's Guide online here:
http://www.owonder.com/sonovista/usersguide/index.html

It is not that pretty by today's standards and there may be some images missing.

HOT!
Whilst we have no knowledge of the 'garagaCUBE' system (until today), and so cannot answer any questions on that system/software, we do have something all new coming for more recent 'platforms', so if you would like to be kept in the loop, fill in the form at the link below and check the correct tag checkboxes:

http://www.owonder.com/contact

Bret, see our longer post. Yes, we're indeed working on something new.

brett720 wrote:Thanks for replying. I actually do own 2 Atari Falcons and a valid licensed copy for Bit Bopper from when I used to use it in my club back in the 90s. You can actually see my name as one of the people he quotes on the info pages as loving the system! lol Unfortunately I can't get it to run on either Atari (I believe one of them has a hi-res video problem not allowing for blitter function via the external video port...the other Atari..not sure). I really was just looking to see if it can be done relatively easily mostly for nostalgic purposes as I LOVED the effects it could do back then...and at such smooth speeds because of the Atari bit blitter function...it was WAY ahead of its time making a complete Joke of video and graphics on the Mac and even Amiga for many years. I am going to contact the original producer of the software as I heard a while back he was looking to recreate it using Chrome or something similar. The funcionality of the system for its day was AMAZING!! Everyone always loved it in the club.

That's great to hear that you are working on something new, I will keep my ears open! That video I posted is actually not mine....I unfortunately cannot get BitBopper to run on either of my Atari Falcons anymore...one seems to be a strange video problem not sure about the other one. It kills me to actually have two Atari Falcons and neither will run my beloved Bit Bopper!! lol I am actually the Brett Inglis that you quoted on your old Bit Bopper Testimonial page saying "Thanks!!!!! BiT BOPPER is the greatest". HAHA Brings back great memories thinking of first talking to Alex as I set BitBopper up for the first time....YEARS before anything even close to the capability of BB. Many hours spent creating video gobos and trying out combinations.

I want one, now.