iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Jackie Gleason did it better.

Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Spent the morning playing Revenge of Shinobi. It's still sublime! So well thought out, and has bags of atmosphere and challenge. It was going to be my next Amiga port project before I got put off developing for the system. Had all the sprites and drum sounds ripped and ready to go.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Managed to convert my Spectrum sprite arranger to the Amstrad. Took about a week to sort all the various hardware calls, but it's working fine now. Not too much to re-write since the Speccy was working in two byte chunks for interleaved mask & image, and that works for how Amstrad's data is sorted.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Digging in my Amstrad folder and found my old attempt at Final Fight from 2018. Sadly, it doesn't assemble, but IIIRC it was playable (although slow as shit and flickery as hell!). Terrible coding, but all the sprites were re-drawn by hand. Doubt it'll ever get finished though.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

So this is coming along nicely. Managed a split screen with palette and mode changes. Doing it all from the ISR feels weird though, because it's a lot of waiting for things to sync. Need to try different memory regions next which means fucking with CRTC screen heights.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Not one for moping. Spectrum project is dead (or indefinitely shelved), so on to my Amstrad project while Z80 is still fresh in my brain. Been champing at the bit to start this, and it should go smoothly given the nicer hardware and less demanding gameplay which isn't a resource hungry beat 'em up.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Starting to feel like a real game now that the spawners are making baddies in waves. Timer is also working, but just wraps when it hits 0. Will need to sort the issue with the SFX locking up the main loop soon. It's barely noticeable, but the music stutter gives it away. Some DMA would be nice.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

I don't know what a bin is doing down there either. Made some good progress lately. A few compromises were unavoidable, but just about everything else made it in. Just one or two technical head-scratchers left and the rest of the music to write.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Found these old backstory bios for Double Dragon: Legacy characters as I was planning on making a manual with a rogues gallery at the end. There's quite a few. Mostly explaining the newcomers but also revealing what the old mob have been up to for the last 30 years. Might make a YouTube slideshow.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Final Edition got a nice 4-page review in Zapp Amiga. Hardly had time to even think about it as I was straight on to the Spectrum after the release, but this is a nice reward.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Had a go at Double Dragon on the Spectrum, and honestly it's not bad. It's not prohibitively slow, and it scrolls too which is very nice. Yeah the clash is nasty and the spritework looks a bit naff, but it could have been much worse. Could've been better too, but it probably fell foul of deadlines.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Watching the Automan series again. Chuck Wagner is so likable, and it's great fun. I think it was still finding its feet in that first series, but it's a good watch! The theme tune is glorious!

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Went back to coding after a week and managed to get a significant speed increase by poking branches in heavy loops with jump addresses. 1 player, 3 enemies, and a breakable all at a nice speed. Bigger enemies/player still chugs, so need to work out line drawing without 8x8 boundary checks each time.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Everything's backed up and shut down for the time being, so here's a few screenshots of what I'm working on. It's about 80% complete and fully playable with all 3 characters. Hit a few stubborn brick walls with optimising which has zapped my mojo, so will need to wait for a recharge. #ZXSpectrum

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

What's a beat 'em up without a big smelly bin to eat food out of? Happy with this, but my first attempt at a burger (right) looks more like a mushroom, and the pizza is terrible. It's unlikely that I'll even have enough memory & cycles for breakables/pickups, but best be prepared.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Having fun with the wee tool I wrote. It originally just arranged sprite lines in consecutive order, but it does zigzag now (every second line is reversed). Fuse's binary save option has been a life saver too. Yeah, it could have been a python thing, but this was better Z80 practice.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Discovered the "Nop out instruction" option, and it's a lot of fun (+ very useful). Disabled the background restore for some nice messy screen action.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Doing more disassembly with Target Renegade. The left code is maybe the end of the main loop. The middle seems to enable/disable interrupts at either side of the HALT, and I think the right is a dummy ISR. Can't see how music is played, but there seems to be a hidden message in the data.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

I figured that Shinobi with the Shadow Dancer sprite would be pretty rad, and I was right!

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

I still maintain that Amiga Shinobi is a perfectly playable game. It really doesn't look or sound good though. I'd ditch the Dual Playfield for more colours/smoother animation, and while I can forgive the muffled samples due to how hard it was to do BITD, they could be crisper. It's all cosmetics.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Martial arts films were life when I was a teen in the 90s and Bruce Lee was an obsession! Got all his books and multiple cuts of the films. Way of the Dragon felt special, and the fight with Chuck at the end is legendary! I enjoyed Walker too, + Breaker Breaker is a 70s karate classic! RIP

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Been trying out Spectrum Analyser. Proper disassembler, memory inspector, debugger etc. I'm quite handy with command line stuff, but I'll take a nice GUI every single time. Great stuff! Shame I have to bolt off for the weekend.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

I still love Shadow Warriors on the Amiga. A rare instance of an arcade beat 'em up being good on the system, and developers Teque did a great job. I don't even care about the slowdown when the screen gets busy. It's great! A shame that the audio had to be either FX or music though, but still.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

Final Fight on the ZX Spectrum was one of the most glorious oddities ever created. Virtually unplayable, yet endlessly fascinating for the sheer gall of it even existing. I doubt anything could improve it bar some sprite tidy ups, but reducing size starts to look weird. 10/10 for the coder(s).

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

Back to my ZX Spectrum game soon, so looking at one of the sprites. Considering other memory arrangements, because the current method (I) takes 6 loops of the draw routine, but possible alternatives (II/III) take less. The RAM saving may be buggered tho, but IMO space is easier to find than speed

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

It's hard to describe just how much I love Super Probotector / Contra III. It's top 3 Super Nintendo gear for sure. Such amazing imagination in the level design and boss battles, and that's on top of the incredible graphics and music. Konami and Capcom were on fire back then!

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Cauldron was one of my favourite Amstrad games! Nice spooky atmosphere, gameplay variety, and great graphics. Some unavoidable hits and inability to change direction mid-jump are really the only negatives I have, but otherwise it's fab! #Amstrad #RetroGaming #Z80

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

Some delicious budget stuff! None were spectacular, but I had fun with all of them. Last Ninja 2 was probably my fave. I'd say they were worth even less than the asking price. £4.99 would have been fair.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

There's actually a full story behind this Easter egg in Double Dragon: Legacy which re-writes Final Fight 2 a bit. DD:L takes place in an alt-universe where all beat 'em ups exist, so this was meant to be a nod to a possible future project, but I gave up on Game Maker in favour of learning 68k/Z80.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

As much as I love seeing Jimmy in hot pink, I'm a sucker for the original arcade colours and coiffed hair. I know Super Double Dragon was a soft reboot of sorts, and I love it to bits, but gimmie big 80s hair and steel-grey leather any day. #DoubleDragon #RetroGaming

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Super Double Dragon is one of those games that I could talk about a lot. They could've just made a generic post-1990 brawler with a Lee bros skin, but it was a good update with an interesting combat system & fantastic music. The cutscenes from the unfinished final build would be fascinating to see.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

I pirated my first film when I was 7 with this unit of a machine daisy-chained to another. The film was "Who Finds a Friend Finds a Treasure" with Bud Spencer & Terrence Hill, becasue I fucking loved them! I always bought official if I liked it though (sans hard to find Kung-Fu films). #Betamax

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

Chun-Li in her Arcade and Super Nintendo ending clothes. Not as iconic as her trad-fit IMO, but nice enough.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Took the Amiga background then applied the palette to some arcade sprites, and I think it looks very decent. Of course the problem with Double Dragon is the 4-Way scrolling and variable floor heights which would be a pain to code, plus 5-Bitplanes might slow things down. Still, it's quite pretty.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

#Amiga Double Dragon is running 32-Colours (BPLCON0=$5000) The original coder probably overreached but couldn't get it smooth enough, so instead of redrawing everything at 16-Colours the sprites were all hastily done at half size to cope with the extra processing cost. BGs are good, so it's likely.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

I normally DGAF about subscriber/follower numbers, but the metal fan in me did rather enjoy this.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

This was one of the first pics I posted on Twitter. I'm one of the few (semi) defenders of Amiga Streetfighter II, but that score is just nonsense, not to mention the obviously doctored screenshots. Gaming journalism was weird back then. #RetroGaming #Amiga #StreetFighter

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

I unpacked my old Twitter archive which has been sitting there for about 2 years. Lots of memories, including my very first attempt at programming the Amiga. It was just a simple Copper palette change, but it was a start. The entire Final Fight development was documented too. Good grief! #Amiga

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

Playing one of my favourite NES games - Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. Completely forgot how to navigate the dam level, and took 3 attempts to get by it. Great game! Underrated soundtrack too. Displaced Gamers did a fantastic technical video about the controls and frame rate. #RetroGaming #NES

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

It's been an age since I played Street Fighter II on the #SNES, but I gave it a bash today. Made it to Sagat on my first go. It's hard to overstate just how mind-blowing this conversion was. I obsessed over the Mean Machines preview for about a year before getting it on grey import. #RetroGaming

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

A deleted scene from the end sequence of Double Dragon: Legacy. Jimmy cleans himself up for Heather, and helps an old friend start a business in place of the old gang club. A few cameos appear as well. Couldn't quite find a place for it, but it's a fun scene. #DoubleDragon #BeatEmUp #Brawler

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 26/12/2024

The boat level background graphics in Streets of Rage always fascinated me. The detail is excellent & very atmospheric. Particularly the shading on the round containers, which looked near photo-real. SoR is more famous for it's audio, but it was a beautiful looking game too. #RetroGaming #PixelArt

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

I have a real fondness for the Spectravideo Quickshot II. Competition Pro was a close second though.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

Bit of a rush job, but is this the kind of thing?

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

Double Dragon II gets heat for being a copy of the first game, but it's not really. The controls are different, and the game has bosses now. Mission 2 was the only copy of DD1. The other levels are very different. The Megadrive game gave M2 an original layout which is what the arcade should've had.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

If the bad guys in Vigilante were actually skinheads. #Arcade #BeatEmUp #RetroGaming

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 07/11/2024

Downloaded the Ocean Draw tools for a look, courtesy of Mark R. Jones. This is Mike Lamb's map editor. There's no example map to load so it's tricky to work out how it operates, but maybe assets have to be made first? #ZXSpectrum

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 25/10/2024

I don't think Renegade 3 was a bad game. It just wan't a very good Renegade game. It would have worked better as an Indiana Jones/Doctor Who licence, or even just a mid-tier plodder that deals with an adventurer who has a time-travel machine. Chuck in some bosses, call it "Time Quest". Job done.

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Prototron @prototron.bsky.social · 18/10/2024

The Phillips Videopac was my first gaming system. Crude stuff, but fun for a few minutes with pals. Excellent box art on some of the games though. It was an old system for even '82/'83 when I had it, and I was more into toys back then (He-Man/Lego), but it did the job. #RetroGaming

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