Breaking the limits of the SID

October 31st, 2008

I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard this, but someone calling himself Fanta has managed to play a full 4 channel mod - along with 2 SID voices with filters on a standard C64 with a standard SID. The track is called Fanta in Space and apart from being technically impressive, it’s pretty catchy.

Listen:
Download

CSDb entry for Fanta in Space

Through True Chip Till Death

Lolwut?

October 28th, 2008

IRC quote from #8bc

21:42 <+Tristendo> I am starting a new genre core beat beast mode
21:42 < nitro2k01> core beat beast mode?
21:43 <+Tristendo> its basicly r&b

DS Brut - Nintendo DS hardware interface

October 28th, 2008

DS Brut
DS Brut is a slot 1 DS card with a number of interface pins (UART TX/RX pins, plus 5 general purpose pins) It can be used for things like hardware sensors (Light, temperature or maybe accelerometers) or communicating with external devices. But more interesting is the possibility to send and receive MIDI or perhaps even synchronize DS music software with LSDj or Nanoloop by emulating the original Gameboy serial protocol. Neither is possible yet, but the DS Brut is completely open source, including the firmware for the onboard Atmega 168 microcontroller, which means that it can be implemented with a little effort.

So, what are the pros and cons with this device? The big pro is the price tag - 26 euros for a DS hardware interface that can do virtually anything is really great. (There’s also a UART only version for 19 euros.)

The only real con I can see with this device is that it has no onboard memory. This means that unless you have a custom firmware and a slot 2 backup device, you’ll have to do cartridge swapping to use DS Brut. I imagine that in the long run, the cartridge swapping will wear out the interface pins and cause loose contacts. I’m not asking for the DS Brut to be a replacement for my M3 card, but for the next revision I’d like to see a few kilobytes of memory that can hold a small bootstrap to start code from a GBA cart or elsewhere. A couple of unused pins on the microcontroller could easily have been connected to the relevant pins on the Slot 1 bus to keep the door open for adding a bootstrap in a future revision of the firmware.

Apart from this minor remark, DS Brut is a promising piece of hardware that opens up many interesting possibilities, including sending and receiving true MIDI.

Link: DS Brut

Identify this game tune for me, please

October 24th, 2008

I don’t have any information about it, but I need to know which game it’s from, and preferably which level. The winner is guaranteed free caek and epic win.

Download ID

Download NES, SNES, Gameboy, C64 and Atari ROMs

October 24th, 2008

This site looks pretty darned good. No popups or spyware, and all the ROMs you’ll ever need. (Except for Bahamut Lagoon >_< )

http://www.romdot.com/

Pixels to Polygons Podcast (Teh winrar is me)

October 22nd, 2008


So, I’ve just won a TTDS flash cart for Nintendo DS from the podcast Pixels to Polygons. It’s a podcast mainly about gaming, but also other things like politics, pop culture and life in general. They had a little trouble pronouncing my name (Which I found pretty funny) and were generally confused about who I am. So… A brief intro: I’m a chiptuner and geek in general, and I’m from Sweden. I heard about the contest on the Benheck forums, and that’s why I’m confused over why you’re confused. :) I’m more known under the name of nitro2k01. CronoTriggerfan, you even quoted my post in the forums, and I know you’ve seen before, and I’m pretty active there, but not in Forum 42 of course.

Anyway, you’re crying for feedback, so here goes:

  • Realistically, most people probably don’t listen to a podcast straight from the beginning to end, and I think it could be a bit shorter. I think 40 minutes is just about right, or a full hour if you add music pauses. I also think it might be a good idea to make a content table with approximate times in case somebody wants to skip certain segments. also, don’t hesitate to edit the podcast before publishing if needed.
  • Add some music. Not just the into and outro music, but maybe 2-3 songs during the podcast. Maybe also some background music. Perhaps I could even help you out with that. Or at least add some sort of signature melody that you play to divide the show into different segments.
  • One of you guys (George, I believe) had some Skype problems, and sometimes his voice faded out. Maybe you should try to do something about that. The joke about Josh Wiley’s “long and hard” last level almost got lost. He also said something about my last name that got completely lost.
  • Organize the show. Do a rough script of the topics you want to cover (you seem to be doing this already) and discuss it before recording. Especially important, practice pronouncing people’s names. ;)
  • Make the show more interactive. Ask people to ask questions. You could even add a segment to the show where you choose a topic each week and let people send questions or opinions on that topic that you answer and discuss. For all I know, you could even let people call over Skype and ask questions.
  • And yeah, last but not least. Stop burping in the microphone. Srsly!

So yeah, that’s about it. Consider these points until next time.
Because I found the mispronounciation of my name so funny that I’m posting that clip here. I took the liberty to edit the clip slightly and also make some background music for it.
Download

That’s Pixels to Polygons. Check it out.

The failed “competition”

October 18th, 2008

Ok, so this thing failed. If you want to know where this image comes from, the answer is below.

Guess what this is!


Somebody showcased what happened when you do the dreaded sudo rm -rf / on your Mac. He also talks about how he backed up all files to a separate partition, BUT he forgot to unmount said partition, meaning that the backup got deleted too. If you feel like being mean, go to the video page and remind him of this.

Trying to learn Japanese…

October 18th, 2008

I’ve been trying for many years (Since the middle of my teens) to learn Japanese, but always failed to learn it properly. I’ve lacked motivation, probably. But since I started indulge in animé a couple of years ago, my interest was sparked again. I’ve picked up a couple of words. Nowhere near a full understanding, but enough that sometimes when I watch animé, I go “Hey, I actually got what they said!”.
I figured one important thing to do is to learn the kanas and perhaps some kanji at some point. So, now I’m giving it a try again. I got a tip about the Kana Workobook which seems to be a pretty good page for kana training. (Thanks Disassembler for the tip)
There’s also the Let’s Learn Japanese video course (Link to torrent) which is pretty good, but a bit slow, and a bit cheesy. (You’ll know what I mean if you download it.) I got bored after a few episodes, but I still think it’s a good course and I may try it again.
The imporant thing is to keep practicing on a daily basis if you want to keep learning, and keep the knowledge you have fresh. If you’re trying to learn Japanese too, you might find those links helpful. If you have other useful links, please tell me.

Porn on Youtube!

October 16th, 2008

Ok, it’s not hardcore stuff, but I’m amazed it’s still there. Make sure to have a look before they take it down.

nitro2k01 - INSEX micro-EP, free noise music download

October 15th, 2008

Noise music at its best/worst. INSEX.nfo says it all!
Download nitro2k01 - INSEX micro-EP (The link is now fixed. The archive was corrupt.)

M T    E SHVFFLE >                         ___ _   _ ____  _______  __
E                                         |_ _| \ | / ___|| ____\ \/ /
         _ _            ____  _     ___  _ | ||  \| \___ \|  _|  \  /
1  _ __ (_) |_ _ __ ___|___ \| | __/ _ \/ || || |\  |___) | |___ /  \
3 | '_ \| | __| '__/ _ \ __) | |/ / | | | |___|_| \_|____/|_____/_/\_\
3 | | | | | |_| | | (_) / __/|   <| |_| | |
7 |_| |_|_|\__|_|  \___/_____|_|\_\\___/|_| Micro EP for 8bc 48h compo
_____________________________ ________________________________________________
F+-------------------------+ V First a fair warning! There's a music group out
V| /  /  /  /  /  /  /  /  | | there, although I'd call them a liberal atheist
C|/  /  /  /  /  /  /  /  /| | terrorist  group.  Their goal is to destroy all
K|  /  W A R N I N G! /  / | | music  across the  nation by  making so  called
 | /  /  /  /  /  /  /  /  | | "breakcore remixes". I encourage you to talk to
V|/  /  /  /  /  /  /  /  /| | your chrilden,  arrange a meeting at your local
 +-------------------------+ | School and  your local  Church in  an effort to
       A R S   D A D A       | warn them about the negative  effects this evil
    K I L L S  M U S I C     | terror cell will  undoubtedly have  on society.
_____________________________A________________________________________________
'twas a regular day at #hexawe when moustache man schm0uhm complained that no
one accepted his crazy 48h compo request:
- = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = -
I challenge anyone to make a track in lsdj using only noise channel and pulse
channel 1*

(*instruments in pulse channel 1 may not exceed 02 in length)
= - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - =
I couldn't resist, obviously.
Length 02...  Damn  that's  short!  But  not impossible.  Using a BPM of 255,
innovative patterns  of retrig commands and fast tables, I managed to squeeze
juiceful (:D) sounds out of it. In fact, I dare humbly say it is the most rad
sounds I've heard from LSDj in a long time. It sounds like a hard synced lead.

I could have released it as one song, but I decided to release it as a micro-
EP with micro-tracks, totalling 4 minutes. INSEX.sav is also up for teh grabs
Don't try to edit the .sav or you'll fuck something up. Srsly!

Beware that  INSEX Micro EP  is recorded from a  DS running Lameboy DS,  so I
can't guarantee it will sound the same when played back on the real thing. Or
rather,  i can affirmatively guarantee it won't sound the same due to certain
differences in how the sound is handled. :)

//// nitro2k01 - INSEX micro-EP ////
_____________________________________________________________________________
| Micro track list   |                                      /
| 01 Blind      0:57 | __-_-_– Infoz _____________________/
| 02 Cunt Face  1:07 | http://blog.gg8.se/
| 03 Chair Days 1:31 | nitro2k01 at at at gmail dot dot dot com
| 04 Dairy      0:28 |
| 0x INSEX.SAV 13:37 | Watch out for possible upcoming GB Dubstep stuphph!
 \___________________A________________________________________________________