Duration: 2:16

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So, some people were asking why Atari demo coders were protecting their demos... well, here is my own take on An-Cool famous "3D Doc" demo screen from the Cuddly Demos.

It probably took him weeks (months...) to write this demo, but all it took me is a long week-end to complete reverse engineer the entire intro to the point where I have a complete source code, list of all graphics and musics, ready to reassemble and run!

In the process I actually found few places where the code could be improved, so by spending a couple more days I would probably manage to stabilize the rasters, make the palettes STe compatible, perhaps add some more sprites or a vertical distorter on the scrolltext.

The bottom line is: The piracy and ripping was rampant at the time, and seing your own code released by somebody else *before* your own demo was released (often happened that floppies "mysteriously" disappeared from the table during a pee break), which explain the presence of protections: Give you few weeks of edge so you can still claim paternity for the effects if they eventually got released out of your control.