Pat Larocque's Feed

...

Every single one of my friends are smarter than me...

:(

:P

Pat Larocque thanked this post

Pat Larocque liked this post

Highly doubt that Roger!.....Just started to try and learn this the last few months, my never-ending attempt to try to get a little smarter LOL!!

Rogerpoco thanked this post

Rogerpoco liked this post

Originally Posted by Pat Larocque

Highly doubt that Roger!.....Just started to try and learn this the last few months, my never-ending attempt to try to get a little smarter LOL!!

I got a Coco3 in 85 or so, was disappointed, wanted a C64.

So I read the book, worked on "learning it" and typed in a small program, took me several days(I wasn't quite a teen, working alone)...

Went thru the process of starting up the program, and it started displaying different colors on the screen, kinda like a screensaver now.

That's all it did.

I spent, like a week of my life programming a computer to change screen colors, didn't understand squat about the "why", and decided to be a PC end-user from that point on...

:P

Pat Larocque thanked this post

Pat Larocque, datagod liked this post

Originally Posted by Rogerpoco

I got a Coco3 in 85 or so, was disappointed, wanted a C64.

So I read the book, worked on "learning it" and typed in a small program, took me several days(I wasn't quite a teen, working alone)...

Went thru the process of starting up the program, and it started displaying different colors on the screen, kinda like a screensaver now.

That's all it did.

I spent, like a week of my life programming a computer to change screen colors, didn't understand squat about the "why", and decided to be a PC end-user from that point on...

:P

The only access I ever had to any kind of computer growing up was the old Icons in school and a neighbor's C64 (that we only ever played games on and he would load them up) it was only in the last year or so that I started to get the real 'how does this **** work' itch so to speak LOL.

About a year ago a got a Rasberry PI and stumbled my way through getting the RetroPie setup on it and that really got me interested in learning more about everything in general. Then my son wanted the C64 mini a few months ago and of course I couldn't say no LOL and was surprised that they had the BASIC program on there and that just got me interested even more. The last few months I've been taking a few online courses on different types of coding in my spare time and learning as much as I can and so far have been loving it!!

Rogerpoco thanked this post

Rogerpoco, datagod liked this post

The human brain is the most advanced learning computer ever created. We are never too old to learn. It might be hard, we might lose interest, but the capability is there.

This is one reason I keep posting about my Raspberry Pi projects. I want to show others that you dont' have to be intimidated and there are people right here that you can reach out to for advice.

The Raspberry Pi comunity is millions of people world wide. So many resources and groups online. Endless projects. I too started with a retro machine but I realized I love building more than playing.

Pat Larocque, Rogerpoco thanked this post

Pat Larocque, Rogerpoco, MyOwnWorstEnemy, Riatoju liked this post

Originally Posted by datagod

The human brain is the most advanced learning computer ever created. We are never too old to learn. It might be hard, we might lose interest, but the capability is there.

This is one reason I keep posting about my Raspberry Pi projects. I want to show others that you dont' have to be intimidated and there are people right here that you can reach out to for advice.

The Raspberry Pi comunity is millions of people world wide. So many resources and groups online. Endless projects. I too started with a retro machine but I realized I love building more than playing.

Couldn't agree more Bill!! I used the 'I'm too old' excuse for far too long, it's been a bit of a challenge I'll admit since I started but that's part of the learning process and wouldn't change any of it.

Your posts have definitely encouraged me to pursue my curiosity further and shown the endless possibilities with the Raspberry PI. Makes it even more fun because my son is starting to learn as well, we actually just ordered another Raspberry PI and one of those 'starter kits' with different learning projects and parts etc. so I'm sure we'll be keeping busy with our learning adventures!

Rogerpoco thanked this post

Rogerpoco, datagod liked this post

Hmm.

Was gonna PM you about this, but figured mebbe someone/anyone would see and be interested in following up.

Just an idea, something that seems on one hand very simple, on the other hand possibly impossible(lol)...

I know they can do some voice stuff with the Pokey on 7800, not sure about 2600, but I do think I've seen a voice enhanced 2600 Berzerk before.

Anyway, I'm completely convinced that a blind person could become very good at Dragster, simply playing by using their ears, but would have no way to know the result-

How about a Dragster hack that says the resulting time from the run out loud?

:)

Probably getting/thinking/saying out loud too deeply into this, but the game's simplicity helps-I don't think someone sight-impaired could ever enjoy Pac-Man or Donkey Kong.

But truly, I spent so much time working on playing the game by sound that it became very consistent in my mind, what was going on, and it almost felt like a different game altogether.

I dunno-mebbe there's some "ist" in all this, I truly don't mean it to be, but in my "small World", I guess, it just seems that sight-impairment would make finding "active fun" pretty difficult, this seems to fit the bill.

Pat Larocque, datagod liked this post

Originally Posted by Rogerpoco

Hmm.

Was gonna PM you about this, but figured mebbe someone/anyone would see and be interested in following up.

Just an idea, something that seems on one hand very simple, on the other hand possibly impossible(lol)...

I know they can do some voice stuff with the Pokey on 7800, not sure about 2600, but I do think I've seen a voice enhanced 2600 Berzerk before.

Anyway, I'm completely convinced that a blind person could become very good at Dragster, simply playing by using their ears, but would have no way to know the result-

How about a Dragster hack that says the resulting time from the run out loud?

:)

Probably getting/thinking/saying out loud too deeply into this, but the game's simplicity helps-I don't think someone sight-impaired could ever enjoy Pac-Man or Donkey Kong.

But truly, I spent so much time working on playing the game by sound that it became very consistent in my mind, what was going on, and it almost felt like a different game altogether.

I dunno-mebbe there's some "ist" in all this, I truly don't mean it to be, but in my "small World", I guess, it just seems that sight-impairment would make finding "active fun" pretty difficult, this seems to fit the bill.

I can confirm that yes they do have a voice enhanced Berzerk but not sure if there's any other 2600 carts with any other voice capabilities ( I could be wrong though).

I'm still greener than green on the programming aspect of it but not sure if adding the voice on Dragster would be possible considering the limitations of the hardware itself. From what I'm understanding so far, the 6502 chips were very limited in the amount of information able to store on them, all of the sounds produced are default pulse/noises that can be manipulated within the programming to only a certain degree and range and takes up quite a bit of the memory.

I also know that you can store extra memory in different 'banks' hence why in some of the later and more complex 2600 carts like Starmaster and Radar Lock you can use the BW/Color or Diff. switch to access different screens/weapons etc.

Maybe it would be possible for someone who's experienced to add the voice on Dragster using these bank switching techniques but I'm nowhere near even being close to understanding the full picture and limits of the programming side of things and wouldn't even know where to begin!

Rogerpoco thanked this post

Rogerpoco liked this post

A MAME hack would be more likely to succeed with the voice enhancement. I worked with a guy that was involved with helping blind people ski. He showed me some "audio games" for the visually impaired including a really cool bowling game. The sound would go up and down in pitch, indicating where the ball would be aimed. A voice described the layout of the pins. I tried it, and enjoyed it.

Rogerpoco, Pat Larocque thanked this post

Rogerpoco, Pat Larocque liked this post