@vl_tone@mastodon.social
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

vl_tone

@vl_tone@mastodon.social

Little green person on the internet, loving retro-tech and colorful neon pastel art. Sometimes I like to reverse engineer old video games.
You may also remember me from such software as:
Toad's Tool 64: The original Super Mario 64 level editor.
Metroid Cubed: An early 2000s attempt at voxelizing a classic 2D video game. Recently revived as Metroid Curved.
SFXEdit: A level editor for Star Fox.

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

vl_tone, to random
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

There he is! My 2008 Luigi mod is finally running on an iPhone!

Screen recording of an iPhone running Delta, a multi-platform emulator for iOS. The game being played is Super Mario 64. A weird lanky Luigi is seen running and entering a green pipe. He ends up falling from the sky onto the star in the castle courtyard. The camera pans around him.

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

Thanks again to @vinnyboiler for pointing me in the right direction to fix my old extended ROM. Decompressed MI0O banks needed to be realigned to even bytes, something that old emulators didn't care about, but is required for accurate emulation. I used a tool called SM64Compress to realign the banks automagically.

vl_tone, to random
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

Tried playing my old Super Mario 64 hacks on the iOS versions of Delta and Rotroarch and in all cases the game softlocks after fading to white when pressing start on the title screen.

Both emulators use the Mupen64Plus core. I know my initial extended ROM specification caused problems on real hardware, but some people eventually managed to make it work by tweaking the format.

I couldn't find much info about the fix though, does anyone have at least a guess of what would cause the softlock?

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@GamingWolf No problem, thanks for taking the time to reply! :)

I haven't confirmed yet, but I'm pretty sure the issue is misaligned decompressed MI0O segments, which only affects very old ROM hacks like mine, when running on modern more accurate N64 emulators.

mcc, to random
@mcc@mastodon.social avatar

So I spent a big chunk of my life living next door to Louisiana (Houston) and now I live next door to Quebec (Toronto) and it just this moment occurred to me to check if Quebec has beignets. Like, I'd simply assumed if I ever went liking for beignets I'd find them. So I asked a Quebecoise friend, and

Okay, so they do have them, but—

Quebec beignets have holes???

My world is (topologically speaking) rocked

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@mcc In Quebec, the word "beigne" is used to describe donuts with holes, but also those that are stuffed with cream or fruit jam, as well as munchkins/timbits. "Beignets" may refer to small donuts, but is also used interchangeably with "beigne" regardless of the size.

In reality beignets is rarely used casually in Qc as it's seen as an overly fancy way of saying beigne. You'd only see the word beignets on packaging.

atpfm, to random
@atpfm@mastodon.social avatar

586: Do a Barrel Roll!
https://atp.fm/586

Good morning! We have a huge show ahead of us, and it's all about iPad. This is the biggest show about iPad since its introduction. But first…

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@atpfm My understanding is that it's the OLED screen that enabled Apple to make the iPad pro thinner, so the battery should be about the same size?

hotdogsladies, to random
@hotdogsladies@mastodon.social avatar

Here's that Maggie Mae Fish video I mentioned:

"How 'Anti-Vaping' ads trick you into vaping"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbV6I8VRMG8

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@hotdogsladies "Don't put marbles in your nose" https://youtu.be/xpz67hBIJwg?si=ElWcAsVXq_ScF2AX

vl_tone, to random
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

I guess my 2008 Luigi mod will live on, as someone ported an expanded version of the model to the Super Mario 64 PC Port!

It features new moves, has proper Luigi voice sound effects, and even fixes the infamous hatless version! https://youtu.be/MG7bIwsI7As

vl_tone, to random
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

I love how since the "real" SM64 Luigi model was found in leaked prerelease code some 4 years ago, my 2008 Luigi mod is slowly becoming a strange half-forgotten relic that needs to be explained in a YouTube video.

Here's a surprisingly well made video explaining the differences between the leaked model and my 2008 mod. (It's in Spanish but with English subtitles)
https://youtu.be/1YPGi1G5H_s

lexfri, to random
@lexfri@hachyderm.io avatar

UI.

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@uliwitness @lexfri Same thing here in Quebec, we use the French convention where RC (Rez-de-Chaussée) is the ground floor, and the floor on top of it is the first floor etc.

RavenWorks, to random
@RavenWorks@mastodon.social avatar

OK, y'know what I would really like

an oral history of the old montreal metro cars' red-yellow-green low-res LED screen ads

particularly the fact that they remained in use so, SO long after the technology had completely left them behind.... what was it like making such low-res ads on modern hardware?? was there just a handful of pixel artists who had gotten good at it, or what?

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@RavenWorks I somehow had forgotten about those screens! I think they may have been removed while I was working fully at home in late 2020 or early 2021 so I didn't notice? I found this video posted in August 2020. https://youtu.be/RAF_2lnP0PQ?si=82MbV9aFFfWR2R57

nensondubois, to random
@nensondubois@mastodon.social avatar

https://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/38627/japanese-version-of-super-mario-bros-2-was-nearly-a-nintendo-power-giveaway - Huh, I guess this actually was going to be released in America.

i wonder if it would have used MMC1 or MMC3. MMC1 was really inexpensive at that point. I doubt Nintendo would have created a 2C33 for the FDS FM wavepattern channel just for this game.

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@nensondubois Aside from the other reasons, I feel like price was a big factor. By shipping SMB2J on cheap FDS disks, Nintendo was able to sell it for almost half the price of the original SMB1 cart. (2500¥ vs. 4900¥) The cheaper price made sense for what would be considered DLC today.

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@nensondubois My theory was that SMB2J would've been a tough sell at full price in NA and EU because it was too much like the first game.

And with lower margins on cartridge releases Nintendo couldn't sell it at near half price like they did with the lower cost FDS disks in Japan.

But maybe SMB was such a big thing outside of Japan anyway that SMB2J would've sold well even at full price. It was a relatively popular pirate cart around Montreal in '89-90, despite being relatively pricey.

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@nensondubois Oh, I went and reread the article and realized that I somehow skipped over the part where it mentioned that it was planned to be a Nintendo Power promotion.

This is why my initial reply may have been a little confusing, as I was talking about a theoretical full release of SMB2J outside of Japan.

TodePond, to random
@TodePond@mas.to avatar

Toooooool

https://www.todepond.com/lab/toooooool

drawing with very long tools

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@TodePond

Cdespinosa, to random
@Cdespinosa@mastodon.social avatar

Well THIS was a new dystopian experience. An elevator at work answered and broadcast a telemarketing call on its emergency intercom.

video/mp4

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@Cdespinosa In my younger days I worked in a call center for a survey company (not telemarketing!) and one time I called somewhere, read my intro pitch and the person answered quizzically "Ehm you're calling in an elevator!?"

vl_tone, (edited ) to random
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

If you recently watched a 3h45 YouTube video about Super Mario 64 invisible walls you might be interested by this:

Here are the SM64 collision maps in .OBJ format for every area in the game, as extracted from Toad's Tool 64. Enjoy! :)

Download link: https://qubedstudios.rustedlogic.net/SM64_Levels_Collision_Maps_OBJ.zip

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@sys128 This is it: https://youtu.be/YsXCVsDFiXA?si=qJFwowp-QpbcJOrJ

TechConnectify, to random
@TechConnectify@mas.to avatar

I put my thoughts on the skeet place and I want to highlight this reply I got.

I think a large number of people who are active here specifically need to hear this perspective.

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@TechConnectify @teotwaki I've seen you discuss two solutions to (some of) the problems you are experiencing:

  1. An opt-in way for a user to algorithmically filter out "low quality" replies from their own notifications.

  2. An algorithm that would rearrange/prioritize replies under a post and hide those deemed to be "low quality" to every user seeing the post.

I think #1 is what has the most chance of happening (it could be done client side).

#2 would most likely be rejected by the community.

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@TechConnectify @teotwaki If replies under your posts were filtered/prioritized/hidden but only for yourself would it be an acceptable solution?

Rearranging/hiding replies server-side for everyone seeing a given post is what I think has very few chances of happening in the fediverse, for technical and ideological reasons.

Personally I'm still not entirely sure where I stand about this, I've seen compelling arguments both for and against such a thing.

yo_bj, to privacy
@yo_bj@glammr.us avatar

Every time OverDrive is mentioned I am reminded that OverDrive does not allow patrons to shut off borrowing history. You can hide the history, but OverDrive is still collecting your reading history in the background.

See also - deceptive design: https://ldhconsultingservices.com/deception-by-design/

[🧵of interest - https://infosec.exchange/@longobord/112243098104196246]

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@yo_bj Around 2007 the general public realized that Google kept people's search history. It was a big scandal and Google responded by enabling users to clear and/or turn off search/watch history tracking.

I kept my search/watch history "off" on YouTube, and for years my suggestions were never influenced by searches or watched videos, until a few years ago when they started to.

So the feature, which was initially about privacy, is now only about hiding search history from the users themselves.

vl_tone, to random
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

It's a beautiful sunny day, I could take my bike and go somewhere not so far from here to witness the eclipse, but I can't because of my broken leg. This makes me sad... 😢

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@DrewNaylor Thanks! It's getting better every day, but I still can't walk without crutches.

I've been pretty resilient about the whole ordeal, but today it's harder to cope with it, with this rare event happening on the warmest day of this year. But I'll get through it!

dinosaurgerms, to retrogaming
@dinosaurgerms@furries.club avatar

Crystal Castles (1983)
By Atari
Source: https://youtu.be/FckOpK2wGX4

[

Gif from "Crystal Castles" (gameplay, 2D pixel graphics, isometric perspective). The player controls Bentley Bear, a stout brown bear, as he collects gems in an isometric maze while dodging enemies. The enemies look a but surreal (e.g., vertical centipede-like creatures that "eat" the gems). The maze in this particular level takes the appearance of large letters, e.g. "D", "E", "S", etc, with a blue color accent.
Gif from "Crystal Castles" (gameplay, 2D pixel graphics, isometric perspective). The player controls Bentley Bear, a stout brown bear, as he collects gems in an isometric maze while dodging enemies. The enemies look a but surreal (e.g., vertical centipede-like creatures that "eat" the gems). The maze in this particular level takes the appearance of a small castle, with red color accents.
Gif from "Crystal Castles" (gameplay, 2D pixel graphics, isometric perspective). The player controls Bentley Bear, a stout brown bear, as he collects gems in an isometric maze while dodging enemies. The enemies look a but surreal (e.g., vertical centipede-like creatures that "eat" the gems). The maze in this particular level has a pyramid-like appearance, with a yellow color accent..

vl_tone,
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@dinosaurgerms It's one of my favourite arcade games! If you haven't seen it already, its creator Franz Lanzinger made a "Classic Game Post-Mortem" GDC talk a few years ago.

One fascinating thing is that levels are built using macros that create voxel-like primitive shapes like spheres. I wish I could reverse engineer the level format one day! https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1017714/Classic-Game-Postmortem-Crystal

vl_tone, to random
@vl_tone@mastodon.social avatar

@rebound @Gte The traditional Montreal/Quebec "All-dressed" pizza has tomato sauce, pepperoni,
green peppers, mushrooms and mozzarella cheese. (Guy was close but forgot the mushrooms) https://montrealgazette.com/life/food%20%26%20wine/from-the-archives-montreal-pizzerias-the-labour-of-doughy-love

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