Welcome on NCoT Tech

From Triangles to Pixels the Magic Behind 3D Graphics

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 20:23:54 +0100

Every frame of a 3D game you’ve ever seen ultimately reduces to pixels written into memory. No matter how fast the GPU or how impressive the graphics, it all comes down to plotting pixels on the screen. Today we’re taking a short look at how triangles get turned into pixels. It seems easy enough, but this is something early software 3D had to do by hand, and something modern GPUs are doing all the time.

Exploring Terrain Generation Algorithms

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 10:30:58 +0000

I’m exploring #programming a bunch of #terraingeneration #algorithm, to see how they work and which ones look nice. So far I’ve tried out the Midpoint Displacement and Diamond Square algorithms…

The Midpoint Displacement algorithm is pretty simple, but also kind of terrible. It makes some interesting 1D images though, and that’s probably the best use for it. Here’s a nice background of some hills. I made it using this old blog post’s code which needs a bit of fiddling with to run.

Triangle Rasterisation

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 11:31:02 +0000

These are some notes on how to manually draw triangles in code. Possibly useful if you’re trying to write your own software renderer, or are just curious how it works.

There’s two ways to do this. One is quite CPU intensive, the other is mathematical and less CPU intensive. The CPU intensive version scales well if run on something with multiple cores, like a GPU. So there’s tradeoffs in which method is used and when.

Obsidian file sync for free

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 17:28:32 +0000

I use Obsidian as my central note storing system. Here’s how I sync all my files between my phone, laptop and desktop machines. For free.

Intro

First, Obsidian is actually a piece of software worth paying for. I used to simply store a bunch of text files in a folder and edit them with any old random text editor. Obsidian makes this easier. Linking between pages, the tree view, the nice colours… it all makes the job of editing and managing text nicer.

Linux in the wild

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 17:28:05 +0000

While shopping I find a self service checkout that’s having a bad day.

Someone call IT support, the HDD in this one has died. Still, it’s nice to see penguins out in the wild.

This post is showing some sort of bug in my blog template. There is supposed to be an image up there, but it’s not showing.

Re Discovering 3D Graphics the Way Early Games Did

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 14:37:39 +0000

This video is my journey through learning how early games drew 3D graphics before 3D APIs and modern GPUs existed. In fact, before old 3D APIs like OpenGL and old GPUs existed, too. #3dmodeling #3dgames #programming #retro #cprogramming #gamedev #gamedevelopment

Retro Gamedev Is Hard

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 14:36:56 +0000

Welcome to the next edition of Gamedev The Hard Way, my attempt at writing a game from scratch for the Agon Light, using nothing but C. This time I create a tilemap system. #agonlight #programming #retro #cprogramming #gamedev #gamedevelopment #retrocomputer

Game Engine to Functional First Game the Hello World of Gamedev

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 14:36:10 +0000

Welcome to the next edition of Gamedev The Hard Way, my attempt at writing a game from scratch for the Agon Light, using nothing but C. This time I actually make a game! For once I actually finish something.

#agonlight #programming #retro #cprogramming #gamedev #gamedevelopment #retrocomputer

Agon Light Joystick Interface - How Not to Program Hardware

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 14:28:30 +0000

Welcome to the next edition of Gamedev The Hard Way, my attempt at writing a game from scratch for the Agon Light, using nothing but C. This time I make a joystick work by building a joystick interface for the Agon Light. Then I program it to add it to my game.

ECS Archetypes System

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 22:57:45 +0000

I’m creating a game engine from scratch. Last time I wrote about the entity component system and how that works. This time I want to explain how the entities get created.

Agon Light Joystick Interface

Sun, 09 Nov 2025 09:30:06 +0000

I’ve built a joystick interface for my Agon Light, using a PCB I found online. This is an improvement on the last time I did this and just stuck wires in the GPIO ports.

Trying to Be More Organised

Wed, 05 Nov 2025 21:33:35 +0000

There’s loads of blog posts and YouTube videos explaining how to be more organised, how to stop procrastinating, and how to generally be more productive. None of them seem to be written for people who are busy, rather than trying to avoid work.

Axis Aligned Bounding Boxes - Collision Detection Without Physics

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 21:19:21 +0000

Welcome to the next edition of Gamedev The Hard Way, my attempt at writing a game from scratch for the Agon Light, using nothing but C. This time I get thoroughly distracted and accidentally make a Pong style game idea while figuring out how to add collision detection to my game engine. I implement the AABB Axis Aligned Bounding Box algorithm.

Creating an Entity Component System for My Retro Video Game Engine

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 09:43:51 +0100

Welcome to the next edition of Gamedev The Hard Way, my attempt at #programming a game from scratch for the #AgonLight, using nothing but C. This time I throw away a ton of code and replace it with a shiny new Entity Component System.

Agon Light Debug Printing

Sat, 04 Oct 2025 14:19:27 +0100

Here’s how to send text out the Agon Light’s USB port to an attached serial monitor, so it can be used for debug logging.

Agon Light C Development

Fri, 03 Oct 2025 23:02:43 +0000

How to write code for the Agon Light (and Console8) using C instead of BASIC, under Linux. It might work with WSL2 in Windows, and it might work on a Mac.

Ecs Entity Component System

Fri, 03 Oct 2025 22:05:17 +0100

Let’s make a game engine properly, rather than beating on it until something works. This time, I’m creating an entity component system.

State Machines - How to Engineer Better Software

Fri, 03 Oct 2025 20:19:23 +0100

Welcome to the next edition of Gamedev The Hard Way, my attempt at writing a game from scratch for the Agon Light, using nothing but C. This time I attempt to put the “engineering” back in “software engineer”. Instead of blindly hacking away at my code and hoping for the best, I am now more thoughtfully designing a system.

Chromebook Facial Control Is Cool

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 21:33:25 +0100

My #Chromebook just had another update, and it’s now gained the ability to be controlled using facial gestures. And it’s pretty cool.

The Reason You Quit Coding Projects and What to Do About It

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 18:45:17 +0100

In this video, I dive headfirst into coding a tilemap engine for my game — no plan, just pure momentum. Everything seems to go great… until I slam into a brick wall: I have no idea how to actually integrate it into my game.

The Dark Art of DOS Audio: PC Speaker Tricks and PWM Madness

Mon, 11 Aug 2025 22:25:30 +0100

Think the old PC speaker was only good for making awful beeps? Yeah, me too—until I started digging into how it actually works.

#MSDOS #BorlandCPP #RetroCoding #DOSDev #chiptune

Writing a Roguelike in C Part 1

Mon, 11 Aug 2025 22:24:29 +0100

Let’s try to write a Roguelike game in C for the #AgonLight. This is the first video. I explore how the original Rogue and similar games like Nethack generate their own dungeons, then adapt code that draws mazes so my dungeons are a bit more interesting to explore.

Digital Graffiti - Programming 1990s PC Demoscene Effects

Mon, 11 Aug 2025 22:22:33 +0100

Step back into the golden age of the #demoscene as I dive into some of the most iconic visual effects from 1990s PC demos, all recreated under #MSDOS using Borland #C++. #programming

A Retro Game Made With 21st Century Thinking Gamedev the Hard Way

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 22:05:03 +0100

In this abridged video, I walk you through the process of building a text adventure game from scratch on the #AgonLight. Rather than a deep dive into every line of code, this video focuses on explaining the overall structure and design choices behind the project.

My Game Engine Has a Fatal Flaw - Here's How I Found It : #Gamedev the Hard Way

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 08:10:43 +0100

Welcome to the next edition of Gamedev The Hard Way. This time I’m #programming some basic enemy behaviours to test out my game’s entity handling code. Things don’t go to plan however and I discover some quite major problems with the physics and tilemap code.

Stealing Ideas From Doom

Sat, 19 Apr 2025 21:10:09 +0100

Part of the fun of making a game from scratch is desinging the systems that run in the background. This time I accidentally try to program a cooperative multitasking operating system. But it’s OK, this is how you do this sort of thing…

MS DOS Programming the Mode X Deviation

Sat, 29 Mar 2025 23:14:27 +0000

After learning about Mode 13h last time, I’ve been digging about in the ancient tomes of wisdom and discovered Mode-X. Let’s make a PC’s VGA card do odd things it was never designed for.

Mode X Madness

Sat, 22 Mar 2025 14:35:37 +0000

After learning about Mode 13h last time, I’ve been digging about in the ancient tomes of wisdom and discovered Mode-X. Let’s make a PC’s VGA card do odd things it was never designed for.

Can I Program VGA Graphics in MS DOS? (Watch Me Struggle!)

Mon, 10 Mar 2025 21:24:25 +0000

Let’s move into the 1990s and draw some graphics! I’ve got a whole 320x200 pixel screen, 256 colours and direct access to the video card. No APIs, no helper functions. Just me and the video RAM. #programming #msdos

Davinci Resolve Proxy Files

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 21:30:39 +0000

It turns out making proxy files is quite important when editing video across your LAN. Don’t edit video across your LAN, it ends in tears and frustration.

Retro MS DOS Coding - Recreating the Iconic Award BIOS Screen

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 13:13:13 +0000

Because why not, it looks simpler than it really is and we’ll get to fall down a rabbit hole trying to draw the Energy Star logo.

Davinci Resolve Collaboration

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 21:59:02 +0000

I’ve worked out how to work on the same Davinci Resolve project from two different computers, at the same time.

Borland C Dos Programming

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 15:15:09 +0000

I ditched DJGPP for now and am using Borland C++ 3.1 that I found on some abandonware website. I even sent the user manual to an online document printer to get it bound into a real book.

Fixing the PC BIOS Boot Screen Recreation

Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:48:31 +0000

Thanks to @hobbified on YouTube, making the EPA logo look correct was quite straight forward…

About Me

Fri, 03 Jan 2025 19:48:35 +0000

Hi, I’m James.

I enjoy programming, especially low-level programming. I like to understand how computers work and what my code is doing at the most fundamental level. Modern systems have become too complex for us to grasp every detail, so I prefer working with retro computers, where things are simple enough to fully comprehend.

Beyond retro computing, I also experiment with microcontrollers and home automation. I have Home Assistant running on a Raspberry Pi to manage various smart devices in my house. I’ve done projects like hacking smart plugs to integrate with it and setting up monitoring for my home’s solar panel system.

Support

Fri, 03 Jan 2025 19:48:35 +0000

I create videos and projects exploring retro programming, low-level coding, and old-school game development. If you enjoy my content and want to see more, your support can help me dedicate more time to making in-depth videos, writing detailed blog posts, and working on new projects.

If you’d like to support what I do, there are a couple of ways to help:

Join me on Patreon

Patreon is a great way to support my work on an ongoing basis. As a patron, you’ll get early access to videos, behind-the-scenes updates, and perhaps even some exclusive content. Every contribution, no matter how small, helps keep the projects going.

Let's recreate a 90's PC BIOS Boot Screen

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 12:48:31 +0000

Because why not, it looks simpler than it really is and we’ll get to fall down a rabbit hole trying to draw the Energy Star logo.

Nostalgic DOS Development Part 1 - FreeDOS, DJGPP, RHIDE and other madness.

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 22:06:11 +0000

Come back to a time when 640k was enough, and when a 486 DX2/66 was considered a fast computer. None of this modern multi-core rubbish or branch predicting exploitable nonsense here. Just you, me, DOS and a C compiler.

Nostalgic DOS Development Part 2 - Writing our first programs

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 21:00:34 +0000

This is part two, go read part 1 first.

Nostalgic DOS Development - Setting up the machine

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 20:35:13 +0000

The modern world is far too complex. Software has become piles of APIs stacked on top of each other, running on virtual machines inside browsers. Even the CPUs themselves are too complex for anyone to understand.

Forcing DOS onto an unwilling ThinkPad R60e

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 11:54:04 +0000

I decide that doing DOS development means I need a real computer, rather than an emulator. I have an old laptop, surely making it run DOS can’t be that hard, right?

Tilemap Game Engine Development - Agon Light C Programming

Thu, 24 Oct 2024 14:32:42 +0000

In this video, I’ll show you how I built a tilemap system from scratch in C for the Agon Light, and integrated it into my existing game engine. Getting the physics engine to handle collisions with the tilemap was no easy task, but I’ll walk you through how I made it work. On top of that, I explore some game design, sketching out ideas for where the game is heading.

Bring back physical buttons!

Sun, 20 Oct 2024 21:17:35 +0000

At least polling a physical button can be done with electronics that don’t require running code, meaning you can always program one of the buttons to be a “reset” switch if needed.

Emulation Sucks

Wed, 02 Oct 2024 21:49:37 +0000

… because it’s so realistic you still have to put up with the same problems you had 30 years ago…

Dodgy DOS Development

Sun, 29 Sep 2024 11:28:22 +0000

From the mind that brought you “let’s try to write games using just pure C” I have a new idea for making my life difficult.

Let’s write DOS software using period correct tools…

Writing a game the hard way - from scratch using C - Part 2

Sat, 07 Sep 2024 18:54:09 +0000

Join me on a journey as I attempt to write a game for my Agon Light using nothing but raw C programming. In this second episode I figure out how to make a very basic 2D rigid body physics system work.

Writing a game the hard way - from scratch using C - Part 1

Sat, 17 Aug 2024 18:00:00 +0000

Join me on a journey as I attempt to write a game for my Agon Light using nothing but raw C programming. In this first episode I figure out what kind of game to make, look at some shareware games of the past and get a basic game engine working, using nothing but C code – no external game engines or modern development tools.

So I broke my PC… and its replacement (Part 1)

Sun, 04 Aug 2024 21:39:35 +0000

So my main PC that I do all my video editing, programming and anything more complex than talking rubbish on Discord died. Totally dead. How it died is a story for this video and involved me, a new NVMe SSD and a screwdriver.

It wasn’t too bad because I’d been looking for an excuse to buy a new machine anyway. My PC was originally created in 2017 to play VR games with a Rift CV1 headset, and over the years has become a tad outdated. I did put a new GPU in the machine and this helped a lot, but the CPU and motherboard were getting on a bit. I just wasn’t expecting to need to upgrade so soon.

Maximising the fun in Linux

Tue, 09 Jul 2024 21:39:42 +0000

Or in other words, I ditch NixOS because it’s awkward and weird, and I install Arch because it’s awkward and weird, but in a different way. And here’s my opinion.

Making Computers Fun Again

Thu, 04 Jul 2024 23:23:22 +0000

It’s nearly midnight, I’m supposed to be going to sleep but downstairs my Surface Pro 7+ is busy compiling a Linux kernel while installing NixOS. Getting that far required a lot of fussing about and a desk fan. And it’s great fun. I’ve not had this much entertainment from my computers since they looked like this…

Well crap, my PC died

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 22:03:03 +0000

Due to the untimely demise of my main PC, and it being the time of year where I have to get my car serviced, there will be a short break before my next video comes out.

Gamedev the hard way - doing it all myself

Wed, 26 Jun 2024 09:39:40 +0000

Writing games is hard enough by itself, requiring a lot of different skills. So how can I make this even harder? How about I do literally everything myself, starting with nothing but a blank source file and write all the code by hand. No game engines or libraries. If I need something, I need to write it myself. And since we’re doing this the hard way, let’s write games for an embedded microcontroller based around a Z80 CPU.

Stealing the Secrets of the NES - Agon Light Tilemaps in C

Mon, 27 May 2024 15:19:47 +0000

Early computers weren’t powerful enough to draw full-screen moving graphics, so they had to use clever tricks. Let’s explore how Nintendo’s techniques for creating tile-based games on the NES can be applied to modern hardware. Using these methods, I built a scrolling tilemap system for the Agon Light using C programming.

Programming Bitmap Graphics - Agon Light using C

Sun, 12 May 2024 08:22:13 +0000

The end result is a fairly pretty scrolling text routine that demonstrates how to draw multiple bitmaps to the Agon Light’s display using VDP commands.

This builds on my previous Agon Light C Programming video where I explained how the Agon Light’s screen works, and how to draw lines and shapes.

Soldering a Solar Light in the Sun

Sat, 11 May 2024 20:41:14 +0000

I bought a pair of cheapo outdoor solar lights from Amazon. One is on my shed round the back of the house, the other is on the shed at the front of the house. Yes, I have a bit of a shed obsession. After a few days the front one stopped working. I took it apart to find out why…

Sonoff Hacking to install Tasmota

Sat, 04 May 2024 16:31:55 +0000

I bought some of those Sonoff BASIC smart switches off Amazon and flashed them with Tasmota. It’s a pretty painless affair, the programming contacts are right there on the board, and the case comes apart with your fingernails.

Programming Windows Screensavers - Agon Light Graphics Programming

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 22:30:02 +0000

My aim is not to simply program the Agon Light by cloning the Windows 3.11 screensavers, but to learn how to program the Agon Light at all. Ultimately I want to learn how to program games for the Agon Light.

Figuring out a better video production workflow

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 21:42:23 +0000

This is where I figure out a simpler way to make my videos, and it seems really obvious when I explain it. Which generally means it’s a good way to work.

Programming Language Easter Eggs

Sun, 31 Mar 2024 12:05:16 +0000

Easter eggs are usually hidden inside our games and software, but did you know there are some hidden inside the tools and languages used to make that software? Come with me on a fun Easter diversion while we eat our bodyweight in chocolate, and look at six programming Easter Eggs.

Custom HomeAssistant display using openHASP

Fri, 29 Mar 2024 17:25:28 +0000

It’s my opinion that if you’re going to fill your home with smart devices, they need to be easy to control and monitor. Having to pull a phone out a pocket just to switch some lights on is annoying. Equally, having to open a browser just to see the state of everything is equally annoying.

Agon Light Graphics Tests

Tue, 26 Mar 2024 15:30:06 +0000

It’s the Easter holidays and I’ve got two weeks off work. Amongst highly exciting things like weeding the garden and waiting for a new washing machine to be delivered, I’m doing some programming.

Calculating Pi using Python - Gauss-Legendre and Monte Carlo methods - #piday 2024

Wed, 13 Mar 2024 19:39:43 +0000

Let’s celebrate #piday in this appropriately short video by writing some #python programs to calculate Pi.

Learning how to draw things on the Agon Light

Sat, 02 Mar 2024 15:21:29 +0000

I’ve been having a bit of a play around with my Agon Light, trying to come up with some ideas for a future video. I’ve discovered it has quite a nice 320×240 64 colour video mode that has just enough pixels to be interesting.

Exploring Hardware Hacks: Joystick Integration, Keyboard Inputs, and Debugging with the Agon Light

Sat, 24 Feb 2024 15:13:25 +0000

Dive into the exciting world of DIY hardware hacking. Join in as I explore joystick integration, keyboard inputs, and serial debugging using the versatile Agon Light platform. Delve into the technical intricacies of GPIO pins, assembly language programming, and C compiler usage for low-level development. Discover the power of computational thinking, boolean logic, and UART serial communication as we navigate through hardware interfacing challenges.

Agon Light Joystick Test 1

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 20:54:18 +0000

I’m working on getting a joystick port working on my Agon Light. They don’t come with joystick ports, but there is a set of GPIO pins that can be read through assembly.

Cellular Automata - Simulate life from chaos and code

Sun, 28 Jan 2024 16:59:53 +0000

Today, we’re diving into the world of cellular automata. A digital playground of sorts where simple rules lead to astonishing complexity. where order can arise from chaos and collapse back into chaos just as quickly.

Cellular Tomato

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 21:05:49 +0000

In preparation for my next video I’ve been tidying up some cellular automata code I wrote. There’s some good old Conway’s Life, some 1D CAs that make pretty patterns, and one I recently discovered called Wire World.

Agon Light C Programming - An Introduction

Sun, 14 Jan 2024 21:15:42 +0000

Instead of bashing away in BASIC, it’s possible to do some coding in C on the Agon Light. Let’s find out how in this introduction to an ongoing series where I figure out the Agon hardware and work on a game. I have no idea what game I want to make, and I’m not entirely sure how to achieve some of the necessary functions, but it’ll be fun figuring it out and I hope you come along for the ride!

Happy 2024!

Sun, 07 Jan 2024 16:23:08 +0000

Hello everyone! Let’s get on with it, shall we? Last year went pretty well, I released 14 videos and towards the end of the year experimented with releasing more than one video a month. I’ll also experiment with some more spontaneous content on here and maybe the odd Short. YouTube seems to like those, and doing what YouTube likes is the secret to growing.

The Dark Art of Programming - Writing Cursed Code

Tue, 31 Oct 2023 18:03:58 +0000

It’s Halloween, programming is an art form and there’s a darker side to it. Come with me in this fun video as I explore several languages that hate you and are trying to make your life difficult, before we go off down the rabbit hole and find some truly horrific examples of real programming.

estimating Battery Runtime Using Home Assistant

Sat, 28 Oct 2023 09:08:37 +0000

I have a whole house battery solar system with 3kW of roof mounted panels and 9.6kWh of battery storage. I can monitor this using Home Assistant and it’s interesting to see my power usage and generation stats. Interesting, but not that relevant to daily life.

What is relevant is knowing how long the battery has left, especially now we’re in autumn/winter and the typical British weather is in full effect. As I look out my window right now it’s misty, yesterday it rained all day.

FORTH - Better than BASIC?

Mon, 16 Oct 2023 19:33:40 +0000

Let’s look at FORTH, the obscure stack based programming language that nobody seems to use. Or do they?

October Solar Stats

Wed, 11 Oct 2023 20:37:16 +0000

Some more stats on my home solar setup now it’s autumn and daylight seems to be a distant memory.

Sinclair BASIC vs BBC BASIC - How to fit an entire devkit inside 64K

Sun, 01 Oct 2023 19:19:12 +0000

Just how did 8 bit computers like the ZX Spectrum or BBC Micro manage to cram an entire programming language into their tiny systems, and still have space for the user’s programs?

Tying ChatGPT up in knots

Thu, 21 Sep 2023 20:31:00 +0000

Is it self aware? No… of course it isn’t, but it’s fun trying to break it.

It looks like you are using an ad blocker

Mon, 18 Sep 2023 20:16:43 +0000

How to remove stupid “It looks like you’’re using an ad blocker” message from websites, and why they’re a stupid idea in the first place.

September Solar Usage

Sat, 16 Sep 2023 15:58:06 +0000

Here’s how my solar panels and battery system have been performing this month. I might do this more frequently, it’s hard going back in the historical data in my monitoring software and these posts are easy to find.

1990s Web Culture - How the Internet used to be

Fri, 08 Sep 2023 17:26:16 +0000

Let’s jack into the ‘net, surf the Information Superhighway and go visit the global village in this video taking a look at mid 90’s Internet culture.

How a CPU really works

Fri, 25 Aug 2023 14:54:15 +0000

Let’s go right inside a CPU and watch it execute code at the transistor level!

Solar battery usage

Thu, 24 Aug 2023 20:34:10 +0000

It’s a crappy cloudy day today. There was about enough sunlight to power the house, but not enough to also charge the batteries.

How trying to make pocket calculators do complex maths accidentally invented modern computing

Fri, 11 Aug 2023 19:02:46 +0000

What happens when you set out to build a pocket calculator? Well in this case it turns out you also accidentally invent desktop computers, and spawn a bunch of CPUs that are still being used today.

Follow along as we go through the thoroughly bizarre story of how trying to do complex maths and fit it in our pockets lead directly to the machine you’re using right now to watch this video, which you should totally wach, now. Go on, click it.

Why the 1880 US Census lead to the invention of the computer

Fri, 28 Jul 2023 16:44:44 +0000

How did the 1880 US Census and the end of World War 2 lead to the invention of the computer? What was it that kickstarted the Information Age? Come with me as we find out how the need to count everyone in 1800s America directly lead to the modern information age and all the technology we take for granted.

RC2014 Raspberry Pi Pico VGA Terminal Self-Build

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 19:39:57 +0000

The RC2014 is a DIY Z80 based computer that talks to the outside world using serial comms. This means you need a serial interface to another computer in order to control it.

Wang Tiles and other ways to tile a plane

Fri, 14 Jul 2023 15:22:56 +0000

Understand the concept of tiling a plane by arranging regular tiles in a systematic manner, creating visually pleasing patterns. Additionally, get introduced to Wang tiles, a fascinating method that employs specific rules for tile placement, resulting in captivating, non-repetitive designs.

ICONICA 1000W 12V Hybrid Solar Inverter Fan Replacement

Sun, 09 Jul 2023 16:03:04 +0000

I replace the noisy fans in my hybrid solar inverter with quieter ones.

Repairing my Ryobi drill battery

Sun, 25 Jun 2023 14:11:35 +0000

So I joined the Ryobi battery cult, but since their batteries are expensive I did the obvious thing and bought some off Amazon from random third party companies. The batteries seem to work well.

DIY VGA Serial Terminal

Thu, 08 Jun 2023 21:37:03 +0000

I use a Raspberry Pi Pico and turn it into a serial terminal for my RC2014.

Shut up you noisy inverter

Wed, 07 Jun 2023 22:05:28 +0000

The inverter I have for my DIY Solar setup is a noisy thing. It has two little 60mm fans that come on to cool it down. And they roar like a wannabe rackmount server.

DIY Solar - is it worth it?

Tue, 16 May 2023 19:28:23 +0000

Our energy prices are ridiculous and even taking into account recent “world events” I find it hard to understand why electricity is so expensive. So I figured I’d try to do something about it by installing my own battery and solar system on my shed. The idea being to power my servers from the sun.

Federated Madness

Sat, 01 Apr 2023 15:19:25 +0000

You know this Mastodon thing everyone’s going apeshit over? Well it runs on a technology called ActivityPub which is something everything needs to support. It implements social media style following and so on using a protocol that anyone can use.

Gamedev, music, art and being creative

Sat, 25 Mar 2023 23:52:10 +0000

I am not a creative person, and I’d quite like to change this. There’s a bunch of creative skills I’ve never put the effort into improving and I think I might have some ways to overcome this. Let’s have a look…

Hacking IoT Smart Plugs

Sat, 18 Mar 2023 19:46:23 +0000

Let’s make the Internet of Things a bit more useful, and less like The Internet of Turd by hacking some smart plugs so they no longer phone home to China.

This is an update to a [previous blog post]https://ncot.uk/blog-posts/freeing-smart-devices-with-tasmota/ I wrote about modifying [smart sockets]https://ncot.uk/blog-posts/hacking-smart-home-devices-literally/.

Chat GPT pretending to be a BBC Micro

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 14:41:00 +0000

There’s a few of these types of video floating around YouTube at the moment. I figured I’d join in and have a play. Can I tell ChatGPT to pretend to be a BBC Micro?

BBC BASIC in RiscOS on a Raspberry Pi is really cool

Sun, 12 Feb 2023 16:27:10 +0000

Picture the modern world, but without Windows, PCs or Apple. What would be on your desk?

Samsung SDP-860 Document Camera Thing

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 22:50:00 +0000

I go eBay shopping and buy something that might be useful in future videos.

How to disable Chrome’s ssl and hsts warnings

Sun, 29 Jan 2023 09:16:57 +0000

The modern Internet is full of nasty things, most users need protecting from themselves. Sometimes though, it’s important to be able to touch the sharp end of the Internet in order to fix it.

When did Linux get so complicated?

Sat, 21 Jan 2023 09:36:09 +0000

Today on “weird crap that seems undocumented on the Internet” we have DNS that doesn’t want to resolve and DHCP that is acting weird. My home DNS server decided it didn’t want to resolve things any more, and it took far too long to figure out why.

Hacking Smart Home Devices - Literally

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 14:25:47 +0000

This week I have literally been hacking smart home devices. With a Dremel and a knife…

2022 Review

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 11:16:11 +0000

Let’s briefly look back at last year and see what things were like, then look forward to the coming year and what I want to achieve. I did this last year too, and I’ve just been reading that.

SO my network broke…

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 23:14:13 +0000

But this is not a post about that, that post was great, it was long and descriptive and kind of amusing to read. And then I deleted it by accident due to some questionable UI choices in WordPress and the wonky trackpad on my tablet.

Did you know WordPress will permanently delete posts without prompting. Hit that “delete permanently” button and it’s gone. Not even Windows is that mean. My mouse pointer was a pixel into the hitbox for “Delete permanently” and I was trying to hit “restore”. And it went.

So How Long Do HDDs Last Anyway

Mon, 05 Dec 2022 20:40:57 +0000

I feel like over the past year I’ve swapped more broken drives from my NAS than any other bit of gear I own. So seeing how it’s the end of the year, let’s poke around and see how long the drives in my NAS have actually lasted.

Setting up MSYS2 and LibSDL2 for graphics programming in Windows

Thu, 17 Nov 2022 22:14:42 +0000

I’m starting a graphics based project, and decided to use SDL2 in Windows. This meant setting up a development environment. Here’s some notes on how I set up MSYS2, VS Code and LibSDL2.

£3000 Mobile Phone Motorola 8500x

Sat, 29 Oct 2022 19:16:28 +0000

Let’s look at one of the world’s first mobile phones – the Motorola 8500x – released in the mid 1980s for £3,000. That’s over £7,000 today!

Home Assistant Solar Monitoring

Sat, 22 Oct 2022 19:37:05 +0000

I think I’ve managed to make Home assistant tell me how much money the solar power I’m generating would be worth from the grid, and how much running things off solar/battery instead of the grid is saving me.

Workshed Tidying

Mon, 17 Oct 2022 19:34:52 +0000

My workshed is mess, I can barely get into it and I have a bunch of projects that need starting. Let’s fix that…

MS Powertoys Remap Keyboard

Sat, 15 Oct 2022 14:06:51 +0000

I’ve got an IBM Model M keyboard and like using it on my PC, but one of its problems is the lack of Windows keys. There’s a bunch of keyboard shortcuts I use almost daily and not having a Windows key makes it annoying. Here’s how I fixed it…

DIY Home Solar Finished

Sun, 09 Oct 2022 18:29:46 +0000

After a week of testing and tweaking, my DIY solar shed upgrade is complete. And it seems to work pretty well!

Last week I bought a solar panel, inverter and some lead acid batteries and set up a solar system in my shed, with the intention of powering my servers. It seems to work pretty well and I have it all integrated into Home Assistant. I’m going to do a load of videos on it and Home Assistant in general.

Who Debugs the Debuggers

Sun, 04 Sep 2022 21:20:36 +0000

What do you do when you’re trying to debug code, but your debugging isn’t working, and you need to debug your debugger?

Document Your Internal Projects

Sat, 27 Aug 2022 13:09:37 +0000

I have aspirations of actually making a game for my Spectrum Next. It’d be nice to turn the learning I’ve done into something more than a bunch of videos.

This is not a blog post about making a game, this is a blog post about keeping notes. A few months ago I created a pretty nice template for a Spectrum Next game. It had a little state machine for different screens, an input handler and some text printing routines for debugging.

Clever engineering on a budget - ZX Spectrum Interrupts

Thu, 11 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

How clever engineers made a cheap computer powerful

Breaking the 64k barrier - Spectrum Memory Banking

Sun, 24 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

How do you get more than 64K of RAM in an 8 bit computer? Let’s look at how memory banking works!

Memory Banking, DMA and Interrupts - How 8bit computers work

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 22:39:38 +0000

Let’s explore how 8bit computers worked, looking at their memory, interrupts and DMA.

Easy C Programming on ZX Spectrum Next - How to set up

Thu, 24 Feb 2022 20:54:14 +0000

How to set up Z88DK to develop C programs for the ZX Spectrum Next in about 20 minutes

Copper

Sun, 30 Jan 2022 20:54:14 +0000

How to make Amiga like effects on an 8 bit Spectrum

Freeing Smart Devices With Tasmota

Sat, 22 Jan 2022 20:51:03 +0000

I have a load of smart devices in my house that all have ESP8266 microcontrollers inside them. They all work with the Tuya SmartLife app on my phone, and the Tuya integration in HomeAssistant. They also all talk to China to do anything. I’d rather they didn’t. China doesn’t need to know I want to turn my lighting on.

2021 Review

Sun, 02 Jan 2022 20:33:58 +0000

How was 2021 for you? I mean, compared to 2020 it was a big improvement, but that’s a pretty low bar to aim for. Let’s focus more on the projects that I completed and what I learned from them.

Crap quality USB cables

Sat, 04 Dec 2021 13:04:04 +0000

I think I’ve just had a bit of a revelation…

USB-C is the best thing ever. Not only because the plug isn’t polarised, but because if you want a true USB-C to USB-C cable there doesn’t appear to be any cheap crappy ones. The ones with a USB-A plug on the end are still cheap garbage, but a cable with USB-C on both ends seems to have a basic level of quality and a price to match it.

Devlog 04 - Keyboard and Joystick Inputs

Sun, 28 Nov 2021 19:37:23 +0000

How to program keyboards and joysticks on the Spectrum Next

25 Year Old Coding Project Review

Tue, 12 Oct 2021 22:39:38 +0000

I found my 25 year old A-Level programming project, is it any good?

Atari ST Mouse - How’s it work anyway?

Sun, 10 Oct 2021 22:29:11 +0000

Meet the world’s worse mouse design ever. The Atari ST mouse. Amiga owners liked their tank mice, we ST owners didn’t like ours. It was square, uncomfortable and prone to breaking quite easily.

ZX Spectrum Next Hardware Sprites Overview

Thu, 19 Aug 2021 12:37:23 +0000

An overview of the Spectrum Next’s hardware sprites

Logo and Mindstorms - Learning How to Program

Wed, 11 Aug 2021 09:07:33 +0000

So how exactly do you learn programming? There’s more to it than just typing in code listings after all. Let’s find out using LOGO on my BBC!

Import Facebook Into WordPress

Sun, 08 Aug 2021 07:32:46 +0000

How to import your exported Facebook data into a WordPress blog

Upgrading My Atari ST to 4MB

Wed, 14 Jul 2021 15:50:46 +0000

I upgrade my Atari STFM to 4MB of RAM using a Marpet XTra RAM Deluxe board

Tired Psu Repair My Atari 520STFM

Fri, 02 Jul 2021 21:33:02 +0000

So just how bad is a nearly 30 year old power supply? Let’s find out!

SMT Soldering and Atari ST Repairs

Wed, 02 Jun 2021 20:52:48 +0000

Yesterday I recapped my ST’s PSU which went well, nothing exploded. However when trying to boot the machine it kept crashing, especially when it went to the desktop.

Updated Website

Sun, 30 May 2021 22:04:04 +0000

I’m not a web designer, I find the creative part quite interesting but buggering about with templating languages and having to learn far moreJavaScript and CSS than is healthy really puts me off. I’ve mostly gone about this by going online, finding a Bootstrap template and beating it into some vague shape that looks not too terrible.

Tecknet Mechanical Keyboard Repair

Sun, 30 May 2021 21:12:25 +0000

I wanted a mechanical keyboard with Windows keys. I have an IBM Model M keyboard, but its lack of Windows keys makes using Windows 10 more annoying than it should be. I don’t hunt and peck around the start menu, I’ve learnt to press the Windows key and just start typing the program I want to open.

Unopened Decade My Atari 520STFM

Fri, 02 Apr 2021 21:32:37 +0000

Come with me for a nostalgic trip around my Atari ST that I had has a child that has been sat unopened for the past 10 years. In this video I go through the hardware, what I used to do with the Atari ST and make a list of future improvements and fixes to make.

Devlog 02 - Layer 2 Graphics

Thu, 18 Mar 2021 12:37:23 +0000

An overview of the Spectrum Next’s Layer 2 bitmap display

Devlog 01 - Spectrum Next Programming Languages

Thu, 18 Feb 2021 12:37:23 +0000

How to get started programming the ZX Spectrum Next

Quazar Graphic OLED Display - Real Pixels for your RC2014

Sat, 06 Feb 2021 17:00:00 +0000

I found a real bitmap display for the RC2014 and here’s how I made it work.

3d Printer Extreme Teardown

Sun, 20 Dec 2020 16:37:06 +0000

I’ve bought a new 3D printer, I thought it’d be fun to take the old one apart!

Raspberry Pi 400 Devkit for RC2014

Sun, 13 Dec 2020 22:14:17 +0000

I turned a Raspberry Pi 400 into a C devkit for the RC2014.

Microstudio.dev Game Programming

Sun, 06 Dec 2020 11:14:42 +0000

How I wrote a game in a week using just my web browser.

Optimised Z80 - Conway's Life Improved

Sun, 22 Nov 2020 14:33:07 +0000

Writing more optimised assembly to improve the speed of the Conway’s Life algorithm

Bbc Micro Mega Upgrade

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 20:19:41 +0000

Upgrading my BBC Micro to use a Gotek floppy emulator, 1770 disk controller and a Raspberry Pi co-processor.

How I Became a better Computer Science teacher

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 17:48:06 +0000

How writing code for a 40 year old computer made me a better computer science teacher.

BBC Micro - Computer Literacy 1980s

Mon, 10 Aug 2020 13:27:38 +0000

Now I’ve gained an understanding of assembly programming, let’s look at how they tried to teach us computer science in the 1980s…

Conways Life in Z80 Assembly

Mon, 27 Jul 2020 12:48:03 +0000

Programming the popular cellular automaton using Z80 Assembler

Switch Joycon Drift Repair

Tue, 07 Jul 2020 18:59:40 +0000

Here is how I fixed the drift on my Nintendo Switch Joy-Con. It is properly fixed, not just putting cleaner into the thumbstick. I will also be showing how to swap the shell of the joy-con for a different style. You don’t have to do this if all you want is to do is repair your joy-con.

Zombies! - A Game Written in Z80 Assembly

Thu, 02 Jul 2020 21:04:21 +0000

Converting a 1980s BASIC type-in game into Z80 Assembly.

The Joy of Sticks - RC2014 Z80 Joystick Kit

Fri, 19 Jun 2020 21:54:24 +0000

Building and programming a joystick interface for the RC2014 Z80 computer.

Clueless Chillout Coding

Wed, 03 Jun 2020 22:03:02 +0000

Get comfy and watch as I try to figure out how to write a really simple program the hard way.

Shadertoy 3 Raymarching

Wed, 27 May 2020 21:07:21 +0000

Let’s draw a lit 3D scene without defining any 3D objects. Yeah no it confused me too.

Shadertoy 2 Sinewaves

Tue, 26 May 2020 20:34:26 +0000

Today I figured out how to draw a line, and then make it wiggle using some basic maths.

Shadertoy 1 - Mandelbrot

Mon, 25 May 2020 15:13:03 +0000

Let’s spend this week learning about GLSL and making fancy images from code. The first one, a nice computationally intensive fractal.

Debugging Z80 With Arduino

Sun, 24 May 2020 22:36:04 +0000

Let’s hook an Arduino up to a 1980s CPU and see what happens!

Pascal programming on a Z80

Wed, 20 May 2020 08:14:26 +0000

Writing fractals on a 7MHz computer with 64K of RAM

Esd Safe Soldering Station Hack

Mon, 11 May 2020 10:50:19 +0000

Turns out my £20 soldering station does indeed work, but its claims of ESD safety are lies. Let’s fix that!

Grandma Shark 20 Quid Soldering Station

Mon, 11 May 2020 10:50:03 +0000

I bought a soldering iron for £20 from Amazon. Is it any good? Does it even work?

Building Z80 Computer RC2014

Mon, 11 May 2020 10:45:18 +0000

I build a Z80 based computer from scratch, and it works!

Reading Mice and Joysticks on the Spectrum Next using C

Sat, 18 Apr 2020 21:22:32 +0000

Today’s lesson in curing headaches by banging your head on the wall until they stop involves joysticks and mice. This is a bit technical, so ensure your seat back and tray table are in the upright and locked position. Please keep all arms inside the ride at all times.

Hardware Sprites on the ZX Spectrum Next in C

Fri, 17 Apr 2020 09:10:29 +0000

Drawing sprites on the Spectrum Next, using C. Or – how to learn the dark art of figuring out things you don’t understand. <!-more–>

Learning to program is an endurance game full of random side quests, dead ends and frustration. Rather than learning “how to do X”, which is specific, it’s much more useful learning “how to figure out how to do anything at all”.

Go look on StackOverflow at all the questions that come down to “I don’t understand what I’m trying to do in the first place, can you write my code for me?”. Here’s how to not be one of those people.

Writing C Code on a Spectrum Next

Wed, 15 Apr 2020 09:09:01 +0000

What better way to wait out the apocalypse than trying to learn a new system. Read how I dug out my ZX Spectrum Next and set about writing C code on it…

Reading and Writing JSON using Python

Sat, 07 Mar 2020 08:45:22 +0000

How to read and write JSON files using Python so that they can be used in your Python programs.

Python Commandline Argument Parsing

Sun, 01 Mar 2020 21:43:37 +0000

A quick set of notes on how to parse command line arguments properly in Python. This uses the argparse module, totally removing any effort on your part when it comes to processing command line switches.

Gameboy Advance Dev Workflow in 2020

Sun, 01 Mar 2020 08:35:57 +0000

How to write GameBoy Advance (GBA) homebrew using modern tools and systems in 2020. Compilers, editors, debugging and more!

This isn’t the definitive way of doing things, but it’s a way that seems to work for me. Also you might read this and think it a bit convoluted and full on. I didn’t create it all in one go, it’s a workflow that has evolved over time.

Z80 vs C

Sun, 05 Jan 2020 13:02:33 +0000

A short comparison between low level Z80 assembler and high level C

How to Write Emulator - Fetch Decode Execute Cycle

Sat, 07 Dec 2019 22:27:19 +0000

The beating heart of any CPU is the fetch-decode-execute cycle. It is the same for our simulator

How to Write Emulator - Automating Tedious Programming with Excel

Sat, 07 Dec 2019 22:09:16 +0000

Sometimes you have to type out almost identical lines of code, and it’s either time consuming or error prone. Here’s how to avoid it all by using some clever Excel techniques.

How to Write Emulator - Opcodes Jumptables

Sat, 07 Dec 2019 22:01:36 +0000

How to efficiently store and execute many small functions, without using a single if statement or switch construct.

How to Write Emulator - Intro

Sat, 07 Dec 2019 21:41:24 +0000

To begin, this isn’t technically an emulator, the system I’m trying to model isn’t real. This is more of a simulator, but that’s less of a catchy search word on the Internet.

#GitHubGameOff Jam 2019 Day 1

Sat, 02 Nov 2019 22:44:58 +0000

Day 1 of the #GitHubGameOff jam, where I create a basic platform controller and level builder.

Minimum Spanning Tree

Tue, 29 Oct 2019 17:31:48 +0000

As a challenge I thought I’d try to implement the Minimum Spanning Tree algorithm, and have a play with it. My code is based off the excellent Coding Train video on the same topic which you can watch here. It’s where I got the code from, and then mixed in some code from the Arrays of Objects video too.

One Lone Coder Jam 2019

Sun, 08 Sep 2019 18:50:23 +0000

This week I took part in the One Lone Coder 2019 game jam. The theme of this was “destruction”… My entry was started Friday, a mere 48 hours before the deadline. Yes, a week long jam where I had a whole seven days to come up with an idea was started 48h before the end…

Have a good idea

The main issue I had this time was thinking up an idea that felt good enough to be a game. I had a bunch of half-ideas, but none of them seemed that great. Since the theme was quite broad, I could have knocked out any kind of generic shooting game, stuck on some pretty explosions and called it done. It didn’t feel like a particularly exciting game idea though so I ditched those kinds of ideas and looked around for some better inspiration.

Godot Wild Jam 12

Tue, 20 Aug 2019 09:44:59 +0000

Between the 9th and 16th August 2019 I took part in the Godot Wild Jam #12. Let’s go through what it was like, and the things I learned this time.

GMTK Game Jam 2019

Wed, 07 Aug 2019 09:45:03 +0000

It’s been a long time since I entered a game jam, the last ones being the One Game a Month jams back in 2014. This one was the GMTK Game Jam 2019

Component Based Game Engine From Scratch Part 2

Sat, 13 Apr 2019 16:50:49 +0000

Last time I explained in detail how the whole system worked. This time I will focus on the component system, as it is quite complex. Using it isn’t complex, but I’m trying to mimic Unity’s functionality that was written in C#. Functionality that is partially implemented within the editor and doesn’t relate directly to typing in code. I have no idea how Unity really does this, but the solution I have come up with seems tidy enough and fits neatly within a single C++ header.

Easier Game Controller Input in SDL with SDL_GameController

Sat, 13 Apr 2019 14:35:10 +0000

Game controllers on computers are somewhat irritating to manage compared to a console. Has the user plugged in an XBox controller? A PS4 controller, or have they obtained some random USB controller they found on eBay?

Coping with this in SDL was difficult, with SDL just telling you “button 13 pressed” or “joystick axis 4 moved”, which is great except all your code really wants to know is “did the user just press the A button?”.

SDL_GameController fixes all this, and it needs better documentation, so this is my attempt at providing some useful information.

Maths for Programmers 1 Rearranging Equations

Thu, 28 Mar 2019 20:46:38 +0000

Straight forward instructions on how to rearrange algebraic equations, all wrapped up in a nice free PDF to download. Don’t fear maths or algebra again!

Component Based Game Engine From Scratch Part 1

Sun, 10 Mar 2019 21:44:59 +0000

This is going to be the first part in a continuing series where I try to explain how and why I’m creating my own game engine using C++ and the SDL library. My engine isn’t going to do anything amazing, but will borrow ideas from other engines I’ve used before such as Unity.

Creating a Modern Static Website Using Hugo

Fri, 08 Feb 2019 23:33:05 +0000

This post is sponsored by hand coded HTML and CSS. Hand coding your HTML is a quick and effective method of getting your presence online! The first 20 people to click the link below will get £100 off their own hand coded website! You will require your own hands and knowledge of HTML.

Text printing using bitmap characters in C++ and SDL

Mon, 04 Feb 2019 22:13:22 +0000

Back in the mists of history, sometime around the 90s it was quite common for games and demos to display text on the screen. Since we’re talking about old computers with barely any usable RAM, the text was stored as images. A giant single image with every character placed within it. To display words programmers had to be a bit inventive. That’s the topic of today’s post.

Odroid Go Graphics Programming

Mon, 30 Jul 2018 21:16:30 +0000

Making a microcontroller produce graphics is very similar to making an old 8 or 16 bit computer draw images. They both have small screens, not much RAM and not enough CPU power to draw all the screen all the time.

Odroid Go Raw Coding

Wed, 25 Jul 2018 20:56:47 +0000

The ODroid GO is a handheld console that sells itself as a device that will run emulators of all your favourite 8bit systems. And it does that job rather well, I spent at least five minutes with mine playing Tetris, and it was a good emulation. Then I installed the Arduino libraries for it, plugged in a USB cable and started trying things out.

A week of Pico 8, and the fun of limits

Wed, 25 Oct 2017 20:45:03 +0000

A week that turns into two, after a trip to hospital following a fire drill. In between these excitements is some Pico 8 programming.