Aura/MoomJul 3

What? They programmed it by doing what???

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bally_Astrocade

Show threadjuv3nalJul 3

@MOOMANiBE

icymi some programming under tight constraints wizardry via the demoscene

http://www.reenigne.org/blog/1k-colours-on-cga-how-its-done/
&
http://www.reenigne.org/blog/8088-pc-speaker-mod-player-how-its-done/

1K colours on CGA: How it's done « Reenigne blog

Show threadjuv3nal
@MOOMANiBE
a video of it running is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHXx3orN35Y
the music wizardry starts at ~6:39 (it's just normal pc speaker before)
8088 MPH by Hornet + CRTC + DESiRE

YouTube
Jul 3 at 2:48amWeb
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Aura/MoomJul 3

What? They programmed it by doing what???

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bally_Astrocade

Show threadA cool crab wearing shadesJul 3
@MOOMANiBE I USED TO HAVE ONE OF THOSE AS A KID AND MY PARENTS TOSSED IT BECAUSE IT WAS BROKEN AND I'M SALTY ABOUT IT TO THIS DAY
Show threadA cool crab wearing shadesJul 3
@MOOMANiBE the cartridges are still pretty cheap but the console's fuckin expensive now 😔
Show threadRegressionToTheMemeJul 3
@MOOMANiBE 🤯
Show threadIrenes (many)Jul 3
@MOOMANiBE oh neat!
Show threadjuv3nalJul 3

@MOOMANiBE

icymi some programming under tight constraints wizardry via the demoscene

http://www.reenigne.org/blog/1k-colours-on-cga-how-its-done/
&
http://www.reenigne.org/blog/8088-pc-speaker-mod-player-how-its-done/

1K colours on CGA: How it's done « Reenigne blog

Show threadjuv3nalJul 3
@MOOMANiBE
a video of it running is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHXx3orN35Y
the music wizardry starts at ~6:39 (it's just normal pc speaker before)
8088 MPH by Hornet + CRTC + DESiRE

YouTube
Show threadPaul CantrellJul 3

@MOOMANiBE @dduan

This is a shitpost embedded ina Wikipedia article, right? Right?????

Show threadErwan 🚄Jul 3
@inthehands @MOOMANiBE @dduan Having worked in smartcard development, I find it plausible. When you put a bunch of engineers with very strict ressource limits, they can become VERY creative
Show threadF4GRX SébastienJul 3
@R1Rail @inthehands @MOOMANiBE @dduan oh yeah. Still doing that in 2025. My work platform has 16k of RAM.
Show threadjonny (good kind)Jul 3
@MOOMANiBE this is some encoding that evolution would come up with for a recently evolved sense organ
Show threadjonny (good kind)Jul 3
@MOOMANiBE fuck... the body evolved radiation sensation. i guess we can put that in... anxiety? if we route it through proprioception we can do coincidence detection so how much you feel like your limbs have been inverted while feeling calm about it is what radiation feels like
Show threadAllan ChowJul 3
@MOOMANiBE spare bit injection! (i just made that up)
Show threadDonald HobernJul 3

@MOOMANiBE

What did they implement in these 1760 bytes? It reads like they implemented the _interpreter_ in that. Or was this a window into which they loaded the BASIC program they wanted to run?

The description seems incomplete.

Show threadkevin, but not THAT kevinJul 3

@MOOMANiBE

i love this approach. will recommend it in my next scrum

Show threadLuke MillerJul 3
@MOOMANiBE That's so cool
Show threadAlexander KnochelJul 3
@MOOMANiBE Well thanks for the cliffhanger, HOW WAS IT RENDERED INVISIBLE
Show threadKernel BobJul 3
@Quantensalat @MOOMANiBE I'm guessing they set up a color map where all the identical-in-the-visible-bits entries mapped to the same color. That'd give 16 distinct colors with 8 bits/pixel.
Show threadxmanmonkJul 3
@MOOMANiBE Memory was very tight back then. I learned BASIC on a machine with 3.5k. It was incentive for me to learn 6502 assembly.
Show threadMarcin WicharyJul 3
@MOOMANiBE @inthehands What in the actual hell! Is this… steganography?
Show threadRobJul 3
@MOOMANiBE now that is clever
Show threadresipiscentJul 3

@MOOMANiBE Why, when you can use static electricity to adhere graphics on plastic sheets to the screen? Duh.

Ship with a green shag carpet though to make sure there's plenty of ambient stick.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnavox_Odyssey

Magnavox Odyssey - Wikipedia

Show threadSteve's PlaceJul 3
@MOOMANiBE We did crazier things than that to make stuff go.
Show threadF4GRX SébastienJul 3
@MOOMANiBE people knew how to code in that time. Now they cry to get more ram while doing everything in nodejs.
Show threadSigismund VildrosJul 3
@MOOMANiBE OpenXLA and how it's used with libraries like JAX, are actually quite similar recent hacks. Until we see more powerful unified CPU/GPU + RAM/VRAM hardware.
Show threadEniko FoxJul 3
@MOOMANiBE there was an 8 bit 3d racing game that kept part of its code in the sky
Show threadPavel MachekJul 3
@MOOMANiBE Ok, let's say that was an "interesting" hardware. And they probably had 'unlimited' ROM, so... yep, nice trick, but not even too crazy.
Show threadJim ReaJul 3
@MOOMANiBE @beccadax In my home built computer in the 1970s I would hand load the cassette tape reader software into the video RAM so that it could load the Basic interpreter into the main RAM. You could tell when the tape was finished because the interference patterns on the video display would change. Note - to load the Basic interpreter the first time I had to hand key the binary machine code from a printed listing in a magazine. I was sure glad that saving to the cassette tape worked the first time!
Show threadRichard CarlssonJul 3
@MOOMANiBE
Show threadCubeRootOfTrueJul 3
@MOOMANiBE The original IBM PC had a video mode that was a bit undocumented. It allowed you to trade off resolution for color depth. Unfortunately nobody knew about it except the chip designers (it was in the white sheet) and it went away (it wasn't very good compared to what we have now but they tried)
Show threadAmber (transsexual tech catgirl)Jul 3
@MOOMANiBE wiiiiild
Show threadSarahJul 3
That’s ingenious and absolute madness. I love it.
Show threadJ. PetersonJul 3

@MOOMANiBE Yeah, I remember scarce RAM days. In college we worked on one of the first Lisp interpreters for the original 128K Mac.

The only way we could get it to fit was to let the copying garbage collector use the screen RAM as a temporary destination. So you knew when GC's happened because you'd see the heap bits flash on the screen for a moment.

https://archive.org/details/MacPSLManual1985

Macintosh Portable Standard Lisp Manual 1985 : Utah Portable Artificial Intelligence Support Systems Project, Computer Science Department, University of Utah : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Macintosh PSL (Portable Standard Lisp) was a Lisp interpreter produced for the Macintosh. It was one of the first interactive programming tools available for...

Internet Archive
Show threadmathewJul 3
@MOOMANiBE Jamie Fenton, absolute legend responsible for one of my favorite arcade games, GORF.
Show threadChristian Berger DECT 9314Jul 4
@MOOMANiBE Well makes sense given that odd graphics setup.
Show threadMatthew AbbottJul 4
@MOOMANiBE …why wouldn’t they at least interleave at the byte level if interleaving were required? …why not just cut video ram into two regions? This is the sort of thing that has me questioning my own intelligence.
Show threadDevourerJul 5
@MOOMANiBE the Astrocade Is a super interesting piece of hardware