Dust for neglect, or construction, or speed? It’s been a busy time – 2017 had me receive my doctorate, as well as help release Walden, a game. We’re busy porting Walden to a few other platforms, and currently I’m updating and re-organizing this site along with posting some of my work, new and old, to my tumblr page.
Along with the usual work, I’ve been spending a lot of time on several things, including acquainting myself with the Microsoft Hololens and development for the Atari 2600. Batari Basic has been handy – you can do quite a bit with it. The conventional wisdom is that an experienced assembly programmer could do an Atari game is a few months, whereas someone kind of experienced in code can make a Batari Basic game (admittedly without as much freedom as raw assembly) in a few weeks. My own experience has seemed to bear this out. I decided to implement cellular automata on a 40-year old platform alongside a modern augmented reality peripheral.
The 1-dimensional cellular automation was a nice, elegant way to make sure I knew how to get something onto the Atari VCS. Atariage.com and Random Terrain’s site were key sources of knowledge for a lot of this stuff. On the other hand, the Hololens is one of the first platforms I’ve used that can properly do 3-D cellular automata right. No 2D display can visualize the forms generated in a proper way. You want to stick your head inside the simulation. The AR element grounds the whole thing in a way I find more effective than doing such a sim in VR, although that would be a next step.
Happy new year to all!