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Comment Re:Obligatory Atari vs. Comodore post (Score 1) 143

Starting from your title, this is nowhere near "fair". First of all, it is "Commodore".

Second, while M.O.O.D. is one of the productions that is closer to being a Wolfenstein 3D clone on C64, it does not represent the best rendering possible. There are at least a few others on C64 that employ better rendering, albeit they are simply demos and would not be considered as playable games (just like mine here). If I am supposed to give some names; One-Der, Living, Brutal Comeback, some Resource demos and a Smash Design demo come to mind at first thought.

While I appreciate Project-M, the comparison you are trying to do here is like comparing apples and oranges. You take the best effort in Atari world and compare it to some production in C64 world that you think is the best, while it is actually not (technically and aesthetic wise).

Lastly, one has to wonder why it was obligatory to bring C64 vs. Atari topic under a size limited raycaster feature. Probably, the long time itch of Atarians losing against C64 25+ years ago came alive again. Right.

Comment Re:Will this run . . . (Score 1) 143

And that is exactly what 1bir does on C64, i.e. redefining a char in set and filling the screen with that char. Then all it does is to change color RAM nybbles to "render" the scene. In that regard, what I reffered to as "video RAM" mistakenly above was actually supposed to be color RAM.

I think, porting to VIC20 should not take more than changing some addresses and making the rendering code to work with VIC20 KERNAL, if there are differences with C64 KERNAL. Also it would be a 22x22 screen matrix, instead of 40x24 as it is for C64 now.

Comment Re:My expectations were too high (Score 2) 143

Next version is coming up soon, with more features than you actually mentioned in your post. :-) (It will not be under 256 bytes, though). This was, as you said, made to prove that it can be done under 256 bytes. Therefore, the size limit does not really allow to add many more features than there are now (although it is still possible to add small improvements here and there, of course). Lastly, this does not utilize any LUT, except for the usual sine/cosine tables.

Comment Re:Will this run . . . (Score 5, Interesting) 143

It is quite possible that it will run on VIC20, but it will probably need some modification to the actual render code (I do not have a VIC20, so I am not sure). Other than that, it should work, as RAM usage is minimal (just needs 320 bytes for sine/cosine tables, ZeroPage and the 1K video RAM).

Nevertheless, I will include it in the next release. Thanks for the idea.

Submission + - Interactive Raycaster for the Commodore 64 under 256 bytes (pouet.net)

Wisdom writes: 1bir (1 Block Interactive Raycaster) is a simple ray casting engine implemented only in 254 bytes to run on a stock, unexpanded Commodore 64. The name comes from the fact that on a C64 floppy disk, 1 block is equivalent to 254 bytes stored on a disk sector. In 254 bytes, 1bir sets up the screen for drawing, creates sine and cosine tables for 256 brads based on a simple approximation, casts rays into a 2D map that lives inside the C64 KERNAL ROM, renders the screen in coordination with KERNAL, evaluates 8-way joystick input and detects collision against walls. The ray casting core employs a brute force algorithm to determine visible walls, while the mapping portion supports both open-ended (infinitely looped) and traditional, closed maps. The source code in 6502 assembly is available, with extensive comments. A YouTube video showcases 1bir in a detailed manner with both kind of maps and more information, while a Vimeo video presents a shorter demonstration.

Submission + - Build a Supercomputer Replica of the Human Brain (wired.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Even by the standards of the TED conference, Henry Markram’s 2009 TEDGlobal talk was a mind-bender. In the four years since Markram’s speech, he hasn’t backed off a nanometer. The self-assured scientist claims that the only thing preventing scientists from understanding the human brain in its entirety—from the molecular level all the way to the mystery of consciousness—is a lack of ambition. If only neuroscience would follow his lead, he insists, his Human Brain Project could simulate the functions of all 86 billion neurons in the human brain, and the 100 trillion connections that link them. And once that’s done, once you’ve built a plug-and-play brain, anything is possible. You could take it apart to figure out the causes of brain diseases. You could rig it to robotics and develop a whole new range of intelligent technologies. You could strap on a pair of virtual reality glasses and experience a brain other than your own. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/05/neurologist-markam-human-brain/all/

Comment A touch of 6502 (Score 1) 438

Here is a 13 bytes version in 6502 machine code:

7C 00 20 D2 FF A1 85 29 01 E9 92 D0 F5

(Save this as a .prg file and run it in your favourite C64 emulator or on the real thing itself. Please note that the first two bytes are actually required by .prg file format to indicate load address. The actual code is 11 bytes).

For more information:

http://pouet.net/prod.php?which=60810

Earth

Machine Condenses Drinking Water Out of Thin Air 438

longacre writes "A new $1,200 machine that uses the same amount of power as three light bulbs promises to condense drinkable water out of the air. On display at Wired Magazine's annual tech showcase, the WaterMill 'looks like a giant golf ball that has been chopped in half: it is about 3ft in diameter, made of white plastic, and is attached to the wall. It works by drawing air through filters to remove dust and particles, then cooling it to just below the temperature at which dew forms. The condensed water is passed through a self-sterilising chamber that uses microbe-busting UV light to eradicate any possibility of Legionnaires' disease or other infections. Finally, it is filtered and passed through a pipe to the owner's fridge or kitchen tap.'"
Cellphones

New iPhone Apps Help Drivers Beat Speed Traps 330

Ponca City, We love you writes "Two mobile applications, NMobile and Trapster, are providing drivers with up-to-date maps of speed-enforcement zones with live police traps, speed cameras or red-light cameras. Each application pulls up a map pinpointing the locations of speed traps within driving distance and an audio alert will sound as vehicles approach an area tagged as harboring a speed trap. Both applications rely on the wisdom of the crowds for their data with users reporting camera-rigged stop lights and areas heavily populated with radar-toting police officers via the iPhone or their web-based application, creating the ultimate speed trap repository available to you when you need it most — while you're driving. To thwart false alarms and eliminate inaccuracies, Trapster enlists its community of nearly 200,000 members to rank speed traps on their accuracy. NMobile founder Shannon Atkinson declined to provide detailed data, though he did estimate that 'well over 1,000' users had downloaded the application since it became available last week. The company insists they've received only positive feedback from law enforcement officials and police officers regarding their products. 'If the application gets people to slow down, I think it's generally considered to be a good thing,' said Atkinson."

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