Help My c64 caught on fire | Hacker News Reader

Help My c64 caught on fire

c0de517e.com

121 pointsibobev41 comments

This looks like the classic fire effect: generate rising flames by averaging pixels below each output pixel, and randomize the last row.

I remember this effect because there was a competition[1] where every entry was a fire effect in 256 bytes, and I was amazed at the simplicity of the core algorithm.

[1] https://www.pouet.net/party.php?which=1791&when=1996

Note to readers: the heavily dithered websafe thumbnails lead to full-color photos when clicked.

(And, once, also HDR.)

only most do

Why is it dithered like this? To save bandwidth? I wasn't on the internet much before 2010, so maybe this is an old technique you don't see anymore.

Originally, sort of. But also to work around limitations in GIF (which is palette-based; but see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIF#True_color) and because people didn't always have true-colour monitors (or ran the monitor in a different mode due to VRAM restrictions) anyway.

In today's context, more for the aesthetic, presumably.

Author - yes, it's "aesthetic", albeit not my best work and I might revert that decision at some point. Was inspired by lowtechmagazine but they did a much much better job.

I do care about the blog being snappy and working also on very low-end, vintage hardware though, so that also somewhat achieves that goal.

I like the aesthetic choice

Author answered below, but dithering techniques like these were common on old computers like the C64 and others, due to the limited ammount of graphics colors available ( 16 colors on C64 if I remember correctly), plus there were usually limitations on how many colors you could use within one 8x8 block , commonly 2 - 1 foreground , and one background color. C64 had a multicolor mode with 1 background, and 3 forground color. But that was still just 4 colors (out of 16 available ) usuable for each 8x8 character block. However switching to multicolor mode took you from high resolution ( 200x320 px) to low res ( 200x160 px) - and yes thats for the entire screen (25 x 40 chars)

it seems obvious for nostalgic reasons

I'm in my early twenties. I only really associate this dithering with comic books, not C64s (much before my time, i've seen one in a tech museum lol)

I think the author did it for C64 reasons, but for other reasons it was a vibe in 1995: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_colors

Just in time I received my brand new Commodore 64 Ultimate directly before Christmas. What a lovely made piece of retro hardware.

I have an actual original C-64 from around 1986. I got it recapped a few years back and it worked! Now the floppy and tape drives gather dust: it has USB 8)

Oh and I have an original Quickshot II, which still works despite "Daley Thomson's Decathalon".

I'm going to give it to my son in law this Chrimbo - "Attack of the mutant camels" and "Matrix" etc needs new players.

I'm hoping mine shows up in time for me to get in a little Maniac Mansion. It sounds so good on a real SID chip!

This is very nice, enjoyment-driven, seasonal hacking. Cool.

Brought back happy memories of the much simpler, much less impressive falling snowflakes animation, complete with Silent Night soundtrack, that I laboriously wrote in Basic on my Vic-20 one Christmas back in the 80s.

> https://c0de517e.com/026_c64fire/cozy.jpg

That should have been a real CRT monitor to give this picture a true feeling of the 80s!

Simulated 14" portable TV fascia with tuning knob* and mono speaker grille.

*set to channel 36, natch

> set to channel 36, natch

Was that specific to C64? I recall old consoles and VCRs using either channel 3 or 4.

Might be a European thing. I remember that, here in the UK, on my Vic-20 connected to my parent's Bush portable tv, it was channel 36. I believe the C64 was the same.

And sometimes you had to twist/jiggle the aerial lead to get a good connection.

Eh, if only I had one. I have some relatives living next to me through and I think I remember an old TV in their basement, I might check it out, that's a good idea.

i thought this was going to involve capacitor plague. rather a retro dive into coding an 8bit digital fireplace.

Definitely a clickbait title. I thought it'd be about those infamous Rifa caps.

Fwiw, the c64 is pretty robust, if you don't use the original power supplies.

I'm surprised that people find this to be an example of clickbait. If I cared about views, I'd imagine an honest title like - "I turned my c64 into a digital fireplace" - would have probably been more appealing, no?

You’re surprised that people find a title of “Help! My c64 caught on fire!” to be clickbait in a case where your c64 did not catch on fire and you don’t need help?!

It’s an interesting article, but the title is a textbook example of clickbait and I’m surprised that you’re surprised.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clickbait

i understand them but considering the project and its nature its a punny / good way of clickbait :D. lovely lil fireplace btw!

thanks

I recapped a C64C I bought second hand recently, using premium Japanese 105C capacitors off the shelf on akihabara, minus the huge axial one I ordered a modern, extremely durable replacement for.

I tested every cap I removed, all of them nichicons from the mid 80s. They all measured to spec.

So it was kinda pointless at the end. Sure, it is going to be good for a few more decades, alongside the 1571 Ultimate II-L.

(yes, I replaced the original PSU. I bought separate modern, safe 9vac and 5vdc PSUs and an adapter to join them into the C64 power connector)

Made me think of the IT Crowd screensaver:

https://youtu.be/KH_0uybs93I

Which was a result of:

https://youtu.be/1EBfxjSFAxQ

Didn't need the click-bait title. I would have read it regardless (and did). I wish there had been a PRG or D64 included for the non-programmers. Fun read!

Author, fwiw, I don't do/care about click-bait, as I never cared about clicks. Since I moved to my bespoke blog system (previously I was on blogspot) I don't even track page views. But I thought it was somewhat funny.

I think not enough people today have ever seen the message "printer on fire".

Not GP, but I was expecting to read about a C64 on fire and was disappointed when it was just a post about an unoptimized fire demo

I imagined that there would be better ones made by real c64 democoders, but I can include a .prg. Also, if you make a C project in the web-based IDE I linked, and copy-paste the last .c file, it will compile it, run it in an emulator, and give an option to download the compiled .prg from there too

Spoiler: nah, he just coded a fire effect on his c64.

There was apparently a demo party a while back where a Tiki 100 actually caught fire.

A mechanical keyboard in c64 design would be lovely.

There are both mechanical keyboards for the c64 (mechboard 64) and c64 inspired mechanical keyboards for the PC (8bitdo sells one, probably others)

Cool, that 8bitdo one would have been a perfect holiday gift. Look so good.

This is particularly awesome cause I can't imagine anyone thinking of making a fake fireplace with a computer screen in the c64 era.

Why would you put pics with less colors in them than c64 ? They are not even small?! (yes I now I can waste time to click one to see proper one)

It's just how I decided to generate the previews for my blog in general. Not my best idea, but I don't hate it enough yet to change it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com