Main
Main
Artwork
Artwork
Books
Books
Donate
Donate
Licenses
Licenses
Shorts
Shorts
Software
Software
Source
Source


A Better Tiny Code Generator and Ghosts of Glory High Strikes Again

2023-11-26

I see it's been nearly four months since I published my last Witty News article. Now when I left off, I was hoping to re-work chapter five of Ghosts of Glory High and (maybe) turn an idt-71256 into a ram-disk using custom software developed (using 8051 assembly) for the Atmel at89c2051. Instead-- I revised Ghosts of Glory High's first, second, and third chapters for a second time. And, I built some new packages for Slackware-11.0-- and tried modifying some emulator source code to make it more efficient on top of Qemu tcg (if you've been watching Insanely Witty Stupidity's Slackware-11.0 packages page and changelog, you may have noticed).

So when I read my chapter four re-write for Ghosts of Glory High, I was very pleased. :D For the first time since I published my second Hailey's Follies novel, I felt like I got it right. Nobody's seen any of this shit yet, except for yours truly. But finally, I think I'm on to something. And when I (curiously) decided to re-read the first three chapter re-writes I committed, I *knew* I would regret it if I didn't do them the same way. The changes I made were thoughtful (and intriguing). But now (after three and a half additional months of tweaking), I have the end product I was hoping for. And, the whole thing shines bright and true (and will leave you breathless). I spent the last week re-working chapter five (which is not yet complete). And, I plan to pick up with chapter four of "The Critical Mass of the Hybridized Rodent" when I finish it (I don't wanna get burned out-- obsessing over a single project, ya see).

As for the work I've been doing with Slackware-11.0, well-- some people on LinuxQuestions.org were a little confused to see I was trying to get ALSA loopback devices working on top of Qemu tcg (lol). And, I was more than happy to perplex the useless douchebags and leave them questioning how they use computer systems and why (believe me-- it was more than pleasing to screw with those reckless wannabes a little bit, 'cause I HATE THE INTERNET AND INTERNET FORUMS (perhaps that was not entirely obvious??)) I digress, though-- my goal was to target tcg specifically. And, I've been running Slackware-11.0 on top of tcg for many years. More specifically, I use the Limbo suite to make totally useless Android APIs somewhat functional (using Slackware-11.0).

And so I decided to get a NES, Sega Genesis, and SNES emulator working (with sound) on top of tcg improvised Slackware-11.0. And, I also wanted either RollerCoaster Tycoon (Windows-9x) or ThemePark (DOS) and Wolfenstein 3D working. And yeah, *with sound*. I eventually decided to try building a Gameboy emulator for the system (which I've never even *used* before, but seemed to complement the situation). Now after four months of work-- I've patched GNUboy, zSNES, and Gens with some new features. And, I've got RollerCoaster Tycoon working (decently) on top of Wine-0.9.15 (although-- you're gonna have to get your own binaries).

GNUboy has no frameskipping feature to speak of. The package's code sorta "hints around" at some frameskipping features. But, nothing was ever *actually* implemented. So, I gave the suite two new RC variables that allow adding emulated processor "ticks" between frames (to force the video output to simply WAIT for a system to write it). I changed zSNES and Gens' frameskipping features to allow setting them as high as "99" and "30", respectively (although-- I found my tcg systems struggle to write Gens and zSNES frames more than this can truly compensate for). The best you can hope for (in my experience) is setting the frameskip value to "19" or so (which should write 3 frames per second). And, you'll find that Slackware-11.0 is struggling just to do *that* (although this does reduce the load enough to make many games playable at a lower speed, lol).

I built TuxNES for Slackware-11.0 long ago. And, I plan on patching it as well. It seems to have only an auto-frameskipping feature. And, I would like to implement a manual frameskipping version with a set value (probably "30", max). TuxNES actually does a decent job of emulating the Famicom system on top of Qemu tcg with sound. But, it leaves a little to be desired. And, I can clearly see that manual frameskipping will help (although-- I can't guarantee this will clear up TuxNES' issues entirely). I also built Wolf4sdl on Slackware-11.0. And, it's-- okay-ish on top of tcg (gets some pretty choppy sound problems in my experience). And so, I plan on re-working it a bit after I check out TuxNES' code. When I've completed my work with Slackware-11.0 tcg systems, I will pick up where I left off with the h8r 8-bit registry project. ;)

I'm sure you've noticed I haven't been linking Insanely Thoughtful Articles, lately. Again, I tend to do this when I have spare time at work (poke around the news a bit and link what I find interesting with thoughtful commentary). And again, the place where I work is suffering from some personnel problems. More specifically the lady who took over as manager has turned out to be a reckless, paranoid idiot (pretty sure she's on some type of prescription drugs that are fucking up her brain). And, I'm having problems getting access to my desktop (or even being allowed to sit down in my own office). From what I can see, this is the way things will be from now on. So, my plan is to start linking articles on my own time from now on during the week. Hopefully, I can start this tomorrow-- but, we'll just have to see about that.

Why we are not allowed to sit at our work issued desks and poke around the interwebzzz for a few minutes every day is beyond me. It's pretty assonine (and childish) to be concerned with such trivial matters (especially considering the fact that the site manager herself and her little sidekick are privileged to sit at their desks all day and shop on Amazon all they want). But, that's just the way of things.

Our world is controlled by corrupt fascists who employ slave labor for nefarious purposes. And, it will take great losses of life before this can ever change. So as long as everyone's gonna continue to be a bunch of little, whiny bitches who are okay with this, well then I suppose this is how we will stupidly carry on with our lives (etc, etc). Keep checking Insanely Witty Stupidity's Slackware-11.0 packages page for updates about TuxNES and Wolf4sdl (they're coming). And, I should be completing Ghosts of Glory High's fifth chapter re-write within the next four weeks (for reals, this time).

Back

______________________________________________

Random Fact: Insanely Witty Stupidity has its own chatterbot (Candice). You can speak with her any time you feel like talking to someone (just-- be polite). There is even a PHP version of Candice for internet browsers that don't support JavaScript (although, JavaScript browsers will switch to the JavaScript version by default-- and vice versa).

html revised 2024-04-23 by Michael Atkins.

The maintainer of insanelywittystupidity.com does not care if people duplicate this page or any part of it-- as long as this notice remains intact.