It was tense and very exciting watching the Artemis launch.

But I am quite sad to see humans taking jobs from hard-working robots :-(

#LetsGoExploreAlienOceansOnIcyMoonsDammit

Jackson Lamb, Berlin, 1987

Prototype Original Xbox - Ping-pong Tech Demo YouTube video by OG-XboxMods

I was at the GDC 2000 keynote where Bill Gates showed off that big prototype X. And I'm pretty damn sure it wasn't an Xbox inside that X, running those demos.
AFAIK, us Xbox devs never got to see them again. Instead, we were shipped a set of really dull examples.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsbP...

$D000 is the awesomest of all memory! Graphics in the RAM, which is under the character ROM, which is under the VIC/SID/IO chips.

In a time of more ruthless marketing, it would have been called the Commodore 88 or something.

The Schrödingermajig The Schrödingermajiged does what it says on the box.

I've added a Schrödingermajig to Puny Earthling. I had to.

scumways.com/blog/2025-09...

#c64 #indiedev #gaming

In other news, I'm utterly incapable of consistently using the correct name for my game.
It's "Puny Earthling".
Not "Puny Human".

When the aliens dial the Scan-o-Tron to "Superior Lifeform", of *course* they're going to be beaming up a cat!

I've been designing screens for Puny Human. Some are clever puzzles, some are fiendish tests of dexterity. But, inevitably, it's always the extremely dumb screens which are the most fun.
#c64 #retrogaming

Smashables Everyone knows you can't mount a good interstellar conquest without regular tea breaks.

Yup - I've got a bunch of variations (scumways.com/blog/2024-11...).
But for the terminal thingy, everyone knows aliens always use early-80s green monochrome displays.

Scumbotron, obviously!

cx16forum.com/forum/viewto...

Source code: github.com/bcampbell/sc...

Scanner terminals I've added some handy scanner terminals, to show rooms containing unsmashed smashables.

I've added a scanner terminal. These are dotted around the UFO and give the location of any un-smashed crockery.

scumways.com/blog/2025-06...

#indiedev #c64 #retrogaming

Even if progress is slow, work still continues on "Puny Earthling", my C64 game, and I've got some new stuff to show off. First off... lasers! #indiedev #c64

A low-resolution picture of a grumpy robot with a menacing-looking claw.

The menu "Edit..." => "Change format..." lets you pick another palette size (or switch to RGB or RGBA).
It used to be power-of-two size palettes only (heh - coders!), but I'm in the process of loosening that restriction.

Releases · bcampbell/evilpixie Pixel-oriented paint program, modelled on Deluxe Paint - bcampbell/evilpixie

Might I suggest github.com/bcampbell/ev... ?
I wrote it because I missed Deluxe Paint (and the keybindings!) and wanted an equivalent with modern sensibilities...

Cutscenes It's been a quiet few weeks on the Puny Human front. My weekends have been spent jumping down a cutscene rabbithole.

My game now has an introductory cutscene.
Prime world-building stuff here, I tell you!

#c64 #indiedev #retrogaming

scumways.com/blog/2025-03...

I know. I was fine at graphics until they invented more than 16 colours!

Background graphic style tests I've been experimenting with background graphic styles.

I've been working on style tests for screens in my C64 game. The good thing about Commodore 64 graphics is that "programmer art" is just fine :- )

#c64 #retrogaming #indiedev

scumways.com/blog/2025-02...

CAN YOU GET AROUND BETTERIDGE BY SNEAKILY LEAVING THE QUESTION MARK OFF YOUR HEADLINE

My preference is simple do-one-thing tools in platform-neutral C/C++, which I can integrate into my own build process (Makefile, whatever).
Python's fine, but always seems to take a bit more care and feeding.
Please not node. Node installs always seem so brittle!

Puny Earthling - Preview 1 It's not a game yet, but you can play it.

I've just uploaded a playable build.

OK, so "playable" is doing some heavy lifting here, but try it out and let me know what you think of it so far!

Versions for C64 (yay!) and online browser (boo, hiss!)

scumways.com/blog/2025-01-18-preview1

#retrogaming #commodore64 #gamedev

You can, but they're very expensive and come with a free TV.

Crabbots Crabbots scuttle across platforms, up and down walls and along ceilings.

Added these little wall-scuttling CrabBots a couple of weekends ago. I think they're going to be really a useful gameplay element for both puzzle-oriented and action-oriented rooms.

scumways.com/blog/2025-01...

#gamedev #retrogaming #commodore64

Oh wow, that reminds me - back in the day I worked on an OG XBox game that was published by Microsoft. When they finally sent us (green) devkits, one of them had a near-final Halo build on it.
So we got to play through the first Halo a few weeks before it was released. With debug logging.

Dammit. That looks so great.
Now I want to run off down a rabbit hole and do something like this for the titlescreen of my c64 game...
I'm only saved by the certain knowledge that I need that memory for other stuff!

Thanks!
It'll take a while because it's a spare-time project, but I'm really enjoying it: I'll add something then find myself giggling like a maniac for the rest of the day :-)

SproingPads When I first added the giant fan, there was a little bug in the player movement code.

Bug?
nonono!

It's a *feature*!

mmm-hmm.
yup.

scumways.com/blog/2025-01...

#gamedev #commodore64 #retrogaming #sproing

My Biggest Fan I've added a giant fan, which blows air all the way up a central shaft of the UFO.

scumways.com/blog/2025-01...

#retrogaming #commodore64 #gamedev

I'll be blogging about it at scumways.com

Puny Earthling I'm writing a game for the Commodore 64. Because that is a perfectly sane way to spend your spare time in 2024.

For some reason I figured it'd be fun to write a Commodore 64 game in my spare time.

It's been entertaining so far and is shaping up to be a really fun game, so I thought I'd start telling people about it!

scumways.com/blog/2024-09...

#commodore64 #retrogaming #gamedev