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by Mouser X at 11:40 PM EDT on October 12, 2017
I actually like the cards more, because it made it more challenging (in my opinion). Before, I had to learn/figure out what worked, and how it worked (aka, I got stuff out of order a lot, and had to figure out what worked, and why). To me, it was part of the puzzle/game. However, if you're using this as an educational tool, then the puzzle pieces make more sense, as you're trying to teach people *how* to use this concatenative program method.

I'd also like to point out that where you needed a "6" and a "4" solution, my result wasn't accepted. I worked with the high numbers first, and worked my way down. Apparently, it wanted the exact answer, including the order. While that may be the intended behavior, it didn't work that way before the puzzle pieces were introduced. It left me a little confused as to why my solution wasn't working. I had all the right results and numbers. Of course, once I realized what the problem was (the order of my results), it was a simple fix. Still, I was a little annoyed that it didn't work this time, when it did last time. As I said though, that might be intentional, so I shouldn't complain too much, I suppose.

Regardless, thanks for posting. It was interesting to see how the different cards/pieces interacted with each other, and how to place them into a cognitive whole. Mouser X over and out.
by hcs at 9:28 PM EDT on October 15, 2017
Thanks Mouser! One more pass at this: pinion, where operations are animated.
by Mouser X at 12:46 AM EDT on October 16, 2017
I really liked the animation. For some reason it made the whole thing "click" in a way it hadn't before. I think it was being able to "see" the flow of information, and how it worked out. I also learned, right off the bat, that the order of information is important (thus removing the issue I had with the wrong answer with the puzzle pieces). Nicely done. Even so, I *still* got it wrong, but at least this time I'll take the blame. I forgot that "swap" would, of course, swap answers. I did work with high numbers first, which should have gotten the right result, but right as I was about to click "run", I thought "Wait a minute, I got it wrong last time. I'll switch the 5 and the 3 this time" (as I said, I forgot that "swap" would swap answers).

All that said, this was the easiest version yet. Partially because I've been through the questions multiple times now (and thus know the correct solutions). Mostly, though, it was because the "cards" were displayed in an order (not the correct order, of course. Re-ordering them is the point of the game), and were, for me at least, easier to "read" in the intended order. I think that, if you were to take this a little further, instead of having the cards in a column (or a row either, for that matter) when you start, have them in a randomized array/table. With the cards, I always had to pull all the cards out first (which at one point I thought "It would be nice if the cards were already displayed. It'd save me time having to pull them all out") and place them around the screen so they were all visible at once. With a randomized array, you don't need to worry about the order "giving away" the answer (at least, it's not likely, but it could, theoretically, happen, I suppose. By random chance).

In other words - I liked this version the most, but I felt it was too easy, mostly due to how the cards were displayed on loading each "level", because it was easier to "read" the program by already having the cards in a column. Obviously, (especially having done it multiple times) none of these "levels" are particularly complex, but this version required the least amount of work on my part to accomplish the goal.

It just occurred to me that one problem with a randomized array, is that people might not realize how to place the cards for the "run" command to interpret it correctly. I think this could be solved by having the array to the right, and the "solution column" to the left, under the "run" button. The column would have a number of empty boxes (one for each card), thus indicating that the cards are to be placed in the empty boxes.

Thanks again for this small enjoyable exercise. I like your different ideas to teach programming in entertaining ways (I don't know how effective it is for *me*, but I have had fun with your ideas). I still like your programmable labyrinth the most though (I need to go back to that one. I never "beat" it...). I can think of ways to expand on that idea, and maybe even make it a marketable idea (change the "box" you move into a graphical character, probably a robot. Maybe find a way to add in adversaries that also move?). Mouser X over and out.
by hcs at 12:26 AM EDT on October 17, 2017
Thanks again for trying it out and sharing your insight, Mouser! I've been trying to make it easier so the actual puzzle is the hard part, not just figuring out what is going on. I made another change (same address, pinion, old version now at pinion.old) to hopefully make it even a little more obvious, now both the data and the program should read in the right order to English readers: the program reads top to bottom and the data left to right. Also cleaned up the interface and animations a little and added a few puzzles, but not going to be much challenge if you've already been through it.

edited 12:27 AM EDT October 17, 2017

edited 12:28 AM EDT October 17, 2017
by hcs at 12:58 AM EDT on October 18, 2017
Hey, anyone remember Don't Fall? I made two levels: Level 2, Level 3.
by hcs at 3:36 AM EST on November 9, 2017
Ken Perlin open sourced his AR presentation/conversation sketching system called "Chalktalk" the other day. I contributed in minor ways to a previous incarnation of the idea (mostly around hooking up circuits and graphs).

edited 3:38 AM EST November 9, 2017
by Mouser X at 2:01 AM EST on November 11, 2017
I couldn't think of a better place to put it, so hopefully more people read this thread/post and check it out.

Nintendo Life posted an interview with Nick Dwyer, who apparently has created a documentary on video game music. Check out the interview here. It was pretty interesting. Most of his "research" is in regards to early VGM (aka, 80's era, so a lot of chiptunes, but he does get to the SNES era). I liked that he mentioned the FM towns stuff. I've never been very successful at getting HOOT (and whatever else) running, so I haven't listened to much stuff from those machines. It did make me wonder how he (Nick) listened to it though, and if he'd be at all interested in the collection we've got going here (which is largely thanks to this great community, and obviously a HUGE thanks to Knurek for curating it all, and JoshW for hosting!). Check it out (there's videos too). Mouser X over and out.
by hcs at 3:14 AM EST on November 23, 2017
Some interface experiments:
dragn - Drag out from the square to add new squares, drag backwards to delete. Somewhat satisfying.

further - solves a maze as you construct it, tap to add walls or drag objects (including a key and locked doors) to move them

stump - 1D strings of puzzle pieces

edited 3:14 AM EST November 23, 2017

They all save state, and stump and dragn have pinch to zoom/drag background to pan and a little inset map.
Requires modern browsers, I didn't compile down with Babel.

edited 3:17 AM EST November 23, 2017
by hcs at 6:34 PM EST on November 25, 2017
Ok puzzle fans, a puzzle! rules

Mainly for touchscreens but playable with a mouse.

edited 6:34 PM EST November 25, 2017

edited 10:05 PM EST November 25, 2017

edited 10:52 PM EST November 25, 2017
by hcs at 8:26 AM EST on November 29, 2017
Realized I'd made some dumb decisions with the way rules are displayed, hopefully this version isn't hard in nonmeaningful ways:

Various Rules v7
by McStoat at 9:08 AM EST on November 29, 2017
Only 11 stages??? I was just starting to get addicted to it, too.
by hcs at 5:18 PM EST on November 29, 2017
Thanks for checking it out! That's just as much as I came up with, without a new mechanic I don't know if there's much more I can do without repeating myself. We'll see if anything occurs.
by Bonboon228 at 6:17 PM EST on December 11, 2017
Sorry to bump a dead thread, but I think I achieved something worth noting.

I took a (Legally) dumped copy of the psp version of Lego Harry Potter years 1-4, and exchanged the entire soundtrack with tracks from the Order of the Phoenix psp game.

All music worked in game as intended, and they even looped and changed properly!

How 'bout them apples?
by hcs at 3:01 PM EST on December 13, 2017
Nice apples!

This thread is meant to be bumped eternally, anyway, it's kinda where I tweet.
by hcs at 10:52 PM EST on December 17, 2017
Just played a very clever game, Baba Is You. Pretty much exactly the kind of idea I wish I'd come up with. If you liked Various Rules at all you'll love this.

I understand a full version is in development, with nicer graphics and many more levels and mechanics, Definitely looking forward to it!

edited 10:57 PM EST December 17, 2017
by hcs at 3:31 PM EST on December 31, 2017
I finally convinced myself today that one of my recurring dreams is mathematically impossible.

I wanted to see if you could encode a prefix code tree (specifically a canonical Huffman code) in the order of words on each level. But I realized today that with structures with leaf level sequences like 0 0 3 1 1 1 2 there isn't enough leeway in ordering the levels to distinguish from 0 1 0 3 1 1 2, 0 1 1 0 3 1 2 and 0 1 1 1 0 3 2 (I've been calling these "sliders"). And even if you could figure something out for those specific examples, sliders can be arbitrarily long with only the 2 and 3 having any flexibility.

So hopefully that saves me from wasting any more time thinking about this problem.

edited 3:34 PM EST December 31, 2017
by hcs at 11:42 PM EST on February 22, 2018
Super Guitar Bros has recorded a studio version of their Ocarina of Time medley!
by hcs at 2:46 AM EDT on March 31, 2018
Saw Ready Player One, enjoyed it. I feel I can understand almost all of the changes they made from the book. I probably picked up < 50% of the references, man they threw a lot in there.
by bxaimc at 11:28 AM EDT on March 31, 2018
Wait, it’s out already? I guess I’ll have to see it today or tomorrow.
by AnonRunzes at 3:49 PM EDT on March 31, 2018
so, i read the first 40+ pages of Ready Player One and i was not impressed.

i mean, the entire plot of the book is progressed through way of references. as in, our main protagonist finds himself researching James Halliday's entire life just to find an easter egg the man himself teased that it's in the game before his death. you know what that means...

edited 3:50 PM EDT March 31, 2018
by SmartOne at 8:29 PM EDT on April 10, 2018
Anyone know how to force a PC game to render at a particular resolution?

Sonic CD (2012, "Steam" or whatever) supports three junky filters, none of which are 1:1 Pixel Aspect Ratio, because that would be too easy and make too much sense.

Interpolation affects motion and color clarity, of course. Then all we would need is 120 Hz with black frame insertion. Black frame insertion: my most recent love.

Forcing a resolution wouldn't solve problem, though. They're probably stretching the image before it gets to the output buffer (obviously). I love how game developers go through all the effort of releasing a game and then screw the presentation. "Here's all this cool stuff...! ...Nah, let's keep repeating the same simple mistakes."
by Kurausukun at 3:25 PM EDT on April 11, 2018
First of all, you can't just arbitrarily force an application to use a specific resolution and expect it to work. Secondly, in the case of SCD 2011, if you use the "Nostalgia" filter, I don't know if it's exactly 1:1 pixel ratio, but it looks excellent, and is definitely the best out of the three. Second of all, SCD 2011 is already natively widescreen, so I don't know what you want to force a resolution for, unless you're trying to go for ultra-wide or something.
by SmartOne at 10:31 PM EDT on April 12, 2018
Second of all, 2012 was the PC re-release.

Crispy pixels are crispy. I find it helps to squint. Or take a screenshot and zoom in.

I've been looking into Reshade. Looks promising if I want to figure out yet another custom shading language. And math. That annoying thing.
by Kurausukun at 6:21 AM EDT on April 13, 2018
I just noticed I typed "secondly" and then "second of all" after that. I'm very good at this.
by SmartOne at 11:06 PM EDT on May 20, 2018
Developer (let's call him "Omar") of Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap remake (including the PS4 platform) admits that they didn't understand how to correctly implement integer/floating point conversions in the game engine. The result: Jerky scrolling in what could have been a great remake.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/543260/discussions/0/1354868867711313016/?ctp=2#c1500126447386336635

What a waste!
by kode54 at 2:25 AM EDT on May 21, 2018
It's different from that. They are trying to keep the engine precision at that of the original resolution game engine, while also trying to smooth down motion to native pixels on the higher game resolution. And some of the smoothing doesn't work properly, so they either end up with jerky scrolling (precision of a 240p console game), or they end up with smooth scrolling where objects jump around at different times relative to the scrolling. Either way, poor job all around.
by SmartOne at 12:44 AM EDT on May 23, 2018
Yeah, I think the real root of the issue is that the original game runs at 30 Hz, and they didn't put in the effort to rewrite the engine to be frame-rate-independent.

The remake still reacts to input at 30 Hz, and they add animation frames in between (sometimes) to make it seem like 60 Hz (like pseudo-halfway smoother). It's that "sometimes" which is the problem. Walking in a straight line at a constant velocity is nice and smooth. Unfortunately they didn't add any motion smoothing (extra real frames, since this is a game) when changing velocity, so remake's smoothness is inconsistent with itself, which is basically worse than if they simply retained the original 30 Hz video output.

They were already reverse-engineering the game. How hard exactly would it have been to update the game engine to at least 60 Hz? I mean, come on. Wonder Boy III is not quite Final Fantasy X.

In an alternate universe, this is a great remake.
by hcs at 7:04 AM EDT on May 27, 2018
Transcribin'
by hcs at 4:35 AM EDT on May 28, 2018
Been wanting to do this for years, finally sat down with Inkscape and cranked it out: Finite State T-Shirt

edited 7:40 PM EDT May 28, 2018
by marcusss at 11:35 PM EDT on May 28, 2018
That is so cool !
Prefix Report by hcs at 4:59 AM EDT on May 30, 2018
As a big component of my graduate degree (MS) I wrote a report on prefix coding. I've generally been too embarrassed to publish it, but I think I'm over that now.

Encoding a prefix code

No original insights as far as I know, due to being scooped by Narimani and Khosravifard. The possibility I bring up in 3.2 is what I finally realized was impossible here.

---

And hey, Finite State T-shirts still available.

---

Speaking of embarrassing, here's an interview I did in 2009 about my ICPC experience and working at IBM.

edited 5:20 AM EDT May 30, 2018
by hcs at 7:26 AM EDT on May 31, 2018
.

edited 7:30 AM EDT May 31, 2018
by bxaimc at 8:08 AM EDT on May 31, 2018
tfw I remember you getting the job at IBM...almost 10 years ago to the day. Time flies...
by bxaimc at 2:56 PM EDT on June 2, 2018
hcs, they did it again



FFVII PS4 port
by hcs at 4:24 PM EDT on June 2, 2018
Whyyy
by hcs at 10:35 PM EDT on October 28, 2018
Picked up one of these today at Target: PAC-MAN Pocket Player

It's competent, I like that the screen is big enough (cf the stupidly small Pocket Sprite) and the controls feel ok. This has to be running an emulator, though it's definitely been hacked (even if Pac-Man still takes coins it's been reformatted for landscape and has "TM and (C)1980 BNEI"), I think the other two games (Pac-Panic and Pac-Mania) are the Genesis versions. One thing that bugs me is it doubles up some lines in order to fill the screen completely, this is especially infuriating with the scrolling Pac-Mania.

I'd love to hack on this, I popped it open and found a big Flash chip as the only recognizable feature: Spansion S99JL032HBT1 209FF032 G (probably 32Mb/4MB?). So it should be possible to reprogram, I'm wondering if there might be a programming mode on the USB connection or if that's just for power (possibly launched by some button held on boot I haven't found yet?)

Or I wonder if it would be feasible to connect the heart of the PocketSprite to this I/O...

edited 11:01 PM EDT October 28, 2018

I guess what I'm really saying is I just want Gameboy Tetris on this thing.

edited 11:19 PM EDT October 28, 2018
by marcusss at 11:31 AM EDT on October 30, 2018
Sounds like fun hcs. Would be cool if you could add your own games

I wish I had one of these babies CRAZY but yeah I could still settle for Pacman ;-)
by marcusss at 1:34 AM EDT on November 3, 2018
I found this quite interesting since I kind of forgot about the Saturn but good news it was cracked back in 2016. Nice story here

Pretty cool
by hcs at 4:28 AM EST on November 17, 2018
Huh, apparently this turned up on eBay a few months ago, afaik the only official release of Pilotwings 64 music (and only two tracks at that): Cool Cuts. I can't find the original auction, wonder what it went for.

Looks like they let them play for a long time, though, 20 mins between them according to this TOC.

edited 4:33 AM EST November 17, 2018

Ah, that's why I wasn't able to find a completed auction, it was still for sale! Snagged!

edited 12:21 PM EST November 17, 2018
by MoldyPond at 6:06 PM EST on November 17, 2018
@hcs Could we possibly be getting some flac rips then? Really interested to see if the Mario 64 content is taken directly from the official CD or if it's the in-game quality versions.
by hcs at 8:51 PM EST on November 17, 2018
@MoldyPond: count on it!
by MoldyPond at 10:31 PM EST on November 17, 2018
Sweet, thanks a bunch :D

edited 6:37 AM EST November 18, 2018
by hcs at 10:51 PM EST on November 21, 2018
Cool Cuts!

I don't know what to make of the last three tracks, though. Beta?
by MoldyPond at 7:10 PM EST on November 23, 2018
Well damn that was quick :D

All the Mario 64 stuff is definitely from the other CDs and not from in-game, however it sounds like there's vinyl popping on a lot of the songs.

I've never played Wave Race so I dunno about that one but holy hell what is with the Pilotwings 64 music? I wouldn't even say beta, more like "completely unfinished alpha", and why are they both a 2 minute loop that clearly has a defined ending point then loops for 8 more minutes? Rocket Belt is an entirely different song ffs.

No wonder no one knows about this CD...

Thanks so much for posting it though!

edited 7:14 PM EST November 23, 2018
by MoldyPond at 8:32 PM EST on November 23, 2018
Man I can't even find those three songs uploaded to youtube either. Not sure if anyone else would be asking for it but you never know.
by hcs at 10:28 AM EST on November 24, 2018
Neat, Cloudflare has an IPFS gateway at cloudflare-ipfs.com, so you can take my ipfs.io links and replace the domain with that, if you like. Thanks to datschge for pointing me to the announcement .
by hcs at 9:10 PM EST on November 27, 2018
A few more gateways:
ipfs.infura.io
ipfs.eternum.io

The cloudflare one above works well!
by Ultrafighter at 6:47 AM EST on December 13, 2018
Hello hcs, may I invite you here? Your assistance with demux_dat_be.exe would be most helpful there.
Later!
by hcs at 10:38 PM EST on December 18, 2018
I ran across a thread with photos of the Cool Cuts disc among other stuff, consensus seems to be it's part of a launch kit sent to some stores.
by hcs at 9:52 PM EST on January 17, 2019
Fun fact: Nintendo apparently had the trademark on "NES" up until 2016, when it was cancelled due to not being renewed. "Nintendo Entertainment System" is still registered.
by hcs at 12:47 AM EST on February 28, 2019
Yay, Baba Is You has a release date: March 13. For PC and Switch!
by hcs at 3:20 AM EST on March 9, 2019
Fun coincidence: The EXAPUNKS zip I posted via IPFS has a hash of QmZqC11bLizfdXb7CKYJ5kR73sH8McDK8Jw47pG1sZACHB. The game is from Zach Barth.
by bxaimc at 2:53 AM EDT on March 26, 2019
Unsurprisingly, we found vgmstream being used again for yet another FFVII port (Switch).
by bnnm at 12:21 PM EDT on April 6, 2019
They do credit vgmstream in the ports site, so it's not like it's a big secret:
http://www.jp.square-enix.com/ff7sp/license.html

+1 for proper credits, -1 for looping .ogg in the dumbest possible way.
by Dark_Ansem at 2:14 PM EDT on April 6, 2019
Congratulations on being employed by Square Enix! Even if badly.
by AdeleHouck at 9:06 PM EDT on April 6, 2019
There are a lot of variants of how and what I do during my free time, including cinemas, driving, theatres and a lot of others.
by Knurek at 3:14 PM EDT on April 27, 2019
Oh, just, you know, chatting with Yuzo Koshiro:
by marthastern at 2:57 AM EDT on April 30, 2019
Mostly, I spend my time at work. I work as a computer programmer. Also, in my free time, I work as a freelance writer for [essay writing spam link removed] helping students with their studies. Moreover, I like to do some sports and play video games.

[Please stop the essay writing spam -hcs]
by hcs at 2:00 PM EDT on September 1, 2019
I generally use unique, long passwords with a password manager, but when lazy I have a default one. Forums tend to be one such laziness. With the xkcd forum leak, which includes MD5 hashes, it's time to update a bunch of those. That includes my uid 1 account here which used a minor variant of the default. The account has no special powers, but it would still be embarrassing.

All parts of this forum's backend always used unique passwords, and user passwords have been hashed for years, but as with anywhere it's good idea to use a password manager and a unique password for your account here.

edited 2:04 PM EDT September 1, 2019

It was probably time to update these a long time ago, at least since ffshrine was breached back in 2015, but this is kicking me into gear.

edited 2:22 PM EDT September 1, 2019
Pop quiz by hcs at 4:38 AM EDT on September 15, 2019
What do James Fenimore Cooper, William Howard Taft, Murray Gell-Mann, and Tommy Lee Jones have in common?
by MoldyPond at 10:46 AM EDT on September 15, 2019
Three names? :D
by AnonRunzes at 1:22 PM EDT on September 15, 2019
born at the same day and at the same month as today.
by hcs at 11:16 PM EDT on October 20, 2019
Was at Portland Retro Gaming Expo this weekend, my favorite find was Falcom Neo Classic, complete with obi, registration card, and bonus disc. The discs have been aggressively resurfaced, but at least that means they play properly.

I found a CD Walkman (D-FJ210) at a nearby booth for $18, including batteries and pouch. This will hopefully end a series of variously lousy CD players, holding up great so far!

I also spent some time recently working out how to archive the old psf_rippers Yahoo Group. All of the old attachments are gone, so I have to see if I still have any in a backup. If anyone reading this still has 'em, let me know.

I ran across someone trying to archive a Turkish music group, I was able to provide some help there.

edited 11:24 PM EDT October 20, 2019
by hcs at 3:14 AM EDT on October 25, 2019
I ran across a copy of Jami Sieber's Lush Mechanique yesterday at a record store, I remembered seeing that title in the tags of the Braid soundtrack ("Undercurrent", also "The Darkening Ground"). I didn't know it was published on disc!

Also in the cello section I found the Portland Cello Project's album Thousand Words, I was familar with the first track "Denmark" (I'd heard them perform it in the Rose Garden amphitheatre over the summer, though it sounded familiar even then). The second track is a Halo arrangement!

edited 3:34 AM EDT October 25, 2019
by MoldyPond at 10:37 AM EDT on October 25, 2019
@hcs None of the music in Braid was actually made for the game; it was all previously made but chosen for Braid since the creator wanted music that wouldn’t loop constantly since the puzzles require you to sit there for hours to figure them out, plus they’d be the least annoying when reversing time constantly ;)
by hcs at 3:25 PM EDT on October 25, 2019
Yep I'm aware, I'd just thought it was "stock" music that was only published for licensing, not released as albums. I hadn't realized that "Undercurrent" was from 1994, so even if that was the case (and I don't think it was), the best way to distribute it would be by CD.
by MoldyPond at 6:06 PM EDT on October 25, 2019
I believe Undercurrent is a mix of three classical folk songs, couldn’t tell you which ones though
by hcs at 3:42 AM EDT on November 1, 2019
I got a Vectrex a few days ago, been playing Vectrexagon.

Almost 10 seconds further tonight!

edited 1:40 AM EDT November 2, 2019
by hcs at 12:34 AM EST on November 4, 2019
Whee, new personal high score 181:12
Around 176 the song loops, had been aiming for that.

Edit to replace the original upload, which had major transcoding issues.

edited 7:44 AM EST November 4, 2019
As the hexagon turns by hcs at 4:12 AM EST on November 9, 2019
New high score, 256:38 on Easy mode (no vid this time). I think I may have been mistaken in thinking that Easy goes up to the same top speed as Hard, it doesn't really feel that way, but these things are really squishy subjectively. It seemed almost like it slowed down once the song looped.

edited 4:19 AM EST November 9, 2019
by hcs at 5:42 PM EST on November 12, 2019
Dan Hess, composer of Pilotwings 64 (one of my favorite soundtracks on N64 or anywhere), is revisiting his old work. Check out the Birdman Returns Teaser on YouTube!

Also I almost broke 200 seconds on Vectrexagon Hard. (3.7MB photo).

edited 5:44 PM EST November 12, 2019
by hcs at 12:19 AM EST on November 16, 2019
Broke 200 for the first time, and by quite a bit! 215:96 (4.2 MB photo)
by hcs at 1:52 AM EST on November 20, 2019
320:88!



Flow is a hell of a drug.
by hcs at 10:15 PM EST on December 1, 2019
Ok. I'm tired of never being able to find this online when I want to reference it: SNK vs. The American Literary Canon (1.3MB PNG)

From "How to Make a Sprite Comic in 8 Easy Bits", or just "8 Easy Bits", by Pat Roesle, which ended some years ago.

This was "#150 - Here We Go Again (Interlude)", by Pat and "R Wolff". Posted 2008-11-03, according to this copy of the archive, which is missing the actual page for many comics. It's in volume 3 of the archives Pat posted, which only includes the images.

edited 10:24 PM EST December 1, 2019

I have nothing left to prove: Vectrexagon - Hard - 659:28

edited 5:48 AM EST December 2, 2019
by hcs at 8:44 AM EST on December 23, 2019
I made this for my family, but maybe someone here will also find it amusing/soothing:

Yule Lamp, 20 minutes of a lava lamp (early Christmas present), with some not-particuarly festive music (from Jan Hammer's Beyond the Mind's Eye soundtrack).

Happy holidays!

edited 8:46 AM EST December 23, 2019
by hcs at 7:41 PM EST on December 28, 2019
This week in Vectrexagon news, the timer glitched out somewhere past 900. I think this should be 1048:72, probably it's like the lives counter in Super Mario Bros that is only designed for 1 digit as so it picks the next tile after 9.



edited 7:49 PM EST December 28, 2019
by JFD62780 at 12:22 AM EST on December 29, 2019
*gives a standing ovation to hcs for rolling the score over in Vectrexagon*
by hcs at 6:09 PM EST on January 24, 2020
I visited the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill today, here's my favorite photo: A broken concrete platform that was probably a temple, for an unknown deity. And some trees.



1280x960 (690KB)
full size (4.8MB)

Reminds me a lot of Shadow of the Colossus. I've also been getting a strong Talos Principle vibe from all the ruined brick walls. (In addition to a Neuromancer feel from general paranoia and mild culture shock.)

edited 6:14 PM EST January 24, 2020
by hcs at 6:30 PM EST on February 15, 2020
Dumped some N64 ROMs last night, while I had the hardware set up. Some Wideboys (a CGB and two AGBs) and a multicart that uses Neon64 (and an old Crazy Nation menu).

edited 6:33 PM EST February 15, 2020
I have no account and I must tweet by hcs at 2:43 AM EST on February 22, 2020
Time to disavow the donuts

Tarkovsky's Dune
tagline by hcs at 11:42 PM EST on February 25, 2020
bottled under the authority of the midnight society

-

Yikes, Spotify has got a big problem with credential stuffing. I signed up with an old password and within two days I got an email saying it'd been signed in from a distance. Put in a proper unique password and signed out everywhere, the next day it needed another reset for "suspicious activity" (I assume from being hammered on by the attacker).

edited 5:05 PM EST February 26, 2020
by hcs at 2:33 AM EDT on March 20, 2020
Been catching up on a few games I'd bought but not played:

Portal 2 (2011) was a lot of fun, and now I know what all the lemon talk was about a few years ago. Only did the single player story.

---

Heaven's Vault (2019) I was looking forward to for its ancient languages mechanic, but I've bounced off it so far. I'd enjoyed Inkle's 80 Days (2014), which is very strongly suited to multiple playthroughs. I think I don't like something longer with the feeling that I'm making irrevocable bad decisions at each dialog branch, and it's hard to decide how to consistently role play the character vs saying what I'd want to say. There's also a great deal of information being dumped and I'm a little overwhelmed and feeling I'm not absorbing essential things.

The language translation mechanic itself is a bit of a letdown, at least early in the game you're making completely arbitrary guesses without context and no way to indicate confidence level. I was expecting something more puzzley, this is very adventure gamey.

But I haven't played enough of it yet to really give it a fair try, so I may revisit it. It doesn't help that there are graphical issues (flickering) on my system, I should fix those first so the whole experience doesn't feel so janky.

---

I just finished The Beginner's Guide (2015), it struck me quite strongly. It is over quickly, which allows immediate reflection on the whole course of the game. I have to think some more about it, maybe I'll end up replaying it. I didn't see it going where it did, though I can see how someone more skilled at empathy might have. Recurring symbols were employed to great effect.

I've also heard good things about The Magic Circle (2015), which I bought around the same time but haven't played yet, and which also deals in meta-art themes. That may be next for me, though I'm going to have to let Beginner's Guide sink in some more.

edited 2:35 AM EDT March 20, 2020

edited 2:36 AM EDT March 20, 2020
by SmartOne at 2:00 PM EDT on March 21, 2020
Funny, I don't even have a Spotify account but just got a bunch of emails to verify account creation.
by hcs at 10:23 PM EDT on April 2, 2020
Been watching a hummingbird visiting the tree across the street from my apartment, my new desk looks out that way so I've been seeing it often the last few days. I suspect it's an Anna's, but not sure.

I've gotten better day by day at getting a photo of it, but I don't have very good optics. This is through binoculars held up to my smartphone camera.



GIF

edited 10:23 PM EDT April 2, 2020
by hcs at 7:37 PM EDT on May 26, 2020
I ran across a CD-R from 2005 (still good!) where I'd put the source files from my Max Payne PS2 rip kit. The links to the MP3s have been dead for a long time as I deleted those from the web site pretty soon after uploading them. So today I reencoded them, enjoy weird stuff like this report from the voiceover producers, or "The Void" with "Captain Broussard" and "Scott" [Miller] in the engine room.
by hcs at 2:18 AM EDT on July 5, 2020
For the last few months I've spent virtually all my free time (and some time that wasn't really free!) on a new version of Neon64. I've got 2.0 beta 1 up there now, this is the first release.

Kind of symbolic releasing it today, the first entry in my old devlog was 2002-07-04. That's when I came home from a fireworks display, moved my PC next to the family TV, and started on 1.0. That was 18 years ago (2020-2002); the N64 came out only 13 years after the Famicom (1996-1983).

The old version was written, along with the assembler, in DOS edit.com on a PC with 8MB RAM. Now I use vim on Linux on a PC with 8GB RAM, mostly using a Chromebook as a terminal.

I had started work on a new version using a new assembler (written in Racket) last year, but that fizzled out as I was caught in an infinite cycle of yak shaving. This current effort started in May, using bass.
krom's code made it really easy to get started, my first real exercise was reworking his tile conversion RSP ucode to be 4x faster, and it went on from there.

cloc thinks it's 8951 lines of code, seems a little short to me. The last nonzero byte is at 0xb268, about 45K total. The instructions in the CPU portion fit nicely into the 32K instruction cache.

There's some notes in the readme about the architecture so I won't go into much detail about that, I pulled every trick I could think of to get this running smoothly while still being fairly accurate.

If anyone tries it out please let me know!

---

Also recently I pre-ordered the FF7 Remake OST, looking forward to it as I already enjoyed some of the arrangements in the rip.

edited 3:46 AM EDT July 5, 2020
by hcs at 2:27 AM EDT on July 8, 2020
Neon64 2.0 beta 2 is up, including source.
by hcs at 6:03 AM EDT on July 23, 2020
I finally fulfilled a dream this week: to run a N64 ROM with custom boot code. See boot_stub.
by hcs at 8:12 AM EDT on July 27, 2020
Neon64 2.0 beta 3 is up, a few new features and lots of bug fixes.
by hcs at 12:08 AM EDT on September 4, 2020
I picked up Micro Mages a few weeks back, started playing it this week, just got to Hard Mode tonight. It's very cool, well designed, and all the more impressive for fitting in unswitched NES cart space (40K)! Check out this interesting video with a breakdown of the size reduction techniques.

I ran across it while looking for a Super Bat Puncher demo cart, which I'd love to have as I think that's one of the most impressive homebrew NES games, very good technically but moreover very well designed, but I think only a few were ever made for an auction so I've never been able to find any (besides one I saw at MGC one year that wasn't for sale). Micro Mages is from the same developer, Morphcat. I think I'd heard about the new game before, but I missed the Kickstarter somehow. So I picked up the Kickstarter rewards (NES cart, box, manual, soundtrack, etc) on eBay. Lunar contributed an arrangement for the soundtrack, cool!

I look forward to being able to play this with 4 players some day. Part of the reason for the 8x8 characters is to allow 4 players with minimal flicker (it also cuts down on needed CHR-ROM). I'll have to get Fourscore support in Neon64; generally the game works well, but even 2nd player doesn't work at the moment. (The other main issue I notice is the noise channel is too loud or doesn't decay fast enough, or maybe it needs a filter, the drum on the boss stage sounds like it plays some long beats instead of several short beats.)

edited 12:09 AM EDT September 4, 2020

By the way, Micro Mages is also for sale for PC (itch.io, Steam), packaged with an emulator, and includes easy access to the ROM if you want to play it in your emulator of choice.

(I should add that my standards for NES homebrew are probably not the best calibrated, I knew every major homebrew game maybe around 2005 but only a few high points since.)

edited 12:30 AM EDT September 4, 2020

In other "hcs plays" news:

A few weeks ago I started playing Hollow Knight. It's neat! I like exploring the world, the combat generally makes sense for a not-so-hot-with-combat guy like me, the style is interesting for how it kind of wrestles with the broader tone.

I tried playing Nier Automata, but even with the graphics and minimum and resolution turned down to NTSC levels it has trouble running on my whimpy machine. The gameplay isn't really up my alley, in any case, as I said not big on combat, and especially not great at it in 3D. Love the music, though.

Probably the most time I've spent lately is Desert Golfing, while listening to podcasts. I've long ago lost the game I started back when it first came out, several Android phones back, but I'm now much further than I've ever been. I certainly don't remember having gotten to the interesting color schemes. It's sometimes frustrating, but usually the 2D golf thing is a soothing nothing, with little jolts when hitting a hole-in-one. There's also this weird curiosity as to whether it develops any further. Don't spoil it for me, I don't want to know for sure one way or the other! I've tried to avoid looking up anything about it, though I just recently searched for hole 2866 to see if I was missing something.

edited 12:45 AM EDT September 4, 2020
by hcs at 2:08 AM EDT on September 9, 2020
w00t, beat Micro Mages hard mode tonight, shortly after I hit hole 3000 of Desert Golfing.

I've been working through an F* tutorial, somewhat slow going as I'm trying to learn Emacs and fix issues with my system at the same time.

Next step is to run through Micro Mages in one run (I can get up to hard mode pretty easily without losing a life), then figure out what the other 3 special items are, I guess that they correspond to beating the bosses in some odd way (as with the one I found so far), but maybe they're hidden; there are a few out of the way places I know of that I haven't reached yet.

edited 2:11 AM EDT September 9, 2020
by hcs at 3:23 AM EDT on September 13, 2020
Happy 35th anniversary, Super Mario Bros!

Thought I'd play through (with warps) in celebration. What an amazing game!



(My own 35th birthday is 2 days later)

edited 3:26 AM EDT September 13, 2020

edited 9:15 PM EDT September 13, 2020
by hcs at 9:37 PM EDT on September 26, 2020
Finished Micro Mages without continues, final score 145100. Still no wiser about the other hiddin items, though I have found at least one unhelpful warp.
by hcs at 4:59 AM EST on January 18, 2021
I played through A Monster's Expedition (Through Puzzling Exhibitions) this weekend, great game! I haven’t enjoyed a puzzle game of this type (Sokoban-esque with discovered mechanics) so much since Stephen's Sausage Roll. The aesthetics are nice and peaceful. The puzzles are clever, often tricky, yet restrained so things never get out of hand. The humor is low-key. I enjoyed the dynamic music cues a lot, and I usually don’t like those much. Check it out!

edited 5:00 AM EST January 18, 2021

Speaking of Stephen's Sausage Roll (which is a good deal harder), there's a bundle on Steam with A Monster's Expedition, SSR, and Baba Is You (a brilliant puzzle concept, meta-Sokoban) called Baba's Sausage Expedition - Puzzle Game Masterpieces .

edited 5:35 AM EST January 18, 2021
by hcs at 5:04 AM EST on January 23, 2021
Zachtronics is running an Indiegogo campaign for an NES version of HACK*MATCH, a mini-game from EXAPUNKS. The game was written with a "custom C compiler" that will be included with the game, the campaign includes a run of physical NES cartridges or just digital stuff.

I didn't play enough of EXAPUNKS to get to HACK*MATCH, but this seems interesting so I signed up as soon as I heard about it!

edited 5:05 AM EST January 23, 2021
by hcs at 1:13 AM EST on February 6, 2021
Finally finished a project that's been on my mind a lot. Two tapes, two tape repairs, and several recordings later, it's Nintendo 64 Original Soundtrack Greatest Hits - Cassette Version. There's a lot of noise, but the signal is pretty strong, as this was taken from a freshly opened tape (which I nevertheless had to repair when the leader separated). I'm thrilled to be able to fill in the vgmdb entry!

Also, I see the forum got a link from an Ars Technica article about instrument source research, congrats to those interviewed! And welcome to anyone new coming in from the link!

edited 1:13 AM EST February 6, 2021
by hcs at 4:48 AM EST on March 6, 2021
I played through an old classic of the interactive fiction community, Spider And Web, over the past two days (got stuck yesterday, eventually needed hints). I'd heard interesting things about its structure from a co-worker. It was great! There were a few rough patches that a more seasoned IF player might have had an easier time with, and I had expected a more intricate endgame, but it was a truly fun puzzle to work out, and well written. I started playing Hadean Lands, a commercial release by the same author, a few months ago, I may try finishing it again off of this success.
by hcs at 10:45 PM EDT on May 14, 2021
I've made a page on the Intelligent Systems Video Boy, a device that plays Virtual Boy games on a TV, with internal photos of the unit I bought a few months ago.

Glad to finally feel like I can be done with this, let me know if anyone finds issues.

edited 11:03 PM EDT May 14, 2021
by vajuvaju at 10:27 PM EDT on May 15, 2021
Very interesting, hcs! You could make a YouTube video about this machine.
by hcs at 10:54 PM EDT on May 15, 2021
> Very interesting, hcs!
Thanks!

> You could make a YouTube video about this machine.
I'd like to, but probably a better idea to loan it to someone else, I fear I'd drive myself crazy trying to produce a video.

edited 11:02 PM EDT May 15, 2021

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