Rob Stone
@rasto1968.bsky.social
Programing computers since the early 80s!
Surrey, UK
Day job - all things web, especially web components
Fun job - retro 8 bit development for the Acorn Electron
My games
https://github.com/rasto68/apache-canyon
Surrey, UK
Day job - all things web, especially web components
Fun job - retro 8 bit development for the Acorn Electron
My games
https://github.com/rasto68/apache-canyon
Some more "trying things out" 😀 The dev environment now has stars and the scan screen shows the locations of things. Plan is to get some of the gameplay elements tested out and then start porting the code over to 6502.
November 8, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Some more "trying things out" 😀 The dev environment now has stars and the scan screen shows the locations of things. Plan is to get some of the gameplay elements tested out and then start porting the code over to 6502.
A day off work, so a little "fun" work instead :) Getting various plotting routines working in the dev mode and decided to go for a retro TV look ;) I've also worked on some more gameplay stuff including a map/scanner screen mock up that might make it in next. Oh and say hello to one of the aliens.
November 3, 2025 at 3:22 PM
A day off work, so a little "fun" work instead :) Getting various plotting routines working in the dev mode and decided to go for a retro TV look ;) I've also worked on some more gameplay stuff including a map/scanner screen mock up that might make it in next. Oh and say hello to one of the aliens.
Another first for me - particle systems :) I wanted to see what the player jets would look like with particles instead of cycling sprites so used my dev system to try particles out. This is displaying a maximum of 16 particles at a time, I like the effect but wonder if it will be possible in 6502..
November 1, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Another first for me - particle systems :) I wanted to see what the player jets would look like with particles instead of cycling sprites so used my dev system to try particles out. This is displaying a maximum of 16 particles at a time, I like the effect but wonder if it will be possible in 6502..
"Astoraid" but not running on an emulator/real hardware. I've created a mini dev environment using JavaScript + an HTML Canvas that lets me try things out much more quickly than writing lots of 6502. I have a library of routines that mimic the real hardware so the code is close to what it will be...
October 19, 2025 at 3:22 PM
"Astoraid" but not running on an emulator/real hardware. I've created a mini dev environment using JavaScript + an HTML Canvas that lets me try things out much more quickly than writing lots of 6502. I have a library of routines that mimic the real hardware so the code is close to what it will be...
Great day at the ABUG south meet yesterday, nice to meet @colinhoad.com and to experience a game loading from a real tape! Lots of great chats and I even managed a bit of coding on Astoraid. Looking forward to the next one now.
October 19, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Great day at the ABUG south meet yesterday, nice to meet @colinhoad.com and to experience a game loading from a real tape! Lots of great chats and I even managed a bit of coding on Astoraid. Looking forward to the next one now.
Phew :) Algorithm for horizontal sprite clipping finally worked out in my JavaScript dev environment. Right side clipping was easy but for some reason my brain refused to co-operate for the left side clip and it took far too much head scratching. Next up vertical clipping which should be "easy"....
October 17, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Phew :) Algorithm for horizontal sprite clipping finally worked out in my JavaScript dev environment. Right side clipping was easy but for some reason my brain refused to co-operate for the left side clip and it took far too much head scratching. Next up vertical clipping which should be "easy"....
An afternoon of retro coding using JavaScript... 🤔 Working out the clipped sprite plotting was putting me off making progress so I decided to poc it using JavaScript and a canvas element. Not finished yet but it's certainly easier than trying to work it out in 6502 😄
October 12, 2025 at 6:09 PM
An afternoon of retro coding using JavaScript... 🤔 Working out the clipped sprite plotting was putting me off making progress so I decided to poc it using JavaScript and a canvas element. Not finished yet but it's certainly easier than trying to work it out in 6502 😄
How many people remember BT Wireplay - Wikipedia share.google/k0nr9No1TSI9...
I remember using this for some great link up sessions playing EF2000 on the PC using a 56k modem in the late 90s. The thrill of getting a stable connection and having fun dog fights.
I remember using this for some great link up sessions playing EF2000 on the PC using a 56k modem in the late 90s. The thrill of getting a stable connection and having fun dog fights.
Wireplay - Wikipedia
share.google
October 1, 2025 at 6:03 PM
How many people remember BT Wireplay - Wikipedia share.google/k0nr9No1TSI9...
I remember using this for some great link up sessions playing EF2000 on the PC using a 56k modem in the late 90s. The thrill of getting a stable connection and having fun dog fights.
I remember using this for some great link up sessions playing EF2000 on the PC using a 56k modem in the late 90s. The thrill of getting a stable connection and having fun dog fights.
Culture and hobbies day at work, so the Elk came in to demonstrate what a 40 year old computer could do :) Highscore challenge running with Apache Canyon and Astoraid demo'ing the dev environment featuring Electroniq from @0xc0de.bsky.social
September 10, 2025 at 10:28 AM
Culture and hobbies day at work, so the Elk came in to demonstrate what a 40 year old computer could do :) Highscore challenge running with Apache Canyon and Astoraid demo'ing the dev environment featuring Electroniq from @0xc0de.bsky.social
Retro film time tonight - Jaws at the cinema with my youngest and her boyfriend. I saw Jaws 2 when it was first released, but was too young for Jaws so I'm looking forward to finally seeing it on the big screen 🦈
September 5, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Retro film time tonight - Jaws at the cinema with my youngest and her boyfriend. I saw Jaws 2 when it was first released, but was too young for Jaws so I'm looking forward to finally seeing it on the big screen 🦈
Guess who ran into the "joys of multiplexed interrupt clear & ROM selection" fun this afternoon whilst creating a version of Astoraid that would work on real hardware? My original code (running on Electroniq) always used bank 0. The moment I tried to use anything else *STUFF BROKE*
August 30, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Guess who ran into the "joys of multiplexed interrupt clear & ROM selection" fun this afternoon whilst creating a version of Astoraid that would work on real hardware? My original code (running on Electroniq) always used bank 0. The moment I tried to use anything else *STUFF BROKE*
We've got a "culture & hobbies" day coming up at work again, I took the Elk in last year and it was quite popular so it will be going in again this year but will be featuring Apache Canyon :)
August 25, 2025 at 5:56 PM
We've got a "culture & hobbies" day coming up at work again, I took the Elk in last year and it was quite popular so it will be going in again this year but will be featuring Apache Canyon :)
Experimenting with SWRAM use for "Astoraid". Video 1 shows normal mode, you can see I've almost run out of CPU for drawing anything more by the position of the "red" debug background colour.
August 25, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Experimenting with SWRAM use for "Astoraid". Video 1 shows normal mode, you can see I've almost run out of CPU for drawing anything more by the position of the "red" debug background colour.
No retro for me today, a trip down to West Wittering to enjoy the sun and the sea.
August 23, 2025 at 2:05 PM
No retro for me today, a trip down to West Wittering to enjoy the sun and the sea.
Some more "Astoraid" time this afternoon - the stars now move in the appropriate direction :) I'm not sure about the speed yet, it feels a little too fast at "maximum speed" but this can be tweaked later on. The code is *very* un-optimized at the moment so I might need to spend some time here soon.
August 17, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Some more "Astoraid" time this afternoon - the stars now move in the appropriate direction :) I'm not sure about the speed yet, it feels a little too fast at "maximum speed" but this can be tweaked later on. The code is *very* un-optimized at the moment so I might need to spend some time here soon.
And starfield part 1 is working, a few "smoke & mirrors" here as it always moves at the moment, I wanted to test the effect though :) It might not move this fast eventually - it will depend on what it looks like when other things are also moving.
August 12, 2025 at 10:58 PM
And starfield part 1 is working, a few "smoke & mirrors" here as it always moves at the moment, I wanted to test the effect though :) It might not move this fast eventually - it will depend on what it looks like when other things are also moving.
A busy coding day at work today, but I wanted to do some work on Astoraid this evening.
Time for some more "concept art", I wanted to see if I could get a nice layout for the bits of status text that will be needed. Quite happy with this :) This also reveals the font I designed a few weeks ago.
Time for some more "concept art", I wanted to see if I could get a nice layout for the bits of status text that will be needed. Quite happy with this :) This also reveals the font I designed a few weeks ago.
August 5, 2025 at 8:38 PM
A busy coding day at work today, but I wanted to do some work on Astoraid this evening.
Time for some more "concept art", I wanted to see if I could get a nice layout for the bits of status text that will be needed. Quite happy with this :) This also reveals the font I designed a few weeks ago.
Time for some more "concept art", I wanted to see if I could get a nice layout for the bits of status text that will be needed. Quite happy with this :) This also reveals the font I designed a few weeks ago.
50 years old - my first and favourite CPU 🍰
Happy Birthday 6502 | Hackaday share.google/o74EAb4C0Qw6...
Happy Birthday 6502 | Hackaday share.google/o74EAb4C0Qw6...
Happy Birthday 6502
The MOS Technology 6502 is a microprocessor which casts a long shadow over the world of computing. Many of you will know it as the beating heart of so many famous 8-bit machines from the likes of C…
share.google
August 4, 2025 at 5:47 PM
50 years old - my first and favourite CPU 🍰
Happy Birthday 6502 | Hackaday share.google/o74EAb4C0Qw6...
Happy Birthday 6502 | Hackaday share.google/o74EAb4C0Qw6...
More progress on Astoraid (formerly known as "Game 2") I was meant to be working on a starfield and/or asteroid plotting so heres a video showing the game logo and playing area borders 😆 The playing area may end up shrinking depending on whether I can fit the various bits of status text it will need
August 3, 2025 at 4:51 PM
More progress on Astoraid (formerly known as "Game 2") I was meant to be working on a starfield and/or asteroid plotting so heres a video showing the game logo and playing area borders 😆 The playing area may end up shrinking depending on whether I can fit the various bits of status text it will need
A little more progress on "Game 2". I have the drawing and animation of player "jet exhausts" and "scans" working and added the asteroid plotting routine today. Currently have 4 separate sprite routines, you can never have too many 😜
July 19, 2025 at 6:24 PM
A little more progress on "Game 2". I have the drawing and animation of player "jet exhausts" and "scans" working and added the asteroid plotting routine today. Currently have 4 separate sprite routines, you can never have too many 😜
A tech free week for me as I will be enjoying this view instead. I have bought my notebook and pen with me so I might be jotting thoughts about "game 2" down. I've been coming here since I was 14 and used to use pen and paper back then to think about programs I wanted to write :)
June 13, 2025 at 3:49 PM
A tech free week for me as I will be enjoying this view instead. I have bought my notebook and pen with me so I might be jotting thoughts about "game 2" down. I've been coming here since I was 14 and used to use pen and paper back then to think about programs I wanted to write :)
Finally some progress with "game #2". I've spent a lot of time (2 months!) drawing/re-drawing the player sprite and just not getting anything that I was happy with so I went back to my original (from April) and am going with that for now. Testing keyboard rotation of the player ship.
June 9, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Finally some progress with "game #2". I've spent a lot of time (2 months!) drawing/re-drawing the player sprite and just not getting anything that I was happy with so I went back to my original (from April) and am going with that for now. Testing keyboard rotation of the player ship.
The amazing Electroniq from @0xc0de.bsky.social just keeps getting better and better. Here you can see the secrets of Apache Canyons 50fps gameplay (double buffering) via Electroniq's new "view RAM as pixels feature"
June 3, 2025 at 6:15 PM
The amazing Electroniq from @0xc0de.bsky.social just keeps getting better and better. Here you can see the secrets of Apache Canyons 50fps gameplay (double buffering) via Electroniq's new "view RAM as pixels feature"
1. Power on laptop
2. Start VSCode
3. Types ".draw_player_sprite"
To be continued 😉
Small steps, but I'm hoping to build some momentum and get some work done on "game 2" after some time away due to work based coding fatigue.
2. Start VSCode
3. Types ".draw_player_sprite"
To be continued 😉
Small steps, but I'm hoping to build some momentum and get some work done on "game 2" after some time away due to work based coding fatigue.
May 24, 2025 at 4:03 PM
1. Power on laptop
2. Start VSCode
3. Types ".draw_player_sprite"
To be continued 😉
Small steps, but I'm hoping to build some momentum and get some work done on "game 2" after some time away due to work based coding fatigue.
2. Start VSCode
3. Types ".draw_player_sprite"
To be continued 😉
Small steps, but I'm hoping to build some momentum and get some work done on "game 2" after some time away due to work based coding fatigue.
Really pleased at work today to see a web app created by one of our other teams.At first I thought it was created using our old React component library but when I looked at the code it was a React 19 app using the shiny "new" Lit based components I've been putting together over the last 2 years 😀
May 16, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Really pleased at work today to see a web app created by one of our other teams.At first I thought it was created using our old React component library but when I looked at the code it was a React 19 app using the shiny "new" Lit based components I've been putting together over the last 2 years 😀