iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Got around to doing my own stuff I'll be around at for #MIGW26 thing. A lot of my time around GCAP is catching panels around self-pub and funding options, at least based where I am on my current projects. For any peeps who are gonna be there & might be up for a chat, LMK! 🖤 #AusGameDev

A screen of Rob's intinerary for Melbourne International Games Week in 2026.

He's attending GCAP, the launch for CONTINUE, Parallels, PAXAUS, Technically Games and Megadev.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Didn’t quite go 100% to plan, but got a good round of feedback from showing the game off at IGDAM tonight. Ppenty of notes, and a nice (metaphorical) shot in the arm always helps. Plus some relief while I prioritise other things for the next few weeks! (Being sick last week fucked so much up )

Sneaky shot of a round of my untitled racing game being played on my MacBook Pro.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Accidental enshittification? Or just a gremlin in the invoice mailer. (This is the invoice for my monthly iCloud spend - it’s just hilarious that this happened!)

Screenshot of an email from Apple which is my monthly iCloud invoice, but ahhh, seems to have had a glitch with the templating, as it reads “MZSubscriptionEmail.Title.Mint.Invoice$AUD”, instead of something more sensible.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

“Before time began, there was The Cube.” It feels apt to sot down and hear that opening narration and enjoy some Baysplosions and Truck Dad’s narration.

A shot of my TV set displaying the opening to the 2007 Transformers Live Action movie - looking over the surface of something alien, specifically the “cube” mentioned in its opening narration.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Been doing a little sprucing up of visuals, and today I felt like ~trying~ to improve the car sprites. Not sure these are 100% final (maybe making them a little bigger), but I think it's a step closer. #AusGameDev #GameDev

A screenshot showing a piece of my (untitled) racing game, showing the new car sprites I drew as a race starts.

A screenshot showing a piece of my (untitled) racing game, showing the original car sprites I drew (over a year ago) as a race starts.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

So the Gunship vid has done ~numbers~ and seems to have been picked up by the algo (at least by how it’s tracking compared to how vids normally do). So thanks to everyone who what/shared/stuff. I hope you’ll stick around and not treat it as a one off! 🖤

A screen grab of YouTube’s studio app showing the stats for my Gunship video.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Mostly spent today reskinning screens, but also managed to add a new one in - a season standings screen which also adds a new rule - you don't just have to qualify on all the tracks, but you gotta get enough points to be top of the table! #ScreenshotSaturday #gamedev #godotengine

It's the standings screen for my "untitled" racing game - it shows a table of all 8 competitors (as identified by their differing coloured cars) with the points they've scored based on the positions they've finished in.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Spent the afternoon on one of those accompanying screens I felt I was missing - an introduction to the season, which teases which courses you'll be racing on.

A screenshot of my (untitled for the moment) racing game. This is showing a screen which is presented when starting a new season, in this case the first, with a preview of the tracks you'll race.

A screenshot of my (untitled for the moment) racing game. This is showing the same preview screen, but this it's for the second season which has a larger number of tracks.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

More tracks! A fine way to try and counter hard days. Almost got enough in for my demo plans, before I get back to more bugs and polish. (Also tuning, 'cause I wanna narrow that gap between me and the computer drivers, without relying on rubber banding...) #AusGameDev #GameDev #Godot #GodotEngine

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Brilliant. I watched a compilation of Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote cartoons a few days back, and YouTube prompts me with their feedback thing. I am cackling that an option for a Wile E. Coyote cartoon includes "fosters life skills". But maybe that's appropriate with Coyote vs. ACME coming out…

A screencap of YouTube asking "How would you feel if a child watched this video?".

The video in question is a compilation of episodes of Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote episodes, and YouTube presented a number of options - Imaginative, Educational, Good Values, Inclusive Entertaining, Fosters Life Skills, Family Friend and Other.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Decided to have a play at skinning the Pause Menu in a similar pit-board style to the countdown. Kind of digging it - this might be what I go with for menus and other elements too. Especially as it's been done with a few StyleBoxes and not relying on custom graphics.

A screenshot focusing on the reworked pause menu for my untitled racing game. The menu consists of a solid black background, with the heading "Game Paused" in yellow, and items to "Resume Race" (which is highlighted in yellow), "Restart Race" and "Exit to Main Menu".

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Not much stuff on the game this week - added a few tracks to the second tier, and started to improve parts of the UI - in this case the board which appears to lead into each race. Nice for some pieces to be less "default", at least for my skills/resources. #godotengine #godot #indiedev #gamedev

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Choo-choo! It's Loco (aka Tony Crowther's take on Super Locomotive) for the #C64 for today's #RandomGameSaturday. It's a cheery take on Sega's game from that era when devs would clone arcade games and change the name. (Which would be followed up with Suicide Express & Black Thunder!)

Holding up a copy of Loco for the Commodore 64 - now with "Super Fast Loading".

The cover illustration features a steam train pushing its way through a wooden cart, while a biplane and zeppelin are in the background attacking it.

There's a red sticker with "Now with Super Fast Loading" on it - indicating it's a copy which doesn't use the C64's ROM routines to load.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

We need more Keyboard Overlays. There’s something kind of special about having one over your computer keyboard. A shame that we don’t have such things for modern games. But I guess controllers took care of that…

My (modified) C64C, featuring a Gunshio keyboard overlay on top of it.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Nothing kicks the wind of my sails as a creative person than seeing shit like this. The "you should give us money to plug your shit" thing is tiring. Especially when it's a platforms job to show it. Won't lie, but it does make me wonder whether I should throw the towel in sometimes.

A screen shot of an "Idea for you" from YouTube Studio's interface. It recommends I "promote" a recent-ish video to get a bunch of extra impressions on it.

Where by "promote" they mean pay YouTube a bunch of money to show it to people, instead of just pushing the subscription feed.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

For #RandomGameSaturday, I pulled out Fort Apocalypse in its original Atari 8-bit release (as published by US Gold in the UK). Fly into caverns, rescue the hostages and avoid all the nasty traps. It may not be the first chopper-based hostage rescue game you think of, but it’s still a classic!

A copy of the US Gold cassette release of “Fort Apocalypse” for the Atari 8-bit computer line.

The cover features a helicopter being chased by another amongst a unique structure.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

It’s not a real cab, just a MiSTer hooked up to a TV, but managed to get my all-time best in Robotron at games group’s arcade night. Guess I’ve been playing enough twin-sticks to finally survive the grand-parent of ‘em all!

A photo of the high scores screen to Robotron: 2084, as played from a MiSTer console connected to a TV. The control panel is a replica of the original panel, with its dual control sticks.

Of note is my top score: 181375

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Another track for the roster - one of a few I put together today (did a second earlier, and hoping to do a third to round out the day). Enjoying making these courses (at least for the easier class) quite a bit! #ScreenshotSaturday #Godot #GodotEngine #IndieDev #SoloDev #GameDev

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Did some widening of a recent track I created - which meant preparing a bunch of new assets (and a bunch of tedious import work which I hope I won't need to redo). Happy with how it for now, other than more visuals, but that's for later. #indiedev #godot #gamedev

A screen of a racing game I'm creating. It's played from an overhead view, with small F1-style cars racing on a simple, closed circuit.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Nothing is better to reawaken the existential dread than returning to the job search and seeing so many fucking roles requiring AI bullshit. Can't wait for these fuckers to have to pull back their token spends and go back to using real engineers.

A snippet of text covering one of the requirements from a job advert - "Demonstratable experience with AI-assisted development - you've made these tools a real part of your workflow and can speak to how you direct them and check their output"

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

After building out my tool to create corner graphics, it's time to put them to the test with the first track designed using them. Going to need to go back to extend the tool, but very happy with the results. Looking forward to building more. #ScreenshotSaturday #godotengine #godot

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Going back to the thing I had been pondering about better handling curve art - ended up rolling out my own little tool instead. Lets me handle what I need - variable arc sizes, widths, plus draw inset lines and outer curbs before saving a texture to disk.

A screen of a curve creation tool I coded in Godot. This lets you select a curve's angle, radius, colour and width to plot a curve on screen. It also lets you configure some embellishments - inset lines, and outer curbing.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

This is a rough example of what I want to achieve, basically corners under 90 degrees - I basically want to have those arcs for the outer and inner angles (which I guess I'd be able to fill). In an ideal world, I'd just pay someone, but gotta DIY it, and want to learn regardless!

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

It me. oh noooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

The "I'm in this photo and I don't like it" meme, which asks "What's going on", with a series of responses - "It's annoying or not interesting", "I'm in this photo and don't like it", "I think it shouldn't be on Facebook" and "it's spam", with the "I'm in this photo and don't like it" one selected.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Had a little time to do some visual tweaking - namely improving various bits of particle fx. Also added in some walls, got plenty more to add on that front, but hopefully starts to give the courses a little extra life. At least when done. #ScreenshotSaturday #GodotEngine

A screenshot from my as untitled racing game. The screen shows an aerial view of a race course, with several F1-style cars racing about.

Of particular focus is some particle effects - skid marks laid down over tight corners, and a puff of dirt from when the player went off course.

Another screenshot of the same course from my racing game. Here the focus is on slipstreaming particles - triggered when cars are closely following one another with a stream of white trails over the cars.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

At that size, probably pins to be honest. Kind of love something which acts like a tribute - like the sets Penny Arcade did with Nintendo for the Mario/Zelda 30th anniversaries. The link one has been part of my jacket for aaages!

Me holding a pin of NES-era Link in the palm of my hand.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Had to grab some b-roll this afternoon, so while my PSTV was out, I played some TxK, which I’d not done in ages. Not a bad effort in reaching level 35 after so long. Now waiting for test render to finish before I proof it. (Trying to wrap this up tonight as I’ve homework to take care of!)

My desk setup, featuring a PlayStation TV micro console running the game TxK, displaying its Game Over screen.

Ny run ended on level 35, and a score of about 1.9 million points.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Went to some shelves and pulled out Super Cars II for today’s #RandomGameSaturday. A big improvement on the first, it adds split screen play, new weapons and some devious tracks to race on.

Holding up a copy of “Super Cars II” for the Amiga.

The cover illustration features a pair of cars, need and the other blue racing towards the viewer firing a bunch of weapons (missiles,and guns) towards something off canvas.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO FOLLOW IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF MONTY-FUCKING-BURNS.

A still from Simpsons episode "Who Shot Mr. Burns", featuring Mr. Burns & Smithers looking at a model of Springfield with a giant discs (the Sun Blocker) being extended over it, putting the model town into endless shadow.

Titled over the image is the text "I will do the next best thing -- block it out", as spoken around this scene by Burns as he relays his scheme.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

More adventures. Want to do little things, and also having a bit of a stuck brain finishing up next vid script (which isn’t helped by stuff going in at home…) (…or having a little bad brain morning as a treat…)

It’s me. Wearing a mask. Waiting for a bus. Wearing headphones, too.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Space Giraffe told me I'm "Super Good" today, so that's a compliment I need to hold onto. (I've never really found myself to be that good at it compared to other Llamasoft titles, but I seem to have managed to finally get a few good runs in of late)

A screenshot from the end of level sequence from a level of Llamasoft's "Space Giraffe".

The main text states "Congraturation! You Success! A winner is you! But our Giraffe is in Another Castle! You Are Super Good" with a bunch of scoring bonuses for "Early Giraffe Bonus", "Pod Diligence Bonus" and "Giraffe Preservation Bonus" applied under that.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Went through a tub of C64 tapes for #RandomGameSaturday with Slicks, a late-ish overhead racer which offer some impressive overhead racing, and a neat tram upgrade scheme where you challenge (or get challenged by) a rival for their car. Only real complaint is that there’s only six tracks!

It’s a copy of “Slicks” for the Commodore 64.

The cover illustration features a pair of unlicensed F1 cars - a Williams in front, with a McLaren behind.

Behind those two is a fire caused by a third vehicle (which we can’t see).

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

When you only get a limited time for working on the game, you try to chip off some fun tasks - like having one's rivals show skid trails when they brake for corners (seeing they can't spin out like the player). #gamedev #godot #indiedev

A screengrab of my racing game - the main addition is activating skid trails for the computer-controlled drivers when they slow down for corners, so the track how has a bunch of long, black streaks leading up to several of the tight corners.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Meant to throw this up yesterday, but it’s my pick for #RandomGameSaturday - Hellgate for the VIC 20! Hellgate builds upon the ideas from Laser Zone, with 4 blasters instead of two. But it’s a far more frantic game as you don’t want to overheat them!

Holding a copy of Llamasoft’s Hellgate for the Commodore VIC 20.

The cover illustration featured a group of space craft chasing a green, threee-headed beastie.

Up top is the slogan “All Hell Has Brolen Loose”.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Having to do one of Amazon's AWS courses as part of my cert, and oh boy, the fact that the introductionary section is titled "Trends in Cloud Computing" and opens with this little paragraph about the slop machine is doubly hilarious knowing what happened to them not so long ago! *whomp whomp*

A screengrab from the introduction piece to Amazon's AWS Academy Cloud Foundations course.

It states "Generative AI is changing the way that organisations do work. AWS has infrastructure, tools and applications to help customers use Generative AI in their businesses."

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

The inspiration came from a few sources - looking at what games did on the Amiga (eg. Super Cars), but also wanted to get the vibe of what 90s sims were doing - IndyCar Racing and Grand Prix 3 being a few examples. It's not 100%, but I'm real happy with where it's sitting atm.

A screen of "Super Cars" for the Amiga (Magnetic Fields/Gremlin 1990) - the particular focus for me here is the status bar in the lower area of the screen, with its wooden background, and details for speed, position, laps and state of various car systems.

A screen from "IndyCar Racing" (Papyrus/Virgin, 1993) - particular interest is on the main part of the dashboard, which is implemented looking like a giant LCD Screen with the speed, revs, fuel, engine temp et al implemented with digital numbers, alongside a bar for the revs.

A screen from "Grand Prix 3" (Microprose, 2000), with the focus also on the digital screen in the centre of the player's steering wheel.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Had been pondering some stuff around the Player's HUD being a little too small, so I ended up redesigning it to take up the full lower area I had on screen. I had intended to reclaim this as track area once I redid the UI, but I feel like this also lets me get rid of that notification bit too.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Not shared anything from the game for a while (the whole not having time to work it stunts that), but got some neat things in which add character - slipstreaming and spinning out. #gamedev #indiegames #indiedev #godot #godotengine.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

I've been digging Cleared Hot of late, and man, if it wasn't such a rad update to the Desert Strike formula, then flying a tribute to The Lady certainly would be a cool reason to checking it out. (And sorry not sorry if the Airwolf theme has wormed its way into your head!)

A screengrab from the game "Cleared Hot". It's inside the Hangar you can access between missions, with the selected helicopter being a Bell 222 (named Sky Wolf) - which serves as a tribute to 80s series Airwolf.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Pick for #RandomGameSaturday is Infiltrator on the C64. Specifically the PAL disk release. As you'd expect from an '80s computer game, there's a genre blend here between a light helicopter-sim, and stealthing about for missions. (Only downside is the manual being squeezed onto a single page...)

Holding up a copy of Infilitrator for the Commodore 64 (based on US Gold's PAL disk release).

The cover features an illustration of our hero "Jimbo" McGibbits seated in his chopper (which is presented underneath flying away from an explosion).

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Another one (been a bit) for #RandomGameSaturday, with NES Elite. At first glance, it’s a conversion you think wouldn’t work, but it happens to surprisingly well. So if you’re up for flying a Cobra Mk III through space, you’ll have as solid an experience here, once you adapt to the controls!

It a copy of Elite on the (PAL) NES. Its cover features the Elite “crest” flying forwards in space, with the title above it.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Last assessment submitted, and now looking at two weeks of normality. Also freedom. Horrible, horrible freedom.

A still from The Simpsons episode “Deep Space Homer”, showing a bunch of ants and debris (glass, crumbs, dirt) floating about in zero-gravity whilst they’re chittering - with the subtitles “Freedom! Horrible, horrible freedom!” overlaid on took

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Deffo a crank up some shmup OST for the commute to class this morning. *yawn*

A screen of my phone’s Lock Screen, showing the music player playing the Stage 4 music to Devil Engine.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Unsurprisingly, Ed’s latest freebie is fucking amazing. Especially the last section. As someone who refuses to touch AI “tools” at any level, I really do feel like a developer who is out of place these days.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Having a little Lisa moment after having to do a class task with another student who when right to the slop machine to get answers.

A scene from The Simpsons where Lisa is getting a little concerned over receding a less than optimal grade.

She’s commenting “I feel so dirty. The dirt’s not coming off.”

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

I’ve been playing it a bunch this week, so it’s only apt I dug up my copy of “Revs Plus 4 Tracks” for the BBC Micro. It’s the best edition (at least official release wise) of Geoff Crammond’s groundbreaking F3 sim with Computer Aided Steering which seriously helps newbies master it!

Holding up a copy of the Superior Software release of Revs Plus 4 Tracks for the BBC Micro.

The cover illustration is from the driver’s view on an F3 race car as items coming up close to a pair of rivals.

Underneath are some simple track maps of the five courses available to race on.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Distracted myself a bit this evening with a little Revs on the BBC Micro action. Pretty satisfied with the qualifying (Amateur difficulty on Silverstone), and the final results too. Had started off well, but messed up and ended up back of the pack and hard to work to get that 6th place.

Qualifying Results from Revs on the BBC Micro for the Silverstone Circuit on Amateur (the 2nd) Difficulty.

My time here was 1:26.4 - about half a second off the pace compared to the fastest of the computer drives.

Race results from a 10 Lap race of Silverstone on BBC Micro Revs at the Amateur Difficulty Level (the 2nd).

I finished in 6th here, scoring a single point which was incredibly rewarding after an early race mistake meant I ended up at the back of the pack.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

I think it might be the first time I ever cracked 100 Lines in GB Tetris, the Best Tetris.

An Analogue Pocket running Tetris for the original Game Boy.

It’s displaying the Game Over screen, showing I made it to Level 10, with 101 Lines and a final score of 55327.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Definitely need the kick of some phat 16-bit FM synth to get going this morning.

A screen grab showing the Lock Screen of my phone, as it’s playing “Stonefang Depths” from the Earthion Soundtrack.

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Rob Caporetto @robcap.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Went and caught Thornhill this evening - had been looking forward to it for a fair few months, and was really worth it after this week. Absolute banger set, and some solid supports too.

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