4 ms·

The world is an amazing place because some people do things which are really useful... but also because some people do things which are wacky, unexpected, ridic

The world is an amazing place because some people do things which are really useful... but also because some people do things which are wacky, unexpected, ridiculous, wasteful, pointless or stupid. When anyone shares anything at all—whether useful or useless—if it's interesting to someone, it's a potential source of joy. From the perspective of the individual, how is this any different from time spent playing a video game? If making an RCS for System 6 is entertainment for you, do it. Do it with the same relish that someone else might get from playing a video game like Lode Runner or Dark Castle. If you want utility, how about stories? Stories have utility. In this case, his tale of creating it is a worthy story. And like any story, his could spark someone else's imagination. Perhaps it could lead to more retro-programming which fascinates and delight us.

rob74 5y ago
These are all valid points - in fact I have my own (almost-but-not-quite-finished) semi-retrocomputing project too: a cross-platform MOD (the old Amiga music format) player written in Go (https://github.com/nieware/go-modplayer https://github.com/nieware/go-modplayer). Which may not be useful to a lot of people, but at least it was useful for me getting better at Go. That's not to say all of the things I do in my spare time are useful though - most of the time I end up playing games or browsing HN, so even less useful than reimplementing version management for an ancient OS.
- windenntw 5y ago
  I took a small look at your repo and noticed a possible issue: while Gravis Ultrasound did linear interpolation of samples [1], on Amiga all sample replay was strictly non-interpolated [2] ... essentially on each display scanline the hardware would check the period down-counter and load the next sample if zero was reached. cf: [1] http://www.gravisultrasound.com/files/documentation/GUSFAQ.txt http://www.gravisultrasound.com/files/documentation/GUSFAQ.t... [2] http://bax.comlab.uni-rostock.de/dl/Paula_SystemTheoretic.pdf http://bax.comlab.uni-rostock.de/dl/Paula_SystemTheoretic.pd...
  - rob74 5y ago
    Thanks for looking at the repo and for the links! Initially I just used non-interpolated output, but it was extremely noisy. I suspected the Amiga had some additional analog hardware which avoided this, so I just added some interpolation to make it sound better. But anyway, it's far from finished, if I have the time to pick it up again someday I could make it more accurate...
    - windenntw 5y ago
      Yes, it has a low-pass-filter that you can turn on or off. See http://amigadev.elowar.com/read/ADCD_2.1/Hardware_Manual_guide/node00EE.html http://amigadev.elowar.com/read/ADCD_2.1/Hardware_Manual_gui... and more generally: http://amigadev.elowar.com/read/ADCD_2.1/Hardware_Manual_guide/node00E8.html http://amigadev.elowar.com/read/ADCD_2.1/Hardware_Manual_gui...
mattkrause 5y ago
In that vein, an Ancient Greek version of Harry Potter does actually exist! I think I've seen a Latin and Scots version too. Here are the translator's notes on making it, which provide an interesting perspective on how translation works: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/harry_potter.htm http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/harry_potter.htm

rob74 5y ago

These are all valid points - in fact I have my own (almost-but-not-quite-finished) semi-retrocomputing project too: a cross-platform MOD (the old Amiga music format) player written in Go (https://github.com/nieware/go-modplayer https://github.com/nieware/go-modplayer). Which may not be useful to a lot of people, but at least it was useful for me getting better at Go. That's not to say all of the things I do in my spare time are useful though - most of the time I end up playing games or browsing HN, so even less useful than reimplementing version management for an ancient OS.

windenntw 5y ago
I took a small look at your repo and noticed a possible issue: while Gravis Ultrasound did linear interpolation of samples [1], on Amiga all sample replay was strictly non-interpolated [2] ... essentially on each display scanline the hardware would check the period down-counter and load the next sample if zero was reached. cf: [1] http://www.gravisultrasound.com/files/documentation/GUSFAQ.txt http://www.gravisultrasound.com/files/documentation/GUSFAQ.t... [2] http://bax.comlab.uni-rostock.de/dl/Paula_SystemTheoretic.pdf http://bax.comlab.uni-rostock.de/dl/Paula_SystemTheoretic.pd...
- rob74 5y ago
  Thanks for looking at the repo and for the links! Initially I just used non-interpolated output, but it was extremely noisy. I suspected the Amiga had some additional analog hardware which avoided this, so I just added some interpolation to make it sound better. But anyway, it's far from finished, if I have the time to pick it up again someday I could make it more accurate...
  - windenntw 5y ago
    Yes, it has a low-pass-filter that you can turn on or off. See http://amigadev.elowar.com/read/ADCD_2.1/Hardware_Manual_guide/node00EE.html http://amigadev.elowar.com/read/ADCD_2.1/Hardware_Manual_gui... and more generally: http://amigadev.elowar.com/read/ADCD_2.1/Hardware_Manual_guide/node00E8.html http://amigadev.elowar.com/read/ADCD_2.1/Hardware_Manual_gui...

mattkrause 5y ago

In that vein, an Ancient Greek version of Harry Potter does actually exist! I think I've seen a Latin and Scots version too. Here are the translator's notes on making it, which provide an interesting perspective on how translation works: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/harry_potter.htm http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/harry_potter.htm