Mastodawn

I've rewritten my #Console8 logo player -also works on #AgonLight - and updated the video file for 2 reasons. 1. it was a bit long playing the whole thing, and 2. I wanted to play a higher resolution video, covering as much of the screen as possible. With a bit of video editing (cutting and cropping to make the most of the logo at the end), plus taking advantage of the VDP code for both decompression and bitmap expansion, this is what my boot sequence looks like. I've left the logo to linger a little, but that's optional and a quick change to the script.
Source code, binary and assets are available here: https://github.com/sijnstra/agon-projects/tree/main/logoplay2
#ez80 #z80 #assemblyLanguage #8bit #retrocomputing #console

Retro Computer Dresden e.V.Apr 23

Teil 2 zum AgonLight - Programmieren in 2026 auf einem modernen 8-Bit System in Basic und Assembler. Home Automation in 8-Bit, why not?

https://retrocomputer-dresden.de/agonlight-programmierung/

#agonlight #retrocomputing #dresden #basic #bbcbasic #assembler #esp32

zxprinter Apr 23

I just released version 0.98 of PASTA/80, the 8-bit Turbo Pascal 3 clone that lets you party like it's 1986. ;) Now with conditional compilation, overlays for Agon, and an RTL reference. Thanks to @sijnstra for tirelessly sending patches and uncovering compiler bugs.

Binaries available for MacOS (Arm and x86), Windows (x86), Ubuntu (x86) and Raspberry Pi OS (Arm).

https://github.com/pleumann/pasta80

#pascal #turbopascal #cpm #zxspectrum #zxspectrumnext #agonlight #retrocomputing #retroprogramming

Retro Computer Dresden e.V.Apr 21

Retroparty war wieder genial ❤️
Da wir an die Kapazitätsgrenze geraten, wird die nächste wohl an einer anderen Location stattfinden. Dieses mal stand die Party unter dem Motto Atari. Ich hoffe ein paar Amiganer konnten Vorurteile abbauen, ich schon 😉

https://retrocomputer-dresden.de/retroparty-2026-one/

#retrocomputing #atari #agonlight #z80 #dresden #retro #party

Retro Computer Dresden e.V.Apr 19

Der AgonLight ist kein Raspberry Pi, sondern ein echter 8-Bit-Computer mit „Bare-Metal“-Design. Er kombiniert eine 50 MHz eZ80-CPU von Zilog mit einem ESP32 als Grafik- und Sound-Co-Prozessor.
Bootet in Millisekunden direkt in BBC BASIC. Wer Technik ohne Abstraktions-Layer verstehen will, bekommt hier direkten Zugriff auf CPU, Speicher und Register.

https://retrocomputer-dresden.de/agonlight_intro/

#agonlight #z80 #retrocomputing #bbcbasic #dresden #retrocomputerdresden

zxprinter Mar 18

I just released version 0.97 of PASTA/80, the 8-bit Turbo Pascal 3 clone you didn't know you needed. 😀 Now with a target for Agon Light/Console8 (courtesy of @sijnstra), debugger support and lots of small improvements to both the compiler and the existing targets (which are CP/M, Spectrum 48K, 128K, and Next).

https://github.com/pleumann/pasta80

#pascal #turbopascal #cpm #zxspectrum #zxspectrumnext #agonlight #retrocomputing #retroprogramming

Shawn Sijnstra Jan 11

Time for another image viewer for #AgonLight #Console8 - this time, PCX format. There are a number of reasons why I chose to display this format on the Agon/Console8.
* It is an already existing format
* The format is supported by modern tools, including #GIMP
* It uses a very simple form of compression ideal for 8 bit CPUs
* The specific choice of 16 colours has additional benefits:
* The 16 colours are chosen from within the available 64 colour palette
* The 16 colours allows the image to be sent to the VDP with 2 pixels per byte, speeding up the transfer
I've attached a sample here to show just the quality of the resolution and colour depth. #z80 source code and binary is at:
https://github.com/sijnstra/agon-projects/tree/main/PCXview
#retrocomputing #image #viewer #ez80

james is here Jan 5

Started looking into porting the Antic magazine type-in "Adventure Creation Kit" (CREATION.BAS) to Agon. It's a short program, under 200 lines of Atari BASIC(with one machine language routine for graphics) but very effective for making a tiny hack-and-slash RPG in a tile-based world. A good candidate for a "port and expand" approach. #agonLight #retrocomputing #retrogaming #gamedev

Shawn Sijnstra Dec 8

I recently took advantage of some temporary discounts and acquired the #Console8 by Heber. It's a #retrogame focused package of the #AgonLight, complete with some great joypads that they also make. As part of the induction into the house, I converted the logo into something a little more 8-bit, and updated my logo software. #z80 #ez80 #retrocomputing
You can buy a Console8 here : https://heber.co.uk/agon-cosole8/
You can download the updated logo software & source here: https://github.com/sijnstra/agon-projects/tree/main/bootlogo

Shawn Sijnstra Nov 24

Time for another programming option for the #AgonLight family... #Pascal! I've re-targeted PASTA/80, an open source Turbo Pascal 3 compatible cross-compiler that targets #z80 machines. It's still early days, so expect a lot of weirdness and issues, and things that can be improved. It has a dependency on sjasm+, so there are a few quirks in how I've had to pull together the Agon libraries. You also need a Pascal compiler to compile the compiler. All the instructions, source and some examples are on the github repo: https://github.com/sijnstra/pasta80/tree/agon #retrocomputing