I've talked a lot lately about my newest achievement, my PAL-1, a KIM-1 clone.
(here), here, here and (here)...
Now I've got what it takes to Convert him into a real usable desktop computer:

The Graphics Card for my PAL-1

It is basically a Raspberry Pi Zero with the fabulous PiGFX system, a bare metal terminal emulator with HDMI output and support for USB and PS/2 Keyboards as well as rudimentry file transfers from the sd card.






From the Website:

PiGFX is a bare metal kernel for the Raspberry Pi that implements a basic ANSI terminal emulator with the additional support of some primitive graphics functions. It can be driven by pushing characters to the raspi UART. Additional functions like changing text color, moving the cursor or clear the screen can be invoked via ANSI escape codes. The result is that you can easily add an HDMI display output to your embedded project without the hassle of directly generate the video signal.

Means: You can load sprites, draw circles or triangles or rectangles. You can change the font, and change foreground and background colors and paint whereever you want on the screen.

What do you need?
a Raspberry Pi (10€) and a Level shifter 232 to ttl (2€)

Occuring problems during the build:
- The selection of the sd card is tricky. The website states it has to be an older and smaller card, I bought a 32gb card, which did not work. (I've found an abandoned card in my drawer later with only 8 gig, which did the job). Patition it to 1gb! FAT or FAT32. The bare metal sd driver is more than picky.

- The level shifter I ordered (https://www.pollin.de/p/rs232-ttl-wandler-mit-max3232-810358 ) had already crossed TX - RX lines, so a direct connection did not work. I rewired the RS232 connector on the levelshifter board, and it workd immediately (a real dirtyhack)

- The config file needs the following values:
baudrate = 2400
replaceLFwithCR = 1
and last but not least, if you use the pigfx version from the filetransfer branch
[Filetransfer]
fileSendCharDelay = 50
fileSendLineDelay = 200

I hope someone follows me and we can set up loading routines for the normal monitor.

Stay childish,
yours,
webdoktor

https://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/18-unwritten-rules-everyone-should-know/86939597/

Das Leben dümpelt so dahin. Ich habe nicht wirklich Lust in Urlaub zu fahren. Was soll man schon an einem anderen Ort an dem man nichts tun darf? Strange world, wierd times. Außerdem muss jemand hier in meinem kleinen Laden die Stellung halten; Die beiden Mädels hören Ende der Woche auf, die verbliebenen Jungs wollen Urlaub. Aber ein paar Tage Kanalreparatur müssen drin sein. Das ist nur die große Gefühlslage.
Was mir ein wenig Kopfzerbrechen bereitet ist die große Strassensperrung zwischen Schmitten und Dorfweil, die gefühlt bis 2023 laufen soll. Ab dem 17.7. ist die einzige Verbindung zu meinem Elternhaus gekappt. Und das auch für alle Rettungsdienste. /o\ Ich kann nicht glauben, dass niemand darüber nachgedacht hat. Ich werde also morgens mit dem Fahrrad zu meinem Auto fahren, dass ich auf meinem Parkplatz in Schmitten abstellen kann, um auf die Arbeit zu kommen und Abends das Ganze in umgekehrter Reihenfolge, um nach Hause zu kommen. YAY. Sport.

Since Apple Basic has been ported to the KIM-1, there are three working Basic interpreters:

Tiny Basic,
MS Basic and
Apple Basic

I found some old Basic games for old interpreters in the Book
"Basic Computer Games"
and "More Basic Computer games"
by David H. Ahl
(All available on my g.drive)

These games have to be fitted for the KIM-1 and its restrictions, but I got at least 2 working:

Roulette
and
Pinball




So if you own a KIM-1 or a clone and you are able to run MS Basic, go on and try out the games...

Have fun,
webdoktor

... and how to play the original Gameboy Tetris against players in the whole world.

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, I introduce to you the

USB to GameBoy Link Cable

This little adapter (a 4$ RaspberryPi pico equipped with some levelshifters and the plug for the Link Cable) makes it possible to connect to a server, where players around the globe can compete.
The creator, Stacksmashing, offers prebuild pcb's where you only have to solder the RaspberryPi Pico.


Do I need to say that I ordered the Hardware immediately?
Soldering was straight forward and easy, and would be even for beginners and programming the PiPico is literally just drag and drop.
After connecting the hardware you have to visit the site https://tetris.stacksmashing.net/ with the chrome or edge browser (as they allow webUSB).

Your running Tetris game will automatically be detected, and you can join or create a round. Finding opponents works for example through the inventors discord channel ( https://discord.gg/YASkVQY5Pr ). Really nice people are awaiting other players.

A round can host up to 6 players at once.

It is really a fun toy with hopefully more applications to come.
Ach so: I won,



Stay childish
Yours,
WebDoc