Andrew Davie

n/a

Third option: you didn't make the cut and there are only enough units for everyone before you.

Did I put my name down? I don't want one; I need one.

I can, I suppose, clarify the reasons I withdrew Qb from sale. I think the reasons are fairly obvious now.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-acquires-atariage I called this privately a number of months ago. This is tragic for me personally. I won't say any more right now, but I feel strongly about this.

Please see

I want to buy myself a calculator (https://www.numworks.com/buy/) but they do not ship to Australia. I'm looking for someone reliable who would be interested in a trade. The proposal is that that person acts as my "agent" - I would purchase the calculator and have it shipped to you in the USA. You then pack/post to me here in Oz. In return for this service/agency, I am offering one of my "Wen Hop" prototype boards. There were 10 made; I would pay the postage of that prototype to you; you pay the postage of the calculator to me (which as a rough estimate would be US$25 give or take). So, for that amount and your time, you'd be effectively trading for one of the prototypes. Prototype is a functioning version of Wen Hop which, although "playable" is really just a proof of concept showing the game engine working on actual hardware. You plug it in, it runs, you get to see the title screen and play a few levels that demonstrate the technology in operation. Naturally for this to work you need to live in the USA and have a good community reputation. See

No particular reason, except perhaps the register names were set in stone by original documentation, but names for the bit fields were not necessarily so. Improvements/updates welcome. It's a good idea that would make code more readable.

I wrote, 25 years ago... https://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/199805/msg00090.html

Why not use a pot, then you can dial it in per-machine.

The programmer in me would do a binary search on that ideal resistor value

Consider using the macros presented in the 3E+ discussion linked above, which provide "local" variables and reuse of zero-page through an automated "overlay" system. I found it most useful in some of my coding. Takes a little to get your head around it, but it guarantees no overlap in usage (=crashes) and also makes your zero page seem HUGE. . Just sayin.

I wrote up some info on 3E+ in this thread...

I no longer need one of these. Next up: Cuttle Cart.

I have finally succeeded in completely taking over YouTube.

The auto-detect of console type (NTSC/PAL) is confirmed-working on real hardware. That's nice. Not my work/cleverness... but pretty cool stuff. I did rewrite the algorithm to be a bit more robust, but using exactly the same concept.

Yes, essentially the same thing. But instead of requiring ALL digits to be selected from 40 values, my implementation allowed (say) the first digit to be selected from 10 (using log(2)10 bits, and the second to be selected from (say) 17 (using log(2)17 bits), etc. So the packing is. char1 * 17 * 10 + char * 10 + char3. That is, "mixed radix". Same basic principle though. For some time I thought I'd "invented" it. But in any case I look back on it and think "hey, that was pretty smart". Doubt I could come up with something like that these days

Literally an hour or so ago, I got an unexpected package from @batari. I had asked a while ago for some test/prototype boards to be burned with a WenHop binary, just to confirm it works on actual hardware and to have myself a small batch of "the real thing". Well, they arrived... and they work. Not only that, but they look absolutely gorgeous runnning on my TV. There are 10 boards; I thought I'd get extra because I don't know why. Just seemed like a good idea. You can just see "proto" and the date of binary at the bottom of the title screen. The video doesn't really do it justice; to the eye this looks way way better, with none of the flicker or shimmmer. Almost a solid colour screen. Did I say way better than I'd imagined/hoped? Way better; almost perfect. Anyway, am inspired enough to post the video, although I am not working on this game at the moment. The video shows the occasional screen roll glitch, and it's not a complete game of course. But it works. And it's gorgeous. I'm very happy. PS: The board has "AtariAge" stencilled on, but is actually nothing to do with Al or AtariAge. I'll scrub the stencil off, probably. They were just spare boards that were lying around when manufactured. PPS: This binary was from before I implemented the smoother rock movement/falling. Maybe I should do another "run" to represent the "final" version; it's sufficiently improved.

Alternate timeline... BIDT it could have been VHS vs Beta vs MovieCart

My own game, 'Qb' could be classified as an action/puzzler. It does involve some rudimentary strategy to play it well, and definitely doesn't need fast joystick reflexes. Just some solid planning/thinking, in a simple sort of way that's not taxing on the brain.

All of my work has so far been released as free binaries. Except for the tentative "Boulder Dash 2", which has IP belonging to BBG Entertainment. You'll find binaries of my work in the various threads I have posted in-progress versions. I don't anticipate adding to what's available now. Not for a while, anyway and even then in some different form where I retain some control over my work.

It's the only one available for purchase on cartridge, yes. I don't have much of a say in that, until December next year.

Until recently, true enough. Nowadays I'm just really down about the whole situation, as I perceive it, in our community.