of XGS programs, including the newly created tile- then swapped back and forth, creating the illusion
based graphics engine that allows developers to of simultaneous existence. This is why some old
create platform games in the vein of the old Nintendo games, especially on the Atari and NES consoles,
Entertainment System. With a light touch, XGS users seem to flicker when a lot of action is going on.
can change the blocks in Tetris into smiley faces, or Obviously, this sort of workaround isn’t used
modify the background of the Pole Position clone to much anymore, but implementing interlacing in a
video game is still a terrific way to
“The XGS is not made for learn how to interact directly with
the video generator on a piece of
hardware. This is a trick you’ll have
playing games so much to learn while programming the XGS.
To the uninitiated, the XGS looks
as it is for making games.” just like any other circuit board. But
to the trained eye, there are distinct
features that stand out upon first
“When I had Alex write the manual, I gave him well enough that even a newbie can differentiate
the old docs for the Apple computers that Steve between the video processor and the sound filters.
Wozniak wrote. I handed those to him and said, Pop open your Xbox and try to find where the
‘Write it like this,’ “ says LaMothe. board processes sound — you’ll need a magnifying
LaMothe longs for those distant days, when glass and an engineering schematic. As a hackable
electrical engineering and programming were sig- platform, Microsoft’s game console is impenetrable
nificantly closer disciplines — the lone programmer to all but the savviest hackers, but the XGS begs to
creating his or her own vision with perfect clarity and be rewired, diddled with, and modified.
dedication. The XGS software scene is homegrown The XGameStation requires the sort of program-
and almost exclusively staffed by one-man dev ming that just about anybody can learn with a little
teams. New hacks, games, and demos appear every time and effort. Your humble author, for example,
day on
www.nurve. net, and all of them are labors of has only a rudimentary knowledge of both BASIC and
love. Each one is a solution to the problems designers 8086 assembly language — yet within a few minutes,
encounter while using the XGS. Each new game ten years of brain rot vanished as vague memories of
created is a triumph over the hardware’s limitations. if-then loops began to return to the frontal lobes.
And this is exactly what LaMothe wants. The XGS LaMothe and Varanese have created compilers
was specifically designed with these limitations in for many different programming languages, and
mind: what it can’t do is more important than what even the humble BASIC is usable here. No matter
it can. As such, developers must rediscover the what you remember from your heady and youthful
tricks of the trade used by their predecessors. days at computer camp, you’ll likely find a way to
Take interlacing, for example. Many moons ago, apply it to design on the XGS.
if a game designer wanted to draw more than two While there’s absolutely no chance of the XGS
moving objects on screen at once, interlacing was replacing your Xbox, it could quickly take a beloved
the only way to get it done. position on your workbench, next to the unfinished
Every time the screen displays a moving image, birdhouse and the old Apple II you’ve kept since
it’s really putting up many single motionless images, your childhood. If you really want to get into game
each one swapped out quickly for the next, like a design, there’s no better way to gain a foundation of
flipbook. The human eye can’t really distinguish knowledge for the endeavor than by diving headlong
between each of these still frames. Using interlacing into the XGameStation.
requires drawing Pong paddle one and Pong paddle
two in one frame, then drawing the ball and score on Alex Handy is a purple-haired newlywed who can’t put bricks to
the next frame. These two divergent frames are sleep by looking at them. He lives at
www.gism.net.
References:
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