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<generator >Hubhopper(https://hubhopper.com)</generator>
<title >NCOT Technology</title>
<itunes:type >episodic</itunes:type>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Ever wondered what\'s actually happening beneath your code? Welcome to NCOT Technology, where we strip away the abstractions to explore the \"how\" and \"why\" of computing.

From building 3D engines without a GPU to wiring up binary adders and mastering IEEE 754 floating point, this channel is for the curious programmers who want to fall down the technical \"rabbit holes.\"

What we cover:
* Low-Level Engineering: Logic gates, CPU architecture, and hardware arithmetic.
* Graphics from Scratch: 3D projection and rasterization without the libraries.
* Computing Standards: Deep dives into the standards that make the digital world work.
* Hands-on Code: Technical walkthroughs in C++, Python, and Assembly.

If you aren\'t satisfied with a library doing the work for you and want to understand the circuitry driving it all, hit Subscribe. Let\'s see how deep the rabbit hole goes.]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Ever wondered what\'s actually happening beneath your code? Welcome to NCOT Technology, where we strip away the abstractions to explore the \"how\" and \"why\" of computing.

From building 3D engines without a GPU to wiring up binary adders and mastering IEEE 754 floating point, this channel is for the curious programmers who want to fall down the technical \"rabbit holes.\"

What we cover:
* Low-Level Engineering: Logic gates, CPU architecture, and hardware arithmetic.
* Graphics from Scratch: 3D projection and rasterization without the libraries.
* Computing Standards: Deep dives into the standards that make the digital world work.
* Hands-on Code: Technical walkthroughs in C++, Python, and Assembly.

If you aren\'t satisfied with a library doing the work for you and want to understand the circuitry driving it all, hit Subscribe. Let\'s see how deep the rabbit hole goes.]]></description>
<image ><title >NCOT Technology</title>
<link ></link>
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<language >en</language>
<copyright >Copyright 2026 NCOT Technology</copyright>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<googleplay:author >NCOT Technology</googleplay:author>
<itunes:owner ><itunes:name >NCOT Technology</itunes:name>
<itunes:email >noquezarry@gmail.com</itunes:email>
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<itunes:category  text='Leisure' ></itunes:category>
<link >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</link>
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<podcast:episode >88</podcast:episode>
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<title >Your CPU Can\&apos;t Tell Code From Data - Inside the Von Neumann Architecture</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/your-cpu-cant-tell-code-from-data-inside-the-von-neumann-architecture-1788574605/33032284</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035431</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Mon, 31 Aug 2026 17:00:19 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[This video explains the Von Neumann architecture and demonstrates, with real BBC BASIC and C code, how computers fundamentally cannot tell the difference between data and executable instructions.

Join Patreon : https://patreon.com/ncot_tech
One time donation: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech
Website : https://ncot.uk

From typing in BASIC listings on a BBC Micro in the 1980s to modern x86 machine code on a PC, this video breaks down the Von Neumann architecture and the fetch-decode-execute cycle at the heart of every computer. We look at raw opcodes and ASCII data sitting side by side in memory, show how a CPU can be tricked into executing data as code, and connect that same principle to real-world exploits including the famous Super Mario World RAM manipulation TAS by Seth Bling. Along the way we cover why modern CPUs use an execute-permission bit (the NX bit) to guard against buffer overflows and code injection, how the Harvard architecture differs by physically separating code and data memory, and why this isn\'t a bug but a fundamental, necessary part of how programs get loaded and run. Topics covered: Von Neumann architecture, CPU fetch-decode-execute cycle, BBC BASIC and machine code, x86 assembly, memory mapping in C, buffer overflow and code injection exploits, and hardware execute protection.

Chapters
--------
00:00 Remembering BASIC Listings
00:35 The Von Neumann Architecture Explained
01:21 Inside a BBC BASIC Program with Embedded Machine Code
02:12 Decoding the Opcodes: Data or Instructions?
03:05 Recreating the Trick in C on a Modern PC
04:47 Super Mario World TAS: Hacking RAM to Skip the Game
06:10 How Hardware Fights Back: The NX Bit
06:40 The Harvard Architecture Alternative
07:01 Flipping the Execute Bit to Run Data as Code
08:01 Why This Isn\'t a Bug - It\'s the Architecture

Credits
-------
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

## Keywords
#vonneumannarchitecture #cybersecurity #computerscience #machinecode #bufferoverflow #cpuarchitecture #retrocomputing #hacking #programming #infosec]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[This video explains the Von Neumann architecture and demonstrates, with real BBC BASIC and C code, how computers fundamentally cannot tell the difference between data and executable instructions.

Join Patreon : https://patreon.com/ncot_tech
One time donation: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech
Website : https://ncot.uk

From typing in BASIC listings on a BBC Micro in the 1980s to modern x86 machine code on a PC, this video breaks down the Von Neumann architecture and the fetch-decode-execute cycle at the heart of every computer. We look at raw opcodes and ASCII data sitting side by side in memory, show how a CPU can be tricked into executing data as code, and connect that same principle to real-world exploits including the famous Super Mario World RAM manipulation TAS by Seth Bling. Along the way we cover why modern CPUs use an execute-permission bit (the NX bit) to guard against buffer overflows and code injection, how the Harvard architecture differs by physically separating code and data memory, and why this isn\'t a bug but a fundamental, necessary part of how programs get loaded and run. Topics covered: Von Neumann architecture, CPU fetch-decode-execute cycle, BBC BASIC and machine code, x86 assembly, memory mapping in C, buffer overflow and code injection exploits, and hardware execute protection.

Chapters
--------
00:00 Remembering BASIC Listings
00:35 The Von Neumann Architecture Explained
01:21 Inside a BBC BASIC Program with Embedded Machine Code
02:12 Decoding the Opcodes: Data or Instructions?
03:05 Recreating the Trick in C on a Modern PC
04:47 Super Mario World TAS: Hacking RAM to Skip the Game
06:10 How Hardware Fights Back: The NX Bit
06:40 The Harvard Architecture Alternative
07:01 Flipping the Execute Bit to Run Data as Code
08:01 Why This Isn\'t a Bug - It\'s the Architecture

Credits
-------
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

## Keywords
#vonneumannarchitecture #cybersecurity #computerscience #machinecode #bufferoverflow #cpuarchitecture #retrocomputing #hacking #programming #infosec]]></description>
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<itunes:duration >540</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
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<title >I Let ChatGPT Teach Me Embedded Programming — It Went Badly | UPERFECT BE156MF Monitor</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/i-let-chatgpt-teach-me-embedded-programming-it-went-badly-uperfect-be156mf-monitor-1788574605/33032285</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035439</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Thu, 25 Jun 2026 17:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Get your own UPERFECT monitor using the following link https://shop.uperfect.com/4dNpTOl
Use the following offer codes for a discount
ncotech50, $50off for order amount above $300
ncotech60, $60off for order amount above $400

I picked up a Cheap Yellow Display (CYD) — an ESP32 with a built-in LCD — 
and tried to get it working from scratch. I had no idea what I was doing. 
So I asked ChatGPT. That was my first mistake.

I thought this would take ten minutes. It took six hours. This is what ChatGPT actually taught me — and it wasn\'t what I expected.

What followed was six hours of boot loops, library rabbit holes, vibe coding, 
and the slow realisation that I\'d stopped thinking entirely. At some point I 
became the slower, more confused half of the conversation.

But here\'s what I actually learned: the real problem in embedded programming isn\'t the code. It\'s vocabulary. You can\'t search for what you don\'t know exists. And it turns out that\'s where AI is genuinely useful — not as a code generator, but as a way of finding the words you need to go and read properly.

Zero to moving text on screen. Six hours. Not sure I\'d have got there without it.

“Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio” 

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
CHAPTERS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
0:00 Six hours. Just this.
1:25 The ASCII aquarium that started everything
2:28 Enter ChatGPT (first mistake)
3:50 Hello World — after an hour
4:40 The library maze
5:23 I realised I\'d stopped thinking
6:57 What\'s actually different about this board
8:34 Sponsor — UPerfect portable monitor
12:49 The breakthrough (I\'d been ignoring a setting)
15:38 A spinning cube I don\'t understand
17:17 The AI trap: outsourcing your brain
18:05 Back to the actual goal: ASCII text
19:05 Why learning is hard (it\'s the vocabulary)
20:01 What ChatGPT is actually good for
21:44 Six hours well spent. Mostly.

#uperfect. #WatchWithUPERFECT #ESP32 #CheapYellowDisplay #EmbeddedProgramming #Arduino #ChatGPT]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Get your own UPERFECT monitor using the following link https://shop.uperfect.com/4dNpTOl
Use the following offer codes for a discount
ncotech50, $50off for order amount above $300
ncotech60, $60off for order amount above $400

I picked up a Cheap Yellow Display (CYD) — an ESP32 with a built-in LCD — 
and tried to get it working from scratch. I had no idea what I was doing. 
So I asked ChatGPT. That was my first mistake.

I thought this would take ten minutes. It took six hours. This is what ChatGPT actually taught me — and it wasn\'t what I expected.

What followed was six hours of boot loops, library rabbit holes, vibe coding, 
and the slow realisation that I\'d stopped thinking entirely. At some point I 
became the slower, more confused half of the conversation.

But here\'s what I actually learned: the real problem in embedded programming isn\'t the code. It\'s vocabulary. You can\'t search for what you don\'t know exists. And it turns out that\'s where AI is genuinely useful — not as a code generator, but as a way of finding the words you need to go and read properly.

Zero to moving text on screen. Six hours. Not sure I\'d have got there without it.

“Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio” 

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
CHAPTERS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
0:00 Six hours. Just this.
1:25 The ASCII aquarium that started everything
2:28 Enter ChatGPT (first mistake)
3:50 Hello World — after an hour
4:40 The library maze
5:23 I realised I\'d stopped thinking
6:57 What\'s actually different about this board
8:34 Sponsor — UPerfect portable monitor
12:49 The breakthrough (I\'d been ignoring a setting)
15:38 A spinning cube I don\'t understand
17:17 The AI trap: outsourcing your brain
18:05 Back to the actual goal: ASCII text
19:05 Why learning is hard (it\'s the vocabulary)
20:01 What ChatGPT is actually good for
21:44 Six hours well spent. Mostly.

#uperfect. #WatchWithUPERFECT #ESP32 #CheapYellowDisplay #EmbeddedProgramming #Arduino #ChatGPT]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/f30a9d9eba1f1563611dfa57571f3ae5.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='21370000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1400</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032285/i-let-chatgpt-teach-me-embedded-programming-it-went-badly-uperfect-be156mf-monitor.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032285/i-let-chatgpt-teach-me-embedded-programming-it-went-badly-uperfect-be156mf-monitor.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Everything In DOOM Is A Lie | The Genius Behind The Legend</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/everything-in-doom-is-a-lie-the-genius-behind-the-legend-1788574605/33032286</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035440</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Thu, 11 Jun 2026 17:00:02 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Summer Living Starts with FlexiSpot – [https://go.flexispot.co.uk/ncot_tech-deals]
Get £170 off the E7 Pro Standing Desk Now – [https://go.flexispot.co.uk/ncot_tech-e7pro]

DOOM ran on a 386 with 4MB of RAM and convinced an entire generation they were 
walking through actual 3D world. They weren\'t. It was an elaborate trick designed to squeeze the most from a CPU designed for boring business tasks.

Every corridor, every monster, every firefight — all of it built on a stack of 
deliberate lies. We dig into the actual Doom source code to expose six of them: 
how the world is secretly 2D, why you can never look up, why cacodemons are 
effectively infinitely tall cylinders, and why the physics engine is beautiful 
nonsense held together with genius and barely-controlled desperation.

This isn\'t a hit piece. The constraints didn\'t hold Doom back — they defined it.

 Chapters:
0:00 — Introduction: Running Doom on a toaster (the 386 problem)
2:17 — Lie #1: The world isn\'t actually 3D (2.5D maps and BSP trees)
7:18 — Lie #2: You can\'t look up or down (y-shearing and auto-aim)
10:44 — Lie #3: Floating enemies are infinitely tall cylinders
16:19 — Lie #4: Every monster is a 2D cardboard cutout (8-angle sprites)
17:43 — Lie #5: Monster AI is beautifully, brilliantly stupid
21:06 — Lie #6: The game runs at a simulated 35fps
22:43 — Why the constraints made Doom great

“Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio”
This video contains unpaid product placement from FlexiSpot.]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Summer Living Starts with FlexiSpot – [https://go.flexispot.co.uk/ncot_tech-deals]
Get £170 off the E7 Pro Standing Desk Now – [https://go.flexispot.co.uk/ncot_tech-e7pro]

DOOM ran on a 386 with 4MB of RAM and convinced an entire generation they were 
walking through actual 3D world. They weren\'t. It was an elaborate trick designed to squeeze the most from a CPU designed for boring business tasks.

Every corridor, every monster, every firefight — all of it built on a stack of 
deliberate lies. We dig into the actual Doom source code to expose six of them: 
how the world is secretly 2D, why you can never look up, why cacodemons are 
effectively infinitely tall cylinders, and why the physics engine is beautiful 
nonsense held together with genius and barely-controlled desperation.

This isn\'t a hit piece. The constraints didn\'t hold Doom back — they defined it.

 Chapters:
0:00 — Introduction: Running Doom on a toaster (the 386 problem)
2:17 — Lie #1: The world isn\'t actually 3D (2.5D maps and BSP trees)
7:18 — Lie #2: You can\'t look up or down (y-shearing and auto-aim)
10:44 — Lie #3: Floating enemies are infinitely tall cylinders
16:19 — Lie #4: Every monster is a 2D cardboard cutout (8-angle sprites)
17:43 — Lie #5: Monster AI is beautifully, brilliantly stupid
21:06 — Lie #6: The game runs at a simulated 35fps
22:43 — Why the constraints made Doom great

“Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio”
This video contains unpaid product placement from FlexiSpot.]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/ccab504d6655b370054d38e784331862.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='23550000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1543</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032286/everything-in-doom-is-a-lie-the-genius-behind-the-legend.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032286/everything-in-doom-is-a-lie-the-genius-behind-the-legend.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >The Floating Point Lie Every Programmer Discovers Too Late</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/the-floating-point-lie-every-programmer-discovers-too-late-1788574605/33032287</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035435</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sun, 31 May 2026 17:30:28 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Why does Python tell you that 0.1 + 0.2 = 0.30000000000000004? 
The answer is IEEE 754 - the floating-point standard baked into every CPU on the planet.

In this video we go under the hood: from the limits of fixed-point arithmetic, through scientific notation in binary, to hand-converting 3.14 into its 32-bit IEEE 754 representation - and then proving it in C with a union hack that reads the raw bits directly out of memory.

We also look at what happens at the edges: divide by zero, and rather than a crash you get infinity. Divide zero by zero and you get NaN - Not a Number. IEEE 754 doesn\'t just define the happy path, it defines all the weird paths too.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 CHAPTERS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
0:00 The 0.1 + 0.2 Problem
1:01 Fixed-Point Arithmetic
5:57 Scientific Notation & the Birth of Floating Point
6:48 The IEEE 754 Standard
7:01 Converting 3.14 to a 32-bit Float
11:12 Proving it in C
13:24 Edge Cases: Infinity and NaN
15:20 Why IEEE 754 Changed Everything

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 LINKS & RESOURCES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 Support the channel on Patreon (+ 24hr early access, no ads):
https://www.patreon.com/ncot_tech
Scientific Calculator - Thirunavukkarasye-Raveendran, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Intel 486 DX2 Die shot - This file was derived from: Intel 80486 DX2 die.JPG by Pauli Rautakorpi CC BY 3.0
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Why does Python tell you that 0.1 + 0.2 = 0.30000000000000004? 
The answer is IEEE 754 - the floating-point standard baked into every CPU on the planet.

In this video we go under the hood: from the limits of fixed-point arithmetic, through scientific notation in binary, to hand-converting 3.14 into its 32-bit IEEE 754 representation - and then proving it in C with a union hack that reads the raw bits directly out of memory.

We also look at what happens at the edges: divide by zero, and rather than a crash you get infinity. Divide zero by zero and you get NaN - Not a Number. IEEE 754 doesn\'t just define the happy path, it defines all the weird paths too.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 CHAPTERS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
0:00 The 0.1 + 0.2 Problem
1:01 Fixed-Point Arithmetic
5:57 Scientific Notation & the Birth of Floating Point
6:48 The IEEE 754 Standard
7:01 Converting 3.14 to a 32-bit Float
11:12 Proving it in C
13:24 Edge Cases: Infinity and NaN
15:20 Why IEEE 754 Changed Everything

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 LINKS & RESOURCES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 Support the channel on Patreon (+ 24hr early access, no ads):
https://www.patreon.com/ncot_tech
Scientific Calculator - Thirunavukkarasye-Raveendran, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Intel 486 DX2 Die shot - This file was derived from: Intel 80486 DX2 die.JPG by Pauli Rautakorpi CC BY 3.0
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/73b62cd99bdfc01e372106cf22aad7bb.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='15510000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1016</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032287/the-floating-point-lie-every-programmer-discovers-too-late.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032287/the-floating-point-lie-every-programmer-discovers-too-late.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >A Computer Has No Idea What Addition Is — Here\&apos;s How It Fakes It</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/a-computer-has-no-idea-what-addition-is-heres-how-it-fakes-it-1788574605/33032288</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035426</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sun, 24 May 2026 16:54:58 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[How does a computer add two numbers — not with code, but with actual electronics? In this video we build the circuits that make addition happen at the hardware level, starting from the simplest possible adding circuit and working up to something that can add multi-bit binary numbers.

We cover:
• The rules of binary addition (and why carrying works the same as primary school)
• The half adder — the smallest adding circuit, built from one XOR gate and one AND gate
• The full adder — why the half adder isn\'t enough, and how to fix it with two half adders and an OR gate
• The ripple carry adder — chaining full adders together to add 4-bit (and larger) binary numbers
• Overflow — what happens when the answer doesn\'t fit

Everything is demonstrated in a logic gate simulator so you can see exactly how the signals flow through the circuit. No code required — just logic gates doing what they do.This is the foundation of how virtually every processor ever built handles addition. Next time we\'ll look at how computers deal with fractions and floating-point numbers — which is where things get weird.

-- Chapters --
0:00 Introduction — How do computers add?
0:53 Binary addition rules
2:41 The half adder (XOR + AND gates)
5:28 Half adder demo in the simulator
7:15 Why the half adder isn\'t enough
8:20 The full adder (two half adders + OR gate)
10:45 Full adder demo in the simulator
12:30 The ripple carry adder
14:15 4-bit adder demo & overflow
15:40 Conclusion & what\'s next

“Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio”]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[How does a computer add two numbers — not with code, but with actual electronics? In this video we build the circuits that make addition happen at the hardware level, starting from the simplest possible adding circuit and working up to something that can add multi-bit binary numbers.

We cover:
• The rules of binary addition (and why carrying works the same as primary school)
• The half adder — the smallest adding circuit, built from one XOR gate and one AND gate
• The full adder — why the half adder isn\'t enough, and how to fix it with two half adders and an OR gate
• The ripple carry adder — chaining full adders together to add 4-bit (and larger) binary numbers
• Overflow — what happens when the answer doesn\'t fit

Everything is demonstrated in a logic gate simulator so you can see exactly how the signals flow through the circuit. No code required — just logic gates doing what they do.This is the foundation of how virtually every processor ever built handles addition. Next time we\'ll look at how computers deal with fractions and floating-point numbers — which is where things get weird.

-- Chapters --
0:00 Introduction — How do computers add?
0:53 Binary addition rules
2:41 The half adder (XOR + AND gates)
5:28 Half adder demo in the simulator
7:15 Why the half adder isn\'t enough
8:20 The full adder (two half adders + OR gate)
10:45 Full adder demo in the simulator
12:30 The ripple carry adder
14:15 4-bit adder demo & overflow
15:40 Conclusion & what\'s next

“Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio”]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/d90b855c3bfd7eb677693ba851bc0522.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='15370000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1007</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032288/a-computer-has-no-idea-what-addition-is-heres-how-it-fakes-it.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032288/a-computer-has-no-idea-what-addition-is-heres-how-it-fakes-it.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Your CPU Has Never Seen a Minus Sign — Here\&apos;s the Trick It Uses Instead</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/your-cpu-has-never-seen-a-minus-sign-heres-the-trick-it-uses-instead-1788574605/33032289</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035406</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sun, 17 May 2026 17:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[What happens when a computer encounters -1? The answer is weirder — and more elegant — than you\'d expect.

In this video we dig into how computers actually represent negative numbers in binary. We start with the 
obvious-but-broken approach (sign-magnitude), show why it fails, then work through one\'s complement 
and arrive at two\'s complement — the system that quietly powers every processor you\'ve ever used.

Covered in this video:
→ Why you can\'t just slap a minus sign on a binary number
→ Sign-magnitude: the intuitive approach and its inherent flaw
→ One\'s complement: almost there, but not quite
→ Two\'s complement: the elegant solution and why it works

-- Credits --
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

---
Boost your YouTube audience with vidIQ. Use this link to unlock 500 bonus credits when you upgrade to a premium plan: https://vidiq.com/r/?code=YtfDjC]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[What happens when a computer encounters -1? The answer is weirder — and more elegant — than you\'d expect.

In this video we dig into how computers actually represent negative numbers in binary. We start with the 
obvious-but-broken approach (sign-magnitude), show why it fails, then work through one\'s complement 
and arrive at two\'s complement — the system that quietly powers every processor you\'ve ever used.

Covered in this video:
→ Why you can\'t just slap a minus sign on a binary number
→ Sign-magnitude: the intuitive approach and its inherent flaw
→ One\'s complement: almost there, but not quite
→ Two\'s complement: the elegant solution and why it works

-- Credits --
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

---
Boost your YouTube audience with vidIQ. Use this link to unlock 500 bonus credits when you upgrade to a premium plan: https://vidiq.com/r/?code=YtfDjC]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/98e20aa2db7a4c0e3516d848f8f1eaac.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='13500000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >884</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032289/your-cpu-has-never-seen-a-minus-sign-heres-the-trick-it-uses-instead.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032289/your-cpu-has-never-seen-a-minus-sign-heres-the-trick-it-uses-instead.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Your CPU Has No Concept of 3D — Here\&apos;s How It Fakes It</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/your-cpu-has-no-concept-of-3d-heres-how-it-fakes-it-1788574605/33032290</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035418</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Tue, 31 Mar 2026 16:00:44 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Support the channel, visit patreon.com/ncot_tech

Every frame of a 3D game you\'ve ever seen ultimately reduces to pixels written into memory. No matter how fast the GPU or how impressive the graphics, it all comes down to plotting pixels on the screen.
Today we\'re taking a short look at how triangles get turned into pixels. It seems easy enough, but this is something early software 3D had to do by hand, and something modern GPUs are doing all the time.

-- Credits --
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

-- hashtag soup --
#OpenGL #CPP #GraphicsProgramming #GameDev #Programming #ComputerGraphics #CodingTutorial]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Support the channel, visit patreon.com/ncot_tech

Every frame of a 3D game you\'ve ever seen ultimately reduces to pixels written into memory. No matter how fast the GPU or how impressive the graphics, it all comes down to plotting pixels on the screen.
Today we\'re taking a short look at how triangles get turned into pixels. It seems easy enough, but this is something early software 3D had to do by hand, and something modern GPUs are doing all the time.

-- Credits --
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

-- hashtag soup --
#OpenGL #CPP #GraphicsProgramming #GameDev #Programming #ComputerGraphics #CodingTutorial]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/e160fee564bfb19f4c25c8ad8f626d51.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='21910000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1435</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032290/your-cpu-has-no-concept-of-3d-heres-how-it-fakes-it.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032290/your-cpu-has-no-concept-of-3d-heres-how-it-fakes-it.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Can I Make a Neon World Using Only OpenGL?</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/can-i-make-a-neon-world-using-only-opengl-1788574605/33032291</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035395</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sun, 15 Mar 2026 16:59:28 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Support the channel, visit patreon.com/ncot_tech

In this video I build a classic vapourwave scene from scratch using C++ and raw OpenGL. No game engines, no shortcuts—just direct graphics programming. The scene features the iconic retro grid floor, distant mountains, and a glowing neon sunset sky inspired by 80s aesthetics.

I walk through the full process of how the scene works, including the C++ code structure, how the shaders create the vapourwave look, and how the geometry is rendered using OpenGL. Along the way I also show some of the mistakes and debugging steps that happened during development, which helps illustrate how real graphics programming problems get solved.

-- Credits --
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio
Contains clips from Robocop (c)1987 Orion Pictures
Amstrad CPC 464 Photograph by Rama, Wikimedia Commons, Cc-by-sa-2.0-fr
Billingham ICI Plant across back gardens, Billingham, Cleveland © Copyright Pete Chapman
Fort Lauderdale Motel Barry Lewis https://www.flickr.com/photos/16179216@N07/8714120481
Greenwood Flats, St Julians, Newport - Tower Block Miles Glendinning CC BY 4.0

-- Chapters --
00:00:00 Intro
00:00:33 Patreon
00:00:45 Setting the scene
00:01:47 What we\'re making
00:02:28 Hello World, OpenGL Style
00:04:56 Shaders
00:08:11 Loading 3D Objects
00:12:51 Texturing 3D Objects
00:17:49 Vaporwave Grid Shader
00:21:27 Vaporwave Mountains
00:27:13 Neon Sunsets
00:33:58 End Result
00:34:27 Outro

-- hashtag soup --
#OpenGL #CPP #GraphicsProgramming #GameDev #ShaderProgramming #Vaporwave #RetroAesthetic #OpenGLTutorial #LearnOpenGL #IndieDev #Programming #ComputerGraphics #ModernOpenGL #GameDevelopment #CodingTutorial

---
Boost your YouTube audience with vidIQ. Use this link to unlock 500 bonus credits when you upgrade to a premium plan: https://vidiq.com/r/?code=YtfDjC]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Support the channel, visit patreon.com/ncot_tech

In this video I build a classic vapourwave scene from scratch using C++ and raw OpenGL. No game engines, no shortcuts—just direct graphics programming. The scene features the iconic retro grid floor, distant mountains, and a glowing neon sunset sky inspired by 80s aesthetics.

I walk through the full process of how the scene works, including the C++ code structure, how the shaders create the vapourwave look, and how the geometry is rendered using OpenGL. Along the way I also show some of the mistakes and debugging steps that happened during development, which helps illustrate how real graphics programming problems get solved.

-- Credits --
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio
Contains clips from Robocop (c)1987 Orion Pictures
Amstrad CPC 464 Photograph by Rama, Wikimedia Commons, Cc-by-sa-2.0-fr
Billingham ICI Plant across back gardens, Billingham, Cleveland © Copyright Pete Chapman
Fort Lauderdale Motel Barry Lewis https://www.flickr.com/photos/16179216@N07/8714120481
Greenwood Flats, St Julians, Newport - Tower Block Miles Glendinning CC BY 4.0

-- Chapters --
00:00:00 Intro
00:00:33 Patreon
00:00:45 Setting the scene
00:01:47 What we\'re making
00:02:28 Hello World, OpenGL Style
00:04:56 Shaders
00:08:11 Loading 3D Objects
00:12:51 Texturing 3D Objects
00:17:49 Vaporwave Grid Shader
00:21:27 Vaporwave Mountains
00:27:13 Neon Sunsets
00:33:58 End Result
00:34:27 Outro

-- hashtag soup --
#OpenGL #CPP #GraphicsProgramming #GameDev #ShaderProgramming #Vaporwave #RetroAesthetic #OpenGLTutorial #LearnOpenGL #IndieDev #Programming #ComputerGraphics #ModernOpenGL #GameDevelopment #CodingTutorial

---
Boost your YouTube audience with vidIQ. Use this link to unlock 500 bonus credits when you upgrade to a premium plan: https://vidiq.com/r/?code=YtfDjC]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/65fbac49248d4c210cd269d37d231f87.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='33130000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >2170</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032291/can-i-make-a-neon-world-using-only-opengl.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032291/can-i-make-a-neon-world-using-only-opengl.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >3D Graphics Without OpenGL or DirectX?</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/3d-graphics-without-opengl-or-directx-1788574605/33032292</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035415</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Mon, 26 Jan 2026 18:23:41 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[This video is my journey through learning how early games drew 3D graphics before 3D APIs and modern GPUs existed. In fact, before old 3D APIs like OpenGL and old GPUs existed, too.

Just me, the computer and some code and maths. No 3D hardware or 3D libraries were used in the making of this video.

Support the channel
------------------------------
https://patreon.com/ncot_tech
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Website: https://ncot.uk

Credits
-----------
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Tags
-------
#3dmodeling #3dgames #programming #retro #cprogramming #gamedev #gamedevelopment]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[This video is my journey through learning how early games drew 3D graphics before 3D APIs and modern GPUs existed. In fact, before old 3D APIs like OpenGL and old GPUs existed, too.

Just me, the computer and some code and maths. No 3D hardware or 3D libraries were used in the making of this video.

Support the channel
------------------------------
https://patreon.com/ncot_tech
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Website: https://ncot.uk

Credits
-----------
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Tags
-------
#3dmodeling #3dgames #programming #retro #cprogramming #gamedev #gamedevelopment]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/407192907c0fceb755013df2a22598dc.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='28850000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1890</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032292/3d-graphics-without-opengl-or-directx.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032292/3d-graphics-without-opengl-or-directx.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >How Retro Games Built Their Worlds (Tile Maps in C from Scratch)</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/how-retro-games-built-their-worlds-tile-maps-in-c-from-scratch-1788574605/33032293</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035419</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sun, 04 Jan 2026 17:20:23 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Welcome to the next edition of Gamedev The Hard Way, my attempt at writing a game from scratch for the Agon Light, using nothing but C. This time I create a tilemap system.

The tilemap system is able to load tiles drawn in Aseprite, load a tile map drawn in Tiled, and scroll around a world that\'s larger than the screen.

I also develop an Aseprite plugin for exporting image data, and a Tiled plugin to export map data.

Support the channel
------------------------------
https://patreon.com/ncot_tech
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Website: https://ncot.uk

Credits
-----------
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Tags
-------
#agonlight #programming #retro #cprogramming #gamedev #gamedevelopment #retrocomputer]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Welcome to the next edition of Gamedev The Hard Way, my attempt at writing a game from scratch for the Agon Light, using nothing but C. This time I create a tilemap system.

The tilemap system is able to load tiles drawn in Aseprite, load a tile map drawn in Tiled, and scroll around a world that\'s larger than the screen.

I also develop an Aseprite plugin for exporting image data, and a Tiled plugin to export map data.

Support the channel
------------------------------
https://patreon.com/ncot_tech
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Website: https://ncot.uk

Credits
-----------
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Tags
-------
#agonlight #programming #retro #cprogramming #gamedev #gamedevelopment #retrocomputer]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/c06cf61c27f7f26770e40c89c2460600.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='22380000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1466</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032293/how-retro-games-built-their-worlds-tile-maps-in-c-from-scratch.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032293/how-retro-games-built-their-worlds-tile-maps-in-c-from-scratch.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >I Built a Game Engine in C and Made Something Playable</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/i-built-a-game-engine-in-c-and-made-something-playable-1788574605/33032294</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035432</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Thu, 04 Dec 2025 19:25:30 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Welcome to the next edition of Gamedev The Hard Way, my attempt at writing a game from scratch for the Agon Light, using nothing but C. This time I actually make a game! For once I actually finish something.

Support the channel
------------------------------
https://patreon.com/ncot_tech
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Website: https://ncot.uk

Credits
-----------
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Tags
-------
#agonlight #programming #retro #cprogramming #gamedev #gamedevelopment #retrocomputer

---
Boost your YouTube audience with vidIQ. Use this link to unlock 500 bonus credits when you upgrade to a premium plan: https://vidiq.com/r/?code=YtfDjC]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Welcome to the next edition of Gamedev The Hard Way, my attempt at writing a game from scratch for the Agon Light, using nothing but C. This time I actually make a game! For once I actually finish something.

Support the channel
------------------------------
https://patreon.com/ncot_tech
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Website: https://ncot.uk

Credits
-----------
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Tags
-------
#agonlight #programming #retro #cprogramming #gamedev #gamedevelopment #retrocomputer

---
Boost your YouTube audience with vidIQ. Use this link to unlock 500 bonus credits when you upgrade to a premium plan: https://vidiq.com/r/?code=YtfDjC]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/1a6f94f06a4181e1527339eaae465d53.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='19420000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1272</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032294/i-built-a-game-engine-in-c-and-made-something-playable.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032294/i-built-a-game-engine-in-c-and-made-something-playable.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >How I Built a Joystick Interface (And Made Every Mistake)</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/how-i-built-a-joystick-interface-and-made-every-mistake-1788574605/33032295</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035429</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Thu, 13 Nov 2025 20:17:01 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Welcome to the next edition of Gamedev The Hard Way, my attempt at writing a game from scratch for the Agon Light, using nothing but C. This time I make a joystick work by building a joystick interface for the Agon Light. Then I program it to add it to my game.

Support the channel
------------------------------
https://patreon.com/ncot_tech
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Website: https://ncot.uk

Credits
-----------
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Tags
-------
#agonlight #programming #retro #cprogramming #gamedev #gamedevelopment #retrocomputer]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Welcome to the next edition of Gamedev The Hard Way, my attempt at writing a game from scratch for the Agon Light, using nothing but C. This time I make a joystick work by building a joystick interface for the Agon Light. Then I program it to add it to my game.

Support the channel
------------------------------
https://patreon.com/ncot_tech
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Website: https://ncot.uk

Credits
-----------
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Tags
-------
#agonlight #programming #retro #cprogramming #gamedev #gamedevelopment #retrocomputer]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/2bec931cffd48c5c2cb72d8226902f1f.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='24490000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1604</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032295/how-i-built-a-joystick-interface-and-made-every-mistake.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032295/how-i-built-a-joystick-interface-and-made-every-mistake.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Collision Detection Doesn\&apos;t Need to Be Complicated</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/collision-detection-doesnt-need-to-be-complicated-1788574605/33032296</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035403</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Thu, 30 Oct 2025 19:17:14 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Welcome to the next edition of Gamedev The Hard Way, my attempt at writing a game from scratch for the Agon Light, using nothing but C. This time I get thoroughly distracted and accidentally make a Pong style game idea while figuring out how to add collision detection to my game engine. I implement the AABB Axis Aligned Bounding Box algorithm.

Support the channel
------------------------------
https://patreon.com/ncot_tech
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Website: https://ncot.uk

Credits
-----------
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Tags
-------
#agonlight #programming #retro #cprogramming #gamedev #gamedevelopment #retrocomputer]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Welcome to the next edition of Gamedev The Hard Way, my attempt at writing a game from scratch for the Agon Light, using nothing but C. This time I get thoroughly distracted and accidentally make a Pong style game idea while figuring out how to add collision detection to my game engine. I implement the AABB Axis Aligned Bounding Box algorithm.

Support the channel
------------------------------
https://patreon.com/ncot_tech
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Website: https://ncot.uk

Credits
-----------
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Tags
-------
#agonlight #programming #retro #cprogramming #gamedev #gamedevelopment #retrocomputer]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/ba48eb551a2dfb94b0874c70b19e96fc.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='23500000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1539</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032296/collision-detection-doesnt-need-to-be-complicated.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032296/collision-detection-doesnt-need-to-be-complicated.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >I Threw Away My Game Engine and Rebuilt It — Here\&apos;s Why</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/i-threw-away-my-game-engine-and-rebuilt-it-heres-why-1788574605/33032297</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035438</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Mon, 13 Oct 2025 17:00:58 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Welcome to the next edition of Gamedev The Hard Way, my attempt at writing a game from scratch for the Agon Light, using nothing but C. This time I throw away a ton of code and replace it with a shiny new Entity Component System.

Blog Post - https://ncot.uk/blog-posts/ecs-entity-component-system/

Support the channel
------------------------------
https://patreon.com/ncot_tech
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Website: https://ncot.uk

Credits
-----------
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Tags
-------
#agonlight #programming #retro #cprogramming #gamedev #gamedevelopment #retrocomputer]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Welcome to the next edition of Gamedev The Hard Way, my attempt at writing a game from scratch for the Agon Light, using nothing but C. This time I throw away a ton of code and replace it with a shiny new Entity Component System.

Blog Post - https://ncot.uk/blog-posts/ecs-entity-component-system/

Support the channel
------------------------------
https://patreon.com/ncot_tech
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Website: https://ncot.uk

Credits
-----------
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Tags
-------
#agonlight #programming #retro #cprogramming #gamedev #gamedevelopment #retrocomputer]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/4eec3c4761269df582e41af6e1964bda.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='33020000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >2163</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032297/i-threw-away-my-game-engine-and-rebuilt-it-heres-why.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032297/i-threw-away-my-game-engine-and-rebuilt-it-heres-why.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >State Machines - How to engineer better software</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/state-machines-how-to-engineer-better-software-1788574605/33032298</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035414</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Mon, 22 Sep 2025 17:40:36 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Welcome to the next edition of Gamedev The Hard Way, my attempt at writing a game from scratch for the Agon Light, using nothing but C. This time I attempt to put the \"engineering\" back in \"software engineer\". Instead of blindly hacking away at my code and hoping for the best, I am now more thoughtfully designing a system.

In this video we\'re looking at what software design patterns are, and how using a finite state machine can make writing a game\'s basic logic more manageable.

Support the channel
------------------------------
https://patreon.com/ncot_tech
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Website: https://ncot.uk

Credits
-----------
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Tags
-------
#agonlight #programming #retro #cprogramming #gamedev #gamedevelopment #retrocomputer]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Welcome to the next edition of Gamedev The Hard Way, my attempt at writing a game from scratch for the Agon Light, using nothing but C. This time I attempt to put the \"engineering\" back in \"software engineer\". Instead of blindly hacking away at my code and hoping for the best, I am now more thoughtfully designing a system.

In this video we\'re looking at what software design patterns are, and how using a finite state machine can make writing a game\'s basic logic more manageable.

Support the channel
------------------------------
https://patreon.com/ncot_tech
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Website: https://ncot.uk

Credits
-----------
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Tags
-------
#agonlight #programming #retro #cprogramming #gamedev #gamedevelopment #retrocomputer]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/4d6e411a577a1f5326e26c6d94dba55e.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='17380000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1139</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032298/state-machines-how-to-engineer-better-software.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032298/state-machines-how-to-engineer-better-software.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Parallel Port to Speaker - MS-DOS Audio Trick</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/parallel-port-to-speaker-ms-dos-audio-trick-1788574605/33032299</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035396</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sat, 30 Aug 2025 16:01:29 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[To try everything Brilliant has to offer—free— visit https://brilliant.org/NCOTTechnology/ .
You’ll also get 20% off an annual premium subscription.

Support me on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/ncot_tech

Credits
------------
This video was sponsored by Brilliant

#MSDOS #BorlandCPP #RetroCoding #DOSDev #chiptune #covox]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[To try everything Brilliant has to offer—free— visit https://brilliant.org/NCOTTechnology/ .
You’ll also get 20% off an annual premium subscription.

Support me on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/ncot_tech

Credits
------------
This video was sponsored by Brilliant

#MSDOS #BorlandCPP #RetroCoding #DOSDev #chiptune #covox]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/58312bed3aaef4a53f4c2dcb873d84ee.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='21060000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1379</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032299/parallel-port-to-speaker-ms-dos-audio-trick.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032299/parallel-port-to-speaker-ms-dos-audio-trick.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >The Mistake Every Programmer Makes</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/the-mistake-every-programmer-makes-1788574605/33032300</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035409</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Tue, 12 Aug 2025 16:23:10 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Support the channel
------------------------------
https://patreon.com/ncot_tech
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

In this video, I dive headfirst into coding a tilemap engine for my game — no plan, just pure momentum. Everything seems to go great… until I slam into a brick wall: I have no idea how to actually integrate it into my game.

That’s when I realise my real problem isn’t the code — it’s the lack of planning.
Join me as I figure out why planning matters, explore UML (Unified Modeling Language), and experiment with PlantUML to create a simple development method I can use for all my future projects.

If you’ve ever started a programming project with excitement only to stall halfway through, you’ll relate to this one.

Credits
-----------
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Tags
-------
#GameDev
#IndieGameDev
#IndieDev
#SoloGameDev
#CodingTips
#ProgrammingForGames
#GameDevTips
#GameProgramming
#LearnGameDev
#2DGameDev
#TilemapEngine
#GameDevLog
#UML
#PlantUML
#CodePlanning
#GameDesignTips
#MakingGames
#HowToMakeAGame
#GameDevelopmentProcess
#SoftwareArchitecture]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Support the channel
------------------------------
https://patreon.com/ncot_tech
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

In this video, I dive headfirst into coding a tilemap engine for my game — no plan, just pure momentum. Everything seems to go great… until I slam into a brick wall: I have no idea how to actually integrate it into my game.

That’s when I realise my real problem isn’t the code — it’s the lack of planning.
Join me as I figure out why planning matters, explore UML (Unified Modeling Language), and experiment with PlantUML to create a simple development method I can use for all my future projects.

If you’ve ever started a programming project with excitement only to stall halfway through, you’ll relate to this one.

Credits
-----------
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Tags
-------
#GameDev
#IndieGameDev
#IndieDev
#SoloGameDev
#CodingTips
#ProgrammingForGames
#GameDevTips
#GameProgramming
#LearnGameDev
#2DGameDev
#TilemapEngine
#GameDevLog
#UML
#PlantUML
#CodePlanning
#GameDesignTips
#MakingGames
#HowToMakeAGame
#GameDevelopmentProcess
#SoftwareArchitecture]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/c3a644b482661ec26560c94ab47685f3.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='13950000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >913</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032300/the-mistake-every-programmer-makes.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032300/the-mistake-every-programmer-makes.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >The PC Speaker shouldn\&apos;t sound this good!</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/the-pc-speaker-shouldnt-sound-this-good-1788574605/33032301</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035408</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sat, 26 Jul 2025 16:01:02 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[To try everything Brilliant has to offer—free—for a full 30 days, visit https://brilliant.org/NCOTTechnology/ .
You’ll also get 20% off an annual premium subscription.

Support me on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/ncot_tech
Source code - https://github.com/ncot-tech/pc-speaker
Visit the community! - https://github.com/ncot-tech/community/discussions

Think the old PC speaker was only good for making awful beeps? Yeah, me too—until I started digging into how it actually works.

In this video, I go down the rabbit hole of early PC audio. It starts simple: how sound is made in the first place, then some hands-on fun using Borland C++ to get the PC speaker beeping. From there, I build up to playing a proper little tune.

But things get wild after that.

I take a shot at playing a full WAV file using nothing but PWM trickery — all through the original PC speaker, no sound card required. Then I explore how games like Commander Keen and Duke Nukem handled audio, and show off some absolutely wild DOS demos that somehow managed to squeeze real sampled sound out of a one-bit speaker.

It’s weird, clever, and kind of brilliant — all at the same time.

Credits
------------
This video was sponsored by Brilliant
IBM PC image - By Rama & Musée Bolo - File:IBM_PC-IMG_7271.jpg, CC BY-SA 2.0 fr, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=94784371
PC XT 5160 - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IBM_PC_XT_5160.JPG - Veradrive, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

#MSDOS #BorlandCPP #RetroCoding #DOSDev #chiptune]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[To try everything Brilliant has to offer—free—for a full 30 days, visit https://brilliant.org/NCOTTechnology/ .
You’ll also get 20% off an annual premium subscription.

Support me on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/ncot_tech
Source code - https://github.com/ncot-tech/pc-speaker
Visit the community! - https://github.com/ncot-tech/community/discussions

Think the old PC speaker was only good for making awful beeps? Yeah, me too—until I started digging into how it actually works.

In this video, I go down the rabbit hole of early PC audio. It starts simple: how sound is made in the first place, then some hands-on fun using Borland C++ to get the PC speaker beeping. From there, I build up to playing a proper little tune.

But things get wild after that.

I take a shot at playing a full WAV file using nothing but PWM trickery — all through the original PC speaker, no sound card required. Then I explore how games like Commander Keen and Duke Nukem handled audio, and show off some absolutely wild DOS demos that somehow managed to squeeze real sampled sound out of a one-bit speaker.

It’s weird, clever, and kind of brilliant — all at the same time.

Credits
------------
This video was sponsored by Brilliant
IBM PC image - By Rama & Musée Bolo - File:IBM_PC-IMG_7271.jpg, CC BY-SA 2.0 fr, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=94784371
PC XT 5160 - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IBM_PC_XT_5160.JPG - Veradrive, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

#MSDOS #BorlandCPP #RetroCoding #DOSDev #chiptune]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/76a939afc71dceb63c123c2add4f9f53.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='41200000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >2699</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032301/the-pc-speaker-shouldnt-sound-this-good.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032301/the-pc-speaker-shouldnt-sound-this-good.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >C programming a roguelike - the dungeon problem</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/c-programming-a-roguelike-the-dungeon-problem-1788574605/33032302</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035430</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sat, 12 Jul 2025 15:29:42 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Let\'s try to write a Roguelike game in C for the Agon Light. This is the first video. I explore how the original Rogue and similar games like Nethack generate their own dungeons, then adapt code that draws mazes so my dungeons are a bit more interesting to explore.

Discuss the video here - https://github.com/ncot-tech/community/discussions/3

Support the channel
------------------------------
https://patreon.com/ncot_tech
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech


Credits
-----------
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Tags
-------
#agonlight #programming #retro #cprogramming #gamedev #gamedevelopment #retrocomputer #roguelike #rogue]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Let\'s try to write a Roguelike game in C for the Agon Light. This is the first video. I explore how the original Rogue and similar games like Nethack generate their own dungeons, then adapt code that draws mazes so my dungeons are a bit more interesting to explore.

Discuss the video here - https://github.com/ncot-tech/community/discussions/3

Support the channel
------------------------------
https://patreon.com/ncot_tech
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech


Credits
-----------
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Tags
-------
#agonlight #programming #retro #cprogramming #gamedev #gamedevelopment #retrocomputer #roguelike #rogue]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/d2c7c31f86536cab847067fec3ebf156.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='30840000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >2020</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032302/c-programming-a-roguelike-the-dungeon-problem.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032302/c-programming-a-roguelike-the-dungeon-problem.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >How Programmers Created Hypnotic Visual Effects on 1990s PCs</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/how-programmers-created-hypnotic-visual-effects-on-1990s-pcs-1788574605/33032303</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035402</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sat, 28 Jun 2025 23:00:22 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[To try everything Brilliant has to offer—free—for a full 30 days, visit https://brilliant.org/NCOTTechnology/ .
You’ll also get 20% off an annual premium subscription.

Support me on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/ncot_tech

Source code - https://github.com/ncot-tech/vga-demo
Visit the community! - https://github.com/ncot-tech/community/discussions

Step back into the golden age of the demoscene as I dive into some of the most iconic visual effects from 1990s PC demos, all recreated under MS-DOS using Borland C++.

In this video, I break down several classic demo effects — not as a tutorial, but as a journey through how they work and how I recreated them from scratch. For each one, I show an example from a real DOS demo, explain the technique behind it, and then reveal the code I used to get it working myself.

To wrap things up, I present a mini demo built from all the effects covered — a nostalgic homage to the style and flair of \'90s PC demo coding.

This video was sponsored by Brilliant

#Demoscene #MSDOS #BorlandCPP #RetroCoding #PC98 #OldSchoolDemo #Starfield #Rotozoom #SineWave #ScrollingText #DOSDev]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[To try everything Brilliant has to offer—free—for a full 30 days, visit https://brilliant.org/NCOTTechnology/ .
You’ll also get 20% off an annual premium subscription.

Support me on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/ncot_tech

Source code - https://github.com/ncot-tech/vga-demo
Visit the community! - https://github.com/ncot-tech/community/discussions

Step back into the golden age of the demoscene as I dive into some of the most iconic visual effects from 1990s PC demos, all recreated under MS-DOS using Borland C++.

In this video, I break down several classic demo effects — not as a tutorial, but as a journey through how they work and how I recreated them from scratch. For each one, I show an example from a real DOS demo, explain the technique behind it, and then reveal the code I used to get it working myself.

To wrap things up, I present a mini demo built from all the effects covered — a nostalgic homage to the style and flair of \'90s PC demo coding.

This video was sponsored by Brilliant

#Demoscene #MSDOS #BorlandCPP #RetroCoding #PC98 #OldSchoolDemo #Starfield #Rotozoom #SineWave #ScrollingText #DOSDev]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/2cbd8101841342571f6efee9a211798e.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='36810000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >2412</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032303/how-programmers-created-hypnotic-visual-effects-on-1990s-pcs.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032303/how-programmers-created-hypnotic-visual-effects-on-1990s-pcs.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Can You Make Something Good on Weak Hardware? I Tried</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/can-you-make-something-good-on-weak-hardware-i-tried-1788574605/33032304</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035421</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Tue, 10 Jun 2025 19:47:04 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Discuss the video here! - https://github.com/ncot-tech/community/discussions/2
Source Code here! - https://github.com/ncot-tech/agon-adventure

Support the channel
------------------------------
https://patreon.com/ncot_tech
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

In this abridged video, I walk you through the process of building a text adventure game from scratch on the Agon Light — a modern retro computer based on the Z80. Rather than a deep dive into every line of code, this video focuses on explaining the overall structure and design choices behind the project.

You\'ll see how I approached parsing player commands, storing the game world using C structs, building a fast travel mechanic, and adding basic NPC functionality — all within the constraints of a minimalist, low-powered system. I also show how I used AI as a creative assistant to help develop the story and guide some of the code structure.

This is perfect for retro computing fans who want to see what\'s possible on a small system, without getting lost in the weeds.

Credits
-----------
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Tags
-------
#agonlight #programming #retro #cprogramming #gamedev #gamedevelopment #retrocomputer]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Discuss the video here! - https://github.com/ncot-tech/community/discussions/2
Source Code here! - https://github.com/ncot-tech/agon-adventure

Support the channel
------------------------------
https://patreon.com/ncot_tech
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

In this abridged video, I walk you through the process of building a text adventure game from scratch on the Agon Light — a modern retro computer based on the Z80. Rather than a deep dive into every line of code, this video focuses on explaining the overall structure and design choices behind the project.

You\'ll see how I approached parsing player commands, storing the game world using C structs, building a fast travel mechanic, and adding basic NPC functionality — all within the constraints of a minimalist, low-powered system. I also show how I used AI as a creative assistant to help develop the story and guide some of the code structure.

This is perfect for retro computing fans who want to see what\'s possible on a small system, without getting lost in the weeds.

Credits
-----------
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Tags
-------
#agonlight #programming #retro #cprogramming #gamedev #gamedevelopment #retrocomputer]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/b5be6a55a752d5aed90ac893e64b5532.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='37090000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >2430</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032304/can-you-make-something-good-on-weak-hardware-i-tried.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032304/can-you-make-something-good-on-weak-hardware-i-tried.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Game Engine From Scratch in C - When Everything Goes Wrong</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/game-engine-from-scratch-in-c-when-everything-goes-wrong-1788574605/33032305</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035397</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Mon, 21 Apr 2025 07:03:44 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Welcome to the next edition of Gamedev The Hard Way, my attempt at writing a game from scratch for the Agon Light, using nothing but C. This time I attempt to program some basic enemy behaviours to test out my game\'s entity handling code. This is quite a fundamental part of the game as I will need to create many entities, each with their own code. Things don\'t go to plan however and I discover some quite major problems with the physics and tilemap code.

Support the channel
------------------------------
https://patreon.com/ncot_tech
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Website: https://ncot.uk/projects/helios/

Credits
-----------
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Chapters
--------------
00:00 Intro
00:46 Organising my source
01:40 Refactoring
03:33 Stealing the secrets of the ancients
05:25 Making a todo list
06:29 Spawning an enemy
12:01 Patreon
12:43 Defining a thinker
14:31 Patrolling enemy
18:08 Fixing my code
21:04 It\'s all gone wrong
22:02 Fumbling about in the dark
24:20 Failing to make an enemy move
25:48 Outro

Tags
-------
#agonlight #programming #retro #cprogramming #gamedev #gamedevelopment #retrocomputer]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Welcome to the next edition of Gamedev The Hard Way, my attempt at writing a game from scratch for the Agon Light, using nothing but C. This time I attempt to program some basic enemy behaviours to test out my game\'s entity handling code. This is quite a fundamental part of the game as I will need to create many entities, each with their own code. Things don\'t go to plan however and I discover some quite major problems with the physics and tilemap code.

Support the channel
------------------------------
https://patreon.com/ncot_tech
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Website: https://ncot.uk/projects/helios/

Credits
-----------
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Chapters
--------------
00:00 Intro
00:46 Organising my source
01:40 Refactoring
03:33 Stealing the secrets of the ancients
05:25 Making a todo list
06:29 Spawning an enemy
12:01 Patreon
12:43 Defining a thinker
14:31 Patrolling enemy
18:08 Fixing my code
21:04 It\'s all gone wrong
22:02 Fumbling about in the dark
24:20 Failing to make an enemy move
25:48 Outro

Tags
-------
#agonlight #programming #retro #cprogramming #gamedev #gamedevelopment #retrocomputer]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/c7d16b456b8ca151a79f5ac3d83fd433.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='24790000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1624</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032305/game-engine-from-scratch-in-c-when-everything-goes-wrong.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032305/game-engine-from-scratch-in-c-when-everything-goes-wrong.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Mode X: The Graphics Trick IBM Never Authorized</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/mode-x-the-graphics-trick-ibm-never-authorized-1788574605/33032306</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035423</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sat, 29 Mar 2025 22:55:38 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Github: https://github.com/ncot-tech/MS-DOS-Mode-X-Animation
Blog Post: https://ncot.uk/projects/dosdev/mode-x-madness/
Support the channel!
https://www.patreon.com/c/ncot_tech

Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

After learning about Mode 13h last time, I’ve been digging about in the ancient tomes of wisdom and discovered Mode-X. Let’s make a PC’s VGA card do odd things it was never designed for.

When IBM created the original VGA adaptor, they never intended it to produce high colour real time graphics. However by cleverly altering the card it is possible to unlock an undocumented video mode known simply as Mode X.

I came across the Graphics Programming Black Book by Michael Abrash and printed out chapter 49 to read, which describes how this mysterious Mode-X actually works, including source code to play with.

#msdos #programming #retrocomputing #cprogramming #borland]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Github: https://github.com/ncot-tech/MS-DOS-Mode-X-Animation
Blog Post: https://ncot.uk/projects/dosdev/mode-x-madness/
Support the channel!
https://www.patreon.com/c/ncot_tech

Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

After learning about Mode 13h last time, I’ve been digging about in the ancient tomes of wisdom and discovered Mode-X. Let’s make a PC’s VGA card do odd things it was never designed for.

When IBM created the original VGA adaptor, they never intended it to produce high colour real time graphics. However by cleverly altering the card it is possible to unlock an undocumented video mode known simply as Mode X.

I came across the Graphics Programming Black Book by Michael Abrash and printed out chapter 49 to read, which describes how this mysterious Mode-X actually works, including source code to play with.

#msdos #programming #retrocomputing #cprogramming #borland]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/5ce89b10e96ed8973c65a9660be7bcf7.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='24060000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1576</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032306/mode-x-the-graphics-trick-ibm-never-authorized.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032306/mode-x-the-graphics-trick-ibm-never-authorized.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Drawing Pixels Directly to Video RAM - What Could Go Wrong?</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/drawing-pixels-directly-to-video-ram-what-could-go-wrong-1788574605/33032307</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035427</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Mon, 10 Mar 2025 21:17:38 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Support the channel - https://www.patreon.com/c/ncot_tech
Visit the website - https://ncot.uk

Let\'s move into the 1990s and draw some graphics! I\'ve got a whole 320x200 pixel screen, 256 colours and direct access to the video card. No APIs, no helper functions. Just me and the video RAM.

Watch as I attempt to plot some pixels on the screen, discover my general inability to write working C code the first time, and various accidentally cool looking images.

---
“Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio”
#retrocomputing #programming #cprogramming #msdos #borland]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Support the channel - https://www.patreon.com/c/ncot_tech
Visit the website - https://ncot.uk

Let\'s move into the 1990s and draw some graphics! I\'ve got a whole 320x200 pixel screen, 256 colours and direct access to the video card. No APIs, no helper functions. Just me and the video RAM.

Watch as I attempt to plot some pixels on the screen, discover my general inability to write working C code the first time, and various accidentally cool looking images.

---
“Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio”
#retrocomputing #programming #cprogramming #msdos #borland]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/65a7e3708a371c039e2e9d5956a37d6f.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='42500000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >2785</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032307/drawing-pixels-directly-to-video-ram-what-could-go-wrong.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032307/drawing-pixels-directly-to-video-ram-what-could-go-wrong.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Building games in C | Design and code from zero</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/building-games-in-c-design-and-code-from-zero-1788574605/33032308</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035399</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sat, 08 Feb 2025 18:06:13 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Support the channel - https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech
Let\'s continue trying to design and make a retro computer game from scratch, in C, for the Agon Light. This time I explain my game design and what I want the game to be, and then walk through the code.

Since last time the player is able to move around the screen and then walk off the screen edges to explore a larger game world. This will be expanded in the future to provide levels and a more interesting gameplay experience.

---
“Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio”
#retrocomputing #programming #cprogramming #gamedevelopment #gamedev #agonlight]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Support the channel - https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech
Let\'s continue trying to design and make a retro computer game from scratch, in C, for the Agon Light. This time I explain my game design and what I want the game to be, and then walk through the code.

Since last time the player is able to move around the screen and then walk off the screen edges to explore a larger game world. This will be expanded in the future to provide levels and a more interesting gameplay experience.

---
“Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio”
#retrocomputing #programming #cprogramming #gamedevelopment #gamedev #agonlight]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/4d74fdc9d0cffea6817a1c29301b19a7.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='36470000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >2390</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032308/building-games-in-c-design-and-code-from-zero.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032308/building-games-in-c-design-and-code-from-zero.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Retro MS-DOS Coding - Recreating the Iconic Award BIOS Screen</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/retro-ms-dos-coding-recreating-the-iconic-award-bios-screen-1788574605/33032309</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035436</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Mon, 06 Jan 2025 20:40:24 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Support the channel: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech
Read the longer blog post: https://ncot.uk/projects/dosdev/lets-recreate-a-90s-pc-bios-boot-screen/

Because why not, it looks simpler than it really is and we’ll get to fall down a rabbit hole trying to draw the Energy Star logo.

Once you’ve tested the compiler and figured out how to work the IDE, what next? It seems a bit of a jump going straight into a massive project.

I’m attempting to learn how to write DOS and x86 programs and need something a bit more complex than printing “Hello World”, but not so complex that I need to spend six months learning the inner bowels of a PC or its VGA card before starting.

Being unable to think of anything, I was sat staring at my emulated PC as it booted up and decided the BIOS boot screen would do. It’s mostly text, but there’s a curious image in the upper right of the screen. That big Energy Star logo. Except this is the BIOS, on a 90s PC. It’s in text mode. How’s that work?

Recreating the majority of this is easy, it’s just a load of printf() statements and some code to position the cursor properly.

The logo though? Let’s go down that rabbit hole…]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Support the channel: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech
Read the longer blog post: https://ncot.uk/projects/dosdev/lets-recreate-a-90s-pc-bios-boot-screen/

Because why not, it looks simpler than it really is and we’ll get to fall down a rabbit hole trying to draw the Energy Star logo.

Once you’ve tested the compiler and figured out how to work the IDE, what next? It seems a bit of a jump going straight into a massive project.

I’m attempting to learn how to write DOS and x86 programs and need something a bit more complex than printing “Hello World”, but not so complex that I need to spend six months learning the inner bowels of a PC or its VGA card before starting.

Being unable to think of anything, I was sat staring at my emulated PC as it booted up and decided the BIOS boot screen would do. It’s mostly text, but there’s a curious image in the upper right of the screen. That big Energy Star logo. Except this is the BIOS, on a 90s PC. It’s in text mode. How’s that work?

Recreating the majority of this is easy, it’s just a load of printf() statements and some code to position the cursor properly.

The logo though? Let’s go down that rabbit hole…]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/b3d2e701df65d5defca1a59ed04cb180.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='16720000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1095</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032309/retro-ms-dos-coding-recreating-the-iconic-award-bios-screen.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032309/retro-ms-dos-coding-recreating-the-iconic-award-bios-screen.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Nostalgic DOS Development Part 1 - FreeDOS, DJGPP, RHIDE and other madness.</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/nostalgic-dos-development-part-1-freedos-djgpp-rhide-and-other-madness-1788574605/33032310</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035404</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Mon, 25 Nov 2024 22:06:11 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Support the channel: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Modern programming is too abstract, let\'s get down to basics and do some programming in DOS using C. You can join in too! In this video I explain how to set up 86Box with FreeDOS, and then how to install DJGPP the C compiler and RHIDE the IDE. Then we write some good old C code in a friendly editor.

Come back to a time when 640k was enough, and when a 486 DX2/66 was considered a fast computer. None of this modern multi-core rubbish or branch predicting exploitable nonsense here. Just you, me, DOS and a C compiler.

This is part of an ongoing series where I learn how to write DOS programs in C and probably assembly. It\'s going to be a strange mix between a tutorial and an explanation of how to program in C in MSDOS.

I don\'t really have an aim or direction, but over time I hope to gain enough skill in MSDOS programming in C that I can learn VGA programming, some x86 assembly language programming and maybe create some pretty graphical demos.

There is an ongoing blog series you can read too:
Part 1 - https://ncot.uk/nostalgic-dos-development-setting-up-the-machine/
Part 2 - https://ncot.uk/nostalgic-dos-development-part-2-writing-our-first-programs/

#msdos #cprogramming #programming #retrocomputer]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Support the channel: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Modern programming is too abstract, let\'s get down to basics and do some programming in DOS using C. You can join in too! In this video I explain how to set up 86Box with FreeDOS, and then how to install DJGPP the C compiler and RHIDE the IDE. Then we write some good old C code in a friendly editor.

Come back to a time when 640k was enough, and when a 486 DX2/66 was considered a fast computer. None of this modern multi-core rubbish or branch predicting exploitable nonsense here. Just you, me, DOS and a C compiler.

This is part of an ongoing series where I learn how to write DOS programs in C and probably assembly. It\'s going to be a strange mix between a tutorial and an explanation of how to program in C in MSDOS.

I don\'t really have an aim or direction, but over time I hope to gain enough skill in MSDOS programming in C that I can learn VGA programming, some x86 assembly language programming and maybe create some pretty graphical demos.

There is an ongoing blog series you can read too:
Part 1 - https://ncot.uk/nostalgic-dos-development-setting-up-the-machine/
Part 2 - https://ncot.uk/nostalgic-dos-development-part-2-writing-our-first-programs/

#msdos #cprogramming #programming #retrocomputer]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/6d5ea514f1ba9562946304f2fccdfee6.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='45620000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >2989</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032310/nostalgic-dos-development-part-1-freedos-djgpp-rhide-and-other-madness.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032310/nostalgic-dos-development-part-1-freedos-djgpp-rhide-and-other-madness.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Agon Light Game Engine: Tilemap System &amp; Collision Detection</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/agon-light-game-engine-tilemap-system-collision-detection-1788574605/33032311</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035416</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Thu, 24 Oct 2024 14:32:06 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[In this video, I took the next step in my game development for the Agon Light by building a tilemap system and integrating it with the existing physics engine from the previous video. The tilemap, a classic way to structure game levels, includes solid tiles that interact with game sprites. While detecting collisions with tiles is usually straightforward, incorporating a physics engine made things more complex.

I decided to let the sprite system handle everything—deciding when to call the physics code or resolve collisions with the tilemap. After a few false starts and bugs, I managed to get everything working smoothly. To speed up the process, I used Tiled for map creation and wrote custom Python code to convert its output into a format my game engine could use.

Testing on hardware revealed some critical bugs and performance issues, which I tackled by implementing dirty rectangle optimization. In the end, I had a functional, efficient sprite system with physics and tilemap integration, setting the foundation for designing and building the actual game. There\'s still plenty of work ahead, but the core of the engine is now in place.

Find me Online
==============
https://ncot.uk

Support The Channel!
====================
Thanks a lot for watching this video! If you\'re not a subscriber, consider becoming one!
If you want to support what I do, consider the links below.

https://paypal.me/NCOTTechnology
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech
https://liberapay.com/NCOT_Technology/donate
patreon.com/ncot_tech

Hashtag Soup
============
#programming #agonlight #cprogramming #retrocomputer #linux #gamedev #c]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[In this video, I took the next step in my game development for the Agon Light by building a tilemap system and integrating it with the existing physics engine from the previous video. The tilemap, a classic way to structure game levels, includes solid tiles that interact with game sprites. While detecting collisions with tiles is usually straightforward, incorporating a physics engine made things more complex.

I decided to let the sprite system handle everything—deciding when to call the physics code or resolve collisions with the tilemap. After a few false starts and bugs, I managed to get everything working smoothly. To speed up the process, I used Tiled for map creation and wrote custom Python code to convert its output into a format my game engine could use.

Testing on hardware revealed some critical bugs and performance issues, which I tackled by implementing dirty rectangle optimization. In the end, I had a functional, efficient sprite system with physics and tilemap integration, setting the foundation for designing and building the actual game. There\'s still plenty of work ahead, but the core of the engine is now in place.

Find me Online
==============
https://ncot.uk

Support The Channel!
====================
Thanks a lot for watching this video! If you\'re not a subscriber, consider becoming one!
If you want to support what I do, consider the links below.

https://paypal.me/NCOTTechnology
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech
https://liberapay.com/NCOT_Technology/donate
patreon.com/ncot_tech

Hashtag Soup
============
#programming #agonlight #cprogramming #retrocomputer #linux #gamedev #c]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/c9ac35deeb341667a27757f387cb93da.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='30620000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >2006</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032311/agon-light-game-engine-tilemap-system-collision-detection.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032311/agon-light-game-engine-tilemap-system-collision-detection.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Writing a Rigid Body Physics System Without Engines</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/writing-a-rigid-body-physics-system-without-engines-1788574605/33032312</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035412</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sat, 07 Sep 2024 18:47:53 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Join me on a journey as I attempt to write a game for my Agon Light using nothing but raw C programming. In this second episode I figure out how to make a very basic 2D rigid body physics system work.

It doesn\'t matter if you don\'t have an Agon Light, I\'m bringing you along for the ride. We\'ll be looking at how games deal with the objects they manipulate, and how to detect and resolve collisions in 2D.

The code for my game library that I\'m building is available here
https://github.com/ncot-tech/agon-template

A longer writeup of the game and my ideas is available here
https://ncot.uk/writing-a-game-the-hard-way-from-scratch-using-c-part-2/

If you like this nonsense, consider supporting the channel
https://ncot.uk/support

#linux #programming #gamedev #agon #z80 #cprogramming]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Join me on a journey as I attempt to write a game for my Agon Light using nothing but raw C programming. In this second episode I figure out how to make a very basic 2D rigid body physics system work.

It doesn\'t matter if you don\'t have an Agon Light, I\'m bringing you along for the ride. We\'ll be looking at how games deal with the objects they manipulate, and how to detect and resolve collisions in 2D.

The code for my game library that I\'m building is available here
https://github.com/ncot-tech/agon-template

A longer writeup of the game and my ideas is available here
https://ncot.uk/writing-a-game-the-hard-way-from-scratch-using-c-part-2/

If you like this nonsense, consider supporting the channel
https://ncot.uk/support

#linux #programming #gamedev #agon #z80 #cprogramming]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/41af50c4f5f221d9fbcaa3d14afca075.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='36570000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >2396</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032312/writing-a-rigid-body-physics-system-without-engines.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032312/writing-a-rigid-body-physics-system-without-engines.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Writing a game the hard way - from scratch using C. #1</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/writing-a-game-the-hard-way-from-scratch-using-c-1-1788574605/33032313</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035425</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sat, 17 Aug 2024 17:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Support the channel: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Join me on a journey as I attempt to write a game for my Agon Light using nothing but raw C programming. In this first episode I figure out what kind of game to make, look at some shareware games of the past and get a basic game engine working, using nothing but C code - no external game engines or modern development tools.

It doesn\'t matter if you don\'t have an Agon Light, I\'m bringing you along for the ride. We\'ll be looking at what shareware was, why it existed and how to make your life a bit easier as a developer.

The code for my game library that I\'m building is available here
https://github.com/ncot-tech/agon-template

A longer writeup of the game and my ideas is available here
https://ncot.uk/writing-a-game-the-hard-way-from-scratch-using-c-part-1/

If you like this nonsense, consider supporting the channel
https://ncot.uk/support

#linux #programming #gamedev #agon #z80 #cprogramming]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Support the channel: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Join me on a journey as I attempt to write a game for my Agon Light using nothing but raw C programming. In this first episode I figure out what kind of game to make, look at some shareware games of the past and get a basic game engine working, using nothing but C code - no external game engines or modern development tools.

It doesn\'t matter if you don\'t have an Agon Light, I\'m bringing you along for the ride. We\'ll be looking at what shareware was, why it existed and how to make your life a bit easier as a developer.

The code for my game library that I\'m building is available here
https://github.com/ncot-tech/agon-template

A longer writeup of the game and my ideas is available here
https://ncot.uk/writing-a-game-the-hard-way-from-scratch-using-c-part-1/

If you like this nonsense, consider supporting the channel
https://ncot.uk/support

#linux #programming #gamedev #agon #z80 #cprogramming]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/e4429632a495c911c8720c294375860f.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='31420000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >2059</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032313/writing-a-game-the-hard-way-from-scratch-using-c-1.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032313/writing-a-game-the-hard-way-from-scratch-using-c-1.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >I Built an NES Tilemap System in C - Here\&apos;s How</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/i-built-an-nes-tilemap-system-in-c-heres-how-1788574605/33032314</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035417</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Mon, 27 May 2024 15:08:59 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Support the channel: https://ncot.uk/support
Github: https://github.com/ncot-tech/agon-graphics

In this video, I explore how early computers used clever tricks to create moving graphics, focusing on how Nintendo developed tile-based games on the NES. Using these techniques, I built a scrolling tilemap system for the Agon Light using C.

We start with a quick look at the evolution of game graphics, from text-based to visual, and how the NES managed to create a continuous scrolling world with tiles. Then, I demonstrate how to implement a similar tilemap system on the Agon Light, building on our previous video on bitmap graphics.

Join me as we look at the challenges and solutions of creating a smooth scrolling tilemap for the Agon Light using C programming. We\'ll cover everything from the basic setup to optimizing performance. If you\'re into programming, retro games, or the Agon Light, this video is for you.

#AgonLight #NES #Tilemaps #RetroGaming #CProgramming #GameDevelopment #ScrollingTilemaps #Programming #RetroTech #8bitGaming #Coding #NESDevelopment #TechTutorial #GameDev #RetroCoding]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Support the channel: https://ncot.uk/support
Github: https://github.com/ncot-tech/agon-graphics

In this video, I explore how early computers used clever tricks to create moving graphics, focusing on how Nintendo developed tile-based games on the NES. Using these techniques, I built a scrolling tilemap system for the Agon Light using C.

We start with a quick look at the evolution of game graphics, from text-based to visual, and how the NES managed to create a continuous scrolling world with tiles. Then, I demonstrate how to implement a similar tilemap system on the Agon Light, building on our previous video on bitmap graphics.

Join me as we look at the challenges and solutions of creating a smooth scrolling tilemap for the Agon Light using C programming. We\'ll cover everything from the basic setup to optimizing performance. If you\'re into programming, retro games, or the Agon Light, this video is for you.

#AgonLight #NES #Tilemaps #RetroGaming #CProgramming #GameDevelopment #ScrollingTilemaps #Programming #RetroTech #8bitGaming #Coding #NESDevelopment #TechTutorial #GameDev #RetroCoding]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/74ada4666328a42d34f32b2391f9aa61.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='17320000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1135</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032314/i-built-an-nes-tilemap-system-in-c-heres-how.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032314/i-built-an-nes-tilemap-system-in-c-heres-how.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Displaying Multiple Bitmaps on Agon Light with VDP</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/displaying-multiple-bitmaps-on-agon-light-with-vdp-1788574605/33032315</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035405</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sun, 12 May 2024 08:22:13 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Get the code: https://github.com/ncot-tech/agon-graphics
Support the channel: https://ncot.uk/support
Visit the website: https://ncot.uk

In this video I look at how you can program the Agon Light to display bitmap images using C. I go through how to convert a PNG image into an RGB2222 format bitmap image, and then use the C library functions to load that into the Agon Light, and the VPD commands necessary to display this on the screen.

The end result is a fairly pretty scrolling text routine that demonstrates how to draw multiple bitmaps to the Agon Light\'s display using VDP commands.

This builds on my previous Agon Light C Programming video where I explained how the Agon Light\'s screen works, and how to draw lines and shapes.

----
Music I use: https://www.bensound.com
License code: 89GUMYPSNGHK77J3

#programming #cprogramming #agonlight #retrocomputer]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Get the code: https://github.com/ncot-tech/agon-graphics
Support the channel: https://ncot.uk/support
Visit the website: https://ncot.uk

In this video I look at how you can program the Agon Light to display bitmap images using C. I go through how to convert a PNG image into an RGB2222 format bitmap image, and then use the C library functions to load that into the Agon Light, and the VPD commands necessary to display this on the screen.

The end result is a fairly pretty scrolling text routine that demonstrates how to draw multiple bitmaps to the Agon Light\'s display using VDP commands.

This builds on my previous Agon Light C Programming video where I explained how the Agon Light\'s screen works, and how to draw lines and shapes.

----
Music I use: https://www.bensound.com
License code: 89GUMYPSNGHK77J3

#programming #cprogramming #agonlight #retrocomputer]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/3dc67d47871f67f175b005c9008d256a.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='25470000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1669</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032315/displaying-multiple-bitmaps-on-agon-light-with-vdp.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032315/displaying-multiple-bitmaps-on-agon-light-with-vdp.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >I Built Mystify &amp; Starfield on the Agon Light</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/i-built-mystify-starfield-on-the-agon-light-1788574605/33032316</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035433</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Fri, 26 Apr 2024 22:30:02 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Support the Channel - https://ncot.uk/support
Get the code for this episode - https://github.com/ncot-tech/agon-graphics

I\'m learning how to program the Agon Light, and as a project thought it\'d be fun to try and program two of the classic Windows 3.11 screensavers - Mystify and Starfield Simulation.

My aim is not to simply program the Agon Light by cloning the Windows 3.11 screensavers, but to learn how to program the Agon Light at all. Ultimately I want to learn how to program games for the Agon Light.

In this video I learn how to program the Agon Light\'s graphics system which is very similar to the BBC Micro\'s graphics system.

#programming #bbcmicro #agonlight #agon #learnprogrammingonyoutube #retrocomputer]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Support the Channel - https://ncot.uk/support
Get the code for this episode - https://github.com/ncot-tech/agon-graphics

I\'m learning how to program the Agon Light, and as a project thought it\'d be fun to try and program two of the classic Windows 3.11 screensavers - Mystify and Starfield Simulation.

My aim is not to simply program the Agon Light by cloning the Windows 3.11 screensavers, but to learn how to program the Agon Light at all. Ultimately I want to learn how to program games for the Agon Light.

In this video I learn how to program the Agon Light\'s graphics system which is very similar to the BBC Micro\'s graphics system.

#programming #bbcmicro #agonlight #agon #learnprogrammingonyoutube #retrocomputer]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/cee5f0f83a77eb5a8af07d19a8c7b416.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='34620000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >2268</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032316/i-built-mystify-starfield-on-the-agon-light.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032316/i-built-mystify-starfield-on-the-agon-light.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >The Strangest Things Developers Buried in Languages</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/the-strangest-things-developers-buried-in-languages-1788574605/33032317</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035437</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sun, 31 Mar 2024 12:05:16 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Easter eggs are usually hidden inside our games and software, but did you know there are some hidden inside the tools and languages used to make that software? Come with me on a fun Easter diversion while we eat our bodyweight in chocolate, and look at six programming Easter Eggs.

Some of these are from the Python programming language. It seems they had a lot of fun making the language itself and hide quite a lot of random stuff amongst the more sensible parts of the language. However, as we\'ll discover some of the additions have implications that explain why you don\'t commonly find hidden surprises in the compilers and tools themselves.

There\'s a few from the older machines where developers either wanted recognition for their work, or from companies trying to ensure their code wasn\'t being copied without their permission.

If you have any more, let me know in the comments!

Links
=====
Website: https://ncot.uk
Support the channel: https://ncot.uk/support

Credits
=======
https://www.vecteezy.com/free-videos/python-code Python Code Stock Videos by Vecteezy
https://www.vecteezy.com/free-videos/business Business Stock Videos by Vecteezy
Video by Seb Agora from Pixabay
Video by 3 6 from Pixabay
Video by Edmond Dantès: https://www.pexels.com/video/business-meeting-with-client-4426909/

#programming #eastereggs #basicprogramming #cprogramming #commodore64 #linux #pythonprogramming #python #bbcmicro]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Easter eggs are usually hidden inside our games and software, but did you know there are some hidden inside the tools and languages used to make that software? Come with me on a fun Easter diversion while we eat our bodyweight in chocolate, and look at six programming Easter Eggs.

Some of these are from the Python programming language. It seems they had a lot of fun making the language itself and hide quite a lot of random stuff amongst the more sensible parts of the language. However, as we\'ll discover some of the additions have implications that explain why you don\'t commonly find hidden surprises in the compilers and tools themselves.

There\'s a few from the older machines where developers either wanted recognition for their work, or from companies trying to ensure their code wasn\'t being copied without their permission.

If you have any more, let me know in the comments!

Links
=====
Website: https://ncot.uk
Support the channel: https://ncot.uk/support

Credits
=======
https://www.vecteezy.com/free-videos/python-code Python Code Stock Videos by Vecteezy
https://www.vecteezy.com/free-videos/business Business Stock Videos by Vecteezy
Video by Seb Agora from Pixabay
Video by 3 6 from Pixabay
Video by Edmond Dantès: https://www.pexels.com/video/business-meeting-with-client-4426909/

#programming #eastereggs #basicprogramming #cprogramming #commodore64 #linux #pythonprogramming #python #bbcmicro]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/52b0a234db63b1d8c9a9e0783eb36493.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='7770000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >509</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032317/the-strangest-things-developers-buried-in-languages.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032317/the-strangest-things-developers-buried-in-languages.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Generating Infinite Pi Digits Without Overflow</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/generating-infinite-pi-digits-without-overflow-1788574605/33032318</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035411</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Wed, 13 Mar 2024 19:39:43 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Let\'s celebrate #piday in this appropriately short video by writing some #python programs to calculate Pi.

The first method uses something called the Gauss-Legendre method. It works by iteratively refining an approximation of Pi, generating the answer digit by digit.

When writing code to calculate Pi we run into issues trying to store the calculated value. A floating point or double precision float will only store so many bits. It\'s like fractal zoom programs where there is a maximum depth due to the computer being unable to store the values being used.

Generating Pi digit by digit seems to get around this problem for the most part. Although I\'m sure the intermediate values stored in the variables will eventually overflow.

The second way uses a statistical method that you\'ve unknowingly seen if you\'ve ever used Blender. Based on the Monte Carlo statistical methods, there is a way to calculate Pi by simply drawing a circle inside a square and randomly filling it with points.

Dividing the number of points inside the circle by the number of points plotted, and multiplying the result by four gives an approximation of Pi.

Coding this is quite easy because it doesn\'t need to be done visually. Working out whether a point is inside a circle is a simple piece of maths.

Interestingly if we draw all the points on the screen and colour them, the result draws an arc.

But since Pi is an irrational number, we could just round it down to 3 and use that. It\'s probably close enough. Although saying this near mathematicians makes them go all irrational too.

Happy Pi day!

Links:
Web - https://ncot.uk
Gauss-legendre python code - https://gist.github.com/ncot-tech/4b109dca121f7e02fd21a6314f4dd645
Monte-Carlo method for calculating pi - https://gist.github.com/ncot-tech/2f29a6dfb7bc5f955eacdc2770285beb

Credits:
Raspberry Pi Pico 3D Model - https://www.blendswap.com/blend/27180]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Let\'s celebrate #piday in this appropriately short video by writing some #python programs to calculate Pi.

The first method uses something called the Gauss-Legendre method. It works by iteratively refining an approximation of Pi, generating the answer digit by digit.

When writing code to calculate Pi we run into issues trying to store the calculated value. A floating point or double precision float will only store so many bits. It\'s like fractal zoom programs where there is a maximum depth due to the computer being unable to store the values being used.

Generating Pi digit by digit seems to get around this problem for the most part. Although I\'m sure the intermediate values stored in the variables will eventually overflow.

The second way uses a statistical method that you\'ve unknowingly seen if you\'ve ever used Blender. Based on the Monte Carlo statistical methods, there is a way to calculate Pi by simply drawing a circle inside a square and randomly filling it with points.

Dividing the number of points inside the circle by the number of points plotted, and multiplying the result by four gives an approximation of Pi.

Coding this is quite easy because it doesn\'t need to be done visually. Working out whether a point is inside a circle is a simple piece of maths.

Interestingly if we draw all the points on the screen and colour them, the result draws an arc.

But since Pi is an irrational number, we could just round it down to 3 and use that. It\'s probably close enough. Although saying this near mathematicians makes them go all irrational too.

Happy Pi day!

Links:
Web - https://ncot.uk
Gauss-legendre python code - https://gist.github.com/ncot-tech/4b109dca121f7e02fd21a6314f4dd645
Monte-Carlo method for calculating pi - https://gist.github.com/ncot-tech/2f29a6dfb7bc5f955eacdc2770285beb

Credits:
Raspberry Pi Pico 3D Model - https://www.blendswap.com/blend/27180]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/c1116888832450b92a9fef51d055dd12.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='2960000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >194</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032318/generating-infinite-pi-digits-without-overflow.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032318/generating-infinite-pi-digits-without-overflow.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Agon Light 2 - C Programming, Better Keyboard Routines, Joystick Ports</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/agon-light-2-c-programming-better-keyboard-routines-joystick-ports-1788574605/33032319</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035422</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sat, 24 Feb 2024 15:13:25 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Dive into the exciting world of DIY hardware hacking. Join in as I explore joystick integration, keyboard inputs, and serial debugging using the versatile Agon Light platform. Delve into the technical intricacies of GPIO pins, assembly language programming, and C compiler usage for low-level development. Discover the power of computational thinking, boolean logic, and UART serial communication as we navigate through hardware interfacing challenges.

Github: https://github.com/ncot-tech/agon-keyboard-test
Github: https://github.com/ncot-tech/agon-joystick-test
Website: https://ncot.uk/
Support The Channel: https://ncot.uk/support/

Video Title: Exploring Hardware Hacks: Joystick Integration, Keyboard Inputs, and Debugging with the Agon Light

#Joysticks, #Debugging, #AgonLight, #Programming, #ESP32, #GPIOPins, #AssemblyLanguage, #cprogramming, #ComputationalThinking, #BooleanLogic, #baremetal, #Hardware, #Zilog, #RC2014, #Z80Computer, #AgonConsole8, #DiscordCommunity, #PythonProgramming]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Dive into the exciting world of DIY hardware hacking. Join in as I explore joystick integration, keyboard inputs, and serial debugging using the versatile Agon Light platform. Delve into the technical intricacies of GPIO pins, assembly language programming, and C compiler usage for low-level development. Discover the power of computational thinking, boolean logic, and UART serial communication as we navigate through hardware interfacing challenges.

Github: https://github.com/ncot-tech/agon-keyboard-test
Github: https://github.com/ncot-tech/agon-joystick-test
Website: https://ncot.uk/
Support The Channel: https://ncot.uk/support/

Video Title: Exploring Hardware Hacks: Joystick Integration, Keyboard Inputs, and Debugging with the Agon Light

#Joysticks, #Debugging, #AgonLight, #Programming, #ESP32, #GPIOPins, #AssemblyLanguage, #cprogramming, #ComputationalThinking, #BooleanLogic, #baremetal, #Hardware, #Zilog, #RC2014, #Z80Computer, #AgonConsole8, #DiscordCommunity, #PythonProgramming]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/3482616e753a0c42e5714b814c38d035.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='32580000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >2135</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032319/agon-light-2-c-programming-better-keyboard-routines-joystick-ports.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032319/agon-light-2-c-programming-better-keyboard-routines-joystick-ports.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Chaos to Order: Inside Cellular Automata</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/chaos-to-order-inside-cellular-automata-1788574605/33032320</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035428</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sun, 28 Jan 2024 16:59:53 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Today, we\'re diving into the world of cellular automata. A digital playground of sorts where simple rules lead to astonishing complexity. where order can arise from chaos and collapse back into chaos just as quickly.

First we have a look at One Dimensional Cellular Automata which were originally conceived by John Von Neumann in the 1950s.

These cellular automata operate on a grid of cells, using each successive row of cells to create the next generation. A large amount of research into this was done by British-American scientist Stephen Wolfram - whose organisation Wolfram Research developed Wolfram Alpha - the computational knowledge engine and website. Wolfram (the person) devised a classification system for 1D CAs. It turns out there\'s quite a lot of them.

Then we move onto two dimensional cellular automata, beginning with the familiar and popular Conway\'s Life. I look at some basic patterns such as the glider and then some more complex patterns including ones called methuselahs. Conway\'s Life is sufficiently complex that it is Turing Complete and able to simulate logic gates.

Then I look at wireworld which is a kind of two dimensional cellular automata that simulates electricity flowing through wires. It is Turing Complete and can be used to create logic gates.

The video then ends with me explaining how I wrote the code in the video myself as a learning exercise using the Python programming language and the PyGame graphics library.

You can download my code from the github link below

Links
====
My Github - https://github.com/ncot-tech/cellular-automata
Website - https://ncot.uk

Credits
======
Video by Taryn Elliott: https://www.pexels.com/video/low-angle-view-of-seashell-on-beach-shore-6003707/
Video by faycol bogonko: https://www.pexels.com/video/time-lapse-video-of-milky-way-1926295/
Video by MART PRODUCTION: https://www.pexels.com/video/a-man-and-woman-walking-on-the-desert-8865359/
Video by Ronald Hayward: https://www.pexels.com/video/waves-breaking-to-1582317/
Video by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/video/butterfly-fluttering-its-wings-854279/
Video by Nitesh Kamboj: https://www.pexels.com/video/flock-of-birds-flying-4457022/
https://cba.mit.edu/events/03.11.ASE/docs/VonNeumann.pdf
By Richard Ling - Own work; Location: Cod Hole, Great Barrier Reef, Australia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=293495
Channel 4 news - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE1LSMn0GxE
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4010807-elon-musk-finally-run-out-of-rope
https://github.com/mdgspace/shrishti20-cellular-dld
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireworld
Contains a clip from \"Jurassic Park\" TM & © Universal Pictures (1993)
Video by Egor Kunovsky: https://www.pexels.com/video/flock-of-birds-in-a-murmuration-flight-3851642/
Video by Zlatin Georgiev: https://www.pexels.com/video/a-sea-lion-preying-on-a-school-of-sardines-5607989/]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Today, we\'re diving into the world of cellular automata. A digital playground of sorts where simple rules lead to astonishing complexity. where order can arise from chaos and collapse back into chaos just as quickly.

First we have a look at One Dimensional Cellular Automata which were originally conceived by John Von Neumann in the 1950s.

These cellular automata operate on a grid of cells, using each successive row of cells to create the next generation. A large amount of research into this was done by British-American scientist Stephen Wolfram - whose organisation Wolfram Research developed Wolfram Alpha - the computational knowledge engine and website. Wolfram (the person) devised a classification system for 1D CAs. It turns out there\'s quite a lot of them.

Then we move onto two dimensional cellular automata, beginning with the familiar and popular Conway\'s Life. I look at some basic patterns such as the glider and then some more complex patterns including ones called methuselahs. Conway\'s Life is sufficiently complex that it is Turing Complete and able to simulate logic gates.

Then I look at wireworld which is a kind of two dimensional cellular automata that simulates electricity flowing through wires. It is Turing Complete and can be used to create logic gates.

The video then ends with me explaining how I wrote the code in the video myself as a learning exercise using the Python programming language and the PyGame graphics library.

You can download my code from the github link below

Links
====
My Github - https://github.com/ncot-tech/cellular-automata
Website - https://ncot.uk

Credits
======
Video by Taryn Elliott: https://www.pexels.com/video/low-angle-view-of-seashell-on-beach-shore-6003707/
Video by faycol bogonko: https://www.pexels.com/video/time-lapse-video-of-milky-way-1926295/
Video by MART PRODUCTION: https://www.pexels.com/video/a-man-and-woman-walking-on-the-desert-8865359/
Video by Ronald Hayward: https://www.pexels.com/video/waves-breaking-to-1582317/
Video by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/video/butterfly-fluttering-its-wings-854279/
Video by Nitesh Kamboj: https://www.pexels.com/video/flock-of-birds-flying-4457022/
https://cba.mit.edu/events/03.11.ASE/docs/VonNeumann.pdf
By Richard Ling - Own work; Location: Cod Hole, Great Barrier Reef, Australia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=293495
Channel 4 news - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE1LSMn0GxE
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4010807-elon-musk-finally-run-out-of-rope
https://github.com/mdgspace/shrishti20-cellular-dld
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireworld
Contains a clip from \"Jurassic Park\" TM & © Universal Pictures (1993)
Video by Egor Kunovsky: https://www.pexels.com/video/flock-of-birds-in-a-murmuration-flight-3851642/
Video by Zlatin Georgiev: https://www.pexels.com/video/a-sea-lion-preying-on-a-school-of-sardines-5607989/]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/d7d13d1efe16552150acc14c92fc0043.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='12130000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >794</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032320/chaos-to-order-inside-cellular-automata.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032320/chaos-to-order-inside-cellular-automata.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Agon Light C Programming - An Introduction</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/agon-light-c-programming-an-introduction-1788574606/33032321</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035441</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sun, 14 Jan 2024 21:15:42 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Instead of bashing away in BASIC, it\'s possible to do some coding in C on the Agon Light. Let\'s find out how in this introduction to an ongoing series where I figure out the Agon hardware and work on a game. I have no idea what game I want to make, and I\'m not entirely sure how to achieve some of the necessary functions, but it\'ll be fun figuring it out and I hope you come along for the ride!

The first thing we need is a C compiler so that we\'re not stranded bashing code in BASIC, or getting lost and confused in raw assembly. There isn\'t an official C compiler, but Paul Cawte on Github has created a modification called AgDev for the unofficial C compiler toolchain for the Texas Instruments TI-84+ range of calculators, which have the same eZ80 CPU as the Agon Light.

I\'ve written a post elsewhere on my site explaining how to set it up, and in this video show some of the things I\'ve been working on. My aim is to develop some sort of game for the Agon Light using C, rather than BASIC.

Links:

Blog Post: https://ncot.uk/agon-light-c-development/
Github Repo: https://github.com/ncot-tech/agon-template

---
Bill Bertram, CC BY-SA 2.5 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
Video by Pavel Danilyuk: https://www.pexels.com/video/man-walking-at-a-conference-room-8716432/]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Instead of bashing away in BASIC, it\'s possible to do some coding in C on the Agon Light. Let\'s find out how in this introduction to an ongoing series where I figure out the Agon hardware and work on a game. I have no idea what game I want to make, and I\'m not entirely sure how to achieve some of the necessary functions, but it\'ll be fun figuring it out and I hope you come along for the ride!

The first thing we need is a C compiler so that we\'re not stranded bashing code in BASIC, or getting lost and confused in raw assembly. There isn\'t an official C compiler, but Paul Cawte on Github has created a modification called AgDev for the unofficial C compiler toolchain for the Texas Instruments TI-84+ range of calculators, which have the same eZ80 CPU as the Agon Light.

I\'ve written a post elsewhere on my site explaining how to set it up, and in this video show some of the things I\'ve been working on. My aim is to develop some sort of game for the Agon Light using C, rather than BASIC.

Links:

Blog Post: https://ncot.uk/agon-light-c-development/
Github Repo: https://github.com/ncot-tech/agon-template

---
Bill Bertram, CC BY-SA 2.5 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
Video by Pavel Danilyuk: https://www.pexels.com/video/man-walking-at-a-conference-room-8716432/]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/2be4b541af6e6a27dfd3140fb7355975.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='7800000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >511</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032321/agon-light-c-programming-an-introduction.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032321/agon-light-c-programming-an-introduction.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >The Obfuscated C Contest is Insane</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/the-obfuscated-c-contest-is-insane-1788574606/33032322</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035424</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Tue, 31 Oct 2023 18:03:58 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[It\'s Halloween, programming is an art form and there\'s a darker side to it. Come with me in this fun video as I explore several languages that hate you and are trying to make your life difficult, before we go off down the rabbit hole and find some truly horrific examples of real programming.

There\'s languages that are hard to read, languages that are deliberately hard to understand with nonsensical rules and syntax. Then there\'s the true evil cooked up at 3am when programmers really need to get their job finished and nobody cares how they get it done.

No, this video is not just a trip through the Esolangs website picking out the usual suspects, it gets far far worse. Did you ever think regular expressions were a good idea, or write CGI programs in Perl? Maybe you\'re a seasoned C programmer and have had a look at the madness on display in the Obfuscated C contest.

Support
-------
Support me by simply clicking the \"like\" button or pressing \"subscribe\"! That\'s it. No hard sell, just let me know you saw this video and thought it worth watching for more than 30 seconds. These videos take time and effort to make, and if people watch them they\'ll keep coming out.

If you think my efforts are worth a bit of pocket change, feel free to go to my Ko-fi link
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Credits
------------
Video by Dmitri Posudin: https://www.pexels.com/video/colorful-artwork-and-design-1307329/
Video by Bronze Digitals: https://www.pexels.com/video/video-of-a-candle-inside-a-halloween-pumpkin-5780924/
Video by Dimitar Dimitrov: https://www.pexels.com/video/a-person-typing-on-a-laptop-keyboard-4496268/
Video by Oleg Gamulinskii: https://www.pexels.com/video/blazing-fire-2715412/
Video by Ehab El Gapry: https://www.pexels.com/video/a-motion-graphic-design-6238188/
Horror, Violin Tremolo Cluster, B.wav - https://freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[It\'s Halloween, programming is an art form and there\'s a darker side to it. Come with me in this fun video as I explore several languages that hate you and are trying to make your life difficult, before we go off down the rabbit hole and find some truly horrific examples of real programming.

There\'s languages that are hard to read, languages that are deliberately hard to understand with nonsensical rules and syntax. Then there\'s the true evil cooked up at 3am when programmers really need to get their job finished and nobody cares how they get it done.

No, this video is not just a trip through the Esolangs website picking out the usual suspects, it gets far far worse. Did you ever think regular expressions were a good idea, or write CGI programs in Perl? Maybe you\'re a seasoned C programmer and have had a look at the madness on display in the Obfuscated C contest.

Support
-------
Support me by simply clicking the \"like\" button or pressing \"subscribe\"! That\'s it. No hard sell, just let me know you saw this video and thought it worth watching for more than 30 seconds. These videos take time and effort to make, and if people watch them they\'ll keep coming out.

If you think my efforts are worth a bit of pocket change, feel free to go to my Ko-fi link
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Credits
------------
Video by Dmitri Posudin: https://www.pexels.com/video/colorful-artwork-and-design-1307329/
Video by Bronze Digitals: https://www.pexels.com/video/video-of-a-candle-inside-a-halloween-pumpkin-5780924/
Video by Dimitar Dimitrov: https://www.pexels.com/video/a-person-typing-on-a-laptop-keyboard-4496268/
Video by Oleg Gamulinskii: https://www.pexels.com/video/blazing-fire-2715412/
Video by Ehab El Gapry: https://www.pexels.com/video/a-motion-graphic-design-6238188/
Horror, Violin Tremolo Cluster, B.wav - https://freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/c3338d66beb53ec0332033dc84a256c1.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='12080000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >791</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032322/the-obfuscated-c-contest-is-insane.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032322/the-obfuscated-c-contest-is-insane.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >FORTH - Better than BASIC?</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/forth-better-than-basic-1788574606/33032323</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035394</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Mon, 16 Oct 2023 19:33:40 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Support the channel: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Let\'s look at FORTH, the obscure stack based programming language that nobody seems to use. Or do they?

After getting an Agon Light Z80 computer and discovering it can do things other than run BBC BASIC I went looking at other programs to run on it. I came across Agon-Forth and that got me thinking.

What\'s the point of FORTH, why\'s it barely used and is it really as awkward and strange as it appears? In this video I set off to find out for myself what FORTH was like.

This is not a history video or a programming video, this is a video of an experienced programmer trying to figure this bizarre language out. It uses both stacks and reverse polish notation and requires the programmer to keep track of the state of the stack as they\'re programming. Not unlike how assembly programmers need to keep track of the registers.

I discovered it is indeed much quicker than BASIC, but that it\'s so awkward to use I can see why it didn\'t catch on and why computers such as the Jupiter Ace failed. When you\'ve got a choice between slow but readable BASIC and quick but hard to understand FORTH, I can see why people chose BASIC.

But that doesn\'t make it a bad language at all. On slow hardware FORTH is amazingly fast, and to the people who did use it the inconvenience of thinking in stacks and RPN probably wasn\'t an issue. It seemed popular amongst science and academic computer users who wouldn\'t have wanted to learn assembly, but would have been quite OK with learning RPN - their scientific calculators already used that style of data entry.]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Support the channel: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Let\'s look at FORTH, the obscure stack based programming language that nobody seems to use. Or do they?

After getting an Agon Light Z80 computer and discovering it can do things other than run BBC BASIC I went looking at other programs to run on it. I came across Agon-Forth and that got me thinking.

What\'s the point of FORTH, why\'s it barely used and is it really as awkward and strange as it appears? In this video I set off to find out for myself what FORTH was like.

This is not a history video or a programming video, this is a video of an experienced programmer trying to figure this bizarre language out. It uses both stacks and reverse polish notation and requires the programmer to keep track of the state of the stack as they\'re programming. Not unlike how assembly programmers need to keep track of the registers.

I discovered it is indeed much quicker than BASIC, but that it\'s so awkward to use I can see why it didn\'t catch on and why computers such as the Jupiter Ace failed. When you\'ve got a choice between slow but readable BASIC and quick but hard to understand FORTH, I can see why people chose BASIC.

But that doesn\'t make it a bad language at all. On slow hardware FORTH is amazingly fast, and to the people who did use it the inconvenience of thinking in stacks and RPN probably wasn\'t an issue. It seemed popular amongst science and academic computer users who wouldn\'t have wanted to learn assembly, but would have been quite OK with learning RPN - their scientific calculators already used that style of data entry.]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/a910a220df3fff24e02d969c46c79d14.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='13270000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >869</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032323/forth-better-than-basic.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032323/forth-better-than-basic.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Sinclair BASIC vs BBC BASIC - How to fit an entire devkit inside 64K</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/sinclair-basic-vs-bbc-basic-how-to-fit-an-entire-devkit-inside-64k-1788574606/33032324</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035442</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sun, 01 Oct 2023 19:19:12 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Just how did 8 bit computers like the ZX Spectrum or BBC Micro manage to cram an entire programming language into their tiny systems, and still have space for the user\'s programs?

Let\'s compare two systems of the time - the low end ZX Spectrum that tried to cram as much computer as possible into as little as possible, and the more luxurious BBC Micro that included a complete assembly programming environment.

In the 1980s software for home computers was either written in BASIC or written in assembly language. Unlike today where we can load an IDE, write our code on multiple monitors and then run and debug our compiled code with ease, the computers of the 1980s were stuck with running BASIC. That\'s all there was, BASIC. Beginner\'s All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Language. It\'s all these early machines ran.

And they ran it slowly. BASIC is an interpreted language, translating each line of BASIC into machine code as it is run. This is completely different to compiled languages which do the translation all in one go. However on an 8 bit machine with only 64K of address space, this was all they could manage for the most part. If programmers wanted more out of the machine they needed to write in assembly language.

The problem with writing assembly language is that it needs compiling all in one go, which means the compiled code needs storing somewhere. And on a machine with only 64K of address space, with up to 32K of that being consumed by the system ROMs, there\'s nowhere to put the compiled code. Even worse, most of these machines initially used tape to store data. Early assembly programmers were reduced to hand assembling code on paper before then writing a short BASIC loader program to manually insert the machine code into RAM.

To help reduce the memory requirement of the machine\'s ROM code, Sinclair used a curious and unique method of keyword entry in their version of BASIC. Instead of typing out characters as normal, each key on the keyboard was assigned multiple different words. When in keyword entry mode, pressing a letter would automatically type out an entire BASIC keyword. This wasn\'t a time saving feature, it was a memory saving feature. Each BASIC keyword on the Spectrum takes up one byte because each keyword is assigned a character code from the Spectrum\'s character set, exactly the same way regular letters and numbers are.

This means that the machine only has to store codes that represent key words, effectively parsing and tokenising the BASIC instructions as they are being typed in by the user. The user literally cannot type in BASIC that won\'t parse unless they get hideously confused by the keyboard layout and its numerous shift key states. It was not a pleasant way to write code.

By contrast the BBC Micro had a powerful BASIC interpreter, ran its own operating system and even had a built in assembler running in the BASIC interpreter. You could mix BASIC and assembly code together and the machine would just compile the assembler and run it amongst the BASIC. The BBC also implemented \"sideways ROMs\" using a form of bank switching so more programs could be accessed without needing to load off tape or disk. This gave the BBC Micro much more functionality compared to the cheaper and simpler Spectrum.

It\'s quite interesting seeing the different tradeoffs and design choices two hardware manufacturers came up with. On one hand Sinclair were trying to make a cheap computer, and on the other hand Acorn were building a computer worthy of being used in schools across the country.

Blog Post: https://ncot.uk/sinclair-basic-vs-bbc-basic-how-to-fit-an-entire-devkit-inside-64k/

Support
-------
Support me by simply clicking the \"like\" button or pressing \"subscribe\"! That\'s it. No hard sell, just let me know you saw this video and thought it worth watching for more than 30 seconds. These videos take time and effort to make, and if people watch them they\'ll keep coming out.

If you think my efforts are worth a bit of pocket change, feel free to go to my Ko-fi link
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Video by Bedrijfsfilmspecialist.nl: https://www.pexels.com/video/a-computer-monitor-flashing-digital-information-2887463/
Video by Mikhail Nilov: https://www.pexels.com/video/hacker-entering-codes-into-the-computer-6963744/
Machine icons created by Eucalyp - Flaticon: https://www.flaticon.com/free-icons/machine
Code icons created by Secret Studio - Flaticon : https://www.flaticon.com/free-icons/code
Binary code icons created by Freepik - Flaticon : https://www.flaticon.com/free-icons/binary-code
Cpu icons created by Freepik - Flaticon : https://www.flaticon.com/free-icons/cpu]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Just how did 8 bit computers like the ZX Spectrum or BBC Micro manage to cram an entire programming language into their tiny systems, and still have space for the user\'s programs?

Let\'s compare two systems of the time - the low end ZX Spectrum that tried to cram as much computer as possible into as little as possible, and the more luxurious BBC Micro that included a complete assembly programming environment.

In the 1980s software for home computers was either written in BASIC or written in assembly language. Unlike today where we can load an IDE, write our code on multiple monitors and then run and debug our compiled code with ease, the computers of the 1980s were stuck with running BASIC. That\'s all there was, BASIC. Beginner\'s All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Language. It\'s all these early machines ran.

And they ran it slowly. BASIC is an interpreted language, translating each line of BASIC into machine code as it is run. This is completely different to compiled languages which do the translation all in one go. However on an 8 bit machine with only 64K of address space, this was all they could manage for the most part. If programmers wanted more out of the machine they needed to write in assembly language.

The problem with writing assembly language is that it needs compiling all in one go, which means the compiled code needs storing somewhere. And on a machine with only 64K of address space, with up to 32K of that being consumed by the system ROMs, there\'s nowhere to put the compiled code. Even worse, most of these machines initially used tape to store data. Early assembly programmers were reduced to hand assembling code on paper before then writing a short BASIC loader program to manually insert the machine code into RAM.

To help reduce the memory requirement of the machine\'s ROM code, Sinclair used a curious and unique method of keyword entry in their version of BASIC. Instead of typing out characters as normal, each key on the keyboard was assigned multiple different words. When in keyword entry mode, pressing a letter would automatically type out an entire BASIC keyword. This wasn\'t a time saving feature, it was a memory saving feature. Each BASIC keyword on the Spectrum takes up one byte because each keyword is assigned a character code from the Spectrum\'s character set, exactly the same way regular letters and numbers are.

This means that the machine only has to store codes that represent key words, effectively parsing and tokenising the BASIC instructions as they are being typed in by the user. The user literally cannot type in BASIC that won\'t parse unless they get hideously confused by the keyboard layout and its numerous shift key states. It was not a pleasant way to write code.

By contrast the BBC Micro had a powerful BASIC interpreter, ran its own operating system and even had a built in assembler running in the BASIC interpreter. You could mix BASIC and assembly code together and the machine would just compile the assembler and run it amongst the BASIC. The BBC also implemented \"sideways ROMs\" using a form of bank switching so more programs could be accessed without needing to load off tape or disk. This gave the BBC Micro much more functionality compared to the cheaper and simpler Spectrum.

It\'s quite interesting seeing the different tradeoffs and design choices two hardware manufacturers came up with. On one hand Sinclair were trying to make a cheap computer, and on the other hand Acorn were building a computer worthy of being used in schools across the country.

Blog Post: https://ncot.uk/sinclair-basic-vs-bbc-basic-how-to-fit-an-entire-devkit-inside-64k/

Support
-------
Support me by simply clicking the \"like\" button or pressing \"subscribe\"! That\'s it. No hard sell, just let me know you saw this video and thought it worth watching for more than 30 seconds. These videos take time and effort to make, and if people watch them they\'ll keep coming out.

If you think my efforts are worth a bit of pocket change, feel free to go to my Ko-fi link
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Video by Bedrijfsfilmspecialist.nl: https://www.pexels.com/video/a-computer-monitor-flashing-digital-information-2887463/
Video by Mikhail Nilov: https://www.pexels.com/video/hacker-entering-codes-into-the-computer-6963744/
Machine icons created by Eucalyp - Flaticon: https://www.flaticon.com/free-icons/machine
Code icons created by Secret Studio - Flaticon : https://www.flaticon.com/free-icons/code
Binary code icons created by Freepik - Flaticon : https://www.flaticon.com/free-icons/binary-code
Cpu icons created by Freepik - Flaticon : https://www.flaticon.com/free-icons/cpu]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/12cc0980213e948976e59a3579d6c445.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='20150000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1320</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032324/sinclair-basic-vs-bbc-basic-how-to-fit-an-entire-devkit-inside-64k.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032324/sinclair-basic-vs-bbc-basic-how-to-fit-an-entire-devkit-inside-64k.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >The Internet - Mid 90\&apos;s Web Culture</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/the-internet-mid-90s-web-culture-1788574606/33032325</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035407</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Fri, 08 Sep 2023 16:00:57 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Let\'s jack into the \'net, surf the Information Superhighway and go visit the global village in this video taking a look at mid 90\'s Internet culture. Come and see what all the fuss was about before the dot-com bubble even began and people were still trying to work out how to make us of a globally connected network of computers. The concept was so new we still didn\'t have a consistent name for it.

Features a selection of amusing adverts from the time period and some simulated 56k and T1 period accurate Internet surfing from within Windows 98 using the Protoweb Proxy which lets old machines connect to \"The Internet\" via the Wayback Machine.

Originally this was going to be a more technical look at 90s web technology, but I got far too distracted experiencing the early Internet again. It\'s fascinating how the speed of the Internet completely shaped the way it was used. Today people will socialise online or even use it to occupy their time. Back when the Web was new it was expensive - as you\'ll see from my £200 phone bill! - and going online was a deliberate act. You would plan where to go, what to look at and make a list of things to do. Once that was done, you\'d disconnect.

To speed things up we would often disable images when browsing so the text could load faster!

Credits
-------
Contains TV adverts and clips from the following
BT Anytime - British Telecom
1993 CNN Report
Tomorrow\'s World 1994 \"Are you ready for the Internet\" - BBC
Freeserve advert from Channel 4
The Computer Chronicles - The Internet 1993
Hayes Modem
Windows 98 presentation where the machine blue screens when plugging in a scanner
Kids\' Guide To The Internet - Diamond Entertainment Corporation 1997

Links
-----
Blog Post - ...
Protoweb proxy - https://protoweb.org


Support
-------
Support me by simply clicking the \"like\" button or pressing \"subscribe\"! That\'s it. No hard sell, just let me know you saw this video and thought it worth watching for more than 30 seconds. These videos take time and effort to make, and if people watch them they\'ll keep coming out.

If you think my efforts are worth a bit of pocket change, feel free to go to my Ko-fi link
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Let\'s jack into the \'net, surf the Information Superhighway and go visit the global village in this video taking a look at mid 90\'s Internet culture. Come and see what all the fuss was about before the dot-com bubble even began and people were still trying to work out how to make us of a globally connected network of computers. The concept was so new we still didn\'t have a consistent name for it.

Features a selection of amusing adverts from the time period and some simulated 56k and T1 period accurate Internet surfing from within Windows 98 using the Protoweb Proxy which lets old machines connect to \"The Internet\" via the Wayback Machine.

Originally this was going to be a more technical look at 90s web technology, but I got far too distracted experiencing the early Internet again. It\'s fascinating how the speed of the Internet completely shaped the way it was used. Today people will socialise online or even use it to occupy their time. Back when the Web was new it was expensive - as you\'ll see from my £200 phone bill! - and going online was a deliberate act. You would plan where to go, what to look at and make a list of things to do. Once that was done, you\'d disconnect.

To speed things up we would often disable images when browsing so the text could load faster!

Credits
-------
Contains TV adverts and clips from the following
BT Anytime - British Telecom
1993 CNN Report
Tomorrow\'s World 1994 \"Are you ready for the Internet\" - BBC
Freeserve advert from Channel 4
The Computer Chronicles - The Internet 1993
Hayes Modem
Windows 98 presentation where the machine blue screens when plugging in a scanner
Kids\' Guide To The Internet - Diamond Entertainment Corporation 1997

Links
-----
Blog Post - ...
Protoweb proxy - https://protoweb.org


Support
-------
Support me by simply clicking the \"like\" button or pressing \"subscribe\"! That\'s it. No hard sell, just let me know you saw this video and thought it worth watching for more than 30 seconds. These videos take time and effort to make, and if people watch them they\'ll keep coming out.

If you think my efforts are worth a bit of pocket change, feel free to go to my Ko-fi link
https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/f9b99011f6ea543d6e320afb39e4e82e.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='21390000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1401</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032325/the-internet-mid-90s-web-culture.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032325/the-internet-mid-90s-web-culture.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Zilog Z80 Deep Dive - How does it work?</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/zilog-z80-deep-dive-how-does-it-work-1788574606/33032326</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035420</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Fri, 25 Aug 2023 14:53:42 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Support the channel: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Let\'s go right inside a CPU and watch it execute code at the transistor level!

As a programmer I have often wondered exactly what the CPU is doing when I give it some code. Being a computer science teacher I know all about the fetch-execute cycle and what is supposed to be inside a CPU but what it actually does is glossed over.

So I set about finding out using the Visual6502 project\'s simulation of the Zilog Z80. This is not an emulator of the chip like you might be used to. This simulates the actual physical layout of the chip down to the wiring and transistors.

It\'s possible to step through the chip\'s sequencing logic and watch parts of it switch on and off. It\'s completely fascinating. And once you figure out what\'s going on, it\'s possible to watch the CPU work.

This deep dive into the inner workings of the Z80 was inspired by one of my students asking me the innocent question of \"how does a CPU work?\" and then being persistent in wanting to know what it actually does.

I had no idea and I had to find out. This video is the result.

Video Title: Zilog Z80 Deep Dive - How\'s it actually work a the transistor level?]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Support the channel: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech

Let\'s go right inside a CPU and watch it execute code at the transistor level!

As a programmer I have often wondered exactly what the CPU is doing when I give it some code. Being a computer science teacher I know all about the fetch-execute cycle and what is supposed to be inside a CPU but what it actually does is glossed over.

So I set about finding out using the Visual6502 project\'s simulation of the Zilog Z80. This is not an emulator of the chip like you might be used to. This simulates the actual physical layout of the chip down to the wiring and transistors.

It\'s possible to step through the chip\'s sequencing logic and watch parts of it switch on and off. It\'s completely fascinating. And once you figure out what\'s going on, it\'s possible to watch the CPU work.

This deep dive into the inner workings of the Z80 was inspired by one of my students asking me the innocent question of \"how does a CPU work?\" and then being persistent in wanting to know what it actually does.

I had no idea and I had to find out. This video is the result.

Video Title: Zilog Z80 Deep Dive - How\'s it actually work a the transistor level?]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/b2d20ee1150b652354ffa78be159a4f0.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='13800000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >904</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
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<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Calculators, Reverse Polish Notation, and the Birth of Computing</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/calculators-reverse-polish-notation-and-the-birth-of-computing-1788574606/33032327</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035434</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Fri, 11 Aug 2023 18:52:18 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[What happens when you set out to build a pocket calculator? Well in this case it turns out you also accidentally invent desktop computers, and spawn a bunch of CPUs that are still being used today.

Follow along as we go through the thoroughly bizarre story of how trying to do complex maths and fit it in our pockets lead directly to the machine you\'re using right now to watch this video.

Calculators were originally like computers - huge boxes that required care and maintenance and sat firmly on a desk plugged into the wall. Today everyone wants to own a smartphone, back then everyone wanted a pocket calculator.

The story of trying to cram a whole shoebox of electronics into a pocket involves dodgy corporate dealings, people starting their own companies and deciding that while calculators were nice, being able to program them would be even better.

Part of the difficulty of building a calculator is working out how to understand the maths the operators were entering. A basic four function calculator can be thought of as a simple state machine, but once we get to doing scientific functions or longer multi stage formulae. And this is where a technique known as Reverse Polish Notation comes in.

Blog: https://ncot.uk
Social Media: https://social.ncot.uk

Credits / Attributions
=================
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Schickard

Wilhelm Schickard 1592–1635. Astronom, Geograph, Orientalist, Erfinder der Rechenmaschine, Tübingen 1978

Replica of Schickards calculating machine
Herbert Klaeren 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal

A Pascaline signed by Pascal in 1652

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2542893
Anita MK8 calculator

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_B_145_Bild-F038812-0014,_Wolfsburg,_VW_Autowerk.jpg
Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F038812-0014 / Schaack, Lothar / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Intel C1103 - By Thomas Nguyen - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49532861

Intel 4004 - By the Science Museum - [1], CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=133513690

Intel 8008 - By Konstantin Lanzet - CPU Collection Konstantin LanzetCamera: Canon EOS 400D, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5694177

Intel 8080 - By The Science Museum UK - [1], CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=133514392

Intel 8086 - By Thomas Nguyen - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46809082

6502 - CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=91538

Zilog Z80 - By The original uploader was Damicatz at English Wikipedia. - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons., CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1830432

Busicom logo - By Comrade-yutyo - Own workThis file was derived from: Busicom back 1.jpg:, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=126212890

http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/busicom_141-pf.html

Intel https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Intel_Employees_at_Bowers_Campus_In_Santa_Clara.jpg

HP-35 - By Mister rf - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83581216]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[What happens when you set out to build a pocket calculator? Well in this case it turns out you also accidentally invent desktop computers, and spawn a bunch of CPUs that are still being used today.

Follow along as we go through the thoroughly bizarre story of how trying to do complex maths and fit it in our pockets lead directly to the machine you\'re using right now to watch this video.

Calculators were originally like computers - huge boxes that required care and maintenance and sat firmly on a desk plugged into the wall. Today everyone wants to own a smartphone, back then everyone wanted a pocket calculator.

The story of trying to cram a whole shoebox of electronics into a pocket involves dodgy corporate dealings, people starting their own companies and deciding that while calculators were nice, being able to program them would be even better.

Part of the difficulty of building a calculator is working out how to understand the maths the operators were entering. A basic four function calculator can be thought of as a simple state machine, but once we get to doing scientific functions or longer multi stage formulae. And this is where a technique known as Reverse Polish Notation comes in.

Blog: https://ncot.uk
Social Media: https://social.ncot.uk

Credits / Attributions
=================
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Schickard

Wilhelm Schickard 1592–1635. Astronom, Geograph, Orientalist, Erfinder der Rechenmaschine, Tübingen 1978

Replica of Schickards calculating machine
Herbert Klaeren 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal

A Pascaline signed by Pascal in 1652

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2542893
Anita MK8 calculator

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_B_145_Bild-F038812-0014,_Wolfsburg,_VW_Autowerk.jpg
Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F038812-0014 / Schaack, Lothar / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Intel C1103 - By Thomas Nguyen - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49532861

Intel 4004 - By the Science Museum - [1], CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=133513690

Intel 8008 - By Konstantin Lanzet - CPU Collection Konstantin LanzetCamera: Canon EOS 400D, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5694177

Intel 8080 - By The Science Museum UK - [1], CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=133514392

Intel 8086 - By Thomas Nguyen - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46809082

6502 - CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=91538

Zilog Z80 - By The original uploader was Damicatz at English Wikipedia. - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons., CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1830432

Busicom logo - By Comrade-yutyo - Own workThis file was derived from: Busicom back 1.jpg:, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=126212890

http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/busicom_141-pf.html

Intel https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Intel_Employees_at_Bowers_Campus_In_Santa_Clara.jpg

HP-35 - By Mister rf - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83581216]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/90ea25fde27da2cc43c27fb0d9e0223b.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='12700000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >832</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032327/calculators-reverse-polish-notation-and-the-birth-of-computing.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032327/calculators-reverse-polish-notation-and-the-birth-of-computing.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Sorting Data: The Problem That Built Computers</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/sorting-data-the-problem-that-built-computers-1788574606/33032328</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035401</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Fri, 28 Jul 2023 16:00:41 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[How did the 1880 US Census and the end of World War 2 lead to the invention of the computer? What was it that kickstarted the Information Age? Come with me as we find out how the need to count everyone in 1800s America directly lead to the modern information age and all the technology we take for granted.

So just how do you count everyone in a large country like the US, and once you\'ve gathered all that data, how can a machine be instructed to sort and organise the information so it makes sense to someone?

In fact, how do we even program computers to sort data? Sorting is a fairly easy thing for people to do, we do it every time we want to play a game using cards. However what process would we take when using a computer?

In this video I go through the history of why it\'s necessary to automate this task, the people involved and then look at several sorting algorithms - bubble sort, insertion sort, quick sort and merge sort.]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[How did the 1880 US Census and the end of World War 2 lead to the invention of the computer? What was it that kickstarted the Information Age? Come with me as we find out how the need to count everyone in 1800s America directly lead to the modern information age and all the technology we take for granted.

So just how do you count everyone in a large country like the US, and once you\'ve gathered all that data, how can a machine be instructed to sort and organise the information so it makes sense to someone?

In fact, how do we even program computers to sort data? Sorting is a fairly easy thing for people to do, we do it every time we want to play a game using cards. However what process would we take when using a computer?

In this video I go through the history of why it\'s necessary to automate this task, the people involved and then look at several sorting algorithms - bubble sort, insertion sort, quick sort and merge sort.]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/2b2f927fc9570dbe0e23cced09683d5b.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='19570000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1282</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032328/sorting-data-the-problem-that-built-computers.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032328/sorting-data-the-problem-that-built-computers.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Wang Tiles: The Mathematical Trick Behind Perfect Textures</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/wang-tiles-the-mathematical-trick-behind-perfect-textures-1788574606/33032329</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035400</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Fri, 14 Jul 2023 15:10:32 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Understand the concept of tiling a plane by arranging regular tiles in a systematic manner, creating visually pleasing patterns. Additionally, get introduced to Wang tiles, a fascinating method that employs specific rules for tile placement, resulting in captivating, non-repetitive designs.

Wang tiles are a type of square tile that are used in computer graphics and mathematics to create complex, non-repetitive patterns. Named after mathematician Hao Wang, these tiles have unique properties where each edge of a tile is assigned a specific color or pattern. When these tiles are arranged side by side, they can only be placed in a way that aligns the colors or patterns on adjacent edges. This constraint leads to the creation of intricate and visually appealing designs that do not repeat. Wang tiles offer a powerful tool for generating diverse and aesthetically pleasing textures, making them a valuable resource in various fields such as computer graphics, texture synthesis, and procedural generation.

Read more: https://ncot.uk/wang-tiles-and-other-ways-to-tile-a-plane/]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Understand the concept of tiling a plane by arranging regular tiles in a systematic manner, creating visually pleasing patterns. Additionally, get introduced to Wang tiles, a fascinating method that employs specific rules for tile placement, resulting in captivating, non-repetitive designs.

Wang tiles are a type of square tile that are used in computer graphics and mathematics to create complex, non-repetitive patterns. Named after mathematician Hao Wang, these tiles have unique properties where each edge of a tile is assigned a specific color or pattern. When these tiles are arranged side by side, they can only be placed in a way that aligns the colors or patterns on adjacent edges. This constraint leads to the creation of intricate and visually appealing designs that do not repeat. Wang tiles offer a powerful tool for generating diverse and aesthetically pleasing textures, making them a valuable resource in various fields such as computer graphics, texture synthesis, and procedural generation.

Read more: https://ncot.uk/wang-tiles-and-other-ways-to-tile-a-plane/]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/6a24686aa57fd6e0b4e8e2239934cec0.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='5250000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >343</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032329/wang-tiles-the-mathematical-trick-behind-perfect-textures.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032329/wang-tiles-the-mathematical-trick-behind-perfect-textures.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >DIY Solar PV Installation - Can it save me money?</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/diy-solar-pv-installation-can-it-save-me-money-1788574606/33032330</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297612319035398</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Tue, 16 May 2023 19:28:06 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Can I put a solar panel on the roof of my shed and use it to power my server farm, or will I just waste all my money?

Our energy prices are ridiculous and even taking into account recent \"world events\" I find it hard to understand why electricity is so expensive. So I figured I\'d try to do something about it by installing my own battery and solar system on my shed. The idea being to power my servers from the sun.

After doing a bit of research I decided a 300W panel, 2Ah of lead acid AGM batteries and a hybrid inverter. This is based off the idea that

* My server setup uses 100W of power constantly
* I have an energy tariff that gives me 7.5p/kWh for four hours at night and 38p during the remaining 20 hours of the day

So if I can avoid using expensive peak rate electricity, I can charge the system up at night, then use solar to maintain the batteries during the day, hopefully giving me enough power to last the evening.

This should save me about £22 a month if the system works.]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Can I put a solar panel on the roof of my shed and use it to power my server farm, or will I just waste all my money?

Our energy prices are ridiculous and even taking into account recent \"world events\" I find it hard to understand why electricity is so expensive. So I figured I\'d try to do something about it by installing my own battery and solar system on my shed. The idea being to power my servers from the sun.

After doing a bit of research I decided a 300W panel, 2Ah of lead acid AGM batteries and a hybrid inverter. This is based off the idea that

* My server setup uses 100W of power constantly
* I have an energy tariff that gives me 7.5p/kWh for four hours at night and 38p during the remaining 20 hours of the day

So if I can avoid using expensive peak rate electricity, I can charge the system up at night, then use solar to maintain the batteries during the day, hopefully giving me enough power to last the evening.

This should save me about £22 a month if the system works.]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/5b009de872a1cbcab0c76257bfad17cb.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='11690000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >766</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032330/diy-solar-pv-installation-can-it-save-me-money.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032330/diy-solar-pv-installation-can-it-save-me-money.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Hacking Your Way to a Smarter Home: Integrating Smart Sockets with Home Assistant</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/hacking-your-way-to-a-smarter-home-integrating-smart-sockets-with-home-assistant-1788574606/33032331</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056691</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sat, 18 Mar 2023 19:40:35 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[In this video, you\'ll learn how to take control of your smart sockets by replacing the firmware with Tasmota, a popular open-source alternative to the stock firmware that many smart home devices come with.

By the end of this video, you\'ll be able to use your smart sockets with Home Assistant, a powerful automation platform that can help you create a truly smart home. Whether you\'re just starting out with home automation or you\'re a seasoned DIY enthusiast, you\'re sure to learn something new in this video.

In this video, we\'ll be using power tools, Tasmota, and Home Assistant to replace the firmware of a smart socket. Throughout the video, I\'ll give you an overview of the process, showing you how to open up the smart socket and remove the stock firmware, how to flash Tasmota onto the smart socket using a USB-to-serial adapter and how to set up Home Assistant to work with your newly-flashed smart socket.]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[In this video, you\'ll learn how to take control of your smart sockets by replacing the firmware with Tasmota, a popular open-source alternative to the stock firmware that many smart home devices come with.

By the end of this video, you\'ll be able to use your smart sockets with Home Assistant, a powerful automation platform that can help you create a truly smart home. Whether you\'re just starting out with home automation or you\'re a seasoned DIY enthusiast, you\'re sure to learn something new in this video.

In this video, we\'ll be using power tools, Tasmota, and Home Assistant to replace the firmware of a smart socket. Throughout the video, I\'ll give you an overview of the process, showing you how to open up the smart socket and remove the stock firmware, how to flash Tasmota onto the smart socket using a USB-to-serial adapter and how to set up Home Assistant to work with your newly-flashed smart socket.]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/4f55b30e8ec2b214d048698d0f7bc542.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='15400000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1009</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032331/hacking-your-way-to-a-smarter-home-integrating-smart-sockets-with-home-assistant.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032331/hacking-your-way-to-a-smarter-home-integrating-smart-sockets-with-home-assistant.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >BBC BASIC in RiscOS on a Raspberry Pi is really cool!</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/bbc-basic-in-riscos-on-a-raspberry-pi-is-really-cool-1788574606/33032332</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056659</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sun, 12 Feb 2023 16:26:05 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[The Raspberry Pi, Acorn Archimedes, and the BBC Micro have played a significant role in shaping the microcomputer industry. They were designed to be affordable and accessible to the general public and educational institutions, with the goal of promoting computer literacy and technology education.

The Raspberry Pi is a series of small and low-cost single-board computers that were first released in 2012. It was designed as an educational tool to help teach computer science and programming to students, and to provide a platform for hobbyists and DIY enthusiasts to build their own projects. The Raspberry Pi runs on a variety of operating systems, including Linux, but its most notable operating system is RISC OS.

The Acorn Archimedes was a range of personal computers produced by Acorn Computers Ltd in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was one of the first computers to use the ARM architecture, which is now widely used in mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. The Archimedes was notable for its advanced graphics capabilities and was used in educational institutions. The Archimedes ran on the RISC OS operating system, which was developed specifically for the platform.

The BBC Micro, also known as the BBC Microcomputer System, was a series of microcomputers produced by Acorn Computers Ltd and released in 1981. It was commissioned by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as part of their Computer Literacy Project, with the goal of promoting computer education in schools and homes. The BBC Micro was widely used in educational institutions and was one of the most popular computers of its time. It was equipped with a 6502 CPU and ran on the Acorn MOS operating system and was programmed using BBC BASIC.

BBC Basic is a high-level programming language that was developed by Acorn Computers Ltd for the BBC Micro. It was designed to be simple and easy to use, and was intended to introduce beginners to the concepts of programming. BBC Basic was widely used in educational institutions. The language has been updated and maintained over the years, and is still in use today by a dedicated community of users and developers.

RISC OS is a proprietary operating system developed by Acorn Computers Ltd in the 1980s. It was designed to be simple, efficient, and easy to use, and despite its age, RISC OS continues to be used and maintained by RISC OS Open Limited https://www.riscosopen.org. In addition to running on old Acorn hardware, it also runs natively on the Raspberry Pi.

-----------
Video Title: BBC BASIC in RiscOS on a Raspberry Pi is really cool!]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[The Raspberry Pi, Acorn Archimedes, and the BBC Micro have played a significant role in shaping the microcomputer industry. They were designed to be affordable and accessible to the general public and educational institutions, with the goal of promoting computer literacy and technology education.

The Raspberry Pi is a series of small and low-cost single-board computers that were first released in 2012. It was designed as an educational tool to help teach computer science and programming to students, and to provide a platform for hobbyists and DIY enthusiasts to build their own projects. The Raspberry Pi runs on a variety of operating systems, including Linux, but its most notable operating system is RISC OS.

The Acorn Archimedes was a range of personal computers produced by Acorn Computers Ltd in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was one of the first computers to use the ARM architecture, which is now widely used in mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. The Archimedes was notable for its advanced graphics capabilities and was used in educational institutions. The Archimedes ran on the RISC OS operating system, which was developed specifically for the platform.

The BBC Micro, also known as the BBC Microcomputer System, was a series of microcomputers produced by Acorn Computers Ltd and released in 1981. It was commissioned by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as part of their Computer Literacy Project, with the goal of promoting computer education in schools and homes. The BBC Micro was widely used in educational institutions and was one of the most popular computers of its time. It was equipped with a 6502 CPU and ran on the Acorn MOS operating system and was programmed using BBC BASIC.

BBC Basic is a high-level programming language that was developed by Acorn Computers Ltd for the BBC Micro. It was designed to be simple and easy to use, and was intended to introduce beginners to the concepts of programming. BBC Basic was widely used in educational institutions. The language has been updated and maintained over the years, and is still in use today by a dedicated community of users and developers.

RISC OS is a proprietary operating system developed by Acorn Computers Ltd in the 1980s. It was designed to be simple, efficient, and easy to use, and despite its age, RISC OS continues to be used and maintained by RISC OS Open Limited https://www.riscosopen.org. In addition to running on old Acorn hardware, it also runs natively on the Raspberry Pi.

-----------
Video Title: BBC BASIC in RiscOS on a Raspberry Pi is really cool!]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/545b41556f17d406f86a752aaffcdd07.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='16130000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1056</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032332/bbc-basic-in-riscos-on-a-raspberry-pi-is-really-cool.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032332/bbc-basic-in-riscos-on-a-raspberry-pi-is-really-cool.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
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<item>
<title >Samsung SDP-860 Document Presenter Thing [VLOG 1]</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/samsung-sdp-860-document-presenter-thing-vlog-1-1788574606/33032333</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056654</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Thu, 02 Feb 2023 22:45:04 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[I\'ve been buying odd things off eBay again. I figured that since I needed to test out this document camera thing for some other videos, I may as well record my initial reactions, unboxing and thoughts while trying to work out what it does.

I bought this blind off eBay without really researching too hard into whether it would do what I wanted.]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[I\'ve been buying odd things off eBay again. I figured that since I needed to test out this document camera thing for some other videos, I may as well record my initial reactions, unboxing and thoughts while trying to work out what it does.

I bought this blind off eBay without really researching too hard into whether it would do what I wanted.]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/ed5feeca61cfc214931d5e4bed56511f.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='11450000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >750</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032333/samsung-sdp-860-document-presenter-thing-vlog-1.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032333/samsung-sdp-860-document-presenter-thing-vlog-1.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >2022 Review and Beyond!</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/2022-review-and-beyond-1788574606/33032334</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056667</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sun, 01 Jan 2023 19:00:18 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Let’s briefly look back at last year and see what things were like, then look forward to the coming year and what I want to achieve. I did this last year too, and I’ve just been reading that.

So previously I was quite pleased at hitting 1000 subscribers on my YouTube channel, and by the end of the year had 1300 or so. This year I seem to have gained another 1000 as I’m somewhere around 2300.

Most of my videos last year were Spectrum Next related as I tried to work out how to program it, and then explain what I’d learnt to others who might be interested. I quite like learning things and then explaining what I know, I also seem to like telling stories of how things were.

It doesn’t feel like I did much else. I know I did far too much sitting in front of my TV watching YouTube, rather than making my own content but I guess that’s what happens when you do a full time job during the day. Doing more work at home seems like too much effort. Especially when it’s dark in the evenings and the space you work in is a bit of a complete mess.

So let’s look forwards then and see what I want to do in the coming year.

Making things easier is a goal. I’ve ditched my Hugo powered static website and moved everything back to WordPress. It’s just easier being able to type directly into the editor and hit “Publish” compared to the equivalent of compiling my text into a site.

I also really need to improve the place I work in for these videos and my own projects. The desk is all wrong, things are randomly put on the walls with no actual thought, it’s just sort of evolved over time.

Something I did do last year was tidy up my main workshed and put in better benches, and that’s improved things a lot. I will do the same in here.

I also find it really hard to make videos on a consistent schedule because most of my content is based on me explaining something I’ve been learning. Trying to figure something out can take weeks or months to complete, and I never liked releasing half finished videos.

I’m going to change things a bit this year and have a bunch of background, long term projects that I’ll make videos on as and when I feel the need, and then some easier to make videos each month.

Another thing I’m doing is resurrecting my blog and website to make it more useful. Previously it was just a place to dump the video description and a link to my videos in the hope someone Googling would find my content.

Now I want to actually write proper posts here. They might take the form of random waffle like this, or notes from the projects I’m working on. I can also use my site as a place to put the detailed, complex information I sometimes need to explain without trying to put it in a video. Yes, I’m just as annoyed as you are when Google directs me to a video on something I want to know, and I have to sit through ten minutes of YouTube fluff when a 30 second blog post could have told me the same thing.

I also want to try less structured vlog style videos on random topics that I’ve found interesting. I think I’ve figured out how to read a script to the camera, now I want to learn how to just switch one on and talk at it without going off topic or forgetting what I was trying to say.

Blog Post: https://ncot.uk/2022-review/]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Let’s briefly look back at last year and see what things were like, then look forward to the coming year and what I want to achieve. I did this last year too, and I’ve just been reading that.

So previously I was quite pleased at hitting 1000 subscribers on my YouTube channel, and by the end of the year had 1300 or so. This year I seem to have gained another 1000 as I’m somewhere around 2300.

Most of my videos last year were Spectrum Next related as I tried to work out how to program it, and then explain what I’d learnt to others who might be interested. I quite like learning things and then explaining what I know, I also seem to like telling stories of how things were.

It doesn’t feel like I did much else. I know I did far too much sitting in front of my TV watching YouTube, rather than making my own content but I guess that’s what happens when you do a full time job during the day. Doing more work at home seems like too much effort. Especially when it’s dark in the evenings and the space you work in is a bit of a complete mess.

So let’s look forwards then and see what I want to do in the coming year.

Making things easier is a goal. I’ve ditched my Hugo powered static website and moved everything back to WordPress. It’s just easier being able to type directly into the editor and hit “Publish” compared to the equivalent of compiling my text into a site.

I also really need to improve the place I work in for these videos and my own projects. The desk is all wrong, things are randomly put on the walls with no actual thought, it’s just sort of evolved over time.

Something I did do last year was tidy up my main workshed and put in better benches, and that’s improved things a lot. I will do the same in here.

I also find it really hard to make videos on a consistent schedule because most of my content is based on me explaining something I’ve been learning. Trying to figure something out can take weeks or months to complete, and I never liked releasing half finished videos.

I’m going to change things a bit this year and have a bunch of background, long term projects that I’ll make videos on as and when I feel the need, and then some easier to make videos each month.

Another thing I’m doing is resurrecting my blog and website to make it more useful. Previously it was just a place to dump the video description and a link to my videos in the hope someone Googling would find my content.

Now I want to actually write proper posts here. They might take the form of random waffle like this, or notes from the projects I’m working on. I can also use my site as a place to put the detailed, complex information I sometimes need to explain without trying to put it in a video. Yes, I’m just as annoyed as you are when Google directs me to a video on something I want to know, and I have to sit through ten minutes of YouTube fluff when a 30 second blog post could have told me the same thing.

I also want to try less structured vlog style videos on random topics that I’ve found interesting. I think I’ve figured out how to read a script to the camera, now I want to learn how to just switch one on and talk at it without going off topic or forgetting what I was trying to say.

Blog Post: https://ncot.uk/2022-review/]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/bbf029806cf4d4c3c589f9fa40abcbc7.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='10850000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >710</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032334/2022-review-and-beyond.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032334/2022-review-and-beyond.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
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<item>
<title >The £3,000 brick phone - mobile phones in the 1980s</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/the-3000-brick-phone-mobile-phones-in-the-1980s-1788574606/33032335</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056666</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sat, 29 Oct 2022 19:27:29 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Let\'s look at one of the world\'s first mobile phones - the Motorola 8500x - released in the mid 1980s for £3,000. That\'s over £7,000 today!

In this video I\'ll explain what the 1980s was like as far as phones went, and we\'ll look inside this massive brick phone - does it still work? Will it switch on? What\'s inside it anyway?

Phones today are so common you\'re more likely to get funny looks if you don\'t have one. But that wasn\'t always the case. Mobile phones had been thought up, but they worked more like CB radios. You had to follow radio rules to use them and have a licence.
There\'s this fantastic old Tomorrow\'s World episode you should go and watch. Especially the bit where his call goes wrong and some random
person cuts into the call.

One thing I want to get across is just how insanely expensive owning a phone was back then. A similar model - the 8000X - was £3000 back in 1985 which is a thoroughly meaningless £7,503.49 in today\'s money. The average wage for the type of person who would have used this - a male between 30 and 39 - is £236 a week, or just over £12,000 a year. That\'s £30,000 in today\'s money.

There\'s no way your average worker would spend three month\'s wages on a phone, especially when nobody else had one. This is the era where phonecalls cost money. Talk was expensive, so you did it at prearranged times and made sure you had something to say.

So it\'s an expensive yuppie status symbol, like a sports car or private jet. If you owned one yourself, you were loaded.
If you had a company one, you must have had some high up executive job that warranted you being given one, along with your company car.
Or you were some sales guy living out of his car selling washing machines and needing the phone.

It\'s completely analogue. There\'s no 3G, 4G, it doesn\'t even do GSM. So what did it do? Well it\'s called 1G because... 
it was the first generation.

There were several systems known as TACS for Total Access Communication System, and ETACS, created by Vodafone, Ericsson, and Cellnet.
Yes, these are all the same names that exist today. Although interestingly Cellnet used to be called Telecom Securicor Cellular Radio Ltd.
It was formed from the security company Securicor (who have now been absorbed and mutated into G4S) and British Telecom. If you were a
Cellnet user, you\'ll have noticed at some point it turned into BT Cellnet, and then O2.

The network was all analogue, and used frequencies between 935 and 949 MHz for the cell towers, and 890 to 904 for the handsets.

SIM cards didn\'t exist, the handsets had their identifying numbers programmed into them.

This wasn\'t a fashion phone to upgrade every year.

Could you do anything beyond making expensive phone calls? No. That was it.

And that\'s how important these devices were. Normal people used payphones. Normal British people didn\'t even have pagers.

Making phonecalls in the 80s from outside your house was awful. Having a magic box to carry about must have been amazing.
Merely owning one was enough. It didn\'t need to do anything else.

So there we go, a look inside a 1980s yuppie status symbol. Feel free to tell me about your stories of mobile phones in the comments.
You know, I remember seeing some guy on the bus in the mid 90s on his phone and I remember thinking \"what a showoff\". And then in 1997
pay as you go came along, Nokia plopped out successive cheap iconic handsets and seemingly overnight everyone had a phone. It happened
so fast, I\'ve never seen anything like it.

Noticed how in science fiction stories we alway miss mobile phones being a thing? Sure, we have the idea of personal communicators in
Star Trek, but they were more like 2-way radios. Or you might have some sort of pager device, but nobody seemed to predict the entire
planet owning a personal phone number as if it was completely normal.

Blog Post: https://ncot.uk/electronics/3000-mobile-phone-motorola-8500x/
Twitter: @ncot_tech

Chapters
========
00:00 Intro
02:03 Disassembly
06:44 About the phone
10:03 Inside the Motorola Brick Phone
14:55 How expensive was the phone?
16:38 Inside the Motorola Brick Phone
20:54 What we used them for
22:25 More Insides
24:27 Battery Life
27:22 Reading the eprom
29:41 Outro

Attributions
============
Rotary phone - Video by Andrew Kota: https://www.pexels.com/video/green-rotary-phone-4520095/
BBC Tomorrow\'s World - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vix6TMnj9vY
1986 Ferrari Testarossa - Mr.choppers, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
1980 Learjet - Stanley Howe / A private jet at Blackbushe (1980)
Richard Croft / Vandalised phone box
https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/bt-rhyl-phone-box-damage-10082143
Motorola Pager - Thiemo Schuff, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/early-mobile-phones-pictures-1970-1990/]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Let\'s look at one of the world\'s first mobile phones - the Motorola 8500x - released in the mid 1980s for £3,000. That\'s over £7,000 today!

In this video I\'ll explain what the 1980s was like as far as phones went, and we\'ll look inside this massive brick phone - does it still work? Will it switch on? What\'s inside it anyway?

Phones today are so common you\'re more likely to get funny looks if you don\'t have one. But that wasn\'t always the case. Mobile phones had been thought up, but they worked more like CB radios. You had to follow radio rules to use them and have a licence.
There\'s this fantastic old Tomorrow\'s World episode you should go and watch. Especially the bit where his call goes wrong and some random
person cuts into the call.

One thing I want to get across is just how insanely expensive owning a phone was back then. A similar model - the 8000X - was £3000 back in 1985 which is a thoroughly meaningless £7,503.49 in today\'s money. The average wage for the type of person who would have used this - a male between 30 and 39 - is £236 a week, or just over £12,000 a year. That\'s £30,000 in today\'s money.

There\'s no way your average worker would spend three month\'s wages on a phone, especially when nobody else had one. This is the era where phonecalls cost money. Talk was expensive, so you did it at prearranged times and made sure you had something to say.

So it\'s an expensive yuppie status symbol, like a sports car or private jet. If you owned one yourself, you were loaded.
If you had a company one, you must have had some high up executive job that warranted you being given one, along with your company car.
Or you were some sales guy living out of his car selling washing machines and needing the phone.

It\'s completely analogue. There\'s no 3G, 4G, it doesn\'t even do GSM. So what did it do? Well it\'s called 1G because... 
it was the first generation.

There were several systems known as TACS for Total Access Communication System, and ETACS, created by Vodafone, Ericsson, and Cellnet.
Yes, these are all the same names that exist today. Although interestingly Cellnet used to be called Telecom Securicor Cellular Radio Ltd.
It was formed from the security company Securicor (who have now been absorbed and mutated into G4S) and British Telecom. If you were a
Cellnet user, you\'ll have noticed at some point it turned into BT Cellnet, and then O2.

The network was all analogue, and used frequencies between 935 and 949 MHz for the cell towers, and 890 to 904 for the handsets.

SIM cards didn\'t exist, the handsets had their identifying numbers programmed into them.

This wasn\'t a fashion phone to upgrade every year.

Could you do anything beyond making expensive phone calls? No. That was it.

And that\'s how important these devices were. Normal people used payphones. Normal British people didn\'t even have pagers.

Making phonecalls in the 80s from outside your house was awful. Having a magic box to carry about must have been amazing.
Merely owning one was enough. It didn\'t need to do anything else.

So there we go, a look inside a 1980s yuppie status symbol. Feel free to tell me about your stories of mobile phones in the comments.
You know, I remember seeing some guy on the bus in the mid 90s on his phone and I remember thinking \"what a showoff\". And then in 1997
pay as you go came along, Nokia plopped out successive cheap iconic handsets and seemingly overnight everyone had a phone. It happened
so fast, I\'ve never seen anything like it.

Noticed how in science fiction stories we alway miss mobile phones being a thing? Sure, we have the idea of personal communicators in
Star Trek, but they were more like 2-way radios. Or you might have some sort of pager device, but nobody seemed to predict the entire
planet owning a personal phone number as if it was completely normal.

Blog Post: https://ncot.uk/electronics/3000-mobile-phone-motorola-8500x/
Twitter: @ncot_tech

Chapters
========
00:00 Intro
02:03 Disassembly
06:44 About the phone
10:03 Inside the Motorola Brick Phone
14:55 How expensive was the phone?
16:38 Inside the Motorola Brick Phone
20:54 What we used them for
22:25 More Insides
24:27 Battery Life
27:22 Reading the eprom
29:41 Outro

Attributions
============
Rotary phone - Video by Andrew Kota: https://www.pexels.com/video/green-rotary-phone-4520095/
BBC Tomorrow\'s World - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vix6TMnj9vY
1986 Ferrari Testarossa - Mr.choppers, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
1980 Learjet - Stanley Howe / A private jet at Blackbushe (1980)
Richard Croft / Vandalised phone box
https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/bt-rhyl-phone-box-damage-10082143
Motorola Pager - Thiemo Schuff, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/early-mobile-phones-pictures-1970-1990/]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/cd835d65858ce80f696d463e2259693a.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='29340000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1922</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032335/the-3000-brick-phone-mobile-phones-in-the-1980s.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032335/the-3000-brick-phone-mobile-phones-in-the-1980s.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
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<item>
<title >DMA - Direct Memory Access on the ZX Spectrum Next</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/dma-direct-memory-access-on-the-zx-spectrum-next-1788574606/33032336</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056673</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sat, 24 Sep 2022 17:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[This is the third video in a short series looking at some of the more advanced parts of the Spectrum Next. If you\'ve not seen the others, go watch them after this one. In this video we\'re looking at how to program the DMA controller in the Spectrum Next.

This\'ll be technical, it\'ll include code on how to do this using Z88DK and C for the Spectrum Next. It\'s a pretty advanced technique, but it\'s quite understandable and can add some nice speed boosts to code if used appropriately.

DMA or Direct Memory Access is a way to allow devices access to system RAM without the CPU being involved.

The DMA controller in the Next is a programmable device and has a few registers that need writing to. This is well documented on the Spectrum Next wiki https://wiki.specnext.dev/DMA.

There are seven registers called WR0 to WR6. Writing to them is like when we configured the sprite system in my other video. Each register is accessed through the same IO port and the pattern of the first three bits tells the DMA controller which register you\'re writing to.

The only thing to know is this is purely a DMA, it can copy continuous runs of bytes. It\'s not a blitter so it is unable to copy a rectanglular block of RAM.

Also for small copies, the setup and configuration may actually be slower than doing it by hand with memcpy. It\'s definitely something to use with large amounts of data though. A music playing routine running in a vblank interrupt would use this to feed the audio hardware with sound data.

Chapters:

00:00 Start!
00:45 What is DMA?
01:41 ZX Next DMA
02:01 The DMA Registers
02:32 Register WR0
03:10 Code example DMA Screen Copy
04:23 Register WR1
05:03 Registers WR2 and WR3
05:20 Register WR4
05:44 Register WR6
06:13 A note on writing to registers
06:45 Repeating DMA transfers
08:00 Closing Notes

Credits:

Casio Calculators - J. C. Barros from Portugal, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Random images - Midjourney
Music - Epidemic Sounds]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[This is the third video in a short series looking at some of the more advanced parts of the Spectrum Next. If you\'ve not seen the others, go watch them after this one. In this video we\'re looking at how to program the DMA controller in the Spectrum Next.

This\'ll be technical, it\'ll include code on how to do this using Z88DK and C for the Spectrum Next. It\'s a pretty advanced technique, but it\'s quite understandable and can add some nice speed boosts to code if used appropriately.

DMA or Direct Memory Access is a way to allow devices access to system RAM without the CPU being involved.

The DMA controller in the Next is a programmable device and has a few registers that need writing to. This is well documented on the Spectrum Next wiki https://wiki.specnext.dev/DMA.

There are seven registers called WR0 to WR6. Writing to them is like when we configured the sprite system in my other video. Each register is accessed through the same IO port and the pattern of the first three bits tells the DMA controller which register you\'re writing to.

The only thing to know is this is purely a DMA, it can copy continuous runs of bytes. It\'s not a blitter so it is unable to copy a rectanglular block of RAM.

Also for small copies, the setup and configuration may actually be slower than doing it by hand with memcpy. It\'s definitely something to use with large amounts of data though. A music playing routine running in a vblank interrupt would use this to feed the audio hardware with sound data.

Chapters:

00:00 Start!
00:45 What is DMA?
01:41 ZX Next DMA
02:01 The DMA Registers
02:32 Register WR0
03:10 Code example DMA Screen Copy
04:23 Register WR1
05:03 Registers WR2 and WR3
05:20 Register WR4
05:44 Register WR6
06:13 A note on writing to registers
06:45 Repeating DMA transfers
08:00 Closing Notes

Credits:

Casio Calculators - J. C. Barros from Portugal, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Random images - Midjourney
Music - Epidemic Sounds]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/211e8cd50183e48e75f84e5c6fe61e87.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='10360000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >678</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032336/dma-direct-memory-access-on-the-zx-spectrum-next.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032336/dma-direct-memory-access-on-the-zx-spectrum-next.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >The Interrupt Trick That Made Budget Computers Work</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/the-interrupt-trick-that-made-budget-computers-work-1788574606/33032337</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056652</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Thu, 11 Aug 2022 14:20:13 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[How clever engineers made a cheap computer powerful

How do you make an underpowered 8 bit CPU seem a bit more capable than it really is? Interrupts! that mechanism where the CPU can be poked and told to do something completely different, then resume whatever it was originally doing as if it\'d never stopped.

On the Spectrum - and in this instance I mean the original 16K Spectrum - this was done in a typical Sinclair way - cheaply, with as few components as possible, leaving the majority of the work to the programmer. I\'m sure Sinclair HQ must have had a sign on their wall saying \"if you can do it in software, we can build it cheaper\" or something.

Let\'s look at how those devious hardware designers crafted a cheap and functional system that didn\'t exactly follow the Z80 specs.

You see the Spectrum was made to be cheap, like super cheap. Cheaper than any other home micro. And unlike cheap computers of the time, it was designed to be a usable computer.

Cheap computers of the time had a nasty habit of being severely crippled in one way or another. Maybe they had barely any RAM, or couldn\'t do graphics or they were so insanely hard to program for nobody bothered. Maybe the screen blanked out every time you pressed a key.

So to make the machine cheap they put in as little hardware as possible. Inside a 48K spectrum there\'s barely anything. Compare it to a C64 with its SID chip, VIC 2 chip, IO controllers... there\'s none of that in a spectrum just a big ULA that does everything.

So CPUs are machines that follow very precise and mechanical processes. They fetch, decode and execute instructions one at a time. Some instructions take multiple cycles to complete, but it\'s all very precise. Every time the CPU clock ticks, the CPU does a very specific task.

The real world isn\'t quite as predictable. One way to deal with this is called polling. This is where the machine sits in a loop constantly checking for something interesting happening. Instead of polling, we can configure our devices to trigger interrupts to tell the CPU something needs its attention.

The website http://www.z80.info/1653.htm explains how the Z80 is supposed to do interrupts, however Sinclair were in an arms race to build the cheapest computer possible to beat their competitors. That meant using as little hardware as possible, and making the hardware work as cheaply as it could.

The website http://www.breakintoprogram.co.uk/computers/zx-spectrum/interrupts explains how the Spectrum does it. It\'s quite clever. Go and have a look!

Credits:

Sinclair 48K ZX Spectrum motherboard - Bill Bertram
Commodore 64 Rev A. PAL motherboard - Bill Bertram
Texas Instruments TI-99 computer - Rama & Musée Bolo
Dragon 32 - Liftarn, Editing by: Bill Bertram
Byte Magazine, September and October 1982
Bus Queue - Jimmcgovern15

Social Media
============
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ncot_tech
Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech
Web version: https://ncot.uk/spectrum-next/Clever-engineering-on-a-budget-ZX-Spectrum-Interrupts

Chapters
========
00:00 - Start
00:37 - Brief history of the Spectrum
02:10 - Polling and Interrupts
03:49 - Z80 Interrupts
05:20 - Z80 Interrupt Modes
06:11 - Z80 IM2
09:54 - Final Words


#Programming
#Z80 Interrupts
#ZX Spectrum

Video Title: Clever engineering on a budget - ZX Spectrum Interrupts]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[How clever engineers made a cheap computer powerful

How do you make an underpowered 8 bit CPU seem a bit more capable than it really is? Interrupts! that mechanism where the CPU can be poked and told to do something completely different, then resume whatever it was originally doing as if it\'d never stopped.

On the Spectrum - and in this instance I mean the original 16K Spectrum - this was done in a typical Sinclair way - cheaply, with as few components as possible, leaving the majority of the work to the programmer. I\'m sure Sinclair HQ must have had a sign on their wall saying \"if you can do it in software, we can build it cheaper\" or something.

Let\'s look at how those devious hardware designers crafted a cheap and functional system that didn\'t exactly follow the Z80 specs.

You see the Spectrum was made to be cheap, like super cheap. Cheaper than any other home micro. And unlike cheap computers of the time, it was designed to be a usable computer.

Cheap computers of the time had a nasty habit of being severely crippled in one way or another. Maybe they had barely any RAM, or couldn\'t do graphics or they were so insanely hard to program for nobody bothered. Maybe the screen blanked out every time you pressed a key.

So to make the machine cheap they put in as little hardware as possible. Inside a 48K spectrum there\'s barely anything. Compare it to a C64 with its SID chip, VIC 2 chip, IO controllers... there\'s none of that in a spectrum just a big ULA that does everything.

So CPUs are machines that follow very precise and mechanical processes. They fetch, decode and execute instructions one at a time. Some instructions take multiple cycles to complete, but it\'s all very precise. Every time the CPU clock ticks, the CPU does a very specific task.

The real world isn\'t quite as predictable. One way to deal with this is called polling. This is where the machine sits in a loop constantly checking for something interesting happening. Instead of polling, we can configure our devices to trigger interrupts to tell the CPU something needs its attention.

The website http://www.z80.info/1653.htm explains how the Z80 is supposed to do interrupts, however Sinclair were in an arms race to build the cheapest computer possible to beat their competitors. That meant using as little hardware as possible, and making the hardware work as cheaply as it could.

The website http://www.breakintoprogram.co.uk/computers/zx-spectrum/interrupts explains how the Spectrum does it. It\'s quite clever. Go and have a look!

Credits:

Sinclair 48K ZX Spectrum motherboard - Bill Bertram
Commodore 64 Rev A. PAL motherboard - Bill Bertram
Texas Instruments TI-99 computer - Rama & Musée Bolo
Dragon 32 - Liftarn, Editing by: Bill Bertram
Byte Magazine, September and October 1982
Bus Queue - Jimmcgovern15

Social Media
============
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ncot_tech
Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech
Web version: https://ncot.uk/spectrum-next/Clever-engineering-on-a-budget-ZX-Spectrum-Interrupts

Chapters
========
00:00 - Start
00:37 - Brief history of the Spectrum
02:10 - Polling and Interrupts
03:49 - Z80 Interrupts
05:20 - Z80 Interrupt Modes
06:11 - Z80 IM2
09:54 - Final Words


#Programming
#Z80 Interrupts
#ZX Spectrum

Video Title: Clever engineering on a budget - ZX Spectrum Interrupts]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/9b6150e2b9f8a75441653e50ebf4648a.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='10650000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >698</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032337/the-interrupt-trick-that-made-budget-computers-work.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032337/the-interrupt-trick-that-made-budget-computers-work.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >The Clever Trick That Gave the ZX Spectrum 128K of RAM</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/the-clever-trick-that-gave-the-zx-spectrum-128k-of-ram-1788574606/33032338</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056685</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sun, 24 Jul 2022 18:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[How do you get more than 64K of RAM in an 8 bit computer? Let\'s look at how memory banking works!

So as explained in the previous video, our little Z80 CPU only has 16 bit address lines, and that means the maximum memory it can address is 64K. In this video let\'s take a look at how memory banking on the 128K Spectrum and the Spectrum Next works, allowing those machines to break through the 64k barrier!

This video is mostly aimed at people trying to program the Spectrum, but how and why this works is sufficiently technical that I hope it\'s interesting to more than the five people out there who seem to be programming like this!

The Spectrum +3 has a whole 128K of RAM. At the time this was amazing. They and all other Spectrums are based off a Zilog Z80 CPU. There\'s 16 address lines, and 8 data lines. The 8 data lines are what makes this an 8 bit CPU. Inside the CPU those 8 lines go to the registers, each of which are 8 bits wide.

Since there\'s 16 address lines, the CPU can address up to 65,536 different locations. And each of those locations can store a single 8 bit number. So 65,536 different locations, each of which stores a single byte gives our CPU 64K of addressable memory. That\'s it. 64K is loads, surely we don\'t need much more?

So on the 128K Spectrums, how\'s the 128K of RAM and 32K of ROM fit inside the 64K of addressable memory the Z80 can see? Magic! No, really, this stuff is proper magic all the magic is inside a chip which on my +3 is a gate array.

You know the ULA on the Spectrum? That all purpose chip that makes the computer a Spectrum? The Gate Array on the +3 is that with extra bits added.

The gate array on the Speccy +3 contains all the logic that was in the ULA, plus a bunch of other logic for bank switching and so on, also defined using logic equations. It\'s the same as a bunch of hardware logic gates, just in one cost-reduced package.

It\'s sort of the great grandfather of the FPGA in the Next. Except the FPGA on the Next is that plus the CPU and everything else to create the whole machine, described using logic equations.

I know you can describe any logic circuit using an FPGA, but is the reverse true? Can you describe every FPGA circuit using real hardware?

You know, with appropriate tools you can totally reprogram the Next\'s hardware to be something different.

The idea is to partition memory up into banks of a certain size, and then let the programmer attach those banks to parts of the CPU\'s address space when needed. On the original Spectrums, this was done using 16K banks. On the Spectrum +3 it\'s a bit different - they updated the design to allow a bit more flexibility so CP/M could be run...

The Next can do all of that, plus its own much more flexible memory paging. On the Next, you use 8K blocks and can switch in and out of any 8K area of the address space.

We\'ll have to be \"careful\" to the best of our ability to avoid our code growing into the stack if we write too much, or the stack growing down into our code if we use too many function calls at once.

Doing this is left as an exercise for the reader, have fun! I have no idea how to cope with this, and no doubt future me will encounter a stack overflow at some point.

Uses Red arrow animation pointing on a green screen Stock Videos by Vecteezy.

Social Media
============
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ncot_tech
Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech
Web version: https://ncot.uk/spectrum-next/Breaking-the-64k-barrier-Spectrum-Memory-Banking

Chapters
========
00:00 - Start
00:46 - RAM in the Spectrum
03:46 - ULAs, Gate Arrays and FPGAs
05:15 - What is Bank Switching
09:42 - About Memory Mapping
18:00 - MMUs and how to use them
20:29 - Ideas for extra ram
22:24 - Outro - Subscribe!


#Programming
#ZX Spectrum Next
#Memory Banking

Video Title: Breaking the 64k barrier - Spectrum Memory Banking]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[How do you get more than 64K of RAM in an 8 bit computer? Let\'s look at how memory banking works!

So as explained in the previous video, our little Z80 CPU only has 16 bit address lines, and that means the maximum memory it can address is 64K. In this video let\'s take a look at how memory banking on the 128K Spectrum and the Spectrum Next works, allowing those machines to break through the 64k barrier!

This video is mostly aimed at people trying to program the Spectrum, but how and why this works is sufficiently technical that I hope it\'s interesting to more than the five people out there who seem to be programming like this!

The Spectrum +3 has a whole 128K of RAM. At the time this was amazing. They and all other Spectrums are based off a Zilog Z80 CPU. There\'s 16 address lines, and 8 data lines. The 8 data lines are what makes this an 8 bit CPU. Inside the CPU those 8 lines go to the registers, each of which are 8 bits wide.

Since there\'s 16 address lines, the CPU can address up to 65,536 different locations. And each of those locations can store a single 8 bit number. So 65,536 different locations, each of which stores a single byte gives our CPU 64K of addressable memory. That\'s it. 64K is loads, surely we don\'t need much more?

So on the 128K Spectrums, how\'s the 128K of RAM and 32K of ROM fit inside the 64K of addressable memory the Z80 can see? Magic! No, really, this stuff is proper magic all the magic is inside a chip which on my +3 is a gate array.

You know the ULA on the Spectrum? That all purpose chip that makes the computer a Spectrum? The Gate Array on the +3 is that with extra bits added.

The gate array on the Speccy +3 contains all the logic that was in the ULA, plus a bunch of other logic for bank switching and so on, also defined using logic equations. It\'s the same as a bunch of hardware logic gates, just in one cost-reduced package.

It\'s sort of the great grandfather of the FPGA in the Next. Except the FPGA on the Next is that plus the CPU and everything else to create the whole machine, described using logic equations.

I know you can describe any logic circuit using an FPGA, but is the reverse true? Can you describe every FPGA circuit using real hardware?

You know, with appropriate tools you can totally reprogram the Next\'s hardware to be something different.

The idea is to partition memory up into banks of a certain size, and then let the programmer attach those banks to parts of the CPU\'s address space when needed. On the original Spectrums, this was done using 16K banks. On the Spectrum +3 it\'s a bit different - they updated the design to allow a bit more flexibility so CP/M could be run...

The Next can do all of that, plus its own much more flexible memory paging. On the Next, you use 8K blocks and can switch in and out of any 8K area of the address space.

We\'ll have to be \"careful\" to the best of our ability to avoid our code growing into the stack if we write too much, or the stack growing down into our code if we use too many function calls at once.

Doing this is left as an exercise for the reader, have fun! I have no idea how to cope with this, and no doubt future me will encounter a stack overflow at some point.

Uses Red arrow animation pointing on a green screen Stock Videos by Vecteezy.

Social Media
============
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ncot_tech
Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech
Web version: https://ncot.uk/spectrum-next/Breaking-the-64k-barrier-Spectrum-Memory-Banking

Chapters
========
00:00 - Start
00:46 - RAM in the Spectrum
03:46 - ULAs, Gate Arrays and FPGAs
05:15 - What is Bank Switching
09:42 - About Memory Mapping
18:00 - MMUs and how to use them
20:29 - Ideas for extra ram
22:24 - Outro - Subscribe!


#Programming
#ZX Spectrum Next
#Memory Banking

Video Title: Breaking the 64k barrier - Spectrum Memory Banking]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/6d832d9ab4196269e6db9635e58e9cc5.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='21190000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1388</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032338/the-clever-trick-that-gave-the-zx-spectrum-128k-of-ram.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032338/the-clever-trick-that-gave-the-zx-spectrum-128k-of-ram.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >The Technology That Made 1980s Computers Work | Banking, Interrupts, DMA</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/the-technology-that-made-1980s-computers-work-banking-interrupts-dma-1788574606/33032339</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056687</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Thu, 02 Jun 2022 11:15:44 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Let\'s explore how 8bit computers worked, looking at their memory, interrupts and DMA.

Computers from the 1980s seemed to be quite limited in their abilities, there was a bit drive to make a machine as cheaply as possible. Competition was fierce between manufacturers. Often the amount of RAM in the machine was a selling point - if you were looking for a new computer, would you buy a Commodore 64, or a Spectrum 128? Clearly 128 sounds more.

Except these machines were limited by their designs, so how exactly did something like a Spectrum 128 have 128K of RAM? What are interrupts? How do they work on a Spectrum? What is DMA and did it even exist back then, or was it not until the Amiga came along DMA became popular?

Let\'s look at these three topics using various models of ZX Spectrum and the new Spectrum Next.

This is an introduction to the topics of Memory Banking, Interrupts and DMA. There will be more in-depth videos coming soon on each topic, along with source code. So subscribe to be notified when they arrive.

----

Contains images from Wikipedia

Chapters
---------------
Intro 00:30
Memory Banking 01:28
Memory on 8 bit systems 02:06
Memory Banking 04:41
Interrupts 10:47
DMA Controller 18:05
Summary 20:29]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Let\'s explore how 8bit computers worked, looking at their memory, interrupts and DMA.

Computers from the 1980s seemed to be quite limited in their abilities, there was a bit drive to make a machine as cheaply as possible. Competition was fierce between manufacturers. Often the amount of RAM in the machine was a selling point - if you were looking for a new computer, would you buy a Commodore 64, or a Spectrum 128? Clearly 128 sounds more.

Except these machines were limited by their designs, so how exactly did something like a Spectrum 128 have 128K of RAM? What are interrupts? How do they work on a Spectrum? What is DMA and did it even exist back then, or was it not until the Amiga came along DMA became popular?

Let\'s look at these three topics using various models of ZX Spectrum and the new Spectrum Next.

This is an introduction to the topics of Memory Banking, Interrupts and DMA. There will be more in-depth videos coming soon on each topic, along with source code. So subscribe to be notified when they arrive.

----

Contains images from Wikipedia

Chapters
---------------
Intro 00:30
Memory Banking 01:28
Memory on 8 bit systems 02:06
Memory Banking 04:41
Interrupts 10:47
DMA Controller 18:05
Summary 20:29]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/31773a3d13475865061129814f1f530c.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='20840000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1365</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032339/the-technology-that-made-1980s-computers-work-banking-interrupts-dma.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032339/the-technology-that-made-1980s-computers-work-banking-interrupts-dma.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Programming Vlog 0x04 - Reinventing the wheel</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/programming-vlog-0x04-reinventing-the-wheel-1788574606/33032340</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056688</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sun, 22 May 2022 21:00:58 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[I\'m making a game for the ZX Spectrum Next using C. This is my ongoing devlog on the process.

In this episode I waffle on about the general aim of what I\'m trying to do and some of the code I have written so far.

Chapters
--------
Intro 00:00
My game engine design 05:09
What I\'m trying to do 06:15
The state machine 09:42
High score table code 10:33
Text printing 11:04
Next to do 12:31]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[I\'m making a game for the ZX Spectrum Next using C. This is my ongoing devlog on the process.

In this episode I waffle on about the general aim of what I\'m trying to do and some of the code I have written so far.

Chapters
--------
Intro 00:00
My game engine design 05:09
What I\'m trying to do 06:15
The state machine 09:42
High score table code 10:33
Text printing 11:04
Next to do 12:31]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/ad2b4e427482eda75455f223c14f4d16.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='13020000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >853</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032340/programming-vlog-0x04-reinventing-the-wheel.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032340/programming-vlog-0x04-reinventing-the-wheel.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Easy C Programming on ZX Spectrum Next - How to set up</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/easy-c-programming-on-zx-spectrum-next-how-to-set-up-1788574606/33032341</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056681</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Thu, 24 Feb 2022 22:12:38 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[How to set up Z88DK to develop C programs for the ZX Spectrum Next in about 20 minutes.

This video aims to show how straight forward setting up a modern, easy to use development environment for the ZX Spectrum Next can be.

I\'ll show you how to install Z88DK the compiler, set up Visual Studio Code as the editor, CSPect as an emulator and it\'ll take about 20 minutes! If you\'ve wanted to try out C programming but don\'t know how to start, this is the video for you.

If you want C programming tutorials that focus on the style of C programming you\'d be using on the Next, let me know. This is mostly ANSI C from the 1990s not modern C++ so things are a bit different to what you might find online.

To learn how to program for the ZX Spectrum Next, look at some of my other videos where I explain sprites, graphics and fixed point maths.

Find me online:
Twitter - @ncot_tech
Website - https://ncot.uk
Github - https://github.com/ncot-technology

Chapters
=======
Intro 0:17
Installing Windows Subsystem for Linux 1:57
Running Ubuntu for first time 2:49
Installing Z88DK 3:49
Uncompress Z88DK 6:15
Compile Z88DK 8:0
Common build error and how to fix 8:59
Emulator 14:36
Code Editor Waffle 16:31
Installing VS Code 17:27
Mapping WSL as a drive 18:11
Updating the tools 18:52
Future Videos 19:24]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[How to set up Z88DK to develop C programs for the ZX Spectrum Next in about 20 minutes.

This video aims to show how straight forward setting up a modern, easy to use development environment for the ZX Spectrum Next can be.

I\'ll show you how to install Z88DK the compiler, set up Visual Studio Code as the editor, CSPect as an emulator and it\'ll take about 20 minutes! If you\'ve wanted to try out C programming but don\'t know how to start, this is the video for you.

If you want C programming tutorials that focus on the style of C programming you\'d be using on the Next, let me know. This is mostly ANSI C from the 1990s not modern C++ so things are a bit different to what you might find online.

To learn how to program for the ZX Spectrum Next, look at some of my other videos where I explain sprites, graphics and fixed point maths.

Find me online:
Twitter - @ncot_tech
Website - https://ncot.uk
Github - https://github.com/ncot-technology

Chapters
=======
Intro 0:17
Installing Windows Subsystem for Linux 1:57
Running Ubuntu for first time 2:49
Installing Z88DK 3:49
Uncompress Z88DK 6:15
Compile Z88DK 8:0
Common build error and how to fix 8:59
Emulator 14:36
Code Editor Waffle 16:31
Installing VS Code 17:27
Mapping WSL as a drive 18:11
Updating the tools 18:52
Future Videos 19:24]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/9242d29f66a7640c042d4e6d010cbef3.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='18530000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1214</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032341/easy-c-programming-on-zx-spectrum-next-how-to-set-up.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032341/easy-c-programming-on-zx-spectrum-next-how-to-set-up.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Amiga style demo effects on a ZX Spectrum Next</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/amiga-style-demo-effects-on-a-zx-spectrum-next-1788574606/33032342</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056669</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Mon, 31 Jan 2022 20:17:33 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Let\'s look at how to make an 8bit computer produce graphics normally seen on an Amiga.

The Spectrum Next contains extra hardware that lets us very accurately control when things happen relative to the screen being drawn. This is done using a piece of hardware called the \"copper\".

The copper is a processor external to the main CPU and can be given a list of instructions to follow that are synchronised to the generation of the screen. By cleverly manipulating the Spectrum Next\'s registers we can create some impressive visual effects normally only seen on 16 bit machines like the Amiga.

In this video I explain how to create the classic copper bars effect, some nice gradient backgrounds and parallax scrolling. The full source for this is available on my github, linked below and a detailed explanation of the code is on my website also linked below.

If you manage to make anything with this, let me know in the comments or send me a message on Twitter - @ncot_tech

In-depth written version: https://docs.ncot.uk/spectrum-next/copper/index.html
Github - https://github.com/ncot-technology/specnext-copper
Blog - https://ncot.uk/spectrum-next/the-copper

Chapters
=======
Overview - 00:53
The Copper - 01:57
Copper Programming Overview - 05:10
Copper Bars - 06:28
Parallax Scrolling - 14:14
Outro - 16:52]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Let\'s look at how to make an 8bit computer produce graphics normally seen on an Amiga.

The Spectrum Next contains extra hardware that lets us very accurately control when things happen relative to the screen being drawn. This is done using a piece of hardware called the \"copper\".

The copper is a processor external to the main CPU and can be given a list of instructions to follow that are synchronised to the generation of the screen. By cleverly manipulating the Spectrum Next\'s registers we can create some impressive visual effects normally only seen on 16 bit machines like the Amiga.

In this video I explain how to create the classic copper bars effect, some nice gradient backgrounds and parallax scrolling. The full source for this is available on my github, linked below and a detailed explanation of the code is on my website also linked below.

If you manage to make anything with this, let me know in the comments or send me a message on Twitter - @ncot_tech

In-depth written version: https://docs.ncot.uk/spectrum-next/copper/index.html
Github - https://github.com/ncot-technology/specnext-copper
Blog - https://ncot.uk/spectrum-next/the-copper

Chapters
=======
Overview - 00:53
The Copper - 01:57
Copper Programming Overview - 05:10
Copper Bars - 06:28
Parallax Scrolling - 14:14
Outro - 16:52]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/3c19a4f4030f8b690ef2df299e266587.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='17080000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1119</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032342/amiga-style-demo-effects-on-a-zx-spectrum-next.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032342/amiga-style-demo-effects-on-a-zx-spectrum-next.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >2022 Update - Or what I did over Christmas with my Spectrum Next</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/2022-update-or-what-i-did-over-christmas-with-my-spectrum-next-1788574606/33032343</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056663</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Tue, 11 Jan 2022 22:57:41 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Some vaguely structured waffle about what I did over Christmas with my Spectrum Next, GameMaker and Windows Paint.

So I had three weeks off over Christmas to recover from the unending excitement that was 2021 and spent a decent amount of time in front of my PC writing code for my Spectrum Next, ready to turn into videos and little projects.

Video also contains some more blathering on about what I want to do in the coming year.]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Some vaguely structured waffle about what I did over Christmas with my Spectrum Next, GameMaker and Windows Paint.

So I had three weeks off over Christmas to recover from the unending excitement that was 2021 and spent a decent amount of time in front of my PC writing code for my Spectrum Next, ready to turn into videos and little projects.

Video also contains some more blathering on about what I want to do in the coming year.]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/52c1f2c186f9ba15f3eeddab23869372.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='10700000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >701</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032343/2022-update-or-what-i-did-over-christmas-with-my-spectrum-next.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032343/2022-update-or-what-i-did-over-christmas-with-my-spectrum-next.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Programming Vlog 0x02 - I want to make a game...</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/programming-vlog-0x02-i-want-to-make-a-game-1788574606/33032344</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056641</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sun, 05 Dec 2021 19:37:07 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[I want, to make a game. Thing is, I have no idea what game I want to make. 
I\'m not even pretending to be a games designer, I\'m a software engineer. The guy who pokes at the innards of the machine to work out how it functions.

I\'m good at making tools, not using them. So really I want to do is learn how to design and make games.

This is not the usual game development series where someone aspires to completing their first game. Instead getting better at the process of making games is my aim.]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[I want, to make a game. Thing is, I have no idea what game I want to make. 
I\'m not even pretending to be a games designer, I\'m a software engineer. The guy who pokes at the innards of the machine to work out how it functions.

I\'m good at making tools, not using them. So really I want to do is learn how to design and make games.

This is not the usual game development series where someone aspires to completing their first game. Instead getting better at the process of making games is my aim.]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/e7d1a7d9a7c7774b584abaf9d2db2240.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='6450000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >422</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032344/programming-vlog-0x02-i-want-to-make-a-game.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032344/programming-vlog-0x02-i-want-to-make-a-game.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Joystick and Keyboard routines on the Spectrum Next using Z88DK and C</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/joystick-and-keyboard-routines-on-the-spectrum-next-using-z88dk-and-c-1788574606/33032345</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056670</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sun, 28 Nov 2021 19:41:58 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[A video looking at how to use joysticks and keyboards on the Spectrum Next, using C and z88dk.
This is an overview of the main concepts. Written version of this in more detail is available here:
https://docs.ncot.uk/spectrum-next/input/index.html

Joysticks on the Spectrum have always been a bit confusing.

The original 48k Spectrum didn\'t have them, instead interfaces were connected to the expansion port on the back of the machine. The most popular was known as the Kempston interface. It gave you one button and four directions.

Website: https://ncot.uk
Twitter: @ncot_tech

Chapters
--------
00:33 - Spectrum Joystics
01:44 - Joystick warning
02:24 - Next joystick ports
02:56 - Reading the joysticks
04:42 - The Keyboard
06:57 - Key debouncing
07:54 - Conclusion]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[A video looking at how to use joysticks and keyboards on the Spectrum Next, using C and z88dk.
This is an overview of the main concepts. Written version of this in more detail is available here:
https://docs.ncot.uk/spectrum-next/input/index.html

Joysticks on the Spectrum have always been a bit confusing.

The original 48k Spectrum didn\'t have them, instead interfaces were connected to the expansion port on the back of the machine. The most popular was known as the Kempston interface. It gave you one button and four directions.

Website: https://ncot.uk
Twitter: @ncot_tech

Chapters
--------
00:33 - Spectrum Joystics
01:44 - Joystick warning
02:24 - Next joystick ports
02:56 - Reading the joysticks
04:42 - The Keyboard
06:57 - Key debouncing
07:54 - Conclusion]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/c99215bb4a45bdfbe6aa7e53743b95cb.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='8450000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >553</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032345/joystick-and-keyboard-routines-on-the-spectrum-next-using-z88dk-and-c.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032345/joystick-and-keyboard-routines-on-the-spectrum-next-using-z88dk-and-c.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Fixed Point Maths Explained - Retro Programming</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/fixed-point-maths-explained-retro-programming-1788574606/33032346</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056661</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sun, 14 Nov 2021 22:32:33 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[A video explaining how fixed point maths works and why it is useful on CPUs that have no floating point units.

A written version of this is available on my website, linked below

Fixed point maths is a way to deal with decimal numbers, on systems where they don\'t have the ability to use decimals. The basic concept is to scale all numbers up by a certain amount to remove any decimal parts of the number. Then you can work with whole numbers only, scaling back down when needed.

What scale you use depends on the range of numbers needed for a particular situation. It can also depend on what the hardware is best at managing. A Z80 CPU for example can work with 16 bit values reasonably easily. And if you’re not trying to do complex accurate scientific calculations, the resolution of your machine’s screen is likely to be a factor as well.

But if you want a quick one to use, this explanation uses what is called 8.8 fixed numbers. That is a 16 bit value where the upper 8 bits are the whole number and the lower 8 bits the fractional part. With an imaginary binary point in the middle.

Link to website: https://ncot.uk/devnotes/computing_maths/fixed_point_arithmetic/index.html

Chapters

00:17 Maths is hard
00:56 Floating point maths
01:45 I have more videos!
03:53 What we\'re trying to do
04:57 Example with money
06:39 Introducing fixed point maths
08:28 negative numbers
10:39 Explaining fixed point
15:03 Summary]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[A video explaining how fixed point maths works and why it is useful on CPUs that have no floating point units.

A written version of this is available on my website, linked below

Fixed point maths is a way to deal with decimal numbers, on systems where they don\'t have the ability to use decimals. The basic concept is to scale all numbers up by a certain amount to remove any decimal parts of the number. Then you can work with whole numbers only, scaling back down when needed.

What scale you use depends on the range of numbers needed for a particular situation. It can also depend on what the hardware is best at managing. A Z80 CPU for example can work with 16 bit values reasonably easily. And if you’re not trying to do complex accurate scientific calculations, the resolution of your machine’s screen is likely to be a factor as well.

But if you want a quick one to use, this explanation uses what is called 8.8 fixed numbers. That is a 16 bit value where the upper 8 bits are the whole number and the lower 8 bits the fractional part. With an imaginary binary point in the middle.

Link to website: https://ncot.uk/devnotes/computing_maths/fixed_point_arithmetic/index.html

Chapters

00:17 Maths is hard
00:56 Floating point maths
01:45 I have more videos!
03:53 What we\'re trying to do
04:57 Example with money
06:39 Introducing fixed point maths
08:28 negative numbers
10:39 Explaining fixed point
15:03 Summary]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/b7f7f40ec2c3b388924702339b4bf200.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='16030000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1050</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032346/fixed-point-maths-explained-retro-programming.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032346/fixed-point-maths-explained-retro-programming.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Programming vlog 0x01 - Figuring out fixed point maths</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/programming-vlog-0x01-figuring-out-fixed-point-maths-1788574606/33032347</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056655</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sun, 07 Nov 2021 21:30:01 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[I\'m on a mission to document programming the ZX Spectrum Next. Between making the instructional videos I need to learn how the machine works. I thought it might be fun to document this process too.

In this video I work out how to use fixed point maths to make things move around the screen in pleasing ways, ready for the next video I\'m releasing next week.

It takes a lot of effort to produce a video explaining how to program a certain aspect of the Spectrum Next, most of that effort is me learning something new and trying to find any documentation on it. I get a bit lost along the way so if I make videos and you watch them, it\'ll motivate me to carry on!]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[I\'m on a mission to document programming the ZX Spectrum Next. Between making the instructional videos I need to learn how the machine works. I thought it might be fun to document this process too.

In this video I work out how to use fixed point maths to make things move around the screen in pleasing ways, ready for the next video I\'m releasing next week.

It takes a lot of effort to produce a video explaining how to program a certain aspect of the Spectrum Next, most of that effort is me learning something new and trying to find any documentation on it. I get a bit lost along the way so if I make videos and you watch them, it\'ll motivate me to carry on!]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/8a9861a1975e9f853afa7e3bb0c41aa2.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='50630000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >3317</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032347/programming-vlog-0x01-figuring-out-fixed-point-maths.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032347/programming-vlog-0x01-figuring-out-fixed-point-maths.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Extreme restoration: bringing my Atari back to life</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/extreme-restoration-bringing-my-atari-back-to-life-1788574606/33032348</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056677</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sun, 31 Oct 2021 16:00:12 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Can you clean a computer in a dishwasher?

In this video I try some less traditional ways of cleaning my childhood Atari ST. The case has 30 years of ingrained dirt on it so let\'s get scrubbing.... or not. I\'m lazy, I own a dishwasher so I don\'t have to bother cleaning my own plates. Let\'s see if it\'s any good for cleaning computers too.

This is my Atari ST that I owned as a kid and my aim with these videos is to make it a computer I can use again without fear of it breaking down. So far it\'s had the PSU refurbished and the RAM upgrade repaired. Now it\'s time for the case to be given a thorough cleaning without removing any of the history from the machine. I\'m not trying to return this to a factory fresh state, all the marks and stickers are part of me owning it and I want to preserve them.

There is also a better bracket to hold the HXC2001 floppy emulator. Last time I had a gutted diskdrive to hold the HXC in place, well this time I break out Fusion 360 and my 3D printer to create a bracket.

Chapters:
00:14 - Intro
00:43 - Case cleaning
03:05 - Fixing the keyboard
05:19 - HXC 3D Printed Bracket
06:13 - Putting it all back together
08:49 - It\'s all finished
10:45 - Testing the hardware

Title: Extreme computer cleaning?]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Can you clean a computer in a dishwasher?

In this video I try some less traditional ways of cleaning my childhood Atari ST. The case has 30 years of ingrained dirt on it so let\'s get scrubbing.... or not. I\'m lazy, I own a dishwasher so I don\'t have to bother cleaning my own plates. Let\'s see if it\'s any good for cleaning computers too.

This is my Atari ST that I owned as a kid and my aim with these videos is to make it a computer I can use again without fear of it breaking down. So far it\'s had the PSU refurbished and the RAM upgrade repaired. Now it\'s time for the case to be given a thorough cleaning without removing any of the history from the machine. I\'m not trying to return this to a factory fresh state, all the marks and stickers are part of me owning it and I want to preserve them.

There is also a better bracket to hold the HXC2001 floppy emulator. Last time I had a gutted diskdrive to hold the HXC in place, well this time I break out Fusion 360 and my 3D printer to create a bracket.

Chapters:
00:14 - Intro
00:43 - Case cleaning
03:05 - Fixing the keyboard
05:19 - HXC 3D Printed Bracket
06:13 - Putting it all back together
08:49 - It\'s all finished
10:45 - Testing the hardware

Title: Extreme computer cleaning?]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/de884aee7ad6b5aa2240a4079dae2e86.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='13590000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >890</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032348/extreme-restoration-bringing-my-atari-back-to-life.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032348/extreme-restoration-bringing-my-atari-back-to-life.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >These cables shouldn\&apos;t exist, they make no sense!</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/these-cables-shouldnt-exist-they-make-no-sense-1788574606/33032349</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056653</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sun, 24 Oct 2021 15:00:15 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[How can there be a USB to RCA cable, it makes no sense. And what about a VGA to RCA lead? That can\'t be a thing either!

Come, explore these bizarre and non-standard cables that I found while shopping in a local discount store. These are PC data cables that simply don\'t make any sense. There\'s no way you can have a USB lead that contains composite video RCA connectors on the end of it. Nor can you simply stick a VGA connector on the end of those same RCA connectors and expect it to work. What exactly is going on?!]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[How can there be a USB to RCA cable, it makes no sense. And what about a VGA to RCA lead? That can\'t be a thing either!

Come, explore these bizarre and non-standard cables that I found while shopping in a local discount store. These are PC data cables that simply don\'t make any sense. There\'s no way you can have a USB lead that contains composite video RCA connectors on the end of it. Nor can you simply stick a VGA connector on the end of those same RCA connectors and expect it to work. What exactly is going on?!]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/d9c7a6997d2f4eb827f52d8658d96261.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='15390000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1008</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032349/these-cables-shouldnt-exist-they-make-no-sense.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032349/these-cables-shouldnt-exist-they-make-no-sense.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >25 year old coding project review - is it any good?</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/25-year-old-coding-project-review-is-it-any-good-1788574606/33032350</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056682</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sun, 17 Oct 2021 15:00:33 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[25 years ago I was in college doing my A-Levels. Now I\'m a teacher teaching A-Levels. I recently found my old programming project from my A-Level computer science course. Let\'s review it as if it was done by one of my own students.

Is it any good? Does it match up to the quality they produce today? Was it really better back in the old days of DOS and Windows 3.1 where we had to use Pascal rather than Python?

Let\'s find out in this relaxed ramble through the code I wrote and the documentation I had to write to accompany it.]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[25 years ago I was in college doing my A-Levels. Now I\'m a teacher teaching A-Levels. I recently found my old programming project from my A-Level computer science course. Let\'s review it as if it was done by one of my own students.

Is it any good? Does it match up to the quality they produce today? Was it really better back in the old days of DOS and Windows 3.1 where we had to use Pascal rather than Python?

Let\'s find out in this relaxed ramble through the code I wrote and the documentation I had to write to accompany it.]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/f8952bd9bad6fef75de4a241100e4ec7.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='28250000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1851</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032350/25-year-old-coding-project-review-is-it-any-good.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032350/25-year-old-coding-project-review-is-it-any-good.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Atari ST mouse - how’s it work anyway?</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/atari-st-mouse-hows-it-work-anyway-1788574606/33032351</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056657</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sun, 10 Oct 2021 15:00:12 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Meet the world\'s worse mouse design ever. The Atari ST mouse. Amiga owners liked their tank mice, we ST owners didn\'t like ours. It was square, uncomfortable and prone to breaking quite easily.

Mine is broken, I try to fix it. I fail. But along the way I get to figure out how it works, which was worth the effort.]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Meet the world\'s worse mouse design ever. The Atari ST mouse. Amiga owners liked their tank mice, we ST owners didn\'t like ours. It was square, uncomfortable and prone to breaking quite easily.

Mine is broken, I try to fix it. I fail. But along the way I get to figure out how it works, which was worth the effort.]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/57d12810ee19191489299a25352bb4d8.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='23480000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1538</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032351/atari-st-mouse-hows-it-work-anyway.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032351/atari-st-mouse-hows-it-work-anyway.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >ZX Spectrum Next Sprites Explained</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/zx-spectrum-next-sprites-explained-1788574606/33032352</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056676</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Thu, 19 Aug 2021 12:58:39 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Today we\'re going to be looking at the sprite system. We\'ll be covering...

- What the sprite system can do (and what it can\'t do)
- How get images into the Next in a format it can use
- How to put them on the screen
- Then we\'ll see different ways the sprites can be manipulated

All from the comfort of your C compiler!

This will be pretty in depth and detailed so use the chapter marks to jump around the video as you need to. There is an accompanying written explanation on my website and sample code on my github.

The sprite system of the Spectrum Next isn\'t really covered in the manual and the Wiki does contain a lot of information but there\'s nothing that really gathers it together in coherent explanation. This video is my attempt at giving an overview of how to program the Sprite System on a Spectrum Next using Z88DK and C.

Github repo - https://github.com/ncot-technology/specnext-sprites-example
Website - https://ncot.uk/spectrum-next/devlog-03-hardware-sprites/

-- Credits --
Photos by Mike Cadwallader, 2020
Original code by Stefan Bylund - https://github.com/stefanbylund/zxnext_sprite
Screenshots from the Spectrum Next wiki - https://wiki.specnext.dev/

-- Chapters --
00:00 Intro
01:09 Overview of sprite system capability
02:23 Credits
02:39 Theory of operation
03:18 Loading an image
04:56 Sprite Tools
05:41 Getting a sprite onscreen
07:25 Sprite attributes
09:20 Sprite status slot register 0x303B
11:28 Sprite attribute slots
15:57 Multiple sprites
17:00 Animation
20:15 Limitations of the hardware sprites
22:20 Sprite manipulation
24:06 Scaling sprites
25:39 Composite sprites
31:02 Managing many sprites
34:34 Conclusion]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Today we\'re going to be looking at the sprite system. We\'ll be covering...

- What the sprite system can do (and what it can\'t do)
- How get images into the Next in a format it can use
- How to put them on the screen
- Then we\'ll see different ways the sprites can be manipulated

All from the comfort of your C compiler!

This will be pretty in depth and detailed so use the chapter marks to jump around the video as you need to. There is an accompanying written explanation on my website and sample code on my github.

The sprite system of the Spectrum Next isn\'t really covered in the manual and the Wiki does contain a lot of information but there\'s nothing that really gathers it together in coherent explanation. This video is my attempt at giving an overview of how to program the Sprite System on a Spectrum Next using Z88DK and C.

Github repo - https://github.com/ncot-technology/specnext-sprites-example
Website - https://ncot.uk/spectrum-next/devlog-03-hardware-sprites/

-- Credits --
Photos by Mike Cadwallader, 2020
Original code by Stefan Bylund - https://github.com/stefanbylund/zxnext_sprite
Screenshots from the Spectrum Next wiki - https://wiki.specnext.dev/

-- Chapters --
00:00 Intro
01:09 Overview of sprite system capability
02:23 Credits
02:39 Theory of operation
03:18 Loading an image
04:56 Sprite Tools
05:41 Getting a sprite onscreen
07:25 Sprite attributes
09:20 Sprite status slot register 0x303B
11:28 Sprite attribute slots
15:57 Multiple sprites
17:00 Animation
20:15 Limitations of the hardware sprites
22:20 Sprite manipulation
24:06 Scaling sprites
25:39 Composite sprites
31:02 Managing many sprites
34:34 Conclusion]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/1a9a996f462892c43d980f1ccaab06ae.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='32670000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >2141</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032352/zx-spectrum-next-sprites-explained.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032352/zx-spectrum-next-sprites-explained.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Most Coding Courses Miss This - Here\&apos;s What LOGO Gets Right</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/most-coding-courses-miss-this-heres-what-logo-gets-right-1788574606/33032353</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056680</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Wed, 11 Aug 2021 09:16:14 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Are you a programmer? Are you learning how to be one? Come to think of it, how do you even learn how to think like a programmer? There\'s more to programming than typing in lines of code after all.

Back in the 80s people had ideas on how best to teach programming and while most focused on learning a language there were a few who went a bit deeper and tried to understand how to teach what we now call \"computational thinking\" - how to think up algorithms in the first place.

Come with me as I play around using LOGO on my BBC Micro, following some things from Seymour Papert\'s Mindstorms book, as I explain how I use LOGO today to help teach kids how to become programmers and computer scientists.

There are a lot of videos on how to program, or how to learn Python for example. They all mostly focus on how to work through a series of exercises to learn a particular language\'s syntax and this is great if you do want to learn Python or JavaScript. They don\'t always go into ways to think for yourself - how to decompose a problem into parts, or how to structure an algorithm.

Read the Mindstorms book yourself online - https://mindstorms.media.mit.edu/

Try LOGO in your browser - https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects/turtle-snowflakes

----
Blog Post - https://ncot.uk/compsci/logo-mindstorms-learning-how-to-program/
Website - https://ncot.uk
Ko-Fi - https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Are you a programmer? Are you learning how to be one? Come to think of it, how do you even learn how to think like a programmer? There\'s more to programming than typing in lines of code after all.

Back in the 80s people had ideas on how best to teach programming and while most focused on learning a language there were a few who went a bit deeper and tried to understand how to teach what we now call \"computational thinking\" - how to think up algorithms in the first place.

Come with me as I play around using LOGO on my BBC Micro, following some things from Seymour Papert\'s Mindstorms book, as I explain how I use LOGO today to help teach kids how to become programmers and computer scientists.

There are a lot of videos on how to program, or how to learn Python for example. They all mostly focus on how to work through a series of exercises to learn a particular language\'s syntax and this is great if you do want to learn Python or JavaScript. They don\'t always go into ways to think for yourself - how to decompose a problem into parts, or how to structure an algorithm.

Read the Mindstorms book yourself online - https://mindstorms.media.mit.edu/

Try LOGO in your browser - https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects/turtle-snowflakes

----
Blog Post - https://ncot.uk/compsci/logo-mindstorms-learning-how-to-program/
Website - https://ncot.uk
Ko-Fi - https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/2b1f4cdfe8c222ca94ab925857368cc0.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='42540000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >2787</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032353/most-coding-courses-miss-this-heres-what-logo-gets-right.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032353/most-coding-courses-miss-this-heres-what-logo-gets-right.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Marpet XTra RAM Deluxe 4MB upgrade for my Atari STFM. Turning it into a 4160STFM.</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/marpet-xtra-ram-deluxe-4mb-upgrade-for-my-atari-stfm-turning-it-into-a-4160stfm-1788574606/33032354</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056646</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Wed, 14 Jul 2021 16:22:31 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Let\'s try making our own SIMMS and upgrade my ST to 4 megabytes!

One of the first upgrades I ever got for my ST was a RAM upgrade to take it from the stock 512KB to 1MB. The one I got was the Marpet XTra RAM Deluxe board as I quite liked the idea of being able to add more RAM in the future.

At the time I never did, but it\'s the future now, so that\'s exactly what I\'m going to do. At some point in the machine\'s past I did stick two 1MB SIMMs in it to take the machine to 2.5MB but I don\'t remember when or why. They might have been spares from upgrading a PC.

Initially I wanted to try out making my own SIMMS using a PCB design I found on github but for some reason it didn\'t work. It\'s possible I have the wrong RAM chips or I damaged them somehow when soldering. I\'m not quite sure.

Web: https://ncot.uk/electronics/upgrading-my-atari-st-to-4mb/
Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NCoT_Tech
Title: Marpet XTra RAM Deluxe 4MB upgrade for my Atari STFM. Turning it into a 4160STFM.
Music: Epidemic Sounds]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Let\'s try making our own SIMMS and upgrade my ST to 4 megabytes!

One of the first upgrades I ever got for my ST was a RAM upgrade to take it from the stock 512KB to 1MB. The one I got was the Marpet XTra RAM Deluxe board as I quite liked the idea of being able to add more RAM in the future.

At the time I never did, but it\'s the future now, so that\'s exactly what I\'m going to do. At some point in the machine\'s past I did stick two 1MB SIMMs in it to take the machine to 2.5MB but I don\'t remember when or why. They might have been spares from upgrading a PC.

Initially I wanted to try out making my own SIMMS using a PCB design I found on github but for some reason it didn\'t work. It\'s possible I have the wrong RAM chips or I damaged them somehow when soldering. I\'m not quite sure.

Web: https://ncot.uk/electronics/upgrading-my-atari-st-to-4mb/
Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NCoT_Tech
Title: Marpet XTra RAM Deluxe 4MB upgrade for my Atari STFM. Turning it into a 4160STFM.
Music: Epidemic Sounds]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/5cdac2268fdf25478c6f09d32201eca8.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='16720000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1095</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032354/marpet-xtra-ram-deluxe-4mb-upgrade-for-my-atari-stfm-turning-it-into-a-4160stfm.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032354/marpet-xtra-ram-deluxe-4mb-upgrade-for-my-atari-stfm-turning-it-into-a-4160stfm.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Fixing a tired Atari ST Power Supply - My childhood Atari 520STFM</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/fixing-a-tired-atari-st-power-supply-my-childhood-atari-520stfm-1788574606/33032355</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056671</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Fri, 02 Jul 2021 21:26:15 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[So just how bad is a nearly 30 year old power supply? Let\'s find out! In this video I go through replacing some aged components with newer modern versions, then I check the PSU works properly using some load resistors.

This isn\'t an instructional video, if you try this yourself be careful and don\'t touch anything while the PSU is plugged in. It\'s connected to the mains, and we all know touching live wiring is bad.

Title: Fixing a tired Atari ST Power Supply - My childhood Atari 520STFM]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[So just how bad is a nearly 30 year old power supply? Let\'s find out! In this video I go through replacing some aged components with newer modern versions, then I check the PSU works properly using some load resistors.

This isn\'t an instructional video, if you try this yourself be careful and don\'t touch anything while the PSU is plugged in. It\'s connected to the mains, and we all know touching live wiring is bad.

Title: Fixing a tired Atari ST Power Supply - My childhood Atari 520STFM]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/a0d021e4e8893d2753d5e97b4c9c90a4.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='16540000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1083</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032355/fixing-a-tired-atari-st-power-supply-my-childhood-atari-520stfm.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032355/fixing-a-tired-atari-st-power-supply-my-childhood-atari-520stfm.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Unopened for a decade - My childhood Atari ST - What\&apos;s it like? - Retro Computer Restoration #1</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/unopened-for-a-decade-my-childhood-atari-st-whats-it-like-retro-computer-restoration-1-1788574606/33032356</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056649</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sun, 18 Apr 2021 21:26:00 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Come with me for a nostalgic trip around my Atari ST that I had has a child that has been sat unopened for the past 10 years. What will it be like inside? Have all the capacitors leaked? Is the motherboard corroded? What upgrades did I do to it, and do they still work?

In this video I go through the hardware, what I used to do with the Atari ST and make a list of future improvements and fixes to make.

This is part one of an ongoing series where I try to restore and upgrade my own personal Atari ST that I\'ve had since I was 13. I want to turn it into a functional machine again, adding all the upgrades I could never afford as a child. Then I\'d like to use it for some programming, DTP and other \"real\" computer tasks that I did actually use it for when it was my current computer.

In future videos I will be building an ACSI2SD hard disk adaptor, upgrading the RAM and using it for some serious period-accurate computing.

Title: Unopened for a decade - My childhood Atari ST - What\'s it like? - Retro Computer Restoration #1]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Come with me for a nostalgic trip around my Atari ST that I had has a child that has been sat unopened for the past 10 years. What will it be like inside? Have all the capacitors leaked? Is the motherboard corroded? What upgrades did I do to it, and do they still work?

In this video I go through the hardware, what I used to do with the Atari ST and make a list of future improvements and fixes to make.

This is part one of an ongoing series where I try to restore and upgrade my own personal Atari ST that I\'ve had since I was 13. I want to turn it into a functional machine again, adding all the upgrades I could never afford as a child. Then I\'d like to use it for some programming, DTP and other \"real\" computer tasks that I did actually use it for when it was my current computer.

In future videos I will be building an ACSI2SD hard disk adaptor, upgrading the RAM and using it for some serious period-accurate computing.

Title: Unopened for a decade - My childhood Atari ST - What\'s it like? - Retro Computer Restoration #1]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/36627e5ce4cfc81fc4a50c3c7fe46032.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='26280000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1721</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032356/unopened-for-a-decade-my-childhood-atari-st-whats-it-like-retro-computer-restoration-1.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032356/unopened-for-a-decade-my-childhood-atari-st-whats-it-like-retro-computer-restoration-1.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >ZX Spectrum Next Layer 2 Graphics - Retro Coding in C and Z80 - Devlog #2</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/zx-spectrum-next-layer-2-graphics-retro-coding-in-c-and-z80-devlog-2-1788574606/33032357</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056683</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sat, 27 Mar 2021 15:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[In this video I work out how to plot pixels onto the ZX Spectrum Next\'s Layer 2 graphics mode.

I look at the way the video memory is organised, how to create 8 bit per pixel colours and use the DMA controller to quickly erase the screen.

For fun I also draw some pretty patterns and a sierpinski triangle.

ZX Spectrum Next Layer 2 Graphics - Retro Coding in C and Z80 - Devlog #2

Links:
R3G3B2 macro - https://gist.github.com/ncot-tech/35c2263a7978edb48d03e7b640ab58b0
Layer 2 Pixel Plotting - https://gist.github.com/ncot-tech/e9ca03dbfd825a9e074d156f5c52bce4
Using DMA to clear screen - https://gist.github.com/ncot-tech/f51ddcc4bd307f2bc0ccdf3d86772c5d

Sections:
0:00 - Intro
0:25 - Layer 2 explained
1:06 - Memory banking
4:32 - RGB Colour
9:31 - DMA
12:02 - Overview]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[In this video I work out how to plot pixels onto the ZX Spectrum Next\'s Layer 2 graphics mode.

I look at the way the video memory is organised, how to create 8 bit per pixel colours and use the DMA controller to quickly erase the screen.

For fun I also draw some pretty patterns and a sierpinski triangle.

ZX Spectrum Next Layer 2 Graphics - Retro Coding in C and Z80 - Devlog #2

Links:
R3G3B2 macro - https://gist.github.com/ncot-tech/35c2263a7978edb48d03e7b640ab58b0
Layer 2 Pixel Plotting - https://gist.github.com/ncot-tech/e9ca03dbfd825a9e074d156f5c52bce4
Using DMA to clear screen - https://gist.github.com/ncot-tech/f51ddcc4bd307f2bc0ccdf3d86772c5d

Sections:
0:00 - Intro
0:25 - Layer 2 explained
1:06 - Memory banking
4:32 - RGB Colour
9:31 - DMA
12:02 - Overview]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/18e2bbbe418d29b5d94845f58f1f70c3.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='12450000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >815</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032357/zx-spectrum-next-layer-2-graphics-retro-coding-in-c-and-z80-devlog-2.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032357/zx-spectrum-next-layer-2-graphics-retro-coding-in-c-and-z80-devlog-2.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Starting ZX Spectrum Next Programming in C and Z80 Assembly - Devlog #1</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/starting-zx-spectrum-next-programming-in-c-and-z80-assembly-devlog-1-1788574606/33032358</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056642</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sat, 20 Feb 2021 17:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[I\'m starting an ongoing series where I learn how to write code for the ZX Spectrum Next. In this episode I look at three options for writing code on a Spectrum Next - Basic, C and Z80 Assembly.

I\'ll also explain what setup I am using and how it works, with links to the different things I\'ve installed.

Read about this on my website - https://ncot.uk/devlog01

My project code - https://github.com/ncot-tech/specnext-c-starter

Starting Spectrum Next Programming in C and Z80 Assembly - Devlog #1

Tools used
------------------
DeZog Visual Studio Code extension - https://github.com/maziac/DeZog
CSpect Spectrum Next emulator - http://cspect.org/
Z88dk Z80 C and assembly compiler - https://github.com/z88dk/z88dk
NextSync - https://www.specnext.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1715

Sections
--------------
0:00 - Intro
1:13 - BASIC
2:22 - Z80 Assembly
3:12 - C Programming
3:52 - What I chose
5:56 - My setup
7:29 - Conclusion]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[I\'m starting an ongoing series where I learn how to write code for the ZX Spectrum Next. In this episode I look at three options for writing code on a Spectrum Next - Basic, C and Z80 Assembly.

I\'ll also explain what setup I am using and how it works, with links to the different things I\'ve installed.

Read about this on my website - https://ncot.uk/devlog01

My project code - https://github.com/ncot-tech/specnext-c-starter

Starting Spectrum Next Programming in C and Z80 Assembly - Devlog #1

Tools used
------------------
DeZog Visual Studio Code extension - https://github.com/maziac/DeZog
CSpect Spectrum Next emulator - http://cspect.org/
Z88dk Z80 C and assembly compiler - https://github.com/z88dk/z88dk
NextSync - https://www.specnext.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1715

Sections
--------------
0:00 - Intro
1:13 - BASIC
2:22 - Z80 Assembly
3:12 - C Programming
3:52 - What I chose
5:56 - My setup
7:29 - Conclusion]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/b8d8bf752587ea16c697cc0e37e21232.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='8100000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >530</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032358/starting-zx-spectrum-next-programming-in-c-and-z80-assembly-devlog-1.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032358/starting-zx-spectrum-next-programming-in-c-and-z80-assembly-devlog-1.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Quazar Graphic OLED - Retro Programming in C and Z80 Assembly on the RC2014</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/quazar-graphic-oled-retro-programming-in-c-and-z80-assembly-on-the-rc2014-1788574606/33032359</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056662</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sat, 06 Feb 2021 17:00:31 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[#rc2014 #programming #z80
One of the main limits with most Z80 based computers is their lack of any video output. Most video output comes
in the form of ASCII text sent to a serial console. This is fine if you like text based software or are running
an operating system like CP/M. It\'s a bit limiting if you want to do more graphical things.

I found the Quazar Graphic OLED Display, a plug in board for the RC2014 Z80 computer with a small 128x32 pixel OLED display on it.
By using a fairly straight forward set of z80 assembly routines it\'s possible to send image data to the screen.

In this video I go through the code and how the screen works. I use a mixture of Z80 assembly and C code with the Z88DK z80 compiler.

Github: https://github.com/ncot-tech/rc2014-quazar-oled

Title: Quazar Graphic OLED - Retro programming in C and Z80 Assembly.

-- Chapters --
0:00 - Intro
0:34 - Creating Images
1:45 - Editors and Compilers
2:29 - Hardware, how it works
4:25 - Converting graphics to C
7:53 - Main RC2014 code
13:33 - How to link Z80 and C together
17:15 - Next video

Music from Epidemic Sound
Twitter: @ncot_tech
Website: https://ncot.uk]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[#rc2014 #programming #z80
One of the main limits with most Z80 based computers is their lack of any video output. Most video output comes
in the form of ASCII text sent to a serial console. This is fine if you like text based software or are running
an operating system like CP/M. It\'s a bit limiting if you want to do more graphical things.

I found the Quazar Graphic OLED Display, a plug in board for the RC2014 Z80 computer with a small 128x32 pixel OLED display on it.
By using a fairly straight forward set of z80 assembly routines it\'s possible to send image data to the screen.

In this video I go through the code and how the screen works. I use a mixture of Z80 assembly and C code with the Z88DK z80 compiler.

Github: https://github.com/ncot-tech/rc2014-quazar-oled

Title: Quazar Graphic OLED - Retro programming in C and Z80 Assembly.

-- Chapters --
0:00 - Intro
0:34 - Creating Images
1:45 - Editors and Compilers
2:29 - Hardware, how it works
4:25 - Converting graphics to C
7:53 - Main RC2014 code
13:33 - How to link Z80 and C together
17:15 - Next video

Music from Epidemic Sound
Twitter: @ncot_tech
Website: https://ncot.uk]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/7fed827a690f66b08994503051228611.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='16960000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1111</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032359/quazar-graphic-oled-retro-programming-in-c-and-z80-assembly-on-the-rc2014.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032359/quazar-graphic-oled-retro-programming-in-c-and-z80-assembly-on-the-rc2014.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Quazar Graphic OLED - RC2014 Real Bitmap Display - Overview and Mini Review</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/quazar-graphic-oled-rc2014-real-bitmap-display-overview-and-mini-review-1788574606/33032360</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056672</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sat, 30 Jan 2021 16:15:01 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[#rc2014 #oled #display

In this video I will be showing a cool OLED screen that works with the RC2014. It makes a great alternate to using ASCII text via the console.

This is a Quazar Graphic OLED for the RC2014 Z80 based computer.
Unlike other displays, this one provides a real bitmap display with 128x32 pixels and is quite easy to program. It\'s a bit like having a video output, but on a little plug in expansion board.

This is part 1 of a two part video. In the second video I will go into more depth about how this screen works and how to program it.

If you want your own Quazar Graphic OLED, go to https://2014.samcoupe.com/ or message @QuazarSamCoupe on Twitter

I bought this myself from the website above.

--- Info ---
Quazar Graphic OLED - RC2014 Real Bitmap Display - Overview and Mini Review
Follow me on Twitter : https://twitter.com/NCoT_Tech
Visit my website: https://www.ncot.uk/
Donate: https://ko-fi.com/C0C116W2L

Music by Epidemic Sound.

--- Chapters ---
00:00 - Intro
00:15 - What it is
00:40 - Overview
01:00 - Uses
01:17 - The manual
01:30 - Board layout
02:20 - Manual in more depth
04:40 - Secret bonus content]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[#rc2014 #oled #display

In this video I will be showing a cool OLED screen that works with the RC2014. It makes a great alternate to using ASCII text via the console.

This is a Quazar Graphic OLED for the RC2014 Z80 based computer.
Unlike other displays, this one provides a real bitmap display with 128x32 pixels and is quite easy to program. It\'s a bit like having a video output, but on a little plug in expansion board.

This is part 1 of a two part video. In the second video I will go into more depth about how this screen works and how to program it.

If you want your own Quazar Graphic OLED, go to https://2014.samcoupe.com/ or message @QuazarSamCoupe on Twitter

I bought this myself from the website above.

--- Info ---
Quazar Graphic OLED - RC2014 Real Bitmap Display - Overview and Mini Review
Follow me on Twitter : https://twitter.com/NCoT_Tech
Visit my website: https://www.ncot.uk/
Donate: https://ko-fi.com/C0C116W2L

Music by Epidemic Sound.

--- Chapters ---
00:00 - Intro
00:15 - What it is
00:40 - Overview
01:00 - Uses
01:17 - The manual
01:30 - Board layout
02:20 - Manual in more depth
04:40 - Secret bonus content]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/8dfccffbf89e5a978d482ec42fe53f91.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='6760000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >442</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032360/quazar-graphic-oled-rc2014-real-bitmap-display-overview-and-mini-review.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032360/quazar-graphic-oled-rc2014-real-bitmap-display-overview-and-mini-review.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Z80 Assembly Optimisation: Real Techniques, Real Results</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/z80-assembly-optimisation-real-techniques-real-results-1788574606/33032361</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056664</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sun, 22 Nov 2020 14:55:39 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[#z80 #programming #rc2014
Various tricks and techniques I used to optimise the speed of my RC2014 implementation of Conway\'s Life that was written in Z80 assembly. So join me in a bit of fun retro programming!

Conway\'s Life in Z80 Assembler - How to optimise code.
Grab the source code: https://github.com/ncot-tech/z80-life
Read the text version: https://ncot.uk/z80-homebrew-computer/optimised-z80-conways-life-improved/
Donate: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[#z80 #programming #rc2014
Various tricks and techniques I used to optimise the speed of my RC2014 implementation of Conway\'s Life that was written in Z80 assembly. So join me in a bit of fun retro programming!

Conway\'s Life in Z80 Assembler - How to optimise code.
Grab the source code: https://github.com/ncot-tech/z80-life
Read the text version: https://ncot.uk/z80-homebrew-computer/optimised-z80-conways-life-improved/
Donate: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/037fe42ded4e6cb27c9c4ac1d7467ce3.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='13100000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >858</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032361/z80-assembly-optimisation-real-techniques-real-results.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032361/z80-assembly-optimisation-real-techniques-real-results.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >DOS on a BBC Micro - GOTEK, Raspberry Pi PiTubeDirect, 1779 Floppy Controller upgrades.</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/dos-on-a-bbc-micro-gotek-raspberry-pi-pitubedirect-1779-floppy-controller-upgrades-1788574606/33032362</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056665</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sat, 24 Oct 2020 20:41:44 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[I upgrade my BBC Micro so that it can run (not quite) MSDOS using a Raspberry Pi, a Gotek floppy emulator and replacement floppy drive controller. Mostly this is a video about me learning how to troubleshoot random problems.

DOS on a BBC Micro - GOTEK, Raspberry Pi PiTubeDirect, 1779 Floppy Controller upgrades.
PiTubeDirect - https://github.com/hoglet67/PiTubeDirect/wiki
Hardware from here - http://www.retroclinic.com/

Video Chapters
=============
0:00 - Intro
2:35 - Installing the gotek
11:39 - Gotek case
21:12 - Building PiTubeDirect board
22:30 - Troubleshooting
26:04 - Working PiTubeDirect
29:59 - Recap
30:44 - CP/M
33:14 - 1770 Floppy Controller Upgrade
37:50 - Attempting to burn an EPROM
40:32 - It works!
44:21 - Demo
46:50 - Outro]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[I upgrade my BBC Micro so that it can run (not quite) MSDOS using a Raspberry Pi, a Gotek floppy emulator and replacement floppy drive controller. Mostly this is a video about me learning how to troubleshoot random problems.

DOS on a BBC Micro - GOTEK, Raspberry Pi PiTubeDirect, 1779 Floppy Controller upgrades.
PiTubeDirect - https://github.com/hoglet67/PiTubeDirect/wiki
Hardware from here - http://www.retroclinic.com/

Video Chapters
=============
0:00 - Intro
2:35 - Installing the gotek
11:39 - Gotek case
21:12 - Building PiTubeDirect board
22:30 - Troubleshooting
26:04 - Working PiTubeDirect
29:59 - Recap
30:44 - CP/M
33:14 - 1770 Floppy Controller Upgrade
37:50 - Attempting to burn an EPROM
40:32 - It works!
44:21 - Demo
46:50 - Outro]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/e7afe156c3f7ff5a66074f701ac54f00.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='43430000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >2846</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032362/dos-on-a-bbc-micro-gotek-raspberry-pi-pitubedirect-1779-floppy-controller-upgrades.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032362/dos-on-a-bbc-micro-gotek-raspberry-pi-pitubedirect-1779-floppy-controller-upgrades.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >6502 Assembly sprite routines on the BBC Micro - Retro Coding</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/6502-assembly-sprite-routines-on-the-bbc-micro-retro-coding-1788574606/33032363</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056650</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Fri, 18 Sep 2020 17:45:04 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Watch as I try to write some sprite routines for the BBC Micro using nothing but some 1980s books and 6502 Assembly language.

While doing this I realised a few useful tips that made me a better computer science teacher and programmer.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NCoT_Tech
Web: https://ncot.uk

Stock video from Pexels.com
Music from YouTube music library
6502 Assembly sprite routines on the BBC Micro - Retro Coding]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Watch as I try to write some sprite routines for the BBC Micro using nothing but some 1980s books and 6502 Assembly language.

While doing this I realised a few useful tips that made me a better computer science teacher and programmer.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NCoT_Tech
Web: https://ncot.uk

Stock video from Pexels.com
Music from YouTube music library
6502 Assembly sprite routines on the BBC Micro - Retro Coding]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/5c47da6901548de748ee34d1236edcbb.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='14790000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >969</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032363/6502-assembly-sprite-routines-on-the-bbc-micro-retro-coding.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032363/6502-assembly-sprite-routines-on-the-bbc-micro-retro-coding.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >The BBC Micro: Britain\&apos;s Forgotten Programming Revolution</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/the-bbc-micro-britains-forgotten-programming-revolution-1788574606/33032364</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056674</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Mon, 10 Aug 2020 13:37:10 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[In the 1980s the UK government had this horrible realisation we knew nothing about computers, and that they were slowly taking over our lives. To combat this they came up with the Computer Literacy Project which saw a new computer from Acorn put into nearly every school in the country. Combined with a TV series called Making The Most of the Micro they saw to it that most teenagers of the 1980s had some exposure to programming.

This computer helped kick-start the UK computing revolution and is responsible for giving many software houses and programmers their first taste of what a computer could do.

I have a look at what the BBC Micro is, what the BBC\'s Computer Literacy Project was and then do some programming using BASIC and assembly language.

Video Timings:
0:00 - Intro
1:54 - Z80 vs 6502
3:52 - The Computer Literacy Project
4:48 - BBC Micro Hardware
7:28 - The display
9:38 - BBC Basic
13:00 - 6502 Assembly Language
16:40 - Next Video]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[In the 1980s the UK government had this horrible realisation we knew nothing about computers, and that they were slowly taking over our lives. To combat this they came up with the Computer Literacy Project which saw a new computer from Acorn put into nearly every school in the country. Combined with a TV series called Making The Most of the Micro they saw to it that most teenagers of the 1980s had some exposure to programming.

This computer helped kick-start the UK computing revolution and is responsible for giving many software houses and programmers their first taste of what a computer could do.

I have a look at what the BBC Micro is, what the BBC\'s Computer Literacy Project was and then do some programming using BASIC and assembly language.

Video Timings:
0:00 - Intro
1:54 - Z80 vs 6502
3:52 - The Computer Literacy Project
4:48 - BBC Micro Hardware
7:28 - The display
9:38 - BBC Basic
13:00 - 6502 Assembly Language
16:40 - Next Video]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/20894b6bd89f6cc2ecd680579527e582.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='16160000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1059</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032364/the-bbc-micro-britains-forgotten-programming-revolution.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032364/the-bbc-micro-britains-forgotten-programming-revolution.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >I Coded Conway\&apos;s Game of Life in Z80 Assembly</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/i-coded-conways-game-of-life-in-z80-assembly-1788574606/33032365</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056647</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Mon, 27 Jul 2020 13:12:10 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[After the fun I had last time creating a game in Z80 assembly language, I thought it\'d be good to have a go at writing Conway\'s Life in z80.

While \"fun\" is one of the words I could use to describe the process, there are several more, but writing them here would upset YouTube. Let\'s just say I learnt a lot about debugging assembly language!

Github Repository: https://github.com/ncot-tech/z80-life
Website: https://ncot.uk/z80-homebrew-computer/conways-life-in-z80-assembly/
Support me: https://ko-fi.com/C0C116W2L

Video Sections
============
0:00 - Intro
0:44 - What is Life?
1:29 - Rules
2:34 - Overall algorithm
3:05 - Double buffering
7:19 - How the data is stored
8:19 - Maths on a Z80 is difficult
9:53 - Asteroids?
12:05 - Code
15:20 - Outro]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[After the fun I had last time creating a game in Z80 assembly language, I thought it\'d be good to have a go at writing Conway\'s Life in z80.

While \"fun\" is one of the words I could use to describe the process, there are several more, but writing them here would upset YouTube. Let\'s just say I learnt a lot about debugging assembly language!

Github Repository: https://github.com/ncot-tech/z80-life
Website: https://ncot.uk/z80-homebrew-computer/conways-life-in-z80-assembly/
Support me: https://ko-fi.com/C0C116W2L

Video Sections
============
0:00 - Intro
0:44 - What is Life?
1:29 - Rules
2:34 - Overall algorithm
3:05 - Double buffering
7:19 - How the data is stored
8:19 - Maths on a Z80 is difficult
9:53 - Asteroids?
12:05 - Code
15:20 - Outro]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/d6f617faa9a20f8d4537da1a00b253c0.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='15130000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >991</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032365/i-coded-conways-game-of-life-in-z80-assembly.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032365/i-coded-conways-game-of-life-in-z80-assembly.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >I Wrote This Game in Pure Z80 Assembly Code</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/i-wrote-this-game-in-pure-z80-assembly-code-1788574606/33032366</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056689</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Fri, 03 Jul 2020 17:15:24 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[#rc2014 #game #programming
I decided to improve my Z80 assembly skills by writing a game entirely from nothing for the RC2014 Z80 computer. I used SJASMPlus to compile the code, and it turned out quite nice.

It\'s based on a BASIC type-in game I found in an old book called \"The Rainbow Book of Basic Programs\"

Support Me: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech
Github Link for code: https://github.com/ncot-tech/z80-zombies
Website Link: https://ncot.uk/z80-homebrew-computer/zombies-a-game-written-in-z80/

Video Timings
============
0:00 - Intro
1:00 - Game Demo
 3:47 - Reverse-engineering BASIC
7:54 - Interesting algorithm
10:14 - Graphics output
11:58 - Reliable user input
14:00 - Working out which input
14:58 - Zombie AI
16:54 - Code review
21:25 - Development Environment
22:48 - Learn Assembly!
24:18 - Outro]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[#rc2014 #game #programming
I decided to improve my Z80 assembly skills by writing a game entirely from nothing for the RC2014 Z80 computer. I used SJASMPlus to compile the code, and it turned out quite nice.

It\'s based on a BASIC type-in game I found in an old book called \"The Rainbow Book of Basic Programs\"

Support Me: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech
Github Link for code: https://github.com/ncot-tech/z80-zombies
Website Link: https://ncot.uk/z80-homebrew-computer/zombies-a-game-written-in-z80/

Video Timings
============
0:00 - Intro
1:00 - Game Demo
 3:47 - Reverse-engineering BASIC
7:54 - Interesting algorithm
10:14 - Graphics output
11:58 - Reliable user input
14:00 - Working out which input
14:58 - Zombie AI
16:54 - Code review
21:25 - Development Environment
22:48 - Learn Assembly!
24:18 - Outro]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/0dadaea8e4a376681777dae0460e1298.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='22730000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1489</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032366/i-wrote-this-game-in-pure-z80-assembly-code.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032366/i-wrote-this-game-in-pure-z80-assembly-code.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >How vintage joysticks tricked computers into working</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/how-vintage-joysticks-tricked-computers-into-working-1788574606/33032367</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056675</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sat, 20 Jun 2020 18:40:12 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Get the code and read more on my website https://ncot.uk/z80-homebrew-computer/the-joy-of-sticks-rc2014-z80-joystick/

Building and testing the RC2014 Joystick Interface. This was a reasonably simple build, but I did have to slightly modify the board to make it work with my joystick. Also I was accidentally sent some wrong components, so now it\'s just a one joystick interface. The incorrect components sent to me have given me an idea for a future build though!

Video Timings
============
0:00 Intro
0:51 Building joystick interface
4:39 Missing components
7:37 Finished board
7:50 How a retro joystick works
15:09 Interface and joystick wiring diagrams
17:55 Testing interface using RC2014 monitor
18:34 Circuit theory of operation
22:35 Joystick tester Z80 assembler
23:20 Compiling with SJAsmPlus
26:00 Final working code and interface
26:51 Outro]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Get the code and read more on my website https://ncot.uk/z80-homebrew-computer/the-joy-of-sticks-rc2014-z80-joystick/

Building and testing the RC2014 Joystick Interface. This was a reasonably simple build, but I did have to slightly modify the board to make it work with my joystick. Also I was accidentally sent some wrong components, so now it\'s just a one joystick interface. The incorrect components sent to me have given me an idea for a future build though!

Video Timings
============
0:00 Intro
0:51 Building joystick interface
4:39 Missing components
7:37 Finished board
7:50 How a retro joystick works
15:09 Interface and joystick wiring diagrams
17:55 Testing interface using RC2014 monitor
18:34 Circuit theory of operation
22:35 Joystick tester Z80 assembler
23:20 Compiling with SJAsmPlus
26:00 Final working code and interface
26:51 Outro]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/d97f4a319cfbe51bbbc48013d5e164dd.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='26160000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >1714</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032367/how-vintage-joysticks-tricked-computers-into-working.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032367/how-vintage-joysticks-tricked-computers-into-working.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Clueless chilled coding - Let\&apos;s learn Z80 assembler - Retro programming on my RC2014</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/clueless-chilled-coding-lets-learn-z80-assembler-retro-programming-on-my-rc2014-1788574606/33032368</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056686</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Wed, 03 Jun 2020 20:41:07 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Grab a drink, get comfy and watch as I figure out how to write an incredibly simple program from scratch, using Z80 assembler.

I have no idea what I\'m doing, but we get there in the end.]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Grab a drink, get comfy and watch as I figure out how to write an incredibly simple program from scratch, using Z80 assembler.

I have no idea what I\'m doing, but we get there in the end.]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/93c8ccce5d8f2b68ed10e94d0fe53245.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='37120000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >2432</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032368/clueless-chilled-coding-lets-learn-z80-assembler-retro-programming-on-my-rc2014.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032368/clueless-chilled-coding-lets-learn-z80-assembler-retro-programming-on-my-rc2014.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Connecting a 1980s Z80 CPU to an Arduino, making a hardware debugger.</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/connecting-a-1980s-z80-cpu-to-an-arduino-making-a-hardware-debugger-1788574606/33032369</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056684</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sun, 24 May 2020 18:21:16 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Support the channel: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech
I\'m a programmer, the CPU is a mystic black box that gets fed instructions. I\'m trying to learn and work out what the CPU really does. Here I build a system to control and watch the Z80\'s functions.

This was inspired by Ben Eater\'s 6502 and 8Bit CPU videos, and is what I based my Arduino code on.]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Support the channel: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech
I\'m a programmer, the CPU is a mystic black box that gets fed instructions. I\'m trying to learn and work out what the CPU really does. Here I build a system to control and watch the Z80\'s functions.

This was inspired by Ben Eater\'s 6502 and 8Bit CPU videos, and is what I based my Arduino code on.]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/796ce91060212d5cbcd3e2e60dbf9a63.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='14060000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >921</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032369/connecting-a-1980s-z80-cpu-to-an-arduino-making-a-hardware-debugger.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032369/connecting-a-1980s-z80-cpu-to-an-arduino-making-a-hardware-debugger.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Retro programming! Pascal and CP/M on an RC2014 Z80 computer</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/retro-programming-pascal-and-cpm-on-an-rc2014-z80-computer-1788574606/33032370</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056660</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Thu, 14 May 2020 15:04:36 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Support the channel: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech
Let\'s investigate CP/M on my RC2014 Z80 based computer.

CP/M was an operating system before MS-DOS existed, and it requires surprisingly few resources to run. This computer runs at 7MHz and has 64K of RAM. CP/M itself fits into just 8K!

If you want the code for the Pascal Mandelbrot program, it\'s on this pastebin URL https://pastebin.com/ALGdMnbs]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Support the channel: https://ko-fi.com/ncot_tech
Let\'s investigate CP/M on my RC2014 Z80 based computer.

CP/M was an operating system before MS-DOS existed, and it requires surprisingly few resources to run. This computer runs at 7MHz and has 64K of RAM. CP/M itself fits into just 8K!

If you want the code for the Pascal Mandelbrot program, it\'s on this pastebin URL https://pastebin.com/ALGdMnbs]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/d816a398f8d1706160c6caf1f1b55187.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='14460000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >947</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032370/retro-programming-pascal-and-cpm-on-an-rc2014-z80-computer.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032370/retro-programming-pascal-and-cpm-on-an-rc2014-z80-computer.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
<item>
<title >Can I actually build a working computer? | RC2014 Z80 challenge</title>
<link >https://listen.hubhopper.com/episode/can-i-actually-build-a-working-computer-rc2014-z80-challenge-1788574606/33032371</link>
<guid >https://app.pigeonpod.cloud/feed/2095297606711250945/episode/2095297691187056692</guid>
<podcast:guid >https://hubhopper.com/podcast/ncot-technology/487986</podcast:guid>
<pubDate >Sun, 10 May 2020 15:58:09 +0000</pubDate>
<itunes:summary ><![CDATA[Soldering (so much soldering!), oscilloscopes and logic analysers! My experience building an RC2014 Z80 based computer kit.

The kit consists of a backplane, Z80 CPU board, RAM, ROM, Serial I/O and a Compact Flash storage card. Currently it\'s running MS Basic, but later I\'ll get CP/M running and explore that.]]></itunes:summary>
<description ><![CDATA[Soldering (so much soldering!), oscilloscopes and logic analysers! My experience building an RC2014 Z80 based computer kit.

The kit consists of a backplane, Z80 CPU board, RAM, ROM, Serial I/O and a Compact Flash storage card. Currently it\'s running MS Basic, but later I\'ll get CP/M running and explore that.]]></description>
<enclosure  url='https://play.hubhopper.com/cbf12b01bd270b3f0da2185f824d0ea2.mp3?s=rss-feed'  length='9240000'  type='audio/mpeg' ></enclosure>
<itunes:duration >605</itunes:duration>
<author >noquezarry@gmail.com</author>
<itunes:author >NCOT Technology</itunes:author>
<itunes:image  href='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032371/can-i-actually-build-a-working-computer-rc2014-z80-challenge.jpg'  url='https://files.hubhopper.com/podcast/487986/episode/33032371/can-i-actually-build-a-working-computer-rc2014-z80-challenge.jpg' ></itunes:image>
<itunes:episodeType >full</itunes:episodeType>
</item>
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