iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

In the quest (hopefully not futile) to use a single vblank interrupt source across most #casioloopy emus (can't right now), I wrote a test ROM for it. Not sure emu maintainers, who have their own things to do, will use it. I've done some emu work but am not good at it. github.com/bbbbbr/loopy...

Screenshot of a interrupt test rom running on a casio loopy console. It shows various interrupt sources (nmi, irq0, irq1) and all of them passing

080

Thank you! Glad to hear it might be possible. As much as I love the giant loopy eject button, I'm sure it would be glad to be used a little less often. ✨👏

Also, thank you so much for making the flash cart! It's been a real delight to learn and explore the console, and being able to run on hardware makes a huge difference.

bbbbbr @bbbbbr.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

"Related" question, could it support re-flashing while it's still plugged in or is there a technical reason that wouldn't work? (looks possible in the source?) Been doing the eject-program-insert loop so much (partly due to my flail dev style + making test-roms) and worrying about wear and tear.

220

Also this: // 0 = Panning won't be reset after an SFX, 1 = Panning will be set to 0XFF after an SFX plays. #define MONO_MUSIC 0 github.com/bbbbbr/canyo...

bbbbbr @bbbbbr.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I haven't used it but toxa's should be better integrated. I remember fussing with cbtfx to get things working as intended in canyon racer. If you stick with cbtfx, feel free to rummage the source for ideas (ignore license). 😅 I do think everything was working in the end. github.com/bbbbbr/canyo...

The limitations can be tricky. Sometimesmusic is written to rely on some channels less so they can be "muted" and released for sfx use without degrading the current song too much, and then un-muted when sfx is done. Are you using toxas sfx driver + hugedriver?

100

Oh, nice. Didn't see this before I posted my comment, yeah agreed!

000

Same for jams. We took the hit on gbcompo25 being unlisted due to forgetting the preview image for a week or two. We've been doing it long enough that we should know, but there are lots of details and sometimes things slip through the cracks.

bbbbbr @bbbbbr.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Would be very useful if we could clone settings from another projects of ours, or make minimal templates. When I put a new project up I almost always have an existing one open as a reference, manually copying settings, trying not to miss things.

120

Was trying to get nmi and irq0 interrupts working (for vblank shadow oam copy) and dabbled with hblank some. Stumbled across this nice twisty bar effect. Camera footage since emus I can run don't support the interrupts 🥲. New loopy MiSTer core handles it reasonably well (little jitter aside)

091

bbbbbr @bbbbbr.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

The #Petris port to #CasioLoopy console becoming very playable. Feels good to cross that threshold. Still lots of jank and polish needed. The (incomplete) frog border evolved out of re-using shrub tiles & need to fill extra screen space compared to Game Boy Color. Might try for various pet borders.

081

bbbbbr @bbbbbr.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

We have pets, and they are gettin' long! Scrapped and redid half my porting changes to the #Petris gameplay logic. Way cleaner and working gameplay came together much faster. Obvs still screen cleanup and game notification porting to do, but that should be more straightforward. #casioloopy #loopy

041

bbbbbr @bbbbbr.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Another alternate, if you aren't using scanline interrupts for something else, is to move the vbl update to mid-frame with an LYC interrupt. That could allow most other things directly after a vsync call to complete before music was updated.

bbbbbr @bbbbbr.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Guessing scroll maybe pushed later due to the (variable) time it takes for the music vbl to finish. If that is the case, and isn't implemented like this already, a possible solution is: Have shadow scroll x/y vars and a vbl that updates to them *before* the music vbl.

210

bbbbbr @bbbbbr.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Can't guess, but cool to see so many cards!

000

bbbbbr @bbbbbr.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Looking back, this project took 2 years to finish with many unmotivated interludes.😅 The most enjoyable part was figuring out the asm code and labeling it, an oddly relaxing and zen-like activity. Satisfying when guesses turn out true. Source btw github.com/bbbbbr/megad...

061

bbbbbr @bbbbbr.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Petris Title and Settings screens progress on #CasioLoopy. Two layers of parallax semi-transparent clouds and sine text wiggle. Settings logic came over with minor changes. With more #gbdk api compat done porting is going faster. Turning out to be a pleasant console to dev on. #retrogaming #loopy

0123

bbbbbr @bbbbbr.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

What a classic. I remember reading about it on Obscure Handhelds (RIP), but never picked one up. Mismatched link though?

101

bbbbbr @bbbbbr.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I'm somewhere in between, kind of a medium balance. I enjoy little flourishes and things that emphasize actions, but am not into too much idle animation and def not clock counting.

000

bbbbbr @bbbbbr.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

So many animations. Looking like it's going to be rather satisfying to play

Forgot alt text 🙃 Image1: Screenshot of a casio loopy console emulator showing a rainbow like rgb gradient image. Image2: Screenshot of a casio loopy console emulator showing a photograph of 3 colorful parrots sitting on a fence with a city street in the background.

030

Seen discussion scanline palette updates maybe possible too (like "hicolor" on GBC) plus rgb555 range. Looking forward to trying that eventually. Not yet sure how many colors could be updated and whether sprites on a line would reduce that. Tradeoff is more overhead vs none for blend once loaded.

000

(From last week) ~Full RGB444 rendering on the #casio #loopy using blend mode. Hardware palette is 256 colors, but also has 2 "screen" layers that can be blended. So I put the Blue channel on one screen (1 pal) and Red X Green (15 pals) on the other. Output looks good! About 4k colors. #casioloopy

3142

GitHub - bbbbbr/loopy-homebrew-experiments at example/testrom_tilemap_vertlines_from_8bit_vram_access

Test ROM source at: github.com/bbbbbr/loopy... I have not yet taken the time to properly chartacterize how the 8 bit writes mangle the adjacent bytes, will probably return to that later.

github.com

Casio Loopy homebrew experiment. Contribute to bbbbbr/loopy-homebrew-experiments development by creating an account on GitHub.

000

Ran into glitches running port in progress on real loopy hardware. Issue was not present in the emulator. My mistake was loading tile data w/ 8 bit access, vram seems to require 16 bit access. 16 is faster anyway until I start using DMA. Made a small test ROM for that scenario. #casioloopy

Screenshot of the Petris title screen with vertical line glitches on hardware

Comparison of the test rom output. On the left solid blue with solid red beneath it, this is failing. On the right, from hardware, is vertical bars of blue/black on the top and solid green beneath it.

Screenshot of the Petris title screen with NO vertical line glitches on hardware

160

bbbbbr @bbbbbr.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I saw on their license page a reference to tiledpalettequant. I wonder if they're running images through that, if so it could result in that kind of unpredictable output. But it could be something else in their pipeline too. Ideally they support optional fixed palettes (in image or external).

101

Congrats! It's been fun following the progress you've shared on the game along the way.

130

Good advice! I forgot enirely since it was way upscaled on my screen and doesn't get mangled much in the post preview 😅

000

Wow! Image mangled by bluesky compression, shoulda posted it as 4x or something

100

A funny thing about porting from Game Boy to a console with a higher res screen is figuring out what to do with all the extra space. In this case playing around with a nicer font and more background on the options screen. Time and experience help too. Font is BoldPixels by @yukipixels.bsky.social

Screen shot of a game options screen a blue background, some green bushes and ground, and brown beneath it. There is pink and yellow text at the top of the screen which has a color tinted drop shadow.
On the screen is the text repeated twice:
Type: Long Pet
Level: Normal

Screen shot of a Game Boy emulator showing an options screen with a blue background and some gradient at the top.
On the screen is the text:
Options
Type: Long Pet
Level: Normal
Music: Twilight
Start Game
2 Player Vs: Off
Hi Contrast: Off
Visual Hints: Off

151

Yeah, def wouldn't be a comfortable sized device for me, but could see it being nicely pocketable (ala Tad Boy Color) when used with the GB camera mini. More so if it's low priced like the FPGBC

bbbbbr @bbbbbr.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

You're off squeezin some juice out of the ol' sm83 😅 I love night shift too, but have a dangerous tendency to roll on into 3 or 4 am

220

bbbbbr @bbbbbr.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Might work with the MiSTer GB core which had IG usb keyboard emulation support added to it, btw.

bbbbbr @bbbbbr.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Made a demo/example implementation for supporting the IG usb keyboard adapter and shared a PR for it (only added input for the main GRID page as a starter). Was fun to try out and pretty straightforward. TBD whether the dev is interested in something like that. github.com/Cirocular-Vl...

bbbbbr @bbbbbr.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

This is new to me, but seems like it could be cool combined with either the inside gadgets usb keyboard-to-gameboy serial link adapter, and/or on the megaduck laptop (since it has the same sound hardware as GB + keyboard)

bbbbbr @bbbbbr.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

The headphone jack just failed on the old phone I use as an mp3 player, using usb and bluetooth adapters is a such a downgrade. I'd roll back the last decade for plenty of other reasons, but might do it just for headphone jacks as standard alone.

bbbbbr @bbbbbr.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Congrats! Also, is that a fruedian slip there? 😉