In 1979 the University of Tennessee/Knoxville's Computer Science Department released Felix v2.1 for CP/M, which is available on the Walnut Creek CD. It aimed to provide a basis for computer animation experiments and projects for education and hobbyist use.
The system used an early graphics card for S-100 bus computers called the Cromemco Dazzler to display the animations on a television screen. The Dazzler was released in 1976 and could display a maximum resolution of 128x128 in monochrome or 64x64 using 8 colours with or without intensity.
Felix uses a VM to display and control the animations with the hope of creating a portable animation system across computing platforms. The animations are created in a form of assembly language targeted at the Felix VM which is assembled using the FASM command to produce a .FEX file which is then run using the EXEC command.
An example file called BEE.FAS is included in the archive and listed below:
; 8 SEPT 79 - MOSHELL
;
; BLOOMING FLOWER; BEE LANDS,FLIES AGAIN.BIRD
; COMES ALONG AND EATS BEE.
;
SPEED EQU 0
GROUND EQU 0
STEM EQU 1
LEFTPETAL EQU 2
RIGHTPETAL EQU 3
BEE EQU 4
BEEPATH EQU 5
B2PATH EQU 6
BIRD EQU 7
BIRDPATH EQU 8
;
DELAY SPEED
ONLIST 2,STEM,GROUND
MOVE 15,.COUNT
;
;FIRST THE PLANT GROWS AND BLOSSOMS.
;
STEMLOOP: FLY STEM,0,1
SHOW
SUB .COUNT,1,.COUNT
JNZ STEMLOOP
;
BACKGRND STEM
ONLIST 4,LEFTPETAL,RIGHTPETAL,STEM,GROUND
MOVE 5,.COUNT
DELAY 150
;
PETALOOP:BACKGRND LEFTPETAL
BACKGRND RIGHTPETAL
SPIN LEFTPETAL,-1
SPIN RIGHTPETAL,1
SHOW
SUB .COUNT,1,.COUNT
JNZ PETALOOP
;
CALL PAUSE
ONLIST 1,BEE
;
;NOW A BEE WANDERS ACROSS THE SCENE,SETTLES ON FLOWER.
;
BEELOOP:PATH BEE,BEEPATH
SHOW
JNZ BEELOOP
;
CALL PAUSE
ONLIST 2,BEE,BIRD
;
;NOW THE BEE LEAVES THE FLOWER,MEETS BIRD.
;
B2LOOP: PATH BIRD,BIRDPATH
PATH BEE,B2PATH
SHOW
JNZ B2LOOP
;
ONLIST 1,BIRD ;BEE DONE BEEN ET.
;
; BIRD NOW FLIES AROUND THE SCREEN FOREVER.
;
BIRDLOOP:PATH BIRD,BIRDPATH
SHOW
JUMP BIRDLOOP
;
;- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
;
PAUSE: DELAY 250
MOVE 5,.COUNT
PLOOP: SUB .COUNT,1,.COUNT
JNZ PLOOP
DELAY SPEED
RETURN
;
COUNT: DB 0
;
END
You can see a couple of animations using Felix in the following video. It demonstrates Felix using z80pack to emulate an IMSAI 8080 with a Dazzler, running CP/M 2.2. Unfortunately, I'm not able to fully test Felix because the emulator doesn't emulate the required analog-to-digital converter to use the joysticks. However, it was fun to play with and I think it's nice to see the system in action.
