xyzzy

@xyzzy@lemm.ee

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⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨'We coded day and night for the two months to create the software we had said already existed': The history of Microsoft reminds me how far we've come in just 50 years⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Mostly? What really sent me down a rabbit hole in reading this code was the syntax:
- The == assignment
- The arguments lists <…>
- PRINTX instructions, etc.
The Altair 8800 uses an Intel 8080 processor. This syntax doesn’t match the instruction set for Altair or Intel, or even PDP-10 for that matter.

We have some hints about what may have happened. We know that Paul Allen wrote an Intel 8080 emulator designed to translate instructions to ones that a PDP-10 would understand.

We also know that Microsoft later released Macro-80 (M80) Assembly for the Intel 8080 five years later. It turns out that M80 has <…> argument lists and .printx instructions.

So my suspicion is that Allen built some macro convenience functionality into his emulator, and that the language used is 95% Altair assembly with some macro functionality to support different kinds of Altair configurations and simplify some of the programming. Then they later evolved that into its own product offering and added Z80 support for it as well.

Building a Basic interpreter on top of a custom CPU emulator in a slightly-customized version of assembly in two months between 2.5 people and having it work correctly the first time on untested hardware is pretty damn impressive, whatever you think of Gates. It’s no wonder he’s so proud of it.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨'We coded day and night for the two months to create the software we had said already existed': The history of Microsoft reminds me how far we've come in just 50 years⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Assembly has variables. You can label locations in memory, then move them onto registers in order to perform operations.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I still use a Palm Pilot in 2025, and you should, too⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

I collect vintage laptops, and my wife makes bespoke kitten mittens. Our budget is $6.2 million.

What
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨N97 Elite Gaming Handheld From Sugar Cubes is a Retro-Fueled Blast From the Past⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Why does no one build one of these portables to play J2ME games?? There’s already five zillion handhelds that play traditional handheld games.

(Also that’s not how knack is used.)
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anyone knows what's this on the 5.25" bay?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
That’s how it speaks to you, like KITT from Night Rider.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨'ELIZA,' the world's 1st chatbot, was just resurrected from 60-year-old computer code⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Huh, I never knew that the version of Eliza many of us have tried out was based on the original author’s academic paper and not the original source code.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sweet barn find⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
That was a super interesting read, thanks for posting
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft FrontPage⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Built my first web page with FrontPage back in the mid '90s… but soon stopped using it after I realized the absolutely spaghetti it produced
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨You can now build Raspberry Pi Pico-powered Macintosh 128K with this $10 VGA kit⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Seems like several compromises in v1: incorrect resolution and no audio. Mac 128K is the easiest Mac to run via emulation if you want accuracy.

If you’re interested in Mac OS 7, 8, and 9, you can put those on a regular Raspberry Pi: github.com/jaromaz/MacintoshPi
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Meet The $16,500 "Nintendo Game Boy Bike" Which Comes With Its Own Cartridge Key And Cheat Codes | Time Extension⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
It’s not about being friendly. It’s about not saying the exact same comments in every single Nintendo thread.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Meet The $16,500 "Nintendo Game Boy Bike" Which Comes With Its Own Cartridge Key And Cheat Codes | Time Extension⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
You’re all making this community as bad as Reddit game subreddits with your incessant bitching about Nintendo. We get it.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ryujinx Switch Emulator Removed After Nintendo’s Request⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
It’s not
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Genesis Shmup Earthion Looks Incredible In This New TGS 2024 Footage | Time Extension⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
“What should the logo look like?”

“Well, start with Doom, and then just kind of end there”
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨DIY mini-ITX motherboard lets you play DOS games without emulation — ITX Llama features a Vortex86EX 500 MHz CPU⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Although DOS emulation is very good these days, this is really cool!
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Final Fantasy 9 Remake May Not Happen as a Single Title⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
If it had been, don’t you think Square could simply remake it in one game rather than splitting it into the multi-game saga that it always has been? It would never work!
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨New Storefront Law Tells Us What We All Should Know: We Don't Own Digital Games | Time Extension⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
You said:

Another problem is that physical is a red herring. You don’t own modern physical games any more than you own digital ones, This is false. Most games do have the full game data on disc (or card). There are some specific examples, usually AAA titles like Hogwarts and Jedi Survivor, where there is either online DRM (I gather you mean online DRM, add that is the only thing that would make sense in context) or the title was too big to fit on one disc and they cheaped out. This is somewhat more common with Xbox hybrid discs; the disc will generally contain the Xbox One version, while the Series X version is a download. PlayStation 5 games generally have the full game on disc. Switch cards have the full game.

For the most part, if you buy a physical game, it has the game data on it.

as the famous The Crew shitshow has demonstrated. It doesn’t matter if you still have the fancy disc, if you can’t even go past the main menu when the publisher decides to shut down the game.

If it’s an online-only game, of course it’s not playable if the servers shut down. Don’t want to pay for a time-limited game? Don’t buy them. (I don’t.)

In the end DRM is the only deciding factor, not if the game is digital or physical. This is also false. DRM (again, presumably you mean online DRM in this discussion) is not the deciding factor. The actual deciding factors are the things are cited above.

When you say that physical and digital are equivalent, you’re just factually wrong. There are certain cases where the physical disc isn’t sufficient, but by and large, this sweeping statement is incorrect.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨New Storefront Law Tells Us What We All Should Know: We Don't Own Digital Games | Time Extension⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
You mean The Crew, the online-only racing game?

“It doesn’t apply to an online game, therefore it doesn’t apply to any situation.”
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Final Fantasy 9 Remake May Not Happen as a Single Title⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
To be fair, there’s never been a time when Final Fantasy 9 could’ve been a single game. It’s simply not possible.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Super Game Boy Plus: Ultimate Super Game Boy Upgrade with Enhanced Features⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
No, it doesn’t copy the game data in the way you’re describing, anymore than a Game Genie would (it doesn’t either).

And anyway, this Nintendo lawyer fear is getting a little ridiculous in this community. ROM dumping for this kind of data is legal, at least in the United States.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Super Game Boy Plus: Ultimate Super Game Boy Upgrade with Enhanced Features⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Your understanding is incorrect if copying involves circumventing encryption or other means of protecting the data. That said, it’s not an issue for the Super NES.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Lunar Remastered Collection Retains Original PlayStation 1 Lyrics, Sparking Speculation⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Fan speculation and a whole article about it, and no one took the time to actually check… I did literally five minutes of research and the screenshots on Sony’s blog post match the Working Designs script. So it’s it pretty clear that they’re using that script, at least for English.