iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Martin Donlon

Ren'Py Tom 🇺🇸 @renpytom.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

I use language models to develop Ren'Py, and have since Github copilot came out in beta in 2021. Before that I've used other tools (code completion, etc.) I don't vibe code Ren'Py, though - that's not something you do if you want a project you can maintain. 1/2

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Reposted by Martin Donlon

VGEsoterica @videogameesoterica.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

The man, the myth, the legend himself... @wickerwaka has a beta IGS PGM MiSTer FPGA core ready for testing and it's GOOD! youtu.be/vtYYL0njcGM #gaming #gamingnews #misterfpga #retrogames

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 07/05/2026

Lots of interesting functions in the BIOS that don't appear to be part of the public interface. On the audio side the most interesting thing is that direct writes into Z80 RAM are used and the shared latches between the Z80 and 68000 seem to be for signaling not data transfer.

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 07/05/2026

I wanted to understand better how audio works on the PGM so, after hearing about other peoples successes, I put gpt-5.4 and ghidra on the task using github.com/bethington/g.... It did a pretty solid job of producing readable (not compilable) C code. github.com/wickerwaka/P....

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 20/04/2026

I don't think Tindie is coming back and even if it does I think it's time to move on. MiSTer Laggys and PicoROMs will be sold here from now on: peanutbutterretro.com If you have an unprocessed order from the Tindie store, reach out to me and I'll ship it out to you.

peanutbutterretro.com

Peanut Butter Retro

Home of the MiSTer Laggy and PicoROM.

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 13/04/2026

They are also a great demonstration that once you have a basic peripheral like a UART working you can do a LOT! Especially with a 68000 series processor because it is still so well supported by modern tools.

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 13/04/2026

Adrian's videos on the Agfa are a great example of combining software and hardware reverse engineering techniques. It's the main way I work with arcade hardware and why I made the PicoROM. His videos are a great intro for anyone interested.

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 02/04/2026

Two designs to help with PGM research. A flash cart using modified PicoROM firmware and a passthrough board that allows me to trace cartridge signals easily. 7 days from idea to on my workbench thanks to @jlcpcb.bsky.social and @kicad.org

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 09/03/2026

3D printers are such an amazing tool for making tools. It’s not a complex thing, but I needed a way to support these stacked PCBs in a way that allowed me to work on them both. Took some rough measurements. 15 minutes in Fusion 360. Two hours to print. Problem solved.

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 21/02/2026

I have some PicoROMs back in stock. New 28-pin version and a revised 32-pin version. www.tindie.com/products/pbr...

tindie.com

PicoROM by Peanut Butter Retro on Tindie

8-Bit ROM Emulator for testing and rapid development.

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 21/02/2026

I'm too scared to watch it. I remember it been amazing and I can still sing the song, but I really can't believe it holds up.

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 15/02/2026

I saw this project at VCF Socal yesterday and it amazed me. It's such a testament to individual effort and creativity. I don't know what I'll do with it, but I backed it on crowd supply and I'll be happy to have it in my collection.

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 07/01/2026

You are a subject of the King now, fyi.

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Reposted by Martin Donlon

K.N.O. Industries @kino503.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Who Did What At Irem: A (Semi-)Comprehensive Thread Today, we're going to be doing a deepdive on one of the premier arcade giants of the 1980's. We're all familiar with enduring classics such as R-Type and In The Hunt, but who were the talented men & women that created them?

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Reposted by Martin Donlon

Metal Game Solid @metalgamesolid.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

Japan-Only TAITO Quiz Games Just Hit the #MiSTerFPGA F2 Core! Thanks @wickerwaka.com Read more here: metalgamesolid.com/fpga/mister-...

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 12/10/2025

The value they chose for the shadow scaling, 65, was almost certainly picked to create this effect. It reduces the sprites to a quarter of the size. 64 would be a more obvious and correct value and would not have created this shimmering effect.

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 12/10/2025

If the counter doesn't increment by some multiple of 256 over the entire frame, then each frame will start with a different counter value and you'll get slightly different rows selected on scaled sprites. Games tend to pick scaling values that avoid this, PuLiRuLa exploits it!

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 12/10/2025

Each sprite starts with whatever the counter value is at the end of the previous sprite and each FRAME starts with whatever the previous frame ended with. It just never resets and I can't find any mechanism that causes it to reset.

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 12/10/2025

I had assumed that these counters get reset for each new sprite. In the previous example the 8 rows of the 16 row sprite that get draw will be different if the counter starts at a number >= 128, because the counter will overflow at different times. But it NEVER resets.

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 12/10/2025

Unscaled sprites increment by 256 every time, so it overflows for each input row and every row gets draw. If you want to half the size of a sprite you set the increment to 128, then it only overflows every second row and half the rows get drawn.

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 12/10/2025

Each 16x16 sprite on the F2 can be scaled all the way down to 1x1. For vertical scaling this is down with an 8-bit counter. Each sprite specifies a zoom value and for each of the 16 rows the counter gets incremented by that value. When the counter overflows it draws a row.

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 12/10/2025

When I saw video from an arcade PCB I guessed that the shimmer was something do with what I called "spooky" sprites which is something I encountered when I made some tests for sprite positioning and scaling. I ignored it at the time because I hadn't seen any games use it.

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 12/10/2025

The latest version of the Taito F2 core fixes the shadows in PuLiRuLa so they "shimmer" like you see in the video. The shadows are just the character sprites drawn with a black color palette and scaled down vertically. So what makes them shimmer?

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Reposted by Martin Donlon

⊏𝗡⊐ @nullsleep.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

putting the call out to #chiptune bsky I need your tips on who is actively pushing chiptune forward right now particularly interested in newer / emerging artists, as well as women, LGBTQ+, and BIPOC artists please repost for reach ❤️🙏

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 22/09/2025

My home town has a wind farm and I think they are awesome. There is even a bunch of hiking trails through them and you can get right up the the turbines. Lots of locals are opposed to them though, not sure what their reasons are.

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 02/08/2025

NeoGeo is a 27c1024 which is a 1MBit, 16-bit ROM. RP2350B would have enough pins to do it. There have been times when I wish I support ROMs like that, but I haven't been motivated enough to design the board.

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 01/08/2025

I've sold out of PicoROMs. I made 150 and sold 130. I'm surprised I managed to sell so many because I think it's pretty niche. I've no idea what people are using them for, so if you bought some and you are using them, please let me know!

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Reposted by Martin Donlon

Jason Moore @moorejh.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

A software-defined ROM replacement solution for Commodore computers, Uses a $2 STM32F4 microcontroller github.com/piersfinlays... #commodore #c64 #vic20 #retrocomputing

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 27/06/2025

It's a Kojima game, so I'm assuming that the less you know, the less confusing it will be.

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 27/06/2025

Can I play Death Stranding 2 if I haven't played the first game?

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 21/06/2025

Amazing project and amazing work. Congrats!

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 21/06/2025

Ibuprofen, ice, Diclofenac sodium cream.

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 16/06/2025

The end result was pretty easy to replicate in the core. Of course I haven't found a single game that actually uses this functionality. Maybe something will come up, but even if it doesn't it's nice to uncover more secrets.

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 16/06/2025

With that I could analyze the results and work out what each flag does. The hardest part was finding the right variety of colors and shapes to make the different interactions obvious. I thought simple shapes and primary colors with be most useful, but they ended up hiding a lot of stuff.

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 16/06/2025

The TC0360PRI is used in the Taito F2 and several other boards. I prioritizes/mixes up to 3 12-bit color inputs. It has a few different "blend" modes for combining the inputs and some flags for those modes. I built a little test screen so I could test all the different parameters on real hardware.

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 13/06/2025

At Mrs. Winston's salad bar, near the Santa Monica airport, a friend handed me the bacon bits after they were done with them and I then offered it to the person behind me in line, which they declined. That person? Harrison Ford, Hollywood actor.

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Reposted by Martin Donlon

Chris Glenn Smith @sirchristopher93.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

Happy 40 Years to the Atari ST!

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Reposted by Martin Donlon

Owlnonymous @owlnonymous.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

The new Taito F1/F2 arcade core by @wickerwaka.com is now part of the #MiSTerFPGA distro and is grabbed by running the Downloader/Update_All script. The Ninja Kids has been added.

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Reposted by Martin Donlon

Owlnonymous @owlnonymous.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

I put up the VOD of the most recent stream checking out the Taito F2 Alpha core, and then dive into the CD-i core and play through a few "interesting" games. Watch the VOD: youtu.be/qLmp-FO61RU

youtu.be

🎮 Testing the Taito F2 Alpha Core & Exploring the CD-i Core on MiSTer FPGA! 🕹️

YouTube video by owlnonymous

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 18/05/2025

You know the graphics are good because they are in a window titled "Graphics". I never had a chance to play them, but I remember magazines giving them solid reviews.

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 18/05/2025

Network shares with tens of thousands of files are still a problem for both windows and macos in the year 2025.

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 11/05/2025

It turns out the exact same chip is used by Taito in some of their NES games. Not sure what came first, but it looks to me like they decided to shoe horn this into their F2 boards because it generally did what they needed.

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 11/05/2025

This chip is very out of place on the F2 boards. It’s the only custom chip using DIP form factor and the logo is different than all the other ones. It is used to expand the amount of tile graphics available.

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Reposted by Martin Donlon

Jeff Tanton - Wishlist OCCULT CLEANUP AGENCY 📸👻🪣 @jefftanton.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

All dev is a crap shoot where experience and talent + strong idea can improve odds and put you in a better position to succeed. But absolutely no combination of those things can guarantee it.

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Reposted by Martin Donlon

JamHamster @jamhamster.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

☺️

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Martin Donlon @wickerwaka.com · 06/05/2025

Want. Really really really want!

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