Inside the Super Nintendo cartridges
One of the remarkable characteristics of the Super Nintendo was the ability for game cartridges (cart) to pack more than instructions and assets into ROM chips. If we open and look at the PCBs, we can find inside things like the CIC copy protection chip, SRAM, and even "enhancement processors". The copy-protection mechanism of the SNES is something I already dig into in my 10NES article. It works
mDNS Primer
I recently had to ramp up on the topic of mDNS, starting from knowing next to nothing about it. It was not hard to find the motivation to learn about a technology which makes my life easier. From discovering AppleTV, Chromecast, AirPlay, and wireless printers, mDNS it a good thing. However, I had trouble finding answers to some of my questions. There is definitely learning material out there but i
10NES
I am a big fan of Street Fighter 2. Certainly not the greatest but likely among the nerdiest since I wrote an entire book about its platform[1]. It won't be a surprise to learn that, back in December 1992, I was eagerly waiting for the Super Nintendo port so I could stop sinking my rare 10 Francs coins into the arcades. USA readers may wonder why I was waiting for the release of a game already pub
Capcom CPS-1 Graphic system study
As I keep on exploring the internals of the machine that animated so many hours of my childhood, I came to study its GFX system. The CPS-1 was a powerhouse at the time of its release. Capcom's 1989 marvel was capable of composing across six layers, stacked in any order. Developers could use three tilemap "background" layers (SCROLL1, SCROLL2, SCROLL3), one OBJ layer (where tiles are aggregated int
Street Fighter II, Sound System internals
This article is part of a series about Street Fighter II and the CPS-1. It is recommended to read the previous entries before reading this one. If you are interested in video-games hardware, the arcades of the 80's are the source of endless entertainment. During that decade each game was designed from scratch with a new motherboard featuring various combinations of processors. Game developers re-i
Street Fighter II, paper trails
The late 90s saw the emergence of Capcom in the world of arcades. The Osaka based company seemed to produce one hit after another with Ghouls'n Ghosts in 1988, Final Fight in 1989 and Street Fighter II in 1991 among a myriad of other excellent games. During this era, a video-game enthusiast could not go to an arcade without seeing multiple Capcom cabinets, proof of their popularity with both playe
Floating Point Visually Explained
While I was writing the Wolfenstein 3D book[1], I wanted to demonstrate how much of a handicap it was to work without floating points. My attempts at understanding floating points using canonical[2] articles[3] were met with resistance from my brain. I tried to find a different way. Something far from $(-1)^S * 1.M * 2^{(E-127)}$ and its mysterious exponent/mantissa. Possibly a drawing since they
Fizzlefade
I enjoy reading a lot of source code and after 15 years in the field I feel like I have seen my fair share. Even with a full-time job, I still try to spare evenings here and there to read. I don't see myself ever stopping. It is always an opportunity to learn new things to follow somebody's mind process. Every once in a while I come across a solution to a problem that is so elegant, and so creativ
Duke Nukem 3D Code Review
Duke Nukem 3D Code Review: INTRODUCTION (PART 1 OF 4) >> Since I left my job at Amazon I have spent a lot of time reading great source code. Having exhausted the insanely good idSoftware pool, the next thing to read was one of the greatest game of all time : Duke Nukem 3D and the engine powering it named "Build". It turned out to be a difficult experience: The engine delivered great value and rank
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Exploring Linux command-line space time
Commander Keen's Adaptive Tile Refresh
Driving Compilers
Game Engine Black Book
Reverse Engineering Strike Commander