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paktc.bsky.social
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@paktc.bsky.social
Fun and unexpected stuff related to 2000s retro games and computing. All content is in English.

YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PAKTC
Website: https://paktc.markusmaal.ee
People on New Year's Eve be like:
youtu.be/zNQqdeEyFiI?...
Congratulations! [PS2 FMV Rip]
YouTube video by Press any key to continue...
youtu.be
December 31, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Did you know that if you press SELECT while on the PSX "CD PLAYER" menu, you can see a visualizer (SoundScope)? You can also cycle between visualizations (DPad Left/Right).

You can even record macros!
X + L1 = Toggle macro
X + L2 = Load from MC
X + R1 = Start/Stop recording
X + R2 = Save to MC
December 29, 2025 at 3:27 PM
I have made some very needed updates for Flipnic Freecam!
Link: gist.github.com/MarkusMaal/b...

What's new?
+ Auto-detect region and offsets
+ Hide OSD option
+ Import and generate (non-animated) .FPC files
* QOL and UI improvements
* FOV trackbar now auto-syncs with the in-game value
December 24, 2025 at 4:07 PM
In case you're wondering where the next video is, it's taking a ridiculous time to render (will probably finish tomorrow?), because it's a longplay video that's 9.4 hours long (it's been half a month in the making)

So it'll probably be uploaded some time on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day.
December 23, 2025 at 12:25 PM
Fun fact: Evolution/Theology stages check if you have an extra ball when respawning (this is normally done so that the voice can say "Ball saved" instead of "Ready"), even though it's not possible to hit a blue UFO on those stages.

This is not the case for 2P stages or Geometry.
December 19, 2025 at 11:47 AM
I've been having fun finding some new cheat codes for Flipnic. It's a bit easier for me, since I have some understanding of how the game works internally.

They are PCSX2 .pnach files, I will release these eventually.
December 17, 2025 at 11:49 AM
In Flipnic, FPD files are all sorts of fun (they define fixed paths for various things, e.g. enemy movement/coins/UFOs/etc.)

For example, you can do something like this:
December 8, 2025 at 2:18 PM
LOAD_0.MID
November 30, 2025 at 9:49 PM
This is a really early version of Pak, the official mascot of PAKTC!

It's a vector image made in Inkscape and looks kind of uncanny right now.

And he's got no nose, because you don't need to breathe if you live inside a computer program (yes, there is lore).
November 27, 2025 at 12:33 PM
he's watching you
November 14, 2025 at 11:39 AM
I changed my profile picture! Here's a comparison between the two (left = before, right = after):
November 8, 2025 at 6:54 PM
I made a tool to extract the PlayStation 1 startup sound (including the .VAB soundbank and a custom MIDI-like sequence)
github.com/MarkusMaal/p...
GitHub - MarkusMaal/psxbios2mid: Tools to convert the PlayStation startup sound to MIDI (from PSX memory dump)
Tools to convert the PlayStation startup sound to MIDI (from PSX memory dump) - MarkusMaal/psxbios2mid
github.com
October 27, 2025 at 6:10 PM
I found this is a cool project to restore the 2013-2016 YouTube UI called Rehike: github.com/Rehike/Rehike

It's basically a server you set up and route all YouTube trafiic through. It's still in development, but most stuff already works, except for live streams, which break in a funny way.
October 19, 2025 at 8:26 AM
flipnic main menu with dark buttons
October 12, 2025 at 3:14 PM
In case you were wondering: yes, it's possible to change the loading text Flipnic, but you are limited to 11 characters of text in UTF-8 encoding (stored inside the data section of the game executable).
October 11, 2025 at 3:13 PM
I made a website for my YT channel
It has some links to my stuff, contact info and there are also a few guides here: paktc.markusmaal.ee
Welcome!
Official website for the Press any key to continue YouTube channel
paktc.markusmaal.ee
October 7, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Something nostalgic for TrackMania² players (that is if you've even heard this obscure soundtrack)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y775...
ManiaPlanet 1.0 - Menu Theme [Extended BGM]
YouTube video by Press any key to continue...
www.youtube.com
October 6, 2025 at 1:07 PM
The growth of my YouTube channel has been insane this year.
I've gotten a total of 75k more views, 1k hours of watch time and 156 new subscribers.

This is more than any previous year my YT channel has existed and there are still 3 whole months left of this year.
September 29, 2025 at 12:01 PM
I've managed to decode some 3D models from Flipnic's LP4 files. It isn't perfect yet (I have yet to figure out how texture coordinates are stored), but some models already look kind of accurate.
September 21, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Flipnic File Tools - a command-line tool for working with various files used by the game (with a GUI front-end available).
Here's what it can now v.s. what it could originally do 1 month ago when I started developing it:

The plan is to eventually support all file formats.
github.com/MarkusMaal/F...
September 20, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Reposted by Press any key to continue...
Flipnic - Ultimate Pinball - Any% in 1:25:47 by PressAnyKeyToContinue
Flipnic - Ultimate Pinball - Any% in 1:25:47 by PressAnyKeyToContinue
www.speedrun.com
September 17, 2025 at 10:44 PM
In late 2019 I made my first Flipnic video in a video series called "Bad Luck", where I tried to figure out if getting bad luck would affect gameplay.

It was bad, please do not watch it!
September 15, 2025 at 5:08 PM
it's kind of fun to see the Flipnic soundtrack deconstructed like this...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTtT...
Flipnic - Original Soundtrack [MIDI Waveform Deconstruction]
YouTube video by Press any key to continue...
www.youtube.com
September 12, 2025 at 11:12 AM