The BBS - 2018-11-14

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10:19 AM

0

Q: Run and Gun game with bird creature as the protagonist

I faintly remember playing a 16 bit game as a kid, which is some sort of hardcore run and gun game. I don't remember if it was on a Sega Genesis or a Super Nintendo. You take control of some bird / human hybrid, who can switch between four weapons, which the protagonist shoots from his hands. T...

identify-this-game

11:02 AM

@Raffzahn @DrSheldon @Spektre @jdv @Joe Can one of y'all state exactly why you feel this question is off-topic?

2

Q: Cannot find repGL source anywhere

As stated here, repGL (a library to emulate SGI's IrisGL on top of OpenGL) can be found at this address: ftp://ftp.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de/pub/grafik/. I can see the file, indeed (it's named repGL-0.2.tar.gz), but I can't download it since I always get a 551 error from the FTP server, theref...

3 hours later…

2:06 PM

0

Q: What's the console game with a blue-haired girl/godess?

I am sorry but I only remeber a few things about this game. The video game console is SNES or Sega Saturn The game contains a beautiful girl with blue hair and maybe naked When I remember that girl I feel like I was seeing a goddess

identify-this-game

7 hours later…

8:54 PM

0

Q: What is this old PC truck game?

I've begun to recall a game I played as a child with my brother, and I can't remember what it was called for the life of me. The reason I'm asking for identification is because I remember how much he loved it. Christmas is coming up and I want to see if I can get it for him, along with a few othe...

identify-this-game

9:18 PM

@AlexHajnal Note: pings in chat only work when the relevant users are actually in chat.

(Except for a moderator superping, which I will ~~show off~~ demonstrate:)

@ Raffzahn @DrSheldon @Spektre @jdv @Joe Can one of y'all state exactly why you feel this question is off-topic?

10 hours ago, by Alex Hajnal

2

Q: Cannot find repGL source anywhere

As stated here, repGL (a library to emulate SGI's IrisGL on top of OpenGL) can be found at this address: ftp://ftp.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de/pub/grafik/. I can see the file, indeed (it's named repGL-0.2.tar.gz), but I can't download it since I always get a 551 error from the FTP server, theref...

Personally I think it's on-topic; it's about finding and preserving a resource. But I'm not about to unilaterally go against five other users.

Retrocamping Meta

9:40 PM

1

Q: RetroCOMPUTING vs. RetroGAMING

There are more and more gaming related questions poping up. I see here a very substantial gap between our focus on retroCOMPUTING with an emphasis on computers and technology, versus retroGAMING as being about (old) games and their consoles. How to handle this?

discussion about-faq

9:53 PM

@wizzwizz4 Well, I did vote to close not only because I think it's not realy rero related, but as well as this isn't a question the site can give a good answer. The answers given are a great example about the logical steps the OP should have taken first, not adding any solution - much like it was to be expected.

10:30 PM

@Raffzahn Personally I think it is retro-related given that IrisGL is the direct ancestor of OpenGL. Unlike, say, commandline programs, any code that was written against IrisGL back in the day can only be run today either on vintage hardware or under such a compatibility library since AFAIK there are no emulators for SGI machines. This library should also be particularly interesting as it should illustrate the differences in how IrisGL and OpenGL operate(d).

@AlexHajnal You might have noticed that my argumentation wasn't anywhere about IrisGL as an old product?

@Raffzahn I agree with most of what you said but you did say "I think it's not realy rero related". How so?

@AlexHajnal That's more of my personal stance toward SGI and similar systems and as such not relevant. I try to keep personal opinions at bay here - so it wasn't the reason to flag it.

Got it. Personally I'm more interested in the system-level stuff (hardware, OS, etc.), AS far as all these gaming questions go I love the ones like racing the beam, etc. but couldn't give a toss about "what game is it that had a naked blue-haired goddess".

... put it on me being an old fart thinking of these machines as up to date technology :))

Same here. Oh, and in cool tinkering/Hacks.

10:41 PM

FWIW, I'm on record somewhere as describing the Soviet Setun (ternary architecture) as a modern machine.

Gotta run, chat more later

LOL. Sounds fair to me :))

Oh, and forteh record, ternary gates (not computers) are one way to handle asynchronus computing. One of the very few areas where there is still much room for basic research. And it's fricking interesting.

@wizzwizz4 @wizzwizz4: I felt it violated one of the "don't-asks" in our /help/on-topic page: "Questions regarding writing code that emulates retrocomputing features may be better asked on Stack Overflow."

11:30 PM

@Raffzahn "one way to handle asynchronus computing": Do you have a link to further reading on that?

Autsch.

Not sure.

Haven't thought about it in quite a while.

Regarding gaming I do have a "what's the game" question I've been meaning to ask. Should get it in before such questions are banned :^)

The basic isea is that a gate can signal beside 0/1 also 'no result (yet)'

THat's what I reckoned

Though there's clearly more to it than just that; the interconnect/steering logic needs to take that into account.

SO instead of having a parallel signal, becoming valid when a result is valid, the primary signal itself carries this information.

11:34 PM

Ternary is also used for fuzzy logic: True/False/Unknown

jup

Makes sense

Of course, there are arguments for both strategies. As soon as there is a signal group (like bits in a word) a seperate valid will be more efficien ... or no, better say can be more efficient. It depends much on how the low level circuitry is made.

In any case, on single signals a ternary encoding is quite helpful - and easy to detect by a single transitor

As you said, an open basic research question.

Well, anyway, I think last time I looked into this was somewhen in the 90s, when a UK university did build an asynchronus ARM core. I think it was v3 or v4 based. Only, when they where done, it wasn't realy faster than teh synchron version - and not needing much lower power anyway.

11:39 PM

Surely you'd need at least two transistors (PNP and NPN) plus two power rails (V+ and V-) to implement it. How would a single tranny handle ternary?

Yes, you need two for full function. My point about one additional was about to detect the state and thus inhibit the gate until the inout is no longer 'not ready'

IIRC in the same era, someone also built an asynchronous core (RISC; either ARM or SPARC) that was both faster and lower power. Not sure what the low-level (signal-level) architecture was though.

So it's one additional transitor on the input side. What additional is needed within the unit and for output signaling can't be defined that easy.

Got it

I think the UK team was going for a parallel ready line along function blocks (like adders drivers or alike). IIRC

11:43 PM

hmm

I tried the same a long time (mid 80s) ago with monoflops for a video pipeline. So I did give an enable signal to each (next) stage after what I calculated as maximum trhuput time (there where adders comperators and other complex units). With a classic cloced aproach its clock phase must bave been equal or grater to the slowest stage. which is a stupid thing if the stages are of extreme different timing.

AMULET microprocessor

AMULET is a series of microprocessors implementing the ARM processor architecture. Developed by the Advanced Processor Technologies group at the School of Computer Science at the University of Manchester (formerly the AMULET and PAL groups based at the same institution), AMULET is unique amongst ARM implementations in being an asynchronous microprocessor, not making use of a square wave clock signal for data synchronization and movement. == List of AMULET microprocessors == AMULET1 — Designed in 1990 and first fabricated in 1993. Its estimated performance is approximately 70% of that of...

So I tried the asynchron, or better individual timed aproach. Didn'T work out, as I couldn't get the timers for each stage calibrated close enough in production, so I changed it for a multi phase clock aproach with a huge network of NAND gates to select the right start and length for each stage.

Yes, it was that Amulet thing.

web.archive.org/web/20060807232502/http://…

That could be what I'm remberering

It was big news back then ... at least for people with an interest in CPUs.

Anyway, I got to work a bit. I need to get the basic exhibition structure and most important the walls and shelfes out by next week.

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