EricBall

Yesterday I worked from home while my wife watched Jupiter Ascending. This is a rant about the ending of the film versus the worldbuilding.

Games on the 2600 tend to be written around the display kernel. i.e. structuring game data to minimize the number of cycles required in the display kernel. Similarly, on the 7800 there is value in ensuring game data is structured so the display lists may be created as efficiently as possible. So look at your display list builder code and ask yourself "how can i make this faster?". I'd also order the code as: 1. Wait for end of screen (via DLI) 2. Reset end-of screen flag, read controllers, update sound registers (to minimize jitter) 3. Build display lists (assuming everything can be done in one screen time you don't need to double buffer) 4. Execute game & music logic 5. Test MSTAT, if still in VLBANK then set debug indicator to green and goto 1. If not but end-of-screen flag is cleared set debug indicator to yellow and goto 1. Otherwise set debug indicator to red, goto 2 (but skip step 3)

I watched Gotham up to the whole Ogre storyline. Didn't start watching Supergirl. For Dyson Spheres, check out the buuthandi http://schlockmercenary.wikia.com/wiki/Buuthandi

Personally, I thought Han was thinking, "I don't think this will work, but I'm doing it for Leia." There was a moment there where I thought Ben might have surrendered, but Kylo decided to commit patricide instead. Nope, not planning on spending money on any of the DC universe movies. Not into Flash or Arrow (although my wife watches). I will watch at least the first couple of episodes of Legends of Tomorrow and Lucifer. I really enjoyed the first episode of the Shannara Chronicles

I have to say the second best thing about seeing the movie is now I can watch / read / listen to other people's reviews (and see how their likes & dislikes compare to mine). Regarding the classic characters, I'm glad they decided to make the story fit their aging rather than de-aging them to fit an earlier setting.

I saw SW VII last weekend so I could stop worrying about spoilers. While the Force Awakens is a great movie and a worthy and logical successor to Return of the Jedi, it is not without it's flaws. First is the Death Star Mark III, complete with last minute destruction (IV & VI) following an attack on the shield generator (VI), a short trench sequence (IV), and flying into the structure (VI). Even Han points this out when planning the attack; almost, but not quite, breaking the fourth wall in the process. And unlike the previous movies, this time the activation of "the Weapon" is far too coincidental. In both prior movies the Rebel Alliance is fully aware of the construction of the Death Star and it's activation is better integrated into the storyline. Second are the "new" characters which seem to be simply copies of previous characters. Ben / Kylo Ren is Ankin Skywalker / Darth Vader, Rey is Luke Skywalker, and Supreme Commander Snoke is Emperor Palpatine. Even BB-8 is R2-D2 carrying around the stolen plans, I mean map. The one truely new character is Finn. OTOH I also have to say Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford did an excellent job communicating the relationship between Leia and Han. Mark Hamill also looks appropriately world weary. Third are the abilities of the characters. Kylo Ren has force powers far beyond those shown by the Jedi during the clone wars (e.g. stopping a blaster bolt in midair, mind reading). Rey is an absolute savant with the Millenium Falcon, even though she has never been off the desert wasteland of Jakku. Then there is the underused (and over-marketed) Captain Phasma, who could be a Resistance sympathizer given how quickly she disables the shield. Finally, there's the abilities of the Millenium Falcon: carving the dunes of Jakku and smashing through the forests Starkiller Base with no ill effects, jumping to lightspeed from a standing start and dropping out of lightspeed deep in a planet's gravity well. Whatever happened to getting the coordinates from the navi-computer? (Is anyone else jazzed about Captain America: Civil War? I was disappointed by Age of Ultron, but Civil War looks more like Winter Soldier, which I enjoyed.)

Brand nostalgia? Except wouldn't you expect something called a "Coleco Chameleon" to play actual Coleco games? Maybe even take those original cartridges?

I'm temped to try to do something like https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2015/11/raspberry-pi-zero-hidden-in-an-xbox-controller/ The one tweak I would make is to solder the micro USB cable to the controller rather than splicing wires. But then I have to remind myself of the number of other projects I have in progress, the number of game systems I already have (not to mention a very nice 27" iMac which can also handle emulators), and that I'm mostly playing Minecraft anyway!

https://sites.google.com/site/atari7800wiki/graphics-programming https://sites.google.com/site/atari7800wiki/graphics-programming/display-lists And other pages on the same site.

Photos (digital or film) are merely an approximation of what we can see with our eyes and brain. Dawn and sunset pose additional challenges because the colors are so different (even if you're not using auto color "balance").

Whether commercial supported OTA TV continues depends on whether it continues to make money for the station owners. The same is true for internet based subscription services or any content or channel provider. And companies will invest where they believe they can make money. Personally, I don't think commercial supported OTA is going to disappear any time soon. The ability to advertise to a large number of viewers in a geographic area has a lot of value to local companies.

I suspect to dig you need to push a button (probably X) and right or left. Also try the shoulder buttons.

2b2t has no rules, no moderators; it's a true anarchy server. Client side cheats like x-ray won't get you banned unless they have a substantial negative impact on the server. It's actually interesting mining with x-ray, although it removes a lot of the challenge. I spotted a pair of dungeons very close to each other last night, so I'm going to see if I can turn them into a single XP grinder. (Hopefully they are one zombie & one skeleton.)

No offense taken, it's an honest statement. Personally I haven't had any issues with PvP (I've only seen two other players & neither attacked me) or anyone griefing my bases. However, I am thousands of blocks away from spawn and the primary axes and it's rare when I even see evidence of other players. I have installed Ambient Occlusion's X-Ray mod, which shows how futile it is to try to disguise a base. Right now I'm journeying back to a base. I got turned around so last night I ended up farther away than when I started. So I've decided to tunnel down to diamond level and journey there, using X-Ray to gather diamonds along the way.

I've decided not to continue the channel. Primarily because it was impacting my ability to play 2b2t when I wanted, doing what I wanted, for as long (or short) as I wanted. The lack of positive feedback (and the negative feedback) made the decision easier. I also decided I wasn't really contributing much to the community. Maybe if I get some positive feedback on the existing videos I'll do another one. It's not difficult or even time consuming. Meanwhile I've established a new base, done some mining and built a grinder around a zombie spawner. Unfortunately the server seems to be offline - hopefully temporary.

7800 sprites may be more than a single byte wide (and can have some interesting bit to pixel mappings). Therefore putting each row on a separate page means MARIA doesn't have to perform any multiplication to get the data for the next row. 7800 sprites are also "upside down" - i.e. the lowest memory address contains the bottom row of the sprite.

The RAM memory map on the 7800 includes some important shadows which have to be worked around: ; 1800-203F 2K + 64 bytes ; 2040-20FF 192 bytes 0040-00FF ZP shadow ; 2100-213F 64 bytes ; 2140-21FF 192 bytes 0140-01FF SP shadow ; 2200-27FF 1.5K The DLL doesn't take up that much space (93 bytes for a 240 line screen with 8 line zones), but the display lists for each zone can take up considerable space (depending upon the game and how the display lists are allocated). In addition, if you have a character/tile (indirect sprite) list you will probably want that in a contiguous area in RAM.

Chapter 1 part 1 and 2 are both up! And yes, there is a lot of walking - it's how to survive. Actually, surviving nights isn't bad while you're on the move as very few mobs spawn. It's when you stay in one place that it becomes difficult.

Recorded my first video and uploaded it. While the online YouTube editor would probably be good enough for my needs, the post-edit processing seems to get stuck in limbo. And unlike the post-upload processing, there's no status bar so I have no idea how much longer it will take or how long I should expect it to take.

I am going to start a YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxuqdYak8Q81EUkUeSDoUVg of my 2b2t experience. My plan is to kill myself so I start back at spawn, then work out from there. Hopefully passing along a few bits of wisdom for new players and a few laughs. I'm bringing home a headset from work tonight to see how that works out. QuickTime does a great job of recording the actual gameplay at 4K then converting it down to 720p for YouTube.

My second base was semi successful. While the mine bottomed out into lava, it still yielded a few diamonds and other ores; but no emeralds (not that I've seen a village, where emeralds are used for trading). I also found an abandoned mine shaft, complete with a cave spider spawner. Unfortunately, it's difficult to create a automated grinder for cave spiders. I constructed a Nether portal, but discovered it linked to an existing portal so I didn't return to my base. I now better understand how portals are linked. Given the number of existing portals it may be difficult to use them in the way I do on the PS3. Once my spiral mine could no longer be extended without running into lava or obsidian, I packed all of my most valuable items and prepared to leave. The first thing I did was to build another emergency respawn point. I tweaked my layout to both reduce the amount of dirt required and avoid potentially not respawning adjacent to my bed. I decided to journey back to one of the primary axis and follow it back towards the spawn area. I was hoping I'd see more of the legendary ruins and constructs which I'd heard about if I was on the "beaten path". And I did see some, but not as many as I'd hoped. One unexpected item was the canal along the axis which blazed a path straight through hills and mountains. Building it obviously required a lot of time and effort, but some of its characteristics puzzled me like: why so deep, why line it with cobblestone rather than just leaving the existing blocks, and why bother storing the waste ores in chests and leave behind crafting tables? But it was there, so I used it to speed my journey. I did find a couple of interesting bases, including a tower made entirely of obsidian surrounded by fields of catus. Being obsidian made it difficult to walk up and down the enclosed open staircase in the evening twilight. Beneath the tower was an obsidian lake, so the creator may have mined it, but that would have required a large number of diamond picks. Maybe the creator cast it using lava, or used some kind of hack or cheat. I also passed a platform high in the sky with both a waterfall and several pillars reaching up to it. I didn't bother trying to get up to it, seldom have I found anything worth the trouble. (I did find one base with an Ender Chest, which I broke before I realized I wouldn't get the Eye of Ender necessary to recreate it.) But still I explored the occasional tower or structure along my journey. However, I avoided the various Nether Portals. Although they might have speeded my journey, they could just as easily send me far off course or kill me. But it wasn't Nether portal or other player which killed me (I did see one other player, who was busy clearing ice from the canal). Instead it was a tower and me moving around taking screen captures. The next thing I knew I was falling far enough to kill me. The good news is my respawn idea worked. I returned to the platform in the sky where wood and food waited for me. The bad news is lost all of the items I had collected and crafted. So I gathered the wood, broke the floor under the pond and floated down the waterfall to the ground below. I'd built the platform close to my second base, so I returned there to gather some of what I had left behind and think about my next plan.

My first plan on my journey away from my book making base was to set up a fresh spawn point. So I column jumped up to cloud level and created a 7x7 small platform on which I put small pond, melons, wood blocks and my bed (which I slept in to reset my spawn point). The idea was if I died I would at least have enough food and wood to make a fresh start, and I could get down from the clouds by turning the pond into a waterfall. One item of interest I found on my journey was an Ocean Monument, complete with an Elder Guardian - a tough semi-boss who I had no interest in even attempting to defeat. I eventually found what I was looking for - an Extreme Hills biome; under which I should be able to find emeralds. So I carved out my second base, starting with a hidden entrance, a room for an enchanting table and bookcases, and a mine shaft.

I ended up playing a lot of Minecraft on 2b2t over the long weekend. Once you get away from the chaos of the spawn area (and turn off the chat) the server becomes remarkably peaceful. Maybe I'm just travelling a different direction than most, but I've seen very few large builds; although there is still occasional evidence I'm not the first player to pass this way. Although while wandering though the wilderness may be far better than fending off other players, I decided I wanted to settle down, do some farming and some mining. But in order to that, I'd need to find a couple of cows - but mobs seemed to be in short supply. So I continued walking until I finally heard the moo of a cow. No, two cows! Three! And trees! A small pond even. I quickly constructed a simple underground base - hopefully hidden well enough from casual travellers. My herd of cows (needed for leather for books and bookcases for enchanting) slowly grew. I built a a farm around the pond which is producing a bumper crop of sugar cane (again for books) and melons (food for me) along with wheat (for breeding cows). And I dug the shaft down for my mine. I discovered several caverns and a dungeon (and died a couple of times - good thing I slept in my bed). Then I realized I could turn the dungeon spawner into a mob grinder (skeleton in this case). So I did some research, then did some experimentation in creative mode on the PS3. I built a simple drowning trap with a hopper & chest to catch what they drop. But if I stand near the hopper I can also hit them so I gain experience points and potentially additional drops. Easy bones and arrows. Unfortunately, the mineshaft bottomed out into a cluster of caverns and lava lakes. I did find some diamonds so I was able to craft a diamond pickaxe and mine some obsidian for the enchantment table and a pair of nether portals. My "vertically integrated book factory" was going like gangbusters and I'd soon have enough cows to make all of the leather I'd need for bookcases. But after some thought I decided it was time to hit the road again and find a place to build a more well hidden base and hopefully do some serious mining. But first I tried to clear out as much of the old mine as possible, making long and tall tunnels between the lava lakes - finding a few more diamonds in the process. Then the adult cows were slaughtered for leather and steak. Finally I packed up my bed and headed away from my first 2b2t base, proceeding along the axis - no longer directly away from spawn.

I finally took the plunge and bought Minecraft for the PC (after playing many hours on the PS3). An article about 2B2T, an "anarchy" server with a world which is now five years old, intrigued me. The world is littered with stuff players have built up and others have torn down. The central spawn point is a wasteland of blocks floating far over bedrock. Simply not dying of falling or starvation when you start is difficult. And yet, in spite of it's reputation as a lawless environment, it's surprisingly peaceful once you escape the spawn zone. Even in the spawn zone there are oasis where wood and food can be found, left behind by good Samaritans. And none of the other players I've run across has attacked me, in spite of the NSFW chat. (Even the hostile mobs seem placid.) OTOH, any of the chests I have found are empty or only contain the most trivial items. Food is still scarce, although I've been lucky finding a few melon farms which haven't been razed. And in spite of walking close to 9km of game distance, I am still finding frequent evidence of previous players. A couple of notable items I've come across on my journey. First was I stepped through a Nether Portal with the intent of gathering some netherack. But when I stepped back through the portal I found myself in a completely different location, far underground. While some use the nether to more quickly move through the world, I think I will avoid it until I am better prepared. Second was the pair of Mooshroom cows in a normal forest biome. I don't know whether another player lured them there from their Mooshroom island home, or whether they spawned there due to some bug, but I appreciated them and milked them for their mushroom stew. I briefly considered trying to set up camp and farm them, but it was too close to the spawn zone to avoid the griefers who delight in destroying whatever they can find. A shout out to doctrzombie for his YouTube videos which have inspired my 2b2t journey.

There are five possible reasons for any content service not to be on a particular device: 1. The device manufacturer is preventing it; likely to protect their own similar content service. 2. The content service provider has decided not to, either because a. To protect their own similar device (e.g. no Kindle books on Kobo or Nook) b. Because they feel the potential revenue isn't worth the related costs (anything on Blackberry...) May also include revenue sharing requirements (dunno if they exist). 3. There are technological roadblocks. 4. There are content licensing roadblocks. But I agree in general it's stupid. You either make and sell a device (sometimes below cost) in order to sell content (e.g. Kindle) or you try to make money selling both the content and the device - by maximizing the content available on the device. Similarly, if you have content, you want to sell that content via as many channels / devices as possible. OTOH I have little interest in 99.9% of the content & content services. I already have a massive amount of content available via my cable subscription (for live sports and popular programming) which includes a VoD service. I also can borrow DVDs from the library for free. It's like Sirius/XM - while I enjoyed listening to it during the trial period, I don't see any reason to subscribe to it when I can listen to numerous local radio stations or podcasts & music stored on my phone.