Topaz figures out how to get code he wrote 23 years ago on the Amiga to work for someone today, and it involves a lot of work with libraries.

Thanks to Piotr Kuchno for contacting me and working through debugging the code, and for the videos of the code in use on real Amiga computers! Thanks also to @ijimkoz for valuable feedback!

Resources

Intro

• https://aminet.net/package/dev/amos/BSDSocket - The code I wrote 23 years ago
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMOS_%28programming_language%29 - AMOS BASIC
• https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/developers-handbook/sockets/ - BSD sockets in general
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVr1AHJaGCk - The Copper Demo video, also written in AMOS, that exercises a bunch of Agnus’s features

AMOS Extensions

• https://www.exotica.org.uk/wiki/AMOS_extensions - List of Amiga extensions
• https://www.kyzer.me.uk/amos/docs/easylife/EasyLife.guide - EasyLife, the extension 16 I wanted
• https://www.kyzer.me.uk/amos/docs/maxsdoorhandler/AMOSDoors4MAXS.doc - The BBS extension

Amiga libraries

• https://www.thedigitalcatonline.com/blog/2018/05/28/exploring-the-amiga-2/ - Amiga library jump tables (the index card bulletin board)
• https://www.ultimateamiga.co.uk/HostedProjects/AMOSFactory/AMOSProManual/11/1116.html - The “equate” system I never used or got working correctly
• https://github.com/cnvogelg/amitools/blob/master/amitools/data/fd/bsdsocket_lib.fd - I used this file to figure out function offsets

Why was my server code not working?

• https://wiki.amigaos.net/amiga/autodocs/bsdsocket.doc.txt - The Amiga BSD socket library docs
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5636316/troubleshooting-connections-stuck-in-close-wait-status - The problem I was noticing
• https://web.archive.org/web/20170113135705/http://unix.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/SunManagers/2006-01/msg00367.html - More details
• https://esqsoft.com/examples/troubleshooting-http-using-telnet.htm - Using telnet to debug the connection

Music & SFX

• Chipper Doodle - Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/?keywords=Chipper+doodle) - CC-BY 3.0
• Phone vibration - Breviceps (https://freesound.org/people/Breviceps/sounds/515295/) - CC 0
• Light Switch - TimoSchmied (https://freesound.org/people/TimoSchmied/sounds/530973/) - CC-BY 3.0
• Smack - taylorsyoung[at]gmail.com (https://freesound.org/people/taylorsyoung@gmail.com/sounds/94780/) - CC 0

Notes

• Piotr and I were actually using AMOS Professional throughout, despite me showing an original AMOS The Creator box I used to own. AMOS Pro allowed accessing system libraries, while AMOS the Creator did not.

Changelog

• 2021-09-08: Initial post.

Star Dragon gameplay captured at 60FPS in VICE so you can better see the flicker. Unfortunately PeerTube doesn’t seem to support 60FPS yet, so if you really want to see it, you’ll have to download the video.

Resources

• https://www.commodore.ca/gallery/magazines/gazette/Compute-Gazette-Issue-36.pdf - The magazine

Changelog

• 2021-08-15: Initial post.
• 2023-07-21: Move to MakerTube.

I type in Star Dragon, a tech demo with messed up controls, out of a June 1986 Compute!’s Gazette.

Resources

• https://www.commodore.ca/gallery/magazines/gazette/Compute-Gazette-Issue-36.pdf - The magazine

Notes

• The flicker is significantly less pronounced because I’m recording at 30fps. My computer can’t stream at 60fps, which is what is required to get the full Star Dragon experience. I’ll record a separate 60fps video for that later.
• The left/right controls are minus/plus. I wonder if there’s a way to fix that…

Changelog

• 2021-08-13: Initial post.
• 2033-07-21: Move to MakerTube and remove streaming text.

I type in the MLX II machine language editor from Compute!’s Gazette June 1986. I also accidentally turn all the text on the screen black, because I have no clue how the control codes and special keys work on a C64.

Resources

• https://www.commodore.ca/gallery/magazines/gazette/Compute-Gazette-Issue-36.pdf - The magazine
• https://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=299512#299512 - The default VICE keyboard map I was using
• https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/Color - C64 color keycodes
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38XNUTJpA7c - The SEGA Welcome to the Next Level commercial

Notes

• Hitting [Commodore]-7 would have put the color back to the starting color

Changelog

• 2021-08-06: Initial post.
• 2023-07-17: Move video to MakerTube and remove streaming/YouTube playlist note.

Topaz digs into an addition to a 6-bit character password system. A follow-on to the NES Passwords video.

Thanks to @ijimkoz and others for their feedback in production!

References

• Password decoding guide and an app you can use to verify that substitutions work (http://games.technoplaza.net/mpg/)
• List of Metroid passwords (https://metroid.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Metroid_passwords)

Code

• NES Password ROM you see at the end (https://github.com/TheIndustriousRabbit/nes-password-rom)
• See the ROM in action (https://theindustriousrabbit.com/blog/2021-07-15-nes-text-passwords-demo-nes-rom/)
• Secret note code generator (https://github.com/TheIndustriousRabbit/secret-note-system-generator)

Music

• Chipper Doodle - Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/?keywords=Chipper+doodle) - CC-BY 3.0

Changelog

• 2023-07-15: Moved to MakerTube

I type in The Automatic Proofreader from a real copy of Compute!’s Gazette and learn a lesson about how the Commodore 64 saved files to disk. Sorry about the garbage audio. This is a throwaway episode!

Resources

• https://www.commodore.ca/gallery/magazines/gazette/Compute-Gazette-Issue-36.pdf - The magazine I’m typing out of
• https://vice-emu.sourceforge.io/ - The VICE emulator
• https://www.calormen.com/jslogo/ - A Logo interpreter that runs in your browser
• https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/SAVE - Info on the SAVE command I messed up and how to actually overwrite a file

Changelog

• 2021-07-31: Initial post.
• 2023-07-17: Move to MakerTube and remove streaming and YouTube playlist note.