@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

Gmatom

@Gmatom@mastodon.social

iOS programmer, runner/triathlete, geek. Nerd-stitcher. Photoshopper of random things. Mac game developer in days of yore.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

Gmatom, to random
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

As I left the theater after the show in Chicago today, I heard a street musician playing Happy Together by the Turtles. I listened, cried, and gave him $10.

That was the last song I played on the piano for my wife, the morning she passed.

Gmatom, to random
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

Birthday bike ride, a mile for every year. Powered by pop tarts 🙂

image/jpeg
image/jpeg

Gmatom, to random
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

Trying to watch this final season of Star Trek Discovery, but I’m bouncing off it hard. I kind of stuck through the previous seasons but I just don’t care much, and this season feels like all the characters were never on the same set.

Gmatom, to random
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

After four and a half months and almost 34,000 stitches, I’ve finished my cross-stitch 1-bit version of Hokusai’s Great Wave. It’s big, 25”x 17” (pen in the first photo for scale). Thanks to @hypertalking for letting me use his wonderful original 1-bit art.

image/jpeg
image/jpeg

Gmatom, to random
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

Gila monster we spotted on our hike this morning outside of Tucson!

image/jpeg
image/jpeg

jamesthomson, to random
@jamesthomson@mastodon.social avatar

Achievement unlocked: Made myself feel motion sick while wearing a Vision Pro using my own code.

Gmatom,
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

@jamesthomson oh the bananity! 🍌

flargh, to random
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

@craiggrannell This reinforces everything we've been saying about Apple and games for decades. It'll never change.

https://mobilegamer.biz/inside-apple-arcade-axed-games-declining-payouts-disillusioned-studios-and-an-uncertain-future/

Gmatom,
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

@flargh it does sound like Apple and games for the last 40 years 😕. It makes me wonder though, the way they’ve made TV+ a success, quality-wise, why couldn’t they do the same with Arcade. Spend the money for a smaller group of original content, of bigger scope, either AAA content or high end Indie. Why don’t then have the equivalent of Ted Lasso, or Foundation/for all mankind. Or quirky like Severance.

Gmatom,
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

@Chancerubbage this is where I believe Apple needs to rethink it. I was team “port AAA games to Apple platforms” for a long time. But looking at what TV+ did, Apple has a better shot at success with original exclusive game content. The big plus for iOS vs Mac for gaming is you aren’t trying to convert people from their preferred console- a HUGE number already have an iOS device too. You just want to get them to play your games on their phone/ipad as well. And that could be with AAA exclusives.

Gmatom,
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

@metaning iOS devices stack up hardware-wise at least comparable to the Switch (iPhone 11 is about equivalent), so I don’t think it’s a stretch to get high quality games on the platform. Nintendo has done it, albeit with their IP as a big plus. But I even think something like the “next”Firewatch or Hades would feel like they could gain traction for Apple. Not those specific games or genres in particular, but that level of design/gameplay/engagement.

Gmatom,
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

@metaning the controller thing on the Apple TV is a miss for sure. As far as game developers go, I was one for 25+ years, and devs 1) wanted to work on cool games, regardless of platform, 2) would work on almost anything for the right money. If Apple paid well (the TV+ show budgets certainly indicate they will pay for what they consider important), and let devs do innovative games, the studios would get and retain good talent. Apple hasn’t shown the ability to commit like that in games though 🙁

Gmatom,
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

@metaning yep, needs a lot more $$ from Apple to keep talent. No question Apple Arcade doesn’t work currently. But we will have to agree to disagree about game devs always chasing the latest tech. The very senior engineers I worked with over the years often got burned out on chasing the latest hot engine/new tech after doing it for 10-15 years. It was always the 20-30 year olds that were driven more by the latest shiny thing. I know I was at that age! But eventually you find other goals.

mcc, to random
@mcc@mastodon.social avatar

I don't know who needs to hear this but man ascii contains a complete table of all ASCII-7 values including their hex, decimal and octal equivalents

Gmatom,
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

@mcc this will be highly useful for me when I get stranded on Mars and need to communicate with Earth in hex ascii! 🙂

vga256, to VideoGameMusic
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

another fun, fairly obscure, game soundtrack title: Greg LoPiccolo's "Hospital - Alternate" from System Shock.

SS has some great tracks, but the musical qualities really depend upon the quality of MIDI synth you're working with. even with a real Roland SC-55, it's a bit flat sounding.

in a pretty rare move for Origin Systems - they released a Macintosh/PowerPC version of System Shock. there was a bunch of extra space on the CD, and LoPiccolo took advantage of it by rendering and remastering his own redbook audio tracks. they're great - far better than a vanilla SC-55. he took a lot of extra time to customize his instruments and play with the stereo separation.

so here it is, freshly ripped from my macintosh CD.

Gmatom,
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

@vga256 @retrohistories
I totally forgot we did that on SS Mac! I remember we had them redo all the cinematic videos at higher res for the Mac version, but forgot about the music. Such a great soundtrack. There is a 99% chance I wrote the red book music controlling code for SS Mac 🙂

Gmatom, to random
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

What did I do in my misspent youth? Just wrote software for… stuff.

Gmatom,
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

I also remember being inordinately proud that on all the menu screens, the ! were constantly spinning, in a ! / - \ pattern 😂. I have a gif I made of it somewhere around here.

Gmatom, to random
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

Foster bunny Pancake is ready for some football.

Gmatom, to random
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

I’m fostering this bunny for the local rabbit shelter. His name is Pancake and he is watching you 👀

Gmatom, to random
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

My first Mac - in 1984 I was a junior in high school. My dad was a professor of Botany at University of Texas. Apple had amazing student/faculty discounts for colleges back then, so when the first Mac’s went on sale, we lined up at the UT Campus Computer Store to buy my first Mac (using dads discount, and I’m sure a pretty decent amount of the cost he helped with too). OG 128k model. 1/2

Gmatom,
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

@vga256 the Mac mono graphics were done just for the Mac version, I believe at artist at Origin or Looking Glass did them. And while the PC only did 320x200 in 256 color, the Mac supported up to 640x480, and we had some nicer surround art done in 8 bit color high res. It was so sweet.

It was all 6502 code originally, I ported that to the PC first, about 70% C and the rest 80x86 asm. Then did the Mac version with C code and 68k asm (mostly graphics and math code).

Gmatom,
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

@vga256 for contractual reasons, I had to ship the PC version first, then the Mac, and finally the Amiga. I’d have totally done the Mac version first if I had my way 🙂. I pushed hard for all the Mac specific enhancements, I wanted it to be the best version.
I did feel a little bad for the Amiga version, it was on par with the PC but being a 3D game couldn’t really take advantage of the Amiga’s 2D blitter hardware. So it did nearly everything with the CPU, and ignored the hardware acceleration.

Gmatom,
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

@vga256 I did cross-stitch versions of a couple of the intro screens. So many memories.

Gmatom,
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

@vga256 I did a lot of optimization to pull out the critical code to asm. And since we were going from a 1 MHz 6502 to an 8 MHz 68k we had some overhead to work with.

Gmatom, to random
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

To celebrate the Mac’s 40th anniversary, some of my old school Macintosh cross stitch projects. First up, the happy Mac startup icon on a classic checkerboard gray background. 1/10

Gmatom,
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

Something with a little gaming slant- a cross stitch scene from Dark Castle, one of the early classic Mac games. If you played it, you can hear the sound he made when he ran into a wall, in your head forever. 7/10

Gmatom,
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

Tribute to the Mac’s 40th anniversary, from my cross-stitch projects - the best about box ever. Original Mac Finder mountains. 9/10

Gmatom,
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

Last but certainly not least, my favorite classic Mac cross-stitch art I’ve done. The original Macintosh control panel. Those icons, and such a beautiful layout. Plus there’s a bunny 🙂 Happy 40th anniversary, Macintosh! 10/10

Gmatom,
@Gmatom@mastodon.social avatar

@schwa I’d have to go back and look, but I think it’s around 320x180. At 22 stitches per inch, it ends up pretty big! And that’s as small as I can stitch pixels 🙂

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • provamag3
  • kavyap
  • DreamBathrooms
  • InstantRegret
  • magazineikmin
  • ngwrru68w68
  • Durango
  • thenastyranch
  • Youngstown
  • rosin
  • slotface
  • tacticalgear
  • mdbf
  • ethstaker
  • JUstTest
  • khanakhh
  • osvaldo12
  • GTA5RPClips
  • cubers
  • cisconetworking
  • everett
  • tester
  • modclub
  • megavids
  • Leos
  • normalnudes
  • anitta
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •