AGMS
agmsmith.ca
AGMS
@agmsmith.ca
Long time game (C++ at Artech Studios, Ottawa, Canada) and BeOS/Haiku OS (C++ apps, file systems) programmer. Used Ruby on Rails for a less evil social media reputation system experiment. Now (2025) distracted by Nth Pong Wars, a Nabu Z80 game project.
I finally got my #BeOS virtual machine working on my new AMD Zen 5 system.

AMD is missing some Intel secret sauce, so using a hardware VM doesn't work (Guru Meditation errors in VirtualBox, abrupt reboots in KVM). But QEMU's software emulation does! Story in my blog...

web.ncf.ca/au829/Weeken...
October 3, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Had fun adding the first power-ups to #NthPongWars, a game for the Z80 #NabuPC. Of course, got many more ideas. The challenge is fitting them in 64K of memory, and making overall game-play coherent.

Details, discussion and video script in the longer blog post at web.ncf.ca/au829/Weeken...
September 5, 2025 at 2:51 AM
More #NthPongWars progress - now with AI players. One is trying to draw "N" while the others bounce around the sides, until they spot a Human player.

Blog post about it at
web.ncf.ca/au829/Weeken...
August 19, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Back to basics, added collisions to #NthPongWars. There was some trouble with players getting stuck together, but after a few attempts, got the good version shown here.

Blog post about it at: www.agmsmith.ca/WeekendRepor...
July 25, 2025 at 12:30 AM
Yay, made it to 54 unique shows at the #OttFringe Ottawa Fringe Theatre Festival this year! That’s a new high count for me, beating 2014’s 53. Whew! Now it’s time for an actual meal, sleep, laundry…
June 23, 2025 at 1:38 AM
Mobile game idea: Real World Multiplayer Throw & Catch

Saw Kitsune at #OttFringe, story about Japanese fox spirit, played catch with audience using its glowing soul gem. I got the idea of "throwing" light between phones, old news?

See change log 1.9 at bottom of www.agmsmith.ca/FFVSO/Ottawa...
Fringe Theatre Festival Vistor Schedule Optimiser
A web app for scheduling attendance at theatre performances so that you don't miss the shows you want, and pack in as many as possible while avoiding duplicates.
www.agmsmith.ca
June 19, 2025 at 7:35 PM
I've updated my #FFVSO scheduling program with actual 2025 #OttFringe Ottawa Fringe Theatre Festival show run times, for the shows I've seen (now 25 shows!). That means you can schedule more accurately and not unexpectedly have to run between LabO and Nouvelle Scène theatres in 7 minutes.
FFVSO - Fringe Theatre Festival Visitor Schedule Optimiser
The Fringe Theatre Festival Visitor Schedule Optimiser (FFVSO) is a web application for figuring out a schedule for attending as many shows as possible at a Fringe Theatre Festival. Works for other f...
web.ncf.ca
June 17, 2025 at 8:03 PM
More Ottawa Fringe Theatre Festival #OttFringe updates to my scheduling app, with show durations for the ones I've seen (shows listed at bottom). Some of them run over because of standing ovations! Let me know your durations (time when you can get up & out is best) www.agmsmith.ca/FFVSO/Ottawa...
Fringe Theatre Festival Vistor Schedule Optimiser
A web app for scheduling attendance at theatre performances so that you don't miss the shows you want, and pack in as many as possible while avoiding duplicates.
www.agmsmith.ca
June 14, 2025 at 4:02 PM
After some fiddling and rearranging, I've finished my first draft of a schedule to see maybe 53 shows at the 2025 #OttFringe Ottawa Fringe Theatre Festival. As usual, I used #FFVSO to try out different options, web.ncf.ca/au829/FFVSO/... if you want to try it out on your schedule or edit mine.
June 10, 2025 at 9:20 PM
I finally had time to type in this season's #OttFringe Theatre Festival show times into #FFVSO, my scheduling app for Fringe Bingers. Pack in dozens of shows into as short a time as you can fit them. My record is something like seeing 53 shows in one Fringe.

web.ncf.ca/au829/FFVSO/...
June 3, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Now it's time to integrate the CHIPNSFX Z80 CPU music player for the AY-3-8910 sound chip into my #NthPongWars game code. Fairly straightforward, except the composing part. Even had time to test game-play super speed while harvesting tiles.

Blog with details at web.ncf.ca/au829/Weeken...
April 16, 2025 at 2:42 AM
I finally got CHIPNSFX (a Z80 music player and separate Tracker that works in Linux and Windows) assembling and running in my #NthPongWars project, after a bit of delay to figure out an assembler assert (expression too complex).

Longer story on the blog at web.ncf.ca/au829/Weeken...
March 19, 2025 at 10:59 PM
I spent more time on #NthPongWars today, looking into sound effects on the #NabuPC using the AY-3-8910 sound chip. I also converted some old assembler Pac-man sound code to C to get the hang of it, and found an abandoned sound experiment in the wacka-wacka code.

More at web.ncf.ca/au829/Weeken...
March 5, 2025 at 1:10 AM
The #KichiSibiWT has lots of snow, perhaps too much on this huge snow drift at Remic Rapids, in Ottawa Canada. But never fear, the team has it under control!

Which means a freshly groomed winter trail for me to walk on, in really good weather too.
March 3, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Just a #introduction, I'm a games programmer from Ottawa Canada, between jobs, currently doing #NthPongWars for the circa 1982 Z80 #NabuPC. Also working on a modern Ruby on Rails less evil social media site (has a forget and forgive feature) and totally outside the box #StoryPointsEC ethics system.
March 1, 2025 at 10:22 PM