4 ms·

Viboritas: Reverse engineering of my 1990 game (I was 11 years old)

73 points by nanochess 3y ago

tasty_freeze 3y ago
That is damn impressive for an 11 year old, especially one coding without an assembler.
- saagarjha 3y ago
  Children tend to have the tenacity to put up with non-optimal coding environments :)
  - moritonal 3y ago
    Having been once been a said kid who entered coding through vast abuse of PowerPoint hyperlinks, yes, this.
    - deaddodo 3y ago
      It's stories like these that make me glad to have grown up in a time of easily accessible pirated copies of Turbo Pascal and VB Classic.
      - kevindamm 3y ago
        a BASIC rom built into an Atari 800XL was my gateway environment,.. and I think not having a way to store the programs I wrote is why I don't develop any unhealthy attachments to the software I write as an adult
    - Agingcoder 3y ago
      That sounds interesting- could you elaborate?
      - moritonal 3y ago
        It was stupid, but the rough gist was I realised you could hyperlink between slides, so I made a "choose your own adventure game" like those books that said to turn to page X. But then I wanted inventory, so horrifically I started exponentially making branches of slides where you did and didn't have items. My 9-year old brain spent days hyper-focused making identical copies of all the worlds with secret parts to click. Finally I discovered macros, which helped a lot, before finally finding CMD in Windows and discovering an actual control flow which taught me variables and what not. I was the older part of the Minecraft era which was my entry into core boolean logic, and SpaceChem taught me parallel flow before entering university.
        axhecjoyf 3y ago
        I’m not sure this is as “stupid” as you think. Myst was created this way: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myst https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myst
        Agingcoder 3y ago
        Thats amazing I love these kinds of stories.
- deterministic 3y ago
  I used to write assembler on paper and then translate it step by step to Z80 machine code to run on a ZX Spectrum. And yes I was eleven as well. It’s amazing how easily you can do things when you don’t know how hard it is :) I still remember how excited I was filling the screen with black pixels using machine code!
TheCoreh 3y ago
When I saw the name "Toledo" I sorta knew I was in for a treat. Familia Toledo is somewhat legendary, they are a multigenerational family of coders from Mexico who did an operating system and a browser in the 90s.
- pmontra 3y ago
  This should be their web site http://www.biyubi.com/eng_principal.html http://www.biyubi.com/eng_principal.html
- actionfromafar 3y ago
  I almost can't comprehend it. It's like the MIT lab doing the ITS operating system or something, but in an alternative fork of reality.
- dang 3y ago
  Familia Toledo: The most inexpensive computer USD $99.00 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28337064 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28337064 - Aug 2021 (69 comments) Ask HN: What was the family that made their own computers all by themselves? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35070858 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35070858 - March 2023 (3 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20570154 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20570154 (July 2019) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8133433 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8133433 (Aug 2014)
moralestapia 3y ago
@nanochess this is pretty cool and it was a pleasant surprise to find out you're a Toledo. If I ever drop by CDMX I'd love if we could go grab some coffee together. For those unaware, the Toledo family is somewhat famous in Mexico for assembling their own PCs along with the programs that run on them, OS and all that, all home brewed. A bit reminiscent of Terry Davis and TempleOS, but I say this with respect as I don't think the Toledos are deranged people, lol.
- lainga 3y ago
  In addition - the OP in question is a 5-time IOCCC winner, including for the eponymous nanochess! https://github.com/bormand/nanochess https://github.com/bormand/nanochess
mojomark 3y ago
Is it not weird that there is no Wikipedia page on this family? It's just too odd to fly under the radar for so long. Perhaps a documentary - something to pull this altogether. I've got $50US for a gofundme if someone is game (I'm very lazy, but also very curious, and apparently have a spare $50 - typical North American scum I suppose).

73 points by nanochess 3y ago

tasty_freeze 3y ago

That is damn impressive for an 11 year old, especially one coding without an assembler.

saagarjha 3y ago
Children tend to have the tenacity to put up with non-optimal coding environments :)
- moritonal 3y ago
  Having been once been a said kid who entered coding through vast abuse of PowerPoint hyperlinks, yes, this.
  - deaddodo 3y ago
    It's stories like these that make me glad to have grown up in a time of easily accessible pirated copies of Turbo Pascal and VB Classic.
    - kevindamm 3y ago
      a BASIC rom built into an Atari 800XL was my gateway environment,.. and I think not having a way to store the programs I wrote is why I don't develop any unhealthy attachments to the software I write as an adult
  - Agingcoder 3y ago
    That sounds interesting- could you elaborate?
    - moritonal 3y ago
      It was stupid, but the rough gist was I realised you could hyperlink between slides, so I made a "choose your own adventure game" like those books that said to turn to page X. But then I wanted inventory, so horrifically I started exponentially making branches of slides where you did and didn't have items. My 9-year old brain spent days hyper-focused making identical copies of all the worlds with secret parts to click. Finally I discovered macros, which helped a lot, before finally finding CMD in Windows and discovering an actual control flow which taught me variables and what not. I was the older part of the Minecraft era which was my entry into core boolean logic, and SpaceChem taught me parallel flow before entering university.
      - axhecjoyf 3y ago
        I’m not sure this is as “stupid” as you think. Myst was created this way: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myst https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myst
      - Agingcoder 3y ago
        Thats amazing I love these kinds of stories.
deterministic 3y ago
I used to write assembler on paper and then translate it step by step to Z80 machine code to run on a ZX Spectrum. And yes I was eleven as well. It’s amazing how easily you can do things when you don’t know how hard it is :) I still remember how excited I was filling the screen with black pixels using machine code!

TheCoreh 3y ago

When I saw the name "Toledo" I sorta knew I was in for a treat. Familia Toledo is somewhat legendary, they are a multigenerational family of coders from Mexico who did an operating system and a browser in the 90s.

pmontra 3y ago
This should be their web site http://www.biyubi.com/eng_principal.html http://www.biyubi.com/eng_principal.html
actionfromafar 3y ago
I almost can't comprehend it. It's like the MIT lab doing the ITS operating system or something, but in an alternative fork of reality.
dang 3y ago
Familia Toledo: The most inexpensive computer USD $99.00 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28337064 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28337064 - Aug 2021 (69 comments) Ask HN: What was the family that made their own computers all by themselves? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35070858 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35070858 - March 2023 (3 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20570154 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20570154 (July 2019) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8133433 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8133433 (Aug 2014)

moralestapia 3y ago

@nanochess this is pretty cool and it was a pleasant surprise to find out you're a Toledo. If I ever drop by CDMX I'd love if we could go grab some coffee together. For those unaware, the Toledo family is somewhat famous in Mexico for assembling their own PCs along with the programs that run on them, OS and all that, all home brewed. A bit reminiscent of Terry Davis and TempleOS, but I say this with respect as I don't think the Toledos are deranged people, lol.

lainga 3y ago
In addition - the OP in question is a 5-time IOCCC winner, including for the eponymous nanochess! https://github.com/bormand/nanochess https://github.com/bormand/nanochess

mojomark 3y ago

Is it not weird that there is no Wikipedia page on this family? It's just too odd to fly under the radar for so long. Perhaps a documentary - something to pull this altogether. I've got $50US for a gofundme if someone is game (I'm very lazy, but also very curious, and apparently have a spare $50 - typical North American scum I suppose).