Hello from Oregon!
Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2020 5:33 pm
Hello everyone!
I'm a software engineer/architect by trade, but I also occasionally write retro software in my spare time, mainly for MS-DOS era PCs. Strangely enough, I was never a Commodore user back in the day - in fact, I never even owned a C64 until I was an adult and started collecting older computers - my 8-bit PCs of choice growing up were the Atari 8-bits (specifically the 65XE) and Apple II. That being said, I'm a big fan of the idea of the principles behind the X16 - modern hardware with the ability to directly access all the hardware like old school computers - so I've been following the project closely ever since David announced it on his channel.
I don't have any specific details planned out for what I want to do yet, but long term I'd like to create a little old-school roguelike - something like Angband, but stripped down enough to make it feasible on 8-bit hardware (in other words, something closer to the original Rogue). Since my 6502 assembly skills are limited to a 6502 emulator I wrote for a long-abandoned NES emulator project I toyed with and a little bit of NES dev (both nearly 20 years ago!), I'm still trying to figure my way around the hardware and software.
Anyway, I'm glad the see the project is not only alive, but thriving. So many 'dream projects' never seem to gain the critical mass necessary to find their way to completion, but both the team behind the project and the community continue to deliver. I'm looking forward to the day where I can buy real X16 hardware!