ActiveGS - Best of FTA Flobynoid 1987 Second Sight Software The game was fully programmed by entering each byte code directly onto the sectors using a disk editor (Moby Disk II): years after, it is hard to imagine that it could even run but, at that time, we didn't know what an assembler was (nor the difference between object and source code).
Under the Second Sight Software Label, the was presented at the French Apple Expo in 1987, and sent to major US publishing companies in the USA (Epyx, DataSoft, Electronics Art, ...). It received very good feedback from those professionals, which impressed the teenagers we were.
Unfortunately, the Apple II was fading away and publishing new titles did not make much sense while the IIGS was just being launched : eventually, the game finished its life as a freeware for the pleasure of players all around the world! ]]> floby3.png APPLE2 flobynoid (2002).dsk.zip floby1.png floby2.png floby3.png floby_editor.png 6 Star Wizard 1989 Sergent Claude 2GS StarWizard (2002).fta starwizard_3.png starwizard_2.png starwizard_4.png starwizard_5.png 5 Nucleus 1989 FTA The demo that has made FTA the famous beyond their Dijon & Aix-Les-Bains hideouts !

It has evolved from a simple parametric-based animation (thanks to Arkanoid for the sprites!) to a full 3D-powered demo with modern graphics and fancy musics. Even though there was a bug in the 3D calculation (the shapes should never have collapsed onto themselves), people loved the demo.

In less than 2 weeks, the first version spread quickly from Dijon to Cupertino, where the Green Software Engineering team reviewed it. Unfortunately, due to a glitch in a low level drive command, it was incompatible with the upcoming ROM03 Motherboard which Apple was about to release. Through their Switzerland office, Apple sent us a prototype of the ROM03 motherboard to make it work in time for the upcoming AppleFest in San Francisco, where then VP Jean-Louis Gassée used it during his talk.

The rest is history ;)

Eventually, Nucleus was later customized to serve as an advertisment for the SPIT company (unfortunately, no copy could be retrieved)

]]> nucleus_2.png nucleus.png nucleus_2.png nucleus_c.png nucleus_t.png 2GSNUCLEUS.FTA 5 Photonix II 1990 FTA One of the successes of the first version of Nucleus was its very fast loading routines (even though most of the users only know the ROM03 version which does not include them!) Those fast routines came originally from SpeedySmith, a very fast disk copier but with limited features and raw (not to say crude) interface.

After having written Nucleus during the summer, the FTA team gathered again the next month (just before going back to college) to create a new program that would be a mix between Speedysmith (for the copying features) and Nucleus (for the fancy graphics) : this is how Photonix started!

Thanks to the speed of the copy, its large set of features (it was often used by Mac users to quickly format disks for example), and its appealing interface, it became a very successful shareware program, and we were very pleased to receive (snail) mails from people around the world from persons liking our work and asking us to "keep up the good work" : : it was then that we learnt how popular that expression was!
A commercial version of Photonix was later developed (Photonix II) and sold by Toolbox, before finishing its life as an abandonware.

15 years later, Photonix was recently brought to life as a prior-artifact in an anti-virus patent infrigment lawsuit : good programs never die!

]]> photonix_2.png photonix_1.png photonix_2.png 2GS PHOTONIX.FTA 5 Mini Prix 1990 FTA A very realistic racing game simulation that did not want to compromise the fluidity of the control for the graphic immersion of the player ! The game could easily win the-smallest-rendering-screen-ever-being-used-in-a-racing-game award, but nevertheless, the game was fun to play: easy to learn, hard to master! miniprix_2.png 2GS MINIPRIX.FTA miniprix_1.png miniprix_2.png miniprix_3.png 5 Blue Helmet 1990 FTA Even though Blue Helmet was far from being finished, it provided some pretty cool racing experience at the decent frame rate. ]]> bluehelmet_1.png 2GS BLUE_HELMET.FTA bluehelmet_1.png bluehelmet_2.png 5 Space Harrier Demo 1990 FTA This project emerged after having seen the Atari ST version that was really appealing, and we wanted to build something similar to bring that hi-speed spirit onto the IIGS. Actually, the project started with Atari ST development in order to extract (not to say rip) all the sprites from the computer memory while the game was running, and then to transfer the files back to the IIGS. Exchanging information between computers seems so easy today, but at that time, it has required to build a custom NULL Modem cable, and find communication software on both machines that would implement the ZModem protocol in a similar way: needless to say that the whole process took several weeks!
With those nice looking assets available, it encouraged us to develop some great graphic routines that would nicely use them.
The result is one of our favorite productions, and even now, the version easily matches the official Sega version on iPhone (ok, their version is based on the Megadrive port) ]]> harrier1.png 2GS SPACE_HARRIER.FTA harrier1.png harrier_1.png harrier_2.png harrier_5.png 5 Modulae 1990 FTA Quite often,a demo starts from a set of small and independent routines developed without any idea on where they could be used. But at a certain point, and that's the magic of software development, everything naturally fits together : alchemy in action!

This is how Moduale was created by reuniting all those routines into a nice package : its 3D content was outstanding at that time, and it was the most polished program we ever produced.

]]> modulae_4.png 2GS MODULAE.FTA modulae_1.png modulae_10.png modulae_11.png modulae_2.png modulae_3.png modulae_4.png modulae_5.png modulae_6.png modulae_7.png modulae_8.png modulae_9.png 5 XMAS Demo 1990 FTA/MRZ After the success of our early programs, we kept on experimenting new techniques to go beyond what we had already done : new options were made possible by having a finer control over the Apple IIGS hardware (pedal to the metal!), but on the other hand, it meant reprogramming almost every aspect of the computer. In retrospect, a lot of hard work was spent on invisible stuff, but altogether, it is that continuous effort on every front that gives such a polished result. They were told it was impossible, so they did it.

This is how the XMas demo was built, even though the technical exploits slightly outgrow the demo content : it was the first demo with music-enabled loading routines, overscan scrolls, and more important entirely coded in Geneva!

]]> xmas_2.png 2GS XMASDEMO.FTA xmas_1.png xmas_2.png xmas_3.png xmas_4.png xmas_5.png xmas_6.png xmas_7.png xmas_8.png 5 Oil Landers 1991 FTA A Stellar7 tribute! 2GS Oil_Landers.fta oillanders_1.png oillanders_1.png oillanders_2.png oillanders_3.png oillanders_4.png oillanders_5.png 5 Boucin'Ferno 1991 FTA Marble madness look alike! bouncinferno_4.png 2GS BOUNCIN_FERNO.FTA bouncinferno_1.png bouncinferno_2.png bouncinferno_3.png bouncinferno_4.png bouncinferno_5.png bouncinferno_6.png bouncinferno_7.png 5 Delta Demo 1991 FTA The final demo from the FTA

Even if it looks like a simple demo (as there's just one part), the Delta Demo contained some highly tuned code.
* First, for the first time on the IIGS, a MOD based music (thanks Moby!) that would go beyond the 64KB limit of the Ensoniq. Those routines were later exposed in the NoiseTracker suite
*Second, a multi-threading simulator (!) : all the display was performed during the VBL interrupt, while the main processor was creating the code to display the next object. Once the code was ready, then it was being used by the VBL interrupt, while the main processor works off the next object. Quite fancy at that time, and this is what has allowed us to create 3D wireframe based real-time (or so) animation at 50hz per second on a 2.8Mhz processor!

After having delivered so many products in 2 years, it was time for the team to move onto something else, but this version was a nice goodbye gift.

For the record, it was called the Delta demo to honour an Amiga Demo Maker who used to create everything himself : code, art & music! ]]> delta_3.png 2GS DELTA.FTA delta_1.png delta_2.png delta_3.png delta_4.png delta_5.png delta_6.png delta_7.png 5