Category Archives: Oldskool/retro programming

Area 5150: 8088 MPH gets a successor

Posted on August 8, 2022 by Scali

In case you have missed it, over the weekend, a new demo for IBM PC with CGA was released at Evoke, under the name Area 5150. It placed first in the competition, which should not surprise anyone: I was wondering … Continue reading →

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Retro programming, what is it?

Posted on May 20, 2022 by Scali

As you may have seen, in the comment section of my previous two articles, a somewhat confused individual has left a number of rather lengthy comments. I had already encountered this individual in the comments section of some YouTube videos … Continue reading →

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An Amiga can’t do Wolfenstein 3D!

Posted on March 13, 2022 by Scali

Like many people who grew up in the 80s and early 90s, gaming was a 2d affair for me. Scrolling, sprites and smooth animation were key elements of most action games. The Commodore 64 was an excellent gaming machine in … Continue reading →

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Do 8-bit DACs result in 8-bit audio quality?

Posted on January 29, 2022 by Scali

During a “””discussion””” some weeks ago, I found that apparently some people think that any system that uses 8-bit DACs is therefore ‘8-bit quality’. A comparison was made between the Amiga and a Sound Blaster 1.0. Both may use 8-bit … Continue reading →

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Running anything Remedy/Futuremark/MadOnion/UL in 2020

Posted on December 25, 2020 by Scali

There has always been a tie between Futuremark and the demoscene. It all started with the benchmark Final Reality, released by Remedy Entertainment in 1997. Remedy Entertainment was a gaming company, founded by demosceners from the legendary Future Crew and … Continue reading →

Posted in Direct3D, Oldskool/retro programming, Software development | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Batch, batch, batch: Respect the classics!

Posted on June 2, 2020 by Scali

Today I randomly stumbled upon some discussions about DirectX 12, Mantle and whatnot. It seems a lot of people somehow think that the whole idea of reducing draw call overhead was new for Mantle and DirectX 12. While some commenters … Continue reading →

Posted in Direct3D, Oldskool/retro programming, OpenGL, Software development, Vulkan | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Some thoughts on emulators

Posted on May 15, 2020 by Scali

Recently I watched Trixter’s latest Q&A video on YouTube, and at 26:15 there was a question regarding PC emulators: That got me thinking, I have some things I’d like to share on that subject as well. First of all, I … Continue reading →

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Just keeping it real at Revision 2019

Posted on May 1, 2019 by Scali

I visited Revision again this year. And I took my IBM PC/XT 5160 with me. And I made a quick release. That release was a plan that I’ve had for a while, and which I mentioned in my previous blogpost: … Continue reading →

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The IBM Music Feature Card and Yamaha FB-01

Posted on March 26, 2019 by Scali

This has got to be one of the most obscure pieces of hardware I have covered so far. A sound card for the IBM PC, released in 1987. And by none other than Big Blue themselves! I am talking about … Continue reading →

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The DreamBlaster S2P: General MIDI from a parallel port

Posted on March 9, 2019 by Scali

In the interest of catching up, here is the second blog that is long overdue. I want to talk about the DreamBlaster S2P from Serdaco. I received mine over a year ago, and it actually was an early prototype. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Hardware news, Oldskool/retro programming, Software development | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments