Who has time to maintain two personal blogs ? It is even difficult to maintain just one. So what I did was to merge my unicycle (monociclo.com.ar) blog into this one (towp8.com). I divided them in categories: The unicycle blog is using the “unicycle” category. This blog is using the "programming" category. * UPDATE 2025-07-28*: “towp8”
I started to code a unicycle game for the Commodore 64. The first thing that I realized was that I needed an game editor, so I started to code one: VChar64. Today I released v0.0.1 which has basic functionality but the functionality that it has, just work. You can download it from here: Download: https://github.com/ricardoquesada/vchar64 Features: Imports raw, PRG and CharPad file formats Exports to raw and PRG Basic editing functionality: Rotate, Invert, Clear, Shift left/right/up/down Multiplatform: Win, Linux and Mac Screenshot: ...
I stopped developing for the Commodore 64 in 1993. Since then a lot has happened: Back in late 80’s ~beginning of 90’s I did all my coding using the Commodore 128’sMONITOR command That means no text editor, no compiler, no linker. Similar to the debug.com command that used to be in DOS. Since I didn’t use a text editor, I put all my comments in a notepad (I still have that notepad somewhere) I used the Commodore 128’s SPRDEF as the Sprite editor. I used my own character editor called vchar… (later I created a similar one for DOS and Linux) I did some basic graphics using a graphics editor… but I can’t remember which one. I didn’t know any other C64 developer, so I did everything kind of isolated My sources of information wereCommodore Magazine, Tu Micro Commodore and some books. I reversed engineer some games / demos in order to learn tricks. I had a 300 bps modem but I didn’t find any good C64 BBS. I did some cracks for a local company that was “publishing” (AKA pirating) games. In exchange they were providing me games. To put things into perspective it was impossible (I mean IMPOSSIBLE) to get original games in Argentina back then. I knew some basic tricks like how to use more than 8 sprites, how to open the top and bottom borders, some raster effects… but nothing very advanced. I loaded all my programs / games using the disk drive, which was much faster than the datasette, but still very slow I had a fast-loader cartridge to accelerate the disk drive loading times. It also had a rudimentary MONITOR. Although Argentina was using the PAL-N standard I had a NTSC Commodore 128. In Argentina we also had the Argentinean Commodore, called Drean Commodore, which was a PAL-N machine assembled in Argentina And now, in 2015 You have different cross-assemblers like: ACME KickAssembler a more And native assemblers like (the native assemblers were available back then, I simply didn’t know of their existence): Turbo Assembler Many editors like: CharPad (a level editor using characters for Windows. Works with Wine) SpritePad (a sprite editor for Windows. Works with Wine) HermIRES(a PC/Mac/Linux graphics editor) GoatTracker (a music tracker) You even have complete IDEs like: Relaunch64 C64Studio C64 KickAss IDE Cross-crunchers(compressors) like: Exomizer All the existing C64 tricks are documented here (if it is not there, then it doesn’t exist): Codebase64: How to open the side borders Sprite multiplexers 3d effects and much much more Many tutorials. A good place to start is here: Dustlayer All books and magazines from the old days were scanned and are available here: Magazines Books Active community: Lemon64 (English) Commodore Mania (Spanish) An active demo scene: csdb.dk New games… yes people are still releasing new games for the C64, and selling them! RGCD Even recent popular games were ported ( demakes) to the C64: Canabalt( C64nabalt) Super Crate Box(Super Bread Box) Super Hexagon(Micro Hexagon) Cartridges that support loading games from SD memory cards… no more disk drives or datasettes. These cartridges act as fast loaders among other things: Turbo Chamaleon Ultimate 1541 Great Emulators (they emulate everything, including VIC bugs, undocumented opcodes, etc.): VICE (Win/Mac/Linux) CCS64 (Win only) Multi system TVs… (one TV both for PAL and NTSC machines) 220 electronics And probably many other things that I’m forgetting As a reminder, the Commodore 64 was released in 1982!. It is impressive all the things that can be done in a 30+ years old computer! ...
For the past 5 or 6 years, I used iPhones as my default phones. But a few months ago I decided to switch to Android. I tried Android devices before, but never as my default phone. At the beginning I started using a Samsung Galaxy S4 (a 2013 5" device), but later I switch to a Xiaomi MI4 (a 2014 5" device with better specs). Without further ado, this is my feedback: ...
Lo primero que pasó es que en Octubre 2014 fui padre y eso significa, además de tener una enorme felicidad, es que ya no tengo tanto tiempo como antes. Y eso significa que tuve menos tiempo para andar en monociclo y menos tiempo para escribir en el blog. Pero para hacer un resumen, esto es lo que pasó: Fui a Unicon XVII en Canada, y participé en Basket " A", en Hockey “B”, en Muni Downhill “Advanced”, en Muni Uphill, en Muni Cross-Country “Advanced”. Muy muy divertido, en Agosto 2014. Hice el San Francisco Uni Tour en Septiembre 2014. Fui al California Muni Weekend en Los Angeles en Octubre 2014. Y seguí jugando as basket todos los martes en Berkeley. Y traté de hacer Muni una vez por semana, aunque a veces no se podia. Fotos, aca. ...
In Part I I described to how integrated LiquidFun with Cocos2d-x. In this part (part II) I’ll describe how to render the particles using a basic water effect. Part I uses just one glDrawArrays(GL_POINTS, 0, total); to draw the particles. And although that works to draw “particles”, it is not enough to draw “water”. Drawing “water” requires a more complex rendering algorithm, like the one used in this example. And implementing an algorithm similar that one is what this article describes. ...
At WWDC 2014, Apple announced new features for iOS and OS X. These are my thoughts: Swift Swift is a new programming language by Apple. At first sight, it seems to be easier to learn and easier to master than Objective-C. Objective-C is not particular difficult to learn and master, but its syntax looks foreign to C# / C++ / Python developers. Swift, on the other hand, has a more conventional design. You can read Swift code the same way you can read C# code, even if you are not a Swift or C# developer. ...
LiquidFun Testbed + Cocos2d-x From LiquidFun’s site: Based on Box2d, LiquidFun features particle-based fluid simulation. Game developers can use it for new game mechanics and add realistic physics to game play. Designers can use the library to create beautiful fluid interactive experiences. Basically, LiquidFun is Box2d plus an extension to simulate fluids using a particle system. To test it, download and install the official LiquidFun - Testbed, and LiquidFun - EyeCandy for Android. ...
I’ve been using a Dell XPS 15 for a week, and this is my review (from a developer’s point of view): Pros: Display: It has a nice 15" display with a resolution of 3200 x 1800 (higher DPI than the MacBook Retina Display). Weight: It is a light notebook, of about 2 kilos. It is very fast. And it boots in a just a few seconds. It doesn’t come with crapware The keyboard is Ok. I like that you can toggle the Functions keys by pressing Fn + Esc. Great unboxing experience, but who cares? Cons: ...
Goals Compile and run cocos2d-x tests on the emulator Set a breakpoint in Visual Studio. Running cpp-test on the Emulator Download cocos2d-x v3.0 Unzip it and then go to cocos2d-x/build directory $ cd cocos2d-x/build Open cocos2d-wp8.vc2012.sln with Visual Studio $ start cocos2d-wp8.vc2012.sln Set cpp-tests (Windows Phone Silverlight 8) as the default project: Go to the Solution Explorer Right click on cpp-tests (Windows Phone Silverlight 8) Click on Set as StartUp Project ...