God
Video Games
Computers
Today has been a great day! I haven't felt actual joy in months: it feels good! Since I knew I had no commitments today, and after several weeks of very little sleep, my Apple Watch told me I got 2.65 hours of REM last night.
But the biggest factor: during his homily yesterday, our pastor said that the surest sign of the Holy Spirit's presence is joy. Inspired by that, this morning in the shower I prayed for the Holy Spirit to fill me with that joy. In turn, I prohibited myself from doing anything even remotely work-related.
Instead, I spent the entire day tinkering around with my Commodore 64 Ultimate! I was in the very first batch last fall, but due to the new job I haven't really felt like playing with it, so it has very few hours on it. I wrote up some notes as I was studying how to use it:
I also set the unit up on my desk, so I can look things up online as I go-- click on the image for the huge, original version:
The cool part about the Sony PVM monitor I have is that it can do both NTSC and PAL-- I almost couldn't believe it, but there it was in the display's settings, and it does work! A lot of C64 games are designed to be played at PAL speeds, so it's super cool to have that option available to me. And also via this route, I'm able to use S-Video-- it looks so crisp on there I can hardly believe it.
Now that I have a Microsoft Business account for my LLC, I have full access to Copilot-- it is generating real, working C64 BASIC code for me! Combining it with my understanding from the C64 Ultimate manual, which covers BASIC in great detail, I feel like I can get a simple game prototype up and running pretty quickly.
I found an awesome online tool here, where I can draw game boards and then export them as "BYTE" statements. From there, I can convert those-- plus the color values-- into interwoven "DATA" statements, which I can then use to draw the colorized stages.
For now my game is just going to be text mode, and moving a character around the screen. So BASIC should be plenty fast! Once I get that going, I'll try swapping the character and enemy out for sprites, and see if I can get that working.
To copy files into my D64 floppy image, I installed the "VICE" emulator, and am using the "c1541" command-line tool. Then I just copy that D64 file to my USB thumb drive, plug that into the C64 Ultimate, mount the disk image, and away I go!
I think I'm going to really like my "new" life: I just have to survive five more work days of this crushing grind, then I'll be back to working from home again, with all of the flexibility I need to for sustainable mental health. I just need to keep my eye on the prize: June 2! Then the real healing can start.
On a couple of random notes: Gattuso in at Lazio; not certain how that will solve anything with Lotito still there, but we'll see. And Pope Leo's first encyclical is up! I might start reading it tonight, expect notes and observations next weekend hopefully.
But the biggest factor: during his homily yesterday, our pastor said that the surest sign of the Holy Spirit's presence is joy. Inspired by that, this morning in the shower I prayed for the Holy Spirit to fill me with that joy. In turn, I prohibited myself from doing anything even remotely work-related.
Instead, I spent the entire day tinkering around with my Commodore 64 Ultimate! I was in the very first batch last fall, but due to the new job I haven't really felt like playing with it, so it has very few hours on it. I wrote up some notes as I was studying how to use it:
File Browser
------------
-To open: ROCKER SWITCH UP
-To create something: F1
-To select something: SPACE
-To delete selection: SHIFT + DEL
General Commands
----------------
-Clear the screen: SHIFT + CLR
-Change text colors: C= + NUMBER KEYS
-Soft reset: SYS 64738
-How to insert character: C= + INST
Program Commands
----------------
-How to mount a floppy: LOAD"$",8
-How to read contents: LIST
-How to load a program: LOAD "PROGRAM NAME",8
-How to save a program: SAVE "PROGRAM NAME",8
-How to delete a program: OPEN 1,8,15,"S:filename":CLOSE 1
-Alternative load program: LOAD "*",8,1
-How to run a program: RUN
Graphics Commands
-----------------
-Toggle graphics mode: C= + SHIFT
-Print a left-hand char: C= + KEY
-Print a right-hand char: SHIFT + KEY
-Formula for screen spot: 1024+X+(40*Y)
-Formula for color spot: 55296+X+(40*Y)
I also set the unit up on my desk, so I can look things up online as I go-- click on the image for the huge, original version:
The cool part about the Sony PVM monitor I have is that it can do both NTSC and PAL-- I almost couldn't believe it, but there it was in the display's settings, and it does work! A lot of C64 games are designed to be played at PAL speeds, so it's super cool to have that option available to me. And also via this route, I'm able to use S-Video-- it looks so crisp on there I can hardly believe it.
Now that I have a Microsoft Business account for my LLC, I have full access to Copilot-- it is generating real, working C64 BASIC code for me! Combining it with my understanding from the C64 Ultimate manual, which covers BASIC in great detail, I feel like I can get a simple game prototype up and running pretty quickly.
I found an awesome online tool here, where I can draw game boards and then export them as "BYTE" statements. From there, I can convert those-- plus the color values-- into interwoven "DATA" statements, which I can then use to draw the colorized stages.
For now my game is just going to be text mode, and moving a character around the screen. So BASIC should be plenty fast! Once I get that going, I'll try swapping the character and enemy out for sprites, and see if I can get that working.
To copy files into my D64 floppy image, I installed the "VICE" emulator, and am using the "c1541" command-line tool. Then I just copy that D64 file to my USB thumb drive, plug that into the C64 Ultimate, mount the disk image, and away I go!
I think I'm going to really like my "new" life: I just have to survive five more work days of this crushing grind, then I'll be back to working from home again, with all of the flexibility I need to for sustainable mental health. I just need to keep my eye on the prize: June 2! Then the real healing can start.
On a couple of random notes: Gattuso in at Lazio; not certain how that will solve anything with Lotito still there, but we'll see. And Pope Leo's first encyclical is up! I might start reading it tonight, expect notes and observations next weekend hopefully.