@polpo@bitbang.social
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

polpo

@polpo@bitbang.social

Blinking LED enthusiast. Lover of old technology. Won't leave anything with electronics alone. Tinkered enough with the Raspberry Pi Pico and the ISA bus to happen to make a retro sound card emulator (https://github.com/polpo/picogus).

Located in Colorado, USA

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

ernie, to random
@ernie@writing.exchange avatar

I mean look at this

polpo,
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

@ernie uhhh what happened??

polpo, to random
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

#PicoGUS is once again back in stock at Tindie! https://www.tindie.com/products/polpo/picogus-sound-card-emulator-for-isa-retro-pcs/

polpo,
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

Y’all are apparently DDoSing Tindie. People are having problems checking out or getting shipping rates for their countries. #PicoGUS

root42, (edited ) to macos
@root42@chaos.social avatar

Dear #macOS bubble: My M1 iMac is still on Sonoma, 13.6. I am thinking about finally upgrading from Ventura to Sonoma -- is it worth it? Any problems? Advantages? Disadvantages?
EDIT: clarified the upgrade. I totally get lost on the codenames…

polpo,
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

@root42 you mean upgrading to Sonoma from Ventura? I've also held out and don't see much compelling reason to upgrade. M1 Pro Macbook here...

tubetime, to random
@tubetime@mastodon.social avatar

some great pixel art from my brother. this was displayed with a genuine IBM CGA card (really!)

polpo,
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

@tubetime @root42 please go back to 1981 and sneak this into the design for CGA

Mark, to mastodon
@Mark@weird.autos avatar

#Mastodon massive and #CDRom/#RetroComputing hobbists I need your help. I want to get a heavy usb CD ROM drive for my computer so it doesn’t slide around. I figure I might as well get something that’s interesting to look at. I was looking at a 2000s era Iomega. Does anyone know of a relatively fast external sub CD rom drive that looks neat and perhaps essoteric. They make cool purple one but it’s only 6x speed.

polpo,
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

@Mark I remember a crazy swoopy one one... let me see if I can find it!

polpo,
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

@Mark I am totally envisioning one in my head that I saw relatively recently that fits that aesthetic! But so far I'm drawing a blank...

polpo,
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

@Mark aha, this is the one I was thinking of! The QPS "Que!" drive. It's not very fast but they did make a later DVD version but that didn't have the translucent front panel, apparently.

polpo, to random
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

Today I retooted a post saying the largest possible pdf is 381km x 381km. Apparently it's a bit more complicated than that. In this article the author creates a PDF larger than the known universe: https://alexwlchan.net/2024/big-pdf/

rasterweb, to art
@rasterweb@mastodon.social avatar

Hey just two more prints to share this month! Here's a purple octopus ready to shake your hands...

polpo,
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

@rasterweb as an octopus fan, I think this one is great!

polpo, to random
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

I'll never forget when I first heard the demo of Tetra Compositor that came with my first Sound Blaster. It was the first time I heard tracker music and I was blown away. Eventually I found more on local BBSes and that sent me down an amazing path for the rest of my life. There's a sealed copy of the full version on eBay right now: https://www.ebay.com/itm/184969757864

polpo, to random
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

Some people have wondered why the #PicoGUS is as tall as it is and here’s why: to fit big boi wavetable cards like this one. It’s also why there are holes for mounting standoffs.

Another angle showing how the cards connect via the pin headers on the PicoGUS. Plastic standoffs help hold the wavetable card.

polpo,
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

This is the front of the card and it’s beautiful. It was made by Media Vision with Korg synthesizer guts on it. It sounds amazing in that mid-90s high-end MIDI way.

polpo, to animals
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

Happy 40th anniversary, Macintosh! I just tried getting mine out of its carrying bag but it has really sharp teeth and claws... #macintosh #catsofmastodon

polpo, to random
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

#PicoGUS firmware v1.0.2 is released: https://github.com/polpo/picogus/releases/tag/v1.0.2

  • New bus timing, fixes compatibility with IBM PC/AT 5170.
  • Faster IOCHRDY timing to improve compatibility and spend less time on ISA bus.
  • Less aggressive overclock and different startup timing to improve stability on reset.
  • Added support for Xbox 360 wireless adapter dongle.
gsuberland, to random
@gsuberland@chaos.social avatar

tired: 3d printing

wired: microplastics as a service

polpo,
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

@gsuberland @etchedpixels I remember @jacqueline wondering about what sort of exposure Prusa's workers have at their print farm, since they have no PPE

dosnostalgic, to random
@dosnostalgic@mastodon.social avatar

Moraff's Entrap/Moraff's Super Entrap (Moraffware, 1991) #DOSGaming

polpo,
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

@dosnostalgic Moraff games sure had A Look to them, huh

theLobdegg, to random

@polpo
Out of curiosity are there any plans for an Adlib/Sound Blaster 16 firmware file or was that too much for the pico?

polpo,
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

@theLobdegg Adlib/8-bit Sound Blaster 2.0 is definitely in the works and should be coming pretty soon. OPL3 emulation is the stumbling block to emulating the later SB cards like the Pro and 16. I bet it's possible, but it's beyond my optimization skills.

polpo, to random
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

Oh cool, I didn't notice that RobertDaleSmith released the source to his USBRetro project: https://github.com/RobertDaleSmith/USBRetro
This is going to greatly improve the number of USB controllers that are supported on PicoGUS!

polpo, to random
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

Coming soon to #PicoGUS: Sound Blaster support. Massive thanks to yyzkevin for writing and contributing the SB DSP and mixing code! Now you'll be able to play Doom with FM synth + SB sound effects, or play earlier SB games that don't support the GUS.

A computer on a testbench with a PicoGUS in it, playing the first level of Doom. There's the famous FM synth soundtrack playing along with sound effects.

thomasfuchs, to random
@thomasfuchs@hachyderm.io avatar

Remember when Github tried to sell us on a text editor written in a web browser

polpo,
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

@thomasfuchs Atom? A coworker was really into it

polpo, to random
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

#PicoGUS currently doesn't work on the IBM 5170 and this really bugs me because I first used a GUS on a 5170 back in the day! So today I'm going to try to figure out why it doesn't work. I have the logic analyzer hooked to the ISA bus so I can get some bus captures while the PicoGUS tries to play some Adlib music...

polpo,
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

I'm also capturing the PicoGUS's understanding of reality, and doing a diff with how it understands things on a working system. In this diff, the pane on the left is good playback, and on the right is glitchy playback on the 5170. Instead of reading 0x00s it's reading 0x79s and other stuff

polpo,
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

And I found the smoking gun: those 0x79s are present on the data lines until ~30ns after the read signal goes active!! Because I try to be as fast as possible on the ISA bus, I read the lines only after about 16ns, but that's way before the proper data is actually on the lines on the 5170. Now I need to figure out how to slow things down.

polpo,
@polpo@bitbang.social avatar

So all it took was to increase the clock divider on the PicoGUS's state machine that handles IOW on the ISA bus... and everything works, even GUS emulation!

The 5170 PC open and playing the song "Mechanism Eight" by Necros.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • anitta
  • InstantRegret
  • mdbf
  • ngwrru68w68
  • magazineikmin
  • thenastyranch
  • rosin
  • khanakhh
  • osvaldo12
  • Youngstown
  • slotface
  • Durango
  • kavyap
  • DreamBathrooms
  • JUstTest
  • tacticalgear
  • ethstaker
  • provamag3
  • cisconetworking
  • tester
  • GTA5RPClips
  • cubers
  • everett
  • modclub
  • megavids
  • normalnudes
  • Leos
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •