Welcome to the new blog layout. After so many years of using a wordpress website, I have decided to switch to a static generated website using Hugo as the rendering engine. This should make the site a lot more faster and responsive as I don’t have to deal with the slowness and dependency of a database. By using Hugo, I can simply create new pages/posts as markdown text files (and using my favorite editor - vim)....
I’ve been waiting for the Godot game engine release of 3.1. Now that it has been released, I can start to play with it and create a few projects. Some of my older ‘unfinished’ projects and ideas, such as AdventureWorld and MovieMonster, have been neglected. It might be a nice idea to convert them over to a Godot project as a learning exercise. Who knows, it might encourage me to blog a little more often with progress updates....
After trying different z80 assemblers and simulators, I have found a z80 development workflow that works well for me on my mac . There are quite a few open source tools to use, and finding the right combination has really improved my z80 assembly learning. The z80 development workflow I have come up with the following workflow: Z80 Development Workflow There are four stages of my work flow....
The system back plane for the Whizz80 has been redesigned and refined. I’ve been using Eagle to design the schematic for the Whizz-80 computer. I originally started to hand wire parts of the circuits on prototyping PCB board but found that point to point wiring was just too hard, so I’ve now decided to get PCBs manufactured instead. So I’m starting with the System back plane – this is a rather easy board to produce as it is almost a ‘strip board’ but with a custom silk screen...
The system design of the Whizz-80 computer is a little different to what most people seem to be creating. There are many designs of a z80 computer that are based around a single board. While a single board self contained computer is cool and trendy, it doesn’t really give you the flexibility to upgrade, change or expand the system when you want to try something new or add extra functionality. I’m intending on the system to grow and expand as I develop it (it is iterative process as I learn, so mistakes would be made)....