Michel de Bree

Hexed soundtrack @ X2026

Sat, 06 Jun 2026 21:00:49 +0200

It was a privilege and a pleasure to provide the soundtrack to Hexed last weekend at X2026.

X2026 is also informally dubbed the world championships of Commodore 64 demos. I was very happy we got 4th place, which is all the more of an achievement considering there were only four in our team.

Sugar Rush @ X2026

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 19:00:00 +0200

Yavin and I released Sugar Rush in the music competition at X2026. We had this tune lying around for ages, not knowing how to put some structure in it. In the end, I decided to try and squeeze it into the 3 minute competition limit and just release it. I did this at the party itself on friday, racing against the 19:00 deadline.

Goodbye Retropixels, hello Retropixels+

Sat, 09 May 2026 08:24:49 +0200

What a nice surprise, Jaime Idolpx took off with my Retropixels code and made a better version!

Retropixels+ looks better and has more functionality than my own Web UI. And since I haven’t done any work on the original for a while, I decided to archive the project on Github.

Retropixels is a cross-platform command line tool to convert images to a format that is supported by the legendary Commodore 64 (c-64) home computer. It can output images in the style of the c-64, and also executables that can be run on a real c-64.

Halloweed 5 soundtrack @ Transmission 64

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 21:34:49 +0200

This Saturday the Commodore 64 demo Halloweed 5 made its debut at the Transmission 64 online demoparty. I was guest starring on this production by Xenon, a dutch demoscene group. all the groundbreaking code (and sharpened a few world records).

Live stream on Twitch

Cheech Wizard soundtrack @ Transmission 64

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 21:26:49 +0200

This Saturday the Commodore 64 demo Cheech Wizard 5 made its debut at the Transmission 64 online demoparty. I did a small cover of JT in Space to go with it.

This little demo refers back to an iconic little demo by Ash & Dave from 1988, Double Density. The original tune by Jeroen Tel holds a special place in my heart because it was the first time I heard a bassline and sound effects like that. I was blown away. This tune made me want to make SIDs myself.

Elite Blueprints soundtrack @ Fjalldata

Sat, 01 Feb 2025 23:59:00 +0200

At the Fjalldata online Commodore 64 demoscene party, Xenon released a little demo called Elite Blueprints, for which I did the soundtrack.

Full of Kroket, from the Vandalism 75 soundtrack

Wed, 25 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

On Christmas morning, Vandalism News issue 75 dropped! It was a privilege to supply a track for the soundtrack again. This time it was a coop tune with Vincenzo, who took the track into full party mode. You can listen on an emulator via DeepSID, or check out the recording below, which was made on the real hardware.

Broware got covered by Mordi!

Wed, 11 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

When I got the chance to collaborate on a SID tune with two of my all-time heroes Laxity and SMC on Broware, it couldn’t get any better than that… so I thought.

Turns out it could… by having Broware covered by the amazing Mordi! I have been a fan of Mordi’s tunes for a long time so I’m very chuffed by this cover!

The original:

Broware, by Laxity, Youth and SMC

Halloweed 4 soundtrack @ Transmission 64

Sat, 23 Nov 2024 08:24:49 +0200

This Saturday the Commodore 64 demo Halloweed 4 made its debut at the Transmission 64 online demoparty. I was guest starring on this production by Xenon, a dutch demoscene group. WVL did all the groundbreaking code (and sharpened a few world records).

I wanted to use some well known horror themes, and landed on the iconic arpeggio of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells (used in The Exorcist) and a cover of Michael Jackson’s Thriller (R.I.P. Quincy Jones)

PEZ Demo soundtrack @ Transmission 64

Sat, 23 Nov 2024 00:00:49 +0200

My alter ego Animal did a short and quirky tune for the PEZ demo that was released at the Transmission 64 online demoparty.

Live stream capture on Twitch

Sidfactory 2 & hardware support @ X2024

Sat, 11 May 2024 13:00:00 +0200

I was at X2024 this weekend where Thomas Jansson, a.k.a. Tubesockor and I did a presentation about Sidfactory 2 and hardware support.

Sidfactory 2 allows you to compose Commodore 64 music on your modern Windows, macOS or Linux computer. It emulates the SID sound chip and produces files that run on the real Commodore 64 home computer.

Thanks to the ASID protocol, and Thomas’ work on integrating it into SidFactory 2, you can now connect actual hardware synths with real SID chips inside to SidFactory 2, to have the real hardware experience with the convenience of using your own computer.

Freakandel @ X2024

Fri, 10 May 2024 19:00:00 +0200

This weekend I spent at X2024 in Someren, Holland. X is a bi-annual Commodore 64 demoscene event where creative enthusiasts gather from all over Europe (and some from further away even!). We get to meet friends we made online, talk to others who’s work we admire, and have a big shootout in one of the competitions. There are competitions for music and graphics, but the big banger on saturday night is the demo competition.

Sometimes the best code is no code

Sat, 11 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0200

I love writing code. I never get tired of it. It is what I am hired for, to help my clients automate their processes. Often times though, a problem is better solved by not writing code, or even by deleting code.

Here is an example of how a lot of resources were saved by not implementing the proposed solution and instead deleting a little a bit of code.

The solution Link to heading

In a big project I worked on, several applications built by different teams were integrated into one portal application. The portal supplied things like a unified header and footer, menu structure and authentication. I was on one of the teams.

Staying Alive @ X2023

Sat, 03 Jun 2023 08:24:49 +0200

This weekend I spent at X2023 in Someren, Holland. X is a bi-annual Commodore 64 demoscene event where creative enthusiasts gather from all over Europe (and some from further away even!). We get to meet friends we made online, talk to others who’s work we admire, and have a big shootout in one of the competitions. There are competitions for music and graphics, but the big banger on saturday night is the demo competition.

10 PRINTCHR$(205.5+RND(1));:GOTO10, but in assembler

Tue, 21 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0200

The original BASIC oneliner Link to heading

There is a simple one-liner in Commodore 64 BASIC that is so well-known that a book has been written about it. The program code is so short that it is used as the title for the book:

10 PRINT CHR$(205.5 + RND(1)); : GOTO 10, A whole book about a single line of code. By ten authors.

When run, the code starts outputting a pseudo-random maze that goes on forever:

A simpler setup for this site

Wed, 15 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0200

I simplified the development of this site a bit, making the setup I described in my welcome post obsolete.

The most important changes:

Use one github repository instead of two
Do not store build artifacts in the repository, but build and deploy with Github actions
Do not use submodules because they are a pain to work with

You can read about the complex setup in the welcome post. To make it simpler, I:

An early christmas greeting

Fri, 30 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0200

I coded a little christmas greeting on the Commodore 64. The code and music are by me, the font in scroller is by Yavin

I didn’t manage to finish it before Christmas 2022, so it’s an early greeting for Christmas 2023 😉

The idea for the main effect popped into my head one day, about one week before christmas. I wanted to try and make a spinning christmas tree using a trick I used a long time ago on Eddies Adventure to stretch the logo in the intro:

Broware, from the Vandalism #73 soundtrack

Sat, 12 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0200

After having made a tune for Vandalism News #72 (Sunkissed), this time I (in The Netherlands) cooperated on a tune with Thomas Egeskov Petersen a.k.a. Laxity (in Denmark) and Sanke Michael Choe a.k.a. SMC (in Sweden) for Vandalism News #73.

Broware, by Laxity, Youth and SMC

Even though my contribution is pretty minimal, it was good fun working with these guys because I am a big fan of their music, and they are very cool guys on top of that!

My favorite font for coding

Sat, 12 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0200

As a coder (both professionally and for fun), I spend a lot of time looking at monospaced text on a computer screen. Using a good font is important to me because it helps in concentration and reduces fatigue. I tried different fonts, and settled on Jetbrains Mono for my IDE and text editor, and Iosevka for the terminal.

What makes a good font? Link to heading

A unique character Link to heading

A good font for coding should have clear distinctions between characters, for example it should be clear that a 0 is not an O, and which is the zero and which the capital O. Another example is 1 and l. This is important because in code, it is not always clear from the context if something is a number or a letter, and computers are very picky. If you ever typed in a long WiFi password a couple of times before realizing that zero was actually a capital O, you know what I mean.

Sunkissed, from the Vandalism #72 soundtrack

Sun, 17 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0200

We made an exclusive background tune for the 72nd issue of the Commodore 64 disk magazine Vandalism News. While you are reading the magazine, ours is one of the tunes you can select.

The other tunes in the jukebox are by Laxity, Shogoon, Mutetus, Stinsen, Magnar, Fegolhuzz and Qdor, which is an impressive line-up to be part of!

Terminator 2 theme, from the Endoskull animation

Fri, 10 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0200

I did a little update on the Terminator theme from Big Angry Sprite. It is made for Honcho’s entry for the Skull Animation Compo on CSDB: Endoskull. I did not have much time, but I think this version is somewhat of an improvement. And guess what, this little production won 1st place!

P.S. the movie above is taken from the Anniversary Edition, which was released after the competition, and adds a nice opening title screen.

Muppetshow Theme, from the demo Subway Art

Sat, 05 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0200

A cover of the theme from The Muppetshow, made for the successor of the Commodore 64 demo Mahna Mahna, called Subway Art

Again, the music was done by Animal. Nobody knows it’s my alter ego, except you, so hush hush…

Retropixels Web GUI

Tue, 25 May 2021 00:00:00 +0200

There is now a graphical interface online for Retropixels, the tool I made for converting images to Commodore 64 format. For now it supports multicolor and hires bitmaps, so no sprites or FLI/AFLI. For that you still need the command line tool.

A new feature in this version is the ability to disable certain colors from the palette. This will make it to the command line version aswell, eventually.

The web version is 100% javascript running in your browser, there are no server-side components, so the images you convert never leave your computer.

Mahna Mahna, from the demo Mahna Mahna

Sat, 24 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0200

Pssst… I made the soundtrack to this Commodore 64 demo, but I did it incognito. Don’t tell anyone!

A friend of mine told me about a little side project he wanted to start on the demoscene, called Mahna Mahna, doing Muppetshow themed demos. He would do the coding under the handle “Statler”, and someone else would to the graphics as “Waldorf”. Could I do a cover of the tune “Mahna Mahna” that was made famous by The Muppetshow? Of course I would like to give that a go! I would have to come up with Muppets themed handle too, so I chose Animal, the weird and wild drummer in the Muppets band.

The Hangover (after last night with Stinsen)

Wed, 31 Mar 2021 08:24:49 +0200

It has been about 30 years since Yavin and I collaborated on a Commodore 64 tune, so to celebrate, here is a new tune!

This is our entry to the “Last Night” melody competition on the Commodore 64 Scene Database, which was organised by Stinsen. The challenge was to come up with a melody for a short little tune that Stinsen made.

This was the starting point:

Last night, by Stinsen

We had a lot of fun and learned a lot while making this tune, but we didn’t really expect to end up very high. We actually got into a neck-on-neck race to the top with our all time hero and SID music veteran Thomas “Laxity” Egeskov Petersen though! Finally, Thomas walked away with the well deserved #1 position, and we became second! Check out all the kind words we received on the Commodore 64 Scene Database.

Retropixels 0.8.0

Sat, 23 Jan 2021 08:24:49 +0200

Retropixels can be found on Github and in the npm repository

Moving towards a developer tool Link to heading

In this release, which is not backwards compatible, retropixels is moving more towards a developer tool for Commodore 64 fanatics. Some of the things that are supported:

Big Angry Sprite; going back to my Commodore 64 roots

Thu, 21 Jan 2021 08:24:49 +0200

After 30 years of coding anything for the Commodore 64, I have released a small demo. Back in the 80s I started to teach myself programming on this machine, and I though it would be fun to revisit my coding roots.

The demoscene of the Commodore 64 is still very much alive, and seeing the amazing stuff that is coming out nowadays, I was motivated to try and add a little something to that.

Retropixels 0.7.1

Thu, 21 May 2020 19:07:49 +0200

Retropixels can be found on Github and in the npm repository

New in this version Link to heading

In this new version, you can choose between a couple of color palettes, and also a color space to use when the image is quantized, with two new arguments:

I built a new personal website with Hugo

Thu, 19 Mar 2020 08:00:00 +0100

Welcome to my website. In this first post I will go over some details on how this site was created.

The site is static HTML, generated by Hugo
Sourcecode is accessible on Github
The generated HTML is hosted on Github pages
Based on the hugo-coder theme

So, I didn’t use a fancy CMS like Wordpress, or a platform like Medium for example. The main reasons for doing it like this are:

Keep it simple: The site does not need fancy stuff that requires session management, a database, authorization etc. I just need to publish information. Less moving parts means less maintenance and more speed and robustness.
Own your own data: the content is plain Markdown files, the generated site is plain HTML. Both formats are easily editable and very portable.
Developer friendly: The content and styling is maintained by myself. I get to use industry standard tools and proven technologies that I am comfortable with: Git, Markdown, HTML, CSS. I do not need to mouse around in a user-friendly UI.

Warning

The setup described below is obsolete. I set it up much simpler now. Read all about the new setup in this post

The setup Link to heading

This is how I did it

Woop woop, an oldskool style HTML5 demo

Sat, 16 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0200

In november 2013, a small, quite obscure demoscene gathering called ‘1991’ took place in Scheveningen/Holland. My friend John wanted to release a HTML5 demo in 1991 style there, and asked me to contribute some parts to that. So here it is:

Start the demo

The bottom three parts in this overview screenshot are made by me. The one on the bottom left is a small tribute to Bas Bron’s video clip to You’ve got my love. Bas was also at the party, performing an excellent DJ set of Commodore 64 tunes, which you can see below.

Earwax, 1st place in Beatbattle III

Wed, 03 Sep 2003 17:36:53 +0200

My tune “Earwax” came first in the Renoise Beatbattle III!

For this competition the participants were limited to a fixed set of samples you were allowed to use, and a maximum file size of 400kb.

Smart 4, a worktune

Thu, 01 Jan 1998 17:23:00 +0200

A short little jam. Can you spot the trick in track 1 that makes the track swing ’n shuffle?

P.S. The track plays twice because it is so short.

Trouble @ X97

Sun, 06 Apr 1997 17:23:00 +0200

This is our (me and my mate Marvin) entry to the X'97 Takeover music competition.

I started the tune at home and then finished it together with Marvin under less than ideal circumstances at the party place itself. It’s certainly a little rough around the edges and basicly unfinished, but hey, there was a deadline and we made it!

We ended up getting a big applause and a low ranking in the results. But we had fun making it, which is all that counts!

Surprise, from the X97 surprise competition

Sun, 06 Apr 1997 00:00:00 +0200

This is our (me and my mate Afzel) entry to the X'97 Takeover surprise music competition.

The surprise element of the music competition is that we didn’t know what the competition was until shortly before the deadline. We were supplied with the samples to use in the tune, and some other limitations, which you can read in the information below.

According to that information we hurried through making this in less than half an hour, using Fasttracker II.

That time we went to The Party 6

Sun, 29 Dec 1996 00:00:00 +0200

Late 1996, we got it into our minds to go visit a demoscene party in Denmark, The Party 6. Although we had left our Commodore 64 days behind at that time, we were still sort of forming a group called “Heatwave”, making music on Amiga and PC.

We thought it would be cool to go to a big, popular party where demosceners of multiple platforms were present. So off we went (me, Hires, Yavin, Yanic and Yinxs), traveling in Hires’ car from Leiden in the Netherlands, to Aars in Denmark, some 900+ kilometers.

Iceball, a tune made in assembler code

Mon, 01 Jan 1996 00:00:00 +0200

A tune made in assembler code Link to heading

This tune was made on the Commodore 64 home computer somewhere in 1996. Although there were plenty of music editors to create music in by that time, I chose a very arcane way of doing things; by using assembler code.

The reason to do it like this is because I was after the specific sound of the excellent music routine by Laxity, and also to learn about how such a music routine works internally. To do this, I reversed engineered the binary data of one of Laxity’s tunes. The source code of the tune is below the video.

Bosswing (commodore 64 tune)

Sun, 01 Jan 1995 10:44:05 +0200

A short tune I made on the Commodore 64 using DMC 5.1+. ~~As far as I know it has never been used in any Commodore 64 productions.~~ It has been used in this little fireworks display.

You can also find it on DeepSID. The styling of the video was done using Retropixels

Download D64 floppy image with DMC 5.1+ and the sourcefile of the tune

DYCP and music routine on a 386 PC

Thu, 07 Jul 1994 18:06:31 +0100

Coming from the Commodore 64 and being used to coding in assembler, I tried to do the same on my dad’s 386 PC. I decided on a DYCP effect, a popular effect in the Commodore 64 demoscene.

The DYCP itself (the bouncy scroller) wasn’t too hard; most effort and fun went into the music routine for the Soundblaster’s OPL2 (Yamaha YM3812) chip. This is the chip on the Soundblaster that was has a little FM synthesizer in it.

Fontastic (MS-DOS utility)

Fri, 18 Sep 1992 00:00:00 +0200

I had sort of forgotten about this until I found it on an old CD-ROM. A utility to create an alternative font for the EGA or VGA textmode.

At the time I was using Pascal for the code, because I had some experience with it and I liked the ease with which it could mix Pascal and assembler code.

Check it out on Github

Eddies Adventure (commodore 64 demo)

Sun, 28 Jul 1991 00:00:00 +0200

1991 marked the end of the Commodore 64 era of out little democoding group “Heatwave”. We didn’t know it at the time but we must have felt we wanted to go out with a bang, and make a megademo in which we made everything ourselves.

It was quite common practice to ‘borrow’ resources like music and fonts from other demos or games. We didn’t want to do any of that this time. So all the code, music and graphics came from our own hands.

Fontastic (commodore 64 utility)

Fri, 28 Sep 1990 00:00:00 +0200

After the thrill of making money from coding with Solitair, I thought I’d try again and made a utility for drawing your own fonts on the Commodore 64, called Fontastic.

I sent it off to “Magic Disk 64” again, and got a letter back saying they liked it and were willing to pay for it:

And sure enough, a few months later I saw the magazine with my tool on it in the shop:

Solitair (commodore 64 game)

Wed, 30 May 1990 00:00:00 +0200

The first time I was ever payed for practising one of my biggest hobbies was in 1990, when I was 17 years old. I heard about this disk magazine called “Magic Disk 64”. This was a magazine you bought in a magazine shop, but instead of it having physical pages, it only had a cover, a piece of cardboard and a floppy disk inside. On the floppy disks was software that was written by amateurs and sold to the magazine.

Our point of view

Fri, 01 Jul 1988 00:00:00 +0200

One of my first ventures in demo coding (see Demoscene) was a very simple picture collection with background music. The pictures were made by my cousin “Hires”, and by myself, “Mad B”. I had just figured out how to display a multicolor picture, and how to play a soundmonitor tune.

Michel de Bree

Hexed soundtrack @ X2026

Sugar Rush @ X2026

Goodbye Retropixels, hello Retropixels+

Halloweed 5 soundtrack @ Transmission 64

Cheech Wizard soundtrack @ Transmission 64

Elite Blueprints soundtrack @ Fjalldata

Full of Kroket, from the Vandalism 75 soundtrack

Broware got covered by Mordi!

Halloweed 4 soundtrack @ Transmission 64

PEZ Demo soundtrack @ Transmission 64

Sidfactory 2 & hardware support @ X2024

Freakandel @ X2024

Sometimes the best code is no code

The solution Link to heading

Staying Alive @ X2023

10 PRINTCHR$(205.5+RND(1));:GOTO10, but in assembler

The original BASIC oneliner Link to heading

A simpler setup for this site

An early christmas greeting

Broware, from the Vandalism #73 soundtrack

My favorite font for coding

What makes a good font? Link to heading

A unique character Link to heading

Sunkissed, from the Vandalism #72 soundtrack

Terminator 2 theme, from the Endoskull animation

Muppetshow Theme, from the demo Subway Art

Retropixels Web GUI

Mahna Mahna, from the demo Mahna Mahna

The Hangover (after last night with Stinsen)

Retropixels 0.8.0

Moving towards a developer tool Link to heading

Big Angry Sprite; going back to my Commodore 64 roots

Retropixels 0.7.1

New in this version Link to heading

I built a new personal website with Hugo

The setup Link to heading

Woop woop, an oldskool style HTML5 demo

Earwax, 1st place in Beatbattle III

Smart 4, a worktune

Trouble @ X97

Surprise, from the X97 surprise competition

That time we went to The Party 6

Iceball, a tune made in assembler code

A tune made in assembler code Link to heading

Bosswing (commodore 64 tune)

DYCP and music routine on a 386 PC

Fontastic (MS-DOS utility)

Eddies Adventure (commodore 64 demo)

Fontastic (commodore 64 utility)

Solitair (commodore 64 game)

Our point of view

Our point of view Link to heading