It would be cool if there was a kind of compendium of all the different things a #bbcmicro was used for. What job it did with what expansions and what software. This one ran a lab between 1983 and 1989 using custom software that controlled… etc
Read some more of #voicesfromafuturepassed but stopped at the Sophie Wilson chapter because I wanted to be fresh reading it if that makes sense. They’re all legends but she’s a personal hero. Looking forward to reading that today
Could only manage about 20 minutes of #alanwake to get past the helicopter bit where I died last weekend but then the next bit was immediately more combat and I wasn’t really in the mood
Noticed a weird bug where you'd "perish" if you reached some co-ordinates *next* to the edge even though they'd been cleared by the charter. Pretty sure it's a rounding issue from passing in trig results to POINT. Always rounding down using INT seems to fix it #sinclairbasic
I'm glad mine was yesterday the shape of the street seems to create a kind of vortex focussing on the exact spot my particular bin goes
I hadn’t heard of them but I am a bit of a casual but they’re good! The name makes me think of the posters you’d see around town of very local scene bands that would raise a smile but in a good way
Forgot to do something like PAUSE 0 : RANDOMIZE so the points of interest are the same every time. Maybe I could fit some more compressed screens as well to tell a kind of story
I think I’m finally getting the hang of combat in #alanwake. Stand your ground and drop flares to keep the taken at bay. Don’t bother shooting until you’ve flashed them with your torch a bit. Don’t run away unless you can see a light to run to
Coincidentally because I’ve been actively wondering about this @thisweekinretro.bsky.social this week mentioned that the #amstradcpc version of Jet Set Willy used compression to fit more screens. Interesting!
The #ironlung inspired #zxspectrum game I’ve been working on is now available. #sinclairbasic with some compression to fit a detailed game screen and some creepy visuals! www.eigengrouse.com/posts/the-mu...
The #monorepo approach works well with #retrocomputing i.e. include everything required to build, which means I can only use tools that allow this but I've yet to come across a tool created by the wonderful retro community that doesn't. And every project is different as I learn something new
Had an idea of LOAD ""SCREEN$ to combine #sinclairbasic with a detailed game screen (just don't CLS!). Then decided a buffer would let me switch screens. Now falling down a github.com/einar-saukas... rabbit hole to see how many .SCRs I can fit. Can you still call it BASIC? The eternal question
I don’t know if it’s because there’s a lot more water under the bridge, this would have been unthinkable when I was younger, but Hitler And The Nazis is on Netflix and for a split second I wondered if it was a documentary or sitcom or band or what
Well I got “ornithopter” for 64k before the options came up thanks to Frank Herbert but struggled on the £200 mushroom question #millionaire
Progressed a bit more on Alan Wake. It’s enjoyable for about an hour and then the combat ruins it but if you can make it through a stage it’s rewarding. Five out of seven
I don't think it was a total failure but I wasn't able to eliminate all the "choppiness" if you'll excuse the pun one final time. I did write a blog post about it though in case anyone still reads those things #zxspectrum #sinclairbasic www.eigengrouse.com/posts/udgima...
#palegreenghosts is such a tune
Listening to John Grant and I've just realised I cannot picture his face or rather I can only see Hopper from Stranger Things
A less "choppy" version of the water animation (from gif-superretroworld.itch.io/water-animat...) but this uses m/c and a double buffer. Still called from #sinclairbasic and using UDGs but having to CLEAR some room
Apparently there’s a very quick way of copying data to the screen by using how DEF FN string parameters are copied using LDIR but I’ve failed to figure it out yet. I’d rather do that than use a m/c PRINT routine as I’m trying to keep things BASIC-y
This water animation is obviously very "choppy" but I managed to use ImageMagick to split up the source png and some pipeline code of my own to convert to UDGs so I'm pretty happy about that. Just need some clever ways of optimising #sinclairbasic now (the DEFADD trick?)
Had another go at Alan Wake which I do like but find the combat stressful for some reason. Now just flicking through what to watch and #theborderlands is on prime so going to terrify myself with that (again) instead
The argument for writing your own is that it can be niche and importantly can be fun (why do we do this). Alternatively, IM is FOSS and looks like the perfect fit for pipelines, which still feel DIY and fun. It’s not like I’m assembling my own Z80 after all!
I’m becoming slightly obsessed with #zxspectrum build pipelines or tooling. Should I write my own tool fo converting pngs into sprites or use something like imagemagick.org (has to work in a build pipeline)
There must be a general agreement that where the beans go in coffee machines must make you think "what's that sticky out thing there, you just pour the beans all over that?"
It’s cool that they’ve made an Iron Lung film. I’ll probably have wait to see it but I definitely will. That and the SH2 film. No chance of convincing anyone to see it so I’ll just have to wait
like the opposite of "but then I got high"
I was really struggling to get out of bed then I remembered we had a new coffee machine
I'm late to the party but found some great tips and a tool that optimises your #sinclairbasic code without compiling it, just improving it! Thought I'd give it a go #zxbasicus #zxspectrum www.eigengrouse.com/posts/caliru...
Did the first chapter. Almost like Twin Peaks the game and even the woodsmen are just exactly the same. Obviously loving all of that. Wasn’t really feeling the combat but possibly just not in the right mood
