Glossary

Graphics modes

Hi-res

The C64's 320×200 bitmap mode. Each 8×8 cell can use two colours.

Multicolour

A 160×200 mode with pixels twice as wide as they are tall. Each cell can use three colours of its own plus one background colour shared by the whole screen.

PETSCII

Pictures made from the C64's built-in character set: one character and one colour in each 8×8 cell.

ECM

Extended Colour Mode. A character mode in which each character can pick one of four background colours, at the cost of only 64 different characters.

FLI

Flexible Line Interpretation. A raster trick that gives every pixel row of a cell its own colours, instead of one set of colours per 8×8 cell.

IFLI

Interlaced FLI: two FLI pictures shown on alternate frames, so their colours blend into more than either has alone.

6-colour

Multicolour sprites layered under hi-res ones, giving more colours in an area than either mode allows by itself.

ESCOS

Expanded Screen COnstruction Set: a picture that fills the whole screen with sprites, stretched to double width (and often double height) and multiplexed so the same eight sprites are reused further down the screen. It is more a programmer's format than an artist's: most ESCOS pictures are existing images, cropped, scaled and reduced to four colours.

FLESCOS

FairLight Extended Screen COnstruction Set: an extended ESCOS that uses hi-res sprites and alternates them on every raster line between the left and the right side of the screen.

Font

A character set: 256 characters of 8×8 pixels. The C64 lets a program replace the built-in set with its own, which is how most scene logos and scrolltexts are drawn.

Tricks and effects

Interlace

Two pictures shown on alternate frames, 50 times a second on a PAL machine. The eye blends them into colours or detail one frame cannot hold. The site shows the blend by default; the flicker can be turned on from the image viewer or your profile settings.

Raster

The screen is drawn one line at a time. A raster effect changes a graphics setting part-way down the screen, so different lines can use different colours or modes.

D016

A VIC-II register that controls horizontal scrolling and multicolour mode. Changing it on particular lines lets a picture mix hi-res and multicolour, or shift parts of the screen.

Sprites

Small images the hardware draws over the screen: 24×21 pixels, or 12×21 in multicolour, eight at a time. Artists place them over a picture to add colours or detail.

Animated

A picture that moves: a sequence of frames, played in order.

Kinds of artwork

Logo

A name, usually a group's or a production's, drawn as graphics. Most are built from a custom character set.

Loading screen

The picture a game or program shows while the rest of it loads.

DIR

Art drawn in the disk directory: file names chosen so that the listing shown by LOAD"$",8 forms a picture.

Workstages

The saved stages of a picture from first lines to finished work, shown in order on its page under Making Of.

Extract

A picture taken from inside a larger release, such as a demo or a game, rather than released on its own.

The scene

Demoscene

The community that makes demos, music and graphics for computers like the C64, and shows the results at parties. It has been active since the 1980s.

Scener

A member of the demoscene, known by a handle.

Handle

The name a scener works under. One person can use several over the years.

Group

Sceners who release work under a shared name. Members join and leave, and a scener can be in more than one group at once.

Release

A finished production published to the scene: a picture, a demo, an intro, a diskmag or a game.

Party

A scene gathering, in person or online, where new releases are shown and compos are held.

Compo

A competition at a party. The entries are shown together and ranked by the visitors' votes.

Out of compo

An entry shown with a compo but not ranked in it.

CSDb

The C64 Scene Database at csdb.dk, which lists sceners, groups, releases and parties. Most records on this site start there.

Palette

The C64's 16 colours. Their exact values depend on the monitor they were seen on, so there are several measured palettes; see Palettes.

18+

Artwork rated for adults. It is blurred unless a signed-in member turns censorship off in their profile.