"Alex Murphy" is an Atari 8-bit demo for 64k Atari 8-bit machines. It was inspired by Buddy's cover of the C64 Robocop theme, released in May 2024. The demo uses Taquart Interlace Picture (TIP) mode to display a 160x188-pixel picture in 256 colors. A high-resolution scroller with vertical movement on top of a TIP picture proved extremely hard, which is also why this is probably the first time it has been done. At one point, I was stuck in a new situation where an abnormal playfield DMA occurred, but Altirra hasn't emulated that yet. With the help of phaeron, who quickly grabbed his hardware analysis equipment, we found a solution in time.
The demo ranked 1st in the Atari 8-bit demo compo at Silly Venture 2k24 Summer Edition, which was too easy - because the organizers reassigned the only other entry to the intro compo.
Fun fact: While working on the demo, I discovered that the original RoboCop movie will be shown again at the local cinema two weeks after the party. The previously unreleased director's cut was presented as part of the Best of Cinema series.
