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points by WillAdams 9 hours ago | 0 comments

Folks who are curious about the underlying technology can see:

https://github.com/bluewaysw/pcgeos

(which I'd love to see get ported to the Raspberry Pi EDIT: or updated to make it easy to run on contemporary hardware)

[–] Lerc 8 hours ago

I have looked at what it would take to port it to a PI Pico.

I think it would be remarkably feasible. The size and memory model is almost ideally suited.

A rp2350 with PSRAM and a SD card as a harddrive could do a quite capabLe implementation.

It's more of an architecture port than a code port because it is almost all ASM.

[–] raphlinus 3 hours ago

Hi! I'm doing something similar: vic-2350. But I'm not porting any existing system, I'm doing it to match the constraints of the hardware we have now.

[–] cmrdporcupine 9 hours ago

It's all in x86 assembly though. "Porting" it would be a complete rewrite to ARM64.

[–] ranger_danger 9 hours ago

aka just one AI prompt away

[–] DrJokepu 3 hours ago

Eh. Neither Claude nor Codex are that great with 16-bit real mode 8086 assembly.

[–] cmrdporcupine 7 hours ago

yes maybe, but also will feel completely pointless after. like a soulless one-night stand :-)

could as easily run it in an emulator

[–] ranger_danger 7 hours ago

Different people code for different reasons.

For some the "point" is just solving a problem, however that happens.

For others it's an art form that gives them a sense of worth, using their knowledge and experience to do something special that not just anyone can do.

Neither is right or wrong; people just have different goals.

[–] RajT88 6 hours ago

I am not a great programmer, and I certainly do not have the attention span to complete a big personal project. But I can describe well to Claude the architecture I want, the look and feel of the UI and how it all should work.

I have things running in my homelab which are awesome and amazing and useful and one of a kind. It is a great feeling.

[–] cmrdporcupine 7 hours ago

don't get me wrong. i've always just built for the sake of it and nerd out. and now I just... do more of it, with AI. i'm not opposed.

e.g. https://github.com/rdaum/rekursiv/ done on a whim based on a book i've had on the shelf for 25 years

it's just insane what you can get done these days.

i just think with this thing in particular, it being in x86 assembly means you're not really "porting" but rewriting. and then why that and not something else? :)

[–] andsoitis 4 hours ago

but imagine using AI to port it quickly, and then using AI to expand the feature set, refine elements, etc. That would be very satisfying to me, for example.