iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Dan Gibson

Retired from the war room, reporting for desk duty. 🖥️ A hand-built 6×2.5" tribute to the 80s movie supercomputer, with 4 color screens, sound, battery power, and dual ESP32s. Made to order, small batches. Coming soon. #retrocomputing #maker #esp32

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Dan Gibson @condact.xyz · 29/09/2026

NextDAAD v0.11.1 authroing kit now comes in a Linux flavour too (see releases section down the bottom), complete with all buid/conversion scripts and the VidTune GUI. Also includes bug fixes for DOALL and where streamed AY music wouldn't restore immediately after an AY sound effect. #ZXSpectrumNext

condact.xyz

NextDAAD - ZX Spectrum Next text adventure creation system

Create your own text adventures for the ZX Spectrum Next with NextDAAD.

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Dan Gibson @condact.xyz · 27/09/2026

#ZXSpectrumNext NextDAAD v0.11.0 new features include custom parser cursors, improved keyboard-matrix handler with type ahead, faster game builds, externs can read/drive the parser, new externs for player name input and parser transcripts (for creating walkthroughs), plus numerous bug fixes & more.

condact.xyz

NextDAAD - ZX Spectrum Next text adventure creation system

Create your own text adventures for the ZX Spectrum Next with NextDAAD.

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Reposted by Dan Gibson

Michael Martin @mcmartin.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I've been trying to get this working since July, but... I have, and now I've written it up. Proper, HW-verified, fully-intelligible voice clip playback out of the 1-bit, CPU cycle-count controlled, #ZXSpectrum beeper. Neat non-identical prior work too. bumbershootsoft.wordpress.com/2026/09/26/d...

bumbershootsoft.wordpress.com

Digital Audio on the ZX Spectrum’s 1-Bit Beeper

It’s finally time for me to wrap up this ZX Spectrum series, with a look at how to get the simple 1-bit beeper on every Spectrum model to emit high-quality digital audio. The results are quit…

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Dan Gibson @condact.xyz · 26/09/2026

Something I've been working on whilst testing NextDAAD, for release next week hopefully, a ZX Spectrum Next conversion of the very first laserdisc game, from 1982: Adventures in Videoland (AKA Rollercoaster).

condact.xyz

Adventures in Videoland: Rollercoaster - ZX Spectrum Next

Conversion of the lasterdisc game Adventures in Videoland (AKA Rollercoaster) for the ZX Spectrum Next

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Reposted by Dan Gibson

The Retro Adventurers @retroadventurers.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Infocom and Iron Curtain classic text adventures from the final years of the Cold War! With special guest Ana Meisel (ana.help), Nick and Jason take on two entertaining political-statement classics of the 1980s. retroadventurers.podbean.com/e/49/

retroadventurers.podbean.com

A Mind Forever Voyaging and PRESTAVBA | The Retro Adventurers

It's Infocom and Iron Curtain classic text adventures from the final years of the Cold War! With special guest Ana Meisel (ana.help), Nick and Jason take on two entertaining political-statement classi...

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Dan Gibson @condact.xyz · 21/09/2026

The book included in this Matthew Smith compilation Kickstarter sounds most interesting, "covers the start of Matt's career, how he became a programmer and his meteoric rise in the early days of the UK games industry." - hoping it contains lots of new M.S. interview material.

kickstarter.com

The Matthew Smith Collection

Manic Miner, Jet Set Willy and Styx! Celebrate Matthew Smith's ZX Spectrum games with our Cassette Boxset and official merchandise

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Dan Gibson @condact.xyz · 21/09/2026

NextDither v1.2.0 new features for converting true colour images to #ZXSpectrumNext graphics include hue fidelity and chroma damping, increasing accuracy when working with the Next's limited colour palette. Greys stay grey, and a faint cast keeps its hue instead of breaking into tinted noise.

condact.xyz

NextDither - True colour to ZX Spectrum Next Layer 2 conversion

Convert true colour images to ZX Spectrum Next layer 2 graphics.

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Reposted by Dan Gibson

Richard Cobbett @richardcobbett.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Interactive fiction in a nutshell.

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Dan Gibson @condact.xyz · 18/09/2026

An updated demo game for NextDAAD on the #ZXSpectrumNext running on the v0.10.0 interpreter is available. New features demonstrated include location graphics animation using hardware sprites, realtime clock queries, and a multi-level hint book.

condact.xyz

NextDAAD Demo Game

Demo game for the NextDAAD interpreter on the ZX Spectrum Next

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Reposted by Dan Gibson

Games That Weren't @gamesthatwerent.com · 17/09/2026

Were the Apple II and Macintosh editions of Magnetic Scrolls' Fish! ever actually released? We've added a new entry looking at the mystery surrounding the two 1988 versions. Can you help us establish what happened to them? www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/09/fish/

gamesthatwerent.com

Fish! (Apple II, Macintosh) - Games That Weren't

Cancelled & Unreleased Video Games

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Reposted by Dan Gibson

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

Why do we call it an "arcade"? This question takes us back to the earliest days of coin-op amusement, the origin of recorded entertainment, and the tumultuous days of technology Trusts. Introducing: The First Arcade (maybe).

A postcard featuring The Arcade building in Cleveland, Ohio, circa 1901. The lower left shows the Ohio Phonograph Company office on the second floor. This is possibly the first location for coin-operated amusements situated inside of an "arcade" style building, potentially giving birth to the term "arcade" as a space for coin-operated machines.

https://www.loc.gov/item/2016800199/

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Reposted by Dan Gibson

Steve Wetherill @stevewetherill.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

It's 1990, Projectyle is released for the Amiga and ST, and Eldritch The Cat goes legit. What does that mean? Read about what we did next in chapter 15 of my serialized memoir! Here we're posed in front of the Liver Building in Liverpool's Albert Dock area. #Memoir #RetroGaming #GameDevelopmen

stevewetherill.substack.com

Chapter 15: The Pride

My Publishers and Other Animals

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Dan Gibson @condact.xyz · 13/09/2026

Nice Sunday afternoon read just arrived. Good to see an uncoated paper used, much warmer reading experience than stark white most retro computer books are printed on.

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Dan Gibson @condact.xyz · 13/09/2026

A look into the mysterious St. Bride's, authors of text adventures Jack the Ripper, Bugsy, The Very Big Cave Adventure, and more. Based in Ireland out of a St Trinians-style Victorian boarding school for adult women, were they just a group of cosplayers, or some form of a cult?

flexiblehead.blog

The Mystery of St Bride’s

A sojourn into games journalism, this piece, The Mystery of St Bride’s, was for the Retro section of GamesTM magazine, and was published in issue #142 in 2014. It was reprinted in slightly re…

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Reposted by Dan Gibson

Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Mail’s here - three boxes of Atari history sent to me to scan

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Reposted by Dan Gibson

Atari Scene News @philsan.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Source code of Electronic Arts' Archon and Gamestar's Star League Baseball for #Atari8bit computers found forums.atariage.com/topic/392725... #atari

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Dan Gibson @condact.xyz · 11/09/2026

1980s licences that would have made good text adventures The Plague Dogs - Film/novel Snitter & Rowf, 2 dogs escape a secretive animal research laboratory. Hunted by soldiers & police across the mountains and moors, their only guide is Snitter's fragmented memory of a human world he once trusted.

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Dan Gibson @condact.xyz · 10/09/2026

1980s licences that would have made good text adventures - 1/? The Tripods - BBC TV series/series of novels. For generations, mankind has lived beneath the shadow of the mysterious Tripods. Your time of capping is approaching. Escape the village, evade the Tripods and find the secret resistance.

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Dan Gibson @condact.xyz · 08/09/2026

Wasn't aware of this game back in the day but have been intrigued by the reasoning of using an action movie licence to make a text adventure, an unusual pairing of genres. The game is brutal, not in its prose but in its relentless player death mechanics, and ability to create deadends by actions.

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Reposted by Dan Gibson

Sinclair Research @sinclairresearch.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

z88dk paging on the ZX Spectrum Next explained - Banks, 8K pages, MMU slots, and how to place C data exactly where you want it. A fantastic technical guide from the SpecNext Developer HQ. specnext.dev/blog/

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Dan Gibson @condact.xyz · 05/09/2026

Sorting through my shelves I'm quite pleased how my Infocom collection has grown over the years, still missing a few vital pieces, and how did I end up with 2 copies of Zork 1? And found some of my old copies of The Status Line, Infocom seemed quite random at mailing some to the UK and not others.

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Dan Gibson @condact.xyz · 05/09/2026

For those that don't like navigating GitHub, there's now a website for NextDAAD and creating text adventures for the #ZXSpectrumNext. Easy to find downloads, documentation and the first in a series of tutorials - setting up a development environment to make text adventures for the Spectrum Next.

condact.xyz

Creating Text Adventures for the ZX Spectrum Next

Making your own text adventures for the ZX Spectrum Next with NextDAAD

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Dan Gibson @condact.xyz · 03/09/2026

New in NextDAAD authoring kit v0.9.0 - Animated location graphics using the Next's sprite layer, externs can be conditions as well as actions, an expanded extern library including RTC queries, interrupt driven game timers, SD card based multi-level hintbook, 16-bit arithmetic on flag pairs & more.

github.com

Release NextDAAD Authoring Kit v0.9.0 · absent42/NextDAAD

v0.9.0 - 3 September 2026 Animated sprites. GFX 19, 20 and 21 start and stop sprite sets packed by the kit from IMAGES\SPRITES; 8-bit and 4-bit sets, up to eight at once, cached after the first lo...

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Reposted by Dan Gibson

They Create Worlds @theycreateworlds.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Hasbro went from toys to a major force in video games. Tom Dusenberry made Win95 Monopoly the foundation of #HasbroInteractive, leading to Frogger #Atari #MicroProse Avalon Hill and #WotC before Hasbro sold the division to Infogrames. www.youtube.com/watch?v=whwe... #VideoGameHistory #RetroGaming

youtube.com

TCW 265 - Hasbro Interactive

YouTube video by They Create Worlds Podcast

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Dan Gibson @condact.xyz · 29/08/2026

NDRC v0.2 compiler now offers enhanced text compression. Selecting what to tokenise by scoring candidates against an optimal parse of the whole game text, it gives an 8-14% space saving over the fixed token table method of DRC. For 8-bit targets that can be quite a bit of extra game prose.

github.com

Release NDRC v0.2 · absent42/NDRC

NDRC v0.2 - 29/08/2026 New -auto-tokens option: per-game text compression. Instead of DRC's fixed per-language token table, the compiler selects up to 128 tokens from the compiling game's own text...

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Dan Gibson @condact.xyz · 28/08/2026

NextDAAD v0.7.4 authoring kit features a streamlined toolchain including the new NDRC (Next DAAD Reborn Compiler), a C port of Uto's Free Pascal/PHP DRC, allowing for the DAAD database build process to run off a single bundled executable with no other dependencies.

github.com

GitHub - absent42/NextDAAD: DAAD text adventure interpreter for ZX Spectrum Next

DAAD text adventure interpreter for ZX Spectrum Next - absent42/NextDAAD

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Dan Gibson @condact.xyz · 23/08/2026

As a child I was fascinated by an article on the VIC-REL cartridge for the VIC-20, allowing you to control lights, curtains etc from your computer. Seemed like the future was here. It got me thinking, could I control #HomeAssistant from the #ZXSpectrumNext via Wi-Fi? Maybe with a dot command?

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Dan Gibson @condact.xyz · 19/08/2026

NextDAAD now supports running external machine code routines through DAAD's EXTERN command. Here's an example of using a layer 2 fade in the process 0 location loop to quickly fade the graphics out and in when moving between locations. #ZXSpectrumNext

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Dan Gibson @condact.xyz · 12/08/2026

NextDAAD 80 column text display can now use the full Spectrum Next colour palette. INK/PAPER 0-15 are kept to the classic ULA colours for compatibility sake but 16 and above map to the Next's extended palette.

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Dan Gibson @condact.xyz · 05/08/2026

Quick demo of NextDAAD, a new ZX Spectrum Next DAAD text adventure interpreter featuring 80 column tilemap text display, 320x256 layer 2 graphics, AY music, digitised sound effects, and cutscene video playback up to 320x256@25fps with stereo sound.

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Dan Gibson @condact.xyz · 02/02/2026

Check out my Home Assistant integration for advanced control of the Aqara T1M Ceiling Light, T1 LED Strip and T2 bulbs. Supports dynamic effects, individual segment control, CCT/RGB segment sequencing and more, all from a frontend UI. Features are starting to surpass Aqara's own eco-system.

github.com

GitHub - absent42/Aqara-Advanced-Lighting: Aqara lighting integration for Home Assistant with frontend UI, services, and APIl

Aqara lighting integration for Home Assistant with frontend UI, services, and APIl - absent42/Aqara-Advanced-Lighting

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