@vl_tone@mastodon.social
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

vl_tone

@vl_tone@mastodon.social

Little green person on the internet, loving retro-tech and colorful neon pastel art. Sometimes I like to reverse engineer old video games.
You may also remember me from such software as:
Toad's Tool 64: The original Super Mario 64 level editor.
Metroid Cubed: An early 2000s attempt at voxelizing a classic 2D video game. Recently revived as Metroid Curved.
SFXEdit: A level editor for Star Fox.

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

christianselig, to random
@christianselig@mastodon.social avatar

The price difference to go from an 83 inch OLED to an 88 inch is just bonkers

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@christianselig Just saying: if you sit 1.5 feet closer to the TV, a 83" screen will look just as big as a 88".

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@christianselig VR headsets do change your focal distance using lens (it would be impossible to focus on those tiny screens otherwise) but yeah they usually have a fixed focal distance that are much closer than a movie screen.

I get what you're saying about not being as immersive but sitting closer still makes a difference by filling more of your field of view, and in the context of this price difference it would be "good enough" for me! :)

atpfm, to random
@atpfm@mastodon.social avatar

589: The Correct Amount of Rocks
https://atp.fm/589

Rumored AI features for WWDC, the state of LLMs, and a ridiculous desktop speaker setup.

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@atpfm Not sure about my 15 pro, but the iPhone X did use PWM when the brightness went below 50%. While it was generally unnoticeable, rapid eye movements, or moving the phone itself rapidly (i.e. when picking it up) would reveal some strobing that didn't exist at >50%.

It didn't cause me headaches but I found it annoying.

Reducing the white point using accessibility settings could make the display dimmer without PWM, but it would show uneveness in dark gray areas (similar to a cheap LCD).

scummvm, to random
@scummvm@manitu.social avatar

What's more useful than a debugger? A truly advanced debugger with tons and tons of features!

This time: DIRECOR. Down to the byte-code and to everything related to Lingo (the scripting language that drives the... well... scripts).

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@scummvm Is "DIRECOR" the name of that debugger or is it a typo of "DIRECTOR"?

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@scummvm Which versions of the Director engine does it support?

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@scummvm I'd be curious to try it on my old Director projects. Is the debugger included in the public release of ScummVM?

harrymccracken, to random
@harrymccracken@mastodon.social avatar

I wrote about why Google search telling us all to eat rocks isn’t as serious an issue as it claiming there’s a non-existent Dr. Seuss book. https://www.fastcompany.com/91132217/google-ai-overview-errors

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@harrymccracken I know it's not your fault, but I had trouble reading through the article with that uncloseable and un pauseable auto-playing video that remains at the bottom of the screen. It can be made smaller but it continues to play which to me is very distracting.

vga256, to retrocomputing
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

as promised, i'm archiving this 42 year old D&D campaign building software on cassette

warning: loud/annoying modulation sounds 😆

#tandy #trs80 #cassette #retroComputing

A cassette titled "Fantasy Gamer" by Prickly-Pear Software is inserted into a Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer Cassette Recorder. The owner hits play, and it begins playing back modulation sounds recorded on the tape.

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@feedmd @vga256 I was about to post the exact same thing! :D

vl_tone, to random
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

In 2006 I dug into the iPod nano firmware and found strings referencing a phone and other unreleased features.

One of the string was "t_feature_app_STACKER_APP" which I speculated was a Tetris clone. Apparently I was right!
https://mastodon.social/@macrumors/112496683834623177

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

At the time, my discoveries made the rounds in tech news, possibly boosting Apple stock (which I didn't own and still don't), as it was the first confirmation that Apple was working on a phone. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2006/07/4703/

vl_tone, to random
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

Good news, I can finally get out of the house by myself and walk without too much pain to a nearby park! (using a cane)

(For those who didn't know, I broke my leg in a bike accident last March, and have been recovering since.)

macrumors, to random
@macrumors@mastodon.social avatar

5 Reasons to Use OpenAI's ChatGPT App for Mac https://www.macrumors.com/2024/05/23/5-reasons-to-use-openais-chatgpt-app-for-mac/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@macrumors Lol was this written by ChatGPT?

vl_tone, to random
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

There he is! My 2008 Luigi mod is finally running on an iPhone!

Screen recording of an iPhone running Delta, a multi-platform emulator for iOS. The game being played is Super Mario 64. A weird lanky Luigi is seen running and entering a green pipe. He ends up falling from the sky onto the star in the castle courtyard. The camera pans around him.

vl_tone,
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Thanks again to @vinnyboiler for pointing me in the right direction to fix my old extended ROM. Decompressed MI0O banks needed to be realigned to even bytes, something that old emulators didn't care about, but is required for accurate emulation. I used a tool called SM64Compress to realign the banks automagically.

vl_tone, to random
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

Tried playing my old Super Mario 64 hacks on the iOS versions of Delta and Rotroarch and in all cases the game softlocks after fading to white when pressing start on the title screen.

Both emulators use the Mupen64Plus core. I know my initial extended ROM specification caused problems on real hardware, but some people eventually managed to make it work by tweaking the format.

I couldn't find much info about the fix though, does anyone have at least a guess of what would cause the softlock?

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@GamingWolf No problem, thanks for taking the time to reply! :)

I haven't confirmed yet, but I'm pretty sure the issue is misaligned decompressed MI0O segments, which only affects very old ROM hacks like mine, when running on modern more accurate N64 emulators.

mcc, to random
@mcc@mastodon.social avatar

So I spent a big chunk of my life living next door to Louisiana (Houston) and now I live next door to Quebec (Toronto) and it just this moment occurred to me to check if Quebec has beignets. Like, I'd simply assumed if I ever went liking for beignets I'd find them. So I asked a Quebecoise friend, and

Okay, so they do have them, but—

Quebec beignets have holes???

My world is (topologically speaking) rocked

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@mcc In Quebec, the word "beigne" is used to describe donuts with holes, but also those that are stuffed with cream or fruit jam, as well as munchkins/timbits. "Beignets" may refer to small donuts, but is also used interchangeably with "beigne" regardless of the size.

In reality beignets is rarely used casually in Qc as it's seen as an overly fancy way of saying beigne. You'd only see the word beignets on packaging.

atpfm, to random
@atpfm@mastodon.social avatar

586: Do a Barrel Roll!
https://atp.fm/586

Good morning! We have a huge show ahead of us, and it's all about iPad. This is the biggest show about iPad since its introduction. But first…

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@atpfm My understanding is that it's the OLED screen that enabled Apple to make the iPad pro thinner, so the battery should be about the same size?

hotdogsladies, to random
@hotdogsladies@mastodon.social avatar

Here's that Maggie Mae Fish video I mentioned:

"How 'Anti-Vaping' ads trick you into vaping"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbV6I8VRMG8

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@hotdogsladies "Don't put marbles in your nose" https://youtu.be/xpz67hBIJwg?si=ElWcAsVXq_ScF2AX

vl_tone, to random
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

I guess my 2008 Luigi mod will live on, as someone ported an expanded version of the model to the Super Mario 64 PC Port!

It features new moves, has proper Luigi voice sound effects, and even fixes the infamous hatless version! https://youtu.be/MG7bIwsI7As

vl_tone, to random
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

I love how since the "real" SM64 Luigi model was found in leaked prerelease code some 4 years ago, my 2008 Luigi mod is slowly becoming a strange half-forgotten relic that needs to be explained in a YouTube video.

Here's a surprisingly well made video explaining the differences between the leaked model and my 2008 mod. (It's in Spanish but with English subtitles)
https://youtu.be/1YPGi1G5H_s

lexfri, to random
@lexfri@hachyderm.io avatar

UI.

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@uliwitness @lexfri Same thing here in Quebec, we use the French convention where RC (Rez-de-Chaussée) is the ground floor, and the floor on top of it is the first floor etc.

RavenWorks, to random
@RavenWorks@mastodon.social avatar

OK, y'know what I would really like

an oral history of the old montreal metro cars' red-yellow-green low-res LED screen ads

particularly the fact that they remained in use so, SO long after the technology had completely left them behind.... what was it like making such low-res ads on modern hardware?? was there just a handful of pixel artists who had gotten good at it, or what?

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@RavenWorks I somehow had forgotten about those screens! I think they may have been removed while I was working fully at home in late 2020 or early 2021 so I didn't notice? I found this video posted in August 2020. https://youtu.be/RAF_2lnP0PQ?si=82MbV9aFFfWR2R57

nensondubois, to random
@nensondubois@mastodon.social avatar

https://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/38627/japanese-version-of-super-mario-bros-2-was-nearly-a-nintendo-power-giveaway - Huh, I guess this actually was going to be released in America.

i wonder if it would have used MMC1 or MMC3. MMC1 was really inexpensive at that point. I doubt Nintendo would have created a 2C33 for the FDS FM wavepattern channel just for this game.

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@nensondubois My theory was that SMB2J would've been a tough sell at full price in NA and EU because it was too much like the first game.

And with lower margins on cartridge releases Nintendo couldn't sell it at near half price like they did with the lower cost FDS disks in Japan.

But maybe SMB was such a big thing outside of Japan anyway that SMB2J would've sold well even at full price. It was a relatively popular pirate cart around Montreal in '89-90, despite being relatively pricey.

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@nensondubois Oh, I went and reread the article and realized that I somehow skipped over the part where it mentioned that it was planned to be a Nintendo Power promotion.

This is why my initial reply may have been a little confusing, as I was talking about a theoretical full release of SMB2J outside of Japan.

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