I stumble through learning a 30+ year old animation software on a souped up emulated Amiga 1200 and start to produce a short animation.

I use Weylus (https://github.com/H-M-H/Weylus) to cast an FS-UAE window running DP:TAS to my Galaxy Tab S7+, so I don’t have to draw with a mouse.

If someone has better documentation for the application than the docs available on the SCIENCE disks, I’d love to check them out!

Topaz the Rabbit digs into NoFastMem, the Amiga system utility with the rabbit-themed icon that makes it possible to play some older Amiga games. This is a remake of the original blog post with a lot more technical details and examples!

Thanks to Tyrel (@tyrelsouza), Jim K. (@ijimkoz), Colin!

References

• Nameless Algorithm post on Rogue (https://www.namelessalgorithm.com/amiga/blog/rogue/)
  • Blog post about Rogue, the Amiga 1000, and NoFastMem
• Hardware details on the blitter (http://amigadev.elowar.com/read/ADCD_2.1/Hardware_Manual_guide/node0119.html)
  • From the AmigaOS developer docs
• Amiga Programming in C Part 5 - Blitter Fundamentals (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5aTb5hg3H8)
  • Most blitter examples are in 68k assembler, but I wanted to work in C, and this series of videos helped me figure out how to do so!
• AmigaOS NDK 3.9 docs on AllocMem (http://amigadev.elowar.com/read/ADCD_2.1/Includes_and_Autodocs_3._guide/node01E7.html)
  • You’ll have to hunt around a bit to find the 1.3 NDK
• Chip RAM vs. Fast RAM vs. Slow RAM (https://dfarq.homeip.net/amiga-chip-ram-vs-fast-ram-vs-slow-ram/)
  • More details on Chip vs. Fast vs. Slow RAM
• GitHub repository with example C code & binary (https://github.com/TheIndustriousRabbit/amiga-allocmem-example-code)
  • Read over the C code used in this video and try running it yourself!

Credits

• Black Vortex by Kevin MacLeod
  • https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3442-black-vortex/
  • Simplified Filmmusic.io Standard License (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/standard-license)
• Industrious Ferret by Kevin MacLeod
  • https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3912-industrious-ferret
  • Simplified Filmmusic.io Standard License (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/standard-license)
• Mouse click sounds by Masgame
  • https://freesound.org/people/Masgame/sounds/347544/
  • CC-0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)

Topaz walks through a process he uses to sharpen his technical skills on side projects.

What side projects do you regularly rewrite to learn new technologies? Leave a comment below to help insipre other developers!

Thanks to Tyrel, Jim K (@ijimkoz)!

Credits

• Industrious Ferret by Kevin MacLeod
  • https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3912-industrious-ferret
  • Simplified Filmmusic.io Standard License (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/standard-license)

A little drawing I made after a particularly snowy day happened and, after being outside for a while, I came in to play some more Earthbound.

Topaz adds joystick support to a Commodore 64 tech demo.

Thanks to Tyrel (@tyrelsouza), Jim K. (@ijimkoz), J3!

References

• Hacking Star Dragon on GitHub (https://code.hackerbun.dev/TheIndustriousRabbit/hacking-star-dragon)
• Star Dragon in Compute!’s Gazette Issue 36 (https://archive.org/details/1986-06-computegazette/page/n55/mode/2up)
• C64 keyboard codes (https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/Keyboard_code)
  • One way of reading keyboard events on the C64
• Reading CTRL on a C64 (https://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=53383&sid=b4a3992211fc3724699159a4f61e7158)
  • More details on reading the CTRL key on a C64
• Reading a joystick on a C64 (https://retro-programming.com/how-to-program-joystick-input-handling-on-a-c64/)
  • How to read axes and fire button on a joystick
• da65 (https://www.cc65.org/doc/da65.html)
  • The da65 6502 disassembler
• ca65 (https://www.cc65.org/doc/ca65.html)
  • The ca65 6502 assembler

Credits

• Presenterator by Kevin MacLeod
  • https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4238-presenterator
  • CC-BY 4.0

Changelog

• 2023-07-21: Move to MakerTube.

Topaz breaks down The New Automatic Proofreader, a tool used to verify C64 BASIC code was copied correctly out of Compute!’s Gazette magazines.

Thanks to Tyrel (@tyrelsouza), Jim K. (@ijimkoz), J3!

References

• The New Automatic Proofreader in Compute!’s Gazette Issue 32 (https://archive.org/details/1986-02-computegazette/page/n109/mode/2up)
• The decompiled machine language code with comments (https://code.hackerbun.dev/TheIndustriousRabbit/the-automatic-proofreader-decompiled)
• The CRUNCH routine, which gets called after The Automatic Proofreadaer does its work (https://techwithdave.davevw.com/2020/08/commodore-64-basic-crunch-routine.html)
• TXTTAB, the memory address that holds the start of new BASIC code (https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/43-44)
• da65 (https://www.cc65.org/doc/da65.html)
  • The da65 6502 disassembler
• radare2 (https://rada.re/n/radare2.html)
  • The radare2 disassembler

Credits

• Explosion by FlashTrauma
  • https://freesound.org/people/FlashTrauma/sounds/398283/
  • CC0
• Presenterator by Kevin MacLeod
  • https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4238-presenterator
  • CC-BY 4.0

Changelog

• 2023-07-21: Move to MakerTube.