so @TomF talked me into making it so blending colors on the #Mega68k console is true blending rather than resolving back to one of the 64 palette colors (so that the output is always 64 color)

i made a utility that takes an image and converts it into a tile layer with only 16 base colors with the framebuffer overlaid using all 64 colors with alpha blending and i can't help but wonder if this isn't too powerful

this video discusses a really cool project that uses static recompilation to easily produce native PC ports of N64 games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywWwUuWRgsM

i understand a lot of this tech because of my work on my #mega68k fantasy console (which is basically an emulator for a system that didn't exist) and my experiments with programming language development. the principles involved aren't that complex, but getting all the myriad little details right as well as rolling it all up into a nice easy to use package ready for distribution requires a ton of dedication and is a seriously impressive achievement

Spent some time talking to @TomF about the two chips he designed for the #Mega68k fantasy console, the blizzer and bronze (which I believe are a lot like the Amiga's blitter and copper)

I gotta say, with those two chips able to parallelize drawing to the special framebuffer layer the system has, a LOT of cool stuff is possible that would be extremely hard on traditional 16 bit consoles. Think isometric perspective games or 3D like DOOM or maybe even stuff like Star Fox

And the best part is the framebuffer is treated as a third plane by the VPU which composits everything together so you can get even more power out of all of this by cleverly combining the framebuffer with tile layers and sprites

Loads of potential and possibilities if you dig deep enough, very exciting

made the walls a wee bit higher (still not as high as they probably should be but eh)

how's this feel scale wise? do the walls feel tall enough? does the viewport feel too "zoomed in"?

hrm. 3:2 isometric isn't terrible? it's a little lopsided but that might not be so bad, kinda breaks up those super straight angles you get on 2:1 dimetric iso

I wonder if anyone follows any of the hashtags for my projects like #KitsuneTails or #Mega68k or #CodingHistory

it amuses me when people find out the #Mega68k has a 240x135 resolution because they always go "but 135 isn't divisible by 8!" as if that's some kind of hard and fast rule about resolutions

(it is multiplicative by 8 though and the result is 1080)

#Mega68k As a debug test of exploding things, I put it so the big "plasma blob" bullet would explode when you pressed the fire button a second time, just as a test hack.

But... actually it's really fun! I think I'll leave it in. You can time the second press to wipe out groups of enemies (at the start of the clip), or just let it travel through to damage multiple in a row (at the end of the clip).

Anybody seen this mechanic in another shooter?

I wrote a bit about the Mega68k fantasy console on cohost. Specifically a bunch of stuff about how the color system came to be (6 bit + 2 bit alpha), you'll wanna scroll down until you see a palette for that one: https://cohost.org/eniko/post/1985587-funny-story-i-actua

GIF is Archetype which is being made for #Mega68k by @TomF

#Mega68k game progress. We're into the "actual working gameplay" slog now - implementing the huge variety of enemies and motions and so on that I want to do.

This time - mines and kamikaze enemies! Simple in concept, but surprisingly complex in execution. Anyway, they work great, which is satisfying.

As always, ART IS NOT REPRESENTATIVE - because it's all stolen from R-Type right now (although I did make the mines blink all by myself)

Finally some time away from job-hunting and get some progress on the #Mega68k game!

Got boss enemies working - they have sub-parts (here, two aiming turrets) that you have to destroy first before you can injure the boss.

It's slowly turning into a real game!

Lots of progress on #Mega68k

Game progress:
main menus
buying weapons
level selection
sound adjustments
Gradius-style powerup ladder
R-Type-style sidekicks (not shown in this video)
Emulator progress:
Record+replay of inputs.
Stream to GIF or MPEG

Look at those lovely smooth 60fps bullets! (rest of the game runs at 30fps)

@ClarusPlusPlus I use it for #Mega68k and my voxel engine and I like it

Man I wish I had more time to work on side projects like #Mega68k but right now I gotta be laser focused on getting Kitsune Tails done and out to market since that's what's needed for continued financial survival :/