Scene productions

4096 bytes

This is my first linux 4k intro. It ended up on 2nd place at Dreamhack Winter 2004. Read more.

• 4096 bytes by lft (Linux executable, 4.0 kB)
• 4096 bytes by lft (DivX, 6.2 MB)

Posted Wednesday 27-Dec-2006 10:24, 3 comments.

A 9-bit pitch technique

This article describes a new approach to representing pitch in C64 playroutines. The intended audience is people with a general understanding of C64 coding and SID playroutine design, although readers outside this somewhat narrow demographic may still find the article interesting. Read more.

Posted Monday 30-Mar-2015 22:44, 5 comments.

A Chipful of Love For You

I made a schlager chiptune for Gubbdata 2013, and it won the C64 Music compo! Read more.

• A Chipful of Love For You (SID tune, 5.2 kB)
• Linus Akesson - A Chipful of Love For You (MP3, 2.7 MB)

Posted Monday 6-May-2013 22:07, 9 comments.

A Computer In My Backpack (And A Chiptune In My Heart)

This was my contribution to the Oldskool Music compo at Revision 2016. It ended up on a 5th place. Read more.

• A Computer In My Backpack (C64 executable file, 4.2 kB)
• A Computer In My Backpack (SID tune, 4.9 kB)
• Linus Akesson - A Computer In My Backpack (MP3, 2.7 MB)

Posted Monday 28-Mar-2016 11:51, 8 comments.

Air on a Rasterline

My contribution to the C64 Music compo at Datastorm 2013, where it ended up on 5th place. Read more.

• Air on a Rasterline (SID tune, 2.9 kB)
• Linus Akesson - Air on a Rasterline (MP3, 2.3 MB)

Posted Wednesday 20-Mar-2013 16:08, 3 comments.

A Mind Is Born

Making a demo in just 256 bytes would be a formidable challenge regardless of platform. A Mind Is Born is my attempt to do it on the Commodore 64. In the absence of an actual 256-byte compo, it was submitted to the Oldskool 4K Intro compo at Revision 2017, where it ended up on 1st place. Read more.

• a_mind_is_born (C64 executable, 256 bytes)
• A_Mind_Is_Born (SID tune, 325 bytes)
• Linus Akesson - A Mind Is Born (MP3, 2.1 MB)

Posted Thursday 20-Apr-2017 06:13, 99 comments.

Bit banger

Bit banger is my most constrained and minimalistic microcontroller-based demo yet. It won the Oldschool 4k compo at Revision 2011. Read more.

• bitbanger-src (Source code, 7.1 kB)
• Linus Akesson - Bit Banger (MP3, 2.2 MB)

Posted Monday 13-Jun-2011 10:23, 20 comments.

Blackbird

Blackbird is a modern music editor for the Commodore 64. It was released at Datastorm 2017 (outside of the compos). The software has been designed to work well both on real hardware and in emulators, and it comes with a comprehensive User's Guide. Read more.

• blackbird-1.2.zip (Zip archive, 468.9 kB)
• blackbird-1.1.zip (Zip archive, 402.9 kB)
• blackbird-1.0.zip (Zip archive, 401.9 kB)
• BlackbirdUsersGuide.pdf (User's Guide, 264.3 kB)

Posted Wednesday 15-Mar-2017 07:09, 8 comments.

Craft

Craft is a demo running on its own minimalistic demo platform. The demo platform is based on an ATmega88 microcontroller. Read more.

• lft_craft (Original video clip, Xvid, 89.4 MB)
• lft_craft_capture (Full screen video capture, H.264, 85.5 MB)
• Linus Akesson - Craft (Soundtrack, MP3, 3.3 MB)
• lft_craft_src (Schematics, firmware binaries and source code, 70.5 kB)

Posted Thursday 27-Mar-2008 20:33, 183 comments.

Dishwasher Groove

A beat was coming from the dishwasher in the kitchen, so I turned it into a SID tune for the C64 music compo at Gubbdata 2017, where it ended up on 3rd place. Read more.

• Dishwasher_Groove (C64 executable, 5.1 kB)
• Dishwasher_Groove (SID tune, 4.9 kB)
• Linus Akesson - Dishwasher Groove (MP3, 5.4 MB)

Posted Thursday 21-Sep-2017 19:32, 0 comments.

Field Sort

I've discovered a new, fast technique for sorting sprites by Y-position on the Commodore 64. While it doesn't beat the fastest routine known, it strikes a good balance between speed and memory usage, and it makes use of several interesting low-level programming tricks. To see how it works, please come with me down the rabbit hole of bleeding-edge C64 programming! Read more.

• lft-field-sort (C64 executable, 5.8 kB)

Posted Sunday 24-Sep-2017 21:00, 2 comments.

Field Trip

I won the demo competition at Birdie 2007 with this linux demo. Read more.

• Field Trip by lft (Linux executable, 5.4 MB)
• Field Trip by lft (DivX, 85.4 MB)

Posted Sunday 10-Jun-2007 19:10, 3 comments.

First Day of Spring

I was asked to compose a tune to a chip disk, early in 2006, but the whole project appears to have been abandoned. So I'll just put my song here instead. Read more.

• Linus Akesson - First Day of Spring (MP3, 4.7 MB)
• Linus Akesson - First Day of Spring (AHX, 8.2 kB)

Posted Tuesday 2-Jan-2007 13:55, 0 comments.

Fugue on a theme by D. M. Hanlon

This is a SID tune that I composed for the Crack Intro Music Competition 2017 at CSDb. The rules called for a looping tune, no longer than 1 minute. I decided to write a fugue. Read more.

• Fugue_on_a_theme_by_D_M_Hanlon.prg (C64 executable, 2.5 kB)
• Fugue_on_a_theme_by_D_M_Hanlon.sid (SID tune, 3.1 kB)
• Linus Akesson - Fugue on a theme by D M Hanlon.mp3 (MP3, 5.7 MB)

Posted Wednesday 4-Oct-2017 21:01, 3 comments.

GCR decoding on the fly

The little routine presented here is, with all due humbleness, hands down the best code I ever wrote. It is esoteric and might not appeal to the masses, and it certainly has no commercial value. But in terms of personal satisfaction at a job well done, this is about as good as it gets. Here's why: Read more.

Posted Sunday 31-Mar-2013 14:40, 46 comments.

Glyptodont

Glyptodont was my contribution to the C64 music compo at Datastorm 2017 Summer Edition. It achieved a meager 5th place out of six, although that is perhaps to be expected for a pensive and melancholic tune. I hope you will enjoy it anyway! Read more.

• LFT - Glyptodont (C64 executable, 6.3 kB)
• Glyptodont (SID tune, 6.1 kB)
• Linus Akesson - Glyptodont (MP3, 5.5 MB)

Posted Thursday 21-Sep-2017 19:42, 1 comment.

Gravazoid

llbit and I made a game. It started out as a weekend project, but we threw in a couple of more days of work to brush it up for the Game compo at Revision 2013, where it placed 2nd. Read more.

• gravazoid (Linux i386 and Windows binaries, 393.2 kB)

Posted Monday 6-May-2013 21:17, 8 comments.

Hardsync

Named after one of the characteristic features of the SID chip, Hardsync is a C64 party game that follows in the (wait for it...) footsteps of games like Dance Dance Revolution and StepMania. Read more.

• hardsync (D64, 170.8 kB)
• Hardsync (Sid, 4.8 kB)
• Linus Akesson - Hardsync - Menu (MP3, 1.7 MB)
• Linus Akesson - Hardsync - Hi-score and menu (MP3, 2.5 MB)
• hardsync-tools-1.0 (Source tarball, 11.4 kB)

Posted Thursday 8-Nov-2012 14:23, 12 comments.

Humming-birds

At Dreamhack Winter 2004 there was a surprise compo (called the fast music compo) in which one had to write a piece of music using only the default set of sound samples shipped with Windows. Read more.

• Lft - Humming Birds - fastmusic compo (MP3, 469.1 kB)

Posted Wednesday 27-Dec-2006 13:12, 1 comment.

Intertwined

I made a SID tune together with Dane of Booze Design. It ended up on 2nd place in the C64 Music compo at Datastorm 2017. Enjoy! Read more.

• Lft-Dane-Intertwined (C64 executable file, 13.2 kB)
• Lft & Dane - Intertwined (MP3, 1.8 MB)

Posted Wednesday 15-Mar-2017 07:08, 0 comments.

Klämrisk Hero

Yarrick and I party-coded this pinnacle of edutainment at Breakpoint 2010, where, to our surprise, it won the 96k game compo. Read more.

• Klämrisk Hero (Source code and binaries for linux and windows, 524.8 kB)

Posted Friday 9-Apr-2010 16:24, 5 comments.

Kung Fu Goldfish

A fun event at Backslash 2007 was the 4 KB tracked music compo. My contribution was in the MOD format (ProTracker), which turned out to be quite a challenging restriction. Read more.

• Lft - Kung fu goldfish (ProTracker MOD, 3.2 kB)
• Lft - Kung fu goldfish (MP3, 2.1 MB)

Posted Wednesday 1-Aug-2007 17:01, 1 comment.

Leet, sweet, petite

This is my first linux 64k intro. It won the 64k compo at Birdie 2006. Read more.

• Leet sweet petite by lft (Linux executable, 41.0 kB)
• Leet sweet petite by lft (DivX, 72.9 MB)

Posted Friday 13-Apr-2007 18:10, 0 comments.

Live at Datastorm 2017

I got the opportunity to play my Pocket Operators live at the Datastorm demoparty in Gothenburg, in front of about 200 people. The performance mainly contains my own compositions reinterpreted for the POs, but I've thrown in a couple of covers of classic C64 tunes too for good measure. Enjoy! Read more.

Posted Friday 7-Apr-2017 04:48, 5 comments.

Live at X'2016

I reinterpreted some of my tunes live on Pocket Operators at X'2016. The concert went well, but it wasn't recorded. Instead, here's a video of one of my rehearsal sessions, with some audience-contributed footage from the concert edited in. Read more.

Posted Monday 7-Nov-2016 07:13, 0 comments.

Lunatico

Lunatico was my entry in the prestigious X'2016 demo compo. To my surprise and joy it ended up on 2nd place, beating such titans as Censor Design and Offence/Prosonix. Read more.

• lft-lunatico (Official release zip, 266.1 kB)

Posted Monday 31-Oct-2016 23:29, 8 comments.

Machine Yearning

Machine Yearning is a 4 KB musicdisk for a modified C64 with two SID chips. Read more.

• lft-machine-yearning.d64 (C64 disk image, 170.8 kB)
• lft-machine-yearning.zip (Release zip including MP3s, 47.9 MB)

Posted Sunday 9-Apr-2023 16:52, 12 comments.

Massively Interleaved Sprite Crunch

This article describes the inner workings of Massively Interleaved Sprite Crunch (MISC), a new C64 demo effect introduced in my demo Lunatico. Read more.

Posted Monday 19-Dec-2016 21:22, 13 comments.

Mike the Grasshopper

This was my contribution to the chip music compo at Hype 1999. It ended up on a shared 3rd place. Read more.

• Linus Åkesson - Mike the Grasshopper (MP3, 4.0 MB)
• Linus Åkesson - Mike the Grasshopper (AHX, 7.1 kB)

Posted Sunday 30-Jul-2006 12:02, 0 comments.

Nymphaea

This SID tune was composed for (and partly at) Breakpoint 2008. Read more.

• Nymphaea (SID, 4.6 kB)
• Nymphaea (C64 executable file, 4.5 kB)
• Linus Akesson - Nymphaea (MP3, 3.5 MB)

Posted Tuesday 25-Mar-2008 18:26, 2 comments.

Parallelogram

Parallelogram is a demo running on the Commodore One extender board, which contains an Altera Cyclone III FPGA and an SDRAM chip. The logic design was made from scratch, including a homebrew CPU, FM synth and blitter with pixel shader support. The demo won the wild compo at Revision 2012. Read more.

• lft_parallelogram_core (C-One core file and icon, zip archive, 331.9 kB)
• lft_parallelogram (Presentation video with captured demo, avi, 517.1 MB)
• Linus Akesson - Parallelogram (Soundtrack, MP3, 5.1 MB)

Posted Wednesday 11-Apr-2012 22:03, 28 comments.

Perfectly Well-Adjusted

This was my contribution to the music compo at X'2016, where it ended up on 20th place. Read more.

• Lft-WellAdjusted (C64 executable file, 6.1 kB)
• Perfectly Well-Adjusted (SID file, 5.6 kB)
• Linus Akesson - Perfectly Well-Adjusted (MP3 file, 2.7 MB)

Posted Monday 31-Oct-2016 23:25, 0 comments.

Perpetual Fragility

Perpetual Fragility is a small Commodore 64 demo that I wrote for the snowstorm compo at Fjälldata 2023. Here's an explanation of how it works. Read more.

• lft-perpetual-fragility.prg (Demo, C64 executable, 9.2 kB)
• lft-pf-254bytes-full.prg (Music, C64 executable, 254 bytes)
• lft-pf-254bytes-compo-edit.prg (Music, shortened version, C64 executable, 254 bytes)
• Linus Akesson - Perpetual Fragility.mp3 (MP3, 8.2 MB)

Posted Wednesday 15-Feb-2023 21:20, 2 comments.

Phasor

Phasor, like Craft, is a demo running on a custom minimalistic ATmega88-based demo platform. But it generates a composite video signal (PAL) instead of a VGA signal. Read more.

• lft_phasor_presentation_and_cam_1280x720 (Presentation video with demo, 1280x720, 70.1 MB)
• lft_phasor_capture (High quality capture by Barta Zoli, 720x576, 475.8 MB)
• Linus Akesson - Phasor (Soundtrack, MP3, 3.9 MB)
• lft-phasor-src (Schematics, firmware binaries and source code, 80.1 kB)

Posted Wednesday 7-Apr-2010 13:58, 47 comments.

Phasor, high quality video

I am very grateful to Barta Zoli from Hungary, for building a replica of Phasor, making a high quality video capture and allowing me to share it with you on this site (and on youtube). Read more.

• lft_phasor_capture (High quality capture by Barta Zoli, 720x576, 475.8 MB)

Posted Tuesday 22-Jun-2010 16:40, 1 comment.

Platform Hopping

Let's recreate the sound of the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System on a C64! Read more.

• lft-platform-hopping.prg (C64 executable, 8.3 kB)
• Linus Akesson - Platform Hopping.mp3 (MP3, 4.3 MB)

Posted Tuesday 13-Jun-2023 20:32, 2 comments.

Poems for bugs

This is talk about C64 coding that I held at Revision 2013. Read more.

Posted Tuesday 2-Apr-2013 23:27, 7 comments.

Power Ninja Action Challenge

Here's another ATmega88-based hardware chiptune, this time composed for Little Computer People 2009. It was my contribution to the "other music" compo, and won the 1st place. Read more.

• lft_power_ninja_action_challenge_atmega88 (IntelHex firmware image, 15.1 kB)
• Linus Akesson - Power Ninja Action Challenge (MP3, 3.2 MB)

Posted Sunday 19-Jul-2009 17:47, 14 comments.

Raster paper

This is a simple but very useful tool for C64 demo coding. It's a grid, 63 squares wide, that you print out on paper and draw instructions on. Along the top are helpful reminders about which clock cycles are involved in various effects, and which ones get stolen due to badlines and sprite fetches. Read more.

Posted Saturday 30-Mar-2013 18:23, 8 comments.

Safe VSP

I contributed this one-filer to the C64 Demo compo at Datastorm 2013. It ended up on 7th place, which I consider quite good for a technical proof of concept. Read more.

• lft-safe-vsp (C64 executable file, 12.7 kB)
• Sideways (SID tune, 8.7 kB)
• Linus Akesson - Sideways (MP3, 8.8 MB)

Posted Wednesday 20-Mar-2013 22:23, 18 comments.

Scene Spirit

This was my contribution to the music compo at X 2014. It ended up on 10th place. Enjoy! Read more.

• Scene_Spirit (SID tune, 8.0 kB)
• scene spirit (C64 executable file, 8.1 kB)
• Linus Akesson - Scene Spirit (MP3, 3.4 MB)

Posted Monday 15-Dec-2014 10:36, 3 comments.

Shards of Fancy

Shards of Fancy is a C64 demo released in the Oldskool Demo competition at Revision 2013, where it ended up on 6th place. Read more.

• lft-shards-of-fancy (D64 disk image, 170.8 kB)
• Shards_of_Fancy (SID tune, 4.8 kB)
• Linus Akesson - Shards of Fancy (MP3, 4.1 MB)

Posted Tuesday 2-Apr-2013 16:01, 2 comments.

Slaepwerigne

This SID tune was composed for Breakpoint 2009. It ended up 7th in the Oldschool Executable Music compo, which isn't too bad considering its original approach. Read more.

• Slaepwerigne (SID, 6.6 kB)
• Slaepwerigne (C64 executable file, 6.5 kB)
• Linus Åkesson - Slaepwerigne (MP3, 1.4 MB)

Posted Tuesday 5-May-2009 05:35, 0 comments.

Sommargubbe

This laidback summer ditty got 3rd place in the C64 music compo at Gubbdata 2022. Read more.

• lft-sommargubbe.prg (C64 executable, 6.0 kB)
• Sommargubbe.sid (SID tune, 6.6 kB)
• Linus Akesson - Sommargubbe.mp3 (MP3, 6.2 MB)

Posted Sunday 3-Jul-2022 19:45, 0 comments.

Specular Highlight

I composed this SID tune for the Executable Music Oldskool compo at Revision 2014, where it ended up on 5th place. Read more.

• Specular_Highlight (SID tune, 9.6 kB)
• Specular_Highlight (C64 executable file, 9.7 kB)
• Linus Akesson - Specular Highlight (MP3, 3.3 MB)

Posted Tuesday 13-May-2014 22:46, 4 comments.

Spindle v1

Spindle is an integrated linking, loading and crunching solution for C64 trackmos. By hiding the details of the storage model, it allows the demo coder to focus on effects, transitions and flow. Read more.

• spindle-1.0 (Source code, tar/gzip, 44.9 kB)

Posted Tuesday 7-May-2013 20:57, 3 comments.

Spindle v2

Spindle is an integrated linking, loading and crunching solution for C64 trackmos. By hiding the details of the storage model, it allows the demo coder to focus on effects, transitions and flow. Read more.

• spindle-2.3 (Source tarball, 113.0 kB)
• spindle-2.3-win32 (Spin win32 binary + example, 74.7 kB)
• spindle-2.2 (Source tarball, 111.7 kB)
• spindle-2.2-win32 (Spin win32 binary + example, 73.7 kB)
• spindle-2.1 (Source tarball, 110.6 kB)
• spindle-2.1-win32 (Spin win32 binary + example, 73.2 kB)

Posted Tuesday 30-Jun-2015 21:48, 7 comments.

Spindle v3

The third major release of Spindle was announced with a small demo at Gubbdata 2021. New features include seeking, silencing of other drives on the bus, and a 40-track mode. Read more.

• spindle-3.1.zip (Updated release, 954.2 kB)
• spindle-3.0.zip (Release archive, 971.8 kB)
• lft-revolutions-delivered.d64 (Announcement demo, D64 disk image, 170.8 kB)

Posted Sunday 4-Jul-2021 13:29, 4 comments.

Stranded for the C64

Almost out of petrol, you leave the motorway at the first exit. You find your way to the local petrol station. But you soon realise that refueling your car and leaving the village will be more challenging than you thought... Read more.

• lft-stranded (C64 executable, 26.0 kB)

Posted Thursday 21-Sep-2017 19:40, 0 comments.

Summer cloud

This is my first regular SID tune. It was written for Backslash 2007, where it ended up on 4th place. Read more.

• Summer Cloud (SID, 6.1 kB)
• Summer Cloud (C64 executable file, 6.0 kB)
• Linus Akesson - Summer Cloud (MP3, 3.5 MB)

Posted Saturday 14-Jul-2007 11:19, 2 comments.

The hardware chiptune project

Normally, when you create a chiptune, you start with an existing chip (such as the SID chip or the YM2149) and write a tune for it. We decided to start from scratch, and create a chip and a tune. Read more.

• kryo-hardware_chiptune (Original zipped release, DivX, 18.5 MB)
• Linus Akesson - The hardware chiptune project song (Recorded MP3, 1.5 MB)
• hardwarechiptune-cad (Schematic, EPS source code, 8.6 kB)
• hardwarechiptune-cad (Schematic, PDF, 31.9 kB)
• hardwarechiptune-tracker (Tracker with source code, docs and song data, 26.0 kB)
• hardwarechiptune-src (AVR source code, 10.5 kB)

Posted Saturday 30-Jun-2007 11:04, 85 comments.

Three PC Pieces

Here are three tunes, originally part of PC demoscene productions, now remastered and resynthesized with better sound generation code. Read more.

• 01 - Warpfruit (MP3, 3.1 MB)
• 02 - Bittersweet (MP3, 5.1 MB)
• 03 - Townwoofer (MP3, 4.3 MB)
• Linus Akesson - Three PC Pieces.zip (Complete album, 12.4 MB)

Posted Friday 18-Aug-2023 06:13, 0 comments.

Three PETSCII pieces

I've recently developed an interest in making PETSCII art. Here are three examples, along with some information about the PETSCII character set. Read more.

• lft-tenbo.prg (C64 executable program, 848 bytes)
• lft-the-reckoning.prg (C64 executable program, 865 bytes)
• lft-the-real-party-is-down-under.prg (C64 executable program, 806 bytes)

Posted Thursday 1-Mar-2018 18:54, 2 comments.

Townwoofer

This is my third linux 4k intro. It won the 4k compo at Birdie 2007. Read more.

• townwoofer by lft (Linux executable, 4.0 kB)
• townwoofer by lft (DivX, 52.7 MB)

Posted Sunday 10-Jun-2007 18:56, 1 comment.

Toy Rocket

This little SID tune ended up on 3rd place in the Oldskool Music compo at Revision 2017. I composed it on a real C64 using my recently released tracker, Blackbird. Hope you like it! Read more.

• Toy Rocket (C64 executable file, 4.9 kB)
• Toy Rocket (SID tune, 5.6 kB)
• Linus Akesson - Toy Rocket (MP3, 3.6 MB)

Posted Tuesday 2-May-2017 20:37, 2 comments.

Turbulence

Turbulence is the successor of craft. It's a microcontroller demo based on the Propeller chip from Parallax. External I/O consists of stereo sound (at line level) and a VGA signal. Read more.

• lft_turbulence_h264_capture_720x576 (Presentation video and high quality capture, 720x576, 139.0 MB)
• lft_turbulence_h264_presentation_and_cam_1280x720 (Presentation video and low quality capture, 1280x720, 144.0 MB)
• lft_turbulence_h264_presentation_and_cam_640x360 (Presentation video and low quality capture, 640x360, 45.7 MB)
• turbulence (Binary EEPROM image, 32.0 kB)
• Linus Akesson - Turbulence soundtrack (Soundtrack, MP3, 4.9 MB)

Posted Monday 13-Apr-2009 13:09, 23 comments.

Turbulence source code

On this page you'll find the complete source code for Turbulence, as well as a general overview and discussion of some of the techniques I used. Read more.

• turbulence-src (Source code, 60.2 kB)

Posted Monday 11-May-2009 16:47, 0 comments.

Variation 18

This was my entry for the wild compo at Revision 2015. Read more.

• lft_variation18 (Original release archive, 99.3 MB)

Posted Sunday 5-Apr-2015 19:56, 7 comments.

VIC Timing Chart

This is a comprehensive visualisation of the behaviour of the VIC chip. It is quite handy as a reference when coding C64 demo effects. Read more.

Posted Saturday 30-Mar-2013 18:23, 6 comments.

Warpfruit

This is my second linux 4k intro. It won the 4k compo at Birdie 2006. Read more.

• Warpfruit by lft (Linux executable, 4.0 kB)
• Warpfruit by lft (DivX, 22.3 MB)

Posted Tuesday 2-Jan-2007 14:16, 2 comments.

Watch Room

I am proud to have contributed, in a small but significant way, to the award-winning sci-fi short film Watch Room. Read more.

Posted Sunday 19-Jan-2020 21:42, 7 comments.