Weasel @wildweasel@computerfairi.es

made another shirt https://transbian.threadless.com/designs/grouchbench-1-3 #pixelart #workbench #amiga #commodore #mastoart

Pen-Yo source release: https://github.com/a2-4am/fonts/tree/main/Pen-YO

#AppleII #retrocomputing

It occurred to me that many younger people don't know why video games used to look so bad on 8-bit home computers, when they can look so much better on comparable hardware of pocket video game consoles.

And, as a consequence, they take for granted all the hard work that losers like me put into converting art for ZX Spectrums and alike.

That makes me a bit sad, so let me demonstrate you what happens behind the scenes, and why it matters (to me).

Illustrations:
* Golden Axe running on WonderSwan. The image uses 42 colours, but the sprites are likely 16 colours or less. 224 × 144 pixels
* Golden Axe running on ZX Spectrum. 15 colors. 256x192 pixels.
* My old fan-art of Va-11 Hall-A for ZX Spectrum. 15 colors, 256x192.

What I'm trying to say is: despite having resolution better than GameBoy or WonderSwan, art on ZX Spectrum often looks BAD. Why? How to make it look good? Why is it hard?

Let me explain! *cough cough*
🧵 thread

#pixelart #retrocomputing

PC/Computing - September 1996
https://archive.org/details/pc-computing-magazine-v9i9/page/n103/mode/2up

about time we had it my way, motherfucker

Every so often the YouTube recommendation algorithm manages to provide me with pure gold

Ng Resonance + Kliff Undersn
VS
Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen + Al Swearengen (Deadwood)

Robbie and Bobby 🤖👦 Manager's Special

What I'm listening to today: "Sommarhack 2024 Invitro", 505 & mOdmate

"Sommarhack" is an Atari demoscene party happening next year in Sweden. The event announcement came itself in the form of a short Atari ST demo, which you can find on YouTube under the name "300 Days to Go". The demo incorporated this original track, made in maxYMiser music (that's the tracker made by gwEm). It's effortlessly funky, and has absolutely the filthiest chiptune bassline I have ever heard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WKg-wMTW8A

I see Patman did a retro history of CarnEvil a few weeks back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQBbHiyx9sw

This was an interesting one to emulate in MAME. It was part of the initial round of Atari/Midway 3Dfx games I added. For years I had always poo-pooed the idea of supporting them because they needed so much new infrastructure and complex emulation.

But I eventually talked myself into doing Killer Instinct, which forced me to add both hard disk support and a dynamic 64-bit MIPS recompiler. Once I had those two pieces in place, the only major missing piece for these games was the 3Dfx, so I figured why not. Around that time I also discovered the full specs for the original Voodoo Graphics online, so I had everything I needed to proceed.

And to tie it all back to recent LucasArts stuff: the interaction of the 3D models and the pre-rendered backgrounds is highly reminiscent of Grim Fandango/EfMI. I never looked closely enough to figure out if they had just encoded a Z buffer with the video, or if they took the EfMI approach of rendering crude invisible dummy geometry to populate the Z buffer before rendering the visible models.

Well my clock's DVI output looks OK.

If you're in the US and you've also been idly wondering why "I don't like to drive at night" has become such a common thing to say in the past few years, stand near to a modern LED streetlamp and block it with your hand. In about two thirds of a second, the whole road brightens up as your pupils open.

You're not just getting old; between over-bright streetlights, over-bright headlights of oncoming cars, over-bright instrument clusters, over-bright porch lighting, nobody can see in the dark anymore.

Just in the last decade we've made it much harder and more dangerous to drive at night. Oh, and we also gave up the stars.

kerning matters because sometimes you actually wanted to buy 10 fuckering lights

solitaire, deck selection prompt, windows 95 (1995) https://mobygames.com/game/windows/microsoft-windows-95-included-games/screenshots/gameShotId,896813/