Tag: Vintage Tech

Testing, testing

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Another short run today…

…and then I got back into my game. I finished the graphics this morning, and after a bit of tweaking I’ve managed to get the first set all implemented and working on the Spectrum +3 emulator. Tomorrow I’ll do the same for the Spectrum Next and Adventuron versions and start putting the finishing touches on everything, and hopefully there’ll still be a bit of time to run it past a couple of playtesters before the jam deadline!

I’ve had a couple of hours free every evening for the last few days to play videogames as well, which has been nice. I’m currently working my way through realMyst: Masterpiece Edition on the Switch (so cool to be able to explore the world properly as opposed to the static images from the 1993 version that I grew up with!) and Final Fantasy 1 on the PSP (I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m planning to play through the mainline Final Fantasy games in order… I’m only allowing myself an online map to help with the first game as apparently the original version came with a paper map!).

More making and playing games tomorrow, I hope!

Laptop stack
It’s time for the LAPTOP STACK. You can only run one Adventuron tab per browser, and I’ve got to a point where I need to work on multiple versions of a game at once. As such, the backup laptops will be pulling their weight tomorrow!

Today’s earworm playlist:

Harry Nilsson – ‘One’
Catatonia – ‘Road Rage’
Michael Jackson – ‘They Don’t Care About Us’
Manami Kiyota – ‘Frontier Village’

A slightly mixed-up Wednesday

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I didn’t get out for a run until nearly mid-afternoon today…

…as I wanted to get some work finished first. By the time I went out, it was actually really warm and sunny, and I regretted wearing leggings instead of shorts! The sun has disappeared again now though. Hopefully it’ll make a reappearance before too long.

Looking forward to settling down with my game coding again tonight.

Prom night, 2002
That awkward moment when you realise that prom night was eighteen years ago this month. Still glad I went for a flamenco dress rather than something that would date in pictures. The same can’t be said for the Olympus camera (already eight years old at that point) and Nokia 3310 that you can see in my hands!

Today’s earworm playlist:

Heaven 17 – ‘Let Me Go’
Chas & Dave and The Matchroom Mob – ‘Snooker Loopy’*
GRL – ‘Ugly Heart’

*RIP Willie Thorne, you absolute legend 😢

Still not firing on all cylinders

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Just another mile today…

…as I woke up with a slightly sore shoulder (I had planned to do closer to two miles today but decided to keep it short and gentle again).

I’m still not sleeping well, and I don’t feel productive at all this week – I’m a bit slow to get going with everything. Still, I’m managing to get a bit of work on my current writing project done every day, which is great.

Despite the uncertainty about absolutely everything at the moment, I am 100% certain that two things will be the case by the end of 2020:

  1. I will have made a significant dent in my videogame backlog. There’s no way I’ll have cleared it completely, but there will at least be light at the end of the tunnel…
  2. I will own enough leggings to last me for the rest of my life, and yet I will still want more. So many shiny patterns!

Everyone needs a hobby, or twenty in my case. Especially at the moment.

Videogaming tonight, running in the morning, writing during the day, rinse and repeat.

Computers, 1980
I’m running out of pictures that I can take during lockdown, as my world is obviously a bit samey right now. As such, I’ve been going through the family archives for old computer pictures. I love this one from 1980.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Billy Idol – ‘Rebel Yell’
Revo – ‘Ship Upon The Open Skies’
Thought Beings – ‘Shakedown’

Slowly improving the habitat

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A recovery mile this morning…

…and then Mum and Dad popped in again so that we could finish off the last few jobs in the bathrooms. Towel rings now installed! Dad has also taken our old laptops home with him for further Linux experimentation.

I’ve spent the afternoon getting on with admin (and daydreaming about further home improvements). Back to work tomorrow.

Towel ring
The sheer beige intensity of my bathroom photos has me itching to repaint the downstairs one in some really bright, funky colour. Like purple, or possibly tropical mango. I might see what’s on offer in the paint section next time I’m at a hardware shop.

Today’s earworm playlist:

The Midnight – ‘Crystalline’
Justin Timberlake – ‘Can’t Stop The Feeling’

Computer management

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After my Tuesday recovery mile…

…Mum and Dad arrived (it’s Dad’s birthday today). Dad and I then spent the afternoon experimenting with a couple of old laptops that Geth and I want to put Linux on, as Windows 7 is slow and less supported these days. It looks like we’ll be able to get that finished tomorrow hopefully!

We then went out to the Redhouse in Newcastle for Dad’s birthday meal out. I hadn’t been there for more than three years, since before I started Slimming World, because I have no idea how many syns are in one of their pies! Just have to estimate it this week… The pies are amazing though.

More house-sorting to do (and nice food to eat) tomorrow.

Pies at the Redhouse
Pie-eating at the Redhouse! Photo from Dad.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Bill Conti – ‘Gonna Fly Now’
Justin Timberlake – ‘Can’t Stop The Feeling’
The Midnight – ‘Collateral’

Back in the box

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A busy day today. I went for my short run first thing this morning, then spent a few hours doing some day job work for a client. After that, the rest of the afternoon was taken up with putting away all the Christmas decorations. The house always looks a bit bare when they’re down, but it is giving me some impetus to get a few more pictures up on the walls soon.

Geth and I have sorted out our diaries for 2020 this evening (they’re ridiculously full already, which always seems to happen at the start of the year), and I’m about to have a go on RingFit Adventure, which is an exercise game for the Nintendo Switch.

A slightly quieter day tomorrow I hope!

Retro media players
Not an OOTD: it’s not out the box yet, but my new turntable (a Christmas present from Geth) fits its allotted space very well! Some of the albums are newly bought in the last year, while others are from Mum and Dad’s collection, which I divvied up with Malcolm on Christmas morning. It’s also a cassette player, but I won’t be getting rid of my 1993 Saisho machine (top of picture) – I’m too attached to it.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Koichi Sugiyama – ‘Unflinchable Courage’
Starship – ‘We Built This City’
Bill Conti – ‘Gonna Fly Now’

Turn of the decade

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Today is the day that we say goodbye to the 2010s and look forward to the 2020s. What will it bring? Hopefully the music will be better (I’ll be doing a whole post about that in a few days’ time).

As such, it was wholly appropriate (I feel anyway) that I spent the day playing with tech from a totally different decade. Dad tested the old five-and-a-half-inch floppies in the drive for the BBC Micro, and they worked! I’ve now identified all the old games on the disk, which was a real blast from the past. There are games on there that I haven’t even thought about for thirty years.

I’m having a quiet evening in with the family for my first sober Hogmanay, and it feels great. I’m looking forward to welcoming in 2020 with alcohol-free fizzy wine and Dad’s traditional Hogmanay pizza, and I’m also very excited about doing my first ever New Year’s Day double parkrun tomorrow morning.

Target Practice, BBC Micro, 1983
Not an OOTD: Target Practice, a Micro game from 1983. I couldn’t quite work out the controls for this one but it looks nice!

Today’s earworm playlist:

Tomohito Nishiura – ‘Searching For Clues’
Kuana Torres Kahele, James Ford Murphy and Napua Greig-Nakasone – ‘Someone To Lava’
Blur – ‘End Of A Century’
Travis – ‘The Last Laugh Of The Laughter’