https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/ 2026-05-03T14:14:32+00:00 https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/ https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/lib/tpl/dokuwiki/images/favicon.ico text/html 2021-10-19T20:00:15+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/4gravity?rev=1634666415&do=diff 4GRAVITY! “4Gravity!” is an arcade game for Commodore C=64, Atari 400/800 and Dragon 32/64 written in a short time thanks to the primitives made available by the ugBASIC language. This game is a “Connect Four” clone. It is a two-players, one-player and zero-player connection board game, in which the players take turns dropping colored tokens into a seven-column, six-row vertically suspended grid. The pieces fall straight down, occupying the lowest available space within the column. The object… text/html 2020-07-25T14:35:41+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/adv10?rev=1595680541&do=diff ADV10 10LINES ADV is an adventure game for COMMODORE 64 home computer. In this game the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story, driven by exploration and puzzle-solving. This game is designed for a single player, it is text-based and uses a text parser to translate the player's input into commands. text/html 2021-10-19T16:53:40+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/air_attack?rev=1634655220&do=diff AIR ATTACK! “Air Attack!” is an arcade game for Commodore C=64, Commodore VIC-20 (with expansion memory installed), Commodore PLUS/4, Atari, MSX 1 Memotech 500, Classic Gameboy and LM80C Color Computer, written in a short time thanks to the primitives made available by the text/html 2020-12-31T20:04:57+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/airattack?rev=1609441497&do=diff Please click here: air_attack text/html 2022-04-02T22:13:05+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/alienstorm?rev=1648930385&do=diff ALIEN STORM “Alien Storm” is an arcade game for Commodore C=64, Commodore VIC-20 (with expansion memory installed), Commodore PLUS/4, Commodore C=128, Atari, MSX 1 and Memotech 500, written in a short time thanks to the primitives made available by the text/html 2021-02-27T17:12:22+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/benchmarks?rev=1614442342&do=diff BENCHMARKS ON RETROCOMPUTING The purpose of this article is to show, with respect to the supported platforms by MIDRES library, what is the average data transfer speed when reading a file sequentially from a random access storage (disk drive) using the standard C library. The platform is then tested using models among those provided by the emulator, with the same process and the same dimensions. text/html 2021-02-28T13:09:51+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/benchmarks2?rev=1614514191&do=diff "ACCELERATED" BENCHMARKS ON RETROCOMPUTING The purpose of this article is to extend the results obtained from the previous benchmarks by adding a series of “accelerated” configurations. The test will be the same: the average data transfer speed when reading a file sequentially from a random access storage (disk drive) using the standard C library text/html 2021-10-19T19:30:47+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/elevator?rev=1634664647&do=diff THE ELEVATOR “The Elevator” is a simulation / tactical / cooperative game for Commodore C=64, Commodore VIC-20 (with expansion memory installed), Commodore PLUS/4, Commodore C=128, Atari, MSX, Memotech 500 and LM80C Color Computer (32KB), written in a short time thanks to the primitives made available by the text/html 2021-03-07T00:31:36+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/evolution10?rev=1615073496&do=diff EVOLUTION 10 EVOLUTION 10 is an evolution based game for COMMODORE 64 home computer. In this game the player assumes the role of “selective pressure” in the evolution of a species. Given a target objective, he/she will have to choose two specimens from those proposed so that they can reproduce themselves and so he/she approaches to the expected result. This game is designed for a single player and it is text-based. text/html 2021-10-07T14:05:57+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/homepage?rev=1633608357&do=diff On this pages you will find the documentation and reference about retroprogramming done by myself. You can also take a look at my blog (however, it is not related to retrocomputing). FEATURED PAGES <https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu> [MIDRES - an isomorphic gamelib] [4GRAVITY!] [The Elevator game] [Alien Storm game] [Totto! game] [Air Attack! game] [Joycheck] ARTICLES * EVOLUTION10'S genotypes and phenotypes * Accelerated benchmarks on retrocomputers * Benchmarks on retrocomputers * … text/html 2021-02-25T23:42:09+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/iav?rev=1614292929&do=diff IAV: Isomorphic Audio Video format CURRENTLY “WORK IN PROGRESS” I am currently working on a future release of MIDRES Library, in which it will be possible to play videos on the screen in “full motion” (converted from mp4, divx, avi, and so on). All thanks to text/html 2020-10-18T11:35:07+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/img2midres?rev=1603013707&do=diff CONVERT IMAGES TO MIDRES FORMAT INTRODUCTION This page does not want to replace the software user manual (for that there is the README) but to provide some indications on its operation, as well as to explain some of the algorithms used. OPERATING MODES text/html 2020-10-18T11:28:27+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/img2tile?rev=1603013307&do=diff CONVERT IMAGES TO TILES INTRODUCTION This page does not want to replace img2tile user manual (for that there is the README) but to provide some indications on its operation, as well as to explain some of the algorithms used. It give, also, an example using the midres library primitives. text/html 2020-11-12T00:30:43+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/joycheck?rev=1605137443&do=diff JOYCHECK Joycheck is a program that has the purpose of verifying if the digital joystick and/or the port to which it is connected works correctly, according to the isomorphic characteristics of the "midres" library. It was initially developed to test whether the joystick signals on the Commodore PLUS/4 platform were read correctly by the library, and then extended to all supported platforms (Commodore C=64, Commodore VIC-20 (expanded), Commodore PLUS/4, Commodore C=128 and Atari 8 bit). It… text/html 2020-07-25T14:23:45+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/matrix_amos_color_cycling?rev=1595679825&do=diff "Matrix effect" using AMOS and color cycling What is "Matrix effect"? Matrix (The Matrix) is a 1999 science fiction film written and directed by brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski. In the first minutes of the movie, a confusing stream of green characters flows. At first glance, the code seems indecipherable but, if you look at it more closely, you can see Japanese ideograms. And, for those curious, the man who created the code revealed that those characters are text/html 2020-07-25T14:28:36+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/matrix_amos_color_cycling_image_preparation?rev=1595680116&do=diff "Matrix effect" using AMOS and color cycling Step by step preparation Here you will find the “step by step” preparation to create the image present on the repository. It is not mandatory to perform this procedure to see the effect. The procedure is described here for documentation purposes only. text/html 2020-10-24T20:37:47+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/midres-ide?rev=1603564667&do=diff MIDRES IDE MIDRES-IDE is an application that helps developers to program retrocomputing platforms. Thanks to the integration with the MIDRES library, it is possible to develop games for multiple types of computers starting from a single source, written in C. text/html 2020-08-26T00:00:04+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/midres?rev=1598392804&do=diff GRAPHICS USING MIDRES INTRODUCTION Managing bitmap and color graphics on retro computers is expensive. This is due to the limited availability of RAM memory and its relative slowness, as well as the fact that graphics chipsets often do not have dedicated memory. This implies, among other things, that using graphics also reduces the memory available for data and programs. On the other hand, almost all retrocomputers have a text/html 2020-08-12T17:37:27+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/midres_bitmap?rev=1597246647&do=diff BASICS OF BITMAP IN MIDRES DEFINING A MIDRES BITMAP The basis of this technique, which has to do with a “bitmap” or “black / white” (1 bit) graphics, is based on establishing an addressing scheme for all the points accessible at the maximum resolution available on the hardware (conventionally called text/html 2020-08-12T17:40:37+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/midres_color?rev=1597246837&do=diff COLORING MIDRES BITMAPS INTRODUCING PALETTES The most popular way to color an image is to describe the color for each pixel, and this is usually done using the 8-bit per component RGB format. This means that we are going to use one byte to describe the luminance level for each of the RGB channels, for a total of three bytes per pixel. text/html 2020-12-25T11:49:38+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/midres_library?rev=1608893378&do=diff MIDRES LIBRARY The MIDRES library allows to create WORA (Write Once Run Anywhere) programs that are very efficient "by design" on various 8-bit platforms, without the need for “fine tuning” them and without compromises of other dev-kits. The isomorphic approach is different from abstraction text/html 2022-07-23T23:47:28+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/msc1?rev=1658612848&do=diff MSC1 STREAM DESCRIPTION MSC1 is a compressor specifically designed to compress 8-bit computer text/colour screens. It has the characteristic of being able to efficiently compress small memory areas (up to 1024 bytes). This specification is intended for developers willing to produce MSC1-compatible compressed data blocks using any programming language. text/html 2021-01-31T17:24:10+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/mt6502?rev=1612110250&do=diff Multithreading on retrocomputers FOREWORD: FROM THREADS TO PROTOTHREADS In computer science, multithreading means the support in the execution of multiple “threads” or flows of execution. In systems with severe memory constraints such as computers based on 6502/6510 processors, traditional multi-threading can cause excessive memory overhead. In traditional multi-threading, in fact, each thread requires its own stack which, in turn, occupies large parts of the available memory. text/html 2020-08-02T22:26:48+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/ovl6502?rev=1596400008&do=diff Overlay programming on unexpanded 6502/6510 retrocomputers FOREWORD: THE MEMORY PROBLEM Memory resources are often very limited in retrocomputers and, in such conditions, the size of an executable program is limited to the one of the central memory. text/html 2020-09-01T01:35:03+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/tiling?rev=1598916903&do=diff ANIMATIONS WITH TILES Animating images on retrocomputers can seem almost impossible if you don't have dedicated hardware resources. In fact, in the early days of home computers, many of them were classified according to the performance of the animation chipsets. It was not uncommon to come across terms such as text/html 2020-08-26T00:07:10+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/tiling_animations?rev=1598393230&do=diff ANIMATIONS USING TILING "IN PLACE" ANIMATION In-place animation consists of considering the tile as the frame of a graphic object that changes over time. The succession of these frames, at the right speed, will give the illusion of an animation. text/html 2020-08-25T23:18:57+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/tiling_basics?rev=1598390337&do=diff BASICS OF TILING WHAT IS A TILE? A “tile” corresponds to an area of ​​the screen of fixed size, which can be reproduced over and over again. It is like a “box” with which the screen to be drawn is divided. The graphic data in this box is not stored text/html 2021-10-19T19:49:05+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://retroprogramming.iwashere.eu/totto?rev=1634665745&do=diff TOTTO! “Totto!” is an arcade game for Commodore C=64, Commodore VIC-20 (with expansion memory installed), Commodore PLUS/4, Commodore C=128, MSX 1, Memotech 500, Gameboy (Classic) and LM80C Color Computer (32KB), written in a short time thanks to the primitives made available by the