Cencoroll - New awesome looking animé with chippy theme song
September 24th, 2008I found this during my random Youtube explorations. What first caught my attention was the chippy theme song. The second thing that caught my attention was the smooth, detailed animation and apocalyptic monster scenes. From the little pieces of information I could gather from the video and the Babelfish translation, it’s about monsters with some mechanical functions/abilities that invade the earth all of a sudden, not totally unlike Evangelion. Don’t quote me on the details though.
Some form of apocalyptic technospiritualism probably. Which is what the Japanese are best at, aren’t they?
For those who are wondering what the Youtube title says: センコロール(トレーラー)/動画革命東京. The first portion is Katakana and describes English words: Cencoroll (Trailer) and the second portion is Kanji for Anime Innovation Tokyo. (The production company)
Wikipedia says the series was expected to be released in 2008, and the official site was last updated in 2006. Hopefully there will be news soon. Ureshii team, if you see this, please consider subbing this animé!
Gameboy Circuit Diagram, GB development wiki/forum and som breaking news
September 20th, 2008
I’m writing this post because every once in a while, people end up here when googling for thing like “Gameboy circuit” or “Gameboy schematic”. This is why this post is placed in the category circuit bending, so that people will find it.
If you googled for that, here’s probably what you’re looking for:
Gameboy DMG schematics
SuperGameboy SGB schematics
A word about that wiki linked above. It’s a Gameboy development wiki that I’m hosting together with a Gameboy development forum. It’s a narrow subject, and the forum it’s typically low traffic. But if you do have questions about Gameboy software development, feel free to drop by the forums and ask.
In other news:
1) The GBC bootstrap is about to be dumped. What is the GBC bootstrap, you may wonder… (If you’re not into low level software development, you’ll likely not understand the following) The bootstrap is the vey first piece of code that runs on any (Z80 type) Gameboy when it boots up. It checks that the header checksumsare correct and displays the Nintendo logo. This tiny piece of code is only 256 bytes big. For you GB developers out there, the bootstrap is the reason why the entry point is $100 and not $0. The reason why this piece of code is interesting is of pure curiosity, and because it’s the last undocumented secret of the Gameboy.
5 years ago, Neviksti managed to dump the bootstrap from the DMG. (The original Gameboy) Read about it here. The news I have today is that the corresponding bootstrap ROM for the GBC is about to be dumped. And in fact it’s not just a 256 byte area located at $0-$FF but to other memory areas sized 512 bytes and 1792 ($700) bytes. These are believed to be storage for the the big “Gameboy” logo shown on CGB’s during bootup and palettes for colorizing monochrome games.
At this point I can’t tell you who’s working on dumping the bootstrap ROMs (At that person’s request) but hopefully I will be able to distribute the contents of the bootstrap ROMs when they have been dumped.
2) The other breaking news is that dwedit and Palmertech, have, at least partially succeeded in booting GBC games on a GB micro by doing a special software trick. At the very least they’ve managed to enter GBC mode. I’m not sure whether they succeeded in actually running GB code after the mode switch, but they’ve managed to make it run the GBC bootstrap. (In principle the same bootstrap as mentioned above) I’ve tried the hack too, ona GBA 1st gen and a GBA SP, and both showed a black screen but played the startup sound. But I’m trying to contact dwedit for more info, and I’ll try to do my own research on the subject, so expect to hear more about it.
For now, check this thread on pH if you’re interested: http://boards.pocketheaven.com/viewtopic.php?p=49041
Jeskola Buzz Beta version released after a decade!
September 16th, 2008Jeskola Buzz is a music tracker that has been abandoned for about a decade but has had a hardcore fan base which has hacked and reverse-engineered the software to make it usable. The reason it was abandoned was because the creator’s hard drive crashed, and all Buzz source code files with it. Jeff Jeskola (That’s not his real name, but I pretend it is) has left this notice on the front page:
I'm currently trying to reconstruct Buzz from the older backups I have. The
latest partial backup is from about 6 months before the crash. Unfortunately a
lot of important stuff was implemented after that, which is why I didn't try to
do this earlier.See the changelog for current status. The biggest features that are missing are:
- SampleIO support (SF2 loading in wavetable)
- Aux bus
- Built-in machines, most importantly the mixer
Hopefully the final JB version will be stable enough to use. If so I’ll start using it. (again) I’ve tried previously, but I’ve been too lazy to deal with all the bugs and quirks in the software.
Check it out here:
Red Pill: http://jeskola.net/buzz/beta/ According to the dirlist the files were last updated 4 days ago, and hopefully the development will keep up!
Blue Pill: http://buzzmachines.com/ Download the old versions of the softwares, and accompanying hack and plugs.
Yet another reason why Japan is awesome…
September 14th, 2008This just in, the Japanese magazine 大人の科学 (Otona no Kagaku, meaning Science for Adults) attached to the magazine, not just a PCB, but a complete synthesizer kit, including a front panel. The synth, Gakken Analog Synthesizer SX-150, is a simple stylophone-like thing with a resonant filter (With only an on/off resonance setting ) an envelope and and an LFO.
Sometimes magazines will give you a PCB. A couple of years ago, for example, the Swedish computer magazine Datormagazin attached a PCB where you would solder 8 or 16 LEDs onto in an arc shape, resembling a speed meter. The whole thing would be controlled with a PIC chip via the serial port. The electronic magazine Elektor frequently attach a PCB’s for simple projects too.
But here we have a somewhat complete DIY synthesizer kit, that just begs to be modded. The reason why Otona no Kagaku is doing this in the first place is because they are doing a synthesizer chronicle special issue. This is issue is a it more expensive than a usual magazine, priced at 3360 Yen (Abut US$30) It may be ordered online from their homepage but sadly enough only inside Japan.
Below is a video made by MakeZine. I’m noticing two things:
1) It sounds really durty and groovy.
2) The guy who made the video is called Collin Cunningham. I wonder if he’s related to Chris Cunningham. You know, the guy who directed the videos for all time classics like Come to Daddy and Windowlicker.
SX-150 button mod from Collin Cunningham on Vimeo.
Through Trash_Audio and MakeZine.
Another reason why Japan is awesome: The Automatic Mario Music Video!
RGBDS development taken up by Lai
September 4th, 2008The development of RGBDS, Redneck GameBoy Development System has been taken up by someone called Lai. In his version he has added the features that are available in the latest official RGBDS version (For which there’s no source code available) It’s also possible to add aligned sections and use a sort of sections called “contained” sections. The documentation has been updated to reflect his changes.
He’s also willing to implement new features, so if you have a suggestion, don’t hesitate to leave a comment.
Download: Source Code
I might make a binary distribution available when I come backfrom my vacation. (In about one week)
Two new blogs
September 4th, 2008Here are two new blogs I’d like to recommend.
1) Veqtor’s blog. This is the blog of Veqtor, founder of his and my common project OXO Unlimited. It’s a blog about IDM and his quest to build a modular synthesizer. I’m making an appearance in the second post where I’m helping him build a Steiner filter and a passive ring modulator.
2) Boorch’s DIY & Circuit Bending Garbage. (Also see his Youtube channel) Based in Istanbul, Burç Tuncer is one of the few Turkish people into lo-fi culture. (Or maybe I’ve just looked in the wrong places?) I’ve been watching him for a while, he’s been involved in a number of band projects, and I think he’s has a bright future awaiting him.
Oh, and a shout out to GammaGoblin. Thanks for the comment. Moar posts will hopefully come soon.
The sexiest thing ever! (255 Gameboys)
August 28th, 2008Look at that! 0xFF (Hexadecimal for 255) pieces of DMG-01. Could there be anything sexier that that? The number is just right too. 255 is the largest number that can fit into an 8-bit CPU register, making the number completely ideal. Look at the top picture and you’ll see that most of them are traditional gray-boys while a couple have other colours, and exactly two of them are transparent. (Goose-bumps starting to grow)
Also notice in the bottom picture that one of them looks pale yellow. Don’t be fooled by the crappy camera shot! That’s is in fact one of the ultra rare white DMG’s, supposedly only sold in Japan.
The catch? Unfortunately they’re not mine, but Nonfinite’s. He bought them wholesale from what appars to be the last wholesale reseller in the US. (But if you know of more people doing Gameboy wholesales, feel free to contact me)
Knowing Nonfinite, he will mod the Gameboys and sell in his shop. Yup, painstakingly go through each and every one of them, fix them where needed, put in backlight and ProSound mods, finish them off by painting the case in the most awesome ways, so they’re ready to be shipped to enthusiasts all over the world.
And even if you already have a Gameboy, he sells flash cartridges for Little Sound Dj (Music software for Gameboy) too.
Top 100 fundie quotes
July 22nd, 2008http://www.fstdt.com/fundies/top100.aspx?archive=1
Top 100 fundamentalist christian quotes. Some of my favourites:
One of the most basic laws in the universe is the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This states that as time goes by, entropy in an environment will increase. Evolution argues differently against a law that is accepted EVERYWHERE BY EVERYONE. Evolution says that we started out simple, and over time became more complex. That just isn’t possible: UNLESS there is a giant outside source of energy supplying the Earth with huge amounts of energy. If there were such a source, scientists would certainly know about it. [emphasis added]
Like the sun…
There are a lot of things I have concluded to be wrong, without studying them in-depth. Evolution is one of them. The fact that I don’t know that much about it does not bother me in the least.
D’oh!
If your original Hebrew disagrees with my original King James — your original Hebrew is wrong. If your original Hebrew agrees with my original King James, your original Hebrew is right.
Let’s toss a coin. Heads: I win. Tails: You lose.
Am I in discussion with a human who has a functioning brain?
What does a functioning brain have to do with the Bible?
D’oh again!
To say the Bible was written by men and may contain inaccuracies completely contradicts the word of the Bible.
Yeah, that must be it. The existence of god is proven by the bible, the book god claims he wrote. Nothing is wrong with that kind of circular reasoning, nooo…
If the Bible is wrong when it tells us it is infallible, then it contradicts itself. If it contradicts itself, then it is unreliable. If it is unreliable, then our faith is totally shattered and Christianity is a lie. You need to seriously reconsider your logic.
If the logic is not consistent with the fairy tale, clearly the logic must be wrong.
Can you spot the difference?
July 20th, 2008I made a subtle change to the design, with a little help from Ronnie and his little friends. Can you spot it?
Quote of the day
July 8th, 2008“It’s an Aphex Twin tune. It has a different length every time you listen to it.”
Rasmus, while listening to Windowlicker on vinyl.