mos_8502 :verified: 🇨🇦

Retrocomputing Maker and Designer in Ontario, Canada. I make stuff without promising a delivery date. I don't do crowdfunding, but I do gratefully accept Patreon and Ko-Fi support for what I do. 

Buy me a coffee!: https://www.ko-fi.com/mos_8502
Become a Patron!: https://patreon.com/Studio8502
Buy my games!: https://studio8502.itch.io/

Public Key

npub1qnufz4pycufk27kkeev5g0fgm0w0tqexsly674s2uwy0tynk5ymsk5hzwk

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsqf7y32sjvwym90ttvuk2y855dhh84svng0jd02c9w8z84jfm2zdcprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmntqyqqw7w0xd

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

Author Public Key

npub1qnufz4pycufk27kkeev5g0fgm0w0tqexsly674s2uwy0tynk5ymsk5hzwk

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Last Notes

2026-07-09 01:32:49 UTC

We programmers used to be a proper profession.
https://studio8502.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/116/887/437/179/531/667/original/1dc9cb7c7dac480a.png

2026-07-06 18:59:04 UTC

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So, for a classic example, we might have bank_account.h which contains this:<code>#include <stdint.h> typedef struct bank_account_s { uint32_t id; double balance; } BankAccount; void bank_account_deposit(BankAccount account, double amount); </code>
This header specifies a structure type, a typedef that gives it a name in the normal namespace (so you can refer to type BankAccount, not type struct bank_account_s), and declares a function that does something.
Your bank_account.c. file would then implement the bank_account_deposit() function.
This is very basic stuff, but I've seen new programmers do some *wild* alternatives to the standard approach.

2026-07-06 18:54:11 UTC

The big challenge in C, for me at least, is keeping code organized. It's simple enough to lint and format an individual file so it's readable, but how do you organize the code of the whole project?
Well, what I like to do is have one .h/.c file pair for each type I create. The .h file specifies the type and its API, and the .c file implements it. Pretty conventional stuff, mind you. Nothing special about it, but there are no "universal" practices in a language that enforces almost no safety at all.

2026-07-04 16:21:34 UTC

Happy “America isn’t worth saving” day.

2026-06-29 21:31:19 UTC

Socialist discourse doesn’t bother to cover the important things. Like how after we replace the police, which agency will be responsible for tasering sovereign citizens so I can watch it on YouTube while smoking a blunt?

2026-06-29 17:47:18 UTC

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It's for line-level audio, with +3.3V and +5V available for power.

2026-06-29 17:41:39 UTC

Hive mind: Recommend me an op-amp from JLCPCB's parts library for OA1 in this schematic.
https://studio8502.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/116/834/623/728/588/758/original/459e132b5e621d9a.png

2026-06-28 23:19:07 UTC

So. What's the next step?
I need to get the project updated on Codeberg, and get the schematic and board files reviewed by someone with a good eye for spotting fuck-ups.

2026-06-16 16:18:43 UTC

If I got the kind of blowback Peri Fractic is getting right now for one of my designs I would probably need to be put on a 72 hour psych hold.

2026-06-16 09:45:39 UTC

Not only is it a shitty phone, its aesthetic is almost tailored to the "hey man, you holding?" demographic.

2026-06-11 00:40:58 UTC

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Be the reason your boss has an ulcer. Make trouble. Sabotage the company at every opportunity. Undermine authority. Take a dump in your boss's ficus pot when he's out.

2026-06-11 00:38:35 UTC

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You should start a union at work, even if it doesn't make anyone an extra dollar -- for no better reason than it pisses off the bosses. That's reason enough.

2026-06-11 00:34:50 UTC

My advice: Don't work hard. Play hard. Work as little as possible, just enough to maintain your physical existence, and find fulfillment in literally anything other than a "career". The more of yourself you put into things that give you life, the more life you have.
And if you do put in actual hard work into your career, make it hard work put in to cheating as much as you can get away with. A corrupt system is not owed honest participation, it is owed being fleeced at every opportunity.

2026-06-03 19:32:46 UTC

Well. I guess that about does it for games sales. Not *too* shabby. Definitely worth the time and effort spent, even if not as much as I would have liked made off of Mazes of Malice. Gridlocker wildly outsold it, to my actual surprise.
Oh well.
At the moment, I'm not planning another game. It's just so much work when I have home responsibilities to see to.

2026-06-03 18:09:24 UTC

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All these newfangled languages piss me off. Rust can go corrode. Swift can make like a bird and fly the fuck away. Go can do just that.

2026-06-03 18:07:43 UTC

It's getting to the point where I don't even want to look at a compiler anymore. All the fun has been sucked out of it for me lately.

2026-06-01 18:23:55 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@fesshole/116676231580825811
This is very common. It's extra effort to use the DSLR. I think it's worth it, but reasonable people may disagree on that. Modern phones take perfectly reasonable pictures -- I just prefer the ones my DSLRs take.
#note14k4…ptah

2026-05-31 17:59:05 UTC

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I made a couple of cool games. Do I really need this toxicity in my life?

2026-05-27 13:04:51 UTC

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My C64 Ultimate’s UltiSID audio is fine. I don’t see the point of using 40 year old chips in a new system for no benefit.

2026-05-25 12:27:38 UTC

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Give me the best LLM coding thingie in the world, and maybe I can produce good results with it, but nobody will respect those results (whether they should or not is immaterial). Worse, let me produce something really cool on my own, and people will *assume* I used an AI and proceed as they please.

2026-05-25 12:26:03 UTC

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Yeah, I played with them, but that only helped confirm that LLMs/AI have sucked the fun out of programming -- if you do a really good job on your own, people will accuse you of using AI, and if you do use AI, people will call you names. It's made programming itself toxic.

2026-05-25 12:21:15 UTC

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I'm just feeling kind of done with the whole mess right now. Like... I made a couple of games I think are pretty cool and nobody who matters seems to hate them, but how much more do I have in me at this point?

2026-05-25 12:19:19 UTC

I don't know if I woke up cross or what, but right now I'm not even sure I want to be a programmer anymore. I'm just that discouraged for some reason I can't put my finger on.
I mean, I'm not planning to act on that impulse, but it's what I'm feeling.

2026-05-24 23:11:39 UTC

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Unfortunately, it's unreasonable to expect someone who doesn't own a C64 to buy a C64 game. I certainly wouldn't if I didn't.

2026-05-24 23:10:57 UTC

I have 2,907 followers. Now, I'm willing to bet some of those are dead accounts. If we only count mutuals, I have 815. If half of those 815 people bought Mazes of Malice for the minimum price, I would earn a c-hair over CAD$2,000. Gods wouldn't that be nice.

2026-05-24 22:59:08 UTC

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I wonder if maybe I should move to a more modern target platform. But modern systems all suck so bad.

2026-05-20 18:21:48 UTC

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It's a substantial pivot away from traditional roguelike territory. No swords and sorcery. No character leveling, no stats management, just stealth and guile and sneaking around like the soft little snackable you are, in a dungeon full of deadly beasts who will kill and eat you the first chance they get. And it only gets more dangerous as you delve deeper.

2026-05-20 18:17:24 UTC

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WASD to move around. F to search a barrel for something useful. Space to draw your bow, WASD to fire in that direction.

2026-05-20 18:12:18 UTC

So here's the gameplay model I see for Mazes of Malice:
You are a ranged fighter whose party has been wiped out. You need to escape the Mazes of Malice, but the magical artifact that will send you home is at the bottom level of the dungeon. You have to sneak your way past all the monsters and beasts in the dungeon, using nothing but your bow, your wits, and good timing to avoid being viciously killed and eaten by something unnatural before you can escape. Ammunition is limited to what you can scavenge from barrels scattered around the dungeon. Direct combat is a death sentence, and running out of ammunition is a constant hazard.

2026-05-17 15:34:43 UTC

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More tiles than will fit in 256 8x8 bitmaps.

2026-05-17 01:29:17 UTC

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Bitmap mode is notoriously slow.

2026-05-16 20:31:49 UTC

Scrolling large dungeons is no problem at 64MHz.
https://studio8502.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/116/586/152/286/528/411/original/b9e99458ec408e74.mp4

2026-05-14 19:01:17 UTC

Adapting some itch dot io assets to make high-res monochrome dungeon tiles.
https://studio8502.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/116/574/469/702/738/869/original/3f774ac47aee9dbb.png

2026-05-12 23:11:04 UTC

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Pro life. Anti LGBTQA+.

2026-05-12 19:07:23 UTC

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The introduction of Swift coincided with the steep decline of Apple. I do not think the language caused it per se; I think the language was a symptom we should have noticed earlier. Change for the sake of it.

2026-05-12 18:54:49 UTC

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For the Mac, everything was perfect with Snow Leopard. Every change since then has been downhill.

2026-05-10 17:27:10 UTC

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Valid criticism, to be fair.

2026-05-10 16:57:21 UTC

The hardest part of gamedev for me: Coming up with ideas.
The second hardest part: getting feedback. It's like talking to a brick wall sometimes.

2026-05-08 19:29:23 UTC

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I don’t have it published, no. But a better example than anything I could make would be the Nethack source.

2026-05-08 16:04:55 UTC

What would you pay for a more complete PETSCII roguelike for the C64?

2026-05-08 15:42:37 UTC

The improved dungeon generation algo produces really good looking maps, don't you think? It just looks less primitive than old school roguelikes.
https://studio8502.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/116/539/714/967/715/878/original/1784f32759dcb5df.png

2026-05-07 17:21:49 UTC

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And I *definitely* don't get how *anyone* thinks it's intelligent or sapient. I feel like I'm the crazy one for being able to spot the lack of theory of mind and continuity of awareness in the output at 100 metres.

2026-05-07 17:20:36 UTC

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Personally, I'm kind of in the middle on the whole thing. I can see some convenient uses for the thing, and I'm impressed it works as well as it actually does, but I have great trouble seeing why management is so in love with the thing that they feel the need to force it on people. It's a new tool, let the engineers have it and they'll work out how best to use it.

2026-05-07 17:08:19 UTC

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Virtually everything we use or consume is made by an evil corporation. Our every breath benefits a system designed to extract wealth for the one percent. We need to stop fighting each other over how we manage our own little lives in this hellish system, and focus on helping each other survive it better instead.

2026-05-07 17:05:25 UTC

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We live in a capitalist hellscape. The bosses are forcing engineers to use this tech, unfairly and irrationally. I'm not going to judge too harshly if someone makes the best of a bad situation somehow.

2026-05-07 17:04:20 UTC

As far as my own judgment of people who use AI to code:
You are the human. You are the engineer. You are responsible and answerable for the effects of your code, whether you hand wrote it on a napkin or generated it using a language model. You can and should be judged for what you produce.
That means if your LLM use puts in a CVE, guess what, you did it, you are answerable.
On the other hand, if you manage to get bug-free output out of the stochastic parrot, I'm disinclined to care that you didn't hand-write it.
Oh, I still worry about the environmental impact and all that, of course, but the actual facts of that situation are more complex and a separate topic entirely. Personally I'd rather ban LLMs entirely across the board until we can sort out a green way to do them, but nobody is going to put me in charge of that.

2026-05-07 16:55:58 UTC

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Mandating the use of specific tools is a crime against engineering as a profession. We are the ones qualified to make the determination, not management.

2026-05-07 16:54:34 UTC

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Proper, unionized tech labour would demand that control over the AI be given solely to the workers' discretion.

2026-05-07 16:53:47 UTC

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Ultimately, the divide between those who use AI at work and those who refuse is an artificial divide meant to keep the working class in tech from uniting.

2026-05-07 16:50:41 UTC

Look, I'm softer on "AI" than most in my field. I'm not saying what you do with your LLM is inherently worthless, all I'm saying is there is a meaningful and important distinction between generating software by managing an AI and crafting it by hand.
In fact, the generated software may well be more than capitalism deserves from us.

2026-05-04 23:40:26 UTC

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I'm not confident in the very limited, very flawed studies on "deskilling", but I admit to the possibility.

2026-05-04 15:56:05 UTC

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I'm so happy you enjoy it!

2026-05-04 15:48:55 UTC

Gridlocker beta 2 is out!
Features:<li>"Warning" colour flash at the top of the playfield when blocks get too tall</li><li>"M" key starts/stops music</li><li>Added adjustable difficulty levels</li><li>"End" blocks are now more common</li><li>Bug fixes and performance improvements</li><li>Free demo/shareware version</li>
https://studio8502.itch.io/gridlocker

2026-05-04 15:03:53 UTC

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Pining for the days of bedroom coders making money for their work, while malding about someone actually doing it today in the here and now, is certainly A Choice™.

2026-05-04 15:02:14 UTC

I have no illusions about my game. It's an inconsequential little puzzle game. An amusement that grabs your attention for fifteen minutes at a go, on a good day. That isn't just okay, that was the point. That's what I set out to make. I wanted to make something that would give a little joy, that cost very little, and that I could actually deliver in a reasonable amount of time.
By my metrics, I succeeded, and no amount of forum bitterness is going to change that.

2026-05-04 14:46:36 UTC

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The computer I would design if I wanted to piss off as many people as possible.

2026-05-04 13:28:14 UTC

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Lemon64 is having a normal one over Gridlocker costing five bucks Canuck.

2026-05-04 13:25:38 UTC

“Frankly pathetic”. I’d be insulted if this guy weren’t a known transphobe and right wing nut job.
You tell me: is Gridlocker worth the price or not?
https://studio8502.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/116/516/528/978/429/706/original/c9e6a892e3903b58.jpeg

2026-05-04 00:26:02 UTC

@npub1yex…0chl, thanks for buying Gridlocker, but you were on the list to get a free copy!

2026-04-24 22:49:30 UTC

Download and try Untitled Block Game Alpha 001 now!
https://limewire.com/d/PJQgo#yvFog6azCb

2026-04-16 03:23:50 UTC

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They have a UEFI executable stub now.

2026-04-15 02:05:07 UTC

Wat https://cosocial.ca/@mhoye/116406257551730140

2026-04-10 17:48:45 UTC

Now if I can just find a decent deal on a 35mm prime lens…

2026-04-09 12:02:19 UTC

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The ideal for me would be a chip or module that basically acts like an 80s CPU but faster with a wider bus.

2026-04-09 11:29:19 UTC

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You don’t need to sell me on the virtue of a more modern arch. I’m all about it, if it’s available.

2026-04-09 11:27:57 UTC

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I agree, it’s not the best possible choice. But I can’t make an FPGA CPU that’s better. Or even worse. I’m not qualified. I would love to have a 32 bit RISC-V FPGA that exposed the full demultiplexed bus on a pin grid array carrier. That’d be the dream.

2026-04-09 11:20:33 UTC

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That’s why I say the eZ80 is the best option, until or unless someone comes up with an FPGA based CPU that’s suitable. The eZ80 supports 16MB of RAM, more with banking. That’s not a lot, but we’ve done more with less.

2026-04-08 21:12:15 UTC

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Former houseguest took about two grand worth of my shit on his way out the door.

2026-04-08 21:09:47 UTC

I may have to sell some things. I don’t want to. But I’m flat fucking broke, my shit has been stolen, and I have a powerful need to eat sometime this month.

2026-04-08 17:06:11 UTC

Countercomputing Manifesto
Draft 0.0.1
For decades, computing power has been steadily growing, without a commensurate boost in the utility to the user. In fact, this increase in power has largely been used *against* the user -- extracting value from the user, at little or no benefit to the user, primarily for the benefit of corporations who produce and sell nothing of real utility themselves.
We assert that the sole agency over the use and output of privately owned tools belongs with and only with the owners of those tools; we assert an inherent right to decide for ourselves what software will and won't run, and when, on computers we own and operate for our own private benefit, and the same right held collectively over shared computers.
Further, we assert the right to revoke our consent to be used as a resource by the advertising and surveillance industries, as well as any other party not named specifically.
We therefore resolve to create, under common purpose and shared ownership, a new standard for a computing device, which is designed to educate and empower the owner, rather than to expose and exploit them.

2026-04-06 21:12:24 UTC

I’m so mad about my camera being stolen. I can’t even express the level of my displeasure and sadness.

2026-04-01 18:16:49 UTC

I have implemented a new entity type, sword_barrier, which is a solid collision tile that opens when the sword hits it. This is how I have implemented cuttable bushes.
https://studio8502.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/116/330/815/014/986/807/original/081672b82c21511d.mp4

2025-11-09 01:02:27 UTC

Current prototypes of Sentinel 65X have 512KB of SRAM. This amount was chosen for cost reasons, to keep the price low.
Would you pay extra for more RAM? Say, 2MB or 4MB? See, my perspective is that I'm broke, I like things cheap -- but I get the feeling more and more that other people have a lot more disposable income than I, so if they're willing to foot the bill, why not give them what they want?

2025-06-05 00:32:50 UTC

Hey! You! Did you miss out on this next round of Sentinel 65X boards? Did you still want one? 'cause I've got some good news! While there may be a slight delay in shipping due to Mouser backorder on CPUs, you can still get one of the eight boards we turn out to still have available, for the same price, USD$149 plus shipping! How long is the Mouser delay? I wish I could tell you, and the day they tell me, I will!

2025-04-16 22:11:49 UTC

While you are, quite justifiably, purging all things Harry Potter from your life, consider also ditching anything related to a series made by Graham Linehan, who is even fouler than Rowling, if nowhere near as influential.

2025-04-16 21:58:59 UTC

"Hooker, I'm not in the 'helping' business no more. I'm in the 'fuck off while I smoke a blunt' business, and business is about to pick way the fuck up."

2025-04-16 18:00:33 UTC

Felling pretty good about never having paid money for anything made by or associated with JK Rowling right now.

2025-04-16 17:49:45 UTC

I'm thinking tuna casserole for dinner. Easy, filling, and everyone in the house likes it.

2025-04-16 17:31:59 UTC

Today’s thrifting finds are retro, but nothing too exciting. Textbook from 1977 on digital computer systems is neat though.
https://studio8502.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/114/348/832/719/333/930/original/46a2ab7588a31471.jpeg

2025-04-16 17:08:41 UTC

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Retro being so damn expensive informed my design.

2025-04-16 15:39:52 UTC

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Good. Make it very clear that you will not, under any circumstance, collaborate with Nazis. Respect.

2025-04-16 15:38:22 UTC

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But you can probably find one easily enough. Offices dumped thousands.

2025-04-16 15:37:58 UTC

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I have a spare one of those UltraSharps if you want to pay shipping for it. I paid like $10 for it, so I don't even need anything out of it other than shipping cost.

2025-04-16 15:26:34 UTC

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For slots, I have chosen the 2x32 DIN 41612 connector, with the pins on the expansion card, and the holes on the backplane -- the same connector that connects the expansion port on the mainboard to whatever expansion. This means it should be possible to plug in a single expansion card without a backplane, simply plugging it directly into the expansion port. This probably won't require additional power.

2025-04-16 15:24:39 UTC

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An expansion backplane with multiple slots will probably need to provide its own +3.3V and +5V rails, which can feed back into the mainboard so long as the USB-C power connector is not used.

2025-04-16 15:22:23 UTC

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Also present are the reset, IRQ, and NMI active-low interrupt signals.
All in all, you'll be able to design almost anything you could do for #RC2014 if you have a mind to.

2025-04-16 15:18:53 UTC

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The same expansion bus also contains the SNES controller lines clock and latch, and the data lines for controllers three and four.

2025-04-16 15:17:55 UTC

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Expansions can contain RAM, ROM, and/or I/O devices. Basically whatever you like. The raw digital RGBHV signals are also present on the expansion bus -- you could, for example, make an expansion with an HDMI port on it to replace the VGA output, as well.

2025-04-16 15:15:31 UTC

The expansion bus on Sentinel 65X is memory-mapped to two regions: 64 bytes from 0x00DFC0-0x00DFFF and 8 megabytes from 0x40000-0xBFFFF. The active low I/O1 signal decodes the 64 byte low expansion, and the active-low CS6 signal decodes the high region. Expansion cards will need to decode their own sub-regions to avoid conflict, but 8MB is a lot of room for that sort of thing.

2025-04-16 15:03:37 UTC

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The next stage is to make gender non-conformity a criminal offense. Then come the prison camps and the exterminations.

2025-04-16 14:55:11 UTC

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But there’s always the option of an external scaler like the retro tink.

2025-04-16 14:54:18 UTC

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An LCD with 1440 lines might work. That’s 3x scaled integer.

2025-04-16 14:36:12 UTC

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The resolution is defined by the VERA bitstream in the FPGA. Changing it has been discussed but doesn’t seem to be practical. However, the raw RGB signals are on the expansion bus, allowing for video adapters to be made. HDMI, for example.

2025-04-16 01:35:57 UTC

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To be fair, at this point it kind of is illegal?

2025-04-16 01:04:44 UTC

Democracy in the US is Norman Bates' mother. Dead and rotted to a husk, but sometimes the killer will dress up like her and murder someone because it makes his dick hard.

2025-04-16 00:52:01 UTC

We have SCSI hard drive replacements. This is good.
Do we have open hardware SCSI controllers yet? Like, an open hardware ISA card I can drop in and use?

2025-04-15 14:34:11 UTC

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So out of the box, the system will just boot to the serial port ROM monitor at ~1.8MHz. Not all that useful on its own, but it does allow you to push code into RAM and run it.

2025-04-15 14:25:57 UTC

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How does the clock switching work?
The CPU has two clock inputs, CLK and FCLK. CLK is intended to be a ~32KHz crystal or oscillator, used for timers and as the very first CPU clock source. FCLK is "fast clock", and needs to be at least four times faster than CLK.
So, the two oscillators for FCLK are controlled by a GPIO line and an inverter, ensuring that when one oscillator is on, the other is turned off. By default, the GPIO line on the CPU that controls it is an input, not driven, so the pulldown resistor drags the line low, which shuts off the 8MHz oscillator, and feeds the inverter, which sends a high signal to the enable of the ~1.8Mhz oscillator.
Note that you need to select the 32KHz clock as the CPU clock before and during the change from ~1.8MHz to 8MHz to avoid a probable crash or other problems.
https://studio8502.files.fedi.monster/media_attachments/files/114/342/426/597/068/714/original/4e162907582f68cd.png

2025-04-15 14:22:15 UTC

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Not until I get a working prototype of this final design -- I only sell what I know works, unless it's being sold *as* broken.

2025-04-15 14:21:43 UTC

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So, why the ~1.8MHz clock? Well, the ROM monitor has a list of frequencies it is programmed to accept, and that's one of them. 8MHz, the rated speed of the CPU[1], is not one of these speeds, so I picked one that was close in performance to an 80s micro in case you want to play with 6502 emulation mode.
[1] My testing indicates it can actually handle up to ~14MHz without a problem, and might go as high as 20MHz with the right setup!