Going live with some Saturn shmups in about an hour https://www.youtube.com/live/QSpjbh37Y4A?si=d0sLMkEDoDUr5p-F

Sonic 1 Marble Zone crash. The screen froze, started out normal enough, then kept degrading.

On the topic of power usage by data centers, we somehow don’t talk about the use of inefficient interpreted languages and other bad practices as part of the cost. We act like it’s totally free for everyone’s systems to throttle up to load some bloated script-laden webpage. I wonder what the cost is.

@hobbsc it’s the Dreamcast port that ran off CE.

I still think Virtua Cop 1 and 2 look a lot nicer than 3 and Confidential Mission. The shading in those are kind of off, a bit like the Virtua Cop 2 WinCE version where they add that rounded shading.

@EeveeEuphoria you wouldn’t want those games to leak! ;)

Virtua Cop 1 holds up very nicely. I like it more than 2, even if it has fewer cool setpieces. The pacing, enemy placement, and soundtrack are perfect. The soundtrack is filthy funk. I love it. 2 is a lot more GMIDI.

@Blerkotron from my perspective (mobile apps), the field has been already thoroughly enshittified with all kinds of kludgy constantly-obsoleted frameworks running off of constantly-deprecated scripting languages and coders who only know how to pull down (often unvetted) packages from these terrible repos and slam them together. It’s pretty sad. It’s like all the worst things about web dev invaded my corner of development, and it doesn’t even run fast (appears fast, but often burns battery)

I think I might’ve lost a lot of faith in humanity over the last decade, with the 2024 election being the biggest faith-crushing event.

I don’t understand how so many people are so stupid or destructive or eager to not think.

I’ve often felt like an outcast, but I think society did me a favor.

@cobbpg @profoundlynerdy what’s the filling technique like? I notice you can slather most of the screen in the ground color and not a lot of it changes from frame to frame

@profoundlynerdy hmm I don’t. I think you just jump to the next routine in line after you’re done with the initial one, with whichever mechanism you want to use.

What would you consider the single most sophisticated piece of software ever written for the C64?

I'm on the fence between GEOS and the Newcomer RPG. The former is a whole OS but the latter uses effectively all of the C64's memory and its 14 disks long!

#c64 #retrocomputing #retrogaming #geos

@profoundlynerdy GEOS is pretty crazy to cram into 64k and what, a single chainable interrupt? And have RAM left over for the actual software. Surprised it wasn’t a cart.

I think anyone making a polygon engine for C64 is a little crazy too :) that’s some impressive stuff. Or those games where they cram a whole universe into 64k like Elite or Mercenary. Stunt Car Racer has about 8 full 3d tracks in 64k as well. I think it’s also on the 48k speccy.

Does anyone remember how audio sampling was controversial for 20 years? “They’re untalented and stealing music from actual musicians and just selling it back to you, you sucker”…

One of the best, if not the best, advertisements that I have ever seen. Published by Electronics Arts, one of the most famous gaming software companies on the planet, the ad is dated November 1983 in the premiere edition of Personal Software magazine. Electronic Arts had released their first games at that time and are marketing themselves as the best place for independent talents. They have been extremely successful ever since with games such as FIFA, The Sims, Need for Speed, and Madden NFL. #retrocomputing #retrogaming

Oh noooo my Slam VST has denormal bugs or something under WINE. I’m gonna have to roll a Linux native version.

@rinmari oh no would I be a Gradius uncle? I’m much more of a Thunderforce or Toaplan uncle though 🤔 Gradius makes me tear my hair out

Setting up WINE and Yabridge reminds me of my Muse Research days :)

I guess it’s football season!