I'm going to mod my #atari2600 for composite video. Here is the stock board, looks like whoever QCed it taped a small piece of paper with a stroke on it to the RF box. It's revision 14 from 1980, C015519.
slower computers, please
I'm a computer guy, but I'm very much over fast computers. Most of your computer's resources are wasted loading ads and trackers on webpages. Video games require more and more power to deliver less interesting experiences. Don't get me started on cryptocurrency. Computers are getting increasingly complex, therefore less reliable, nearly impossible to repair, wasteful, and devastating to the environment. We need #slowcomputers and more #retrocomputing
HEART OF NEON: Jeff Minter's Life in Video Games
We need more angry Scots women.
RT @MhairiBlack@twitter.com
It is vital we discuss the F word or we risk facing regret forever.
🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/MhairiBlack/status/1526999103615401984
Dear open source users,
If the author of your favorite open source app has announced they stopped developing and supporting the app (because they're frustrated and possibly burned out), please don't suggest they do more free work so that you can continue using the app.
Instead, consider thanking them for their past work and let them know that you enjoyed their app.
Regards,
another open source developer
atari 2600 experience report
After picking up a 2600 and 30 random games, I figured most of the games would suck. Boy, was I wrong. Just about every game I plugged in was a good time. Berzerk, Frogger, Dig-dug, River Raid, Defender, Pac-man, Ms Pac-man, Pitfall, Combat, etc.
I was impressed with the quality of the conversions, considering the hardware limitations. Somehow, Defender has a mini-map at the top of the screen, with all the enemies in the entire map drawn.
#Atari #atarivcs #Atari2600
atari purchase
I got an Atari bug the other day, and today I picked up a nice score off craigslist: 2600 (wood grain, 4 switch), 7800, a bunch of controllers for both, and 30 games (mostly 2600). $75 US total (working systems).
A good deal, considering there is a local retro video game store with a stack of dusty 2600s that they want $90 each for. #atari #retro #retrogaming #atarivcs #atari7800
Johnny Mnemonic (1995) is a movie of two halves.
First, Keanu Reeves runs away from people trying to cut off his head, meets a pretty girl, and realises he’s smuggling important data that could save the world.
Then he goes on a rant about room service, meets a giant cybernetically-enhanced whale, and fights a middle-aged samurai alongside an AI from Switzerland.
It’s like the writers dropped acid halfway through and just went with it.
How to Disable Ad ID Tracking on iOS and Android, and Why You Should Do It Now | Electronic Frontier Foundation
I want to bring attention to #Calypsi which is a C and assembly compiler toolchain that supports #6502 #65816 and #68000 processors. https://www.calypsi.cc/
It runs on Mac/Win/Linux and has direct support for building programs for #C64 and #c256foenix machines with serial port debugging (maybe not working on C64, yet). It comes with excellent user manuals for each architecture, this is the 6502 manual: https://tinyurl.com/mw8rfzb5
The original motherfuckingwebsite.com makes I point. I get it. But somebody made a better point! I'm so happy as it reflects all my first gut reactions on the oiginal 😀
original: https://motherfuckingwebsite.com/
better original: http://bettermotherfuckingwebsite.com/
Vision BASIC musings
Practically speaking, this means you have to flatten your code a bit to work in Vision BASIC. So, the classic 10 PRINT program:
10printchr$(rnd(1)+205.5);:goto10
Must be written like this:
10decimala:a=rnd(1)+205.5:printchr$(a);:goto10
Here is the same program but using just integers:
10a=rnd(1)and1+205:printchr$(a);:goto10
Both of the Vision BASIC versions are many times faster than the standard one.
Vision BASIC musings
I'm learning some things about #VisionBASIC on the #C64. Today's lightbulb moment is that the main difference with standard C64 BASIC V2 is that it is not defined by a recursive grammar. This has profound implications for speed of execution. With arbitrarily nested expressions, you have to use a stack at runtime to hold the results of evaluating sub-expressions. That would slow things down on the C64, and is one reason why C code is "slow" compared to assembly on the system.
whining about emulators
The Vice (emulator) docs on keyboard mappings is frustrating. It literally says: "The exact mapping depends on your host layout, but should be easy to find out by try and error :) If in doubt, you can read the keyboard mapping files." It is no trivial task to find these files and make sense of them once you do.
Anyways, TIL: RESTORE is mapped to Page Up (at least for US keyboards using symbolic mapping). #c64 #emulation
retrocomputerist, programmer, internationalist, humanist
#c64 #pixel #programming #socialism #mindfulness
no sanctions, no war
#nobot