iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Shawn Sijnstra @sijnstra.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 28/07/2026

Back to #Infocom #TextAdventure land, or more accurately Graphics adventures. I've been working with Stefan Vogt to support his latest and most ambitious project yet - Arcturus. The idea is that with a single set of image files that work with your adventure game […] [Original post on hachyderm.io]

Screenshot of the game Cloak of Darkness rendered with a monochrome image on a TRS-80 model 4 with hi-res card.

Screenshot of the game Demo of Rabenstein rendered with a monochrome image on a TRS-80 model 4 with hi-res card.

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Shawn Sijnstra @sijnstra.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 10/06/2026

Time for some more #AgonLight development for the #z80 #Pascal compiler #Pasta80. This time it was adding some standard Turbo Pascal 4 features to select graphics plotting colour, and also playing with the advanced palette controls available. The result is the […] [Original post on hachyderm.io]

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Shawn Sijnstra @sijnstra.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 17/05/2026

I've rewritten my #Console8 logo player -also works on #AgonLight - and updated the video file for 2 reasons. 1. it was a bit long playing the whole thing, and 2. I wanted to play a higher resolution video, covering as much of the screen as possible. With a bit […] [Original post on hachyderm.io]

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Shawn Sijnstra @sijnstra.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 19/04/2026

Fellow #infocom text adventure fans, the newest #Vezza #zmachine #interpreter is now available for the #Amstrad #NC200 running CPMish. Using the glorious built in LCD display at 79x18 characters, it was a lot of fun to build. Special mention to Matthew Logue for […] [Original post on hachyderm.io]

Amstrad NC200 portable laptop with small LCD screen, playing Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

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Shawn Sijnstra @sijnstra.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 11/01/2026

Time for another image viewer for #AgonLight #Console8 - this time, PCX format. There are a number of reasons why I chose to display this format on the Agon/Console8. * It is an already existing format * The format is supported by modern tools, including #GIMP * […] [Original post on hachyderm.io]

Black, white and red pen and ink style image

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Shawn Sijnstra @sijnstra.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 08/12/2025

I recently took advantage of some temporary discounts and acquired the #Console8 by Heber. It's a #retrogame focused package of the #AgonLight, complete with some great joypads that they also make. As part of the induction into the house, I converted the logo […] [Original post on hachyderm.io]

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Shawn Sijnstra @sijnstra.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 24/11/2025

Time for another programming option for the #AgonLight family... #Pascal! I've re-targeted PASTA/80, an open source Turbo Pascal 3 compatible cross-compiler that targets #z80 machines. It's still early days, so expect a lot of weirdness and issues, and things […] [Original post on hachyderm.io]

2048 game screenshot demonstrating colour support.

Screenshot from real time colour text font based graphical game.

Large modern turbo pascal source text adventure using multiple file I/O.

Mandelbrot set demonstration pixel graphics.

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Shawn Sijnstra @sijnstra.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 26/08/2025

I wanted to use more graphics on my #AgonLight and the best project that came to mind was to display #Amstrad #CPC .pal/.scr images. Took a while to get there, and now it works including the same "wipe" effect that the original hardware had due to the unusual […] [Original post on hachyderm.io]

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Shawn Sijnstra @sijnstra.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 31/05/2025

The Grundy #NewBrain was an interesting #z80 based machine from 1982. One of its more remarkable features was a built-in single line display in addition to the video out, allowing for some portable use. The machine was targeted at business use and didn't get a […] [Original post on hachyderm.io]

Grundy NewBrain emulator playing the Infocom classic A Mind Forever Voyaging.

Grundy NewBrain emulator playing bomber real time interactive z-machine game.

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Shawn Sijnstra @sijnstra.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 31/05/2025

While porting #Vezza for another #z80 platform (the Grundy #NewBrain), I noticed that there was an issue with the timer routine for the #MSX version. It turns out that the code was in there for the MSX version was using the MSX clock, however, it was not […] [Original post on hachyderm.io]

Screenshot of MSXBlue running the real time z-machine game bomber.z5 on Vezza.

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Shawn Sijnstra @sijnstra.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 04/05/2025

Back to fun platforms to port my #Vezza #Infocom #Zmachine interpreter - this time it's the Enterprise 128. A 4MHz #z80 machine from the mid 80s, it has a great emulator, and a bespoke DOS known as IS-DOS, with a lot of compatibility with both CP/M 2.2 and […] [Original post on hachyderm.io]

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Shawn Sijnstra @sijnstra.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 11/02/2025

After much testing and code comparison, the new Feb 2025 Release of #Vezza - my #z80 high speed #zmachine is ready! Took way longer than expected to synchronize across all of the code bases, particularly making sure that all optimizations made it across all […] [Original post on hachyderm.io]

Screenshot of Stefan Vogt's Ghosts of Blackwood Manor, played using Vezza on an Amstrad CPC

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Shawn Sijnstra @sijnstra.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 01/02/2025

For all of you #TEC1G adventure game players looking for something bigger, better and more... historical, I've beefed up my #vezza #infocom interpreter to use the extra 16K available in EXPAND, which sits behind the other 16K from 0x8000-0xBFFF. This means that […] [Original post on hachyderm.io]

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Shawn Sijnstra @sijnstra.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 27/12/2024

Now that it's had a little testing other than me (Thanks Brian Chiha!) I'm making my #vezza for the #TEC-1G more readily available, similar to my #zxspectrum .tap files. #zmachine text adventures for all #z80 machines! I've put up 3 sample builds to download […] [Original post on hachyderm.io]

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Shawn Sijnstra @sijnstra.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 26/12/2024

In between things I've been able to smash out a bit more code for the #TEC-1G version of my #infocom #z-machine interpreter #Vezza. Not perfect yet, but the text adventure game status line is starting to take shape... A couple of design decisions to be made on […] [Original post on hachyderm.io]

Full TEC-1G with qwerty keyboard and GLCD, showing Vezza running the text adventure Catseye by Dave Bernazzani.

Close up of the screen using Vezza to play Catseye by Dave Bernazzani.

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Shawn Sijnstra @sijnstra.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 24/12/2024

I've been chipping away at my #Infocom #zmachine interpreter for the past 12 months, trying to squeeze more performance out of it. I did make it smaller and mostly faster until one game turned out slower, so I kept it on the backburner until I found a way to […] [Original post on hachyderm.io]

Screen preview of text adventure with unexpected gaps in rows.

Screenshot of improved text adventure rendering with unexpected gaps in text no longer present, giving 2 additional text lines in this case.

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